Holidays... What are they for?

I have just come back from a lovely holiday in the South. I spend a week in Cornwall and a week in Devon. As much as this was very nice, and it didn't rain (which is a miracle because normally a huge cloud follows me around and buckets everytime I walk out the door) I still didn't enjoy it and I certainly can't say I didn't want to leave. In fact all I did for the whole holiday was count the blessed days until I was home!

For the last, oh, sixteen years of my life I have been going down to Cornwall for my summer holiday. Two weeks, in the caravan (I'll get to the joys of caravaning in another post maybe), lots of walks, days on the bikes and reading a fucking huge pile o' books, suplimented by the odd day bodyboarding. I say the odd day because it's either too bloody cold to go in the sea, or the swell is more dormant than a hedgehog that's been hit by a Ferrari.

All of these reasons for it being a crappy holiday were just topped of nicely by the fact that I didn't have any need, or desire to go on holiday anyway. I was perfectly happy at home, spending time reading my Dummies guide to C++ and coding silly little "Hello World" programs. At home you can go out with friends, watch telly in your room, and subsiquently watch what you like. You can update your blog and talk to interesting people on forums. Most importantly though, you are not hundreds of miles from your girlfriend with only free texting to keep you contented.

As I've illustrated above, I did not enjoy the majority of my holiday, however there were a few good things. I've said Cornwall is boring and I have done it to death, but it's like a second home. And there's no place like home. Plus I've never been to North Devon on holiday before and I can say it is a very nice part of the country indeed.

The holiday also gave me the chance to hone in on my artistic skills and there's a picture at the top of this entry to demonstrate, and others have been added to my deviantart. I had great fun with water and lights and some of the shots are quite surreal. I also have some good landscape shots and of the area (mainly Devon), however these were on my SLR and I haven't yet sent off the film. The picture above were taken on my Dad's digital. I shall post the digital/non dig SLR/dig SRL arguement another time maybe...

Unfortunatly, the holiday didn't just allow me to practice photography and read some good books. I also improved my logic skills, which can't be all bad I suppose, but it now means I'm practically addicted to Su Doku. Whether this is good or bad I'm yet to find out, but I certainly didn't feel cool with my 'Indipendant' Su Doku puzzle on the beach.

So, in conclusion, dispite the odd few pluses this holiday was really something I didn't want to go on, and frankly has wasted my time. I have to say though, if I'm going to have a holiday, just the week in Devon would have been bearable... just about.

Oh, and I do know what a holiday is for, but in the curcumstances I was in, it didn't work for me.

Pre-Blog: Exams

Dated: Wednesday 24th May 2006 at 9:04 PM

I'm taking exams at the moment... and?

For anyone who has not yet experienced this joy in life, it is not as people tell you. Everyone will describe how their friend hanged themselves from their cabin bed, or ate their arm off during a maths exam, but I haven't felt peckish yet. In fact I would say that the time leading up to exams, and especially the coursework is a much more stressful experience.

Revision for instance... I'm finding my (rather last minute) revision is something, not that has me locked in my room for weeks without food water, or not going for a dump for 6 days solid, but instead as a sporadic wave of inspiration in which I have the strange urge to consolidate bible references into a cool table, or explain the theory of evolution on a scrap of paper with too many arrows. And this only takes me a maximum of the hour between comedy programmes on Friday night.

So, in short, worry about bastard coursework, then sit back, be cool and enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is that of exams. Yeah, get a little nervous, but, in the words of my Electronics teacher, you've a lot more to look forward to in life, don't get hung back with exams. Get a life basically.

Anyway, if you've just read all that, which no one will of course, and you think I'm talking crap and that I actually should be hanging myself, whilst eating my arms and chanting "a² = b² + c² - 2bc Cos A" then, get in touch and I'll put you straight.

Ooo, and if this laid back approach that I have just preached to the world causes the A* - C percentages to drop lower than ever before recorded, it wasn't me! It was my dog, I was far too busy chewing paper and slowly dying because my stomach is eating itself due to lack of nutrition.