Circumstance (Story Opening #1)

I like doing story openings so;



Sunrise. The dawn of a new day sickened me; life, in general - sickened me. I did not want to see the outside world, let alone the happiness that radiated from it. The happiness that dismissed me from its grasp, to be shadowed by continuous storm clouds.

Newspapers covered my windows, planks of wood were dotted in areas where the sun was most radiant. The walls and floor were the same. Highlighted rings around faces and stories were the focus of my miserable existence. I had to find the man... or woman, that did this to my son.

My son murdered when he was five. My wife left me after the trial, blamed me;
'You should have done more' Her cry whimpered.
I couldn't have done more. There was no physical, possible way I could have.

Not when the circumstances were out of my control. I was completely and utterly hopeless.

What I expect from third year at university.

Okay, so the last two years at university has flown by, now I'm moving into my third and final year. Scary stuff. Before getting into university, they said that it would fly by... and it has. But, this blog post is about what I expect from my final year.

Walking around the campus or meeting people on nights out from third year, they tell you that it's hell. Piles of coursework and don't forget the dissertation (or portfolios). I'm used to the coursework and I'm now planning my dissertation, but you then realise that this is the last chance to get some good marks. Personally, I'm aiming for my 2:1 and that would make me over the moon, it seemed like in first year I got my top marks... but that year doesn't count. So, this year - I'm going to try my best and more to achieve my best possible grade.

Now, I'm not going to inform you what my dissertation title is - it's still a working progress (plus, I don't want anyone to steal it) (ha) but, I think I'm going to be very interested in it. It mainly studies stylistics (I do English by the way) and the classic book of Grimms Fairytales that I'm really excited to read and start analysing it. Yes, this is a last minute change to my other title - it still involved stylistics, but I'll enjoy this more.

As it's the final year, you want to make it a memorable one. Meaning, I hope there'll be time to go out and socialise. Of course there is always the house parties once in a while, so I think they'll make a come back... especially when all coursework and exams are over and we're free! (until you start to worry about no one hiring you) (argh)

The subjects I'll be taking for my final year are; voices of the American West - for my literature module and stylistics for my language module. Alongside these are the dissertation module and the dissertation advantage (extra module for credits) to help you write the actual thing. Then, there are my creative writing modules which are screenwriting and scripts. All, I'm really excited for!

What I've learn from second and first year is:
Coffee.

London 5th August

For many of you that are viewing this in countries other than the UK... you may think that us British go to London a lot, if we don't live there. In a matter of fact, I had only visited London three times before this recent visit - all from 18-20. Last time, we saw all of the touristy sites - Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus etc (all on foot, no tube involved) but, this time - we wanted to make it a relaxed, fun day.

Hopping onto the train at Birmingham New Street in the 9am hours, it's always a hassle thinking whether or not you're going to get a seat. We were lucky this time, but there were many people standing (school holidays) (completely forgot about that) meaning... London was going to bustlingly busy.

Arriving at Euston station and doing the quick march over to the ticket machine and gate, we made our way down to Madame Tussauds. I hadn't been here in a while, so I thought it would be quite fun to visit for a few hours. But, no. The queue was about a couple of hours long - so that put an end to that idea. Plus, the Kelloggs 'buy one adult get one free' vouchers supposedly didn't work in August, so I'm rather glad we moved along to get the tube to the museums, instead of paying £66.

Okay, so the real reason I wanted to go to London was to visit the national history museum. But could we get in? No. The queue, again, was ridiculous - so we made our way to the science museum, which was a walk in, no fuss museum. Personally, it wasn't my thing. There were too many interactive boards and computers which felt like I was involved in a science lesson at school. For kids, though - it would be amazing for them to learn all various things and to see planes, cars, engines etc.

Feeling like we were not going to do anything we actually wanted to do in London, we caught the tube down to Westminster and walked (very slowly) across the bridge... avoiding people taking photos of Big Ben in the centre of the footpath. The cars also avoiding people stood in the middle of the road, thinking that they were models. There was London Dungeons to see and Sea Life as an extra thing. So, before that - we found some food at a quaint little Italian restaurant.

Starting with the tomato and basil soup, with crusty bread and the main being a meat, cheesy lasagne - it was a lovely meal. We hadn't eaten all morning, so I was ready to eat whatever! Oliver had the Caesar salad to start (lot's of the dressing on which makes lettuce taste so much better) and then a hot pizza for his main. For lunch, this all came to around £25, including drinks - so I think that was a good price!

Making a move, we ventured to the dungeons to see what the queue was like - low and behold... there wasn't one! You walk in, go to the counter and they give you tickets for the next available show time, 16:45. We had two hours to kill, so we made our way into Sea Life.

There was a small queue for this and it wasn't too busy inside. What's the point in going to see some fish and sharks if there's crowds of people in the way? I always like Sea Life, my favourite being the turtles and penguins. Yes, they have penguins at this one - it made my day! It took around an hour to get through and we bought our picture at the end, which is a must on touristy days to places like this.

Another hour to kill, we walked down to Canary Wharf and watched the buskers do all sorts of things. One was playing 'Let it Go' continuously on his electric recorder, one was doing some sort of magic trick and the other was doing some magic tricks. Time goes rather quickly when you're sat watching the world go by.

The time had come to return to the London Dungeons. I had been told that it was really good, and they were right! I was expecting more actors to jump out at you and a few time we had to go into the rooms first, but it was extremely well acted and a good show! Some bits made me jump, there's special effects in the chairs and sounds, then the actors - no matter how many times they had to repeat the same thing for each show - kept it fresh and exciting. Of course, we bought the photos at the end. They were too funny not to keep! You have one taken when you arrive, one person on the stocks, the other holding an axe and then you have one at the end on a ride that drops, drop dead. Our faces were hilarious and everyone else's looked shocked.

It was around 6 when we exited and it was time to start heading back and search for food. We made our way, on foot (as there was a tube strike) up to Regent Street to look in Hollister and then found Garfunkels restaurant. Realising the time when we sat down, we did have to rush our food and there was no time for pudding! But what we did have was some good grub. I had the ham and pineapple pizza - it came with proper ham in huge chunks and the pineapple was so fresh, along with a glass of rose. Oliver had half a chicken with BBQ sauce and onion rings/fries and a cider. I would highly recommend, the staff were ever so friendly, greeting us with 'here is a nice romantic table for to, look - it even has a candle.'

We had to speed walk back to St Pancreas in 45 minutes and we made it! We even managed to get a seat on the train. Walking around London is always so tiring but it was an amazing day and I can't wait to go back nearer Christmas time for Hyde Park!

The Malmaison, Birmingham

For your anniversary, you want to stay somewhere nice, relaxed and somewhat romantic. We found just that place at the Malmaison hotel in Birmingham. There's many of this hotel scattered around the country, but from where we wanted to get the train to London the following morning, this location was perfect - just a five minute walk to Birmingham New Street station.

The hotel was reasonably priced for the room that you will be accommodating - we paid £85 for the night to stay in the 'Mal Club' room, which included; a queen sized bed, mini bar, snacks and goodies, your own dressing gown, sky on the television and a huge bathroom. Make sure you check the prices regularly as after we booked, the price rocketed to £175 for the night... for the same room.

Entering the building, it's extremely well kept and looks high end. The staff greeting us were friendly and accommodating, which is what any customer service should be like - greeted with a smile. After getting directions to our room on the fifth floor, we made our way there.

The room was excellent, spacious and inviting. Seeing a queen sized bed was great - realising you can both starfish all night without bothering the other! It was comfortable, not like some beds that are lumpy or you can feel the springs digging in, along with a super soft blanket (I now would like one) The décor was classy and different, which is what drew me to this hotel room - as it's not like any others that I've seen before. There was (fake) wooden panels up the walls, along with a grey and black patterned carpet and lights that were unique and gave a lovely atmosphere. Of course, no room is complete without a television to have as background noise... or in this case - to watch forty minutes of live cricket as it came with sky sports - a good one for all of you men. Be careful when you walk in and see this stash of goodies on the side, as our room didn't have a price list - I googled and found out before anything was consumed. Each item is around £3 a pop, including 'proper corn', fancy crisps, nuts and various chocolate or breakfast bars. This is the same for the mini-bar which contained some vodka cranberry cans,
a small bottle of champagne, beer, water and coke. Again, reasonably priced with the cans of coke at £2 (which is what you'd expect from a hotel mini-bar. Believe it or not, there was a dolce gusto coffee machine which was free to use and sadly I didn't get to test it out - so I'll stick with my tassimo machine. The thing I found amusing about the bathroom, is that there were toilet roll holders on both sides - perfect for any left or right handers! There was freebie shower gel, along with shampoo and conditioner which smelt divine. For all of you that like/need to iron, there was an iron, along with a separate kettle and coffee/tea bags for those that didn't want to use the dolce gusto machine... and a complimentary biscuit. Towels were provided (which is always useful) along with a heated towel rail for those that want to keep the warmth after a shower or bath. Don't forget the dressing gowns!

As we arrived later on (around 8pm) check in is usually 3pm and check out, 12pm - or if you stay in the Mal Club room or any higher, it's 1pm. So, we wanted some food and didn't really want to move. Plus we presumed most of the people in the bar or restaurant would be in suits. We weren't dressed for that! Room service it was, we ordered; Thai chicken lollipops (£8.5), battered king prawns, calamari and courgette (£8), a selection of bread with oil/balsamic vinegar (£3.5), hand cut pommes frites (£4) and onion rings (£4) and they were all beautiful. My favourite was the Thai lollipops, the sauce the chicken was coated in was to die for. I can well and truly say that I was ready to pop afterwards.

All in all, I would definitely stay in The Malmaison hotel again and make full use of the free facilities, such as the gym and spa. But of course, keep checking the prices so you're not met with a £175 per night bill instead of what we paid of £85.

Highly recommend.