Yesterday was nothing special. I revised all day, dad and I had takeaway while mum went to a film with one of her friends, went to bed earlier than the night before and that was that.

My car in its new costume!

Today, I went to my old school. This was to visit my GCSE/A Level physics teacher, the legendary Mr Cuthburtson, and to chat to his Year 12′s about Materials. I was shocked at how easily I found my way around the school, apparently seven years of walking the corridors really does stay with you! In the two and a half years since I left, many of the teachers I knew have also gone, and rooms have been changed, even whole new classrooms have been put in.

At 9.30 I walked in and got a shock recognising some faces who I still see as tiny pip-squeak Year 7′s sitting looking all grown up and intelligent. Mr C hadn’t yet told them why I was there, so there was a lot of confusion, and after a bit of chat about general life and the IB which they are now studying, I gave them a small talk. I basically told them what I was doing, why it was cool, passed around my Biomaterials text book and spent a while telling one of the guys not to get too excited when they saw how small it is. When we got bored of that, Mr C pulled out this blog, and we spent a while looking at the animated videos on the front-page and reading some of my most recent blogs. It was a bit embarassing….this stuff seems fine when I’m writing it, but when someone else is reading it in front of you, particularly Year 12′s and an ex-teacher…well. My problem is I’m too honest…

Sheep-eyes which are v cuuuute.

Anyway, when they left at the end of Block 1, a class of Year 13 biologists came in and we left hurriedly with a box of biscuits and some tea (mmm), retreating for a chat in one of the old project rooms; followed by a tour around the newest science labs. They used to be our English rooms, and they were pretty cool! Massive sky-light windows which would be perfect for growing plants, bio, mmm….anyway, my old chem teacher was in there and we spent a while talking about my PhD plans. I saw the new technicians science room, then a quick goodbye and off for a wander around the rest of the school.

I visited quite a few of my old departments, but all the music teachers I knew have left except one, who was in France apparently (I wonder what she was doing there). I did notice they now have an orchestra, which is something I massively campaigned for while I was there and never achieved. Good for them! My maths teachers rooms had changed and I was unable to find them having strayed into breaktime…but I did find an old English teacher in the English office which was very emotional, as I haven’t spoken to her for about five years, and she was probably the second best teacher I ever had (Mr C obviously being the first).

Enjoying fire warmth!

Actually, while we are on this, maybe I should say why I decided to get into physics and engineering…it was all thanks to Mr C saying “No girls do physics” on our Year 12 choices day. This after me spending three years hating it, and vowing never ever ever to do it. Well, I got the A and I’m now doing Materials, and I hope that everyone at ICC appreciates him, because he is one of a kind!

I left after seeking out some old friends in the tertiary common room, and finding only one. At my parents office I took photos of my cars AMAZING decorations, which mum had done for me, then headed to have lunch and a massive chat with one of my school-friends. I got home, did about ten minutes of revision, got some house keys cut after being locked out in the rain the other day and sent my Bio notes to Carlos as he had tendonitis at the time and couldn’t write in any of them. Mum got back and we headed off to the allotment with where I got to catch and hold the cutest lamb in the world while a rubber band got put on his tale (sob). The hail chased us home and stopped the minute we got in. We ate the stew I made yesterday for dinner, and I’ve spent all evening updating the Zamsaf Facebook page.

Now, everybody loves mail. I don’t mean email, or those periodicals that get sent through the door every so often. And I know we ALL hate junk mail. I’m talking about a good old letter or postcard. I happen to love sending postcards and mum also gave me a massive pile of pretty cool free ones. For the price of five worthy comments (and an email to coranda@gmail.com with your physical address…anywhere in the world goes) I will send you a postcard with a lovely greeting on it.

Note I didn’t take any photos of the school cos I know there some legal issues with that. Website is here.

The last anyone knew, I was trying to revise after my incredibly exciting ‘experience’ and trying to recover some of my dignity, and the feeling in my foot. Well, at least the foot is OK. It’s when you hear your gran on the phone telling ALL her friends about her stupid granddaughters idiocy that you feel really dumb. I’m never going to live this down.

So, Sunday. Woke up relatively early and was immediately so confused. It was 5 am old time, and my brain couldn’t quite cope with this. I put the radio on to try sort myself, and woke up again at 9.30 am (new time) even more confused. I did a bit of revision. I realise I always skip over this when I’m talking about it, but for the purposes of university student blog, my revision methods are:

Revising on the train. Written TONNES.

I go over all the lecture notes I’ve taken over the year and write-up any of the lectures I didn’t manage to do at the time neatly. This takes a long time, but if you do it right it all goes in at the same time and it’s revision in its own right. To give you an idea, I’ve done biomaterials in the four days I’ve been solidly revising – it takes about three hours to do each lecture (although the bio ones are really long and lots of writing. The others aren’t so bad, but more understanding required). I have nano to do urgently as that exam is the 26th of April (also the day Avatar comes out on DVD, and Tom’s and my third anniversary…it’s the little things that keep you going lol).

Digger sitting in a field being very special and cute. I'm trying to get mum to agree to let him audition for Toto!

I then go over all the lecture notes again and read over the bits that I thought ‘I have no idea what this means, I’m going to copy it word for word and go over it later’. If you don’t read over it, you never go over these bits and the exam questions kill you. Particularly if they’re basic and you’re being daft.

I read over all the notes again and make A4 sheets of materials, processes and techniques common to the five courses I’m doing. This reduces the panic and makes sure you know the stuff that is really important.

If I have time I read through again and write my own questions and answers (Ashton’s idea, thank you!). Otherwise I get on with doing past papers.

I’m still in the writing up stage and will hopefully be done by next week when I head back to the Lond. It looks really boring (who thinks revision is fun?) but I do well, so it obviously works! 

Poor wet chickens hiding from the rain.

Before lunch I went down to the allotment with mum and gran (we call her Casey) to check the strawberries they planted the day before, and make sure the rabbits hadn’t got to them. Well, they had, so the friend who owns the crazy horse got an electric fence for us, offering me another ride in the process. I was slightly more nervous about this, but agreed to go (and miss roasted lunch!). It was extremely pleasant. She spent most of the time telling me I was too tense (gee, I wonder why. I was again riding an ex-racing horse) and that I almost fly out of the saddle when we are doing rising trot. Fun.

Part of mums allotment.

I got back from my ride and immediately got whisked off to Casey’s house (well, I whisked her off to drop her home) where I stayed the night (doing more revision!) I headed to Plymouth this morning, spent the day with Tom (revising) and also taking part in my second childhood, which is mainly buying LEMMINGS! I don’t know if anybody remembers this game. It was/is legendary! I’m going to wait to install it because I might not get anymore revision done. Good.

Some really cute sheep I helped shepherd. I should have a CROOK.

I came home, did yet more revision, fed the dogs and watched something called “Blood and Oil” which looked horrific, but totally drew us in (though mum and I are addicted to “Over the Rainbow” so I guess our taste is looking pretty bad right now). I then spent ages researching bug hotels and bee-hives for mums allotment. Toby and I are making THIS sometime in the next week and I’m really excited. I’m not sad, honest.

I spent about 12 hours revising yesterday, driving my gran and myself crazy in the process. I now know a lot more about tissue engineering and bioactive glasses than I knew yesterday morning, and to recover, mum, my gran and I went to the Ashburton Farmers Market this morning. We bought a load of things for mums garden, headed back and went down to the allotment to plant.

The garden! Sorry it's so well, landscape. I can't rotate.

This rapidly turned into a ride on one of mums friends (thoroughbred, ex-racing) horses, which went jolly well until the horse realised that I was a bit unsure about some of the controls (I’d had a brief two minute pep-talk which shot all my learned techniques to pieces) and off she went. I can honestly say I’ve never travelled so fast without some form of mechanical device to carry me. About five minutes into it, when I’d eventually lost the stirrups and was wondering when she was ever going to stop, I decided to take action. This was worthy of a medal, and I’m now thinking of taking up a career as a stunt-woman. I have realised that digging my feet into the road when the horse is pushing me at 30 mph is not the best idea, and have had to buy new riding boots as the old ones met a desperate end.

I decided to walk back after trying to get back on again and meeting the same reaction, and staggered home with the adrenaline coursing enough to keep me on my feet and steady.

I’ve now limped home, licked my wounds, taken a bath and am now looking at the pile of work that I have yet to do. I have to say, it was possibly the scariest ride I’ve ever done, and probably the closest I’ve come to being a lump of flesh on the road. My various bruises and what feels like a broken foot (the evidence from the boots indicates I got stood on) are throbbing and I’m still shaking a bit. But I’d still rather be doing that, than stuck inside doing this, on such a glorious, sunny day.