I have been unforgivably lazy when it comes to my duties as a blogger, especially since these past few weeks have been rather eventful. So instead of writing a blog odyssey (blodyssey, if you will), I shall break up my post into a trilogy of four parts told in reverse chronological order. These constituent components will comprise of: my recent birthday; my job at Apple; exam results and the aftermath of said exam results; and finally, Alex’s body flying birthday present. So let’s begin.

There are two things I can say for absolute certain: 1) anything can be improved if it “comes with a side of bacon” and 2) I have the most amazing friends in the world. Last Saturday I turned that age too big to be proud of and too small to be of any particular significance. In my family we have a lovely tradition for birthdays. Everyone gets up a bit early and we have a big breakfast together complete with presents, cake and a traditional Sri Lankan dish called milk rice. Then afterwards it’s usually off to school/work for all of us and festivities can happen during the weekend. Since this year’s event fell on a Saturday, I was left to my own devices for the afternoon/evening, so I notified a few friends (without using the words birthday, or party for vanities sake) and booked a table at a restaurant, all very last minute because of my horrible indecisiveness. It would be a nice chance to catch up and have a good sort-of-Japanese meal at Wagamamas. This was, of course, not what happened since my wonderful friends decided to intervene.

After the family breakfast and the impressive haul of gifts I was sitting down at the table eating when the doorbell rang and my mum told me it was the postman, a perfectly plausible explanation for being disturbed midday on a Saturday. I, of course, leaped towards the door, hoping to see a sizeable box containing something shiny and mains powered. Instead, my aghast look fell upon the sight of Alex, Amy, Ela & Rysiek holding a homemade birthday cake singing that all-to-familiar song. After some hugs, extinguishing the candles and welcoming them into the house my dropped jaw finally returned to its conventional position. We all chatted about the deception that had been going on behind my back and the far too obvious clues that I had missed and munched our way through two enormous birthday cakes.

Eventually they all kidnapped me against my will and took me to the bone-chilling sight that is Vue Cinema in Westfield. We watched Inception, a film that is confusing and remarkable in equal measure. It also boasts some of the best special effects I’ve ever seen in a film (which is what an Imperial student usually focuses on in a cinema).

From then on my plan resumed (a tad later than expected) in a restaurant and the night ended with a lovely session in the arcade and a few games of pool in the best pool place in London (small room below an arcade in China Town).

In summary, I had an unexpectedly wonderful birthday and I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who came, everyone who left me messages on Facebook and a special thanks to those four incredible people who made such an effort to keep me happy, surprised and speechless. Love you all!!

Thanks for Reading,

Chris xx

It’s been a while since my last post, simply because I haven’t been up to anything substantially interesting. On Monday I made the long trek from Hammersmith to my home in Greenford. Much unlike the travel woes of other Imperial students, who need to book plane journeys to places like China, my excursion involved waiting for a train for 7 mins, and then remaining in a stationary position for a further 23 mins. Once home I immediately made my way to the fully stocked fridge, via two loving parents who were thrilled to see me home and still fully functional.

From that point I sat in my slightly empty room and stared at the bulky pile of folders on the desk in front of me, a similar start to my days in Hammersmith. The problem with doing this in Greenford is that my room has never really had a working feel. In most student digs your room is filled with folders, pages of lecture notes, problem sheets, post-it notes with bits of information and housemates who are complaining about Pharmacology and MCD; all amounting to productivity. At home, I am surrounded by hand-me-downs and things that the other members of my family no longer want. Subsequently I have three guitars, two TVs, a sofa and a cupboard full of nostalgic enhancements like Gameboys, poker sets and Pokémon cards; all amounting to me forgetting that I am a university student, or even that I am no longer a child. My week was spent doing the little things I’ve been meaning to do all term, like assigning contact pictures on my phone and improving my Mario Kart skills from good to l33t. I also put my education to good use by fixing my Grandmothers computer and my sister’s laptop (which she broke once more almost and hour after I returned it to her). The joys of doing ISE!!

After a plentiful Easter with the family, I set off back to Hammersmith with a bag full of groceries and a near-mint set of lecture notes and problem sheets. The weather was surprisingly pleasant, so Alex and I took and hour out of our busy studying schedules to get a few things from Kings Street and enjoy the sun. I then unpacked all the clean laundry my mum had kindly returned to me and made sure my room was in a tidy and revision-provoking state. I also installed a whiteboard that will serve as my means of writing angry expletives, directed towards my exams, lecturers and anyone who has done more revision than me.

From this point on, revision mode begins. On bad days I’ll be chained to my desk drowning in a sea of empty Red Bull cans and on sunny days I’ll be in the Central Library constantly debating whether I should go home. But do not fear, my one and only method of procrastination will be to update my treasured blog. So expect posts by the bucketload!!

Chris xx

The Easter holiday has finally made it’s unwelcome presence on the Imperial campus and as we see Easter eggs piled up in Tesco and the thinning out of our timetables until they all become a big void of free-time, everyone has come to the realisation that they are inconceivably unprepared for exams. So as far as operations at Imperial go: all is normal. The library remains packed at all hours of the day/evening/night/early-morning, the JCR still makes a tidy profit during lunchtime and the campus is still awash with students, only this time with bigger bags and more books. The mad rush to cram a years worth of knowledge into our heads in as little as one month begins and everyone is either stressed, panicked or both.

This weekend I began organising all my messy notes into a series of folders and attempted to decipher their cryptic meanings. All five of my housemates have joined me in this activity, and so the house has become darker and quieter than even the most disciplined of monasteries. Though boring and often frustrating, it is the best environment to be in as you are forced to do something productive with your time. There is no escaping the important reality that exams are approaching fast and the best thing for us to be doing is working hard to try and overcome (pass with 40%).

After that, I returned home to see my family and enjoy the luxuries of a fully stocked, self-replenishing fridge; a massive bedroom and a TV licence. The only issue with this is that I forgot to bring the exam-panic with me from Hammersmith and all these treats are doing a great job of accelerating the clock in the living room. Having stressed housemates that you rarely see and an unhealthy amount of Red Bull in the fridge really does get work done. But, of course, it is very nice to be home and the upcoming Easter celebrations means a good influx of chocolate will soon hit my eagerly awaiting digestive system. Hopefully tomorrow I will begin doing something useful, but until then my Nintendo Wii looks rather lonely and in need of a good cheer up.

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

P.S: Please direct any loud and inarticulate bursts of exam-stress to the comment box below. Also, what do you like to do to relieve stress?