I got a big, meaty, fat envelope from Cambridge the other day. The exciting kind, rather than simply bureaucratic forms, filled with all sorts of goodies and revelations which, I have to admit, left me rather excited. University life is just around the corner! Here’s what I got:
Cambridge Goodies
In order: a gorgeous and wonderful Freshers’ Guide written and illustrated by students in a reassuringly friendly manner (and yes, with an apostrophe in the right place – hurrah!), a scary guide to not getting killed from the Home Office, some detailed instructions about joining including ‘A Letter from the Dean’ (yes, the Dean!), a big, official-looking rulebook, IT details and instructions on fancy new e-mail addresses, another Freshers’ Guide from the union, more letters including the phrase “Dominic… son of Roger” which made me laugh, dinner tickets and a timetable for the first week. Phew! Incidentally, I also found out that the random lottery has assigned me a room in the ‘Stephen Hawking’ building. It has higher rent, but it’s almost brand new and with en-suite showers in the rooms! Woo! Much nicer than Harvey Court, where most people live 
Soviet Kitsch
Moving on, and something remarkable happened the other day: I actually bought an album. Whilst I would obviously never condone anything but the wholeheartedly legal purchase of one’s entire music collection, this especially legal purchase was of Soviet Kitsch, by Regina Spektor. Like all her stuff, it’s breathtakingly good and I absolutely can’t wait to see her live next month. If you kiss somebody then both of you’ll get practice… 
Finally, I had a bit of a bumper Birmingham visit this week. Aside from being wined and dined at the local restaurant and picnicking with Andy and Lou (both lovely, thanks all!) one highlight has to be Trivial Pursuit, where Lucy and I really didn’t fare too badly against the combined wits of several adults. OK, so we lost – each time – but it was a pretty good show given that every other question managed to work in the Falklands.
(P.S. Friends – London picnic on Wednesday. Not sure where yet, expect a phone call. Be there!)
Hello again!
Well, there was certainly a perceptible rise in excitement levels last week. Thanks to everyone who left their congratulations on my last post: yes, I did end up collecting my remaining AQA results. Just for the anally-retentive – and me, since I have come to searching my own blog when I can’t remember something – they were:
LTA4 – Texts in Time – 90/90
LTA5C – Literary Connections (Cwk) – 90/90
LTA6 – Reading for Meaning – 117/120
MPC4 – Pure Core Mathematics 4 – 76/100
MS1A – Statistics 1A – 89/100
leaving me with AAAB in total. Which, incidentally, are the same grades achieved by Hiten and Promise (congrats 
) making us a pleasingly unified trio! And after congratulating everyone else who got what they needed – like Robert – and also the Midlandic (yes, that’s now a word) AS lot, I’ll shush about results now. I’m now just looking forward to the years ahead!
In fact, I’ve just returned from a wonderful weekend in Brighton with Lucy. As theme park connoisseurs Brighton Pier wasn’t offering the most extreme white-knuckle rides you could imagine (unless you count bars which don’t appear to lock until the very last minute as ‘white-knuckle’) until we found one ride – probably meant for kids – boasting cheesy dance choons as a soundtrack. We went on it four times. Oh dear
Pingu’s baking
Finally, I am compelled to mention Pingu (again!) upon receipt of his chocolate brownie, which he sent in the post in a little Tupperware box. Yes, really. Don’t believe me, punk? See photo! Mmm…delicious too…
Went to school. No results yet. Went to the park to enjoy the sun. Got a phone call from Robert. Ran to his house. Logged onto UCAS Track.
I’m in!
Cambridge have confirmed my application which means that I must have got my grades for Maths and English! Yaaaaay!
OK, so I couldn’t resist getting up at 6 for when the website opened 
and damn, it loaded too quickly for me!
Anyway, the good news is that I got an A in History and – amazingly – a B in Physics
Having said that, I do seem to have done rather badly in History in terms of individual units! Take a look… (my additions in brackets)
6524 HISTORY 4 72 / 90 [Boundary mark for an A]
6525 HISTORY 5 86 / 90 [Coursework – A]
6526 HISTORY 6 84 / 120 [Boundary mark for a B]
6734 PHYSICS 4 59 / 90
6735 PHYSICS 5 52 / 90
6736 PHYSICS 6 89 / 120
By my number-crunching, that’s only 242 points out of 300 for A2 History – too close for comfort to the 240 boundary! Taking AS into account, of course, then I’ve got 503 points out of 600, further away from the all-important 480 boundary but not by a huge margin.
And no, before you say anything, I’m not complaining! I’m just surprised – maybe the A2 is just much more difficult to get any marks and this will be repeated for Maths and English – but then to turn around and get a B in Physics overall after how badly those exams went is astonishing.
Anyway! It’s hours till I can get to school for the rest 
come on, only 2 more As to go…
If you want real pressure, of course, fast-forward two years time. I’d like to do a shout out to my 18 year-old self in 2007. Hi! What’s it like waiting for results to an exam that will literally determine the future of your life? Either you got what you needed for university, or you didn’t.
(Source)
I had a dream last night about results. It was a frustrating, unpleasant dream: not because of the results themselves (I never got that far) but because of the Edexcel website. In my dream, you had to install a complicated graphical world first, and then look at a 3D map of your skills. I am seriously concerned that this will become reality in a few years.
Whilst waiting, I’m reading Made in America by Bill Bryson. It includes lots and lots of detail on language, charting the evolution of American speech for one thing, which just proves that parents wield a scary influence over you. (Both of my parents did languagey-type things at uni, and we still can’t get through a meal without some etymology or other coming up. Funny, you’d have thought I’d have become a better writer? )
I’m also listening to excellent Hollertronix courtesy of Pingu, exchanging e-mails with catering companies for my aunt’s birthday party and looking forward to my weekend mini-break in Brighton, which will hopefully be a celebratory one!
I guess I should continue the tradition, too. So hi there, future me! If all goes to plan, it’s 2010 and you’re waiting for your final results at uni. How did it all go? What’s it like waiting for results to an exam that will literally det… ah, never mind.
Good luck to everyone else! Let’s all hold hands.
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
