Well thankfully that mad journey is over! Set off for my London experience (Unilever IT Graduate selection board) on Wednesday at 1pm and it took me around 4-5 hours to get down there, journey was relatively straight forward - there were no cancellations etc so i cant complain.

Got into the hotel at 6pm for my meal at 7pm and it was very nice indeed - plush room, flat screen plasma on the wall, etc very impressive. Also a “goody bag” from Unilever as a welcome present full of free marketing, you know the drill.

The evening was spent sipping free Elijah Craigs while discussing corporate “ideals” with previous graduates etc. The meal was nice, although not really my tastes (Apricot and beef, hmm..). Went to bed at about midnight after match of the day and looked forward to waking up at 6.30am

The following day was a plethora of 2 things - case studies about things i had no interest for/in and marketing - why we are great, its nothing personal dont get me wrong, every company (that sells products) i have been to has tried to brainwash me so far. The day left me feeling very drained and tired due to its none stop pace and towards the middle of the morning i knew that the job wasnt for me; people who did a degree in Geography had applied and got through to final selection for an IT Graduate position? Interesting. It was too hands off and removed from the technology for me; and i was getting the feeling i would never work with technology again if i took the role - due to the fact all the questions i was being assessed on where to do with supply chains, products etc -  what does this have to do with IT, i have no idea, marketing deals with that, for example.

The train home was one of the most brutal journeys i have ever done, involving 3 trains to get to Euston before my train from Euston was delayed by 40 minutes due to signalling errors in Rugby - tossers. This ensured i definitely missed the last train from Piccadilly so i had to splash £10 on a taxi, thanks National Rail you muppets. I arrived home absolutely fooking shattered and i’ve been tired ever since. Found out today that i havent got the job but to be honest, im glad it wasn’t offered because i would have rejected it; it definitely isnt for me and i wouldnt have fit in with the scheme; but at the same time - turning down a job of 30K - i’d hate myself forever.

 I’m heading home tonight for my brothers 18th party, get to see Zena, etc and generally relax - ready for the beginning of lectures and coursework again next week

21 days since my last post, thats quite impressive! I have been royally, yes royally, busy with examinations and whatnot.

2 days after Fran left to go back to Birmingham i got a call telling me she had been mugged etc and she was in a bad way so i went down to Birmingham and stayed with her for a week and helped her get back on her feet; new purse, cards, etc and generally made her feel better (hopefully!). Since returning, ive been revising my ass off for my 3 exams which finished on the 23rd January with a mentally hard Regular Expressions theory test on NFA vs DFA!! Not very fun to say the least my friends.

Other than academia, i’m still applying for graduate jobs and hoping that this economic slowdown doesnt take any more victims who i want to work for Still waiting to hear back from a few of the big “players” in the IT World about my application etc so fingers crossed.

Finally, i decided to sell some of my old crap on eBay to raise funds: on the scraphead was 2 Cisco 3524XL Switches (with GBIC’s) and 6 GB of DDR (sold as 4GB and 2GB respectively) all of which generated 200 quid which went straight to *drumroll* my new watercooling system! Pictures will be up soon but needless to say it is fantastic; however it was a righteous pain to install and get working (heart in mouth at some stages!!).

Other than that, i’ve been dedicating my time beetween drinking fine Bourbons such as JD Silver Select or Makers Mark and eating copious amounts of Pizza Express Living the good life, oh yes.

Went back home on the 22nd December for Xmas and generally chilled out after a few hectic weeks in Salford - my only tech saviour being my Acer Aspire one netbook running trusty linux - thankfully it didnt let me down like it did on my recent trip to London!

Got the usual stuff for xmas which was cool, along with some driving lessons (yes im finally going to drive), and a nice bottle of Silver Select Jack Daniels which will go down a treat!

Fran came up on the 27th December and we went up to the Lake District along with my family for 4 days to our new lodge that my parents had just bought - very swanky indeed. I managed to sneak my Xbox 360 along with me, along with the newly purchased guitar hero world tour Which i managed to play during our none walking days - e.g. 3-4 hours walking around lake Windemere with Zena running around like a mentalist on the ice

NYE was spent at a family party which was fun although everyone completely mistimed 00:00 lol So all of  sudden it was “Oh sh… HAPPY NEW YEAR!”. Good times indeed! I returned back to Salford on the 1st January after a NY Day buffet at my Grandmas which is a tradition! Been generally chilling out ever since really. Back to the joy factory tomorrow - especially fun as im up at 8am - oh goody how i love early starts. Exams and dissertation and all in the upcoming month so im going to have to work little hours - less money, but better grades i guess!

Tech wise (the most important) - i decided to upgrade my RAM - i bought 2 sets of 2×4GB OCZ PC2-8000 1000Mhz RAM from Aria for the princely sum of just £90.00 and i am now running on Vista x64 (had to upgrade - bah!) showing 8GB of Gigahertz RAM - yum yum yum. Also allowed me to clock over 3.7Ghz - which is always fun! Im trying to take it easy money wise, but next month i might invest in a new graphics card (4870X2) or perhaps a new PSU as my poor little M520 is struggling i feel! Oh, before i forget, i also purchased a Zalman MFC2 fan controller which also has 4 temperature monitors and other info displayed on a 5.25″ LCD display - for only 40 quid - not bad eh. This also shows you the total power draw of your PC so keep your eyes peeled for figures!

Sam