Sharks, Vodka and Magic Ducks

Week 9. Weird week, I must say. Both on the weather and what has happened around campus.

So, lets start with the weather. Monday. I thought this Monday was a normal Monday, as always. Except that it wasn’t.

So I got up at about 8, opened the curtains, and went to the bathroom. And then I ran back out to the window. The first thing that crossed my mind when I looked out at the lake again was, “Am I drunk?” Then I thought, no I am not, because I didn’t drink anything else the previous night, besides chicken soup and orange, so I can’t be hung over over some chicken soup. I also asked a bunch of questions, like am I in need of a new pair of glasses, or that I am still dreaming, because, staring at the lake, I saw the ducks and birds STANDING ON the lake, not SWIMMING IN it. They were really like that magician, Chris Angel (or Angle, given the shape of his face), walking around on water like nothing’s happening. Then I looked closer and there it was; a sheet of ice on the surface of the lake. To the far right, the wooden platoon was all white, presumably covered with a sheet of ice, and to the far left, the pathway under the huge tree was white too.

So, of course, Google to the rescue, and a quick check on the weather forecast reveals the current temperature to be -2°C, and the highest it would go on that day would be 4°C. Out comes my wool coat and gloves, my Abercrombie back in the wardrobe, and as I walked around the uni alongside my squealing and shivering friends, I felt like I won the Noble Prize for Genius-sity. Soon, I found out that there was a frosting that night, and there’s even snow, I suppose. Don’t really trust my source though, because I deliberately turned off my heater that night as it was a bit warm. Either he’s wrong, or there’s something wrong with me.

Also, The Daily Telegraph and, new to this week, The Times were sold at below market prices, at 45p. This got me thinking, whether I should thank the publishers for being so understanding and selling us the papers at discounted prices, or the Londoners for happily subsidising us. I guess there’s a bit of price discrimination here (I know I sound very econ-sy, but can’t help it, I eat, sleep and read econs everyday). Okay, let me rephrase it; I guess there’s a bit of price differentiation among the regions (even worse!). But whatever, I’m sure you get what I mean, that the newspapers are priced differently at different places to appeal to different types of buyers.

Call me greedy, but I still can’t figure out why this doesn’t apply to other books and magazines. Yes, there’s subscriptions, but if you look at the leaflets, it’s for a minimum of around 20 weeks, in which within that period, the ‘subscriber’ wouldn’t be in town (or even the country) for 4 or more weeks, and the magazines would be mugged by the ducks and eaten for supper. The thing is, we students definitely wouldn’t be in the university throughout the subscription period. Our term is 10 weeks long, and then followed by a 4-week long vacation. Take a 52-week subscription, and it’ll get worse during summer breaks, as the accommodation assistants will have a hard time figuring out where to put the thousands of copies of Times and Newsweek and FHM and Vanity Fair and whatnot when the 700 occupants disappear for 3 months and their post boxes are filled with pizza delivery leaflets, should everyone choose to subscribe to it. My thought is, sell the mags in the newsstands at subscription-rate prices, so we could buy them whenever we have time to read them (or whenever we are in town). Besides, we students are always broke (thanks to £3/pint drinks and £15-train ride to London), so it gives publishers a lot more reason to re-price their mags. Probably with the adjusted pricing, reader volume would increase too. Reminds me much of home, where the (desperate) public like you and me pay full price for a copy of The Star, while the small kids in primary school who could hardly pronounce their father’s name can get the paper at 40 cents off list price. Why on earth some 8-year-old would want to subscribe to newspapers, I have no idea. I never said life was fair.

Moving along. This week, in campus, it was a normal occurrence to see people walking around with childish balloons tied around their necks and with a mattress on their head. Lecturers and students were to be found drinking beer and vodka in the lecture halls. And, the gnome-d guys would walk around with a handful of flour and baked beans (and a lot more on their head and face). Don’t get me wrong and call the cops, my university didn’t lose authority over the students, and there wasn’t a strike among the uni staff either. It was Rag week, where this Rag Society, in the name of charity, would, aside from delivering beer and mattresses and spill beans all over your face, send chocolates and flowers to your loved ones, and balloons and a singing Santa Claus to the other weirdos. I was honestly afraid my neighbour would send me my own chair, but thankfully it didn’t happen. Otherwise I would have drag raced the crazy cyclists along Library Road.

What they deliver didn’t stir my attention; it was how they made the delivery that was a bit interesting for me. There would be this team of about 5 guys, 4 decently dressed, and one in some costume. (In Macro class, a shark came. For World economy, it was this green thing, a fusion of Kermit and Bob The Builder or something). Really cool, and these guys do special deliveries too, like hugs. They should have more of these events, not just because it’s for charity, which is good, but it also takes away the routine-ness out of the uni. It gives us (or more like me) a chance to stop and ‘woo’ the mattress guy and wish him luck that he hasn’t got many hours afterwards, and subsequently snicker behind his back when he’s off to his next lecture. Yeah, it’s bad, but it makes people happy, and that’s more important.

Okay, I am writing too much in this post. Next posting will be an epic one to mark the end of the term. Haha, but whether it would be posted by chapters or a freaking long one, I have yet to decide.

Anyway, Week 10, HERE I COME!!!