Speaking of plastic wrappers, I think (and I could be wrong) it is strictly a Malaysian and Singaporean cultural oddity to cling wrap books. It's up there with the addictive use of Kleenex. I have not seen a single American, Australian etc. student with their books wrapped in plastic. Of course, not every Malaysian or Singaporean wraps their books, but students who do, always hail from one of these two countries. Just wandering off. I�m getting old.

I'm dog-tired because I have running off my feet for the last week trying to get everything in order. Damned student administration. First, they forget to issue an invoice for my university fees. Then they repeatedly asked me to return day after day (for over a week) to collect the stupid piece of paper which they inadvertently never print for one reason or the other. Something always turns up, and then they always assign someone new to listen to me state my problem again.

Which is somewhat difficult for me. I think the staff are wondering how an idiot managed to get into the Honours programme. I am having problems adjusting to my new thyroxine dosage and have developed a bloody stammer from sheer exhaustion, which freakin' does not help matters at all.

Add that to the usual new-semester stress of Messy Room Syndrome, Bank Drafts, Lodging Fees, Book Lists, Debts to be Paid (which resulted in a three day exile from the WWW because I neglected to pay the internet access bill on time), Annoying New People Who Are Celebrating the End of the Winter Break By Doing Weird Things (like smashing glasses outside on the sidewalk and scaring the crap out of me) and so on.

And this semester I have the added load of dealing with the extension of my Visa. Said idiocy includes X-rays, medical check-ups and finding the immigration department. None of said places being on the bloody map instructions given by student administration. Oh thank you for making my life more complicated.

To be fair, I guess they are somewhat exhausted too. It's the start of the semester for them too. Blah. But excuse me while I worry about the cheque for my semester fees getting lost with them. The mail system lost my acceptance letter, my graduation form and various other bits and pieces. If I never asked them about my invoice for my university fees, they wouldn't have even bothered to do anything about it. Blah. Oh nevermind.

Finally I have to decide the topic for my Honours dissertation. I keep changing my mind on what I want to do because you have to eat, sleep and drink the blasted topic, and I am notorious for losing concentration and interest in everything after a while.

Okie. That's the rant for the week. I expect when the dust settles in a week or two I will be back to my daily rants and raves. Oh bugger, this was meant to be a really short entry. Bah.