Archive for the 'School' Category

So, I’ve been at the glorious university that is Imperial College London for just over a week now, and I have to say that I’m in love with the place.

For a start, the location is absolutely beautiful. The campus is slap bang in the middle of South Kensington, one of the most affluent areas of London, a stone’s throw from such attractions as the Natural History Museum, Science Museum and the famous Hyde Park. My halls are located in Chelsea, which is possibly even more affluent than Kensington, and it really shows. As I’m sure you will know, I am a petrolhead, and as a result I have a love for fine automobiles, but living here is making me start to feel almost saturated by them. If you’ve ever visited the Vatican, you’ll be able to draw a parallel here - there’s only so much fine art you can see before you stop noticing it. Looking out of my bedroom window, the cheapest car I can see is a Mercedes A Class; on a typical walk from here to campus I normally pass 2 Audi RS4s, a brand new Jaguar XKR and at least one Aston Martin DB9.

I’ve only had a couple of lectures so far, but I’ve been amazed by the quality of the teaching here. The lecturer I’ve seen so far is Tony Fields - a man who genuinely loves his subject and delivers his content in a lively and exciting way, and somehow manages to keep everyone interested despite the skill range of his audience reaching from ‘What’s programming?’ to ‘I have run my own software company’.

The main thing that’s struck me about this place though, is that it is incredibly refreshing to be surrounded by people who have a genuine passion for what they are studying, have a thirst for knowledge, and are interested to know what interests you - basically geeks - and it means that I’ve found a place that I can call my home.

Still, for some reason I can’t sleep at night. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m trying to get this summer out of my system still, or if I subconsciously miss my parents/friends, or if there’s something wrong with my health. It could be all of these things, or none of them, but what I do know is that I need to sort it out soon before it affects my study - I can’t keep relying on exhaustion to send me off at night. Right now it’s 3:45am, and I don’t even remotely feel like sleeping, yet I have a lecture at 9am.

In other news, the Scottish judicial system has decided in its infinite wisdom that a guilty plea and a means assessment isn’t enough to reach a verdict as to how sodomized I’m going to get by it’s long, hard dick. So, I have been summoned once more to Peebles court. If I can’t get the case transferred to a local court, then I’m going to have to somehow get from London to Scotland ready for 10am on Wednesday the 22nd, following a 6pm finish at university the previous evening.

SO much has happened in the past 2-3 months since I wrote a post, I don’t even know where to begin. Firstly, I’m neglecting my blog, but never mind that, I’m used to it by now.

When I last posted back in May, I was beginning my A2 exams and suffering the effects severe sleep deprivation as a result of, well, not sleeping. I have since been on holiday to Spain, then moved into my new house in Cambridge with Chris, started my new job as a software developer, got my A2 results, gone on another holiday to Spain (this time with the Amsterdam krü + 2), come back without a tan and got my first pay packet.

With regards to my A2 results, I think I did quite well. Overall I got an A in Mathematics, an A in Computing (full UMS in the A2 half also), a B in Physics, and a surprising B in Further Maths which I never thought I’d be able to achieve. Despite the latter not being an A, the nice people at Imperial College London decided that they’d let me in to their fine establishment anyway, beginning about this time next year. Until then, I shall continue to work at the almighty Business Web Software where I have been made to feel very welcome, and I’ve done quite a lot so far.

With regards to my holidays, the pics are on Facebook, although I didn’t take many as I generally couldn’t be bothered, and the shutter button on my camera (phone) is what I like to describe as ‘a bit shagged’. And, that’s not the only thing that’s broken - I seem to have re-acquired my Midas touch of sorts, whereby everything electrical or mechanical that I touch seems to break. My main reasoning for saying this is that my power supply (not a bad one either) in my PC has started whining its swan song, and refuses adamantly to start up. So, to the tune of £60 I’m replacing it with something less powerful, but seemingly better designed in terms of cable management.

As to moving into my new place, it’s been an interesting experience. While I and Chris aren’t exactly the tidiest of student households, we haven’t (yet) descended to a level of squalor worthy of the Young Ones themselves. The house itself is pretty nice - it’s a new built end terrace, on a road called William Smith Close no less (which makes me chuckle), and the furnishings within are comfortable. However, I cannot understand why people make leather sofas. They’re just hideously uncomfortable, no matter how soft and squidgy they may be - I mean, you stick to them no matter what the temperature is or what you’re wearing.

At present the living room is a big mess of cabling, as I’ve managed to position my TV, amplifier, PS2 and Chris’s laptop on a small coffee table I stole from my parents, with a speaker either side on a floor stand. It makes for good TV/movie/anime/game viewing, but I long for the day that everything has seamless wireless connectivity. Behind that is our dining table, which is yet to be used for the purpose of dining. In actual fact, it more readily deserves the name ‘crap pile’, or even ‘crap mountain’. I think ‘mountain’ is far more fitting, as we have experienced quite a few avalanches. On one end of the crap mountain is my PC, currently with the side missing waiting for a new power supply; the other end is home to my old TV, and a box full of cabling. Aside from that, the rest of the room is filled with the most general of crap.

As I write this, I’m sitting on my sticky leather sofa using my laptop, next to Chris as he plays FFXII on my PS2, through my TV, amplifier and speakers. It’s rather cool.

It’s amazing to think about how short my time at AGS seems when I look back on it. I’ve been here for almost 7 years now, and every one of them has had its ups and downs. But I don’t think they’re times I’ll ever forget. When I talk to Ron (my soon-to-retire colleague at Tring TV) about his school days, he can tell me about it as if it was last week, and I know that I’m going to be able to do the same with my school days when I’m his age. Still, the thing that I noticed is that it’s not his school he remembers, but his school friends. And I know for a fact that they’re going to remain the same in my mind until I’m senile and have lost all of my marbles, although I’ll see them in through rose-tinted spectacles, as it were.

The fact is, these past 7 years would have been nothing without the people whose company I’ve shared along the way. And, while I’d love to list everyone who’s made a difference, I don’t think there’s enough room in my database for everything I want to say. Still, seeing as both Caley and Dodge have written their own nostaligic posts, I think it’s high time I did the same.

When I joined AGS in Year 7, I had absolutely no friends. I was one of 4 people in my school who passed the 11+ exam (seeing as I live in Hertfordshire, where it’s not compulsory), and the other 3 were girls. 2 of them went to Aylesbury High School across the road from AGS, and one of them shot off to Norway and I only recently got back in touch with her. But the jist is, I was alone. On the induction day, where we first met Mr. Harvey (who actually seemed big back then), I was absolutely shitting myself. I’d never been in a situation like this before. But, the atmosphere relaxed a bit, and through the few sessions of the day, I made my first friend there. His name was Will Sellers, he was short (as were we all), had blond curly hair, and was the jolly/chubby type. But he moved from my house Ridley, to Paterson, where his friends from his old school were, and once more I was alone.

It took a little while to make new friends, and it would take another 6 months before I found people that I shared common interests with, but once I did, I was at home. These friends were Toby, Matt and Fagan, and they all lived near to each other. There was also Fox and Spencer. I also met Dodge (back then by the name of Downie), but at the time I thought he was a bit of a knob.

In all fairness, since Year 7, the people I consider my closest friends haven’t changed all that much, when I think back on it. The same people are still all there, although some have grown more distant, and others have come closer. Toby’s always remained one of my best friends, mainly as we share the same slightly twisted sense of humour. Fox I’m not so close to these days, but I still have a lot of time for him - I have fond memories of getting drunk at his sleepovers on little more than a can of cider back in Year 8. Matt is a nice guy, although I still can’t work out his sexuality and probably never will - I’m pretty sure he dislikes me strongly - but we get along. Spencer is a good friend, and has moments of sheer comic genius - and I’ve discovered can get pretty deep at times.

As for Dodge, well, he’s possibly my best friend now. While I still think he’s a bit of a knob, he’s also a wonderful person, who’s been for me through the shittiest of times, and I know for a fact is going to go far in life, despite his complete inability to get a job. I have a lot of brotherly love for the guy, and a lot of good memories of the times we’ve shared.

And of course there have people who I’ve made friends with along the way - far too many to list them all - but each has contributed to my life in a way that has made a difference to me. One of these people is Andy, who is an absolute genius, with whom I have had a lot of good times, and he’s probably the force of sanity that has stopped me murdering anybody in my Maths lessons so far. Dave is another one, with whom I’ve shared a few doobies and had a lot of laughs, and has done for Computing what Andy did for Maths.

And, while she isn’t anything to do with school, I couldn’t not mention Caley. I mean, she has been my reasoning for trying hard all the time in everything I do, and has given life that wonderful shine that love brings. But I have far too much to say about her to fit into this post, and I wouldn’t want to deviate too much from my point.

And this is my point: to everybody I’ve known throughout my time at AGS, I wish you all the best success that you can have, and hope that you enjoy your lives. I hope to stay in touch with all of you as best as I can - thanks to my nerdiness I’m always going to be reachable somewhere. Although we still have 8 more days at school, and then all of the excruciating time that will make up our exams, I know that in these last 8 days, it may be the last time that I see a lot of you. But that doesn’t scare me as much as I thought it would.

While we’re all going our separate ways, I’ll always have fond memories of this place and the people that make it what it is. As for me, I’m shooting off to Cambridge with Spencer to work for a software company for a year, maybe make a little bit of money to get me through uni after that, wherever I end up. I have a feeling I’m not going to get the A in further maths that I need, and will indeed end up going to Bristol rather than Imperial, but wherever it is, I hope we can all meet up some time and have a few beers.