The first draft of this blog was happy-clappy philosophising and silliness, so I deleted it all and started again. Suffice to say, I’m feeling positive today!

If you hadn’t realised, C&S = Clubs and Societies (it’s a type of maths that Corrie understands). My life at the moment seems to consist of C&S activities…so, on with it!

Sinfonietta on Monday - Jason and Toby

Sinfonietta had their first rehearsal of the term on Monday night. I met some people I’d met at ICSE on Friday, which was cool. Simon was my new desk partner (now that John has moved on to newer pastures…and Scotland) and I think it’s going to be a long and prosperous relationship. I enjoy the way that he is really really good, but doesn’t make me feel bad about my own playing. Yay! During the breaks, we did a challenge to talk to more Freshers than each other, and I have to say, he definitely won. I did well until I got taken down to the vending machines to pay for SOMEONE’S Sprite (that would be Mr President, the one and only Tom). Never mind.

Jyasun Derulo

After the rehearsal, the club provided some free wine and nibbles. We ate a lot, drank even more, and despite the fact that it was a Monday (a SCHOOL night no less), ended up going to the pub and getting home at one in the morning. That makes it one rehearsal that I’ve played in this term, and two that I’ve partaken of a little too much. Good/bad statistics? When Tom and I got home, I discovered my stew had burnt in the slow-cooker, and to alleviate the pain a bit, we played Harry Potter on the Wii. I woke up feeling terrible, with no memory of what we’d done on the game, and feeling most distressed about my stew. Probably a good thing that the wine was in my veins when it was initially realised – this is the first meal that I’ve ever totally screwed up! (Apart from those sausages that Ashton and I ‘cooked’ when our parents went to Africa one year and left the two of us to fend for ourselves. I don’t count that as cooking, it was a lot more cowboy…and I was, like, 16. It’s too long ago to count.)

Ben comes round for dinner...

I spent the whole day in the hospital Tuesday (nothing to do with anything apart from my horrendous hay-fever), and when I was done headed off to KnitSock! I’ve advertised this previously, and even sent my file to the Chair to double-check I’d got all the details correct before I posted the blog. Anyway, I turned up promptly at 17.20, texting Katie along the way to make sure she was also going so that I wasn’t a loner, only to find the Chair (Raj) sorting through wool. No sign of Fresher’s, no other club-members…after a few moments of confusion, it was established that the blog was wrong, and it is in fact at 17.30 on a Thursday evening instead. Apologies if anybody read my blog and tried to turn up. Totally my fault. (Although, Raj, what kind of checking is that?!) Katie headed off for dinner, I picked up a bass drum and waddled down to the bus to get home.

On a related note, Raj press-ganged the two of us into turning up this week to be tutors. So, if you want to learn to knit (it’s only £5 for a whole year, and all materials are provided) please turn up! It’s in Room 3 in the East Wing of the Union.

...and ends up making sorbet.

Ben came round for dinner (part of the reason why it was so distressing that the stew failed – I had advertised it to him as “wholesome stew”, but not so much). We bought burgers, and he had brought his ICE CREAM MAKER!!!!! So we made sorbet (I am still dairy intolerant….oh cruel world, ice cream is my favourite food) which failed, played a lot of Wii, and stayed up rather late drinking Sprite. One of the good things of having our own flat – we can have whoever we want around for however long we feel like without feeling guilty about disturbing our housemates!

I woke up yesterday feeling very grumpy; on the bus, my mood morphed into something incredibly chirpy and annoying…don’t know how, but mainly not complaining.

Pretty skies over Fulham.

I worked for three hours, then went riding. All the Freshers (and Luisa) had joined this week, so I had many people in my lesson who I didn’t know. It went really well, which was nice – a bit slower than I’m used to at the moment, so was good after four months (or more) of not riding at all.  I was not so sore after this lesson (I was definitely waddling last Thursday). It was fun!

Just finished off 10% of my entire fourth year giving a presentation. It went well, I think. Everybody asked me a lot of questions, which was really cool, cos hardly anybody asked anyone else questions, apart from Ashton and I. Yay.

Tom in La Tasca - birthday boyo!

I’ve done a lot of Fresher’s related posts recently, and can only apologise for this. I thought I’d give some attention to those of you who follow me for stuff other than my thoughts on what it is to be new at this wonderful institution…

Last week, my personal blog decided that it was going to break-down and give up on life. This is probably my fault – I tried to add a widget that would allow my dear readers to see my Google Calendar…my tech support (ie, my brother) is far too busy enjoying life in the US of A to help me sort it out, and I don’t have any of the details to allow someone else (ie John/Ben) to help me fix it. That was probably the least exciting thing to happen all week, but it has been distressing me a lot, so excuse me if this becomes more rambly than the ones I’ve posted all summer.

Flat ready to partay!

So, why was my week so exciting?

Well, first of all, my dearest darling long-suffering Thomas had a birthday! This was on Monday; we’d driven to Devon over the weekend to see our families (we met in Devon, so live half an hour away from each other and can see both sets of parents in one go). Here, his parents and I had presented him with a Nintendo Wii, we’d picked up the lovely Toby, and headed back to the Lond for hours of fun-times at the TV, learning how to wiggle our bums correctly in order to hit the ball on Wii Baseball. Monday was spent celebrating (part of the reason I’ve had nothing to say about my internship on here has been because I’ve been on leave for ages – I still had Monday off). We made cupcakes, played hours of Wii Sports, and had a surprise dinner at La Tasca, which I had somehow managed to keep secret from him. More hours of Wii Sports followed, something that will undoubtedly be a recurring theme over the next few months…

My favourite people, all in one place at the same time? Yes!

Fast-forward to Friday (I can only apologise for the messed up chronologics of this blog), and our first house-party. We were relatively well-behaved, with no breakages, loud music that I stopped at midnight, and eight people sleeping over in a mess of air-beds that deflate halfway through the night and squashed up on sofas. It was rather excellent. Our families regularly say that we don’t live like students; this should have changed their minds, if just for one night.

OK, so back to Tuesday, my first day at work for just under two weeks. I got in to “Corrie, the office has been so quiet without you” and a load of literature reviews and things that I’d researched to write up. Prepared to take ages, I settled in for a lot of reading journals, just as my supervisor came up to me; “Corrie, would you like to have a go on the Redlux?”

Jeremy and I putting on some moves...

A chance to do some experimentation? YES PLEASE!!!

Thursday found me in the labs after-hours (the only time the R&D dept can use this machinery) trying to put latex gloves on over rings and long nails (you can tell I haven’t been in the lab for a long time) and figure out how to use the machine. I can’t go into too much detail (read “I can’t tell you anything”), but I discovered that even sitting waiting for a set of results for half an hour is a lot of excitement after two and a half months of sitting at a computer. It was awesome.

Additionally, the results of the test that someone at Southampton Uni did using a test-rig that I designed came back as ‘good’ – some improvement needed, which resulted in another happy few hours on SolidWorks.

The morning after, feeling sunny.

This week, I have a lot of work to be getting on with. We have a deadline on the 8th of October for an 8000 word (or more) piece of coursework, as well as finishing up the odds and ends I have to do for the company. Tomorrow and Thursday, I will be doing more stuff in the lab, and I’m currently working on some gifts for the friends I’ve made here (as my mum always said – “Home made is best!”).

Next week, I’ll give you a nice little summary of my time on the internship, that will hopefully be more informative than any of my blogs have been up to now (especially as by then I should have finished my coursework). I’ve had an amazing time, and a really good summer – but don’t think it’s over yet, as I still have Tour to Porto, a grandmotherly visit and writing up of tutorials to be doing. You’ve got a lot to look forward to (haha!)

Ciao for now,

Corrie

Twitch - just because he's so precious (and stuffing his cheek pouches to the point of getting stuck in his tubes!)

My car, hanging out in Paddington after being driven around London lots.

This is the third time I’ve posted in a week, I’m on fire!

The week at work was good. I finished a literature review, and my drawing prototype was delivered. I tested it and it went well – yay! I don’t have much more to say here (basically, I can’t say anymore, so that closes that pretty effectively).

Socially, my week was awesome. I went out with some work girls on Wednesday and we did a photoshoot for a “Calendar Girls” style thing. When I got back, John had arrived from his extended tour etc and Tom had met him. We stayed up, basically all night (AKA I had two hours sleep) and watched films etc. On Thursday my mummy arrived, Tom and John made dinner for us and John’s Toby, and I had four hours sleep. On Friday, Tom and John left (home and to Edinburgh respectively), mum and I spent the weekend generally enjoying life. It was really cool.

I’ll post a few more photos, and wish you all luck for next week. Let me know how it all goes, if you’re coming to Imperial get in touch, and keep me in the loop. I’m very excited about the new Freshers!

Mum and I made me have extra-long eyelashes.

Playing with Maxy, Ross and Kims cat.

Gloves I knitted for my mummy.