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The Revision Rush

So last week I received my exam timetable. I also got the hand-in dates for all of my coursework projects confirmed. Guess what. They’re all in the same 2 week block. THIS two week block to be precise. Whereas most of my friends have their exams spread over three or four weeks, giving them time to do project work and revision, everything about mine means that I’ll be trying to revise whilst doing coursework as well. Hopefully, I’ll get it done.

I’ve made a plan and it gives me just about enough time to get everything done to an adequate standard, but we’ll see how it goes.

Does anyone else have an abundance of deadlines to be meeting soon?

Justins Job and New Icons!

So today was the grand opening of John Lewis At Home in Newbury and the first day of Justin’s new job in store. Let’s hope it’s better for him than his previous employment history!

I popped along to the opening of the store and I was first struck by the fact that they had employed a band to play at the front of the shop where customers would be greeted by live music.

The band that greeted you upon entry to the store.

Looking around, the shop was packed full of everything you’d expect. Kitchenware, towels, bedding etc. Everything you could want was provided and there was an especially large display of London 2012 Olympic merchandise.

But possibly the best area in the store was the electronics department, staffed by our very own Justin! Unfortunately he was far too busy to notice me, but he looked very professional whilst talking his customers through the benefits of different electrical systems.

Justin, looking professional with a customer.

The other thing I’ve done with my day is to create some new “Blavatars” or Blog Icons for both Running Jump and Eat, Sleep, Procrastinate – my second blog. You can check these out in the left hand side of your adress bar and most likely in the Reader, if you follow the blogs, which I reccomend you do!

Have a nice weekend!

Where Have You Been?

Well, this IS awkward. Not two. Posts after saying I neglected blogging, I once again neglected blogging. I wish I had an excuse…

So things that I’ve been doing are many and varied and rest assured you’ll hear about them soon. I mean I can’t let justin struggle on through holding this blog up by himself any longer. We’d never get views! ;)

So here we go: a final attempt at blogging on a more regular(ish) schedule. I’m nervous about having interesting things to talk about but I guess I’ll have to do it.

A good weekend

This post has no theme, no message, no real content of any sort. I’ve just had a really nice weekend and wanted to write about it.

When the sole reason that you’re coming home is because you need to go to a dentist to stop your tooth from hurting, you wouldn’t think that it would be the best weekend ever. But, alas, early Friday morning I was in the car and pootling down the motorway, back to Thatcham. The dentist sorted everything out and it hasn’t hurt since (touch wood it won’t hurt again!). My dentists appointment was at 11:35 so I had the rest of the day free and decided to join my mum in town for a bit of shopping before heading home for lunch. I spent the afternoon reading books and doing some uni work, in an effort to stay on top of everything.
Saturday started with a visit to my Grandad, something which I always enjoy as he is a truly lovely and interesting man. Then it was back home for some more work, before getting dressed and heading in to my old job. Since I was back, I thought I might as well pick up some shifts as I enjoy having an extra bit of money. Work passed quickly, and the new manager is a really nice guy, so I enjoyed myself there and it was nice not to be closing for once.
Sunday was a lazy morning, taking the dog for a stroll then doing more work and back off to KFC for the next shift in the evening. Home and to bed and we find ourselves here, on Monday morning, writing a blog post before driving back to Portsmouth.

What did you guys do on your weekend?

Rob gets cultural with food shopping

My housemate wanted chilies. That’s how this story started and it took a slight turn for the cultural. There’s a corner shop and an asian food shop at the end of our road, so off we tottered in search of fresh chili peppers. No such luck, though the amount of asian cuisine in there was outstanding. My personal favourite being the dehydrated wheat snack.

In a moment of inspiration we decided to turn our sights to the local Polish food store a few roads down. Crammed full of Polish goodies, including a delicious looking assortment of fudge snacks and “wodka” a spiced vodka variant, we enventually left the shop in a state of wonder and delight, albeit sans chilies.

Onwards then to the Mediterranean shop just along the street! Here we hit the jackpot with a huge selection of chilies on offer right by the door. Other treasures that we discovered included an entire mango for around 90pence, hot sauce for 54pence and a large selection of wheats and grains, chief amongst which was my personal favourite, Bulgur wheat!

Our final stop on the culture trail was the chinese food shop, where a large block of tofu could be yours for just £1.35, an absolute bargain if it were not for the fact that tofu is disgusting! All the staples of chinese cuisine were here ranging from sesame oil to the wide variety of noodles. Even a cheap version of Mikado sticks were there!

The moral of the story? Go to local cultural food shops! You’ll be surprised by what is out there!

Reflections from a short walk

I went on a little walk today. I was meant to be meeting Justin, who I’m sure you all know, for coffee in town and rather than drive there I thought I’d walk for once, as it wasn’t really that far.
I haven’t been for a casual walk into the broadway in my hometown for a little while and as I was walking past places that I used to walk past all the time I started remembering all the times I’d done this before. The houses shown in the picture at the top are three thatched cottages on the main road using local reeds for the thatching, which is how the town got its name. When I was a little boy, I had a fascination with these roofs, in part because I knew it meant that I was nearly home and in part because I loved the work that had gone into the animal shapes that the thatchers had put on top. It was a big thing to me as a kid to see that and know that uniqueness and individuality were things that people like and appreciate.
At the bottom of the page is a picture of the wall that is on my walk home from my old school. This wall always seemed strong and sturdy, like a wall should. Now, as you can see it lies toppled and broken, a result of the strong winds we had in December and an all too humbling reminder that we aren’t invincible, no matter how strong we might seem and how stable we might look. Given enough force even the strongest wall will tumble, no matter what those 3 pigs might say…

Rob sums up everything

Hello, it’s been a while!
I guess I had better fill you guys in on what I’ve been doing since I haven’t been posting. Here we go.

So I made a few birthday cakes, there’ll be a blog on that soon, maybe not here but I shouldn’t foreshadow! They went down a treat and were a lot of fun to do. I made a really cheap, really simple parrot costume for a party, met a lot of new people, developed friendships with some existing people, cooked a christmas dinner for 8 people, all of whom were full of compliments for Tom and I, swapped gifts with some uni friends and then I came home for the holidays.

Whew, lemme catch my breath. Ok, part 2.

I got home, helped decorate the house, did a ton of christmas baking, wrapped presents, celebrated christmas (did not have to cook this one), caught up with old friends, introduced new and old friends and went for a walk, drank a copious amount of coffee, had a sober new years eve filled with board games, wrote 2 assignments and drove back to hand them in, worked at my old job, went to a volunteering fayre, drove back to Portsmouth again, drank a dangerous amount of caffeine to write a consultancy report in a short space of time (I should have started earlier), handed it in, had the worst caffeine comedown ever and then drove back to spend a week relaxing at home, which I am currently doing.

Oh and I started a new blog, you should probably check that out…Eat, Sleep, Procrastinate

So what did you guys get up to whilst I was gone?

Napping

The Nap - A little recharge of your batteries!

The Nap – A little recharge of your batteries!

We all have done it at some point, I’m sure. Yes, even you. The one person sat there thinking “I most definitely have not!” We have all, at some point, had a nap.

Once seen as an activity reserved solely for small children and the older generation, napping has recently seen a resurgence for the younger generation. Or perhaps it’s just us lazy students…

A lot of people that I know don’t like napping. They think it wastes time that you could be doing other, more productive things in. To them, naps are seen as an activity undertaken by the slovenly, work-shy amongst us. To these people, I say “Take a nap and see how you feel afterwards!”

Naps are something special. They make you feel healthy and recharged, ready to keep going throughout the day. As an example, I used to have an early lecture, followed by a relatively large gap in my timetable, before having another lecture that afternoon. Now, some days I used to go into town and do some shopping to waste away the hours before my next lecture, but mostly I napped. Just for an hour or so, I would come home, settle back on to my bed and take a little nap to get me ready for the afternoon so that I wouldn’t be doing “The Nodding Dog” in my lecture.

All in all, naps are great! Just try to limit them to an hour or so, otherwise it just becomes another sleep and that can really mess up your body clock.

Sweet dreams ;)

Napping is perfectly acceptable when you're a student

Napping is perfectly acceptable when you’re a student