Window 2

And this is what it looked like once they'd come back, so better but still not the prettiest thing in the world. Must say it does make a big difference to the stairs and landing, it's so nice and light now!  And look at the snow hehe.

Window

This is what it looked like when they first did it - we'd thought the hole in the ceiling was a bit small compared to the window...we were right! haha.

Exams are finished!

So got back to Manchester a couple of weekends ago to two weeks of exams...oh the 
fun.  I had four exams this semester - three core and one option module.  My option was Lagrangian dynamics and although scarily hard :-S we seemed to win on the timing of the exam...a lot of the other options were the day after the last core exam which was a bit mean we thought!  I think we find out our results early March so a while now where we don't have to think about them anymore :o) although can't relax just yet...our department (true to form - in first year Fresher's week we had a maths exam, and over the Summer we had a vacation essay to do - I don't know any other people who had work over the Summer grr!! lol) have given us a lab report to do for Monday - which I'm starting today :-S (hence a blog post! lol).

As well as stressing over our exams we've also had Flax and Co. (our house rental agency) trying to let our house out from under us.  We want to stay next year, but I got back last week after an exam and found a huge to let sign on the front of our house.  I rang Flax and told them we wanted to stay at which the lady told me to go down to the office as soon as, to resign the contracts and pay the difference in the deposit because although she would put a note on the file, they couldn't guarentee they wouldn't organise viewings.  They are useless - we at least thought they would have told us they were putting the house up for next term so that we could go and stop them, but oh no, that's apparently too difficult for them, grr.  Incidentally when you type 'Flax and Co. Manchester' into google, the first hit that comes up is 'The Worst Student Landlord in Manchester?'  'nuff said really.  Maybe we should have googled them first :-S ahh well, we like the house lol.  Also we got back from Christmas to find a nice big hole in through to the roof tiles where they apparently wanted to put in a Velux window lol.  It's in now and they have come back to finally finish the plastering - to start with it was appauling!  But I get the feeling now we're keeping the house they won't be back to paint!  (And yes that is snow on the outside of the window in the second picture :o)

Tash on my course had an end of exam house party/gathering last night which was really good, especially as I think the entire student population was out last night celebrating end of exams.  We went to 5th Ave on Thursday and it was very very busy (although as Jen works there now, I got queue jump and free entry, woo!) and I can imagine last night would have been even crazier!  There were certainly a lot of people out as we went to Tash's and music coming from every other house lol.

We were going to go to the Trafford Centre today, until we rememebered that it's a Saturday and that' probably not the best idea as I would be surprised if it's anything short of insanely busy!  So the plan is to go at some point in the week which should be good hehe, even if I can't really buy anything :-( haha.

Right so, back to the lab report and Edser-Butler fringes...

Brrr

Our internet now works! Woo! Although that was a few weeks ago... we only had to survive 3 weeks without internet. That was still far too long though! Dale said he thinks it was the longest he's been without internet since dial-up, as even on holiday that's only 2 weeks...I think it's the same for me! Lol. Needless to say, when they first switched it on, we were all inseparable from our computers for a while...lol.

We're in Reading Week now, so of course I have mid-terms grumble grumble. I don't know anyone else at Manc with midterms - it's ridiculous lol, and I think just a ploy to stop us going home because reading week is 'NOT a holiday' haha. Although tbf, some subjects don't have a reading week at all. Having said that I'm pretty sure I'd prefer lectures to exams. Perhaps. Lol, these aren't really too bad, only half an hour, but still worth 10% of each module :-S. Still last two today and then we are going out to celebrate finishing all the revision we've been doing haha. Anyways despite the best efforts of the Uni I did go home for a slightly extended weekend and had lots of train fun on the way back...they broke the train so had to sit at Chesterfield for 40mins (very cold lol) to wait for a working train because ours developed a 'terminal engine fault'. We'd said it looked a bit old and clunky when it arrived at Ely but I didn't think it would *actually* break down. Ah well, fun times lol.

Robyn and her friend Leanne came up last week to look at the Uni and look round Manchester. I think they had fun...they certainly did a lot of shopping lol, which made us all very jealous, despite them being unable to find the Arndale lol, which we found very funny hehe.

Dale's birthday last thursday so we went to the Comedy Night at Opus. It was actually really good - we weren't quite sure what to expect but all really liked it - and always good to broaden the horizons lol. Speaking of which me and Laura went with her coursemates to The Jazz Club a couple of weeks ago as well, which we really liked, quite cool to do something different...

The weather has now turned freezing! And I am now understanding how cold the top floor of this house is haha. When the heating is on, you start off pretty warm downstairs and as you go up each floor it gets colder and colder lol. I have managed to trun my radiator on now though (I had worried it was broken), but it seems to take a year to heat up, and then only the bottom half lol. I'm hoping that that is just because it hasn't been used for ages and that it will get better... :-S...lol.

Coors gave out posters at Uni to put up in your windows and then they'd come round and give all the houses with the posters free Coors (light but ah well, free beer! lol). Walking down our road before I knew about it, I was just like, why has everyone got this poster in their window, then I got to our house we had one too lol..which Dale had put up...excellent hehe. When they came round, they brought like 4 4x4 coors cars and then just went from door to door (with the posters obv. lol) shouting free beer hehe...lol :o) good stuff.

Another post about my lack of internet

So back in Manchester for 2nd year and it turns out getting internet in a house is even more tricksy than trying to get it set up in halls. We're getting Sky Broadband, but are currently waiting on a letter telling us our internet connection is activated...the first one apparently didn't work. Once we've got it, should be wicked - 16MB (or perhaps only 12.5 for our area) and unlimited dl will be cool hehe, but for now must make do with the University clusters. On the plus side, I have now discovered the pretty nice computer cluster over at Owen's Park opposite where we live and also how to buy Uni print credit...only took me a year lol. Also the TV has been sorted since before we moved in so we are entertained - free Sky movies for the first 6 months :) which is nice lol.

Having a house is so much nicer than halls - for starters we now have a living room - with a huge TV that Hannah brought up and sofas that are actually comfy hehe. Also a nicer kitchen which we don't have to share with anti-social randoms lol. All the rooms in our house are pretty big and all double beds...soo comfy, makes getting up for lectures quite interesting lol. Me, Laura and Jenny came up to Mankychester a couple of weeks before Freshers to paint the house - the hall is now a lovely pure brilliant white which makes such a difference, it was an *interesting* shade of magnolia/cream/white where ever the 'builders' had added a door or fire safety feature (with an axe as a tool perhaps lol). The hall took us a couple of days as its three storeys but the slightly depressing thing is that no one but us can tell because unless you knew how bad it was before it just looks white lol. We also painted our rooms 'subtle' (as requested by our landlorf) colours. Ok, so maybe not so subtle, but the rooms needed painting and as far as we can tell, were at some point orange, and they look good so we think we'll be ok lol. We told Flax (our agents... hmm) that we'd done it so I think as long as we paint before we leave it'll be ok...anyway it looks good hehe. My room is yellow and we did three of Laura's walls pink with one white - Jen's has turqoise squares and a purple, black and turquoise graffiti board on the wall - they look really good. In Freshers Week, Hannah's dad came and painted her room blue which also looks really cool.

Freshers Week was lots of fun although I had to do my Vacation Essay - I don't know anyone else who had holiday work to do. Ended up printing it out Monday morning with plenty of time before the half 12 deadline lol, but at least I got it in ok. Lectures started last week with lots of warnings that second year is *hard*... very scary :-S and an idea that was reinforced once we started our option course - Lagrangain Dynamics. The lecturer is Russian making him quite hard to understand - which doesn't help the fact that the stuff he's telling us is quite hard to understand lol.

I went to Cardiff last weekend kind of for Rhiannon's birthday which was the week before but also to see Rhiannon and Cardiff. Had a really good weekend - very strange to see other people's Uni and houses. I managed to catch their Freshers Flu which was particularly annoying as I had just got over Manchester Freshers Flu. Excellent. My house mates will love me for that lol.

In an attempt to join more clubs this year, me Hannah and Laura have started going to netball on a Tuesday - it's lots of fun, if a little scary given that I haven't played since secondary school, and Laura (only telling me after we'd already been lol) played a lot in 6th Form. I'm sticking to defence for now, but it's not very serious at the moment so lots of fun. Plus lots of socials hehe and we can actually (well mayb not technically) feel like we are justified in going to AU (Athletics Union) every week lol. An excuse to buy another Uni hoody too - always good hehe.

March already....

Just looking at the title of my last post and it’s so true. My internet broke again last week, exactly the same problem as before, apparently there’s a problem with my cable in the switch room so they should be replacing it….lol.

Last Tuesday was pancake day and so we attempted making our own, very successfully I might add hehe. Although we did have a ringing of the parents to find out the ingredients only to use pancake mix…just add water! Lol, very yummy and so much fun. We used the kitchen next door as Dale’s mum had been up to visit and cleaned the kitchen so it was sparkly and clean. Also they have freeview next door so we could do the essential O.C. and Beauty and the Geek viewing at the same time.

We had our first excursion the weekend before last – we went to Chester Zoo…lots of fun, if very cold. We saw all the animals, lions and tigers and giraffes and monkeys and meer cats hehe. Jenny also bought us all Chester Zoo mood rings so we always know how we’re feeling, although had to alter the chart slightly as we kept being ‘in despair’ lol. We stayed at Jenny’s nans and then went shopping on the Sunday in Chester…very painful as I don’t have any money and there were half price Bench jackets – not fair! Lol. Chester is so pretty and recognisable from Hollyoaks, very exciting.

On the subject of Hollyoaks, we keep seeing the cast members round Manc, which is even more exciting lol. Lee and Zara were in 5th Ave, there are lots of photos haha, then Becca was at AU and the boys saw Andy the rapist down in Fallowfield lol.

We’ve sorted our house for next year which is so cool. It’s down in Fallowfield – Landcross Road, right next to a bus stop which is cool as we’ll be getting the bus to Uni next year. The house is so nice – 5 bedrooms, all double and all double beds and pretty big :) two showers, two toilets, kitchen, really nice living room and even a basement. It’s three storeys and the shower on the top floor is kinda exciting lol. The shower is pretty much the whole room, the room is just the size of the shower tray – unusual hopefully good though… It’s gonna be £57 a week before bills which is really good – at the moment we pay so much to be in halls mainly cos we’re en suite hehe, about £78 I think…. Lol.

Had exams when I first came back over Christmas, no fun, especially finding where each exam was – very scary as they were all over including in Fallowfield which for me is very scary lol :S Now we’re back to lectures though and my timetable is pretty cool. I don’t have lab this year because of the philosophy, so I have 5 hours less a week than last semester meaning I only have one hour on a Thursday. I have lost my Fridays off though which is a bit mean lol. We have now started entirely new modules – maths 2, electricity and magnetism, gases solids and liquids and vibrations and waves. All fun stuff haha. We’ve also started a new module in philosophy – knowledge and reality, which is better than ethics as it’s a lot more related to physics and science which is cool although I’m still definitely dropping philosophy at the end of this year.

We seem to have a new hobby, which is hair dying lol. Me and Jenny have both dyed our hair at least twice since being back after Christmas – kinda cool. We dyed it again yesterday (roots were beginning to become a problem at least for me lol), mine medium brown and hers dark chestnut brown which means atm they’re pretty similar colours although shouldn’t think that’ll last too long once the colour starts to fade lol.

I took my music theory exam finally last week lol. Pretty impressive as my piano teacher booked it at Christmas somewhere in Manchester, and the place in Manchester was the Sackville St. Building. The Sackville St. Building is on the same street as my Halls and is the building next to us… pretty handy hehe.

AU tonight which is our new Wednesday night. We’d been a few times last semester, but after introducing Laura to it, it’s now a weekly thing lol. It seems to have calmed down a lot now, last term getting tickets was a no fun and involved lots of standing round in the cold waiting for people selling them to turn up, it was so popular, but we now have ‘contacts’ who get them for us lol, or we’ve discovered we can just turn up earlier – a pound more expensive that way though and means we have to be ready earlier which can be a bit of a challenge :-S lol. Should be cool though and as it’s AU, it’s a student night so very cheap hehe :) .

Our house next year!

  

I'm so internet-dependent... :-S

My internet broke on Thursday - very distressing. It just stopped working, I went on my computer and it said that the network cable was unplugged. Liar. Lol, well partially, my network cable wsan't unplugged, but the one in the switch room was apparently broken. All fixed now :) it's a beautiful thing. No internet is no fun lol.

We went to 5th Ave on Friday and were very confused when it didn't shut at 2, but stayed open 'til 3. Most confusing lol, especially as they still had last orders at quarter to 2... However, this apparently isn't an including weeknights thing, as was there last night and it closed at 2. 5th Avenue is our local indie club lol, and by local, I mean on the same street as our halls which is fantastic :) and being an indie club, it is very student aware hehe - bottles only 80p :)

It is very strange having only one weekend left before the one where we'll all be going home for Christmas. We've been planning next weekend (our Christmas Day) for ages and now it's almost here... we are actually going to have to buy the food for Christmas dinner on Saturday and buy the secret Santa presents...

Tonight, having a bit of a lazy night (in preparation for tomorrow's going outings and recovering from last night's lol) and me and my Lost buddy May are planning to finish watching Series 1 of Lost - exciting stuff :) it's a good job we have it on computer as we always seem to be out when it's on (on a Wednesday). Although having all the episodes to hand has got the better of us and we're now ahead...

Since reading week, I have had a new development to my timetable... I now have Fridays off!! Three day weekend, every weekend hehe. This (like the internet) is also a beautiful thing and I will miss it dearly when it is gone (like the lovely cold and DRY weather we had that has now been replaced by rain...lol I like it when it's cold).

We've also now added blue baubles (6 for £1, the pound shop rules!) to our tree. It looks so nice although we're still missing a fairy for the top. In our search for one, we investigated the Manchester Christmas Market, which is actually really nice, very Christmassy :) there was a brass band playing christmas carols when we were there. They even sell Gluehwein (although in Frankfurt Weihnachtsmarkt mugs lol).

Our Christmas Tree

We put our Christmas decorations up this weekend...not as early as it seems as our Christmas day is on the 11th December...only 3 weeks away :) We have our co-ordinated decorations he he all silver. We do want blue as well, we just haven't been able to find any blue baubles yet, but oh well, they will be added later lol. We've also got coloured lights in the windows which we went outside to check if you could see them (we live on the 6th floor lol) and they look so pretty hehe - it's great :) 

It really does rain A LOT in Manc

I mentioned to Emily on my course that it's supposed to be a really cold winter this year and she said, good, hopefully then it won't rain for 6 months continuously like it did last year.

I really hope it doesn't either lol, it rained a lot last week and I don't own any (vaguely comfortable and this is more important than usual as I have to walk far enough to Uni, that my feet would be shredded :( ) waterproof shoes. My boots which I normally resort to in the rain certainly aren't lol.

It's reading week this week, which means everyone went home. I was back on Monday night to go to the Physics Halloween Party which was pretty good - fancy dress hehe and not too far away although had to resort to a taxi as I had no idea where Font Bar (where it was) is and it was scary and dark lol (and halloween :-S ). So being back on Monday night meant I was all on my own pretty much in our flat til Tuesday night at least when May came back. Now we are practically buzzing with people as May and Dale next door are back and so is Jenny... it's great :)

I had to back for today and Friday as the mean people in Physics set us mid-terms... no fun grumble. I had the maths and dynamics ones today, and they're not too bad, and even though they do count towards our first year grade - they don't count for much lol.

I'm off to Reading this weekend and again, our flat will be empty - the people who aren't here, still won't be here, and me and Jenny are off again...

I caved on Tuesday and bought a University of Manchester jumper...omg it's so warm and cosy, although can't really wear it in halls without opening all the windows (which me and Jenny, who also has one do, lol :) as it is always so hot.

Tomorrow's midterms start at 1.00pm a much more sociable hour than today's 9am start lol and seem to allow time for revision in the morning, leaving me free to watch films tonight... lol.