One Hundred Years of Solitude

That’s a wrap. Had a great time celebrating the end of term in Rubix on Friday. It was definitely the best night I’ve had in Rubix. It was also the first time I can recall that all my housemates had come out together. Of course, once we left Rubix at 3:30am, it wasn’t worth going to sleep. So I had some chips and a coffee and watched the grand prix qualifying.

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton on the podium! What a great start to the season. Can’t wait for the second race in Malaysia this weekend!

Saturday afternoon I was picked up and brought home. It’s weird, yet again, to find myself in the same place. Nothings changed. Actually, scrap that, the toilet seat is new. But other than that, it’s like entering a time capsule of your childhood. I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy coming home, it’s brilliant to see Mum, Dad and James again, but it lacks the same ethos as uni. Where are the parties? The music? People wandering into my room just for a chat? I do miss uni.

This week is about knuckling down to do some hard work. Exams are just around the corner and I will be prepared. I’ve just finished a 3 hour session this morning on analogue electronics. Talk about the tip of the iceberg…

This afternoon I’m going to a reunion of sorts. Back to sixth form for an informal meet up with old friends and teachers. Definitely looking forward to that, it’s gonna be another one of those time capsule things though isn’t it?

• Happiness: 7.5/10
• Workload: 7.5/10
• Last meal: Cereal! Don’t start…
• Thought for the day: Even with the best of maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journeys.

PS Check out the 80+ new pictures in the Flickr stream! (that’s the thing on the right)

PPS The name we all came up with for our new house was “Zion”. That’s why the post was titled Zion, its the name of the house!

Special Post #7: Accommodation, Part 5 - Zion

This is the 5th and final part of the now infamous multi-part series about the quest for a place to live in my second year at the University of Surrey. The story continues where it left off with me and Josh looking at houses early on Wednesday…

Here’s the map from the previous post so you can follow along:

This is a map of all the houses we went to visit that day. Houses in visited order: top right in cluster of 3; top left in cluster of 3; far left; bottom left in cluster of 3; far right.

The second house was about 10 minutes walk from the first. It was on a quite residential road and was even offset from the road so as to include space to park a car.

Inside the house was really great. Downstairs had one bedroom (the largest in the house), a small-ish lounge with room for 5 people, a table and a TV. The back of the house had a long kitchen with the bathroom off it. Let me explain:

This is the ground floor. The toilet has a bath and shower. The kitchen is new (2008) and therefore has new hobs, cooker, fridges (yup, there are two!) and freezers (yup, that’s two as well).

 

The second bedroom is apparently the smallest, because it also has the water tank in it, otherwise all the bedrooms upstairs are of a similar size. They all have a washbasin in them, which I thought was a useful addition.

Me and Josh loved it! We both thought it was a great house, great location, good price, and an overall good place to live. After we’d viewed it I immediately rang the landlord to express our interest. Sadly, yet again, someone had beaten us to it…

Only kidding! We’d got it! He said that we had to pay our deposits before we were guaranteed the house, but that we were the first to say we wanted it. The problem now was that only me and Josh had seen the house. We can’t guarantee that the others would like it and we certainly couldn’t ask them to pay a deposit on a house they hadn’t even seen!

Either way, me and Josh returned to the university (a 20 minute walk) to get lunch. Then, at 2pm, we met up with our fellow housemates to tell them the good news.

The plan for the afternoon was to look at a few more houses (just in case) and then show everyone else the good house. We also had a “back-up” house that was in town and was quite expensive, so we only considered it as a last resort if we didn’t like any of the other houses.

The next house was in Park Barn, which has a reputation for being a rough area. It was an alright house, but it was a long way from the uni and the current owners had trashed it somewhat.

After a short walk we arrived at yet another house, this time only a stone’s throw away from the house me and Josh had loved that morning. This house was almost identical to that house, but with a few small differences:

1. It had been decorated in lighter colours which made it feel more homely
2. The lounge was larger and squarer
3. The kitchen wasn’t as modern
4. It had two showers and two toilets, but no washbasins in rooms

Overall, everyone really, really liked it. So much in fact that I rang the landlord to show our interest. Unfortunately, the house had already gone less than an hour before we called. So now all me and Josh could hope for was that everyone would really like the house we’d seen that morning.

We stepped in the front door and everyone was shown round like me and Josh had been that morning. They loved it! Even more than the last house because the kitchen was better and the rooms were slightly bigger. So I rang the landlord to confirm that we were still at the top of the pile, and we were!

That evening we all got an email asking for a deposit for the house.

A few days later, 12th March, we’d all paid and we finally got confirmation that we had the house! All we need to do now is to sign the contract, which we’re doing after Easter.

WOW! That’s it. Your up to date. Only 16 days late. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this journey as much as I have writing it and experiencing it.

PS why was the post called Zion? See if you can guess and I’ll tell you the answer in the next blog post.

Mini Muse

Just a quick hello. I think that the final Accommodation post will be up soon. I know your all anxious to find out what happened.

Just a few things to say really.

1. It’s my last lecture tomorrow!
2. It’s the grand prix qualifying on Saturday!
3. Going home on Saturday!
4. Going climbing tomorrow!
5. Overusing the exclamation mark!!!!

I had my lab evaluation today. It seemed to go really well and I think I’ve managed to survive. The project was to build a capacitance meter, and since I’ve lost most of you there I think I’ll not go into any more detail.

• Happiness: 7/10
• Workload: 7/10
• Last meal: Fish fingers & chips (bonus ingredient: peas!)
• Thought for the day: When is a door not a door? When it’s ajar!

PS: Just watching F1 Friday practice! (sorry, that’s another exclamation mark!)

The times…

Be careful. This one’s from the heart, not the brain.

This is the last week of lectures. I can’t actually believe it. It seems like only yesterday when I moved into my empty room for the first time.

In the weeks leading up to university I hadn’t thought about it. It was only as much as “Yea, I’m going to university in 2 weeks”. Never did I truly think about what it would be like to actually be at university. It’s probably because nothing can prepare you for it. It’s not life as you know it. I used to live at home, have my meals cooked for me, have clothes washed for me, went to school at the same time every morning and met friends when I’d arranged. At university it’s so different.

Being a “Fresher” is almost over. Next year, I’ll still feel like a fresher, I’ll probably even feel like a six-former (Do you ever feel like an adult?). Why does life have to move so fast? My only regret this year is that it’s already over. If only it could go slower so I could really soak up the wonderful times. The times when I met new friends and felt welcome. The first time when I went to Rubix and felt like a real student. The first stage crew meeting when I was really excited to learn new things. The fresher’s fair where I felt daunted by the people, but felt secure in the company I had. The times I’m walking around campus, see someone I know and feel included. The long talks with housemates where I learn about feelings and how other people see the world. The times I went to lectures and fell asleep because I had stayed up until 4am with Stage Crew. Being elected as VEO and feeling I’ve accomplished something. Getting a house and feeling like an adult. Being mentioned in other people’s conversions and feeling part of the group. For the first time in my life, feeling completely and fully happy with where I was and who I was with. My housemates this year: Sophie, Lauren and Mariana, have been the most amazing people I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending time with and I know that the times we’ve spent together will be remembered for years and years to come. May we always be friends.

If university was ever this inspiring, no wonder I couldn’t imagine what it would be like. I’ve loved it. And not just a little. It’s been the best times I’ve ever had.

How can I be so happy living in a small, dingy room, studying a course that is the hardest and most challenging work I’ve ever done? Because I’m included, I’m valued, I have my place and I get the best feelings of belonging when I need them most.

Life isn’t about where you live or how hard you work. It’s about the people you meet along the way.

You got another thing comin’

I certainly do. It’s been as busy as terminal 5’s lost and found round here the last week. So here’s a check-up on how things are moving:

• iGala. Last week was partially dominated by a Stage Crew gig called iGala. Basically the highlight of an international festival where different cultural societies showcase their counties culture. I did video which (as always) was good fun, and some of the acts were pretty amazing too (I’m thinking of the Sikh Society blindfolding someone then getting them to chop a melon resting on someone else in half! You had to be there!)
• Lab Project. This week was the last chance we had to work on our project in labs. I think we managed to get it to work (subject to further testing, which now can’t be carried out) The case looks good and everything seemed to work out well (crosses fingers)
• Fallow Field. Some of you may know I’m currently helping with sound for a feature film! It’s called Fallow Field and you can find out more about it here. Over the weekend we recorded some sound effects for the film, namely chains, knives, car doors, slaps, etc. It was so much fun and I can’t wait for our next session on Wednesday.
• No Wave. On Sunday night I did video for a band night in Rubix. Got some great footage and had a good time.

This week is the last week of lectures this year! I know its almost over already. When we come back from Easter it’s all revision sessions and then exams.

If your in any doubt about following this blog, then here are a few things I’ll be posting soon:

• The gripping finale to the Accommodation Saga!
• The sequel - Accommodation: Reloaded!
• The Fallow Field: Explained
• If you have any other requests, post it in the comments!

Now for the brief-o-meter:

• Happiness: 8/10
• Workload: 7/10
• Last meal: Pizza!
• Thought for the day: “Ouch Charlie!”

Special Post #7: Accommodation, Part 4 – Going, Going, Gone – Part 2

Try and wrap your head around that title!

This is the second half of the 4th part of a multi-part series on the fight for second year accommodation. If you’ve forgotten where we left off, I don’t blame you, so had I. Basically we’d just seen a house none of us really liked, and were on our way to the next house…

The second house was on Hornbeam Road and turned out to be AMAZING! The rooms were HUGE, we came up with: 1 triple room, 1 large double room, 2 normal double rooms/large single rooms and a small room. However, the house was being renovated, as in they were still building the kitchen and hadn’t finished any rooms yet (although the rooms upstairs were nearly there). Here are some pics:

The triple room

One of the double rooms

The lounge?

So we were quite excited and rang the landlord to get the house. But guess what, yup, it had gone. And not only that but it had JUST gone. He’d just that second got off the phone with the other group. Sad faces attacked us from inside.

That night I rang a lot of landlords who had 5 bedroom houses only to find that they had ALL gone. I gave up at 8pm and rang home.

Dad gave me the willing to go and and I tried a few more landlords before I went to bed. The miraculous thing was that the last 3 landlords I rang ALL had a house still available. Result! So I began to arrange viewings for the next day…

Wednesday came around (this is the 25th February for those interested in how slow I am about revealing this information) and I rang a few more landlords before going to my lecture.

By 10am I had arranged 4 viewings for that day. By 10:30am I had a 5th. So me and Josh set off to view a few houses.

The first (a good 25minutes walk away) was alright. Essentially a 4 bedroom and a closet. So we moved on.

This is a map of all the houses we went to visit that day. Houses in visited order: top right in cluster of 3; top left in cluster of 3; far left; bottom left in cluster of 3; far right.

The second house was amazing…

And we’ll have to leave it there for now folks. Join me again next time as we conclude the story of the great accommodation race, with a post titled “Zion”.

Been there, didn’t SAW that

Hi Y’all.

First off. You should have noticed that there is a new addition to the blog. On the right-hand side you can see my Flickr photostream. For those not acquainted with ‘the Flickr’, basically it is a list of photos that I have put on the web. They are shown showing the most recent first. The bit here only shows the last 3 photos, but clicking on the “charlesuni’s photostream” button will show you all of them. You can also see a bigger picture by simply clicking on the picture.

The pictures there are of ‘the house’, so check them out and leave a comment!

Now onto today’s topic, Thorpe Park.

Yesterday, Lauren, Mariana, Heather and I went to Thorpe Park! It was a lovely sunny day and a great time was had by all. If you’ve been reading the news, you’ll know that their newest ride, SAW-the ride, opened yesterday. So, what was it like? Well, I don’t know. You see, the ride broke down after about 2 hours, before we’d had a chance to go on it. It was then closed for the rest of the day, so we never got a chance. It looked brilliant though and I can’t wait until I go back after Easter to get my first fray with it!

Other than that disappointment, the day was a great success. We managed to go upside down 29 times in all, and, because of the SAW fail, got FREE tickets to go back!!! Result!

• Happiness: 8/10
• Workload: 7.8/10
• Last meal: Leftover pasta thing (contains: bacon)
• Thought for the day: “Portuguese is so sexist!”

In other news…

Taking a short break from talking about accommodation to keep you up to date with my goings-on.

I’ve been very busy over the past two weeks, with my lab project starting, programming labs, maths assignments, tutorial questions and the rest of my life going on, it’s all been go.

Highlights:

• Getting a house! I know, I’m spoiling the surprise, but I figured you’d figure it out.
• Celebrating getting a house. Yup, last night we went out to celebrate the great house success. Had a great night with everyone and I’m looking forward to living with them more than ever.
• Going home. Last weekend I went home to see my ‘rents. Always good to go back every once in a while. Got to see all the Australia photos, sooo jealous.
• Meeting old friends. At the end of my last post I said I was meeting some people. IT was sooo good to be able to catch up and see where everyone is and how we’re all coping with university life. They all seem to be enjoying it and having a good time.

Yea, so that’s it for now. Keep living!

• Happiness: 8.8/10
• Workload: 8/10
• Last meal: Chicken Madras and rice
• Thought for the day: “My potato!” and “I need to tidy!”

Special Post #6: Accommodation, Part 4 – Going, Going, Gone

This is the fourth part of a multi-part series about the wacky race to find a student house for next year before everyone else!

So after the failure of last weeks monstrosity, it was time for the university to issue the private accommodation list. I waited up until midnight to see the list (when I say waited, what I really mean is that I realised that it was past midnight so I checked it out).

The list had over 40 5 bedroom properties on it for us to consider. So I started making a list of all the houses that I liked.

When I woke up the next morning it was straight off to lectures. The problem was that Monday is a very busy day for everyone in the group so not much could be done in terms of looking at houses or ringing landlords. That evening I sent out a few emails to landlords, and Josh sent a few texts, but that was pretty much it.

On Tuesday morning it turned that that Josh had received a reply from one of the landlords about a house that was about 5 minutes walk away. We went down and had a look around (just the 2 of us because the others had lectures). As soon as we arrived the person showing us round (one of the tenants) told us that a group had already paid a deposit so the house was already taken. We looked round the house anyway so we had something to compare the other houses with later. The house was a bit small, but the rooms were an ok size. One of the rooms was really small and the lounge was pretty much a converted corridor.

Once we’d left the house Josh received another text from a landlord who had 2 houses that we could look at that afternoon. As Josh had labs and everyone else was also busy, I said that I would go it alone.

However, when we got back to campus it transpired that Will, Viv and Anne had managed to finish their labs half a day early, something that until now was unprecedented. So they said they’d join me in looking at the houses. Unlike the house me and Josh had seen that morning, these houses were about 20-30 minutes walk away from uni.

We got to the first house and had a look around. the bedrooms were a decent size and the living room was good. However, none of us were impressed by the kitchen nor did we particularly like the location.

After deliberating we decided that it was live-able in and we’d probably be happy to live there if we had to. With that in mind we went to see the second house…

Sorry, but we’ve ran out of time. I’m off to catch up with some old friends from before uni so I’ll continue this later.

Bye!

Special Post #5: Accommodation, Part 3 – The Quickening

This is the third post in a multi-part series of about the great adventure of looking for a student house for next year. We left off with the university’s plans for getting everyone accommodation…

So it’s Monday 23rd February. The university list for sublet property has just come out. That night me and my future housemates got together to go through the list and put down houses that we liked. It was interesting to see what factors people considered as the most important when looking for the houses. I was putting distance to university as my number 1 factor. It had to be within 10 minutes walk. Most of my housemates agreed that this was definitely a big deal, but some other factors bubbled up too:

• Price. Obviously this was the deal clincher. If it was over £85 a week all inclusive (ie, including all bills) then it was too expensive. Currently, we were all paying about £80 a week, so this seemed reasonable.
• Washing machine. It only seemed fair that the house should have a washing machine. If it didn’t then it needed to have a very good reason. Luckily all the houses on the list seemed to include a washing machine, so this wasn’t an issue.
• Double Glazing. Now this seemed reasonable considering the varied weather and how cold it would be otherwise. Somewhat surprisingly (to me, anyway) was that double glazing wasn’t in all the properties.
• Broadband access. I know! some of the houses didn’t even have broadband! This immediately wrote them off my list. Urgh! How can you live without broadband? (*cough* Graeme *cough*)

Overall, I thought the list would be about 30-40 houses long. But it turned out that there were only 10 5 bedroom houses on the list. Cutting it down to 7 wasn’t too difficult, but it was an interesting experience having to discuss these sorts of things to each other for the first time. Anyway, we managed to get the 7 and then it was just a matter of submitting it.

The next day (called Tuesday by those in the know) me and Josh went to the accommodation office to get a form. While we were there we were told by the guy about the process (see last post). He said the draw would be on Friday and then you have have to view the house over the weekend and decide by noon on Monday whether you wanted the house or not. The problem with that was you didn’t have a chance to look at any houses on the private list before you had to make a decision on the house.

Wednesday Josh set about filling out the form with everyone’s details, which was no mean feat considering that he needed to get the full names, courses and university numbers of each of us. However, by Wednesday evening Josh had done it!

It was only late Wednesday night that Josh realised something horrific. The applications were due in at 5pm on Wednesday. Profanity ensued…

First thing Thursday morning me and Josh go down to the accommodation office to beg and plead our way into the draw. Unfortunately neither of us are women, nor do we have the necessary skills required to seduce a 20-something male into letting us post our application. So we left not empty handed, but with the application form held tightly. Profanity ensued…

Never mind. There’s still the private accommodation list, right? There’s bound to be loads of houses on there that’ll be perfect and we can easily get. Surely…

Found out next time on Accommodation, Accommodation, Accommodation.

Special Post #4: Accommodation, Part 2 – University plans

This is the second post in a multi-part thriller about the rollercoaster journey that was (and still is!) house hunting. IF you haven’t already read the last instalment I’d advise you read that first.

The university have a very specific outline of how they help students find accommodation. Firstly they release a list (online) of all the “university managed housing”. This is essentially houses that the university rents from private landlords and then sublets to students on a fixed term. This list becomes accessible to all students at midnight on 23rd February.

Luckily the university have more sense than to make it first come, first served so instead each group can fill out a form to express interest in up to 7 houses on the list. The university then draws a ‘raffle’ where a first and backup group are randomly selected for each house on the list from everyone who was interested in renting that property. This seems like a very fair system in principle but it does mean that one group could potentially be selected at the first group for all 7 of their chosen houses.

Another down shot of this is that once selected as the first group for a property you view the house and then have 2 days to decide whether you want it or not.

But the university also release another list a week later, the private landlord list. It is essentially a list of all the student accommodation in Guildford. Any reputable landlord has their property and contact details listed. Unlike the university managed list, this one is first come, first served. It’s a matter of who can ring the landlord, arrange a viewing, view and get their deposit down before anyone else. Sound fair? Sounds deadly.

So you may be able to figure out that as I’m writing this the private landlord list has been out for 5 days. So did I manage to get a house? Was it easy? Was I chosen in the ‘raffle’ to get university managed housing? All in good time……

Stay tuned for part 3 - “The First List”

Special Post #3: Accommodation, Part 1 – Who?

This is the first of a multi-part series I’m going to write in the next few days about housing. This first part outlines finding my new housemates.

Back in December, me and Josh decided that we wanted to be housemates next year. But you can’t just have 2 people sharing a house, so we needed to find some more. We knew at the time that a group of 4 was ideal, and that one person either side of that was the limit.

Michael was our next call. I know Michael because he lives in Cathedral Court too. We watch Heroes together occasionally and go to comedy night. Michael agreed that living together was a great idea, so now we just need one.

Then Christmas came and went. It was now February. Knowing that we would need to be organised soon so we could start looking for houses, we set out on hunting once more. But wait! Michael, over the course of the Christmas holidays had made arrangements with other people (on his Chemistry course) to live with them. So it looks like back to square one.

Asking my current housemates bore no success: Sophie had found a group already, Mariana and Lauren had teamed up with one of Lauren’s friends from climbing club and her friend to create a group. Adam and Chris had both joined separate groups of people also.

It was time to ask people on our course. No luck. Stage crew? nope. And then we got somewhere…

Josh goes to church on Sunday’s with someone called Anne who does Chemistry. She is part of a group of three who are looking for someone to join them. Luckily they we’re OK with the idea of having a 5, so me and Josh met up with them.

Together we formed a group of 3 guys and 2 girls who were 2 engineers and 3 chemists. It looked like a plan.

So we all met up to see if we got on. There really great people. We like the same things (mainly geeky stuff) and had a great time meeting up.

This was on the 17th February. All was going well. But there was a fog looming…

Watch out for the next post to find out how the process the university uses to help us get accommodation, and how it wasn’t as simple as it first appeared………

The Mint Years…

Just a quick one to say that I am still alive and still very busy. I promise that the accommodation post is on it’s way, if only there were more hours in the day!

Work is keeping me up, but not really in a bad way. I’m on top of it all (for now!) and I’m actually enjoying some of it!

Today I made a cake (with Phil, who lives in the same building as me). This time it was 4 tiers. I’ve taken some pictures for your viewing pleasure…

Phil making the icing.

The cake (without icing)

The finished cake. Just don’t think about the calories. Or the sugar…

And to the title of this post: In 2002/3 I bought 2 big tubs of mint imperials. I mean HUGE tubs. Little did I know at the time that those mints would go through so much. They’ve been to Germany, Paris and China, survived my SATS, GCSE’s, A-Levels and have seen me though the best of times and the worst of times. Despite expiring in June 05, the mints have been a constant throughout my life and provided me with the fresh breath and occasional light snack I needed. However, on Thursday 26 February 2009, I ate the last of those mints. It was the end of a finite period in my life which from this day forth will be forever known as “the mint years”. May my minty memories live on forever……

• Happiness: 7/10
• Workload: 7/10
• Last meal: Stir-Fry thing with noodles & Cake! (not at the same time)
• Thought for the day: Must talk to sis about visiting in April