Stand Still, Look Pretty

I think I hate my bed here. I've slept in/on many different kinds of beds, from camp cots to King size feather mattresses, the ground, and futons, but this fucking mattress that the university provides in their residence rooms is KILLER. It's covering is actually plastic which crinkles when I move around, even when I have three layers of sheets on it. And it's declared war on my back... which is not good since I worked solidly for a year digging or sitting at an uncomfortable office desk so the back muscles really need a break here. Do you think it would be in order to complain and try and get another mattress? I am not the only one in this situation. Everyone I've talked to who lives in a uni residence is unhappy with their beds. My friend Michelle has a flatmate who prefers to sleep on the floor over her bed. That is fucking sad. I think I might invest in some memory foam... but if things don't get better soon, I don't know what I'll do.
I've been somewhat ill since Canadian Thanksgiving weekend which is terrible because for some reason I just can't shake it. It's sitting in my chest making coughing and sniffling an ever-present part of my daily life. :(
I spent the 26th birthday with friends in Glasgow, seeing a band I know a member of, and another friend here knows another member of. So, the free tickets speak to me and also the free bottles of vodka and red bull they passed off their tour bus was pretty awesome. Glasgow is a beautiful city and reminds me how much of a small town English Newcastle really is, but either way, both have their charms. Since I spent most of my two days in Glasgow either drinking/drunk or hungover, not much sight seeing was done although we did manage to go to the Kelvingrove Museum for an afternoon. The best thing in there was the Salvador Dali painting 'Christ of St. John of the Cross' which they purchased in the 1950s soon after it was completed. I'd say that was a great investment. Dali is creepy and fascinating at the same time. I really love his works but I'm not sure that I could hang many of his prints in my home... but they are quite thought provoking.
In Glasgow, I also learned that there was a St. Mungo's Museum for Religious Art and Artifacts... and I'd always thought that J.K. Rowling had made up the name 'St. Mungo' for the hospital in Harry Potter. I guess she should know more than anyone, being Scottish and all.
Anyways, time is flying here... not as much work as I would like is getting done, but so it goes. Most of my time is still dedicated to Module hell, two of which, will have been completed by the end of tomorrow. The third module starts next week and ends just before I head home for Christmas, and I think next semester I will be more free to read my eyeballs off and then I'll have to start writing some shit down. I'm getting worried that what I want to study has been somehow addressed before but I hope to find some sort of original angle in it all... or else I'm fucked. I haven't even worked out how I'll be paying tuition next year or if I can even afford to stay in Newcastle... 'tis the season to apply for funding, now isn't it?
Anyways, just thought I'd drop a line to let you all know that I am around and alive... trying to figure out my life here. It's been great so far, but still feels like a bit too much of an overpriced vacation -- not a good way to regard your PhD program.