Newport
On Tuesday my father and I left Tavistock at 0700 headed for Caerleon, a small town a few miles outside of Newport, where the University of Wales main campus is located. The journey took about two and a half hours and we set about exploring the locality. We popped over to Newport and having parked in one of the most unfriendly, poorly designed car parks in the world, made our way along the main street. Like most of Wales following the closure of the coal mines, Newport seems to have been neglected and let to run down a bit. That said, some areas seemed a lot more respectable and there are some high brand shops...it really depends which end of town you start from and our first impressions were somewhat dim. It just so happens that a large regeneration project is about to begin in the area.
We soon left and headed for Cardiff to have lunch. It was fourteen miles away and was a sharp contrast with Newport...so no prizes for guessing where all the money goes. By this time I was noticing how short everyone was as we explored the shopping precinct for somewhere to eat. After lunch we headed back to Caerleon because we'd just missed the next tour of Cardiff Castle. Caerleon is an ancient Roman garrison town and is littered with remains. We visited the roman baths and the local roman museum which houses all sorts of artefacts from the fortress that once stood there. There weren’t more than a few small shops in the town so we took a short stroll around and about.
Our bed-sit was very nice. Dad had booked one of the family rooms, so we had full facilities. During the evening we decided to go for dinner at the Ship Inn and then that was pretty much it for the day. I watched the first of the BBC's Space Odyssey programmes which I thought was very good. I went to bed soon after.
After breakfast Wednesday morning, we headed for Caerleon Campus and registered for the open day. After booking a tour of the accommodation areas, it was time for one of the many talks that would go on throughout the morning. I was only really interested in the one about the admissions process. Following that we made our way to the tour we'd booked a place on. Overall the accommodation was good, though I've changed my mind on wanting an en-suite bedroom. These rooms are very small and the en-suite units are like a big plastic pod. Not really very cool.
The rooms I'm now interested in are the more communal layouts. These have fifteen large bedrooms, sharing two shower rooms, two bathrooms, a lounge and a kitchen. The kitchens are very well fitted out and along with the bathrooms, are cleaned by dedicated cleaners once a week - whereas the en-suit rooms that share five to a kitchen, have to be cleaned by the students. Here's the big thing. The larger rooms with better facilities are cheaper than the en-suite rooms. There are half as many of these rooms though, compared with the smaller rooms which make up four hundred of the six hundred and fifty available.
Car parking is not available for students on campus. In stark contrast to the University my younger sister is currently at, where they have dedicated secure car parking facilities alongside their accommodation. We'll see what happens but I'm not happy about it.
We didn't have lunch per se. When signing in at the start of the day, we'd been each given a token for a free drink at any of the cafeterias so we just had drinks. I really was not very hungry.
The afternoon was the main focus of the day. Everyone was taken to a big introduction presentation before heading off to the various 'schools' for more specific information. The degree I'm looking at is taught at the School of Computing and Engineering in the Allt-yr-yn Campus ((pronounced Alt-er-een)) and was a fifteen minute coach trip away. There we learned about the courses which seem very much geared towards giving people practical hands-on and real world experiences. I asked if the course I'm hoping to do might look towards new Microsoft technologies such as Indigo and the C#/XAML languages and the answer was yes. If something like this looks like it'll be the next standard - they'll adopt it into their degree, so the courses can flex a little over the three year period. To me that sounds great because I wouldn't want to come out of a degree knowing stuff that's three years out of date.
Well by 1630 the day was over, we were on the road back to Tavistock and I was one very tired bunny. The trip had been very useful and I have decided to make an application within the next week or so, through UCAS online. My HND will be good enough for entry onto the course, so of course I need to make sure I pass that, though otherwise everything is looking good. I'll stick with work as long as possible. I really need the money; though I wish I could just walk away from it all now and be done with it. Suppose it's just one of those tough things one has to put up with for a while longer...
Yesterday ((Thursday)) I went into College because whilst I'm on holiday from work, I don't want to have to miss out on lectures. I'm not very good at all playing catch-up. This morning I got to have a lay in mind you. I've been into Tavistock to collect my prescription sunglasses and I'm now preparing for Paul's visit. This holiday is whizzing by...
We soon left and headed for Cardiff to have lunch. It was fourteen miles away and was a sharp contrast with Newport...so no prizes for guessing where all the money goes. By this time I was noticing how short everyone was as we explored the shopping precinct for somewhere to eat. After lunch we headed back to Caerleon because we'd just missed the next tour of Cardiff Castle. Caerleon is an ancient Roman garrison town and is littered with remains. We visited the roman baths and the local roman museum which houses all sorts of artefacts from the fortress that once stood there. There weren’t more than a few small shops in the town so we took a short stroll around and about.
Our bed-sit was very nice. Dad had booked one of the family rooms, so we had full facilities. During the evening we decided to go for dinner at the Ship Inn and then that was pretty much it for the day. I watched the first of the BBC's Space Odyssey programmes which I thought was very good. I went to bed soon after.
After breakfast Wednesday morning, we headed for Caerleon Campus and registered for the open day. After booking a tour of the accommodation areas, it was time for one of the many talks that would go on throughout the morning. I was only really interested in the one about the admissions process. Following that we made our way to the tour we'd booked a place on. Overall the accommodation was good, though I've changed my mind on wanting an en-suite bedroom. These rooms are very small and the en-suite units are like a big plastic pod. Not really very cool.
The rooms I'm now interested in are the more communal layouts. These have fifteen large bedrooms, sharing two shower rooms, two bathrooms, a lounge and a kitchen. The kitchens are very well fitted out and along with the bathrooms, are cleaned by dedicated cleaners once a week - whereas the en-suit rooms that share five to a kitchen, have to be cleaned by the students. Here's the big thing. The larger rooms with better facilities are cheaper than the en-suite rooms. There are half as many of these rooms though, compared with the smaller rooms which make up four hundred of the six hundred and fifty available.
Car parking is not available for students on campus. In stark contrast to the University my younger sister is currently at, where they have dedicated secure car parking facilities alongside their accommodation. We'll see what happens but I'm not happy about it.
We didn't have lunch per se. When signing in at the start of the day, we'd been each given a token for a free drink at any of the cafeterias so we just had drinks. I really was not very hungry.
The afternoon was the main focus of the day. Everyone was taken to a big introduction presentation before heading off to the various 'schools' for more specific information. The degree I'm looking at is taught at the School of Computing and Engineering in the Allt-yr-yn Campus ((pronounced Alt-er-een)) and was a fifteen minute coach trip away. There we learned about the courses which seem very much geared towards giving people practical hands-on and real world experiences. I asked if the course I'm hoping to do might look towards new Microsoft technologies such as Indigo and the C#/XAML languages and the answer was yes. If something like this looks like it'll be the next standard - they'll adopt it into their degree, so the courses can flex a little over the three year period. To me that sounds great because I wouldn't want to come out of a degree knowing stuff that's three years out of date.
Well by 1630 the day was over, we were on the road back to Tavistock and I was one very tired bunny. The trip had been very useful and I have decided to make an application within the next week or so, through UCAS online. My HND will be good enough for entry onto the course, so of course I need to make sure I pass that, though otherwise everything is looking good. I'll stick with work as long as possible. I really need the money; though I wish I could just walk away from it all now and be done with it. Suppose it's just one of those tough things one has to put up with for a while longer...
Yesterday ((Thursday)) I went into College because whilst I'm on holiday from work, I don't want to have to miss out on lectures. I'm not very good at all playing catch-up. This morning I got to have a lay in mind you. I've been into Tavistock to collect my prescription sunglasses and I'm now preparing for Paul's visit. This holiday is whizzing by...
posted by Matthew E Cornish at
16:10
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