And so it Begins

Well I’m back to university and back to blogging again. Hooray! Got back Sunday afternoon, spent Monday doing all sorts of food shopping and other necessities such as a replacement baking tray, a bowl, a can-opener that opens cans...(very useful that one).

It’s only been a few days, but already time has sped up once more to an unreasonable rate. It feels like I arrived back today, yet 4 days have passed. On top of that, the pressure from all sides has begun to manifest itself in multiple ways. Firstly I have been given my first mini-essay assignment for English Language and Communication to be handed in and submitted by week 7. Yes, it may sound like a long way away, but refer to my earlier comment on time and you’ll see why that’s a problem.

Also causing stress (and utter confusion) is finding a house to rent in the second year. It makes me despise adult life. Remember a time when you didn’t have to worry about anything like that? Happier times indeed. Now we have to deal with estate agents who spout crap about things until you have no idea what they’re babbling on about. Saying that, however, I spoke to a friend on my Creative Writing course today who mentioned that we should steer clear of estate agents and scour the papers for private landlords instead. Makes sense to me…

Next on the list is what you could call “self-made stress” in the form of various new year’s resolutions. Maintaining a sensible sleeping pattern, eating things which actually have some form of nutritional value, going to the bleedin’ gym and making big changes to my time management (more work, less play). I’m just about juggling these things at the moment, although I did drop the ball last night when I stayed up until half midnight. Nobody’s perfect right?

The final form of stress is literally…a form! One which we must fill  in to decide on our modules for next year. There are limited places allocated on a first come first served basis which should make life much more fun. Needless to say, I’ve filled in the form already only 5 minutes after receiving it and plan to drop it in at the student office first thing tomorrow. Better to be safe rather than sorry.

Work Excitement

Yes, yes, I realise I’ve been a little bit slow at updating my blog lately, but when all you’ve been doing is working what’s essentially full time and will be until the end of the month, there really isn’t much to write about in a blog, however, I have in this post endeavoured to highlight some of the more exiting/interesting to read events that have taken place at work lately:

1.) Today I got stuck in the main goods lift at work! The bloody thing is so temperamental that it was bound to happen sooner or later. Well, I say “stuck”, but I was more sort of stuck. Basically I was taking some grit and shovels in a trolley up from the warehouse so I could go and grit the BLOODY car park for the 350 millionth time and once I’d gotten into the lift, I pressed the button to go to the shop floor above. I waited and once the lift had stopped, I opened the inner sliding door, but the outer sliding door wouldn’t open! Also I noticed the lift hadn’t quite made it with a couple of inches between the floor of the lift and the shop floor. So, rolling my eyes, I shut the inner door again and pressed the button once more, however, the lift started shaking and began to progress downwards again…incredibly slowly. After about 2 minutes of waiting and still able to see the outer door of the shop floor, I finally gave in and pressed the alarm button. After talking to the people in the main office over the intercom and waiting 10 minutes, the lift eventually reached the bottom floor again. Well, not quite, but enough for me to get out.

2.) Considerably less “exciting”, but as I was sat on one of the small tills on an incredibly long and boring shift recently with very little to do, I noticed a very familiar looking green and white zip-up jumper which is often worn by a certain friend of mine poking around the corner in the bread section. I eagerly peered craning my neck to see if it actually was him, but once I saw the balding head with streaks of grey, the beard and the glasses, I realised it wasn’t Lewis after all. Oh well…

So there you go! Yet another exciting working day!

Happy 2010

So, it’s the end of the “Noughties”. To be absolutely honest, I had no idea at all that the decade just passed was called that until 2 days ago. I’m obviously good at keeping up with the times! This year I decided to have a quiet New Year’s Eve spent with Nichola at her house (love you Nichola!) while most of my other friends went and partied.

We had a thing…erm…I can’t actually remember what it’s called. It’s a bit like a fondue, but with a miniature grill where you cook little bits of chicken, sausages, bacon, vegetables and cheese. It was lovely! While eating we watched the second Pirate of the Caribbean film on Sky HD and then watched the Graham Norton show before the countdown. It was very close and I thought I wasn’t going to make it originally, but I did manage to stay awake this year!

I’m planning to meet some more of my friends tonight, but it may be tricky as I’m having up to 7 people round and my parents want us down in my room. Oh dear…

Anyway, I’ll leave it a short one this time. Happy new year everyone!

A Mixed Day

Today’s been mixed in terms of how good it’s been. I’ve had ups and downs and some VERY dangerous and downright stupid close calls. More on that later…

Typically, I woke up fairly late in the morning (it is a Sunday after all; what do you expect?), turned on my phone and immediately received a text from Ellie asking me if I was coming out to Asda with them. Of course, the text was sent hours ago and they’d already been. Good start. Once the massive downpour and sheets of rain had passed over and the sun had started to shine again, I headed out on my own to Asda to do a little weekly shop. I walked all the way there, approached the cash machine on the outside of the building and, like some kind of deranged goldfish I realised…

I’d left my wallet back at the flat. Well done me.

Obviously this soured my mood somewhat and I ended up going back to my flat to sulk about how rubbish this day was being to me so far. I grabbed my wallet and since I’m far too lazy to make the same journey twice in one day, decided to go round the corner to the little newsagents and buy some overpriced milk and bread to live off until I could next be bothered to go to Asda. Oh well; there’s always next week.

Apart from that, my day’s been pretty uneventful. Needless to say it sure is quiet with Lewis being in Amsterdam. Laura’s parents are round to wish her a happy birthday which obviously means the PS3 and such are out of bounds until later on. So that leaves…oh, what’s that word…? Waffles? No…work! That’s it! It’s, erm, that thing students are supposed to do whenever they have a minute or two right?

Now about that close call: I realised today just how fragile and weak-minded I can be with all this freedom and independence. I came very VERY close today to giving in to this overwhelming urge to purchase a limited edition black Wii bundled with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I came so close, in fact, that I actually placed the order, then realised what a ridiculous thing that was to do and immediately cancelled it again. I’m quite shaken up at how close I came to blowing all that money. We do learn from our mistakes though and I shan’t ever come that close to doing something like that ever again. And no, readers, I don’t need any sage words of advice or any chastising! I can take care of myself you know.

Right now I’m waiting for my clothes to be washed over in the laundrette and waiting patiently (while cooking waffles…erm, I mean working) for Laura to return so we can sample some of the TEN PS3 games her parents have brought her from home. Let the good times roll!

Time to Catch Up!

Whoops! Looks like it’s been at least a week now since the previous blog post of mine. Time does go so quickly these days; it feels like only yesterday my parents dropped me off here at the start of fresher’s week. So, where to begin?

Well going back to last weekend, I visited my old home back in Malvern for 2 nights. While I was there, I got to see two of my friends still in Malvern, Austin and Natasha. I really enjoyed having them round since it had been so long since I last saw them! We chatted about many different things and, naturally, the conversation drifted onto sex as it always seems to do with ANY of my friends. It’s just so weird! The morning before getting the 4 hour train back, we went to the new sports centre at the Malvern College private school my mum works at and went for a swim. Didn’t stay for long though, as the pool heater was broken and we were gradually turning into blocks of ice. Somehow (and I’m really not sure how), I managed to drag my PS3 and my TV plus many other things back on the train with me including on a very packed underground train and still live to tell the tale. It was definitely worth it though; we all love the PS3 and it works online too!

Nothing much except the usual stresses of uni work happened during the week so I’ll skip straight to Thursday/Friday. It was Laura’s 19th birthday on Friday and since Lewis was heading off to Amsterdam for a long weekend, we gave out presents and cards on Thursday evening. After that, we all went to partake in a pub quiz which I think we did well in…ok we came last. After that, I met up with another friend, Rachael Corner and we headed out to the Odeon in Kingston to watch the 1 minute past midnight showing of New Moon! The cinema was literally packed to the brim. You could barely move and buying popcorn or tickets was out of the question. Luckily, we’d been smart and bought ours much earlier. It was being shown simultaneously on 3 different screens and all of them were packed full. Crazy! I’d like to point out though, that I wasn’t the only male there by any means!! The film was absolutely amazing and Robert Pattinson sans shirt…well you’ll have to watch it yourself! ;)

As for Friday, I woke up fairly late, attended seminars for the day and then went straight to Laura’s flat. Her boyfriend, Alex, had come to visit and had brought Modern Warfare 2 for the PS3 round with him. All of us being avid gamers, we played it on multiplayer for a few hours. Later in the day, Ellie and I decided that Laura absolutely had to be taken out somewhere, so we decided on going to the cinema and paying for her ticket. Before that, however, we snuck out together to Asda to buy Laura a birthday cake. We had to light the candles in the kitchen away from the heat sensor for obvious reasons. We hope Laura had a nice birthday indeed!

My Will Power Exists

I think, first of all, that it’s safe to say that celebrations are indeed in order for I have achieved the seemingly impossible task of waking up at 6 AM and going to the gym at 7. I never in a million years thought I’d actually manage it considering the current state of my sleeping patterns, but I did! Now I must grasp that sense of achievement and keep it up. All being well, I’ll lose the tummy and be buff by next year! (Ok, so that’s a little optimistic…)

As of late, there’s been an awful lot on my mind. Many stresses, many worries. You get the general idea. I’m looking out the window at the dull grey sky and heavy showers and that pretty much represents my average mood right now. I say average since my mood tends to jump up and down more than a very hyperactive rabbit on a pogo stick. First and foremost is the stress my friends in general seem to be going through. Now it’s worth saying here that I generally don’t get stressed over work even if things look bleak. I tend to sit back and watch as things fall into catastrophe and rescue things at the final moment (my mum and step-dad will know this better than anyone), but for my sensible friends, they tend to worry a lot more. This, naturally, leads to stressed out friends and I think I just feel sensitive to that at the moment and feel upset to see them stressed.

In particular, my friend Lewis has actually expressed thoughts of quitting university. If ANY of my friends quit university, I would require anti-depressants for the rest of the year. I don’t think I’d stop crying for a week. Our group fits together so well and it would be a shame to ruin all that.

Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff! I’ve now resorted to hiding my toilet roll and only taking it with me to the loo when I need to use it. Why, you ask? Well I can’t be sure, but I think that someone in our flat is eating it. We seem to somehow be getting through an entire roll a day which is ridiculous. Either someone enjoys toilet roll as a tasty snack, or someone has a severe number two related problems and has had them since arriving here.

I shall leave you all on that lighter note.

4 o’ clock and Dark

I’m sat in my room at about 20 to 5 in the afternoon and it’s already dark. How depressing is that? My curtains are shut, my desk lamp is giving off a nice warm glow which, on the plus side, does make my room feel nice and cosy.

I could probably say I’m in a good place at the moment. I’ve met my deadlines, my room’s spotless again, my folders of work are organised, all my washing up’s done and I’m feeling healthy and well fed. On an emotional level, I’m content, I’m happy and most importantly, I’ve stopped worrying about not being in a relationship with anyone (and my crushes on people have waned). Speaking of washing up though, you should see what it looks like in our kitchen. I needed to rent a JCB digger to remove all my other flat mates’ washing up from the sink and draining area. I then had to use industrial strength kitchen cleaner to clean the inside of the sink and the draining area. Only then could I actually proceed to wash up my own things. Ok, so maybe that’s not completely true, but I did have to move everyone’s stuff. Their washing up combined covers an entire wall of the kitchen along the worktops!!

Yesterday after going to Asda and replenishing my supplies of peanut butter and packets of microwaveable pasta, we helped out Rachel with her project by posing for a photo while holding several brightly coloured letters which spell out the word “Volatile”.

I’m not 100% sure on the details of the project, but I know that it’s something to do with art and the letters were supposed to form a volcano shape. Naturally, Lewis spoilt it with his tallness! I’m sure Rachel will get top marks.

Today nothing much has happened really. I set my alarm for 6 as I was planning on forcing myself to go to the gym again after my long (read: very long) hiatus. All I remember was sitting up, hitting the “alarm off” button and falling asleep again. Next thing I knew it was half 1 in the afternoon. Oh dear… Any tips apart from the obvious such as “go to bed earlier” would be very welcome. I did go to bed at midnight after all which is much earlier than usual.

We’re heading out clubbing somewhere later. Not sure where or when, but we’ve all agreed that we need a night out tonight. I’ll tell you more about all of that tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Visiting Dad’s House and More

Firstly a brief apology for the delay between posts. I know how popular my blog is and how many people are desperate to read it. I understand how my blog is the single greatest highlight of many people’s days. So, purely for all of you, today’s post will be ever so slightly longer than normal!

Well, where to start? I guess the best place would be where I left off. I went to see my dad on Monday and stayed at his house until Tuesday. I had a very pleasant time too since it had been such a long time since I’d last been to visit. On Monday evening we went and got some KFC after a quick drive into Tamworth (the boneless stuff, obviously) and then spent a very chilled and relaxed evening watching American Pie: The Wedding. I actually don’t believe I’ve ever seen that film before, but it was certainly a good laugh! Also we watched a documentary called “Life” on BBC HD which was VERY good. I highly recommend it and you can find it on BBC iPlayer in both standard and HD versions.

Before the train arrived at Atherstone station the next day, another guy came onto the platform and struck up a little conversation which was nice! It turned out his name was Dave and he was heading into Nuneaton to meet some friends of his for a couple of drinks at the pub. I love it when people come and talk to you like that; I’m always far too shy to do it myself.

Since getting back to uni, it’s been the same old sort of lifestyle, except maybe a tad more lazy due to the lack of lectures or seminars occurring this week. My sleeping patters are about as far out of sync as they can possibly be. Last night for example…no, wait, I mean this morning? Ok I’ve utterly confused myself now. Let me put it this way, I went to sleep at 4:30 this morning and woke up at around 2:00 naturally without the aid of an alarm clock. I’m no longer actually sleeping on one day and waking up in the next. I blame our evening “hang-outs” at Laura’s flat where we usually play games.

Speaking of Laura’s flat and games we now have a grand total of 3 consoles in there: the Gamecube, the Wii and a second hand Xbox 360 recently purchased by Lewis from eBay. Of course, we’re not stopping there. We’re all still gagging for my PS3 and my TV. When I leave home again after Christmas, I’m also going to attempt to take the Sega Dreamcast as well purely for Nostalgia’s sake. Oh and if I’m not mistaken, Lewis will also be bringing his PS2. Come January, Laura’s room will literally be gamer’s heaven. I can’t wait!! On a side note, I also had a look at some Sega Saturn consoles on eBay myself…but then common sense quickly kicked in.

Well, I guess I’d better leave things there for now. I’ve still got to finish off at least one of my two 750 word creative writing pieces and also my short critical analysis drafts. One often forgets that besides the ridiculous number of hours spent playing video games, there’s still work to do as well.

Visiting Grandparents

It’s time for my first proper post. I can just picture you now shuffling in your seat with excitement, rushing off to tell all your friends and family. Well, don’t; it probably won’t be all that exciting. Trust me!

On Thursday this week I got a text from grandma reminding me that it’s mum’s birthday very soon. It’s not that I’d forgotten or anything like that. Honest. It was then that I made the snap decision to go and visit for the weekend. So the next afternoon, with very little thought and/or preparation, I shoved some bare essentials (LAPTOP and er, what’s that other thing…? Oh, right, clothes) into an overly large and awkward to carry bag and headed out towards Kingston station.

As expected, I needed to go to the ticket office to buy myself a ticket and not surprisingly, although the queue was small, whoever was being served was taking their sweet time. About 15 minutes later, I finally got my ticket and headed onto the train about 30 seconds before the doors closed. I then proceeded to Vauxhall and then onto Euston on the underground. I then ignored a perfectly good train because it wasn’t at the time it told me on the internet. As a result, I ended up waiting an hour and 15 for the right train. Well done me… The Virgin Pendolino to Tamworth was pretty darn nice though and I listened to Michael Bublé all the way there. Meanwhile, the old man wearing the posh suit sat next to me was listening to drum and bass very loudly on his iPod. What’s wrong with that picture?!

My grandparents are lovely! We went out to the Derby shops today and I bought an external hard drive to back up all my future university work on. It’s probably the most sensible thing I’ve ever bought. We also went to the regular café in the market, but only for a drink this time. Speaking of regular things, I’m heading along to the pub with my grandparents and their friends tonight. There’s a slight possibility I may look out of place sipping my Smirnoff Ice though!

Anyway, I’m distracted. I’m trying to type all this, make it slightly interesting to read AND watching New You’ve Been Framed as well. I’m a bloke; I can’t multitask like this! So, for that reason, this is where I leave you for today. Besides, Harry Hill’s TV Burp is on in 10 minutes and I can’t miss that! I miss my good old TV…