Bleck - annoying day tomorrow!

Mondays are science-based, with particular focus on chemistry, biology and general behavioural science. So it's always a full day of difficult lectures on Mondays, which is fine. But tomorrow, the morning Animal Behaviour lecture has been substituted with a practical, so I'll be standing in a muddy field for two-and-a-half hours, probably next to one of the poo piles, recording ethograms. Thinking I'll skip breakfast!

Then it's the usual half hour walk up windy country roads, to the equine campus, which will probably take longer because I'll have my PPE with me.

And the ex-hurricane is set to hit us tomorrow. When it rains up there, it really rains. And there's only one sheltered place on the equine site - a tiny cafeteria.

Aaaaaalso, the last lecture is Genetics, and apparently the lecturer has taken to finishing ten minutes late. I have to walk all the way back to the village to catch my bus! If I leave five minutes early and manage to get a campus shuttle bus back to main site, I can usually make it in time and get home by 6:00. If I leave on time at 5:00, I can walk/run down to the village and catch the next bus, which gets me home at about 6:30. After that, though, the next bus isn't until 7:00. If the weather's okay, I'll be able to walk home, but if it's raining really hard, it gets too slippery.

Bit apprehensive!

It certainly sounds like a full day!

Just a thought - if you haven't got a car, how about getting a push-bike, or better yet - a mo-ped?

Or ..... can no fellow student on the same course give you a lift?

Here's hoping our ex-hurricane turns out to be another damp squib. Ever since Michael Fish's "don't worry, there's no hurricane" hurricane the Met Office have taken to dishing out scare stories just to cover their backsides!

Too dangerous, I'm afraid. I've considered both before. No place to chain a bike, unless I want to walk all the way up to the furthest campus and back every day, and the roads are too dangerous for cyclists. Dangerous aspect also applies to motorcycles and mo-peds, but there's also the expense of them. And there isn't anybody who lives near me.

It's usually fine if I'm at the main campus, as I can get a reasonably easy bus route from the nearby village, with only thirty minutes of walking on either side of the bus journey.

That's the trouble with attending an agriculture and animal university; it has to be off the beaten track a bit, away from towns, as it needs a lot of space. 485 hectares, to be exact.

From the weather we're already getting down here, I don't hold out much hope for a dry Monday!

Ah well. It's fun to complain, so it'll give me that at least!

Oh bum.

Roads are desperate these days I agree; I just thought that being off the beaten track a bike of some sort might be feasible.

How do your fellow students cope with all the trekking to and fro?

Well I hope you're still alive because I hear Nature is trying to move Scotland over to Asia.

Most of my classmates have cars! Either that or they stay in accommodation.

Yep, ex-hurricane Gonzales has hit us! Woke up this morning to very noisy wind and heavy rain. Still alive, though!

Monday was actually okay, as my very lovely dad gave me a lift home.

That was nice of him.

On a side note: Who the hell names a hurricane Gonzales??? That's like the worst name you could give a hurricane.

They always used to name them after women!

We had cyclone tracy here in 1974. Ironic really, I was a toddler when it hit, & no one has let me forget till this day.

That's quite a trek to get there and back, especially in bad weather. It's at times like that I really wish I had learned to drive

I got it wrong - it's Gonzalo, not Gonzales!

We've been reasonably lucky in recent years, although we often get ex-hurricanes blowing across to us at this time of year.

Luckily, we're only up at the equine site on Mondays! Aaaaalso, I have the week off next week! Well, technically, I'll still be working, but from home.

Eleanor wrote:Most of my classmates have cars!

Shame on your classmates Eleanor! If not one of them can be arsed to go a little bit out of their way once a week to save you that awful trek then maybe you should resort to bribery - ie pay their petrol costs.

To be fair, I believe I'm one of the only ones on my course from the nearby area! Most of them drive from very long distances in the opposite direction!

Dad has very, very, very, very (excuse the hyperbole!) kindly offered to give me a lift home when I'm up at the equine centre or the farm, which is even further.

Good on yer Dad! (Aren't parents the greatest? )

They are! I feel very guilty for disrupting his evening, though...

Nonsense! That's what they're there for. It's their punishment for having us

I think having me was punishment enough! I was not an easy child!

Eleanor wrote: I think having me was punishment enough! I was not an easy child!

Easy enough as long as there was no water or dogs around!

Admit it - I was a pain in the bum!