Hello Blog! It's been a long long time since I updated here, but that is because I have been away the last 5 or 6 days, going to see my girlfriend in Edinburgh. Happily, my visit coincided with the Edinburgh Festival, which was absolutely amazing - I just wish I had had more time there to fit more in. What a city. I will blog about that more in detail at some later point (hopefully tomorrow). For now this is more an update, because apparently, when I go to Edinburgh, I get not one, not two, but three new international visitors! And the best thing was, one of the visits was for a duration of longer than 00:00 seconds! What a coup! I'm sticking those up here now to celebrate with a short little burst on each place (incredibly interesting locations all three of them, so be prepared for some interesting facts). Otherwise this is a shout out to my girlfriend, who on top of being a wonderful host, also bagged an internship she was after. I would elaborate more but want her to maintain some anonyminity, even on a site only I (and occassionaly she) reads. However, suffice to say it's a really impressive thing she is going on to, and best of all, she will be in London, which means that we will be closer, so I'm totally stoked for that. More on this too, at some later date (it's late tonight, and I just want to clear out some blog duties more than anything else. Expect few witticisims as a result. I know, disappointed right? Get over it though.) So without further stalling, here are the places in the world which have been looking at the site. It's time to play...INTERNATIONAL VISITOR!


Hanoi, with an estimated population of nearly 6.5 million in 2009,is the and second-largest city of Vietnam. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam, although briefly overshadowed by Huế. However, Hanoi served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1954, and from 1954 to 1976, it was the capital of North Vietnam. Interestingly and topically, October 2010 will officially mark 1000 years of the establishment of the city.Welcome to the website Hanoi. Enjoy it. Soak it up.


Not so much a city itself as an area within a city, Shibuya is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. Famous as the business centre of Tokyo, it also has a reputation as a fashion centre, and major nightlife hub of the capital. Where most people will recognise it is from its appearances on television and film - the absolutely jam-packed scramble crossing outside of Shibuya Station, the very same crossing that also (if Boris Johnson's PR is to be believed) was the inspiration behind the conversion to a similar style crossing at Oxford Circus. We salute you, innovative people of Shibuya. Enjoy the site.


And finally, after something of an Asian Invasion, we return to closer climes in the shape of the charming German city of Bonn. As robust municipally as it is phonetically, the aptly named 'Bonn' is a very charming place. Perhaps most famous for sireing the great Romantic composer Beethoven, Bonn is typical of the picturesque communities of the Rhine. International players seem to love it too - it has become home for a number of global organisations, and especially ones focused on development and sustainable enviornment. The most recent new body to make Bonn its home was also in the running for the most absurdly long name for an international body ever, when in 2007, the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-Spider) moved in. Also massive props have to be given to our lovely visitor from Bonn for actually staying on the site for a mighty 37 seconds. As I mentioned, this is a record of sorts, and an enviable one. Congratulations Bonn. I would say enjoy the site like I did with the other two, but there's clearly no need, as with your 37 second visit, it's pretty obvious you already did.

Other than that I have quite a lot of admin to do tomorrow. I am STILL waiting on a transcript from UCL (plug here against their highly slow records office)and have had a very patient but pressing email from college essentially saying, no transcript, no room. Which is fair but a bit frustrating as I'm literally just waiting for a piece of paper to be sent to me. I also have a whole load of other stuff that needs to be sorted out for college - everything from allergies to data protection, so I will sift through all of that. (And pray that bloody transcript gets here!) If it's not here tomorrow I guess I will just have to ring them and cry or something. Ah well.

Labels: Edinburgh, international visitor

G'day mate, and welcome to Australia (specifically Tasmania, specifically Hobart). I don't know much about Tasmania, apart from its animal fame, as home of the eponymous Tasmanian devil, and the sadly extinct Tasmanian wolf. I always think Tasmania sounds a little bit backwater - apologies to residents. But I can imagine literally red-necked people in battered straw hats playing the fiddle morosely. Still, I'm very happy to have our first hit from Oceania - it bodes very well indeed. At the moment, re: a conversation with girlfriend/partner I am awaiting the first ever hit from Belgium. Speficially Bruges. We have decided to live there at some point, so a visitor from that lovely city would be very welcome. Get in touch you Flemish!

Labels: international visitor

Well well well. As of today, we officially have all of North America under our belt, as Canada join the illustrious list of 'nations which have visited my blog'. And the visitor came from Montreal, home of, well, all sorts. A little bit of background reading infoms me that it is a former home of the Olympic games, an F1 circuit, and is the second largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris. How amazing is that. It's also home to the enviably good McGill University. So who knew. Looking at the photos, it looks like a pretty lovely place, although, being French-speaking, I might have some trouble. Maybe one to visit with Anna though, I'm sure she could manage it. We've had a bit of an increase in traffic recently actually, so perhaps we are sitting on the precipice of huge, international digital fame. I doubt it, I've only ever written one post on here which hasn't been boring to anyone bar myself, but you never know. Perhaps I've come into fashion somehow.

Labels: international visitor

It's a regular European fiesta here at this bootless moan headquarters. We have our first European visitor, straight out of the heart of that great Gallic land, home to the short President with the hot wife (sounds like a fairy tale) and an enviable nuclear power portfolio: la France! My guest came from Le Vésinet, somewhere I (in my considerable Franco-ignorance) had no clue about. However, as always, Wikipedia lent a helping hand, and informed me that it's actually rather swanky. So I'm afraid that it might trump the dried meat capital of Brazil that we had as the last international visit. Sorry chaps! Here's what Wiki had to say:

Le Vésinet is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris 16.4 km (10.2 miles) from the center. Le Vésinet is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Paris, known for its wooded avenues, mansions and lakes. It contains many English-style gardens designed by French landscape gardener Paul de Lavenne Comte Choulot.

Well, I'm impressed. Though not surprised - it was always inevitable that a higher echelon of digital travelers would leave their footprints on this hallowed turf - partly because of the use of words like 'echelon'. The other Euro-news is that I joined an online Model United Nations (MUN). I wanted to be a Climate group which observed, but by a freak accident, someone took that literally thirty seconds before me. So now I'm Luxembourg. Unfortunately, though it looks a great country, all the papers I can find are in French or German. I would love to be cultured enough to read those languages, mais malheureusement... I did however find some stuff about their shipping presence, so if something comes up about shipping, I should be able to represent Luxembourg with a quiet confidence well-suited to the gentleman diplomat persona I have adopted for the MUN.

That is all.

Labels: international visitor, MUN

"The circle of human knowledge, illuminated by the pale, cold light of reason, is so infinitesimally small, the dark regions of human ignorance which lie beyond that luminous ring so immeasurably vast, that imagination is feign to step up to the borderline and send the warm, richly colored beams of her fairy lantern streaming out into the darkness ; and so, peering into the gloom, she is apt to mistake the shadowy reflections of her own figure for real beings moving in the abyss.

Sir James George FrazerThe Golden Bough

April 2010 / May 2010 / June 2010 / July 2010 / August 2010 / September 2010 / February 2011 / April 2011 / August 2011 / September 2011 /

Messing with Illustrator / /homeless / The irony of househunting. / Househunting / Some old material / Favourite capture on Google Maps Street View / Idiot librarian / THIS IS NOT THAT DAY! / Confirmation (not religious) / love data? love data. /

The title of this blog comes from a poem by Coleridge, A Wish: Wriiten in Jesus Wood, Feb. 10th, 1792, Plus most blogs are moans anyway. Including this one. lol manuscripts

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I'm a 23 year-old student in London Cambridge London, studying English Literature Law. It's hard to really think of anything truly personal I can put here that might give you some idea of who I am, so I will just tell you that my favourite Shakespeare play is Richard II, my favourite chocolate bar is Snickers, and I have a bit of a thing for instant coffee, especially if someone else makes it for me.

I'm interested in Renaissance Literature, Higher Education policy, and libraries.
I'm completely in love with a Scottish girl.