(no subject)
Well, I'm sure there's no surprise that it's been a while. Regularity of input has never really been a feature of this journal, and events have been conspiring to keep it that way recently. Even though I have been in the new place in Camden for just over a month now, we have only had internet here for the last week or so, and consequently I have not bothered at all to really do emails or posting. So if there's anything I really should be reading or responding to, you're just going to have to tell me again now.
We had our official housewarming this weekend - Friday night. It was supposed to start around 8, but we had people arriving as early as five so it really just became a whole-afternoon thing. I have no idea how many people had come and gone by the end - the general concensus seems to be between 20 and 30 - but I hardly even remember some of them, it was that good. There was a good "core crowd" of about 15 people who all knew each other vaguely or well and who could therefore be left in peace to entertain themselves, and a fair few random extra guests, family members and assorted waifs & strays who either seemed to be happy taking over the stereo or insulting everyone until they found the people who actually live here. Which was rather amusing actually. As far as I remember it all wound down around 5, but even that wasn't true for everyone as apparently my housemate's room was invaded by my ex who was up all night talking at him. I can certainly vouch for the fact that she was still audible through the walls when I woke up around 11 and going strong.
The best part, as far as I'm concerned, was the fact that we had 11 people stay over and that (once we'd all drunk as much tea as we needed to get going again) the first thing everyone did was to blitz the place and clean it, top to bottom. By 1pm we had a clean house again and by 3 we had a full on fried breakfast for 9. It was a feat of military precision teamwork, and a great way to do Saturday brunch. But almost as soon as we'd finished that and people had settled down to assorted civilised games of chess, canasta or reading, a new group of people arrived and the bottles were brought out again. Ultimately, we had another houseful of 8 last night and the last guest left around 1pm today after a good 40+ hours in the house.
I'd say it was a pretty successful party, and - even better - we only had one glass breakage from both nights.
So now it's time for me to turn my thoughts to another novel experience: work. I start tomorrow. My first day as a PricewaterhouseCoopers minion. How terrifying.
I will be spending tomorrow night in a Hilton in the Canary Wharf area, apparently. Part fo some sort of induction scheme which runs til Tuesday afternoon, and then I think we head to The Office to start on other things. I'm of very mixed feelings at the moment: it will be interesting and quite nice to have something to do and to challenge me, but I really hate the idea of being put through all sorts of "team building exercises" and enforced socialising again. I never got the hang of that at uni, and I certainly don't want to be having all those same-3-questions conversations again now, four years later. Still, I imagine that the atmosphere and the combinations of people could be very different, so let's not do too much counting before the shells are cracked. Essentially, I have to say I'm looking forward to it, except for the fact that I know I'm going to have to start doing Maths again very soon...
What free time might remain to me once it all kicks off, I have no idea, but if I do have any then you are welcome to take advantage of it and come meet up in this shiny capital. Just drop me a line, and hopefully I won't be quite so bad at reading and responding to it now that all is starting to move again.
This was 'My Student Life', signing off.
**Le Fin**
We had our official housewarming this weekend - Friday night. It was supposed to start around 8, but we had people arriving as early as five so it really just became a whole-afternoon thing. I have no idea how many people had come and gone by the end - the general concensus seems to be between 20 and 30 - but I hardly even remember some of them, it was that good. There was a good "core crowd" of about 15 people who all knew each other vaguely or well and who could therefore be left in peace to entertain themselves, and a fair few random extra guests, family members and assorted waifs & strays who either seemed to be happy taking over the stereo or insulting everyone until they found the people who actually live here. Which was rather amusing actually. As far as I remember it all wound down around 5, but even that wasn't true for everyone as apparently my housemate's room was invaded by my ex who was up all night talking at him. I can certainly vouch for the fact that she was still audible through the walls when I woke up around 11 and going strong.
The best part, as far as I'm concerned, was the fact that we had 11 people stay over and that (once we'd all drunk as much tea as we needed to get going again) the first thing everyone did was to blitz the place and clean it, top to bottom. By 1pm we had a clean house again and by 3 we had a full on fried breakfast for 9. It was a feat of military precision teamwork, and a great way to do Saturday brunch. But almost as soon as we'd finished that and people had settled down to assorted civilised games of chess, canasta or reading, a new group of people arrived and the bottles were brought out again. Ultimately, we had another houseful of 8 last night and the last guest left around 1pm today after a good 40+ hours in the house.
I'd say it was a pretty successful party, and - even better - we only had one glass breakage from both nights.
So now it's time for me to turn my thoughts to another novel experience: work. I start tomorrow. My first day as a PricewaterhouseCoopers minion. How terrifying.
I will be spending tomorrow night in a Hilton in the Canary Wharf area, apparently. Part fo some sort of induction scheme which runs til Tuesday afternoon, and then I think we head to The Office to start on other things. I'm of very mixed feelings at the moment: it will be interesting and quite nice to have something to do and to challenge me, but I really hate the idea of being put through all sorts of "team building exercises" and enforced socialising again. I never got the hang of that at uni, and I certainly don't want to be having all those same-3-questions conversations again now, four years later. Still, I imagine that the atmosphere and the combinations of people could be very different, so let's not do too much counting before the shells are cracked. Essentially, I have to say I'm looking forward to it, except for the fact that I know I'm going to have to start doing Maths again very soon...
What free time might remain to me once it all kicks off, I have no idea, but if I do have any then you are welcome to take advantage of it and come meet up in this shiny capital. Just drop me a line, and hopefully I won't be quite so bad at reading and responding to it now that all is starting to move again.
This was 'My Student Life', signing off.
**Le Fin**