#4 - Toastmasters, Synchrotron, and Sleep Deprivation

I write this late at night, hoping that when I wake tomorrow, this will not sound like complete jibberish.
It's been a long yet enjoyable week. Heck, it's been a long yet enjoyable month but lets start here.
This week I got the opportunity to visit Diamond Light Source, a working Synchrotron in Oxfordshire, and I must admit, it was a day of science tour fun.
For those who don't know, I'm a Physics with Astrophysics student at Birmingham in the United Kingdom and this was a trip with the Physics society. The drive both ways was about 2 and a half hours, on the way there I read my book (The Great Gatsby) and intermittently slept. On the way back I had a good long conversation with a friend of mine, before we both had something to eat, got tired, and went back to our book/podcast. The conversation was interesting because I haven't had a long conversation with this person so it was good to get to know each other.
But back to the Synchrotron. I'd put up pictures but unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me. Regardless, there are photos online and if you get to visit, I would highly recommend. The main purpose of the particle accelerator is to produce X-rays (and some other wavelengths of light) in which to probe the inner structure of various things. Everything from fossils, viruses, proteins, machine parts, even teeth. There is a lot of really interesting research on there, too much to post here, but again, I'd recommend researching in your own time.
I can't pick a favourite part of the trip but I would say that the tour guide was particularly informative and a very nice gentleman. They seemed to have picked tour guides who all went to Birmingham University (coincidentally) which made it into a casual affair, which I enjoyed.
This is just one of many things I decided to sign up to recently. It's been my aim over the past month to sign up to literally everything, never miss an opportunity was my aim, and so I haven't, I've been living life to the full and I'm loving it. Over the past month my depression has almost disappeared, I have a better outlook on life, and my confidence has sky rocketed.
On the subject of confidence in fact, I have 1 week to make a speech for my Toastmasters society, which should be fun. This will involve me making a 5 minute icebreaker speech, to which I have to learn from memory. It's not a long thing but I have to learn it off by heart and present it well, so we'll have to wait and see how it goes, I'm rather excited but we'll wait until next Thursday to see how that goes.
The only thing I thought might be a downside to all this is the sleep deprivation, and admittedly I am getting less sleep than I was before Christmas, but I'm actually dealing with it very well, I'm managing my schedule so that I get at least 7 hours per night, and 8 when I can, but I'm not sleeping more than 8 and a half hours so as to ensure I don't waste any time.
This post has just been a bit of an informative one, but it's just to say, I'm happy, healthy, and love life. I hope everyone who reads this is, and I wish you all the best.
No worries ^_^

#3 – Weddings, Illness, and Megabus

This past weekend has been extremely hectic. It began on Friday when after finishing my 17:00 labs, I returned to my flat, and from there travelled from my flat in Birmingham back to my hometown of Leeds on Megabus.
I always travel by Megabus, it’s a personal preference (as it’s bloody cheap). However, the trips are undeniably long. I left Birmingham at around 19:30 and didn’t return to Leeds until 23:00. The main reason for this was the bus stops off at Manchester. At Manchester a woman, whose name I did not catch, got on the bus. She was older than me but not by much, and had travelled to Manchester the night before to see her daughter. Anyway, we got chatting and had a great conversation about our lives from Manchester to Leeds, really made that leg of the trip go significantly faster as the previous Birmingham-Manchester leg I’d been in an isle seat with a person who I didn’t speak a word too.
The weird thing is, I will happily talk to anyone on public transport and have a good long natter, but I can never seem to gain the motivation to introduce myself, I guess the awkward silence is easier to sustain than an awkward introduction, even if the awkward introduction is only temporary.
The woman worked as a councillor, often working with people with a difficult history (orphans, child criminal records, abusive parents, etc…) and it was rather eye opening listening to her talk. She really enjoyed her job even though she stated she’d been physically attacked more than once (even had her ribs broken). One of the main subject topics at the end of the journey was how you can be completely open to strangers but not those close to you, those who care the most are those you admit the least too.
I was back in Leeds for a wedding at 14:00 the next day and I must say, it was a particularly wonderful day. The venue was spectacular and I see that side of my family only a few times a year so it’s great for myself every time I get to see them.
Afterwards we returned home, myself rather more jolly than perhaps would be advised, and the next morning set off to my grandparents for breakfast. It was great to see them and my uncle & aunty, who were only up for the weekend from London with their child. He was a bit nervous around people he didn’t recognise but seeing everyone again was enjoyable. I couldn’t stay there long however, because I was back in the car to visit my mother and sister for a few hours. My sister hasn’t been in the best of health and neither has my niece (though she wasn’t there), so I think she appreciated my visit. I rather enjoyed seeing her myself, and hopefully I’ll be able to Skype here more in the coming term.
And once more I was back on the Megabus, Leeds-Manchester-Birmingham, in a crowded bus surrounded entirely by other students, each with their own weekend story. And then a train, and a walk, and after over 420km, I was back in my room, continuing my work, exhausted, but happy in the knowledge that I was able to spend one weekend in amongst the hectic university life, to visit my family and see those I care for most.
That and get enough free wine over the course of an afternoon to bring down a herd of African Rhinos.
No worries

#2 - The Shy Pig, Life Lessons, First Year

I recently discovered that I have a particular love for The Shy Pig. If you haven't encountered The Shy Pig before it is a £3.99 bottle of wine and the cheapest bottle on sale at my local Costcutters. The stuff tastes nice and frankly allows me to have a nice night out without breaking the bank on expensive spirits or several bottles of beer.

I don't like it because of the fact it gets me 'bubbly' on a budget. Really, I enjoy this bottle for a kind of pre-nostalgia. I'm not sure how often others encounter this feeling but to me, it's the knowledge that something rather trivial will become a point on nostalgia years down the line. This I believe will be one of them. I can already hear myself, years in the future, career-family-house-etc, shopping around my local supermarket and passing the wine isle offhand, and looking down, and seeing on the bottom shelf, a regularly shaped bottle with the words 'The Shy Pig' wrote across the front with a cartoonish image, and remembering the days I've spent as a Fresher.

In all honesty, my life has come a surprising way in the few months I've lived in Birmingham. I never truly believed I'd grow as much as a person as people told me I would. I've learned to appreciate that sometimes you're going to spend nights on your own, or that now you have to work much harder to maintain a position at the top, and that failure will come no matter how hard you work, that's just an inevitable part of the process. And rather than lie down and moan, you accept your short comings and improve next time. In my opinion, there is nothing separating my goals from reality except the magnitude of my work.

But I've grown in other senses, for example, my girlfriend lives in Sheffield approximately 135km away from me, and at first I found it rather difficult going from seeing her everyday to almost not at all, but now I've learnt to accept it. I can make it work over such a distance, and I can support her even when I cannot hold her.

I have learnt that being busy is not a bad thing, the real demon is being alone and bored. And that sometimes you just have to throw yourself in to the deep end, and it won't be pleasant but it'll be worth it.

I've learnt when in a group of people you don't know, an awkward introduction is always better than an awkward silence, because only the former ends eventually.

Finally, I learnt that in life, being a good person and helping people isn't always easy, and you may get stressed at people because you're inflating their negatives over their positives. But, you must never set the standards for others that you set for yourself, and in turn, no one will set those standards upon you. I realised I am my best and worst critic, the only person who can motive me and the only person who can destroy me.

I am the black hole of my own galaxy, as the saying goes, both the marble and the sculpture. And when that day comes, ages and ages hence, when I look down and see that bottle of The Shy Pig, I will feel nostalgic, because it represents all the life lessons I learnt in my first year.

Also it's a damn cheap way to get wankered.
Hope you're well.

No worries