Greetings, all. I promise I am not dead... and here is proof.I apologise profusely to all those of you (heh) who hang upon my every word, for my recent and prolonged absence. As much as I love this holy place, I got to the point where walking almost a mile through the blistering Scottish wind to sit in a static-heated bunker-like computer lab became just too much. I've also been busy. Moving house, for one... I am now fully settled with the beautiful Leon-boy, in a very fashionable, bohemian, bijoux (read: tiny...but lovely, and cheap as chips) flat on Edinburgh's trendy-artistic Grassmarket. The walls are yellow, the sofa is orange, and I finally found a room in which my psychedelic Hendrix poster actually blends. We are still poor and artistically stunted (it's winter... hard to write/paint when your fingers are frozen), but happier, and without flatmates!! (no offence Mole, but you have to admit that the lack of clothes-drying space and the arguments about the bins going out/the dishwasher getting unloaded/etc got a bit wearing...)I have also been working hard at (shudder) University. I am currently reading Bleak House, and Hobbes' epic philosophical work 'Leviathan.' You could build a decent-sized house with, say, 100 copies of each of these books. *sigh* However, I am also mining my way through acres of critical texts on the work of Allen Ginsberg, whom I have decided to write about for my dissertation, and loving it. I am, at present, wholly without an 'angle' from which to write, however, and seriously, if anyone has any suggestions... also, if any of you know of any good books/web resources on the great man, answers on a post-card to the comments box below. I am particularly looking for a cheap copy of Lewis Hyde's (met him!!) biography of Ginsberg, which is presently out of print, and Amazon charge ridiculous prices to source out-of-print copies. So if you just happen to have one mouldering away in your loft......Blah, what else. Getting my first big magazine publishing of my poetry very soon! NewLeaf, a German-based literary magazine got hold of 'Mrs Beksinski Remembers' and 'Mouth,' thanks to a lovely lady (and truly incredible poet) called Julia Boll, who happens to be on their staff team and who also happened to catch me reading these two poems at one of Brian McCabe's workshops last semester. I'm seeing the author's proofs tomorrow, and I'm very excited. Incidentally, all those of you out there who dabble in Writing of the Creative variety, check NewLeaf out. They are very much into hip young poetic gunslingers who hail from anywhere in Europe or the US. I don't know their website off the top of my head, but just Google NewLeaf and it should come up as the first result.... just don't say I sent you. My deadline-meeting abilities have fallen short already and I am not their most popular addition to the team...Leon and I bought an absolutely gorgeous 1961 vintage portable record player last week (a Bush Monarch, for the pedants among you), but the motor has packed up, and so while it is in the shop we are spending too many of our scarce pennies on a lush record collection for when it returns. I am becoming a geek already, reading Record Collector magazine and taking records out of their sleeves at the counter to check for marks before handing over my cash (sad, I know). I already have a couple of little rarities... a Procul Harem EP on Fly Records which I got for only a measly little fiver, and a rare copy of 'I Want To Break Free' by Queen, which has Brian May on the sleeve (rather than Freddie, like the majority of them). I also managed to get John Lennon's 'Rock and Roll' for free because a dozy counter-assistant didn't see it in the pile, and a mint copy of 'Tango In The Night' (Fleetwood Mac, you fools) for only 99p in Oxfam.Not much else... incidentally, if you have actually read this far, I salute you. I am becoming ever-more obsessed with Nick Hornby (just finished The Polysyllabic Spree), as well as anything remotely to do with Beat literature... I have been sitting with my classmate Lucy, a San Fransisco Renaissance scholar (and born-and-bred East Bay-er), having drawn-out and wanky discussions about Kerouac and Cassady and Joan Burroughs and Diane di Prima and all the rest of them... Beat fans unite, I want to hear from you guys. Tell me about your obsessions.Did I mention I have a roof terrace at my new flat? I feel just like Pamela Morrison... except, sadly, I'm not living with Jim.