Going home for the weekend

I actually learned some very useful stuff in the lectures today--such as the basics of my timetable, for example, and which group I'll be in for seminars and lab sessions. And apparently we have a reading week in Week VII in which we don't get any work. For a lot of the day we were doing a sort of treasure hunt, looking up different things from around the campus: pretty useful, actually, as it got us to most of the places we'll be using on our course. So no worries there!

The great thing about being at a university so close to home is that I can take a train back whenever I want, and be there within two hours (weeeeell, three if you count the traffic jams getting to the train station on the bus). So I'm going home for the weekend, hopefully to be back at UEA on Sunday afternoon.

I start my first unit--programming in Java--at 9AM sharp on Monday morning. And, need I remind myself, the beguilingly-named Foundations of Computing Theory unit, which is actually Maths.

Luck begins to turn (the wrong way)

I was forced to wake up at an unholy hour this morning for a cruel nine o'clock lecture. We filed into the lecture hall, all two hundred and fifty of us, then waited. And waited. For half an hour. By the time the lecturer appeared, mumbling pathetic apologies, some of us had actually fallen asleep.

The lecture itself was a rambling and incoherent account of a "jolly exciting" new application of cryptography in computing, and involved boggling amounts of maths. I'm willing to lay a substantial amount of money on the theory that nobody attending the lecture had the slightest clue what the guy was talking about. This was mostly due to the fact that he expected us to magically understand all these equations without explaining them ... when most of us haven't even taken A-level maths. In my case (and I am by no means unusual in this course), I haven't studied maths for three years.

The lecturer finished by saying, wild-eyed, that "I say, I say, one of you sitting right here could be the lucky chap to discover the answer to the unsolved problem, the greatest mystery of all time ... the answer to 3q(n)/(pn)!" Gosh, I thought. Aren't we the lucky ones!

To compound matters, my mum phoned me a while back; apparently she and my father were involved in a car accident on a narrow lane. Everyone's fine, if a little shaken up, but the car is rather crumpled and had to be towed away by a tractor. And my dad has a bad back. Which means that they won't be coming to pick me up on Saturday: I'm going to have to get the train at ten in the morning.

It just seems to be one of those mornings. I have another lecture in half an hour: I really hope it won't be as disappointing as the last one.

Footnote: This blog is two years old today!

Bleary-type groan

Bleah. It's about quarter to ten (AM) and I've finally dragged myself out of bed. Plan for today: SocMart and SportsMart at eleven, I think ... no wait, the timetable says twelve ... hell, the other timetable says eleven. Make it eleven. Then a lecture at one. "Introduction to Computing Science". That does not sound very exciting.

I really, really wonder how I can go about changing my course. The crazed "We're At The Cutting Edge!!!!" speech we all received yesterday, along with insane gibberings about how much better Computing was than all the other courses, sort of put me off. I'm now looking back at plain, honest subjects like English and even Maths as if they were the good old days.

Hum. I'll drag myself along to this and the next couple of lectures, then see about changing my course.

It's two in the morning and I'm bored

Just come back from a meeting at a house belonging to a friend of Graeme's. It was a GameSoc meeting--that's Games Society to mere mortals--of which Paul Crompton (as in the Paul Crompton I shared a tent with eight years ago) is now chairman, in only his second year at uni. Apparently there is some kind of massive schism between the "Old Guard" of the GameSoc, many of whom are no longer students and appear to be total nutters, and the "Newbies", ie. everyone else. Worst of all is the disgraceful behaviour of the Live Action Roleplay (LARP) blokes. Apparently they nicked some rubber swords from the inventory during the summer break and ran around hitting people with them.

For about an hour Paul and the Treasurer ranted about possible ways to deal with these scoundrels. Paul will be elected in a few days ("I will be Chancellor ..."), but there is grave concern that with his new-found powers he will dissolve the Union-based democracy of the GameSoc and turn to the Dark Side ("So does this mean we'll have a new Emperor on our hands??"). I was quite taken aback by how seriously these people took the Star Wars metaphor.

Um, they mean well, I assure you.

So, despite the deranged and sometimes heated politics of this little society, I think I may actually join. Most of the people appear to be friendly and honest enough, even if not entirely down to earth by normal standards. For example, during the protracted game of Clash of Thrones that followed, several people began to act as if real battles were being fought, as if the Fate Of The World Were In The Balance, as if those little painted wooden bits on the board were real "Dudes" or "Horse Dudes" (read: Infantrymen or Cavalry).

Well. I may not have such a serious attitude towards RPGs, but it was a lot of fun and all the betrayal, backstabbing and cowardly alliance-forming that went on around the table was entirely in good humour. Society join-up day is tomorrow (er, today actually, in about nine hours' time), so I will probably pay my £3, put my name down on the list, and begin my descent into Uber-Geekdom.

I am also planning to join the Fell Club if I can find their stand. Still don't know if it qualifies as a society or a sports club ... I hope not the latter, as all people connected with sports have to pay a £25 blanket fee to cover insurance and whathaveyou.

That is, I will join these various clubs and sign up to various things if I wake up early enough. It is definitely time I went to sleep.

Photos from Norwich

Well, I got here, and I survived the first two days! Here are two photos of my room:





You can also view a large panorama of the university itself, seen from the lake, here. Be warned: the file is over 600KB in size.

I'm actually having a lot of fun. I met up with my friend Graeme on Saturday evening, and after a drink in the pub we made out way into the city, intending to see Land of the Dead at the cinema. That plan was scuppered after we found out it didn't start until 11:30, which would have left us with an hour of doing nothing. We ended up in a crammed and very noisy pub called the Old Orleans. I had a rather powerful drink called a something Iced Tea (believe me, it had no tea in its ancestry), and could actually stand up afterwards!

I registered at my school of studies this morning and received my timetable for the rest of the week. Much to my annoyance, lectures and things actually start on Wednesday--not next Monday as I was led to believe. This week's lectures, seminars and lab sessions all seem to be induction sessions, which probably means little or no actual work ... I hope so, anyway!

Looking at my regular timetable, which I haven't actually been given yet but have seen on the UEA Intranet, I see that I will have very little time off. I won't have anything on Friday after four in the afternoon, though, which is very useful if I want to go home for the weekend. But I have a lecture at 9 on Monday morning! There must be a god somewhere who hates me!

The very, very good news, however, is that although lectures are compulsory in theory, in practice it is possible to download all the lecture notes directly off the Intranet. Which means that you can get away with missing a few and still not slip behind. Which in turn means that I am still hell-bent on escaping to the Lake District for a weekend next month. I am starting to get seriously homesick for any kind of vaguely wild place: there may be trees and stuff on the campus, but this is A CITY, and I am not a city person.

Roll on the Christmas holidays!

This is the last day before my life changes (possibly forever)

I woke up this morning to the glorious golden glow of the sun rising in the field across the road. Mist was floating in layers a few feet above the ground, and the sun had just begun to pierce the veil, burning off the cold of the night. It was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful sunrises I'd ever seen. I feel it's a way for the Sandlings--this wild and surprising little corner of the country--to say goodbye to me, at least for a while.

Just take a look at this stunning photo my brother took (click on it to get a big version):



I set off for university in Norwich early tomorrow morning. Still daunted by the prospect, perhaps, I have at least mentally adjusted myself to this enormous change--at least, as much as it's possible to. At the core of the issue is the fact that I am not and never will be a city person: my heart is in the forests and coastline, the hills and mountaintops. It's going to be hard saying goodbye to the place I've made my home for the past three years. And although I know I'll be coming back for a month at Christmas (and of course every other holiday between semesters), I'm certain to feel homesick.

Autumn in the forest is my favourite time of year, and it's going to feel very strange missing that connection with the turning seasons. I missed the springtime while I was away in the Lake District, where there are few trees: now the autumn will pass while I'm in the concrete wasteland of Norwich.

Anyway, I will post back here as soon as I can: hopefully tomorrow if all goes well, but it may take me a few days to get my Mac connected to the 'Net in my residence, and the IT facility won't be open until Monday. If I manage to get my Mac on the internet, my next post will contain a photo of my new room!

The Luggage is ready!

The amount of stuff I am now bringing has grown to a huge pile of five 40-litre duffle bags, two backpacks, and three carrier bags. I think it warrants an upper-case first letter by now, isntead of mere "luggage". My big worry is forgetting where I've packed something, then hunting around frantically for it for ages, convinced I've left it a hundred miles away at home. That would be typically me.

Here is a photo of the Luggage (click on it to get a larger version):



Now that I've got over some of the initial doubts about going to uni, it's actually starting to seem quite exciting. I get freedom, independance, a place to call my own, a chance to see some old friends I haven't seen for three years, and the company of thousands of people my age. I daresay it will take a while to settle in--and I am still having doubts about the course I've chosen--but there are plenty of opportunities to retreat, and I actually want to enjoy it.

The problem is ... all I really want to do is go hillwalking, and I have absolutely zero interest in computing science as a career. So I may not last very long in that particular course. But if it does go wrong, I have a convenient fall-back position: Environmental Sciences. Now that's something I really do care about (I am particularly concerned in climate change, coastal erosion, wildlife conservation, and prevention of footpath erosion). What's more, with an A-level in Chemistry and lots of good GCSEs, I am qualified to take this course ... and if I'm really lucky, it could lead to a career that's more "me". Until I can start my Mountain Leader training, that is.

So I'll give Computing Science a few weeks, and maybe go to a few Environmental lectures as well, just to see what the course is like. If I like the look of it--and still can't think of any good reasons to keep doing Computing--I'll see about swapping courses ... because I'd rather do that than not go to uni at all.

A surprise ...

Apparently, I am 90% psychic, according to a psychic quiz I found at BlogThings.

You Are 90% Psychic

You are so very psychic. But you already predicted that, didn't you? You have "the gift" - and you use it daily to connect with others. You're very tapped into the world around you... Just make sure to use your powers for good!

Are You Psychic?

Weird!

Coastal erosion

I live on the Suffolk Coast, an area of land which is slowly being eroded by the sea. Our current coastline of sand and shingle (flint gravel) is a constantly-changing environment which may be an entirely different shape before and after a storm.

In recent years, erosion has increased dramatically. There are fears of the sea breaking through at the narrow neck of Orfordness, the great shingle spit, known locally as "The Island". At Slaughden, near Aldeburgh, the Island is only about a hundred yards wide, and on the other side is the River Ore. If the sea breaks through, the river will become silted up, destroying the unique and fragile ecology of the area. And Orfordness itself will be gradually destroyed.

Twelve miles south, at the far tip of the Island, the haven of Shingle Street is being reshaped by the waves on a weekly basis. And even worse is happening at Bawdsey. The shingle beaches have gone, leaving nothing to shield the fragile sand cliffs from the sea.

Experts predict that, in as little as twenty years, coastal Suffolk as we know it today could be gone. Small islands where towns once stood will stand in the midst of vast salt marshes, flats of mud and sand that flood every tide. This is a very real threat, and we can see the evidence before our very eyes.

Now here's the thing: the government knows about this, and far from providing money to help, they have actually cut all funding for coastal defences, claiming that it is a lost cause. The current policy is one of orderly retreat. And all the evidence points to the fact that offshore dredging is causing this erosion.

This website, If Ever You're In The Area, is based on a project in Bawdsey designed to draw attention to the rate of erosion. Thirty-eight flags were set up on the clifftop in January this year, spelling out the legend "SUBMISSION IS ADVANCING AT A FRIGHTFUL SPEED". Over the months, more and more flags toppled over the cliff.

The last one vanished a few days ago. That brings the rate of erosion to this coastline up to a rate of more than ten metres in eight months. This page shows a telling overview of the erosion up until this May.

Edit: I've started to get some comment spam recently, so Word Verification has been enabled. Hope this won't be too much of an inconvenience!

I have now (definitely) left Wyevale

Yesterday was the last day in my job at the garden centre. It was a pretty typical Sunday: busy generally, with a couple of mad rushes over lunch and one horrendous über-queue at the end of the day, just when everyone had gone on their break, leaving just me and Rachel to fend off the customers. It did feel funny looking at my watch, thinking "Only half an hour left to go!" And despite the fact that I'm glad I won't be there for the increasingly busy period leading up to Christmas, I really will miss the place.

My friends all pitched in to provide me with a leaving present, consisting of a keyring tag with my name on it, a coffee mug saying "Top Sales Checkout Operative!", and a card signed by everyone who works at the store. It was very touching, and they must have gone to some effort to get everyone's name on the card, because some of the staff haven't been in for a couple of weeks now. I didn't quite break down in tears as I said goodbye, but it was a close thing. (sheepish grin)

I will especially miss Rachel, the new girl. I've only known her for two weeks, but we have a lot in common, and she's become a good friend. I wish I could have gotten to know her better!

Anyway, this may not be goobye. I've already said I can come back for the holidays to work the odd week. Some of the people I know might not be working there then, but they've all got my phone number and email address, so we'll keep in touch.

I have begun to pack

I don't know how I'm going to fit all this stuff into the box-room quarters I've been allocated in Suffolk Terrace. Firstly I have the essentials such as bedding, clothes, cooking utensils (of which I am taking a minimum), etc. Then I have personal items, like my computer, books, camera, and other bits and bobs. And on top of that is two backpacks, one for general use and one for hiking, plus an expedition bag full of camping and mountaineering stuff.

I am still doubtful whether or not I really need to take the expedition bag with me. I am planning to escape to the Lakes for a weekend sometime in October or November, but I still don't know whether that will be possible: I'll need the Friday and Monday free either side of the weekend, and I'll also need about eighty quid in terms of cash, to pay for the train, the bus / taxi, the campsite, and food. I've figured out how much money I'm going to have for the first year, and it's going to be fairly tight. I'll have some spare, but I need to keep track of it. One weekend in the hills every term, plus longer expeditions in the holidays, will be all I can afford.

Photos from The Magical Landscape

Here are links to two stunning photos from the mountaineering site The Magical Landscape. I can't recommend this site enough: it offers superb pictures from both the UK and elsewhere, including some epic views in the Alps and Himalayas. But these two really had an effect on me, because I've either seen of visited both places:

Snowdon and Crib Goch from the Glyderau plateau. This is perhaps the most rugged mountain scence in England and Wales, a tremendous view of one of our grandest mountain ranges. Don't listen to what people say about the naff café on the top: Snowdon rocks!

Sty Head Pass. I know this place well. The Pass of Sty Head links Wasdale with the high col of Esk Hause, highest foot-pass in England. The bridge in the picture is the last sign of civilisation along the valley of Lingmell Gill, a mile-long channel of stones and broken rock. The big mountain to the right is Great End, lowest peak of the Scafell Massif, and one I hope to climb via its North face next Easter.

A radical change

You may have noticed that this blog no longer says "ALEX'S WRITING JOURNAL" at the top. I have decided to change the title simply to "Alex Roddie" because this weblog isn't really about writing any more.

I've watched my posts grow thinner and thinner on the ground over the past few months. I still manage to post at least once every week, but I am finding it harder as time goes by to say anything constructive about my writing. I resort to "progress reports" in which I say everything's going fine--slowly, but fine--and pad it out with bits and pieces from my regular life. The sidebar, you will notice, is now almost entirely dominated by hillwalking, mountaineering and camping links.

The fact is that, in this past year, I've changed a great deal. Writing is still important to me, but no longer in the urgent, structured manner it once was: I have realised that it's probably not the thing I'm destined to do, but rather a hobby, a world of my own I can retreat into when the real world gets too big. I used to have a very serious approach to writing because it was my Big Goal in life. I'm afraid that position has now been userped by a love of the mountains and the outdoors, and if that seems shallow to you, you're probably right--a real writer would have more dedication than that, surely?

Maybe I was never a real writer. I'm still young, after all, and we all go through phases in which we search for our true vocations. This phase lasted for six years, but maybe time's up.

So, from now on, I will no longer struggle under the pretence that I'm still working slowly and surely towards publication. There is so much going on in my life right now that writing simply has to take a backstage, and most likely will stay there for several years. But I don't want to let go entirely. I've had my share of bad times, but there have been good times too. Writing was always about the journey for me, not the destination. And I've had a lot of fun on the way.

I hope with this shift of outlook I'll be able to post more regularly without feeling guilty I'm not sticking to my main topic. This blog is now dedicated to my life as a young person, student, hillwalker, whatever, but not aspiring writer. If this puts off regulars (I know I've already lost a few through that long period of no posts), I'll understand--but after all, this blog was originally meant as a way for me to communicate with myself, and after almost exactly two years, it's going back to that.

(And for those of you who may disagree, porridge really IS everything, as it says right there at the top!)

Less than two weeks to go!

I'm feeling a strange mixture of dread and excitement: a familiar sensation for me, but usually only felt when looking over the edge of a cliff or scurfing down a bloody dangerous scree-run. It's totally new to me to experience this in day-to-day life.

I leave for uni on the 24th of September, which means I have a little under two weeks to conclude my "previous life", pack it all into bags, and ship it off to Norwich to face whatever may await me there. Physically, the task of determining which things I'll need and sorting them from the unecessary items is daunting. One thing I am very doubtful of is the sheer number of plastic bags and bin liners that seem to be proliferating all over the place. But that's my mum for you: if in doubt, stick it in a carrier bag!

One thing that will be hard is saying goodbye to my friends at the garden centre. I had thought yesterday would be my last day, but I've been asked to work Friday and Sunday this week as well. Not that I mind: I've met a new girl (clever, friendly AND attractive), and am keen to get to know her better before I depart. I was basically given the task of training her, so we've become friends very quickly. The only sour note is that she has a boyfriend, and has been with him for two years: why can't they ever be single??

Anyway, I'll be distributing my phone number and email address, so I'll be able to keep in touch. My life seems to be filled with old friends I can only contact through email.

Edit: I've found some more interesting mountain webcams, so I've added them to the sidebar under a new "Webcams" header. The Ben Nevis cam, hosted by Lochaber Online, is one to especially watch.

My application has been APPROVED!

For a student loan, that is. I haven't got the assessment through the post yet, but I checked on the website and most of the details are there. After five months, it's about bloody time.

Basically, I won't be entitled to any subsidy for my education fee (which is about £1,100 per year), because my family's income isn't low enough. So I have to pay that yearly fee myself. But the good news is that I AM entitled to over £3,000 of student loan per year, payable monthly into my account, which doesn't have to be repaid until I'm earning more than £20,000 per annum. And the rate of interest is tied to inflation rate. So, generally, I think it's a pretty good deal.

I am pleased with how this has worked out. I have enough savings to cover tuition fees for all three years, and the loan will cover general living expenses. I've (wisely, I think) chosen to pay for my accomodation this year in a lump sum, so I won't have to worry about that every month. I am definitely going to have enough money for the full three year course, if I last that long: that was always going to be a close thing, so I am very relieved.

Now all I have to do is get this stupid student bank account sorted out with HSBC.

A (rather funny) snare for gullible people

Take a look at this article: Get your Welsh mountain air here!.

Apparently a Wales-based company is charging £24 for doses of "fresh Welsh mountain air" presented in an ornate and beautiful presentation bottle. They also cater for individual requests, and you can order Welsh sand, Welsh seawater, or chips of Welsh slate ... which are slightly more sane than bottled air, but not by a very big margin.

Apparently a firm in England was trying to flog air bottled from the summit of Helvellyn a while back, but that didn't come to very much.

I keep wondering what the bottle will be good for after you've savoured the "breath of fresh air reminding you of your homeland".

Only one more week of work left

Time is beginning to run out until I move to Norwich at the end of this month. I'll complete my last week of work at Wyevale next Sunday, and it's hard to believe that I'll have worked there for an entire year. It's certainly gone past quickly. Many of my friends are also leaving the store at about the same time, and either returning to their A-levels or heading off to uni like me. It's going to be hard moving yet again--I've already said goodbye to two good friends this week--but I've been through it before, and I'll go through it again. We've promised to keep in contact through email, and meet up whenever possible.

As far as my course at UEA is concerned, I have decided to go ahead with it. At the very least, I'll be living away from home and looking after myself: freedom like that isn't turned down lightly! At the same time, I'm hoping to get as much mountaineering done as possible in Wales and the Lakes, hopefully progressing to summer climbs in Scotland by 2008. My ultimate goal is currently the epic Carn Mór Dearg Arête combined with a traverse of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest peak, in full winter conditions.

All this will help me in my pursuit of a career in the outdoors industry. The more I think about this, the more certain I am that a Mountain Leader certificate will open all kinds of opportunities I can use to find my "perfect job". But that's long term. I won't be able to apply for the ML award until I'm living closer to the mountains. In the short term, all I can do is study, save, and hope for the best.

In any case, I leave for Norwich on the 24th of this month, which is less than three weeks away!