MY BIRTHDAY FAMILY DINNER

WEDNESDAY

Tuesday and Wednesday bled together, and by the time of my Gothic seminar at 2pm I was ready for bed, but i hung in there and made a noble effort to fill the many silences in this week’s discussion on Wilkie Collins Armadale.

I got home by 6pm, just in time to go with my friend Laura to a lecture given by The History and Archaeological Society of Retford. The talk took place in a big Church, which I’ve walked past a hundred times but never been inside, and examined how much our xmas traditions owe to the Victorians. It was really interesting, but by the time I got home I was definitely ready for bed.

THURSDAY

The highlight of the afternoon was a history seminar on ‘Gender’, which was exciting. As the only Lit students in this otherwise History class ALOT of questions were levelled at Vikki and I, but I think we handled it well.

That evening my family, Chloe and I went out for a gorgeous meal at The Old Blue Bell. The whole event was really nice and chilled out, and I really enjoyed it.

FRIDAY

My birthday celebrations aren’t over yet! On Friday Elizabeth came to Sheffield to see and we had a pretty cool afternoon in town, having a long lunch in Strada followed by drinks in the Wig & Pen. It was really awesome.

Just as I’m about to board the train it’s brought to my attention that Nikki has been given the evening of work- and with Leila away Ski-repping she’ll be facing an evening alone! Well, having decided that won’t do I headed over and we watched The Decent on DVD, which was very scary. I’m liking that whenever Nikki and i meet these days we seem to watch incredibly scary movies, it certainly adds a new nervy edge to our friendship.

SATURDAY

I’m mostly tired today. I had to get home from Sheffield early this morning, and this, mixed with everything that’s happened this week and the lack of sleep I’ve had in the last three weeks has led to me not having a great work ethic this afternoon. But this won’t do. I’ve got to get cracking on a summative presentation for Tuesday, because this is, after all, the last week before xmas. Wish me luck!

A SELECTION OF BIRTHDAY HIGHLIGHTS

Not a usual week this week. This was week eleven of term. The penultimate week of first semester. And the week of my birthday celebrations!- and, oh my, what celebrations they were!

MONDAY

I was pretty tired. I didn’t finish work on Sunday night until gone 1am, and then I had to be in Uni early to submit my PhD application, which I sent off into the electronic ether at about midday (wahoo!). So, that’s that. Best of luck to me. To celebrate I met Kaja in town and she kindly accompanied me for a spot of Birthday shopping.

TUESDAY

Early start- the first 9am seminar of my entire four year tenure at the University of Sheffield. And it wasn’t just any old seminar, it was a two hour discussion with a musical expert, about Mozart (not my number one topic), in his office. And there were only three of us, so this was pretty intense, but he was a lovely guy. Really friendly, and the seminar made for a great start to the day.

I then had to dash from the Jessop music building to Firth Hall to give a tour of the Union to the parents of prospective physics students, which was exciting.

I met Leila later that evening and we had dinner in Strada, with Nikki joining us later. We then dashed back to there’s to get ready for my party, where Lucy and Sean were waiting to surprise us. We made it down to The Forum for 8pm, remarkable, where quite a mixed plethora of friends were waiting. We went from The Forum to Old House, to Bungalows and Bears and ended in Cellar 35. It was an amazing night. I’m very grateful to all my friends who made it so special. I could never describe it all, so I leave you to marvel at a few of the pictures…

MY ‘DIGNIFIED’ 22nd BIRTHDAY IN SHEFFIELD

I didn’t mind working a double shift on my birthday, it needed to be done, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was a tiny bit down about it on a very inner level… but any down-beatness vanished when it turned out that a bunch of my friends and everyone at work were in on the best suprise ever!
Lucy, Leila and Nikki came in for sunday lunch, as carved by me, and then we all sat and had cake! Amazing! Unbelievable!

Well, It’s Saturday again, which means another week has slipped remarkable quickly through our withering grasp, barely even touching the edges. But indeed, unlikely as it may seen, seven days really has past since my last post; and once again I will endeavour to scribble down something of the events that have taken place in the interests of keeping some sort of a record.

The whole Phd application drama very much came to the foreground this week, the deadline being brought forward as it has to the 7th Dec. So, although I also had to read an prepare notes on an awful lot of material on Victorian perceptions of degeneration and it’s relation to gothic literature, whilst reading and preparing notes on Elizabeth Inchbald’s A Simple Story for a seminar with a guest tutor and at the same time continuing work on my first 6000 word assessment and proposing my second… I made this Phd application my priority.

Therefore, Monday began with me locking myself in Western Bank library with all of my Phd research in the hopes of drafting a supporting statement. However, after a few hours of this I felt desperate for some fresh air, so I met with Kaja and we went for a refreshing stroll around the Botanical Gardens- which are equally beautiful in Winter as they are in Summer. After this Kaja introduced me to her house and we chatted over a cup of tea, fully rejuvenating my creative energies for me to attack the Phd work a new.

Tuesday I receieved post-graduate tour guide training, so I can now give tours to prospective post-grads as well as prospective under-grads. Basically, the core difference as well as I can tell is that you play down the night life and play up the libraries. After this I went and pitched my Gothic assessment idea to my tutor. She really liked my idea, which makes me feel good. Then I went to meet Leila and we went to see New Moon, because Leila was ski-rep training the first time I saw it, but still wanted to see. I was happy to see it again, I think its brilliant. Tuesday evening I continued uni work.

Wednesday I gave my first under-graduate tour to a group of prospective physics students. I had 20mins to get them around the Union, which usually would be plenty of time, but because of all of the work being done inside the Union it was more like Crystal Maze than any UCAS open days I remember. After that I met Vikki and Kaja in Bar1 so that we could compose ourselves before our Gothic seminar, which can sometimes be a little crazy. However, having said that, the seminar was remarkably normal this week. With the Seminar finished Vikki, Lucy Bishop and I decided to take a road trip to an unknown destination in Bish’s car, ending up having a quick drink in the Springvale up near Walkley- where I haven’t been since second year!

Thursday was daunting. The seminar with the guest tutor was to be at 3pm, and because it was a core module it would just be Vikki, Bish, the tutor we didn’t know and me. As if this wasn’t daunting enough, Bish fell ill at the last minute- so it was just going to be Vikki and I! We faced the music, went along to the seminar, and it was awesome. The tutor was new to Sheffield, and I’d guess he wasn’t quite 30. He was really enthusiastic, really interested, and best off all, because there were only 2 of us he took us to the Jessop West Coffee Shop to end the seminar over hot drinks- that he bought! Thursday night, I went with Nikki to see Paranormal Activity which was unbelievably scary! It was so well executed, and the makers dragged out every suspenseful second they could. I’m not usually phased by scary films, but that unnerved me!

Friday was devoted entirely to getting my Phd application ship shape. I was proud by noon to have it ready for submission- or so I thought. Earlier in the week I’d sent a copy of my supporting statement to my supervisor and he’d replied to say he hadn’t read it in detail, but that it seemed ok and that he’d look at it closer as soon as he could. Well, just after noon, he sent it back, suggesting that it needed massively revising. This was a shocker.

Before receiving this email I’d managed to find the one copy in all of the university of a book we need to look at for our core module by Tuesday. Vikki would also need to see this book, so I decided to read the relevant material and then drop it off at her work so she could check it out over the weekend. However, by the time I set off from the IC I’d received this email from my supervisor, and obviously my mind was on this. I was frightened, disappointed, but mostly worried. But Vikki managed to cheer me up, suggesting that I stayed for lunch at her work, which was really nice. So I left Vikki’s work recomposed and ready to attack this statement again. Arriving back at the IC I took in my supervisor’s feedback and recrafted my statement, sending him another copy by 4pm (I’m still waiting for a response to this, but I think considering the deadline is Monday this is the one I’ll be sending). I then met Nikki for an early evening coffee, and she kindly listened to me vent all about my day, before making a very nice observation- ‘You shouldn’t feel bad, it’s not like you’ve written a Phd statement before.’

Friday night, my friend Laura from home and I went to watch a band named The Orphans at my work, which was a lot of fun. They were good, and I can’t remember the last time I saw a live band (I actually can, it was July, but that’s still quite far in the past).

Now it’s Saturday. This morning I received my first birthday present in the post- Pride and Prejudice with Zombies. This was a perfect present, and an utter surprise, so thank you Laura Snipe! It really is brilliant. I also got my first card by post from Becky Wilson! Sorry I opened it, but seriously, thank you!

If you haven’t gathered already, it’s my birthday tomorrow. I’ll be 22. I’ll actually be at work carving meat 12-3 and 6-finish, but I don’t think this will be too bad. My boss’ 4 year old daughter told me last night that her parents have got me a secret surprise, so I look forward to finding out what that will be. And then my birthday party will be in Sheffield on Tuesday, and I’ll be celebrating with my family on Thursday. So it’s looking like a good week.

I swear sometimes I feel I’m just falling through time. This semester is zipping away so quickly, it feels like it is always either Monday (hmm a whole new week ahead) or Saturday (what? Where did the week go?).

So, what did happen this week? I fear if I don’t write it down it’ll just be lost in the blur that is currently my life.

Well, last week ended with me taking a break from essay writting to sit in a cinema full of screaming, slightly Emo, teenage girls for the opening afternoon of ‘The Twilight Saga- New Moon’. Which I loved, although it did make me feel somewhat melancholy, as I’m sure is the inteded effect.

Saturday. Lucy came up to Sheffield to celebrate her impending birthday. I met her briefly for coffee, before playing my part in helping to spring the spectacular suprise Birthday treat that our mutual friend Fiona had organised- a snazzy lunch trip to Leeds. Having delivered Lucy to the station, and on discovering that my plans had been changed, I suddenly faced a saturday afternoon in Sheffield all by my self. But this soon changed when I was fortunate enough to meet Kaja and her oft’ mentioned boyfriend Duncan for a lovely saturday afternoon drink in Bungalowes and Bears!

Sunday. Work.

Monday, after meeting my Gothic presentation group in the afternoon Kaja and I decided to try a meal at Bar S1 where we discovered prices so low you wouldn’t believe! Offers included full meals for £2.50, and glasses of wine for 99p!

Tuesday, Viki and I met our History lecturer for the week, before heading off to the newly (and might I say SPECTAULARLY) refurbished stack 4 of Western Bank library to do the masses of reading set for this week. After about 4hours we decided it was time for a break, and accidentally wandered into Leopold Sqaure, where we had a delicious meal served by my friend Leila. Kudos for the most extravagant Library break of all time!?

Wednesday, a day of uni work wrapped tightly around this week’s Gothic Seminar. After this I introduced Lucy Bishop to the crazy offers at Bar S1, which I must admit, I’d been thinking about since Monday. I just managed to make it home in time for Laura, my friend from home, to pick me up for our evening watching 2012 at Vue Cinema, Doncaster. This film was unintentionally the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a long time!

Thursday, the academic day begins with a research seminar on the quantative representation of sensibility when viewed from a diachronic analysis of a few cannonical texts of the 18th Century… followed by coffee in Forum… followed by out weekly Research approcahes seminar which focused on the conceptualisation of class… after which Viki and I wound down by watching Bright Star at Showroom cinema: a film about the forlorn love affair between John Keats and his darling Fanny.

Friday. In my plan of the week I had devouted Friday to pure study. Instead I checked my emails at 10am to discover I’d been sent an email the evening before requesting my presence as student ambassador at 9am Friday morning- which was already an hour in the past! It didn’t say what sort of open day, or what I’d have to do, but unable to resist a call for help I threw myself into it regardless!

After about 20mins of being the new guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing I soon got the hang of it, befriended many of the other ambassadors and then got threw the entire open day- which turned out to be a Post Grad open day for the arts and humanities faculty.

The day wound up at about 4, at the exact same moment Kaja text me to remind me that an American girl named Kat from our Gothic seminar was throwing a Thanks Giving party. After trying to imagine what it would be like to go to a country where they didn’t celebrate christmas, I sympathised with how it must feel for Kat to be in England where Thanks Giving isn’t really part of our culture at all. So I decided to meet Kaja, and her very nice friend Danni, and head off to Kat’s party.

The party was a breath of fresh air! Whilst being unlike anything I’ve ever done before, it was a lot of fun. Kat had baked an awful lot of cookies, and gone out of her way to organise a whole bunch of real entertaining activities, which ranged from drawing around our hands and turning the prints into Turkeys, to having a turkey gobbling competition, to playing ‘Tel-phone Charades’ (a fusion of chinese whispers and charades), to ending by singing aloud about 13 christmas carols.

It really brightened my day and inspired me to work into the evening, although, I actually just fell asleep.

So its been a varied week (obviously I’ve left out all the parts about what work I’ve been doing, which has included reading and composing a presentation on Frankenstien, reading all about class, continuing to write my first essay, proposing the topic of the second, getting to grips with my phd proposal and continuing to transcribe my interview with Braham Murray).

I can but hope that next week will be as full.

Bonfire Night

Laura and I attending a firework display at Worksop Rugby club