Day 1349

A good day. Up at nine, in by 10.20. I was in the lab when in walked Natalie. 'Aren't you ever going home?' she asked. When she'd gone I e-mailed her to explain why I might not make it to her party. Then I went off to have some dinner and then to the bar for a Citrus Spring.

Later on xbiff went off with an e-mail from N. saying '...there's always the couch'. I thanked her gratefully. Not bad considering she didn't know me very well.

I walked along the corridors and to the library thinking 'Yes!' Got Tacitus in translation and a Latin syntax.

When I got to the edge of campus on the bus, it was as though a strong, young spring sun had shone through the grey winter skies to illuminate with vernal warmth the nondescript industrial purlieus and misty estuary valley.

Home by four at a bit of a loose end, because I'd finished the science exercise while I'd been agonising over the party. Fear must've sharpened my wits.

E-mail from T replying to my request for speculation on why men seem to've stopped fancying me. She said I 'scuttled about as if no-one should notice me'. That's accurate enough - it's a defence mechanism, and it works, but obviously it makes me invisible to good men as well as aggressors.

So New Year's sorted, eh? I've certainly worked on it. And quickly too; only a week ago now we were having the course party.