All On My Lonesome

Hi, llamas!!

So, end of week 2? 3? I'm kind of losing track of time now...

My induction week basically turned out to be the beginning of lectures and lessons, so in the last week, I've tempered chocolate (badly) and I've made a load of bread. For those of you that don't know what tempering is, it's basically bring chocolate up to a temperature then cooling it down to another temperature, and then bringing it back up to ANOTHER temperature. This is in order to make it shiny and crystalise the proteins in the chocolate when it sets. If you ever see streaky chocolate, it hasn't been tempered. Or at least, tempered correctly.

Now, other things that have happened over the last week:

1) IMAN HAS ARRIVED IN BIRMINGHAM

2) People may have moved in next door to me - FINALLY

3) I'm so tired, I've become a bit of a hermit

On the subject of new people and hermits and even Iman actually... It's freshers week for everyone else and OH MY GOD THEY ARE SO LOUD and yes, I'm aware that I sound like a grumpy old man. Anyway, Iman is helping with this year's freshers for Aston so she's super busy and any friends of mine are busy, so that leaves me with my own company. I hate to say it, but I've just been marathoning movies in my room. I'm also aware that it sounds extremely sad considering technically I'm a fresher.  It's also probably the reason that I haven't met any of my neighbours yet. But it's now the end of my freshers and I only went out twice.  I just wasn't that interested.

I'm also getting extremely used to being on my own and have just mastered eating in a restaurant by myself.  I'm literally writing this as I pay for my bill.  I've found that I'm okay on my own and in my own company for periods of time.  The rest of the time I'm just needy.

So, you're probably wondering what I'm doing in a restaurant when I'm a student.  My answer to that would be that I had to go into The Bullring Shopping Centre to fill a prescription and I had to wait ages so I figured I may as well get lunch.

I've discovered that you can get so immersed in people watching that you don't realise time is passing, like, I watched this older couple walk in and the woman was using a cane, the older gentleman was holding onto her and helped her take her jacket off, then helped her into her seat and then proceeded to tuck her in and drape her coat on the back of her chair.  I spent ages watching them.  I spent long enough watching them that the woman got up to use the toilet and her coat fell off the back of her chair, the gentleman got up, and picked her jacket up and re-draped it over her chair, then when she came back from the toilet he helped her back into her chair and tucked her in again.  And it wasn't one of the formal things, it was the kind of thing that they were so comfortable with because they'd ben doing it for years.  They were the actions of love and caring and it was so cute and awesome to watch.  It's the kind of thing I hope I have when I get to that age.

Anyway, there you have it folks, a short and sweet post for today.  I'll start blogging again when I get the chance!!

Shenaya xx

B'Ham

Hey, llamas!!

So, I'm writing my first blog post from Birmingham, England, the United Kingdom, Europe (I know, I know - Brexit, but that doesn't mean we aren't part of the continent), The World, The Milky Way, yada yada yada...

ANYWAY, story time my little fluffy friends.

MOVING IN DAY - 03/09/16

First of, this is before we even set off for Birmingham - we were packing the car up with all my shit and mum suddenly realised she couldn't find the base to my kettle, and since I was the one to unpack it the first time round, I was the one that all the questions were aimed at (picture my mum, grandma and myself getting increasingly confused and a little annoyed).  We then decided  that if we couldn't find the base, I'd just buy a new one.  My grandma decided that she was going to look inside the kettle for some reason and guess what she found - you guessed it - the kettle base.  We were extremely relieved.

Looking back at that makes it seem like it wasn't that big of a deal but at the time it was huge, and I wish that was the biggest problem we came across that day....

So, we finally got on the road (with Iman (coincidently she made me promise that this post was dedicated to her so I dedicate this post to the bestest westest, most supportive BFF ever)) and that was pretty much all the drama until we got to my accommodation - apart from the usual traffic.

2:00pm - stuck in a huge amount of traffic, I call to say we'll be there for 3pm instead of 2:30pm.
3:00pm - arrive at accommodation, get keys
3:10pm - get to room to have a look, wrinkle nose and gag, THE ROOM HAD NOT BEEN CLEANED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3:20pm - cleaning crew starts cleaning
4:00pm - start to unload bags, walk into hallway, get high off bleach fumes and hear serious scrubbing
4:10pm - get back in car and wait
4:30pm - go back to check on bags that are still in the hallway and get high off bleach fumes for the 2nd time, still hear furious scrubbing, sit down by bags
5:00pm - still sitting by bags, have an ongoing high off bleach fumes, and boredom, stiffness and hunger start setting in
5:30pm - hear banging, cleaners come out of room, help us take my stuff into the room
5:45pm - start unpacking, realise the A/C doesn't work, the blind doesn't retract and the built in desk lamp needs an adaptor, log all maintenance and book slot for Monday to get it sorted
8:00pm - stop to order pizza, continue unpacking
8:45pm - pizza arrives
9:45pm - we've eaten and are resting
10:00pm - Iman leaves, continue to unpack
10:30pm - finished unpacking, mum and I fight over which side of the 3/4 size bed we're sleeping on
11:30pm - we finally get to sleep

SUNDAY - 04/09/16

8:30am - wake up, get ready, still slightly high off bleach fumes
10:00am - get breakfast/brunch at Costa across the road with Iman
12:30pm - sorting and organising things back in my room
2:30pm - mum and Iman drop me off to meet new people and head back to London
7:00pm - sit in pub waiting for pub quiz to start
9:30pm - our team comes in 3rd (shout out to Cheeky V and the poor, poor Team Artisan)
10:00pm - arrive back in my room
11:00pm -  decide to make grilled cheese because I was hungry, inadvertently wake mum up because I couldn't figure out how to use the hob
11:15pm - figure out how to use the hob, eat
1:30am - fall asleep

MONDAY - 05/09/16

8:00am - wake up, figure out how to use the shower, took too long
9:45am - make cup of tea and down it like I'm in a beer chugging contest, burn tongue
10:00am - wait for Uber, taxi driver doesn't know where he's going (???)
10:20am - get to UCB (5 minutes late for enrolment), run up four floors of stairs
10:28am (I'm a slow runner, OKAY?) - arrive out of breath into a crowded lecture room and apologise profusely
10:45am - filled in a form and back down the stairs for my ID
11:15am - walking around town and sitting down in Costa with a few new friends
1:00pm - back at my room and started to read
4:00pm - realise that maintenance haven't showed up (slot booked for 12-4)
5:30pm - still sitting on my bed reading, getting hungry, talked with Iman
6:30pm - wondering whether to have dinner, talking to mum
7:00pm - make pesto pasta with chicken (be proud - it's the best I've made in a long time)
7:30pm - eat, go back to reading
11:30pm - go to sleep

TODAY - 06/09/16

9:30am - wake up, realise it's my grandma's birthday
10:00am - talk to mum
10:45am - eat, drink tea slowly, read, a guy comes in to check my A/C says it should be running by tomorrow (my room is 24.7 degrees C, apparently)
11:45am - talk to reception about maintenance
12:00pm - maintenance sorts out my blind and desk lamp
12:30pm - start reading
1:00pm - decide to change scenery, find social space, realise I'm the only one using social space
1:10pm - make some phone calls
1:20pm - start writing blog post
1:50pm NOW - still writing blog post


And there you have it llamas, that was basically everything that has happened over the last few days.  BTW, THE DUDE BEFORE ME WAS DISGUSTING.  I felt for those cleaners.  Like, felt.  Just thinking about the state of my room makes me cringe, gag and try not to hurl.  BLEUGH.  It was a good solid couple of hours that the cleaners spent doing my room, I don't even want to know what that dude was doing.  Oh, and did I mention that he also left a bunch of stuff in the mailbox that I had to clean out?

Other than all this shit, I'm pretty excited to be here, although I'm kinda bored out of my mind because my uni starts earlier than others and I'm not staying in the same place as the other students, I'm staying with students from other unis.  Who haven't even arrived.  There's just a bunch of international students that don't really socialise and barely speak English so I'm probably better off in my own company at the moment.

Here's a little something to show how I feel.

Shenaya xx

P.S. 2:20pm - finished writing blog post, going to eat lunch

P.P.S. we also discovered that I have no phone service in my room and if you want to get in touch with me it has to be done through the Internet..