Norman Ralph

First of all, an apology for not posting in a while. Things have been a bit manic recently what with the start of term and getting back into the swing of university life. I have also been suffering from a rather nasty cold that has pretty much left me in bed for the past few days.

Not all that much exciting has happened over the past ten days or so, my diary is full but nothing too report about – mainly meetings, endless meetings. I knew what I was letting myself in for when I signed up to these societies etc, but the reality is none the easier because of it.

I’m not going to spend too much time writing here as I have too much to do – a screenplay for A-Soc, several meetings and speeches to organise and a trip to London to finalise along with all my uni work.

CV is looking good now at least…

Today I attended my first CompSoc meeting. It followed the standard meeting format seeing as it was an Extraordinary General Meeting to make sure the society was well set for the new semester. I went with the intention of making myself known and doing some general networking as part of my ambition to further my political career within the university union. I walked away from the meeting, however, as the new secretary! Why is it that I can’t say no? I had no real intention of taking that large a lead within the society as I was quite happy with my A-Soc role.

In retrospect I may have been a little hasty in the decision to accept the position, but now it is done I feel I have quite a lot to bring to CompSoc and hopefully the job will stand me in good stead to make the step up to president of a society next year and then stand for a union role the year after. I think it is important not to jump straight into the presidency of a society as from what I ahve seen so far it is one big job. I think my two current committee commitments are more than enough. I have also recently been offered the position of treasurer at the Cheese Society, although I think I may have to turn that job down now.

I am looking forward to my new role and taking CompSoc forward into the new semester and hopefully we will have a massively successful year!

The new semester at university starts in less than two weeks. Well, it’s two weeks until Fresher’s Week begins anyway. Usually that wouldn’t be too significant as it is many years since I was a fresher, but this year I am helping A-Soc recruit new members at the Fresher’s Fair and generally make sure that A-Soc is a massive success this year whilst I am secretary. This means a lot of work! The past few weeks have basically seen me sat at my computer sending emails left, right and centre to sort out events, book speakers and generally make sure everything is set up for the new year. I have also been busy beavering away on speeches and presentations for the first few meetings of A-Soc seeing as we have a lot of debates planned. I am going to take this opportunity to plug A-Soc, so if you are in the Leeds area and are a student (or even if you are not) then get in touch with us at Atheist Society. Membership is £5 for the year and that gets you voting rights, access to our library of books and DVDs as well as a regular newsletter and invitations to all our events. Check out the website for listings.

New semester means new course for me. Having successfully changed from a MEng in Materials Science and Engineering to a Joint Honours BSc in Computing and Management I am really looking forward to getting my studies back on track. I could write a whole essay on the reasons behind that decision, but I think I will save it for a blog post sometime in the future. New semester also means new job. I somehow have to pay for my course and living expenses and at the moment there are a few options out there. Firstly, I have recently had some good news from McDonald’s which means that I can return there if I so wish, there is also a possibility of an opening with William Hill (the bookies) which looks like a good opportunity – mainly beacuse it is better pay and nicer hours!

All of this means that I am going to have less spare time to spend with friends and what’s more, I will probably end up seeing Liz a lot less than is ideal. Compounding this is the fact that Liz has applied for a new job (interview on Wednesday) which means she will be working full time hours and therefore be free a lot less. Normally, I would say that this sucks but I think our relationship is at the stage where we can understand and accept the commitments we both have and work our relationship around them. I am really looking forward to the next few months, they are probably going to decide the next few years of my life!

I am getting to that time of year when my to-do list starts to become a little unmanageable. I have got a list for A-Soc that fills a side of A4, my uni to-do list is already starting to get silly and then there are all the ‘little’ things like bills, dates etc that need to be tracked and organised. In conclusion, I need a diary.

Now, I have a paper diary, but it really doesn’t offer the functionality I want. Ideally I am looking for something that plugs into Thuderbird, has a scheduler, day planner and to-do list reminders built it along with a way of categorising stuff into various sections – ie uni, A-Soc etc.

Anyone any thoughts?

Twenty English pounds to be exact, which is more like forty US dollars, but then the saying is definitely less pithy when written “Another day, another forty US dollars”.

Anyway, I digress.

Yes, so I finished my last session helping the strive for neuro-physiological and -psychological advancement which earned me a nice crisp (well it’s actually well worn to be honest, but you get the picture) twenty pound note. Which is nice. Couple that together with the £35 my Dad has just put into my bank account I am veritably rich. I say rich, but it basically means I can afford to go home to scrounge in person from my Mum rather than on the telephone. I always find scrounging always benefits from the personal touch

I really wish I wasn’t in this position, I would love to be able to stand on my own two feet financially. However, bad decisions pre-university have cost me my ability to be fiscally independent. Even worse is the fact that my funding for next year is still up in the air, I have yet to hear whether I am going to receive any student support for the next year or so – really leaves me in a quandry as I cannot afford to fund my own learning and I am not really in a position to leave university all together. I am sure things will sort themselves out eventually, it is a government department after all so they are firm believers in “better late than never”.

It is so good to live with people again!

It has been a while since I have enjoyed being at home, in fact I probably have not felt entirely comfortable anywhere since I was about fifteen. I went through a tough few years during my late teens and early twenties, never really finding anywhere to fit in. I had some issues at home with my family during the later stages of school and into sixth form – nothing they had done mind, just my own personal issues that I projected onto those around me. I then moved over to Leeds and lived in university accommodation for a year. I met some good people that year, people that I considered myself friends with….until I moved into a shared house with them. I had a really torrid two years living with my girls. It’s not that we didn’t get on, it’s the fact that they formed a clique that I just wasn’t part of and we started to grow apart. Within six months of moving in i felt incredibly isolated and practically lived in my bedroom. It was not a good time.

This has all changed. Since my new housemates moved in I have realised that it is possible to actually enjoy being at home. Sarann and I have developed a beautiful new friendship, not surprising seeing as we have been living and working together for the past five weeks. We just seem to click, although subject to a few blowouts, and I feel that we now truly are good friends. I have developed a new found respect for Si too. I used to think he was a nice chap, quiet etc but have since discovered that he is actually a really interesting guy with a lot in common with me. He is also far too good at computer games!!

I think this year is going to be really good fun. I have friends I get on with and I have housemates that make being at home a better offer than going out!!

Thanks!

Today is the first day in a while where I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t have a job to dread (I finished my work up at the university yesterday), I have no really pressing things on my to-do list and I don’t have any uni work or anything piled up. I am at a loose end. There is lots for me to do though, the house needs a really good tidying up, my network cable needs laying (I did the rest of the house last weekend, but managed to forget my room!!) and I need to start downloading all the updates to WoW following my re-install of Windows. Somehow, these things are not exciting me as much as they possibly should. What I really want to do is go into town and buy some Magic: The Gathering trading cards.

I was introduced to this game recently by Si and MC and it rocks! It’s basically a trading card game based around magic. Most of my readers will have heard of it and some will probably play it, but it’s new to me so I am still rather obsessed about it. What is it with fads?

Anyway, today is the first real day of my summer and it’s raining. If I believed in omens I would probably take this as a sign that my summer was going to suck! I mean everything and everyone has gone crazy recently. The last two weeks has stretched Kara, Si and my sanity to breaking point. George is really struggling with some personal issues and Sarann is in love again B and MC seem to be the only people on a level at the moment, though being loud about it!

Oh well, here is to a very relaxing and recharging summer. I need it.

After several weeks offline due to holiday, work, festivals and moving house (well room….) I am finally back online, although only temporarily at the moment. I am currently using a makeshift internet connection until our house network is up and running, so I cannot vouch for the regularity of my posts for the foreseeable future. I will do my best to ensure that I try to keep you all up to date on the comings and goings currently making my life about as hectic as it has been in several years!

Firslty, I am currently working ten to eleven hour days for a framing company selling certificate frames to graduates at Leeds University. Good money but hard work! I had to pass up on the last two festivals I was supposed to be working due to a) a better offer and b) the feeling that the work I was doing was going very unappreciated to say the least!

Basically, my life is good. I have a fantastic girlfriend, amazing housemates, quality friends and a bank balance in the black! Not a lot else for me to say at the moment. I am sure that my future posts will include some of the details I have skipped over, but then again they might not. Requests on a postcard please.

Regular readers of my blog will be aware that I have recently embarked on a new relationship with a lovely young lady called Liz. Well, for the past week I have been staying with her at her Nan’s house whilst her grandparents are away on holiday for a couple of weeks. The reasons for me staying are two fold, a) it gave me an opportunity to spend some real and quality time with Liz away from the pressures of Leeds, friends and family and b) it gave me an opportunity to recharge my batteries and take stock of my life in a relaxed atmosphere.

I think both reasons have worked out for the very best. Liz and I have really gotten to know each other this week in the way you only achieve through spending time together. Having the house to ourselves was a real bonus, it has led to our relationship really developing into a beautiful adult relationship. Liz is a pretty good host too, she brings me cups of tea in the morning! Although, to be fair, I have actually done most of the work in terms of cooking, cleaning, washing etc and I have decided that Liz only really wants me for my car – it seems my chauffering skills are second to none, literally as there is no one else!

The second reason has almost been as amazing. I have really gotten to know myself through letting Liz get to know me. I think I am now in a position to move forward with my life, to start again as it were. The future holds many challenges for me and until recently I would have shied away from them and stuck my head in the sand. Now it is different. I am up for the challenge, I am relishing the challenge and most importantly I am willing to fight for what I want and fight to win.

The week in Potter’ has been relaxed although not entirely without action. Liz and I arrived from Leeds on Sunday afternoon and chilled out for most of the afternoon, we had take away – which wasn’t really up the high stabdards of Milano’s but not entirely inedible, after watching some telly we ended up going to bed relatively early. Monday was fairly standard too, didn’t really do all that much apart from a bit of shopping and some work. Tuesday saw me head back to Leeds for the morning, I picked up some quality newvinyl which gives m an excuse to update my hi-fi system, which is in the process of coming to fruition. We ended up going out into Lincoln with Liz, Edd and some of Edd’s friends to a club called Sugarcubes. It was a dive. Your standard student rock based night. Cheap drinks though at £1 for a bottle of lager/soft drink. Liz got very very drunk and I took her home. We were both quite ill on our return and as I hadn’t been drinking I wasn’t convinced it was the alcohol.

Liz returned to work on Wednesday after a few days off due to stress. Whilst she was there I did some reading and caught up with some work. A few problems occurred during the evening, none of which are really suitable for discussion here. Thursday was a faily quiet day, we watched the Lincoln City vs Bristol Rovers play off semi-final 2nd leg and I was a little dismayed to see Lincoln lose. Lincoln are not my team, but as I have several connections to the city, I have a certain affection for the club. A couple of films and a late night later we arrive at today, Friday. Liz is at work from 4-9pm this evening and then I imagine we will be heading back to Leeds.

Our plans for the weekend include watching he Blackpool game on Saturday, followed by the FA Cup final then Wendy House. Sunday will be a chilled out day then liz will head home whilst I get on with some chores and errands. Finally, I thought I would mention the fact that I have tickets to see The Who!!

Yesterday was the third annual Riley awards at Leeds University Union. The Rileys are basically an awards ceremony to reward societies for thir efforts over the past year. There are about seven categories and four nominations for each category. A society can nominate itself in three of the categories. The ceremony itself is based a bit on the Oscar’s, i.e. a central host inviting various people to present the awards, representatives from the winning society collecting the award and making a daft speech. The evening was punctuated with performances from a number of societies.

The event itself was actually quite fun, A-Soc had been nominated for an award so we got three complimentary tickets and acquired a couple more. Chris, Sarann and I went as reps for A-Soc and Michelle and liz came along as for moral support and a night out. Unfortunately A-Soc didn’t win anything – I can now saw “we was robbed!” The night was relatively smooth running considering it was organised by LUU and the entertainment was generally good fun if not incredibly camp!

As part of the evening, we received reduced VIP entry to Fruity, so we braved the sticky floor and drunken students and made a night of it. Charlie, DJ and John ended up joining us too. Everyone had a great time, especially Michelle who pulled. Twice. Drunken fun was had by all and the evening was rounded off with pizza at Chris’s then heading home.

Liz was incredibly amused by the fact that she was relatively sober and I was quite quite drunk. It’s the first time that’s happened whilst we have been seeing each other. I think I annoyed her a bit by pretty much going straight to sleep as she is as bad an insomniac as I am.

Off to see Soweto Kinch tonight, which will be cool.