Student Blogs

I realized again today that we are all growing older. Well thats obvious I suppose, but I specifically mean the old group of friends from Coventry.

It feels as though we are in a significant milestone in life as we all (mostly) have finished University and are off into the big wide world to explore and work.

Only this week, Matt and Helen headed off to Canada for what seems to be an eternity, but only a year. I’m going to miss the whole going down the pub at major holidays!

However, it’s also a really nice time of life. Having the weekends free to catch up with friends, go down the pub and run around singing thundercats is fun! And having some money is kinda nice!
I also feel a bit older after enjoying the Phil Collins song from the Cadbury’s advert and remembering the last time I heard it… 97 I think! Woah!

On Sunday our luck ended with the weather; the skies opened and the rain came down- the myths about the enormous amount of precipitation here were true! In search of an indoor activity we found ourselves at the Telus World of Science at Science World (bit of an unnecessary mouthful?). There was an unnerving number of children there, and we began to worry that it might be aimed more at their age-group. But fear not, many of the interactive activities outwitted us- you’d think that a Masters in Engineering from Cambridge might equip you with the ability to separate two pieces of metal, but no!

Sunday afternoon/evening we were invited to the birthday bbq of one of the Anglo employees (who, incidentally, I’d never actually met).. we hit our first obstacle when we tried to purchase a bottle of wine to take with us- easier said than done. The supermarket and general grocery stores don’t sell them, the ‘liquor store’ was closed, and anyone we asked for help in finding alcohol presumed we were alcoholics!!! The bbq was fun though, and it was good to meet some of the other people who work for Anglo American.

On Monday we went to Canada’s second largest mall, I needed some new boots but after a while thought we might have to seek out Canada’s largest mall because I couldn’t find any I liked!! Panic not, a few hours on I had my new Rocketdogs, and Matt seemed somewhat jaded, lol.

In the evening we met with Andy (from Pembroke) in his new surroundings of UBC. We went out for vegetarian curry and caught up on how he’s getting on. Ironically all the pubs we went to after dinner were Irish pubs, so he felt at home- it seems like they’re the only ones you can find out here.

Today we’re planning to go to Granville Island, and meet up with Lydia (geologist from Cambridge)… see here for more details!

In a county where wireless internet is becoming ever more popular, it seems like the obvious step would be to move towards technologies which take advantage of this widespread coverage. The most obvious benefit to me appears to be the use of voice over IP (VoIP).

Using handheld devices which are WiFi enabled, voice calls could easily and cheaply be routed over the internet resulting in significant savings in comparison to current mobile phone technologies. For example, in the center of Manchester wireless broadband coverage is close to 100%, and at a cost of only £10 per month would enable the subscriber to make calls for next to nothing over services such as Skype. Furthermore, as more people utilized this approach, the greater the saving as many of these services offer free VoIP to VoIP calls.
So, it sounds like the way forwards? Right? Well yes but will it happen? Probably not! Phone companies have an obvious interest in keeping mobile users on mobile telephones. The majority of handsets currently on the market do not have WiFi capabilities, or if they do often do not have the processing power to allow them to run VoIP software. Or even worse, if they do have WiFi and enough processing power, are massive and too large to be comfortably carried around.
I noticed the new Apple iPhone had WiFi capabilities and thought great, the ideas discussed above could easily be achieved… but no, unfortunately it is really quite difficult and solutions are inelegant! Shame, we could all have saved some money!

Last Saturday I got to meet one of my childhood heros, Mr Stewart Lee, I was a big fan of Lee and Herring when i was younger, earlier in the year i had been extremely disappointed when i went to see Richard Herring’s show at the Warwick Art Centre, he had lost the audience from the start and as a result, many people walked out. Stewart Lee’s show contrasted strongly and was just in a completly different league to Herring, he knew exactly how to build his routines and where to stop them.

His show entitled 41st Greatest Comedian due to his baring in a Poll conduted by Channel 4 earlier this year is satirical view on theme covering Television, in particualr Big Brother as well as look on many aspects of life from a ‘thinking man’s idiot’ viewpoint. It was full of sharp witty oneliners, at one point he described Russell Brand as condeming racism on Celebrity Big Brother whilst dressed as a cartoon pirate. Although his stand up is amazing and ‘cliche-free’, his man is not a fan of Stewart’s work and belive Tom O’Connor told a much better joke about a sardine on a gig he did on a cruise ship, the rest of the show looks at his viewpoint as well as how good the public are at judging comedy. I would recommend anyone considering to see Stewart Lee on this tour to do so. The Belgrade Theatre were charging £21 a ticket but the rest of the tour is much more cheaply priced and he is definaly worth seeing.

Also the ticket price covers Lee’s warm act….the oxymoron that is a German Stand-Up Comedian.

Stewart Lee is a really good guy as well as was happy to talk to me before the show and afterwards, he even gave me a free cd!!

We left Heathrow on Thursday in thick fog after a minor delay with some bags having to be taken off as the owner didn’t board the plane. But we had a good flight and got to Vancouver only a few minutes late. We landed just before the sun went down so as we were flying over the Rockies we got to see the snow capped mountains - it was amazing!

So we landed, went through immigration where I (Matt) had to get my visa sorted (Helen already had hers from her summer work). It wasn’t too bad a process and we were quickly on our way out of the airport. We managed to find a bus heading to the town centre (or “Downtown”) to get us to the hostel. We checked in, but they had messed up our booking a bit and we had to have a different room to the one we booked - but it was all ok.

On the first full day (Friday) we opened bank accounts and bought phones (ask us for our numbers if you want them!). We then met up with some of Helen’s friends from Anglo in the evening for beers, food and more beers - that was really good fun!

Then yesterday we woke up and having nowhere to stay that night, decided we should look into it. We had an offer of staying with one of Helen’s friends but decided to check into the other hostel in town which is more central and accessible. So we now have an en-suite room with a nice view of town. We checked in there and then went for a wander in town. We made it all the way to Stanley park which was really nice. Below are some photos from the day - the two of us, a maple leaf and Helen writing postcards (as usual!).

In the evening yesterday we went for some food at an Irish pub (hehe) and then went to bed really early as we were so so tired! (Jet-lag is still affecting us a little! We woke up at 4:00 thinking it was time to get up…).

Today we’re going to do some more sight-seeing, perhaps the science museum and then we’re going to a BBQ with Helen’s Anglo friends later on today.

I have been taking a break from blogging for the last couple of months. The break wasn’t intentional, just as a result of no time and even less sleep!

So, as a quick update in one short post, in the last three or so months I have:
Started a new job working in Bradford to which I commute from Manchester every day, got engaged to my beautiful girlfriend - now fiance, started at a new church, bought a car, been on holiday twice… and I think thats about it!

I’m hoping to keep this blog updated a little more often, so check back soon. You can also read this and some of my friends blogs at StudentBlogs.co.uk

Well, the final preparations are happening for the trip to Canada! We’re currently doing the last bits of packing, getting money, phoning round places and getting visas sorted. It’s all going well and looks like we’ll be well and truly ready for Thursday.

Our flight leaves the UK at 17:10 on Thursday and lands in Vancouver 9 hours 20 minutes later. They’re 8 hours behind, so the flight will seem as if it’s only taken 1 hour 20 minutes - how strange! Hopefully we’ll slot quickly into the time over there and not have too many problems with feeling tired at the wrong times.

Anyway, hope everyone has a wonderful time this year, I’ll keep writing on this blog (or maybe a new, travel one) with updates on the trip.

See y’all next year!