If It's Twenty Four Hour Silence...

So Ancaster Hall is meant to have a twenty four hour silence policy, to allow students to study for their impending exams. However, although I am aware that I would be in serious trouble if I did so much as turn my music up louder than absolutely necessary, or watched TV online without headphones, I am also aware that there are several things stopping the silence. So my ponderance today is:
If Ancaster Hall is meant to be silent twenty four hours a day, then why...:

• ... Do large, very loud lorries drive past my room periodically between the times of 06:00 and at least 15:30?
• ... Is the idiot in the room below me allowed to play his ridiculously loud dubstep/club music so that I can hear it through my floor, when I can't even have my radio loud enough to be able to hear it in my own bathroom?
• ... Have the girls upstairs been throwing things out of their window for no apparent reason and then spending half an hour yelling at each other from the ground to the second floor trying to get it out of the spiky bushes that they know are incredibly spiky (designed to prevent intruders)?
• ... Have the aforementioned girls got very cross with me when I shouted out the window telling them to be quiet as it's meant to be silent?
• ... Are the boys outside allowed to stand almost directly outside my room and play (very loud) football? 
• ..., if all the above are true, am I not allowed to watch a film with my friends?

The Small Horse Identity Crisis Question

Hello there folks! Many of you will be aware that I have recently been pondering the following question:

Does a small horse ever have an identity crisis and wonder if it's actually a pony?

Or, on the other hand:

Do large ponies ever have identity crises and think they're really just very short horses? (In which case, do they get angry?)

However, the darling Amanda informs me that the only difference between a pony and a horse is the size*, apparently above the size 13 3 (I think this is in hands, but I'm not sure, she wasn't very explanatory) makes the animal a horse. So now my question has changed slightly:

Would a horse which was borderline pony-size consider itself a very tall pony? And if so, would it then bully smaller ponies and try and reign over them like some sort of King Pony? After that, would it eventually move on to try and take control of groups of larger horses in a sort-of Napoleonic way? And can we really survive another Napoleon-esque emperor? Especially one that's actually a horse and might not be sympathetic to human customs, or might even take out revenge for all its ancestors and their mistreatment by humankind? 

Oh the humanity!

Can you imagine how horrible it would be for that small horse/tall pony though? He'd never feel like he belonged anywhere; he'd be too tall to be friends with the real ponies, but he would be laughed at by the taller horses for him diminutive stature. How cruel would that be?

To be honest, there's a bit of a philosophical query here: should you want to be the best in your social group, or should you want to be the least educated and qualified in the hope of bettering yourself by being surrounded by those greater than you? I prefer the latter; a quote I try to live by is "If you're the cleverest person in the room, you're in the wrong room" - this is sometimes too difficult to judge, as lots of people are clever in different ways, but if you know more than everyone else in the room, you should probably try to move in greater circles. Unless you're a teacher, in which case you should be the cleverest person in that room. But even then, that's not every room.

*(This makes me wonder if you could actually have a Shetland horse. Because I really want one now.)

Daffodils (sort of)

Hello again reader(s)!! I know, is it even possible that I've done more than two updates since re-beginning to write my blog (again)? And yes indeed, it is!!! This post is about probably one of the best decisions I've made during my time at university, excluding the choice I made to be friends with the lovely people I am friends with. I've bought some narcissus. They were sold to me as daffodils, but I'm not silly; they're narcissus. The currently sit in the pot I bought them in at the corner of my desk, although I'm hoping to get a bigger pot and an actual drip tray (rather than a cereal bowl.) So, I've been pondering them, basically.

Firstly, I've been surprised at how quickly the little flowers have grown. I bought them last week, probably on Wednesday, I think, and several of them have already flowered, with many more probably flowering in the next few days. The first one flowered on this Thursday and I actually watched it open throughout the day. Now five are properly open and one is opening today. Let me show you:

Thursday evening

Thursday lunchtime

Thursday afternoon

Saturday afternoon

Friday morning

Friday evening

 So you see how quick the development of these pictures has occurred... Even as I'm writing this, another bud has started to bloom! I'm now on six!

My other ponderance is how much better they make my room. Apart from a dodgy smell from the soil-y stuff when I water the base, which is easily ignored, they are very attractive and definitely make the room a little happier. At the same time, I think having them around in the room also makes it feel more like home. It's something I can look after and it adds another element of life to the room.

Finally, I feel I should explain the caption on the fifth picture. Since I arrived at university I have come to the realisation that a lot of my friends... How can I put this so that it encompasses everything?... I have a lot of friends who bat for the Owen's team, who like to exfoliate and whose favourite film is Moulin Rouge. Is this getting the point across at all? Basically, I've been nicknamed the Fairy Gaymother because I appear to attract a certain type of person as my friend. Apparently I also have this effect on flowers...

Ding Dong Merrily On A Budget

I know, I know, I haven't updated this blog for over two months now and I'm very, very sorry. Therefore, like a parent who has missed their child's school play, I am now going to ravish you with extra attention and new and more interesting posts to make up for it. Hopefully. I have actually been hoping to write this particular post for about six or seven weeks now, so it is a bit late (and out of season), but I hope you'll excuse that. Anyway, on with the show!

As you can see, today's post is called "Ding dong merrily on a budget" and, basically, the idea behind this has sprung from my desperate need, as a student, to decorate my room for Christmas on an incredibly minimal amount of money. I set this limit for myself at no more than £10 and managed to come in below this amount anyway. So, my first shopping trip took me to (where else?) Tesco; where I spent approximately a fiver(?) on decorations, consisting of:

• Tinsel, 2 (two) - gold, total of 4m
• Stocking, 1 (one) - red and white felt
• Battery powered Christmas lights, 1 (one) string - star-shaped, purple and pink alternating

I was quite happy with the way my looked at this point; I may even have a photo...

Somewhere.

For now, allow me to continue.

This was in the last week or so of November (I thought it best to get in early, although I am usually against this, as I was leaving Uni on 13th December, so wanted the full Christmas season), however, by the beginning of December my friends and I had decided that we wanted to have a Christmas party and, seeing as how my room was the tidiest/I'd done the least hosting all term/I was most open to decoration, my room became the designated party room. This, of course, required more decorations to be purchased. 

With now only £5 left in the budget and most of a room to make festive, we thought we'd have our work cut out (does anyone else think I'm beginning to sound like one of those stupid house makeover programmes?) Anyway, we decided to start thinking outside the box; the regular person, socially acceptable box...

So we spent about £3.50 on wrapping paper and we (Declan and Elena) wrapped the walls of my room.

Yes. That happened. 

See photo if you don't believe me.

Please ignore these people. They're just actors posing as my friends.

So, my plan with this post was to encourage people to get involved in the "Ding dong..." idea wot I came up wiv, but obviously it's a bit late for that. So, please consider it for next (this) year (especially those of you on tight budgets) as a cool Christmassy thing to do.

Hopefully I'll have another post soon. Much love xx

(P.S. Tom, I haven't forgotten about your letter. I have it and am in the process of writing back, but I haven't yet had the chance to send it - sorry!!!)