Gurpreet Kaur

My brother had been down for the weekend from his halls on Friday. Today we had to drive him back to his halls and before we headed off to Central London he decided he needed to go into town and do a little shopping to take back with him.

Taking dads car (Vauxhall Astra), off he went into the shops in town while I was left in the West Quay Retail Car Park trying to find a place to park. It was so busy couldn’t find a parking space for at least 15/20 minutes, and my brother ends up shopping forever, trying to buy decent branded expensive clothes.

I finally got round to finding a parking space and ended up parking and waiting for my brother to come as soon as possible, ended up waiting for over 40 minutes. Since I was sitting in the car people were assuming I was coming out of the parking space, so had to tell everyone “Sorry, no I’m not coming out, just waiting for my brother to get out”. The decent people had the nerve to ask whether I was going or staying in the parking space but there was this one idiot who jus parked his car in front of me waiting for me to get out for like 30 minutes. He didn’t bother asking if I was staying or going, but I would have thought its common sense if I’m not going anywhere within 10 minutes and my car engine is switched off then it’s a little obvious that I am parked and not going anywhere. After 30 minutes were up he decides to go find a parking space elsewhere (good call).

Finally my brother gets back with good old 10 bags of clothes shopping worth at least bloody over £100. The main thing was that he got back after leaving me for 45 minutes to die and rot in the sun.

As soon as he sat in the car another car crept up and asked if we were leaving, I nodded my head thinking finally yeah we’re about to leave. Until the engine decided to fail on me and the car wouldn’t start. How embarrassing!! I tried again to start the engine but it wouldn’t start. So had to tell the car driver that the car isn’t starting sorry we won’t be getting out the space.

Now was panic time, we didn’t know what was wrong with the car. Especially when I, the great genius, left my AA breakdown membership card at home. Luckily dad was home so gave him a ring on the house phone to get to the West Quay Retail Park since his car wouldn’t start.

Once dad reached he tries checking what was wrong, he couldn’t find anything so the next call was AA. Dad bought his AA breakdown membership card with him which I ended up calling. we received a certain time they would be there by which was between 10 – 20 minutes. After my brother hearing 10 - 20 minutes he decided to go into “Boots” and do his remaining shopping while me and dad were left to wait for the AA.

AA reached within 7 minutes. Had a look at the car, opened the bonnet up, fiddled about with some wires, then told us the battery was flat some how. So had to jump start the car again. However didn’t reach to a decision to what caused the battery to go down all of a sudden when the battery was only 18 months old.

My brother come back and asked whether if it was ok to take the car to London later on? The AA advised not to since they didn’t find the cause of the battery dying. He told us to take the small car instead (my car) the Vauxhall Corsa.

UP For It Juniors retain a partnership with University Of Portsmouth for young children and their schools, within the local area of Portsmouth. Its aim is to encourage the young children to think about their future and give them an idea of a University life and the benefits from higher education.
The University arrange visits and activities for the children. It provides them a worthwhile experience.
The University this year have set up days within the next few weeks for the schools to come in with their children to explore University life.

I took part in being an Up For It Juniors tour guide from Tuesday - Thursday. The main role is to receive the children outside the Guildhall, giving each child a lanyard (which they wear around their necks, in case a child is lost, it has the details whom to contact), also an Up For It Juniors sticker is given to each child. After the stickers and lanyards are given we take the children to the lecture theatre scheduled for them. For example yesterday morning (20th May 2008) the lecture was in Portland Building on Marine Biology, teaching about “Sharks”. Today morning was a lecture in Anglesea Building on Civil Engineering learning about Robots. Then today afternoon lecture was in Richmond Building on Economics learning about money.

After the children had there lectures, we handed out booklets for them to write about what they learnt in the lecture. The booklets contain all sorts of questions regarding the University that the children need to fill in during the tour.

The tour lasts up to approximately 30 minutes. Starting from Anglesea building up to Burnaby building. Then moving up to Richmond, Portland and Buckingham building and making our way up to Nuffields Sports Centre. From the sports centre going straight to Students Union then out through the back to Ravelin Park (park behinf the library), leading to William Beatty building. Outside the William Beatty building the children are given a chance for a drinks break for 5 minutes. Then moving them into the library down to halls of residence (if there is any time left) otherwise we have to take them back to Guildhall steps where they have an opportunity to graduate and receive a certificate, so they get a rough idea of what graduation feels like. The children get a chance to wear their graduation robes and get a picture taken of them selves. Once all this is done they can make their way back to their schools.

Since I worked the full day today, morning session and afternoon session it was extremely tiring but enjoyed every moment of it. :D, I some how managed to gain interest in Civil Engineering and Economics lecture and lab sessions. :S

I haven’t been posting for a while but will start posting regularly as soon as the exams are over.

…I’m reaching the end of the academic year and have final examinations for my Computing modules, which will be taking place within the next two weeks. My first exam starts on 28^th May 2008 for a unit called INDAC (Introduction to Data Communications), im quite confident in this unit as long as the right questions come up, but considering the exam is 100% it is nerve wracking .

Second exam is on 30^th May 2008 in a unit called FOUNDT (Foundations of Computing), which just consists of maths binary calculations, Boolean algebra etc… not really looking forward to this exam, don’t have much confidence that I will actually pass this unit.

Third exam on 3^rd June 2008 (I think) on DISYS (Developing Information Systems), pretty much confident on this exam due to the great coursework mark I achieved :D, which works out to be 50% of the final grade meaning only needing up to 20% in the exam, which I can manage.

…Oh then the final deadly exam, JAVA programming, only God can help me in this exam. I have no clue what so ever on this unit, but have been revising like mad for this exam, yet still nothing is getting in my brain.

Im not much of an exam person. I tend to panic once I get to the exam hall and sit there with the exam paper infront of me, with my mind going totally blank. But “God Willing” I will be ok in these exams and pass

Today my cousin sister had a baby boy!! And I’m a Masi - YAY!!

For 27 years she couldn’t conceive but she went in for IVF treatment in India where she managed to get pregnant in august 2007 and successfully had her child today (May 20th 2008).

He is a healthy baby weighing 6 pounds and 8 ounces. Born at 9.00a.m in Coventry.

They’ve named the baby Gurmukh Singh after the “Naam Karan” ceremony was performed, the letter “G” was the first letter that was from Guru Granth Sahib Ji. “Naam Karan” ceremony is performed when a baby is born into a Sikh household. The parents/grandparents of the child go to the Gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) and perform Ardas which is then followed by Hukamnama. When the Hukamnama is taken, the first letter of the first word of the Hukamnama is the letter to be used to give the name to the child. So in my cousin sisters case the first words first letter of the Hukamnama was a “G”, which they then decided to name him Gurmukh Singh, which means “One who follows the word of the Guru”.

Since I still have exams this month we won’t be able to go and see them just yet. Most probably we’ll go in the holidays after University is completed.

My blog is finally up! Wohoo! It’s been long overdue but I finally got around to making some time in my schedule and setting it up. Please note that due to the exam season I’ll most probably be a little slow making my intial few posts but hopefully within a month or two this blog will be active.

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