Mum drew my attention to this when I talked to her on the phone earlier:
‘One Day in History‘ is a one off opportunity for you to join in a mass blog for the national record. We want as many people as possible to record a ‘blog’ diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life.
So I’ve written and submitted an account of my day today, which is as follows:
I woke up later than planned, at 8:30 instead of 7:30, because I’d left my mobile phone, whose alarm I use to wake me up each morning, in the pocket of my coat which I’d left hung up in the hallway downstairs. I try and spend some time each morning with God by reading the Bible, praying and perhaps singing some songs, but because I was running late only said a few quick prayers.
From ten until twelve I had a Chinese class. I’m studying English Literature and History at Cardiff University. In this my third and final year, I’m focusing on Chinese history, “Nationalism and Socialism in the Chinese Revolution, 1921-49”, and took the option of doing “Chinese for Historians” as a quarter of my year’s work. It’s really interesting to learn such a different language from such a different culture, and China seems to be steaming ahead in the world and it’s probably a good language to learn for the future. We’re learning from the classes taught by Professor Greg Benton and a book and tape set that he uses for the course called “Colloquial Chinese”.
I popped home after that to try and have a quick “power nap” because I went to bed late last night, I was watching the BBC sci-fi television series “Doctor Who” being filmed at the National Museum and Gallery just down the road from where I live, and was then discussing what I saw on the Internet. I didn’t actually sleep, though, but it helped refresh me a little.
I then went to the Anglican Chaplaincy, where Lorraine Cavanagh, the chaplain, does a £1 lunch every Tuesday – good food, and good company. There were rolls and sliced meat and pizza and fruit and apple sauce. Around a dozen people were there, a mixture of international students, mature students and ordinary undergraduates.
In the afternoon I was working on designing a poster to publicise an upcoming meeting of the Christian Union student society on “The Meaning of Life”! I did so on my laptop using open source software, which is ideal for me as a student because it’s free and does all that I want that expensive commercial packages like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office do.
I had another hour of Chinese at 5pm, and then came home for dinner, which my housemate Tom cooked – sweet and sour chicken, which was very nice. I share a house near the Students’ Union with Tom, Ian, Steve and Ben, and we each take a turn at cooking and divide the cost between us.
In the evening, I went to the Taf, the Students’ Union bar, for a “Gair Rhydd” social. Most of the editors and sub-editors were there, and we had some drinks, while some people played table football and the electronic quiz machines and the like while chatting (or attempting to over the loud background music). I edit the Debate page of “Quench”, the magazine supplement to “Gair Rhydd”. My housemate Tom edits the “Cult Classics” page, and I know several of the other people from my course.
I’d found out from the university’s intranet notice-board that “Doctor Who” was filming across the road, and so went from the Taf to watch to see if there was anything worth reporting on in the student paper, and saw David Tennant, who plays the Doctor, arrive in a car. I couldn’t get in to see what was going on, though, and after chatting with the fan girls who were there for a glimpse of David Tennant, went back to the Taf briefly before heading home.
I then wrote this blog entry, having heard about “History Matters” from my Mum when I talked to her on the phone after dinner and found the website online!