Modelling new hair

I had a very girly day yesterday. Before I go on about it, let me just add: my placement report has been written, printed and handed in. First deadline of the year is over. Yes!

So anyway…I haven’t had my hair cut for a very long time. I decided that it was time to change that. I’m working on a tight budget, so I went down to SuperCuts in Gloucester Road Station. If you are a Fresher and you need a cheap haircut, it’s a good place to go. (Limited student budget is no excuse for having ragged ends, people!) Basically you go and sit in a queue, and they call you up in the order you arrived and you get a haircut…

The woman who cut my hair was a serious Cowboy. (I’ve taken to describing a lot of things as ‘cowboy’ – I was riding like a cowboy the other day [not actually - just really, really badly], I finished my report in a bit of a cowboy style, and this hairdresser…) This basically means that she was attacking my head, first with claws as she washed the hair, then with a brush as she got the tangles out and finally with the curler thingy. I’ve never seen anybody pull on hair like that…ow.

First ICSE rehearsal of the year

The long and short of it is that she explained to me why my hair is so horrible when I’m in London – they put something in the water, which makes it go all funny. I don’t know if it’s true – she sold me a massive tub of conditioner stuff anyway, so it was a good sell – I’ll give it a go once, and if it doesn’t work, well at least I tried!

Pasta tower!

After the haircut I hung out with Lucia for a while, then went to the ICSE social afterwards. I listened to the last bit of rehearsal and have been swindled into rejoining (which was basically “Scott, I see you only have three violas, I’ll sacrifice myself to you”). It was good fun – we played a game with some spaghetti, which we somehow managed to win through the ingenuity of Sam, Ben and Toby, and afterwards went to the pub. The night ended with a massive party at our flat, somehow, and after a dose of omelette this morning, we all went off on our ways feeling happy.

I met a guy, Richard, who said he felt “star-struck” to meet me. Nawwww! It was lovely to meet you too! Here’s a shout-out – now you’re famous! Haha.

This guy texted a friend saying "I've just met Corrie of Imperial College bloggers fame" Woo!

Fun flat times

Hugging Emma in the RSM

I’m a fourth year Buddy, the third time I’ve done it - last year the Materials Buddy Lunch was a bit of a shambles; there was absolutely no organisation and it was kinda bad. Chumley has really pulled out all the stops this year – we all got assigned buddies in pairs, then had to go off around campus to carry out challenges. These were:

- Human pyramid on the Queen’s law
- Hug a lecturer/Emma/Fiona
- Photo in the Natural History Museum
- Drink in the Union Bar
- Visit Hummingbird Bakery
- Photos outside four Halls of residence
- Find “Callister” in the library

Human pyramid on Queen's Lawn

- Take a picture of yourself on a Lamborghini/Ferrari
- Get a photo of your group next to a statue doing the same pose

The only ones we didn’t do were the Hummingbird Bakery and the car one – we couldn’t be bothered to go down to South Ken. Also, for some unknown reason, Indy (my partner) and I ended up with like ten Fresher’s, so we couldn’t go IN the NHM, cos it would have taken too long. We were amazing – and they were amazing. Good one guys!

The WRONG Callister...but one all the less!

Too many to get into the NHM

Posing outside Selkirk, Southside

Outside Tizard Hall, Southside

Posing outside Falmouth, Southside

Posing outside Beit

Having a drink in the Union

Anyway, back to work, coursework, and moaning about my aching muscles after my riding lesson yesterday.

Porto photos...Corrie and John with Superbock!

I walked into College with yesterday – after four months of basically no exercise at all, I felt quite out of breath when I got in! To make it worse, I then walked to Orient House and back, seeing Lucia – then walked back home again! Ouch. Need to do more exercise… To remedy this, I have a riding lesson on Wednesday at 2 pm – I’ve even paid for my subs and everything. (Haven’t even paid Sinfo subs yet…that’s dedication for you when your flatmate is Chair hahaha). It felt really strange to be back knowing that term has started again. I’ve spent a fair amount of time here this summer, and haven’t left London at all (apart from the odd holiday here or there), so it feels a bit like the summer holiday was term-time. I’m not complaining – it feels good to not have the dread of knowing it’s time to start work again.

I was the only non-Fresher in the department yesterday – and I didn’t even get to meet any Fresher’s, which was sad for me. I spent the morning emailing the careers advisors about PhDs, requesting meetings with my final year project supervisor, and predictably, checking the thousands of Porto photos on Facebook.

Sinfonietta does Porto...

That’s about all that happened that was interesting – today started suddenly, with Tom requesting that I send him some photos for the Sinfo Fresher’s Fair stand – after hastily looking through my 1000+ photos, I did so, then made some dinner which I put in the slow cooker, unpacked Ashton’s surfboard, and made my way to college. By 11 am I had prepared a meal, done two hours of work, fallen off my chair in front of someone as I sat down after making a cup of tea (ouch) and was fully prepared to spend my day chatting to Fresher’s.

If you walked through the Queen’s Tower Rooms to find someone dressed in shocking pink tights shouting at you and thrusting flyers in your face, shouting anything from the list below, that was me:

“ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BLOGGING?”
“DO YOU WANT TO BE A STUDENT BLOGGER?”
“DO YOU WANT TO BLOG FOR IMPERIAL?”

Us with random people in Porto.

I think it actually came out as: “blah blah splurge BLOGGING” “blah blah splurge BLOGGER” “blah blah splurge IMPERIAL”. I can only apologise for this. I also gave several people flyers more than once – notably, the guy who walked past three times in a row. You can have no idea how many people we see.

Anyway, to the people who came up to me and said “You’re Corrie, hello!” thank you so much. It’s nice to feel appreciated! (If a little terrifying…especially to the guy who said “….umm…it’s OK” when I asked him what he thinks. Pure ego fail, right there.) I’m especially thankful to the person who said “your Fresher’s blog calmed me down, and had great advice.” Nawwww

I’m now sitting in the Materials computer room, still dressed in shocking pink and now clutching a Quality Street Tin, a blue balloon and desperately searching out a copy of the Fresher’s Felix. If anybody would like to donate it to me, please please please do.

In a bell tower in Porto