Graduate's guide to LDN

Here we go again..

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:04:00 +0000

Another re-brand, another promise of good stuff to read, but this time i promise i'm not lying.

Rapturous

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Sun, 22 May 2011 07:58:00 +0000

(via http://rapturethreads.bigcartel.com/product/i-survived)

It's like it was all made up or something....

Photos of the Day

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Sat, 21 May 2011 15:28:00 +0000

First book of the summer...

....on the terrace....

....in the sun!

And now the end is near...

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Sat, 21 May 2011 11:14:00 +0000

Somehow I have made it to the end of University, a day that forever seemed like it would never come.
I have completed all my modules and now will be (temporarily) free of deadlines, essays and revision.
I am no longer a student.

So what have I learned?

There's no place like home
Living in Manchester for three years has definitely strengthened my love for London, and no matter where in the world I'll end up, a part of me will always be a true Londoner.
Regardless of what any other city can offer me, there is nothing quite like that feeling of getting off the train to the hustle and bustle of Euston station, flying past the majesty that is St Pancras station on the 390 bus and waving at my local chippy as i head into my house.
As much as i have enjoyed living in Manchester, it will never make me feel like London does.

You can't get on with everyone
And that's okay. And if you DO get on with everyone you're probably too nice.
Or too boring.

Facebook is evil
Never in my life has anything distracted me as much

High heels are more of a hindrance than a help

I'd rather be short thanks

There is such thing as too much fake tan
I must say that I will not miss the copious amounts of fake tan used in Manchester.
And as for people who use sun-beds...or even worse people who have a sun-bed before going on holiday so they don't need to 'worry about getting tanned' while they're away.....well there are no words for such people

Caught up in the romance of it all

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:11:00 +0000

I don't care who knows it - I loved the Royal Wedding.

I loved the count-downs, speculative documentaries, "I met Kate Middleton once" programs and, best of all, Kate and William - the Movie, which is possibly both the best and worst thing i have ever seen in my life. Not to mention some...erm...zany members of the public being interviewed!

Courtesy of http://katemiddletonforthewin.tumblr.com/

Although i did not have any flags, or bunting, or commemorate cakes (well i am a university student, with limited funds and time!), I made the effort to not go into the library and watch the entire wedding, and most of the build-up....

If i look HALF as good on my wedding day as she did, i'd be lucky. Absolutely stunning.

If you can't get swept up in the romance of this, then what is the point?

And there's still hope...there's still Harry...

Unless Pippa Middleton got in there first!

Why I Love Being a Londoner

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:53:00 +0000

I love knowing where to stand on the platform for the tube doors to open right in front of me

I love walking at 'London' pace to dart through hordes of tourists

I love how out of place my 'London' pace looks in any other city

I love feeling weirdly safe in a city full of nutters

I love my impatience at waiting five minutes for a train

I love the panic of not getting on a bus first

I love feeling completely anonymous in a sea of strangers

I love coming home to the chaos of Kings Cross

I love the way it never gets truly dark with the yellow tint in the sky

I love London......and I love being a snob about :)

A sunny break from dissertation-writing

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:45:00 +0000

The Joy of being a Third Year University Student in Springtime

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:55:00 +0000

I am clearly meant to live in a hot country. Or at least a sunny country.

Living in Manchester can sometimes be incredibly depressing, when you look out of the library window to see the rain pouring down, where it's so dark at midday it might as well be midnight, and when you know that at some point before they close the library for the day, you will have to brave the rain and the bracing wind to make it back home...where the rain and bracing wind rattles at your window and whistles through the numerous holes in the walls.
However, I've decided that being a university student in Manchester when its sunny is actually worse. Because now when I peer over the mountain of books I've yet to read, I look out of the window and see people walking around in shorts. And dresses. And flip-flops. And sunglasses.
All of this whilst i'm shivering in some dark corner of the library where they don't seem to understand that a typical library temperature of 14 degrees is not warm enough to sustain human life and will not make me work harder. And to top it all off, once i'm forced out of the library through hunger i have to suffer the heat with too many layers on and too much to carry.
There is nothing better than a good bit of sun, unless you're dressed for winter (also known as the John Rylands University Library). And as the weather gets better, the deadlines get worse...and the idea of sitting in a park, with a glass of Pimms seems further and further away from reality.
But come mid-may, University will be over, and summer/the rest of my life will begin.
Hopefully a few months of sun to make up for the sheer lack of it in the past three years will sort me out :)

Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents: teenage life on TV.

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:46:00 +0000

Teenagers are everywhere and all over our television.
There's no greater champion of wayward teenage life than the Channel 4 phenomenon that is "Skins", which reared its ugly head again last night. Now I must admit that Skins is not generally my cup of tea, but I thought I would give the new series a go, and see whether the new cast of 'crazy' teenagers would change my mind.
Within the first five minutes of Series 5, the similarities to 'Mean Girls' is more than a bit obvious and the parody continues. Franky is the new kid on the block, bullied in her last school and starting again in Bristol. She's soon adopted by the popular girls: Mini: the pretty one, Grace: the less than intelligent one and Liv: the sassy one. Now stop me if this is sounding unrealistic.

Oh wait, that would have been around the opening credits.

Only half way through the first episode and we've seen the girls take drugs, run riot in a shopping mall and do a cheeky bit of shop-lifting. Standard after school antics when I was younger. Oh wait, no it wasn't. By half an hour in, the mean girl has stopped being nice and Franky, the tortured soul, is wielding a replica gun around and has found her 'true' friends.

Now I'm not denying the entertainment value of programmes like this - granted, they're full of energy. But what really is Skins? Is it a social commentary, an aspirational programme for young teenagers or just an overused story-line? As far as i'm concerned, not only is Skins a bad influence but it's a bad representation of teenagers today.

And talking of a bad representation of teenagers, BBC Three's "Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents" must be one of the weirdest programmes on TV. On one hand it glorifies the "lads" and "ladies" booze-filled holidays to destinations such as Zante and Magaluf, and then on the other hand brings along the parents to shock and appal them with scenes of their dearly-beloved daughters and sons getting absolutely wasted. The result of this is not the condemnation of our teenage booze-culture, but a giggle at the overly strict parents and how they need to let go.

If Skins is a representation of teenage life, then i missed out on a lot, but i don't think i'm too bothered about that.

Sexism, Homophobia, and other despicable behaviour

jaimekeeble@hotmail.com (jaimerae) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:32:00 +0000

How brilliant is it that in the twenty-first century a headline like that can still be relevant.

To start with a bit of sexism, when Andy Gray and Richard Keys were caught red-handed making derogatory and quite frankly malicious remarks about a female assistant referee, Sian Massey, who helped officiate the weekend's game between Wolves and Liverpool. With comments including a swipe at Massey's inability to know the offside rule because of her gender, we would have expected Sky Sports to take swift action, order the two to apologise and remove them from their positions that they have had for so long. Not quite. The two were pulled off air for last night's game between Chelsea and Bolton and replaced by Dave Jones (in the 'Keys' role) and Sam Allardyce, a man I usually have no time for, who was honest and appeared to have more football knowledge than Gray. Overall it appeared that most approved of this new partnership. But currently there is no news as to the long-term future of Gray and Keys or any public apology. Rio Ferdinand labelled the two as "prehistoric", which has reaffirmed the belief that many have of the 'old-boys club' way that football is now run, which is institutionally sexist, set in their ways and not open for change.
I think this scandal is an opportunity. Not only is it an opportunity for women to break the stereotypes we have long suffered in football, but more importantly is an opportunity to shake things up, especially within Sky Sports, a channel that is celebrating its 20th birthday this year. There will always be those who will never accept female participation in football, and will judge one's knowledge of the game on whether you know the offside rule or not, but we need to make sure these people become the minority, and not the majority. A removal of the institutionalised Gray and Keys would be a start.

In Other News...

Melanie Phillips caused yet more, almost inevitable, outrage from another of her Daily Mail columns expressing her....distaste.... for the "government-backed drive to promote the gay agenda"

Oscar Nominations were announced, with the surprising absence of Christopher Nolan in the "Best Director" category, despite producing one of the stand-out films of the year.

A local council has found a...unique (!) way of saving on their swimming pool's heating bills

UPDATE

So Andy Gray has been sacked by Sky Sports for another incident from last month. But let me guess, they're too scared to sack both of them. Although how Keys will be able to show his face after this debacle i don't know. I may slightly miss Gray's humorous ineptitude with all the new-fangled technology at his disposal, especially on 'The Last Word', but good riddance that he's gone.