Packing Up a Week Early

Ok, i know that that isn't the greatest title ever thought off but it quite accurately describes the current process i'm going through. On a side note if the title is different to "Packing Up a Week Early" then please ignore this and the previous sentence, i might go and changed the title later once some moment of inspiration enlightens me, but i highly doubt that i'll ever change what i'm writing here.

Back to the story, so yes the title above (may or may not) describe the current process i'm going through of packing up my stuff from my uni room. But wait a minute, why am i packing a full 10 days before i leave? It's rather simple to be honest, nothing to do with being highly organised, on sunday our college has a room moving day. You might think that that sounds very weird, and it does frankly, it's also a bit annoying. I won't complain too much though, because as events have conspired i've managed to find myself in the situation where i'm leaving the room with noise from the bar, a neighbour who has the widest range of (loud) music taste, one minute it's the Dire Straits then Cinematic Orchestra then to dubstep, though i only dislike one of them being blared through the wall. Probably worst, even though i've come to live with it, is the hot water tap.

Now when i arrived in Durham my hot water tap dripped, only a little, but it dripped. I was perfectly fine with that, it didn't annoy me, then after a couple of weeks it started to get worse, until it was pretty much a full trickle coming from it. So like any sensible student i went to the porters to get it sorted... and well i can't argue that they solved the problem, but wrenching the tap closed then leaving it wasn't quite what i had in mind. Ok, maybe i'm not being so truthful, they did say that they'd fix it as well at some point, but this was just an intermediate stage, a at least 8 week stage and counting though.

So yeah, i'm leaving all this for a refurbished room, in a quaint corner of college with a better kitchen (though not quite equipped enough for any kind of proper cooking yet). I suppose this is probably being viewed through tinted glasses though, and when i'm there the faults will no doubt shine through (ever the optimist). Despite that i will still claim vigorously that it is the best room, even while admitting the flaws, not sure why i do both, just complaining or just boasting would seem normal, but both at the same time, is that weird?

Packing has been the order of the day because of this, and also the revision that needs to be procrastinated, so two birds with one stone really. I might also mention that it's not weird for me to start packing several days before going away, i've always done that. To me it makes it so much more relaxed, and it also spreads out the excitement as well. It also means (in this case) much time can be wasted sorting through every single little thing, rather than rushingly sweeping everything into boxes, crates, suitcases, and anything i can use to hold things.

This has led me to sorting out all the things i picked up during fresher's week and then left in a draw, i dubbed the freshers junk draw. Freebies that seemed excellent at the time, mainly because they were free, but that i thought: maybe i will use them at some point, so i best leave them in this drawer which will no doubt ever be opened this whole term. This thought was wrong of course though, not only have i never used any of it, i also did open the drawer if only to clear it all out into the bin (and the paper into the recycling because i'm good like that, and so should you be (does that make me a eco-warrior, i feel like it deserves some accolade, i mean this is a well established (-ish), well read (-ish) blog)).

What makes this whole exercise a bit pointless though, is the fact that on sunday i'll move and start unpacking and then my packing for going home will probably start around tuesday. But that's just one of those things isn't it? That's not rhetorical btw, is it actually one of those things? as i'm not quite sure what one of those things is. So to anyone packing to go home from uni, or to go on holiday, if you get annoyed just remember that at least you don't have to pack to move rooms and then repack to go home. Also it's Christmas, so stop being so miserable...

Day 4 - This photo is definitely not faked just to add emphasis to my post.... definitely not.

Frisbee, Food and a Fire Alarm

Unsurprisingly this is going to be another uni themed post, something about the change of scenery lends itself to writing, that and the fact with the emphasis now on weekly posts they will now include more everyday events than before, but hopefully if the last few weeks are a sign of the future that should lead to some good topics to write about. If you haven't quite noticed yet openings aren't exactly one of my strong points, rather than create a smooth transition into writing, i much prefer the stumble around cluelessly and hope that when read over it makes some sense at the very least. I suppose, though, that could be something i can look to improve over this year... or i could just leave it to be and see how that goes... yeh i like the sound of the latter. Still i have the dilemma of how to start this post, maybe attempt some sort of link now, or maybe just jump straight into it... i tell you what i'll borrow a trick from one of my friends.

Talking about fire alarms, what would you consider the worst time to have the fire alarm go off? Got an answer? Well since i have no idea what your answer is that was quite a pointless exercise as i can't exactly make a comment on it, but what i can say is that yesterday morning having just got into the shower has to be up on such a list. I would set the scene but i think the previous sentence suffices as such. So i was faced with 3 options, one of which was only a fleeting possibility as it was a stupid idea: go outside in my towel; go back to my room, get changed, then proceed outside; or, just stay in the shower and hope that it protects me.

Needless to say that the stupid option was the first, especially in the cold of a Durham morning. So there i was faced with the two options, and as with any quick decision making situation, there's little time to think and anytime spent thinking is quickly followed by the thought of the time wasted thinking and the need to make a decision, which leads onto thinking about said decisions for a bit, followed by the thought that you're wasting time and so on and so on. Luckily i didn't get sucked into this infinite cycle, as my inbuilt decision timer (as previously discussed on vvv) kicked in.

I'll relieve the suspense you've no doubt worked up and let you sit back away from the edge of your seats and tell you that i in fact went back, got changed and went outside. The annoying thing with this was i was now outside fully clothed and it was now breakfast time, which meant that the effort of taking a shower had significantly increased and half the purpose (to wake me up) had ceased to exist (the cold outdoors does a much better job of that). And since it was just a drill, there was no danger anyway, though i'm still sure a shower is a reasonably safe place in a fire, so looking back i wish i had just stayed in there.

Now i should say that as well as opening being a problem, this week the joints are too, especially after last weeks coincident galore.  So here is the rather cumbersome and awkward joining section... yeh this is it really not sure how to follow, though given the title you should hopefully know where it's going (although having looked at it, i now realise that the order makes little sense, so there's the possibility of two topics to come up next). Riveting stuff hey... no not really.

Anyways... Food (glorious food, as the song goes). I'm not sure whether i've mentioned my summer eating habits and i'm not going to go back and check so i'll assume you haven't, and if you have feel free to shout at me, although you will just be shouting at a computer screen. During the summer (and the previous months in the run up to it) i went through an unusual (well for me) eating pattern, well pattern is a loose word for it. For most my life i've eaten at set times and when i've been hungry inbetween, which moulded into a very regimented breakfast, 11 o'clock snack, lunch, cheese on toast, tea routine. Over summer however this all changed and i ended up eating 2 or even 1 meal a day, but i'm not really here to talk about that part, more about the now enforced meal times of university.

It feels weird, to say the least, especially since i'm now eating when i'm not hungry ( i haven't really been hungry since i've come to Durham.) Although whilst this is partly down to the set mealtimes, it is also alot to do with the colleges love of all things potato. One meal they served gnocchi, new potatoes, chips and jacket potato, i never thought i'd say this but that is too much potato. The other problem i'm facing is their salad bar, sounds healthy you say, and yes it is apart from the coleslaw, which is just oh so tempting. The first week i was having it with every meal, now i've managed to cut it down to only lunch, but it still doesn't seem to healthy, but then again it is in the salad bar, which technically means i have salad everyday.

So i've had to find ways to combat this gluttony (hey look an actual link that works!) the Durham hills of course help a lot, but that is not enough to combat it. Frisbee to the rescue, well ultimate frisbee to be more precise. I have a lot to say about this grand sport, but time is of the essence as tea is just round the corner, so i'll save that all for another time. All i feel i should say now, is that if you have the opportunity to try out ultimate, then don't waste it.

Now normally i'm quite at endings, but this week is obviously not a good week for me, as i really can't think of a way to end this. And with time pressing, i'm not sure i can afford much indecision here, so yeh i suppose that's it for this week, hope you have a good week.

This is the end of today's post.

Was that too abrupt? Nevermind, that comment has just made it pointless though... So this is really the actual end, no more to write... at all... bye.

Not So Great Expectations

A Durham greeting i extend to you all, from well... Durham. So here i am, same computer, different view; and it's not the green pastures or cathedral framed picture i had built up in my head, but still a tree lined road  is much better than the white wall with shelves of junk i had before. Even if the constant walking about of people outside is slightly distracting, and also an unfamiliar assault on my privacy; closing the curtains whilst getting changed just feels unnatural.

Of course this isn't the only thing that is different from the visions in my head, what would life be like if everything were? Probably quite nice actually, but i'm sure something along the lines of missing the unknown and spontaneity should be mentioned here, but then again studying engineering means i don't have to consider such questions,so anyone who is studying a subject that is concerned with questions as such, feel free to use the time not in lectures to answer it for me (sorry couldn't resist a quick) Also it coincidentally leads me onto my point (and it was in fact a total coincident, i rarely know where my posts are going).

I don't have as many lectures as i had thought i would! This was a nice surprise i got last week, having been given my timetable. I mean only two 9am starts! I'm sure if i showed some people it, they would not like the look of it, but i was under the impression of a much worse situation, though 6pm finish on friday slightly throws a dampener on it. Who cares though, i don't really, i'm still excited by the prospect of actually having free time. Which by a crazy random happistance, brings me to the case of filling said free time, another thing i've found different from my imagination.

Having not looked at a single society before leaving for the beautiful north east (a compliment to the locals won't hurt), i was expecting a plethora of hobbies that enticed me to fill my spare time. As you might have guessed, this was not the case at all. In total i think i joined 3 uni societies and some college ones, although having said that they have managed to organise them all at similar times annoyingly, and with no access to a cloning machine (again engineering can't help that much here), that number will most likely have to be cut. Already hill walking and caving are out the window, if just because of the cold weather that would accompany them (and definitely nothing to do with my preference of lazing about over exercise).

Again this leads me on to the next difference (things are tying up really nicely today). The old small talk opener, the weather. Yes it's cold, but not as cold as i thought it'd be, i haven't used a coat yet, although that is partially due to me not wanting too until winter truly arrives, so i'll be somewhat acclimatised. Luckily though my hopeful image of little rain seems to be holding up well. Ok, i suppose it did tip it down during matriculation (the only time i had to be outside), but that was pretty much it. All the other time has been accompanied with glorious blue sky, with a few wispy clouds, which coincidentally is my favourite type of sky; the clouds are very good for daydreaming, and by the looks of things this could become my major past time if these clashes keep happening.

Apart from all that everything is just how i imagined: the small room; cluttered spaces, well not as cluttered as home, but then i haven't fully unpacked yet; good food, not as good as home but much better than a lot of food i've happily eaten before; late nights chatting on the landing; budgeting, my spreadsheet is quite impressive if i have to say so myself; and many other things that currently escape my mind and will thusly be put into a general generic uni stuff category.

First week of uni has been great, if you hadn't gotten that impression from this post already, and that i expected. What i hadn't expected, to be honest, is the writing of this post, i know i promised to try and become more regularly in blogging, but i didn't expect to find the motivation to do that until later this term, so yeh it's not just uni that's surprised me. Having said that, i haven't quite got my timetable all sorted yet, so this will become weekly but for now it won't be assigned to a particular day; i'm certain within time, a day will be naturally selected as a good day for blogging, but for now this blog will still remain slightly random and spontaneous, that you can expect.

The Great Metaphorical Sandwich

Yesterday i embarked upon the challenge to create my ultimate sandwich, a quest everyone should really consider doing. And it's harder than i first thought, there's so many different flavours that i would have loved to include into it, some have been long lasting favourites, others recent discoveries that have been in perfect harmony with my ever-changing pallet. Some flavours bring back memories that are more enthralling than the flavours themselves, whilst others are simply utterly delectable. But as ever the keys to any good sandwich, or other food, are simplicity and harmonic flavours; meaning that only a few ingredients could make a way into it.

A more important event occurred today though, making all this deliberation pale into insignificance. Today was my last ever school day, from now on i will never have another lesson or school lunch, no more teachers or form time chats. Yes similar things will replace them next year with lectures, lecturers and corridor talks; but it won't be the same. It's a bit unnerving thinking about it, that for the majority of my life i have been at school, and with more than half being spent at my current school, and so that means it's all i've ever known, and now that's all over.

So that gave me the idea for this post, maybe this two unconnected events could somehow be linked, might i be able to write down the hidden meaningful connection (something Dirk Gently would no doubt thrive in doing). However, whilst this sounds all fine and well, alas i cannot do such a thing, as far as i can see there is no connection or meaningful metaphors to draw between the two. So this is a challenge really, if you can think of any, then i will include them into this post at a later date, and unusually i will give you credit for it! Now you might think that considering i've given up on coming up with my own material, this post would end here... of course not i will endeavor to plough on nevertheless, and just hope that somehow along the way i'll stumble upon it all, and have a sudden abrupt enlightenment. So here goes...

First and foremost to any sandwich is the base, the bread. Sub it would have to be, no question about that, and as for type, why good old white bread of course, perhaps a link to what i consider a normal childhood. I say "what i consider" as i have only lived one childhood and so to me it was normal, however to you it may not. I grew up in the place i was born, Macclesfield and went to nursery, reception, and year 1 at a local school St.Brides. It was here that i met my friend who has been such for about 14 years now. What about toppings on the bread? That was easy aswell. Everytime i have a subway, i always go for the Italian herbs and cheese, and now was not the time to change that.

So step one was sorted, that was the easy part. Next what meat to go for? Bacon? No that was too normal for me. The meat would definitely have to reflect upon my second school (disclaimer: this was not an actually factor in deciding the meat) Well not my second school directly, but more of the time i spent in California, which i like to include in my life at all possible opportunities by embracing Americanisms, something which i have been ragged about considering i only lived there for a year and a half. So it had to be bbq what other flavour best describes America, and it just had to be minced beef, creating what is also known as a sloppy joe.

There was a key problem to this though. No minced beef in the freezer, well i had to settle for pork in the end, which in the end turned out awesome. And neatly this brings me to the King's, the place where for the past 10 years i have roamed the corridors (ok maybe roamed doesn't accurately portray it, but it sounds good)(oh and that's been at 2 separate sites, so the corridors haven't been consistent the whole time). You see for various reasons California didn't work out for my family, so we ended up back in Macclesfield (don't ask me why i came back to Macc, i seriously don't know)(disclaimer: the author doesn't have negative views on Macclesfield)

 However the whole metaphor thing falls down completely from now on (if it ever worked in the first place, 'twas worth a try though). In case you were wondering to finish off the sandwich i slathered it with coleslaw and threw on a bit of salad, there is a picture below in case you want to try and recreate the majesty of it. So  now the whole sandwich malarkey is out of the way, i can focus on the main event in my life.

I've watched many leaving scenes from tv shows, all of them strikingly emotional in their own unique way. However this has never really been replicated in my own life, having experienced a few farewells, they're always understated quiet affairs and i suppose before today that is mainly down to the fact that i was staying the same school, so most of the people around me were infact not going anywhere. But today would be different right? I mean this time i'm the only one going to Durham, so potentially this is actually farewell for good.

However after saying all that this is not actually the case, first we have leaver's morning, then exams, then leaver's ball and then results day, and maybe this explains the fact that for me this was yet again and understated affair. Surely nostalgia would play a part, i mean despite the fact that i might see people again, surely it being my final day ever of school would play some sort of part. I think this was the case for a lot of people seeing their responses to this occasion, but yet again for me... nothing.

Maybe it's not the occasions fault, maybe it's me then. I don't really know, i kid that i've got to the point where i'm happy enough to move, having been there for so long, but i'm not sure this is actually the case; i feel like if that were true, then i've been happy to move on throughout the entire time spent there, because that feeling hasn't changed. This would of course suggest that i never felt any attachment to the place or people, but is definitely not the case. So it's truly a mystery to me really, any psychologists out there feel free to try and explain it.

In case you were wondering (although i highly doubt it) my favourite leaving scene (probably because i've watched it the most) is JD's from Scrubs, and whenever i watch it i'm touched by not only his reminiscing of the past, but also his vision of the future. And yet here i am with neither one, don't get me wrong i'm leaving with some great memories but it doesn't feel the same, and as for the future who knows what will happen.

So sorry for rambling on about all that but i thought it was worth sharing, and indeed if you feel similarly underwhelmed by farewells please comment below. As for where i go from here, i'm going into the next 4 years blind and with little plans, so who knows where i'll be in a year; however, one thing i do know is that i will be having another one of those sandwiches.

The Pen-Ultimate Decision

So with exams around the corner and university beckoning (if all goes well), i've finally decided to embark upon the arduous journey of buying a proper pen. You know one which you refill instead of chucking away and moving onto the next free promotional pen. It time i made the next step into adulthood with the purchase of my very own pen. Now although this sounds like a simple and easy process, it is not for me, for whatever reason, i frankly don't know what the reason could be, but trust me there is one.

A little side-fact about my pen consumption up till now (and i hinted at it earlier) is that i've only ever bought about 5 pens in my 18 years on this planet, all the others have been acquired using various methods (legal methods i might add). My whole of high school was spent fluctuating between various (and probably quite impressively numerous) free promotional pens, and the ones from hotels (which are totally ok to take, just watch friends). For example looking around my desk atm, bearing in mind most of my stationary resides in various locations around my room which aren't my desk, here are the pens i have: P&O ; U.W.E. ; Edinburgh Castle (which i never nor has any in my family bought) ; The Lake District (same situation as the Edinburgh Castle) ; Holiday Inn ; H.R.M.C. ; Alton Towers ; the obligatory university pens ; and a lot more lurking under the definitely useful junk on my desk.

Once upon a time i used a fountain pen, which was one of the pens i've ever bought, although i did have 4 fountain pens at one point, only one i bought. Which leads me one to problemo uno, what type of pen do i want? Rollerball, fountain or ballpoint? Now having been forced to use fountain pens during my youth, they are a no goer, especially since although i can write cursive it is illegible, and thus fountain pens were ruled out very quickly.

Then there were 2... and tbh i didn't have any idea what a rollerball was since i have never used one before and so ball point was the choice. However it isn't now, ever since i found (yet another free) rollerball pen from L.A. International, and have been using it for some time now, and it is brilliant. So that was that rollerball was the choice. This was cemented at the discovery of green ink refills for rollerballs, as well as many other colours; that means my notebooks won't be filled with dreary black inked notes, but awesome coloured doodles!

Then there was just the frankly simple choice of choosing an actual pen left. How on earth can there be so many different styles of pen, and i don't mean across the whole pen choice, i mean just Lamy and Parker i'm looking at and my eyes have been swamped by so so many different styles and colours. But after some time was spent scrolling down the pics and picking out a few, then unpicking a few because of price (£50 for a pen anyone?), i've finally made the Pen-Ultimate decision (just thought i'd make a title reference, since i love title references) and it should hopefully arrive in time for my exams, as i don't think examiners will react kindly to answers in pencil (something i've resorted to lately, since my good pens have run out).

Now if you have a pen story of your own feel free to tell it me, but i can promise i won't be listening, and if you've read through this whole post and enjoyed it, maybe you're a bit weird. It's a post about pens for goodness sake, i've only written it because i'm bored waiting for the FA Cup to kick off. I mean what else could i be doing with my time...
*"revision"*
 hey shut up conscious, i said i don't have anything else to do.