Reading Andy's blog earlier reminded me that I haven't actually updated in a while. This has been partly intentional - you know the rule of conversation, "If you can't think of anything nice to say then don't say it at all"? Something along those lines. If I'd typed too many entries recently, I'd've just ended up whining about my family - and that isn't what this blog is for, or what people want to read. So I will resist my urge to qualify that last sentence and move on...

 

 

What have I been doing, what am I doing?

 

Weeeell. I'm signed up with Office Angels, an office temp agency, and am now waiting on a phone call to be offered a placement, which will hopefully come sooner rather than later. The whole process was slightly tedious, but it was just as well that I'd kickstarted things in Newcastle - by the time I was in the office on New St., they were turning students away because apparently there are just too many. Hopefully that means, though, that there'll be a decent amount of work for those of us now on the books. I handed my CV in at the Sealife Centre the other day, completely on a whim - then this morning they phoned me, and offered me a job for the entire summer! I had to say no as going on holiday means that I need something more flexible, and I don't want to shoot Office Angels in the foot before I've even worked for them - but it just shows that there is work out there to be had if you need it. Oh, and anyone about in Birmingham for the entire summer, I'd go try the Sealife Centre with a CV!

 

I have just booked flights to go to Greece for a week with Maddie and Rhiannon, which is quite exciting, especially as we leave in about 10 days time from Heathrow! It's costing a bit - especially as we weren't terribly organised with flights - but it'll be good fun. We are flying to Athens, then visiting Corinth, Patrai, and the island of Cephalonia, before getting a sleeper train back to Athens. The other two are going on to Italy - I'm coming home at that point, hopefully to earn some money and then get ready for the family holiday to France. But it looks to be good fun, and I'm quite looking forward to doing a holiday ad-hoc for once - if we make mistakes, that's all part of learning to be independent, right?!

 

And other than that, I haven't really been doing a lot! Sorting a bit. Went out the other night to a bar in town, where we had an hour's beginners' salsa lesson, followed by drinks and stuff! That was good fun (I decided it would be wise to stay of the alcohol), and it was nice to have a catch-up with some friends who I haven't seen in a while. I'm all right at keeping in touch with people who use MSN and stuff, but my appalling track record of answering my phone has let others fall by the wayside a bit, for which I am somewhat ashamed. Still, seeing people is the best of all. :)

 

 

Need to go for a walk but it's raining.. splish splosh, splish splosh, good weather for ducks!

 

 

(What was that about not whingeing about my family? I just caught Dad looking up train tickets for me, because 'he knows how to get the cheap tickets' - clearly I am not capable of using thetrainline.com myself. I mean, seriously...)

 

My brother had his 12th birthday party this afternoon. They went ice skating, so I wasn't there for most of it, but my goodness do excitable Y7s make their presence felt when they're hyped up on sugar and adrenaline...! Wasn't particularly what I needed, I'll be honest. The two girls who came (yes, girls! My sister refused to even talk to lads at that age, I seem to remember!) gave him an electronic version of Spin The Bottle. What happened to a bit of imagination?! And these are 12-yr-olds we're talking about! Spin The Bottle! (As a result, actually, the manufacturers clearly bore in mind their demographic - all of the 'Truth' questions are things like "Which pop star do you gossip about the most?". But even so!).

 

 

It's 24 hours exactly since I got back, and already I'm starting to wish that I wasn't. At supper we had a long conversation about global warming, the same one that we have had every other day for the past two or three years. You know you're home...

 

Back home!

 

It's still in that weird transitional stage though, where you know that you've landed but you still don't quite know what to do with yourself. I have been ready for a break from Trevs - just for three weeks rather than three months :(

 

Most of my luggage is now with me. A lad from Trevs who lives in Erdington took a few bags in his car - a holdall of books, breakables wrapped in a bathrobe, laptop, clarinet.. - so Dad and I coped with everything else fine. The drying rack, due to a series of unfortunately timed incidents, is in a room at the Parson's Hill site of Cuth's (St Cuthbert's Society. The girl still doesn't know that she has it.), soon to be heading down to Chiswick, London. That wasn't quite intentional but it was the best option at the time! After a rather stressful 48 hours, however, I think that my Dad may have finally learned his lesson that no, we really can't take a full year's worth of university luggage on the train, even if there is a direct line from Durham to New Street. Optimism will get you only so far in some matters!

 

 

Back to how things were then, I guess. I miss having privacy...

 

The last dregs of academic tedium occured today (- well, and tomorrow, but I don't count queuing for hours down at Elvet academic exactly). We have to register for next year, which basically involves choosing our modules and getting the department to approve them. Everything in Durham works on six twenty-credit modules per year - two of mine were compulsory, a third an either/or choice, and the remaining three free rein within the Maths Dept.. Durham is famous for its flexible degree programmes; if you have the prerequisites and they can timetable it, you can take pretty much any combination of up to three subjects right through your degree. I know a lad whose degree consists of a third Maths, a third Music, and a third Latin, which is pretty damn cool! But I'm on a straight Maths course, so that obviously restricts the choice... although my advisor today told me that contrary to popular advice, I can take an elective from another department...

 

I'm certain about five out of six modules. I have to take 'Linear Algebra II', and 'Analysis in Many Variables II'. 'Complex Analysis II' is a much less restrictive choice than 'Contours and Actuarial Mathematics', and the second term of Complex Analysis looks good anyway. Then I want to take 'Codes and Geometric Topology' and 'Algebra and Number Theory'. My remaining choice, however, I'm not so sure. Avoiding anything involving either Probability or Statistics like the plague (yes, I know they're useful, but... but...), I'm then left choosing between 'Mathematical Physics' and 'Numerical Analysis'. 'Mathematical Physics' looks very hard, but kinda interesting... though special relativity scares me somewhat, and I can just see that I'll spend the whole year going "Help! Physics! I don't have Physics A-Level and everyone else does! Help!". 'Numerical Analysis' looks easy, involves computer coursework (a plus point) and looks very, very boring (a distinct minus point).

 

Or I could do Stats. Phh. Or 'Probability and Actuarial Mathematics', in anticipation of having to get a job in the real world. Or find out whether the rumours are true and I can actually do an elective. 'Orchestration' (within the Music Dept.) looks fun! I think Rob thought that I was absolutely nuts when I got onto Orchestration as a possibilty...

 

Decisions decisions.

 

 

The interview with the guy in the Maths Dept. was also a chance to discuss exam results, which I didn't really do. To cut a long story short, I got

        Calculus/Geometry - 96%

        Probability/Algebra - 90%    (yes, it does go downhill from there...)

        Analysis - 80%

        The Analysis and Perception of Music - 73%

        Reasoning/Dynamics - 63%

        Introduction to Programming - 58%

 

So I don't have to come back over the summer, which is the main thing, and I'm pretty damn pleased with that CompSci module - a high 2:2! And it all averages out to a 1st, so that's all good! :)

 

 

Finally the rain has stopped, and in the hot sunshine this morning, we hired some wooden boats and went rowing on the river! Durham looked even more beautiful from our new vantage points! Henry and Pippa (the actual rowers among us) died inside.

 

 

 

I'm bored. Bored and fed up. It's chucking it down outside (which it has been pretty much since Tuesday now), my back hurts more than usual, and most of my friends have gone to Alton Towers for the day. Eleanor and Max are still here, but I left them in the dining room chatting, and I had to move because on the scale of chairs in college - ranging from 'bad' to 'utterly horrendous' - the dining room ones are off the scale. In the wrong direction.

 

 

I hate my back so much. And what I really hate is quite how much time I spend hating it, quite how much it has come to define what I do and I don't do - especially when you consider that on the grand scale of back problems, it really isn't that serious. I mean, yes, I have been in constant pain for the last couple of days, but normally I'm not so long as I'm careful. Compared to my mother, compared to people with metal rods inserted in their back or people who have been consigned to a wheelchair, I've really got nothing to complain about.

 

Yet I haven't gone to Alton Towers. Yet I spent two or three hours of the ball the other night withdrawn and tense because of the pain, followed by an hour lying down on my camping mat, doing stretches and dosing myself up on Helen's Ibuprofen, which is my absolute last resort as I'd rather know if I'm being stupid and making things worse. The fact that most GPs prescribe Ibuprofen as a routine cure for back problems is so stupid on so many levels that.. that.. that it renders me completely speechless and makes me wonder where else our trust in the medical profession is completely misplaced. Every time I want to do some sport, every time I have to go on a journey, every time I'm asked to watch a film I weigh it up in terms of my back. Two hours' film => pain for the rest of the evening. End of proof, QED.

 

My friends are mostly sympathetic, and I've decided that explaining stuff to them is the best way forward - so they know exactly what the problem is, so they know how to help me with it, and so they know that I'm not just being a wet blanket all the time. But there are still one hell of a lot of people about who simply don't have a clue ("Just relax for a bit, that'll make it better!"), and I still feel bad that my response to everything is so predictable - "No, I can't, I'm sorry, my back."

 

 

I'd better go. I'm on a decent chair in the computer room (the sole decent chairs in the whole of college, actually. The desk chairs in our rooms slope backwards, ffs..), but I've been here for a while now, and my back hurts..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got told yesterday evening that my application to be a Freshers' Rep has been turned down. :(

 

As college Stash Manager, I was in charge of organising the t-shirts for Trevs Day yesterday. This meant getting a design sent of to the printing company, getting the shirts printed, and then selling them on the day. Sounds easy.. in fact it was very stressful even getting a design, forget choosing t-shirt styles from the catalogues, working out sizes, and balancing the want for a nice t-shirt with the need to keep costs down as much as possible. A few useful lessons have been learnt! And then I had to sell them. Despite the fact that it is early June and despite the fact that we have had beautiful hot sunshine for the past week or so, the weather decided to take a turn yesterday - it was grey, stuffy, and distinctly chilly around the edges, which is unfortunate given that this year's theme was 'the beach'. So I was standing in the bar for seven-odd hours before moving my stock outside, trying to convince hoodie-enwrapped students that yes, they really did want a 'Hex on the Beach' t-shirt for £6!

 

We made a loss. Not a catastrophic loss, but a small loss nonetheless. Ah well.

 

 

 

Durham is beautiful at all times of year - a fact that I feel I can now make an informed judgement on - but especially in the summer in this weather! We went for a walk the other day, a group of about ten of us.. we were going to follow the river out to the south, and find a footpath or a bike trail or something, but we ended up messing around in the bluebell woods again. The bluebells are now over, but the views are still stunning, the trees providing some much-needed protection from the sun. Some photos may or may not be uploaded in the next day or two, when I may or may not get a chance, but take it from me, it really is beautiful!

 

I still find myself surprised by living here (as I'm sure I've mentioned before on here). Durham is a city by dint of the fact that it has a cathedral, and it has close links to Newcastle (which I have now, incidentally, started to take advantage of), but essentially it's a town in size. You can walk from one edge to the centre in a comfortable half-hour; and while some of the surrounding villages extend that a bit, and it gets a bit more industrial out to the (north?-)east, it's nothing on the scale of home, absolutely nothing. I still find it amazing that I walk out of college and only have to walk for a couple of minutes to be looking at hills - walk for ten minutes, and you're in the countryside. In a way, it feels like we're on some permanent holiday, as I just can't imagine ever calling this sort of place 'home'! I'm fantastically lucky to live where I do in Birmingham, but it's a city nonetheless - I am slowly starting to understand why my parents - who have lived in nice places for a lot of their lives - dislike Birmingham in the way they do. They got the place-shock the other way round. And it makes me realise more and more that I probably won't return to Brum when I graduate. Well, I may do, but there's nothing to stop me going anywhere in the country, and that's quite a stark realisation.

 

 

These weeks are shaping up to be fantastic. There a quite a lot of organised college activities which you can choose to partake in if you want to - equally you can do your own thing, or, as a lot of people are doing, visit friends elsewhere or go home for a few days. I'm going to a ceilidh tonight at the union (yay!).. tomorrow there's a Trevs vs Van Mildert sports day (of the egg-and-spoon variety!).. there's Trevs Day, the Summer Ball, Trevstock, a trip to Tynemouth (which we didn't get into :( ), a trip to Alton Towers (which I don't want to get into).. We're planning quite a few things in our group as well - a picnic, definitely, and at some point we have made a vow to go to a club as Rhiannon and I haven't been since the very first night of Freshers' Week, and Helen has never been to a nightclub in her life!

 

And probably some alcohol. I had another *incident* last night, completely out of it (yes, OK, drunk!) after a quarter of a pint of some cocktail (Long Island Ice Tea?). Seriously, quarter of a pint! The drink itself was a half-pint, and it got taken off me after a while 'for my own sake'! Lightweight, yes. But *that* lightweight?!

 

 

*stretches out like a cat in the sun*