Halloween 2010

I have realised it has become a minor tradition for me to write about Halloween on here so here we go for another year.

All in all my Halloween wasn't really very Halloween-y. I did some of my presentation and went to town with two of my housemates (in the pouring rain for not real reason). In the evening, after a little persuasion, I went to the quiz as per usual and it was rather enjoyable. Me and Josh blitzed the Doctor Who round and we did OK overall, coming in third place. Speaking of Josh I have to laugh at this picture of him dressed as a Christmas pudding meant for a three-year old. It really didn’t fit and he could barely breathe in it.

I did have a few Halloween moments when I played House of the Dead Overkill on my Wii and a little Plants Vs. Zombies on my PC. Both excellent games, very different.

That’s not to say there isn’t Halloween things going on. Our house is covered in cobwebs and we had a couple of pumpkins. Here’s a lovely little selection of photos:

Yes that last one is a TARDIS. Epic I know (though not very Halloween-y!).

Not Going Out

By some miracle I managed to get up early on my day off and finished my science assignment. This is excellent news, especially seeing as though a lot of people haven't even begun. I’m quite chuffed with myself. Not only is it finished but I’m pretty sure it’s at quite a decent standard.

Next activity of the day was something a bit different. In order to fill the quota of reading fifty children’s books by the end of the year I went with a couple of friends around all the charity shops and bought a load. I bought seven books for just under £6 which is good going. I bought a range of books for a range of ages but my two faves so far are “Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs” and “Wombat Goes Walkabout”.

Tonight was our student union’s Halloween night but due to the fact I couldn’t really be bothered to dress up a small number of people came to my house and we had an excellent time. We watched a couple of episodes of kid’s TV show Wacky Races (which unfortunately has lost it’s touch since I was a kid), a few episodes of classic sitcom Fawlty Towers and then headed downstairs to play Monopoly. Once again I did terribly, though this was mainly due to my friend buying the square I needed for a set. We then returned upstairs and watched Mr Bean’s Holiday which really is an excellent film. Rowan Atkinson is fabulous as always and it’s really funny. Well worth a watch.

After a trip to the house two doors down for some cake and general banter it became quite late and I decided I really ought to retire to bed. Before doing so I did something that will make a real difference to my life in the short-term. Now that my blog is read by a fair few of my friends I can’t really go into detail. But basically it means tomorrow could get interesting, in either a good way or bad way, I don’t know yet. I will let you know.

We Win a Quiz

Today was an excellent day and days like this seem to be rare at the moment so I’m making the most of it.

First I had a session of geography which didn’t seem to really involve much geography. Basically the majority of us agreed that we had had bad experiences with geography and this helped the tutor with a research project. We also did a music quiz with songs that had a geographical connection. I was surprised at my correct identification of “Walk like an Egyptian” and Frank Sinatra’s “New York”. It was quite a fun way to begin the module.

History saw us talk about the Titanic and we did various activities using pictures and newspaper articles about it’s sinking. It was a bit disappointing considering it’s my specialist subject and wasn’t that brilliant but some parts were interesting.

Pleasingly I am now only 496 words away from finishing my first assignment. It’s such a good feeling to know that it’s nearly done and I look forward to the moment I finish it which will be tomorrow. Many people on my course have yet to begin said assignment so I’m rather pleased with my excellent efforts.

It was my housemate’s birthday today so a few of us went to the pub. We ended up taking part in “rock n roll bingo” which is like bingo but they play songs instead of yell out numbers. It was actually really fun and I think we may go again some time. We also took part in the quiz which was Halloween based and amazingly we won. The four of us won an actual pub quiz. Excellent. We won £20 and a big box of Haribo:

On return to my house (slightly drunk I must confess) I sensed that a fair few people are having a difficult time at the moment. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could wave a magic wand and make everyone happy but solving their problems and giving them their dreams? The world can be such a sad place sometimes for all of us and I just wish I could help more.

The weekend has now started for me and it should be a good one as it’s Halloween weekend. My first Halloween at Uni is bound to be good. I have a Halloween video coming very soon so stay tuned for that. See you all soon!

Things I’ve Learnt…

…in the last three days:

- that I have to read fifty children’s books by the end of the year. FIFTY! Blimey! To do this I plan to take a £10 on a trip round some charity shops. I reckon I can get at least twenty for that!

- that quiz machines in pubs are addictive. Myself and my friends must have spent a small fortune on the one at our local, trying to win Cluedo, Monopoly and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. We were generally pretty good but there would always be that one question we didn’t know.

- that getting up in the morning is a bitch. My recent routine of two early starts in a row has been ruined by the fact I have lessons on a Wednesday, meaning I have four days of early starts in a row. I may well die tomorrow morning.

-that a new musical version Jack the Ripper would be amazing. We have been discussing this a lot in our house over the last few days. The songs “Stab Stabire” (based on Chim Chimire from Mary Poppins) and “Stayin Alive” (classic song slightly edited) will feature and apparently I am playing an Ice cream seller. Jack the Ripper, the Musical of the book of the film of the book of the real event. Not coming to a theatre near you soon.

-that The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimon is really good. Basically a boy’s family are murdered when he is very young and he is then brought up by ghosts in a graveyard. There are various spooky events and eventually the murderer tracks him down again. Well worth a read, best book I’ve read in a while.

-that my mattress is shit. A mixture of this and crap chairs with no back support throughout the university has meant that I woke up with a very painful shoulder/neck. The muscles hurt. This displeases me.

- that I do actually have some practical skills in technology. During our first seminar we created a photo frame and it actually looks OK. It holds a photo and stands up, which is pretty much all it needs to do.

- my ICT skills are better than most. During our IT session today I could do things without needing an explanation whatsoever whilst some people struggled. We made a Wiki which you can take a little peek at here (it’s a work in progress though).

-there is some epic TV on at the moment. The Sarah Jane Adventures episode featuring the Doctor (“Death of the Doctor”) was absolutely fantastic and The Apprentice is turning out to be really good this year.

-that I am not enjoying my course as much as I once was. I like the foundation subjects but the assignments are stressing me out and I’m finding it hard to be enthusiastic about the course right now. I have done a third of my first assignment which relaxes me a little. Now the novelty of university has worn off I’m wondering whether this was the right decision. Oh, well I’m sticking with for now anyway. Could do with a massive lift to cheer me up.

A 3AM Haircut and a Ramble

Well what a weekend it has been. Actually it has been mostly rather dull and I’ve mostly sat in my room and watched loads of random TV but there have been several rather entertaining events which I shall recall with mostly fondness across this blog entry.

Saturday night I was round the lovely house 26 where several of my friends live and we sat around for hours and hours joking and laughing. As it got later and later the number of people in the room was reduced until there was four of us at about 3AM. I was talking about how I needed my haircut and then Tiffany, my friend from Essex, offered to do it, believing she had some skill in cutting hair as she always does her Dad’s. This was a mistake on my part for agreeing. Whilst my hair is mostly tidier and shorter it is hardly the work of a trained professional. Tiffany really fucked up the back with the layers but fortunately it’s not too obvious. I learnt a valuable lesson: do not let your friends cut your hair unless they really are a hairdresser.

Today was the first walk of the rambling society (yes, we have a rambling society, how cool is our Uni) so being the walk-lover I am I became part of the society and went for a walk. The walk was really lovely with a fair bit of it being alongside a river. We climbed to the top of one of the tallest hills around Winchester which was really hard work but on arrival at the summit we were greeted with a fantastic view. Cue photos.

The other event of the weekend was the Sunday night quiz at the student union. This week’s questions were on a variety of things I knew nothing about including kid’s TV series Recess. We came a respectable joint fifth in the end. I now believe I am becoming ill with whatever it is that has affected most of the other local Freshers. This is not good. But unlike some I shall not complain and will always go where I am supposed to go and just get on with it. I haven't got time to be ill.

October Q&A

Every now and then I like to do a question and answer blog where people ask me whatever they like and I answer the questions. Today is another one of those situations, so let’s go.

How’s your arm? Haha :) – This refers to the fact I gave blood on Wednesday. It’s fine and other than aching a bit on Wednesday it was the whole time. I didn’t even get a bruise at all.

What’s your favourite type of food?- There can only be one answer to that: chocolate.

What is your favourite car?- I’m not really a car guy but I like Aston Martins. Maybe one day I will have one…

If you were a drink, what would you be? ^^- Dr Pepper because I’m bubbly and everyone wonders what’s the worst that could happen with me around.

Anyone you miss in your life?- There is a girl I miss in particular. Also my friends from home who I haven't seen in ages and my family too.

One thing you regret this year? <33333.- I try not to have regrets really but I guess it would have to be being such a sad and lonely old sod for a few months. I was in a far worse state than was necessary. But it doesn't matter now, I'm back to my awesome self.

Do you like animals? If yes what kind?- Yes I do. As a pet, cats, I love 'em. And I love penguins :)

Are you in love? :)- That's quite a tricky question. I kind of am, but not in a deep relationship kind of way. Just in a "really fancy a lot" un-reciprocated kind of way. Which is quite rubbish :(

DUDE when can I visit Winchester?- Whenever you want Chris. That’s Chris as in my best mate Chris. I’m well looking forward to him coming to stay, it will be epic.

Anyone you like in your class at Uni?- Well there are some lovely girls in the class but most of them have boyfriends. There isn't anyone particular that I really like but there are several whom I wouldn't say no to.

What are your favourite bands?- I like quite a wide selection really. My fave band is The Hoosiers!

So that was it! Some intriguing questions there, thanks to all who participated.

The Ostinato King

Today was the final sessions of the foundation subjects we have been studying for the last few weeks. It’s nice to have a change and it means the course stays fresh.

In music today I was shocked when my tutor decided to pick me out to play an ostinato (posh word for a riff) on a xylophone. She clearly looked around the room and chose the person with the worst rhythm. There was me sat in the middle of a circle of people I barely know attempting to do something I have no skill in. I just about managed and my tutor called me “the ostinato King” and awarded me with a sticker. Another bizarre situation handled reasonably OK by me. Uni is full of them.

Our final art session of the semester was quite enjoyable. We were doing artwork in 3D including making a gargoyle head out of clay. Mine actually looks pretty good, work with clay is the only aspect of art I’ve ever been any good at. Here’s my masterpiece:

This evening I had yet another bizarre Uni experience. After having a curry cooked for me (yes lucky me, thank you Louise) we decided to go to a pub called The Royal Oak for a quiz night. Sadly on arrival at said pub (which claims, among many others, to be the oldest bar in England) there were no tables and after some milling about we decided to leave. Instead we went to McDonald’s where I bought a Smarties McFlurry, which I love and haven't had in ages. Somehow wandering around the streets of Winchester and going to a fast food joint was actually very enjoyable. Uni life is crazy!

I Give Blood

This morning I ticked off another one of the things on my list of things to do before I die. This was number 49: Give Blood. I eventually found the building and wandered in to what looked like a cross between a hospital and a factory. Everything went well and my veins were really easy to get at. I made the most of free food and drink and then had to tackle the huge hill back up to university. This was not a good idea when already feeling woozy from losing a pint of blood and I didn’t feel too good on arrival home. Some sugar in the form of some Kit-Kats made me feel better.

There was a point where I wondered whether the unpleasantness of the whole thing was worth it. Then I realised that of course it is, I saved a life today. Probably. There is no reason why a perfectly healthy person in the prime of life shouldn’t give away some blood which can save lives. I feel rather pleased with myself for being one of the few who do.

The rest of the day has been fairly uneventful. Our house is full of illness and my other trip out the house was to see my personal tutor and we set some targets.The evening was filled by watching TV and a slightly bizarre moment where me and my housemate Josh had a small dressing up session, me in my Russian hat and some stripy gloves and him in a suit and top hat. What fun we have!

On Friday I my blog will take the form of question and answer so I need you to ask me questions. Just ask one below or on my Formspring!

Assignments, Sandcastles and Cats

Hiya. What a busy couple of days it’s been. I have been set two assignments during this time which is rather worrying. One is a group presentation about an article which I think will be fairly straightforward assuming we actually work together well as a group but the other is an essay. I despise essays after having to do several a week for most of the time I was doing a-levels. This one is 1,500 words which is reasonably short compared to what I’m used to but as it is properly assessed it’s a point of stress for me at the moment. Yikes.

Highlight of the course over the last few days was making sandcastles in Science. The reason for doing this was planning an experiment, the experiment being to find out what water to sand ratio makes the best sandcastle. Unfortunately my small group used a massive bucket and ran out of dry sand. So we just played with the sand for a bit. Enjoyable lesson though.

I went on a minor shopping spree today. I had some money tucked away for just such an occasion. First I bought a new pair of shoes so replace my old ones as they were falling apart. A bargain £10 from Stead and Simpson ‘cos they are closing for refit. I still attempted to get a student discount though but they refused. I also bought a few CDs: The Script- Science and Faith, Katy Perry- Teenage Dream and Example- Won’t Go Quietly. I love The Script ever since I saw them supporting The Hoosiers in 2008. Katy Perry, who is only liked my other guys my age for her looks, creates some brilliant catchy songs with real feeling in them. It’s not cool for me to like her, but I do. So there. And Example is amazing, plus the CD was cheap.

This evening myself and three of my housemates played the board game I brought back from home, Fraidy Cats. You have to race your cat around the fence but if a picture of a dog comes up on the dice you have to set off Muggs the Motorised Mutt. If he hits your cat it goes flying up in the air. This makes it really fun and we had a real laugh playing this!

 

Tomorrow I am completing one of the things on my list of things to do before I die, see if you can guess which one. I shall let you know how it goes. Oh, and I am planning to do another question and answer blog soon so ask me any question, no matter how personal, below or on my Formspring. See you soon!

Competitive Sport Sucks

I seem to be having another flood of new followers at the moment, so welcome to you newbies! And hello to all the new peeps that read on Facebook, nice to have you joining me.

Today was badminton tournament finals day. This tournament is the first competitive sport I have done since sports day in Year 4 and I hoped it would go well. It didn’t. In the men’s doubles semi-final myself and my Dad lost to a pair who were considerably younger than me. We had the ability to win but on the day we made too many mistakes. The fact that I’ve only played badminton once in a month meant I haven't had much practice lately. Also a muscle in my arm (my deltoid was strained a little).

Several hours later it was the mixed double’s final in which myself and my partner had to play my Dad and his partner. My Dad’s terrible form left him and moved into my partner and I stayed on the terrible form I had been earlier. We won the first game but as the match continued and my deltoid gradually hurt more we got worse and worse. And lost. This is why I don’t do competitive sport, it sucks.

Despite only getting to the mixed doubles final by the fact there were only two teams in the competition I was still awarded a runners-up T-shirt. For some reason said T-shirt has the word “GHOST” written on it so when I play badminton in it everyone will think I’m called Caspar. The small presentation ceremony thing did have free sandwiches and being a poor student I took the opportunity to eat whilst I could. Goodness knows how many chicken and how many egg sandwiches I actually consumed tonight.

It was then time to return to my new home which is Winchester. It’s weird that I now consider both places home but neither fits the bill exactly. It is nice to be back with my housemates and I had a ridiculous bromance moment with Josh when he realised I was back. Today has been rather shit, what with losing at badminton and everything so I hope the week goes a lot better. Fingers crossed…

Today Put a Smile on my Face

I enjoy days like this where I have a whole bunch of things to share with you. I’m still at home, as in my parent’s house, and it kind of feels normal again though the thought that I leave again tomorrow hinders that.

It’s about time I officially named my monkey puppet! Having had twenty different choices it has actually become quite a difficult decision. I have decided to go with the suggestion of regular reader Supergreensunbear (who incidentally has a wonderful blog of his own which I discovered about five minutes ago). So, in honour of the fact I am doing my primary teaching training at Winchester Uni my monkey is now named Chester. Thanks for all your suggestions and sorry I couldn’t choose them all!

The reason I am home for the weekend is that I am playing in a badminton tournament. I’m playing in men’s doubles with my Dad and mixed doubles with a lady who goes to club night. The mixed doubles is only one match as hardly anyone signed up and I’m playing against my Dad! The first men’s doubles game was this morning and we had a reasonably easy win, though we didn’t exactly play well, we just made less mistakes than the other team. The next round is tomorrow morning!

TV highlight of the week has been the new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, kids spin-off of Doctor Who. I loved the first two episodes featuring “the nightmare man” and Luke going to university. The show is almost too good to be a kid’s show! I was disappointed that I wasn’t given a robot dog to take with me to uni though.

This evening I went to the pub with my friend Chris. It was really nice to catch up again after being at Uni for the past month. We had a good chat where I told him about uni and he told me about nearly losing his job for slagging off the company on Twitter! We also wandered round the town a bit, visiting the place we always used to go back in 6th Form. It’s amazing how quickly things have changed.

Time to finish I think, with some lovely poetry. I have been organising a contest on writing website Writer’s Cafe and below are the winning poems. It was love poetry and reading through 81 love poems did make me wonder whether I will ever find love again. A single text today left me with a glimmer of hope. Anyway, winning poems:

Winner: An Action

2nd Place: Remember That Night?

3rd Place: Life Loving You

Blog Action Day 2010: Water

The chances are that you can get up, walk a few metres, turn a tap on and get clean water out of it. You’re lucky. In Africa, alone people spend 40 billion hours every year walking to the nearest water source. The water they pick up is often not safe to drink, containing a cocktail of dangerous pathogens such as salmonella, cholera, e.coli and hepatitis A. Unsafe water kills more people every year than all violence, including wars.

The walk is much worse than a long walk. Women are at greater risk from harassment and sexual assault. Due to the weight of carrying about forty pounds of water on their back a day, many women experience back pain early in life.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If a village is given a well, everything changes. The walk is reduced from three hours to fifteen minutes, and the water is safe to drink. Women can use their spare time to grow a vegetable garden, providing food for their family and making money from selling it at markets. Children spend more time in school than walking for water and go on to get better jobs. An entire village’s life is turned around.

You can donate to this cause by going here. Most of you won’t have the money or time to do this. But try and remember this for the time when you do. Just 20 US$ can give one person clean, safe drinking water for 20 years. That’s a big difference to someone’s life.

I am writing this for Blog Action Day 2010, a day where bloggers all other the world talk about the same thing. Find out more by watching the video below and visiting the website here.

I’m Wise, Some Teaching and Coming Home

Before I go into my eventful day I should thank everyone for your contribution in suggesting names for my monkey! The shortlist at the moment is (in no particular order): Gibson, Milo, Mango, Chester, Fynn, Skidrow, Billy-bob, George, Jiminie, Jacoby, Chandler and Gershwin. Tomorrow I will make the decision but keep giving me suggestions and let me know what you think about those possible names.

Today, as with all Thursdays, was a day of doing foundation subjects. Religious studies involved learning about assemblies (or collective worship as they are now called.) The tutor did an example of an assembly using Winnie the Pooh characters and reckoned I looked wise and so was Owl. I think being Owl is quite a compliment!

In music we did a bit more than play games and sing songs this time. We learnt about how to teach children the basics of rhythm and how to use our hands to signify different musical notes. I can now sing certain songs and sign all the notes in it at the same time. I always think that I am useless at music but I realised I’m not that bad as I can actually read music and I’m fairly good at keeping a rhythm, at least in 4/4 time anyway.

After a spot of lunch it was time for an art lesson. This time my lack of artistic skill really came out when we were told to extend a painting. Mine looked dreadful, worse than anyone else in the room. The tutor looked a bit annoyed at my incredible lack of skill. Art may well be the subject that I ask for further support on in the future. Next we talked about mixing colours with paint and then made a rainbow pattern my mixing different colours. Even I could manage this.

I then voted in the local election. I choose to vote for the Liberal Democrat candidate because he was the one who doesn’t want university fees to be increased and is very much into being environmentally-friendly. With any luck he may actually have been voted in, I shall let you know when I find out.

Finally I managed to pick up all my stuff and make it onto the train. I came home today! The train journey was horrific thanks to the fact it was the beginning of rush hour and was packed. And that I had two idiots sat near me, one who broke his phone by attempting to put a memory card into the sim card slot.

So now I am sat in my bed in the town I’ve spent most of my life in. But it feels different. It’s not the town or the house, it’s me. I’m not the same person who left here nearly a month ago. I’ve become more confident socially and more adult in my general outlook. I am independent now, I’ve cooked, washed crockery and clothes and generally looked after myself. So I come back under the wing of my Mum and Dad feeling different. I am an adult now and that’s something that can’t go back. But I guess it’s a good thing…

Name That Monkey!

Today, rather spontaneously really, I decided to buy a puppet. This wasn’t as easy a task as you would have expected. A visit to the Early Learning Centre proved unfruitful and it was only after a long climb to the very top of an independent toy shop that I found some. Here is the one I chose:

This monkey will entertain lots of children through my career as a primary school teacher but he needs a name. That’s where you come in. I want you to suggest a name for this little monkey and I will decide my favourite and officially christen him that. So go on, comment on this blog with your suggestion!

Science was rather enjoyable this afternoon because we were presented with a box full of rocks. We were supposed to be seeing how we could differentiate between them by seeing if they were permeable or not. Me, being someone who studied geology at A-level, identified all the rocks just by looking at them. That was a particularly proud geeky moment. Love it!

Some False Advertising

Before I start proper on this entry I would just like to inform you about a slight change to this blog. Now that I have a routine and sort of know what my course is like it has become normal and so sharing every thing that happens will get quite dull. That’s why I shall spend more time focusing on particular things rather than such a broad overview of each day.

Today’s English seminar is worth sharing with you. We were told, in groups, to make a shoe and then present it to the class. The materials we had to make said shoe were mostly paper. Fortunately it’s a primary education group and so is full of crafty girls who somehow turned the paper into a shoe. I was half of the pair in charge of advertising the shoe. We created the “ultra-cool eco shoe” which, as well as being recyclable and biodegradable, converts carbon dioxide to oxygen as you walk along. It’s at a reasonable price of £99.99 ($160) which is no price for saving the planet! (Obviously this isn’t true, it was made mostly of sugar paper!) I also was the one who had to do the presentation and this was a little nerve-racking in front of what is still a group of mostly strangers. But in went very well and I was complimented for my “nice little presentation” and “brilliant advertising voice”. People don’t compliment me very often and so this gave me a nice confidence boost!

My exciting news is that I am going back home for the weekend, this weekend. After I finally worked out how to buy tickets online that is. It feels weird to be returning home but I’m quite looking forward to it. It will be nice to be back but also nice to be away from certain stressful elements of being at uni and give me a chance to have a think. I’m also playing in a small badminton tournament which is very exciting!

I have written my first ever guest post for another blog. Grace from “service*travel*growth” wanted a guest writer and I thought I could write something which fitted the bill. She is focusing on human rights at the moment so I wrote about children’s rights and UNICEF. Click the link to see her blog or here for my particular entry.

That’s it for this slightly tweaked style blog. I hope it reads a little better becomes more entertaining than it has been, but of course I will still keep you in on the exciting bits of my life!

Paying the Price

Friday morning was horrible. I truly paid the price for drinking too much the night before. I was sick time and time and time and time and time again. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that bad. It will be a long time before I drink alcohol again. Thank goodness my housemates and friends could look after me. I did discover our toilet room is the perfect size for me to fit in though.

The rest of Friday was pretty much spent recovering. I went to the house two doors down to see some people and stayed there quite late but that was as much activity as I could claim to having done.

Saturday was hardly much better. Instead of being sick a lot, I slept a lot. I did actually do some exercise in the afternoon though, which was a bit of a shock to the system. I went to the badminton society which was a bit of a disappointment really. The overall skill level was lower than I had expected. I don’t claim to be an expert but I could easily have beaten the majority of people there. I sound really big-headed saying that but I don’t mean it. I am just better than most people.

The rest of Saturday was just general chit-chat with the housemates who hadn’t gone home for the weekend. I also discovered more details about Thursday night. The grazes and cuts all over my body can be explained by the fact I fell down the steps outside our house.

I feel I should now address an issue that some people have vaguely questioned me about. I’ve met loads of new girls in the past few weeks, so have I met “the one”? I don’t know. There has been a few girls I’ve been interested in but my views have altered once I’ve got to know them better. There is one girl who I have my eye on at the moment but chances are that will come to nothing. I think there may be a girl who likes me but I’m just not attracted to her even if she is attracted to me. So, in summary, it looks like I will be staying single for the foreseeable future, which may or may not be a good thing.

Man 3 is Angry

Another day of primary education, today focusing on foundation subjects. The day began with Religious Studies (RS). We looked a little at the national curriculum for RS and then looked in detail about how you might plan a lesson. We followed one of the plans based on a lesson about angels, so we talked about angels for ages. Towards the end the tutor asked if anyone thought it was all complete rubbish and I was the only one who put my hand up. Spot the atheist in the room! I think I may well discuss my religious beliefs (or rather, lack of) in a future post.

Next up was music. This involved some rhythm games including one where we took it in turns to say things like our name and how we got to uni this morning. One time it was animals and I decided to be inventive and said “mongoose”. I came unstuck when the next time it was make the noise of that animal! We then sang some kid’s songs such as “I have an aunty, an aunty Monica” and “Infantry, Calvary, soldiers of Sweden and artillery”. You may well recognise those from your own childhood.

After some lunch I had art, which was basically two hours of drawing. We drew with our eyes closed, drew our journey to uni and drew by touch. We also did a drawing using ink and a stick of willow, which I will put below. Baring in mind my lack of artistic skill it’s not bad:

This evening I went with two of my housemates to see a comedy sketch show called “Clever Peter”. I was slightly drunk by the time I arrived which may have helped but I thought it was pretty good. It wasn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever seen but it was a decent enough evening out. Some of the sketches were really clever. Today’s blog title comes from the show too.

I then with my housemate Josh to the local pub where I got very drunk. Among other drunk incidents I spilt half my drink over the table at one point. Our housemates suddenly appeared and dragged (properly literally) us home. It is at this point where my memory gets a little hazy. I wandered round the student village a little, looking for someone but was dragged inside my a housemate. I then refused to go to bed and was sick a fair bit. I think it may have been the most drunk I have ever been. I was completely gazeboed.

Things I’ve learnt…

…over the last two days.

That Winchester sorting office is a long long walk away. My friend Louise received post that hadn’t been properly paid for so we had to go collect it from the sorting office. Forty minutes it took, mostly uphill. I was exhausted.

That I can still be a guy. I’ve made a friend who is a guy and straight. In this uni that’s fairly rare. I actually had a conversation with this guy about girls. It’s been a while. In general I am getting on OK with my new group but I think I still preferred the old one.

That Domino’s pizza is cheap on a Tuesday. Buy one get one free, Tuesday’s only. This is a service that may be used a fair bit in the future.

That a man putting a lock in your front door can make you have a dream that someone is trying to break in. This actually happened this morning. But after a week we actually have a lock on our front door, and security! I feel safe!

That King Arthur’s round table is massive. We went to see this on the way to do some shopping and it has a diameter of 18 foot. Yes, this is the actual table from the legends. It’s amazing and I love living in such a historic city.

That Primark do actually have some nice clothes. Having never been to Primark and knowing they were cheap I assumed that everything would be crap. When I was made to go in by my housemates I actually found an awesome T-shirt. It’s got Pacman on it. I did have to spend ages following round a female housemate though. Girls + clothes shop= bored bloke.

That walking back to campus with a ten-pack of Coke is hard work. My arms were shaking from the strain. It may be wise not to do that again.

That I love The Apprentice. The new series started today and I decided to watch it rather than go to the pub with my housemates. How sad am I? But then I have to be up early in the morning anyway so it’s better I stay here rather than staggering back home in the early hours.

That this is quite an entertaining format for a blog post. I saw this elsewhere and thought I would give it a go. It makes it a bit more interesting than the usual so I may do it from time to time. Tomorrow I have RS (religious studies), music and art which is a proper primary school sounding day. I love doing primary education! See you tomorrow!

I Make Snow

Our first week of proper seminars and lectures began with a lecture about the core subjects. It was an introduction to English, maths and science and we did a little exercise for each. The science bit was the best. They gave us a cup of “clear liquid” and a cup of “white powder” and we were told to pour one into the other. It frothed up and turned into snow! We made artificial snow in a lecture theatre. How flipping amazing is this course.

It was straight from there to an English seminar. For the first semester we are doing speaking and listening and today was all about storytelling. We mostly told stories and spent an age listening to the tutor tell us a random story. It was an enjoyable seminar though and I look forward to a semester of doing this.

Final thing of the day was a professional studies lecture. Professional studies (PS) is literally studying the profession of teaching and the first section is child development. In this first lecture we learnt about the research done into children’s development by the likes of Mr Vygotsky (he had a great name!) It’s really interesting stuff but quite complicated.

We then returned home and my friend showed me where she lives in Bristol (quite nice). We then took full advantage of me having a TV and randomly watched Escape to the Country. Nobody ever buys a house on that programme, what is the point in it? It’s just an excuse to look at nice houses for half an hour.

After my friend had left and my housemates went to the pub my friend Louise came round and we watched some Mitchell and Webb Look DVDs. This was good fun and then my housemates returned, most of them being rather drunk. It was very funny for sober me. Normally I’m the drunk one! They’ll pay for this in the morning!

‘Flu, TV and Quizzing

So, second weekend at Uni. A bit odd but that’s normal life when you go to university.

Saturday was a day of sleep and feeling shit from Fresher’s ‘Flu. I felt ill and I hate that. The furthest I went was the laundrette as I had to do some washing. To save myself £1 on drying I had all my clothes hung up around my room but they took ages to dry that way.

Sunday was much better. My mum and dad came to visit which was really nice and they took me for a pizza from Pizza Hut. It’s weird how much you don’t realise you’re missing someone until you actually see them. But I’m a big boy and I can cope with that. Besides, they brought me two massive lumps of cheese (yes, a cheese review coming soon) and bought me an aerial, so now I can watch actual TV in my room. I have about twenty channels which is really cool though they appear to be in no particular order so I need to write down which channel is which. It’s so nice actually having TV again, I’ve missed it!

This evening I went with my housemates and some of my friends to the quiz at the student union. It was rather amusing as one round was porn counterparts to famous films though Dean off of next door made up some better ones (Spunking in the rain anyone?). I did rather well at history, Doctor Who and myths. TARDIS is obviously Time And Relative Dimensions In Space! After pessimism about our chances (with a team name of “We’re gonna lose”) we actually came tied 4th out of ten team which isn’t bad at all. We were all rather chuffed.

The day ended with a bunch of random people in our house as I randomly sung in songs that I like. I sense a misery going round the campus today. I know at least three people having relationship problems now they have been separated from their partner and I guess this must feel horrible. But I don’t even have that. I’ve been single for nearly six months and I’m a bit fed up of it. So if a lovely lady of Winchester would like to change that, let me know

Zombies and School Resources

Hello dear readers, wherever you happen to be in the world. I’m pretty amazed at how many of you there are now. Don’t forget to say hello by leaving a comment!

Back to work today with a session based on the essays we wrote. It was all peer-marked so the pressure wasn’t too bad. Mine was actually reasonably good though I must remember to proof-read in the future, the number of typos and silly mistakes was ridiculous. We then had a quick tour of student services, the place to go if we have any problems.

After a few hours break we had a tour of the school resources section of the library. Basically it’s like a kids library and has all sorts of story books, textbooks, toys, posters etc that can be taken out into the classroom when we are on placement. It’s an amazing place and I look forward to when I need to use it.

So that was it, our induction is over. Next week we start proper. For some reason I can’t fathom we have been moved from the groups we’ve been in and have to go and meet another whole set of people. I know a couple of people in my new group but not many. The odd thing about my new timetable is how we do all the subjects, everything from maths to technology to music. It’s like being in primary school again!

I was supposed be going out to night but a mixture of not being very happy and feeling a bit ill stopped me. I think I may well have Fresher’s ‘Flu. Goodness knows what I will be like by tomorrow.

Anyway, instead I decided to watch Shaun of the Dead. And I loved it. I have a strange obsession with anything to with zombies and I love a good comedy and this ticks both of those boxes. For such a silly film it does have some serious moments though and I think this made it even better. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are amazing in it and there were so many faces in their I recognised. One of the best films I’ve seen in a while. Awesome.

And before I go, I should mention that I have been awarded my first blog award: The One Lovely Blog Award (given to me by Jodiee). Apparently I have to nominate fifteen others and I shall do this in a few days, as part of my October Blogs of Note. Hopefully this will be the first of many!