Crazy Bus Drivers

The 17.15 bus came to a creaking stop in front of me and my boyfriend, Alan. As the doors opened, a bald pale looking man, who I thought was Polish, grunted at me as I held my ticket out for him to inspect.

We sat in the front left side seats of the bus before the journey began. But, before we knew it the driver suddenly pressed down hard on the accelerator causing the bus to growl in anger as it struggled to pick up speed.

The noise getting louder and louder as the gears changed.

I watched in horror as we raced towards a bend in the road before being flung across to the bus window. I grabbed onto Alan as I started to fear for our lives with this bald man’s careless driving.

But it was as though he was doing it on purpose. He would look in his rear-view mirror and smirk just slightly as if he was enjoying it.

And he ended up going through a red light!

I thought the entire 45 minute journey would be like this, but we were lucky. He slowed down to legal speeds once we hit the towns.

Thank God!

Bus drivers have always been mean though. You must have noticed how they break harder once you’ve got up to get off the bus right?

Bats.

I’ve recently decided on my first tattoo. A tattoo of a bat.

The reason for this is not just because they look cool. Well they do right? But also because of my childhood fascination with them.

Some may have called it obsession. Maybe it was.

But I LOVED them.

My favourite childhood toy was a TY called Batty and I took him everywhere.

He was light brown in colour, had darker brown pieces of felt that formed the claws on top of his wings which expanded about a foot across, and his best feature were his big dark brown glass eyes which softened his face.

I loved the little fuzz ball so much that he brought me to tears on several occasions. The first vivid memory I have of this is when I lost him when I was in Year 4. It was in form time that I realised and I was in hysterics trying to explain to my form tutor, Mr Freeman, how much Batty meant to me and how lost I felt without him. Luckily all I had done was left him in the car that morning. Panic over.

The second occasion was when Batty’s cute little felt claws suddenly disappeared. Cut clean off. Still to this day I blame one of the girls in my class at Primary School.

The obsession didn’t stop here though.

When I went to Centre Parks I bought Batty a little companion, the exclusive smaller, multi-coloured version of him. Then I did an entire project on Bats in Primary School, explaining their different breeds, what they ate, how echolocation works – the lot. And finally in Year 7 when we had to invent our own religion in Religious Studies. Mine was ‘Batism’ – yes, the worshipping of bats – which was all put onto bat-shaped pieces of paper.

I may have been a slightly deluded child, but the memories stand out above the rest. So I’ll have an interesting story to tell once my tattoo is finished.

Trains.

Looking out of the window, I squint at the emerald countryside rushing past me as the sun’s beams shine through the window. Its radiance is enhanced by the droplets forming the mist that spreads itself over the golden daffodil fields.

Ben Taylor Band’s re-version of ‘Time of the Seasons’ by the Zombies, flows through my ears, giving a surreal atmosphere with its unusual beats. The gorgeous surroundings that engorge my eyes combined with the hypnotic beats cause me to fall into deep thought as I let my imagination drift.

This is why I love travelling.

Time to think.

Not even about anything important.

Just letting your brain take you through imaginations, thoughts and feelings.

I find this one of the most relaxing things to do.

A lot of people dread long train journeys as they usually encourage thoughts of delays, waiting around and stopping people getting on with their hectic lives.

But I get excited about it.

I feel sorry for those who don’t make the most of those hours just to give their head room to breathe and just feel like a child again with no worries in the world. Because sometimes you need this. Especially when the world around you starts to become something very real and very scary we all have to eventually face.

Creaking metal.

When I peacefully lay in bed after turning off my TV, then my light and turning over. An awful noise decides to enter my little ear drums that makes my entire body freeze.

The first time it happened, I didn't have a clue what it was until rational thought took over and I realised. The creaking metal sound resonated from my TV stand that hovers precariously over my desk as the bolds and metal strain to hold up my box of a television.

The images that appeared in my head after that were those of my stand breaking on it hinges and my TV plummeting to the floor, smacking into my desk first, breaking it in half, before slamming into a thousand pieces on the floor being followed shortly by my printer that would have fallen off my desk.

The thought of this unfortunate event with its accompanying noise, causes me to have an irrational fear of it happening.

Now I don't think I need to go to a therapist about this, but once I move out of this flat I am never going to have a television stand in my room - ever!

Why the University Library is very frustrating...

Today I decided it was time to visit the library to get out some books for an essay due in a few weeks time. So i put on some comfy clothes, plugged in my IPod and set off.

The walk was refreshingly cold and incredibly windy. My bag, that dangles below my hips, annoys me enough already by hugging my leg like some annoying creature. So the wind just caused it to cling to me even more.

When I finally got to the library, I was faced with electronic gates which required my student card. So there I was standing in the way of people bustling past as I scrambled through my bag trying to find my purse. Purse found, the next task was trying to get my card out with gloves on which is probably the equivalent of a seal trying to pick up a piece of paper. It doesn't work. So gloves come off, I finally get the card out of it's sleeve and I can place it on the scanner. The light flashes green telling me its safe to enter... but oh how deceiving that light is when the rotating poles of death decide to trap your bag in a tight death grip, yanking me backwards to my horror before I stand there slightly embarrassed at my misfortune. As I begin to figure out why the stupid machine has decided to cause me all this hassle, a very helpful student sets me free by scanning her card so the poles release their death grip on my bag. I say thank you and carry onto my next challenge - finding the darn books I want.

It's always a challenge when I come to the library, the way the books are organised baffles me and it takes me centuries to find anything. But armed with my piece of paper with the titles and reference numbers scribbled down, I march up the stairs to level 3 for the law library. However, this time to my surprise everything was there, perfectly in order and easy to find. Just how a library should be. Usually the library catalogue would deceive me telling me the books I wanted are checked in when in fact they are nowhere to be seen on the shelves. So this was a rare luxury.

So with first task down, it was onto the second: finding out where the hell I pick up a book I've reserved. I headed back down to the ground floor and placed myself in the queue to be served by one of the frail looking librarians. As I stood there I scanned the room before I saw a sign shouting 'Reservations' at me. So, I jump out of the cue to make some other students happy behind me as they now didn't have to wait as long and walked across the room.

I stood in front of the entrance to look inside the room, very small but quite full as it was packed with students tapping away on the computers. I was hesitant but then entered. I looked to my left at what appeared to be the book shelf with the reserved books on them but I had no idea how they had been ordered. I slowly moved along the shelves, becoming more frustrated as I couldn't find my stupid book. My eyes then came across a sign saying that the pieces of paper hanging helplessly out of the books had the first five initials of your last name on them so I assumed the letters meant it was organised by name.

I moved back over to the letter C and looked at the few books there. Not one had my name on it. With a confused frown on my face I walked back out and put myself back in the queue for help. As the girl leaves in front, I look at the man I'm about to approach: weedy, long ginger hair tied up in a pony tail at the nape and glasses places precariously on his thin crooked nose. Talk about your librarian stereotype. He looks at me and forcefully pronounces the word, "Yes?". I step forward slightly offended by his rude tone. "Hi." I pause, thinking about what I was about to say so I didn't annoy him further with incompetence. "I have reserved a book and I got an email telling me it was ready for collection. But it's not in the reservation section. So I was wondering if you could tell me where it it?" He scowls at me and pushes he glasses right to the top of his nose. "Have you got your card please" he demands. "Erm, yeah, one second." I once again rummage through my bag to find my card as I sense the weedy ginger getting impatient. Finally finding it I shove it into his personal space.

He scans it before scrunching up his crooked nose that he pushes up to the computer screen. H e scanned it for a second then without saying a word, he spins around and heads towards some shelves that have a tiny sign above them displaying "reservations". I stare in confusion. The librarian drags his small frame back to the computer, "We hadn't got round to putting it out yet." So why the hell did you send me an email saying it was ready to be collected when it wasn't even in the designated reservation area!

The librarian scans the book, slams my card on top of it and slides it across the desk towards me. "Thank you" I said sarcastically. I struggled to pick it up along with the two massive law books I'd already got and dragged them over to the self-service machine. Now this was usually an obstacle in itself but luckily I'd now used it enough times to not get in a muddle trying to understand how it worked. I scanned my card, entered my 4 digit pin and placed the books under the scanner. All went through successfully for once and the machine spat out my receipt. I yanked it out of the hole, grabbed my books and headed back out.

I panicked slightly as I approached the metal gates of death again, however I decided to go through bag first this time to save myself the embarrassment of doing it again. Successfully through the gates I headed back out into the cold and back to my flat as I thought to myself... bloody library.

Rango - A beautifully surreal film!

With Rango being released a few days ago I thought it was about time I went to see it. However, its blend of classic western and surreal animation made it a completely new experience.

My initial thoughts for the film were that it shouldn't disappoint with Johnny Depp and Bill Nighty starring and Gore Verbinski directing.

But I didn't expect it to be as bizarre as it turned out. The film was verging on dystopian with the little town of Dirt nearing extinction from running out of their water supply and little chameleon Rango (Depp) trying to discover his purpose in life as he experiences bizarre hallucinations.

This theme was carried through with fantastic animation. All the characters were extremely bizarre and diverse, whilst representing the archetypes of any good western with a frightening snake gunman (Nighty) whose tail is a machine gun as well as a tiny rat child with big eyes.

It also incorporated classic moments from films such as Apocalypse Now, which gave it a different edge of comedy as well as that of the slapstick variety to please the younger members of the audience (and admittedly myself).

The films combination of the darker surreal tones with the more light-hearted PG moments makes it a film worth your effort if you are craving something that little bit different.

Long Distant relationships - Can they work?

Being at University can cause a lot of problems for couples as many have to move away from each other to complete their chosen degrees and my experience was no different.

Not only do you have to move away from your family and friends to go somewhere completely foreign, you are also distant from the one you care about the most. It raises issues of trust, communication and loneliness. You are forced to compromise your relationship and adapt it to new ways of communication.

For me, Skype has been a relationship saver. It helps you communicate more effectively as you can see and speak to your boyfriend or girlfriend for free for as long as you like (which comes in handy when your a poor student!).

I have found that the most important things to make a relationship work long distance is trust, communication and compromise. Do what works for you and be open about how you feel so you can work through any issues you may have. But every couple will be different so do what makes you happy.

We Will Rock You – The futuristic musical comedy showcasing the hits of Queen and some fantastic outfits!

The first time I experienced this musical was at a small school production last year and I fell in love with it there and then. So seeing it London’s Dominion Theatre last week in the front row was a luxury.

The cast were fantastically enthusiastic and the singing was incredible. It was visually captivating with the creative use of staging, choreography, and costume as well as lighting which gave the illusion a Queen concert. And my excitement only heightened when a large piece of staging lifted out of the floor and rotated over me whilst actors belted out the classical tunes.

Special commendation should go to Ricado Afonso for the lead role of eccentric Galileo, to Sarah French as the bold Scaramouch and to Brenda Edwards who played the flamboyant Killer Queen.

My experience has made it obvious why the show is in its 9^th year at the Dominion Theatre – it is truly an exciting and musically gripping experience.