Recently in University Category

Right. Sorry for not updating for a while those of you who do read this - I've been really busy finishing my last year at Uni.

I did my dissertation on changes to sedimentary regimes due to tidal barrage schemes. It doesn't sound very interesting, but I found it fascinating! That scored a first in the end, so I was quite delighted with that score!

I graduated  with a high 2.i (68%. Grr.) so I'm really pleased with that mark- now all I need to do is get a JOB.

Biscuit died last month. I've missed her ever so much - I'll write about it in a separate post. It's amazing how much you can love something so small, and how big a hole they leave when they go. But she helped me through Uni and for that I'm eternally grateful to her!

I have every intention of keeping this better updated from now on. Promise. When I have something exciting to say, I'll say it, instead of thinking "I really have to update the blog at some point...".

The other week my double divan here gave up the ghost and so my landlord bought me a replacement (which is considerably more comfortable and has more storage under it).

When my housemates saw the scrap parts of the old bed, its small wheels and iminent trip to the tip, a thought occurred - we live on a steep hill. There can only be one purpose for the remaining bed.

Bed Racing.

Last night, a race was had between the two halves of the divan I hear; one of my housemates has demolished his two front teeth and most of the bottom of his face after playing chicken with the wall at the bottom, and I'm reliably informed that a randomer who joined in may have broken his ankle. If he did and he ever reads this, I'm sorry you got hurt!

However the other 6 who had a go escaped unscathed - could this be the beginning of a new sport?

I think not somehow.

After New Year's we drove Ceri back over to Derby, picked up my kite kit (and put it into my nice shiney new black and blue PKD drybag, it's so good that I colour - co-ordinate) and headed back on over to Bangor.

My return saw two new major purchases - I finally paid for the 7.5m Combat so now I own most of a set - the majority of the set I will ever use, and I bought a drysuit from eBay - a 2 year old crewsaver drysuit, it's hardly had any use out of it and was a bargain at a mere £58 + postage.

Revision and kiting pretty much filled up the majority of January - we went to Black Rock Sands for a session, the wind being inexistent to start with but picking up around lunch time to a fairly steady 12mph.

Kev caught a cold off Sam just after New Years, now wandering about with barely a limp, so his scheduled op to remove his loose screws (yes I found his loose screws funny too) was cancelled so he stayed south for longer, meaning when my exams were finally over I returned north with him to compete in the SPKA races on the 27th and had the chance to try out my new suit.

I'm now back and into Semester 2 with some of the most boring modules you could ever imagine - Soils and Contamination (soily pollution), Ecosystems and the Environment (soil and air pollution) and Earth and Ocean Observation (which consists of pretty much just marine acoustics and their acompanying formulae).

I am scheduled for going on the RV Prince Madog on Friday and Monday this week and next - weather permitting that is; so far the forecast is for gales on Friday.

Saturday will hopefully see some very chilly WSYC racing - I will be mostly taking my dive thermals for underneath that shiny suit of mine!

Returning to Bangor also made me say goodbye once again to the unforgetable Owyn - the very fat and growing rapidly goldfish residing in mum's tank. I really wish I could keep pet's here!

Well, Dad was laughing and joking before my return to Bangor speculating how long I could go without a visit to Gwynedd Hospital A&E and I think I did pretty well to make it this far.

 Last night We Are Scientists played in Bangor. My housemates and I have had our tickets booked since the 15th of September and we were all very much looking forward to walking 50 yards down the road to watch them play in Time.

 The doors opened at 8 and the two support bands played, I bought an "i are scientists" t-shirt and all was good. Then the Scientists came on; Jenny, Christie and I were 2 rows from the front.

 Now I'm all for a good time and wasn't too bothered by being wedged in and crushed by wave after wave of rampant fans because most of them were the same size as me - but Jenny and Christie are considerably smaller than I and most often found their faces wedged against someone elses sweaty back, so got pulled out. I didn't want to stay there by myself so got pulled too - thats when it happened.

 As the Security Guard lowered me, I think I was ever so slightly longer than he was expecting and he had to take a step back to get me down. This meant my fingers became wedged between his security-gurad-build frame, my camera and the corner of one of the speakers.

It didn't hurt to start with but then the pain set in to my right hand ring finger and it was the strong pain I've come to associate with breaking small bones. It swelled up pretty well and went a lovely shade of magenta compared to my other white fingers and the other security guards downstairs taped it together with my middle finger, we were bought free cocktails and went back into the crowd to finish watching WAS.

Afterwards we took a jolly up to one of my favourite places to spend time in Bangor, Ysbyty Gwynedd!

 The doctor there poked and prodded it, made me bend it (which I could do pretty well, because it was only the very end bone that was hurting) and decided oweing to the shooting pains up my hand and lower arm it was probably broken but there's no need to x-ray because they'd do the same thing if it was broken or not, and strap it together.

 So now I'm being advised to get an extension on my essay because I can't type properly (this alone has taken me damn near half an hour to write) by everyone else doing the essay (such a sense of comraderie, haha) and everything is taking longer because I'm much slower with my left hand - Maybe I should take a leaf from Kev's book and shout "I can't do it, I'm a cripple!"?

Well, I'm back, have moved into our 7-bedroom Victorian end-terraced house, begun to decorate, nearly finished setting up the club with the others and bought a t.v. I haven't really stopped!

 I got out the other day on my 4.8 Combat, I had a well deserved thrashing (face it, I was due one) but I didn't have the nerve to snap my ankle and have it pinned - I know if that had have happened I would never have heard the end of it (for having footstraps on my buggy, obviously). Haven't been out since and am beginning to get twitchy.

 Dive wise I haven't been in the water since Stoney, though to be honest the weather hasn't been fit for it here and the dive club haven't been very active.

I began to decorate my room the first weekend I was here - pale blue, white and "chocolate truffle" - but unfortunately some evil stomach bug (believed to have been caused by some dodgy ham) took my body on the Monday and I never got it finished. And now, I can't be bothered or the wind is too good.

The most exciting news I have is I bought a t.v. I did have an adapter for my laptop, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to want to receive terrestrial channels and only picks up about two decent digital channels and every shopping channel under the sun. So yesterday, when I saw a 14" t.v. advertised for sale on the discussion boards, I did buy it. I promptly spent the rest of the day watching rubbish.

 Soon it all starts to move quickly again - I'm busy every single week in November for some reason or another and my October weekends are quickly being booked - a good timetable (with lots of weeks off, for one reason or another) and an early finish for Christmas mean I'll be off for 5 weeks over the festive season and that's all pretty much booked up too! It's a busy life being a student...

The day we went to Bangor!

 On Wednesday I make my way back West towards sunshine and the seaside, as well as my kite club and a double bed! I've enjoyed the summer but I'm really looking forward to getting stuck back into Uni and the club, doing more diving this year than ever before and starting to race at Hoylake.

 I better go now anyway and get stuck into something constructive like packing my stuff up ready and formatting my laptop.

Bye for now! xx

Tomorrow is my last day working at the Mill Wheel. I've really enjoyed it over the summer though it has been very challenging!

On Monday I catch the bus and then the plane up to Kev's house to chill out for a bit before the Euros on the 8th. After that I'm on my way back to Bangor, where there is a double bed in a house full of people I don't really know waiting for me, along with the kite club, the dive club and all my friends who I've not seen over the summer.

I've enjoyed summer here as much as bad weather and some situations have allowed. The other day we had a shrew in the house that took so long to catch! I doubt, somehow, we'll have shrew-issues in Bangor though you never know haha.

I'll miss the shrews and the tawny owls (we saw one the other night, but had two on the foor a couple of weeks ago), the newts (when we had a bonfire last week we rescued about 50!) and the toads. But I'm looking forward to the beach and the mountains and, of course, a double bed!

That's it, my first year of Uni over in, well, a year probably, but it seems like so much less time. It feels like only yesterday I was unpacking my stuff in the room on Ffridd, now I'm unpacking it all again here for 3-4months.

 In that time I've seen friends change, made new ones, lost new ones, found old ones - I have my lovely fish (rest in peace, Dennis) - and watched the seagulls nesting.

 I've spent many MANY hours on the beach (perhaps too many hours in retrospect, but living near the sea you can't really turn it down) with some of the best company I could have picked.

But it's so good to be here!

This morning I watched a parent woodpecker feeding a chick from our bedroom window.

Sigh. I'm going to enjoy this summer.

Well as of yesterday thats all my exams finally out of the way!

Just my presentation to go now and hand in my essay (which I've pretty much finished anyway) and then I can go HOME.

 Woo!

Was just digging through my folders on my laptop and found the photo of the Mathematical Rocket Penguin.

The paragraph says "Innaccuracies in given data in which calculations are based are called [illegible word, sorry Mr Emsley] errors." And the script next to the rocket penguin says "Mathematical Rocket Penguin - Saving the world from Mathematical Errors Once again!"

I think at this point its quite obvious why I couldn't answer the question in the Key Skills paper.