Sparkling Dandelion and Burdock?

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I went to Morrison's last night after class. I got home around 8:15 pm and the store closes at 9:00 pm — this is pretty typical — so if I want anything I'm always in a rush. I wanted to buy some 2-litres of pop, so I checked out the store brand, three for £1.00. I have to say, they have some interesting flavors here. Nothing comes in grape. I'm not sure why. There are grapes for sale in the store, but there is no grape jam, no grape pop. Blackcurrant everything, though, which is reminiscent of grape. It's purple, at least. So I bought some Blackcurrantade, but I haven't tried it yet. And who's ever heard of this flavor: Sparkling Dandelion and Burdock? (check out my fantastic product shot) Well, I've never had dandelion flavor, so I couldn't resist. It tastes a little like licorice, but more like cough medicine. Maybe that's the burdock, which is apparently some kind of medicinal root. Not bad, though, I may buy it again.

I have been crazy busy... like 12-13 hour days with no end in sight. I haven't have a lot of time to check email, especially since my computer wasn't functioning last week. My hard drive died on my laptop and started eating folders that make the system run. I know it wasn't a software issue because the hard drive was making scary noises. And system diagnostics said "hard drive status: FAILING. Back up as much data as you can!" Which is exactly what I did.

I was still able to use my computer, but only if I connected it to my external hard drive — and you can imagine how impractical that was most of the time. So I've been reduced to handwritten note-taking, and you know how horrible my handwriting is. When I write fast I sometimes can't even read my own writing.

Anyway, I ordered a new internal hard drive from an online company here in the UK. I've already received it and I installed it last weekend, which involved opening the case. Kind of a pain, but since I'd done it before I knew what I was in for. And I brought the correct tools along just in case. Glad I fixed it and didn't kill it. I went from a 30 GB to 80 GB, so I suppose it's for the best anyway. Still, wasted a lot of time diagnosing, shopping, and fixing.

So my days are spent either in classroom lectures or in various museums around London. I've already been to the National Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Courtauld Gallery, Tate Britain, and the Wallace Collection (which is a really cool collection of seventeenth-century paintings, ceramics, and furniture). Next week we go the the Museum of London and eventually get to Tate Modern. As far as if it's everything I hoped it would be, well, sure. The lectures are incredibly interesting and the instructors are amazingly knowledgeable and interesting people. But it's tons of work and tons of information thrown at you in almost machine-gun fashion. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed I see smoke coming out of people's heads. My own head is smoking!

The students are very interesting, very diverse. Most of them are younger, traditional-type students, but a fairly large percentage are older career-changer types. But whether the younger ones are "mature" or not is hard to say. I think there's a big difference between being mature from an academic standpoint and having been through some shit. I think most of the young ones are typical for their age, don't really have a concept of money or how much they're spending, and how hard it is to make in the first place, because most likely it's OPM (Other People's Money, either the bank's or the parents'). It's not necessarily something you can fault them for though, I suppose it's just the way it is. You could look at it as: they'll have a lot more carefree fun than I will! But this is all speculation on my part. I can't honestly say I know anyone well enough to judge.

I had steak and kidney pie, which really wasn't all that bad, but the idea of what I was eating was getting to me. I ate the whole thing except for just a little bit at the end. The kidneys inside were tiny, I don't know what they come from, maybe a chicken? But I swear I saw tiny tubes coming out of them, the ones that lead to the urethra. Was grossing me out! I have not had blood pudding yet, and don't plan on it, either. I've already seen it in the store, so I'll be able to identify it if anyone tries to slip it into something.