Follow that...

Many people have already posted about New Years and resolutions and goals and all that malarkey, and so I thought I should give my thoughts an airing in a complete lack of originality.

The year of 2011 has been easily the best year of my life.  My 6 months in Australia was full of fun, laughter, great new friends, new experiences, a thoroughly wonderful time.  Starting University has been great too, I have met more wonderful new friends, the course is really enjoyable, and Winchester is a nice place to live.  Add to this keeping up with old friends in Portsmouth and Poole, and I have had so many good times. Oh, and along the way I finished the first draft of one novel, and half wrote another.

I have 2 very simple resolutions for the New Year, but as I type this I have no idea whether I am going to achieve them!

1 – Write as much but better

2 – Have as much fun as in 2011

Have a happy New Year everybody, see you soon! J

An emptying university

The last couple of weeks of term were busy ones, with assignments due and social gatherings to attend.  As the last deadline of term was met with over a day to spare, I could smugly watch some of the unhappy posts on facebook from some of my course mates (sorry!).

A lot of friends left Winchester on Friday afternoon and Saturday, and so by Sunday the place was pretty quiet.  I spent a great day and night with some of my closest friends, enjoying delicious food, good wine, silly board games and Disney movies, and I already miss them all now that they have gone back home for Christmas.

So what is the university like with hardly anybody here?  The halls are very quiet, I think that I am one of 3 people left in my block, so it is not completely silent and empty and I still regularly hear the fire alarms going off in other blocks.  To be honest, the lack of noise from the building site next door is far more noticeable than the lack of students!

I walked through the campus this afternoon, and there were still a few signs of life, a couple of open doors, some lights still on, it may be different next week!

Although I am still living up here right through, I have so far only spent 1 full day here, and that is not gonna change over the next few days! And on that note, I’d better get off to Wimborne right now! Too-da-loo!

Searching for an answer

Today has felt like a strange day, but I'm really not sure why.  I spent a lot of it doing homework, I headed into Winchester and did a bit of shopping, so I'm not quite sure what is going on.
Maybe I got hypnotized yesterday, or maybe I was abducted by aliens last night?  If anybody knows the answer, can they let me know please!

One year on

Do you know what you were doing a year ago today?  Where were you on 17^th November 2010?  To most people this is not an easy question to answer, but to me that day was hugely significant!

The 17^th November 2010 was my last day working for the RNLI, my last day after more than 15 years of daily toil, weekly meetings, monthly paydays, quarterly appraisals and annual statements!  I left behind some great friends, but I also left behind some other people...

Since then I spent 6 months in Australia, travelling around, sleeping in hostels, camper vans, tents and swags.  I went diving with sharks, snorkelling with turtles, feeding wild dolphins, cuddling kangaroos, holding wombats, eating crocodiles, and a million other things too.  I met some amazing people, new friends from around the world.  I learnt of the history of Australia, and the oppression of the indigenous people.  I had a truly awesome time!

Now I’m back in the UK and having so much fun in Winchester.  Great new friends, and a really enjoyable course.  Winchester is a lovely place to live too.  This week I have visited a Wolf Sanctuary, run around Winchester with some friends and a video camera, and drunk homebrew into the small hours.  A-FLIPPIN-MAZING!

By a long long long way, this has been the best year of my life, the challenge now is to enjoy the next 12 months even more!

Age concern

I don’t want my blog to be exclusively about age (so why call it 40 year old student you ask), but I have been challenged about my attitude.  I have been full of joy (yes really) at how I have been accepted as one of the gang by my fellow students, but have I accepted them as adults in the same way?

Don’t take this the wrong way, I do not feel superior in any way (I’m more likely to think of myself as inferior), but do I really think of them as equals?

So on what criteria should I assess this?  Surely to think of equals then age must be completely irrelevant in every way, the fact that I may have experienced more of life than many students is just happenstance, and some of my fellow students have experienced things that I haven’t.  On a recent facebook survey I came out with a lower mental age than many of my new friends, maybe I should answer some questions of my own.

Do I get on well with my coursemates? Yes.

Do we have lots of things in common?  I would say so.

Do I enjoy socialising with them? Yes, very much.

Do I think of them as immature? Not at all, some seem more mature than I am!

Do I see some of them being long term friends? Absolutely, many of them.

Would I date one of them? Erm, this is where my ageism has been challenged!  In the incredibly unlikely event that somebody would be attracted to a 40(ish) year old with a potato-shaped head, how would I feel about dating a teenager?  I have more than one friend who has told me that it would be wrong to date an 18 year old, although at the same time other friends would give me kudos if I did ‘pull’ a teenager.  Many in today’s society would look down on me for it, but should that matter?  If you like somebody, should anything else matter at all?  I’m seeing my parents this weekend, and I know that one of the first questions my mum will ask me will be whether I’ve met any nice girls at Uni!

I guess I don’t know the answer, and it is probably irrelevant anyway, but just in case, for any if my female friends...

(in Joey’s voice) How you doin... ;-)

Now I'm here

I’m not going to tell a lie, I was nervous about coming back to Uni.  I wasn’t worried about whether I was clever enough to do it, or whether I could write in half-decent English, and I certainly wasn’t worried about the workload!  I was worried about whether I would fit in amongst 18-21 year olds.  I knew that I was daft enough as long as I was given the chance.

I have met many new people here at Winchester, and they are without exception great people! Funny, silly, friendly, genuine, open, warm, lovely, I could go on!  The other creative writers on my course are all incredibly talented, the work written by my course mates so far has been really good, and the group work has been so enjoyable.  Also the socialising at various pubs around the place has been great, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every second of my time here!

So to my new friends here in Winchester, you are all brilliant! J

Nearly time to go to Uni

I am a 40-year-old man, and had been working in IT for many years.  I was unhappy in my job, and my career choice, and decided that I really needed a break.  I sold my house, gave up my job, and started planning a trip to visit some parts of the world that I wanted to see.  I had no idea how long I was going for, or what I would do afterwards, but that wasn’t important to me at the time.

Writing was a hobby that I enjoyed as a teenager but had stopped doing as an adult.  If asked I would list writing as a hobby, but I didn’t actually do any for many years.  I started again in my early thirties and really enjoyed it once more.  I wrote on and off for several years, and when I decided that I wanted to get out of the IT industry, I wanted to give my writing a proper go.

I changed my travel plans to 6 months in Australia and applied to University to study Creative Writing.

That 6 months in Australia was the best time of my life, it is a wonderful country full of amazing experiences and friendly people (Australians and other travellers).  I moved around a lot, staying in hostels and travelling in different ways, aeroplane, train, car, camper van and bus.

Now I am back in the UK and start University in a couple of weeks! J