The last post was a bit of a bomb-shell. It’s been really difficult deciding to publish the news. The whole thing has been a bit difficult, really. I have spent three and a half long and hard years working towards this summer, and now it has been put off for another year. The decision wasn’t made lightly, and I got a lot of support from everyone – the people who were more brilliant that I expected them to be were my personal tutor and senior tutor. As someone who is “going to get a first”, in the words of my tutor, going up to them and saying “I can’t do it this year” feels like a massive failure.

That said, if anybody is in the position I was in back in February – where getting up to go to lectures felt too difficult, in fact, getting up at all was quite a mission, and my project was just going nowhere – then I would thoroughly recommend looking at what I did. I realise you don’t actually know what happened, so cliff-notes version.

The stress of final year, combined with other, more personal stuff, started getting to me. I went to the doctor after a solid month of not wanting to get up in the morning (very unusual for me, I am usually up at the crack of dawn) and told them I thought I needed help. A few things were tried out, and in the end they recommended that I take an interruption of studies. In typical Corrie style, I hadn’t told my parents that I was having so much trouble, so after a very quick intervention, a couple of months living in a room in Tizard Hall, and a lot of advice from various people, the steps were taken and it was all confirmed at the beginning of May.

I’m now working as a temp, doing administration, filling my days and trying to get my head to a good place again. I’m also getting impromptu folk lessons from my flatmate, which is really cool. Quartet stuff is going very well, and I have a few posts about things I’ve done with my friends that have been incredible over the last few months still to write. For now, have some cake.

Bowling with the ICSE crew.

Hello there!

What have I been up to the last two weeks that has kept me SO busy I haven’t been able to blog? Well, a number of things.

Project continues to keep me fully occupied during the week, as if having a huge number of lecture notes to go over wasn’t enough. Last week I learned how to use a pH probe (possibly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done…</sarcasm>) and how to make a TRIS phosphate buffer solution. I also weighed out a huuuge number of samples, all 150 mg, all into little plastic pots. It was tiresome and boring, and took 6.5 hours with no lunch-break and no sitting down. My legs ached afterwards. I’ve also learned how to do a compression test (watching the samples that took me 3 months to make being slowly crushed is…well, crushing). Lots of data to collect this week, as my supervisor kept reminding me. Lovely.

My fave corridor at Imperial. Strange, I know.

I rejoined ICSE! Most of you weren’t even aware I quit – I decided, in my infinite wisdom, that I didn’t have enough time to practice the pieces we are playing during the week, and that it would be more fair to the orchestra if I removed myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t factor in the number of people who are able to play viola (as in, not many), and I got an email last week asking me if I would kindly show my face again. So, I did. The concert is on Tuesday, in Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square. We are playing for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Tickets are £5 for students and £12 for adults – slightly more if you buy them on the door. It will be Tom’s debut as leader of the orchestra – if you are interested in attending, please do let me know!

Publicity stint over, we went bowling on Friday, which was good fun. Turns out that being awesome on the Wii does not translate to being good in real life. I wasn’t really surprised, but still. More practice required!

We’ve been going to the pub every Wednesday with the Materials people – last week we went to a lovely place in Notting Hill which had doors to fit hobbits! I felt right at home, haha. It was the Earl of Lonsdale, and had a load of private booths each with their own section of the bar, meaning we never had to go far to get the next (rather cheap) pint. Amazing. Next week we are off to a pub in Barons Court which has been described as the Tardis. Quite a lot of excitement from the Dr Who fans in our group about that!

Apart from that, I’m glad January is over. My lectures are rather more taxing than I expected, and I’m really looking forward to the sun rising at a sensible hour of the day. Six months of the degree left! Terrifying.

Ciao for now!

CORRIE

Some of my samples, pre-sorting.

It’s been a while, again. You may have noticed that I’m blogging less this year. This is because I’m a thousand times busier making sure that I make the most of the last six months of my degree. This means being with my friends as much as poss, doing as much work as I can, and also getting ready to go into the big wide world.

So, what have I done since I last blogged? Well, I went and saw “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” with Tom and John, had my first Tissue Engineering lecture, my first Advanced Biomaterials lecture, and had 281 samples to analyse. I also made it to the pub three times, had tea late at night with Lucia twice, and drove down to Devon.

First impressions of the courses I experienced this week are good. This may be because I did so much orthopaedics over the summer, and I also know a little bit more about tissue engineering than I thought, apparently! The introductions were very quick and easy, and the first two lectures of each course were interesting.

And post-sorting.

It made me reminisce about the days in first and second year – in Materials, the first two years are filled with compulsory lectures which are common to everyone. You have lectures everyday, then lots of labs and tutorials to keep you occupied in-between times. Compared to then, I have only got six hours of lectures a week of timetabled stuff now, with just my project as my coursework. I’m the only person on the course doing my combination of subjects. It’s up to me to decide how much time I spend in the lab, and how much I’m revising for exams in six months – actually so much more high pressure than the course used to be.

It’s good, though. I’ve enjoyed the progression. The course has been so totally worth it!

We're back to basics for tutoring.

Present from Simon <3