More updates

Still busy with work and uni, although it was slightly better this week in that once the presentation on Monday was over, I felt more relaxed. And fortunately he didn't set us another presentation for next Monday! That would be killer... presentations on both the second and third lessons for a module, I'll just die.

Still haven't started on my final piece for one of the modules. It doesn't help that instead of the usual weekly lectures we had last term, we'll have fortnightly individual tutorials this term; the less frequent lessons are for a module, the less motivated I am to start doing work. Guess I'll have to do the usual and rush through this weekend to produce something decent for next week's tutorial. A leopard never changes its spots. Sigh.

On Wednesday evening I told the boss that by mid-March I'll stop working on Wednesdays. Beforehand I really wanted to say mid-February, but I guess that's a bit of a short notice. I do love the extra amount I earn for working Wednesdays, but I think working four evenings per week is beginning to take a toll on me. Need time, big time! I've also calculated that at present two weeks' wages covers the rent, the next two weeks' goes into bills and other expenses, the remaining money is saved up for next year's tuition fees. Without working Wednesdays, I'll probably use about two and a half weeks' wages for rent, then stretch the expenses a little in order to manage paying the bills without having to deduct from the savings. Think it'll still work. I've already stopped being lazy by packing my own sandwiches for lunch everyday, instead of buying really expensive sandwiches at an average of £2! Yes, I know, I shouldn't be converting currencies and all that, but I can't help it! If it helps, I do convert my wages from time to time too... hehe.

Today, a loud and persistant doorbell-ring at 9am got me jumping out of bed and running down the stairs. Because I knew my precious baby was going to be delivered today. Woohoo, I have my own euphonium at last! Over the last few weeks I had been viewing lots of second-hand euphoniums online, deliberating whether to bid for them (most are on e-bay), then deciding not to. Also calculated and re-calculated how my spending on an euphonium would affect my finances. Finally, last week I saw a Buy-it-now! euphonium on e-bay for £700 and after staring at the page for over an hour, decided to buy it. That's just about how much I earned for working in the cafe during the Christmas holidays. Right now I'm still unsure if this wasn't a good decision; what if this £700 could be like a miracle if I ran out of money later? But there's no way to tell, I'll just have to hope that's never going to happen.

Anyway, more about my baby. It isn't my Besson Sovereign model dream baby, but a second-hand Boosey & Hawkes Imperial model for this price is good enough for me. It was supposed to be delivered on Tuesday, but because stupid me forgot that I had only changed my address in paypal and not in e-bay. So the instrument got sent to my university accommodation last year. By some stroke of luck, either nobody was in or they kindly directed the parcel deliverer to the main reception, where someone rejected the parcel because they couldn't find my name in their records. And by the time I realised about my address in e-bay, this was all already in progress. By the time I called the local depot the next morning, the parcel was already back in the seller's local depot. Fortunately she managed to get them to hold it and then send it back to me, this time to the right address. Very contented now :)