the extreme laziness of me

Forgot to write last time that whilst I was in St Ives I missed results day at uni. Everyone crowded back to High Wycombe to climb over each other in a corridor to read a little bit of paper with their futures written on it. It was a shame I missed it, but I imagine going to it would've been a nightmare anyway. Concerned parents shoving their kids to the front and taking embarrassing photographs, crying girls who didn't get what they wanted, crying girls who got what they wanted, big-headed people getting out their iPhones to shout loudly to their mates about how great their result was... I, on the other hand, didn't even have to put shoes on that day because I was on holiday and it was sunny and you're allowed to roam the streets in bare feet when there's a beach within 2 minutes away. My mind is not the type that can forget about something important going on though, so in the previous few days I had employed three people to independently get my result for me rather than wait until I was back from holiday to read a letter. I wanted my result as soon as possible so unknown to them it was a race to the results. Good plan eh? I didn't tell them about each other just in case they came up with an evil scheme to tell me I'd failed. I have such lovely friends...they are very capable of evil.

I passed! Three years of study, messy housemates and a massive massive student debt...Worth it? Hopefully.

Anyway...

Stood at the door I wished not for the first time that someone else had got the place. What was I doing?! I should be at home in Bath eating Shreddies, getting ready for a long day out in the garden reading a book. Maybe in 6 months I might remember to apply for a few tiny jobs and end up designing Powerpoint presentations for businessmen and drawing pictures for my Mum in return for enough money to buy a new t-shirt.
The other people were better anyway. They knew how to use computers properly, talk to people without stuttering like a nervous idiot and were way taller...But I was here now and unless I got out of the doorway I was going to be mown down by high-flying advertisers charging into work.
I got past the first obstacle of Victor the Stern Security Guard and entered the mystical hall of glass I had been in just a few months before. I was wearing a big VISITOR sticker just to point out even more clearly to people that I was an outsider and hadn't got a clue what I was doing. That plan was foiled though when I took off my coat and the sticker miraculously disappeared. Point 1 to Alice.
And now I've gotten to that place where I actually have to put effort into writing something proper...The stage that always puts me off and forces me to leave a cliffhanger.................

Goodbye.

the day of reckoning

So...we have finally gotten back to the blog entry I posted all the way back in June...I won't even bother trying to convince you that I'm ever going to catch up and get back to 'real-time' in this blog. It'll be a bitter disappointment* if I claim it and then don't achieve it. And a happy surprise if I ever do! Pessimism eh? I find it handy.

I was in St Ives having two weeks of freedom before my dreaded London visit for my two week work placement. Not a lovely little beginners placement at a tiny graphics agency in an unknown town. This was BBH. In London of all places! That place where more than 10 people walk down the same road at the same time! Yes, I am a country bumpkin at heart. Oi woodden be a proper darter o' Zummerzet if oi din crave a bit o' grarse** (That wasn't rude)
BBH does all the advertising for Levis, Audi and a bunch of other famous names. They're the ones who did the famous hunky-man-in-a-laundrette-washing-his-jeans-to-sexy-music advert. So...it was quite intimidating thinking about going into the den of advertising all on my lonesome with no idea what I'd be expected to do (That wasn't rude either)

I left Bath with my bag stuffed full of 2 weeks worth of clothes and my trusty laptop and dragged it to London. Luckily I'd been able to arrange to stay with a friend in a beautiful flat for very little rent. Bargain! The best bit was I knew I'd be coming home at the end of the day to a familiar and friendly face after a no-doubt scary day.
I had a couple of days in London before I started my placement so I could attempt to calm down a bit. Mainly by memorising the way to the tube station.
I was getting a little worried when the day before I was due to go in I still hadn't heard from them any details like when I was supposed to arrive by, whether I needed to bring in my laptop to work on etc etc. I had asked but had no reply...More worryingly, the woman who had offered me the placement in the first place was now on maternity leave...So maybe no-one even knew I was supposed to be arriving the next day...Maybe they'd just look at me like I was an idiot and chuck me out...

Sugar lumps.

I set off the next day in my very first London rush hour in the middle of summer (a lovely experience) to find out my fate...

*nano-second of a blip in your brain...maybe.
** translation: 'I wouldn't be a proper daughter of Somerset if I didn't crave a bit of grass.'

very much closer to the end than the beginning...

All I wanted to do after finishing my work was sleep. So I seem to remember that is exactly what I did.

For a few days we were banned from uni so the tutors could do their marking. We weren't even allowed in the same corridors as the rooms the work was in. Which suited me! I caught up with my 'to watch' list, lazed about in the garden and soaked up as much summer as I could, raced Twin Peaks characters* and ate properly for once.

After a few days we were allowed to return and get rooms ready for the public exhibition. For the tutors we had to hand in sketchbooks, mockups and a big pile of general untidiness. Now we had to make it look as presentable as possible. In theory it was an easy enough task, all we had to do was get rid of the pile of sketchbooks, retouch the white walls and put any postcards or business cards out that we wanted visitors to take. We all knew that it's mostly only students and families who look at the show but just in case some important employer came to see it our details were available! I was very relaxed about everything but my lovely tutor came up with a suggestion...Move my exhibition space over. The problem was that I was sharing the corner of the room with someone else. Because my tent was, let's say, slightly 3D the two exhibitions clashed. Mine got in the way of his and his overpowered mine with fluorescent colours. We had all day to move them; his was going to go to a completely different place and mine was going to move around to take up the corner completely. His work was on two boards that could be easily unscrewed from the wall and moved to another place. Simple eh? If the guy next to me was there, yes. I know I'd hate if someone messed about with my work without me present. The guy wasn't in uni (he was someone who hardly ever was), he didn't answer his phone and he didn't call back. Me and the tutor waited for a few hours for him to turn up....He didn't.
I was getting stressed because the tutor was saying 'Let's just wait a couple more hours to see if he comes in.' I had nothing to do in uni at that point. I had a shelf I wanted to put up to keep my postcards on but I couldn't do that until my space was sorted. I also couldn't leave uni in case this guy turned up. I was going crazy! I wandered around helping people finish off their work but people slowly started going home to get ready for the exhibition opening that night. In the end I think my tutor realised how stressed I was and I think he was pretty annoyed himself. So he got an electric drill himself and took the guys work down. He then helped me to sort my stuff out and get it all together. It was an hour before the opening of the show and I still had to get home (inconveniently on the top of a massive hill that no-one wants to live on) eat some food, get ready, go back down the hill. That's where housemates with cars come in!

I managed to make it back to uni without too much white paint still on me. My parents, my brother and his girlfriend, a friend from London and a friend from Bath were all coming to see the show so inbetween talking to other people's parents and random university-official-looking people I was fielding calls to go and find them. It wasn't quite as relaxing as I thought!

There's not much to say about the show really...Needless to say, the free drink had been poured into the students mouths within the first few minutes. My Mum didn't get so much as an orange juice when she arrived an hour in to the opening. And that's all she came for!
It was weird seeing my parents for the first time since Easter just for an hour or so before saying goodbye. I was going home in two weeks though so it wasn't bad. And I had a pub to get to! Everyone gathered for a drinking/photo taking fest. Although we were still around for a couple of weeks to look after the exhibition at daytimes it felt like the end! Turned out it was. There was never a night when everyone was out together again.

The three years had gone so quickly. I can still remember freshers night, my first day, my first presentation, my first all-nighter like it was yesterday. Hopefully I'll never forget it. Maybe I'll write it down sometime. But not here. I am rubbish enough at writing my present, let alone my past!

Anyway, it was definitely the beginning of a new chapter in my life, as they say. Whoever they are. Actually, scrap that. It was a whole new flippin' book. And the old book was burned in a fire so I could never read it again.

*in the form of labelled helium balloons. Only Pete returned, by the way. He went to a beach in Kent. Fishing most likely.