Staffordshire University

I chose Staffordshire for two main reasons. Number one, they had great computing facilities and number two, because they would have me. I hadn't exactly done brilliantly at my A-Levels, but I breathed a sigh of relief as they were enough to get me into university and I was determined that things would be different from then on.

And different they certainly were. I changed in so many ways, and so much for the better. I hadn't enjoyed growing up back home, but now I felt that I was in my element and I loved every minute of it. I begun to make so many good friends and I knew within in a month of being there that I had really picked the right subject for me - computing. When I went back home at the end of the first term everyone was surprised at how much I had changed and my mom was most surprised that I hadn't failed and dropped out already. Quite the reverse of that, I was doing really well there and for the first time in my life I could feel proud of myself.

The picture on the left of the Octagon building is Staffordshire Uni's computing building and hence where I spent a lot of time. Whenever I occasionally pass the building now it does bring back fond memories of my time at university. I definately had a good time and will miss it in so many ways for so many different reasons, although not for the exams :-)

My Friends

I made so many friends during my time at university in Stafford and I apologize for not giving them all a mention here but I couldn't possibly write about them all, there are just so many! So I'll just stick to my closest circle of friends for now...

Andy - Andy was probably my closest friend after getting to know him in the second year. In that year I moved into a house sharing with two guys that I knew and Andy who I didn't really know at that point. We soon became good friends though and we had a great laugh that year and the final year when I shared a house with him too. Andy has his own website which has lots of stuff on there, even some other pictures of me too.

Dave - Dave is another friend that I got to know in the second year and then in the final year he was living in the same shared house as Andy and I. Dave is really into origami and you can checkout his website which contains pictures of his origami models and other material.

Tim - I can't say much about Tim except that he is absolutely mad. I only have to give you the example of him running around pretending to be a space invader to let you see what I mean. I've known Tim since the second year and still meet up with him every now and then I'm pleased to say. Take a look at his webpage, you never know, he might even get around to updating it some day :-)

Rich - Rich is great, he has a real ability for making the smallest thing into something incredibly ammusing. Ok, ok, what I should say is that I do something stupid, quietly, and then Rich shouts it out so that the whole world laughs at me - if only they laughed with me instead :-) Check out his webpage.

Alastair - Alastair has to be just about the most clumsy person that I have ever met in my entire life. I got to know Alastair in the first year and lived in a shared house with him in the second year. He broke so many things it was just unbelieveable and often funny especially when I'd come downstairs to find him clearing up a whole bottle of ketchup which he'd managed to spill onto the floor or something like that.

Little Andy - Also living in the shared house in our second year was little Andy. Andy was great if not only for his hilarious antics whilst drunk :-)

Ruth - I didn't really get to know Ruth until the final year, but during that time we got to be pretty good friends. Ruth was always there willing to listen when I was getting pissed off and she deserves lots of congratulations for beating us all in getting a first class degree... well done Ruth!

Munich For A Year

I spent the third year of my course as an intern, working for a company in Munich, Germany called IABG. The work was interesting although not something I wanted to do forever, but living in Munich was great. It is definitely a great city and if you ever get the chance to visit there I can highly recommend it.

The Final Year

So much happened during the final year of my course. Naturally the pressure at university grew stronger and stronger as the year progressed but at least there was and end in sight, a light at the end of the tunnel.

I spent the final year living in a shared house with some people that I knew, and some that I didn't. It was a fairly large house with six of us living in it. There was me, Dave and Andy and then three others that we didn't know previously and that turned out to be real characters.

The first one was Simon. At first glance, and on most occasions, if you looked at Simon you would just think he was like anyone else. However, Simon is a transvestite and often got dressed up to go out, calling himself 'Sarah'. There is a pic of him dressed up on the left and I'm sure you can imagine what it was like to see him dressed up for the first time. Actually the first time I saw him dressed up was as he came out of the bathroom in a long dress. The next time was more like he is there on the left with his short skirt, stockings etc. Simon did inform us that he was going for the full sex change so maybe he is walking around somewhere being called Sarah.

Another semi-occupant of our house was Kathy. Soon after we moved into the house, one of the guys that we didn't know before got a new girlfriend. It wasn't long before she moved into the house with him and not long after that we all started to realise that she was totally mad.

It wasn't long before Kathy was arguing with her new boyfriend and then one night she returned alone at about midnight. She had been out for the night with him and then I heard a knock on the door. I went down and it was Kathy. She said that they had an argument and he threw her out of the car some five miles away. I let her in and tried with one of my other house mates to calm her down a bit. After about five minutes she asked me to go down stairs with her and out to a car on the street. I went with her and found this guy in a Jaguar, cider bottle in hand. Kathy brought him inside and he seemed really dodgy to me. Apparently this guy had picked up Kathy and brought her home. About ten minutes later Kathy asked me to get rid of him! Which I did. Later when her boyfriend returned they had a huge argument and Kathy told him that she had taken a bottle of pills! He was about to call an ambulance but then she said that she hadn't taken them. Eventually she called an ambulance herself and when it turned up had to argue with the ambulance guys telling them that she hadn't taken them really. What a night.

There were plenty more incidents involving Kathy and I could go on about her forever here. Later in the year she ended up splitting up with her boyfriend and moving in with another of the guys in the house instead! This just made matters worse and soon there were all sorts of rifts in the house. Simon sided with her ex-boyfriend and they had huge arguments. Then one day Simon left a recorded apology for Kathy... it really has to be heard to be believed, just take a listen of this:

Apology Sound Clip

It was class, the only class thing that Simon ever did.

As I'm sure that you can tell by now, there was never a dull moment in our house although it was not necessarily the best environment for working in ever when it is the final year of your degree...

The end of my final year came soon enough, and with it came plenty of work to be done... but I got through it all and am very proud to say that I passed my degree with a second class upper classification. Now for once I can be truely proud of myself.

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