Why is it that little things can get you so incredible annoyed? Just those little annoyances in a day can bring the clouds in over a sunshiney mood. I've been having a few of those lately. I suppose that's an exaggeration. There are only two, but they're annoying nonetheless, and since I have nothing else to write about they get stuck on here.

I bought a DVD set on eBay--The West Wing Season 6 if you're curious--for £6.99. I suppose I should have known at the time that the price was too good to be true. But anyhow, I bought it and checked my mail eagerly each morning waiting for it to arrive. Of course it didn't, and my emails to the seller hit brick walls. Yesterday I found out that the seller's username is no longer in use and the 80 or so copies of this DVD he sold were still to be sent. I contacted a few of the other buyers and found that no one had received the DVD. Ebay have now sent an email saying they have removed the rest of the items since they believe they are against 'intellectual property rights', which I presume means they are illegal copies. So there we go.

Such a little thing, but annoying.

And then there is the parking permit. We live a couple of miles from campus (in hilly Exeter a couple of miles is a long way) and one of the first things I did when we got here was buy a parking permit from the university. Well, I got an email from the parking people last week telling me I was in violation of their rules because I live within 1.5 miles of the campus. Obviously they measure in a straight line, completely ignoring the hills and twists and turns that make up the extra half a mile. They apologised curtly, but told me that they had given me the permit by mistake since my street is a new one and wasn't on their list of forbidden areas. So I have to take this permit back to them tomorrow and I have no idea how we're going to manage trekking four miles (hiking might be a better description) up and down the hills to get to a two-hour seminar (one hour on Mondays). I'm tempted into a great deal of uneloquent protest: grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I shall go there tomorrow armed with maps pointing out their error and determination not to give in without a fight. Even if I loose the battle I shall be slightly less disappointed in myself on those wet and freezing January mornings when we are puffing and panting up the hill to class lugging bags of library books and seminar notes.

I suppose I shouldn't expect special treatment as a grad student, but I still retain the right to be antsy about the lack of it.

So there, I have complained enough about my petty annoyances and I'll try and move on.

Oh, but there is one more. I missed a lecture by my personal tutor on Pride & Prejudice on Thursday lunchtime because I didn't check my email on Wednesday.

Okay, now I'm done.

I think I'll go bake a cake.