Swiv's Idea of a University
Created | Updated Nov 12, 2003
Sitting down to write this piece I start to think, 'well, what happened this week?'
The problem this time is, I'm not sure where this week went.
Don't worry – I've not been on some drugs 'n' alcohol infused bender – I had a mild case of the flu. I maintain it was 'nearly' flu because I was hot and cold within a 30 second span, and miserably achy. But it was only 'nearly', because I would have dragged myself out of bed for a fairly paltry sum of money. In fact, on Friday, I dragged myself out of bed for no money at all. I took my poorly-sickness to class. I'm sure I could have got away with not going, but the dear Professor would probably have offered to go over what I missed some other time, and I hadn't done any work. I also didn't intend to start – I have no plans to begin writing essays on Roman religion – so I needed to be able to hide my ignorance, in a crowd of twenty other people who also hadn't done the reading.
Before Thursday what happened? Oh yes, I went on a mass outing to the Wednesday's Late Night film at the cinema. Every Wednesday our lovely little cinema, that's so advanced it still uses cloakroom tickets, has an 11pm showing, either of some fairly recent fave, or a classic – normally something really good. Recent events have been 'The Two Towers' and 'Some Like it Hot', and this week, our treat was 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. 'Yay' said us, 'Johnny Depp, Orlando, Bloom, pirate swagger, general gloriousness, let's go.'
The thing is 'us' ended up being a group of fifteen of us, so – as on the occasion we (all Tolkien geeks) went to see 'The Two Towers' – a trip to the cinema turned into a strategically planned event:
'Right, we're near the front of the queue, and there's lots of us, so spread out and stop anyone sliding round.'
'Now, when we've got tickets, you and you wait for these daft people who are running late. You, you and you go and get your munchies, and the rest of us [picking out about half a dozen] will go and grab seats. We're aiming for the front two rows upstairs. CHARGE!'
Of course, it was never quite going to go to plan – the fact that 'Matrix Revolutions' hadn't come out by the time we'd got tickets was a slight flaw – but having members of the group who were on very good terms with the cinema staff has its bonus', and we ended up safely ensconced in our chosen seats. Late Night Shows are very much participatory events – there are cheers, applause, howls, shrieks, and, in this case, hysterical giggles every time Orlando Bloom tried to look intense. The cinema was packed, and my friend Kat's housemate, who had come along because he'd not seen the film, decided that we were all five year olds.
This has definitely been a fairly cinema-orientated week. On Thursday I became the 'Ticket Monkey' by official designation, and raced out to buy tickets for the Scottish premiere of 'Love Actually', which our beloved Rector, Sir Clement Freud, has arranged for us. I will say little of how terrifying the people around me in the queue were. The sheer number of pashminas, the amount of pink clothing, and the discussion about the recent acquisition of £500/8 month membership of the Old Course Hotel gym have sent me back quaking to my hand-knitted woolly scarf and smarties for reassurance. But I got the tickets, and four of us will brave the massed ranks of St Andrews glitterati next week to watch the film.
Then I went down with The Bug. It appears to be a tolerably swift, though painful experience. I dragged myself out of bed for long enough yesterday to write my gobbet – a short document analysis passage. It's not fully finished yet as my tutor wants it handwritten (in this day and age, I ask you), and I've not quite got that far. I'll do it nearer the tutorial so that there'll be less chance of me spilling things over it.
It's now Reading Week – so I have a whole extra four hours to get some work done in. As it is, I'm going to London for three days, so tough luck Caesar essay, you can be finished later.
