I Predict The Past

This is a good opportunity to look at a ‘typical’ week since I’ve started placement. I say typical because every week is invariably different, but still serves as an example in itself.

Last week started with climbing on Monday evening. I think I’ve already said that I want to get back into climbing this year, and part of that is my goal of going climbing every week. It’s difficult at the moment because my climbing partners (Jonsey and Lauren) are not in Guildford, so I’ve been climbing on my own the first two times. It’s been a good way to ease into it, but I’m glad I’ve found a climbing buddy to go with this week :D

Tuesday was a crazy day. I spent the day at work making labels for jack fields on the OB truck (and if you didn’t understand that sentence you’ll understand why I’m not talking about what I’m doing on placement in much detail on the blog…) Then I went from work straight to my favourite restaurant, Wagamammas. A few friends and I had a meal then went ice skating at the Guildford Spectrum. Definitely something I need to find time to do more often, and I realised that my friend Katherine is amazing at figure skating!

On Wednesday I was sent to the Emirates stadium again to configure, install and troubleshoot more TV’s. Then, in the evening, I made the most of being in London and went to visit the folks. We went to Victoria’s for a spot of cider and a mini-celebration about my good news.

My good news was about work. I’m going to Switzerland for a few weeks for Sony. I’ve been assigned to an exciting project designing, installing, testing and maintaining a system for a Swiss broadcaster. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say without breaking an NDA, but needless to say it’s quite exciting and an opportunity I wasn’t about to let pass me by!

On Thursday, work was a bit slow for the first time in days. While that sounds like a good thing, you should know I love being busy, and I’m itching to get started on the Swiss project. So I did a lot of research and generally kept myself busy. In the evening, Ben came over and we did some MAD TV editing.

That brings us to the weekend, which was far from typical and requires a whole post of it’s own! Mum had organised a family gathering for her dad’s 80th and everyone came along. Oh, and we were camping in a barn :P

See you all, maybe tomorrow, for that story :)

• Happiness. 10 out of 10
• Tiredness. 5 out of 5 (I knew I would be)
• Free Time. 0 out of 5 (which is a bit overkill, but I do love it)
• Last Meal. Strudel. How many times is that now?
• Song of the day. The Kooks – Inside In/Inside Out Album
• Thought for the day. If public transport fails from a single signal failure, bring on the Olympics :D
• What I’m Doing Now. Finishing the latest MAD TV report with Ben and Claire, look out for it on www.madtvsurrey.co.uk tomorrow…

Just A Little Bit More

Given the time you can see I should be in bed. Especially since I need to be up at 6am to be at the Emirates stadium tomorrow…

But I wanted to continue with the story a little bit.

The day after Grad Ball I met up with Josh in town to sort out this Natwest business once and for all. I could write a new Encyclopaedia Britannia on the problems they’ve caused me in the last year, but once both Josh and I were present, it only took just over half an hour to get money out of the account. Horray! Just a shame the 21st century invention of “bank transfers” hasn’t made it to their planet yet, otherwise Josh and I would not have had to walk down the high street with just under £3,000 in cash…

Anywho, my plan for the rest of the day was to help crew with Guilfest, but to be honest with you, I fell asleep. Yup, the working week was getting to me and finally caught up. I slept for almost 16 hours straight. It was gooooooooood.

Then on Sunday I did go to Guilfest! I helped out Colin Arnold, who produced The Fallow Field. He’s currently following a band called Subsource on tour for a documentary he’s producing. I was called in to be a camera operator for him and was more than obliged. It was great fun and a real insight into how live shows are produced in the industry, instead of the rubbish stage crew way. It also gave me a chance to see a real OB van actually working in the field. Albeit palling in comparison to the 3D HD beasts at Sony, it was still interesting.

In the evening I couldn’t help but go and see The King Blues live! Got a few videos too :P Here’s my favourite song of all time:

Also have videos of my favourite poem in the world and the encore

And that was my weekend in a nutshell. Signalling the start of a new working week. I’m only a week behind myself now, I’ll try and cover last week tomorrow. Beauties such as climbing, ice skating, going home and the cabin all to come! And that work surprise that I’m sure you all know about now… :D

• Happiness. 10 out of 10
• Tiredness. 3 out of 5 (but I’ll be shattered tomorrow)
• Free Time. 0 out of 5 (actually true)
• Last Meal. Oh my God! The best roast dinner ever cooked by Tamsin’s little sister. Truly amazing :D
• Song of the day. Macy Gray – I Try
• Thought for the day. Who’s idea was it to put the weekend right at the end of the week, such a long wait…
• What I’m Doing Now. I was editing a MAD TV video coming out on Wednesday with Claire :)

100% Of The Time, I Get 75.2% All The Time

I haven’t really figured out what I’m doing with this blog while I’m on placement. It’s not like I have anything less to say, I just have less time to word it. If you have any ideas for what I can do while I’m on placement, then I’m all ears.

First thing to talk about is those results. I got them a couple weeks ago now, and my estimate of 76% wasn’t far off. I got 75.2% :)

That’s another first. My highest mark was 87% for programming. That’s not really a surprise when you factor in the 98% for the coursework. My lowest mark was Electronics 6, only 59%. I said on here that would be the hardest exam, and it definitely was. I’m really happy with my 77% in Computer Vision, that’s the one where I played with teapots. A little confused about how I only got 69% in labs, because the media project went really well…

Ah well, a first is a first. Although I do have to say I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get over 80%, but if you look at the year as a whole, with MAD TV and Sony, I think I can live with my decisions.

There’s so much more to talk about, we’re a good 2 weeks behind. On Friday 19th Frankie and I went to Grad Ball with the MAD TV camera to film the occasion. It was a brilliant night and makes me look forward to graduating! Not long now :S

Frankie and I having a great evening gate crashing grad ball and eating lots of strawberries and chocolate :P

You may have noticed that I’ve changed my hair slightly, it more… ‘up’ now. I was getting bored of having short hair and I thought placement was a good opportunity to try something new. So far I’m loving it, can’t believe I never tried this before!

We’ll leave it there for today, but we’ve still got lots to include such as the bank I love to hate, The King Blues live (again) and then everything I did last week!

Phew! I would just do a bullet point list, but some recent events we’re too good for that.

Try and see you tomorrow!

• Happiness. 10 out of 10
• Tiredness. 3 out of 5
• Free Time. 1 out of 5
• Last Meal. Bacon sandwiches (roast tomorrow!)
• Song of the day. John Mayer – Gravity
• Thought for the day. At the end of the day, all you have is tomorrow morning
• What I’m Doing Now. Being very happy :o)

PS pictures from this weekend :)

PPS I also have some very exciting news about work coming up…

June: The Best Moment

June was exam month in every sense of the word. Well, there is only one sense of that word, but that’s definitely what it was.

There were a few good points to June, despite the exams. My last day of revising was definitely one. Me and a few of my course mates spent the whole day in the library revising for our last exam. It went really well and is definitely the reason I got 77% in that exam. Oh yea, that’s right! I got my results on Thursday :P I’ll give you the full breakdown in the next post, but I got another 1st!

Anywho, back to June and the best moment. I thought this month would be hands down won by one party in particular that happens at the end of every year… but there was a very good contender.

One of my friends hired a bouncy castle for the day. It was a lovely summer day, BBQ in tow and a lot of friends and their friends. It was a great day, met a few new people and spent too many hours bouncing :)

But the best moment of June was by far the lake party. Despite not remembering more of it than I care to remember, it was such a good laugh. So many friends, the music, the atmosphere, the full English breakfast… just quality.

And June can’t be mentioned without a least saying something about Wimbledon! Such a quality day, honestly one of the best days of my life ever! If I hadn’t been to Wimbledon before last year this day would have won hands down, but I wanted to give it to the lake party because it was something incredible that I’d never done before.

Turns out picking a best moment for June was harder than I thought… I think because of the stress of exams right up until the end of June, the last 10 days proved to be quite special. June really was a month of highs and lows. The lake party, Wimbledon and the bouncy castle coupled with moving house, arguments and revision. A tough month, but with a well worth-while reward.

The Tracks Of Life

Just chugging along the tracks of life. Work, sleep, work, sleep. Most of my housemates are away at the moment. Claire is in France and Frankie has gone home, so it’s just me and Tam holding fort at the moment. It’s good times, actually appreciating the space of the last few days. Work has been slower, but there’s still enough going on to be occupied, and since most people are out of town at the moment it seems not much is happening at home.

Which is good. It’s given me time to sort out some finances (Natwest grrrr) and make a start on my cork wall :D

(click the pic if you want to go larger)

I’ve got plenty to be getting on with at home, I should really dust off that list of things I’ve been putting off until after the exams…

Rumour has it that I will be getting my results in the next week… I would like to make a prediction if I may. I have not got much to go on, but I’m guessing I will get 76% this year. There you go. Money where your mouth is and all that. Fingers crossed.

• Happiness. 8 out of 10
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5
• Free Time. 3 out of 5
• Last Meal. Lovely noodle stir fry made with Tam’s loving hands
• Song of the day. Eminem ft. Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie
• Thought for the day. Sometimes you just have to jump off a bridge & hope that you will learn how to fly on the way down
• What I’m Doing Now. Did someone say strudel?

Just My Luck

• Monday. My first day at Sony. Nnaoma and I had a tour of the office, as well as the obligatory training on how to lift a box and climb a ladder. Then we were shown around production floor where there are currently three OB trucks. To finish off the day we saw a 3D test setup that is being worked on. In the evening I went to a friend’s BBQ.
• Tuesday. Nnaoma and I packed away 24 production cameras for two Egyptian trucks. At one point, while carrying a very heavy lens we were told it was worth £250,000! On later research it appears the lens is only worth £150,000, so it didn’t really matter if we dropped it… In the evening I went to a friends house to play board games and eat strudel :)
• Wednesday. We were assigned onto a project for Arsenal Emirates football stadium, which requires configuring 120 Sony TV’s to work on the content distribution system in the stadium. It was good fun, but tiring work. In the evening we had a MAD TV meeting :)
• Thursday. You didn’t think we configured all 120 screens in one day do you? A full day of configuring, followed by some admin.
• Friday. We went to Arsenal Emirates to configure some more TV’s. Shown around the players lounge, Diamond club and (personally my favourite part) the TV gallery where the video feeds are directed and edited to some 500 screens around the stadium, including the 2 big screens at the corners of the pitch.

Nnaoma and I outside Emirates after finishing early on Friday

All in all a very good first week. And by very good, I mean it was too good for words! On more than one occasion I found myself just smiling at the realisation that I was working for Sony, and that this was only the beginning!

So that was the good part of the week. However, my evenings tell a different story…

My bike has become the bane of my measly existence since last Sunday. It’s had it’s brakes replaces, tyres changed and new inner tubes and how does it repay me? 4 punctures. In two days!! Grr.

Also Natwest continue to amaze me at their definition of “bank” but seem to fit perfectly into the definition of “arseholes”. They seem to have ‘lost’ (for want of a better word) three signatures from the account we have with them. HOW CAN SOMEONE BE A SIGNATORY ON AN ACCOUNT IF THEY DON’T HAVE A SINGNATURE! And at what point did closing a bank account mean “oh yea, don’t worry about it. I’ve only asked you to close it every time you tell me I have one because it’s international opposite day” If I ever manage to get into the campus Natwest when it is open between half past unhelpful and quarter to piss off then they’re going to wish they weren’t born. Apologies for the expletives used in the last paragraph, they were unavoidable.

So that’s the deal so far, sorry about not posting all week, time gets away with you when you only have four hours in a day to yourself, I’ll endeavour to post more next week! I’ve got lots to look forward to including Guilfest at the weekend!

• Happiness. 8 out of 10 (now my bike is fixed…)
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5 (Sunday was invented for lie-ins)
• Free Time. 1 out of 5 (Thought I’d replace workload)
• Last Meal. Does pitta bread count?
• Song of the day. Mario – Let Me Love You
• Thought for the day. Engineering, like maths, but LOUDER
• What I’m Doing Now. Healing my hands after going climbing for the first time in ages

My Constants

Normality is a word that doesn’t have a meaning to me at the moment. Lots of things in my life are changing or taking a turn, but the last few days at my sisters and my parents has reminded me that I still have the most important thing in life that isn’t going anywhere, family.

I’ve moved house in the last week. It’s not been very stressful, i’ve taken my sweet time unpacking and it’s helped knowing the last person to live in my room really well. Also, everyone in the house has been living there for a year, so they’re all quite settled which means I’m going into a house that already has a good atmosphere and feels lived in. Much better than when I moved into Zion last year and everything was bare.

I’m also starting my placement today! If you’re wondering how this is up, I wrote it yesterday :) Right now I’ll have already had a couple hours working at SONY! I couldn’t be looking forward to this experience any more. It’s weird to have such a build up to this job which I know will change my life by giving me invaluable experience at one of the best technology companies in the world. It’s so exciting! That doesn’t mean I’m not nervous, but they’re good nerves rather than bad nerves.

It helps knowing that I’m not only starting with someone else on my first day, but there’s also an overlap with the current placement students, so there’s plenty of people who know exactly what I’m going through who can help answer any questions and show me the ropes.

I’m hoping to have a post up tomorrow about my first day, so stay tuned :D

• Happiness. 7 out of 10 (3-day headache is annoying)
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5 (up at 6:30am tomorrow for work!)
• Workload. 0 out of 10 (hell’s yea!)
• Last Meal. Cereal
• Song of the day. Train – Drops Of Jupiter
• Thought for the day. Given the infinite expanse of the universe, you'd like to think that all possibilities are probable
• What I’m Doing Now. Getting ready to show my parents the new house and have a BBQ in the garden :)

Special Post #36: Accommodation, Part 13 – Come In

A new chapter in my life started last week. I moved in to my new house 10 minutes walk from my old house. Come in and take a look around…

My room is on the ground floor with a big window looking out over the street. My room is much bigger than last year, it has a double bed (!) and a fireplace (!!). I’d put up some pictures, but it looks like a tip since I haven’t fully unpacked yet. Part of making the room a home has been putting up posters and a new cork wall above the fireplace.

The cork wall is about 1m by 1m and I’m planning on filling it with lots of pictures, ticket stubs, receipts and quotes from the last two years. I owe this idea to Sophie Dean :) Much like I did for my summer last year, but on a bigger scale. I’m really looking forward to creating it and having something to affirm my identity and all the good times I’ve had at university the last two years :)

My room shares a wall with the lounge which has a couple of sofas and a TV. Unlike last year in ZION, I can imagine spending a lot of my time in the lounge this year because it’s so cosy and used by everyone.

At the back of the house is the kitchen. It’s smaller than last year, but then it could hardly have been bigger. All the usual things you’d find are in there, even the kitchen sink :P

Upstairs is 3 bedrooms and the bathroom, and on the top floor is the largest room with an en-suite.

This year I’m living with 4 girls: Frankie, Claire, Sophie and Tamsin. Frankie studies Maths, Claire and Sophie study English and Tamsin studies Politics.

I know Frankie and Claire from MAD TV because they both present stories and have positions on the new committee. Claire is actually the new President of MAD TV next year and Frankie is the Treasurer, so I’m going to be very much in the loop as to what’s happening. I’m really excited to be in a position to join in with MAD TV, not as much as last year, but definitely in a helpful capacity.

Left to right: Claire, me, Frankie (mar ‘10)

Sophie Jones and I are good friends from first year, I can’t exactly remember how we met, but she’s a good friend and a great laugh to be around. She came on the recent boat trip at Easter and was the source of much amusement :D

Sophie winding a paddle on the boat trip (mar ‘10)

Tamsin is someone I didn’t really know until I moved in last week. She’s studying Politics and about to go into her final year, as are the other girls. We’ve got on really well in the last few days and seem to have a similar sense of humour.

I’m really looking forward to this year, it has the potential to be a completely different experience to university so far, but still really interesting and fun.

I’m the only one in the house going on placement, while the girls are going to be in their final year. I’m not sure how that’s going to affect things in the house, but we’re all going to be pretty busy so I can’t see it being a problem.

Talking about placement, I have my first day tomorrow! I know! Kept that one quiet didn’t I :P So you can guess what tomorrow’s post is going to be about. See you then :D

The End of Year 2: Part 7 – Bumble B Tuna

The last post in the series covering the modicum of events that hatched in the week after my last exam.

After the moral maze of Wednesday and Thursday that ended in me changing my decision on who to live with for the next 12 months, all my energy had been spent. The rest of the week comprised of me moving out of ZION and into 63 (as it shall now be known). With the help of Josh and his dad’s horse trailer, all my things (a lot as it turns out) moved 2 minutes down the road to my new home.

The rest of the time was a combination of tidying ZION before we all left, and playing with Bumble B Tuna. Bumble B Tuna is the name given to a cat that had taken to coming into the house and keeping us company on a daily basis:

Josh left the house on Thursday, Will on Friday and Viv on Saturday. On Sunday morning Anne left with her dad to travel back to Guernsey, and I was left all alone :(

I packed up the last of my things and sat in the garden for the last time… Using a Tesco shopping trolley to carry the last of the food in the freezer, I walked to 63. This was now my new home and my next new start.

Tomorrow is another accommodation post, since there’s a lot of that at the moment. I’ll introduce you to the house, my housemates and tell you how this year is going to be another memory masterpiece that’s just waiting to be painted :)

Special Post #35: Accommodation, Part 12 - The End of Year 2: Part 6 – A Change of Plan

Another post in the on-going series about all things to do with where I lay my head at night. It’s also part 6 in the almost-over-series about the week following my last second year exam, which was also coincidentally my last week in my first ever house, and the first few days in my second house!

In a post a couple of months ago I talked about my plans for living on my placement year. It was a hard decision to live in Guildford, but Basingstoke is only an hour’s commute away and getting to spend another year close to all my friends at university had to be done.

Josh had been asked by his best friend, Chris Nash, to live with him next year. Together with Chris Nash’s housemate Chris Ashton and me, we had enough people to get a house. Ashton and Nash looked at houses and eventually found one they liked. Josh and I looked around and agreed to get it. It was really exciting to know that I had a house with Josh next year, but even better given how great the house was!

Since then we’ve got together once as a house to meet the estate agent and pay the holding deposit for the house.

The tenancy for the house didn’t start until the middle of August, so between the end of June and mid-August I had nowhere to live. At first I was going to go home for 6 weeks and commute to Basingstoke from London, but then a few of my friends told me that they had a spare room I could use…

Frankie and Claire from MAD TV had a room in their house that they hadn’t found a housemate for yet. They needed a 5th housemate for the whole year and I was their first choice. At first I declined living with them for the whole year because I was already planning on living with Josh, but I told them I could live there for 6 weeks over summer. This made the commute a lot easier, and meant being in Guildford for Guilfest, Phil’s graduation and other things. It was a done deal, all they needed to do was find someone to take the other 11 months and I could pay them back the months rent.

The reason I declined to live there for the whole year at first was because I didn’t want to let Chris and Josh down by backing out of the house deal now. The Thorpe Park trip last week was meant to be a time to meet Chris and Chris and find out more about the people I was going to live with for a year. In the end, Chris Ashton had to cancel and Chris Nash spent the whole day with Josh and Jess and not everyone else. That was the chance I had to get to know my future housemates before living with them. That evening I did a lot of thinking.

Since my other friends still hadn’t found a 5th housemate, and I still hadn’t signed a contract for the house, I was in a position to make a decision. Do I stick to my guns and live with Josh in a great house, but possibly not get on with Chris and Chris? Or do I live with Frankie and Claire, who I know I get on with? There were other factors that went into the decision that aren’t fair to go into on a public blog, but it’s fair to say it wasn’t easy, at all.

A month prior I had to make the same decision when Claire and Frankie asked me for the first time. Since then I’d kind of been regretting saying no, but at the same time knew it was the only choice without a lot of hassle which I couldn’t deal with on top of my exams. But a month later, with a fresh head and new information, I changed my mind.

I chose to do what I wanted to do rather than what I had to do to please other people. I told Josh the following day and he understood that I’d been thinking about it for a while.

If you’ve managed to follow all of that then well done, it was a spaghetti of a situation and I’m still untangling the ends. but the long and the short of it is that I’m living with a different set of people next year in a different house. I’ll write a post very soon about them all and the house, but tomorrow is another post about my last week in Zion :) So much happening…. phew!

Special Post #34: Accommodation, Part 11 - The End of Year 2: Part 5 – Goodbye Zion

This is part of the on-going series about home sweet homes. It is also Part 5 of the also on-going-but-not-for-much-longer series about the rollercoaster of events that took place after my last exam in year two and in my last week living in my first ever house!

For the last year I have been living in a 5-bedroom house about 20 minutes walk from campus. We dubbed it ZION.

Zion was, and will forever be, my first house. It’s been a fantastic experience, and even better given how good our landlord has been with any problems we’ve had.

A top tip I’d give to anyone looking at sharing a house ever is to get a joint account. We used it to pay rent and bills. Just by putting an extra £30 in each every month meant we could easily pay bills without having to chase people up about money every month. However, save your sanity and avoid Natwest at all costs!

I’d also suggest anyone to get a rota for cleaning. We didn’t and it definitely showed. Over time little jobs like the washing up become mammoth tasks, but if everyone had done a little bit every week then it may have worked out a lot better for everyone.

You learn so much about people when you live with them. I didn’t really know Anne, Will or Viv before living with them this year, yet I can’t imagine it without them. Looking back now, I’ve only ever known them as housemates, potential housemates or otherwise, and it’s going to be strange going forward staying in touch as just friends. But I have this year and Zion to thank for introducing us (and Josh of course :P). I know that we will all stay friends for life :)

Josh, on the other hand, was my best friend last year, so I already knew his as a friend before we decided to live together. But even then, this year has only strengthened our friendship. I had my doubts that being on the same course and living in the same house would be overkill, but it was quite the opposite. It’s been so helpful with coursework and revision that I literally don’t know how I’d have coped half the time if Josh wasn’t only a walls width away. Especially in the year after Christmas when we’ve been in the same lab group and doing lots of work together.

As this great year comes to a close, I can’t help but think how unique this experience was. It couldn’t have been better, I wouldn’t change a thing and I couldn’t have wished for better housemates. I’ll miss tickle time, Anne laughing at nothing, Will’s strange eating habits (how many times I watched as he cooked fish finger sandwiches I don’t know), Josh’s wall knocking and singing in the kitchen and Viv’s weird noises. Forever Zionites.

The next part in the accommodation series, and the End of Year 2 series, is about my new house and housemates and why I’m no longer living with Josh next year…