Ralph West Hall of Residence to be Redeveloped

I read with sadness that Ralph West Hall of Residence was to be redeveloped. How it happened (that I read about it) was through a sudden wave of nostalgia that got me Googling Ralph West Hall. This article came up. In any case, I thought I'd write a short bit about Ralph West Hall.

Ralph West Hall (or RWH) was my first place of residence when I arrived in London back in 1995 as a foundation student at the Chelsea College of Art & Design.

The decor was not fancy, and the rooms were certainly small, but adequete. The food was nothing to write home about, being pretty lame in fact, but hey, it was food that was still edible. Who can forget the Sundays where no food was served and we all had to troop over to the local grocers to buy food, in an attempt to cook. That was until someone had the bright idea of bringing over a rice cooker after the Christmas holidays, allowing us to heat up some food at least, besides cooking rice.

Oh, what about the only phone we had on every floor, and sometimes Christine would be on it for hours! We all got along, we made do, we made concessions for each other's eccentricities. Sometimes we had arguments, but we very quickly made up and forgot what we were fighting about. Never did we take things personal, because we all knew, we needed to get along. It was, afterall, a long year ahead for all of us and many of us will still see each other in our new BA programs.

I have made friends there that I still keep in touch with these years. Friends like Glen, Beth, Soko and Claire (my Northern Irish neighbour who walked to school with me some days). Some friends I fondly remember were Ali(stair), Philly(Phillipa), Laura, Christine, Sinead and Jung Ah. I wonder how they are now.

I remember summer particularly well for we would all troop down to Battersea Park to get abit of sun.

I certainly enjoyed my walks to college, across Battersea Bridge, through World's End that lead to Chelsea's foundation program campus.

Who can forget Fungus Mungus, the bar that served excellent mushrooms and reasonably priced beer.

And the absolutely stunning view of the setting sun in winter, with Mother Nature's multi-coloured skies providing a beautiful backdrop to the silhouettes of buildings and riverboat houses that peppered the Thames.

Or the fact that we used to pull out the light bulb covers that adorn Albert Bridge. :-P

Well, those were fun days indeed.

For posterity sake, I found a picture of Ralph West Hall, which showed the room where I used to stay for a whole academic year.

It's Been Awhile, Hasn't It?

It's been awhile since I blogged, reason being I have been tied up with several things, one of which is a job I took on in July.

I have since tendered my resignation as I felt I did not fit in to the company culture but I will not dwell on it. Suffice to say, it was for the best that I did something else altogether.

In any case, I am embarking on a new journey, with support from Sweetie I might add. It's a wonderful feeling, having someone give their support to you, even though the future is but a blur. It spurs you to keep trying and to remember that no matter how hard, all we need to do is hang on and never give up.

Obviously, hanging on blindly to a cause is not exactly a healthy thing but if one can evaluate the cause, take calculated risks and then go in with eyes wide open, learning and adjusting along the way, one can probably do great things.

I am all geared up for the long and hard road ahead, let's see how this all pans out.

This post is pretty much a warm up, I might add, as I have not been writing for quite awhile. Not for leisure anyway.