And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,/ She needs not June for beauty's heightening

“Au revoir, auf Wiedersehen and arrividerci” were among Tony Blair’s last words in the House of Commons, months after he swore he’ll never say goodbye. Realising, after some time, that a goodbye to the green upholstered seats, rowdy assemblies of grey-haired men and women with stiff upper lips was inevitable, Mr Blair hit TRANSLATE and bid his colleagues and contemporaries farewell trilingually, successfully avoiding saying “goodbye” in English, and thus closing his final speech as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on a light-hearted note.

Last night Abraham and I bid farewell to Daryl before he flew off into the embrace of UK/Oxford. His goodbye at Terminal 3 of Changi Airport last night was kept as light-hearted as Tony Blair’s exit from office; plenty of laughing, joking, lots of chit-chatting and smiles. It was enjoyable discussing various poem and prose pieces (Fish by Keki Daruwalla is one noteworthy poem), as well as going through Shakespeare, Frost and elements of novels with Daryl. I thank Daryl for being generous with his offloading of essays and other materials; I now have a pirated copy of Steven Hugh Lee’s Seminar Series book on the Korean War, in addition to a heap of Stalin readings and some of Daryl’s essays. Generosity… yes, something I look forward to exhibiting next year when helping my juniors get through World Lit, IOC, English Paper 2, History, Econs, French/German and… TOK (HAHA)?

I’m very sure Daryl will settle in nicely at Oxford. The Bod, the Rad Cam and the St. Hilda’s library will probably be his favourite hang-out and hideout venues. But since he’s going to St. Hilda’s, the grassy patches along Cherwell’s banks will probably also be good places to laze around. I’ll have a good laugh if I hear from Daryl that he’s fallen into Cherwell River on his first punting session, but hey urban mythophiles, doesn’t that mean first class honours?

Today, the 1st of October, daily article-readers and suckers for historical bits in the news like me must surely be having a field day. On the 1st of October 1949 (60 years ago, for those whose mental calculation skills are worse than mine) China turned Red. The 60th anniversary of such a momentous event in the history of the modern world is certain to get plenty of coverage, and after my reading of these three articles, I eagerly await the publication of more commentary/opinion pieces, especially from these few websites.

I spent today nursing my awful, awful sore throat (which Autolycus thinks is caused by “all that German”). S-s-*cough*-sigh. It is possibly the worst and most badly-timed sore throat; my A Level German oral examination just happens to be tomorrow. I can just hear myself going,  „Guten T-T-*cough*-Tag, Frau (insert surname here). Heute möchte I-I-*clears throat*-ch über die Berfojworthousgjnner Phileoighirgbhsinkjsnfgkjsker spreughsiuhtiehuiuhcichen.“

I’m now counting on Vicks menthol lozenges, a lot of warm water and divine grace and mercy. Gute *clears throat loudly* Nacht.