Different....

There we were, minding our own business when we walk past what we presumed is a workman related hole and we see what appears to be the distal end of a femur poking out, closer inspection seems to show a rib just to the left and yet another bone further left of that.







Well, it's not very far down, and when coupled with what appears to be a not very old drain cover it just gets more and more intriguing, don't you think.


It won't be anything exciting, let's face it, if it was, it would just get 'hidden' anyway.

It's probably a dead horse, so I'll stop flogging it now.

It came!!!!

Here it is, my new bike...




Ok, so it is missing a front brake... and pedals... and it needs a new chain... and a new back tyre...


...but for 99p, am I really going to complain :D



(N.B. Marmite in picture purely for the londoners - apparently, cheers Kimble :p)


Update:
Now has pedals, I fixed the chain all by my little self ;) so all I need now are my front brakes and a backtyre then I'm all set for post-exam bike trips to the beach!

A new year..

So here we are, a new year.
I wonder if it will be as eventful as last year, or atleast be a happier one.

So here they are the traditional new years resolutions that we all think up and swear that this year we will in fact do them and stick to them...

...bollocks...

...but here we go, it will be interesting how many of these are still important to me this time next year.

• Be more decisive
• Be more healthy
  
• Be more organised
• Be more careful with money
• Make more time for those around me
• Stop caring about friends lost, because if they can't be bothered to go against the crowd then they are better off ruining someone elses life

and most importantly,

• to follow my own advice
  

So, now it is my turn and this is why I am saving up the money to go on the trip of a lifetime, something that is important to me. At the end of my degree before I get stuck in the boring mundane world of mortgages and work I am going travelling until I either a) run out of money or b) get bored - which lets face it isn't going to happen.

So this year lots of resolutions to break and to keep.

Lets see where it takes us,

Come on world, I am ready.

Departmental Juggling

University never fails to surprise me.

I am paying an extortionate amount every year - £3070 to be exact - to get an education, or so I thought.

Since last year, I have changed from one department at my university to another and already the difference is obvious.
Lets call them department A (awful) and department B.

Within less than one day of changing courses (to department B), I was assigned a personal tutor, all my modules were registered correctly and every piece of documentation was spelt correctly, available and with the correct e-mail addresses.

Last year, one term in, I still had not been assigned a personal tutor, despite bringing it to attention on more than one occassion, my modules were incorrectly registered, and there were clashes on my timetable for compulsory modules, little documentation was available and what there was was incorrectly spelt and with invalid e-mail addresses.

Yesterday I managed to change a module in one day! A process unheard of under department A.

Quite what I was thinking when I opted to study a module this year in department A I do not know.

As I have missed a week of the module and because I actually want to learn something in return for my money. I sent an e-mail to the module lecturer asking which textbook and work I needed to catch up on before the seminar the next day.

She very helpfully replied telling me that I needed a certain textbook - which is not available in any of the bookshops in Canterbury - for the module and that I also needed to photocopy chapter 1 before the seminar. Very helpful, so a book I can't buy, that I need to photocopy, when I hadn't even seen anyone on my module let alone talk to. Yep, easy peasy... what is so difficult about that.

Hmm..

But, it gets better, unlike my lecturer I had spotted a small flaw in that plan *disengages sarcasm mode* and sent another e-mail asking what the chapter was about, so I could try and read another book to grasp the basic idea. My e-mail is then sent onto the course convenor who in his ineptness replies to the lecturer by pressing reply to all, so I get his reply aswell.

It turns out that the entire department is unable to read corectly. So an e-mail reading:

"Can I be a pain and ask what was Chapter 1 about as I can't get the book to see for myself?"

(...The e-mail being sent in response to an e-mail telling me I won't be able to get a copy of the book...)

Obtained the response of :

"It's his responsibility to ask someone for a copy. No private lessons otherwise......"

Now, call me stupid, but my name (for those of you who know me) is hardly a masculine one, and where on Earth was I supposed to get a copy from as I hadn't started the course yet and therefore knew of no one who had a textbook (which is shown in the correspondence of the forwarded e-mail which he obvioulsy didn't even look at). This annoys me for a few reasons, the ineptitude of member of staff who is incapable of being able to send an e-mail, not actually reading an e-mail before casting a judgement and because it is effectively discouraging a student who is actually trying to do well.

Where exactly did I request a private lesson or to borrow a copy of the book??

The plot thickens however. It turns out that less than half the class (of about 30) have the required text. Probably about 11 of them have it. Now, the assignments are questions in the book, quite how the lecturer expects people to be able to obtain a book from someone who has one, to photocopy entire chapters, not just pages *cough* copyright *cough* at our own expense, because the department couldnt make sure that there were enough copies of the book (or atleast more than one copy in the library) and at the very least, to make sure that that copy was on short loan.

Which links back to my last question. Quite frankly, if she expects other students to lend their books to be copied, why shouldn't students be able to borrow hers - when it is not in use of course - briefly to photocopy it. Double standards don't work very well when everyone in question is supposedly treated equally.

Now, the question is, do I reply to the inept course convenor. Do I explain to him what the word all on that reply button means? Shall I explain to him that to read a text thoroughly-which is a trait he should inspire in his students - is a trait which in his hipocrisy he should try and follow? Or shall I detail to him that gender reassignment operations take a little longer than the time it takes for me to enter his office, obtain a signature and then walk across campus.

Oh well, fun and games, maybe I should ask for some money back...

And I'm back!

With more to whinge about than ever!

Todays bitching session is about the legal system and its downfalls.

I was absolutely infuriated to read about this case. The thing that really got up my nose about this case was the fact that;

• a) "It emerged during his trial that Sully had convictions for almost identical attacks stretching back 38 years."


• b) Sully was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and was disqualified him from working with children for life.
  

Well yes, brilliant its happened now, why wasn't it done before anyway?!

And lastly;

• c) "If and when Sully is ever released from prison, he will be subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), which would prohibit him from undertaking work that would bring him into contact with children."

fantastic, great idea, except...

"Breaking the order would make him liable to a maximum five-year prison sentence. "

Ooh, wow, a whole five years!

Why the fuck isn't it longer?

Say he assaults a 7 year old, then when he gets out that child is going to be a mere 12 years old. A difficult time for any child let alone one who knows that the guy who screwed up their life is now out and about - and may well be angered that they told.

Anyone think that child will sleep well again? Isn't enough that the child has to face memories in dreams let alone know they might yet come face to face in reality?

On a note away from child abusers this is an interesting story...

In short for all of you who don't care to read it through, be sure to encourage your kids to study hard and maybe become a doctor. If they want inflict gross bodily harm on someone and get away with only a few hours community service a week they will need a good job.

Powerful Mother Nature

For years my life felt like The Truman Show, I felt like a toy in someones game. As though my life wasn't real. Nothing felt real to me, not even pain.

Like Truman, I never left the country, except it was because I couldn't, the passport office would give every other bugger in the world a British passport except me.
It was as though someone was in control of all the variable factors in my life and it left me feeling somewhat confused. When I eventually saw The Truman Show I could empathise entirely with Jim Carreys character - which in itself is a worryingly unnatural concept.

Since a stupidly young age I wanted to go to uni, that was my dream, my sole target. Several things happened to delay and nearly prevent me going to uni, I am both happy and sad that they happened, but I would rather they had happened than not.

Imagine my horror therefore when I eventually get to uni, and had the housemates from hell, who bar one, were all nearly two years younger than me (and very immature for their ages at that), went clubbing till 3/4 most mornings and woke me up every time and turned our house into the inside of a hairspray can. Uni was not so much a dream but a hell.

I slumped into a depression and developed an avoidant anxiety disorder whereby I was actually scared to leave my room and go next door to the kitchen or even the toilet. I felt entirely trapped and cut off - in short, I was fucked up.

Only one thing made me feel happier, one thing that I lived for weekend to weekend.
Now that one thing is being torn from me. From right under my nose, beckoned away. It's already different, mistakes have been made and I am a fool for not realising sooner.

For the past two weeks I have felt as though there is a hand holding onto my stomach, and every time I hear or see a certain name this hand twists, and I feel like total shit. Yes this has made me slightly edgy, yes I am not my usual easy going self - would you be?

Tuesday night here in the South East we had an amazing thunderstorm. It was like an orchestra of nature, we had forked lightning, we had sheet lightning, we had thunder so loud and so rumbling it was like nothing I'd heard before.

I watched nearly all two hours of that storm, and for most of it I was sitting outside in the storm staring at the sky.

It was as though the storm was there purely to convey my emotions. The anger I felt fluctuated with each fork of lightning I saw, it was as though I was controlling the storm, that it took its energy from my anger. Every breath I took resulted in lightning that lit up the sky, every blink a chorus of thunder and with every beat of my heart the rain fell.

It was like magic, and I saw a sight I shall never see again, for I surely should be dead.
As I sat there soaked to the skin and looking straight up I saw a lightning fork coming straight down towards me. The world was in slow motion all around me and I wasn't scared, all I could think was how powerful and yet beautiful it was, it was a moment of pureness. At the last moment this fork split into about four other forks, and I was domed in lightning.

I shall never forget it for it is forever marked in my mind as one of those rare moments in life where nothing seems to matter.

It sounds like a fairytale, and had I not been there myself I wouldn't have believed it either, maybe I am still asleep, maybe one day I'll wake up.

Right, a public declaration

Hello World.

Lets just clear up some things shall we.

I am in a relationship with someone called Mark.

I would like to state now for the record that I did not cheat on Kevin.

Unlike many of you out there I still actually believe in monogamous relationships.

Now I realise that this post may lose me a quite a few friends, but quite frankly if you want to spread rumours about me and slander my reputation to draw away from the fact that some of you can't keep your legs together, then that is fine with me.

With friends like you who needs enemies.

As for all of you who have heard rumours about me *and* passed them on, but still claim to be my friend. Why didn't you just ask me if there was any truth in it first?

As for the person that started several of the rumours about me, how can you sleep at night?

Please feel free to comment and set me straight.