Blog dormant

This blog is kind of defunct. Sorry. I have no real reason to start it up again now. Most of my blogging is done now for www.comradenash.wordpress.com, which is generally political, but sometimes broaden to other stuff.

Halls sanctioned piss-ups, nice.

Parnell Student Village (my soon-to-be halls of residence) sent my the schedule for their “orientation” - a sort of Freshers week type thing I believe.

“Light Dinner and Conversation” sounds fun, if a little Edwardian, though there is the promise of a free t-shirt. The “Meet and Greet” involves more free food and pool, so I’m well up for that even if I haven’t played in aaaaaages. There’s a pub quiz too, of which I approve, at an Irish bar called “The Bog” – classic. A movie night to see that new Transformers film. Given that I found the first one a quite unrefined piece of crap, I’m not overly enthusiatic. I prefer my thoughtless explosions-gunfights-bigmonsters-death-type things to be more in keeping with that Terminator one what came out a while back. Offered a great chance for brain-on-stand-by relaxation that did.

But there is a Karaoke night, so lets hope they’ve got a bit of Whitney (or at least some PSB). One day includes both ice cream and a “flat-crawl” which I’d imagine is a very low budget bar crawl. Hope it’s BYOB. They round it all off with a city tour, which seems like a bit of an anti-climax, but am sure it’ll be quite pleasant. Thankful to God-on-high or anyone else within whose juristiction it is that nowhere on the schedule are the words “club night” – maybe kiwis have much better taste in entertainments and have learnt to stay away from those vile piss-sweat-and-vomit soaked places with there horrid noise overload. Maybe. Lazell tells me the booze is dirt cheap though, so I’m very much looking forward to spending that student loans company windfall. Must also find a kiwi-dyke and a down-under version of the Gale….

Hags, and the last days in Brummy land

So anyway, at time of writing I have mere 2/3 days left in Birmingham. Sad times indeed. A phone call home gave news that my visa has indeed arrived, for which I am very happy – the NZ embassy bloody efficient buggers, make no mistake.

So therein lies my conundrum of what to do with my remaining time in Birmingham. At present I’ve just got back from a fun night out avec one of my hags – time spent in both the Goose (a lovely old pub full of more decrepit brummy locals then students) and on the swings in a local park. Good times. I like my hags (all of them, both lezzers and breeders, and will no doubt miss both). Tonight was fun coz Hag #2 got me a lovely gift – some minerals and shit from Mt. Vesuvius, Italy. After 2 years as a geologist (lol) I still have no idea what half the buggers actually are – plus the labels are in Itie (there’s me excuse). Still, I adore Hag #2, despite her violent streak.

Hag #1 is still away in Skye, mapping her heart out, much as I will be doing in the Southern Alps come the austral summer. We chatted earlier today on MSN and I believe the dear little thing is going a little stir crazy in such an isolated place. Just one week in of six as well. Hahahaha! She’ll be fine in the long run I’m sure; a little mental scarring maybe, but hey, it builds character.

So yeah, long and short of it is, I’m gonna miss both Birmingham and my hags; back to Somerset in a few days where there are my cats and my open countryside. I’m hoping that there may even be the odd drunken foray into Bath town, even if I end up fainting from being charged more than £3 a pint (!!!!!). Actually, today (june 23rd) is the date my course ends over in Auckland in 2010. Weird that. Am sure it will fly by, but am equally sure I’ll find meself some nice Kiwi hags with which to pass the time. Sic one!

Visas and Somerset

Sent of for my student visa on Monday, so here’s hoping it arrives afore the 7th.

Now have just a few more days left in lovely Brummy-land prior to spending 2 weeks back with me family, down Somerset way. This could be anywhere between tolerable and absolute hell, just have to wait and see. At least I’ll be able to escape during the days and roam around a bit. One thing that’s always frustrated me about the big city is my inability to navigate by dead-reckoning. Out in the country, if you know what direction you want to be heading in, you walk it (gun-toting farmer permitting). In Birmingham, cul-de-sacs and buildings are bloody frustrating in these circumstances.

Thankfully, parents now have internets, so it is no longer quite the backward isolated enclave that the house used to be. Facebook and Twitter will no doubt allow me to continue to vent any frustrations. Going back slightly earlier than I initially expected, mainly to spend more time with my brother who is still in school – I figure the kid needs one sane older role model in his immediate family. Plus he has Xbox and Gamecube to occupy me during the day.

Here’s hoping I don’t come down with bastarding hayfever or something horrid – customs might misinterpret it as swine flu or something nasty. Given US customs are the strictest in the world (methinks the SS would be proud) its probably no laughing matter. Not being 21 yet means that my 2 hours in California (abeit within a departure lounge) won’t be quite the potential fun they could be – in what kind of messed up country can you legally buy a gun (or worse) get married before you can drink? Ah well, here’s also hoping that the New Zealand embassy are pretty damn efficient with my visa application form. Lets face it, (1) they can’t have much work on their hands can they? And (2) they can’t be any less efficient than our own government departments.

Gonna miss Birmingham – its been good to me.

Flights and Expenses

Booked me flights today!!

Basically, the department are paying for them if i get the cheapest available. So departing 7th June, flying Heathrow via Los Angeles to Auckand. Arriving 9th.

Since loads of time zone and international date zone crap are involved i don’t actually know how long i spend in the air. Probably horribly long. Ah well, swings and roundabouts really, I now have a finite number of days left in the UK. Lets hope student finances pull their finger out and give me a load more money so i can get a visa.

Then I can finally become a bloody immigrant

A plan comes together

Picked up a nice CD today – Auckland seem to be bloody good at all this organisational stuff. I think they’re putting us to shame. Anyhow, its full of PDFs, most of which I haven’t read. Nice touches are that, not only do they provide transport from airport to accomodation, they also provide tempory accomodation to. Pleasant.

Chasing stuff round the inner sanctum of the uni remains a bloody nightmare mind. Luckily today I had a copy of the Spectator to hand as I took a seat. Just to show that there’s a first time for everything, I’d barely got started on the editorial when I were attended to. Then it was a quick trek down to “Student Services” – quite possibly the stealthiest department of them all, its entrace hiding as it does behind a noticeboard. While very pleasant, they weren’t much use. Hey ho.

All in all, things seem to be rattling along nicely.

Place Confirmed

Auckland Uni emailed me a couple of days back confirming my place there. Nice one blud.

Anyhow, just need to wait for the papery copies to wing there way over here so I can apply for that visa. That way I won’t get deported shortly after touching down in Auckland.

Also had a quick peek at flight quotes. They were bloody expensive so I got scared and stopped looking.

Twitter…

My housemate has talked me into joining Twitter – that annoying “microblogging” site for folk wot can’t express themselves in more than 140 characters. Its utterly trivial and just gives me another way to waste time whilst I should be doing something productive.

I s’pose it gives me a chance to spy on people and share in the pointlessness of their own existance.

The form hinted at in the previous post still ain’t completed; though I have a worrying fear that I accidentally submitted the sarcastic/piss take one…

Fancy living in halls?

So having put it off for some time, i finally get round to filling in the accomodation forms for Auckland Uni halls. So having steamed through the easy factual, fill in the box type bits, I naturally come to the hard part; the bit where they ask me to describe myself:

“Describe in your own words, what type of person you are.”

Now honestly, what sort of a question is this? A quick glace at the average population sample will tell you that half have too low an opinion of themselves, the over too high. Useless. I’ll tell you what a better question would have been:

“What sort of person would you least hate having to live with for a whole semester?”

Now THAT’s far more relevant… let’s see:

- preferably non-heterosexual, ideally non-male too [sorry, but lesbians are superior to everyone else on the planet, that's my personal bias]. Preferably those people who are capable of cleaning up their own mess as they go, rather than resorting to some silly generic rota [we're not in nursary now]. Oh and no common people either – by which i mean uber-chavs, though I guess they never make it to HE, but you never know… No Raas either though, they can be just as bad. Ideally someone just like me, only non-male; that could work. Though not attractive, cos that could get complicated. Someone with more sense than money, but little of the latter to start with. Ummm… yeh, that should do it….

Auckland really excell themselves with this one though:

“What would you contribute to residential life?”

- I simply put “RENT”. I know it may sound smug of me, but what more is there to say?? Whatever happened to paying for a service (i.e. housing) and receiving it? Why all this ‘community’-esque BS? Hey ho.

Of course, none of this mindless ranting helps me with the problem in hand. its still ten to eight on a Monday morning with the future rapidly approaching. Not that that’s stopped me in the past mind…

Spain – the prelude

Have just recently returned from a one-week geology field trip to sunny Almeria, SW Spain.

Sun, sea, sand, rocks, cartons of wine for 69p a litre; what’s not to love about that??

Anyhow, that marks the last field trip, and the last time I fly prior to my departure for Auckland; exciting times! I may be a little bit weird, or it may be the after-effects of too much sun, but I’m now actually looking forward to spending a good six weeks of the Austral summer mapping a valley on South Island. Any non-geologists will have absolutely no idea where I’m coming from here, ah well…

In other news, Auckland Uni have written to confirm that they recieved my online application and are just waiting on supporting documents. Best get to it then….