Final Weeks of Uni

After studying the day before, Sunday brought about the first day of my penultimate month in Australia, however the studying continued. With a deadline for my Intellectual Property Law take home exam looming on Wednesday, the clock was ticking to get it completed. Monday and Tuesday were spent finishing, editing and making the final changes to my answer before it was handed in. I was pleased with the final version and I'm fairly confident that I covered all the issues and handled them appropriately. We shall see how it goes when the results come out!

After the IP take home exam was handed in, it was straight back to work on the essay which was due for my Advanced Evidence class. The deadline was the following Friday, so there was plenty of time to complete it. Needless to say however, having just handed in another essay, motivation was lacking and I didn't get off to a racing start. I afforded myself a night off from working and was looking forward to a trip to the cinema with Jessica, which was supposed to be an enjoyable experience, of course. In reality, almost the entire duration of 'The Fault in Our Stars' was a depressing torrent of despair and tragedy. It was an alright film, but I wouldn't rush to see it again. I am pleased to say that I am still all-there emotionally and did not shed a tear, though the same could not be said for most other people in the cinema. 

On our way home, Jessica and I stopped off at the ice cream shop near Central and then returned to Iglu. The girls in the flat had been enjoying dinner together and were still chatting over some wine when we returned, so we joined them for a while and got to know our new flatmate a little better. After Pamela moved out this week, a new French girl called Anoucha arrived. She seems lovely so far though I haven't spoken to her much having been so busy with uni. On Saturday, Jessica and I visited the Chinese Gardens near Darling Harbour, which we hadn't been to before. The gardens were quite nice and we spent some time wandering around and spying on the wedding which was taking place whilst we were there. We spotted a handful of people at the wedding who were engrossed in their phones and also slagged some people off who were looking shabby - out of ear-shot of course! 

Here is a photo of the Chinese Gardens, with some apartments in the background. It was strange for such nice gardens to be found right in the middle of the city. It felt very much out of place.

There were a great number of huge fish in the pond and streams around the gardens.

We left the gardens and took a walk around Pyrmont, admiring the stunning flats and yachts which are found down there.

The main reason for heading down to Pyrmont however, was to visit the fish markets. There are a handful of huge fishmongers all along the same section of the harbour and it seems to be the place to go for fresh seafood in Sydney. They have all of the regular, familiar kinds of fish you might expect to find in the supermarket, as well as a great selection of weird and wonderful fillets and shellfish which I had never seen before. The live crabs and lobsters were a particular highlight!

After browsing for a while, mainly in awe of the sheer volume of fish on offer, we bought ourselves some tuna steaks and walked back to my flat through Wentworth Park. We stopped by Woolies and got some salad and a bottle of wine to have with dinner. I cooked the tuna steaks and whilst they were pink and rare, as I feel they're best, Jessica didn't think that was right so they went back in the pan. I was justified later in the week however, when Marco Pierre White cooked tuna steaks on TV during Australian Masterchef and they looked exactly like mine had. Needless to say, I was very pleased with that! Haha!

It was back to work on Sunday, though I afforded myself a long lie before settling in to continue writing my essay.  At night, I played FIFA for a few hours and then it was time for bed, in preparation for repeating the process of essay writing again the following day. Brutal. Luckily, I had something to distract me during my endless hours of typing, as Kasabian's new album had been released. I listened to it from beginning to end probably four or five times on that first day and I was absolutely loving it! It's gone straight in as one of my favourite Kasabian albums - it really is that good. They're going to smash Glastonbury.

I stayed up late on Monday night to watch the start of the 2014 E3 Conference. For those who don't know, it's essentially where all the big gaming companies, such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, come together each year to show off their new games and technologies. It's a bit geeky, but it's really great if you're into that kind of thing. I watched Microsoft's presentation, which started around 2am and then got off to sleep for a while before EA's conference. The big attraction there being a trailer for the new FIFA game, of course. After another few hours of sleep, it was finally time for Sony's conference around 11am. They showed off some brilliant new stuff, including a virtual reality headset and my desire to finally get myself a Playstation 4 was further reinforced. After that excitement, it was back to essay writing and studying for the rest of the day.

The routine of studying continued on Wednesday, though I did take some time off to find a Father's Day present for Dad, as well as making a card on Moonpig. Kerry and I chatted on FaceTime and decided on a couple of things to get him and I trawled through some old photos to make the card. We got him tickets to the Scottish Car Show in July, some beer glasses and the Wolf of Wall Street DVD. Everything was sorted out with a few days to spare and it has to be said, my ability to remember birthday cards, Christmas cards and various presents whilst I've been in Australia has been exemplary. Even if I do say so myself. Thursday was the final full day of work on the Evidence essay and it was almost ready to be handed in. An early night was in order on Thursday, since the FIFA World Cup in Brazil began early the next morning. Even with an essay deadline looming the next day, I got up bright and early to see Brazil beat Croatia 3-1 to open the tournament.

I finished off the final parts of my essay on Friday morning, after catching up on some sleep, since the deadline was at 4pm that day. Relief was the overwhelming feeling when I handed my final essay in, though I arrived back down to earth with a bump almost immediately upon remembering that I still had my one and only exam to sit. Back at home, Kerry passed her driving theory test, which was great and Mum and Dad were heading off to Pitlochry for their silver wedding anniversary. Kerry and I decided to get them a gift for the occasion and we settled on a print of Eulogy to a Dead Admiral by Jack Vettriano and hoped that they would like it.

There was also some pleasant news received on Friday, as Jessica was surprised with a stay in the Four Seasons Hotel at Sydney Harbour the following night. I was lucky enough to be invited along and hastily accepted! I had another early night on Friday and got back up early to watch Netherlands versus Spain game at the World Cup. The early alarm call was well worth it as the Netherlands demolished the reigning world champions by five goals to one, putting a massive dent in their chances of retaining the trophy. Personally, I was most pleased to see Louis van Gaal conducting a tactical masterclass and Robin van Persie capped his wonderful performance with two goals. Things are looking good for United next season, if that performance is anything to go by. After the game, I went back to bed and had a long lie. On Saturday morning, I got showered and had breakfast, then headed into the city to get myself a bag which I had been looking at for a while.

In the afternoon, Jessica and I headed down to the Four Seasons Hotel and checked in. The room was fantastic and had an unbelievable view of the Opera House and harbour.

The definition of a room with a view.

 As nice as the view was and as much as we were enjoying it, we did have dinner plans, so had to drag ourselves away from the window and out of the room. We had decided to go to Mr Wong's Chinese restaurant and headed there for around 7pm, having been informed that they did not take reservations. We arrived to find a small queue at the door but learned that there would be a one hour wait for a table. Feeling hungry, we decided that we wouldn't be hanging around and headed off to find another place. Whilst we were outside the restaurant, a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce Phantom pulled up and four people climbed out, strolled inside the restaurant and were taken straight to a table. As always, it's not what you know, but who you know.

We walked up George Street and decided to try the Felix restaurant in the lane near Ivy. Gladly, they had a table available and we were pleased by the prospect of dinner finally! As Jessica was flicking through the wine menu, a waiter approached and asked if we needed some help. Feeling overwhelmed by choice, we gratefully accepted some advice. He told us that there were over 800 wines on the list and proceeded to detail the intricate flavours and tastes in several of them. Neither of us pretend to be wine connoisseurs, so plucked for a somewhat random choice, though it turned out to be very nice. The food was also great and it was definitely one of the best meals I've enjoyed in Sydney. I had a cheese soufflé with a rocket salad, followed by a rainbow trout fillet, which was exceptionally good. We headed back to the hotel and chilled out by the window for a while with a glass of wine.

Jessica took some artistic photos, capturing myself seemingly deep in thought.

I set an alarm for 8am on Sunday morning and we watched England against Italy before getting up. Whilst England played quite well, they didn't do enough and didn't take their chances, finishing up on the end of a 2-1 defeat. Not a good start to their tournament. We got up, got ready and gathered our things, ready to check out before heading for breakfast.

I snapped another quick picture in the morning, before leaving the hotel.

We weren't sure where to go for breakfast, so had a look online for somewhere we maybe hadn't been before. At this late stage of our time in Sydney, a real effort is being made to experience as many different things and places as possible, which means attempting to not eat in the same places more than once or twice. We chose a cafe in the Rocks and managed to arrive just as it started to rain, which was perfect. The place was rather strange and the tables were arranged in a corridor of prison cells. I can honestly say that I've never had breakfast in an old prison before. Very odd. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, as the serious studying was due to start again the next day.

Monday's are never much fun, but when Monday means studying in preparation for an exam, it's even more dreadful. My exam was the following Saturday, so there was plenty of time to go, though there was also a lot of work to get through in that time. Back home, it was Father's Day and Dad was pleased with his presents, whilst both Mum and Dad liked the painting we had got them for their anniversary. At night, the finale of the latest season of Game of Thrones was on TV, which I enjoyed with a KFC downstairs. The episode was brilliant, as expected and there were a few twists and turns along the way too. I'm looking forward to the next season already!

Most of the remainder of the week was spent studying and taking notes for my exam. This was to be my first exam on a Saturday and I hoped it would be my last. As if exams couldn't get any worse, surely arranging them on a weekend should be against the rules.

Friday was my last full day of studying before my Private International Law exam, so I got up quite early and got to work. I had planned a study break for the afternoon; Jessica and I headed to Government House where we were going on a tour. We had visited the house and gardens a few weeks previous, though hadn't gone inside since we had been too late for the last tour of the day. We caught the free bus from Railway Square down to Circular Quay and made our way towards the Botanic Gardens, making it just in time for the last tour. The house was amazing inside, although we weren't allowed to take photographs unfortunately, except inside the ballroom. We didn't learn a lot of new information, though we did find out that until recently the house had not actually been occupied by the Governor of New South Wales. Only two weeks previously though, that had been changed and the current Governor was due to move back in and use the property as a permanent residency. I suspect tours will be stopped again quite soon, so it was pretty cool to have managed to squeeze one in before they do!

I snapped a sneaky picture from the ballroom back towards the drawing room, which was decked out in very traditional decor, but also had a very loud 80s-style carpet. It was a baffling combination.

This is one end of the ballroom, where each new Governor is sworn into their position.

After our tour, we walked back to the city and I headed home in order to continue studying, with my exam the next day. I finally had all of my notes completed and felt prepared for the exam. At the same time, I was trying to choose classes for next year, make sure I was ready for going away to Melbourne after my exam and also ready for Kerry arriving the following week. It was a rather stressful evening!

On Saturday morning, I had a long lie after a reasonably late night of studying, before getting out of bed and having some breakfast. I spent the morning doing some final studying for my exam, as well as packing my bag and organising all of my things to go to Melbourne later that night. I hadn't received an email offering me online check-in for my flight, which worried me. Panicking a little, I found a booking confirmation number from my bank statement and used it to access my flight information on the Tiger website and it became clear why I hadn't received any emails. I had typed my email address in wrong when I had booked the flight, though the problem was solved!

My exam went quite well and I was extremely pleased to be finished the semester. My final exam in Sydney was completed, as well as my time at Sydney University. The next time I sat in a class, wrote an essay or took an exam, I would be back in Glasgow. I walked home from campus, barely able to stop smiling at the prospect of studying being finished and flying off to Melbourne on holiday! I got home, checked that I had remembered all of my things in my bag and headed off to catch the train to the airport.

Melbourne here I come!

The dreaded exam period!

My last post was just after I had come home from Cairns and Tuesday 5th November was my first full day back in Sydney, which meant the start of studying. Unfortunately my birthday present from Mum, Dad and Kerry still hadn't arrived, much to mum's displeasure - "Bloody Australian postal service!" pretty much sums up the tone of her texts on the matter! Haha! As is often the case on the first day of studying, I didn't really get much work done at all and spent the morning catching up on Match of the Day from the weekend. I was pleased to see that United had won again, beating Fulham 3-1 away from home, which was a good result. A trip to the supermarket was also in order since there was no food in the flat after being away in Cairns over the weekend. There was some good news from home on Tuesday evening as Kerry found out she had got herself an interview in Bank, the clothes shop in Falkirk - but the biggest, most shocking news of the night was that the Republic of Ireland had appointed Martin O'Neill as the new manager, with Roy Keane as his assistant. It sounds like a crazy combination but it remains to be seen whether it will work out or not - time shall tell.

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