I have an MA, and some cool new stuff

I turned in my dissertation today. It feels oddly anti-climactic. You would think that we would all be out celebrating tonight but I think everyone is just too tired and overwhelmed. I finished editing mine a couple of days ago and received very good feedback from my supervisors earlier in the week, so it actually hasn't been as stressful a week for me as it has been for most others. It does feel good though. I now have two weeks off before my PhD programme begins.

After we turned in our dissertations at 11am, my close friend N (who some of you know) and I went for coffee with another friend and "Abs" (a close friend from Kuwait who is in town with family here). We sat outside enjoying the feeling of being free, with the chilly breeze of autumn rushing over us. After a couple of hours out there, we went for lunch at my favourite burger joint near my flat in Fitzrovia. After lunch Abs and I decided to do a bit of shopping, during which I proceeded to engage in a bit of West Soho post-dissertation-retail-therapy. I am extremely pleased with my purchases of the day - which will probably be my main purchases of the month seeing as I can't afford to do much shopping most of the time!

As I've mentioned before, funky footwear is my weakness (not in the typical girly-girl sense, but rather cool trainers and boots). Anyway, on our way to lunch I passed by a girl sitting on the front steps of a shop on Windmill Street and I immediately fell in love with her shoes. About an hour later Abs and I were on Carnaby Street and as we passed by the Vans store I saw the exact pair but in another colour in the window and so we went in. They didn't have the colour I'd seen so we left, but then when we entered Kingly Court we saw that Vans had an upstairs so we went back in. And there they were!


I tried them on and fell in love with them on the spot. I usually don't like skater shoes that are made for girls - most brands only make girl's shoes in pink and purple and other colours I don't like so I've had to resort to finding really small men's pairs. But these were the first girly ones I loved.

Next stop, a shop called Lazy Oaf, also in Kingly Court. There I bought a bag...


...and a hoodie sweatshirt.


The straps of the bag are my favourite teal blue. And the sweatshirt is because I am my P's "cerise." The sleeves of the sweatshirt are a bit "on-purpose" short because they use children's sizes.

All in all, a good day both academically and retail-wise.

While we're at it, a couple of days ago Abs and I were in Convent Garden and I bought this coffee thermos from Octopus, one of my favourite insane little stores. Those of you who know me will get it.


I plan on using it to smuggle coffee into the library this year. Click here to see what it looks like open.