You may recall I set myself a list of goals for the summer, and promised an update on them in Freshers’ week. So did I do them? Find out below..

1. Organise a PES tournament: You put it a long away and people complain they don’t know if they will be free. You put it near the time and people complain they can’t come. I’m sensing Draconian entry criteria (if you can’t make it, tough) soon… So, no I didn’t get round to doing this.

2. Finish a few more books (Mere Christianity, Of Mice and Men, assorted others): I finished them and enjoyed them greatly. Not much more than that though.

3. See some shows at the festival: Yes, I saw Sean Lock, Just a Minute (where a woman collapsed just before the start: she was okay though) and Ed Byrne, and enjoyed them all greatly. Best line? Ed Byrne: “the best thing about being married is that you don’t have to plan a [flipping] wedding!”

4. Go home for a week: I did so, and it was good.

5. Move flat without too much hassle: Sort of.. I have a lot more stuff than I thought. And the mice seem to have followed us. And in greater numbers.

6. Re-acquaint myself with German and Spanish: La problème avec ça était que j’ai décidé d’écouter la radio française sur l’internet, et donc je l’ai oublié. Oops!

7. Become more diligent in Bible study attendance: Alas not, as I have my supervisor meeting on a Wednesday morning and hence Tuesday night for me= stress++. I went to summer navs on the Thursdays though, so maybe I get half a point for this.

8. Get some results for my thesis (not long now): Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha, it’s funny how naive one can be.

9. Plot/scheme/research what I might do after the PhD: I have thoughts, but they may or may not be workable. Why not? I hear you cry. Well, let’s just say a move down South could be in the pipeline.. but how far?

10. Avoid watching Big Brother: Easily done as I wasn’t in when it was on and it hasn’t really been talked about much. If it stays that way, I won’t mind it continuing.

11. Go to Newcastle to see the ‘Dop: Nope, but he was up here a lot anyway, so no need.

12. Enjoy my birthday: Yes, and thanks for coming and for any birthday wishes!

13. Catch some cricket at the Grange: I would have, but the rain and general forgetting about it did for me.

14. Blog succinctly but not offensively: At least one of the two occurred.

15. Do unto others what I would have them do unto me: Probably not, largely due to a period of grumpiness on my part.

16. Smile more: I don’t recall being more smiley than usual.

17. Watch my “Teachers” DVDs: Nope, still on episode 2.

18. Visit some other churches: Only Barclay got a visit. Lucky them.

19. Drink more water: I don’t think I did, but then I was “naturally hydrated” a lot of the time (thanks Scottish summer!) so I didn’t notice it so much.

20. Spend more time outside: Well, the two sunny days there were this summer I spent outside, so it’s not like I didn’t utilise the time well..

So out of 20.. I got… well I can’t be bothered adding it up. Did you have any goals this summer? Did you achieve them? Or, like me, were you a bit unrealistic/ lazy?

So I decided today that I would learn Italian over the summer. It was a choice between that or refreshing my knowledge of German, which has been rusty for a while.

Although bizarrely, I had a brief conversation with an Austrian man in German in the pub yesterday, and he seemed to think I was German enough.

Still, Italian it was, largely because it’s something new and hence more exciting. So maybe look out for a brief blog in Italian later on. Ciao.

For those of you who read my french blog regularly (hi Lincoln), it is no more as it had fallen into disrepair due to months of neglect and my french being not all that good. It was interesting while it lasted though, no? Okay, no. But good practice all the same.