As I write this, the first Academic Week in UU draws to a close (thankfully it finished for me yesterday!) and some 20000 students spread across the 4 campuses of the University of Ulster return to their studies, it is a relief to be back, even though as every day passes we get ever closer to coursework deadlines and examinations.
Well it’s been quite a while since I last did a blog on here!
A few things have happened since then, most notably that the summer holidays are nearly 2 months old (well for me, at least!) and there’s 69 days left until the start of Semester I of Year 2 – can you tell that I’ve been counting the days?!
I haven’t been very active on HF or VHF of late, I don’t know why though as I have been known to say “I’m bored” a tad too often. I finally got HRD installed onto the laptop and it makes a pleasant change from one of the very early v3.4 builds I used until fairly recently on a desktop and got a USB to dual RS232 9 pin serial converter so I can plug in the ZLP interface and have CAT control for the FT-857 on the go at the same time 
I’ve also been footering with MS Train Simulator with the Irish Enterprise Route pack and designing a very simplistic NI route, in no way related to the MakingTracks Irish Enterprise Belfast-Dublin route, for my own amusement, the only difficulty is trying to lay the track graphically as close to the actual coordinates of the Larne, Londonderry/Derry, Bangor, Knockmore-Antrim, and Newry lines.
And in future I must remember to update here and my YouTube vLogs more often as I have yet to publish my 2nd vLog after publishing the first in January past, whoops!
Well, I’m now into the 2nd teaching week of the Autumn Semester and thankfully so far there have been no major problems – all the rooms have been sussed out and have already got coursework to do 
The joys of the student life…………. So far, everyone seems nice, students and lecturers alike, some more so than others.
At leas there’s only 10 full weeks left of Semester 
Guess who’s now a fully registered University student at the University of Ulster?!
That’s right – after 14 years of a combination of Primary and Grammar School I’ve now progressed up the ladder to Full Time Third Level Studies following a programme which, at the end of, I will hopefully be a ‘Bachelor of Arts of the University of Ulster with Honours in French and Spanish. Registration was on Monday 15 September 2008 at the Coleraine Campus and it was more a case of musical chairs (without the music!) as each student had to enrol for modules, have the form signed off, pay for tuition fees, send the form to the Registry Office and collect their ID/Library Card (which this year wasn’t a pathetic piece of laminated paper!)
That done, there was an Induction for all YrI students in the Faculty of Arts, today – 16 September 2008 – whereby services of the University were outlined, tours of the campus and its facilites shown and queries raised. In the afternoon each had an interview with their Advisor of Studies. Al lthat remained to be done after that, for some, was to go back home and get pi*sed! Naturally I wouldn’t do something like that…or would I? 