Well, the last you all knew, I was having dinner with the Dwarves. And so, we did. I roasted two chickens with BBQ flavour (marinade chickens in BBQ sauce for several hours, put in an oven at 190 degrees Celcius for an hour and a half, turning every 20 minutes and basting. Add some olive oil and salt, too) and we played an utterly ridiculous card-game. Everyone got bored and left – sorry! I had fun, though.

Had a riding lesson on Wednesday, which was brilliant. The best one yet, I reckon. Lots of cantering, and in a group full of people who didn’t really know what was going on and so couldn’t really follow instructions very well. Ego boost, right there. Yay! Luisa tried out for the team and got into the seconds! Congrats, I’m really happy for you! We spent ages giving Flora advice on what to do in third year (get started on your project work early, do all your courseworks, go over your lecture notes) and I got back home for a quick shower.

This was all overshadowed by the big event of the day – graduation! Neither Tom nor I were graduating, but John was, so we headed over to the union for a bit of fun. I got a parking ticket outside the RSM which I’m going to contest (you can’t actually SEE the parking suspended sign) and spent the night admiring the new bar (568), laughing at certain people who were VERY drunk, and taking Simon, Naomi and Eugene home on a grand tour of Fulham in the Leopardile. Don’t worry, I wasn’t drinking! Ha.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone who graduated. By all accounts, all the hard work was done months ago, but nobody tripped over and you all looked stunning! (I LOVED that you were all walking around looking like Jedi/wizards. Win!)

I was ill on Thursday, and the busiest day of my term so far was quickly cleared by a number of emails, texts and Facebook messages. I spent the day sleeping, hugging a hot water bottle and taking copious amounts of pain-killers. John made me soup – Tom brought me all my knitting, and I felt much better on Friday. Yay.

Anyway, yesterday I went into college for a chat with my tutor about PhDs, worked out I need to get 100% this year to have a chance of getting in to the group I want to get into (I already failed on that, deffers didn’t get 100% on the last assessment I did. Sigh.) and spent a while working. ICSE in the evening was good, I somehow ended up on the front desk of violas, and afterwards Tom and I came home to give our gerbils a bath and clean up the flat. Simon came over, we went to the Sains, bought supplies, and got home in time to meet various members of our crew plus friends we made over the summer for a night of epic Harry Potter. To be honest, I slept through the first two films – we are now on No. 4, Jason, Tom, Hannah, Jenny, Simon and John are all asleep on the floor/sofa/in my bed, and Richard and I are the only ones still going.

You know we’re cool. While everyone else catches up on their ZZZZ’s, I’m going to work on the literature review, do some more knitting and write a shopping list! All while watching HP, of course. The joys of being an adult. Tomorrow promises fun and frivolity, with a jaunt down to Kent with John and Jenny, to go see Seth Lakeman and eat wholesome roast dinner. Yummies.

The slightly business-like nature of this blog is a result of the extreme fright I currently have over the state of my life. I’m having to drop Sinfonietta and pull my act together in terms of efficient working, which is sad and good. Too busy! I’m going home next weekend to see my mummy and daddy, and can’t wait to have a break with them and the brother.

Ciao for now!

This weekend was full of music, again. This is largely due to the fact that it is coming up to the end of term; Christmas concerts in great numbers after we’ve all spent this term working our butts off to be ready in time. This Tuesday (tomorrow, in fact) is the Sinfonietta Winter Concert, where we are playing Liszt “Heroide Funebre”, Humpeldinck “Hansel and Gretel Overture” and Mussorgsky “Pictures at an Exhibition”. If you are reading this and you aren’t in the orchestra, and you are in London, come see it - that’s an order!

On Friday was the choir concert. At the last minute, Tom was asked to play in the orchestra and I was stewarding. This meant I spent the night behind the ticket desk looking after money and selling programmes. I did this with a guy called Al, who told me what is possibly the most interesting thing I’ve ever heard about Imperial.

We aren’t connected to the National Grid for electricity - underneath the EEE building, two massive generators work day and night to provide all of our electricity. The water pipes go around these generators to give heated water; we share with the Science Museum too. If you ever walk through the ‘service’ area of college beneath the walkway, this is why it’s always so hot down there. Interesting? This fact made my week - thanks, Al!

After the concert, John S (of Christmas lunch fame), Tom and I made our way down to a pizza and pasta place in South Ken to join the Imperial College String Ensemble (ICSE) for dinner. There was a candle on the table, which provided much amusement, and on the bus home we sent Toby (who has a very destroyed knee) upstairs first with his cello on his back. He then had to reverse when he realised it was full up there - very amusing, as he can barely walk. We aren’t cruel. Joh was also a bit forward, and leapt onto two women when the bus started moving. He’ll try tell us all that it was because he wasn’t holding on - we know the truth, John.

On Saturday Tom had a lab report to write and I went to visit Kathy and Lucia to have a brief Christmas get-together as Lucia is leaving on Wednesday and missing our Materials dinner. They gave me the best presents ever - a “Sneezy” tree ornament and New Moon poster from Lucia, and an Allergy-Free Cookbook! Both made me very happy - thanks guys! I was supposed to take ingredients for food, but I didn’t realise, so I didn’t. We ended up buying takeaway, and I smashed Kathy at ping-pong (almost literally; apparently, I can’t aim for the table!)

I then had to toddle back to College with Tom to help steward for the ICSE concert. They played really well - better than I remember hearing them play before (in a good way!) I can’t really remember the pieces names, hopefully someone will comment and tell me. Hannah (my housemate), Tom and I had a good time selling tickets, then wine and juice. After the concert, we helped finish off the open wine bottles (John S bought four glasses, the wino!) and then headed off to Nando’s for a social.

Tom, John and I shared a platter of chicken wings that came with chips and peas. I had had such a large meal with Lucia and Kathy that the only thing I ended up eating was a strip out of the bowl of peas to make a stop-sign. Also, Pepsi is refillable at Nandos - we all had so much sugar that by the time we were kicked out at midnight, we were all really high-spirited. The photos from this make me laugh out loud (quite embarassing, as I’m in the library). A selection of the best is shown! 

On the way back to John’s house, everyone got rather silly, and the men got involved in…well, the videos say it all (you might want to turn your sound down).

I missed the piggy-back when John was on Ken’s back, and Will jumped on. I don’t think Ken’s knees will ever be the same!

When we got back to John’s the night calmed down drastically and ended with a run-through of tour photos that John had stored on his harddrives. I got to bed at 3 am, quite a late night for me!

Sunday wrapped up with more music - Sinfonietta had a rehearsal for the concert on Tuesday, and we headed back to John’s to watch Merlin and eat a mountain of pasta.

I’ve taken a bit of a back-seat on the blog writing this week. Only two written! The Imperial Student Blog servers are groaning a sigh of relief.

Yay, only one week of term left. Don’t get me wrong, I love being at IC, I love learning, I enjoy being a student and I’ve learnt some really interesting stuff this term. But, I’ve also had to learn to wake up at 5 am to meet coursework deadlines, how to sit through six hours of lectures a day and also how to interpret dodgy Spanish-accented English. I’m tired, I’m looking forward to going home, and it’s nearly Christmas!!

To celebrate in true Corrie “is-obsessed-with-food” style, my friend John and I decided to do a week of Christmas dinners, as most of the catering outlets on campus were providing them. We missed Monday – the decision was only made that night – and started on Tuesday in the Tower Rooms (the MDH to all you old-hats). Wednesday found us sneaking into the SCR, and Thursday was time for crowding around a Union table. Friday was celebrated in true style, in Eastside…sort of.

So, Tuesday. John, Ben, Mel, Pete and myself made our way into the TR, laden with stuff – I was tutoring both violin and viola in the afternoon, so I needed each instrument. We found ourselves a table (no mean feat – the room was packed) and I got to sit and look after everyones stuff while John bought mine for me. My instructions were ‘everything’, and I got it for £5.91 – bargain! They informed me that the layout of the canteen area was really confusing, and I felt quite glad I hadn’t gone in there.

My starter was a bean soup, I got Christmas roast food with carrots and potatoes (which John managed to correctly pick out, not knowing my preferences! Go John!) and a Christmas pudding. The food was good; my only criticisms are the turkey was a bit dry, and I got a mountain of stuffing; I’m not normally into stuffing, and it soaked up all my gravy, but I’ll get over it. Also, I couldn’t have the cream with the Christmas Pudding, so it was a bit dry, but as I’m sure Toby will point out, this is my fault for being allergic, and not theirs! We each had a cracker (Ben got a spinning top which he explained Science to me with. Amazing!), and I left feeling fat and happy, to groan over my poor stomach all afternoon.

Wednesday: SCR, with John, Nikita and Ken. I have to admit, I felt a little naughty, but there had been signs in the TR saying we could go in there! So I didn’t feel that bad. There were elves! And a Santa who was giving out chocolates! While we were waiting in the queue, the Santa came and John made me have a photo taken with him. My eyes in the picture say ‘John, I hate you for doing this to me’; to punish him afterwards, I let him have my chocolate. Not quite sure how that worked!

I had much the same as the previous day; the soup was tomato and basil, and we didn’t get a free drink with this one, so I had what they were calling ‘multi-vitamin mixed berry juice’ which was basically some dodgy squash. It was only 40 p though! John and I shared half a loaf of bread, which gave the SCR points. I have no criticism for this food, it was really good, and we also still had crackers. John got a really funny moustache thing; see the picture! £5.61 again, bargain.

I apparently had no aversion to eating the SCR food; I was the first one finished, and by quite a long way too. Two things of note happened; Nikita had her first ever Christmas pudding (which she didn’t like), and John came out with this gem: “I’ve never had grandparents with my pizza!”

So, Thursday. Union with Ben, John and Pete. We stood in the queue for ages, and they almost ran out of turkey. We didn’t get a drink, or soup, but I’ll get over it – it was only £3.50 and we got mince-pies too! Overall, however, I didn’t rate it as highly as either of the others, and we didn’t get crackers. Ben got my mince-pie (I’m only mentioning that so he remembers he owes me…kidding!). I finished really quickly again, and didn’t feel quite so full. I’m worried my stomach has expanded and I’m going to have to eat twice as much as before to be full!

Finally, on to Friday. We headed off to Eastside; I was a bit unsure where to go, having never actually been inside before, but I managed to work it out…I met Pete, Mel, Nikki, Ashton and John, and we went to the bar to order. This is where the Christmas dinner plan fell down – we were supposed to preorder! I completely blame John for this (though I was the one who looked at the advert in the JCR the day before). We had various meals instead, from scampi to sirloin steak, and I ‘scampied’ off to my last Biomaterials lecture of the year.

I rate the SCR dinner highest, with Union coming third, and Eastside failing completely. The week has made me full, exposed me to a lot of maths-talk (Mel, John, Pete and Ben all do maths – Pete has a maths bungee attached to him which always brings the convo. back to maths, particularly topography. Grr!) and been a bit more expensive than your average week.

It was totally worth it.

Other things that happened this week that I may blog about if others are interested – Tom and I met up with John and a load of other people on Tuesday for a pancake and film night, where we watched a horror film and got really freaked out; I played at the Pakistan Society event “Shaam” in a string quartet on Wednesday night; I discovered that jumping off cliffs in Malta may have disastrous consequences for your coccyx – even if it was three months ago.