More University

Unfortunately my life at university is so hectic that there is rarely time to update this blog with the expected lengthy articles. There simply isn't time.

I am putting Stardust, Tea and Confusion on hiatus until further notice, most probably the Christmas holidays or if an issue crops up that I must write about.

However, because I am still eager (or arrogant) enough to want to contribute to the blogging world, I have set up a much less complicated blog at Tumblr giving a tiny glimpse into student life. It takes a few seconds to update it, so it barely impacts on my schedule, but there will be no depth.

It can be found at http://wiltedporcelain.tumblr.com/

I am missing writing very much, so this is not the end!

Much Love,

J xxx

University

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been settling into Durham and generally trying to make sense of my new life, so the blog hasn't been on the top of my priority-list.

However, I am pleased to report that I am very pleased with my choice of university, and that I have fallen in love with the city.

I will try and get back into the habit of posting regularly soon, but I cannot promise when or in what form!

Much love

J xxx

More Baking...

Here is a picture of my kitchen table earlier today as I made chocolate cupcakes.

Baking reminds me of my friends, and I am gutted I can't share my cake with them.

The cakes looked a lot better once they'd been iced!

I really need to go to uni now... I'm so lonely. :/

Jxxx

Lemon Cupcakes Mark One Week To Go

This time next week I shall be on the northbound motorway. The boot will be full of pots, pans, and my brand new mini-ironing board from Ikea. My dad and I will probably be listening to the Beatles or Radio 2, having one of our geeky dad-daughter-jukebox sessions for old time's sake. We'd be rich if we had a coin for every time we have had a discussion about whether Revolver or Sgt. Pepper is the better record. I hope Dad doesn't get too emotional, because I'm bound to.

The majority of my close friends are departing over the course of this weekend, and I feel slightly sad about being left at home even though I am not particularly looking forward to Freshers' Week (great: forced jollity). Still, this gives me plenty of opportunity to get into a routine, get as much sleep as possible and generally recover from all of the last week's partying and bittersweet farewells.

At the moment, I am unsure about the future of this blog. I am thinking of specialising more in particular areas or abandoning certain topics. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, I have been baking yummy cupcakes with lemon icing (made with grated lemon zest and squeezed juice). Tasty! I got the groovy cases from Ikea while I was shopping for university stuff.

J xxx

Islamophobic Intolerance

There are some seriously stupid people out there.

No doubt you will be aware of plans by a small, and long may it remain small, church in America to burn copies of the Koran tomorrow. President Obama has said that such an act is against American values of religious tolerance and freedom, but Reverend Terry Jones of the 'Dove World Outreach Centre' claims that Islam is 'of the devil' and that Americans have a duty to burn its holy book.

Demonstrators in Kabul have responded by burning an effigy of Terry Jones in the streets, proving that hatred only begets hatred. Wouldn't it be wonderful if, for once, people celebrated our differences rather than burning symbols of each other?

Of course, it's easy for small-town folk in America, brainwashed by the emotive forces of fundamentalist Christianity, to believe that Islam is dangerous. However, look within the Bible, particularly some of the passages in the Old Testament, and see just how gruesome it can be. Just as many Christians reject violence in the name of God, many Muslims do the same. It's not the holy books that are the problem. It's extremism. And through his internationally controversial publicity stunt, Terry Jones is joining the ranks of the extremists.

Sad stuff :(

J xx

Elephants

I know that, sometimes, I seem like one of these pretentious alternative people who insists on having all those "lifestyle choices" to annoy your average Telegraph-reader (I genuinely like being a vegetarian, honest!). So it may not surprise you that I'm getting a bit fixated on saving the elephant this week.

Animal rights activists and people who care about the environment are often seen as a bit of a joke. I appreciate that scepticism gives the climate debate credit and that the green lobby can be guilty of outrageous scaremongering at times, but we are literally killing the natural world, and whether this is making the world warmer or not seems irrelevant to the morality of it.

Saving the elephant is some serious shit.

Elephants have incredibly distinct personalities, and they have consciousness, like humans (this is tested with a mirror to see if the animal recognises that the reflection is not a separate creature). An elephant famously has a fantastic memory. They have imaginations, they play, they form specific friendships and bonds. They are gentle and caring, and are traumatised and bereaved when family members die. They live almost as long as humans do. And they have the longest gestation period of any mammal (imagine being pregnant for twenty-two months!).

The very fact that elephants are individual, conscious, sentient, intelligent beings means that, in my opinion, they have as much right to live on this planet as humans do. The problem is that many humans seem to think that they can abuse elephants. Poaching is a serious problem, with ivory in high demand, and elephants are still used in circuses. Elephants are also being driven out of their natural habitats by --big surprise-- humans.

I watched Elephant Diaries on the television the other day and was enchanted by how special these animals are. The idea that they are endangered saddens me tremendously.

Fortunately, there are many people out there trying to save the elephant. The Elephant Parade in London is attempting to raise awareness of the problems facing the Asian elephant.

Please watch this video and sign the petition!

J xxx

Heartbeat

She'd seldom detected the desperate ticking

Of those hands, held prisoner in the mechanism

Of a lifetime.

Yet she heard it smash,

Heard it fall from it dizzying height upon the wall,

Heard the moment the ticking ceased.

The clock-corpse returns to her in those moments

When the world seems to stop yet the heartbeat races,

Compensating for the uncertainty of time.

For though she clings to the faint ticking of her soul,

She is electrified in those tiny moments of memory,

Those tiny fragments of the life she could have had.

Even in her world she cannot resist those ultimate

Cogs as they turn, very much alive, in the midst of reality.

As the days go by, so the electric shocks become mere

Static jolts in her heart. The pain begins to ease,

But the ticking is fainter than before the clock fell.

***

I wrote this earlier in the summer. Apologies for my ongoing overuse of time-imagery! I thought it would appropriate to post it now, with the move to university almost upon me.

It's essentially about how the pain of a moment becomes more and more significant until it has taken up a person's life (and time), but how eventually that moment is free to become just a moment once again, set in time in its rightful place. Yet the person is never quite the same as before. Obviously it's about my own personal experience, and the importance of moving on in life.

Hello, university.

J xxx