(no subject)

So I found a couple of PhD's that look really interesting today that start in Autumn 2004: "Dwarf elephants on Pleistocene islands: a natural experiment in parallel evolution" and "The origins of insects from within the crustaceans: embryos, genes and evolution". (I didn't say they'd be interesting to anyone else!) The only thing is, they're at UCL (University College London). So just supposing that I did get accepted for one of them, I'd have to live in London. I can't afford that. I always said I didn't want to live any further south than I do now. It's just too expensive and I've heard rumour that they speak funny down there - like the queen. And they eat babies. Plus - London is just scary and big and full of people. I loved living in Manchester but London is a whole magnitude above that. Then again, I've spent a year and a half of my life living in a cabin in the middle of a wood near Aberdeen in Scotland. Maybe I need to counteract that with a few years somewhere big.

Maybe I'll apply anyway. I probably won't even get an interview, and it's all practice isn't it. I think that I'll try and kick my CV into shape tomorrow between exciting stapling and photocopying jobs at work.

I mentioned this at work today and was talking about whether I'd move to London. The guy I sit next to seemed surprised that I'd contemplate moving to somewhere where I don't know anyone. I pointed out that it wouldn't be the first time I'd done it. But I guess I've a different world view from someone who's spent their whole life in the place where they were born. I can't imagine living in Nottingham for the rest of my life - it would be an amazing if a job that I actually wanted happened to be here.