... And I started to walk
Pretty soon I will run
And I'll come running back to you
Cause I followed my star
That's what you are
I've had a merry time with you ...

Christmastime is here, by golly
Disapproval would be folly
Deck the halls with hunks of holly
Fill the cup and don't say 'when' ...

So Christmas has been and gone. It's now boxing day. Big Sis has disappeared to God Knows Where, mum is asleep on the sofa and dad is watching something black and white on Sky. I, meanwhile, have been working hard at my Doctor Who life. Oh yes indeed.

Yesterday was the main event - The Runaway Bride. Obviously, it's been hyped up to the point of madness, and I was half-expecting it to be a bit of a let-down, but I was pleasantly surprised, and not in the least by Catherine Tate. I know several people who can't stand her and thought she would ruin in - personally, I don't dislike her, but then again I'm not her biggest fan. Nevertheless, she carried the role of 'rebound companion' very well. I'm glad she rejected the Doctor at the end - it needs to be done every once in a while, for him to meet someone who doesn't want to travel with him.

Ok, so to round up - here's a list of the good and bad points.

GOOD
- The Empress of Racnoss. The prosthetics department of Doctor Who deserve every award they get, because that was incredible. Sarah Parish was almost unrecognisable! That spider-suit was certainly one of the best bits of television make-up I've ever seen.
- The CHASE SEQUENCE. I know I've already seen this *cough* several *splutter* times before, but it need reiterating - the TARDIS needs more flight sequences. I know it's probably very expensive and very time-consuming, but it was jaw-droppingly COOL and they know it.
- The references to Rose et al were very well and cleverly done. Not too OTT, nice and subtle. I cried at the end. Well, HE was going to cry, I think I'm allowed to shed a tear on his behalf!
- GALLIFREY. After two series and two Christmas specials, the Doctor FINALLY says out loud the name of his home planet. FINALLY! It's a Ten thing, I think. Nine never once mentioned Gallifrey OR Skaro, and Ten referenced them both in the space of two episodes. Whatever the reason, THANK YOU.

BAD
- "This time, it's personnel." *facepalm* WHY?! Come on, Uncle Rusty, you're a good writer. Why the bad puns? *sigh* Oh well, it's Christmas. I'll forgive you. But I warn you, if you use the "Doctor WHO?" pun ONE MORE TIME, then I will cut off your bollocks with a rusty spoon. Oh, the irony ...
- One or two slight plot-holes here and there. Then again, it's to be expected from Who. Besides, a little suspension odisbelief never hurt anyone.

So, overall, the good points outweigh the bad. And too right. I'd give it 8 1/2 out of 10.

In other Who news, I've decided to enter the Big Finish Competition and send in a Doctor Who story. I haven't yet decided which Doctor I'm going to write (I've only ever written Nine or Ten in fanfic, and they're not allowed to be used in the competition) but I'm sure one of them will come to mind.

Tomorrow, me and Boy are going Sales Shopping. We're both buying SOAP. Make of that what you will.

ONE SLEEP UNTIL THE RUNAWAY BRIDE!!!

And Christmas. Meh.

I've been terrible with my updating, I know ... but it's mainly because I've been busy with Christmassy things such as:

- Choir camp. This year was awesome and horrid in different ways - awesome because I was in KYC and we might be going on tour to Canada in 2008, and horrid because the school was a Catholic school that had Jesuses and Marys EVERYWHERE. It was more than slightly terrifying.
- Spamalot. Spamalot is the most AMAZINGLY AMAZING musical ever. Monty Python in a musical. It writes itself! Plus it had Tim Curry as King Arthur and th eguy who played Algy from 'The Empty Child' as Sir Robin. Legend! Boy came along too - he loved it so much he's decided we have to go again. I'm not going to complain.
- Christmas pressies. All my presents for other people have been bought, wrapped and given out, and I've already had some presents from some people - Katie gave me Firefly, Alex gave me a Grow Your Own Millionaire kit, Danny gave me Torchwood and Boy gave me Blackpool, Maltesers and a Gizmo in a Santa Suit. COOL.
- Christmas telly. Today, we have 'Peter And The Wolf'. Tomorrow is the Doctor Who Day - 'Music And Monsters' at 1 and 'The Runaway Bride' (ZEDOHEMGEEMEGAOMGSOCOOLSQUEEEEE!) at 7. Later on in the week we have 'The Ruby In the Smoke', 'Dracula', 'The Sarah Jane Adventures', 'The Vicar Of Dibley' and many other shiny things. YAY!
- Boy. I have seen Boy almost every day this week, and it's been awesomely cool. We shnuggled. It was good.

And on that note, I will wish everyone (i.e. anyone) who reads this a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. WOOT!

In an attempt to get back on track with my essay, I'm taking a break.

Or, to use the more common term, procrastinating.

I don't feel bad about this. After all, last word count (including quotations) was 1,928 words. And that's only just over halfway! I still need to write about Pina Bausch and Wilson, then do my conclusion. I might need to take out some of the context-y stuff at the beginning ... but then if I take it out, the essay might make less sense ... gah. As long as I keep going, I should be fine. If I have a full first draft by this evening, I will be a Happy Bunny.

Today is also mine and Boy's two month anniversary. Neither of us have had one of these before. We've both doubled our personal best of one month (admittedly, that was with each other, but still ...) and we're still going strong. It's been nothing but up for me and him these last few weeks - we've gone from strength to strength and it's been fun all the way. Part of me is incredulous that we've reached this point already (where has the time gone?) but mostly I feel proud - proud of myself and proud of him. Yeah, we get funny looks from chavs in the street. And yeah, we might get some comments muttered behind our backs. But y'know what? That doesn't matter. For once in my life, nothing and no-one can touch me. I've got him, and that's all the matters.

Right, procrastination over. Time to do some essaying.

I've been a bit lax with my updating.

There's no reason for this. I have only myself to blame.

Unfortunately, I haven't got long, as I'm already slightly late for catching a train to Durham, so I shall keep it brief.

1) Boy met Parents. And Pub. And half of Village. And he did spectacularly well. I'm so proud of him! Mum and Dad absolutely love him - Dad was impressed by all the football talk, and Mum thinks he's a lovely boy and he's welcome any time and do I think they should get him a Christmas Present? *facepalm*

2) Essay. 200 word introduction done, lots of research done, first draft will be written on the train to Durham. Yay!

3) Choir camp is next friday (SQUEE!) and it's all very exciting.

4) I've got hours at the Pub over Christmas, so I'll be earning a bit of money. Yay!

5) Boy is Made Of Awesome. It just needs saying, because he really is. Although apparently his housemates have decided that I need to 'leave my mark' on his room. What do they want me to do, urinate everywhere? Feh.

Aaaaaaaaaand that's it. I'm off to Durham (with a brief detour to the library and cashpoint) and I shall be back on Sunday evening. Woot!

Gah. Gah, gah, gah. I really should learn to organise my time more. I have a seminar in an hours' time and I STILL haven't done all the reading.

It's not that I don't want to, far from it. It's just that I don't see the point in having seminars and lectures on things totally unrelated to the essay I'm currently trying to plan and write. I don't see why I can't just skip them all and concentrate on my essay, as that would be much more productive for me. Besides, all this other stuff is making my head hurt. It's all postmodernism and futurism and loads of other -isms that make less sense now than when I studied them for Sociology. SOCIOLOGY. I'm doing a DRAMA degree. Gah.

Oh well. I've managed to wing it for the last two seminars, I'm sure I can do the same for this one. At least the actual discussion will only be for about an hour and a bit, rather than the normal two solid hours - not only have we got a presentation lasting 20-25 minutes at the beginning of the seminar (which will probably help, actually), our seminar leader wants to talk to us for about 20-30 minutes on our essays (the ones we handed in in week 6, and the ones we have to hand in in week 12). So it probably won't be too bad. I've got some pretty intellectual questions in my head as well, so as long as I pick out quotes from each of the chapters, it'll make it look like I've done all the reading.

Hopefully.

Twenty-seven days until The Runaway Bride!!! Oh, and Christmas.

EDIT: The seminar went pretty well! I made some good points and asked some intellectual questions (ooh yeah, go me!) AND I got my essay plan thing back - I got a 54! YES!!! If I'm honest, I was actually expecting a LOT worse, as I'd only done about 1400 words, but oddly enough I didn't get marked down on that. I got marked down because I hadn't put in the research summary (for two reasons - firstly, I didn't understand what it actually WAS, and secondly, I'd planned to change the subtitle 'essay plan' to 'research summary' and put the subtitle 'essay plan' about my introduction, but I kind of forgot ...) and because I hadn't made my referencing as clear as I should have done (again, I didn't quite understand it). However, it's not a problem - I got the mark I was expecting, I got advice on how to improve, and the marks in your first year don't count towards your final degree mark anyway, all I have to do is pass this year, which I'm on course for doing! So ... yay!

So much has been happening in the world of Me. I met The Boy's family on wednesday - a first for both of us - and it seemed to go well. I was forewarned that they liked chatty people (score!) and that as long as I was polite I should win them over. Well, as far as I can tell, they liked me. And from what Boy told me afterwards, it would appear that I'm not wrong in my assumptions. I'm glad, because I'd hate to be in one of those situations where you don't get on with the Family. Some very awkward situations could theoratically arise. The next step is for Boy to meet my family, which he'll be doing next saturday when I do mum's 'Anything Goes' concert. Should be interesting.

I've also tidied my bedroom up considerably. It's still rather messy, but it's an improvement on what it was. You can see floor now.

I'm also feeling a LOT better. Manuka honey and lemon tea works like a charm. I SWEAR by Manuka honey. It's magic! I'm not sure exactly how it works, but there's some sort of natural antibacterial stuff in it that helps kill germs ... so yay!

Tomorrow (technically today, as it's one in the morning) is a day with Mum to make my KYC dress. Or at least TRY to make my KYC dress. Personally, I'm not holding out much hope, but then again Mum is an AWESOME seamstress. On sunday I'm going back to school to visit Nic in the school play - SO annoyed that I can't go and see her in it properly - I might go and watch it next friday anyway, even though she's not in it, because A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays anyway. We'll see. Might see if Mum fancies going ... or maybe Boy ... or Kylie ... hmm ...

Much as I adored the concert on sunday and wouldn't have missed it for the world, I'm now thinking it probably would have been a lot safer for me to have stayed tucked up in bed with lots of Lemsip and Ibuprofen. I feel HORRID.

I seem to have some sort of cold, ear infection and stomach bug rolled into one. Not fun. Especially seeing as I'm going to see Casino Royale tomorrow with the Boy's family. Must get better.

Is it wrong that I'm still geeking out over the chase sequence from The Runaway Bride? In retrospect, not only was it a cool sequence, the direction was AWESOME. I've always been a fan of Euros Lyn (Tooth And Claw and The Girl In The Fireplace are two of my favourite episodes EVER for direction) but this looks like it's going to be Something Else (yes, it did warrant capital letters).

*bounces* 34 days ...

I'm back from Cardiff. Was it worth it?

Every. Penny.

It. was. AWESOME. I was full of a cold, slept on the train all the way there and back and I STILL enjoyed it. Absolutely fantastic! They showed us a clip from The Runaway Bride, the Chase Sequence - literally. Donna (the bride) was in the taxi, being driven by a robot santa, and the Doctor was flying the TARDIS behind it, dodging cars and piloting the console with bits of string (I kid you not - bog-standard, common-or-garden string, such as you could buy in a craft shop. I chuckled like CRAZY!). Just as it got to the REALLY exciting bit, the picture cut out the the screen said "To be continued christmas 2006", and EVERYONE in the audience groaned. Very amusing. And there were some cracking lines as well ... one bit involved the Doctor bashing the TARDIS console with a hammer and yelling "Behave!" at it admonishingly. Another great bit was where the TARDIS was flying next to the taxi that Donna was in, with the doors wide open and the Doctor yelling at her to jump into the TARDIS:

Donna: I'm in my WEDDING DRESS!
Doctor: You look lovely. JUMP!

And that whole sequence, apparently, is only ten minutes into the episode! Gah. Five whole weeks to wait ...

In other news, I got my photo taken with a Dalek, the TARDIS and the Genesis Ark. I also met Gareth Roberts (writer of DW books Only Human and I Am A Dalek) and Robert Shearman (writer of DW episode Dalek), and was recognised by Gareth Roberts from the last time I met him! Unfortunately I didn't see anyone else - not only did we get there late because the train was delayed, I went back to the hotel as soon as the concert finished because I was feeling really ill. And even though I know it was the right thing to do, I still regret it slightly, because after the show there was a little party in St David's Hotel, which is near the Millennium Centre, and lots of people were there and mingled with us plebians. Gah. But still, I needed sleep. I was dead on my feet by the time we eventually got back to the hotel.

Thirty-five days until The Runaway Bride ...

I can't sleep.

And there is a good reason for this.

In approximately eighteen hours time, I will be in the presence of three of the coolest men in the history of the WORLD. David Tennant, fanboy extraordinaire, Bafta-award-winning Russell T Davies, writer of awesomeness, and Murray Gold, he of the beautiful and terrifying music. Yes, that's right, in approximately eighteen hours time, I will be in Cardiff watching a special Children in Need concert of Doctor Who music hosted by The Doctor himself, with a Q&A session afterwards with DT, Russell the T and Murray Gold.

There will be Daleks.

There will be Cybermen.

There will be Clockwork Droids and Ood.

There will be a TARDIS.

And there will be Special Guests.

And you wonder why I can't get to sleep ...

Yesterday was a day of squee overload in the World Of Me. I shall elaborate on this in great detail.

Firstly, I received news of the Children In Need concert I'm going to on sunday. This is the Doctor Who concert, which was apparently going to have music by Murray Gold (the series composer) as well as a Q&A after the concert with Russell T Davies and David Tennant. Yesterday, I find out that it is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. David Tennant is HOSTING the concert. Murray Gold will be joining Russell and David for the Q&A. There will be Daleks, Cybermen, Clockwork Droids ('The Girl In The Fireplace') and Ood ('The Impossible Planet'/'The Satan Pit'). There will be special guests. There will be opportunities to get your photo taken with both a Dalek and the TARDIS. There will be a silent auction of the coolest stuff EVER for Children In Need.

I cannot express in coherent words how cool and exciting THIS REALLY IS. I shall therefore leave it to your imaginations as to what I did when I found all this out - suffice it to say, there was a LOT of bouncing.

Secondly, yesterday was mine and The Boy's one month anniversary. This was the best and weirdest thing to happen ever. Best because I've been going out with the funniest, coolest, geekiest, gingerest and frankly most awesome boy I've ever met. Weird because I just wasn't expecting it to last. I don't kno why, I'm not a pessimist or anything, far from it. Maybe it was just the realist in me wondering why someone would take an interest in me and like me for who I am, not who I pretend to be. People make a lot of masks for themselves throughout their lives, hiding behind different facades when they talk to different people. Now, I don't have to hide any more. He sees me for who I am and that's enough for both of us.

Funny how such a short period of time such as a month can change your whole perspective on life, isn't it?

I had a good weekend. I was spontaneous, I went to the most amazingest restaurant EVAH and I found out details for Murray Gold's upcoming album. But more on that later. First - the SPONTANEITY!

While I was in town on saturday, I started thinking about how boring my hair is. So I wandered around, checking prices and times, and managed to get my hair cut that very day for £20. I also decided to do what I'd wanted to do for MONTHS and dye some of my hair purple. Again, after traipsing round town, I found the perfect colour in Superdrug for £3. Bargain!

Then on sunday, me and The Boy went to Bytes. Bytes is a restaurant with TOUCH. SCREEN. MENUS. How cool is that?! The only time the waitresses are involved are when they bring you the food and take the empty plates away. It's genius! You press a button on the screen, and a little while later your food magically arrives! I felt like Dylan Moran - "You press the button with the picture of the food, and he ARRIVES WITH A SANDWICH! And you think 'Yes! Yes! Yes! I control SANDWICH MONKEY! I live in magic land, magic land, magic land ...'"

And now for something completely different.

MURRAY GOLD'S LONG-AWAITED 'DOCTOR WHO' ALBUM!

"In what will be music to the ears of many, we can finally reveal initial details of the upcoming Doctor Who soundtrack album.
Released by Silva Screen Records on 04 December 2006, the album will feature Murray Gold's version of the Doctor Who theme, plus many of his various incidental scores from Series 1 and 2.
The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon contributes a version of Song for Ten (from last year's Christmas special) and Love Don't Roam, which will feature in the Runaway Bride.
Also included is the much-requested Doomsday - the song that played during Rose's trip to Bad Wolf Bay in Episode 13 of Series 2.
Other tracks include Cassandra's Waltz, Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, plus the themes specially created for the Doctor and Rose."

YAY!

So yesterday, I handed in my essay plan. I couldn't find 200 or so more words to beef it up with, so I left it at 1433 words. Quality, not quantity. Not that it's particularly good but, y'know, it's better than nothing. And I worked HARD for those 1433 words. I'll probably get a fifty-something mark. I'm hoping for a fifty-comething mark, anyway. That'll do for a first assignment.

What bugged me the most, though, wasn't my pitiful lack of words - it was the way that other people I met were complaining that they had too many words. Conversations went something like this:

"Ugh, I've done nearly 2000 words and I'm only about halfway through."
"What? Which question are you doing?"
"The Appia and Craig one."
"Oh, I did that one too. I only got about 1400 words though."
"You'll probably be alright. I just need to find a way of cutting mine down."
"What have you written?"
"Well, I wrote two or three paragraphs on the definition of 'space', then I talked about 'realism', then I did all the Appia and Craig stuff, and then I talked for about 500 words about a load of bollocks."
"... Oh."

I mean, it probably would have been a good idea to talk briefly about space, and I'm ever so slightly annoyed I didn't think of that, but THREE PARAGRAPHS?! Gordon Bennett.

But anywho, it's been handed in now, and I don't have to worry about it. I probably WILL, but I don't HAVE to.

In other news, yesterday's 'squee moment' came from re-watching 'Day One' of Torchwood. BAD WOLF MUSIC WHEN CAPTAIN JACK HOLDS THE DOCTOR'S DISEMBODIED HAND!!! YAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

*ahem*

That was fun.

Hallowe'en sucked ASS.

Torchwood is TEH FAWESOME.

And I've done 1433 words of my essay. I need to beef it up by 200 or so words, and then I'll be happy.

Oh, and I have an amazing boyfriend. Not at all relevant, but, y'know ... I like saying it.

Having A Boyfriend: Pros And Cons.

Pros: far too many to count.

Cons: there is NO WAY I'm going to be able to concentrate on work, which is important when I have a 2000 word essay due in this time next week which I haven't even started yet.

Eep.

Two things are now official.

Official Thing #1: I hate essays. Always have, always will. And I hate this particular essay the most because I don't even have to WRITE the fucker. I just have to plan it. Which makes some sort of sense, I suppose, but I still don't like it. I'm useless at planning essays. I'm even more useless at planning essays with quotes in them. But hey, I'll give it a go. I kind of have to, otherwise I get zilch. Not good.

Official Thing #2: I have a Boyfriend. A real, live Boyfriend. And yes, this IS important enough for it to have Capital Letters. We've decided to make it official seeing as most of his housemates had guessed anyway, and we were practically inseperable this last week. However, today is a day for studying.

Apparantly.

But later on, we're going to be watching TORCHWOOD! Hell yes! Captain Jack in WALES. It just writes itself.

This week has been one of the best and oddest weeks EVER. So many good things have happened that even my cynical nature is beginning to question the ulterior motives of the universe.

But hey, life is for living. And if things keep going the way they are, I might have even more to say in a couple of days time. I'm being vague and enigmatic for the moment because I don't want to jinx anything - knowing my luck, the Gods of Irony will smite me regardless - but just wait and see.

Typing one-handed is going to be more difficult than I thought.

Today (despite it being half two in the morning I'm still counting this as Friday) is Friday 13th. Today was the premiere of Promised Land, the opera I'm in. Today I went around backstage annoying all the superstitious people by wishing them good luck and shouting Macbeth at them.

Today was NOT a good day for tempting fate.

I'm now sat at my laptop wish my arm in a sling and my wrist in a cast, having slipped in the wing during the performance and hurt my wrist. It looks worse than it is, though - despite my arm being plastered, I've only received a hairline fracture to one of the smaller wrist bones. It's not really even enough to deserve a cast IMO, but then I'm not the one with the medical degree.

Oh well. At least I don't sing with my arm. I won't be able to do the riot police scene properly either, as the cast is on the left arm which is the arm that holds the shield, but I might see if I can sneak in the back with my big stick. I don't want to miss out because of a silly thing like a cast.

And at least I get to sue the Marlowe. Or at least threaten to sue. Either way, I'm going to get freebies.

Good news for today: I've signed up to an Extras agency run especially for students. Hopefully that might earn me a bit of money in the next few months.

Bad news for today: I have a killer rehearsal, it's raining, and I got an email yesterday about essay deadlines and how they're coming up very quickly. I'm still really confused about the whole thing - I apparaently have two essays due in this term (one in week 6 and one in week 12) but the info for the first essay just says I need to hand in an essay plan and a summary of research. Does that mean I don't actually have to do that essay? Or do I hand in both the essay AND the plan AND the research summary? Or is there a separate deadline for the plan and research summary?

Hmph. I'm off to email my tutor, see if she can shed any light on this.

Did I ever mention the fact that I'm in an opera?

Oh yeah. 'Promised Land', specially written for the Canterbury Festival. I'm in the chorus with a couple of solo lines. It's being performed this friday and saturday.

No-one has yet explained to me why I have to have 40 hours of rehearsal and performance for it this week. Hmph.

In other news, I think my printer has decided it hates me. There is half a black ink cartridge left, and it won't print in black ink. And that's no use to me when I need to print out pictures from the 1880s for my Design module. Wanking thing.

So THIS is how long it takes to get the internet sorted at University. my last post was September 12th. It's now October 8th.

Part of that is my typical student laziness, but part of that is actually the University's fault. Just because I've developed an emotional attatchment to my crappy old laptop (it's reliable and it was free because I won it in a competition), I get punished by the University bedroom internet network.

Problem #1: no port in the back of my laptop for the internet cable they gave me.
This cause me the most grief, frankly, because when I went to the computer dude to tell him what the problem was, he said I needed a USB network card. Well, obviously, those things don't actually exist. But did I know that? Nooooooooo. Eventually we took my laptop to a computer shop in town which had the Computer Wizard who was able to tell me what I needed ... and what I needed was a bog-standard network card.

Problem #2: getting hold of the network card.
"I'll order one in for you, we should have delivery of it on tuesday."
TUESDAY - "Sorry, they haven't come today. Something to do with their van breaking down. They promised me it'll be in tomorrow, though."
WEDNESDAY - "Now they're saying friday."
FRIDAY - I eventually got hold of my network card. But that's not the end of it.

Problem #3: the University doesn't like Windows ME.
WANK. Because ME isn't even that old a system. Anywho, I took my laotop back to the University computer dudes and they sorted everything out for me ... ergo, henceforth and in conclusion, I now have internet access. Huzzah!

Next on my 'to do' list - tidy my fucking room. How can a room this small be so easy to mess up?! Bloody Borrowers ...

Countdown: four days.

Items packed: towels, bedding, dressing gown, pyjamas, shoes.

Items yet to pack: underwear, clothes, books, videos.

Panic (on a scale of one to ten): six.

Excitement (on a scale of one to ten): off the scale.


University, here I come ...

The Countdown is starting to feel so much more exciting than it used to. One week and five days until I will officially be moving into 12/D Homestall Court, Parkwood, University of Kent.

Yesterday, Mum took me shopping in Tesco's for Student Deals. I got two sets of bedding and two sets of towels for a very reasonable price. Saturday, I went tp Primark for more Student Deals. Four jumpers, five sets of pyjamas, eight pairs of underwear, ten pairs of socks, a dressing gown, a scarf and a bag cost £60. I love Student Deals.

Friday night was probably the most hectic so far. After finally admitting to Mum that I STILL hadn't sent off my Student Loan Application Form (the one which was suppsed to be in at the end of June), we sat down and filled it out while Dad muttered disgruntled rantings under his breath. Bu it's all done now, so I can sleep at night. I've also got a Natwest Student Account, which comes with a free five-year student railcard. Joy!

Today has been spent tidying Big Sister's bedroom. The logic behind that is simple - if I tidy up her room (where I dumped all my stuff while my bedroom was being redecorated last year), I will have somewhere to put all the stuff from my room that I can't fit anywhere else. Ergo, henceforth and in conclusion, my bedroom will be tidy. See? Logical.

Just wish it wasn't taking so bloody long.

The thing about moving out of your own bedroom and into the Student Halls is that you have to be ruthless with your tidying up.

So why is it that, after three bags of rubbish and two bags of old clothes, I STILL can't see my carpet?

So, here I am. The first member of my family to fill out all those application forms, get letters from UCAS, track my offers and sit my AS and A2 levels to get a place at University. I'm not the first member of my family to get into University completely - Dad went to Bangor, and Big Sis went to KIAD - but I'm the first family member to actually do it properly. As in, UCAS. And bugger ME, is it complicated.

See, the Higher Education people at school neglected to tell us what happens AFTER you get your results. Oh, they told us about Clearing, obviously, but they didn't tell us what happened when it went right. So I get my results - ABBCEab, exactly what I need plus a little extra - and I get my acceptance letter from Kent. "Congratulations. This letter confirms your place at The University of Kent." Well, that's all very well and good, but what happens next?

A lot, as it happens.

Firstly, there was the confusion of the reply slip. The letter said to send the reply slip back. The reply slip said not to. After several phonecalls, it's established that the slip doesn't need to be sent back. This, however, does nothing for my nerves. Next on the list is the enrolment procedure. This can be done over the Internet, so I give it a go with Mum watching over my shoulder. It's all terribly complicated but eventually it gets done. I then get an email telling me to do lots of other things, including activating my computing account. For that, apparently, I need my surname and my 8-digit student number as given to me on my confirmation letter. My surname isn't a problem. the 8-digit student number, however, is. I don't appear to have one.

So all in all, not an auspicious start to my University career. Still, never mind. I've got a few weeks to go before it all starts.