Pre-Christmas findings

I like Christmas, it is time off school and everyone is very happy, this obviously being a good thing. Has not stopped me finding little niggles and annoyances in it all though. I'm not going to rant about the commercialisation of Christmas, my hatred for the use of "Xmas", the horrible bright lights and tacky decorations or having to kiss so many old people I am apparently related to. I could do this but there is not enough space, even online and I wouldn't want to bore you too much.

What really irritates me is the food. People drastically change their eating habits just because it is what one does. Michael McIntyre did a stand up on this very topic and rather annoyingly took a lot of my ideas and made it about ten times funnier, probably due to his camp actions and variety of hilarious voices. As a talentless person I have to write mine down, removing the funny voices and actions, you can add them in yourself if you like. He mentioned how turkey is a less good chicken, sprouts are fat grenades, bread sauce is just ridiculous and how it must all go in a sandwich an hour or so after the main meals.

My focus will be cranberries. Apparently good for the metabolism, cranberry juice is popular amongst dieting women but apart from this, cranberries are not eaten again throughout the entire year, except at Christmas. A lot of the places I like to buy lunch have introduced special edition Christmas sandwiches to take advantage of the change in food preference between mid-November to early-January. These include Turkey and stuffing, chicken and stuffing, bacon and stuffing, brie and cranberry sauce and many more. As a hater of sweet main courses, sandwiches and such I immediately steered clear of the brie and cranberry sauce. Thinking the others would be safe I aimed for chicken and stuffing (I love stuffing, it doesn't get nearly enough credit or air time as it deserves) only to find the bastards had smothered it in cranberry sauce and only written it in the tiny box at the bottom. Thoroughly disappointed I checked the turkey and stuffing, oh cranberries, bacon and stuffing - yeah, cranberries again. Sulkily I decided to go for an all year round sandwich - chicken and bacon, a good, standard meaty sandwich. I picked it up, almost allowing myself a smile, before discovering that they had decided to give it a Christmassy twist and add an extra ingredient. FUCKING CRANBERRIES! Come on Greggs, I can't eat a sausage roll every day, I have my heart to think of.

Being always up to date with the latest fads and excitements I this week signed up to eBay, it is so much fun! The tension, the thrill of competition and the joy of victory (I am aware I sound like a Sontaron but bear with me). What is less fun is the agonising wait in the last minute, desperately hoping the item in question will be yours, thanks to some bloke up north who got too fat for his clothes, a desperate student in need of some cash or a housewife who has cleared the attic. Ebay is in fact the reason I am writing this blog post, I am preparing to snipe on an absolute bargain, it is nerve-racking stuff. I had my first positive feedback the other day, it was beautiful, I was so happy: "Thank you for an easy, pleasant transaction. Excellent buyer. A++++++" What a lovely man!

Have a great, eBay-filled, cranberryless Christmas readers.

The Raise in Tuition Fees - Why everyone should shut the hell up and get on with life

As you are probably aware tuition fees were raised to a minimum of £3000pa with a £9000pa cap. This has obviously caused a lot of controversy, rioting, complaining and abuse of the Tory/Lib Dem government by ignorant, narrow minded people. I'll accept that I am not in a fantastic position to judge because I will not be affected by the rise and neither will anyone already at university or applying for 2011 entry. You could say I have dodged a bullet, but you would be wrong, I have merely dodged a paintball for whilst the increase in fees is going to hurt, it is not the end of the world.

Student loans are a glorious invention, they accumulate virtually no interest, you are not required to pay them back until you earn more than £21000pa, the debt is wiped if you do not earn more than £21000pa for 30 years or live abroad for 30 years. If you are from a poor family then there is no interest on them whatsoever.

This rise is annoying and everyone who will be applying for 2012 entry or later has the right to be annoyed but this was inevitable and the Con/Lib coalition is being used as a scapegoat. Universities do not have enough money and without the increase in fees England will not be able to maintain its status as one of the world's leading providers of further education. The Russell Group (the top universities in the UK) have praised this increase and said it is absolutely necessary and fair. Some say this isolates students from poorer families but it really doesn't, government subsidies, lower loan repayments and cheaper living costs compensate for the expense. The alternative of course is to cut the number of courses or the number of places available on courses. The former may prevent people from being able to study an obscure course they need for a specific occupation, limiting the number of people in a particular profession. The latter will mean only the top students in the country can go to university, isolating those in the middle ground.

Those who are specifically blaming the Tories or Lib Dems need to open their eyes and join the real world, the EXACT same thing would have happened under Labour and the Lib Dems' promise not to raise fees and even to abolish them was a naive policy that would have bankrupted the country and had a secondary function of getting them plenty of votes.

As a student who wishes to pursue a career in science it is absolutely necessary for me to go to university and get a science degree but this is not the case for everyone. People incorrectly view university as a necessity, you could not be further from the truth, the majority of professions do not require a degree, you can go straight into office or retail work, become an apprentice for a builder/electrician/plumber etc (plumbers earn stupidly high wages), start a business or work for almost any company in the world. These fees will only deter the people who want to go to university solely for the social side of things and frankly, they shouldn't be going anyway, it is a place of learning with socialising on the side, don't drag people down because you don't care about studies, university is not just an expensive 3-year piss up.

Finally, the majority of people enjoy 14 years of virtually free education, is 3 years paid education really that bad?

Keep Calm and Carry On.

(n.b. pa = per annum)