The WiFi didn't put up much of a struggle today! Not bad! That being said, I am using it in the Peter Froggatt Centre, which is nice to me as far as WiFi is concerned. But it's a nightmare in the stairs and navigation department.

I may be wrong, but I'm positive I was supposed to have a Peer Mentoring session today at 12. I got in on time, but there was nobody in their office. Oh well.

The Peer Mentors are basically a group of eight third year English students who take groups of first years such as myself in confidential weekly sessions where we can talk about our concerns, chat in general and have a laugh. My only concern right now is one they can't really help me with; I still can't get any of the Philosophy files on Queen's Online ('Free Will and Determinism' included) and it's driving me crazy. I need to read as much of that book as I can by tomorrow and I just can't find it! Argh!

I have a Philosophy lecture coming up, so I'll try and catch the lecturer beforehand and explain what's going on. Then, if I still can't get hold of the book, I just hope my tutor will be kind to me in tutorial tomorrow when I explain that I couldn't get hold of a copy. As soon as I can get it, I'll read it - hell, I'll read it twice - but if I can't get it today then I'm stumped for reading it in time.

I did an interesting calculation while I was on the bus earlier. My travel costs are £44 a week, right? I figured out that fifteen week's travel (so one semester) would cost me £660. So if I put 15 weeks' travel on my smartcard at the very beginning of each semester, before I buy anything else, life will be much less stressful. Most of my financial stress comes from worrying how my spending is all going to work out - whether I'll be skint by the end of the semester or not, and whether I'll be able to attend those last few weeks as a result. So if I prioritise my spending and make sure my attendance is covered first, followed by books, life will be much easier.

That still doesn't solve the niggling social problem, though. The buses don't run that late, so nights out are out of the question. I'm still planning on branching out socially; perhaps my smart card works for trains as well? This calls for research.

I'm also considering entering a competition online at a website called inktears.com - it's a short story competition and the prize is £1000, which would be most useful. The deadline's November 30, which ties in rather nicely with the end of NaNoWriMo - I'll try and get a few things put together before then and we'll see how it goes. Winning would be awesome, though. One, because it'll show that my writing is worth something and two, because that £1000 would cover a semester's travel plus something nice for myself, like an SLR camera or a bass guitar. Or books for the semester. Imagine the possibilities! If I won that, I'd have most of my student finance for leisure stuff!

Right, I'm definitely doing the Inktears competition.