10.10.14 — Journal

Year 2 Begins

Once again I have left a ludicrously large gap between one post and another, and once again I offer my apologies. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of uni work, socialising, churros and research which have left me with little time to even consider writing a blog post – but tonight I have found a spare five minutes.

As you may have guessed from the introduction and title, I am back in mighty Leeds! I’ve been here for three weeks now, and so much has happened in that time that I will try to bring you up to speed.

First up, I’m now all settled in my new house in the middle of Hyde Park, a short fifteen minute walk from uni and an even shorter two minute walk from the constant snack offers at the Co-Op Food…

Hyde Park in all it's classy glory

I would like to point out that the image above is not my house or street, but a selection of the visual delights on show in the densest student population in Leeds. Here’s my walk to uni…

A not-so-picturesque trek uphill to university

Over freshers I spent a lot of time meeting back up with all the guys from graphics and exploring Leeds once more. Naturally we landed ourselves at Belgrave Music Hall for a Layne’s Espresso Brunch, where I treated myself to a delicious pork dish.

Laynes' brunch at Belgrave

After which me and Beth headed down into town and had a nosey around. I found a Maplin shop (memories of my days in the garden tinkering with electronics) and we also found something much more important – a churrería in the middle of the city centre. Naturally we made a beeline for it and got ourselves some delicious fresh churro goodness.

Churros in Leeds

We also stumbled upon Whitelocks, a pub that we’d seen advertised in Belgrave but never been able to find. It was tucked into a tiny alley just off the high street!

Whitelocks, Leeds

It looks like a lovely little spot, and we made a pact to regroup and visit it sometime for some cider and some good pub food. I also went for a stroll down to the Royal Armouries and the canal and took a few photos along the way…

The Leeds-Liverpool canal

Another day we all headed for Weatherspoons and had a huge catch up over some cocktail pitchers. Rhea had four!

Rhea with all of our drinks

But all good things must come to an end, and we have had to get back into the School Of Design and do some work! But wait – they’ve just finished doing up our building, and now it’s super fancy. From an Apple-esque glass entrance to a hip refitting of our common room, we’re all loving the new decor.

Our common room of picnic tables, sofas and plants
Emily in the Grass Studio
Grass Studio in the late afternoon

My favourite addition by far is the storage shed in the grass studio, which we watched being erected, and which now stands proud in the corner holding up a new fancy TV. I took the opportunity to wander in and have a look around, and Luisa snapped this photo of me…

Hiding in the graphics shed

Jo also spouted a glorious moustache during one of our Mac Studio sessions…

Inspector Jo

They’ve been working us ragged also – setting us off on a research project to investigate ‘trends’. I was landed with “Generation Jones”, and so locked myself in my room for about a week, sprouting a beard and scouring the web and the library for information…

My research mess

At some point we also grouped up and went down to Leeds Light Night, which was super cool – I didn’t get too many photos, but I did manage to snap a few of the Zombies in Trinity Kitchen, who managed to make a total mess…

Zombies take over Trinity Kitchen
Fire dancers outside Leeds Town Hall

And with that I think I can conclude. I will try to keep on top of posting a bit more, but as the briefs come rolling in I can’t promise much! I will leave you now with this charming message I found on the wall somewhere…

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