Fudge Donuts

Fudge donuts in Fisher and Donaldson sell at 93p at moment.  Question: why not just sell them for 99p?  I'm quite sure that the majority of people that are willing to pay 93p will also pay 99p, in fact I'm also certain that no-one will stop purchasing them at this price, i.e the demand for the donuts is perfectly price inelastic between the values of 93p and 99p.  Apparently they sell between 250-300 of these in St Andrews alone each day, every day of the week.  Going with the midpoint of 275, that is 1,650 donuts a week.  Assuming a 6p price rise would increase their turnover by £100 a week or £5,200 a year which is fairly respectable.  My only theory for the obscure price they charge for them is that allows room for future gradual price rises.  As soon as the price rises above £1 then immediately people will stop buying them (hassle etc) so the priority of the management is to keep the price below £1.  As p>£1 then the demand because price elastic again.  By pricing them at 93p, there can still be 7 x 1p price rises as and when costs rise, i.e probably quite soon due to the high level on inflation.  Rising the price to £1 might be a good idea today but when the cost of ingredients rises and they are forced to rise the price £1.02 then that decision seems futile in the long run.  Not sure if this is a plausible theory or not, but just something that got my head thinking a bit yesterday on the way to my class (after I bought one).

Won the £5 rebuy last night at poker society for £200 which was good.  I remember in first year cashing in two events close to each other and buying my first iPod as a treat - one of the first video iPods.  I'm not going to buy anything with these winnings, probably just a Starbucks on the way back from class today.  I can't really remember any big hands, just won a few races with AK and 1010.  One suck out, 8 handed, everyone limped and shoved from the BB with 88 for about 7BBs.  A guy who ALWAYS limp calls with monsters clearly calls with AA.  5 on flop, nice.  I got my due karma about three hands later when my AA gets beaten by JJ which left with me like 2BBs. Somehow I luckboxed up to a decent stack with some Ax shoves and things.  Headsup was against a pretty drunk guy and was able to steal his blinds fairly easily.  

Just about to have some breakfast, shower and head to class.  We have a big Tesco order with all the party stuff coming later and have to get that ready.  Economics is really tough but am working through some tutorial questions tonight with a friend which should help hopefully.  I will try and write later.

Local Businesses

I have always been a fan and a strong supporter of local businesses be it greengrocers, butchers or post offices.  Whether it is the current economic climate or a sign of the times in terms of consumer trends, but I have noticed this year a large number of St Andrews businesses closing down.  Tomorrow the only butchers shop in town closes along with the photographers.  Prior to these closures there have been three more this academic year - a small spice shop on South Street, the amusement arcade and a woollen shop on Crails Lane.  It is a shame to see these places go as in a small town like St Andrews places such as these add to the "small town feeling".  I'm not sure of the exact circumstances regarding the closure of the butchers (probably the dominance of the ever growing Tesco) but Ian Joy photographers have cited the "current economic climate" as the reason for their closure after 62 years of operation in St As.  Running a small little shop has appealed to me for a while now but one definitely gets the feeling that with a) the internet b) consumer laziness c) global recession sigh, it is an extremely difficult task and in order to be successful you need something very special!

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday and I tried to enjoy myself.  After waking early and going to my 10 o'clock econometrics lecture I went to the pier on a birthday walk to get some sea air (slightly hungover after Wednesday but nowhere near as badly as the majority) and took a few nice photos that I've posted.  Then had a birthday trip to the post office to despatch a load of parcels followed by a takeaway Pizza Express and some birthday cake.  Had hockey in the evening (happy birthday was sung; embarassing) and a takeaway curry for dinner.  Unfortunately because of Wednesday's nights shenanigans, nobody really wanted to socialise in the evening so went for one drink (lager shandy) with some friends and an early bed.  My birthdays in St Andrews have been quite mixed - 1st year was on a Sunday so played some golf on the Balgove and had a Sunday roast in the evening, 2nd year I had an exam the day after and went for a dinner at the West Port, 3rd year (21st) went to the Old Course for dinner and some cocktails and this year not a lot!  Birthdays are generally a bit of an anticlimax - although for the first time in many years I am having a birthday party of sorts next Wednesday with a Mexican theme which should be amusing.

Term is in full swing now with many events taking place and flyposting present outside the library for various themed parties/balls and other such things.  The time is flying by with hockey dominating most of my time - if someone was to ask me whether I was making the most of my final year, the answer would have to be no simply because all I've done is play hockey which is rather tedious.  My econometrics lecturer happens to be a keen table tennis player and after a chat with him today I think we may have a game sometime which could be quite good fun.  Unfortunately econometrics isn't giving me much of a headache at the moment.  On the other hand, Economic Analysis has given me a massive headache - I sat down today and looked at our tutorial for next week for a good 2 hours and even with notes and textbook couldn't answer a question.  So with no hockey on Sunday it is going to be a case of trying to make some sense of the questions.  With a class mean last year of 12.9/20 it definitely isn't an easy course but having attended every lecture, done some reading and made good notes one would hope to be able to answer at least one question.

Most fourth year people seem to be doing job applications or having interviews at the moment which is good for them.  I have sort of taken the attitude that my degree should take priority over such things and with my degree classification being borderline that would make sense.  I am still in two minds over the Masters debate having learnt that simply doing a Masters in Economics is a silly idea because it offers no added value so the only real option would be to do a pHD.  Does this appeal to me? Yes, a lot as I have a passion for economics that has only just returned from my school days.  What would I write my dissertation on? No idea.  Where would I go? No idea.  So whilst it sounds good in principle it is a huge commitment (5 years) and a few people have commented that it is just my way of deferring entry into the job market which has some truth  - now is a terrible time to be looking to enter the job market.  I have very strong feelings about joing a big company on a graduate scheme and the only thing that offers mass appeal is being an entrepeneur but again this is a gamble...

Have attached some photos which aren't particularly nice.  Next post I'm going to talk more about entrepeneurial stuff and eBay etc.

J

22

It is my 22nd birthday tomorrow and my last one in St Andrews which is upsetting.  Went to Edinburgh today to play against the University Seconds at their home turf which makes you realise just how behind the times St As sporting facilities are and makes one wish they went to Edinburgh.  Alas.  We lost 3-2 after a 2-0 lead which was infuriating.

J

The Gatecrasher

For some time now there has been a tradition that whenever we go to the Granite City (Aberdeen) to play hockey and are victorious we order either the Beast or the Gatecrasher pizza.  Both are enormous pizzas - the Gatecrasher has 32 slices and it a rectangular two foot squared gem.  Picture attached.  It definitely makes the 90 minute drive back from Aberdeen more fun when you can't move because of the massive pizza box wedged on your head.  Good times.

Last Wednesday was the first ever "quickest downing" competition in the hockey club.  Our social convenor, Jack, organised a terrific event in our sponsor pub to find the quickest person to drink a pint.  Starting with 33 entrants, everyone did their first time and were timed on a watch.  The top 16 were then through to the first round and were seeded according to their times (range was about 13s to 4s).  From there we went 16 => 8 => 4 => 2 => 1.  It was great fun and there was a really good atmosphere.  Somehow I managed to get down to the final 4 but was pretty quite comprehensively in the semi finals.  Never mind.

The last few days have been really hectic on eBay.  I was lucky enough to shift 2000 pens at 25p per pen which has put me almost in break even territory literally overnight so thats been good.  Cereal has also been flying off the shelves and I think Ill have to order some more soon.

I had lots to write but I'm tired and stressed with a lecture, tutorial and all day trip to Edinburgh to play hockey tomorrow morning.  My battery is also going flat.

Sleepy

Just back from PokerSoc - came 11th out of 41 and a few off the money.  Pretty disappointed, played badly and should have done better but blew up in a few spots.

Weekend was dominated by hockey as usual as was this morning, Thursday was the worst hangover I have ever had and didn't leave the house all day.  Wednesday night was epic.

I am so tired but will write everything up tomorrow.

Rainy

Today was one those St Andrews days where you wake up to rain on your window and it just carries on raining for the whole day.  It is one of those days when the streets are dominated by Hunter's wellington boots, Barbour jackets with the odd American still insisting on wearing aviators and flip flops.  The only good thing to come out of such terrible weather is that no-one dared visit the small post office on Pipeland road in such conditions so there was no queue and I was in an out in record time.  Definitely worth braving the storm for.

As mentioned yesterday the weekend was dominated by hockey - away in Glasgow on Saturday (6-2 win) and then home on Sunday (6-1 win) with Monday morning training yesterday (7am, dark, windy, cold).  After Sundays hockey a few of us went down to watch the climax of the Dunhill Links which was one by Robert Karlsson in a playoff on the first hole.  It was a very nice evening weather wise and a good ending to a good tournament.  I've added a few photos from Friday's play - Tim Henman, Samuel L Jackson, Colin Montgomerie and Michael Campbell.  There are also a few photos I took on Sunday morning pottering around the east side of town including one of Castlecliffe.

Last night I played in the poker soc £5 rebuy and was lucky enough to end up chopping with the final 3 for a payout of £145 which was a nice surprise.  I thought I played fairly well and standardly (bar one hand) but also got some good hands in good spots as well as winning a couple of flips.  Hands of note:

1. Double up in first level with J9 vs K2 on 9924 board 

2. Shoved J 4 2 flop with AQ, called by KJ and Queen suckout on turn

3. AA vs Q3 and 45o for a triple up just before end of rebuy period

4. Lost AK vs A7 vs 56s and KJ vs 52o

5. Won AQs vs 1010 for a big bot near the final table

6. Donked off 50% bluffing with Ace high and called by a better Ace high

7. AJ vs 88 on JJ6 flop

9. AJ vs Q10

The chop we made wasn't the best - I got £145, a guy with 50% of the chips £180 and one other with 20% of the chips £100.  To be honest I wasn't really too bothered about the exact amount of money, blinds were massive in proportion to our stack sizes so any edge I had over the two players (which was pretty substantial as they were both very bad) was negated by the fact that all the poker was being played pre flop and I wasn't in the mood for losing a 60/40 so chopping seemed like a good plan.  My last cash in PokerSoc was in first year (2005) in the five pound rebuy too when we chopped and I took home £165.  The week before that I won the £10 freezeout for £220 and was completely hooked.  At that stage in my life I had no idea how to play poker and must had been running like God!  I remember being in awe of the fourth years with their iPods and poker fleeces and poker caps.  I didn't really play much at poker soc last year or second year (online instead) but I really enjoyed last night talking about the game and just playing in a stress free environment.  

Sales have been going well - sold 25 syringe pens so only 4,975 left to go!  Cereal has also been selling at a decent rate so reasonably happy there.  I finally decided my last option today and have gone with industrial organization.  I was sold after todays lecture where we covered a really interesting topic involving game theory and Bertrand competition to show how store policies to refund the difference if a customer finds the same elsewhere isn't beneficial to the consumer but is actually a signal to other stores to keep prices fixed with no incentive to deviate.  So that was really interesting and whilst I think it is going to be a tough module, I stayed back for environmental economics afterwards and fell asleep dreaming of Mario Kart and game theory.  This evening I tried doing a few basic problems set for us but really struggled as have forgotten a lot of basic microeconomic stuff from last year so I'm going to try and refresh up on all that.  My goal is to spend about thirty minutes every morning just doing some problems before class to wake up and get my brain thinking.  Game theory is definitely something that requires a lot of practice and wont click overnight!

The highlight of my day was popping to Fisher and Donaldson to buy a fudge donut for 93p.  They sell on average between 250 and 300 of these a day and they are the most incredible thing in the world.  I highly recommend them to anyone who hasn't had one and fancies treating themselves.  The low point of my day was going to the law fair and seeing lots of lawyers in pinstriped suits and realising that yet again I am at a complete lost for what I want to do.  

Pictures attached.  

Week 1 Review

Really tired tonight and haven't had a minute to spare all weekend really.  Played hockey yesterday and today (won both) and have been entertaining some visitors from Manchester.  Have early morning training tomorrow so its al quite hectic at the moment.  Tomorrow is busy with lectures at 10am and 2pm-6pm then possibly PokerSoc in the evening (five pound rebuy).  I have some cool photos from the weekend to put up and lots of thoughts etc but now isn't a good time.

Fuming

The last couple of days have been really unproductive which is slightly frustrating. Despite good intentions to make the most of this first week whilst classes are still getting started, I haven't really done so. Plans to get organised through buying folders, writing up notes, buying textbooks and looking at Masters applications have all been replaced by playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64. I definitely need to become more productive and manage my time better. At the moment procastination is a bit of speciality. It doesn't help that the weekend is full of hockey and entertaining so I should have done my weeks notes today or yesterday rather than doing nothing. I am still struggling with choosing my modules too so slightly concerned. Econometrics today reminded me how much I dislike the econometrics side of economics, I think a lot of this is caused by the fact that the course last year which ultimately introduced us to the topic was taught very poorly and thus it gave everyone a very negative outlook on it. Need to try and gain some enthusiasm for it, not just for this module but also for later life as I imagine it is quite important for research projects.

Today I received some news that makes me rather sad. The school of Economics and Finance which is currently based on the Scores in the most magnificent building is to be moved to North Street. I have loved attending lectures, tutorials and visiting my tutors at the building because it is such a brilliant location and picturesque. I remember vividly in April 2005 sitting in F2 at the open day talk for economics and looking out of the window over the North Sea to the Old Course and Leuchars and deciding this was the university for me. As well as that they have some lovely bluebells that come into season every May and are extremely nice. So I am very cross about all this as I hate change. Tomorrows job is to go and take some photos of the building and the views from it and post them here.

The 5000 syringe pens arrived today which is fairly exciting but now it is time to sell them. I am selling them substantially cheaper than competitors as well as including a free refill pen and pens of a higher quality. Something I have found on eBay is that selling the same good cheaper isn't always enough - buyers are most definitely not rational and that can prove to be quite difficult. I remember selling poker visors a month or so ago and I was selling the exact same item as someone else but a) had a higher rating b) he was shipping from the USA c) mine was 25% cheaper. Despite all this, he sold something like 1o visors in a week and I sold none. Why? I don't know - I spent an hour trying to find out, changed my item title, changed my categories, tweaked P&P and other things. Result? Didn't work but a month on I am starting to sell a few of them. eBay market place research has recently switched to terapeak.com and some of the features it has are incredible for sellers. For example I am going to be selling syringe pens so just typing that into the search box will come back with some really useful statistics - total sales, biggest sellers, average price etc. I find looking at biggest sellers the most useful as it gives you an idea of what sort of revenue one can achieve over what sort of time. So for syringe pens over the last 90 days, have a look at the table attached. Pretty cool although having looked up the data on myself for cereal, I am not convinced of its accuracy. Nevertheless seeing that someone is turning over £200k a month selling iPod is pretty damn impressive.

Today was spent pretty much hungover and tired just moping about and doing packaging. Tomorrow I am going to potter down to the Dunhill at about 8am and try and get some snaps of the golfers as apparently there are some big names teeing off from about then. It should also get me out of bed and hopefully the weather will be good. I'm going to blog tomorrow about my current dilemma of what to do regarding post offices and which one to choose in St Andrews following the closure of the main one. Until then.

Dunhill Links

The Dunhill Links Golf Tournament is in town and it always creates a bit of a buzz.  Its a pro-am tournament across St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie and it attracts a mix of some of Europe's top golfers and celeberities, the latter including Bill Murray, Hugh Grant and Shane Warne.  There are always many tales of the celebs being spotted in pubs and house parties - some time ago Bill Murray was at a house party doing the washing up whilst Sam Torrance had a putting competition with students in the living room.  I vaguely remember seeing Michael Vaughan in Ma Bells in first year on a hockey social the year they had won the ashes - he was being followed by an entourage of people congratulating him for beating the Aussies.  The golf starts on Thursday with practice rounds today and tomorrow.  I have hockey all weekend so will probably miss the exciting stuff but will no doubt pop down and try and watch some good golf.

In other news I attended my core module lecture this morning - Economic Analysis which looks like it'll be interesting, the first few weeks are going to spent on game theory so I am reasonably enthusiastic about that.  I attended environmental economics yesterday but found it a bit boring so went along to industrial economics instead today and it was far more interesting so I will probably stick with that unless the monetary policy lecture on Monday is outstandingly good.  I think this year I am going to make very rough and untidy scribbles during the lecture and then try and write up the notes formally in the time following the lecture.  This way I don't feel any pressure to make neat notes during the lecture and also I am continuously learning rather than just cramming at the end of term and for exams.  

I have 5000 pens arriving either tomorrow or Thursday from China which makes me feel rather nervous as I have no idea what to do with them and recently the eBay market for syringe pens has become a bit saturated.  I am also having some trouble with a few eBayers who have bought things but don't reply to email and are generally annoying and also have been forced to start using bubble wrap on all parcels because of some iffy feedbacks.  Apparently as a result of my 2 neutral feedbacks I am now in danger of losing my ability to sell on eBay?! A bit random and it enrages me somewhat - there was a time when negative feedback was a problem but now neutral too!  Anyhow I have sent them an email explaining I think it is ridiculous that someone with 100% feedback over 5 years with 1400+ positives and detailed seller ratings of 4.9/5.0 can be threatened with their account being suspended because Royal Mail seem intent on jumping on my items.  So thats that.

This afternoon after class I pottered down and took some photos at the West End of town around the links and also bought the fruit for the juicer that should last the week.  I am really enjoying buying fruit and veg from the local greengrocer around the corner.  The general consensus in St Andrews is that Tesco is slow, inefficient and overpriced so I am more than happy to buy the weekly juice fruit from the greengrocers.  For £9.22 we got 20 x oranges, 10 x apples, 3 x limes, pineapple, 2 x lemons and 6 x carrots which isn't too shabby.  That should last a week but will probably need to get a few more things as the week goes on.  Tonight I will either a) go to table tennis but maybe not as it will be packed b) write up the days notes c) go out or d) none of the above.  Have attached a few photos from this evening, took them around 5pm when it started to clear.  The clouds were doing some crazy things.

Monday Training

For the third year running it looks as though we will be having a hockey training session on Monday morning at 7am.  It is a mixed blessing but ultimately I think it is beneficial for many reasons as a) it forces one to go to bed early on Sunday b) it forces one to wake up on Monday morning and not sleep past lectures c) it gets you doing physical exercise when you would otherwise be sleeping d) it always a good social occasion going for breakfast afterwards.  When my alarm went off at 6am today I had absolutely no desire whatsoever to get up and play with a stick and ball in the dark but once you are at the pitch and awake you realise it is a good use of time.

The weekend was really good fun - Saturday was the sports fayre when you can sign up to sports clubs and they all have a stall.  For some reason it has been moved from its old location of the union in town to the sports centre some distance out of town.  I feel as though it is a terrible move by the powerstobe as the distance to walk out of town will mean fewer people attending the fayre and thus fewer members signing up.  Secondly there is a cash machine outside the union in town whereas the nearest cash machine to the sports centre is at least a fifteen minute walk.  Quite often people will come and sign up a club and then when asked to pay their membership ask where the nearest cash point is (fresher's usually don't know).  When the fayre was in the union a good percentage of people would go to the cash point and return with their membership.  This year that was not an option.  The effect, having talked to the hockey club and a few others was a far fewer number of both unpaid signed up members and also fully paid up members.  So I think thats a bit disappointing for the AU clubs.

We then had our first game of the season in the PM and won 4-1 which was fairly decent.  It was an amusing game with 3 yellow cards for us and none for the opposition but some good hockey and a small crowd watching which always make one play slightly better.  The evening was dinner at someones house where the general consensus was to eat some lovely lasagne and then get drunk playing some very very aggressive drinking games with playing cards and die (not the 9 VKs game).  After that everyone sort of went to various places and I vaguely remember being in a few pubs and houses before eating a pot noodle and passing out fully clothed at 3am.  Job done.  As a result Sunday was a complete write off and spent most of the morning in bed actually playing some poker as have been itching to play some headsup poker.  It was pretty boring so I gave up after a while.  Went to the Raisin for a free beer and a burger but they had none of the actual burgers there so had to have the beer, chips and empty roll which was a bit disappointing.  Proceeded to spend most of the afternoon playing Mario Kart with friends and generally feeling rough.  Went to a friends' for a brilliant Toad in the Hole and passed out in bed at 9pm.

The weekend was very slow on eBay for me which was a bit annoying, I have been spending quite a lot of time looking at my web statistics for my shop and I can't really find a pattern or any sort of correlation to explain why its fluctuating so much.  On the 23rd September I had over 200 pages views whereas yesterday (Sundays are normally the busiest day on eBay) only had 50 or so.  I have 5000 syringe pens arriving sometime this week that have just docked on a ship into Felistowe and are being cleared through customs at the moment.  I have quite a lot of money invested in them which is fairly worrying as well as a lot of money invested in cereal and other junk.  I vaguely remember in second year that the run up to Christmas is a brilliant time to be running a small eBay enterprise and I am sort of counting on selling a lot of things during October/November and will probably offer free giftwrapping on all items.

There is a shop for rent on Bell Street in St Andrews and for some time I have been talking to people about what sort of business they would open in St Andrews if they were given unlimited funds and expertise.  St Andrews seems to sort of have everything in some capacity or another.  On Saturday I spent a long time walking around town looking for somewhere to try and get a good healthy meal, i.e salad.  Whilst St Andrews has more pubs per square foot than any other town in Britain and most of these serve food, the cuisine in each of them is pretty much identical and very very mediocre (processed chicken, prebought burgers, frozen pizzas).  Putting this with the fact there is only one place in town to get a bagel (which are expensive and slow), I think I could see a gap for a healthy eatery (salads, soups, fruits) that sells good bagels too.  I am very surprised that bagels have not taken off more in St As and have thought for some time there is definitely a gap in the market for a Bagel Factory esq place somewhere.  

I have just had my first lecture of fourth year where we called "old hands" and wished "enjoy your final year" which was all rather depressing.  I am still unsure about my environmental economics module so am going to attend the lectures for 2 other modules to see what they are like - industrial economics and monetary policy.  The latter I am not too sure about as I struggled with inflation bias/discretion/policy rules during the last semester and only really managed to blag the exam question on it by doing some differentiation so not too confident about doing an entire module devoted to it.  Industrial economics sounds far more interesting as there is quite an emphasis in game theory which I really enjoy because of its application to poker and other such games.  I was also surprised to hear that we should seriously doing a dissertation as I have given it no thought and dismissed it sometime ago.  There is a talk regarding it on Wednesday morning that I will attend if I wake up in time.  

I have class from 2pm - 6pm today because of attending all the extra modules and am going to spend the next couple of hours doing some jobs and packaging cereal for despatch.  I have a few customer returns to deal with too.  There is a £1 rebuy poker tournament tonight at the Poker Society but I'm not sure if I will go because of class going on so late.  I did go to the Societies fayre yesterday which is a brilliant occasion - every year there are more and more societies which is brilliant.  Unfortunately I was too hungover to risk going up to the top floor so didn't manage to sign up to anything...

Was meaning to take some photos last night at dusk because the light was perfect but watched the British Golf Masters playoff instead.  Might try tonight as would like to put some photos of St Andrews here so can see it going through the seasons.

J

Scottish Cricket

Today saw a new event in St Andrews - 20:20 cricket tournament consisting of 8 team put on by the university cricket club.  It was a really well run and organised event with what looked a lot of hard work having been put into it over the summer.  The hockey club put in a team as they have some reasonable cricketers but got a difficult draw playing joint favourites Edinburgh University in the first round.  A middle order collapse left them with only 118 on the board to defend.  For the first few overs it looked as though they could cause an upset; Edinburgh were 37-2 or so after 8 overs but Edinburgh managed to regain some momentum after a few dropped catches and won with a few overs to spare.  I pottered down and watched after marticulation and advising and was really impressed with the standard of cricket and the event in general.  The hope is for it to become a yearly event growing each year and it would appear to have got off to an excellent start.  

Post cricket I had some lunch and my new favourite juice (generally my favourite changes each 2 days) which happens to be pineapple, orange, lime and apple.  A few friends joined us for lunch and juice and were fairly impressed with the juicer - we bought this juicer off eBay and it really is one of the greatest things I have ever bought.  Today for example we threw in 5 oranges, a pineapple, 5 apples and a lime to form about a litre of juice in approximately 1 minutes.  Some of the more healthy juices aren't as nice; celery, carrot, broccoli, beetrot etc are all ingredients in some of the Detox juices and we tend to stay clear of those for the moment.  Ginger/Lemon works wonders for hangovers however...

We had another brief hockey session today and then I packaged some cereal for despatch tomorrow.  I have been receiving a few complaints regarding my packaging as some of the cereal seems to be arriving damaged and it leaves me in a bit of a quandry.  At the moment I offer free P&P on almost all of my items and am able to offer this because I do not use too much excessive packaging like so many sellers (bubble wrap etc).  Whilst this seems hard to belive, a lot of my parcels would increase in weight if I added bubble wrap to a point whereby they would rise above the weight limit for that specific postage category.  For example I sell 6 boxes for £6.99 including free P&P.  This weighs in at about 230g with my existing packaging method of brown paper and parcel tape.  Adding bubble wrap would increase the weight >250g so P&P would rise from £1.24 to £1.68.  Only a £0.44 rise you may say but that is an extra 6% or so less profit margin.  I need to try and decide whether there is enough of a problem to warrant the introduction of bubble wrap.  It isn't feasisble to pass this higher cost onto consumers because the price of my goods would become uncompetitive - this is a very price sensitive market and small rises in prices tend to drive consumers away, i.e price elastic.  So far I have only had 2 complaints so will wait and see.

Advising and matriculation was fairly straightforward.  I am always very impressed with the efficiency of the marticulation process - it seems to improve each year.  My only slight frustration was at my matriculation card stage where it was deemed my three year old card would no longer swipe correctly.  Now this card has a lot of history.  It has been in my wallet since I first received it in September 2005 and has followed me on various journeys across countries and continents.  I was told that I would be issued with a new one but would not be allowed to keep my old one! Outrage! So I asked if they could snap in half and allow me to keep it in that state as a memento, the answer was no.  Begrudgingly they allowed me to keep one half of it but one half only.  A bit frustrating.

We have hockey tomorrow so I usually stay in the night before, something I have tended to do since I was at school.  Playing tired or hungover isn't really much fun and with it being the start of a new season it makes sense.  

I was reading an interesting article in a poker blog today about the effect that the credit crunch is having on professional poker players.  Apparently there are far fewer "fish" or softer players playing online poker such that there is less money to go around.  I suppose in some respects it is the same as the effect it is having on luxury goods such as holidays/flights.  Life as a professional poker player seems to be becoming tougher and tougher with the anti gambling legislation in the US and now the economic issues around the world.    

I noticed today that the price of my bacon roll in Janettas has risen from £1.25 ro £1.35.  It had been at £1.25 for all of 2nd and 3rd year so I suppose a rise was due.  I genuinely wonder if that increase is as a result of rising raw costs (bread/bacon/butter) or more variable costs (rent/council tax).  I'm not sure yet if the increase will force me to no longer buy one a day.  I shall pass Janettas every morning on route to lectures, just as I did in 2nd year, so it would seem probable.

The last piece of news is that St Andrews has achieved Sunday Times Good University ranking 5th which is the highest ever for a Scottish University.  In my year of entry I believe it was around 11th so it is an excellent achievement and makes me really pleased to be here and happy with my decision to come to St Andrews (it was my sixth choice on my UCAS entry).  Link to article. 

Boring entry again today.

Thursday Mornings

Had a really good two days today and yesterday. It was the fresher's hockey trials yesterday afternoon which is always quite interesting to observe. The evening was our first Wednesday night social of the year and it was fairly fantastics. Most sports teams have their main social event of the week on Wednesday nights and the first one of the year is always quite a big event. Started at our main sponsor pub, The Raisin for a few cheap 4 pint pitchers and some drinking games to introduce the Fresher's to vingt-et-un etc. From there we moved to a small place near the R&A clubhouse called Chariots which is a hotel bar with an average of about 1 customer per night. 25 of us pitched up and bought a couple of bottles of spirits (1 Gin and 1 Vodka) for about £58 I think. A bit of Gin face followed (amusing) and then we crawled to Ma Bells for strawpedos.

I spent all night trying to convince someone to play a game with me - they pick a number on the dice and if their number comes up I buy them 4 pints else they buy me 1. Only one person took the bet and then didn't buy me the pint. So anyway we decided to play another game, odds/evens, loser buys 9 strawpedos (not sure why 9). I lost, good game, there goes £15. From Ma Bells we went to Drouthy's for a cheeky pint of Addlestons Cider (cloudy and strong) and then to the union. Lots of fun.

Today brought back many happy memories of Thursday mornings for the last 3 years of my life. Typically feeling massively hungover, I will usually wake up for the first time at about 5am, fully clothed (in first year Channel 5 cartoons would still be playing) with the lights still on. I go for some water and try and get back to sleep. Then reawake at about 9am, have more water and start watching TV shows on my laptop (usually The Apprentice/Entourage/Prison Break/Anything I can find). This lasts until about midday when I begin to get hungry and will make a move into town for some sort of substance that I think I can keep down, today was a smoked salmon and scrambled egg bagel; adventurous. Packaged a few boxes of ceral (sold in the eBay shop, will discuss more at a later date) and come back home about 1pm. Back to bed for an hour or so, drank some juice/coffee and woke about 3pm. Go to Thursday evening hockey, play averagely, feel like shit but enjoy reminiscing about the night before with certain characters. During term I usually try and squeeze in a couple of lectures which I attend with excellent intentions but will sit there and doze/worry about being sick, take very few notes and set countdown timers for every five minutes so I know how long is left. But yes, Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings have been a massive and integral part of my time here.

Tomorrow I am due to advise and marticulate for my fourth and final year. I have chosen my modules for this term - two compulsory ones and my only option is Environmental Economics which I think sounds quite intersting and very current affairs. I am looking forward to getting stuck back into some economics having been in St Andrews doing very little for almost two weeks now. It will be good to get some routine back. I also have to start thinking about what I am going to do post St Andrews and at the moment it looks like a MPhil or Masters in Economics with a possibility of a PHD. I need to do some research into possible universities and also funding options but staying in education really appeals to me as a) I love economics and would like to continue studying it to a higher level b) I don't think there will be many jobs available this time next year because of the current economic climate c) I wouldn't know what jobs to apply before as have no idea what to do. Will discuss further at later date.

Now going to a friends for a cup of tea. One of the great things about St Andrews is you are usually never more than a 10 minute walk from a friends house/flat. The longest distance I could think of is probably DRA apartments to Albany Park which would probably take 25minutes at a good pace. 90% of the time it is less than 10minutes. Obviously it is a double edges sword because it means you are likely to see someone you know when you want to pop out to Tesco and are in a hurry, but to be honest it is great and people that criticise it will thoroughly miss it when they leave and then have to travel 300 miles to see their best friend.

Beginning

As I enter my fourth and final year as anUndergraduate in St Andrews, one of the goals I have set myself is to try and make the most of the place I am in and to keep track of how I spend my last months.  My first three years have flown by at an alarmingly high pace and so far I have kept little record of how that time has been spent.  

The purpose of this blog is to allow me to keep track of the ups and downs of my last year in this fantastic little university town such that I can look back on it in years to come but also to provide an insight to prospective students/existing students/ex students and anyone who may have an interest in either the University of St Andrews or the town of St Andrews.  

We are currently halfway through "pre-sessional week"/fresher's week which sees new and old students returning to university.  I am finding it fairly boring being a fourth year and am lacking the energy I once had to go and drink oneself into a whole simply for the sheer point of it.  Instead I have been pottering around town doing jobs and trying to get fit for the upcoming sporting season through a small amount of exercise and drinking plently of juice made through our Phillips Aluminium Juicer.

Yesterday I marked the beginning of the year with one of St Andrews' more unknown jems.  Traditionally a fishing town, one can still see the lobster and crab traps at the harbour and if you go down early enough can see the fishermen bringing in their catch in the morning.  For a few pounds you can buy a lobster or some crab from the fishermen and at a price that is far far cheaper than were you to buy it in restaurant/supermarket/fishmongers.  Having done this a few times last year and eaten the lobster simply boiled, I have since had the idea to try and make a Lobster Thermidor.        

So feeling bored and adventurous, I boiled the lobster, dared to slice it vertically in half and removed the meat as per Rick Steins' instructions in his brilliant seafood cookbook.  From there I made a bechamel with some spring onions and mustard powder, waited for it to thicken and added the chopped lobster meat.  Finally placed all the above into the empty shell, topped with some parmesan and some dodgy breadcrumbs and grilled for a few minutes.  Ate with a new potatoe and some almost mouldy bread.  The result was surprisingly okay and tasted very nice although the cheese/spring onion overwhelmed the lobster a bit which was slightly disappointing but nonetheless quite a fun little mission for the day!  Pictures are attached of the cooking process.

Today was a fairly boring day - stayed in waiting for packages all morning and spent the afternoon doing jobs around town.  Went for a fun along the Fife Coastal Path up towards St Andrews Bay hotel which is very impressive scenery along the cliffs on the way there and then with fantastic views on the way back to St Andrews.  Was going to take my camera but forgot - there are some great photo opportunities up along the coastal path and intend to pop up there sometime soon with my cheap camera.  

Quite a boring first day entry.