So it’s been a while….

Hello my friends!

I am so sorry that it has been so long since my last entry, I have literally been swamped! In addition to having to work (to earn enough money to offset my ridiculous expenditure), keep on top of university work (easier said than done), maintain commitments to sports teams, friends and family, and still fit in some sleep is a mighty challenge!

So just to catch you all up, in terms of uni work it’s been pretty hectic, at the moment it’s just one assignment after another and it’s just so tiresome! But I guess it all be worth it in the end  (or so he says). I am about to do a 4,000 word project on the Chislehurst Caves which should be fairly interesting and I got a first in my politics essay/presentation! If only I got similar marks in all my other courses…

Hockey fortunately hasn't preoccupied much of my time, fortunately we’re coming to the end of the season and not many games left... We did win our last game 22-0 though! Which was quite cool. 

I've also started to learn how to drive! Growing up in London previously I never needed too nor had the excess money to learn how to drive, but I thought I will while at university. Putting my loan to good use at least! And I haven’t seriously crashed or injured anyone yet, so going well!

It’s also election time in my SU, which is very exciting. Voting is very important as is the SU at any University. Details can be found here: http://www.suug.co.uk/elections2014/

Also, not to make you all jealous, I’m going to Rome next Thursday! I and my friend are visiting for a long weekend and I can’t wait. Just to escape the horrors and terrors of everyday urban life and just escape for an isolated weekend. Rest assured I will be posting excessive pictures and tales and such.

Finally, I must apologise again for how long it’s taken me to post another update, I will try and be better! But, because I know so many of you must be worryingly yourself silly, Eric is okay! Eric the office avocado plant is healthy, well, and striving. He even had a play date yesterday with a friend.

I’ll try post another update before Rome, if not, speak to you all soon!

Greetings from Amsterdam and Christmas holiday warning.

Hello again my beautiful people, how are you all? Good, I’m glad. I myself are shattered to b honest. I got back from a long weekend in Amsterdam last night and now spending my day working. Needless to say, I am tired.

Amsterdam though was really cool, the people, the city, the drinks.  It is quite amazing how much Amsterdam as a city differs from that of London. For example, there roads are split into three, one for bikes, one for trams and buses and the other for cars. Bike is by far the most common form of transport and pretty much every single person has one. It’s the easiest and most convenient  way to get around the city. If only London adopted a Dutch attitude to cycling, it would make my life easier and not to mention safer! I and my friends did go to the Anne Frank house, which was very interesting and moving, very surreal as well. We also went to the sex museum which again was interesting but also very, very strange. We all also ate a lot of cake and drank a lot of coffee.

I am quite happy to be home though; my European travels have worn me out. However it is slightly depressing that now I am home I have to work and I still have a 1500 word assignment to do! How depressing, eh? It gets even worse; I still have the majority of my Christmas shopping to do… That I am sure will not be very pleasant nor fun and somewhat quite expensive.

With all of my blog entry’s, I always like to have a useful message, which as of late they haven’t. So Carney’s (yes I did just refer to myself in the third person) useful tip or warning if you take it that way, is o make as much use of the Christmas holidays as possible. Yes it is nice not being at university or school, but make use of the time. While it is always nice to have a lazy day, I am very looking forward to having one on Saturday, it’s also important to be proactive. So perhaps for ever lazy day you have, have a day of work. Or as I like to try to do (and normally fail) is to try and do something every day, whether or not it’s a blog entry like this or replying to email’s, just make sure you do something and not fall into a slum!

And finally, no blog would be complete without a Eric update. He is growing strong and healthy and developing well. He’s tired and stressed as we all are and can’t wait for the university to close for a good few weeks so he can get a nice rest and get some sleep. Hopefully someone will still feed him…

Look below for some pretty photos + Eric.

See you all in 2014, have a fantastic Christmas and a unrememberable New Year!

France and Belgium Battlefield trip!

So I got back from France last night, I spent a few days there and their neighbours Belgium. Despite the hours on the coach it was actually a really good trip. I think the worse part would definitely have to be the singing on the coach, after two minutes it became tiresome and dire, I compensated with putting in my iPod and blocking the world out.

The first day was spent in Belgium and we went to the Mein Gate, followed by the night and two days in France. We visited several memorials and graves, ranging from German cemeteries to British, to French and to Anglo-French cemeteries. We also visited the National French memorial, where over 40,000 people are buried, and an incredible amount of fallen soldiers. It was all an incredible humbling experience and some of the memorials are breath-takingly pretty, however their beauty is bitter sweet given the purpose of them.

We were also able to go the site of the Somme, again that was incredible but we were also able to go into persevered British and German trenches and it was shocking to see how close they actually were to each other!

It was also very interesting, the difference in the memorials and the cemeteries. For example, the difference between French and British cemeteries, the length and the effort the British went too, to honour their dead despite harsh opposition and a troubled economy.

In the night we went for meals, I had some mussels, they were nice. They hotel was also nice and the drinks cheap. I was very happy. Not as happy as when we went to the local French supermarket and I was let loose on the BN’s, Lays and the ridiculously cheap alcohol (it’s the simple things in life).

All in all it was an amazing trip, and one I would recommend. It was organised by the History department, for a reasonable price. It was a complex itinerary and must have been a hell of a trip to plan. However to all of the lectures and staff credit it was a smooth and very slick operation. I would just like to say how grateful I am for them organising this trip and giving me the opportunity to go and to be able to see how amazing and humbling things that I would not be forgetting in a hurry.

Tomorrow I go to Amsterdam! This time with friends, not the university, if you, my glamorous readers can control yourself until my return I shall give you the pleasure of another blog.

Have a good weekend. 

Assessments.

So I’ve been pretty snowed down recently, with work, university, more work and trying to have a social life, it’s all been pretty packed!  It’s quite frustrating that all my assignments have all seemed to come at once but that’s just life. It’s even more frustrating that I’m in my second year now so it does all actually count towards my final degree!

But things are going well though! I am looking forward to Christmas, just chilling out, relaxing, not actually doing anything with myself… Should probably start shopping for presents for my family…  Any suggestions for presents for my Mum or Sister please in the comment section below (like seriously, I have no idea!).

But I did go and see the Hunger Games: Catching Fire a couple of days after it came out and it was awesome! It was even better as I saw it at the Sky Superscreen, which is massive! It was sooo cool and the movie was sooo good! And really looking to the next couple of weeks as well, Belgium next week and then Amsterdam not a few days after, should e really good! (Albeit devastating to my bank account, which again might seriously affect the quality of my Christmas presents…).

So as ever in all my blogs I like to offer a bit of useful advice, not that I ever take my own that is.  But I would just like to say in terms of assessments, coursework etc, it’s always better to be on top of things. Don’t be ignorant or ignore the amount of work you have to do, be realistic and force yourself to sit down and do it! The hardest part of it is making yourself start, once you’ve done that it will get easier.

Sooo yeah, that’s pretty much it, will blog again in a couple of weeks with pictures from my travels!!

Bye bye!

P.S. Eric update: Eric is currently alive. 

What else can a university offer?

Woo! It’s time to get excited for I have wrote another blog…

As ever I like to have a useful message in my blogs (rather than me just rambling), in this one it’s student employment. Employment while studying is extremely important, or at least I think so. It has several benefits, no only does it earn you money it also stops you spending money as well (as you spend your time working). You also get to meet new people, get new opportunities and have a laugh.

There are numerous benefits to working while studying, there are also many more for working within the university/Student’s Union. For example as I work for the university, I get access to new and exciting opportunities. I did a First Aid certificate last year and got paid too! I also do work for my Student’s Union which is good, even better as I get 20% discount on food in the SU and free entry into our night club. Honestly I love life every time I use my staff discount to get food at the SU.

Working while at University also sets you up for later life, in the sense it allows you to gain skills, make contacts and learn things that will make you more employable.

Not to harbour on about the University of Greenwich , but they are really good for that. We have a whole department dedicated to student employment, not only finding them work but helping them prepare for work in terms of practising interviews and checking your CV etc.

So my word of advice is that when you are looking at Universities, look at what else they can offer you in terms of employment in the future and while studying, not just the UCAS points and where the uni is ranked.

Hope that’s helpful!

  

P.S.: Eric update. He got himself into a bit of bother the other day. Sadly his lady plant friend broke Eric’s poor little avocado stone heart. To help Eric through this difficult time we have swapped his water drip for a vodka equivalent.  We hope he makes a full recovery soon.

And time keeps ticking on…

It’s funny how the days and weeks just fly by and all merge into one. It’s only by what lectures and what work I have that I’m able to identify the different days.  Lectures drone on and seminars drag on but that’s just how it goes.  It is important while at university to always keep up with the assigned work and reading, to make sure you’re on top of everything, but then that is easier said than done.

I’m looking forward to the next couple of months, next month especially. Not only is it Christmas, which is good as I get a lot of presents.  But then it’s also bad as I have to buy an equal amount of presents to give, which is a lot of stress (especially for my family who are ridiculously fussy/picky).

 

But anyway I’m looking forward to next month as I am going to Belgium with the History department on the battlefield trip that should be good but also slightly more excitingly when I get back two days later I set off to Amsterdam for three nights. I have a feeling that it will be quite messy…

It was my sister’s graduation last week, she also went to Greenwich and is graduating with a First Class degree in Psychology (woo). While this might be fantastic for her, for me it is slightly irritating as I am now expected to match her degree and if I fail to do so I shall be forced to suffer an eternity of mockery and gloating.

But as ever in my blogs I like to have a useful message. In this one it’s finance! I’m the type of student who spends more time in their overdraft than not. So you could argue that it’s quite hypercritical for me of all people to preach, however you also could argue that it puts me in a useful position to give advice…

So my advice, to put it simply is to be aware. Be aware of how much money you have, how much money you are spending and how much money you will need until the next long installment. I’m not going to preach about not wasting your money going out and how you should stick to a very tight budget as I’m not like that nor do I think that actually works. So in short, just be aware, be sensible and then you should enough money to go out and actually buy groceries as well J

Also part time jobs are incredible important while at university. I’ll speak about that next time (I’ll just let you all suffer in suspense).

Eric update: he is still alive (I think) and I hope someone is watering him… I wonder if it’s actually possible to kill an avocado plant.

Until next time,

Carney

Eric Blog

Hello people! It’s been a crazy last couple of weeks since with Fresher’s, starting my second year, working and having a social life.

Fresher’s was amazing; just a really good laugh having a good time with good people, I really enjoyed it. It’s even better as a first year as you don’t have any of that introductory stuff in the first week, so you can actually get some sleep! The SU really pulled out all the stops this year with some amazing events, including the Fresher Fairs. I now have enough free stuff to last me for the year. There was also a big mobile rock climbing wall at both the fairs as well, which I was responsible for running as president of the Climbing Society.

Stuff has only recently actually start to settle down and slot into a regular flow of things, but saying that there always is new things and challenges every week. For example this week I've been hobbling on crutches…Hockey, foot, painful.  So that’s been a whole barrel of laughs, although crutches are quite useful to prod and hit people with.

Second year is strange; it’s quite difficult to adjust, just because it is so different. For one, this year does actually count! It’s going quite well though, well relatively so anyway. I just need to put more effort into doing the reading instead of catching up with my favourite American shows (Homeland, Sons of Anarchy, and The Walking Dead etc.).

In my blogs I always try to have a useful message (as opposed to me just rambling on and on and on...). In this blog I’m just going to give a quick word of advice about choosing courses. So people always say choose what you enjoy and I can’t stress that enough. Don’t choose a subject because you think you should do it, pick and study a subject because you want to do it and because you have a genuine interest in that field of study.  There is no point in paying £9,000 a year (in most cases) to study a course just because you've been told to study that course for whatever reason. It’s you who has to pay the tuition fees, you who have to study it; therefore it should be who you pick the course. So do your re-search, look at all the different courses offered, look into the units that course offers and then make a well informed and a right decision J

Also, this is Eric. He’s an avocado plant, and I've been made to blog about him by my good friend http://gre-denise.blogspot.co.uk/). Like most plants, Eric likes to do plant like things. He’s likes to chill out in the sun, soak up the rays, turn it into food and then eventually grow into an avocado. Eric lives in our office (The Enquiry Unit) and is a valued member of our team. We all love Eric and can’t wait to eat what he produces. Check back for regular updates!

Denise (

So yeah, that’s it for now. I will post another blog soon (he says) about life and stuff. Enjoy the weekend!