Hello!
How is everyone? Well, I hope!
It's been a while since the last blog!
Where I left off, the Murrells had three days left in America. On Wednesday, it rained torrentially all day, so we stayed inside and looked at old photos of life in Africa. In the afternoon, we went for a walk; about halfway through the walk, we got actual tornado warnings! The warnings in question sound like air-raid sirens, for those who are curious. (Luckily, no tornadoes actually touched down.)
On our last day in America, we went for a walk in a park and spent time with Christi and Matt, before leaving for the airport; the journey through customs and security was fairly uneventful, as far as I remember. On the flight, I watched Man of Steel; it's a great movie, and I highly recommend it. I also slept for a bit, in an attempt to avert jet lag. Given that, on arrival in England, I was the only one able to stay awake, I think it succeeded.
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| One last Festen-Murrell-Prechter game! |
Practically right after I came back from America, I returned to Reading and moved into my new accommodation. I'm living with an older couple from church and another post-graduate student (who, by the way, is doing a Ph.D.!!) They're very nice people - and, in fact, the couple are friends of my parents, though a few years older. It's a nice place!
In my first week back in England, I didn't do a huge amount. I did meet up with some friends, though, which was very fun! The highlight of that first week back was probably watching Mission Impossible with Josh on Sunday - it was great! (Mission Impossible did kind of flop compared to Barbie and Oppenheimer, but trust me, that's just cause it came out the same weekend, not inferior quality. I would definitely recommend it!)
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| Me and Josh on a walk around Whiteknights Lake |
On the 24th of July 2023, I officially graduated from the University of Reading with a Bachelor's Degree in History (Upper Second Class). Josh graduated the same day, happily - his degree, Classics, is in the same School as mine (Humanities). My parents came by in the morning and we went to Cafe Yolk for a brunch, which was very nice. We then went to pick up my robe and gown and took some photos. We spent a while milling around, taking more photos before the ceremony. I had the opportunity to catch up with several friends on my course, as well as Josh, which I enjoyed. The ceremony itself was at 3:15, so the graduates all lined up (a good 45 minutes beforehand), and we proceeded to the ceremony hall, where we received our degrees. (Josh got a first-class, which is super, super amazing!) The ceremony was held at London Road campus, so after it finished, we returned to Whiteknights Campus to socialise. Overall, the day was very fun. I also learned, to my delight, that many of my coursemates are hanging around, either to pursue further education at the university or to get jobs in Reading, which is very nice!
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| Me and two of my friends from my course! (These two also got Firsts, very impressive!!) |
After graduation, Josh and I went on a post-graduation celebration holiday. To Oxford, which is not necessarily new ground to me (or Josh, for that matter - he's got a job at the Ashmolean.) It was a lot of fun, though! We stayed at my parents' house (the parents themselves were away in Keswick.) The first day, we just went for a walk around town, looking at the sights. We also ate at an Indian restaurant called Ready Steady Spice - the food was delicious!
On the second day of our trip, we visited the Ashmolean and looked around various exhibitions on art and culture around the world, which was fascinating. We followed that up with a visit to the Pitt Rivers/Natural History Museum. The Pitt Rivers Museum is quite sobering, in a way - there are lots of artefacts from other civilisations, now wholly or partially extinguished by colonialism, and now all that remains of them is fragments in a museum thousands of miles away.
After Pitt Rivers, we went on an open-top bus tour of Oxford, which was extremely fun! I've always wanted to do that! (Though the weather chose that moment to turn rainy, so we had to sit in the covered front portion of the top...)
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| I love this picture - it's both hilarious and adorable. |
The third and penultimate day of our holiday was a general tour of Oxford - we went on a walking tour round some of the biggest sites, which was very fun! As it happens, our tour guide was native to Reading, but in Oxford for university, which I found very fitting, as I'm native to Oxford, but in Reading for university. The walking tour was interesting, though it was also pretty tiring - it was a good 2 hours of walking! After the tour, we browsed the Blackwells on Broad Street. I found several good books, including The Boys from Biloxi, a John Grisham novel. I highly recommend it!
On the final day, we just chilled at home and played video games, which was very fun! In the afternoon, Josh went home to Reading, while I stayed behind because I had a wedding to attend! One of my friends from school got married on the Saturday (29th July). It was really great to celebrate! I've actually known her most of my life - my nana had a picture of the two of us sharing the same pram. I really enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate her! If I had to pick, I'd say the highlight was the dancing, but really, I just enjoyed celebrating my friend and her husband.
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| The happy couple after the ceremony! (In the far background, a bus to Oxford has accidentally crashed the photo!) |
The day after the wedding, I made a hasty journey back to Reading, as I had another party to go to. (How hasty? I left my wallet, of all things, at home. Fortunately, I had a credit card in my pocket.) As it happens, 29th July is a doubly important day to me - my friend got married that day, and one of my uni friends has her birthday on that day as well. On the day of, though, she was in Devon on holiday, so she threw a birthday party the next day. It was a small gathering, meeting up for prosecco, pizza, and parley. (Yes, that's not the right word, but I could not pass up the opportunity for alliteration.) I enjoyed the birthday party - it was fun.
I spent most of the next week relaxing at home, though I did meet up with a friend, which was fun. Not a lot else happened, really! Not until Saturday 5th, anyway - some friends from Reading also got married! The day was really fun, I enjoyed it a lot! The whole day was amazing, so I didn't really have a specific highlight - it was just great to celebrate my friends! Though I do look back on first year, and I think about how my friends (and myself) have changed, and I'm just...really, really proud of how far we've all come.
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| The happy couple! |
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| Two sets of couples, and Robert 'Fifth-Wheel' Murrell in the middle. |
After the wedding, I went back home to Oxford, where I just relaxed and chilled. I also got to spend time with Pippin, which was very nice - he stayed with my granny while we were away in America, and then continued staying with her in July because my parents were away a lot. I also helped out at Oasis, which is a holiday club-type event for elderly people, a day of activities like arts and crafts. It was a lot of fun, even though I was the youngest person there by about 50-60 years. One of the people I met there was a woman who knew Nana - Nana used to go to Oasis herself, though it was a different event, run during term-time. It was nice to meet her! I also spent a fair portion of the day helping out a blind old lady, who was very sweet. She's got a grandson who's my age, and who's just finished his undergraduate degree in Physics. I met him when he came to pick her up at the end of the day - it turns out he went to the same secondary school as me!
The day after Oasis, I went down to Devon to stay with Granny, which was very fun! I stayed until Sunday 20th, spending lots of time with Granny, great-aunt Sal, and great-aunt Jen. One of the highlights of the week was spending a day with Sal; we started off by going to a pub/museum in Buckfastleigh. The pub was a place called the Valiant Soldier, which was open since around the medieval ages! It closed in the 60s, and was turned into a museum of the pub's history, as well as a museum of the village itself. My great-grandad Michael was mentioned there - he was the local GP and a very well-known and popular figure! After the pub, we went to Sally's for pizza and games, which I enjoyed. I actually won a game, which is rare because Sally is phenomenally good at games.
Another highlight of the week was going for a walk and picnic (just me and Granny) on the penultimate day. We discussed life and relationships - it was nice to share details of my life with Granny, because it's not something I often do.
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| OASIS' youngest helper carrying a table! |
I came back home on the 20th, though once I got home I didn't do much except play Minecraft. (There's an absolutely awesome mod called New TARDIS Mod, which adds the TARDIS from Doctor Who to the game - bigger on the inside and everything!) Starting from September, however, I have been trying to wean myself off both Minecraft and NTM, in preparation for my MA.
At the end of August, I once again went to Forum, which was very fun! One of the highlights of the week was getting to know people in my CU. I also enjoyed the meetings and seminars - I found them very interesting! The main meetings were all about courage in discussing your faith.
(There was also a silent disco after one of the evening meetings. I passed, naturally.)
Sadly, while at Forum, I came down with a cold, but nothing too serious. I came home, rather than go all the way back to Reading, and relaxed for a few days at home.
My dad departed for Bangui at the beginning of September, as well.
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| RUCU @ Forum 2023! (Much smaller crowd this year.) |
Once back in Reading, I met up with some friends at Wetherspoons, which was very fun! We had a big crowd by the end of the evening! I also started a new job!! I have a job with Bars and Dining on campus, which is pretty fun! It's quite tiring as well, though. I also helped out on the move-in days for the freshers, and at a Welcome Marquee during Fresher's Week.
Something else I did over the last couple of weeks was visit Neve and Huw - I stayed with Uncle Will and Aunt Hel over the weekend. It was very fun, and I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my cousins! The highlight was probably going to Colchester Zoo on the Saturday - I enjoyed it! What was quite funny was the way Neve and Huw, over the course of the day, oscillated between tired and full of beans. Memorably, at one point in the afternoon, both were flagging, then Uncle Will said, 'Well, if you're too tired, we don't have to go to the playpark...', whereupon they both immediately perked up.
I also came back home (again), to spend time with my mum and dad, as my dad just got back from Bangui. It's been nice to see them!
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| A gathering at 'Spoons! |
I read a series called The Night's Dawn trilogy recently - it takes place in the 27th century, where humanity has undergone mind-blowing technological advancements, and spread across the stars, until (as per the blurb of the first book) a 'criminal renegade' encounters something utterly alien and unleashes a plague of the souls of the dead. (Mostly by accident. The criminal thought he was summoning the Devil.) See, in the trilogy, after death, people go to this empty purgatory called the Beyond, where they stay until the end of time, forced to see glimpses of the main universe but never able to experience it. So, when they get unleashed into the land of the living, they naturally try and free more people. And another thing that happens is that the sky, and space, reminds them of the Beyond, and that terrifies them, so once they have enough returned souls gathered in one place, they shunt into another dimension, cut off from the Beyond. Some of them, though, recognise that this behaviour is fundamentally flawed - they're running from their fears, rather than facing them. That really resonated with me. Cause life's difficult. It's painful, and tiring, and frequently scary. That's how it is. But, if you want to live, really, truly experience the many good things life has to offer, you need to face your fears, rather than hiding from them. And, frankly, if I were to hide in Eynsham rather than face the possibility of friendships fading, that wouldn't solve anything. It would ultimately just bring about those fears.
You have to face life head-on, and you have to learn how to face the difficult times. It's a bit of a cliché, but it's a cliché because it's something universal - at some point, we all have to learn how to do that, because it's the only way we'll ever actually live, ever do anything with our lives.
And I think, speaking of facing life head-on, it's interesting to look back on first year and to see how far I, and my friends, have come. We started off in difficult times, adjusting to university while in lockdown. And the last three years have been difficult at times - but we kept going, even in painful or challenging circumstances. Several of my friends have already gotten new jobs, and they're adjusting really well! Others are preparing for their final year of university. A few have gotten married, or will be getting married - very exciting! And I'm so, so proud of how far we've all come. And I know that my friends are going to go on to do amazing things - and I hope to be there, cheering them on every step of the way.
-Glasses of alcohol consumed: 2 gin and tonics, 2 cocktails. (It was at Spoons, and it was a bad idea, too...)
-Places I've been to this summer: Chicago, St Louis, Andrews, D.C., Pittsburg, Plymouth (Indiana), Wales, Reading, South Brent, Oxford, Colchester zoo
-Hours I've worked: 13 (in total, not at once!)
-Days till my course starts: 3!! (As of writing)
-Books read: The Boys from Biloxi (John Grisham), The Royal Secret, The Night's Dawn (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God, Peter F. Hamilton). They're all great books, I definitely recommend them!
-More of an observation than a stat, but this blog is now officially 5 years old!
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