Liadnan

They're going to make students at Oxford not only sign contracts, but contracts which require them to go to lectures? Tutes I can see, but I do wonder if this indicates a rise in the significance attached to lectures (for those who don't know the place, this traditionally ranges from minimal to minor so far as arts and humanities are concerned, it isn't key to the way Oxford undergraduate teaching works). (And see also the proposal to take control of admissions to the university level, which I suspect is going to go down like a lead balloon.)

Belloff-drafted contracts at that... Not sure how I feel about the contract idea itself in principle.

Apropos of something slightly different, the comments thread on this linkpost of mine about feminism and related matters is still vaguely alive and lots of people have said interesting things. People always seem to comment more on my throwaway rubbish and linkposts than the proper ones.

I spent lunch being suckered by the HMV Sale. In theory one of the real financial benefits of being on the island is the lack of VAT: usually the benefit somehow vanishes amid mutterings of transport costs (coincidentally always precisely the same as UK VAT would be, how strange), but CDs are an exception. (Hence a certain major online seller of such things being based here, and, indeed a client of ours). Completed Belle & Sebastian and Garbage back catalogues, plus Isobel Campbell and Wossname from QotSA's new album, plus Jeff Buckley's Grace and DVD's of Amelie, 12 Monkeys, and Casablanca. All ridiculously cheap, to be fair.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon becoming really quite drunk while standing outside the White Hart at Barnes Bridge. And then we lost, arse.

Loads of stewdents around, and Steph and I observed three things about them: (1) they were all ridiculously young, they're letting mere children in these days, hmm hmmm; (2) they all seem to have far more money than I did; (3) they were all actually wearing university-blazoned fleeces and the like, which I always thought were the height of naff and meant for tourists only.

Mind you, they also all seemed to be from Balliol.

In other news, I actually vacuumed the flat, by way of "working from home" this morning, for the first time in about six months. Never let it be said that I am slovenly.

Not feeling particularly well, actually, and have loads to do, so I shall have to leave reading everyone else until some other time.