We have heat again!
You may recall me being very happy that our heater was fixed on 14 Oct. Well, less than a week later, it broke again. Today it was fixed again. Hope this lasts!
Having no heat really saps one's energy. I spent a few minutes trying to figure out why it's so bad here -- I'm used to living in basements, and I rarely turn on electric heaters, so I'm used to being in 16-18 C rooms. But in those places, I could easily sit up in bed. There was something behind me, with extra open space for my head. Over here, the bed is right next to the wall, so when I try to sit up, I have to be 90 degrees up, rather than leaning back.
Yes Mom, I'm going to look for those pillow/cushions that are designed for sitting up in bed. Not that I need one now, but I used to do a lot of programming in bed. So I guess I could consider it a "business expense". :)
I get a lot of questions about playing music. No, I don't have an instrument yet. Once my first rhythm evaluation web survey is up (hopefully within days), I'll ask my supervisor about that cello of his, and/or take home one of the £50 violins in the lab, and/or figure out if my residence has any policy on practicing instruments in the rooms.
In other news, I'm almost finished the £500 I brought with me... it should last until the end of the week. Since that includes various one-time expenses of setting up my life here, I'm not freaking out about spending £250 a month for living expenses.
Still, CDN$500 / month sounds like a lot. I'm trying not to think about it.
Other than that... we had a bit of rain over the weekend. There seems to be more Halloween parties here, although that's almost certainly just because I'm living in a student residence instead of a nice quiet house. I didn't see many trick-or-treaters, but then again, I spent Sat night in the lab (it has a heater!), and I didn't expect to see many in the locked building. :)
I continue to eat at Subway almost once a day -- I think I ate there for 19 of the past 21 days. On one hand, I feel as though I should consider this lame... but on the other hand, their "sub of the day" is only £1.99, and they're quite healthy. Definitely healthy when compared to the other stuff I eat! I'm really not seeing any downside to this.