Today has involved more house-hunting and frustrations regarding this. My first lecture on a Monday is Latin, which I almost always miss. However, today I was intending to attend as I had to go and look at a house afterwards, and if I was going to wake up early, I may as well do it properly. Anyway, I managed to sleep through two full hours of ringing alarm clocks, only to be woken by my phone ringing, the thought ‘Things are ringing’ being the first thing on my mind. I had not only missed Latin, but was now late to meet my future-housemates to go and visit our prospective ‘home’, one of whom had just woken me by calling to see where I was. I threw on some clothes (only carefully coordinated as I wore them last night) and hurried to meet them, sadly too late. We therefore had no option but to visit later in the day.
I now had hours to kill, however, so managed to get quite a lot done. I need to start waking up in the mornings, so I can actually achieve more in a day, I think. So, I went to Tescos, to buy some just-restocked fruit, vegetables and smoothie, then tidied my room. It’s harder than you imagine to manoeuvre apples into a plastic bag while holding a basket and talking on the phone, although I enjoyed my early-chat with Matt. At two, I went to my lecture, which was taught by a small woman with big patterns and glasses. At first, I thought that she’d be annoying (this is what I get for judging by looks alone!), but it was actually quite interesting, if a little intense. She mainly discussed Roman ‘histories’ and ‘historians’, and the characteristics and problems of them. I feel that I’m going to enjoy this term- so much of it seems to be literary based, as opposed to the very date-and-event orientated first term. The only thing which spoilt the lecture was an absolutely disgusting cup of tea which I had the misfortune to drink.
I swear that Tetley is the most god-awful company for tea, and I cannot understand why it is so widespread. “Everyone’s cup of tea”? Psh! The only flavour which I can bear is mint, which is honestly pretty hard to go wrong with. Pre-university, my first Tetley experience was at the French side of the Channel Tunnel. I ordered a cup of green tea after a long car-journey, expecting something refreshing. I get a little ill in cars anyway, and so I wasn’t in the best of moods. I took a gulp of the tea and half-gagged, resisting the urge to spit the tea back into the cup. What I had drunk was not dissimilar to how I imagine taking a bite out a herb-garden and swilling it around my mouth with lukewarm water would taste like. It was unpleasant and lingering, and I have had my suspicions about Tetley since then. Today, I ordered an Earl Grey tea from a café on campus. I was expecting Twinings, as in the café I usually frequent, although they have Tetley ‘normal’ tea and herbal teas, they stock Twinings Earl Grey (and right too!). Anyway, I was given a cup with the ominous blue double tag sticking out from it. However, I expected it to be drinkable. Again, no. It was possibly the worst cup of tea that is intended to be drunk without milk I have ever tasted. It was like a vaguely fragrant PG Tips or so on. It is my theory that if you have to add milk and sugar to tea, it is solely to disguise the taste, and there if no reason, therefore, to want to drink it. It left me feeling ill.
Back to my this-and-then-this account. After my lecture, I was dragged to find the resources room by a friend from my course, Cordelia, and I in turn dragged her away to play DDR. This killed a rather pleasant, albeit exhausting hour, and I arrived at my room only to find out that in fifteen minutes or so, I would have to go and look at the house which I had been late for earlier. So, I dashed off to the bus stop, only to miss two buses due to delays and people forgetting their money. The house itself seemed good to me- it’s cheap, in a really convenient location, and in good condition. All the rooms bar the bathroom are large, especially the gigantic bedroom upstairs which I have my eye on. Although some parts seem a little cold and old, I think it would be an okay place to live. However, the people I’m going to be living with, especially one girl, don’t seem to agree. I’m not going to go on about it, but I had a headache and having to trail through house after house trying to find one which pleases everyone isn’t my idea of fun. Yes, we could find something great, but equally likely, that we’ll lose this one and have to take somewhere a lot worse. We’ve agreed to sleep on it and talk about it tomorrow, and I’m largely going to withdraw from the decision. I’ll be content with somewhere with all the facilities, fairly large rooms and in a convenient location. I do think, however, that certain people need to accept that it is student housing. We’re not looking at mansions. I also resented the fact that one of them described terraced houses as being ‘council housing’. Not everyone lives in a large house somewhere in the countryside, I’m afraid. In fact, the end-of-terrace house that my family own in London is probably worth at least 3/4 of whatever her family own in whatever village they come from. I must say that one of the things I have found about Warwick is how the majority of people seem to come from fairly to wealthy backgrounds, but that is a rant for another day.
Now I shall go back to my fiction. I’m reading ‘Walking on Glass’ by Ian Banks at the moment. I’m getting through books like anything at the moment, which I believe is a good sign.
