Yesterday, I went to town to buy some new jeans and a pair of new trainers. I got three pairs of jeans and instead of trainers, I decided to buy some nice shoes. I was really hesitant about buying them as I'm so used to wearing trainers.
After I'd bought what I needed to buy I headed back to the station. I wanted to get some money out before getting a burger. On my way there, I noticed someone sitting outside a cafe. I could have sworn it was Ruth. We did plan on meeting a few months ago, but it never happened. She did actually look at me, but she didn't do anything so I carried on walking. I was still so damn sure it was her though and upon walking back after I had gotten my money out, I looked again. I was still sure.
I went to get my burger and ate it inside before returning to the station to go home. I had to pass her again though and I was now pretty damn certain it was her. I decided to walk back to her yet again and I noticed that she was reading a book. I didn't want to just say hello to her without being absolutely sure it was her so I walked past her and then looked back to see what book she was reading and it was Terry Pratchet who I remembered she loved so I now knew it was her.
I walked over to her and called her name and she looked at me with a confused face.
"It's Neil!", I said to her. And then she realised and smiled. Yay.
I talked to her for about 10 minutes or so. She looked so nice. She was waiting for her boyfriend so I didn't want to stay too long so she could continue waiting for him on her own but still, it was really really nice to finally meet her. I gave her a hug and said goodbye and went home feeling quite happy. It was a really nice highlight to the day.
Today was the start of a new week in college. It was quite boring really, but it went over quickly. I decided to wear my new shoes which were really uncomfortable to begin with and I was hoping that they'd give a little.
For most of the morning, I did lots of research about the future of gaming and watched game trailers with some of the other people in the class. Rob had brought in some prospectuses from Cumbria university - The same university that I had been looking at early last week and that I had thought looked really really good. I had a look through it, but there wasn't really that much information about it. However, he said that he was planning on going to visit the university this Saturday and asked if I wanted to go too. I said that I very well might.
My lunch was spent writing up a small essay on the future of gaming, before the afternoon lesson consisted mostly of me being bored. We did learn about DVD Studio Pro though, which we're going to use to create things like a DVD portfolio which I'm very interested about. It'd be great to make one to a high standard with lots of my work on it and then take it with me to an interview.
Towards the end of the day, me and Rob talked some more about going to Cumbria on Saturday. It then changed to Friday instead, as neither of us liked the idea of travelling up there at 6:30am to get there for 12pm which is when the tour starts. He kindly said that I could stay with him at his Dad's in Newcastle and that his Dad would be driving us both to Cumbria. I'm both excited and scared!
So, I'm probably going to travel up to Newcastle with Rob on Friday at around 5pm. It takes four hours to get up there so I have no idea what I'm going to do for that amount of time.
On my way home, Gary called me again and was once again quite vague about what he actually wanted from me. I couldn't really be bothered talking to him because although he was talking, he wasn't saying anything. He wasn't being at all specific about what he actually wanted from me. I really wonder at times how he got to be a successful businessman when he comes across as well, really bad at it?
He said that he'd be picking me up at 10am tomorrow morning to explain a bit more about what he wants me to do. I think he said something about data entry basically. Accounting and whatnot. It sounds boring. But, maybe it'll give me a bit of money that I would otherwise not have and although it's nowhere near what I need to afford a place of my own, it will at least provide a small pot of money which is currently dwindling fast. I spent �140 in total yesterday on my jeans and shoes and if I'm going up to Newcastle on Friday, that's another �40 for train fare. Not good.
I really need to start thinking about writing my personal statement for uni. The UCAS website says that the best time to submit applications is half way through November for the best chance to get accepted. That means that I have just over a week or two to get everything sorted. That includes picking my five university choices, writing my statement, getting it checked, Brian writing a referral and it actually getting sent to UCAS.
I really need to think about going to visit other universities too but I have to think about how much it's going to cost me to do so. I mean, it's �40 for a ticket alone and I'm lucky in the fact that I am staying at Rob's Dad's to go to Cumbria. But, for my other current choices, Northumbria and Bolton, I'd probably have to rent out a hotel room for the night which is really going to eat into any savings that I currently have.
Somehow, I need to find about �250 so that I can go and visit the universities. Maybe this job that Gary is offering will help with that, but that will be over time and time is something I don't have much of. I want to get this application sent off by the first week of December at the very most.
It's really weird planning for university. It's scary too. In less than a year's time, I could be living somewhere else and meeting lots of new people and learning graphic design somewhere. It's exciting, but the unknown is a scary thing.
