This train’s not going anywhere very quickly. At least not long distances – we keep stopping but we’ve yet to find out why. The man on the other side just told someone he was supposed to be getting into Watford for 9pm, but I suspect we’re running late now. Of course there’s no way to tell. I’ll be ok, it doesn’t matter if this train is a little late just so long as I don’t miss the last train back from London to Aldershot, which I’d class as ‘highly unlikely’. Still a delay doesn’t help matters, and it would be nice if they were to tell us why exactly we do keep stopping. [read more]
Isn’t it funny how one person can make you feel so many different emotions? Maybe ‘so many’ is probably not the best turn of phrase in this case; possibly ‘such strong’ might have fitted better. Isn’t it even stranger how they can do it without apparently even realising how it’s them affecting your feelings? [read more]
It seems I only ever write this when I’m on the train. Maybe because all the rest of the time I have access to the internet and can always find something ‘better’ to do. Maybe because I generally don’t have anything interesting to say other than when I’m on the train because it generally means I’ve been somewhere interesting. This weekend was interesting. [read more]
Preston, Lancashire. Home of the University of Central Lancashire. They beat Lancaster University in the sports competition they have each year – Lancaster’s “Warmup to Roses”. So that’s it – Lancaster’s fate at Roses is sealed I guess. And that’s the next time I’ll see the group of people I came up here to see. Roses, York, summer. [read more]
I’m so tired. I can’t concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing — I tried to do some work but I just can’t think stright. On that front it doesn’t help that I don’t have access to the internet on this train. They call this a main line. [read more]
Oh dear. I think I have a motivational problem…I’m never in the mood to write in this at times when I actually can write in this. I have actually thought about it, and wanted to do it quite a few times since I last actually did, but they have all been times when I have not been able to, then when I get back to my computer and actually can do it, I don’t feel in the mood. Its not good. Anyway, I’m here now, and I’m not going to make any more excuses! I don’t even actually remember when I last did write here, but I will try to not miss anything out I haven’t written about before! [read more]
I think I understand why this university has the highest suicide rate of universities in this country – when it rains its a depressing place…and it seems to rain all the time. There are a couple of things which add up to give it a depressing air really, I recon: 1) there is the constant drone of the motorway (the M6) most places you go (admittedly I am on the end of campus that it goes closest to, but you can hear it over most of the site) – you don’t tend to notice it really as obvious, but if you listen you can hear it there, and I’m sure that it has some kind of psychological effect; 2) A lot of the buildings on campus are concrete or red brick build around paved areas (more on the other end of campus, to be fair, there is quite a lot of greenery on this end); 3) The whole place is a bit of a maze of passages and walkways which always seem to be dark (I guess that would be mainly because of the fact that they are surrounded by the buildings, so don’t get much natural light!); and then there is the rain. So far, in the week and a bit I have been here, it seems to have rained almost every single day. Alright, it didn’t rain today, but most of the other days it has rained at least once. When it does rain the place gets even more depressing. Add to that the fact that there is a lot of development going on (they are building a new science and computing building at one end of the campus, and seem to be doing something with the drains elsewhere), and you have a recipe for depression. [read more]
Well, this is the first of many posts I will be making from here in my university room for the next year!
I’ve been here for 3 nights now (Sunday to Tuesday), and things are going OK. The room is all right – its about the size you would expect for university accommodation, and its actually not too shabby. I’ve got a friend, Geraint, who is in the most recent college here, Pendle, and his room is only a little bigger…the only thing which I would really like to swap (in terms of the halls, anyway) would be the kitchen – ours is small and pretty grotty, whereas his is big and nicely fitted out (its even got proper cupboards, which is more than ours!). Being on the ground floor is alright, but there are a few things which are annoying – it gets quite warm in my room (well, at the moment at least. I think it might get cold in winter because the window seems a little draughty), so its nice to have the window open to let in some fresh air, but I can’t leave it open when I go out because it would be easy for someone to just climb in and take things. Also The room is a little overlooked. My window looks right out at block 10, and the upper floors of that can see into my room, and at my desk, which is a little disturbing. [read more]
So she’s gone – she went yesterday.
I stayed over at Natalie’s house on Monday night. I met her at 11.30 (she said 11, I said 11.30 so that I would remember I had to set off at 11 – in the past we have said times like that to meet, and next day I have thought I remembered that I had to set off at 11…so get there late!) and she had a few things to do (some shopping for her mum and something else I can’t remember now), so we did them, and set off back to her house. On the way back we were talking about how this was the last time she would be coming that way for a while…it felt weird because its the last time I would be going that way for a long time as well…I held her hand (I always do…but this time) it felt different – more special in some ways. We got back to her house and hugged a bit…and then she remembered she had forgotten that she needed more passport size photos while we were in Halifax. So we had to go out again. About an hour after we got back, we went out again. Back in Halifax we got some more food and then she went for her photo at the booth in the bus station. Those things never make you look good (when I had my picture taken for university I scanned it in and edited it a bit, then got my mother to print it onto photo paper at work so I didn’t look tooo bad…), but she didn’t look too bad in the end (I don’t think, but I couldn’t make her believe that). And after that we headed back to her house again…back along the way we thought we wouldn’t be going for a long time…this time we wouldn’t. [read more]
Alright, here goes (a lot later than planned, but lets skip over that shall we 😉 ) – the rest of the holiday in a nutshell!
The thing is, I guess the reason why I haven’t written this much over the holidays is because I haven’t been doing that much…so I’ve not felt the need to get on here and write about it. Anyway, the holidays kicked off (well, kind of, it was a little while into it, but it was meant to kick it off…just I finished earlier than a lot of my friends because they are in the year below me) with a party at Ross’s house. Actually, Natalie and I had been invited out to a kind of gathering (does that kind of make it sound like a weird ritual, or is it just me…) at Kathy’s house a few days before, but didn’t go. Natalie went off on a nice cruse with her parents a little while earlier that week, so I would have had to go on my own and things and I didn’t fancy that (not to mention that I didn’t know where she lives and we were only invited like the day before not giving much time). So, Ross’s party was the first real party this summer (actually, the only one thinking about it!). I met Ben a little early as he wanted to get some shopping in Halifax before we went, so we did that, and then had some time to kill. We ended up sitting in the Piece Hall for about 45 mins in the end, just talking (and being hounded by wasps…I think I must look like a flower or something, because I always get attacked by things like that…maybe its the colours I wear :-\ ). That was quite fun, we talked about lots of things. Then we got thrown out because they were closing. So we made our way to the bus station where we were supposed to be meeting everyone. Sure enough people rolled up and we all gathered. When Ross finally arrived there was a great deal of buying of alcohol to be done. It’s strange, I don’t drink, and yet I am always the one given money to buy things like that, and always the one who end up carrying the stuff! I don’t mind, just strange (heh, I suppose I should be honoured people think I look all grown up, hehe). After a rather long visit to the shop (with much lengthy deciding what to buy, and then trying to explain to me so I got it right), we made our way back to the bus station to…well…get a bus. The rest of the night wasn’t much to talk about – usual party stuff – people getting drunk, chatting, messing about, greasy food, computer games (no karaoke this time around), strip poker, loud poor music, and me with my camera to record it all. I love it…other people don’t at the time…but they do the next day 😀 We stayed over that night watching the TV (there are some amusing programs on at night), and I left at about 8.30am while other people were still half asleep and went home. Then I slept. That was a good night. I enjoyed it. [read more]