Open Day and a trip to the loo

Saturday was a beautiful day – chilly but bright and sunny. This is my absolute favourite sort of Autumn weather. The UoG Open Day started at 10 o’clock and all the ambassadors had to arrive at 8am to help set up. That always feels so early as I prop my eyelids up with matchsticks during my early Saturday brekkie!  This time we were trying a new set up – instead of leading tours of visitors we were allocated to ‘tour points’. These were marked by red balloons with tour routes marked by red stars on the ground and blue balloons.  The balloons looked lovely all along the fence between the two campuses – unfortunately they were very appealing to the locals and had disappeared by 10.30!

Open Day balloons

I was stationed at tour point no 7 on the Mansion site, with Dan, a first year student paramedic. We had to memorise a script about the history of the mansion site and show people the common room, (formerly the drawing room), the winter gardens and an area I had never visited previously – the Victorian ladies’ loo. Well, dear reader – that was the highlight of the day for me!  This hidden gem was part of the original mansion constructed on this site by the immensely rich Colonel North in the 1890’s. Bombing in the second world war destroyed much of the building including a full set of Turkish baths, but the entrance foyer, the ballroom  (now the library) and the wonderful, glass houses of the winter gardens are still here. They give a good impression of just how over-the-top the whole place must have been – quite an ostentations display of wealth and privilege. His backyard was Avery Hill Park and there was plenty of space for his regiment 250 men to camp there!

Unfortunately he wasn’t around for long after the building was finished and after his death it had to be sold.

...so any way back to those loos! The corridor is like any educational institutional corridor and you go through a door marked ‘Staff only’ and enter another world!

Marble basins

“Harry Potter loos!”  exclaimed some of our visitors delightedly.

Dresser

And all that marble! Imagine popping in here to powder your nose between dances in the ballroom!

Basin

And only the best in porcelain! Royal Doulton no less! I love the attention to detail – the soap dish carved out of solid marble and those gorgeous Victorian taps.

...and then we get to the windows! The detail is beautiful. Luckily I had two architecture students who shared my interest so that I could wax lyrical with them! They are designed and manufactured by Campbell Smith & Co., well known church window makers of the time.

Windows and ceiling

The ceiling is quite amazing also. It is fully tiled using a technique known as Burmantoft’s faïence, praised in British Architecture as “the best of its kind we have seen”. I discovered Burmantoft’s pottery works was near Leeds in Yorkshire.

...so now you know!  I wonder where I will be next Open Day?  Am I going to be privy to some more hidden treasures, I wonder!

Oh Glorious Vegemite!!

Being such an international university the Enquiry Unit is like a mini league of nations.  We all have our favourite national dishes and enjoy swapping notes.  We had a debate the other day about which was better – marmite or vegemite.  As I consider there to be no contest, I thought it was time to write in defence of my national icon.

A recent news article caught my eye.   In August the Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd was flying to New York from Mexico when he was stopped by authorities suspicious of the jar of dark brown liquid in his cabin baggage.  He tweeted that it ‘required foreign ministerial intervention’ to explain that it was his breakfast and was good very good for you. This followed another story about an encounter between the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Barack Obama.  He had the audacity to describe the hallowed substance "a quasi-vegetable by-product paste that you smear all over your toast", then pronouncing it "horrible". I must say – I thought Obama had impeccable taste until I read that – he has now gone down in my estimation somewhat!

…and woes betide anyone that dares mess with the special recipe. Kraft, the makers of Vegemite, developed a new, creamier, cheesy version and asked the public to suggest a name.  Web designer Dean Robbins won after submitting the name iSnack2.0. However, Kraft had to scrap the name after public outcry that it was "the worst name ever" and "unAustralian".

One respondent demanded that poor Dean should be forced to run down the main street of Sydney "wearing nothing but a generous lathering of old-fashioned Vegemite as retribution for his cultural crime".

Vegemite was invented in Australia in1923 as a way to utilise yeast extract left over from the beer brewing process.  My dad told me that they had the idea of naming it Pa-wont in response to the (in any self respecting Aussie’s opinion) far inferior British product Marmite!  It is an acquired taste like coffee and olives and for true acclimatisation, one needs to be raised on the wonderful stuff.  My mother used to make rusks for us when we were babies and flavour them with vegemite.  She also used it to flavour stews and soups and every time she added it would warn us not to tell Dad or he wouldn’t eat it!

Whenever I have a guest arriving from Oz who asks what to bring – my answer is always the same – a decent sized jar of vegemite!  How sublime to dip my knife into a whole 1 kilo jar of the wonderful stuff! Him- at- home cannot understand my love of the stuff and as I prepare one of my all time favourite snacks of ryvita or oatcakes with vegemite and extra mature cheddar cheese, he never fails to remark that, once again, I am spoiling a perfectly good oat cake/ryvita!  I sort of have to forgive him because he is British and pretty perfect in every other way!

The Vegemite Girls

I thought I would see what else has been written about the lovely stuff and these were some of my favourites from the Urban dictionary:

·         Very potent in strong doses, able to render your taste buds on the verge of withering up and dying. If you've grown up around Vegemite then this will have no effect on you.

·         Thick brown brewer's yeast paste from the Land Down Under. The slightest dollop on the end of a toothpick touched to a slug's back will incapacitate it in a matter of seconds, and render it a salty and torturous pool of black ooze in just under a minute effectively creating another couple ounces of Vegemite to dab on one's toast.

·         A semi edible dark brown paste. Traditionally used by Australians to disgust foreigners. Highly effective on North Americans.

 "Try this Chip, It's called vegemite. It tastes like nutella".

·         HOW TO USE VEGEMITE
spread THINLY on toast or bread, with or without butter.
If spread too thickly, vegemite is inedible, even for Aussies.

When I left Oz so many centuries ago, being such a well-prepared traveller and a former girl guide, I made sure I packed two very important items – my vegemite and my snake bite kit.  I still have the snake bite kit, but still haven’t had a chance to use it. Maybe snakes, being very wise, know that I am so well fortified by my daily intake of vegemite they wouldn’t get near me!

A busy week in the life of a UoG Ambassador!

As UoG Ambassador I find myself in quite a variety of settings.  This week was an exceptional one where I attended three different events.

On Monday I was with Remco in a marquee in the middle of Woolwich.  On one side of us were the Woolwich recycling / rubbish disposal people and on the other were Representatives from Greenwich Community College - one of our partner colleges.  We were there to answer questions about access to university in general and to UoG in particular. Most wanted to talk about undergraduate entry but I was surprised at how many came up to enquire about postgraduate courses.

On Tuesday I spent the morning with three other ambassadors at a school in Welling working 1-2-1 with A level students writing personal statements for their UCAS application forms.  This was the second of four weekly sessions we are doing and I am really enjoying it.  I went from there to my fortnightly supervisory session at my placement in Chislehurst and then off to college until 8pm.

Wednesday found me back in the Enquiry Unit doing my weekly stint answering phones.  We are still getting enquiries from people wanting to get onto courses for this year despite being three weeks into the new term and Clearing well closed. I haven’t counted the numerous ways I have found for politely, but assertively, saying ‘no’ to those really persistent callers until they really do get the message that they will not be offered a place! We are not allowed to hang up on callers but at times it can be very tempting – especially when I get a caller like the one who demanded to speak to the head of school because I ‘am only the switchboard’!

Thursday was placement morning but rather a disappointing one as only one out of my four booked clients turned.  I spent quite a bit of time twiddling my thumbs, having a cuppa and comparing notes with another of the counsellors who had a similar wasted morning.  I came home in time to sit down to a lovely lunch prepared by him-at-home.

That evening was the second stained glass class.  I have to come up with designs for the two holes in our bathroom wall that need filling with glass panels.  After such a long and exhausting summer of work, I am feeling very artistically uninspired so instead of battling away on paper, I am doing lots of little test pieces, trying our different ‘fusing’ techniques.  I will write more about that late, but for now suffice to say it involves doing weird things with special glass that baked in a kiln so it all sticks together.

Friday and Saturday were my days to be off to the Excel Centre for the World Skills event.  It was a four day event and so huge with such tight security that it took me half an hour to get from the front entrance to our UoG stand. 

Stall

I was working on the School of Health and Social Care table with first year student paramedics and a student nurse.  Last year I wrote about my adventures with the injection bum this year I thought you might like a picture of her.  She features here with the very obliging Leigh and Mary. 

Injection Bum

We demonstrated giving injections then let people have a go. We showed how to test lung capacity, pulses, blood oxygen levels and blood pressures.  We talked to hundreds of people about our courses, how to apply, entry requirements etc.  We gave out lots of freebies and our rulers were particularly sought after. – maybe to keep the more unruly students under control!

 In our breaks we ventured out to look at other stalls and had a little competition to see what interesting things we could learn or come back with.

I learnt to sharpen a chisel in the cabinet making section – quite an involved process because you have to get your angles right.  I also got to cook a pancake – and eat it! – at one of the catering college’s stalls.  I leant about navigation lights on ships - how to tell which way the ship is facing and whether it is ‘steaming’ or at anchor – very useful knowledge for life in Hither Green!

Right next to us was the Royal Household stall.  The others told me that Princess Anne had popped in to say hello on Thursday which created quite traffic jam in our usually quietish section of the hall.  Now if you are wondering why there is never a royal hair out of place, it is down to these amazing people – the Royal household!

Royal Household

There were demonstrations of how to pack a suitcase properly – lots of tissue paper involved here, and  of how to clean shoes properly – the paramedic students all left with very sparkly ones after having theirs commandeered for demonstration purposes after the chaps got bored with polishing their own for the umpteenth time! This all leaves me with a question: does the Queen ever wear out anything?  My Kate informs me that horsey people are very suspicious about new stuff and reckons that Her Maj probably does wear out her wellies and puffa jacket!

Shoe Cleaning

I watched an incredibly talented painter/decorator showing how to achieve the painted marbling effect on the fake columns you see everywhere in the palaces while another demonstrated gilding using very fine sheets of 22 carat gold leaf.  And if you have ever wondered how her Maj likes her brekkie tray – look no further!

Breakfast Tray

No wonder she has to be good at speaking French – her breakfast menu is written in it!  One young guy explained that he was doing a six year apprenticeship as a carriage restorer and enjoyed living on the job in Buckingham Palace – as it was close to all amenities!  He expects he will stay on after completing his apprenticeship as there isn’t much call for this particular speciality! Staff from the Royal Mews showed how all the horse tack and special ceremonial headdresses for the horses is made - a  verrryyy fiddly and time consuming task.

Making Tack

I never imagined that when I signed up for my MSc that I would end up involved in such a variety of adventures!   Now it is back to normal life for a while as I settle down to all the reading I have to do to catch up before my next college session. ..and it is Open day next Saturday.  I wonder if I will be doing the teas ….again!

Getting Stuck in!

Reality is hitting me; too much work to do, too many academic papers to read with too many big words and the demise of summer.  The last few days of sunshine and temperatures in the high 20’s felt just like a lovely warm autumnal Melbourne day leaving me feeling quite discombobulated and a bit home sick. However, we are now back to the London Autumn weather – grey skies, wind and rain; time to get out those winter woollies!

I am in my second week of the course now and having to really knuckle down.  Our group is very compact.  We have 12 members, including three newbies, so we all know each other pretty well.  Although members have come and gone, it has always been a really supportive group we help each other obtain the weekly readings, emailing copies if someone is struggling to access the databases, or doing an extra photocopy for someone else who is stuck, unable to make it to the library due to some crisis or other.  Although our course is part-time, there is lot to fit in around the actual ‘contact hours’ of Tuesday 2pm – 8pm and helping each other out makes an incredible difference.  We all live so far apart with our main contact being by email. An SOS email from one student, always generates a helpful response and sometimes several.  Many the time, especially in my first year, I got myself into a right old tizz about something or other and was calmed down wonderfully by a kind email!  My mother always used to say “Two heads are better than one even if they’re sheep’s heads!”   However – she is Australian so she would say something like that!

I am really pleased that this year we are not doing the experiential group between 8 and 9 pm.  We had to do this for the first two years.  I found the first year group experience really useful but I pretty much hated my second year group experience and really don’t think it was helpful to my development as a counsellor.  I have decided I pretty much hate group work as well.  I am happy to work in a pair or in a threesome but having to do project work with more than that drives me bonkers and it always has.  I wonder if it has something to do with me coming from a very large family and constantly having to negotiate everything?  Maybe I need a few more years of therapy!

Last weekend I went down to West Sussex to see my daughter Kate for the first time in three months. We were so excited to catch up although she soon set me to work!  She is starting courses in accounting and book keeping and needs to apply for part-time jobs in the field and so asked me to help her write her CV.  She has loads of experience working in the horse world – competing, teaching people to ride, stable management, schooling young horses, and running her own business.  It is important that she provides evidence of the valuable transferable skills she has acquired.  The university runs workshops and one-to-one drop in sessions on CV writing which are so useful in helping students to make that transition from university to work so I may go and pick their brains for ideas.  I am really lucky that I have a brilliant sister in Oz who is an editor – very handy to consult on such things.  She was brilliant when I needed help writing my personal statement for my masters application.  I am always amazed when people think they can polish off a good personal statement overnight.  It took me absolutely ages to write mine.

Anyway, I digress! After Kate had picked my brains, we sat down to a wonderful meal prepared by her boyfriend, followed by us watching Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride accompanied by a bottle of bubbly cava.  I love Burton’s work with its peculiar mix of the bizarre, the humorous, the chaotic, the melancholic and the playful.



Acorns



Kate’s corner of West Sussex is so beautiful and there is always something ready to pick for food, decoration or just a treat.  She was telling me that she was quite mystified finding lots of acorns on the ground around one of the trees in her communal garden.  She consulted with her neighbour over the problem of them all missing their little hats.  Her neighbour came to inspect the strange bare-headed acorns and burst out laughing.  She explained to Kate that these were not acorns but hazelnuts!

…and delicious they were too as we spent a pleasant evening with the nutcrackers!



Hazelnuts

Back to study!

It’s the morning before I start my first day of my third and final year of my MSc.  It seems only yesterday that I was a newbie, anxiously preparing for my first day at Greenwich.  I have mixed feelings as I write this.  I found my second year really tough and having to complete six or seven papers over four months to June left me feeling pretty exhausted and ready for a break.

I feel a sense of trepidation at the thought of picking all those books to study again … but him-at –home reminded me that, actually, I am always like this!  When I do get back into it I really enjoy all the new learning.  I am looking forward to seeing my fellow third years again but there will be some faces missing and some new ones to meet.  We have a very fertile group as three out of our original 18 have become pregnant! They have ‘interrupted’ their studies for a year to concentrate on their new babies. Our course is designed so that if you exit after the second year having passed all modules and completed 100 clinical hours rather than 80 required for the masters course, you are awarded a post graduate diploma.  This is different from ‘interrupting’ where you take a year out from the course rather than ‘exiting’.  It may not be possible to rejoin the programme for the third year if you have exited but if you have ‘interrupted ‘ and do not return to the programme you can ‘exit’ as long as you have done the extra clinical hours. 

For our third year we can choose between two pathways.  One is the long research pathway where we present a long project while the other is the CBT option.  This is where we have specialist training in using cognitive behavioural therapy.  We have to complete 50 clinical hours using it and 50 using integrative ‘methods’.  We also do a shorter 8000 word project which is a reflective piece about our development as a counsellor.  I have chosen to do the second pathway as I find CBT a really useful tool and would like to become more experienced in its use.  I do not have a passion for a particular research topic and I know that unless I feel pretty engaged with a topic I will struggle to keep going with it.

I have started back in my placement and on Saturday attended a really interesting continuing professional development (CPD) morning there.  Our speaker was Christine Sanderson and her topic was ‘The Dynamic of Memory – Working with Traumatic Memories’.  Her book, published in 2006, is entitled ‘Counselling adult survivors of sexual abuse’.  In those 21/2 hours I learnt so much and I left with my head spinning.  She presented the main theories of memory: how we remember, how we forget, types of memory, the fallibility of memory.  She then moved on discussing the implications this has for us as counsellors working with adults.  Christine spoke of the controversy surrounding the subject of ‘recovered /false memory’ presenting arguments to support the seemingly polarised views.  It was a morning well worth attending especially as it was accompanied by hot drinks and home made cakes!
 

Well, now time to sharpen those pencils, polish my glasses and hop on Priscilla to get into college on time – back soon!

My 50th Blog!

It is almost a year since I wrote my first blog and here I am writing my 50^th! Back in September 2010 I hardly knew what a blog was.  There was a call for volunteer blog writers and I decided to give it a go for two reasons:

1: I wanted to keep my writing muscle exercised.  I had submitted my last piece of written work in June 2010 and my next would not be submitted until December.

2: I would be paid for four hours work a month to write four blogs – later reduced to two due to the university –wide budget cuts.

As  such an extra mature student, I thought no one  would be interested in reading my blog with people  wanting to read about much more exciting student activities than those I get up to! I would be quite safe to practice my blogging pretty much in private. 

My first blog started thus:

“Well this is a first! I have heard of blogs but never figured out how to do one.  I am still terrified of the Ipod Ian gave me last Christmas and as for twitter… My son Jack thinks it is hilarious and can’t figure out why I just want a mobile that is just a mobile, not a camera, computer or anything else.  However I am determined to move into the 21^st century so here goes….”

I have been staggered to discover  that I have had visitors to my blog from all over the world – so thank you visitors – you are keeping me in a job!

I have also been surprised at how much I have enjoyed writing it. I have found it an excellent discipline and actually thoroughly enjoyed it.   I was so worried at the thought of writing my first one until I gave myself quite a severe talking to that went something like this:

“Now Alice – no-one is about to die.  It is not going to be marked.  It is only 200 words.  Just be yourself”.

So I took a deep breath and began – and here I am 50 blogs later and too many words to count!!

It has been fun getting to know the other bloggers both personally and through their blogs.  We all work together either at events or on the enquiry unit and the blogs reflect the individuality, quirkiness and humour of the individuals.  Now several them have just graduated and will be leaving to start their new careers.  I am sad to see them go but look forward to welcoming the newbies. We all send our blogs by email to Uzma who checks then and uploads them.  She writes lovely encouraging responses that I don’t dare miss a submission date!  I threatened to stop writing them after I got to number 50 but she wouldn’t let me! So for making me feel so guilty for even raising the issue, I am enclosing a picture of her in her Theme Your Team competition outfit.  Her team beat us into second place with their amazing Uz-man (Pacman) Theme.

Clearing finally closed at midday on Friday.  I was surprised how incredible that felt.  One minute we were taking calls from people still trying to find a place, the next we were telling them we were closed.  It has been an incredibly busy ten weeks and to give you some idea of the number of applications we completed, there are four lever arch files full of the single sheet file copies for people with a surname beginning with “A”. Now our queries include requests for information about applications for next year, accommodation, timetables and registration.

Over the weekend students will be moving into their accommodation and getting ready to enjoy Freshers’ Week where all sorts of wonderful activities are planned around everyone’s course induction days.  As a continuing student I will not start until the following week so I will be in the Enquiry Unit. I started back in my Counselling placement this week.  I was last there in June and worried that I would be terribly rusty. I had two new clients to meet who are booked for six sessions each.  After four sessions I will review the work with my client and we have the option of continuing for up to three more sets of six sessions.  This is quite a luxury to be able to offer up to 24 sessions  in these times as most organisations can offer six sessions in total. After finishing the sessions on Thursday I realised just how much I had missed this work over the summer and how ready I am to get back to it.  However I am very pleased that I chose to take the break from it while I worked in fulltime in clearing because I would have been far too tired to offer my clients any quality work.

I will finish my 50^th blog with some lovely news.  You may recall that my beloved Valerie Vespa was stolen in July and I have been grieving ever since, but getting very fit riding my bicycle, running for buses,  and walking miles.  Valerie has never been found and so today we bought her big sister.  Kate helped me to name her Priscilla Lexie Piaggio.  She is gorgeous – a real retro design 125cc silver coloured scooter.  Valerie was only 50cc and I always felt like I was sitting on a sewing machine after my big black 400cc Honda.  I vowed I would never have another scooter that small.  Priscilla feels more like a real bike and sounds far less like a high pitched hairdryer.  After taking her for a test drive I returned to the scooter shop with a huge grin on my face stating to him-at home and the dealer “I am in lurve!”

We are collecting her on Tuesday – I can’t wait!

I ended my last blog promising to reveal all regarding our plans for the traditional Theme Your Team competition taking place on the last afternoon of Clearing.

We have all worked so hard over the last few weeks and this is an opportunity to come together to celebrate and to say good bye to each other as the whole clearing mechanism is wound down, packed up and moved back to the store rooms in Avery Hill – until next year.  It feels like the end of a summer festival!  I have worked for eight weeks straight as have many others from the enquiry unit team while the newbies joined us for the last four.  We are exhausted. We answered 12,500 calls in A level week and 12,700 the following week.  We had to retain so much information about the complex Clearing process, and about so many aspects of the university system in general, and about our university in particular. As we work so closely with our colleagues we form amazingly strong bonds as we help and support each other through such a stressful event.  In the week just gone, the calls were of a different nature; more people with registration, start date, and accommodation queries and just a few still looking for university places.  In between calls we began our preparations to decorate our bay with our theme of Twister Party. We kept it top secret until the last minute after rumours that our first idea had been commandeered by another team who shall remain nameless!! 

 Everything was covered in spots, feet, and hands while we each dressed in one of the twister colours of red, yellow, blue or green.  We had backboard decorated with ‘twister’ written in many different nationalities to reflect the cultural diversity of our team and the university.

I started cooking my twister fairy cakes the evening before and didn’t finish decorating them until 10.30 pm while Cherie came in early to finish decorating her wonderful cake. Anaum designed our twister hats, beautifully modelled her by team leader Laura, and recruited several team members to get them finished in time.

Each computer was personalised and played a special twister screen saver.

Royalle and I model our spinner hats.  Note we still have our headsets on ready to convert instantly to our professional telephonist mode!

We had a twister game in progress as demonstrated to the  judges as they did the rounds.

Our team Leader Laura gloomily announced that her team never won anything and was known as the bad luck team; undaunted however, we were not prepared to give up that easily!  As we toured the other teams we realised what stiff competition we were up against.  The themes included Pac man, Ghostbusters, Casino Alex, Clearing Superheroes, Clearing bandits, and High Vis party and the standard was incredibly high.  We came close second, losing by only three points to Pac Uz-Man the theme of my old Team Uzma. After stuffing ourselves with cake, sweets and treats we then had to have the whole thing dismantled and tidied away by 5.30pm.

As I left that evening, I looked back, at the bare room. It was as though it had never happened, the only evidence of our fantastic Theme your Team extravaganza being in the many photos we all took.

… and now as the weather turns to Autumn it is time to prepare for my last year of college.  It feels an age since I was preparing to start my first year, yet the time has flown. Last week I took a call from a young woman about to start her degree, who wanted to know whether she needed to come to Freshers’ week and her ‘meet her year group’ event. I encouraged her to attend, trying to explain how helpful it is to meet your fellow students in a social setting, to find your way around the campus with everyone else who is just as lost as you and to begin to form bonds that will stay with you through your three years of university and possibly beyond.

…so to all those readers about to start their amazing university adventure my advice is make the most of it. You can never have this precious time again. Look for opportunity and when it comes along, grab it with both hands. Work hard, stay curious, stay safe and have fun!