Invaded by Pirates

This week I sat in class as several soldiers from the East India Trading company of Pirates of the Caribbean marched past the window. Captain Jack has also been surfing a car past a blue screen in the middle of the campus. So life has certainly not been dull, although walking the whole way around the outside of the campus to get to classes is not such a ball.

It is incredibly interesting for film and multimedia students to see the production going on. They have a couple blue screens for special effects and a huge piece of scaffolding covered in blue which I suspect will be an entire 3D building. I can’t wait to see the film and see how they have made the site into a set, it will be brilliant.

It is going to be the weekend again, last weekend I went on a puppet making course at the Film and Video Workshop in Islington. It was a lot of fun, and I came out the end of it with a fully animatable puppet who due to his black outfit and woollen hat we have decided to name Bertie the Burglar. Our tutor had worked on several things for the BBC and it was interesting to see a puppet from House of Mouse and that the puppet actually just had marbles for eyes.

It was the first proper week back this week. I like this time of year because it is full of inspiration and hope about all the potentially great things that you will have learnt or made by the end of the year. At least it is for me, others I know it fills them with dread at the amount of work they are going to do and whether they will be able to pass the courses.

Pay Phones, Old Friends and Food

I have spent all of this week at work but I have also found time to get out and about. We have moved offices back from the Greenwich campus to Avery Hill. It means getting up earlier but it also means that we have windows and a change of scenery and that is not to be looked down upon.

On Monday night Bryony and I went to meet our friend and his new girlfriend at London Bridge Station. Unfortunately the Northern Line was delayed so we spent the best part of an hour standing in London Bridge Mainline Station. We stood by the pay phones to keep out of the way of the commuters that were rushing past.

For some reason I had never thought that people would ring payphones, but I suppose it has a number just like any other phone, so as we stood there the phone next to me started to ring. Immediately you think of spy movies or more recently Sherlock Holmes on the BBC. So for the hell of it I picked it up, and bizarrely enough spent a good five minutes talking to someone who knew nothing about me apart from that I was the kind of person who would answer a public. I am not necessarily promoting this practise, and certainly don’t disclose personal details to strangers. However, it brightened up a dull hour waiting for some friends.

Last night I went out to bar Fifty Five in Camden, whose two for one cocktail happy hour is quite deadly. It was very good to see two old friends that I had not caught up with in a few months. I also had my first experience of Wagamamas that night. But I have to admit it was not necessarily a good one, but this is in consideration of the fact that I don’t like Chinese or Japanese food at all. I am on the side of Indian when it comes to takeaway through and through.

Aberdeen

I had a lovely time in Scotland, I really like Aberdeen. It’s probably because I think it's matching grey granite facade is aesthetically pleasing rather than grey and dull. They also have some lovely new shops opened including the shopping centre Union Square, with stores to rival Oxford Street. More importantly than nice shopping it was lovely to see my Aunt and Uncle, and it was just nice to have a break from the stresses of everyday life.

I had a dose of the countryside also on my mini-break. I took a nice walk with my Aunty to the nearest village and we enjoyed the nicest pasta dish I have ever had. I tried to recreate it last night but I think it still needs work. We also enjoyed a meal at an Indian restaurant in Aberdeen which is very nice and at John Lewis, potato wedges and tomato soup:).

I also had a weekend filled with good movies as we watched my DVD of The tale of Desperaux which I hadn’t yet watched (I saw it in the cinema when it originally came out). We also went to see Shrek Forever After in 3D at the Cineworld in Union Square. We were the only people in the cinema but we still sat in our assigned seats, so well behaved. The film was very enjoyable if you like Shrek and you aren’t bored of it yet, although it was good I don’t think it lived up to the first or second ones, but I did prefer it to the third.

On the downside some teenagers on the bus from inverurie off to start college ruined the final of Young Dumb and living off Mum for me. Well, perhaps they saved me an hour of my life.

Off to Scotland

I have been thinking a lot about graduate jobs and possibilities for the future this week. It can be a bit scary when you hear all the stories about graduates working in MacDonald’s or just not at all. As I vegetarian I don’t think I would be very good at that. I do realise that sometimes people have to take up jobs they don’t really want to do whilst building on things for their future career, however.
All this thinking has been brought on by having to choose an option this year. I had to choose between cinematography, web technologies or computers and music. I chose cinematography on the basis that it would help me with another module I was doing and in the case that I want to focus more on the production side of my degree in the future. Because who knows what the future will hold, eh? I’m still not completely sure what I want to do as my degree can branch off into a few different types of things. Oh well.

So I have been looking up the sort of jobs I could apply for when I graduate which may seem a little pre-emptive to you, but I see it as there is only a year and a half before I would have to apply to satisfy their requirements!

Enough with all the panicking, its bank holiday weekend soon! I’m going to Aberdeen tomorrow; think it may have been crazy to book a 6AM train! I will have to be up at about four, in fact I wonder if there is any point in sleeping at all when I could watch movies I can always nap on the train. I have to change at Edinburgh Waverley, I have been to Aberdeen a few times now but I would love to do more than pass through Edinburgh one day.

Crazy Busy Time

This is the time of year when working for clearing is high pressure. All the scary news in the press doesn’t help prospective students who are already upset about their grades and worried already. All we can do is try our best to help them out whether they were just over optimistic and need somewhere that does the same thing at lower entry requirements or whether they need to do an extra year with us to get where they want to go. How amusing ‘us’, sometimes I think I spend too much time at Greenwich university, but I am looking forward to classes starting again.

Most of life this week has been eat, sleep, work this week but I am looking forward to this weekend when I am spending the bank holiday in Aberdeen. I usually visit Aberdeen now and again to see my aunt and uncle who moved up there several years ago. It was however a good lesson in forward planning to try and sort out the travel, as in, I should have done it earlier. I could not get a sleeper train for less than £157 even with a 16-25 railcard because all the seats were sold out and a coach return got me back too late for work. Finally Virgin trains saved me with a return that cost me half the sleepers. So book transport early, it’s not too late for you.

One of the good parts of clearing is that we get a new intake of people working in the office. I am lucky to have a work place where people are generally really nice and the new lot are no exception. Am very pleased to have been able to get to know the rest of my team, it is great to have some more people to say hello to on campus!

The Habit of Art

This blog is later than planned because I was poorly at the end of last week. But all the boohooing over it’s the start of a busy week this week. This week we hit the peak of clearing; Thursday will be A-level results day. I am looking forward to a new bunch of students joining us this week so that we can keep on top of clearing demands. If you are hoping to confirm or get a place at uni this week, my sincerest good luck.
I took my mum to see the Habit of Art this weekend; it’s on at the National Theatre. I had no idea what it was about but by the title, the fact that it was by Alan Bennett and that it was showing at the National Theatre reassured me that my money was probably being well spent. The result of my gamble was in fact a play within a play about a group of actors rehearsing a production about W H Auden and Benjamin Britten.
I enjoyed the play for its humour and the brilliant acting, the kind of acting that means you don’t even notice that they are acting. It felt like a two and half hour of Alan Bennett’s exhibition of his own intelligence and those of great geniuses, but also showing that he didn’t expect you to be on his level. The ‘the-audience-wont-know-that’ jokes appealed to those who did because they could feel superior and those who didn’t because they could laugh at the truth of it. Although I can’t help but think: I didn’t know at a young age that the voice of Winnie the Pooh had so much more behind it.

As someone on a degree with a base in creativity as well as skill, the message of the play was interesting too. That being creative or ‘art’ was in fact a habit, it’s not a job as such, it is just something you will do and keep doing. There was also the point made that this habit means it has relatively little to do with talent and a lot to do with perseverance. It is nice to think that if we work hard we will succeed, but it is a better alternative than the relative definite that if we do not work hard we most certainly won’t. I think I will remember that.

Please do not close Greenwich Food Market!

I can hardly believe it is my third blog already, I guess time flies when you’re having fun!

Having said that, I am having fun! I am also feeling quite sorry for myself. I have an awful cold and right in the middle of summer. I just hope nobody around me catches it or I will feel terribly guilty. I am looking forward to a weekend of catching up with old friends along with a good dose of rest and relaxation likely to involve watching The Vicar of Dibley and Gilmore Girls with a hot toddy or two.

I’ve already had a pensive moment about accommodation and one about employment; this week I am in the mood to moan about money. Money is something you have to be very careful with while you’re at uni but you also have to want to be young and carefree. It really is important to know what goes in and what comes out. I hate that time just before you get paid or just before the next loan payment when you have to worry because you haven’t been careful enough and it stops you doing things you want to do.

As Bryony omitted her restaurant review from her blog this week, i will endeavour to make up for it with one of my own. I am a big fan of the Greenwich food market. My favourite stall of all is the vegetarian Ethiopian food stall. Their African curries are nutritious and delicious; if you are a veggie, you can’t fail to adore this box of joy for just £4. There are many other types of food available too, today I tucked into a Thai Yellow curry, which had very succulent sweet potato, which was brilliant because I can’t stand anything undercooked. Bryony, I know, is particularly fond of the Japanese food. All this food is delicious, freshly prepared, reasonably priced, quick and easy.

Now for the downside: the Greenwich Hospital Trust plan to close the food section of the market! You can fight against the closure by signing the online petition, joining the facebook group or signing one of the petitions held by the stall holders.