Eighth Post

Place of Writing - Aberystwyth Ceredigion
Ipswich Town's Championship Position - 13th
Currently Reading - The Rules of Perspective by Adam Thorpe

Monday has once again rolled around, I've just come home after my two hour lecture (it's a hard life being a student) and I thought I'd update you on the last few days, something that I realise I'm getting more and more slack about (tut tut).

Thursday 16th - Saturday 18th

It was a relatively early start for me. The night before, looking at my reading schedule, I realised I'd missed out a book for the next seminar on the module, "Re-imagining the World Wars". My panic was only relevant because I'd be spending the next couple of days in Birmingham which would mean I'd only be able to get hold of the text a day or two before the seminar, not ideal. I went to, in total, five charity shops (Oxfam books, Bernardos, Red Cross, Children's Hospice and The British Heart Foundation) before going to Waterstones, which still didn't have the book (Shuttlecock by Graham Swift). Giving up, I was heading home when I suddenly remembered the shop, Ystwyth books. The shop itself looks fairly standard upon entry, non fiction in one room and New fiction in another, it's only when you go upstairs to the "Classics" room, that there is ensuing carnage, wall to wall books. The room used to be a kitchen and there were books in the sink, overflowing onto the floor, it was wonderful. The owner found Waterland in the basement, I would have loved to have seen the litarary mayhem down there.

Later that day myself and Bex headed to Birmingham. We were booked to see comedian Jack Whitehall that night who was incredibly funny, a brilliant comedy show which had a great warm-up act - Stu Goldsmith.

The photos included in today's post were taken on the first day, Birmingham's Bullring seems to me to be both horrifically ugly and strangely beautiful at the same time, the constant symmetry of the reflective disks is something I love.

The Friday night was spent with yet more comedy, a comedy show at the Glee Club, after dinner at Pizza Express. Obviously not quite as polished as arena-filling Jack White Hall, the acts' gritty style made the two nights good contrasts and both were hard to fault.

Sunday 19th

Game day!

Each weekend through February we have been playing korfball in the Welsh league and yesterday (writing this on the 20th) was no different. We were playing Cardiff Cyclones, a Cardiff City team who were top of the table, and Cardiff Raptors thirds, another Cardiff city team. We started the day with a pretty shocking and a little bit panicked result, losing to Cyclones 26-7. They really showed us what it took to be top of the table. Our second game was against Raptor's third team which was an automatic win because they didn't have enough players, so had to fill the gaps with first team players (two Welsh internationals). We played brilliantly and despite losing 16-9, the forefeit meant we won 10-0.

It's always quite hard to emphasise how well we play when we lose games, however, we have no professional coaching so it's like guitar playing, I've self taught myself for 10 years, however I've picked up certain bad habits along the way, you might not notice it until my technique is compared to another player's. On this note, today, 20th February, the two Raptors players who were Welsh international have stayed overnight and are coming to our training later today to help us out and hopefully give us some key tips that will help in future games.

Bullring from afar

Bullring up close

W

Seventh Post

Place of Writing - Aberystwyth, Ceredigion
Ipswich Town's Championship Position - 13th
Currently Reading - Another World by Pat Barker (It's brilliant)

It's a Sunday, a day of rest, and after a day of playing korfball yesterday, that's exactly how I intend to use it.

Last Tuesday my tutor gave me some incredibly helpful and constructive feedback on my writing project, he helped fill in some of the gaps I was struggling to and he suggested some pretty key ideas which help move the narrative along nicely.  I was relieved to find that despite being put with a workshop group of sci-fi and fantasy fiction writers, everyone's ideas varied completely and weren't what I was expecting (as someone who doesn't read this genre, I expected it to be vampires and aliens. There were many dystopian pieces like mine and it seemed that everyone had great ideas, I'm really looking forward to seeing how they all turn out.

Usually, on Friday nights, around six thirty, I Facetime with my grandparents back in Kent. Last term it was as regular as clockwork and I'd never miss it. However, this term I have korfball from six until half 7, this isn't a problem at all, it's feasable to talk when I get home (despite being a sweaty mess) but this week was different, if you'll forgive this long-winded introduction, I'll explain.

I raced home from korfball at a pace which would be described a gentle plodding. The reason why I should have been racing home? My flat's landlord was paying for us to go out and have a meal. It was mentioned months ago but it was because myself and the boys I live with are such great tennants (apparently). It was such a lovely evening to spend time as a whole flat, having some brilliant food.

Friday night's meal was a brilliant start to the weekend and the next day, Saturday, I was representing the University in a sport that I love. The journey took us along the coast, all the way from the sleepy town of Aberystwyth, down along the coast to the busy and buzzing city of Cardiff (Made even more
busy and buzzing by the fact that England were playing Wales in the Six Nations at the Melennium Stadium).Our first game was against Cardiff Archers, one of the city teams who we had lost 16-6 to a few weeks previously. On this occasion, our team was strong and despite taking an early lead, we lost 10-7. The result was stinging but being told that I was playing directly against a Welsh international player soothed the pain significantly. Our second game was where the backs-to-the-wall pressure was on. It was against Cardiff University Second team and the scores were back and fourth so many times. We were winning, then a few points later they were winning, the game was in the balance and with two minutes to go, Cardiff led 9-8. In the dying seconds of the game, we got a penalty, a free shot and as the hall went silent, our captain delivered the goods, he scored the equalizer and because the game was so tough and we gave it 100% for the full hour, the draw truly felt like a win.

On the journey home we had Fivelive sports radio on in the car. The coverage of the second half of the England-Wales rugby union was really tense and much like Aberystwyth korfball, with backs against the wall, in the dying minutes of the game, England delivered the goods, doing what Aberystwyth korfball couldn't and getting the full winning points. Obviously after living in Wales for almost three years, I wouldn't want either of the two teams to lose but that's the way sport often goes.

Yesterday's positive sporting results increased when I found out that Ipswich had won 0-1 to Aston Villa and Tom's (my flatmate) university football team had won 2-0. Today is Hibernian's game against Hearts in the Edinburgh derby for the Scottish Cup and if Hibs can get the win, my weekend's sundae will have the metaphorical cherry on top.

Today's photos were taken this morning on a wander along the seafront. It was incredibly cold so the black and white reflects that.

Steps to Atlantis

The only bit of rough water I could find

Cold and thorny

W

Sixth Post

Place of Writing - Aberystwyth, Ceredigion
Ipswich Town's Championship Position - 16th
Currently Reading - Another World by Pat Barker

The rain is falling on this Monday afternoon. I'm stuck in limbo between lectures this morning and korfball practice at four. Mentioning korfball, we had great numbers at the session on Monday after Refreshers week, four new players which is brilliant, that's half a team! I'm not sure how much of the sport I'll get the opportunity to play after graduating but I know that I'll make the most of it while I'm in Wales. I did learn from one of our newbies, who's from the Netherlands, that korfball is mainly played in the more rural parts of the country because of its traditional roots. Maybe we should see korfball as the Dutch equivalent of Morris dancing, just with less black face, so maybe not.

Saturday was probably the most significant day this past week. Myself and some friends sat for most of the day in a pub watching the Six Nations action, Scotland v Ireland and England v France. Both Scotland and England won which means that as much of my family is Scottish and I'm English, I was happy both ways. The pub visit was cut short after a phone call with Bex, who had managed to cut the top of her finger off (nice). After dealing with the gore of a cooking injury, we went to the theatre to watch a student production of Titus Andronicus, which I was incredibly impressed by. I'd studied the play last year and the production by the company, 'Blood Sweat and Tea,' really did it justice.

The blog post wouldn't be complete without a mention of the Tractor Boys, who managed to get a point from third place Reading, with Welsh wonder-kid Tom Lawrence scoring twice. I didn't watch the game but it seemed like Ipswich's performance was a huge improvement on previous results.

Today's photos (all but one) were taken in my kitchen on Sunday morning. I love the way water is captured in photos, the individual droplets picked up by the flash are tiny microcosms. Constant beautiful carnage.

This is the water hitting a korfball badge, something given out at recruitment fayres

Done in our sink

And again

We have mirrored table mats, they came in handy.

This is my plastic coin for the trolleys at Tesco

The rusting top of the pier, there's a nightclub in there

W

Fifth Post

Place of Writing - Aberystwyth, Ceredigion
Ipswich Town's Championship Position - 17th
Currently Reading - Maus by Art Spiegelman

Right now, it's a Wednesday afternoon at 2PM, I've finished my lectures for the week, I have no contact hours with my lecturers for five days so I guess you could say the weekend has begun, but the reading never stops. (Not that that's a bad thing)

The past week term has been spluttering into first gear, with introductory seminars and a slow realisation that this is my final semester as a student in education, it's incredibly exciting but equally terrifying. Oh well, this quarter life crisis can be put on hold for now.

Last Saturday, at around 2PM, the mighty footballing titans of Aberystwyth University first team took on the equally formidable Pen-y-Bont in a clash that would go down in history, as a game that did indeed happen. My flatmate Tom was playing and it used to be quite a regular thing to see him play, last year, but what with work and general procrastinating, that hasn't happened so much recently. The match was a thrilling 2-0 win for Aberystwyth University but would it be equally as exciting as the Welsh korfball games that would be happening the day after? Hold your horses, I'm about to tell you.

Arriving early in the morning (early for a student), I was a little nervous, knowing we'd be up against two Cardiff University teams and one Cardiff City club, but I was happy to be playing korfball for the first time in just under two months.

Our three games ended sadly in defeats, our closest game was losing 4-6 against Cardiff University's third team. There was a small ray of light in the fact that we came away with the win in that game, but only because they admitted to fielding an illegible player, someone from the first team, not their fault, they just didn't have enough players.

The day of playing gave me a pretty achy condition for the next two days and it's only today that I've been able to get out of bed with out the accompanying groan.

This week has been dominated pretty wholeheartedly by korfball, with the recruitment fayre yesterday, whereby, despite it being a very quiet, we had a few people pretty keen to sign up and come to our session this Friday 6-7:30. On that note, if anyone's reading this looking to join a sport, I'd definitely recommend this one, through korfball I have made some of my closest friends, the sport keeps me active and the socials each week create a friendship group that are incredibly close both on and off the court. Tonight's social is Red, red, red, we are the Red Kites (Google it) and as a result, we're dressing head to toe in red and crawling (maybe literally) from one pub to another through the town.

Here are some photos taken from the last week (mainly korfball. Again, sorry.)

Tom styles it past the Pen-y-bont number nine

Wonder shot (Aberystwyth are in charcoal)

Another picture from the game

And another

And another

I thought it's just best to mention, Ipswich Town lost last night to Derby County 0-3, sliding three places, potentially more depending on who wins tonight, makes me a little worried for the next few games, I just hope we'll still be in the Championship next season.

W