What I’m Doing In My Holidays

Another thing that’s funny is how my time seems to be just as busy and go just as quick when I don’t have exams. I’ve been pretty busy since my last exam on Friday 27th May – only mostly with stuff I want to be doing rather than revision, which is nice.

I won’t bore you with all the details (well, maybe later), but to sum up recent events, I did the following this: travelled home to Dolgellau on that Friday afternoon, rewatched some Doctor Who episodes on Friday evening and Saturday morning, been back to church in Bala on Sunday, played computer games and beat Dad at chess on Monday, had a job interview and travelled to Chesterfield on Tuesday, went to my grandmother’s funeral and travelled back to Cardiff on Wednesday, stocked up on food and books and went to the Mackintosh student Bible study on Thursday, lazed around reading and went to CU yesterday and went to the Hay Festival today.

One of the books I bought on Thursday was Jennifer Government by Max Barry. It’s set in the near future where corporations run riot (literally – the novel brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “trade war”, taxes are illegal and the police only investigate crimes they can get the funding for. It’s got a fun thriller plot with a sharp satirical edge, and some of the worst excesses of big business in it seem scarily within the bounds of possibility! Given the increasing power of transnational corporations to act outside the boundaries set by national governments, and that many of the biggest corporations are economically as large as some European countries, it seems quite possible that one of the major struggles of the 21st century will be between the power of democratic national government and undemocratic corporate power.

What else has been happening? Ah yes, Doctor Who continues on BBC1, much to my enjoyment. Today’s episode, Boom Town, was probably one of the weakest episodes so far, but it was set in Cardiff so I had the fun of seeing the Doctor and the Whoobie gang running around familiar sights. They filmed the scenes supposedly in City Hall in Cardiff University’s Glamorgan Building, and I was lurking in the background watching. (Literally in the background – I got told to move because I was in the back of shot at one point). Whilst snooping around inside the building to find a window to watch them filming outside, I wandered into one of the rooms only to find that I was on the set used as the Mayor’s Office. Probably one of the most exciting things in this week’s show was the trailer for next week, though. The Doctor has a nasty surprise in store…