Bloody hell .. I missed a tutorial this morning. Forgot that tutor asked us to call him at 8 to confirm a time, so I prepared to go for a lecture at 9. And now it's 8am, I barely woke up, and tutorial's at 8.10. Takes 40 minutes to DRIVE down, so no hope of rushing even. Really don't like it when they ask us to call them at a certain time to "confirm a time", which means that the tutorial can happen anytime between the call and 6pm. Why don't they just get us a fixed time?? Gosh. Really irritated by the whole thing. Friend's covering up for me, but I feel really really bad. First, I'm missing a good tutorial. Second, it's the 2nd time they're covering my arse. Similar episode happened last week.

This is a shit posting. 4 weeks into it and I'm still as confused as ever. It doesn't help that the recommended text is total bullshit. Poorly organised, both in terms of text progression and within the topics themselves, and written in a boring way. Tried to make things better by re-organising the *very confusing* syllabus - it made things a little clearer, but not good enough since I do know what I need to know, but there's no content to plonk in.

Right. 8 more minutes before my tutor hears from groupmates that I'm "ill". Maybe I really should get sick. Feel like inducing massive vomitting to celebrate my ignorance in this posting. Have to buck up, I really do not want to fail this one.

Think it's starting to get into one of those dark times. A massive matted mess of tangles. Meeting dead ends wherever i turn. Nasty.

Anyway, since I've already missed the tutorial, might as well stop grousing about it and get on with life. Or whatever little there is to it.

Started on Samba yesterday, t'was good. At least, pace of classes was much better, we didn't get too bored. Most of the class already did it before, so the class went quicker this time. It's a REALLY tiring dance though, and in 2/4 count. Only irritating thing was that the instructor kept babbling in an unearthly odd mix of broken english interspersed with hokkien, and used the most creative adjectives I've ever heard. First time I'm doing a latin dance seriously, so I'm still very reserved about the styling. The other men were flinging their hands out and wringing them with relish, with some rather forced swaying of whatever little hips left to them, and there I was, like a block of wood. Embarrassing to sway around for now. Still not used to the latin taste. And I hate ballroom shoes. Pointed ends, velveted (i.e. slippery) soles and a half-inch heel - what could be worse??

Tank-wise, topped up 5 litres of freshwater over the weekend, cleaned out the fluidised reactor, increased the CO2 bubble count to the calcium reactor to drop the pH a little more, trimmed out a bit of Caulerpa algae from the refugium and threw half the bunch into the main tank to feed some of the fish. Yep, basically it. I've still got those 2 Spider Reflectors sitting in my car, and the 250W Radium bulbs which I still have had no time to fix up.

OK, time's up. Tutor's probably asking about what happened to me right now. 3 things can happen. 1) He'll lap the story up. 2) He'll be sceptical, but dismiss it and label me as baughty. 3) He'll be sceptical, and I may receive a call from him anytime now to verify the naughty tall tale, and he'll ask for an m.c.