YSA convention day 1 " Or how I got very, very lost"

Well I survived the convention, which actually if you think about it, is a pretty stupid thing to say because by writing this I'm proving that I have in fact survived because otherwise I would be writing this blog from beyond the grave, woooo!!!! ( just I incase you haven't realized I am still very knacked and might not make a awful lot of sense, as I do when I get tired. But I'm sure you've actually guessed that so I'm going to shut up now and get on with my point or points)

Well I left work at 3pm, and hit the M56 about 2 and a half hours later. Traffic on the M6 wasn't bad but then it wasn't good either. It was roughly what I expected for the bank holiday weekend. It was when I hit the M56 the trouble started. The directions said to exit at junction 3 and then take a road. So I was looking for a junction as in a junction with slips roads off the m road. Unfortunately it wasn't. It was in fact the stupidest junction I ever saw. The road spilt into two with junction 3 indicated off to the left, so I headed that way only to realize too late that the road I was suppose to take was the road off to the right. So I then had to try and find a place to turn round which I mentioned eventually but when I left the M56 I took the wrong turning got caught up in a residential estate, tried to make a turn to get back to the main road, and well I'm sure you can guess the rest. I eventually had to pull up and ask in a fast food restaurant for directions. So with my magical unintentional tour of the Manchester suburbs I added nearly a hour ( yes I got that lost!) to the journey time before I finally got to the campus.

Being wide awake and with it after three hours in the car by myself(not) I spent a good ten minutes wandering around the campus looking for the place to register before realizing that I had walking straight past it, twice! I went in and registered although I then found out I was going to have to get in the car again and drive round the campus to the car parks. I'm sure the poor women giving out the keys wondered what she had done, from the look on my face, as I really really didn't want to get back into the car. At this point I knew I really didn't smell good as I was still in my work clothes and it felt like I was going to have to scrap my clothes off they were that stuck to me! But as I had no choice back in the car I went. So I drove round to the new car park and decided just to take my bpack until I found my room and then I would come back fro my case. A good plan yes? Well until I found myself wandering the campus again and ended up where I started as I couldn't understand the map. The problem was the map only had the buildings marked we were using, none of the other buildings were marked so as you guessed it I ended up in a area of the campus totally unmarked on the map. I was lost again . (sorta running theme for the day) However in my defense I hadn't had anything for lunch as I tried the fish and chips in the staff canteen but I couldn't eat it as they really can't fry the fish right. It literally it like eating a bit of fish wrapped in a pancake, so I think my sugar levels might have been a bit low and that was what was sending me a bit doolally.

However help was at hand because with his impeccable sense of timing MT appeared and he knew exactly where the hall I was staying in was. And even better it was a ensuite room so I had my own shower and everything! Although I did notice that was a warning about keeping the door closed and not spraying deodorant as it might sent the smoke alarm off. Just like Edge hill. One of these days someone will event a fire alarm for students rooms which will only be set off by fires and nothing else! However after a shower and some spray I felt a lot more human ( don't know about looking more human though) and decided to go for a explore.

I met up with MT and his brother in the main building, where pizza was arriving on a regular basis, so unsurprising as soon as we found one I devoured it pretty quick. The only slight problem was in my rush to find food I breezed past Sw and SW ( I've really, really got to start thinking of code names for people). Lots and lots of people were arriving by this point, it did make me realize pretty quick that I really don't know anyone outside of Leicester stake so I did start to feel a little overawed by it all. There was lots of talking people catching up with each other. RN came across to say high although she got distracted and managed to say hello to everyone except me, which was little annoying but hey ho. There was lots of dancing upstairs and then this was followed by the opening ceremony. This was marred by a large group of YSA at the back of the hall which seemed to have a genetic inability to SHUT UP. ( as you may guess this was problem which kept occurring all weekend). but it was still good. I signed up for all the classes and decided to go to bed early as I was still not totally with it. Which was then I discovered a big problem that I kept gaining and loosing the signal on my mobile randomly which would prove to be a massive problem all weekend. But c'est la vie.