canterbury

York

So I went to York today. It was a lovely day – despite all the warnings from the various weather programmes on the telly. We first hit the National Railway Museum, which was quite good: especially for being free! The biggest shame was that the Flying Scotsman locomotive – the world famous engine – is currently in hundreds of pieces undergoing maintenance. So that was a pity.

The Yorkshire Wheel was pretty good. For £6 you go round three times with an audio commentary of what you can see. The views aren’t that spectacular to be honest… the landmarks of note are few… but you don’t often get the opportunity to be suspended 60 metres in the air, rocking in the wind, being told that some monarch labelled York the worst smelling city in his kingdom (I didn’t catch which monarch said this…).

After that, we went into the town for a little exploring. It would be quite easy to get lost in York if it weren’t for the excellent signposting. The shops vary between the old and new; the independents and the High Street brands. It is rather similar to Canterbury.

The only major downer on the day was the trains. Whilst booking the tickets, I endeavoured to use only Virgin Trains, since they have a nicer ride. But the Pendolinos seem to be rather reliable. The trip on the way there was delayed by fifteen minutes because of "technical problems" – they couldn’t download the seat reservations (again). And the return trip was delayed by 30 minutes, and arrived fifty minutes later at Newcastle than scheduled. It probably hasn’t been the best week for them… they wanted the East-Coast Mainline contract but National Express won it. At least GNER are punctual and I hope National Express maintain this. Anyway, I digress… York good, Virgin bad!

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Dreams, Dreams, Dreams

I’ve been having some weird ones lately. Two of note were particularly odd. In the first, some people whom I do not recognise appeared to fancy me, which is rare in itself. In the second, the university appears to have hated me more than I could have imagined, setting some of my exams at the University of Kent at Canterbury, inducing a 700 mile round-trip for those exams. It was even more far-fetched for me to wake up and remember that it wasn’t the exams on my mind, but rather it was someone I was looking for. Even more oddly, there were old crushes in this dream, popping up inexplicably. I wonder what it all means. Perhaps I have been working too hard!

Unfortunately it seems reality is far more mundane. It appears this will be a very uneventful summer.

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Update

It has now been far too long since I made a post. This is not indicative of the constant source of entertainment that is my life!

Last week I stayed in Kent – Herne Bay to be more precise, at my good old friend Pete’s house. Although it was an enjoyable stay as always, my time there was a little too short (again, as always). So many places to go, so many places to see, so many other things going on, in the end it feels like I didn’t do much at all.

I arrived on the Monday (just – nearly every form of public transport I used that day was late). Pete, Donna and I ‘did’ the seafront. This consisted of walking up and down the prom with chips and ice cream, with a healthy exchange of north-south banter. I did not see any kangaroos down there, unfortunately.

On Tuesday, I went to a revision lecture. It would seem that Pete takes everyone to his lectures. I got an overview of probability theory, of which I had mostly forgotten. Perhaps it was worthwhile that I went, though I cannot recall anything of substance from that hour. After that we wandered down to Canterbury City Centre and wandered in and out of shops. I bought Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence by Dream Theater for £6. We went to Whittards and had the best cup of tea ever. That evening we went back to Canterbury to enjoy the pubs and bars. We went to Origins, a bar located within the Darwin halls of residence at the University of Kent. That was quite good, but no cheaper than an ordinary bar in Newcastle… After an hour or two (I forget which) we moved onto the city centre. Six of us in one Ford Fiesta led to the inevitable muggins in the boot. Louis ensured the route involved speed bumps. That was interesting…

On Wednesday, Pete, Donna and I managed to traverse most of the North Kent coastline. We got to Whitstable, somehow. We were also surprised to hear many explosions around. On Thursday, we were meant to be playing cricket in the morning, but the county cricket people let us down. Instead we wandered off to Bluewater. Surprisingly, the extent of my expenditure did not extend to anything beyond a buffet meal at Pizza Hut. Was nice. I then used my charm and desperation to ask James to take me to my grandparents’ house for a quick visit. It was nice to see them, but I suspect it annoyed everyone involved to some degree that afternoon.

On Saturday, having arrived back the previous day, I went and got my brand spanking new glasses. They required some getting used to, but now they seem to be doing the job. Yesterday I got my hair cut for the first time in over two years. I quite like it. And I am reassured in that I am not the only one who can’t get my hair to do what I want with it.

I think that just about brings us up to date!

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Bad Mistakes, I’ve Made A Few (Part II)

Application for University was easy, in the main. My only mistake was applying to Warwick University. If you are turned down by Oxbridge, don’t bother trying for Warwick! I applied for two courses there: the Master of Mathematics, and the MMORSE (Master of Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and (Something) Else). They refused my application for both. It wasn’t so much this that annoyed me – it was more the fact that they refused to give any feedback or indeed any reason for the refusal of my entry. They simply said “we get too many applications to give personal replies”. I suspect they get too many applications to read…

I also applied to the University of Manchester, and for UMIST (University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology), which I believe have united to form one university. They both requested interviews, and I foolishly declined both. I didn’t even visit the universities. However, they both offered me a place anyway. The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and the University of Kent at Canterbury also offered me places on their courses.

It wasn’t a tough choice – the perfect choice was Newcastle. It did the course I wanted, I would get to see the city around which I might have been brought up around, and there was the chance to go and watch my beloved team play. So I selected them as my first choice. Both Manchester universities were asking the same requirements in terms of A Level grades as Newcastle, so I could not select them as my insurance option. Kent then remained as my insurance option. So all that remained was for me to get ABB in my A Levels in order to get into Newcastle, or failing that, BC to get into Kent.

Results day came, and I achieved ABBCC, which might not seem bad, but for all the bad publicity gets, General Studies was one of those B grades, and got me into Newcastle.

In some ways I wish I had done two things. First was to look at other universities. I was very dismissive of universities that were not doing the Masters courses. Secondly, I wished I talked to my friends more. To be honest, I don’t think I would have changed my mind from selecting Newcastle as my first option. Having said that, I think if I had realised that everyone else was giving everything north of Watford Gap a wide berth I might have considered my options a little longer.

If I had gone to Kent, I would perhaps have gone out a lot more. Perhaps I might have made fewer friends, but a change is as good as a rest, as they say.

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