November has been something of a tricky month, hence my radio silence. I came back from half term with a lingering and a toothache, which absorbed two rounds of antibiotics and now no longer hurts, but there is still a swelling and I'm therefore left with a low-level persistent nagging concern that it's going to resurge at the worst possible time, such as on Christmas Eve or the plane I'll be taking to Kazakhstan for new year.
Toothache is so debilitating. One evening I just sat in bed from getting home at 6pm, reading The Little Princess in the dark on my Kindle. Other evenings were not quite as dismal but I was not capable of doing anything at all, really. I have to shout out to my amazing dentist, Bianca, who did a big filling repair in the summer that I thought was the cause of the pain. She saw me quickly, gave me antibiotics and insisted I come back in for another appointment before the weekend, just in case there was any pain, then prescribed more antibiotics remotely and followed up with a phone appointment. She would not charge me for any of these appointments because the filling is guaranteed for a year, even though the x-ray suggested that the infection was on an adjacent tooth.
I think I should probably go back in for the root canal she suggested, to be on the safe side, but I am full of overwhelm at the moment and I just can't envisage how I would fit it in over the next five weeks.
I spent last week in Oxford, which was dreamy. It was mostly bitterly cold and snowed overnight on Monday night - I thought I had packed enough warm things but it turned out, I had not, so the week was chilly. My coursemates are all really lovely and we had a few dinners together in college. I hadn't quite managed all the reading, on account of the tooth, but I had definitely done enough to get the most out of the lectures. Some of it is a bit over my head. I'm not sure how I am going to manage the essay by Jan 7th, but I guess we will just see how that pans out.
Really, I think I am worrying too much. I do have other things to do, namely my job (obvs) and also writing the next round of exam papers, but my job has been doing a good job of staying within work hours so far this year and I am almost done with my exam papers, just three more Q markschemes to write, which I might finish today. It's worrying me because they haven't sent out a schedule yet, in spite of contracting us in July, so I can't get any sense of when the pinch points are going to be. Also I am just counting available weekend days as possible essay-writing time when, realistically, I can work on it some weekday evenings as well. I'm sure it will be OK. It's just been a while since anybody gave me an essay title that I just didn't know how to answer. This happened all the time as an undergrad and rational me knows that I just need to read until something coalesces.
What else has been going on over the past three weeks? I have been listening to Exam Nation by Sammy Wright, which is very funny and a nice foil for the heavier academic course reading. I've been very slowly reading A Gentleman In Moscow, which is truly delightful - one day this past week, I ran a bath and lay in it for 40 minutes reading before lectures started. I love a morning bath. The room I've booked for all the college weeks is cheap because the bathroom is on a different floor, rather than being en suite, but as a result it contains a bath, as well as the main boiler for the whole house, so it is really warm and not one of those dingy plastic cube bathrooms beloved of university accommodation. So, on Wednesday when we finished early, I walked to Lush and got myself a bath bomb. Next time, I will go prepared.
I've been a bit neglectful of the gym. I am currently sitting in my gym clothes, which I put on as soon as I got up in the morning, but don't seem to be any closer to getting to the gym. The weather is howling today. Yesterday, on a whim, I went to Easy Runner in Bristol and had myself fitted for some new running trainers. I used to do running and I really enjoyed it; now the elliptical has started to get a bit easy, I thought I should graduate to a treadmill. I also really wished that I could go for a jog around the park in Oxford, but was stymied by my lack of suitable footwear. Now I have trainers. I need to go test them for a longer run on a treadmill, though.
In spite of this, however, and all the toothy troubles and multiple colds (I caught another one last weekend, though it abated quickly), weight loss still seems to have been occurring, much to my delight. I had a little preview on the scale yesterday morning to check that the enthusiastic reintroduction of desserts into my diet whilst in Oxford had not 'ruined everything' and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had not; if that number holds until tomorrow (I do usually gain a little weight over the weekend, hence my usual practice being weighing just once a week on Mondays, but if it does...) then I will be 29lbs down since the start of the new school year. I tried on my old favourite ski trousers yesterday and they are the most comfortable they've ever been. I remember taking them on the school trip in 2020 and being unable to get the poppers to meet, let alone close.
In fact, there are lots of clothes I can now wear that have not seen daylight for many years. If I thought I had a lot of clothes before, we are now reaching an embarrassing opulence of riches.
What else, hmm hmm. My friend Kaff came over last Saturday for our annual Strictly and Chinese night. She told me about my old friend Tutt's wedding blessing, and how Tutt essentially seemed to make Kaff her bridesmaid without actually asking or telling her until the last minute. We haven't spoken in a number of years. I'm still sad at the loss of the friendship, but happy she's happily married now.
I travelled to Oxford last Sunday in the company of my friends Jo and Kath, so that we could visit the Victorian Christmas market there. Mulled cider, chestnuts, strange crafts you only ever see at Christmas stalls. We ate a lovely pie in an old pub. We browsed the horror section of the Blackwells. A very lovely day out.
I'm delighted at the return of Wolf Hall, love a bit of Rylance-as-Cromwell, and we've binge watched both series of Everyone Else Burns, which was very enjoyable. Second series better than the first, I think - I just think Sian Clifford is hilarious, which gave it the edge.
I'll end with a snowy autumn tree picture from Oxford. I really can't put off going to the gym any longer.
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