One of my friends from the Art Society happened to have her birthday party organised for the last Thursday of term and, seeing as I had no lectures on Friday, it also doubled up as an end of term celebration! The party had a ‘children’s TV show characters’ theme and seeing as I’m never one to turn down a fancy dress opportunity, I happily dressed up as everyone’s favourite penguin: Pingu! Adorned in great costumes, which included all three the Power Puff Girls and Art Attack’s Neil Buchanan, we headed down to a local nightclub which is best known for their cheesy pop music! Needless to say, we had a great time!
Pingu and his best friends: Neil Buchanan and Spiderman!
The next day I had to think about packing, as I had planned to go back home early morning on the Saturday. This was because as a family we had decided to move Mother’s Day from Sunday 15th March to Saturday 21st instead, as it meant we could all be together. In years gone by my parents would have just come down to Southampton, but since my sister graduated last year it has become increasingly difficult to find times when we’re all free. Luckily though, we managed to find time to meet up as a family for an evening meal and confuse people by giving Mother’s Day cards and presents a week late! Moving celebrations has become a bit of trend in my family, as last year even my birthday was shifted for convenience!
The Gray family celebrating days as and when we please!
Coming home early also means I have more time to get on with work. I remember in First Year looking forward to four weeks off at Easter. Now in my fourth University Easter break, the story couldn’t be more different!
My main aim of the Easter break is to finish off my Masters project. A few weeks ago my project partner and I managed to produce a graph that revealed a very interesting conclusion to do with the origin of an effect called radio-loudness in a type of astronomical body known as an Active Galactic Nuclei. The graph was a culmination of five months of work and, although it was a great feeling to have a final result, there is definitely something comical about spending five months making a graph with two lines on it!
We have almost finished all of the data gathering and therefore it shouldn’t be long until all the analysis can be wrapped up too. In the meantime, I am also writing up my final report for the project which has a cap of 7,500 words. As a Physicist who spends most days dealing with numbers, this seems like a huge mountain to climb. However, talking to Humanities students puts my word limit into perspective - I know one of my friends is writing a 15,000 word thesis!
Despite my workload, I do still have a few fun activities planned over Easter, including taking a mini-break in Derbyshire with my girlfriend. I think it’s important not to get too bogged down in studies over the break and find time to enjoy yourself (after all, it is called a “break”).
So, on that note, I wish everyone both a fun and productive Easter!
James
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