As some of you may have been unlucky enough to find out I started taking driving lessons with Peter Laird when I was home in November. I really enjoyed it and to be honest I wasn’t finding it all that hard. Last week I started taking lessons here. What a shock I got. Multiple lanes, large roundabouts, traffic lights, busy crossings, complicated junctions and probably most significantly, busy roads! It is so much more unnerving here and to be honest, the first couple of lessons were not much fun at all. Anyway, I’m improving again and I feel a little more in control and therefore more confident in what I’m doing. I have to say though, I’m very glad I did lessons at home as it did give me confidence to attempt it down here which I probably would have struggled with otherwise. I would suggest to any young people in Orkney who are planning to take all their lessons at home that they might be wise to take a couple of lessons somewhere slightly busier, even after passing their test. I think no matter how conscientious the instructors are at home, I just don’t think anything can prepare you for city driving short of having a go. Trust me, it’s scary! Anyway, I’ve booked 20 lessons with ‘Mr. Bus’, (I had to have him because the name amused me), and by having two lessons a week I hope to be at a test ready stage by Easter, hopefully.
Saturday 20th of January saw Flat 11 go for gold in the student party leader board. As you will be aware if you read last month’s column, we had quite a party at the beginning of December. Suffice it to say that this one was even bigger with over 90 people getting involved through the course of the night. We had a DJ from one of the local nightclubs who’s a mate of mine doing a set for us, plus a set of decks on both floors of the flat. Luckily for us we escaped without a fire alarm, in fact it was quite a civilized do. The lesson I feel we learnt this time is that you can over do it and have too many people. Not that it was a problem having so many people, only it took away some of the ‘student flat party’ atmosphere and made our modest home into a sort of mini night club! I think we now have enough friends between the six of us that we could have plenty of guests by invites only. This way we will have a more manageable group which is less stressful. Anyway, there was plenty of good vibes and lots of people told us how much they enjoyed as they left in the wee small hours.
Last Monday marked the beginning of the second semester. This is the second part of the first year and means we have a different timetable and a completely new set of classes for our new modules. I have a feeling that this semester is going to be harder than the first because the video production and the digital video effects modules are supposedly quite time consuming. As well as this I have four 9 a.m. starts instead of two. This means I will miss Jeremy Kyle, and people wont have an excuse to keep phoning me up at lunch time with sarcastic comments like; “Sorry if I woke you up”!
There is a possibility that Danielle and I will be given the weekday breakfast show to produce and present on Utopia FM which is the student radio station broadcasting to the whole of Sunderland. If we get it we will have to start at 7 a.m. so I had better get used to early starts just in case. In the meantime I am working as part of the Utopia management team to help get the station ready for going live in May. I think I’m the only first year that has a management role so at the moment I’m observing how it’s done and helping where I can in preparation for perhaps a more senior role next year. However, as deputy training and development officer I have been helping other presenters to record and mix demos for the station.
One thing I have done this year, which I hope to stick to, is set my self a New Year resolution. I usually don’t bother because I can never keep them but this time I have, and so far I’ve stuck to it. My plan is to go out one less night a week and buy a CD instead. This way I’m going to save money because a CD is cheaper than an average night out, plus the heath benefits are obvious. It also means that, in theory, when I leave university I will have better health, and a bigger CD collection than my contemporaries. I’ll keep you posted as to how I get on. Cheerio for now.
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