High-class living

I returned from Paris to the following note on my door: "Water will be shut off from 8am to 4pm on Friday 15 March". This meant myself along with 700 other people living in this complex were not going to be able to use our taps, take a shower, or even flush the toilet between those hours.

Somehow, we all survived the Nixon Court water-outage. Most people woke up around 7am to get all of their "water things" done. I tried that. My alarm went off; I went back to sleep. I didn't bother getting out of bed until around noon. Shortly afterwards, the fire alarm went off. I hadn't had my tea just yet, so I merely stood there in a drowsy stupor, wishing the noise would stop. By the time I went to grab my keys and coat, the alarm stopped, and I didn't have to have my breakfast on the curb whilst watching the building burn down.

Clearly, this thing happens quite often. The alarm went off again tonight. After a minute, I signed off all programs on my computer and looked out into the corridor to see what my flatmates were doing, which was the same thing. No one was really resolved on going downstairs until we had evidence of a fire, because the alarm goes off on such a regular basis. One flatmate was still in her bed, rather set on riding out the noise. Another was in the process of deciding if she wanted to order a pizza or not. But after at least 10 minutes, the ringing got to be too much, so we went downstairs. And just as we set foot outside the building, the alarm stopped. One day, there will actually be a fire and everyone in Nixon Court will still be sitting in their beds, plugging their ears.

Of course, this is nothing compared to the time a few weeks ago when the heating was out for over a day. It happened quite suddenly when I was showering: suddenly, there was no hot water. The day turned into a survival of the fittest, challenging all of us to see who could survive the cold the best. The girls in my flat took to the habit of wearing numerous layers of clothing. I attempted to fix the draft coming in my window by closing the curtains and throwing a blanket over them for insulation. Even when the heat finally came back, my room took a while to get to a decent temperature. But Ohio has clearly prepared me for all elements, thankfully.

Yet another Leicester Uni oddity has arisen. The university post office will mail items for you, but they do not have stamps. You have to go elsewhere to purchase stamps. If you have ever heard of any post office not having its own supply of stamps or packaging materials, please inform me to assure me that Leicester Uni isn't as terrible as I think it is. (Stationary post boxes on the sides of roads do not count.)

Discovery of the day: Morrisons (the supermarket I shop at) has Nature Valley granola bars. They have a rather odd selection of flavours, but the Oats 'n' Honey is here. Life is good.