Plymouth Polytechnic photos

Re-sitting A-levels at Brockenhurst College thanks to getting insufficient grades to get a place at Aston University turns out to be a bad idea, and so after a couple of weeks it's time to rummage around for last-minute places in PCAS - the Polytechnic clearing house.

What turns up is a place to do Business Studies at Plymouth, and so after a drive down from Barton on Sea to scope it out, about a week before the start of the term, it's decided to change tack and go for it.

Then, it's first digs - in a shared house with Barbara, Malcolm and James out in the boondocks of Milehouse at 64 Beaumont Street - and fairly quickly getting involved at the Students' Union, first as typist at Fly, the student magazine, before ending up as the official SU photographer.

It's largely thanks to that that this collection - possibly the largest set of photos of late 1980s PPSU life anywhere - exists, and it also meant getting quite handy at B&W darkroom work, with developing to prints in about 30 minutes.

The second year is more of the same, plus doing a couple of non-sabbatical committee posts in the SU and working at the PPSU bar, eventually ending up doing the coveted Sunday morning re-stock shift. It's not coveted for the pay or the relatively early start, but for the bacon sandwiches courtesy of Kirkby Stores just up the road.

After a year away on placement in Norwich, the final year's quite different as everyone else - other than those on the course - has left, and there are very few of the old gang still around in the SU. So whilst most people are revising, it's time to spend time sunbathing on the Hoe, avoiding Dave's dangerous microwave in the kitchen at Wyndham Square, or driving around Dartmoor at midnight in Kate's car. Good times.