So, most of the deadlines have now passed for this month with only one remaining. This one is a little less terrifying as it's a skills audit where I basically just need to write about myself and point out any areas that need improving, which for this course is probably a lot. Most people find it really difficult to talk about themselves, I think I still do but I understand the whole evaluating process a lot more and the importance of it.
My main downside is that I tend to take it right from the top, if I feel it's necessary. I've typed up quite a lot already and I feel like it is very nearly done. It is something that I knew wouldn't have much of a problem with just because of how much I blog on here. I tend to end up using this as a reference.
I also cleared the air last week and had a catch up with Dr. Nick Redfern. I brought us tea and coffee from the college canteen and we stuck it back into a classroom eventually after a short stop off at "reprographics" or rather, the room with two large printers. The canteen was just way too noisy and as Nick put it himself, "chavy". He shown me his new Facebook group, 'Mentoring for Life' that he had not long set up last month and expressed his irritation that not one of his 3rd year students had used it yet and they are predominantly who he designed it for. The idea of the group from what I understand is that every member, whether they be a current or past student helps each other learn and progress as a mentor, but the group has been active for about a month now with no active users posting and discussing other that Nick updating the description.
I personally think that the Facebook group is a great idea once it starts being used actively, but I think it is already causing a stir since I introduced our head of Music, Andrew to it and he didn't seem very keen I think mostly because of the social media platform that it's on. The thing is, is that we're all HE students that should be able to be sensible enough with this sort of thing, but I do understand the possible breaches of lectures having contact with students outside of class time other than email as it has the potential to endanger either party. Since I'm now a member of this group, I suggested to all the members in a post that Campus Society would be great site to use in conjunction with this group and to no surprise didn't get a response. Facebook groups are strange things from my experience because of the layout of the site. It is easy to see when someone is online and rather than talk within a group or even a group chat, given the option it is obviously easier for most people to just send messages via the chat feature one to one.
Nick seems to have created his own den within the college, which is completely normal. When I was last at NCN Clarendon before this course, the keyboard lab used to be in a huge, spacious room downstairs that's strikingly similar to the HE Common Room, but now this has been moved into a room about a quarter of the size with somewhere between eight to maybe ten keyboards stuffed inside. It took me until the second visit to this room to notice that Nick was also using it as a second office with it being too noisy in his actual office. I'm pretty sure the room is smaller than my bedroom, and I struggle to fit one keyboard in there along with other furnishings.
I feel a lot better nearing the end of this term. The December haze is still in place but there's really not many days left until I break up for Christmas from Uni. I will still have to traipse to work at the weekends. The subject of work is ever becoming more monotonous by the day. The more I go, the less I want to be there. It's really not healthy, but it's just how it is and I need income from somewhere. Saturday shifts tend to flow quite nicely but for some reason that I just can't place Sunday's just feel so slow. We had our Christmas meal the other day and I feel like it was an absolute sham. We went to Frankie & Bennies and I sat opposite our store manger and his wife. I spoke to my colleagues mostly before we were seated and had a couple of laughs around the table, but my manger never said a word to me. Not even, "How's Uni?" To make things even better the food was shite and they wanted well over £200 between us all (14) including an automatic service charge of £17.50 which thankfully they removed in the end after arguing). I really don't understand the hype for this food chain.
I will still have a couple of assignments to work on over the Christmas break. I want to get some research done at the library for our Music in Context essay before it closes and then while I'm away from college, I'm planning it so that the first week off I will be fairly focused on these couple of assignments. I don't want to do anything Uni-work-wise during the week of Christmas to give myself a decent break, I've been pretty flat out since the get go especially with working with the other students. Then finally the week after that I will get back into focusing on assignments. That's the plan anyway, no doubt I might stray from it a little bit with it being Christmas, but I'll be happy I could get a good chuck of the assignments out of the way.
I will probably post again before Christmas but just incase I don't, Merry Christmas everyone! :')
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