In a sudden bout of enthusiasm for my blog, I decided to create another journal entry. Yes, once again I am going to talk about my life. Over the past week or so I have gradually included all the old cute-news posts I made from 2003 to the end of last year, in doing so I got quite sentimental, reading about the annoying lady on the bus, the pineapple squash adventure and the start of university. I was also sad that I hadn’t kept up my writing and written more about my time at university.
Well, as mentioned in a previous post, I have successfully finished my exams and consequentially my second year at Warwick University. The year started off rather slow, I was learning some basic modules that were overly simple and all things I’d done before, i.e. c++ programming and how a diode works. My lectures were dull; I really had no exciting labs and most of the time I was at my Leamington home playing on Xbox live. I’d travel in for a “starting a business” module and travel home an hour later, a round bus trip lasting 3 hours. As winter approached, some half modules ended and my timetable became even less busy, it really did take the piss how little work I had to do that term.
Side NTL rant:
A lot of my spare time was spent sorting out the Xbox live setup my internet service provider had set me up with (NTL). Essentially, I and my housemate had opted for the Xbox live option at a cost of an extra £2 per month. However, come October and there was no sign of what we were actually purchasing, what was this £2 buying? There was also a £50 setup charge on the first bill pertaining to a console related service. What exactly this was we had no idea. Following a good few hours on the phone and no one at their customer service desk knowing what the fuck, we were still confused. The confusion deepened as an Xbox arrived at the door. NTL sent us an Xbox. Why, we have no idea, we already had an Xbox and only wanted some sort of live package. Back on the phone for another few hours, talking to more people who didn’t even know what an Xbox was. I initially said I wanted to send this Xbox back and not pay the £50 for it, so the payment was put into dispute until they received the console back. Then I changed my mind, £50 for an Xbox is a very good deal I thought. So I ring back, and continue asking what this live deal should be offering me, telling them to take the money for the Xbox and various other things I don’t particularly remember 9 months on. Well, they then send me a long Ethernet cable, a 3 month magazine subscription and a 12 month Xbox live deal; a deal that I should have originally been given according to an outdated page of their website. In sorting this out I tried contacting their console contact line, the initial press one to go here automated service worked, but the redirects went to unknown numbers and a dead end. In trying to explain this to the standard customer services I was greeted with “it’s working, I hear the voice” and other stupid responses that proved these people were obviously not listening to exactly what I was trying to tell them. Needless to say, everyone was getting frustrated. Well, now I am coming to the end of my 9 month NTL contract and despite ringing them 4 times and telling them to take my money, they still haven’t and the amount is still apparently in dispute. I don’t know, their service is a pile of wank and they cap users to 1.5 GB download per day. But other than that we’ve had no problems. I wish I could have Blue-yonder in my region.
Well, as Christmas approached, the days got shorter and colder. Our old Victorian seven birth house does not fair particularly well in cold conditions. In fact, at times you could see your breath when breathing inside. We needed radiators on permanently and additional electric heaters just to melt the ice blocks that were our feet. The land-lord had also painted the downstairs bathroom with a non-bathroom paint directly onto the walls. This meant that mould began growing. Not all that delightful and it took the cake when there was a lovely little mushroom sticking out of the corner of the room. This was my house in winter, mouldy, cold and draughty. We gave the land-lord a list of needed fixes for the house over the Christmas period and hoped they would get done, luckily they were and our house was much more pleasant and liveable during the second term.
The first term saw a lot of drama in the house, two housemates split up with their boyfriends from long term relationships, there were family illnesses and it was all very taxing, but we stuck together and carried ourselves through all the problems. Things perked up towards the end and we were happy at our Christmas dinner where, once again, Sam delighted us all with a fantastic meal that was far too large for our tiny wobbly kitchen table. Other noteworthy events were Sam’s birthday party in which we crammed into a small Mexican restaurant and ate burritos, our lovely anniversary trip around Leamington park and meal at Thai restaurant.
Well, moving on into term 2, it remained cold and our heaters stayed on constantly. My course introduced me to a new set of modules for the following ten weeks; finally I would be doing some work and something interesting. I also had a few timetabled labs to attend in which I played with microprocessors, breadboards and wrote some simple c++ code for a simple c++ project. My birthday came and went and I turned 20. We all packed together and played ultraviolet ten pin bowling and enjoyed the luxuries of Frankie and Benny’s menu. I opted for the steak and also finished off other people’s meals while bullying a helium balloon. Sadly my day was cut short when I had to take Sam home via taxi, she’d become violently ill and it was extremely distressing, particularly as there was no obvious reason for it. It was made up for by the prestigious gifts and candlelit meal she prepared for me. We also went bowling and had pizza for Steven’s birthday and all was relatively merry in the Tachbrook camp.
Sam’s just called me so I’m going to have to cut this blog short. I’ll probably carry it on when I next have some free time. This shouldn’t be too long away.
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