Webcams are fun!

I forgot to mention in previous posts that I now have a webcam hurray..so that all the world can see the wonderful me:



lit by the funky leds on the front of webcam :D

Um...so yes..here are a few random pictures of my room:






Here is the evil flashing red light which spins during the fire alarm drills/tests!


Anyway..today I went shopping and bought food and stuff the food being exciting things like Winnie the Pooh 'Rumbly Tumblies' - mini choc chip cookies!



and the stuff being a flower that makes me smile...only 67p!



For those who were worried...I don't really intend to kill my lab partner...although she has now started visiting me in my room!!!! to ask evil lab partner type questions!!! AND she sat next to me in lectures! BUT as my mummy pointed out...I only have 4 pracs with her TOTAL this year! Because after Christmas I am not doing BioChem...aww...she will be all alone :(

Jess x

ps. Don't forget that the clocks go back on Sunday! Especially Uni People!

MURDER IN MIND

I am going to commit a murder, I don't know how soon till I crack but at the rate I am going it could be pretty soon. I should probably go into more detail, who I am going to murder, my motive, my method etc. Then you will understand and symapthise and perhaps help me plan this deed which must be carried out for the good of mankind...well my sanity really!

The person I am going to murder is my biochemistry lab partner who is the most hateful person I think i have ever met! Not only does this evil girl have the same first name as me, she has the same initials too so why they decided to pair us up I do not know...it was stupid and confusing!

Here are just a few of the reasons why this girl should not be allowed to live:

1. Everything I do, I do wrong apparently and she tells me so..all the time!

2. Everything we are asked to do, she has done before and thus is perfect (obviously!)

3. Everything I say e.g. "I think we should do it like this." she repeats back to me in an idiotic seven year old voice...you know that episode of friends where Rachel teaches Ben to mimic parrot fashion everything that people say to wind them up...she thinks it is funny! - I wanted to cry!

4. When I mentioned that I had never used a certain type of pipette before she said "Oh, did you go to a poor school then?" - JAGS girls...don't you just want to slap her - it has been suggested that I should have shoved the pipette up her nose!

5. When our results came out really well she told everyone that it was because she had done thin layer chromatography before...except I know that I had done all the work!!!

6. She made me do all the washing up!

AND THAT IS JUST THE BEGINNING!!!!!

Do you blame me for wanting to end her life?? I talked to my lecturers and they said that if I do murder her I won't lose extra marks for it in my exams so I am seriously considering drastic action! If they won't let me change lab partners then one of us is going to die...and I pick her!

Any suggestions on how best to murder someone in a lab (get those creative juices flowing)???

Ooh and she lives on the floor below me so we have all taken to stamping around whenever possible...huzzah!

Eeeeurgh... :'( .....SHE IS DRIVING ME MAAAD!!!!

A long post with lots of pictures...

I am beginning to think that nobody reads my blog anymore...I think everybody stopped during bug brother (I don't blame them) and is now too scared to visit again...so I am going to try and make my blog a bit more exciting and interactive to encourage visitors!

The first thing I have added is a chatterbox in my sidebar...this is not for idle chatter however but for answering deep philosophical questions. This weeks question is "What is the best way to pop bubblewrap?" The website http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/ is a very useful start especially the methods page which has a number of suggestions of how to burst bubbles. If you have any burning questions please let me know as I will be semi-regularly updating the chatterbox name etc.

So...the long post...the pictures...here we go:

This weekend Chris came to visit with his digital camera and took lots and lots of pictures of me...here are some of the highlights:

Spike and I

"Oh Fork!" - The results of a small kitchen accident last week!

MOOOOSE!

Chris!

So yes..well on Friday evening we went to PLAYZONE! This is the most amazing place, with lots of fun slides and things to climb through, over, under, down, round etc. The student group from my church had hired the place for us. Here are some photos of students let loose in a childs play area!



Why students shouldn't go on vertical drop slides all at the same time!




Meeeeeeeeeeeeeee


eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!



Mature students?


Oooh look a hand!


Meeeeeee again!


Zzzzzzzz

Anyway....on Saturday we went shopping and then in the evening we went to JCs which is the campus pub. Then on Sunday Chris came to my church in the morning and broke down on the M4 on his way home whilst I went to a quiz night and failed miserably!!!!

Ho humm...eek...should get ready for a lecture now...8 hours solid next...NOoooo!

Jess x

I'M IN A PLAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

WOOP de DOO...I am in a play...it is so exciting!!! I will be playing Eunice in A Streetcar Named Desire "Who?" I hear you cry...so hear are the sparknotes for my character...he he:

Eunice - Stella’s friend, upstairs neighbor, and landlady. Eunice and her husband, Steve, represent the low-class, carnal life that Stella has chosen for herself. Like Stella, Eunice accepts her husband’s affections despite his physical abuse of her. At the end of the play, when Stella hesitates to stay with Stanley at Blanche’s expense, Eunice forbids Stella to question her decision and tells her she has no choice but to disbelieve Blanche.

Ah...soooo exciting! I get beaten up and everything (offstage but hey!) and get to say exciting lines like: "Quit that howling out there an' go back to bed!" Which considering it comes just after the famous "Stell-lahhhhhhhhh!" line...is quite cool!

Huzzah huzzah huzzah!

Jess x

Must...stay...awake!

FIRE DRILL at 6am - EVIL!!!!!

Lecture at 9am after fire drill - REALLY EVIL!!!!!!

So yes, this morning at 6am there was a firedrill. This was totally confusing as on Wednesdays the fire alarms are always tested at 9am so I have always thought that if I wake up because of the fire alarm a) It is a wednesday and
b) I am late for my lecture!

but no...this was not the case. Apparently all the halls over these few weeks will be having these evil fire drills because apparently it is a time when everyone is actually in the halls...I wonder why!!!! I should explain that this isn't just a ridiculously loud bell ringing...this is a siren! AND in every room and corridor there is a large red spinning light to accompany said siren! Grrr!!!

The amusing thing was that lots of people there had only just come home from a night out..."Ibiza foam party!" and were sitting there chatting about how drunk they all were....ahh students! Our floor had a foam party too...with washing up liquid...it was hysterically funny..and Lynne taught us how to blow bubbles with washing up liquid using our fingers to form the O shape to blow through...huge bubbles...nothing compared to my beloved bubble sword (I showed them the photos) but still AMAZING! We were all slightly hysterical (although sober) after about half an hour lying in the corridor (FIRE HAZARDS!) poring over a map of Swansea...I have no idea why this was so funny... possibly because I was the floor rep...and I was lying on the floor. Ok...that is still really funny...he he he.

Ah well...I think I have typed quite enough...I had to do something between lectures to keep myself awake or I wouldn't have made it out of my room again!

Eeeurgh...feel rotten and sleepy :(

Jess x

Oooh what does this button do??

He he..I just pressed the BLOG THIS button on my blog to find out what it does so sorry if this is a strange post...I don't really know what will happen!

Well well well...I have been at Uni for 2 whole weeks now...that is completely mad...it feels like I only arrived yesterday...so the latest news...

LECTURES...I have already said a bit about them...they've actually been great fun although having only 4 hours sleep before an 8 hour day is not recommended...more of that later!

PRACTICALS...I had my first truely practical practical on Thursday and drew lots of plans and drawings of plant stems, roots and stuff. Wrote lots of notes...and really need to write them up! The problem is...we aren't studying flowers in the lectures...we are studying bryophytes but if we wait to be studying flowers in the lectures there won't be any alive to do practicals on! I learnt some really cool stuff though...did you know that a banana is actually a berry, so are peppers, tomatos and grapes! A cherry is atually a drupe, a pumpkin a pepo and an orange a hespiridium! Fascinating!

WEDNESDAY - THE FRESHERS BALL

Oh yeah! This took place in a club (well 2 joined together really) called Time and Envy...twas a skool disco...and twas also brilliant fun. The evening started at Church where Lynne and I (in skimpy school uniform) attended Lifestyle, an event for students to welcome to NCC (New Covenant Church). We were then driven back to the Uni in time to collect the tickets we had forgotten and leap into our awaiting taxi. The evening was totally cool...lots of crazy dancing and some guest artists including Chesney Hawkes (who? I hear you cry...apparently he sings The One and Only..or something like that) and the Honeyz (sorry I really don't know who they are) during both of which we moved to the other club...which was playing brilliant music (e.g. teenage dirt bag, Song 2 and the like!). At about 1.00am I realised that I had 8 hours of lectures the next day (eek!) and as we wanted to grab a taxi before the crowds we attempted to leave...after a few more songs which we HAD to dance to..no really we did, we finally can-canned out (he he...great music) and headed to the taxi rank. Our taxi driver was great and encouraged us all to sing on the way back to the uni whilst he accompanied us on a small squeaker - for relatively sober people (2 out of 5 of us didn't drink alcohol at all that evening) our rendition of "The wheels on the bus" was truely stunning!

AND the next morning I actually made it to my 9 O'clock lecture on plants! Oh Yeah!

That is pretty much the most exciting bits of my week...although I do now FINALLY have a library card! Huzzah!

Jess

ps. Just cooked myself a curry (not a ready meal)...woo go me! :P

Lectures and Late Night fun!

Well…..Freshers Week is nearly over (the Freshers Ball – Skool Disco is tonight) and I have begun going to lectures…some thrilling…some not! Here are a few of my favourite lines from lecturers so far this week:

“I don’t give a s**t whether you come to my lectures or not…nobody is really interested in plants anyway!”

“…falling down juice…”

“Most of you will never find your feet because you’re lying horizontal somewhere”

“For those times when you get back to your room at 3 O’clock in the morning and think…you know what I really want to do right now….read my geology text book!”

The man obsessed with fire alarms has been in touch too, with regular e-mails (at least two a day) which can’t be taken seriously. English is quite obviously not the first language here…I particularly like the non-deliberate mistake in this one:

You should not remove the restrictors on your windows as it is dangerous especially when we have drunk student trying to put their heads out of the windows. Falling to comply with this rule can result in fines to the whole flat or to the particular room depending on where about the window is.

Our corridor (well..me really) decided to find out just how seriously this guy takes his job and sent off the following deadly serious (not) e-mail about a sign that had been put up in halls. Here is the e-mail and the gracious reply!

From: JENNER J.A. Sent: 02 October 2005 20:34To: a.h.kassem Subject: Query: Floor 3 *******

A sign was put on the door of our kitchen earlier in the week about the need to clear all surfaces in time for the cleaning on Thursday, as we have been keeping our kitchen relatively clear I presume that this was put up in all flats. Should this sign be left up because it has been placed there by our housekeeper as an official notice or should we remove it as it constitutes a fire hazard by being on a door in the corridor. We don't want to be fined for having something attached to a corridor door as we would be for attaching something to our own doors.

What is the correct procedure in this case?

Jessica and Flat mates

Hi Jessica,

The sign was put on all the floors in all building as a reminder to all students to keep the kitchens relatively clean at all times. So if your kitchens is tidy then well down and please keep it like this. As the note is kept in the corridor I would mention it to the house keeper so they move it inside the kitchen and you are right it causes a fire hazard in the corridor.

Best regards

Hussam

Last night we had a little gathering of all the people on our corridor to celebrate Sharmeela's birthday, we had loads of cake and crisps and biscuits!! This was NOT a party as we did not have the required party permit but merely a gathering of good friends with snacks in our kitchen! We had just finished and cleared the kitchen so that we didn't need to do it today..it was about 11.00 at night and I had just cleaned the hobs till they shined and was beginning to tackle the draining board when the hall tutor marches in. "Are you having a party?" she asks! "No," we reply rather too quickly as she looks around at our too perfectly clean kitchen and all of us standing around in the middle of the night. "Oh," she says, obviously dissapointed...and leaves! The wonders of being a student...tee he...lets hope they don't read my blog!
Loving it…right..I have to go to a lecture now…woo hoo!

Jess x

ps. Yay I also bought my dissection kit and lab specs yesterday, a hot water bottle shaped like a crocodile which matches all the stuff in my bathroom AND discovered that my lab coat is nicer than the ones everyone else was buying!!! We admired it using the full length mirror in the lift...of course nobody could use the lift for a while but whatever!