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.