Showing posts with label Guildford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guildford. Show all posts

Saturday, May 19, 2012

That was quick!

I have a house for when I start my PhD! After only a few short days of looking for houses around Guildford Will, Anna and I have found the perfect abode! Let me show you round…

It’s a 3-bedroom place, all the rooms are big enough for double beds, the kitchen is modern and it has a dishwasher! Luxury R’ Us! It’s not far away from my house with the girls last year, except a bit nearer university if anything. Same local pub though :D

I’m snatching up one of the biggest rooms, and since the place is unfurnished I can’t wait to put my stamp on the room and make it mine! Geeky posters and computer parts everywhere!

It’s so exciting to finally have a place sorted, it means I can really get my head straight about how the next few months before my PhD starts are going to play out, and it looks pretty awesome!

  • 26th May. First exam
  • 1st June. Last exam ever
  • 11th June. Project Viva, and the end of university
  • 15th June. Big party
  • 17th June. Boat trip with housemates
  • 25th June. Start summer job at Sony
  • 8th July. Move out of my current house :(
  • 17th July. Graduate
  • 20th July. Graduation Ball
  • 25th July. AMERICA!
  • 15th August. Move in to new place :)
  • 1st October. Start PhD at University of Surrey

And with producing the Fresher’s videos for the student television station and designing a new website for my local church I don’t think I’ll be bored! I can’t wait!

  • Happiness. 7 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 1 out of 5
  • Workload. 7 out of 10 (lots of revision)
  • Last Meal. Good ol’ fish and chips
  • Song of the day. Lenny Kravitz – Fly Away
  • Thought for the day. The meaning of life is to give life a meaning.
  • What I’m Doing Now. In disbelief that I’ll have to leave this house in 7 weeks time… I might cry.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

New Kindlings

As I always seem to be saying on this blog, new and exciting things are afoot. Lots is happening at the moment, and I don’t just mean revision for my final exams… although I probably should.

No, there is lots to look forward to once this university madness is over. I’m currently in the process of looking for a new abode in Guildford for the coming year, since I seem to be sticking around thanks to my new found PhD position :D I’m hoping to live with Will, my current and ex-housemate, and Anna, my current housemates girlfriend. It’s complicated, ok, but it’s going to be awesome! 3-bedroom places are not all the rage, but there are some out there and we plan to find somewhere to call our own! But we haven’t found anywhere yet, there are a few viewings going on this week though so I’ll keep you informed if anything drastic happens. I promise this time.

What else? Well we’ve been testing the limits of our housemate Mike’s stupidity…

For those of you who don’t know, the Cinnamon challenge is where one attempts to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon. It’s as simple as that…

If you like that there’s a few more here :D

I’ve also been keeping up my involvement in the student television station, recently put in charge of producing the fresher videos for the new students starting in September. Now isn’t that a shift? Just a few years ago I was the unknowing fresher…

I’d love to go into more detail about some of these things, but it will all be eeked out of me eventually.

Lots of plans, lots of ambition, lots of revision to do…

  • Happiness. 7 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 1 out of 5
  • Workload. 7 out of 10 (revision time!)
  • Last Meal. Chilli without the chilli 
  • Song of the day. Stevie Wonder – Superstition
  • Thought for the day. House times are exciting!
  • What I’m Doing Now. Putting off sleep…

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Pause for thought

Hello again! My heart is still beating, and I have lots of news you might be interested to hear, but first an explanation.

Since I last wrote here almost 2 months (wow, I’m ashamed of myself), I have been very busy. Busy, you say? What on earth could be more important than writing in your favourite place on the internet? You better have a damn good excuse. Well…

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I’ve been going to a local piano bar quite a lot with the ginger one in this photo. It’s a very civilised place with live music and cocktails.

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Experimenting with banana and choc ice milkshakes.

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Doing some terrible singing at the aforementioned piano bar.

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Covering our kitchen in highlighter fluid and UV ink. The reason behind this will become clear… you just have to be patient.

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Been on a treasure hunt around Weymouth.

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Gone Ape!

So that’s what I’ve been up to! When I haven’t been doing all of those fun things I’ve been working on coursework and my final project – which I finished today! Hence the post :)

So coursework in and final report written, now is a good time to note that there’s only precious few weeks left of my university life before heading out into the world of work… or is it?

I have kind of been keeping some big news from you since the last post 2 months ago, and it’s kind of what the last post was about. When I wrote the last post I was deep in thought about what to do once I graduate, because I’d been given a choice: Work for Sony, or be sponsored by Sony to do a PhD. And I changed my mind. I’ll never know if it was the right choice, but I’m so happy that I’ve decided to do a PhD.

I don’t want to dwell on what the PhD is on right now, that will come in a future post, but needless to say that it is really exciting and I can’t wait to start! My PhD course is 3.5 years long and it’s at the University of Surrey still, starting in October. I’m being sponsored and getting paid tax-free, so it’s not going to get me into any more debt! I do want to go into depth about why I decided to do a PhD, because I found it a hard decision and I want to be able to help other people who might have to make that decision in the future.

This isn’t the end of my links with Sony, in fact it’s only just the beginning. Sony have a big input in my research during the PhD, but I’m also working there over the summer with the team I was in last year. Hopefully the ties can continue because they are amazing people!

So… life turned on it’s head and I don’t really know what to say. This blog will be getting a major overhaul in the late half of this year, to capture more of my personal and professional life as it develops… hopefully!

I feel like my life is going from strength to strength, just got to get through these exams first and then I have a long summer of work, America and a new home to look forward to! I’ll reveal all, just bear with me! And thanks for sticking round this far! As a thank you here’s the link to the rest of the Pound for Food videos I produced with my housemates recently, they are seriously funny: http://bit.ly/poundforfood.

  • Happiness. 7 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 1 out of 5
  • Workload. 5 out of 10 (revision time!)
  • Last Meal. Spaghetti Bolognaise
  • Song of the day. Jason Mraz – Everything is Sound
  • Thought for the day. Dissertation done! Boom! 
  • What I’m Doing Now. Sleep! Then starting revision tomorrow… All will be over in only 5.5 weeks!!!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Progress is progress…

So since my little excursion to Greenwich, life has been dribbling along very nicely indeed. I’ve got some plans for updating some websites which I currently run, namely moving the www.stmarybalham.org.uk site over to a php server running WordPress… I’m doing it to get more experience running my own server, and writing php; but also because I wrote the code for this website before I came to university and since then I’ve learnt some better techniques for dynamic website building than I used back then. It’ll be a challenge, but something I’m looking forward to digging my teeth into once this whole university thing is over.

My final project is coming along, it now shows a lot more information and I’m in the process of building a test rig that can assess the accuracy and performance of the system so far for benchmarking and to get some pretty graphs to go into my write up :)

And I got my results last week for my exams in January, I did really well! I got a first in all my modules and I’m averaging 82% for my degree :) Only 30% of my degree left! The end is in sight, finally!

And for those of you who are interested, the next video about my stupid housemates who are living off £1 for food for a month is up:

I didn’t think my voice could go that high for “Top tip of the week”… turns out I was wrong.
  • Happiness. 8 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 1 out of 5
  • Workload. 5 out of 10 (but it’s all interesting stuff…)
  • Last Meal. Fish and chips
  • Song of the day. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Scar Tissue
  • Thought for the day. Don’t know whether giving my housemates a beta version of my app was a good idea… :p 
  • What I’m Doing Now. About to do some more work… after lunch….

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The final semester begins…

My last semester of lectures started last week and because of my cunning plan to front load my module choices for final year I only have two modules and my project work to do. While I regretted that decision in January, having to sit 4 exams, coursework and write a report for my project it all seems worth it now.

I’ve got a couple of marks back for coursework already, and they are both firsts, so with any luck I should still be on track. I’ll get my exam results before the end of the month and that will be a really good indicator of how I’m doing since I’ve now completed over 70% of my degree…

My new timetable is only 7 hours a week! 3 hours on Tuesday, 3 hours on Thursday and an hour on Friday. This gives me loads of time to work on my project witch is going really well (thanks for asking :P)

My project, ELROND, can now do lots of the things I explained in this diagram a while ago, and there’s still plenty of time for refinements and improvements which should give me lots to talk about in my final report. This makes me happy :)

At the moment my housemates Will and Mike are attempting to eat for a month on only £1 of food a day. I’m helping make a weekly video diary for MADTV:

That’s my voice in the intro :P

What else has been going on? Well I’m starting to think more seriously about life after uni, what to do, where to live, whether to go travelling for a while before starting work and so on… So far I’m planning a couple of weeks in California with Charlotte before starting work for the rest of my life. I’d also like to go on holiday with my housemates, but that’s just an idea at the moment.

It’s all exciting times, and Charlotte and I are off to London this weekend to see Mr Scruff play at Koko. I went last year with Julie and it was AMAZING! I’m really looking forward to round 2!

  • Happiness. 8 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 1 out of 5
  • Workload. 3 out of 10
  • Last Meal. Kung Pao Chicken!
  • Song of the day. Ed Sheeran’s Plus Album, it’s all good :)
  • Thought for the day. I was there when this happened!
  • What I’m Doing Now. Thinking about buying a Linode

Thursday, January 26, 2012

I’ve got 99 problems but exams ain’t one…

Hello! Exams are over until the summer, my 4th and last one was on Wednesday and now I have a week before my new set of lectures start. It’s been a bit non-stop since I last wrote in here at the start of December, the jokes of Christmas and New Year quickly a distant luxury as coursework deadlines and exams loomed. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t treat you to some of the photographs from the New Year celebrations…

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The annual gathering of mine and Jake’s friends is fast becoming some sort of tradition, and good thing too because this year did not disappoint! All it takes is two dozen friends, some karaoke, alcohol and Who’s in the Bag to get things going! The cream carpet is still cream, and only one sprained wrist caused by a particularly flowery dance-off containing the “epileptic worm”…

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There was also a bit of typical London touristy things going on during the days before new year with Jake, Sarah and Charlotte about…

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The Science Museum, because there’s nothing wrong with being a geek, Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, and a secret cocktail bar in Liverpool Street :) good times.

The rest of the time was less interesting, but certainly more productive! With two big essays to write, and four exams to revise for it’s been a busy 3 weeks; but I feel it has paid off as my exams seemed to go well. I should get my results in a few weeks, so only time will tell… But with those done that marks the point of 70%. A whole 70% of my degree is now complete! And only a few months left until that figure goes the full nine yards… scary and exciting times!

I’m genuinely looking forward to my last semester at university. I’m ready to study my final tow modules, and progress further with my final project work.

Job prospects are still up in the air to some degree, but hopefully I won’t have any issues in that department…

So much to look forward too, and so much going on! I’ll aim to keep you guys in the loop with everything from my project, modules, MADTV, holiday plans, work prospects… and I guess I should start thinking about what to do when all this university malarkey is all said and done. Knowing how quickly the last few years have gone it’ll be over before I know it Confused smile

  • Happiness. 8 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 1 out of 5
  • Workload. 5 out of 10
  • Last Meal. Nibbles. 
  • Song of the day. Paolo Nutini -  Last Request Piano Instrumental
  • Thought for the day. 70% of degree done. Damn.
  • What I’m Doing Now. Visiting my sister and then travelling to Weymouth tomorrow… Seems like I spend my life travelling sometimes :)

Monday, December 5, 2011

Dinner is served

On Sunday my parents came round for Xmas dinner cooked by my housemates and I. Complete with turkey and all the trimmings, mulled wine, champagne, Christmas pudding and charades…

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Bring on Christmas!

  • Happiness. 8.5 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 2 out of 5
  • Workload. 8 out of 10
  • Last Meal. Mississippi mud pie 
  • Song of the day. Parachute – She Is Love
  • Thought for the day. If you don't have any shadows, you're not standing in the light
  • What I’m Doing Now. Still procrastinating.

Friday, December 2, 2011

BBRRAAAGHHHHHHHHHHMMMM!!

We left off with an imminent trip to Weymouth. It was such a relaxing weekend, especially going to Chesil beach a watching the waves come crashing in. From the photos you’ll also notice which one is the dancer…

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It was quite surreal how high the waves were, and the perfect sound of them breaking onto the seemingly infinite shoreline. It kind of reminded me of the beach in Inception; powerful, but beautiful.

The last few weeks have also seen the start of a new tradition: “Friday Pints”. After a long week working, a few of us down tools for a couple hours and go to to pub for a few bevvies. Get’s the weekend veins working and has already, on a couple occasions, resulted in carnage. Not that long left of university now, but that’s no excuse not to still be students!

Last Friday for example when we went to Rubix and must’ve had one of the best nights I’ve ever had in there. The downstairs bar (called HRB to those of us who started uni before it was renamed to The Living Room) was playing MUCH better music than the main dance floor, Pendulum and Queen among others…

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This week I’ve made some good progress with my project work and started on a couple of essays that have to be in around exam season… which is only a month away now!! I can see lots of coursework and revision in the crystal ball over Christmas…

  • Happiness. 8 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 1 out of 5
  • Workload. 7 out of 10
  • Last Meal. Cereal. In-joke? 
  • Song of the day. Athlete – Beautiful
  • Thought for the day. “Chance favours the prepared mind” 
  • What I’m Doing Now. Procrastinating.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Taste the Rainbow

Settling back into the slow life is so comforting knowing that you are doing something for your future, and living the present the best way you know how.

I want to inject a bit of nostalgia into this post, knowing full well that this blog has started to show its receding hairline this year with the lacklustre modicum of posts. As the new year beckons, and lets be honest its already on the horizon, I usually turn the content switch to “past” and start idolizing the perfect moments from the year gone by. And this year will be no different in some respects, but I want to start early because it’s been such an incredible year!

January

My best memories from January lie scattered amongst many weeks spent in Switzerland, as in fact most of my memories from the year. But there’s another theme for January, random lols. If it was Sophizzle offering words of comfort to her triffle on the bus home from Tesco, Frazer and I contemplating the benefits of nipple cups, or Sophie getting a super-low voice over serious Skype discussions about housing… it was a laugh. The best moment however?

Walking around an empty Zurich airport in bare feet. Like the set of a film…

February

Another month filled with Swiss air, but also featuring a couple of trips to London to see Maroon 5, Mr Scruff and Lifehouse. And while going dressed as Sherlock Holmes into Guildford town was the best fun ever, the Lifehouse gig at the Roundhouse has a special place in my heart…

March

Sometimes life hands you fragments of perfection, that second when the world stops and you feel that despite the worries you may have, and the challenges you face, you’ve actually got it pretty good :) One particular Friday afternoon, sat outside Lugano airport in the gorgeous sunshine waiting for a plane back home after another great week at work, and the fragments just seem to fall into place. You know you’re doing the right thing and you should never stop being who you are.

April

The last one for today… April. April. Where do I start… There are two things that stand out about April. One was the house boat trip, possibly the single most hilarious, drink-fuelled, best times of my life – spent on my dad’s narrowboat with my then-future-now-current housemates. Initially a bonding weekend to get to know each other better, but once we’d got the formalities out of the way it was all about having the time of our lives. The week was so good we are still quoting from it now, in fact we have a book of quotes in our living room from that trip that goes some way in recreating some of the hilarity: everything from carnivorous geese to gooches, heart-attack sandwiches to the helm of insobriety. This is undoubtedly not the last you will hear from this trip in the run up to the new year. And as for the second thing about April, that will have to wait :)

I want to finish the post with a few pictures from the start of the year that you hopefully haven’t seen before…

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Even as early as January the temptation to buy chocolate (against my new years resolution!) was staring me in the face… I walked past this particular idol in the Zurich terminal building every Friday on my way back to Heathrow…

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Jake comes to Guildford, and we find the FREE Guildford museum to be worth every penny…

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Doing the speed limit in a Mercedes convertible on the Swiss motorway…

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The sign outside the building next door to our hostel in Amsterdam. It was ideally located for our needs… there was a supermarket and bus stop nearby.

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The boat trip provided lots of time to relax and take it easy, and have cider at every possible moment.

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Charlotte’s birthday party had a “what did you want to be when you were younger” theme… obviously I chose geek.

Next time I promise I will talk about my current housemates and give you a tour of the grounds. I just need to be writing in here when it’s light outside!

Until next time…

Charles x

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Dressing up

First off I forgot to mention that last weekend in Cardiff I also was in London to see Bruno Mars:

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Despite the long bus journey from Cardiff to London, and closures on the Victoria line, it was well worth it!

By the way, all this travelling the last year has taught me a few top travel tips to save:

  1. Check MegaTrain a few weeks (ideally 4-6) before you travel and see if they are offering your journey for less than the rail operator.
  2. Also use MegaBus if you can bare the thought, it’s a fraction of the price, and on Sundays it can actually be quicker thanks to Sunday trains stopping at every station under the sun.
  3. If you’re still drawing a blank, or would prefer to use the train, then you can still save money by using your Tesco Clubcard points to get triple discount on rail tickets! I know, epic. Just follow these instructions and you are quids in!

Anyway, back to last weekend:

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I went out as a mad professor for Halloween on Friday night!

death

The house as a whole was looking pretty dapper… except Will, he looked like death :D

cocktails

On Saturday night we had a cocktail party at our house. 5 cocktails: Martini (gin), Daiquiri (rum), Cosmopolitan (vodka), Margarita (tequila) and Old Fashioned (whisky). It was a very classy evening… until we all ended up pissed and rolling around all over the place…

more cocktails

All in all a mixed weekend, but certainly one I won’t forget in a hurry :)

  • Happiness. 7 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 3 out of 5
  • Workload. 6 out of 10
  • Last Meal. Chicken Korma curry (not fish and chips!) 
  • Song of the day. Skylar Grey – Love The Way You Lie
  • Thought for the day. I must try using a head massager in the bedroom…
  • What I’m Doing Now. Working before going to see the King Blues tonight at the Roundhouse in Camden! Yes!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Rum and Coke, Myfanwy

Hello all,

Yes I am still alive… very much alive in fact. I’m back to normality now after 4 weeks at university. Lectures and coursework and not a flight to Switzerland in sight! I still haven’t spent two consecutive weeks sleeping in the same bed yet this year! It might happen before the years out!

Other than that I’ve been keeping myself to myself and taking things as they come. Last weekend I was up in Cardiff to see Jake for his girlfriend’s birthday… much fun and rum was had by all :D

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Getting involved in MADTV once again…

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Celebrating Halloween in style tonight for the first time ever! And then the house is having a private ‘invite only’ cocktail party tomorrow. Good times are ahead :)

  • Happiness. 7 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 5 out of 5 (sleep is a struggle…)
  • Workload. 6 out of 10 (but it’s all really interesting at the moment)
  • Last Meal. Fish fingers and chips (i know! 2 posts in a row!)
  • Song of the day. Ellie Goulding – Lights (Bassnectar Remix)
  • Thought for the day. I could be a pilot!
  • What I’m Doing Now. At Sony for a day to catch up with people :)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Free Cat Food

A whole week in the country! And I've spent all that time in Guildford! Since getting back from Switzerland a week on Friday life seems to have slowed down a little bit. Two lazy weekends barely leaving the house, just catching up on sleep and sorting out a few things.

Sophizzle and I

Then a week in the office getting plenty outstanding things done and starting to realise that I only have two months of this job left. And God knows they will fly by as quickly as the last 11.

Last Saturday was a bit of a laugh since I met up with Katherine for some breakfast at 1pm (what? I said it was a lazy weekend, and besides, I don't have any food in the house...). We went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for a massive burger and even bigger Oreo milkshake! A couple hours later we left, noticeably larger than when we arrived. Then we went and opened a joint account, as you do, for the house next year. Then I was offered some free cat food and Katherine got 40% off rugs. What more could you possibly want? Well, some bread, milk and mayonnaise to get me through the week... Literally that's all I needed.

Today I'm off to Switzerland again for another 2 weeks, lots and lots of work to do! A few cool pictures will need to be taken too... this never gets old :)

My new hotel room view

  • Happiness. 8 out of 10 (leaving some room for later in the week)
  • Tiredness. 3 out of 5 (still haven't got used to this early start on Monday)
  • Free Time. 1 out of 5 (and loving every minute!)
  • Last Meal. Giraffe breakfast at the airport
  • Song of the day. Jason Wade – You Belong To Me
  • Thought for the day. You make my heart beat faster, and skip a beat somehow
  • What I’m Doing Now. On the LX317, listening to some guy whistling "loving you" by Minnie Ripperton... now that's going to be in my head for the rest of the day! Grrr..... I hate not having an MP3 player.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

My Feet Run Out of Ground

I’ve been working in Switzerland. Not as busy this week as I’d expected, but next week is going to be hectic. The calm before the storm…

I got back to Guildford on Friday and was very easily persuaded to go out and party with a load of mates I haven’t seen for a while. Despite having the same shirt as at least four other people, it was a great night…

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(I’ve noticed that you haven’t been able to enlarge pictures on the blog recently, that’s basically me failing… but I’ve learnt from my mistakes now…)

On Saturday I got an amazing surprise visit from Will! Great to catch up!

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(that’s a photo from my 21st! Bad times it’s been this long…)

Met up with Charlotte in the evening for dinner and some movie-watching, classic nights in are the best!

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Then on Sunday Sophie Jones and I went swimming and rock climbing! So another quiet weekend in Guildford…

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Back to the Switzer-lands tomorrow… :o)

  • Happiness. 9.9 out of 10
  • Tiredness. 3 out of 5 (but up at 5:50am tomorrow :S)
  • Free Time. 3 out of 5
  • Last Meal. Not Chicago town pizza… someone needs to tell drunks not to eat my food :P
  • Song of the day. Leona Lewis – Happy
  • Thought for the day. Actions speak louder than words…
  • What I’m Doing Now. About to watch Precious with Sophie J!