Journal Entries
The end of the second year
Posted Jun 11, 2004
Got my exam results a few minutes ago...
They're OK, I did badly in two exams. Not badly as in failing but badly in that they pulled my other results down.
My second highest mark was in photography. I thought I was useless at it so didn't sign up for the advanced module. Concequently I'm a little miffed with myself 
My two worst results were for oceanography and environmental impact assessent theory. The later I thought was bad, it was a nasty exam, but I thought I'd done well in oceanography 
Basically I need to get an extra 1.5% on average next year, which as long as I avoid modules with too much chemistry content I should be able to get. 
(I didn't take A-level chemistry so find some of the chemistry content very hard)
Tomorrow I'm off to the Lake District, and then I'm off to Opti's and then going to visit my grandparents, so I'm going to be offline for a week-and-a-bit. Tonight though I'm off for an 
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Latest reply: Jun 11, 2004
Dark Peak Marathon (Ramblethon)
Posted Jun 2, 2004
Exam time is long, dull and generally miserable. Weeks of spending most your time indoors reading through notes and generally staring into space when you can't read any more is somewhat tedious. So when the exams finish, and a lack of exercise has caused people to be at their least fit, Ramsoc hosts the Dark Peak Marathon, 24 miles or 37 miles of rambling in one day.
I'm on the committee, so I was one of the marshals. This was going to involve sitting in a tent all day on the Snake Path making sure that everyone was accounted for. However, during Saturday's ramble around Hook Norton in north Oxfordshire, the president decided I should sweep the 24 mile route. I was tired enough after walking 13 miles that day, I wasn't at my fittest. However, I said I'd sweep, so on Tuesday that's what I did.
I got up at 3am Tuesday morning, a time of day I've only seen before as a result of being up late. Eating breakfast at 3.30 was certainly odd. I was packed by 4 am and left the house, ready to be picke dp at five past. It was raining, this became a theme for the day.
It took a while to pick up all the marshalls, get to the Peaks and drop them off near their checkpoints. However, at 7am the marathon began, and after letting everyone get a 15 minute head start, Nick (who was sweeping with me) and I set off. We had some walkie-talkies to talk to the checkpoints with, but we had enough trouble just trying to talk to each other on them. 
The first part was to walk up Win Hill. It didn't take long before we walked into the people in front. It was raining and foggy so there wasn't the usual view, and already a few people were beginning to give up. However, we made it to the Win Hill checkpoint and went on to Lose Hill.
By this point one person could only walk a few steps at a time, so it took a while to get to the top. Once we did, we found two ramblers were missing, which was more than a little worrying. The checkpoint people had to move on, so Nick and I stood on top of Lose hill for the next hour waiting for the missing ramblers, who after some frantic phone calling were found to have got lost and were on their way.
An hour later we were still waiting. Eventually OINK (Operation Information Network, made up for the anacronym I'm sure 
) informed us that they'd found the missing ramblers on the road - they'd walked an 8 mile detour.
Nick and I were now over an hour behind the slowest people, so steamed along up Mam Tor and then on to Edale, and actually caught up 
. However, the people we'd caught up with had given up, and walked at snail's pace to the next check point where they could crash out and get picked up. This meant we lost all the time we'd made up.
By this point we were soaked to the skin, but walked on to the Snake path and on to the Snake Pass. By this point we were beginning to get a little miserable and went to the Snake Pass Inn for a hot chocolate. Nick pointed out the music - 'Why does it always rain on me?', and we had another hot chocolate. Now somewhat happier we put our boots back on and had a look at the map we had given to work out where to go next. The map was paper, and as I took it out from my pocket it fell to pieces. It took a little while to work out where we were meant to be going next, but we thought it was 'Alport Castles', but as the map was smudged as well, exactly what it was called we couldn't tell.
The way was mostly up hill, and steep, but on the plus side it stopped raining about half the way there and the sun actually started shining . We were tired by this point, we had walked 20 miles, and our feet were more than a little painful. By the time we got to probably Alports castle however the checkpoint wasn't there. Typically there was no phone reception either and it wasn't as if the walkie talkies were of any use. Eventually I managed to find somewhere with reception and phoned OINK, and was told to keep going. It turned out the checkpoint had given up waiting for us and moved on.
It was now the last stretch of the walk. Less than 4 miles and all donwhill 
. The ground by this point seemed very hard and the sun was starting to set, we'd been rambling for over 13 hours. We knew that we were meant to finish at Fairholmes, but there was no such place on the OS map, and our other one was now just pulp. We knew roughly were it was though from memory of looking at the map when it was still readable. We were somewhat relieved to find a signpost telling us what direction to go in 
.
About 8.30 pm we found it, Fairholmes turned out to be a carpark, and I've never been so pleased to find a carpark in my life. The Fairholmes checkpoint was still there, and now it was just a matter of waiting for the minibus to pick us up and take us to the pub.
At 12.30am I finally got back home. My feet were blistered, I ached and I was very tired, but I'd walked further than I'd ever done before and was better than I thought I'd be. Next year I'll have to attempt the 37 mile trip.
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Latest reply: Jun 2, 2004
Tent on Tryfan picture in Trail magazine
Posted May 12, 2004
Just in case anyone has a copy of the June issue of trail magazine, that bunch of crazy ramblers with a tent on top of Tryfan's me and some rambling friends.
For those of you who don't have the June issue of Trail magazine (everyone I expect ) the pic's at http://www.su.nott.ac.uk/~ramsoc/images/photos/grade304a/22.jpg . That's me on the left with the purple and green rucksack and the super huge gloves
And before anyone asks, it was for the 'tents in unusual places' competition
Gotta 
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Latest reply: May 12, 2004
Oops
Posted Apr 22, 2004
I had some tiramisu for pudding. It was kind of big and I didn't eat much so put it in the fridge, on the top shelf. However this then collapsed, and the entire contents of the fridge ended up being covered in cream.
The plate it was on managed to land the right way up. This would have been useful if the cake was still on the plate.. Instead the floor (and my trousers) ended up covered in cream as well.
Really hasn't been my week. 
I think I need a nice big open space with nothing to trip up on, break or loose.
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Latest reply: Apr 22, 2004
I had this slightly crazy idea...
Posted Apr 6, 2004
I was getting all excited about the summer meet (I love meets ), so many people had put their names down that I knew of. Both dates I can make (hopefully), though I've got my fingers crossed for 10th July.
But then I had this somewhat 
idea (tends to happen when I've too much time on my hands ). What about a virtual meet? Then I dismissed the idea, as that's kind of what h2g2 is anyway, along with the building the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Earth Edition.
But then the idea came back (still got too much time on hands ). A virtual meet could be organised like an ordinary meet. Set a place, time and date and get a load of hootooers online together for some fast paced natter. There could even be a quiz like in most the actual meets 
.
Have the holidays just got to me or could it actually work?
*waits for people to laugh at her*
Discuss this Journal entry [147]
Latest reply: Apr 6, 2004
Laura
Researcher U216863
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