It's nearly a year since I first left for Cambridge, during which time the following things have occured:
I have a decreased alcohol tolerance.
I have an improved diet.
I have lost weight.
I dress better (debatable, seeing as I dress like I'm sartorially prepared for a circus act, but still).
I have a vague feeling I know a few things about medicine, but have forgotten vast amounts of A-level chemistry, biology, physics, and maths, plus almost all of my AS-levels and GCSEs.
I am slightly richer (I have decided to ignore student debt entirely).
This can only mean one thing:
I am an anti-student.
With enough time as an undergrad, I may actually be a useful member of society.
Geraldine xxx
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
A Recommendation
This blog is written by a gentleman currently staying in an unnamed NHS hospital for traction following surgery on his leg - you may have seen it on the BBC's 'health' page today. Although mostly humorous, he is addressing a really very important issue, namely, food.
For many of us, school lunches are a not-too-distant memory. I'm sure some of you had lovely school lunches; mine were uniformly horrific. I'm a slightly fussier-than-average eater, but I don't think that fully accounts for the loss of a stone in weight in a single term when I first started school and began eating food not cooked by my parents. Since then, I have battled - yes, battled - through nearly 14 years at two independent schools, at both of which the lunches provided have been so poor and so clearly lacking in anything resembling either palatability or nutritional value that my parents were forced (much against their will) to provide me with a packed lunch. Now at the lovely Newnham College, provided with such things as ovens and hobs, I am capable of feeding myself adequately throughout term - and Newnham's buttery actually provides food which is edible, even pleasant. Not all Colleges bother to do this, and some of them charge a frankly ridiculous amount for a meagre plateful of nutritionally questionable food of somewhat dubious origin, often with little or no resemblance to the menu posted at the door. Anyway.
If it's bad to be forced to eat poor food while a relatively healthy young person (school age to early 20s) - and it obviously is, just look at that rant and try telling me it's not had a profound effect - then it is many times worse that up to 140,000 people leave hospital with symptoms of malnourishment. How is anyone supposed to recover from surgery, illness, childbirth, mental health problems or whatever other reason they are in hospital in the first place if the food they're eating is depressingly tasteless, nutritionally lacking and - frequently - so far from what they want to eat that most of it is thrown away?
Rant over. But remember: if you're going to get ill and require hospital treatment, don't do it in August or September, and bring tupperware.
Love,
Felicity xxx
For many of us, school lunches are a not-too-distant memory. I'm sure some of you had lovely school lunches; mine were uniformly horrific. I'm a slightly fussier-than-average eater, but I don't think that fully accounts for the loss of a stone in weight in a single term when I first started school and began eating food not cooked by my parents. Since then, I have battled - yes, battled - through nearly 14 years at two independent schools, at both of which the lunches provided have been so poor and so clearly lacking in anything resembling either palatability or nutritional value that my parents were forced (much against their will) to provide me with a packed lunch. Now at the lovely Newnham College, provided with such things as ovens and hobs, I am capable of feeding myself adequately throughout term - and Newnham's buttery actually provides food which is edible, even pleasant. Not all Colleges bother to do this, and some of them charge a frankly ridiculous amount for a meagre plateful of nutritionally questionable food of somewhat dubious origin, often with little or no resemblance to the menu posted at the door. Anyway.
If it's bad to be forced to eat poor food while a relatively healthy young person (school age to early 20s) - and it obviously is, just look at that rant and try telling me it's not had a profound effect - then it is many times worse that up to 140,000 people leave hospital with symptoms of malnourishment. How is anyone supposed to recover from surgery, illness, childbirth, mental health problems or whatever other reason they are in hospital in the first place if the food they're eating is depressingly tasteless, nutritionally lacking and - frequently - so far from what they want to eat that most of it is thrown away?
Rant over. But remember: if you're going to get ill and require hospital treatment, don't do it in August or September, and bring tupperware.
Love,
Felicity xxx
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Stereotypes
We're a prejudiced lot, really. Sometimes, we hear a subject, college, or activity, and we jump to conclusions. This is not to say that these conclusions aren't usually completely correct, but they are assumptions nonetheless.
(Disclaimer: I'm aware these aren't always true- for example, I know some lovely people at Trinity, and some relatively sane engineers. I'm even dating a mathmo, so either these should be taken with a huge pinch of salt, or I'm completely insane (or both).)
Homerton/Girton
Three options: have giant thighs from the sheer amount of cycling necessary, spend vast amounts on bus fares, or never ever leave college. We are often tempted to set up a couple, one from each of these colleges, and watch either exhaustion set in or one move into the other's room.
Mathmo
Weird, even for Cambridge. Multiply this by about five if from Trinity.
Rower
Obsessive. Cares little about sleep.
Caius medic
Oddly competitive (to they point where the entire medical section of Caius library is empty most of the year for no reason other than making sure no one else can get at the books), usually obsessive.
New Hall/Newnham/(sometimes Lucy Cav)
Desperate/feminist/lesbian/got in through the pool.
Engineer/NatSci
Either a wonderful level of weird and eccentric, or a big ball full of crazy.
LARPer
Odd, enjoys running round fields painted green with a fake sword.
Arts student (if you're a scientist)
Lazy, spends all day reading books and complaining about work.
That will do for now- more as I accumulate them myself.
Geraldine xxx
(Disclaimer: I'm aware these aren't always true- for example, I know some lovely people at Trinity, and some relatively sane engineers. I'm even dating a mathmo, so either these should be taken with a huge pinch of salt, or I'm completely insane (or both).)
Homerton/Girton
Three options: have giant thighs from the sheer amount of cycling necessary, spend vast amounts on bus fares, or never ever leave college. We are often tempted to set up a couple, one from each of these colleges, and watch either exhaustion set in or one move into the other's room.
Mathmo
Weird, even for Cambridge. Multiply this by about five if from Trinity.
Rower
Obsessive. Cares little about sleep.
Caius medic
Oddly competitive (to they point where the entire medical section of Caius library is empty most of the year for no reason other than making sure no one else can get at the books), usually obsessive.
New Hall/Newnham/(sometimes Lucy Cav)
Desperate/feminist/lesbian/got in through the pool.
Engineer/NatSci
Either a wonderful level of weird and eccentric, or a big ball full of crazy.
LARPer
Odd, enjoys running round fields painted green with a fake sword.
Arts student (if you're a scientist)
Lazy, spends all day reading books and complaining about work.
That will do for now- more as I accumulate them myself.
Geraldine xxx
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
On the Subject of Naming
Dear People-who-might-discover-and-get-to-name-stuff,
Please make sure, before you name things, that there is nothing else we might need to know called the same thing.
For example: it is not helpful to us to have both a part of the lung and a flap of tissue in the mouth called the 'lingula'.
Kindly fix this.
Lots of love
Felicity xxx
Please make sure, before you name things, that there is nothing else we might need to know called the same thing.
For example: it is not helpful to us to have both a part of the lung and a flap of tissue in the mouth called the 'lingula'.
Kindly fix this.
Lots of love
Felicity xxx
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