Return to Clifton December 2017

I'm now back in Clifton after spending the past few days at my girlfriend's house. I enjoyed my time there with her and will be back again on the 29th but for the next two days, I shall be at my mother's house, although I'll still be sleeping at my university accommodation. Tomorrow morning, I shall be taking a walk to the city centre and back, provided that I do not oversleep.

The housemate departs

This afternoon, I went to visit a former housemate of mine at her room here in Clifton. This particular housemate is from India and was on a Master's course here at Nottingham Trent University; her graduation was a few days ago and tomorrow, she will be returning to India. She will be travelling to London after midnight and her flight back will be in the early afternoon.

I will really miss this housemate of mine. We took several walks together during the summer and became good friends as a result. We shall still be keeping in contact, however, as there are several venues we have open to us to talk but sadly, it will be some time before we see each other again in person. I wish my friend the best and I look forward to when I next see her!

Rep assembly December 2017

This evening, the last rep assembly of this term took place this evening. I attended the second one at the City campus, as the first one at City and the Clifton rep assembly were both last week when I was away. While attending our home assembly is preferred, we are allowed to attend any provided that we attend one.

The next rep meetings and assembling will likely be around February or March time.

Have stayed put lately

I've ventured out of Clifton much lately. Part of it is because of when I had my colds, as I didn't feel like walking far or riding on buses when I was as sick as I was. Another reason is because of the  higher workload of Year 2; more reading is required for the seminars and the upcoming assignments.

I've still been walking and I've been eating less, so my weight has been coming down. I dropped another notch on my belt, which feels amazing. Still more weight to lose but I'm making great progress!

The former housemate

During the summer, one of my housemates from last year and I often went for walks together. We'd walk around Clifton or towards the city centre; on at least one occasion we spent three hours out walking.

This particular housemate is from India and she will be returning there in December. Until then, she has been living in Clifton and has been working. This evening, she and I met up to take a short-to-medium length walk around Clifton. Until earlier, it had been a few weeks since we last walked together, as I wasn't going to meet up with her while I was ill. Now that I'm better, we can meet up for walks before she returns to her family in India.

The long-awaited walk

For the first time in well over two weeks, I walked to the city centre from here in Clifton. A major factor of my recent colds were that they sucked away my energy and along with it, my wanting to exercise.  Finally, this afternoon, I once again had the energy and it was pleasant outside, so being cooped up inside wasn't at all desirable.

In addition to achieving a long walk, when I made it to the city centre I encountered a university friend, who subsequently invited me to a small gathering she was attending with mutual friends. I stayed for an hour and a half before I returned to Clifton. Much as I would have liked to have joined them at a pub quiz they were attending, the fact I am still coughing occasionally was enough to make me decide to leave before they moved to that venue.

A Saturday of rest

As I have no immediate reading to complete, I decided to spend today resting as to help finish off my bug. While I'm still coughing somewhat, today is the best I've felt in two weeks - I felt so great, in fact, that I was able to go for an hour-and-a-half long walk around Clifton, which was my first long walk in over two weeks.

With regards to tomorrow, I'll sleep in again as well as go for another walk but I'll also have to start my next batch of reading for next week.

Walk interrupted

My intended walk this afternoon was Clifton-Ruddington-Wilford-City Centre via the tram walkways. When I stepped outside, it looked as though it was going to be cool but otherwise dry, although just in case I had brought my umbrella.

After I walk out of Ruddington, I notice a massive black cloud hovering over the region. I expected that it wouldn't be long before it would unleash its contents onto the fully-suspecting ground below. Not to be disappointed, as I approached Wilford, the rain fell upon the land, going from a light shower to a downpour in seemingly no time at all.

The rain was so heavy that my umbrella was overwhelmed; as such, I ran to the upcoming bus stop and took the 3 route, thus ending my walk until I returned to Clifton, when the rain had stopped and I walked back to my mother's and brother's house.

Family fun event

This afternoon, I returned to, for the first time since I moved out, the Clifton campus. My reason for being there was to attend a family-friendly event, designed for mature students to meet other mature students; however, I had not realised exactly what "family-friendly" entailed.

I had expected it to be an event that students with young children would be welcome at in addition to those who don't yet have kids. Instead, it catered primarily to those with kids so that parents could network. As a result, there wasn't really much for me to do there and it wasn't really possible to involve myself in conversation when children were the link. The three main people I spoke to were an existing friend, one of her friends and a member of the Welcome Team.

While this particular event wasn't of much use to me, I nevertheless support events like it. Mature students with children are increasingly going to university and it is deeply important that they be made to feel included and welcomed.

Tram path walk

There are four major routes I take to walk from Clifton to the city centre of Nottingham:

1. Clifton - Wilford - Ruddington - West Bridgford - the city centre

2. Clifton - Wilford - down a footpath close to the river - the tram path via The Meadows part of Nottingham - the city centre

3. Long way via Clifton - Ruddington - West Bridgford (via the route of the 10) - the city centre

4. Direct to the city centre via the footpath by the tram tracks

Recently, I've been walking on that last one, the footpath via the tram tracks. This is easily the most direct way into the city centre from Clifton, as it is a mostly straight route, in addition to avoiding much of the traffic. A modified version of this walk is to take it all the way to the bridge over the Trent but to then turn right and go via West Bridgford, which is what I did today as it adds some extra distance to the walk.

Beating the bus - from Gamston!

To pick up some food items that I wasn't able to purchase at Clifton Morrison's, I took a long walk and then rode a bus to Gamston Morrison's, as that store is larger and contains a greater selection. I spent fifteen or so minutes in the store and then returned to the bus stop; however, the next bus was in 25 minutes and I had no desire to wait.

As such, I walked to West Bridgford from Gamston Morrison's; at a point during this walk, I saw, going in the direction of Gamston, the bus that that I would have taken had I waited. Some twenty or so minutes later, once I had nearly reached the stops bound for Clifton, that bus appeared again. I beat it by a minute.

While I only saved myself a minute of time, which was negated anyway by my having to wait for the Clifton-bound buses, walking from Gamston to West Bridgford was still beneficial, in my view, because the exercise performed while doing so was preferable and better for me than waiting around for nearly half an hour.

Back from Cambridge

My bus back from Cambridge was via National Express, which set off from there at 1:15 this morning. The return to Nottingham took two and a half hours and once I arrived here, I walked back to Clifton. I walked back via a well-lit route, which was mostly deserted; until I made it to Clifton, much of the traffic consisted of taxis.

What an amazing 48 hours it was, from when I left on Friday to when I returned this morning. It was an honour to attend my friend's wedding and I wish her and her new husband all the best.

The 80th

My grandparents here in Nottingham are both turning 80 years old this year; my grandfather reached that milestone earlier in the year and my grandmother will do so later. Rather than hold two separate celebrations, my grandparents instead opted to hold a joint 80 birthday party today.

Besides my grandparents and me, others in attendance consisted of my Nottingham aunt and uncle, plus their children and the boyfriends of two of said children; my East of England aunt and uncle were there with their children and the girlfriend of one of them; finally, my Hong Kong uncle was also present. I arrived at 12:30pm before my Nottingham aunt and uncle returned me to Clifton in the evening.

As a present, I bought my grandparents some chocolate from Hotel Chocalat. I usually buy them some chocolate smiley faces but this time they had some chocolate hearts with a hummingbird and flower pattern on them, so I bought those instead, which they loved.

Sunny London June 2017

This was the weather last Saturday in London:

It was like this all day in London; the only time it was overcast at all was in Clifton at the start of the day. What added to the sunshine was the constant pleasant breeze.

This is only the second image that I've uploaded to my blog this year.

Voter registration deadline, May 2017

The deadline to register for June's general election is today at 23:59. If there is a rush of people who are registering last minute, it might be extended for a day or two but otherwise, if someone doesn't register before midnight, they will not be able to vote.

I'm already registered, as are my brother and mother. We registered not long after they both moved up here to Clifton as part of changing addresses and all that. Unlike in some states in the US, where registering to vote has been made difficult by the Republicans, registering to vote here is easy as is the process of voting in itself, although we do have our share of trolls who think that voter fraud is rampant and that strict laws are needed to counter it (it isn't and they're not needed).

Charity run, April 2017

This afternoon, three of my friends participated in the runNTU 2017 marathon, a fun run to raise money for the John van Geest Cancer Research Centre. There were two options, the 5km and 1.5km distances, for runners to choose from; my friends chose the 1.5km, which took them through the Clifton campus and past my accommodation.

Last year, the run generated £10,000 for cancer research; I hope the run this year exceeds that amount.

Gamston Morrisons

Gamston is a small village adjacent to West Bridgford and is along my old bus route from my grandparents' house. In Gamston is a large Morrisons where my grandparents frequently do their shopping. Now, I have been to this Morrisons several times before but today is the first time I went there by myself, unless you count two years ago when I walked to the store but didn't go in because it was a Sunday and it was closing at 4:00pm.

So why did I go there, when there is a Morrisons in Clifton? Mostly because the Gamston Morrisons is larger than the Clifton one is - close to twice the size - and because I wanted to take a bus trip out to Gamston and then walk back from there to the city centre. It was a worthwhile afternoon from that perspective.

Walking in sandals

This evening, I walked from Clifton, through Ruddington and to the city centre; this is a relatively easy walk for me and took 2 1/2 hours to complete. However, the complication for this occasion was that I wore sandals.

Why? Because my main shoes are starting to wear from my walks. I was about a third of the way into this evening's walk when my right foot pained me; by the time I was in the city centre, I needed to sit down and rest my feet. Even now, my right foot is hurting in parts but I won't find out how much until tomorrow.

Still, I had a lovely walk - it was too beautiful to stay indoors!

Yep, more walking! And daylight

As sunshine-filled weather is occurring frequently and seeing as the clocks went forward (last Sunday), I finally achieved something today that I hadn't done before: Go on a long walk with my brother and mother around Clifton. I go on plenty of longs walks by myself while Mum and by brother go on theirs together but today is the first time all three of us went on one here.

The clocks having gone forward an hour really makes a difference. When I have gone on a long walk and have taken a bus back to Clifton, it's been great returning here in daylight/dusk rather than in darkness.

Walk in Arnold

I've been through Arnold several times, either on the Calverton Connection or whenever I've gone up there while exploring bus routes. Today, however, I spent some time there walking.

Not particularly far, mind you; I mostly walked along the route the Calverton Connection takes. What surprised me about Arnold is how hilly it really is; I suppose I shouldn't have been, given that Calverton and nearby Gedling village are also mountainous by Nottingham standards. Clifton is flat by comparison!

Arnold is a part of Nottingham that is worth exploring some more.