You can't teach an old dog new tricks

I am now in full educational flow and have got through my second week of lectures. I am finding it more of a challenge than I had previously thought it would be, my brain seems incapable of ingesting any new information and everyone else seems so bloody clever.

Exeter is a very different university than the others that I have been told about, especially the UEA. It seems that going to a slightly more prestigious university brings with it a harsher system of punishment for late essays and missing lectures (you don't get marked more than 40% and you get kicked off the course if you miss more than three respectively) and I get the impression that failure or even mediocre performance is not an option. It's Ok for all those eighteen year old kids whose brains are still in the enviable sponge like state, mine is full already, I could tell you the three different classifications of how the Inland Revenue calculate maximum pension, but teach me about political theory and it goes in one ear and out the other. This is worrying.

In other news Tom has quit his job because the idiots he temped for wouldn't give him a day off for an interview, this interview took place on Thursday and it went well but he is worried he wont get it for lack of some of the relevant experience. We are both keeping fingers, toes and anything else we can crossed. In the meantime I am enjoying having his company in the day.

We went for a day out to Bude in North Cornwall yesterday which was fantastic. I am still amazed at the fact that I can go to Cornwall for a day trip. It's a surfy type town on the Atlantic coast and as you would expect had great beaches, huge crashing waves and breathtaking scenery. We enjoyed a walk round the headland, pottering around the arts and surf shops and not so much a drink in a really rough local-type pub, which did in all fairness look ok on the outside. We came back to Exeter and has a sub-Norwich-standard, expensive curry. I had a Balti which did not come with nan bread and Tom had a Bhuna, both tasted exactly the same. Found another decent pub in Exeter which for us is akin to discovering the Holy Grail. Have been enjoying a nice lazy Sunday and I am now going to cook Chicken wrapped in Bacon stuffed with Blue Cheese. Lovely stuff.

Me This Annoyed Week Things Have That (2-9 October)

Again not too much, which must be good. Apart from annoying myself after spending too much time in my own company, this week's minor upsets are:

• Students. I really don't like them. But then again I don't like chavs, geezers, office workers, townies, lads, suburbanites, upper clas twits, tories, media types, tarts, slappers, teenagers, mean hearted old ladies, grumpy old gits, nutters, the boring, the unaware, the uncaring and the unwashed.
• The National English Test on the BBC with Tom being a linguistics grad it had to be done but it was so stupidly annoying we both got quite angry. The worst thing apart from the entertainment format of the test, was that part of the test was comprehension where you had to listen to some idiot off Dead Ringers doing impressions and remember what he said. My brain goes into shut down as soon as any naff impressionist starts talking so I naturally got all these ones incorrect which really pissed me off. I got 54/70 (top 5%) and Tom got 62/70 which is apparantly in the top 1%, clever bugger. I wish I had better things to do on a Saturday night.
• State of the house. It is going downhill rapidly and the worst it gets the less I can be arsed to do anything about it.There was a weird smell coming from the vegetable cupboard over the weekend and we assumed it was some decaying old veg which had been left, emptied out old veg and smell lingered. I discovered yesterday that it was in fact a chicken breast, purchased on Thursday which I though I had left in the butchers. The smell was rancid and it had a bluebottle in tow, I shudder thinking about it now. I'll make a start on the mess if I ever get off the internet today, our parents are coming to visit soon so I will use this as an opportunity to get my arse into gear.
• Tom's work. He has an interview for a job he actually wants but the wankers he currently works for wont let him have the time off to attend it, so he has been forced to quit as of this Thursday. Our household will then consist of one student and one unemployed person. Rent? Bills? Food? Oh dear.

So a bit more than I thought this week. Once I began typing it started pouring out. I hope I put this much effort into my degree course.

Autumn

First lecture today, at least I think so, but I am up against the timetable equivalent of spaghetti junction so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Haven't done much else with my time this week so I wont bore you with the minutia of how many cups of tea I have drunk, my gardening exploits and happy times and fights with the cat. Besides there's a much bigger event going on outside and it's one of my favourites: Autumn. This could be my favourite season:

• It offers the senses so much more than the other seasons. The smokey smell drifting from a distant bonfire, crunchy leaves underfoot, the cacophony and awe inspiring visage of thousands of birds swirling overhead migrating to or from distant shores, the slow turning of the trees to the most beautiful shades of red, orange and brown, the most fantastical shapes and colours of fungi sprouting up overnight and the exhiliration of the first clear and crisp morning where you can see your breath and your face tingles with the cold.
• The best vegetables are coming into season, I love sprouts, parsnips, swede, squash and pumpkins. You start eating crumbles, casseroles and soups all warming and yummy.
• You get to go for long, windy walks through golden forests, spotting mushrooms and busy squirrels hiding their nuts and then, best of all, you get to come home from your long, windy walk all pink cheeked and happy, put the kettle on, lump down on the sofa and watch a DVD.
• The beer gets better, summer beer in a beer garden is quite something but give me an old pub with an open fire and a pint of porter or stout anyday and I am one happy lady.
• Christmas is coming. It whispers to you throughout autumn, christmas is coming. The air starts getting colder, you start going into cosy, comfy mode and dreaming of christmas trees and fires, cinamon pops up in food & candles, and robins start their Christmas card posing; sitting in the holly or on an old kettle. I know the tedious commercial side is annoying but just ignore it, think about the lovely old pagan sentiments a festival celebrating light in the middle of dark, cold winter. It's better that way and you don't have to feel like a hypocrite with the Jesus stuff.

TTHAMTW 27 September - 2 October

• Firstly and most obviously; students. Thousands of them, all arogance, pastel, ripped T-Shirts, designer Jeans and stupid hair cuts and that's just the blokes. Why isn't it the 80's or early 90's again where being a student meant better things? A: You were actually fairly intelligent. B. You liked bands like the Smiths and Joy Division rather than Oasis and the Killers. C. You were skint and therefore more humble. Todays students don't know they're born.

• Me. Yes incomrehensible I know but I annoy myself. Why is it that I can walk into an office full of 40 year olds and feel like I own the place and couldn't give a toss but when it comes to befriending fellow students or joining a society I clam up and then march off in a strop because nobody wanted to talk to me? Then comes the intense hating oneself for being an antisocial freak
• The cat for killing the dragonfly. We have made friends again but there is still an air of hostility between us.
• No friends in this godforsaken wildnerness. This has been compounded by my inability to befriend the student populus and the fact that all of Tom's uni friends were gathered in Norwich without us for Kate's birthday. Jealous, me? Of course.
• No trips out into the Devon countryside this weekend. Feeling a bit sorry for ourselves.
• Had a bit of a row with Tom on Friday. We were both a bit drunk, he was miserable about his crap job and words were exchanged. We're fine now.
• Exeter's lack of decent pubs. This one isn't going away.
• Halifax bank for not allowing me to open a student bank account with them. I failed on the credit scoring for a student bank account, it makes no sense. You're a student for feck's sake why would you have a good credit score. They had the best overdraft rates and now I have more money worries than I would have done with them, but at least I don't have to encounter that twat Howard's face when I want to do some banking.

Politik

I thought I'd keep up the prolific blogging so as to shame others into doing better. Not too much to report at the moment, I went into university for a meeting type thing on Tuesday; that was fine. I talked to some fellow studentia: they seemed fine. I have chosen my modules (Arab & Islamic History, Culture, Economics & Polictics, British Government & Politics, The Globalisation of World Politics & Modern Politcal Analysis) & had a peek at my timetable; seems fine (except for a 4-6pm Friday afternoon lecture). All fine but no cigar.

The thing it seems about studying politics is that everyone has something to say on the subject. I'd love to be doing Physics or Geology where you must tell someone what you're doing and they just nod and know better than to discuss it because they know nothing about it, but everyone seems to be an amateur politcian. Take our butcher (very curmudgeonly faced, big handed boy from the village) after hearing what I was studying (this part of the conversation always goes along the lines of ; Them : 'What you studying then?' Me: 'International Relations.' Them : blank expression, me : 'You know like International Politics & History'). Butcher boy then proceeded to say ' You know I is the hang 'em, flog 'em and kill 'em brigade'. What can I actually say to this? He has a meat cleaver and a mad glint in his eye, I am wearing a rainbow coloured scarf and purple Doc Martins, this conversation cannot be allowed to go anywhere, so I smile and say 'Remind me not to get into any debates with you down the pub' and make my exit. I never plan to get into any debates with this character down the pub. Really, never.