I know I’ve been doing things worth writing about because I’ve not had chance to write about them for a while!
Health
I seemed to recover from glandular fever the day after being diagnosed, I have no idea why. The throat infection has gone but I still feel tired all the time.
A-Level Results and Uni (A little late I know)
A Computing
A DT: Product Design
B General Studies
E Maths
I am of course thrilled with the two As, couldn’t care less about General Studies and I’m gutted by my maths result. I needed a B to get into Nottingham University to do Computer Science, I was hoping for a C, I was expecting a D and I got an E.
I was the wrong side of the Irish sea on a camp site the day my results came through sitting on the end of a mobile phone with extremely expensive call charges back to England and a borrowed dialup internet connection from the owners of the camp site who were very accommodating. After being sent my results by text message and boggling over the UCAS web site I rang Nottingham just in case. Upon hearing my results they weren’t in the least bit interested, they didn’t even ask for my name or application number. They weren’t interested in what I was doing in my gap year, my “personal statement”, my plans for the future, nothing.
I did badly in my maths exams, therefore I wouldn’t be suitable for an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. I can’t help but find that very narrow minded and I’m confident I could have more than coped with the course, but I suppose they have to differentiate between people somehow. It makes me angry and disappointed.
Computer Science at Nottingham was my firm offer and the same course at UEA was my insurance. That means I’m currently lined up to do Computer Science in Norwich in a years time. I rang up UEA to confirm and they said everything was fine. The admissions tutor asked me what I’m doing in my gap year. I told her that I have a job as an ICT Technician at a community college for 30 hours a week and the rest of the time I’ll be doing Freelance Computer Support and the odd bit of web development. Her responce was “It doesn’t sound like you need an undergraduate degree!”. I won’t tell you what I thought when she said that. I also asked her if it would be possible to switch to Computer Systems Engineering before I start, which I’ve been thinking about for a long while. She said there should be no problem with that with my academic record.
djkoa ended up in clearing poor guy. His firm offer rang him up a couple of days before his results came out to tell him they’d cancelled his course!! In a few days he will start at UEA doing Computer Systems Engineering. That means that two of my friends will have started the same course as me at the same university but before me, one of them (mchicago)has just finished it. That feels a little weird. If I sign the letter UCAS is sending me soon then I can not re-apply for University next year through UCAS and I’m just not sure in a years time if I’m going to regret signing it.
Driving Test
My brother and I were due to take our driving tests last Thursday. On Wednesday night we had a phone call telling us our tests were cancelled because the examiner was sick. My brother’s test was rescheduled for September 9th and mine for September 13th. This means I’m screwed because I can’t get to work at my new job for two weeks, that’s assuming I pass my test first time (I have no driving lessons for that extra two weeks so that means I’ll be out of practice in my instructor’s car). I hate relying on lifts from other people and I hate having to pay double the petrol money as well! To make it worse my grandad who is giving me lifts when lauperr can’t because she’s working is moving to Peterborough any day so won’t be able to take me any more.
I rang up the DSA to explain my situation and asked if it was standard practice to cancel tests the night before and would I be compensated for it? They said that the examiner was ill and they couldn’t get cover and they only cancel tests as a last resort. I could be compensated for half a days unpaid leave from work. That hardly makes up for all the extra petrol being used, the inconvenience of taking a day off work when I’m not really allowed to, two extra weeks of lessons I should really be taking to keep up to scratch but can’t afford to, all the potential on site Computer Support work I’m missing out on because I can’t get anywhere!
Work
I’ve now done two weeks of work (overtime) at the college, we’ve been setting up all the computers on the network over the summer holidays. I must have helped set up about 150 Apple Macs (22 of them single handedly). It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve learnt loads about Macs and built several PCs, shifted around a lot of kit, argued over a skip with builders and been treated to a pub lunch!
Tomorrow I start for real though when all the teaching staff start, then on Thursday the year 7s start then on Friday the rest of the college. So far it’s just been me, Adam (Network Manager), Gary (IT Technician) and a couple of guys who came in to help out (James and Tom). As of tomorrow I’ll be working mainly with completely different people and the job’s going to be very different when the college is actually full of students!
On top of the “day job” I’ve been doing bits of Computer Support work and I’ve got two web development projects running at the moment. With all that and the money I’m owed from the Royal Albert Hall job two months ago, my bank balance may see a sharp rise at the end of September before a sharp fall when I pay back about £700 I owe people!
LLUG
The first real life Lincolnshire Linux User Group meeting is on September 11th, more info here. I’m giving a talk at the meeting, very scary.
Holiday
See the photos here
A week ago I returned from two weeks touring the Ring of Keri in Southern Ireland with the family in our VW Camper. Camping isn’t much fun when it rains every single day of the holiday, but it wasn’t all bad.
The first camp site we arrived at in Wales on the way to the ferry turned out to be an empty field on a slope with no facilities and a very unfriendly lady who yelled to us from a doorway. We left. Luckily I have a great Aunt and Uncle who lived very close by so we parked up on their driveway for the night and slept there, surrounded by sheep! Uncle Bobby is a genius at everything including Computers, Cars and Photography which kept us all in conversation for the evening. Their house is like fort knox with CCTV cameras everywhere and very high concrete walls around the perimeter. There are five VCRs in the kitchen recording 24/7 and a TV which switches between all the cameras and CCTV shopping channels!
We had some pretty bad mechanical problems with the camper van including a serious oil leak. By the end of the holiday we’d gone through *3 gallons* of oil over the 1400 miles we’d travelled! We didn’t think we’d make it up the steep ramp onto the ferry but the 2 litre engine managed it although it would eventually cause us problems later in the holiday. The ferry crossing from Penbroke to Rosslair was great and with excellent weather we spent most of the journey on top of the boat outside watching the land disappearing and then just sea in all directions until we could eventually see the Irish shoreline and a golden beach we would visit days later. On the ferry I bought an Official Guinness black coat.
On the other side of the ferry we took a short journey to St. Margarets Beach Camp Site which had the kind of facilities we’re used to with the Camping and Caravan Club and the Caravan Club. I would later recieve my exam results at this camp site.
The following morning we had the worst journey, ever. And there were about 300 miles of it. The campervan had developed a serious problem and the engine wouldn’t idle. Whenever you slowed right down or stopped the engine would cut out. This really came to a head at the town closest to the camp site we were stopping at when we found ourselves stranded in the middle of the Kilorglin Festival in cues of traffic for about half an hour. We must have restarted the engine at least 20 times while we crawled about a mile through the town and it was very very stressful. When we were driving slowly dad tried to keep the engine going by jump starting it with the motion of the vehicle which can’t have been fun for the people behind and certainly didn’t do the camper any good.
We finally arrived at a village called Glenbeigh at the Glenn Ross camp site on the Ring of Keri where we would spend the next 8 nights. When someone eventually turned up to book us in they were very friendly (despite recovering from a hangover)and it turned out she’d just been talking to a mechanic in the village and said she’d give him a call about our engine problems. He turned up not long after and had a look but said he couldn’t try and fix it for a couple of days and couldn’t make any promises.
So for a couple of days we explored the area, had a lovely meal at the Towers Hotel next door to the camp site and spent an evening at the Ashes pub which was lovely. You really really can’t beat Irish pubs, or the Guinness served in them. An Irishman at the bar helped me with a crossword the barman had given me to finish by explaining that “Crannog” was an old Irish word for “Lake dwellings”. I also remember eating Kings crisps which are gorgeous! (I brought back a packet for lauperr to try. We also tried to walk to the beach but went completely the wrong way and must have walked about two miles before we ended up at a different beach where we had a meal and got drenched by the rain.
A day earlier than he’d said the mechanic turned up to fix the camper and we spent the day in the games room on the camp site. Being a bit miffed at having to pay a Euro for every 8 minute shower and getting no discount for being Caravan and Camping club members we’d figured out how to cheat the pool table and get unlimited games for one Euro and managed to cheat the arcade machine out of 1.50. This seemed impressive until a 10 year old turned up and showed us you could actually cheat the pool table by sticking the cue in the middle pocket and tilting the tray of balls which meant you didn’t have to pay at all! I know I know, we were being dishonest yadda yadda, but we were having a pretty miserable time at this point and feeling pretty cheated.
The camper was given a clean bill of health after having the muck in the jets on the carburettor blown out and a screw removed from one of the tyres (still had the oil leak mind you). We tipped the mechanic and went for a drive and saw a bit of the ring of keri and took lots of photos. We then managed to find the beach at Glenbeigh and met an Irishman called Martin who was riding his horse and cart up and down the beach. He called us over to have a ride! Mum said “I’m sorry, I don’t have any money”. His response was “Ah, you don’t need money in this life” which I thought was great!
The following day we found out that our next door neighbours on the camp site were from Norwich and they told us that there was going to be music in the Towers Hotel that night. We turned up and met a lovely South African couple there who we sat with all night. He was an IT technician working in England so we got on great. Then Martin from the beach turned up and we bought him a drink and he sat with us too. A tip, if you’re buying a drink for an Irishman don’t wait for him to finish the one he’s drinking first because you’ll never get in quick enough!
So there I was in an Irish pub, drinking Guinness with a genuine Irishman with Live Irish music blaring (we made requests!) and crazy Irish people dancing around like lunatics until 2 in the morning. This was what Ireland was all about then! I remember the South African guy saying he wondered who to put his bets on, the Student or the Irishman. Martin and I kept buying each other pints (he tried to buy a couple of rounds for the whole family a couple of times but I insisted we paid some of that) and I was certainly keeping up with him.
I’m told by eye witnesses I drank 7-8 pints of Guinness that night although I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. Maybe not. But it didn’t stop there. We left Martin still drinking at the bar and headed back to the camp site. There was a room there with three Irish families sat round with a guitar and a table covered with sheet music, all singing along. Dad went off to the camper to go to bed but the rest of us joined in the party and in my drunken state I was pursuaded to sing and play some songs myself in return for cans of Budweiser. I finally slipped out when I couldn’t think of any more songs I knew without the words in front of me and I got into bed, feeling on top of the world! That was the best day of the holiday by far.
We saw the whole ring of Keri in a day and took hundreds of photos between us (I’d taken a digital camera and my iBook). It was gorgeous despite all the rain and the photos really don’t do it justice, you have to be there! We visited Killarney where I found Internet Access! and Kilorglin after the festival had finished which was a little boring.
We eventually had to pack away the awning and get ready for the return journey. We had the best sunshine of the holiday that morning which helped with drying out the groundsheet and canvas and it was overall a very relaxing day. We watched the sun set on the beach that evening which was gorgeous! (see photos).
The following day we went back to the St. Margarets Beach camp site and when we saw the beach we wished we’d spent longer there! I heard someone playing a tin whistle that night in a tent not far away. I got out my tin whistle and started to play it out of the window. Their playing stopped for a bit, then we had a whole conversation in the international language of music. Eventually a German man crawled out of his tent and told me it was his wife and daughter who were playing. We had a long conversation with him (his English was brilliant) and really put the world to rights before going to bed!
The following morning was results day (see above). After getting my results I spent most of the rest of the day on the beach. In the evening we saw Rosslare (the town itself) which wasn’t really worth seeing but we found a great pub on the way back and ate out for the last time that holiday. Great scampi, but the Guinness wasn’t great.
The morning of the ferry we had to get up at 6. The ferry left 45 minutes late but it was a pleasant trip, this time we spent more time in the shop than we did on the top deck! At the other side of the 69 mile, 4 hour trip over the Irish sea we travelled 300 miles across Wales and England and got home around 11pm. It was so so so so nice to cuddle lauperr I can’t describe it and I fell asleep in my own bed for only the second time in a month, curled up with lauperr