Graduation Time! :D

At last the final day came, time for graduation with a Masters degree in Multimedia & Internet Computing :) Getting to Loughborough was somewhat of a hassle but in the end we made it. My parents came with me to celebrate this event and I was staying at my Maltese friend Dawn. During the 4 days I spent in Lufbra I met some of my friends who are still there, and also Chrissi who was visiting :) Graduation day itself was nice with a ceremony in English style and then a lunch together with my parents. I also bought a new laptop while in Lufbra which I am very happy with. When I had left Lufbra in September I had left some things at my friend George and so this time I took most of the stuff that I had left there.

So well, that's it, the gran finale of a great year at this special University and town of Loughborough. I would recommend this place to anyone who wants to have a great time and learn something new at the same time. Thanks to everyone who has helped in making my time in Loughborough a great success, my parents without whom I could not have been there in the first place, and also all my friends with whom I partied and studied all year long! :D

This brings my blog to a close, time for my life's journey to continue with more new expereiences! :)














Me with my friend Anoud













With my mum














With my dad

Leaving Lufbra, Results

Im back again after a server mishap which saw me losing all images on this blog. I am now back in Malta and I must thank my Maltese friend George who helped me alot in packing my things and moving out of my flat at Iffley. I left alot of things with him and I will collect them when I return to Lufbra for my graduation.

Finally the results are out and luckily I have obtained a distinction in my degree :D This is the highest possible grade and I am really happy as I have worked very hard in Summer in order to get good grades in my project. Thank you to all the people who have supported me and helped me in my studies during the year, this result would not have been possible without you.

I will now be returning to Lufbra on the 15th for the graduation ceremony which will be held on Monday 17th December. I will be staying for a couple of days at Dawn's house and then I will return to Malta before leaving again to go and meet the rest of my friends in Berlin for New Year's Day celebrations :D

More graduation updates to follow! :D

A word about English style business

Today's event sums up my bad feelings about many businesses in the UK, who show no regard or respect to their customers. Unfortunately my stay here in UK has been tainted by many occasions in which I encountered an unfriendly or purely stupid attitude by some English businesses. As I said before, the main focus here seems to be MONEY, MONEY, MONEY and nothing else.

Anyway coming back to what happenned today, I was sent a text message by Wild nightclub, a popular venue here in Loughborough, saying that tonight there was going to be a party with an open bar (providing you pay a 10 pound entrance fee). This seemed to be a reasonable price and I was very enthusiastic about going tonight. The website was also advertising this event and I was encouraging all my friends to come too. However a few hours before the event the management of Wild decided to put in a small piece of text at the bottom of their website saying that the offer was no longer valid. I couldn't believe it as it is so not ethical to do that and moreover I was somewhat expecting something like that would happen as it seems they are always trying to find a way to take advantage of you over here.

I shaved my hair

ok, i just got fed up with my hairstyle and decided to go for the shaved look, so here are the results ;)

Stuff I learnt during the year

Now that my experience in the UK is almost over I would like to share with you some things I learnt during the year...

When you have a strong impulse to buy or do something, wait a few days and revisit the thought, it may not seem such a great idea then and will save you some money spent on not so useful things.

Many English companies have rubbish customer interaction. They do this on a very superficial level and are motivated by commercial aspects more than anything else.

This country is riddled by too stringent security regulations and standards which border on the absurd at times (like not being allowed to take a camera with me to a football match).

The weather in UK is absolutely terrible, but when there is a nice day then it is really great as it doesn't get too hot.

Worrying = wasting precious time that could be used to achieve more of your goals.

Having a PHD does NOT mean you are fit for teaching, it takes much more than intelligence to be able to communicate your ideas and passion for the subject to a group of people.

University life in the UK is ABSOLUTELY AWSOME.

'Nasty' is the best drink in the world (after water) :)

Cycling in the UK is very enjoyable, it is a crime to use a car for short errands rather than get some exercise and fresh air by using your bike.

Partying in the UK is usually only till 2/3 AM.

The sun comes down later in the UK than in Malta. Well now that I think of it I have to rephrase as actually there is no sun, so let's say that nightfall is later here than in Malta, which I guess is nice.

Travelling from the UK is cheap, which is absolutely necessary since most people here love to flee to better climates as soon as they get the smallest chance to do that.

I love shopping at English supermarkets :) I love the way everything is organised, the way nutritional values are clearly marked on each product and the fact that most products also include sample recipes on the packaging.

The UK's national dish is Fish and Chips, yet they have not yet mastered the correct way to make chips. Stick to Mediterranean food!

Clanking barbells at the gym is NOT cool. I have to resist the urge to throw a 10Kg weight at the cool guy trying to impress by turning the gym into a noisier place than a building site.

Loughborough students' union RULES! Hey Ewe is the best party on earth :)

probably to be continued....

Trip to the French Riviera

So, to break up the monotony of this fake English summer, I had decided to travel with my family and a tour from Malta to the Southern part of France, visiting places such as Monaco, St Tropez, Cannes and being based in Nice. This week was really nice and relaxed and it was good to see my family again and also to talk with other Maltese people. I also made a few friends during the trip and also took many nice photos with my new camera lens. All in all it was a much needed break for me and I came back with more motivation for my project. Unfortunately when I arrived back in Loughborough the weather was very gloomy and to top it all I had alot of maintenance problems in my flat. In fact I had to throw away all the food in my fridge as it had not been working during the week I was away and everything inside it had gone bad. This was a very unpleasant thing and did nothing to lift my spirits. Anyway everything got sorted in the end and now I am back to my usual routine of working on my project and doing sports every day, which ain't that bad. However I am really counting the days to return to Malta as this weather has really got on my nerves now and Loughborough is quite an empty place during the summer so it doesn't help at all. Now I'm off to watch an important football match, the Italian Super Cup between Inter and Roma, forza INTER! :D

UPDATE: Eventually Roma beat Inter in an entertaining match decided by a penalty after Burdisso fouled Totti. Well done to Roma who played a great game, Inter seem to need some more training to reach a good physical condition, let's hope they will work hard this week and we will start the league campaign next Sunday with a resounding win...


This is me keeping fit by doing some pushups in the main piazza at Monte Carlo hehe

Ruth's visit and the fake UK summer

Hi there it's time to report about what it's like to be spending summer here in loughborough hehe. Well first of all I have to say that it is a really fake summer as we only see the sun occasionally and its still quite cold (wearing jackets is still common practice). Mostly its grey skies and rain and I really pity people who have to spend all their lives living in this kind of weather, I know I couldn't do it.

Apart from the gloomy weather I'm still enjoying myself, mostly by doing alot of sports and keeping to my gym plan. I also met a couple of new people during these activities and we have quite a good group of friends now. Also this month Ruth came to visit me which was great although the weather and exorbitant train tickets didn't permit us to travel alot. We did manage to spend two days in london however which was cool. Another nice place we visited was Beacon hill which is a park close to loughborough. Of course we also managed to fit in a great party for Raina's birthday, which was the kind of party that reminds me of the good old times (a few months ago). Anyway here are some photos too as usual :)