A quick jaunt to the library to break the crushing silence.

I'm in the office on sunday, and the only other person in the office is 'Mr Silent' - who never says a word to me...

Hmm, awkward.

I'm thinking of adopting a thematic chapter structure, with a chronology within each chapter.

Joyce - you should try cooking from this book, 'World Food Cafe' - the food in it def isn't brown! Lots of vegetarian dishes in here that are tasty, healthy - and don't use mushrooms or tomato!!

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZtzS4Rr9ixIC&dq=world+food+cafe&pg=PP1&ots=Y2ED3kK8af&sig=zw6sstL4OlOhGW9uyxZFql-FNzo&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBF_en-GB__238__238&q=world+food+cafe&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPA6,M1

I've been thinking about taking a supplement tablet - perhaps I should. I should seriously do this, since eventually my diet will extend to cutting out all the few diary products I do still eat.

lol My boyfriend is always worried about my protein intake - but I am just a pallid person! I do however eat a wide range of pulses and fresh vegetables as possible, as well as soya milk that is protein rich (relatively).

I had to learn to like soya milk - which is just about okay with bran cereal and in tea. Soya spread for bread is pretty tasty. I'm trying to phase out other milk based products but it is difficult because they are so pervasive (and yes, tasty too). But eventually, when I have more money and time I will be , I think, vegan.

I haven't bought leather for ages, and my last leather belt is almost totally worn out. So soon, I'll have to replace it was somekind of fabric. The Manchester weather takes its toll on canvas shoes!

Most importantly I have been changed in this process of looking and strongly believe that most of us need to change the way we look at and value animals. I am now vegetarian, and didn't think I would ever make that change. But when my whole research revolves about contingency in what animals are and what they mean, I began to think that my prevous attitudes towards animals were a (rather unpleasant) product of our own culture.

I couldn't find any way to say the above without sounding pretentious!

I am researching the cultural meanings of exotic animals in Britain during the long eighteenth-century. So exotic animals as commodities, material for natural philosophy/ natural history, political (and gender) symbols, and as affective objects.

I find it so stimulating to investigate how attitudes towards animals are culturally mediated, and that looking at animals is culturally variant and contingent. I love being able to look at animals in the contemporary world, and think how my own perceptions are legacies of or departures from eighteenth century ideas.

I find my subject compelling and reflexive, and it has changed me.

I want to complete because I have seen how far I have come and what I have left to do. But I don't think I can say this will get me though, alone.

I'm sitting down this afternoon and tonight with a nice pot of tea and trying to work this out.

Thanks for the advice, I shall let you know how it goes...

I know - I've 'been' Australian, South African, from New Zealand, and American.

Living inside the North Circular has never sounded so glamorous!

So I'm a hybrid between museology/ history of science/ art history/ eighteenth-century studies

I am researching the cultural meanings of exotic animals in Britain during the long eighteenth-century. So exotic animals as commodities, material for natural philosophy, political (and gender) symbols, and as affective objects.

I guess I am afraid of writing 'grand narratives', so find it difficult to develop a argument to span over a century. I mean, I can see changes in my material, and probably fit it into other 'hinge points'. But I don't really like to be telelogical!

H - I know! I always get amused/annoyed when people think I'm speaking a different form of English, and can't understand me.

I always thought my home counties accent was clear - obviously not.

I should practice my diction