This is a view from the top of Whiteladies road. Today was a beautiful day and the air was clear so you could see the whole city of Bristol from the top of the hill. It was stunning ( a bit hard to tell in the pic though). Bristol is really hilly too, you can see some of the rolling hills in the background.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Hey,
This weekend was really nice. After formal dinner on Friday – I did go down to the medics pub to see the band. They were alright, but the drinks were cheap so all was good. One problem, there was a special on for rum and coke doubles, and the bar tender held up two fingers (which I thought was indicating a double), so I said, “Yes!” Then he gave me two doubles – let’s just say I was not exactly sober after leaving the bar. This was after about a bottle of wine at dinner, and a pint before the doubles. We then proceeded to a house party near the Uni – at a 2nd year medic’s place. It was a good night.
Saturday was a lazy day. Got up late, had brunch, played some squash and did homework. I ended up skipping out on the bond night and just taking it easy. I had the hockey tournament the next morning, and I had to be up a 7:30, so I decided just to take it easy. I got my first English haircut too – though it barely looks any different than a Canadian one (was a little more expensive though).
On Sunday we left for the tournament in Southampton. Southampton is about a 2hr drive away from Bristol going east. The tournament was held for some of the medical schools in Southern England abbreviated T.I.T.S for Tournament in the South. They even gave us t-shirts! It included Bristol, Southampton, Peninsula (which is a combo of Plymouth and Exeter which is a joint Uni) and Birmingham – the London schools did not attend. We brought two teams, and due to the lack of goalies, I just played for both teams. This work except when the two teams had to play each other (we just recruited a goalie from Birmingham). There were two divisions, we got 3rd place in the first division, and in the 2nd division we actually placed 1st, beating Birmingham in the last game. It was a great day, but Southampton was really cold and my legs were exposed behind the goalie pads. So, after 5 hrs of playing (yes, 5! I only got two 20 min breaks, excluding half times), my legs were as purple as my goalie pads. I played really well (so I was told), and really enjoyed myself. It’s good to come back with a win (even if it’s only seconds!) That night when I got home, there was a quiz in the bar. I love the bar quizzes – there are about 8 categories that have about 12 questions and they vary each week. This week one was a Belgium category (there’s a Belgian girl in the hall that made it up), I got almost every question right, except for one about what you can see in Belgium from space (I can’t remember now what it was though). There’s usually other categories like music, sciences, news, general knowledge, sports, etc. They have them every 2 weeks in the bar. My team won this week and they gave us a bottle of vodka to share (between like 12 people!).
Monday was my usual long day of lectures. I finished the day off with a hockey practice and 4 games of squash. I needed some exercise, because at hockey practice there was almost no shot on goal, so I just stood around for about 45 min, except for the start where they gave me some goalie training. Today I got up, played 5 games of squash and headed down to the University for some inoculations. As me and my Dad found out before I left Canada, I was not immune to Rubella even though I had a booster. Also, in England you require a Hepatitis B booster shot, even if you have more than enough antibodies (aka ME). So they gave me one in each arm and sent me sorely on my way. I must admit, my nurse was very good at giving needles – little pain involved! I then headed into downtown Bristol. I forget when I get stuck in that University bubble, how big Bristol really is. Apparently it’s like the 5th biggest city in the country. I went downtown and there is just dense city (not skyscrapers, but certainly tall buildings), shopping malls, stores, bars, etc. It was a little overwhelming. Trying to get the bus home I realized that there were about 25 different bus terminals, and I had to search them all for the right bus up to my Hall. By the way, I went to buy a printer downtown, and managed to get one for £20 off – it sorta happened by accident. I went up to the counter and told the lady I wanted the one for £49.99 (which was one of the cheapest ones!) and the lady brought me one that was £29.99 and I was like, “I think you gave me the wrong one.” She then pointed to the Christmas catalogue and said that it came on sale yesterday. I was so happy with my new found money saving skills that I bought an Iron (£3.99), more bath towels, a drying rack for my radiator (£1.49) and a sort of ironing mat, so I can set my shirts and pants on my desk and iron them (£3.99). Everything at the store seemed to be on for a great price! The printer I ended up with was a Lexmark z735 – I don’t really know about lexmarks, but it seems okay, and lots of people in Guelph seemed to have and like them.
Anyways, this was sort of a blah, blah, blah blog entry, but that’s what’s up with me. Today was just a gorgeous day, and it was nice to get out and around Bristol.
-Pete
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