the Lives of the Young and Irresponsible

Training

livingonastudentloan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:24:46 +0000

Ok, so starting off my training for the 10 mile run is….. my rest day. Basically, on Monday’s I usually have 9-6pm lectures, followed by 6.15-9.30pm work, so I decided to have Monday and Fridays as my rest days, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays as running days, and Wednesdays and Sundays as alternative cardio days. But I did have porridge with berries for breakfast so I feel like I’m off to a reasonable start!

Tomorrow I’m going to start with a 2.5 mile run to the other end of campus and back. I’m also going to try and time it more carefully than usual because of some complicated training thing that my dad explained yesterday- he said to start with a small run and do that until you’ve decreased the time by 10% and then add half a mile. Apparently his running coach says that it’s a really effective method as long as you’ve got a couple of months to do it. Since I’m new to the racing scene I’ll take his word for it; I’ve run before but only casually.

Please add any training tips, especially regarding diet!

10 miles….

livingonastudentloan — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:53:06 +0000

…. is the distance that I’m planning to run later this year. Basically for me it’s a personal incentive to take up running seriously again, because discovering a repressed love of chocolate in all forms is making me feel a touch on the chunky side, but also because I thought that if I’m taking up a form of exercise seriously then I may as well help out someone else at the same time, right? So I entered myself into the Cabbage Patch race and am hoping to do a half marathon next year, but at the moment I’m looking for a charity to raise money for. So please leave a comment with your favourite charity, and why you think I should support that one and I’ll go for whichever sounds best! Thanks!

On a separate note, I miss my dog Sparky…. the way he used to try and sneak into my bed…. how he licks my face if I fall asleep on the sofa… how he rolls in poo and then comes in proudly to show me

Youtube

livingonastudentloan — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:14:08 +0000

So a few days ago my friend sent me a Chris Crocker link where he rants about people saying “That’s so gay”. Anyway, in the middle of it he whines something along the lines of ”Gay isn’t even an adjective people!!!one!!!!!” so in the comments section I pointed that it was in fact an adjective. So this morning I woke up with not one, not two, but fifty-seven personal messages telling me that I’m a homophobic cow. LOL

Was meant to be going to the student union tonight but have just got back from a seven hour shift of ringing people, getting their answer phones or being told to f*** off, and really can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of getting ready. Instead I ‘m going to have a boiling hot bubble bath, a wispa bar and a large glass of red wine, followed by the whole first series of Green Wing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpnhX8zQDAM if you’re interested).

Nighty night!

Telesales/ Fundraising

livingonastudentloan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:42:21 +0000

So I’m about to head off for my job. It’s sort of telesales but I like to think of it as fundraising…. basically we ring alumni from my university and ask for money to go towards the Annual Fund, which provides things like bursaries for current students and funds projects, like buying a new boat for the rowing club. Some people are amazing- a 68 year old guy I spoke to the other day does 90km road races as well as running 20km every morning just to wake himself up. Others are weird, like the guy who spent 10 minutes talking about the foursome that his girlfriend arranged for his birthday and then asked for my mobile number at the end of the conversation.

So hopefully I’ll get some nice people tonight!

Money Woes and the Optician

livingonastudentloan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:39:55 +0000

Now, since the maximum student loan you can draw out depends on your family income and my daddy has a good job, my loan barely covers the cost of my university accommodation and leaves me with no money for things like…. food, for example. Luckily dad helps me out, and I have a job (more on that later) but I still have to budget fairly carefully. Anyway, the reason I’m whining about this now is because today I have an opticians appointment (I’ve realised that when you can’t really see the board from the middle of the lecture theatre it’s and issue). But here in England it costs £20 to have an assessment and from what I can see on the optician’s website, frames start at around £50, not including the cost of the lens. This leaves me in a pickle since I actually cannot afford it unless I ask daddy to bail me out, and I’m sick of having to be so dependent on him (not that he minds, but even so…)

So yes, that’s my not-very-interesting dilemma this morning.

Meerkats and naked mole rats and strapless dress issues

livingonastudentloan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:44:57 +0000

So last night I went out (for the first time in weeks, I’d like to say!) and the whole night was exceptionally weird. I was with two friends, who I’ll call Eliza and Cathy for privacy’s sake and both of them are single. I should have known that going out with just them would be an issue, because obviously both of them were much more interested in dancing with boys, whilst I was have issues with my brand new, lovely but very very impractical strapless dress. Anyway, at the end of the night Eliza brought a boy back to her room who we had been talking to in the club (he offered me co-codamol “because it has morphine in it so you get high off it”. I pointed out that you’d probably OD before getting high and he didn’t believe me until I said I was a biology student). So they were getting a little frisky, then Eliza decided that she didn’t want to go “all the way” and then he started to get very weird. Eliza got a bit scared and locked herself in Cathy’s room whilst weird drug boy wandered around looking for her.

Anyway, I now have a horrendous hangover, but managed to drag myself to my lecture which turned out to be the highlight of my day- it was on social structure in mammals, but the examples used were meerkats and naked mole rats, so we got to watch Meerkat Manor. I recommend it to anyone at all, Bill Nighy does the voice over and it’s genuinely fantastic! Plus they are so cute!

Picture from http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2008/06/meerkat_babiesx.jpg

Hello world!

livingonastudentloan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:55:04 +0000

Basically I’ve decided to become one with the masses, and since I have no particular skills and a fairly uninteresting job I thought I would blog about my exciting life as a 20 year old student in Britain. That’s pretty much it. Hopefully someone from a major newspaper will stumble across this, think that it’s a wonderful description of modern life, publish it and then the story will be made into a film in which I’m played by an acttress who is much more attractive than I am. More likely; no-one will read it, I’ll get bored with the lack of response and then only look at it once in a blue moon in the desperate hope that I’ve got another page view. We’ll see……