Below are the 8 most recent journal entries recorded in ha_wi_wy's LiveJournal:

Friday, August 18th, 2006
11:31 pm	Summer so far So I've finally got round to providing another update, and given how long its been since I last wrote anything here there's a fair bit that I could mention. I suppose that I ought to get into the habit of designating a certain LJ update time/day and doing a weekly entry, and right now, almost into the last third of my summer holidays with over a month to go before I head up north to my new pad in Kenilworth (because I'm Kenilworth it?... could make a half decent MSN screen name joke) and the start of my final year, I should have the time. That said, I can see that quite soon after the start of term I may not have the time to committ to such a regular slot if i'm doing the amount of work & reading that i'll need if I'm going to get the final marks I want. This year's grades were really quite someway from being good, a situation I mainly put down to me not taking enough time to actually understand what I was being taught. It wasn't that I didn't go to lectures and seminars - I probably attended more than most people - but I know that I didn't do as much reading as friends on my course and didn't make as much use of tutors and seminars as others. Having gone into my second year with the stated aim that I would work a lot harder than as a Fresher and would get a First, I guess I've seen how my plan didn't come to fruition but believe (well, hope) that I can get my arse in gear with my 3rd year. Aside from receiving a necessary academic wake-up call in the form of crappy exam results, the first few weeks of my summer were taken up with a Deloitte Tax & Audit internship based in their St Albans office. This probably sounds decidedly unthrilling and, having originally applied for their Consulting internship in London, I was somewhat wary about how I would find these areas. At the end of my 5 week placement, my perceptions had been changed, and I now view these careers in a better light but I'm still not sure if I could actually see myself working in either of them - at present I'm still thinking more about consulting, banking, or law but need to work on how to persuade HR people why I really only want to do one of these options. Other summer activities, hmmm... slightly before the end of my internship it was my 21st Birthday and, as I've never been great at organising large parties, this was celebrated with a gathering in a central london pub with a few friends from school and uni. Hardly what one might imagine would be fitting of a 21st birthday, but i guess its only regarded as a significant birthday because people are brought up to perceive it as such, even though being 21 no longer holds much significance vis-a-vis being younger (ok, unless you want to drink in the US or gain access to pretentious club/bar). About a dozen or so people showed up but I was pretty pleased with this as I imagine many of my uni friends will have been away from London or even the UK at this stage of the holidays. Also did a bit of orienteering, in the form of the Lakes 5 Day event where I consistently made stupid 20-30 minute mistakes but came away feeling that I'd leant something, besides having the chance to enjoy some stunning countryside and terrain. We also used one of the 2 rest days to run up and down Helvellyn (sic) - actually mostly a walk up - and I now really do appreciate the thrill of sprinting down steep, uneven trails and can't wait until I can launch myself off a similar hill. Been doing a fair bit of athletics for my home club (Woodford Green AC with Essex Ladies) and also a few triathlons, which conveniently brings things to my plans for this weekend. Driving up to Bedford for the British Athletics Golden Jubilee Cup Final (my first track 10km, how monotonous will it be? lets find out...) before driving on up to Coventry. Here I'll be staying with a friend from uni who, like me, will be competing in the Wolverhampton Triathlon on Sunday, my first olympic distance event! Anyway, that's enough for today but hopefully I will update in a few days time, if just to give some kind of comment or emotional coverage rather than simply listing event. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: The Killers - When You Were Young (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 4th, 2006
12:17 am	Right, seems like it has been yonks since my last update, so though I really should provide a round up of past few months events with regards to me, or maybe just a general entry. I probably said this to myself at this same point last year but shit, the year & this term in particular has gone by so quickly. Its now the end of week 7 in Warwick-speak and I'm already being confronted with hordes of 1st & 3rd or 4th years who have finished their exams and need to prove the point by drinking bottles of Champagne from Ice buckets whilst I cycle onto campus to find a revision grotto. As yet, my exams haven't yet started, my first one (German 1, should be pretty easy) being on Monday, and I am getting reasonably nevous about the prospect, not least because these 4 forthcoming exams are worth most of this year which in turn is 50% of my degree. My mood and attitude towards these generally seems to change at least 2 or 3 times a day from guarded optimism to angst & foreboding and on the whole I'm quite pissed off at myself for having not done enough revision so far. On the afternoon of the 13th June these should all be a fading, drunken memory as I settle down in the airport lounge/Bar after my last exam and I've then managed to find something to do on almost every remaining day of term - along the lines of barbecues, parties, orchestra concerts, 3 Peaks Challenge, orienteering, more barbecues etc. Amidst the gathering gloom of impending exams, I have had a few sources of light. Firstly, I learnt that I'd got a place on a summer internship scheme (not my first choice of employer, but hey, any internship's good internship) which will give me 5 weeks of paid work at the start of my hols and should also provide me with funds to fly out to France to visit paranoid_blonde. I also found out a few weeks ago that, after having been selected for the Warwick University Challenge Team and having attended a preliminary selection round with my fellow team mates, we've made it through to the TV stage of the contest. Slight downside is that the recordings of the 1st round are on the day before my last (and maybe thoughest) exam, but hopefully i'll have done enough revision by then and anyway, its University Challenge. To be honest, the full impact of this hasn't really sunk in on me, but it should provide a useful ego boost when its broadcast next term, as long as we don't get thrashed early on. Hmm, there is a lot more that I could talk about, but as it is my head is starting to hurt so probably best to cease this and head to bed. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006
11:37 pm	Painful lessons Went along to my home fencing club tonight and received an effective, if slightly painful & rather dramatic lesson in why one really should perform effective parries, particularly when facing relatively enthusiastic opponents. To be honest, I hadn't been fencing that well all evening, but during my third sabre fight I received a hefty cut to the head so that the blade happened to whip round the edge of my mask. Definitely an accident and somewhich I might have done myself, but after stopping and rubbing the back of my head a bit, i noticed that my hand was a bit red. As it turned out, the blood had managed to pour down my neck, and, when I removed my mask, began dripping onto my breeches and the floor. Despite having a certain, numbing pain at the point of impact, I was more suprised and somehow amused than anything as other club members soon hurried over with medical assistence. Having had the wound mopped up, and after removing and inspecting the blood stains on my fencing kit, I was then advised that I shouldn't take part in any more bouts that evening (it wasn't really my priory at that point) and, irritatingly but understandably, that I shouldn't join the others in the pub after training. That said, upon being given a lift home, a sense of shock began to set in and it took me a good 15 mins in front of the piano with a large glass a water to get over this. Anyway, asides from highlighting my emotional weakness and bloodying my kit, I'm hoping that this incident will encorage me to sharpen by parries in future. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 25th, 2006
9:18 pm	Maintaining the pretense of working Right, I know this is my first entry since I-don't-know-when (probably February) so I'm not going to make any more pledges to 'regularly' keep this updated since I know that I'll only let this slip within a week. Not that I don't intend to keep this thing regularly updated, but i'd rather not make another promise to myself that I'll probably break. I've now reached the end of the 2nd week of my Easter holidays (yes, I'm one of those jammy bastards who gets 5 weeks off between Spring & Summer terms) and I'm kinda wondering where this 40% of my vacation has actually gone. True, I've managed to get one (cough, 150 word) german assignment out of the way, and i've done a bit of reading, but otherwise nout related to my course, or the twin evils of a couple more assignments. The break got off to a memorable and active start with the BUSA Orienteering Championships up in Edinburgh, where not only did I not get too lost, I also had the experience of competiting in 1/2 ft of snow, yay! There was also the boat race at the social on the Saturday night, but lets avoid that topic. I then headed down to the Lake District with 5 other ppl from the club for a few days of training in the Lake District, which was truely stunning, covered in around a foot of snow. This did make driving & running off-road rather difficult, but the views more than made up for this. Since then, well, I generally been sitting around in my pad in Earlsdon, doing minimal amounts of productive stuff, interspersed with a family get-together for my grandfather's birthday last Saturday and an interview for a place on a Summer Intership scheme with RBS. Personally, I'd felt that this had gone fairly well, but after not receiving a call within a couple of days I began to worry, before finally receiving an e-mail yesterday to inform me that my application would no longer be considered. Still feeling kinda shitty as a result, coupled with the fact that all of my house mates have gone home already, but i'm trying to remain positive about this & I've requested feedback from them to gain some idea as to quite why they rejected me. A fencing competition today (West Mids Champs) did, in a way, help to take my mind off this, even though I did get pretty stressed whilst attempting to use AA route planner directions to find the venue (I think I prefer driving in East London to Birmingham, which is saying quite a bit), and at loosing more fights than i should have (yes, some of them were good fencers, but they were beatable & I ought to have got more hits - own shitty fencing to blame). Anyway, enough of what is rapidly turning into an over descriptive, incoherent rant. I'm heading back to London tommorrow, via the Southern 12-stage road relays in Milton Keynes where my team captain has put me down for the 1st leg for the A-team (cue cult tv show music), showing an estimation of my current form that I just hope I can meet. Once back in sunny Woodford Green work will need to get done, but I'm really looking forward to possibly meeting up with paranoid_blonde during her brief return and distractogirl. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Razorlight, Somewhere else (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, February 13th, 2006
11:56 pm	Nearly recovered (i hope) Had I written this entry yesterday it probably would have started with some Gershwin-based lyrics along the lines of 'I feel shitty, oh so shitty, I feel shitty and whitty etc.'. As it is, i'm now almost recovered from a bout of nasty, irritating cold/cough/flu (fingers crossed), which has afflicted me for over a week now. Last Friday, whilst travelling up to Stirling for the BUSA Cross Country Championships (or maybe it was during the meal that evening, really not that important) I began to feel kinda odd - cough, dehydrated, head freezing. The next morning I felt even worse and was seriously considering not competing in the race, but having travelled that far, I decided to run. At it turned out, I didn't feel anywhere near as bad as I thought that might, but I didn't run anywhere near as well as i could, and finished about 50 places down on last year. Since then I've not really done any training, which has been v frustrating - I generally feel pretty lazy if a day goes by in which I do no form of exercise, and I sense that every day that i'm not doing some form of cardio-vascular training, I'm losing fitness, even though I know that if I restart training before i'm totally recovered, I could prolong my illness. Arggggh! Decided that I should get some orienteering practice in before the BUSA Champs at the beginning of March so I took part in the West Midlands Championships yesterday, which was probably a mistake since I felt pretty rough throughout and finished 12th out of, erm, 12. Otherwise, things are going ok-ish. Had our last BUSA league fencing match on Wednesday, against Cambridge 2nds. We lost this by 135-93, but given how few squad members had been available to take part, I wasn't that disappointed. In all honesty, i'm fairly glad that this marks the effective end of my role as Men's Team Captain, since, although I have often enjoyed it and found it quite rewarding, it has often proved to be a great source of additional stress due to the pressures of assembling a team for each match and then hoping that everyone would show up in time. I've spent the past few weeks hopefully checking my hotmail inbox for replies from the various companies whose internships i've applied for - haven't heard from the majority, but there's been encouraging news from RBS and Deloitte, while I had an interview with Clifford Chance on Friday. Given that, at present, law is the career that i'm keenest on entering, I was extremly pleased to learn that I'd got an interview and am now eagerly checking every message. If they do offer me an internship maybe I can sent some kind of self-rightious notification e-mail to the 2 bastard law firms who rejected me. Other stuff that's happened over the past few weeks... I've finally resigned my positions on the Warwick Union Council, Democracy Committee, and Communications Committee, so that I can join the Elections Group and take over as Returning Officer; sounds fairly dull, yes, but i'm thinking that it'll be informative and potentially enjoyable, and will give me the chance to see union democracy, for better or for worse, from a different perspective. On a rather disturbing note, I received an e-mail on saturday morning from my parents that informed me that one of my cousins had been on one of the coaches invovled in the crash in Germany. Thankfully she was ok, although I can't imagine how shaken she must be as a result and certainly wouldn't wish this kind of experience on anyone. Probably enough for one entry there, although I do realise that its been over 2 weeks since my last update (these will get more frequent, really [I tell myself]). As tommorrow is 14th February, it is quitely likely to be result in me being pretty depressed, acting as it does as a reminder of the fact that, in over one and a half years at uni (argggh, i'm half way through my degree!) I haven't been in one relationship - well not in term-time, and even that barely counts. What's wrong with me? This isn't a rhetorical question - any suggestions will be gratefully received; i'm desperate! (Comment on this)
Monday, January 16th, 2006
3:00 am	V belated update Finally, a new entry, though much, much later than I had intend to follow my initial florish of, er, 2 entries. In my defense, I would like to say that, almost immediately after my first entries, I travelled up to Fort William for a week of mountaineering with the university Hill & Mountain Walking (though soon to be re-named 'Warwick Mountains') Club. With pretty decent whether all week, especially considering what the Scottish climate usually serves up, coupled with the opportunity to see some truely stunning scenery and the exilarating experience of reaching the summit of Ben Nevis, I'd say I definitely enjoyed the week. Admittedly 'enjoyed' tends to be one of the all purpose words that i'll use in any postcard or other holiday description, dashed off in a few minutes and conveying no real indication of my actual feelings, by I can say that, unlike on many trips, i can't recall one moment when I found myself counting down the days until I returned. Since getting back from Scotland, I've been back into the thick of university work, sports club exec tasks, and union stuff. Despite all this, i know that I could and should have found the time to add to this, and i'm pissed off at myself for having not done so. In a fairly content, though not necessarily relaxed mood this weekend, having submitted a couple of assignments for a deadline last Thursday (ok, so I had to sprint to the undergrad office and then rely on there being a queue so as not to lose marks for lateness). In the Essex Cross Country Champs yesterday, I managed what was probably one of the best performances that I've achieved yet, certainly in recent years, coming 8th and thereby qualifying for the squad for the Inter-Counties match in March. After a few weeks of intense training in the second half of December, I really felt that this had paid off, running at least as strongly and comfortably as I ever have in 8 or so years of competitive running. Looking at the time at the corner of my screen, sleep does now seem like a particularly good idea, especially since I'll need to cycle on to campus for a 2 hour German class in a bit under 6 hours. Given that I've asked paranoid_blonde to continually pester me to ensure that i keep this updated, am hoping that they'll be another update pretty soon. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 24th, 2005
1:18 am	self education into the ways of lj Right, have just figered out how to include links to friends' journals, as I feebly attempted to in my first entry. Yippee. Now really need to get some sleep. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
12:30 am	My first journal entry, yay! I doubt that i would have ever got round to starting this had it not been for paranoid_blonde and distractogirl's persuasion, so many thanks to them - admittedly, I had been aiming to start some kind of journal since the end of last summer, and had told quite a number of the people that i met then that I would soon have a blog. It didn't happen, which I generally told myself was because I was too busy, but, as much as I do have to get done whilst at uni, I know that I could have found the time; this was just sheer procrastination on my part. Anyway, I am damn glad that I've round to this, since I'm hoping that'l give the opportunity to record some of the thoughts, emotions, and other ideas that I have on a usually daily basis, so that I can look back on them and either laugh at how dumb/depressed/naive/optimistic I was, or perhaps actually learn something. As for right now, I've just got back from paranoid_blonde's house, where I also got to see distractogirl and ravenfiredragon, none of whom i've seen in what feels like ages, so this alone made it more than worth while going. That said, I was intrigued to meet paranoid_blonde's family, having heard so much about them. Having had a fair few glasses of wine, I'd say i'm more tired than would usually be the case at this time of night (or maybe morning), so don't think that I can write much more that I'd be happy to read at a future date. Yes, I did spend much of the 1&1/2 hour train journey back staring out into the London night, considering what I was going to write here, but, hey, I'm aiming to update this within a few days *fingers crossed*. Current Mood: productive Current Music: Franz Ferdinand - Walk Away (Comment on this)