One Last BIG Step

I passed my exams this week and with quite brilliant results, so I'm extremely happy... though I think it still hasn't sunk in yet.

All that is left now to wrap up Project Finish is one last BIG step... writing my dissertation. Which I will start tomorrow.

Finally, A TV Show That Uses Seal Songs Rightfully

The penultimate stage of Project Finish is in full swing and will be done and dusted on Monday. I got into a little panic this morning, coz it's still sooo much to do... but I guess I'll be able to do it.

It's been a few quite frustrating weeks again... but to amuse myself I've been watching the new season of Big Brother UK. It's soooo much better than ours. And I don't care what people say, I love it! Which is down to a combination of me wanting to live in England and thus being able to visit it every evening, the accents and just watching people totally lose it in a confined environment... it has taught me quite a few things about myself already I think... hehe!

This week housemates had to do a zoo task... the highlight was the two house bitches deciding to be the two seals for the task. Every time the song "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal was played into the house, they had to get on their podiums in the garden and the zoo keeper had to splash them with a bucket of water... fishy water (now here is a TV show that rightfully uses a Seal song and not like GNTM where Seal continuosly performs his music which embaressingly just seems to please Heidi, while everyone else is cringing)! The task went on for 2 days ... priceless!

Just have a little look at it...

Hilarious!

Don't call me a bad person now... those two chicks went on that show for the fame and being able to sell stories to Heat magazine for the next years to come... so they don't really deserve any pity!

The best costume EVER is this though...

I wish I'd have this costume here and could wear it for my exam on Monday. That would cheer me up immensely! Just the look on everyones face from the underground train to my professor when a pink flamingo walks in!


Okay, I think I might be losing it...

The Real World aka Life Happened

Dearest Internetz,

the factory has been closed for a while now, because of various reasons... mainly because "project finish" is at a pivotal point once again. I can proudly report that I've completed the fifth exam last week and there is just one more to go early next month. I can not-so-proudly report that I might have majorly screwed up that exam I just took, but I'm not sure... time will tell.

So many things have happened since I last posted and there is so much I want to tell, so let's start with the topic on everyones lips at the moment: FOOTIE!


OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT

The best club in the whole wide world won the Champions League!!!

Yessssss!

This marks me being a true fan for 10 amazing and sometimes heart-breaking years!

It was different from 1999 though ... I can't really put my finger on it! But I'm so proud...



and God, I'm glad the bloody show-pony missed that penalty... I know I wouldn't be if that lost us the game, but it didn't... haha! now here is to selling him for 70 million GBP to those idiots in Madrid... yeah, I hate him!


But hey, what a game... against Chelsea no less.




It was kinda weird to see JT cry again ... and poor Frankie... aww, I love them.

__________________

Now let's talk about Euro 2008 and how weird it is for me! Since I've been a fan I can't remember a tournament I soooo wasn't prepared for. I missed the whole run-up and all the inside stories. I walk down the street and suddenly all the cars have little flags on them ... that's when I realize Euro 2008 is about to start and I'm the odd one out. *sad*

Now, the FA is walking on a tightrope at the moment ... I received an email (sender: John Terry) yesterday about some promotion concerning Wembley after they repeatedly tried to "bully" me into buying a ticket for that USA game last month. Now I love my boys, but that marketing team has bad timing ... if I'd be working for them, they wouldn't be sending out any shameless promotional emails this month that's for sure!

And yes, I'm expecting an apology ... I want Brian B. to personally tell me he is sorry for allowing Stupid Steve to ruin the qualification! That's all I want ... and something better than a lousy mousemat for my 75 GBP ... maybe a trip to a game at Wembley for free to make up for everything!

Anyway, here is to being absolutely shameless! There I was studying for "project finish" totally missing out on that last England game of the season in Trinidad and Tobago. Half the senior players didn't fly out there (coz they were involved in the CL final and given a rest), well, good old Rio did! But then look who enters the pitch as England Captain...





Yeah, whoooaaat? He kinda stepped down 2 years ago! His England dream was dead thx to Stupid Steve 1 1/2 years ago and here he is leading out the boys for his 102nd England game! I was sooooo shocked and my, what a surprise! My little fangirl heart almost jumped out of my tiny chest... Mr. B. back to where he will always belong for me (coz I love him and am incredibly sentimental!).

But that's not all, Mr. Capello says that he is still testing captains and that Mr. B is one of the contenders ... hello? how 2005 of him ... not that I'm complaining!

Now here is the other side of the story ... Jack Warner ... big name FIFA guy with a vote in who gets the 2018 World Cup.
Guess who wants to host it! Yep, England!
Guess where Jack Warner is at home! Yep, Trinidad and Tobago!
Now one last question: Who told the FA that they can leave all their senior players at home, in fact all players, as long as they bring David Beckham? Yep, Jack Warner!

there are cynical voices who say that he also requested Mr. B to captain the side, but Mr. Capello denies that his actions were political and that he gave Becks the armband in hope to buy Jackie Boy's vote!

Well, having witnessed the FA shamelessly trying to sell at least a half-decent amount of shirts this year by offering "memorial" Beckham shirts for his 100th cap on an own site inside their shop, kinda makes me think that in this case business also comes first! And I don't blame them. He is still able to play a good competitive 60 minutes and a tournament without the Beckham Roadshow is totally boring, so here is to him playing in South Africa 2010 (or make that Gemany)... hehe!

Dearest Internetz, it's past the factory girl's bed time... so I finish for now. But there will be more tomorrow I think. Because, while everyone in Europe is travelling to Switzerland/Austria I have made it my task to track down where my boys are at... and the results are hilarious.

xoxo factory girl

Order, Oh-oh-order

Brilliant news at the factory this week. I passed my politics exam with flying colours ... meaning this weeks exam and the December Depression exam.

Now there is a LOT of unused knowledge occupying my head... this weeks showdown was quite easy and in no way required the intense preparation that I put in it (so i'm glad I didn't put even more work in).

I so dived into the whole British Party System topic that I ended up going to bed @ 4am 3 nights in a row, because I couldn't stop reading about Tony, Gordon and Co. ... and I even dreamt about Gordon. Not in a naughty way though ... which actually at that point wouldn't have surprised me at all.

Now, as I couldn't really share my detailed knowledge during the exam, I will do it here. As I already did a fun facts post on James "Gordon" Brown some time back at the old factory, please bear with me, if not all of the info is new to you.

11 Things I Would Have Loved To Share At The Exam

1) Gordon was part of a special school experiment, which enabled him to finish school 2 years early and he enrolled at uni at just 16. (Damn he really IS intelligent!) Anyway, he didn't like that whole thing, saying it was too much too soon.

2) Being just 16 and having just enrolled at uni, he was having problems with his eyes because he repeatedly got kicked in the head while playing rugby. He had to lie in a darkened room for weeks at a time... this dark period in his so young life apparently made him so determined.

3) While he was treated for his eye in the hospital, every night the patients got a free drink … NHS!

4) He not just became Rector at Edinburgh University while he was still a student there, no, he swept to power with a campaign boosted by three mini-skirted fans, The Brown Sugars, who accompanied him to photo opportunities in "Gordon for me" T-shirts. (I know I would have...)

5) "He would hold his tutorials in his flat over a couple of cans of beer. He held all sorts of parties. He had loads of friends from all different backgrounds. People were diving into bedrooms and smoking joints. He never indulged, but there was nothing disapproving about him either."

6) He and Tony Blair met in the 80ies when they shared a tiny office with no window.

7) In 1994 they did a deal about the leadership. If Gordon supported Tony, Tony would let him have a great deal of control over home politics and step down soon-ish to let Gordon take-over as Prime Minister.

8) Blair allies would complain that the chancellor would keep the details of his Budgets from Mr Blair until the last possible moment and "go missing" when the prime minister needed his public support. (hihi...)

9) Matthew Taylor, Mr Blair's former policy chief, said staff felt like "children in a dysfunctional relationship where mum and dad are too busy arguing to ever talk to the kids". Whenever things got out of hand, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott would host a reconciliation dinner with Blair and Brown at his grace and favour apartment at Admiralty Arch.

10) Gordon's reluctance to talk about his private life even sparked rumours he was gay. Now he is married with children.

11) And if you wanna know how it all REALLY happened, go have a look at TONY! The Blair Musical ...

While doing all my research, I re-discovered the fun that is "Prime Minister's Questions". Channelling my inner Simon Amstell I have to say "This is not a football match!"



... but, in a waaayyyy, it is!

And I like the referee: Mr. Speaker! The way he tries to keep control: "Order, Oh-oh-order!"

and it gets worse for the Prime Minister:



now there I was channelling my inner Sebastian...



btw: apparently the Prime Minister was based on Tony Blair AND Sebastian on Peter Mandelson ...

Surprisingly Chilled

that's how I feel concerning Project Finish this time around.

My next exam is on Tuesday and though I have done a lot less for this one than for the other 3 before, I have to say, I'm disturbingly calm.

My head is a bit full with fun facts concerning the British Party System, but there is no panic... yet.

Seems December really was jinxed!

Done and Dusted

Just handed in that whole extra project work I did. Feels good! After receiving 198 emails concerning the damn thing in the last few days, I won't reply to any request anymore.

So tomorrow I start on the really important stuff... for my exam in 13 days time. Oh boy, I'm screwed! But well that worry is for tomorrow... I should be able to go to sleep now after I just slept 4 hours or something last night and I forced myself to stay awake all day to finish off that stupid task. I know the whole sleeping thing is totally my fault... but it's a vicious circle, really.

oh, and I'm not happy about the choice of beverages that is available for the celebration we will have after doing the presentation of the above mentioned project. The only alcoholic beverage that is available is beer! So typical coming from a bloke. The other options were incredibly non-alcoholic - juice, fizzy drinks, bio fizzy drinks. Whatever happened to sparkling wine? I mean we are celebrating something!

and it's Bring Your Own Snacks ... whoaaaa? I plan on eating my way throw the evening without a contribution. So I said, I couldn't specify what I would bring at this time, but it might be CAKE! Now if I do... and that is IF ... all I will do is pop to the local ALDI for something cheap ...

no Prosecco... pfffff!

I'm Like a Yorkshire Cat

Just to wrap up the story ... the exam went well, now I just need the tutor to agree. There are just 3 more exams and my dissertation to go.

In the last days of studying I spent the few hours of day that actually offered sunlight on my windowsill and yes I studied, but part of me felt like one of those cats who sit in windows and stare at the people outside... and what can I say we have quite a busy street. Plus I noticed something I hadn't before ... the people across from us have turned their balcony into a buddhist garden ...

Now, had I seen this 2 years ago, I wouldn't have noticed. I'd just have thought they are drying facecloths or something ... but hell, they aren't and I love them for it, cos everytime I look overthere now it reminds me of how I travelled to every corner of Yorkshire last year - which makes me grin like a Cheshire Cat ... though hihi, make me a Yorkshire Cat.

Their balcony is my Harewood House!

Just outside Leeds is the brilliant Harewood House with its fantastic gardens ... and inside that garden (that so deserves its own post) they have a buddhist garden hidden somewhere.

I thought it was quite eccentric at the time ... but now I think it is a lot less eccentric than having a buddhist garden on your apartment's balcony in the middle of Berlin.

those flags were very pretty ...

I just found out that they are Tibetan Prayer Flags ... and they are said to bring happiness, long life and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the vicinity, well, I think that includes me, I mean they are basically just outside my window ... brilliant!

I'm Not Dead

just in case you were wondering ... things are okay. Even though I had to work 5 hours on that other project this weekend, apart from preparing for the exam all day. That is nice, WORK and then in your break MORE WORK. But hey, I got it all done...

I'm quite positive right now ... I haven't revised everything today yet ... but so far it is looking good.

One thing that made me laugh last week...



oh Simon and Noel are a match made in heaven!

And in case I don't get the question tomorrow...



Simon (and Tourette) inspired me ...



if everything goes totally wrong, I could - at least for my own amusement - write just this

Is it, did his helmet go blue?

Won't make me pass, but at least smile!

Public Display of Distress

Okay, today was first good and then bad and now it's just okay ... which I guess is quite good.

It all started with a blue sky and me repeating what I learned yesterday and it looked fine ... but then it got more and more difficult by the minute.

So when I took my break to take a walk to the bank and get some money + buy some food, I had a moment when I started crying but then I pulled myself together and moved on.

I really just wanted to sit down in the middle of the pavement and cry till someone would have stopped and taken me to a hospital and I wouldn't need to finish this whole exam bit. I don't know what makes me more insane, the fact that I really wanted to do just that or the fact that I didn't do it?

But La Bonette gave me a good team talk ... so I feel better now. And I hope she is right in saying that I will remember an awful lot more than I think on Tuesday.

Now I'm waiting for 2 emails from uni to do something for another course, but they keep me waiting. So I guess I should get back to revising...

Life's a BITCH!

Bajuschki Baju

I wish I was a Giraffe! They have one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and 2 hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day.

Sounds brilliant! If 20 minutes of sleep could just make me feel like I slept for 8 hours, I'd be soooo happy! Of course there are negatives that come with being a Giraffe, apparently they are vegetarians ... eww!!!

Yeah, you guessed it, instead of better, things have become worse. I just can't fall asleep and during the day I'm so tired that I simply have to put the book away repeatedly and close my eyes.

This is depressing! My entire body hurts from sitting, my arm is threatening to fall off from writing and I'm sooooo tired.

And I still have so much to read... baby steps is all I'm making, coz taking notes takes fucking ages. But I have now decided to cut down on the stuff I was supposed to read, I mean I have to give the guy an overview and I have just 4 hours to do that, so I won't be able to go into detail anyway... unless he asks something specific, but the grapevine says he won't. Fingers crossed!

So yeah, the sleep thing ... I'm quite tired now, so I will switch off my Laptop soon and hope that it won't take me bloody three hours to fall asleep again.

I can't wait for this to be over!

I Might Have To Move To Chile

... and not coz I'm fleeing from a regime change, no it all has to do with that vicious circle of sleep I'm in.

I know I'm quite a case of "People Who Don't Sleep Enough Because They Stay Up Late For Absolutely No Reason" ... but the truth is I was trying to change it. And then I went to that Uni thing and I wasn't home before 5.30 am ... and stupid me, I should have just stayed awake that day. But of course I went to bed and slept till noon.

And now there is no breaking out of this ... I'm lying awake till 4 in the morning desperately trying to fall asleep and I can't get up before noon. I tried to change it all week, but I just couldn't get up at 8.00. Everytime my alarm went off, I switched it off and went back to sleep, coz I thought "as tired as I am, reading will be no use" ... but I really, really have to read and take notes cos I've got that bloody important exam coming up.

So I have tried a lot of things. From herbal tea, that apparently calms you down so you can sleep, to counting sheep. Now there I was remembering the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District with all its sheep and I let them fluffy white things jump over those pretty little stone walls in my head... and nothing! Nothing is helping...

I researched counting sheep to see if I was doing it wrong and boy, this is wacko, apparently it most likely arose from Yan Tan Tethera, a traditional numbering system used by some northern English shepherds to count their flocks. Now I thought I might try that, but it's too ca-raaazzzyyy for me...

Anyway, back to ME!

Nothing is helping ... but I had to break the vicious cycle ... so I again tried to get up early. that's why I put on 2 alarm clocks today ... and actually got up at 8.00 (yey!), I read for some time and then half past 12 I got soooo tired that I almost fell asleep again if it hadn't been for La Bonette calling me about booking our flights for Cornwall (very exciting! and researching the right way to count sheep, I stumbled over this and before we go to Cornwall, we should definitly memorize some of the lingo "Na wra henna!" ) and to tell me about the latest developements in her career, in which an old creepy man is thinking she is a woman of questionable morals, which she is not!

Actually booking the flights to Bristol has been my highlight of the day followed by an expensive cheese burger whose beef from supposedly happy cows was appallingly dry ...

Back to the main problem ... for some reason I couldn't get back into work ... maybe I had too much beef. Now the big question is, will I be able to fall asleep tonight so that I can continue my work tomorrow at a proper hour? I hope so ... I'm off to brew that herbal tea the minute I post this.

It would be easier if I could just move to Chile, which is the much needed 4 hours behind time ...