Everything that definitely happened during your reading week at UoB

Being at uni for seven weeks non-stop is incredible – surrounded by your friends at all times, balancing going out with house meals. After a while though, the stress of the second-year full-on workload hits you like a tonne of bricks and you know it is time to pack your Sports Direct kit bag and head for Temple Meads. This is everything I realised when I went home for reading week.

1. It is not normal for your house to dip into sub-0 temperatures at night

Going to bed NOT wearing three pairs of socks is a luxury I’ve become accustomed to.

2. You realise that nothing beats a home cooked meal

Probably because the ingredients didn’t come from the reduced section in Sainsbury’s.

3. The same goes for a decent shower

Sometimes the pathetic dribble of the upstairs cupboard shower just doesn’t cut it .

4. You realise that the general dirtiness that you have learned to accept and live with is not okay

What I wouldn’t do for a clean stove top…

5. Going to a gym where you’re not at risk of bumping into half your year from halls while you are red and sweaty is incredibly liberating

As good as the new uni gym set up is (specifically the tactical placement of the running machines), it’s just asking for embarrassment.

6. Humans don’t deserve dogs

Name a better feeling than being reunited with your pets after seven weeks apart, I dare you.

7. There is a certain freedom in running the dishwasher without the fear of being yelled at for driving up the water bill

You shout at me now, but wait till I exact revenge by calling you out for spending an hour in the bath everyday.

8. You begin to realise that living without housemates is like losing a limb

Despite complaining endlessly about them, you miss them as soon as they are gone. As great as your mum is, she is not going to eat an entire brownie mix with you and watch a Bake-Off marathon.

9. By mid-week you’re desperate to get back to Bristol

There is only so many nice meals and long showers you can have before the distant call of the Brass Pig begins to beckon you back.

10. You do absolutely no reading whatsoever

It was a nice thought .