Definition

"Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces." Judith Viors

Judging by my performance given the glorious dark chocolate my friend brought back for me from Xocoa, my favourite shop in BCN, I am not a strong person. I would also add that strength can be defined by resistance of chips and/or bread and garlic butter at Le Monde. I also failed miserably in that task.

I did, however, complete ten burpees yesterday and do some weird horrible jumping exercises at footie training. So am weak and a masochist and unfit.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Friends - those good, good friends with whom you can be mean, pointless, spiteful, ridiculous, OTT, i.e. yourself - are the best things in the entire world. How does it work? That you end up with these wonderful people who don't mind - even, embrace - your foibles and accept you regardless and yet are the funniest, kindest, most generous and fabulous people in the entire galaxy. They make the world so much better, your life so much richer and RELAXED because you can just be yourself. They are glorious things that we really should appreciate and realise that they make us the luckiest people in the world.

I am tipsy, it must be said. But why? Because I shared several glasses of red wine with that sort of friend. The sort of friend that I will be getting drunk with when I'm fifty and we embarrass the life out of our children.

FURTHERMORE: England DIDN'T lose a one-day match today AND I got to scoff a ton of Spanish chocolate.

Life is good.

PLUS: only one more day of classes. I'm tired. Reading is much harder than I'd remembered. It hurts my brain.

Diplomacy as a careerpath

I am not a generally tactful person, sadly - on average it's a couple of times a day I make an inappropriate remark - but still get annoyed when others are utterly tactless. I think I am particularly sensitive due to my overwhelmingly strong English nature in this area... Here, many people just say what they think and that's all there is to it, regardless of how it may affect others - if it's THE TRUTH then that's all that matters. Forthrightness - appreciated in many ways, in others really, really not... But how do you judge when is the right time? In Costa Rica, it was the same - comments on just how horrendously bitten my legs were, that enormous spot on my forehead.

There are times when the elephant should just be left there in the room.

READ IT NOW

Every woman and man should read this fabulous article on career woman, marriage and quite frankly, misogyny. I shall be sending it to you forthwith so you may as well read it now, friends, and comment to me independently on its wonderful accuracy, wit and insight.

Agotada

I am exhausted.

After one, ninety minute class. Still, it was a day of frustration - wrong address of a building meant I couldn't do a task this morning, the bank closes at four so I couldn't get a statement from them... all annoying bitty things that didn't go right.

However, I did run two miles this morning. So it can't all be bad.

Also not doing too well with my renewed attempts at productivity - don't seem to be happening yet.

And I must leave 1Ls alone and let them muddle along; it worked for me (with the help of my unbelievably amazing study group, it must be said, without whom I would have been horribly, horribly mediocre. At least I have study group peeps back together for Corporations tomorrow - my hardest class, so it makes sense, non?