(no subject)
It is two weeks today since I left. So apart from memes, what have I been doing for the last few days?
Well, after being out very late last Thursday night, I slept in on Friday, then went to the music library and borrowed a score of the Bach cello suites for my audition on Saturday (mine is lost somewhere in my house and hence did not come to Manchester with me, woe). They only had a tiny version, but it was good enough to read the notes.
Oh, and grah - my camera is broken *spork* Has been since London, which is why I haven't posted any photos from there yet. According to the guy in the London shop I took it to, the filter is damaged and needs replacing; he estimated it would cost 60 pounds to fix. "60 pounds??!!" went I, and decided to take it to someone for a second opinion, which I also did last Friday. It did not help; the second opinion told me it would be 130 pounds. ack. I am taking it to a third shop to get a free quote, but I suspect it won't be getting fixed any time soon.
Friday evening there was a free student BBQ, so I went along and consumed World of Potato. Food has been a rather intermittent thing for the past week, due to a combination of having limited funds, being busy and just forgetting; student free-food events are a good way to solve all three. In fact, I'd forgotten how great Orientation is for collecting stuff (both useful and otherwise): my haul of free things from the Fresher Fair included several squintillion pens (useful, because I only brought a couple), lots of sweets and chocolate, free drink vouchers for a whole host of clubs and bars around town, a couple of notebooks, three mugs, packet soup and instant noodles (I got three bonus packets by looking forlorn and hungry *g*), a T-shirt (again something I don't have many of here), a book (Jane Austen's Emma), a pocket radio, lip balm, key rings, playing cards, several badges, and three small orange fluffy things. I'm not quite sure what the latter are, but hey, they were free!
I also signed up for lots of clubs during Orientation - most are free to join, and they get funds from the Union for each member, so I figure it doesn't matter if I only go to one or two (or none) of their events, they still benefit from me signing up. (Plus they were giving away stuff.) I've already forgotten some of the ones I wasn't particularly interested in, but there are a few in which I think I might be more active. There are TWO roleplaying societies, which I have joined mainly for the social side; a FAS2 society (although they are called Warped rather than FAS2); and I found CAOS and signed up with them as well as the Music Society.
Saturday morning I had my orchestra audition, which as you know I passed (and apparently quite well); then went on an adventure to the legendary Asda - a giant supermarket chain where I hoped, at last, to find the elusive cutlery and crockery. Alas, there were none suitable there; but I did return with bread (42p a loaf), tinned soup (14p a tin!), two types of cheese, pasta and sauce. Asda is indeed cheap. (Though not as cheap as the Super Saver store I found in town today, where I think I shall be doing my shopping henceforth.)
The other item I acquired at Asda was a cask of absolutely terrible English wine, which I took round to a friend's flat for pre-Freshers' Ball drinks. I shall draw a veil over the rest of the night; suffice to say it involved several different types of alcoholic beverage ranging from vodka to Lambrini (a very dodgy fizzy thing made out of pears) to some bizarre strawberry pulp and vodka premix, a large saucepan, several straws and... I don't remember the rest. Ah, college life. o_O
Sunday morning I still managed to be awake in time to go to choir at 10:30 with the young Russian bass from next door whose name I can't spell. It turned out that it wasn't for rehearsal, but the choir were singing at the service: a full Roman Catholic sung Mass. Interesting to experience, though I won't be going every week. The church choir overlaps substantially with the St Philip Neri Singers, who rehearse on Mondays and who are singing Kodaly Missa Brevis in a couple of weeks; so I have joined them and might sing on some Sundays if the music is interesting.
The other event of note on Sunday was the Burlington Pub Rally. Social Secretaries take note - this is an excellent concept! It works like a regular pub crawl, except that people form teams and have to answer questions along the way - some inside the pubs, some en route. This gives the people who aren't quite so into pubs and drinking (or who are too poor to drink ten drinks in ten different pubs) something to do, and makes for a more interesting crawl generally. First prize was 50 pounds, so there was considerable incentive to compete - which is probably the main reason our exhausted little team of three, consisting of me, reggitsti (whom I met on the day - see, they do have LJs!) and Ben, actually kept going all the way to the last pub, which we hit at about 10pm after NINE HOURS of pub crawling. We must have walked several miles in the course of the crawl, especially because we decided to save money and not take the tram across town where it was suggested that we do so! Anyway, I hope we win, but even if not, it was probably the most enjoyable consecutive nine hours of being in pubs and NOT drinking that I could have hoped for.
Classes started Monday (yesterday), so I stocked up on stationery (lots of lined paper, folders for my notes and highlighters so I can look like I've done my reading by highlighting random lines) and then headed to the bookroom to get my textbooks, only to find that they had sold out of the one I wanted for that afternoon's class. Oh well - at least nobody else in the class had managed to get it yet either. The first class was aimed at the students who hadn't done law before but was a nice refresher course for me, seeing as it's been seven years since I studied law properly! We finished at 6 and I dashed over to the church for SPN rehearsal, impressed the other sopranos by being able to sing the Kodaly at my first rehearsal (I did admit to them that I'd done it before, though), and then headed from there to the Warped social at 7:30.
The Warped crowd are exactly what you would expect - an eclectic bunch of students, ex-students and non-students from all sorts of places, ranging in age from not-even-legal to 30+, but with a common frame of mind (read: geeks!) and an interest in F&SF. exaltedmugwump and I have decided that we need to found a board games society, since there isn't an official one at the university; I looked at him and went "ComSci student?", he went "yup"; I said "board games?", he said "Settlers", I went "definitely yup!" It's great meeting like-minded friends. Also, I have found another Sarah for our collection - she comes with her own Sarah name, being Warped Sarah! (de_chel, she kind of reminds me of you.) I have also found a member of the Sarah Fan Club: his name is Dave and it is apparently his job to go round falling in love with Sarahs. I told him he should come to Melbourne, there are lots of us there! He proposed to me, but I refused :D
Best of all, exalted_mugwump, Dave and reggitsti (who was also there last night) all live in Whitworth Park too! It is beginning to seem like every man and his dog lives here. Actually come to think of it, Dave does own a dog. So we all walked (well, some of us staggered, really) back to college together afterwards. It was a good night.
Today started off with me getting a telling-off from the cleaners because apparently our kitchen was filthy and I was the only one around for them to tell. I explained that I hadn't actually USED the kitchen yet, not having anything to use in it; but left a cautionary note stuck to the stove for the attention of the rest of the household. Apparently if the condition of the communal areas is not satisfactory, our entire flat gets reported, and we get inspected and then fined if it's still not up to scratch. That is definitely something I can do without!
Household responsibilities discharged, I headed into the city and up to Chinatown, where I made a blissful discovery: there is a Chinese grocery store, and it stocks SWEET CHILLI SAUCE! Praise be!! And it only cost 95p. Next I went to Piccadilly Gardens, where I found a frying pan for 2 pounds, a cutlery set for 4 pounds (I don't need an entire set, but I've given up on finding individual items) and a plate and bowl for a pound each. Now I can eat out of something other than a mug - which, while versatile, is not the best vessel for food such as toast and baked beans. Last shopping stop was Primark, where I bought 6 pairs of socks (something I ran out of in the first week I was here!), a black cardigan (which I needed, because I only brought one other), and two tops, one black and one "cranberry", which I didn't really need but could do with, and they were only 2.50 each. An extravagant day for spending, but worthwhile for what I managed to get: am now all set and shouldn't need to buy any more house stuff.
I had my chamber choir audition at lunchtime; I think I sang quite well, showed my voice to reasonable advantage and my sight-reading ability as well as I could - I read a bit of the St John Passion and then some of a Byrd mass. I was hoping they'd give me something tricky and atonal so I could really show off (since I think my sight-reading ability is the only thing that's really going to get me into a choir where I'm competing with trained voice students), but we ran out of time. I don't find out the results until next week, so *fingers crossed* Even if I don't get in, though, at least I felt the audition went well - it will be disappointing not to, but not as much as if I miss out because I auditioned badly.
The first CAOS rehearsal is tonight, so at 5 I'll be meeting up with Alannah, whom I got chatting to at the Burlington Society last week, and we are going down together. More news soon!
Well, after being out very late last Thursday night, I slept in on Friday, then went to the music library and borrowed a score of the Bach cello suites for my audition on Saturday (mine is lost somewhere in my house and hence did not come to Manchester with me, woe). They only had a tiny version, but it was good enough to read the notes.
Oh, and grah - my camera is broken *spork* Has been since London, which is why I haven't posted any photos from there yet. According to the guy in the London shop I took it to, the filter is damaged and needs replacing; he estimated it would cost 60 pounds to fix. "60 pounds??!!" went I, and decided to take it to someone for a second opinion, which I also did last Friday. It did not help; the second opinion told me it would be 130 pounds. ack. I am taking it to a third shop to get a free quote, but I suspect it won't be getting fixed any time soon.
Friday evening there was a free student BBQ, so I went along and consumed World of Potato. Food has been a rather intermittent thing for the past week, due to a combination of having limited funds, being busy and just forgetting; student free-food events are a good way to solve all three. In fact, I'd forgotten how great Orientation is for collecting stuff (both useful and otherwise): my haul of free things from the Fresher Fair included several squintillion pens (useful, because I only brought a couple), lots of sweets and chocolate, free drink vouchers for a whole host of clubs and bars around town, a couple of notebooks, three mugs, packet soup and instant noodles (I got three bonus packets by looking forlorn and hungry *g*), a T-shirt (again something I don't have many of here), a book (Jane Austen's Emma), a pocket radio, lip balm, key rings, playing cards, several badges, and three small orange fluffy things. I'm not quite sure what the latter are, but hey, they were free!
I also signed up for lots of clubs during Orientation - most are free to join, and they get funds from the Union for each member, so I figure it doesn't matter if I only go to one or two (or none) of their events, they still benefit from me signing up. (Plus they were giving away stuff.) I've already forgotten some of the ones I wasn't particularly interested in, but there are a few in which I think I might be more active. There are TWO roleplaying societies, which I have joined mainly for the social side; a FAS2 society (although they are called Warped rather than FAS2); and I found CAOS and signed up with them as well as the Music Society.
Saturday morning I had my orchestra audition, which as you know I passed (and apparently quite well); then went on an adventure to the legendary Asda - a giant supermarket chain where I hoped, at last, to find the elusive cutlery and crockery. Alas, there were none suitable there; but I did return with bread (42p a loaf), tinned soup (14p a tin!), two types of cheese, pasta and sauce. Asda is indeed cheap. (Though not as cheap as the Super Saver store I found in town today, where I think I shall be doing my shopping henceforth.)
The other item I acquired at Asda was a cask of absolutely terrible English wine, which I took round to a friend's flat for pre-Freshers' Ball drinks. I shall draw a veil over the rest of the night; suffice to say it involved several different types of alcoholic beverage ranging from vodka to Lambrini (a very dodgy fizzy thing made out of pears) to some bizarre strawberry pulp and vodka premix, a large saucepan, several straws and... I don't remember the rest. Ah, college life. o_O
Sunday morning I still managed to be awake in time to go to choir at 10:30 with the young Russian bass from next door whose name I can't spell. It turned out that it wasn't for rehearsal, but the choir were singing at the service: a full Roman Catholic sung Mass. Interesting to experience, though I won't be going every week. The church choir overlaps substantially with the St Philip Neri Singers, who rehearse on Mondays and who are singing Kodaly Missa Brevis in a couple of weeks; so I have joined them and might sing on some Sundays if the music is interesting.
The other event of note on Sunday was the Burlington Pub Rally. Social Secretaries take note - this is an excellent concept! It works like a regular pub crawl, except that people form teams and have to answer questions along the way - some inside the pubs, some en route. This gives the people who aren't quite so into pubs and drinking (or who are too poor to drink ten drinks in ten different pubs) something to do, and makes for a more interesting crawl generally. First prize was 50 pounds, so there was considerable incentive to compete - which is probably the main reason our exhausted little team of three, consisting of me, reggitsti (whom I met on the day - see, they do have LJs!) and Ben, actually kept going all the way to the last pub, which we hit at about 10pm after NINE HOURS of pub crawling. We must have walked several miles in the course of the crawl, especially because we decided to save money and not take the tram across town where it was suggested that we do so! Anyway, I hope we win, but even if not, it was probably the most enjoyable consecutive nine hours of being in pubs and NOT drinking that I could have hoped for.
Classes started Monday (yesterday), so I stocked up on stationery (lots of lined paper, folders for my notes and highlighters so I can look like I've done my reading by highlighting random lines) and then headed to the bookroom to get my textbooks, only to find that they had sold out of the one I wanted for that afternoon's class. Oh well - at least nobody else in the class had managed to get it yet either. The first class was aimed at the students who hadn't done law before but was a nice refresher course for me, seeing as it's been seven years since I studied law properly! We finished at 6 and I dashed over to the church for SPN rehearsal, impressed the other sopranos by being able to sing the Kodaly at my first rehearsal (I did admit to them that I'd done it before, though), and then headed from there to the Warped social at 7:30.
The Warped crowd are exactly what you would expect - an eclectic bunch of students, ex-students and non-students from all sorts of places, ranging in age from not-even-legal to 30+, but with a common frame of mind (read: geeks!) and an interest in F&SF. exaltedmugwump and I have decided that we need to found a board games society, since there isn't an official one at the university; I looked at him and went "ComSci student?", he went "yup"; I said "board games?", he said "Settlers", I went "definitely yup!" It's great meeting like-minded friends. Also, I have found another Sarah for our collection - she comes with her own Sarah name, being Warped Sarah! (de_chel, she kind of reminds me of you.) I have also found a member of the Sarah Fan Club: his name is Dave and it is apparently his job to go round falling in love with Sarahs. I told him he should come to Melbourne, there are lots of us there! He proposed to me, but I refused :D
Best of all, exalted_mugwump, Dave and reggitsti (who was also there last night) all live in Whitworth Park too! It is beginning to seem like every man and his dog lives here. Actually come to think of it, Dave does own a dog. So we all walked (well, some of us staggered, really) back to college together afterwards. It was a good night.
Today started off with me getting a telling-off from the cleaners because apparently our kitchen was filthy and I was the only one around for them to tell. I explained that I hadn't actually USED the kitchen yet, not having anything to use in it; but left a cautionary note stuck to the stove for the attention of the rest of the household. Apparently if the condition of the communal areas is not satisfactory, our entire flat gets reported, and we get inspected and then fined if it's still not up to scratch. That is definitely something I can do without!
Household responsibilities discharged, I headed into the city and up to Chinatown, where I made a blissful discovery: there is a Chinese grocery store, and it stocks SWEET CHILLI SAUCE! Praise be!! And it only cost 95p. Next I went to Piccadilly Gardens, where I found a frying pan for 2 pounds, a cutlery set for 4 pounds (I don't need an entire set, but I've given up on finding individual items) and a plate and bowl for a pound each. Now I can eat out of something other than a mug - which, while versatile, is not the best vessel for food such as toast and baked beans. Last shopping stop was Primark, where I bought 6 pairs of socks (something I ran out of in the first week I was here!), a black cardigan (which I needed, because I only brought one other), and two tops, one black and one "cranberry", which I didn't really need but could do with, and they were only 2.50 each. An extravagant day for spending, but worthwhile for what I managed to get: am now all set and shouldn't need to buy any more house stuff.
I had my chamber choir audition at lunchtime; I think I sang quite well, showed my voice to reasonable advantage and my sight-reading ability as well as I could - I read a bit of the St John Passion and then some of a Byrd mass. I was hoping they'd give me something tricky and atonal so I could really show off (since I think my sight-reading ability is the only thing that's really going to get me into a choir where I'm competing with trained voice students), but we ran out of time. I don't find out the results until next week, so *fingers crossed* Even if I don't get in, though, at least I felt the audition went well - it will be disappointing not to, but not as much as if I miss out because I auditioned badly.
The first CAOS rehearsal is tonight, so at 5 I'll be meeting up with Alannah, whom I got chatting to at the Burlington Society last week, and we are going down together. More news soon!