So for two weeks a ban on reading was pretty much enforced. Not completely, because I could still read if I wished to, but between busy days, working in the evening, and other times when I just wanted to chill with a coffee and music, there wasn’t really much time. I became very used to my new existence very quickly and when it suddenly ended and I fell back down to earth with an almighty crash, I realised that I would have to pick up where I left off. But it has been, and still is, difficult.

The first few days after possibly the best fun I’ve ever had in my life, I did not want to read. And it wasn’t just that I wanted to revel in the afterglow as it were, I actually found I couldn’t read. Gone was the ability to not just choose a book but to know how to choose a book, and gone was the knowledge of how to read a book overall.

Yesterday I finally got round to reading a book and today I finished it. A short book, an author I am already enamored with, a book I knew for certain would be good. And it was, but then came the review.

Now I can’t say I’ve had no writing practice for two weeks because that would be so far from the truth – it’d be quicker to run a light year and back. I’ve written an essay and copious notes about my trip, but my review expertise, or rather expertise when it comes to my own style of reviewing, was gone. I will not be surprised if, come the day I post my review of Shannon Stacey’s Exclusively Yours, you all notice a difference in my writing.

Writing is hard, writing is a pain in the you-know-what, but never would I have thought writing after you’ve been writing for the vast majority of the last two weeks, would be so complicated.

By the time you read this I will have finished my first year of university. This doesn’t mean I’ve scheduled this post, because I haven’t because last time I tried it didn’t work, but it makes it sound as though I’m a very busy person run off my feet.

I may be.

The past two weeks I have been spending time planning and writing my last essay while simultaneously trying to closet away my sinuses from the allure of the cold virus. There’s something about the common cold that has convinced me that it is a pied piper of biology. My boyfriend’s sinuses decided that the virus currently storming round his family was too good to be true and so unfortunately I had to release him from our weekly meetings. Then The Little Guy caught a cold from a shopping trolley that was all too pleased to offer a human something that it could not make use of itself.

And so, because it was my last essay and worth half my course mark, and because the irony of the situation was that I’d gone the whole course up until then in good health, I proceeded to take precautions.

You know you’re trying too hard when you produce for yourself your very own illness.

Thanks to a lack of sleep due to my layering the bed with too many blankets, I sit here with a Rudolph nose and if I were to speak it would not be my usual voice. But I have at least finished my essay, written in about five hours (a record for me) and done so due to the worry of common colds.

There is no moral to this story other than not to hang around people who are ill when you know you’ve only a week until an important deadline.

Now I have a mad dash ahead while I try to get books read and reviewed in time, summer school prepared for, and a newly-well boyfriend showered with cherries and fans and Roman lounge seats, all those stereotypical quasi-submissive things, to thank him for his support. His support has actually been incredible in ways that I hope to discuss soon because it may lead to some exciting news.

Good morrow summer, you may now approach.

I’ve been thinking about what to write today and it occurred to me to post a life update, if that wouldn’t seem too self-absorbed.

My studying is going better than I had expected it to, I’ve surprised myself considerably. I was never a good student at school, in fact I was so bad that university was out of the question before. But now I love it and thankfully it shows, I’m currently working at a very high grade. I’m not going to look at my progress and think that I can relax because I’m well aware that it could all disappear, so I’m keeping my work in mind constantly and reminding myself not to procrastinate, at least not too much.

Whereas at school I went to a university fair and picked up a pile of random prospectuses to get the teachers off my back, more recently I contacted specific places I’d researched into. Whereas at school all I wanted to do was music, now I realise that as an extremely competitive industry that’s not necessarily possible, and that humanity subjects are a better choice. Whereas at school finding material to back up my statements was something I never bothered to do, nowadays I relish the thought.

I haven’t changed who I am so much as changed my outlook and the way I approach institutional learning. I now wonder why I didn’t work it out sooner, but as the phrase goes, sooner rather than later.

Suffice to say that this once study-shy school girl is now a study-delighted adult.

What is it about spicy food that makes us crave it?

I love spicy food and the general rule over here is the hotter the better, though of course there’s a limit to how far we’ll go (usually vindaloo). We Brits worship curries and it’s been said that we should cast aside our traditional roast dinners and have curry as our national meal instead. Certainly, although we like our roasts, the only objection likely would be history. I’d say Indian restaurants and takeaways at present make up the biggest percentage of international food houses, followed (possibly equalled) by Chinese. We’ve also a thing for Thai food and there are quite a few Greek restaurants, but India has our collective heart.

But the question that came to me, as I sipped the mulligatawny soup to which I’d added a generous helping of black pepper, was why. Why do we like it? The meals themselves are easy to cover in this – India has a spectacular knowledge of how to make great tasting dishes, mixing vegetables, meats, and seasoning in a way Britain is totally oblivious to (well, until recently at least). However the heat itself – well there is a bit of a taste there but the experience lies in the heat.

It’s a fantastic symptom halter. When you’ve a cold, eating a hot and spicy curry sends your sinuses into overkill. Your eyes overflow, your nose runs, and the flame can extinguish an ache in your throat for a good period of time. It unblocks you. It makes you warmer because of the effort of your body to stifle the heat. But this doesn’t relate to times when you feel well.

Curry can be painful, do we enjoy the pain it gives us? From the expressions on our faces the answer must be no. Does ingesting it cause the release of something pleasurable, like chocolate? Is it possibly the fact that the spice leaves you feeling full for longer or simply that it makes the rest of the meal more tasty?

For someone who adores curry I’m ashamed to say I have absolutely no idea why I like it.

You may have wondered where I’ve been recently, my posts being irregular and my comments on others’ blogs nonexistent.

Boyfriend and I spent last week in the sticks (in the middle of nowhere). It was great except that the owner of the place was staying in the room above ours. We could hear her moving when we were in our bedroom which was rather off-putting, it was like in a thriller or horror movie when there’s a sudden noise and the entire cast of characters whip their heads around at the same moment. In fact the only difference was that we didn’t have the accompanying shrill music, unless you consider Rihanna worthy.

Indeed the experience was interesting because we’d hoped that by going away from our parent’s houses we might feel less anxious about people overhearing, and I’m not meaning intimacy so much as simply having an innocent pillow-fight and worrying that our parents are thinking we’re involved in a peculiar sexual ritual.

The highlights of the holiday included:

• Standing in front of the toilet together for 10 minutes, gazing down the bowl and flushing it repeatedly when it got blocked by nothingness. This actually ended up happening twice.
• Having the heating on continuously owing to boiler problems and thus feeling we should wear sarongs and bring out the suncream in the middle of winter.
• Cooking chicken for a curry only to find out it had gone bad.
• Me spending an evening with a headache after forgetting to bring a hat in temperatures far below freezing.
• Boyfriend being told he may have contracted flu and be confined to bed. Thankfully it turned out he hadn’t.

In comparison to this, the following sound mere lowlights:

• A good layer of snow.
• Deer.
• Boyfriend making me laugh within seconds of it being our anniversary (over two years now!)
• Getting to spend some real quality time together for the first time in over half a year and living in one place, and being able to go shopping together and cooking together.

Today is a sad one because it’s the first day of I don’t know how many months until we’ll be like that again. But I come home positive once more about studying (I’ve had a couple of weeks not doing it because so far I’ve worked too hard and bored myself to tears), website design plans, my cute nephew, and to read a few more books before the year is out.

December you are welcome, but please can you keep Christmas on hold because I haven’t done any shopping yet!

How is the season treating you?