A reflection on studentdom and my oldfogieness

This week I have been to visit Cranmer Hall in Durham. I loved the place and I loved the people but it caused me to think about being a student and how I am not one anymore. I had thought that I would love to go back to the student way of life, I'm not long graduated in the first place and being a student was brilliant. For some reason when I arrived I expected that my bedroom would have a bathroom in the near vacinity, which it did, but without a shower. When I woke up in the morning I had to think about where I could go to find a shower? would I have to queue when I found it? did that affect how early I should get up? would it be alright to go in my pyjamas and return to my room only wrapped in my towel? Such are factors of studentdom that I had conveniently forgotten, particularly as I lived in a shared house and not in a hall of residence since I was in my second year and even when I was in my first year the halls were arranged into flats so the issue wasn't quite the same.

On leaving Durham I travelled north to Newcastle to visit my friend from home who has just started university there. She is living in the largest and most sprawling hall of residence that I have ever known... there are over 1000 first year students all living within the same complex. This caused me to reflect on different aspects of studentdom... Slumming it has never really been a problem for me, I enjoy camping and I'm not adverse to lying on the floor, so spending a night on the floor of my friend's student room didn't phase me. Until her fellow corridor dwellers arrived home in the early hours of the morning a little worse for the wear. Clearly they have never learnt that when you arrive home late it is polite to whisper so that you don't wake up those of us who went to bed at a more sociable hour. There was much slamming of doors and loud drunken conversations right outside our room about why another girl who was clearly far past her best should be left to sleep. I was not best pleased. And I was sore from lying on the floor just to add to the joy. My friend slept soundly through it, she has obviously become a heavy sleeper in response.

As a result of these experiences I have discovered that:
I don't like sleeping on the floor,
I don't like people who talk loudly when they should be sleeping,
I DO like living in a house with its own bathroom,
I have become old and grumpy.

Not good.

In other news

Thanks to Steve Tilley for mentioning this blog in his Church of England web column which you can read here. Dead chuffed I am!

Half term has arrived

This week in school we were visited by the Lancashire Evening Post to film our choir. They arrived as planned on the Monday morning, we rehearsed well and after a couple of takes we made a half decent effort. And so that stress was off my shoulders. Then on Wednesday we had a phone call - the disc in the video camera had been corrupted and they would have to come and film us again. What joy. So on Friday afternoon, having not practiced the infernal song all week we found ourselves back in the hall warming up for yet another filming. Half of the children were in non-uniform and had to go around the other classes trying to find jumpers to disguise the fact. And so we were filmed again and after two takes said goodbye to the lady from the LEP. I won't say what it was like in the end... unless you talk to me in person that is, but I will post the link to the video when it is online for you to make your own judgement!

And now it is finally half term. It has been a very busy term indeed, and I get the impression will remain to be busy in most aspects throughout the year.

Sarah and Kieron have been over for their tea today which is lovely :) and Sarah can still wrestle me to the floor without any effort which is quite sad. I need to work on my... err... strength. I think it's fair to say that I'm weak in all aspects and even when I started to fight her she still had me pinned to the floor within seconds! Sad that. Oh well, nothing like a good bit of fighting :)

School choir?

Time flies when you're having fun - there's just no time to faff about on the internet anymore!

Last week in the staff meeting at school it was suggested by the headteacher that as music coordinator I enter a competition for the school with the Lancashire Evening Post. It is a singing competition. Our school has no choir yet but I am doing singing for half an hour every day with a different class each week so it's not such a huge jump. Sounded like a good idea, so I entered. The choir are going to sing a song and the newspaper are going to come and film us perform it and then post it on their website. Anyone can then vote for their favourite school and the top 10 win prizes. I chose Karl Jenkins' Cantilena (from the Cheltenham and Gloucester advert). Only yesterday I was rung by the newspaper, they are coming to film us on Monday morning...!! Argh! Manic rehearsing over the next couple of days for us and then we go live on the internet. When it goes live I'll post the link and you can vote for us, please!