Elias investigates: 28 days LEFT. The Zutons!

Brodick Beach ,Isle Of Arran

6.5 Tuesday - The sun is shining as it was yesterday. The spring is here. I woke up today at 8, but didn't finish breakfast before 10:30. Now I sit here with the window and listen to the solo in The Cure's Close to me and write.

5.5 Monday - Yesterday I woke up to the phone. It was Erik and he wanted to have back his dictionary. In one minute I was at door C and gave it back and returned. On the way I hit my toe in a door and it started bleeding. It was a warm day. At 12 me and Maria walked to Kelvingrove Park. It was crowded already. We sat on the top of the slope and watched over the park and the uni and library was on the left side on the other side of River Kelvin. The grass was still a bit wet, but I had a felt and we sat on it. Then ice cream, EU law and sunshine. At 2 we walked back and I was getting exhausted of the sun. I had a light tomato soup in a tin and pate with cucumber. Then I cut of the the legs of a pair of jeans and with them on me and Samuel walked back to the Park. We played and I was on the team without shirts. It was hot and I was frying fat and skin in the same time. After an hour or so I left. I didn't want to get burnt. The park was filled with Scotsmen. I had a shower and made a strange but delicious meal. I boiled noodles in prawn sauce. Then I fried feta cheese lightly and a red onion and mixed everything. It was creamy and tasty.

At 9:15 I met Maria and we walked to ABC. The same ticket dealer was in front of ABC selling (see Tuesday 29.4), who confronted Conrad selling the ticket to The Kooks gig in Edinburgh. We entered and The Script was already playing. We listened and I didn't think it was too good(1/5). One night only played next. It was better, but still not too good(2/5). The Zutons were then from a completely different league. It was a matured band with a real feeling of group and people playing together. The singer, Mr David McCabe was awesome and looked like a man 20 years ago in the rock business and the woman, Mrs Abi Harding playing Saxophone was very seductive, dancing with her shiny sax. I didn't know many songs but enjoyed like a veteran. We had no toilet tissue in our ears, so we left pretty deaf. We walked home in the warm summer night. At home waited Samuel's cake, he had just taken it from the oven. Delicious with a cup of peppermint tea with a full tablespoon of honey. Night time. Tired tired I fell asleep. It was my first summers day in Glasgow ever.

4.5 Sunday. I woke up 7:30. The kitchen was a disaster after yesterdays dinner. I ate beans and toast and juice. Somebody had drank my orange juice during the night! At 8:20 I left the flat with my travel stuff. I jumped on the cab with Conrad and we drove to the central station. There I met Karen, Scotland and Anne, Canada. We bought tickets to Ardrossan Harbour and got on the train. An hour later we were in the harbour. We got on the ferry and an hour later we were on the Isle of Arran, our destination.

It was grey and drizzly. The scenery was stunning immediately in Brodick. All cars were hired until Wednesday so we jumped on the very crowded bus. We drove from Brodick via Corrie and Sannox to the North of the Island to the Isle of Arran Distillery. There we had tour for 3 pounds. The secrets behind Whiskey are not too exciting for me. In the end there was a tasting. For three pounds you could have quite a lot of Whiskey. This trip seemed to a be a bit "Hemingwayian". Outside the distillery we ate local ice cream with local Baileys on it. Intoxicated we walked in a gorgeous valley towards the sea and Lohranza. There is a castle said to be the inspiration to the Tintin album about the Black Island. The Castle was Ok. I ate yesterdays salad and gave some potatoes to Anne and Karen. I started raining. We met on the bus stop two old English ladies who said Germans don't do things, they execute things. On the bus we continued south along the coast to Blackwaterfoot. There we sat down at a table in a hotel lounge bar. It was a place for retired people of middle class rank. A cope from a Agatha Christie story. I had a capuchino. It was raining so we didn't go outside. We took the bus back to Brodick. The road was winding so I got almost sick in the bus. In Brodick the weather was better. We bought food from a supermarket and ate on the shore. We walked along the beach towards the Cheese factory of Island. We turned back before arriving and walked on golf courses. We took the ferry back 19:20 and arrived in Glasgow 9:30. We had a pint and took the taxi back. It was a long day.

3.5 During the day we played football. It was ok football. Saturday. First Maria and me boiled peas, potatoes and carrots in herbs and fried sausages. We hadn't finished dinner before people started dropping in for the dinner. Loik had some of the delicious potatoes and Harriet some of carrots. More people arrived and in the en Maria and me ate again, Pasta con Sarde. Finally. The dinner continued .

2.5 Friday. I had the most important exam ever, my exam in International Law and problems of Contemporary World Order. I woke up 8:20 and had a light breakfast. I came early to the Main building, Hunter Halls East. I entered, now familiar with the procedures. I answered the following three questions of eight:

1. According to the most recent UN report, Freedonia, the oil-rich western province of Arcadia, is a region suffering from abject poverty, total lack of infrastructure, and endemic conflict. Three months ago a civil war broke out in the southern Freedonia, as a result of which all oil production in the province has been suspended (at the approximate cost to global economy of 500 mln a week). What do you think would be a typical response to this crisis from the political realist tradition and what would be a typical Marxist critique of that solution?

2. What are the main shortcomings of the general concept of law assumed by the neoliberal theory of economic development (as exemplified in the Washington Concensus)?

3. Discuss the following proposition. "The traditional understanding of the nature of international legal discourse suggests that it was, essentially, the objective logic of real world events which dictated the direction of international legal discourse. Put crudely, patterns of legal discourse always followed the reality of political practice. That view is no longer tenable. Another explanation is required.

1.5 Thursday. Studies until late before the exam. I was ready around 12. Then I went to sleep, although some stars very having a good time in the kitchen. I didn't mind. I put toilet tissue in my ears.

30.4 Wednesday. Studies for IL CWO. At nine I watched The Apprentice, the only series I am following here, of course not at home. It was ok. The right man was fired.

29.4 Tuesday. The Kooks. I was studying the day. The weather was really extraordinary. Thunder and hard rain. At 5 we walked to the central station and took the train to Edinburgh, The Corn Exchange. There Conrad and us tried to sell the spare ticket. Conrad was confronted by a ticket dealer asking who he was working for. We didn't manage to sell it. Inside we didn't hear to much supporting music. The Kooks started playing and of course it was amazing to hear them, it was not totally awesome. There was this Naive tension in me. After the gig completely wet we walked towards Haymarket train station. We met a Glaswegian on the way and we shared a taxi and took the train back.

28.4 Monday. I studied. I visited Maria in the evening because she felt a bit ill.