Homeward Bound - Saturday

I got up, packed some final things into my bag and then myself and Lauren went to the station. Lauren's train was an hour before mine but I knew that if I were at home I'd be doing nothing but pacing around for a while waiting impatiently, might as well be at the station. I'm glad I did because Lorna got on a train half an hour after Lauren and so half of my wait was spent talking to her. When my train arrived I boarded it and started to read a book lent to me by Huw, I can't recall the name and it's not here in front of me so I can't tell you the name. However, due to lack of sleep my eyes were tired and instead I spent the journey up to Newport listening to a web design podcast, it was quite interesting. At newport I had to wait half an hour for my connection, Coel was on the train and didn't talk to me at all during the journey so I instead continued to listen to the podcast. We got to Port Talbort where my parents were waiting and we drove home. Shortly after getting home we went over to my Grans for my Uncles birthday. It was really nice to meet all my family again and exchange witty comments again. After the very tasty dinner we sat around exchanging more witty remarks and then all left. Getting home I WoAed and MSNd to some friends. It was also very nice to see my cat again, he's like a lump of fur that lets you do pretty much anything to him, even poke him while he's sleeping (it's like he's on drugs, it's amazing).

Much better day - Friday

I awoke and didn't enjoy the day until after my exam. The exam itself went okay, I don't think I failed it but I don't forsee a really high mark either. Still, the exam was over and I went home where I napped, relaxed, packed for tomorrow and fixed that WoA problem I mentioned yesterday. I backed up the most important files on my computer and was happy to see that in total they were not very big. Kinda handy with a USB 1 connection... During dinner we watched Grosse Point Blank, it's a very funny film and I enjoyed it a lot. Sorry John, you're not mentioned in such a way you can sue me, pity that...

Bad day - Thursday

I got up after a nice lie in, went to the lab and got some more done. I went home and did some revision, however, some of the players on WoA are starting to really annoy me and get all uppity when I disagree with them. The whole thing is making me terse and irritated and thus it's not easy to revise, most irritating. On the plus side if they carry on much longer either they will be out of the game or I will, if the first happens I'll be my usual happy self and if the second happens I'll have a load more free time. Both sound good to me!

Ice Skating - Wednesday

I got up nice and early for me Java lecture. Almost nobody turned up for the Java lecture but that's their problem not mine, I had a great time and the code that Ionnais gave us is pretty much the last of what I need to know how to do some parts of the program. This means that shortly into the Christmas holidays I should have a basic Chess game running. After the lecture myself and Chris handed in our UML coursework and I went home to study for my Friday exam. There was no Prayer Lunch today but there was Ice Skating! I walked India there, though on the way we collected Siän and Jo, then Helen and Leanne. When we got to the Union I was told that there might be a problem with me wearing shorts. Apparently it'd be cold, I began to think that telling Siän she was welcome to wear my gloves might have been a mistake. We got to the Ice Rink and in short order I found that my hands were going to be fine at such a low temperature, better yet, my legs were warmer than most people's hands, are you surprised? Last year I spent the first half clutching the side for dear dignity, the second half was spent wobbling near the side and falling onto the ice or getting to the side in time. In the last five or so minutes last year I was able to roughly skate, though I did fall flat on my bum at the last moment in front of a load of little people (I think they might have been children). This year I spent the first 5 minutes hobbling along the sides getting the hang of how to move on skates, more importantly, how to move without falling over. I then slowly got better, after skating around clutching Sarah's hand (she's got quite good balance) I managed to get the hang of it and started to help others around the Ice rink. I didn't fall over once and got so hot that I actually took off my jacket (several other people did too). The funniest part of the evening however was when I was sitting on some benches waiting for the 2nd load of the CU to arrive at the Ice Rink and was watching people skate around. One young lady stopped momentarily in front of me and I smiled nicely at her, she smiled in return, then her eyes moved down slightly and noticed that I was wearing shorts and she promptly moved on. I laughed quite a lot and so did Sarah, though I don't know (or care) if it was with me or at me. After Ice Skating we went to the pub (again, what a surprise) and I taught Gareth some chess strategies. Gareth only knows how the pieces move because he's already completed his Java Chess game. During a 2nd game he came very close to getting me in checkmate and proved to be a very very quick learner. I got home and talked to Lauren about all the times Lorna had tried to set me up with various ladies and we laughed quite a lot about it. Pete got home and we talked about random and various things, including a muppet that's angry someone makes a better site than himself. This one had me laughing so hard Pete and Lauren asked what was wrong.

Much better - Tuesday

I deliberately missed my Java lecture so as to get more sleep, I didn't get much more sleep but I've been praying for some help and it's currently my bed-time and I've not tired all day. After getting up I tidied my room because the house was being inspected today, I then packed my stuff and went to Uni. After the Software systems lecture I sat down with Chris to complete the last bit of the corusework but my powersupply randomly failed on me. I went to the technicians and asked for some help. First they tested the plug to make sure it'd not come loose at all, then they tried finding out where the current was going missing. In the end they managed to drop the power supply block onto a desk by mistake (it was very short fall) and it worked. They hit it a few more times to "make sure it was fixed" and gave it back to me. I laughed quite a lot about it and it's been fine since. We got some work done before the rest of the lectures, we went to those then went home. Not too long after getting home I went over to Chris' house and we finnished off the work, I went home and went to bed.

Problem located and partially solved - Monday

I awoke and made it to my Java lab. It was raining quite a lot for Portsmouth and I got some funny looks about wearing shorts. I returned them by grinning at people's trousers as they sucked up water from the floor and remained sodden throughout the day. On my way home it poured with rain in a very real way, enough rain to be worthy of it being Welsh! I was drenched right through and got home, had a shower and warmed up. It's quite interesting how freezing cold winds will not chill me much when compared to a lot of rain. I didn't do anything very productive after lectures and so decided to have a nap. After the nap I felt a lot better, combined with a suggestion from my ever-nagging but always-helpful Mum I think I need more sleep. Thanks to some advice from Lorna, myself and Becca managed to get to the Cathedral somewhat early, though to be fair to Lorna it did fill up very fast last year. Annoyingly the person I wanted to drag along wasn't on MSN at all today, Katherine, if you're reading this you need to start attending social events, I know where you live! The University Carol service was very good, I particularly enjoyed the choir, they sung half of the songs on their own. As the service was multi-cultural there were some not so traditional hymns, the first one sounded a lot like Therion and it was pretty good, in-fact, I was disappointed at the lack of other hymns like it. However, aside the message and the music, the best part of the evening was that before the service I got a free mince-pie (they offered it to me when I asked for a drink) and also got two candles when everybody else got one. There was a downside to having two candles, I had to hold them both in one hand so I could use my other hand to read the words. This meant that they were slanted in such a way the wax did not drip onto some special plastic holders, instead some of it went onto my leg. Not to worry, it didn't hurt and I can now technically claim I have waxed my legs (well, leg, it only fell on one of them). After the service we went to the Pub where I sort of beat, sort of lost to Phil at Chess, he knocked over his King and claimed that it was an accident... At the pub I also had fun talking to Richard and also Becky, Becky reads my blog and apparently all this stuff about Java is really boring. So I responded by quoting several things she'd said but taking them completely out of context and then sitting on one side of her while Richard sat on the other, then we talked about Java and .net2 (another programming language). After the pub I walked home, plain and simple. I apologise in advance for missing my Java lecture tomorrow, I want to ensure I get enough sleep, I also plan to have an early night tomorrow.

Not as good as normal - Sunday

I woke up as planned, snoozed, got up somewhat later than planned. To my credit, I got from my front door to outside Harry Law hall (to collect Becca) in just over 10 minutes, it involved quite a lot of running but I managed it. We collected Siän and Ceryn on the way and got to Church as some of the first students (we really were not surprised). The service was about Mary and her role in the Nativity Story. Jonathan did some interesting research and found that there are more references to Mary online than there are to Jesus. Though, I do feel this result is skewed somewhat by the name Mary being in use today while I've yet to meet anybody in the flesh called Jesus. The message I took away was that Mary was important, yet not in any way nearly as important as Jesus. After the service the students went to Amanda's for lunch, and by "the students" I don't mean that She chose 4 or 5 of us, I mean 16 of us were invited along and had a great lunch, it was totally awesome! After lunch I walked Siän home and then went home myself (I had nothing better to do and even Ceryn will say that Siän's sense of direction is atrocious). Sadly while at home I felt mildly depressed and couldn't even be bothered to play games or even do anything. Kinda annoying so I went over to Lorna's an hour before Church and watched the last half hour of the Little Mermaid. Lorna, Becca, Phil and myself then walked to church and I felt stupidly tired throughout the evening service. However, unlike normal I managed to take some notes and know that the service was about Love. Not the squishy, emotional, romantic stuff that I don't understand and makes very little sense to me, but the love that God is. For God defines what love is by saying He is love, it is a selfless process where you seek to give, not to take. After the service I walked Becca home (like I said last week, Male escort) and then went home to watch some action film while still feeling tired. It's irritating, yesterday it was affecting just my work, now it's stopping me from doing anything involving energy. I plan to see if it's improved by tomorrow, chances are high as I'll be praying for it and we all know that Prayer Works. Before going to bed, I was linked to a YouTube Video made by some people from the CU. I know Will and Kate from it and have offered to be in number two.

Louder than thee - Saturday

I got up, spent most of the day WoAing and then in the evening wound down a little by playing some Halo with Gareth. Better yet, our neighbors were making rather large amounts of very unpleasant noise. I screeched a few random things but that didn't deter them so I stopped (mostly because my throat was a little sore). A bit later they made a sort of yelling noise and so I responded in kind (only somewhat louder) and followed it with something asking them to be a bit louder. They got the hint and were quieter.