Elias investigates: April 2008

Monday, 28 April 2008

St Andrews - The enlightened cabdriver

28.4 - 10:07 morning. I had breakfast after early start, 8:40. You can be content of your son, mother. I had two toasts with jam, strawberry and orange. Then I did "larger things". Now I sit here and enjoy the fact that I have an exam on Friday and I have 150 pages left and three days. No worries. And I'll see the Kooks tomorrow. Haha!

27.4 - Sunday. My alarm clock rings at 6:45. I get up and eat toast with baked white beans in tomato sauce for a sturdy breakfast. I also charge Samuel's camera, swimsuit with towel and my food. At 7:30 me and Fernando enters majestically Kelvinhaugh Street. The taxi is waiting and Conrad, Fernando, Maria and me enter the cab and get of at Queen Street Station. We collect the tickets and enter the train that is quite crowded indeed. We get of at Edinburgh Waverley. There we give money to Costa in exchange of coffee. I managed to take a picture with great light on the station.

The train rolls away from the platform and we cross the impressive Forth bridge and turn to east and follow the cost towards Leuchars, the station closest to St Andrews. The line to St Andrews was closed in 1960 and it has not to be reopened because of profitability, according to the taxi driver who drove us from the station to St Andrews. Fernando took some nice pictures of the coast line. At Leuchars we get of the train from 1960's. We wait a while for the bus with some other people but we take a taxi. The taxi driver is talkative and tells us that he is on holidays in St Andrews. He has been on holidays for 15 years. He came here from England after first being born in Germany and studying in Turkey international relations for a year.
- But it was bullshit, he said.
I said I was studying international relations in Glasgow. It is one's own choice what to do, he said then.
- I was the black sheep of our family, he continued after I told it was not my choice to study law, referring to my parents influence. Well, in fact my mother said I should study to be a priest.

The driver stopped at the 18 hole of the famous St Andrews golf course where they play the oldest competition, the Open. I don't know anything about golf, luckily. I played once in the woods of Porkala, the old Russian part of Finland. There are 6 courses altogether in St Andrews. We walk along the coast. We meet posh people, fancy English students, mods and tourists. We look at the castle. It look peaceful in the warm sunlight and the gentle wind. We walk down the stairs to a small beach were a fire is still smouldering from a party. Empty bottles and other leftovers can be found. From there we continued to the old Cathedral that was razed during the reformation. Before that the church was the centre of the Scottish church. The church was huge, you could see from the ruins. There were some rather silly graves. From there we walked down to the harbour. In a small place we ordered food. Fish and chips for me. In that place I realised I didn't have my glasses anymore. I had lost my Gucci's! Not being able to enjoy the fish and chips(it would have been very possible since it was cheap and tasty, both) I thought about my poor glasses.

We started walking back the same way. It was not too nice. On the beach were we first were and the fire was still smouldering Maria found my glasses in the sand. Truly, she is valuable. We laid down on the cliffs and inhaled the sun. It was hot and no wind. I finished my chips and drank my coke relieved. From there we walked towards the city centre and I had a ice cream, lime sorbet. We walked along the street and I enjoyed people, architecture and the sun. After hanging around a while in the centre we walked to the St Andrews museum. There were two collections. We tried to make the most of the museum that was not exactly the British museum. From there we walked through the city and stopped on the way and had cokes, juice and ice cream. We continued to the beach.

I undressed and put on my swimsuit. I walked out and I was surprised it didn't feel so cold. I tasted the water and it was so salty compared with the Ultima Thule, where I live. I dived and the sea swallowed me. It was wet and salty and quiet. It felt good, like spring in Finland. The air felt warm after the colder water. I swam around for a while. It was surprisingly warm, between 10-15. I got up and played Jacques Tati and my grand father. I dressed up.

We walked back and drank a pint on a terrace and ate some of our own food. I had two sandwiches, Maria chocolate and Fernando Crisps and Bread. We walked from there to the Tescos and bought a dinner for the dinner. Mine was 250 g of wine gums, one banana and apple. We haggled the price to 10 p and took a taxi to Leuchars. We waited 30 mins for the train. We got on the train. The train from Aberdeen to Waverley was crowded. We got of the Haymarket and changed. The train was full. We ended up in first class and the ticket inspector didn't throw us out. We had 3rd class tickets and Fernando and Conrad were drinking Russian beer. In Glasgow we took a taxi home. At home it was nice and we watched picture and laughed about the pigeon war between us G and H.

That night I slept well with fresh sea air in my lungs.

CONQUISTADOR and Maria

MR MUSCLE

Summer

The Red Baron

Jaakko heitti kylmän kiven veteen

The Young Man and The Sea

I thought these trains only existed in Eastern Europe

Bridge of Forth

Commerce

Fernando

26.4 Saturday I got up early, 10:30 HAH. Breakfast. I read Marx about globalisation and continued with Lenin and Pashukanis. It's imperialism. Samuel, Fernando and me went to the pitch around 3. A lot of people were playing so we checked out the second pitch but it was empty. We walked back and asked if we could play. They said ask the referee. And really there was a referee. An old man with white hair was walking around. He said yes join although we were around 25 players. After 10mins the game was over. A girl came and said:
- We are taking a photo, come over.
We lined up and smiled and the photographer was a bungler. Then we continued playing. I was crap cause my left leg was sore.
I read a bit more and made a pasta with old mushrooms and old cream. It was good.
Conrad and me walked to the library Saturday evening. There I met Natasha and Fabien. The top trio of the International Law and Contemporary Problems of the World order. I read quite a lot and walked home on my own around 10-11

25.4 Friday. We walked around 18:30 towards the GFT. The blues films was sold out so we were not able to see it. And there was only one show. We had a look at CineWorld, Theatre Royal and some dangerous back streets. We waited for Persepolis starting 8:40. We bought the tickets and dined at McDonalds. Don't you ever do that. It is wrong. I won a apple pie, but they had run out of them and I got nothing in its place. I hate Mc Donalds. The film started and it was a good film. We walked home and ate ice cream.

24.4 Thursday - Hard reading. Maria and me watched the Paris Je t'aime.

23.4 Wednesday - Hard reading. At 13 we had a revision seminar in IL CWO. I had a question about legal formalism and Westphalia. After the seminar I got my essay back, it was the B1 essay. Nice. Then I started reading in law workshop.

22.4 Tuesday - Hard reading

Tuesday, 22 April 2008

China is expanding

My House

Hello dear new readers, 22.4, Tuesday. Just finished breakfast and showering. Toast with ham and nutella and a cup of tea and espresso. I am planning to go to uni and read soon.

21 Monday, yesterday. Got up with a cup of Espresso, grapes and bread. The morning was warm and gentle. I walked already at 11 from my door to uni. I studied at uni and found some good gigs in Glasgow and Conrad ordered tickets to the Kooks concert in Edinburgh next Tuesday. Thank you Conrad. I studied at the law workshop after charging my print account. I met Mikko and I ate in the QM. I finally understood that the filling is called between students Chicken mayo (short for mayonnaise). I have always said Chicken meal! After lunch I continued my studies at the workshop. Aroun 5 I walked to uni and bought tickets to the two days of MTV(boycott) spanking new music. I'll see The Zutons, The Futureheads, One Night Only, The Script, Cansei de ser Sexy and MGMT. 6 bands that is! I walked home, actually limped home because one of my shoes doesn't have a heel. It is tiresome to walk, limping. At home I struck a few chords and debated with Samuel and Fernando. I ate with Maria at 7. Then Maria, Fernando and me attended the EngLitSoc lecture in the QM. It was about Robert Burn's and if he was a labouring-class poet. Interesting subject, but the lecturer was boring. He was a tenant farmer, so in a sense he was but in another he wasn't. He was very well educated for being a "peasant". Then we walked home and had tea and digested the substance of the lecture. It was heavy.

20 Sunday. Got up and had breakfast. We met on the Kelvinhaugh Street. We are going to play in a football tournament tomorrow for charity. I have to try to rearrange because I have a revising lecture at the same time. It was a warm day. We walked to Kelvingrove park and played until 4. At that time I was dead. After the game I had a shower and ate some awful food. I mixed coconut with red onion and lemon and ate it with rice noodles. Disgusting it was. Then I read my compulsory thirty pages of international law. Freja, Maria and me listened to jazz in the 78 for 30 minutes.

19 On Saturday I had to study. In the evening I stayed in my room and made a bit of music

18 On Friday I bought my ticket back to Finland. I am going the 3rd of June. I'll start working at the parliament the week after that. I found a cheap ticket from Edinburgh to Stockholm. Now I just need to figure out how to continue to Finland. Fernando might accompany me to Stockholm. He is a fan of Sweden. I studied at the library . At 7 I ate with Maria. Then we went to the cinema and saw The Living (Du levande). That is the best Swedish cinema available today. I recommend it to all people I know, and if you don't like your intellectual is sincerely primitive. In fact I saw it again. I saw it during my Christmas holidays in Finland and here on GFT (Glasgow film theatre). It is beautiful. Then we walked home. Ate ice cream.

These trousers have a hole

Official Elias in Glasgow

Sub prime housing crisis in West end

Cheesy pop

Tuesday, 15 April 2008

Sore throat - 16.4 Ill! (edited 17.4, 18.4) -> Cured!

SUPERGRASS AT ABC 1

18 Friday I woke up when Maria called around 12. I feel better today, much. I ate breakfast and now I am writing. I'll buy my ticket back to Finland today.

17 Thursday (18 today). I woke up late and read an article about three landmark cases in international law. Rested for a while and ate breakfast. Maria came to my flat around 2. She brought flowers. It was nice and it felt like I had been injured in a war. Then she commanded me in the shower and I took a new pyjama. Then some Simpsons. Afterwards Maria made vegetable soup with carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, coriander and rice in vegetable stock. Then a fruit salad with green grapes, banana, apple, pears and oranges. Then some more VT and resting.

16 Wednesday. I woke up ill and stayed the whole day in bed. I watched VT from 6-1. Then I went to sleep. I finished my tacos. Fernando fried Bratwursts in beer. He had three and me two. They were good. It was a new thing for me.

15 Tuesday. Today I had breakfast, yes! I walked in the morning to Maria's flat. I brought with me some bread. Two sandwiches with cheese and tomatoes and one with Nutella. Italian coffee and Persian tea. And juice. Now I am back. I am going to a photoshop to ask something about Samuel's camera. Then, maybe, Lidl with Fer.

Right (17 today) I walked with Samuel to Jessops. They couldn't help us and the service was awful. A very unfriendly lady. In fact a lot of service in shops here in Glasgow is of a very low standard. From there I walked to the Hillhead library and finally returned the Fanny Hill book. I walked home after visiting boots for a body lotion. In between I went to uni and printed some stuff. At 4:30 Fer, Marco and me walked to Lidl and bought a lot and took a taxi home. I put in my stuff and started to feel ill. In the evening I started feeling ill. I ate tacos, then we went to Ifa's flat and sang for Sara via Skype and then some people came for tea. Later I went to sleep

14 Monday. I woke up eleven, because my throat was a bit sore. I had breakfast, a very simple. I checked the compulsory web sites. Then I prepared a beautiful reading list and plan for my next exam. I have enough time to prepare it very well this time. That feels good, though I need to start now. I walked to uni after that and printed some things I am going to read. The law workshop is now too hot. You can't read there anymore. I walked to the library and returned a book. Then I walked home. I recorded music and Titus sent some great drum clips. I'll use them. Then I walked to Maria's flat and prepared a pasta with tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, parsley and maybe something else I forgot. With Dutch cheese, of course. After dining we walked to the QM. There we attended a lecture in Neo-Victorianism. It was much about comics. The speaker was much into comics. I understood around 5% of the content. Anyway, it was interesting. Afterwards we walked home and tried to open a coconut. After 10 min, yes. We ate and then played guitar and sang. Then it was night, again.

13 Sunday Salmon dinner. 1 Maria and me went for a walk in the West End. In parts where we had never been to. We found nice shops. I bought a nice looking loaf of bread at the counter the cashier said 3.99. I paid but hey it was too expensive. 5 € for a loaf. We continued. Then we walked home. I played football in Kelvingrove park with some other people who didn't pass the ball to me. At 6:30 I went to Anna's flat and we ate a delicious fried Salmon a la Conrad. We were 6 people eating. Afterwards a Greek girl served Greek chocolate. It was really good. Then I watched a film with Maria, Pan's Labyrinth.

12 Saturday, around 6:30 I went to Conrad's flat. An hour or so later we met Ifa and we walked to ABC 1. Kaiser Chiefs started playing early. Let the pictures describe the night. It was not the best concert I've been to. They played only one song from Road to Rouen. My stomach hurt a bit after. I walked home after the gig and went to sleep after a shower.

11 Friday During the day I was studying a bit. In the evening I went to Clara's flat. I was talked around and went to Cheesy Pop though I don't like it. I was there until 1 and then walked home.

Germany, France, Finland

Armpit hair is natural

The Audience

Har du sätt en kändis?

Friday, 11 April 2008

11.4 - It's 11:47 AM. I woke up 10:15-30 and had breakfast. Now I write and I'll go and look for guitars after this.

10.4 - I woke up 8 and had a quick breakfast. I left home 8:30 and walked to the main library where I met Rebecca who gave me John's dictionary in Swedish-English for the exam. I had 150.000 words under my arm. I walked towards the main building, Hunters Hall East. I met Robbie on the way and more classmates outside. The chat before exams was the same as in Finland, nervous. At 9:25 the doors were opened and we walked quickly in. I dumped my stuff next to the wall and sat down in the far end of the hall, 20 meters away from the invigilator. I couldn't her what instructions what they gave. At 9:30 we started. Answers three questions of eight. The questions were fair and I wrote around four pages on each. The results will come this summer. I wrote in pen on white paper and margins were on the paper. You wrote all answers in a book. 1 hour per question. 15 mins planning and 45 min writing. No daydreaming this time. I answered the following questions.

1. "If the move, as described by Maine, from status to contract was viewed as progressive, then more recent trends towards status should be categorised as regressive. Discuss

5. According to Sandra Fredman: "Equality as an ideal shines brightly in the galaxy of liberal aspirations. Nor is it just an ideal. Attempts to capture it in legal form are numerous and often grand... (which) suggests that we all have an intuitive grasp of the meaning of equality and what it entails. Yet the more closely we examine it, the more its meaning shifts." Discuss

7. What does Polanyi mean when he talks of the "commodity fiction' of labour? What is fictitious about it? What are the implications of organising a (real) self-regulating market around fiction?

As you can see, no real law, and that I love!

After the exam I left the hall asking people how it went. I realised that the university bell ringing once at :15 and :45 and twice at :30 and at full hours was really stressing during the exam. My understanding of ringing bells has changed. I walked to uni to give back the dictionary. I couldn't find here. Then I had lunch with Fernando. I had a chicken mayonnaise baguette, speciality of QM. Then Fernando and me walked to the Bute Hall and attended the rectorial installation. The Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP is now the rector of Glasgow. It was interesting to see how it works. Then they served drinks.

I walked back to uni and handed back the dictionary and met Maria in the library. I walked home after spending a short time in the Law Workshop. It was a gorgeous day. At home I read the Independent for a long time and Andrea served a cup of coffee. I ate pate sandwiches and yesterdays pasta and discussed Zimbabwe, global recession and history. Then Maria arrived and we spent some time together. She walked home and I went to sleep.

9.4 Wednesday I woke up early, 9:30. I had breakfast. I read at home until 1 and ate fried potatoes with salad(!). Then I walked to uni and continued revising. I had a panini in QM and checked for some books in the library and asked for advice from, hm I forgot his name. I met Maria in the workshop. She had returned from Holland. I revised until 7:30. Maria and me walked home and prepared a pasta. We ate and took a pause. Then I continued revising until 11:30. Then I went next doors with Samuel and Fernando to a Hippie party. I was there 20 minutes. Then I walked home and slept. I woke up around 2 because somebody was loud in the kitchen. I was furious and couldn't sleep even when it was quiet because I was angry.

8.4 Tuesday - I ate fried potatoes with fish. I studied the whole day.

7.4 Monday - I ate fried fish with boiled potatoes. I studied the whole day. During this week of revision and reading I realised to my relief that I haven't lost my skill in reading a lot in a short time.

6.4 Sunday. I was studying hard the whole day. In the evening I had enough and went for a walk. I walked just nearby to a part I had never been to before and took some pictures. I bought some stuff in Morrisons. 2 Steak & Kidney Pies and 2 Cornish Pastries and a coconut. At home we, me and Samuel, enjoyed them. I went to sleep.

5.4 Saturday I read the whole day. Outside my bloc I heard noise from Clara's flat. She and her flatmates served nuggets and chips. I relaxed there after a day of hard reading. Then I walked home and slept.

4.3 Friday - I watched two good films after a day of disciplined studies. The Taxi driver and Memento were the the titles of the films. I went to sleep around 2:30.

3.3 Thursday - I studied and then slept like a baby.