tredford01

When I first moved to Manchester for the first year of my course at Uni, I spent the first few weeks just settling in and trying to get used to the whole idea of living away from home and being in a city and country with a quite different culture from that which I grew up with. This past week, I have been sort of doing that again. I just started back at Uni for the second year of my course, and its quite strange how all the totally new experiences are mixing with lots of familiar stuff.

I have to find a launderette and work out how to use storage heaters and an Economy 7 water heater, but I know my way around campus and can find most of my lecture theaters without getting lost. It helps that I have a decent place to live this year. Last year, I was in a really bad hall of residence in Hulme, sharing a flat with people who I didn't really get along with. This year, I have a comfortable flat in Didsbury which, thanks to their cheap furniture, almost resembles a page out of an Ikea catalogue. I'm still getting the hang of things, but I feel a lot more settled than I did last year.

I once again have gone for far too long without posting anything. I got my exam results back (really quickly) and I have passed everything! Now I can spend the rest of the summer without having to think about anything academic. I'm quite looking forward to next year. I'll have somewhere nice to stay, and the courses I have chosen sound like they'll be really interesting ( as a side note, I can't actually remember what my choices were, but I remember thinking at the time that they were interesting). I haven't particularly enjoyed living in student halls for the past year, so my trip to Manchester yesterday to get everything in my room packed into boxes was very satisfying. It was nice to think that next year, I will have a proper kitchen with a clean oven, and that I won't have to wonder whether the mark on the carpet was a result of drunken ironing, or is something altogether less pleasant. Also, not having TV Licensing threatening to throw dead horses at the flat will be nice. This post has been a bit rambling so far, but if you know me then the text might make sense. I am pretty sure that the video below will make no sense but I just put it in to try out embedding video from DailyMotion. I took it last night on the train back from Manchester.

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Uploaded by tred01

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.

Well, that was the first birthday I have spent on my own. It was OK. I had a long lie in, breakfast in bed, and presents, before going out for a long lunch at the Cornerhouse Cinema cafe. They had a sale of film posters, so I bought one from when they screened "Who Killed the Electric Car?". Then I spent the rest of the day watching a couple of DVDs and eating Amaretto biscuits.

I used the days running up to my birthday to stock up on provisions for the day. I seem to have gone a bit over the top, so I was able to have pasta with pesto, a glass of white wine, many amaretto biscuits, birthday cake, and after dinner mints for dinner tonight! As for breakfasts, it'll be until at least next week before I have finished the Panettone!

So that was my birthday. A few other interesting things happened recently. The weekend before this one just passed, I went back home and attended the Scottish Green Party Conference. I didn't really spend much time voting on motions or anything. It was mostly a social visit to catch up with people from Parliament. While I was in Edinburgh, I found out that I had been elected to the Student Council. When I say that I was elected by one vote, you could interpret that as either I had one more vote than my opponent, or that I only got one vote. Sadly, the latter was true. But I suppose that it doesn't really matter seeing as I got a seat.

The one disadvantage of being on the Student Council is that I have to attend the Union's AGM, which is tomorrow at 1730. This means that I will leave the flat at around noon, and only get back around half seven! A gruelling day lies ahead.

Its official. I now live in Manchester. I have moved into a surprisingly comfortable, en suite room. The halls are arranged in groups of three rooms forming a flat, and sharing a kitchen/living room. So far, I have got all my stuff moved in, and most stuff unpacked. Unfortunately, I have no Internet access until Monday, so I have had to use a cafe that provides free Wi-Fi access to post this.

It was surprisingly un-stressful moving in. The university staff are obviously very experienced with moving people into halls. After parking the car, I was able to use the fast-track que to collect a chit to get the key for my room. Then I went to the reception for the halls and collected a welcome pack and my keys.

Before moving in, I was really worried that the room might be really unpleasant, but it isn't. I had to do a bit of cleaning, and my mum vacuumed the floor, but apart from that, the room has been really nice. I'm still missing the Internet though!

Unfortunately, the student area is mixed in with some not very nice council housing, and my room looks out onto a large block of flats. The area is strange. The road outside the front of the building is quite nice and civilised, but the area at the back is like something you would expect to find in Sighthill or the Inch (both unsavoury parts of Edinburgh).

Anyway, on the whole, I like my new home for the next year. I have even figured out how to use the telephone! (it has a complicated PIN system).