So the second day of being an ambassador at Kingston University for the Computing, Information Systems & Mathematics (CISM) Faculty at an Applicant Open Day for prospective students commenced earlier today. (My fellow ambassador Myles blogged about the first day over at his blog.)

So, motivated with Red Bull and wearing my CISM t-shirt this time expectations were higher than the February Open Day where the number of students was far fewer than anticipated… but how we were wrong… Yet again the anticipated number of students due to attend was lower than expected, however was still much higher than the first open day. The day went well, ferrying customers from the main exhibition hall (where I was stationed) down to our faculty ‘base room’ which was where prospective students could speak one-to-one with tutors (in theory all good - in practice this doesn’t seem to work very well, due to a lack of students going there!). As well as helping random people every so often who were lost on thier own travels around the maze which is the Penrhyn Road Campus, I also had to take a group around a tour of the computing facilities later in the afternoon.
Yet again it was a good day, a fun nice experience which I would be happy to do again!

Cycestrian - cy-ces-tri-an / Pronounceation [sigh-est-ree-an]  / noun.
–noun 1. a hybrid of a cyclist and a pedestrian. 2. someone who travels either by cycling and walking

So, first things first, cyclists. Now, the last time I looked, bike lights are avaliable from many stores, Halfords for one, yet it would seem that 3/4 of the cycling population in Kingston have never even heard of them, let alone purchased one. Here’s my thing, driving along a road at night, and coming towards me, in the distance, is a shadowy figure floating towards me. No, wait a second, its a cyclist… with no lights. The amount of times I’ve come across someone riding a bike at night on the road with no lights is ridiculous. Now, with being only 30mins from Central London, you can expect the roads to be busy at pretty much any time of the day. Now to be riding a bike with no lights at night in Kingston is completely insane.

Now, its not like Torquay where there is 1 cyclist per 10,000 people, here it seems more like 9,999 per 10,000 people. (Well, that maybe a slight exageration - but you get what I mean). However, when you do see the lonely Torquilian cyclist, at least they have a light so they don’t increase the risk of death, whereas here they seem to have a death wish.

Now, onto the other half of the cycestrians - the Pedestrians. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a pedestrian myself obviously, but when you are walking behind slow walking people I just want to scream and/or punch them. It wouldn’t be as bad if they walked slowly to one side of the pavement, but its never that simple. Its normally in a large group of people all huddled around taking up 110% of the pavement space, the only way to get past is to walk onto the road and get hit by a bus.

But, it’s not just people who are walking in the same direction as you - but also people who are walking towards you. Again, in a group but also as simple as a couple or a trio of people, who seem to think that you are able to simply walk right through them as they fail to work out that if they are already filling up the pavement, they have to move in to let someone past. Arrrh!

So, 50 days and 3,000 miles later, here I find myself in a lecture room in Kingston, with all the characteristics of an everyday lecture back in Charlotte… other than the accents being different… oh and they spell colour correctly!! But, what else is really different from my American counterpart? Well… here it is… hopefully relevant for you folks on both sides of the pond… a little insight and run down on Charlotte vs. Kingston!…

Now, granted the University of North Carolina (UNCC), had many, many buildings, sports fields, residence halls - parking! everything, whereas Kingston Uni Penrhyn Road, in a nut shell is 2 buildings with 1 giant portacabin plonked next to it… here you can decide which one looks more inviting!…

The main entrance to Kingston University’s Penryn Road Campus with sign!;

UNCC’s entrance sign - and with thier big campus it can stand proud on its own!;

Kingston Uni’s main teaching building;

One of many teaching buiildings at UNCC; (much newer and nicer!)

Kingston Uni’s main… corridoor;

UNCC’s main… er… path?…;

 And finally, to get some scope on the size differences of these two campuses… here is a satelitte image of Kingston University, Penrhyn Road (in red);

Compared to the University of North Carolina, Charlotte’s campus below at the same scale;

Well, what can I say? 2006 has been a hell of a year, full of events and occasions which I’ll hopefully remember for a long time… So, this time last year I was writing a blog looking back at 2005, and after summarising what to me were the most life changing events month by month, I came to the conclusion that at the end of 2005, like the end of 2004, I had no idea where I would be the year after, from where I would be living, to doing, to pretty much anything, so, has this year been any different?

Well, the year started off where the previous one had ended… travelling back up to Kingston in January to take exams from my first semester, and generally getting back into life back at university after being home over Christmas. And that was it, getting back into things at Kingston and that was life, generally continuing work for the next few months with the highlights of having my uni halls flat attempted to be broken into, and my car hub caps stolen…

Then, in spring came the announcement for students to be able to study abroad for the second year of their university course. Well, after some consideration I decided to take the plunge I was so long looking forward to. Charlotte in North Carolina was the choice I chose out of a list of possible American universities. Why Charlotte? Well, it’s something a few people have asked, and keep asking me even now, after all, it was the university out of the list which caught my attention more than the others, other than it just being good for Computer Science, I seemed to be drawn to it, something which I hoped I would take action with once I got there… I hoped…

So, after a few induction lectures at Kingston, a couple speeches from students who had already been to Charlotte who had loved it, it was time to sort out Visas, flights, accommodation, everything… it was going to be hectic, we all knew that, it wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t really. So, that was the summer, dealing with the upcoming study abroad exchange, and settling down and having a long needed rest from the work and stress, as well as leaving my university halls at Clayhill for one last time.

But, in a flash summer was over for us at least, American universities begin their 1st semesters at the end of August (as opposed to the end of September in the UK), and so the summer was cut a bit short! So, after packing up my life into two suitcases it was off onto a jet plane around to the other side of the world to experience a new way of life.

America - Sun, heat and humidity! So, for the final four months of 2006 I spent my life in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a great time, a truly fantastic experience which I would recommend to anybody thinking of doing the same thing. For four months I made new friends, went to a whole host of attractions, saw Washington DC and New York, America! Everything about it was amazing, (well - apart from a couple of lessons!), but nevertheless, something I wish I could do all over again, but I did it, I’ve got the memories, the photos, the souvenirs; that’s what it was all for - right? An amazing part of my life wrapped up and tucked away for a rainy day for me to look back and remember at?

If you’re still wondering the other reasons why I lobbied for Charlotte to be the first choice of university, and if I ‘took action’ as I had hoped… well… I didn’t. The short version of the back story is, I was good friends with someone who lived not too far from Charlotte, in Winston-Salem NC, who sadly passed away with a heart condition in 2003. Anyways, I kept in contact with his parents for a short while after, but, you know how it is, people drift apart. But, this was my chance, probably, my only chance, to go meet them, all it would have taken was a phone call - or an email… but, it didn’t happen, and I’ve only got myself to blame… the weird this is though, after 2 years of not hearing from them, on my arrival back to England, I was handed a Christmas card and letter from them from my mum which they had posted to me to Torquay back in November. Weird hey?

So, here I am, back in Torquay, its 3.30am on New Year’s Eve morning, and I’ve been back for nearly two weeks… good to be back? In some ways… In nearly 20 hours it will be a whole new day, a whole new year, or, just another day, depending on how you look at it… and where am I this time now, compared to last year, and the year before that? Well, I still have no idea where I will be this time next year. In six months or so I’ll be 20, and about to start my placement year at a job somewhere, only time will tell where though, determining where I will be this time in 2007, and what the next bunch of 12 months will have in store for me…

…oh! Its just someone breaking into my flat!

 Yep, Tuesday morning between 4 - 5am (I think), someone tried to break into my university flat - thats the main top floor flat, not my individual room! Anyways, after hearing at about 4am what I thought to be just a flat mate returning home being noisy, I ignore it and go back to sleep. All be it at 9.30am I get awaken by Halls Management after the cleaner discovered that parts of our door had been hacked with what appears to be a crowbar…

Well, that was then - but now! I come back from a mates flat and I find our door has been silverised! Showing lots of lovely fingerprints….

No doubt I’ll find out whats going on at some point - but I’ll keep yal’ posted!

Well, what can I say? It’s been a hell of a year, packed full of life changing events, situations and outcomes, one of the most hectic years of recent times.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, the New Year as it was then a year ago had a very daunting outlook, I had no idea where I would be, or what I would be doing this time now. Full of mock exams, never-ending ICT coursework and the constant expectation of my UCAS application kept me on my feet to say the least.

The A-level work continued to pour in throughout the next few months, and the UCAS replies trickled in, one by one until eventually I had my offers - and I had to choose, either way which ever I chose I knew I would be leaving everyone, after all, it was my choice where I picked the unis anyway, and with them all being far from home, it was an inevitable outcome - but at that time, the prospect of all of that was ages away, nothing to be at the forefront of worry anyway at least, even if it was always at the back of my head.

March saw light to new personal works, I started the ABC1 site for one, which still continues today, even if Disney have their corner of their eye on it… I also continued my work of helping to assist with performances and filming activities throughout the school, with the much anticipated Talent Show, and the Torbay Sports filming competition, in which our team won first prize for the school.

Revelations came forth throughout April & May, or could it all have been called confirmation? Either way that was then and you all should know about that, was it all a good thing it officially came to light? I still don’t know really, and I guess I never will. By this time too, my Media & History work had all been done - only the mind numbing ICT work to continue with, and another filming project with Critch gets underway!

June saw me turn 18, finally complete all my ICT coursework - even if it was in the nick of time!, sit my A-level exams and realise that the life I had known for the past seven years was over as I knew it, I would never be with all my friends again most days like it was ever again…

…however I strived on, July was a time to relax away from all the pressures - but, they were still there, probably even more at the forefront of my mind than ever, but I was fine, they were my problems, and no-one else’s…

August was much the same, going out with my friends, and receiving my A-level results, and as always in true Westlands / AQA style they mucked them up beyond all expectations, eventually my correct grades were given, which I was very pleased with, and which got me into my first choice University - and that was it - confirmation for me - in little less than a month, I would be up London, at Uni - and that would be my life for the next four years.

September came round in a flash after that, and the next thing I new I was saying goodbye to everyone I had come to know as friends over the past few years, ad as Myles correctly stated, they were the best years. Then I was off, not knowing what to expect I set off to Uni… after an ‘interesting’ fresher’s week the university routine began, even with a slow start in my opinion to the class and no-one knowing anyone’s names, it seemed to get better slowly over time, and after I got into the work and such it started becoming the norm.

With the flat mate hunt in full swing, October was much the same I suppose, getting used to Uni life, starting the midnight Monday Tesco visits, oh, and trying to see every TV studio within an hour’s drive of me of course!

The end of October, beginning of November saw my first trip back down home for reading week, even though ridden with fiascos and flaws, all in all it went alright I guess after all I met up with most of my mates, and it was ok. But soon enough it was back to the daily grind of Uni life, with more work than before we truly learnt the meaning of deadlines!

With Midnight Mondays Tescos becoming an obsession it would seem, life continued like that, work, deadlines and expectations. Then, December was upon us, the second half of the term definitely seemed to go faster than the first, however, with the final work all handed in, the trip to Lee Evans and My Hero over with, it was time to back home again, this time for Christmas, much the same as last time the plan was to meet up with my friends, and generally just relax back at home, and much the same happened like last time too, but I met some of my mates again, went out and caught up with them and such until next time.

Click here for some of the Best photos and moments of 2005

So here I am, still here, waiting to go back up to Uni in a week or so, and with the same as this time last year, I still have no idea where I will be this time next year, and with even more decisions for me to make in the next few months and with exams looming in January - I guess 2006 will be as hectic as ever, and while everything can change around you, I guess some things also stay the same too, even though in the end after the new years night, January 1st is still yet another day, and not everything’s going to just change for the best cause its a new year, you still have to never give up trying to be what you want you want to be.

 Amicitiae nostrae memoriam spero sempiternam fore

Well, its the end of November and what a month it has been! Firstly, out with the old and in with the new so to speak with flatmates, with a new flatmate coming in to room 4, and the old girl.. leaving… maybe to another halls of residence… we arnt that sure really…

I also got pulled over by the cops a couple weeks back now… its apparently an all new craze, lol. I was on the way back from Wimbledon with Shane & Myles when after a few minutes being trailed by a cop car, the blues and twos start sounding and flashing, and the next thing I’m getting interogated by a cop… lol… na, it was only a few questions - even though I’m not really sure why they decided to check out my car in the first place anyway - but by going by the questions asked, it seemed as though someone my age is suspicious if they are driving a car 200miles away from where its registered… hmm… but nevertheless, it was all fine and they let me go on my way…

Most of the assignments are out of the way now, only got a couple ‘exams’ left and then thats it… the xmas break is upon me…

Well, anyway, that was my amazing blog post which you’ve been waiting for… and yes, I know it wasn’t as… hmm, whats the word… “fullfilling?” as some of my past blogs, but meh.

Have fun… and check out my press page damn it!

Edit: OH! - and next week I’m going to see My Hero being filmed, AND go see Lee Evans on Tour - YAY!