We finally got internet set up in the house last night and I managed to finally talk to Gwynnie today. I lost two hours of my day of catching up on work, preparing for seminars tomorrow, but I've gained buckets of energy.

I'm listening to Good News for People Who Love Bad News and my first reaction is 'oh, hello childhood'. But the familar feeling of enjoying this album doesn't come from my childhood in the ordinary sense. It was during those GCSE years when I was introduced to Modest Mouse. In this case, 'childhood' refers to the distant memory-feelings; here particularly they are of an unexepected strongly enveloping happiness. Not a flood of memories being realised or a specific feeling that is stimulated by the present circumstance, but feelings that are familiarly associated with this stimulus. I think.

I'm not used to being happy, so I describe it thus.

First day of school, final year

I've never sat on a bench by the duck pond before, but I can't think of a better place to be right now. To rest.

After being idle all summer, walking up to campus almost every day in the first week of moving to Canterbury is really pushing myself to be active and do that much exercise to build up my endurance. And by the end of the week I was fit enough to do the 20 minute uphill trek without panting, but doing the same route on the first day of school with 6 books and a litre bottle of water resets my fitness scale.

I didn't have anyone to share a pizza with at dinner last night, so of course there's no one to meet for breakfast at 8am on a Sunday morning.

Wand: silver lime with dragon core, 12 inches, slightly yielding

From Mr Garrick Ollivander's notes

Wood: "This unusual and highly attractive wand wood was greatly in vogue in the nineteenth century. Demand outstripped supply, and unscrupulous wandmakers dyed substandard woods in an effort to fool purchasers into believing that they had purchased silver lime. The reasons for these wands’ desirability lay not only in their unusually handsome appearance, but also because they had a reputation for performing best for Seers and those skilled in Legilimency, mysterious arts both, which consequently gave the possessor of a silver lime wand considerable status. When demand was at its height, wandmaker Arturo Cephalopos claimed that the association between silver lime and clairvoyance was ‘a falsehood circulated by merchants like Gerbold Ollivander (my own grandfather), who have overstocked their workshops with silver lime and hope to shift their surplus.’ But Cephalopos was a slipshod wandmaker and an ignoramus, and nobody, Seer or not, was surprised when he went out of business."

Core: "As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental."

Lengths: "Many wandmakers simply match the wand length to the size of the witch or wizard who will use it, but this is a crude measure, and fails to take into account many other, important considerations. In my experience, longer wands might suit taller wizards, but they tend to be drawn to bigger personalities, and those of a more spacious and dramatic style of magic. Neater wands favour more elegant and refined spell-casting. However, no single aspect of wand composition should be considered in isolation of all the others, and the type of wood, the core and the flexibility may either counterbalance or enhance the attributes of the wand’s length."