Monday, 9. July 2007, 20:15:13
Manchester, accident, university
For the past few weeks I have been looking forward to a formal reception to celebrate the 30th anniversary of a charity which I am involved in. Well, the reception was on Friday night and I can truly say that it was a let down. Aside from the fact that I hardly knew anyone there, I managed to add some drama to the evening by fainting. Mostly as a result of having not been able to sit down for over an hour I began to feel a bit dizzy and, after leaving the main hall, I blacked out in a corridor and narrowly missing hitting my head on a stone step.
It was quite an odd experience. I can't recall anything about falling over, but I found myself lying on the floor, with one of the guards from the front door trying to wake me. The only pain involved was from the fall. I ended up with carpet burns to my face, courtesy of the industrial strength carpets, and a few bruises from where I fell. The guards had called an ambulance, which seemed to me at the time as a bit unnecessary, but thinking back, I would probably have done the same if someone had collapsed on the floor.
Possibly one of the contributing factors was the general feeling of excitement that I had, as a result of successfully renting a flat in Manchester. I have found a really nice unfurnished one-bedroom flat, so I'm going to spend the weekend in Ikea finding cheap furniture and then attempting to put it up. It'll be nice in September when term starts again not to have to share a flat with people I don't like, and not to have to put up with things like
this happening on my doorstep all the time. The picture in the article is of a pub literally across the road from my hall of residence.
BBC News story
Friday, 2. March 2007, 15:38:56
accident, fairtrade, yahoo, Virgin Trains
...
It has been almost exactly one week since the derailment of a Virgin Pendolino train on the West Coast Main Line. I posted a piece on the accident a few hours after it happened, but I think a follow up post is required. Sadly, one woman died in the accident, but it is important to look at the bigger picture. There were over a hundred people on the train, and because of the modern design of the carriages, there was only one fatality.
The accident was particularly unsettling to me, as I had travelled on the same line just a few hours before, and the fault which caused the derailment was probably present then. Anyway, I think it is important to look at the accident with the knowledge that it could have been much worse. The fact is, British railways are pretty safe.
One effect of the accident was a huge increase in the number of visitors to my blog. I have, for some reason unknown to me, made it to the top of the Yahoo! search list for the terms "cumbria train accident". I don't really know how I feel about this. On the one hand, it is great to get visitors to my site, but on the other, there are many far more useful sites for those search terms.
Aside from all the drama of train derailments and blog visitors, I have been trying to cope with the stress of two essays in quick succession, and the task of co-ordinating two weeks of celebrating fair trade. I got through the first week just about all right. The film night which we ran was a bit muddled, but I think I have learnt the mistakes I made, and I should be able to get any future ones going well. The main problems were the quality of the sound, the fact that all the films were in Spanish and the subtitles were projecting off the screen, and the fact that we hadn't really thought through the programme or the format of the debates. Anyway, it happened and we only have two events left to do. On Sunday there is a Quiz Night, then on Wednesday, there is a reception for staff members. I'm actually quite nervous about this one. I have to give a talk to the Vice-Chancellor, several Deans of Faculties, a city Councillor, and several professors and other people doing Fairtrade things.
But now I really should be getting to the shops. I have to stock up on organic milk and other groceries for the weekend.
Friday, 23. February 2007, 23:13:48
accident, Cumbria, Virgin Trains, train
It is terrifying to think how close you can come to major accidents. Earlier today, I travelled from Manchester to Edinburgh on a Virgin Voyager service. A short time ago, another Virgin train travelling on the same line
de-railed. Details still seem to be sketchy, but it does not appear that there have been any fatalities. Hopefully this will not change. What would be most unsettling would be if this was because of a fault in the track. It's just surreal to think that I could have been a passenger on the train. I'll update this post tomorrow when there is some more information on the accident.