I planned on getting an early night since I was still shattered from the weekend and United were playing early on Wednesday morning, however at midnight it was Khurram's birthday. The girls had done a great job of decorating the flat again and also made him a cake, so we knocked his door at midnight and said happy birthday. In a totally unexpected surprise they had also got me a card and a present, which turned out to be a wine glass! I was totally shocked and delighted with my gift; the story behind it is that on the odd occasion we have some wine in the flat, each of the girls have their own wine glass whilst I only have regular glass tumblers. It was much appreciated and I'm sure it'll be well used! I headed off to bed after some cake and a glass of wine, feeling very, very tired. I got up around 5.30am and watched us draw 0-0 away to Real Sociedad, in a match which was completely boring. Uncharacteristically, Chicharito missed a complete sitter, van Persie missed a penalty and Fellaini got sent off, just to compound the misery. Back to bed.
After catching up on some sleep with a well needed long lie, I got up and started getting on with some studying. In the evening, five of us from the flat went to an Indian and Pakistani restaurant called Lal Qila to celebrate Khurram's birthday. We enjoyed some tandoori chicken, fish and beef, as well as a lamb biryani dish, with some prahta and naan bread - the food was fantastic and we ended up taking quite a lot home with us in takeaway boxes. We were all truly stuffed.
At home on Wednesday it was Gran's funeral and I was told it was a lovely service and there had been quite a lot of people there too. I waited up until the funeral was finished and spoke to my mum briefly before falling asleep. On Thursday morning I had another long lie, still feeling the effects of the weekend and the early morning football, before I got up and started some more studying. Studying really does get tedious very quickly. You somewhat forget how bad it is, but quickly remember after a few days of staring at books again.
Finally, on Friday morning when I got up my birthday present had arrived! I texted my mum at home and she got Dad and Kerry together and I opened it on FaceTime, which was just like being at home really - bit strange! I had been sent two totally awesome gifts, as well as a couple of birthday cards - firstly the new Man Utd away shirt, complete with 'Januzaj 44' on the back and secondly a Pretty Green iPhone cover. Superb! I also received birthday cards from Auntie Jean, Uncle Brian and Abigail; Cors, Ade, Cameron and Rebecca and Gillian, Colin, Rachel and Emily, which were all very much appreciated. Thank you again, if any of you happen to be reading this! I spent all day studying on Friday once more, but with one eye firmly looking forward to playing football that afternoon and wearing my new shirt! Some things never get old! As it turned out I played terribly, constantly gave the ball away and felt totally knackered - I hate those days.
The plan for Saturday was to get up early and get some more studying done in the morning before heading out to Coogee to meet up with Alex and have a barbecue in the afternoon. I studied up until around 2pm before I met Jordan and headed to Woolworths to buy some meat for the barbecue. We also picked up another box of 24 cookies for $4, which we had been taking advantage of in the flat. I think we have finished 3 boxes - oops! We caught up with the other Alex at Railway Square to catch the bus out to Coogee. I totally hate that bus journey, it takes over half an hour and covers hardly any distance but takes so long because of the traffic; unfortunately Coogee is one of those odd places around here where there are no train links, so bus is the only option. Pretty annoying. We arrived at Coogee and walked to Alex's flat, where there was a huge group of people who it turned out were all there to celebrate the birthday of one of Alex's flatmates. After going to the liquor store to pick up some cider, we chilled on the beach for a bit until the clouds came over and it got a bit cold and windy so we decided to go and cook. We did try to light the coal barbecue in the garden at Alex's place, but it wasn't working so we returned to the beach. Just between the road and the beach at Coogee there is a great big grass area where there are hot barbecue grills which people can use to cook and there are always lots of people chilling out on the grass at weekends, playing football or rugby, enjoying the sunshine with a cold beer and a burger. It's very chilled and very Australian. In a very strange coincidence, it turned out that one of Alex's flatmates is actually a girl who's on exchange in Sydney from Glasgow Uni as well, which made for a really surreal conversation once we both realised! Haha!
Jordan and I cooking at the beach.
Since there was a birthday to be celebrated, the group was heading out to Kings Cross that night and asked Jordan and I to join them - Alex had headed back earlier to Skype his family at home. We caught the bus home, got showered and changed and returned to catch the train to Kings Cross. Unfortunately, track work meant the trains were off for the weekend and we had to catch another bus, which took a long, indirect route around the city centre before ending up where we needed to be. We caught up with everyone else inside the Kings Cross Hotel, just opposite the famous Coca Cola billboard and had an absolutely brilliant night. The hotel has a five different floors, each playing a different kind of music, which makes it great for finding something which suits what you want to listen to but also terrible for trying to find people. Around 3am, we left, got a kebab and caught the bus back to the city centre - it certainly won't be our last night out in Kings Cross - it was great!
I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning and got straight back to studying. Or at least that was the plan, since Uncle Brian had emailed me a copy of Sir Alex Ferguson's book a few days earlier and I finished it all in two sittings. It was a fascinating read and I really enjoyed it. There was an absolutely fantastic quote from it which I thought was truly brilliant, so much so that I'm going to print it off and stick it up on my wall.
"Some people, when they have a holiday, just want to go to Saltcoats, twenty-five miles along the coast from Glasgow. Some people don't even want to do that. They're happy to stay at home or watch the birds and the ducks float by in the park. And some want to go to the moon. It's about people's ambitions."
Superb.
I got an early night on Sunday, in anticipation for the football kicking off at 3.10am. We were playing Arsenal at Old Trafford, in arguably Moyes' biggest game of his United career thus far and we really needed a win. We played brilliantly and van Persie grabbed the winner in the first half to give us a 1-0 victory and three vital points; he also celebrated his goal against his former team like a proper supporter would have done, which was great to see! Ooohhh Robin Van Persie! After the game I got back to sleep again, although I was struggling a little due to being so buzzing about the result!
On Monday morning, I got up, ate breakfast, had a shower and got dressed before tackling some more studying. I have hardly been out the flat this week, other than to go to the supermarket or play football - it's rather tragic. My only other indulgence has been watching Still Game on YouTube from the start again and I'm really looking forward to seeing it at the Hydro when I'm back home. Tuesday brought more studying, although briefly interrupted to get some good news on the employment front finally! Jeanswest phoned me to say that my references had all checked out as expected and that they would be posting my contract to me which they said shouldn't take too long to arrive. They also told me to expect a phone call from the manager of the Broadway store - where I would be based - to let me know when I would need to go and have my induction. I'm looking forward to having some extra pocket money again!
Can you guess what I did on Wednesday? No prizes - more studying. I can't actually remember anything else which happened on Wednesday which was interesting - there was no midweek football because of the internationals which always annoys me. I've no time for international breaks whatsoever. On Thursday I did more studying, whilst back at home Mum and Dad headed down south to go and pick up with new motorhome. On the journey down I received a text asking which five things I missed most from home - they must have been pretty bored travelling down the motorway. I hadn't really thought about it before but decided that I only really had three, although it's technically four I guess: family and friends, my car and the dog. Everything else which I miss is only temporary, for example some foods, or being able to watch the football on a normal TV rather than an internet stream, or my Playstation sometimes.
On Friday there was more studying to be done, before I went and played football in the afternoon, which was a welcome break and relief. It was a bit rainy again, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from enjoying a run out. I played much better and grabbed a couple of goals which was considerably better than last week, thankfully! When I got home I enjoyed some videos from home giving me a virtual 'tour' inside the new motorhome, complete with commentary which was hilarious. It looks lovely though and I'm looking forward to seeing it when I'm home. Apparently my dad is having some serious issues getting the built-in sat-nav system to work which is causing him some serious frustration, as the virtual voice repeatedly tells him to, "At the next roundabout, take the first exit." Maybe I'll end up needing to try and fix it for him when I come home, if he can't get to the bottom of it before then! Haha!
The following two days were potentially the most boring weekend I have ever experienced as I spent the entire time studying, with my first exam looming on Monday. Since my second exam was on the Wednesday and another on the Friday, there was really no respite but I knew that it was only a little over a week until it was all finished. There was also no football, which was just awful - studying and an international football weekend - you couldn't make it up. There was some interesting news from home though, since Kerry had been offered the job in Bank, but had also been asked to go for an interview in New Look. It turned out that she was offered the job in New Look after her interview and she's decided to go for it instead of Bank. I chatted to her on FaceTime for a while on Sunday and handily got her to check out that my Playstation and Bose speakers were still in working order and not being left to gather dust in my room. Priorities, right? I did go out to the supermarket on Sunday, since I was running short of food once more and cooked up a pretty decent dinner - spaghetti with grilled chicken and a spicy tomato sauce. Weekend from hell completed.
The day of my first exam in Australia was another miserable one outside, as the cloud cover and relentless rain continued. I'm hoping that all this rain in the past week will mean we barely see any precipitation again all summer - that would be ideal. I got up quite early and had some breakfast after a quick catch up on some news and football results, before getting a shower and starting off some final revision. It's always good when you find one or two little pieces of information, or relevant case law, in those final few hours of cramming; I made some last additions and scribbles to my notes and felt prepared. I don't really get nervous for exams at all, except the first one in any given set; for example, for my first Higher exam in school - which was English, I'm sure - I felt totally sick and didn't eat any breakfast, but for the other four there were no nerves at all. Very strange. Well, today was no exception, as the morning dragged in and I found myself pacing the room a couple of times whilst listening to my iPod. I think it must just be the anticipation building up to that first exam which makes me go a bit mental. At some point, I received an email to say that there was a package waiting for me downstairs at reception, which turned out to be my Jeanswest contract, though I barely had time to read it at the time. In the early afternoon I had some soup and toast for lunch then packed my notes, pens and some water into my bad and set off for campus. In a moment of genius, I wrapped my notes up in a carrier bag before putting them inside my rucksack to ensure they didn't get wet whilst walking to uni in the rain - clever me, right?
My exam went quite well, although the invigilators were a bit mental and definitely caused some confusion in the room since they barely seemed to know what was going on. First of all, they told us not to write our names on the exam papers, only our student ID numbers, for the sake of anonymous marking - which seemed a bit mad, but there you go. Then they told us that we should still sign the attendance part, before deciding that we probably shouldn't sign it because if we had, "one of those signatures you can read" then it would interfere with the anonymous marking. The invigilator offered anyone who had signed it the opportunity to swap their booklet for a blank one in order to maintain their anonomity - gladly, nobody did otherwise I might have actually laughed out loud. How pedantic and disorganised can you get?
I'm just writing this post now before I go to have dinner and then it will be straight back to studying for my other two exams this week. I have my Anti-Discrimination exam on Wednesday and then finally Intellectual Property on Friday. That will be me finished with my studies until March, which is truly fantastic! Oh, it's just started raining again. Unfortunately, there were very few photos to be shared from the past week or so, but there should be some in the next post!
Until next time,
Jamie
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