SO, off to Sheffield in September. A bit of a step-up from Wellington, size-wise. Not too big though, sort of Goldilocks-scale for a city. But without any bears, I hope.

I was swung over to Sheffield University from the initial attraction of Salford’s Mediacity by simply remembering that Sheffield must be the top journalism course in the country for a reason.

After I had made that realisation, it was a fairly simple decision, having been to an applicants-only exclusive open day – you got a lanyard and everything – and met someone with exactly the same Sheffield-Salford dilemma. Except they’d already solved the puzzle and plumped for Sheffield.

It was a tricky decision, as most things tend to be, but I’m confident I made the right choice.

Either way, I’m going to be leaving Wellington. I will pop back, of course, but it will be weird not living there every day. Not wandering down to catch the green bus every morning – they have trams in Sheffield – not seeing the Monument poking over the top of rooftops out of your window. Mind you, I might not even be able do that when I pop back either.

It’s looking a little worse for wear at the moment. The world’s tallest three-sided obelisk – maybe even the universe – who else is building three-sided obelisks? – needs some attention and cash, or soon it’s going to become the former site of the world’s tallest three-sided obelisk faster than you can say ‘it’s the world’s tallest three-sided obelisk, don’t you know?’.

John Gilding