Viruses, Chest Pains and Gerald Durrel.

Hey ya'll!

What a horrid, horrid, week this has been! It all started with the realization of a looming deadline - the clammy palms and cold chills that came with it - and the further realization that there is only about three more months or so before I have to submit a completed copy of my Honours thesis for inspection by a bunch of hoity toity (though no doubt highly learned and well-meaning) bunch of intellectuals!!! Oh, the pressure. And as if that weren't enough to put one on the edge, something quite horrible happened - which seemed like the thing to tip the scales then - when a DVD borrowed from the University library (one which I had  to go through painstaking lengths to obtain in the first place) corrupted the files in my trustworthy laptop! TO make matters worse, a visit to the computer doctor told me perhaps what every researcher in the world dreads - that there would be no saving of the files this time and the only solution that can be applied is the complete reformatting of the laptop... OH woe is me!!! And to add insult to injury, the whole process seemed to have set me back some ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY RINGGITS which, by the way IS quite a lot of money for someone who is NOT making a single cent of income currently right now and who, rather unfortunately, have quite dire spending needs to attend to elsewhere. The worst part of it all is that in reformatting my laptop, the computer doctor - and I'm sure he meant well - seemed to have installed a different set of drivers (I use the term but I'm not quite sure what they refer to, really) which basically means that I can no longer turn off the touchpad of the laptop which results in a very tedious and lengthy process of typing by which I now have to keep my hands an inch above the laptop, hovering like horseflies, less I accidentally brush my wrist against the touchpad, causing the cursor to fly off in an unpredictable manner, resulting in 60% significantly slower typing. Oh, and for some reason my chest started to hurt... like about an hour ago. Badly and frequently whenever I breathe. A sign, perhaps, that I had best slow down to catch my breath? And now, before I start sounding like an incessant whiner, I shall sign off though, because it is always good to end with a positive note, I would just like to say that the best thing that happened to me all week was perhaps, my finishing of Gerald Durrel's book My Family, and Other Animals, which is really quite a good read. It typically details the early life of Naturalist and Conservationist, Gerald Durrell as he discovers - amongst other things - the many flora and fauna during his stay in the Greek islands of Corfu.