Day 2

My night was really rough after staying up to message someone on the Internet. I couldn't sleep properly on the hard bed and kept on longing for my soft, queen bed at home. I woke up, and immediately tried to get a shower. It took me ten minutes to work it out – you control overall flow by twisting, but temperature by pulling and twisting. This means it remembers the temperature you want, which is really quite nifty.

I then got some breakfast, branflakes. There were more arrivals, including one girl who'd apparently bought the contents of a local hardware store. She was friendly enough, and it was curious to see her mother going through exactly the same motions mine did. Maybe I act a little decadent and spoiled? Hmm, introspection.

Anyway, I phoned Olga and went out to do chores with her. Queue-o-rama. I had to queue for 10 minutes in Cost Cutters to get my sarnie for lunch (chicken and mayo, prawn and mayo, egg and mayo triple that was quite nice). I had to queue for 25 minutes (luckily with a wireless signal) to register with the doctors, who just referred me to the health centre as I have a Critical Condition. Pfeh.

Then I queued up for my NUS card, the queue actually managing to extend down two stories, out of the building and across the entire courtyard. That took 45 minutes. When I got there they wanted my enrollment printout which I realise I'd left behind. Being annoyed at the length of the queue I just opened my laptop and showed them the page that I'd saved and printed. They accepted it, though I got the most filthy look imaginable. I then went and fetched my welcome pack.

Welcome Pack

• 2x Pot Noodles (did you know that can give you scurvy?)
• 2x Pepperami Noodles (well, it may have protein in it)
• 1x Unisex Deodorant (the Lynx effect: you're cheap)
• 1x Mango Drink (very nice. No negative comment here)
• 2x 'Long Lasting' Condoms (probably unsuitable for gay people…)
• 1x Energy Drink (those things give me heart palpatations)
• 1×6 pack Hair Gel (go on the razz looking like someone puked on your head)

Is it me or are Endsleigh on advertising overdrive? I have their insurance and I've already been given 3 different leaflets about it. Half makes me want to cancel out of annoyance!

Anyway, headed back and showed Olga my room. She was jealous! I also got to the common room and found the power for the speakers on for the PS2, which was nice, suggests someone other than me is actually playing it as opposed to thanking me (my ego will blow if inflated any more!). I also found out that you aren't allowed to use wireless to extend the network so I turned down the power on my router to absolute minimum so it won't permeate the walls and disabled ESSID broadcast, and enabled encryption with an incredibly strong password.

As I went to the kitchen I hung around in the central kitchen and waited for some people to show up. Lots of friendly faces, most particularly a Catholic drama school student and a very nice young lady in a pink top who seemed to be in every conversation going. We got talking and oddly the main discussion turned to where people were from and whether they were state or public school. Lots of people seemed to be 'aggressive state school likers'. I'm not the only one!

There was random banter. I can only remember a few strands of conversation:

• Outrage at the lack of TV signal (even analogue) given the prices we paid for the rooms.
• Registration, and what it felt like to leave your parents.
• Where in the world people'd travelled to. I won! (Sydney)
• How bad everyone was at cooking. Even I tried it, but for some reason everyone now assumed I'm a scatty-brained Master Chef.
• Societies, where I managed to come out. Everyone seemed cool with it. The Catholic drama student seemed a bit uncomfortable but assured me he was fine. Then we went into a complete fiasco of cooking and I made myself far too much Spaghetti alla Putanesca and ended up stuffing myself and cooling some for later.

We ate, and then we all settled down to listen to some music whilst I made paper planes and got asked how old I was. It's amazing how much all of our tastes differ. I got a panic-stricken call from my mother because I hadn't heard my alarm to ring her as I was having far too much fun.

We then went to The Bar again. It was noisy, but as I was turning to leave one of the people from the corridor spotted me and managed to convince me to stay. We did, and one of my neighbours performed at the Karaoke. She was simply stunning, to the point it wasn't Karaoke, more a cover. Still, there were plenty of bad Karaoke acts afterwards to make it up, and I found that JD and Coke isn't a bad drink. Oh, and that Warwick bars are disgustingly expensive (said JD and coke was £2.80).

We came back and had some random discussion, but I think the girls were a bit drunk as they kept on linking things back as innuendo. Two girls came in with handbags and cake and were intolerably posh, sneering at pretty much everyone else. They left to have a smoke.

So, bedtime again. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight… I'm missing home a bit less now I've spoken to parents on the phone.

: 25 Sep 2005 22:37 |  Comments (3) |  Report a problem