How (Not) to Prepare for University

With Fresher's week at Worcester Uni just a short and sweet five days away, I spent the vast majority of yesterday attempting to pull my act together in preparation for the real thing. High on the agenda of stuff that needed doing was to sort out a shiny new banking 'student account' to harbour thousands of quid worth of loans that our war-supporting, badger killing government has so kindly lent to me. Of course, I could just do all my banking in my existing account, but with a new Lloyd's student account I get the added benefit of £500 overdraft, which means I've now got the opportunity to borrow even more money. Blimey, I could get rich out of this.

With banking out the way, thoughts turned to a more important part of the University preparation process; purchasing a wristband. I can't admit that they are often high on my list of things to buy, but when that wristband entitles you to free entry into a week's worth of clubbing venues with thousands of other drunk & desperate freshers, action has to be taken. It won't be clean, I'll admit. Having left almost everyone and everything I know back at home, and with most other students in the same desperate boat, alcohol will probably never play a more important role in our lives. I will most likely end up getting completely hammered beyond my wildest dreams, utterly wrecked, sloshed, trollied, inebriated... you get the drift, but it will be a laugh, and I can't wait. Pretty much all that's left to do now is to stock up on pots, pans and other fancy homeware shite- I did spend quite a while yesterday afternoon prancing around WHSmiths like a little child, picking out lots of colourful gel pens and dinosaur shaped rubbers, but they probably won't be much help to me when I attempt to cook for myself.

Of course, it wouldn't be a truly successful day without seeing some birds, and whilst I was faffing around in town, a very thoughtful Wood Sandpiper decided to turn up at Berrylands- a small under-watched sewage works five minutes away. The little beauty showed in all its distant glory, feeding on a patch of mud with a Green Sandpiper and a load of Teal, as a few of us watched from the station platform. I can't even begin to imagine the number of times I've passed that reservoir whilst on the train to Waterloo, completely oblivious to any of the gems that might be lurking there. Hats off to the sharp-eyed commuter who scored the Sandpiper in the first place.

Whilst I'd like to say this is a painting I did when I was five, it's not. It's a photo of the actual bird... I know. I'm afraid this isn't one of those 'wildlife photography blogs' anymore. In fact it never was.