I was looking at my original blog on this topic and could see that whilst I started by writing a little about being a student, I didn't go into much detail and swiftly became side-tracked. I'll try and put down more memories.
As I wrote then, the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now 'the South Bank university') was situated next to the Elephant and Castle underground station. The institution had come about due to the amalgamation of what was the Borough Street Polytechnic, a nursing school and possibly one or two other institutions. As a result, the university was spread over several buildings, some old and some new. Almost all of my academic hours were in new buildings, but every now and then there would be something that took place in an older and much less ordered building, making it very difficult to find the appropriate room.
A full day would be as follows: first class at 9:30 am, probably until 11:30 am, with a tea break led by the lecturer in the middle. We would descend to the referectory that was on the second floor for this. There would be another class from 11:30 am until 12:30 pm, whereupon we had an hour for lunch. Classes would then recommence at 13:30 pm until 16:30 pm, with again afternoon tea at about 3 pm. There were half days on Wednesdays, when the afternoons were intended for sports (I played hockey maybe once at the beginning of the first term, but no more; they used to show films in one of the university buildings at this time and I saw a few). I doubt that this happened in the first year, but in later years, we had gaps in this schedule, and my fellow students would do their utmost at the beginning of each term to fill each day as much as possible - in order to have a day without classes. Laboratory classes would have been a double class, if not a treble. In the first year, these would have been in all four of our main topics: microbiology, analytical chemistry, biochemistry and food manufacturing (a memory of trying to make jam suddenly popped into my mind); in later years we definitely had lab classes in microbiology and analytical chemistry but I don't recall any others.
I seem to recall that there were 12 students in the class the first year. After the examinations at the end of the first year, there were only 7 of us left (and I barely scraped in), but we were joined by a girl student who had to repeat her second year. This was handy for laboratory classes as we had to be in pairs; she was my partner for microbiology labs in the first term of our second year, but later on we had different partners. Working with her brought me into closer contact that I had been with any other student so far. Once she asked me why I was almost always making cynical remarks and I probably said that this was what I was used to; this was a facet of the difference between me and the others. For my final year, my partner was Asian - it never occurred to me to ask where he was from.
From the start, I was an odd character, primarily because of my gap year between school and university. Most of the others had come straight to school, but one African gentleman told me once that he had a wife and child, so he would have been a few years older than us. Also, the entire movement aspect was completely foreign to them. Being completely non-politically correct, socially the class was split into British and non-British factions; although theoretically I belonged to the British faction, I had more allegiance to the non-British side. Of course, I was Jewish and interested in completely different things than my class mates. I don't recall talking about music; I imagine that the topic did crop up but again, I probably had completely different tastes to the others.
Only very rarely did I eat lunch at the refectory; one could have a proper cooked meal there and it probably cost proportionately. The first day, someone said "let's go the [student] union for lunch" and that's where I ate most of my lunches with my classmates. There was a bar (this is what attracted some if not all of the British faction - they enjoy their drink) and they used to serve steak and kidney pies or chicken and mushroom pies, with chips, at a very cheap price. Looking at this now, there were too many carbohydrates; we should have been aware of this as fledgling Food Scientists. The alcohol drunk (not by me) only added to this.
At first, I used to order half a pint of cider to go with my pie; I don't recall whether I enjoyed this or did it for appearance's sake, but it wasn't to last. At the first lunch in the spring term of 1975, I had a sip of cider - and immediately slid under the table in great pain. This was the last alcoholic drink that I had for about 40 years (I tried drinking champagne at my daughter's wedding and found it a painful experience). There was a all-London students' newspaper that I had been reading that had a columnist who visited different university bars and wrote about them. One time he wrote that the real test of a bar was its non-alcoholic beverages; I latched onto this and started drinking lemonade and blackcurrant juice. I would vary this with Roses' Lime Juice and lemonade, when there was no blackcurrant juice.
At the end of the winter term 1974, there was a long drinking session; technically this was a Christmas party but as it had no beginning and no end, I'll call it a session. I had barely set foot in the union when someone asked what I was drinking; I asked for vodka and pineapple. I had two more vodkas and pineapple although I don't recall paying for any of them. Towards the end, I started feeling unwell so I made my farewells and walked to the underground station and from there, I got home. The first thing that I did was throw up a little in the downstairs toilet of our communal house; I wasn't exactly drunk - I certainly didn't exhibit the lack of behavioural inhibition or a problem with walking - but the alcohol definitely had an effect on my stomach. No more.
This teetotalism was another factor in my being considered 'weird' or at least 'different'; after all, every Briton enjoys his beer and football. Not me.
I tried to be as conscientious as possible as regarding 'homework' - mainly writing up lab reports or writing essays. To be honest, I don't remember doing much of this in my first year, but in later years, I definitely worked. Often I would have nothing to do on a Saturday evening (what sacrilege!) so I would use this dead time for studying and writing. I didn't go the university library very much in the first year as I found it a very sterile place and couldn't work there. I did spend more time there in my final year when I was working on my dissertation and research project, but that's only because I had to look for literature. None of the ease of today's students where 99.9% of all the required literature is online, if one knows how to look for it.
Although this isn't concerned with the first year, I'll throw it in. While I was working at Schweppe's (second year), one of my fellow chemists suggested that I join the Royal Institute of Chemistry (or whatever it's called) as a student member. This wouldn't cost much but would give me both a monthly (?) journal as well as access to their library. I have a memory of leaving the university and driving north a mile or so to this library near the Thames in order to search for an obscure paper about xylitol that my university library didn't have. I thought/hoped that this would give me extra Brownie points ... but it didn't.
It wasn't until I returned to the university in April 1976 after six months of work at Schweppe's that I began to feel more connected to my studies. As a lecturer in biochemistry said to me at the time, that's what happens after the first industry placement: the students become much more involved in their work and studies. At the end of that second year (this would have been in February/March 1977), for the first time I got involved in what I call 'the exam lottery' - trying to figure out what questions our examiners are going to ask and so prepare accordingly. This made me feel much more confident - and fortunately, most of our guesses were correct.
I wrote in the original blog entry that I felt that I was in a triangle with each point trying to attract my attention and that I gave the most attention to the point that wasn't the most important (the youth movement). Of course, by March 1977 I had no girlfriend and wasn't involved in a day-to-day basis with the youth movement so I could devote a great deal of time and attention to my studies. This marked the end of what might be called my lost academic years.
One further memory from this time period that has nothing to do with my studies: in 1975/6 (and possibly longer) I had become the representative of Habonim to the British Board of Deputies, 'the voice of the UK Jewish community'. Although I probably never opened my mouth there, I and my colleagues probably felt that it was important to be seen at this body. On the fourth of July 1976, we heard the welcome news that the Entebbe operation had been a complete success (bar the death of the rescuing force's commander). That was a moment to be savoured.
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | Apres le feu | Fire | |
| 135 | Bacon numbers | Programming, Randy Newman, Prolog, Corinne Bailey Rae | |
| 136 | Bacon numbers (2) | Programming | |
| 873 | Peppermint tea | Health, David Lodge | |
| 958 | Vinyl log 28 - 04 July | Vinyl log, Peter Hammill |
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