I’ve noticed a fairly consistent pattern in my posting…I always seem to post on a Sunday! Sunday is when I seem to collate all my thoughts of the previous week before moving on to the next. Next week I start a brand new module in truly youthful optimism of attending every lecture on time, studying hard and making sandwiches the night before for lunch the next day. Doubtless as previous experience has told me this optimism won’t last till the end of the first week before I end up running ever morning for the bus, hair madly askew, and made lunch a distant dream in a past life.

But before this vicious cycle of daily grind begins I shall tell you about something exciting that’s been happening this week (or should I say last week??)ARTSFEST!!!

Artsfest is a week of student activities based around art, music, drama and dance that happens every year. It is a chance to see some of the arts-related societies at their best. Activities go on throughout the week and cumulate into a huge Finale Concert at the end of the week. Artsfest is a good way to forget about science for a while and watch or join in with something that’s music or arts-related. It’s a great way to see some of the societies that you wouldn’t normally get the chance to see, in action.

There were several lunchtime busking concerts around college featuring the various musical societies. I played in one myself on the friday in Windband. It was a joint concert featuring the Choir and Windband. The good thing about these types of concert is that people can come along and listen for free and for however long as they like. The size of the audience suprised me somewhat. I hadn’t expected so many people to come and watch!

Other events around college included a Fine Arts and Photography display in the Blyth Gallery, a DramSoc performance workshop, a free cinema screening and a barn dance in the Union Dining Hall! See the timetable below!

A busy week of Arts and Music!

The Finale Concert was immense! Having been to the Finale Concert every year for three years I have to say it is one of the highlights of the year for me. All the societies get together to produce a very varied concert. There really is something for everyone to enjoy! I was playing in the first half but there was still time for me to enjoy some of the acts before I had to play!

Imperial College Sinfonietta Orchestra began the concert by playing Malcolm Arnold’s Four Scottish Dances. Sinfonietta set the concert off to a good start with the lively dances keeping the audience on the edge of their seats! Freddie and the Faggots were next (a group of five bassoon players) who performed several popular tv-theme tunes with a bit of a twist. This a very funny act!

Sadly I missed the next two acts as I had to get back stage in time for Windband. These were Wushu and Chamber Choir. Wushu is a chinese martial arts society. It combines some very energetic acrobatics with sword fighting and hand to hand fighting. However after I had played with Windband I was able to watch the next bit of the concert before the interval.

One of Imperial’s newest societies: Techtonics hit the stage. Techtonics is an all male singing group that reproduces popular songs by singing all of the instrumentals. The combined effect of them all was phenomenal! When they sang Buck Rodgers by Feeder there was raptuous applause given!

After an interval in which all of the audience migrated to the Senior Common room for drinks the concert began in earnest again! The Imperial College String Ensemble played Gymnopedie #1 by Erik Satie. It was a flawless performance.

IC Belly Dancing was next followed by two solo singers from the Musical Theatre Society. Again brilliant performances all round!

Funkology (The society that performs some of the best Hip-Hop dancing I have ever seen) was up next. They combine dance into the form of a story. From previous years Artsfest experiences Funkology are always amazing! This year was no different with the society getting whoops and cheers from the audience!

Last but not least Big Band performed Hunting Wabbits by Gordan Goodwin and Birks Works from Dizzy Gillespies Big Band. They were the icing on the cake to what was an amazing concert!

“Procrastination is the thief of time” Edward Young, English poet.

Today I am doing just that; procrastinating. Whiling away my day on various inconsequential activities, none of which are remotely constructive. I haven’t reached the stage where  where I feel the urge to tidy my room though which is the low point of my procrastination scale. So far today I have got up, wandered round the kitchen several times, sometimes staring out of the window at nothing, watered the plants, thought about cleaning the bathroom but haven’t, checked my email accounts about 5 times all within the space of 10 minutes, wondered if I should take my now-dry washing off the drying rack but wandered away before I could carry out this activity and  then proceeded to munch my way through various snacks. Procrastination is an art form; one which doesn’t require much skill but yet a great deal of laziness. Which leaves me with my conscience (still lazy but with a wary eye on time and a pointed finger that says “Ye shall see the mighty wrath of the great pile of work waiting there to be done soon!”).

So what should I be doing? I should be working on my biology project which involves me analysing data on grasshoppers I collected from a field trip to the Silwood Campus in July last year. Baring this I should be deciding on choosing another final year project to end my degree in June of later this year. The list has 144 projects on it I am kindly told by email, and the deadline for choosing is by this coming Friday. Fun. Or not. Alternatively baring all of this I could be acting like what I am (a third year) and doing some serious work on previous lectures and/or extra reading. None of which has appealed to me today.

Therefore after several hours I have had a sudden rush of creative procrastination and uploaded all of the photos from my camera to my computer. I remembered that most of the photos I have taken this week are of the prettiness of Imperial’s buildings. So for any prospective students out there, you will be treated to a few prospectus-worthy photos from me now!

The Bessemer Building looking pretty in pink and green

The Bessemer Building I am reliably informed contains Bioengineering, the Centre for Environmental Policy and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. The Bessemer Building is part of a complex which also contains the RSM (Royal School of Mines).

The Faculty Building in blue with Queen's Tower and The Grantham Institute for Climate Change to the right

Some interesting futuristic cubes living on the Main Walkway

Central Library with the Sherfield Building to the right

The Central Library is where most library and core textbooks are housed and the Sherfield Building is home to the Student Hub, where you can sort out various student issues such as housing and loans etc.

Queen's Tower in all its glory. Try to spot the decapitated snowman...

The Queen’s Tower is the remains of the Imperial Institute, which was built to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. If you want to more of the history of Queen’s Tower click here.

Inside the Sir Alexander Fleming Building

The Sir Alexander Fleming Building or (SAF) as it is commonly called is home to the biologists amongst us, as well as first and second year medic teaching.

Hyde Park - an excellent get away from the City

Hyde Park covers 350 acres and is a 5 minute walk from College. It’s a nice place to go and walk or relax. You can forget the hustle and bustle of the city for a few hours.

Queen's Tower as seen from Hyde Park

Some of the residents of Hyde Park

So today overall has been quite productive…at least you all know what Imperial looks like to some degree now! So to finish I shall leave you with another procrastination quote:

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday” Don Marquis

Today has been crunchy, slushy and slippery! For me it has been another excuse to get my long abandoned walking boots out again. I was pleasantly surprised to find they were warm and comfortable although the toes are very scratched. With the deluge of snow yesterday they made getting through it so much easier. So many people yesterday were trying to walk through the snow in high heels, looking tenuously at the ground. I suppose they could be forgiven since London usually misses the snow. Today the pristine white has gone, the ground is red and murky brown, the roads grey slush. Tubes and buses are up and running again and the London newspaper has shown London’s Mayor Boris Johnson jogging in the snow with shorts and trainers. Quite what this is meant to show, I have no idea. That even a politician is not adverse to freezing? Truly we are back up to speed with the rest of the country that hasn’t received any of the white stuff.

Snow dream?

Yesterday was a truly magical and unexpected day. Well it wasn’t that unexpected…if you read my earlier blog post you’ll see I had noticed that the snow was settling. Reading everyone else’s blogs I can see that most people had a good fun filled snow day! So I shall treat you to more of the same!

Shepherds Bush at 7am!

Yesterday my day began at 6am. My flatmate Tea Leaves woke the entire household by screaming “SNOW!!!” at the top of her lungs, waking the flat up in its entirely. At this very vocal stimulus we all jumped out of bed to look out of the kitchen window. The medics were meant to be going to their hospital placements but now all was confusion and uncertainty. Would the trains be running? Would the buses be running? The TFL website confirmed their deepest fears, the buses were not running and most of the tubes had shut. No-one could go anywhere. Gradually emails began to appear in in-boxes; College is cancelled for today, teaching is cancelled etc.

An abundance of closures and cancellations

Anyone reminded of The Day After Tomorrow?

As a flat we decided that if we couldn’t go anywhere then it was a day off from usual activities. We went to Brook Green to make a snow man. I decided this activity was a necessary activity since I couldn’t remember how to make a snowman and the prospect of throwing snow balls was beginning to look exciting. So I donned my waterproof trousers, walking boots and a large red umbrella and headed out…

I discovered that to make a snowman you had to start off with a ball of snow and then roll it in fresh snow until it assumes a larger size. So for ages you have a small ball of snow that doesn’t seem to be very large until…suddenly it’s large. A little like imagining an exponential growth curve for all you hopeful biologists out there!

Snow is actually very heavy!

Tea Leaves, Orange Squash and Coffee Bean with the beginnings of the Darlek Snowman!

So we made a Darlek snowman because we weren’t too good with the design of the snow man. In fact I’m not very sure it looks like a Darlek myself…

"Well I think it looks like a Darlek!"

We discovered other more crafted snowmen on Brook Green. For a capital where the snow never usually settles, Londoners put up some very good shows of snow craftsmanship!

This pair had a keyboard and a mouse!

We also had quite a legendary snow ball fight as well as playing stuck in the mud. Yes we had reverted to being kids for the day!

Narnia would have been proud!

After all the excitement of playing in the snow we all went home still in a slightly dazed fashion. Grit had been dumped on many of the pavements but wasn’t having much effect. Cars were parked in the strangest places and empty buses littered bus stops, evidently not going anywhere. Tomorrow everything would be up and running again but for now it was nice to be set into a snowy London dream!

Today by contrast, most of London’s transport system is up and running again. Buses are operating to their normal time table and the tubes are running again with a few closures. However London side streets are lethal. A lot of the snow has frozen. As I was walking to my friends house to work on our shared biology project, I saw a women slip and fall over. Luckily she got back up again, embarrased but unhurt. The Snow Dream has turned into Crunchy Ice!

Today it’s snowing outside in old London town. Exciting stuff you’d think? Well it would be if it settled. Probably a good thing it hasn’t, chaos on the transport system would erupt, leaving thousands stranded in need of a hot mug of something warm and something to lower their raised blood pressure…

Last week when I was thinking of something to write about on my blog I couldn’t think of anything to write about until I went food shopping to Hammersmith Tescos…that’s really where this blog post came to life, gripped me around the arm and said “You have to tell them, You have to tell them…otherwise who will?!” Well maybe perhaps not quite as dramatically as that, but the bags I was dragging home near enough had the same effect.

Food shopping is generally a process I like and quite enjoy, granted that I normally shop late at night, speeding round, misty-eyed with my trolley, deftly avoiding the bread crates that are usually the only obstacles. But last Sunday I made a mistake. Big Mistake.

Last Sunday I realised that I had no food. Not even bread or milk and certainly nothing to make for dinner. So at about 1pm on a Sunday afternoon I duly trotted out with my shopping bags and rucksack off to Tescos. After arriving I discovered there seemed to be some kind of one-in one-out policy going on with the small trolleys that I normally like to use. People hurriedly taking them off the people coming out of the shop to re-run them round the shop. This was definitely not a good omen. So I too waited till a small trolley became available. I even smiled at the lady offering it to me as a token of my thanks.

So I entered the shop. As soon as I reached the vegetable isle I knew something was wrong. There were trolleys everywhere, young and old cluttered the isles all viciously grabbing fruit and veg. It was carnage in the vegetable isle to the extreme. A part of me died. This was going to be a grab for all or nothing. I reached for the bananas across two marooned trolleys and touched nothing. This was not good, all the bananas had obviously run out. So had all the mini oranges (clementines or another variety of your choice) and apples were looking extremely thin on the ground. Luckily hope came in the form of a harassed store worker trundling valiantly through the chaos with a load of bananas still in their protective packaging. I grabbed a bunch and tried to speed on my way only to be confronted with trolley gridlock.

Now don’t get me wrong I usually don’t mind what speed trolleys go round a shop at.  Slow moving trolleys never normally leave me irate. But this time they did. Dozens of blank faced customers slowly trundled down the isles. I began counting seconds on my phone. I had only reached the cheese isle by the time one minute had passed. Given that the cheese isle was only 5 metres away from the veg isle  this was not encouraging. I began to wish I had just got a basket; at least it would have been quicker to bang peoples legs with it rather than not get anywhere at all.

After 5 minutes of being in the store I began to discover turning corners with the trolley was a problem. No-one adopted a logical approach to this by staying on the left as they turned. Head on collisions were a frequent occurrence. Luckily because everyone was travelling so slowly this did not seem to be causing accidents or indeed dented trolleys, merely annoyance and ill will towards those who had forgotten various items and who had obviously been to the meat isles and back…

I reached the bread isle eventually, patience wearing extremely thin. The bread isle seemed to have a whole class of toddlers and children running around in it. Children cluttered round cakes, children under trolleys, children sat on the floor. None of them were seated safely in the trolley seats. Perhaps they had outgrown them. It is true that children need help crossing the road to see the dangers; I began to wonder if they had ever attended a class for safe supermarket shopping. Of course they hadn’t. They certainly did not see my approaching trolley or indeed any others as a danger. Instead they merrily clambered on and around them waving packets of this and that, as the parents wearily said “No we’re not buying that!” or “Put that down!”. It was like trying to trundle through an obstacle course of monkeys.

I reached the meat isle. Several domestic arguments between several couples had broken out in this isle. “But Sally’s coming round for dinner tonight…what are we going to cook otherwise?!” and so on it went. One couple both of whom were carrying baskets (presumably they had missed out on a suitable size trolley) were staggering around, putting the baskets down every few seconds to argue. Eventually they both flounced apart to go to separate isles.

The next stop was the snack isle which contains those treats like crisps, chocolates and soft drinks. This was not free from trolleys or harassed shoppers either. I decided to give it a miss. I couldn’t get past the people clustered round the chocolate at the top of the isle. I decided to give the frozen isle a go. I tried to think positively; after all I only wanted some frozen veg and chips. That couldn’t be that hard could it? So in a blur of forced optimism I forced my way there. What I hadn’t bargained for was the fact that with the freezer doors open, even less trolleys could get down and out of the isle. I grabbed some frozen veg, forgot the chips and tried to run for it; tried being the operative word.

And so it was with a heavy heart I reached the till. A heavy heart because I realised I had forgotten biscuits and now there was no way of turning back. (Well there was, but it just wasn’t worth it). The tills had extra staff much to my relief so it wasn’t such an issue waiting to pay. In fact before I knew where I was I was out of the shop having paid and a hopeful customer was saying to me “May I?” and hurriedly taking my trolley off me. As for me, I wandered off bleakly through the newly fallen rain with two heavy bags to the bus stop. I envied the masses of people who somehow, although living in London, seemed to own a car to be able to take everything back home with.

I consoled myself that getting the bus would be easier than walking back through the rain with my umbrella and the two bags, since I couldn’t hold the umbrella as well as the bags and I wasn’t in favour of getting wet. The bus when it arrived, was full. The lower deck was full of people clinging on for dear life (all with shopping bags, pushchairs and small children) as the bus lurched to the next stop. I decided that actually maybe getting wet may have been the safer option since I seemed to be having trouble staying upright with all the shopping in the rucksack as well as the bags perched rather awkwardly on my feet. Plus at every stop someone seemed to have difficulty negociating my considerable bulk, nearly toppling me over to try and get off.

I gave up a stop early, shouldered the umbrella and marched forward, hoping that the lowered umbrella would make people move out of the way since I couldn’t see far enough in front to be able to stop if the person approaching didn’t!

So I got back to my flat. Collapsed a few times making it up the stairs and promptly dropped the shopping on the kitchen floor. The only problem now was where on earth to put it all?

A happy coffee bean shows what food shopping should leave you feeling like!

I reflected after I got back home on the whole experience. A piece of me was deeply saddened. Shopping with so many other people at the same time was a deeply stressful experience; one which I did not want to repeat. It was Chaos! Pure and utter madness! I told myself I would never ever go shopping on a sunday afternoon again. It just wasn’t worth the hassle. How long will this resolution last? I’ll probably end up doing it again sometime…

Enough to feed a small elephant?

So it is with more cheerful thoughts I leave you…guess who needs to go shopping again? This time is only for milk which luckily I don’t need to trek to Tescos to obtain, just to the little metro sainsburys in Shepherds Bush!

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Oh! The snow, as I look out of the window has settled! So for all commuting tomorrow I wish you luck and hot drinks in abundance…