Recently I found out that I have been given a fantastic opportunity to go to South Africa for about two weeks. I will be working with Alan as he is going across to do some talks in some of the primary schools. It should be very interesting. The best part though is that I finally get to see my country of birth, on an expenses paid trip! All I have to do is sort out meals etc whilst I'm there, and I'm rather looking forward to tucking into all my old favourites..

To say the least I am rather excited about the trip, even though it will still be winter there when we visit it'd probably still warmer than Scotland will be.

Oh, July, please hurry up!!

Currently I am on my way to London where I will I be stopping for a night with my grandparents in Woking before continuing my journey tomorrow to Wales where I will be staying with my great-aunt whom I have not seen in eight years.

The total journey time for the entire trip is about twelve hours, not including the waiting time or accounting for delays. As I am used to travelling it’s fine, but I have forgotten what it’s like travelling with children. Part of the purpose of stopping in Woking is dropping my youngest brother off with his father, which means that I have the joys of travelling eight hours with him. So far, he has gotten himself totally hyper and won’t stop talking; he got bored so tried to amuse himself by laughing and giggling (for no apparent reason!) for a good five minutes and decided he wanted to play a game of scrabble on my phone. What I have learned from this:
• My brother needs to learn what a library voice is and that just because you’re not in a library doesn’t mean
you can’t use that voice (yes, he did argue this point!)
• If you offer a nine-year half of your Lindt egg (just after he has eaten your extra one) he will still says yes.
Although to his credit he did hesitate and ask if I was sure on both occasions.
• Lastly, if I were to play Scrabble with him, there’s a chance I might loose!

Once we have completed this leg of the journey we will then catch tubes (underground trains) and (overground) trains to Woking station where Shaughn will have completed his journey until we return home, and I shall pause my travels for a night. I’m aware that passing through Kings Cross is going to be havoc, but thankfully, for all my complaints of Shaughn (my youngest brother), he is mature enough to stay by me and not get lost which makes things easier! Ah well, seeing my family in Wales will make all the travelling worth it in the end.

Earlier today my physical computing team (SleepyStudents) and I presented our final product- the ‘ShakaSnooze’. Basically it’s an alarm clock that has the basic alarm functionality but is more intuitive than the ordinary alarm clock. To activate the snooze, simply SHAKE the ShakaSnooze and it will analyse your shake and set the snooze. Once you are ready to wake up, press the emoticon button that best represents your mood (either happy, sad or angry). Once your ShakaSnooze has detected the emoticon button, it will tweet your mood and how many times you had the snooze pressed letting all those who need to know your mood and whether you’re running late or not.

This afternoon we opened our doors to the public and were able to show case our projects where we received some really positive comments about the ShakaSnooze.

Follow us on Twitter @SleepyStudents if you want to see some of the posts or click the link below if you want to see our advert….