Uni Tour

Yesterday I went for my tour of the university. I have to say I was impressed. All the equipment is state of the art, industry standard stuff. There are major theatres, recording studios, motion capture rooms, dance studios, all sorts. Professional theatre groups, musicians, dancers etc come in to work with the students or to put on performances. They also have casting agents, directors & producers come to watch student work. The course is very industry based, & covers a very broad spectrum of theatre arts. And the place was massive! I am definitely aching from all the walking yesterday. And we only saw one part of it!

                                                 A small section of the Performance Centre

                                                                   The entrance area

As you can see, it was a typical Cornish winter day! We had a while to wait, so we were sent into the restaurant/ bar area, where I had a pasty the size of a small aircraft carrier! Tastier though, I imagine! We also went to see some of the accommodation. We saw the on-campus accommodation, & also The Sidings up near the station. The Sidings would definitely be my first choice, particularly one of the self-contained studios. That would be so much better for me due to my health issues, my Aspergers, & the fact that I will be nearly 20 years older than most of the other students!

                                                    The Sidings student accommodation

                                                            Campus Accommodation

I didn't take any photos of the inside of the performance centre, I was too busy looking round! I am rather nervous about going, hoping I can live up to it all! The student ambassador showing us around said that the uni was very selective in who they took, so hopefully that's a good sign that they think I'm good enough!

Journey

Well, here I am back in Cornwall. I've had my first pasty, & bought a creme egg for later. We set off in the morning of Valentines day, being seen off at the airport by mum & Christos, & J's parents. The air part of the journey went by pretty well & uneventful, except for my carry-on bag being searched in Athens. The flights were good, although the landing at Heathrow was rather wobbly! That was the first time I've ever felt sick on a plane. It was all fine though, & London was not too cold.

The coach ride from Heathrow down to Cornwall, now that was a journey & a half! It was half an hour late getting to Heathrow due to traffic & the weather, but that wasn't too bad. However, the weather got worse! As we were driving down to the Westcountry, we could heel the gales blowing at the coach. The driver was fighting hard to keep it straight! Unfortunately, because of the delays, his permitted driving hours were running out & we had to swap drivers at Exeter.

Now this new driver was an old Cornish boy. The first driver was so careful, this one put his foot down & went like a bat out of hell! Somewhere between Exeter & Plymouth we heard a mighty bang & felt a jolt. A traffic cone had been blown into the road & we had hit it, causing it to get jammed in the front of the coach, making an awful racket. The coach itself wasn't damaged though. He tried to remove it at the next stop, but it was well & truly jammed. He couldn't get it out until Plymouth bus station, where he had some help.

Just before leaving Plymouth, way behind schedule now, he dropped his bombshell. He warned us that we might not make it very far into Cornwall as there was a tree down across the main road at Lostwithiel, & he couldn't go the other route because the bridge was out. He decided to go for it though, & we were lucky. The road had been cleared. We arrived in the village with no problems, albeit nearly 2 hours late. My father collected us from the bus stop, & we soon got home & warmed up (Cornwall being decidedly colder than London).

We are on our second day now, & Justin seems to be getting on with my father & brother. They seem to have bonded over talking about guitars, guns, & zombie movies! It's a shame he couldn't meet my youngest brother too, but he's up in Manchester. We also went to see my aunt & cousins, & J has found the local pub!

We have no particular plans for the week, apart from on Wednesday when we have a tour of the university & the accommodation. On Saturday we will go up to Devon to spend a week with J's brother. I have never met him before, so I'm a bit nervous. Hope it goes ok!

Nearly Time!

It's just hit me that I only have 2 & a half days before I travel to England. That has come around so fast! Cue slight feelings of panic that will no doubt increase over the next couple of days. Th weather report for the UK & Cornwall doesn't help. They are now forecasting new storms to hit on Friday, the day we travel! It's lucky that I had booked to travel from the airport by coach, as the main rail line into the county is still hanging in mid air, & the other route is submerged in the floods of Somerset. We have had such lovely warm sunny weather here in Crete over the past week that it is difficult to imagine.

This past Sunday I had a leaving do. Not a big one, just a few friends at our house. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, but tinged with sadness too. It may be a long time before I see them again. Thank God for Facebook & social networking, so I can keep in touch with them. On the plus side, I'll get to see friends in UK again. It works both ways.

In addition to seeing friends & worrying about my packing (I'm still having issues getting my trunk transported) I have also modernised my hair. A new start deserves a new look, that type of thing. I needed something to boost my confidence, as all this change makes me feel a bit insecure. So I went for the chop, & have got a hairstyle that highlights my eyes & cheekbones, & distracts from the bits I don't like. I've also refreshed the colour. I am very happy with the results. I just hope I can find a hairdresser in the UK who can do just as good a job, without charging a small fortune.

Oh well, I'd better get back to the tidying, packing, & panicking. The next blog will probably come from the UK, unless I can get a quick one in before I go. In the meantime, maybe I should look for a pair of these shoes:

Packing up.

It's a gorgeous sunny Greek day, the temperature is well into the 20s, so it feels rather weird to be preparing all my warmest winter clothes. This time next week I will be on my way to the UK, & I think I will seriously need them! Over the past few days, via the news & Facebook, I have seen photos & videos of my home county being bashed & battered by storms. It's a good job that I booked the coach to go down from the airport to cornwall, as the sea wall was destroyed on the train line at Dawlish, washing away the foundations of the tracks & leaving a stretch suspended in mid air!

That is going to take a while to fix! With more storms forecast for this weekend, work will not be starting soon. This is the main route into Cornwall. I hope they get it fixed rather than finding a different route, as the Dawlish/Teignmouth section is one of my favourite rail journeys. I've heard that they're considering changing the route & opening up lines closed over 50 years ago.

I've booked a tour of the university, if it hasn't been blown away by the time I get there! Falmouth area got hit badly too. Basically all of Cornwall was battered, but especially the coastal areas. Here are a couple of pics of stormy Falmouth:

And a little bit further along, ridiculously large waves in Porthleven. Scientists were studying the waves here using seismometers amongst other things! Believe it or not, there is a harbour under those waves.

It looks like I'd better make the most of the weather here! It's going to be a bit of a shock, as we have had a mild winter here. I hope everyone affected by the storms stays safe. Anyway, back to my packing. Now where did I put my fur-lined waterproofs..?

What's In A Name?

Here I am again, back from spending a couple of days with my Devon boy. At the moment, I am trying to arrange to be shown around the university for when he is in Cornwall with me. I'm trying to arrange it so that we can see the university, the performance centre, & the student accommodation all on the same day. We shall see!

In addition, I am looking up casting agencies & extras agencies to join. It's all experience if I can get some parts, & any earnings will help when I'm a penniless student! I have never been any good at bar work or waitressing, so I hope something might come of it, no matter how small.

I have learned on the Equity website that I can join as a student member, & upgrade to full member when I graduate. This may be a good idea. The only thing is though, that I need to come up with a name, as there is apparently already someone with my name. So I'm looking for something catchy. I want to keep on using my first name, so I am looking at surname possibilities. I thought about Greekifying my surname, changing Peters to Petres, Petras, or Petrakis (I have been living in Greece). I decided against my mother's married name as it is one of those Greek names that can leave people looking blank when you tell them. Not good in the Theatre world, I want something that people can remember! And pronounce!

The next options I thought of was looking to my ancestors. There's my grandmother's maiden name, Spargo, which is quite unusual. Or maybe my great-great grandmother's name, Tresidder. A good Cornish name! There's also Connelly, which is my grandfather's name, but people may assume I'm copying Billy Connelly.

Mum suggested I use my middle name, Robina. She meant as my first name, but I wondered about using it as a surname as I want to keep using my first name. I ruled it out afer I mentioned it on Facebook, & someone came back with the comment "Ooh, that sounds fruity!" Damn those blackcurrants! So the search for something catchy, memorable & interesting goes on.

I have just realised that I have not added any photos to this post. There isn't really anything that goes with the theme, so here's a completely unrelated one of me photoshopped into a scene from Sense & Sensibility, with Alan Rickman.

Hmm, Natasha Rickman...