So please let us know what you think; do we have enough time to arrange/melon a murder mystery in a week (ish), or should we leave the murder mystery until Easter?

We could go for another impromptu winter gathering instead, involving  films, games, general merriment or whatever else anybody wants to do :) 

Thank yous!! Toodleoo

I defeninitely think we should do another murder mystery, but a non-seasonal/celebrational one so that everyone can join in.

Thank you all again

Now, let’s see. things happening. Norfolk Broads on a boat with Tammy back in July, that was fun with good weather most days and lots of pubs and places. We visited a candlemaker’s workshop and saw lots of different shaped candles and a huge mushroom candle that was big enough to sit on, and previously had been sat on to the point of cracking. drove the boat in high winds, through narrow and wide channels, and across Braden Water, pulling donuts to pick up a lost hat. Spinning!!

The job taht I did have at the pub was lost when the owner’s got bored of running the place and sold it. That was a bit of a bugger, but it meant i got to spend more tiem with Tammy (YAY!!). That happened at the end of july, so I have been really bad and not found a job since.

Went on holiday to Spain for 10 days in August. The secret party was great by the way, John. That was a really lazy holiday, staying with a cameraman my dad knows, spending most of the day sitting by the pool reading books. we did venture out to Madrid, other nearby towns, went off to do horse riding. It was good fun.

Saw Tammy lots and lots and lots and lots.

Was introduced more and more into the Discworld novels. Good reads, good fun.

There was the gathering of peoples at Tammy’s house, good to see you all again.

Went to the annual geek fest known as Gamesday. Lots of Warhammer on that day (now the looks of shame and malcontent lol). That was at the LG Arena, the Pavillion and Hall One of Brimingham’s NEC arena. While there got to see a huge wahammer tank, mwahahahahahahha!!!

Ahem.

that just about sums up the summer time (taht I can remember). Apologies for poor speeling and grammar. toodlepip y’all

despite the dark shadow that looms over my ‘relaxing’ break from university, this week is still fairly relaxing. myself, aswell as the entire of the school of engineering and design have the week off to conduct our multidisciplinary project. this entails being put into groups with other students from such other aspects as design, electrical and communications engineering and designing and building something they tell us to. wit hthe majority of my group being aerospace engineering students we were assigned the task, as you may now guess from the title, of buildign a rocket. alas, ’tis not a real rocket, just a model, and we have to load it up with sensors etc and blast it off into the un-depths of the sky. however, we were told our group couldn’t strap four engines to it for safety reasons, i mean honestly, they’re only solid fuel rockets, and another excuse was that we were too close to heathrow. what rubbish! anyway, we launch on thursday, should be interesting, if not haphazard, especially with this weather. with two cameras and an altimeter, all should hopefully go well.

being a student, well i don’t know about the rest of you but i have certainly fallen into a rather sporadic eating schedule, i have just eaten dinner. so i decided to make a sandwich, but a rather interesting and unusual sandwich. most of you would probably repulse at the idea, a cheese sandwich. but not just any cheese sandwich. i thought i’d be different. i went ot the fridge, got out my ingredients, bread, butter, emmental cheese, and put togther what i thought would be a regular sandwich. after making it i had an inkling that something was missing. so i opened up my cupboard and scanned the shelves. then i saw it, a jar. i unscrewed the lid, dipped in a knife and spread contents over one side of my bread. thats right folks, a cheese and honey sandwich. it was goooooooooood. most of you will go on to not try my idea, just like the bacon and milkybar (taken from a pub menu!!) or the raspberries and burger sauce. those who don’t are missing out.

 well, there we go, another pointless, poorly splet rambling from the darkest depths of my mind. hope you were terrified… i mean enjoyed. have a good break all.

 forgot two things: 1) fencing rocks

2) tammy and i went to see tinsleworm on the 30th nov., at wembley arena. (for those who don’t know it was bill baileys show). hilarious.

 toodle pip

 I sit here at Brunel University typing, avoiding doing work (procrastination seems to be a key aspect of student life), but there we go. With 3 assigments set I don’t think I need to worry too much… I think. Anyway, the campus is a good size, not too large (like Nottingham) but not too small (like Bath). It takes about 5 mins to walk from my flat to the lecture centre, which is the heart of campus (nearly). I apologise now for the heavy use of brackets, I haven’t really got through any kind of long writing, mostly emails, without including a lot of them (just ask Tammy). My flat lies on level 6, which is either the 5th or 4th floor, depending which direction you look at the building from, its complicated. Accomodation wise I have been quite lucky and have been given a disabled room. That is to say that the room itself is not disabled, which would be a challenge to living, ‘ yes, the room you have been given is a disabled room. The lights don’t work the door doesn’t open, it only has half a floor and the bathroom isn’t ‘. You never know, it might have happened. Alas, I digress. I have been allocated a room designed for those physically handicapped, why it exists on level 6 I don’t know (hmmm, maybe to challenge them). It is quite large, but the layout is fairly poor, in the sense that the space could be utilised to be more effective and to carry greater storage facilities (I’ve got it, if I graduate I shall become an interior designer (find out later)). I also have a rather large beanbag now, its very comfy and I have fallen asleep on several occasions while reading course relevant books (maybe they were just really boring). Stop with the brackets!!! I shall try, but no promises (just kidding (about these brackets I pointlessly added-couldn’t resist)).

 You probably think ‘ get on with it, stop blabbering on about brackets and a beanbag, what’s your course? ‘ My course is that of Aerospace Engineering (MEng). Basically it is a glorified version of mechanical engineering (notice how I made that one less important by not capitalising it). In short it is maths and physics applied to things, and my course applies this more to flying things. We also get lectures about management, group working etc, the usual sorts of things.

 I can’t think of what else to say, errrrmm, writer’s block. For an engineer, yes I know, doesn’t seem appropriate, and as a result I’ve gone out on yet another pointless tangent leading to nowhere and beyond. Sounds like a fun place to visit.

 Anyway, sporting injuries suck!!! (bear with me (correct bear?? English isn’t my strong point, Bulgarian is (just kidding)) Five days before coming to uni, I developed a rather annoying ankle injury, no prizes for guessing which sport, resulting in some limping over the next few days. So that was waaaaaaaay back in mid-September. Once at uni, at the fresher’s fayre I picked up a voucher for a free 15 min physio session with the sports physio in the indoor 100m track, conveniently right outside my halls. In the session it turns out that I had a grade 1 tear of the anterior-talo-fibular-ligament (a mild sprain) which is a real pain in the….ankle. As a result I haven’t been able to do sports since mid-September, which is really annoying, so I ignored that partly and have been doing fencing, although not to the level I would like (thank you very much you stupid ankle, go and get yourself injured why don’t you). Swords are fun, maybe its just me. But here’s a tip, don’t get your foot stuck under a rather large chap and then have a few more running at you and ploughing your leg over while your foot remains stationary, otherwise you’ll most likely get what I’ve got (a parrot), or worse (just kidding, I don’t have a parrot, I was watching some Futurama recently, gotta love it).

Assignments are so time consuming, the research, the typing, the non-plagarism, its all hassle. I see nothing wrong with plagarism, although I will if I ever publsih a paper (but seriously, I do see what’s wrong with it) but you aren’t even allowed to look over the person sitting next to you’s shoulder and copy their work. What is the world coming to, when you can’t even solve hard problems by copying. Don’t worry, I work them out first them see if people get the same.

 Anyway, I hear a calling. That calling is coming from the shelf above me. Futurama calls. An essential piece of kit that every student needs. Cheerio all.

 It was great. Weather was funny though. We had it all, strong wind, rain, sunshine, cloud, snow and hail. OK I know that that’s not the possible weather but it was a fair amount, especially when you go expecting pretty well constant baking sunshine, the likes of which you burn in instantly. On the subject I did get burned. Fairly severely, but only in the last couple of days, lying on an Eastern coast beach overlooking the Indian Ocean, reading my book ‘V for Vendetta’. Sun burn in random places, such as in a line going up my leg, or on my back in the shape of the Batman signal (bits of which blistered which I’m sure you all wanted to know).

Mountains are easier to conquer than first anticipated. For the first few days trekking was easy. The slopes were gentle(ish) and going was slow due to our guides and our favourite phrase “polepole”-slowly. The pathway up the mountain took us through various climates; tropical rainforest, moorland, alpine desert and bare rock and glacier. We began our trek by walking into the tropical rainforest, at the Marangu gate. That days trekking took us to the Mandara Hut. The following day took us to Horombo Hut, where we spent a day acclimatising to the altitude, and then up to Kibo Hut. Upon arrival at Kibo we settled down to get sleep almost straight away, ready for our midnight departure to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro. Dressing up in many layers, and gaffa-taping a platypus to my body to stop it freezing, as is the custom out there, we set about for ascent to the ice covered mountain top. I was just kidding about the platypus thing, some may know that it is a collapsible water bottle, that’s what I had. Fine, be sceptical about it, believe what you will. At the top there are two main focal points to reach. Firstly is Gilman’s Point, a point at 5685m. However, most importantly is the actual summit, Uhuru Peak at 5895m. Those of us that made it up, reached Gilman’s in time for sunrise. It is an amazing sight to behold. For me, it was the last 300-400m that really took its toll. Physically, I believe that any body can make it to the summit, given that you do not get altitude sickness, which can effect even the most fit of people. I suffered heavily from headaches and queasiness during this last slog up, but pushed on. It is, in my opinion, a mental struggle more than physical. You have to constantly battle thoughts that tell you to turn around and go back down. Ignore them. Argue with them. Whatever you do, do not listen to them. Saying that, however, I started reasoning with them, agreeing that they are right, but pride and sheer determination got me to Uhuru peak. It was one of the most rewarding moments that I’ve experienced, and I would do it again. Before the expedition I was constantly in doubt of me having pride and dignity, despite being told otherwise by Tammy, but I found it, found that I do have some. So thank you Tammy, you were right. In the end, 10 out of the 18 students made it up (myself included), and our Leader Stuart. None of the teachers made it up, due to looking after those that didn’t make it.

 The descent followed, which was fairly hard going, picking our way past the same rocks we had past only hours ago, yet they look all so unfamiliar. Nothing looked the same, and the effects of the altitude were coming back after my momentarily freedom at the top, meaning I just wanted to lie down and curl up into a ball where I stood, but no. I must reach the bottom, and until I had I had not completed the challenge, the goal. What goes up must come down, as the saying goes. Reaching the backside of Gilman’s Point, so to speak, we came face to face with a rather entertaining prospect, the scree slopes. I don’t know how much that means to you, but its fragments of loose rock, not very large, maybe the sort of stones you’d find on a gravel track. Alas, I digress. The scree slopes are fun indeed, take one step and slide down a few feet, so when you start running down you can slide a potential couple of metres. Racing the guides down the mountain on this surface is incredibly fun, and its a lot quicker to descend than to ascend, but that makes sense. Each step you take brings to more air, more oxygen, more energy. The effects of altitude lessen, as descent is the best and really only cure for altitude sickness, and so you feel invigourated.

Back at Kibo, I am ideally supposed to sleep but I find myself unable to, it is about 10am local time and I am full of life. It is at this point that it starts hailing heavily, and subsequently snowing, heavily. After some lunch those of us left made our way back to to Horombo Hut where we spent the night. The following day we descend fully to the Marangu Gate and make our way back to the town of Moshi, where we spent a good few days of our expedition (not all at the same time thought).

 Alas, I suffer from lack of sleep since I have been back. This Western lifestyle is very hectic and far too uptight. We all need to relax and enjoy the simple things. Even I do. This was only one phase of our expedition, and so there should hopefully be more to follow, unless there are many complaints against it.

 ttfn