Applying to Uni for 2024? Find your Uni here and chat with others! >>

This thread is closed

The Cambridge Chat Thread

Scroll to see replies

Reply 2480

Tempeststurm

Does anyone here play in any of the orchestras? Should I bring an audition piece?

Reply 2481

Supergrunch

smilepea

It appears that alcohol free pimms doesn't exist but some people seem to think you can make an alternative with lemonade and balsamic vinegar, just to let you know you can't :yucky:

Wow, that sounds... horrible. :p:

Reply 2482

Craghyrax

lavalse

hey, i have a question for you, have you ever tried polyphasic sleep schedules? am coming back to cambridge tomorrow and am considering doing one and wondered if you knew much about it! thanks

(and if anyone else knows anything please let me know :smile:

)

Reply 2483

The West Wing

Tempeststurm

Does anyone here play in any of the orchestras? Should I bring an audition piece?

Yes you should. It's like auditioining for any other orchestra.

Unelss you want to join a crap college one.

Reply 2484

Craghyrax

Sejanus

Yeah, if there are multiple supervisors for a paper then getting information back to all of them is problematic (though the paper for which I was one of a large number of supervisors was actually the one where I found out how the students did, but that was because my supervisor is the paper convenor and examiner so told me off record).

It is frustrating for supervisors as well, as tbh I would like to know how my students did as I can then judge how far my teaching was ok, and also whether my predicitons of their grades were accurate!

Yeh that sucks. I think there are loads of small things which could easily be changed to improve the supervision system. Its annoying not so much because the actual things themselves are hugely inconvenient, but more because adjusting them seems so straightforward :rolleyes:

I discussed it with my DoS after one (luckily only one) very bad supervision experience last year. She agreed that the department would benefit from having some sort of standardised explicit training for supervisors about details of what to expect from students and what level of help to offer and so on, and said she'd discuss it with the department. I was really surprised; that sort of thing isn't exactly rocket science...

Reply 2485

smilepea

Supergrunch

Wow, that sounds... horrible. :p:

It was

and I think I've left my JCR hoody in the new forest :o:

Reply 2486

harr

Scipio90

I am buying a bike. Apart from lights, helmet, pump and a lock is there any other stuff I'll need to go with it?

Reflectors (if they don't come with it), silly clothing (either the stereotypical don outfit or your rowing gear), a wicker basket (try an all night wicker shop), a bell and an organ donor card.

Reply 2487

Catsmeat

Scipio90

I am buying a bike. Apart from lights, helmet, pump and a lock is there any other stuff I'll need to go with it?

My mountain biking self wants to say disc breaks and a rapid fire gear shift, but otherwise no. It would be sensible to get a puncture repair kit, though.

On that note, I was out technical training today in Suffolk, and ended up passing through the canopy of a tree full of spikes. I am now full of spikes. Ow.

Reply 2488

Craghyrax

Catsmeat

On that note, I was out technical training today in Suffolk, and ended up passing through the canopy of a tree full of spikes. I am now full of spikes. Ow.

This is why I restrict my high speed exploits to powdery winter sports :dry:

Steady and controlled progress when hiking or climbing on hard abrasive surfaces :yep:

Reply 2489

Catsmeat

Craghyrax

This is why I restrict my high speed exploits to powdery winter sports :dry:

Steady and controlled progress when hiking or climbing on hard abrasive surfaces :yep:

Mtb is usually steady and controlled, just not when cycling on sand and gravel, or on wet stone. There was a technical course I did this summer, called "Flight", which was basically a steep, winding path full of roots and sharp stones ... why do I do this to myself? I'm going to go skiing for the first time this winter though, in the US. I just don't like the idea of being tied to the bloody things; at least with a bike you can throw yourself off.

Reply 2490

Scipio90

harr

silly clothing (either the stereotypical don outfit or your rowing gear)

Mmm, lycra.

Reply 2491

Tempeststurm

The West Wing

Yes you should. It's like auditioining for any other orchestra.

Unelss you want to join a crap college one.

OK, the college one (Trinity) said it was non-audition, so I wasn't sure about the others. What are the other orchestras like?

Reply 2492

Craghyrax

Woo! I seem to have sorted my rowing out now :smile:

After some useful technique tips earlier this summer from our Dean (who coaches our women's rowing team and is often at Fenners the same time as me) I managed to adjust my drive to avoid killing my back and not letting my legs doing enough of the work, and I've gotten my split consistently down in the range of 2:13 to 2:18 while still keeping up a pace quick enough not to be annoying (22-24 strokes per min) on a high drag (although not as hard as I started out with)
I was rowing in a Pretoria gym this evening, and after I finished, the guy next to me asked me who I rowed for. Turned out he rows for University of Pretoria boat club and said he'd never seen anybody row that hard and that consistently for such a long time :biggrin:

Catsmeat

Mtb is usually steady and controlled, just not when cycling on sand and gravel, or on wet stone.

Hah! I don't call it 'controlled' if you felt the trees before you saw them :dry:

Catsmeat

There was a technical course I did this summer, called "Flight", which was basically a steep, winding path full of roots and sharp stones ... why do I do this to myself?

I wonder if you know a keen cyclist in our year from Peterhouse? First name Phil. Historian. Blonde. Very short.

Catsmeat

I'm going to go skiing for the first time this winter though, in the US. I just don't like the idea of being tied to the bloody things;

I was similarly put off to start with. I have a theory about my sporting inclinations, that I generally prefer pursuits where I'm in direct control of my relationship to speed and contact with the ground. Any intermediaries such as vehicles, skates, boards, wheels etc are strictly ruled out. Except with winter sports :biggrin:

Basically I was in a really crap job during my gap year and some friends who own a holiday resort in Mont Genevre wanted an extra person to help out during the ski season. I figured working for them would be a hell of alot nicer irrespective of whether I skiid or not.
I also found that seeing as I had two months, with my ski pass paid for me and my gear lent to me, there wasn't any pressure on me to try to learn and get anywhere in the space of a few days. If I was going with a group of people that really would have put me off of enjoying it. Instead I had weeks to take things at my speed and do as much as I felt like. The result was that I was skiing blacks by the time I left, and I loved it :biggrin:

Catsmeat

...at least with a bike you can throw yourself off.

To be honest, it was being thrown off of my bike down a rocky descent which put me off doing it again :dry:

Skiing is far, far, far, far less painful. The worst I've had is the wind knocked out of me. Think of it this way; if you go out of control when skiing, just sit/fall down. Its only snow. Sometimes its ice, but even then its better than hurtling onwards out of control and gathering momentum, and with skiing you're usually covered in so much winter gear that you're nice and shock absorbent :yep:

Reply 2493

mwiko

Craghyrax

I was rowing in a Pretoria gym this evening, and after I finished, the guy next to me asked me who I rowed for. Turned out he rows for University of Pretoria boat club and said he'd never seen anybody row that hard and that consistently for such a long time :biggrin:

So does that mean we'll be seeing you sporting peterhouse lycra on the river sometime soon? :wink:

I may have just added someone else's college child on facebook. I don't really know what you do in that situation. Anyway, must try to remember the 90s so I can up with a bop costume..

Reply 2494

Tom

You're not strapped to them; they have quick-release bindings which are set pretty loose for beginners, so the skis snap off and can go flying away on their own when you crash.

And yeah, snow is soft. Unless you go out in the early morning and it's icy.....I faceplanted into an ice ridge hard enough to smash my sunglasses and give myself a minor nosebleed (plus lost some skin off my nose too) on my secod ski-ing trip.

Snowboards are much more painful to crash with.