It is the middle of November, the first semester is not far from over, the nights are starting to get frosty, and all this means that it is essay time (apart from the frost bit, which has no real relevance to essays, but rather to the fact that its just really cold at the moment)! Yes, my weekends are currently revolving entirely around whether or not I can get to my desk on the basement level of the library (yes, I am in there that often) before anyone else does, and then work, work, working away on my current piece de resistance -

• 'Why did Italian cities become the commercial leaders of Europe by the early fourteenth century?'

I say my 'weekends'. What I really mean are my weekend days. Saturday night revolves around flicking between Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor, X Factor Results, and then a DVD and a little bit of chocolate, followed by an early night so I can get up early on the Sunday to get back in to the library.

Having said that, last Saturday was a night of TV fun and frivolity followed by a night out here, reaching a state of such drunkenness that I found it difficult to focus on the faces of those stood right in front of me. This, I am sure, being a direct result of not being out drinking properly for, well, ages. I still managed to get up relatively early the next day to plod off, hungover, to the library for 5 hours, though. OK, I lie. I got there at 2pm after eating porridge and toast and drinking gallons of tea in bed, watching Almost Famous that I had taped off the telly from the night before while I was out. I stayed in there working until 7pm when it closed, though. The library, not bed.

OK, that's all you're getting out of me tonight - Strictly Come Dancing is on!