g o r m e n g h a s t

Currently Reading: Titus Groan by Mervin Peake (1st Book in the Gormenghast Trilogy). I randomly picked up the entire trilogy in Victoria Coach station on the way to Alex's, and it cost me £15 so I hope it's good. I read the first 90 pages on the coach, and must admit that although nothing happened, it was great fun to read. Mervin Peake's writing style is vividly descriptive, and simply in describing the daily lives of a number of characters within Gormenghast he kept me hooked. Hopefully this bodes well!

Childhood Dream #1 -- Fulfilled

This particular activity was so incredible, that it deserves it's own post. While on the pig farm, I fulfilled a childhood dream... I DROVE THE JCB. Yes, I was a digger driver for a day. I had to reverse it out of the farmyard, through a gate, over a hill and then lower some milk-churns full of water over an electric fence (I may have accidentally electrocuted the farmer, but it was my first time!) and then drive back. More fun than I could ever have imagined. Luckily it had an automatic clutch, which was handy as I wouldn't have fancied clunking the gears on a 2 tonne soil-shifter.

5 Reasons why pigs are smart.

Pigs. Pigs pigs pigs. They are smart little things. Many reasons:

1. The little buggers can learn how to open gate-bolts. And once they learn, they never forget. Oh, and they can lift gates off their hinges. Yes.




2. Once the boar smells his ladies, no amount of coaxing will get him to go in the opposite direction. And he has big teeth - and unlike a cow and it's immense strength, he knows how to use them*
3. Piglets are powerful, and they know how to flail.
4. They can somehow root around in their own filth all day without getting noticably ill, or throwing up.
5. They will only defecate in particular areas, and will keep their bedding areas clean, if given space to do so. This does actually make them, in my opinion, the cleanest of all the domestic animals I've worked with (excepting cats).

Overall, it was a really good week. The farmer had pigs (breeding, rearing and finishing - was great to see the whole process, though sadly I missed any farrowings - the two sows that were due while I was there had aborted a month or so before - clearly they knew I was coming!), cattle and sheep, and as a result I got to do a huge variety of things, including de-maggotting two fly struck sheep, jabbing a lively little piglet with some antibiotics, going to 2 farmers' markets, and 3 different abatoirs. He also had his own butchery so I got to try my hand at a spot of mincing - plus the bacon at breakfast was insurpassable!.

*I never actually got skewered by a boar, don't worry - he wasn't very good at standing up - looked like he was trying to walk on stilettos.

Just got back from the gym. It's the first time I've been since my initiation on Tuesday, and I quite enjoyed it. I went along with Sean and Don (who are both surprisingly strong!), and did my whole workout twice as the guy said. I'm glowing now I'm home, and hopefully as I did the stretches again I won't be too tough.

All of Hannah's friends are round at the moment having a BBQ, so I'm staying out of their way :)

Scrabble

Have played alot of Scrabble over the last few days. Played Sean three times today, he was beaten, and despite the harsh verbal stabbings we both received we enjoyed it. Apart from the last game, which stretched into 26 rounds of pain. Such awful letters. Truly awful. Though we did discover the word "suq", which is quite useful.

Aches and Pains

I ache. I booked into a gym yesterday cos I decided that I need to be able to lift calves. The guy in the gym thought this was a strange goal, but clearly he'd never been given a brief like it, and took it to heart. He gave me a few weights and explained how they would help me to throw sheep, and others to lift stuff. Think he quite enjoyed it.

But now I ache - not as much as I expected to, thanks to some smart stretches I was taught, but I do ache. Particularly my backside. Bloody ergs. Luckily today is a day of waiting for the gas man, so I don't have to do anything. Will probably go again on Thursday with Sean and his Bro. Coolio.

photo courtesy of this website.

Two More Species to Add to my Repertoire

In just over a month's time I will have completed 4 weeks of EMS. I'm working for 2 weeks with little northern piggies as of next Monday, and my September will be begun in the stables of some lovely horses from down my road. That will leave me needing only 2 weeks to finish off my 12, having already done 4 weeks of lambing and 2 weeks of dairy work.
picture taken from this website

Cotwolds

Not long been back from the Cotswolds where we went on holiday for a few days. We drove up via Oxford and had a quick wander round the town before we got to the hotel. Admittedly, it is a very nice town, but, in my highly biased opinion, it's not quite Cambridge. It's much more open, which in some ways is nice, but in other ways loses the close-knit feeling of Cambridge. It was also nowhere near as clean, and the buildings are built of an extremely crumbly stone (they look like Wensleydale cheese). That was very critical, and there's no reason why Oxford should be compared to Cambridge, but.. well. It was nice, but not NICE.

The hotel was amazing - amazing rooms, each with their own front door on to a little courtyard, and the food was incredible. Small portions, but they tasted amazing. Plus breakfast with Terry Wogan, an experience in itself.

The next day we drove to Bourton on the Water, a cute little village, but the journey to it turned out to be the most eventful thing to happen. We drove about 50miles to make to 25 mile journey.. I enclose a map of our journey - including phantom section. The bit of road we never went down.(NB: on the map it says "to bourton on the water" - the actuall village is further along the A40... if you care! Just didn't want the Bourton village council onto me for deformation of location :))

It was a very quaint village with a model village (including a model of the model village in the model village), loads of tea shops and gift shops, the cute little Windrush river. We spent ages just wandering around looking at stuff.

Unfortunately my Dad managed to break a tooth (he'd been to the dentist before we went away but he'd failed to spot it), and so we had to leave early the following day to get him to the dentist. He came home a little less wise than he did before!
map taken from www.streetmap.co.uk, edited by me

Scorchio!

Sorry! It's been a while - I blame the heat. It's been well over 30 degrees during the day (and 30 degrees in my room at night) every day since Monday. PAINY!

Today
Not done much today. Planned circuitboard diagrams (see below). Am off out to Ikea later on today to try again to get my chair.

Yesterday
Met up with the famous Jamie Frost yesterday in Kingston. We went to see Superman, and it was a pretty good film. I won't give it a mark (as Jamie will be doing that... see his site), but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The first half was pretty much devoted to Superman flying round doing cool stuff (which, to be fair, is what everyone will be going to see this film for), while the main plot development was in the second half, centred around Lex Luther's evil money-making scheme: "But millions of people will die!", "BILLIONS!". Excellent Stuff

The Last Week
In general I've been pretty lazy all round. I ordered some components for a little electrical project I've set myself... I shall have to wait and see if it'll all come off. It might turn out to be a shambles! The fact that the chip I wanted to use is now obselete is a bit of a pain, but I think I've found a pin-for-pin replacement.

b l a c k h o l e s a n d r e v e l a t i o n s

Currently Listening t0 - Muse - Black Holes and Revelations. It's actually pretty good - after hearing their single Supermassive Black Hole, which is a bit like jamiroquai I was worried, but it fits in pretty well with the album, even though the other tracks are much more muse like. Seems pretty angry though #you'll burn, yeah you'll burn for you sins, yeah you'll burn# ahem.

Cycling in the heatwave

I’ve taken to going for a cycle in the mornings. Only two days so far, and today’s was an afternoon cycle (despite it being 31.5 degrees), but it’s good fun. Yesterday morning I cycled past one of the ponds that was full of a load of red-deer cooling off. A great photo opportunity – if only I’d taken a camera. I did today, and tried vainly to photograph some jays I saw, but they were too quick for me. There were a few deer again, but none in the pond sadly!

Snooker 2

Rahul beat me 5-3 this time. Nearly got the 8^th frame, but he pipped me to the post with an amazing pink. Oh well, 8-8 is is. Think it’s gonna turn out to be a best of 25 three session marathon. Hehe.

Rollercoaster...

This week has been an emotional rollercoaster. We have a wonderful internet system for applying for Part II (3^rd Year) subjects if you wish to go for natsci tripos subjects (Vets at Cambridge do an intercalated year so we can do whatever we want in our 3^rd year. I considered Geography, but thought that the jump to a slightly more artsy subject would probably break my brain). I applied to the PDN department (Physiology, Development and Neuroscience) to do 4 modules in “Development and Reproduction”, mostly as our Veterinary Reproductive Module we did this year was so fascinating! My second choice was pathology and my third choice genetics.

So, it was all going along nicely, and I was getting suitably excited about PDN, assuming I’d get it as I got a good 2.1 last year, but was rejected. The 2^nd choice allocations were 5 days later so I had to wait and see what I got (I swapped path and genetics though, as revising path was painful). So, I came to terms with the fact that I’d be doing genetics next year, and was quite looking forward to it. Then, on the day of 2^nd choice allocations I was told by the internet site that I had been allocated a place on PDN. I was understandably over-excited, and relieved to have got my place. However, the following day I checked my emails I was told that I had been given a substitute place on the, which had really bad modules; so I was back to genetics. Then, a few days later I was told they’d messed up my application and I infact should have had my 1^st choice. So, I am now doing PDN – so far so good :S.

God it's been a while. Haven't even posted news on the may ball. So, once again, in true Wardy style, BACKDATING!

• May Ball
• Post-May Ball
• SveedishConstruction
• Snooker
  

Snooker

Beat Rahul 5-3 from 1-3 down at first. Most of the games were pretty tight though

SveedishConstructio

IKEA. Went to IKEA. IKEA is actually quite alot of fun. Even if they didn't have my chair :( - We did get some SKANKA pans though. Hehe.

Results yr 2

Wow! I got another high 2:1 :) Plus a first in Pharmacology - can't imagine how. AMAZING!

Spent the morning packing – got most of my stuff away in boxes and bags (so sad to have to take down all the stuff off my notice-boards), before wandering round Clare handing in forms and generally sorting stuff out. Then got home and packed some more.

tbc...

Poor Askman

Got up early-ish and met Alex, Vicky and Erika (despite Tom’s squeals of joy he couldn’t make it for he is leaving tomorrow :o) for a trip to Sainsburys. We got a load of picnic-like stuff and went to see the Lashings vs CUCC cricket match at Fenners. It said on the flyer that it started at noon, so we arrived at 11.20 to try to get in on time, and the match didn’t start till 2.30pm – much to our despair. Still, the picnic was great fun. Sachin Tendulkar got 155 before being caught, and Chris Cairnes got a century. Geoff and his mate turned up at about 4pm the day after their may-ball, though I left at about 6.30 with them cos it was getting strangely cold, and CUCC were batting badly (or alternatively being bowled at amazingly).

That evening, Jen and me went out to get Ask take-away pizza, but it was not forthcoming – we were met by a knackered, pissed off waiter who politely informed us he would not be doing take-away for half an hour before poking his head out the door and screaming some order numbers down the road. Hehe – drunken students were running him ragged. We settled on Fish and Chips (well, sausage and chips) to fill our bellies.

Firey!

Post-exam joy. The May Ball has already been spoken of (see post ****). I got back from the May Ball at about 6.30am after the survivor’s photo – it was amazing seeing the trains of knackered students working their way through the streets of Cambridge with their posh togs on, with only the odd confused business man and their equally tired friends for company. Slept till 2, and had a lazy afternoon before going to Nandos (again) for the evening for Omega’s birthday. It’s a sight to behold seeing Omega devour a chicken with lashings (see tomorrow) of Extra-Hot peri-peri sauce without flinching; for comparison I had a “hot” half chicken (and 6 drinks) and nearly died