April 12th
I got up and was really not feeling all that well. I was just feeling really run down, but I figured I would try and get through work anyways. I got to work and did a couple of little things before I talked to Damien for a while about the market survey. We sat in a really warm room, which did not make me feel all that good. I went back to my desk and got to work. I was there for a little while and pretty much just completely spaced out for a while. Damien got up to ask me something and I was just not there. He asked me if I was feeling alright, I said no and he said that I should probably head home. I wasn’t going to argue. I came home, ate some lunch and slept for the rest of the afternoon. I just sat around for a long time that night. I messed around online and got caught up on my journal for a while. I spent most of the night watching TV though and just trying to get rested.
April 13th
I woke up this morning and still really wasn’t feeling that good so I called in sick to work. I probably could have made it through the day, but with my trip this weekend, I didn’t want to push it. I had a really nice lie in and then started to get stuff done for the trip. I went to do laundry because I had run out of clothes. I thought those might be helpful for the weekend. I went to a Laundromat around the corner because I had quite a bit to do. I just sat around there and did some reading while I waited. Once I was done with that I came home and made some lunch. None of my roommates were up yet, so I had to wait to finish my laundry for awhile. I managed to get that done after lunch and then headed to Metrogate.
I had a paper I wanted to get written before I went to Paris so I wouldn’t have to deal with it when I got back. The actual paper writing only took me about two hours or so but I was there for the better part of the day just messing around. I day really didn’t have a whole lot of motivation to do any work this particular day. After that I came and made me some food to eat. I wanted to keep this night calm too because I was going to have to get up really early the next morning to catch my train. I ended up watching TV for most of the night after I got everything all packed up. I called it an early night and tried to get some sleep.
April 14th
I really didn’t sleep much this particular night. I went to bed around 12 the night before and I woke up a couple of hours after that and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I stayed up for about an hour and just sat on my computer. I eventually did get back to sleep for another hour or so before I had to get up to get to the train. We had to take a taxi that was at our flat 4:15, so we had to be up before that. The ride over there was fine and we got checked in alright. We were all spread out through the train so we found our seats and got settled. I read for a little while and then took a nap. Once I woke up I found one of the people sitting near me and talked to her for about the last hour of the trip.
We got into Paris and took the Metro to the hostel. It was a nice place called the Three Ducks. It has a nice little courtyard and the location was really good. We dropped our stuff off there and headed over to the Eiffel Tower. We made it there and looked around, but decided to come back later. One of the girls saw a merry-go-round so three of us took a ride on that. We then took a boat ride up and down the Seine to get a layout of the city. That was really nice. We grabbed some ice cream and walked to Notre Dame. That was quite a walk. It would have been a lot nice except that it was the hottest day we’ve had out here so far and no one was really dressed for it. We explored Notre Dame and said hi to Quasimodo before heading to get something to drink at a café. We went to one that was right next to the cathedral and we paid for it, we paid a lot for it. Woops.
We started walking down the other side of the river and passed through a nice little flower market. It was rather pretty. We walked until we came to the Louvre and found some shade. We thought we would sit and rest for a while, which we did. We just happened to take an hour long nap in the process. That was really nice and really refreshing. We started walking again and got back to the Tower. We grabbed some Nutella Crepes, which makes me want to learn to cook crepes very badly. They were delicious. That gave us all the strength we needed to get up the tower.
We got in line, the wrong one first, but eventually we got it all sorted. We started up just as the sun was starting to go down and we really took our time, enjoying it as we went. It really is a beautiful view. By the time we reached the top dusk had fallen. We walked around for a while and by the time we were done, night proper had fallen. We got to watch Paris light up, district by district. It was pretty cool. We were also on the Tower as it lit up and put on its light show. It was pretty cool. We were in the middle of the biggest rave in the world. We made out way down and went to a café for something to eat. We all got these amazing three course meals. I had terrain canard, a steak, and a lemon meringue tart. Pretty good. We spent a lot of time there eating, drinking, and talking before going back to the hostel. Some of the group went to sleep but I stayed up with one other person at the bar talking.
April 15th
We got up and had some breakfast at the hostel before checking out. We took the Metro to the Louvre to spend a good chunk of the day there. That was really amazing. I remembered a lot of it from the last time I was there, but we still saw a lot more. We spent most of the time in the Devon wing looking at those paintings, but eventually we crossed over and looked at some other paintings there. We had a lunch/snack while we were there too. We ate at the same café that we ate at when I visited with the family, in almost the same spot. That was pretty cool. It was a really good time.
After that, we rested outside for awhile before heading out to the Sacred Heart Church. It a big cathedral set on top of this big hill that over looks the city. We had quite the hike to get to the top of that. When we got there, it was just covered with people. There were people in the streets and there were people sitting on the slope up to the church. We walked in and caught the end of a service that was in progress. That was kind of cool. We walked around there and ended up sitting down because it was really cool in the building. We left and wandered around until we found a place to eat, a little pizza place. It was some really good food.
We finished up there and headed to the Metro. On the way, there was a group of guys doing some free style dancing, so we watched that for a while. We got our tickets for the Metro and realized that the station was just a couple of blocks away. Oh well, the tickets were cheap. We got to the station and got all checked in. We didn’t have a problem, except that one of the girls had a hard time checking in with her ticket. They had to check to make sure that they hadn’t given it away for some reason. That was a quite interesting.
The train ride back was pretty mellow. I ended up sleeping for most of the time again and read for the rest. Not a whole lot went on really. We got off and took the Tube home. I got back and made myself a snack and tried to check my mail. That would have worked except that my computer wouldn’t turn on. I’m pretty sure that it’s the same problem I had before, but I wouldn’t be able to get it fixed until I get home. So that now becomes the first thing I get to do when I get back because I have a final paper on it that I need to get off. Good time. I ran to Metrogate to check my mail then went to bed.
April 16th
I got up and went to the first of the last of my classes. Senior Sem was pretty good today. We first talked about a book we had read and then went over some pieces of propaganda that we had researched. Good stuff. While that was going, I went and talked to the prof who’s paper I had written on Friday. He was really cool about and told me to get it to him when I could. That was helpful. After some lunch I spent a couple of hours at Metrogate working on another paper that I luckily was able to get a copy of off my backup. That was nice. I was there for a couple of hours before I went for a nice walk. I went around to a bunch of the little gardens that are around here that I had seen, but never explored. I went to the one my parents over looked from their hotel room, but I couldn’t get in. It was for residents of the area only and you needed a key. The next one I went to was the same way. The last one was at a roundabout just behind our flat. The houses around it were really pretty and the little garden in the centre was really nice too. The nicest part was the smell of the wet earth. The flowers were being watered and it really reminded me of home.
I got back and took a little nap. We were going out for a farewell dinner with Cynthia at a Turkish place called Tas or Taz. I can’t remember which one. The food was really good and the best part was the school paid for all of it. We started off with all these appetizers to share and we dug into that. For a main course I had lamb with I think was polenta with melted cheese, eggplant, and a tomato sauce. It was just amazing. For desert I finished it all off with some rice pudding. Kind of fitting I thought. After that I went to a pub with some of the group and we hung out there for a while. I called it an early night because I worked the next day.
April 17th
Work was pretty laid back today. I worked on the market survey for most of the day and got pretty much all done with that. I also helped Damien get acquainted with the DVD software so that he could finish it up. There were a couple of things that I needed from him that he didn’t have a chance to get finished so he was going to do that. I’m kind of sad about that, but I’m still happy the way the project turned out. Really just a pretty low key day as things wound down there.
I got back home, but not before going to Metrogate for a while. When I got back, I made a big dinner to help burn some of the food I had left and really enjoyed that. I hadn’t written in my journal for a along time, so I spent most of the time getting caught up on that. That was really all I did that night.
April 18th
I got up and decided to go for a run today. This was the first time I had gone out since the Isle of Mann weekend and I was pretty sore. It felt good though. After I had gotten back and stretched out, I was feeling really good. I made some lunch and then started getting things in order packing wise. I went through and got all the stuff I knew I wasn’t going to be using in some vacuum packing bags so that was all done. I also went through and got some of the other stuff ready to get packed by getting all the things I could folded and ready to go. I also went through all the papers I had accumulated over the months and tossed a bunch of those. I think I’ll end up making some sort of scrap book out of all of them when I get back. Katie gave me a really nice album I think would work nicely for that purpose, but we’ll see how motivated I am when I get back.
The last Ethno class was fun. We each got up and told a story about something that stood out in out minds about our trip to London. I told one about how I thought I was getting yelled at by a very angry British man while I was with Mom over spring break. I’m sure she remembers that night very well. We got done really early there so we all went out to a pub for a drink with the prof. We ended with a picture and then I grabbed some food and had to go do some work. In the theatre class we had to act out a scene as out final project and so I met with my partner and we rehearsed for a while. That went really well and the scene turned out pretty good too I think. All of them went really well actually. After that I headed to Metrogate and sat around for awhile. I did my blog and then I plan on going home to get some food and watch some TV.
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
Wednesday, 11 April 2007
April 11th
April 4th
Didn’t do a whole lot this morning really. I was still hurting from the soccer but I did get a short run in. I got back from that and just sat around until class. Ethno was really good today. We spent a lot more time listening to the Beatles and Justin went into pretty deep detail about them. We covered a lot of stuff really. I really enjoy that kind of thing. I just think its so cool to hear how all these bands started out and all the works that influenced them. You learn so many cool and interesting things. I think its just a blast.
After class I came back and made some food and then I had a play to go to. The play we were going to was Equus and it starred the people who played Harry Potter and Uncle Vernon. Daniel Radcliff plays a boy who has blinded six horses and the Uncle Vernon guy plays his psychologist. It’s a really good story. Radcliff was sick or something the night we went so he wasn’t on the top of his game, but it was still a really good play. I really enjoyed.
I got back from that and had some packing to do. We weren’t actually going to be leaving the next day until almost nine at night, so I just laid everything out I was going to need and doubled checked it. After that I headed to bed to get some rest.
April 5th
I got up for a short run this morning to get loosened up and it felt really good. Damien had a couple more things for me to do with the DVD, so I got those all set up. I did some more work with the market survey because the DVD stuff really didn’t take me that long at all. Damien has a big conference to get ready for so he has been working on stuff for that. The problem is all the stuff I need to do is dependent on him right now. I need him to give some things in French for the DVD and the information that I need to contact companies in the market survey for. Without either of those, I really don’t have anything to do.
After work I came home really quick and got something to eat. I got some last minute emails out and was on my way to the train station. I met up with the people I was running with there and when they showed up we bought our tickets. We headed out to Liverpool and I played cards most of the way. Two of the guys were out sick most of the time from motion sickness. When we got to Liverpool we promptly got lost. One of the guys had printed off directions, but not a map and given the nature of British street that was quite a problem. Eventually we gave up on that plan and just caught a cab. The place we stayed at was really nice, but we pretty much just headed straight to bed.
April 6th
We got up early this morning and went to breakfast. I was really impressed. I was expecting them to have some cereal and toast out with tea and coffee. Instead, they had a buffet with all the makings for a full English breakfast. That was a very pleasant surprise, which I enjoyed very much. After we got finished up we headed out to the docks. They weren’t very far away and we found them quick enough. We found the ferry place pretty quickly and got checked in. We had a little while to wait and so we sat around in the lobby of the place and just relaxed for a while. Once on board we grabbed a seat and relaxed. We got out of the port really late because of all the traffic that was around. Not really sure if they meant on the river or what, but after that was cleared we had to wait again for a boat to get out of our way so we ended up leaving pretty late: something like 45 minutes. The ride itself took a couple of hours, almost all of which we played cards. I learned some new games, which was nice.
Once we got on the island we went and got checked in to our hotel. It was a pretty nice place. My roommate and I definitely got the short end of the stick when it came to rooms, but it wasn’t a big deal. Once we got our stuff unpacked we headed out to find some food. The only place that we found that was open was a little newsagent type place that had some sandwiches and drinks. We got some of those and sat on the promenade eating them. We headed back after that to get ready to go. We had to catch a bus because the race was actually on the other side of the island. After about a half an hour bus ride we were there. We got check into the race and out on a little warm up run.
The race itself was really pretty. We wound out along the beach and then cut up into the countryside. It was really pretty and I had plenty of time to enjoy it. I did not run that well. I think I probably went out a little too hard and I don’t think I was felling that good. I’ve been feeling sick lately so I think that took a toll on me. I didn’t run it in a terrible time, just not one that was as fast as I thought it could be.
After the race, we headed out to shower and then to get some food. There was a fish and chips shop on the way back so we stopped there to get some food. That tasted so good. Granted, it probably wasn’t the best thing in the world to be eating, but at that point I really didn’t care that much. We went back down to the pub where the bus was coming to pick us up and waited around there for a while, maybe about an hour. On that showed up we hopped on headed back.
April 7th
We had plenty of time to sleep in this morning and took full advantage of it. I had a full English breakfast again which was a great way to start off the day. After that, I walked along the promenade where we would be racing the next day just to get out and see things. This is a really pretty island. Everything is just wonderfully green and beautiful. We got back from that walk and still had some time so we went out on a short run to get loosened up for the race later on. Once we got back from that we packed up and caught the bus.
The bus ride was a little shorter than it was the day before and we were on the ocean again. Today was a four mile long hill race and they really meant it. The hills we had to climb probably rose three or four hundred feet above sea level and were pretty nasty. We were cutting up and down the entire way. I ran pretty well here though. I was angry about the way I ran the day before so I let that drive me and I was able to get into a good running mind frame, partly out of that anger. All and all it was a good race. I was happy with the results.
Once that was done we made our way back to the city we were staying in, Douglas. We took the long way back though. One of the traditions of this race was that on this day, people run back from the hill race. We threw ourselves into that. The way back was about twelve miles long and was fairly flat. The distance was made easier by the fact we stopped a few times at pubs to take a break and relax a bit. I met a lot of people on this too. We joined up with some people from Scotland who had been here before since no one in my group knew where we were going. I got to talk to a lot of people from there and made some friends. At the end of the run we went out to an Indian place with them too and got to know some more people. It was pretty cool.
April 8th
I had to be up pretty early this morning to get some breakfast before the race. Since it was a relay, they started it a lot early so that the last people wouldn’t get caught in the sun and heat. I grabbed a light breakfast and went back to bed for a couple of hours. About an hour before the race I got up and got ready. I was the first leg so I got ready right away and headed out. I was really pleased with the way everything turned out. My legs were in a sad shape from all the previous days of running and overall I was felling pretty tired. I really laid myself out there though and I think I did pretty well. My time was pretty good for what I was feeling, so I was happy with that. It was nowhere near my fastest time, but I was still really happy with it.
After the rest of the team was done we headed over to a pub to get results. The place was supposed to have a buffet for us, but all that consisted of was some bread with fries in the middle, not much of a meal really. We waited around for a while for results and while we did I got a crash course in cricket. The guys I was with were big fans and explained it to me pretty well. It really is an interesting game actually. Pretty confusing, but interesting. We got the results and headed out to find a real meal. We ended up at an American style diner that was named after Al Capone. Not really nice food or anything, but cheap and available. Those were the main two things.
Some people were getting together to play some soccer, but I was just too sore. I went to go take a shower only to find that we had no hot water. That was pretty lame. The other room had it though so I just took a shower up there. I got back and just got caught up on my journal. I had brought it with in the hopes that I could get caught on the weekend while I was there so I wouldn’t have a huge chunk of stuff to catch up on. That was nice. I also managed to get some more homework done, which was a major plus.
When everyone was back and cleaned up we went out to dinner. We stopped at this little Italian pizza place that was really good. Hot and salty. It really hit the spot. We headed over to a bar where they were having the proper awards ceremony and sat through that. I found out that I had ended up in the top half over all for the weekend so I was pretty happy about that. After that they threw a party and we spent the night there. It was a good night expect that someone had been breaking glass all over the dance floor and one of our guys fell on to it. He got a little cut which wasn’t that bad, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Eventually we had to take him to the hospital to get it looked at. They bandaged it up and told him to come back in the morning.
The running clubs here are very different from running back home. First of all, there is a lot more permanent attachment. For example, one of the guys who ran on our team had graduated years ago but still came along. It also wasn’t uncommon to see people in their forties or fifties in club shirts along for the ride. It was also a lot more laid back since it was run by students.
Here’s a link to some pictures and results. I was running for Imperial.
http://www.manxathletics.com/manxharriers/EFhomepage.htm
April 9th
After breakfast, the guy who had gotten cut went to the hospital for some stitches, which took a little more than hour. In that time, I got all my stuff together and got packed up. We dropped our stuff on in the lobby and headed out to find some food. We walked around and eventually headed up to Manx museum to see that all stuff and try to get some sense of the island’s history. We grabbed some food in the café there and then walked around for a bit. We watched a movie on the history of the island, which was nice. It would have been fun to be able to explore more, but I still had a really great time. Our ferry left at three in the afternoon so we went and caught that. We were kind of late getting there and so didn’t get seats on the main level and ended up sitting out on the deck. That was fairly cold. The ship was moving at about 45 miles an hour so the breeze was fairly strong. I sat out there for the trip and got a lot of reading done. I just found a nice little sheltered spot and hunkered down. It was cold, but it really wasn’t that bad.
We got back in to Liverpool and had to rush to get out train. On the way there the cab we were in actually got hit by another car. It wasn’t all that bad, but the mirror was busted and the other driver took off. Not a good way to start out trip back home. We got on out train and rode that for awhile until we had to get off and catch a bus to get on the next one. Once we got through that we caught another train and were finally back home in London. The reason that things were o screwy was because it was a bank holiday, like a federal holiday back home in the states. That meant that a lot of things were closed down, like the rail system.
We got back into London and said our goodbyes. I caught the Tube home and was back around 10:30 or so. I had a ton of emails to catch up with so I spent a few hours doing that and then went to bed.
April 10th
Work was pretty boring today. Damien was still working on his project and so he hadn’t had a chance to do any work on the stuff I needed. I messed around for a little bit and he gave me some research to, but it was really just busy work. I really wasn’t feeling well either. I had a blast this weekend, but it was really catching up to me. I was really tired from the lack of sleep and I was feeling sicker. I had gotten to the point where I have had a pretty bad cough. I’ve been coughing up some pretty nasty stuff and it has been getting worse. I asked Damien for the rest of the day off and he gave it to me. I grabbed some food and ended up sitting around for most of the afternoon. I was just exhausted on a couple of different levels really. I didn’t really accomplish much then. I made some dinner then got down to the work. I spent a couple of hours reading before Mom and Dad called and I talked to them. That was really nice.
April 11th
Today I got up coughing. I got a good night’s sleep tonight, but that didn’t seem to help that much. I did get some stuff done in the morning though. I got my resume updated so I can start sending that out soon here and I got some reading done. Other than that I wasn’t all that productive. I’m just not well at the moment I guess.
Ethno was pretty good today though. It was a pretty laid back class. We listened to a lot more music and Justin explained a lot about the subcultures that went along with some of the styles, which was pretty cool. I had another really good time. I had a pretty big break after this class because we were rehearsing a little skit in the theatre class. I went and met with my partner and we spent an hour or so memorizing out lines and getting that all done. We did pretty well and the comments were pretty positive. We still have a few things to polish up, but we should have it down pretty soon.
I came back from that and made some dinner. I was going to go do some laundry, but one of the dryers was busted and I didn’t want to wait around for a couple of hours to get all that done so I came back to the flat and got caught up on my blog. I spent about 2 hours on that before going to bed.
Didn’t do a whole lot this morning really. I was still hurting from the soccer but I did get a short run in. I got back from that and just sat around until class. Ethno was really good today. We spent a lot more time listening to the Beatles and Justin went into pretty deep detail about them. We covered a lot of stuff really. I really enjoy that kind of thing. I just think its so cool to hear how all these bands started out and all the works that influenced them. You learn so many cool and interesting things. I think its just a blast.
After class I came back and made some food and then I had a play to go to. The play we were going to was Equus and it starred the people who played Harry Potter and Uncle Vernon. Daniel Radcliff plays a boy who has blinded six horses and the Uncle Vernon guy plays his psychologist. It’s a really good story. Radcliff was sick or something the night we went so he wasn’t on the top of his game, but it was still a really good play. I really enjoyed.
I got back from that and had some packing to do. We weren’t actually going to be leaving the next day until almost nine at night, so I just laid everything out I was going to need and doubled checked it. After that I headed to bed to get some rest.
April 5th
I got up for a short run this morning to get loosened up and it felt really good. Damien had a couple more things for me to do with the DVD, so I got those all set up. I did some more work with the market survey because the DVD stuff really didn’t take me that long at all. Damien has a big conference to get ready for so he has been working on stuff for that. The problem is all the stuff I need to do is dependent on him right now. I need him to give some things in French for the DVD and the information that I need to contact companies in the market survey for. Without either of those, I really don’t have anything to do.
After work I came home really quick and got something to eat. I got some last minute emails out and was on my way to the train station. I met up with the people I was running with there and when they showed up we bought our tickets. We headed out to Liverpool and I played cards most of the way. Two of the guys were out sick most of the time from motion sickness. When we got to Liverpool we promptly got lost. One of the guys had printed off directions, but not a map and given the nature of British street that was quite a problem. Eventually we gave up on that plan and just caught a cab. The place we stayed at was really nice, but we pretty much just headed straight to bed.
April 6th
We got up early this morning and went to breakfast. I was really impressed. I was expecting them to have some cereal and toast out with tea and coffee. Instead, they had a buffet with all the makings for a full English breakfast. That was a very pleasant surprise, which I enjoyed very much. After we got finished up we headed out to the docks. They weren’t very far away and we found them quick enough. We found the ferry place pretty quickly and got checked in. We had a little while to wait and so we sat around in the lobby of the place and just relaxed for a while. Once on board we grabbed a seat and relaxed. We got out of the port really late because of all the traffic that was around. Not really sure if they meant on the river or what, but after that was cleared we had to wait again for a boat to get out of our way so we ended up leaving pretty late: something like 45 minutes. The ride itself took a couple of hours, almost all of which we played cards. I learned some new games, which was nice.
Once we got on the island we went and got checked in to our hotel. It was a pretty nice place. My roommate and I definitely got the short end of the stick when it came to rooms, but it wasn’t a big deal. Once we got our stuff unpacked we headed out to find some food. The only place that we found that was open was a little newsagent type place that had some sandwiches and drinks. We got some of those and sat on the promenade eating them. We headed back after that to get ready to go. We had to catch a bus because the race was actually on the other side of the island. After about a half an hour bus ride we were there. We got check into the race and out on a little warm up run.
The race itself was really pretty. We wound out along the beach and then cut up into the countryside. It was really pretty and I had plenty of time to enjoy it. I did not run that well. I think I probably went out a little too hard and I don’t think I was felling that good. I’ve been feeling sick lately so I think that took a toll on me. I didn’t run it in a terrible time, just not one that was as fast as I thought it could be.
After the race, we headed out to shower and then to get some food. There was a fish and chips shop on the way back so we stopped there to get some food. That tasted so good. Granted, it probably wasn’t the best thing in the world to be eating, but at that point I really didn’t care that much. We went back down to the pub where the bus was coming to pick us up and waited around there for a while, maybe about an hour. On that showed up we hopped on headed back.
April 7th
We had plenty of time to sleep in this morning and took full advantage of it. I had a full English breakfast again which was a great way to start off the day. After that, I walked along the promenade where we would be racing the next day just to get out and see things. This is a really pretty island. Everything is just wonderfully green and beautiful. We got back from that walk and still had some time so we went out on a short run to get loosened up for the race later on. Once we got back from that we packed up and caught the bus.
The bus ride was a little shorter than it was the day before and we were on the ocean again. Today was a four mile long hill race and they really meant it. The hills we had to climb probably rose three or four hundred feet above sea level and were pretty nasty. We were cutting up and down the entire way. I ran pretty well here though. I was angry about the way I ran the day before so I let that drive me and I was able to get into a good running mind frame, partly out of that anger. All and all it was a good race. I was happy with the results.
Once that was done we made our way back to the city we were staying in, Douglas. We took the long way back though. One of the traditions of this race was that on this day, people run back from the hill race. We threw ourselves into that. The way back was about twelve miles long and was fairly flat. The distance was made easier by the fact we stopped a few times at pubs to take a break and relax a bit. I met a lot of people on this too. We joined up with some people from Scotland who had been here before since no one in my group knew where we were going. I got to talk to a lot of people from there and made some friends. At the end of the run we went out to an Indian place with them too and got to know some more people. It was pretty cool.
April 8th
I had to be up pretty early this morning to get some breakfast before the race. Since it was a relay, they started it a lot early so that the last people wouldn’t get caught in the sun and heat. I grabbed a light breakfast and went back to bed for a couple of hours. About an hour before the race I got up and got ready. I was the first leg so I got ready right away and headed out. I was really pleased with the way everything turned out. My legs were in a sad shape from all the previous days of running and overall I was felling pretty tired. I really laid myself out there though and I think I did pretty well. My time was pretty good for what I was feeling, so I was happy with that. It was nowhere near my fastest time, but I was still really happy with it.
After the rest of the team was done we headed over to a pub to get results. The place was supposed to have a buffet for us, but all that consisted of was some bread with fries in the middle, not much of a meal really. We waited around for a while for results and while we did I got a crash course in cricket. The guys I was with were big fans and explained it to me pretty well. It really is an interesting game actually. Pretty confusing, but interesting. We got the results and headed out to find a real meal. We ended up at an American style diner that was named after Al Capone. Not really nice food or anything, but cheap and available. Those were the main two things.
Some people were getting together to play some soccer, but I was just too sore. I went to go take a shower only to find that we had no hot water. That was pretty lame. The other room had it though so I just took a shower up there. I got back and just got caught up on my journal. I had brought it with in the hopes that I could get caught on the weekend while I was there so I wouldn’t have a huge chunk of stuff to catch up on. That was nice. I also managed to get some more homework done, which was a major plus.
When everyone was back and cleaned up we went out to dinner. We stopped at this little Italian pizza place that was really good. Hot and salty. It really hit the spot. We headed over to a bar where they were having the proper awards ceremony and sat through that. I found out that I had ended up in the top half over all for the weekend so I was pretty happy about that. After that they threw a party and we spent the night there. It was a good night expect that someone had been breaking glass all over the dance floor and one of our guys fell on to it. He got a little cut which wasn’t that bad, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Eventually we had to take him to the hospital to get it looked at. They bandaged it up and told him to come back in the morning.
The running clubs here are very different from running back home. First of all, there is a lot more permanent attachment. For example, one of the guys who ran on our team had graduated years ago but still came along. It also wasn’t uncommon to see people in their forties or fifties in club shirts along for the ride. It was also a lot more laid back since it was run by students.
Here’s a link to some pictures and results. I was running for Imperial.
http://www.manxathletics.com/manxharriers/EFhomepage.htm
April 9th
After breakfast, the guy who had gotten cut went to the hospital for some stitches, which took a little more than hour. In that time, I got all my stuff together and got packed up. We dropped our stuff on in the lobby and headed out to find some food. We walked around and eventually headed up to Manx museum to see that all stuff and try to get some sense of the island’s history. We grabbed some food in the café there and then walked around for a bit. We watched a movie on the history of the island, which was nice. It would have been fun to be able to explore more, but I still had a really great time. Our ferry left at three in the afternoon so we went and caught that. We were kind of late getting there and so didn’t get seats on the main level and ended up sitting out on the deck. That was fairly cold. The ship was moving at about 45 miles an hour so the breeze was fairly strong. I sat out there for the trip and got a lot of reading done. I just found a nice little sheltered spot and hunkered down. It was cold, but it really wasn’t that bad.
We got back in to Liverpool and had to rush to get out train. On the way there the cab we were in actually got hit by another car. It wasn’t all that bad, but the mirror was busted and the other driver took off. Not a good way to start out trip back home. We got on out train and rode that for awhile until we had to get off and catch a bus to get on the next one. Once we got through that we caught another train and were finally back home in London. The reason that things were o screwy was because it was a bank holiday, like a federal holiday back home in the states. That meant that a lot of things were closed down, like the rail system.
We got back into London and said our goodbyes. I caught the Tube home and was back around 10:30 or so. I had a ton of emails to catch up with so I spent a few hours doing that and then went to bed.
April 10th
Work was pretty boring today. Damien was still working on his project and so he hadn’t had a chance to do any work on the stuff I needed. I messed around for a little bit and he gave me some research to, but it was really just busy work. I really wasn’t feeling well either. I had a blast this weekend, but it was really catching up to me. I was really tired from the lack of sleep and I was feeling sicker. I had gotten to the point where I have had a pretty bad cough. I’ve been coughing up some pretty nasty stuff and it has been getting worse. I asked Damien for the rest of the day off and he gave it to me. I grabbed some food and ended up sitting around for most of the afternoon. I was just exhausted on a couple of different levels really. I didn’t really accomplish much then. I made some dinner then got down to the work. I spent a couple of hours reading before Mom and Dad called and I talked to them. That was really nice.
April 11th
Today I got up coughing. I got a good night’s sleep tonight, but that didn’t seem to help that much. I did get some stuff done in the morning though. I got my resume updated so I can start sending that out soon here and I got some reading done. Other than that I wasn’t all that productive. I’m just not well at the moment I guess.
Ethno was pretty good today though. It was a pretty laid back class. We listened to a lot more music and Justin explained a lot about the subcultures that went along with some of the styles, which was pretty cool. I had another really good time. I had a pretty big break after this class because we were rehearsing a little skit in the theatre class. I went and met with my partner and we spent an hour or so memorizing out lines and getting that all done. We did pretty well and the comments were pretty positive. We still have a few things to polish up, but we should have it down pretty soon.
I came back from that and made some dinner. I was going to go do some laundry, but one of the dryers was busted and I didn’t want to wait around for a couple of hours to get all that done so I came back to the flat and got caught up on my blog. I spent about 2 hours on that before going to bed.
Wednesday, 4 April 2007
April 4th
April 2nd
Class this morning was a catch up day. This was the first time we had had this class in almost a month, so we had some catching up to do. We had a bunch of museums to cover and we talked a little more about World War II and started talking about Churchill a little bit and what it takes to be a hero in your county’s eyes. We were going to talk about a section of a book we read, but we didn’t have time. The teacher was felling pretty kind and ended up letting us out early. That was really nice.
After class I went with a couple to Kew gardens again. That was really nice. We followed pretty much the same path that I had gone on when everyone was out to visit, but we got in a few more things as well. It was a brilliant day for it too. The sun was out and shining and there was a nice little breeze. Just a perfect day really. We stopped and grabbed some food at the Orangery and sat out front on the lawn. We ended up just sitting out there for close to two hours enjoying the day. Woops. We moved on after that and explored the park some more. A lot of the plants had started blooming or were already in bloom. The rhododendrons were especially nice when we went. The smells were great too. You’d be walking a long a path and the wind would change all of a sudden and you’d get this blast of flowers. It was so nice.
When I got back home from that I got myself some lunch and set to work. I had a lot of pictures I wanted to go through and a lot of writing to catch up on. I wrote in my blog and journal for a long time and was all set with those. Other than that I didn’t do a whole lot. I got stuff all unpacked and set from my trip last weekend and then started getting things ready for my trip this weekend.
April 3rd
I got up this morning and wasn’t feeling all that great. I was still really sore from football on Sunday and the air here has been taking a toll on me. There is just so much crap in the air that I breath in when I run. Its just like running sand through an engine, it just rips everything up. I go away on the weekends and I’ll be fine, but as soon as I start running here, a wrench gets thrown into the works. Oh well, just a few more weeks now.
Work today was pretty good. Damien had gotten things pretty much set up with the DVD so that was almost ready to go. He still needed to get some things done with it though, so I couldn’t finish it up today. Instead, I worked on the market survey. I was going through company press releases and documentation trying to find out how much, if any, organic cotton they sold last year. It wasn’t really all that hard or anything, it was just boring. Having to wade through pages of company policy statements and goals to find a one sentence blurb about cotton is kind of boring. But, like I said, its not hard so it wasn’t that bad. I managed to get through almost the entire list Damien had given me, so I was happy about that. I even came across a couple other companies that he hadn’t found, so that was good.
I got back home and made myself some dinner. Good stuff. I really didn’t do much after that. I traded some music for a while and watched some CSI. That was my thing for the evening. I did do some homework though right before I went to bed.
Class this morning was a catch up day. This was the first time we had had this class in almost a month, so we had some catching up to do. We had a bunch of museums to cover and we talked a little more about World War II and started talking about Churchill a little bit and what it takes to be a hero in your county’s eyes. We were going to talk about a section of a book we read, but we didn’t have time. The teacher was felling pretty kind and ended up letting us out early. That was really nice.
After class I went with a couple to Kew gardens again. That was really nice. We followed pretty much the same path that I had gone on when everyone was out to visit, but we got in a few more things as well. It was a brilliant day for it too. The sun was out and shining and there was a nice little breeze. Just a perfect day really. We stopped and grabbed some food at the Orangery and sat out front on the lawn. We ended up just sitting out there for close to two hours enjoying the day. Woops. We moved on after that and explored the park some more. A lot of the plants had started blooming or were already in bloom. The rhododendrons were especially nice when we went. The smells were great too. You’d be walking a long a path and the wind would change all of a sudden and you’d get this blast of flowers. It was so nice.
When I got back home from that I got myself some lunch and set to work. I had a lot of pictures I wanted to go through and a lot of writing to catch up on. I wrote in my blog and journal for a long time and was all set with those. Other than that I didn’t do a whole lot. I got stuff all unpacked and set from my trip last weekend and then started getting things ready for my trip this weekend.
April 3rd
I got up this morning and wasn’t feeling all that great. I was still really sore from football on Sunday and the air here has been taking a toll on me. There is just so much crap in the air that I breath in when I run. Its just like running sand through an engine, it just rips everything up. I go away on the weekends and I’ll be fine, but as soon as I start running here, a wrench gets thrown into the works. Oh well, just a few more weeks now.
Work today was pretty good. Damien had gotten things pretty much set up with the DVD so that was almost ready to go. He still needed to get some things done with it though, so I couldn’t finish it up today. Instead, I worked on the market survey. I was going through company press releases and documentation trying to find out how much, if any, organic cotton they sold last year. It wasn’t really all that hard or anything, it was just boring. Having to wade through pages of company policy statements and goals to find a one sentence blurb about cotton is kind of boring. But, like I said, its not hard so it wasn’t that bad. I managed to get through almost the entire list Damien had given me, so I was happy about that. I even came across a couple other companies that he hadn’t found, so that was good.
I got back home and made myself some dinner. Good stuff. I really didn’t do much after that. I traded some music for a while and watched some CSI. That was my thing for the evening. I did do some homework though right before I went to bed.
Monday, 2 April 2007
April 2nd
March 31st
We head out at 8:30 this morning for Wales. After Cynthia had talked to us for a while I took a nice little nap. We stopped at what essentially their version of a rest stop, but a whole lot bigger. It has the grassy areas and facilities, but it also had a few restaurants and a bookstore for you to peruse. It was quite nice actually. After that we had another couple of hours to go and I did homework the entire way. We stopped at a place outside of Cardiff that was supposed to be a big outdoor museum to the Welsh lifestyle. The first thing we saw was a really modern house that was supposed to be almost completely green. I had a hard time finding the connection there to be honest. Out back they also had a stone slab that was cover in algae and sealed in a big vessel filled with water. That was going to stay closed for 50 years and when they opened it they were going to see what had happened. From there we moved on to an old fortified chateau that had some nice gardens around it. I found a little hidden one that was kind of neat. We didn’t really want to walk all the way back to the bus and there was a little tractor going around that would its way about area so you could see it. We hopped on that for a while and took a ride.
Once we everyone got back to the bus, we made the last leg of out trip to Cardiff. It was actually only about twenty minutes before we got out to go to out hostels. The place I was staying in was pretty nice, but we had some overflow to another hostel that was of a slightly lower quality. Once we got all settled, we headed out to find some food. The people at the hostel recommended a place that had a bunch of different restaurants in it, so we headed there. We ended up eating at a Mexican place and I had duck fajitas. They were pretty good. The food there was good, but the service was pretty bad. It took forever to get our food, we didn’t get everything we ordered and overall it was just very sub par.
We finished up out food there and went to the castle in the town square to go take a tour. Just as we were getting across the street, it just starting pouring out. It was like buckets of water had been dumped on our heads. Luckily, we were able to find refuge in the gift shop front and by the time the tour started, the rain had stopped. The tour of the castle was pretty much what I had expected. It was a ridiculously ornate place built by someone with too much money. There was an old castle on the site that was pretty cool to wander and climb on though.
Once we were done there, I went exploring with a couple other people from the group. We set out to find the bay this city was so famous for. We ended up finding a wharf that was pretty cool. There was also a huge bar/pub in the middle of this residential district that we went and checked out. It was a really nice place and we ended up sitting there for about two hours and getting something to eat. After a bit we went and tried to find some people to meet up with, but it was really far away and on the way we met some other people from our group and followed them to a pub. That place was just loud and over crowded and I headed out of there pretty quickly. We wandered around to another club that was also really crowded and ended up heading back to the pub on the wharf. They had a live band on stage that was pretty good and we had a blast. We started heading back and on the way stopped at another pub along the way. We had one more pint there and got back and called it a night.
April 1st
I got up this morning and headed down to breakfast. I spent a good amount of time catching up with people from the night before and then we headed out to the mine. We started heading to the other hostel to pick up a latecomer. We got about 15 minutes away from the hostel when we realized that we had left someone behind. We turned around as quick as we could and went to pick him up. Personally, I think it took him pretty good. After we were sure that we had everyone, we went off. We were within about half an hour of the mine so that wasn’t a big deal at all.
The mine itself was pretty cool. We had to leave anything that had a dry cell battery on the surface because that could cause a spark ho enough to ignite the methane gas down there and kill everyone in the mine. So that would have been bad. We got all kitted out with a light, battery, and survival gear. We headed down and took a tour of a bunch of the old mine shafts and some of the mining equipment. It was pretty cool. The tour guide was absolutely amazing. He was an old miner who had worked in the mines for 26 years before the mine was closed down. He was a really funny guy. We got done with the tour and headed above ground. The first place we went was a mineshaft that was accessible from the surface, but they were having power problems so we had to move on. I went up to the tip of the mine complex and took a look at the old shower facilities that had been turned into a museum. That was pretty cool. There was some interesting history there. I headed down to the bus and the group took a big group photo of everyone. Unfortunately, my hair was not cooperating.
We got on the bus and I did homework the rest of the trip. We did stop at another rest stop on the way back and had some lunch, but other than that I plowed through some reading. When we got back I was going to do some homework, but the weather got in the way. It was absolutely gorgeous out. A bunch of people were getting a soccer game together and after I got some emails out, I headed out to join them. We played out in the park for the better part of two hours and it was just a blast. It felt really good. When we got done, I came back and made some food before getting myself all cleaned up. I headed to Metrogate to get a paper typed up and spent about three hours there doing that. While I was there Dad called and we talked for a while. That was really nice. Once, I was done with that I called it a night.
We head out at 8:30 this morning for Wales. After Cynthia had talked to us for a while I took a nice little nap. We stopped at what essentially their version of a rest stop, but a whole lot bigger. It has the grassy areas and facilities, but it also had a few restaurants and a bookstore for you to peruse. It was quite nice actually. After that we had another couple of hours to go and I did homework the entire way. We stopped at a place outside of Cardiff that was supposed to be a big outdoor museum to the Welsh lifestyle. The first thing we saw was a really modern house that was supposed to be almost completely green. I had a hard time finding the connection there to be honest. Out back they also had a stone slab that was cover in algae and sealed in a big vessel filled with water. That was going to stay closed for 50 years and when they opened it they were going to see what had happened. From there we moved on to an old fortified chateau that had some nice gardens around it. I found a little hidden one that was kind of neat. We didn’t really want to walk all the way back to the bus and there was a little tractor going around that would its way about area so you could see it. We hopped on that for a while and took a ride.
Once we everyone got back to the bus, we made the last leg of out trip to Cardiff. It was actually only about twenty minutes before we got out to go to out hostels. The place I was staying in was pretty nice, but we had some overflow to another hostel that was of a slightly lower quality. Once we got all settled, we headed out to find some food. The people at the hostel recommended a place that had a bunch of different restaurants in it, so we headed there. We ended up eating at a Mexican place and I had duck fajitas. They were pretty good. The food there was good, but the service was pretty bad. It took forever to get our food, we didn’t get everything we ordered and overall it was just very sub par.
We finished up out food there and went to the castle in the town square to go take a tour. Just as we were getting across the street, it just starting pouring out. It was like buckets of water had been dumped on our heads. Luckily, we were able to find refuge in the gift shop front and by the time the tour started, the rain had stopped. The tour of the castle was pretty much what I had expected. It was a ridiculously ornate place built by someone with too much money. There was an old castle on the site that was pretty cool to wander and climb on though.
Once we were done there, I went exploring with a couple other people from the group. We set out to find the bay this city was so famous for. We ended up finding a wharf that was pretty cool. There was also a huge bar/pub in the middle of this residential district that we went and checked out. It was a really nice place and we ended up sitting there for about two hours and getting something to eat. After a bit we went and tried to find some people to meet up with, but it was really far away and on the way we met some other people from our group and followed them to a pub. That place was just loud and over crowded and I headed out of there pretty quickly. We wandered around to another club that was also really crowded and ended up heading back to the pub on the wharf. They had a live band on stage that was pretty good and we had a blast. We started heading back and on the way stopped at another pub along the way. We had one more pint there and got back and called it a night.
April 1st
I got up this morning and headed down to breakfast. I spent a good amount of time catching up with people from the night before and then we headed out to the mine. We started heading to the other hostel to pick up a latecomer. We got about 15 minutes away from the hostel when we realized that we had left someone behind. We turned around as quick as we could and went to pick him up. Personally, I think it took him pretty good. After we were sure that we had everyone, we went off. We were within about half an hour of the mine so that wasn’t a big deal at all.
The mine itself was pretty cool. We had to leave anything that had a dry cell battery on the surface because that could cause a spark ho enough to ignite the methane gas down there and kill everyone in the mine. So that would have been bad. We got all kitted out with a light, battery, and survival gear. We headed down and took a tour of a bunch of the old mine shafts and some of the mining equipment. It was pretty cool. The tour guide was absolutely amazing. He was an old miner who had worked in the mines for 26 years before the mine was closed down. He was a really funny guy. We got done with the tour and headed above ground. The first place we went was a mineshaft that was accessible from the surface, but they were having power problems so we had to move on. I went up to the tip of the mine complex and took a look at the old shower facilities that had been turned into a museum. That was pretty cool. There was some interesting history there. I headed down to the bus and the group took a big group photo of everyone. Unfortunately, my hair was not cooperating.
We got on the bus and I did homework the rest of the trip. We did stop at another rest stop on the way back and had some lunch, but other than that I plowed through some reading. When we got back I was going to do some homework, but the weather got in the way. It was absolutely gorgeous out. A bunch of people were getting a soccer game together and after I got some emails out, I headed out to join them. We played out in the park for the better part of two hours and it was just a blast. It felt really good. When we got done, I came back and made some food before getting myself all cleaned up. I headed to Metrogate to get a paper typed up and spent about three hours there doing that. While I was there Dad called and we talked for a while. That was really nice. Once, I was done with that I called it a night.
April 2nd
March 31st
We head out at 8:30 this morning for Wales. After Cynthia had talked to us for a while I took a nice little nap. We stopped at what essentially their version of a rest stop, but a whole lot bigger. It has the grassy areas and facilities, but it also had a few restaurants and a bookstore for you to peruse. It was quite nice actually. After that we had another couple of hours to go and I did homework the entire way. We stopped at a place outside of Cardiff that was supposed to be a big outdoor museum to the Welsh lifestyle. The first thing we saw was a really modern house that was supposed to be almost completely green. I had a hard time finding the connection there to be honest. Out back they also had a stone slab that was cover in algae and sealed in a big vessel filled with water. That was going to stay closed for 50 years and when they opened it they were going to see what had happened. From there we moved on to an old fortified chateau that had some nice gardens around it. I found a little hidden one that was kind of neat. We didn’t really want to walk all the way back to the bus and there was a little tractor going around that would its way about area so you could see it. We hopped on that for a while and took a ride.
Once we everyone got back to the bus, we made the last leg of out trip to Cardiff. It was actually only about twenty minutes before we got out to go to out hostels. The place I was staying in was pretty nice, but we had some overflow to another hostel that was of a slightly lower quality. Once we got all settled, we headed out to find some food. The people at the hostel recommended a place that had a bunch of different restaurants in it, so we headed there. We ended up eating at a Mexican place and I had duck fajitas. They were pretty good. The food there was good, but the service was pretty bad. It took forever to get our food, we didn’t get everything we ordered and overall it was just very sub par.
We finished up out food there and went to the castle in the town square to go take a tour. Just as we were getting across the street, it just starting pouring out. It was like buckets of water had been dumped on our heads. Luckily, we were able to find refuge in the gift shop front and by the time the tour started, the rain had stopped. The tour of the castle was pretty much what I had expected. It was a ridiculously ornate place built by someone with too much money. There was an old castle on the site that was pretty cool to wander and climb on though.
Once we were done there, I went exploring with a couple other people from the group. We set out to find the bay this city was so famous for. We ended up finding a wharf that was pretty cool. There was also a huge bar/pub in the middle of this residential district that we went and checked out. It was a really nice place and we ended up sitting there for about two hours and getting something to eat. After a bit we went and tried to find some people to meet up with, but it was really far away and on the way we met some other people from our group and followed them to a pub. That place was just loud and over crowded and I headed out of there pretty quickly. We wandered around to another club that was also really crowded and ended up heading back to the pub on the wharf. They had a live band on stage that was pretty good and we had a blast. We started heading back and on the way stopped at another pub along the way. We had one more pint there and got back and called it a night.
April 1st
I got up this morning and headed down to breakfast. I spent a good amount of time catching up with people from the night before and then we headed out to the mine. We started heading to the other hostel to pick up a latecomer. We got about 15 minutes away from the hostel when we realized that we had left someone behind. We turned around as quick as we could and went to pick him up. Personally, I think it took him pretty good. After we were sure that we had everyone, we went off. We were within about half an hour of the mine so that wasn’t a big deal at all.
The mine itself was pretty cool. We had to leave anything that had a dry cell battery on the surface because that could cause a spark ho enough to ignite the methane gas down there and kill everyone in the mine. So that would have been bad. We got all kitted out with a light, battery, and survival gear. We headed down and took a tour of a bunch of the old mine shafts and some of the mining equipment. It was pretty cool. The tour guide was absolutely amazing. He was an old miner who had worked in the mines for 26 years before the mine was closed down. He was a really funny guy. We got done with the tour and headed above ground. The first place we went was a mineshaft that was accessible from the surface, but they were having power problems so we had to move on. I went up to the tip of the mine complex and took a look at the old shower facilities that had been turned into a museum. That was pretty cool. There was some interesting history there. I headed down to the bus and the group took a big group photo of everyone. Unfortunately, my hair was not cooperating.
We got on the bus and I did homework the rest of the trip. We did stop at another rest stop on the way back and had some lunch, but other than that I plowed through some reading. When we got back I was going to do some homework, but the weather got in the way. It was absolutely gorgeous out. A bunch of people were getting a soccer game together and after I got some emails out, I headed out to join them. We played out in the park for the better part of two hours and it was just a blast. It felt really good. When we got done, I came back and made some food before getting myself all cleaned up. I headed to Metrogate to get a paper typed up and spent about three hours there doing that. While I was there Dad called and we talked for a while. That was really nice. Once, I was done with that I called it a night.
We head out at 8:30 this morning for Wales. After Cynthia had talked to us for a while I took a nice little nap. We stopped at what essentially their version of a rest stop, but a whole lot bigger. It has the grassy areas and facilities, but it also had a few restaurants and a bookstore for you to peruse. It was quite nice actually. After that we had another couple of hours to go and I did homework the entire way. We stopped at a place outside of Cardiff that was supposed to be a big outdoor museum to the Welsh lifestyle. The first thing we saw was a really modern house that was supposed to be almost completely green. I had a hard time finding the connection there to be honest. Out back they also had a stone slab that was cover in algae and sealed in a big vessel filled with water. That was going to stay closed for 50 years and when they opened it they were going to see what had happened. From there we moved on to an old fortified chateau that had some nice gardens around it. I found a little hidden one that was kind of neat. We didn’t really want to walk all the way back to the bus and there was a little tractor going around that would its way about area so you could see it. We hopped on that for a while and took a ride.
Once we everyone got back to the bus, we made the last leg of out trip to Cardiff. It was actually only about twenty minutes before we got out to go to out hostels. The place I was staying in was pretty nice, but we had some overflow to another hostel that was of a slightly lower quality. Once we got all settled, we headed out to find some food. The people at the hostel recommended a place that had a bunch of different restaurants in it, so we headed there. We ended up eating at a Mexican place and I had duck fajitas. They were pretty good. The food there was good, but the service was pretty bad. It took forever to get our food, we didn’t get everything we ordered and overall it was just very sub par.
We finished up out food there and went to the castle in the town square to go take a tour. Just as we were getting across the street, it just starting pouring out. It was like buckets of water had been dumped on our heads. Luckily, we were able to find refuge in the gift shop front and by the time the tour started, the rain had stopped. The tour of the castle was pretty much what I had expected. It was a ridiculously ornate place built by someone with too much money. There was an old castle on the site that was pretty cool to wander and climb on though.
Once we were done there, I went exploring with a couple other people from the group. We set out to find the bay this city was so famous for. We ended up finding a wharf that was pretty cool. There was also a huge bar/pub in the middle of this residential district that we went and checked out. It was a really nice place and we ended up sitting there for about two hours and getting something to eat. After a bit we went and tried to find some people to meet up with, but it was really far away and on the way we met some other people from our group and followed them to a pub. That place was just loud and over crowded and I headed out of there pretty quickly. We wandered around to another club that was also really crowded and ended up heading back to the pub on the wharf. They had a live band on stage that was pretty good and we had a blast. We started heading back and on the way stopped at another pub along the way. We had one more pint there and got back and called it a night.
April 1st
I got up this morning and headed down to breakfast. I spent a good amount of time catching up with people from the night before and then we headed out to the mine. We started heading to the other hostel to pick up a latecomer. We got about 15 minutes away from the hostel when we realized that we had left someone behind. We turned around as quick as we could and went to pick him up. Personally, I think it took him pretty good. After we were sure that we had everyone, we went off. We were within about half an hour of the mine so that wasn’t a big deal at all.
The mine itself was pretty cool. We had to leave anything that had a dry cell battery on the surface because that could cause a spark ho enough to ignite the methane gas down there and kill everyone in the mine. So that would have been bad. We got all kitted out with a light, battery, and survival gear. We headed down and took a tour of a bunch of the old mine shafts and some of the mining equipment. It was pretty cool. The tour guide was absolutely amazing. He was an old miner who had worked in the mines for 26 years before the mine was closed down. He was a really funny guy. We got done with the tour and headed above ground. The first place we went was a mineshaft that was accessible from the surface, but they were having power problems so we had to move on. I went up to the tip of the mine complex and took a look at the old shower facilities that had been turned into a museum. That was pretty cool. There was some interesting history there. I headed down to the bus and the group took a big group photo of everyone. Unfortunately, my hair was not cooperating.
We got on the bus and I did homework the rest of the trip. We did stop at another rest stop on the way back and had some lunch, but other than that I plowed through some reading. When we got back I was going to do some homework, but the weather got in the way. It was absolutely gorgeous out. A bunch of people were getting a soccer game together and after I got some emails out, I headed out to join them. We played out in the park for the better part of two hours and it was just a blast. It felt really good. When we got done, I came back and made some food before getting myself all cleaned up. I headed to Metrogate to get a paper typed up and spent about three hours there doing that. While I was there Dad called and we talked for a while. That was really nice. Once, I was done with that I called it a night.
Friday, 30 March 2007
March 30th
March 30th
I skipped the run this morning again. I was still feeling tired and wanted to get some more rest so that when I got back the next week I would be ready to go again. Especially for the races. Work today was more of the same. I managed to get the DVD working. I had to change the format of the one video, which took me most of the morning. I use an old Compaq that would have been slow three or four years ago. I talked to Damien about the DVD and we got some things figured out. I went to lunch after that so that the computer could run some more stuff and I would have a test DVD to burn. I got back from lunch and everything was set to go. I got the files to Damien and he burned a copy before he went home for the day. I spent the beginning of the afternoon cleaning up all the files on my computer that I had been throwing around and that I didn’t need anymore. During that process, the file that I had spent most of the morning converting got deleted. So, I got back to doing that and I worked on the final layout of the DVD. Damien wanted to add some things and do a couple of things differently than I had it laid out and I was going to have to change some things to make it all work. Not a big deal and it shouldn’t take me too long to get it all figured out on Tuesday when I go in. While I was working on that Kate came and asked me if I could get some publications sent out. I spent the rest of the day doing that and headed home.
I got home from work and sat around doing some reading. I was sitting around in the TV room when someone came on and turned it on. The Weakest link was on and it was a special Doctor Who edition. It was pretty funny because I was the only one who had ever heard of the show and was laughing pretty hard the entire time. After that The Vicar of Dibbley was on. Someone else had heard of that though. I had a good time. Through out this time I was working on my journal and blog, trying to get caught up before Wales this weekend.
I skipped the run this morning again. I was still feeling tired and wanted to get some more rest so that when I got back the next week I would be ready to go again. Especially for the races. Work today was more of the same. I managed to get the DVD working. I had to change the format of the one video, which took me most of the morning. I use an old Compaq that would have been slow three or four years ago. I talked to Damien about the DVD and we got some things figured out. I went to lunch after that so that the computer could run some more stuff and I would have a test DVD to burn. I got back from lunch and everything was set to go. I got the files to Damien and he burned a copy before he went home for the day. I spent the beginning of the afternoon cleaning up all the files on my computer that I had been throwing around and that I didn’t need anymore. During that process, the file that I had spent most of the morning converting got deleted. So, I got back to doing that and I worked on the final layout of the DVD. Damien wanted to add some things and do a couple of things differently than I had it laid out and I was going to have to change some things to make it all work. Not a big deal and it shouldn’t take me too long to get it all figured out on Tuesday when I go in. While I was working on that Kate came and asked me if I could get some publications sent out. I spent the rest of the day doing that and headed home.
I got home from work and sat around doing some reading. I was sitting around in the TV room when someone came on and turned it on. The Weakest link was on and it was a special Doctor Who edition. It was pretty funny because I was the only one who had ever heard of the show and was laughing pretty hard the entire time. After that The Vicar of Dibbley was on. Someone else had heard of that though. I had a good time. Through out this time I was working on my journal and blog, trying to get caught up before Wales this weekend.
March 30th
March 29th
I skipped the run this morning. I’ve been really tired lately and I decided that the extra hour of sleep was better than the run this morning. I really didn’t regret it. It felt really good to sleep in for that little while. I got to work and I spent almost the entire day working on a DVD. I got it all laid out pretty quickly, but as they say, the devil is in the details. Once I got everything worked out I started testing it and I couldn’t get it to work. One of the video files was a slightly different format and I couldn’t get it to fit in quite right. I tried a couple of things but it still didn’t work quite right. I took a break from that for a while and did some research for Damien on some companies that might or might not be selling organic cotton. That was what I was trying to find out. I was looking for numbers to on the amount of organic cotton the companies that are selling it. After that little break I looked on line to see if I could figure out the problem with the movie and I came up with nothing.
I got back from work and made myself some dinner. I was going to sit around and have a mellow night, but there was a get together going on flat four, so I decided to go check that out. It was set up something like a high school dance and the theme was black and white, so everyone was dressed up accordingly. It was alright. I had some fun with people’s camera’s that they had left sitting around. I just started taking pictures or I turned on the video and just left it sitting around. There were some pretty funny videos at the end of the night when people began to figure out what I was up too and starting having fun with it. I talked to Katie a little while when I got done there and then went to bed.
I skipped the run this morning. I’ve been really tired lately and I decided that the extra hour of sleep was better than the run this morning. I really didn’t regret it. It felt really good to sleep in for that little while. I got to work and I spent almost the entire day working on a DVD. I got it all laid out pretty quickly, but as they say, the devil is in the details. Once I got everything worked out I started testing it and I couldn’t get it to work. One of the video files was a slightly different format and I couldn’t get it to fit in quite right. I tried a couple of things but it still didn’t work quite right. I took a break from that for a while and did some research for Damien on some companies that might or might not be selling organic cotton. That was what I was trying to find out. I was looking for numbers to on the amount of organic cotton the companies that are selling it. After that little break I looked on line to see if I could figure out the problem with the movie and I came up with nothing.
I got back from work and made myself some dinner. I was going to sit around and have a mellow night, but there was a get together going on flat four, so I decided to go check that out. It was set up something like a high school dance and the theme was black and white, so everyone was dressed up accordingly. It was alright. I had some fun with people’s camera’s that they had left sitting around. I just started taking pictures or I turned on the video and just left it sitting around. There were some pretty funny videos at the end of the night when people began to figure out what I was up too and starting having fun with it. I talked to Katie a little while when I got done there and then went to bed.
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
March 29th
March 22nd
I got up this morning and missed out on my run. I usually get up and eat something before I go run. I did that this morning and I got cut out of the bathroom by people getting ready to go to class. By the time they were out of there it was too late to go out for a run and be ready for work on time so I just sat around for a while. Damien wants me to work on a DVD that has a couple different versions of a movie so that they can sell it. Since I don’t really have a whole lot of experience with that, I spent a good chunk of the morning looking around on line for a program that would work and how to use it, things like that. I eventually found one that had everything we needed so we decided to give the download a try. It worked out pretty good and I think I should be able to do everything he wants me to do with it. I played around with it for a while on his laptop, since I can’t install any programs on the computer I use. Apparently they don’t trust their volunteers with that sort of thing. I also helped Damien do some cleaning. We went down to a couple of store rooms they had and started going through boxes. We rearranged a bunch of them so that more stuff would fit and brought a bunch of upstairs to be used, but we threw most of them out. They were old journals that weren’t going to get used so we put them all in the recycling bin.
After work I was going to a movie called 300 about the battle of Thermopoli. Great movie. I got to Leicester Square pretty early so I went to a pub to get some food and sat around there for a while. After that I got up and explored the area. I have never walked around that part of the town before really so I went and took a look. After the movie we took a bus back and I got all packed up for my trip before going to bed.
March 23rd
I got up and was out the door this morning. I spent the entire day working on the DVD and things are turning out pretty good I think. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on everything and I really don’t have a lot to do to be honest. The layout will be pretty easy and shouldn’t really be that big of a deal. I have a couple more things to finish up on it, but it shouldn’t take me to long. The big thing is going to be testing it and making sure that everything works. That should be interesting.
I left work early so I could get out to the airport for my flight. The airport, Stansted, was about an hour by bus away from where I work, so it wasn’t close. I took the Tube to the bus station and found a bus. That was actually quite the trek. I walked around the entire station and didn’t see the ticket stand for the buses, so I asked one of the info people. He gave me direction and I still couldn’t find it so I went outside and looked around with no more luck. I did see the buses and that’s when it hit me that you buy the tickets on the bus. Woops. I felt pretty smart. I got on the bus okay and read al the way out to the airport. I met up with Amanda and Austin and we got all checked in through security. That was not without incident though. I brought a bag with an internal frame and apparently that looked like a knife to the screener guy so I had to have my bag searched. Not a big deal, but it was annoying. We got some food and chilled until our flight came up. For being pretty cheap, it was a nice flight. There wasn’t anything special about it, but when you’re only flying for an hour or so you really don’t need that much.
We touched down and had to hurry to find the bus to get us to Galway. We went to one of the bus parks, but apparently that was the wrong one because no one was there. We walked around some more and saw the buses and ran over to make sure we didn’t miss it. We got on one to Galway and made it there in pretty good time. Our hostel was literally right across from the stop so that was really nice. We got all checked in and set out in search of some food. The only place that was open at that point was a Domino’s so we ordered a big family meal and went out Eyre square to eat it. We found a bench and literally inhaled everything we had. The hostel we were staying at had a bar attached so we went and checked that out. There was a guy playing guitar who was pretty good. He must have played for a good two hours without a break. It was pretty impressive. After that we headed back to our room and called it a night.
March 24th
We got this morning fairly early to get going. I got up to take a shower and found out instead of shampoo I had bought a bunch of conditioner. Not a whole lot of help to be honest. We stopped down to the little kitchen and got some food to eat before we headed out to find the bus that would take us to the ferry. That was actually just around the corner from the place we were staying so that wasn’t bad at all. The trip out there was really pretty. The houses along the way were all so nice. None of them were really big or anything like that, they were just all really elegant and well designed. The country was really pretty too. The whole place had been divided up by fences made out of these flat pieces of limestone all stacked together. That was really cool to see. The ride to the stop took us about 45 minutes and when we got there we stopped at a café to get some water. We got on board the boat and had about another 45 minute ride to get out to the island. Really wasn’t much to see there.
The first thing we did once we got on the island was go to a place that rents bikes and pick on up. The island itself really wasn’t that big so almost everything was in biking distance. That was really nice. We got all set up with the bikes and we headed off along the coast. We stopped a couple of times along the way to take pictures of these old buildings or the coast line but we made our first big stop at a beach with a seal colony. It had this rock face that was neatly stepped down to the ocean. On one side there was also this huge rocky burm that ran along that side of the coast then went out to sea. When we were there, there was somewhere around 20 seals all playing around in the outgoing tide or sunning themselves in shallow spots. That was cool. On the other side of the road from this beach there was an old ruined house made of the same stacked stone as the fences. The walls were all still standing but the roof was long gone and the grass had started growing on the floor. We played around in there for a while before heading off.
This place really gave me a sense of how ancient this island was. Walking around London, I get a sense that it is a very old city and has seen a lot of things. Here the feeling is different. The place feels even older than that. It some ways it was like seeing a ghost. Something long forgotten that you just sort of stumble on. It was a weird feeling but a nice one.
After we got done with that area we moved on and made a stop a little ways further on and took some more pictures of the coast. We finished up and moved on to a proper beach with sand and everything. We sat around that and took in the view. You could see the mainland through a kind of haze that has settled in. It looked nice. There was a little village just a few minutes away so we went there and found a little café to eat lunch in. It was a cool little place with a thatched roof and a peat fire going. It smelled really earthy. We finished up with that and made a trek to an old ring fort that was two or three thousand years old and still standing. We had to walk up to that because there wasn’t any sort of road and the terrain was pretty bad. We made our way up to the fort and we were in for a real treat. Part of the defences included being butted up against a sheer cliff wall. The view was absolutely amazing looking out over the Atlantic. I took a ton of pictures of the waves crashing on the rocks and breaking on the cliffs. It really was stunning.
We finished up there and slowly made our way back. We took our time and just enjoyed the weather. That was the other great thing about this day. The temp was in the 60’s the entire time and there was great breeze coming in off the sea. It was so nice. This was the first time that they had had weather like this for a couple weeks apparently. Anyways, we got back into the port and had a lot of time to sit around. Another thing I learned on this trip was that this is were Aran sweaters originated. There the ones with all the fancy stitching on the front. Apparently, all the stitches have some specific meaning and they are all hand made with out any sort of pattern. Pretty cool. We looked around there for a while then went to a place called, I kid you not, The American Bar. There was the Ireland v Wales game on so we got some chips and watched that. Then, we returned our bikes and headed home.
I do have a story about that though. I was sitting next to a guy who looked like he was having a rough time. He was keeping to himself and I was looking out the window on the other side. As we were getting into the city he asked me where I was from. It took me some time to explain that to him but eventually we got it figured out. His name was Rorrie and he ran a fishing boat out of Aran. He was telling me about how dangerous the waters up there were and then offered me a job. There you go.
We were all pretty tired and hungry when we got back so we went out in search of some food. We found a pub that served a full Irish breakfast and chowed down. I pretty well inhaled that. It was bacon, sausage, eggs, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, bread, toast and tea. It was really good. After that we were going to go take a little nap but got distracted. We were in a dorm style room with four beds. As we were laying down that fourth roommate came in and we started talking. His name was Shane and was from Belfast via Dublin. Really great guy. He was in town for a bachelor party and was apparently in his 36th straight hour of drinking. I was quite impressed. We must have talked for half an hour before he had to go out and get ready.
After out little rest, we headed out to a pub. The first couple of places we found were all really packed and we ended up settling in a place called Monroe’s. We got ourselves a spot in the corner and stayed there for a few hours. They had a live band that was really good. They played some great songs and after they finished up we headed back to the hostel.
March 25th
We got up pretty early this morning, checked out and went in search of food. That was not so lucky to be honest. There wasn’t a lot happening anywhere in the area where we lived. We eventually found a place that was opened and seemed to cater to tourists. I had what they called a breakfast roll. It was a baguette stuffed with sausage, bacon and eggs. They also served it with ranch crisps and a little salad. I can’t say I really got the last two. We hadn’t really explored the city so we did that. We were already set up with out bus tickets so we had around an hour to wander. We just walked around the back street and explored. We came to the river and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could actually see the bottom of it. It was amazing how clean it was compared to what I have seen previously. It was a nice shock though.
We got back on the bus and started riding to the cliffs of Mohr. It was about a two hour ride there and I just stared out of the window and took in the view. It was really nice country. There were still all those fences though. We had a little over hour to explore the cliffs so we got to that. We walked up and down them taking pictures and just admiring the breath taking view. It was cool. At one end of the area there was a fenced off area with a big sign that said don’t cross. The thing was though there were probably about a hundred people on the other side and some really worn paths. We took our chances and entered into the forbidden zone. Scary. Oh well, the view was even better over there and the rangers there certainly didn’t care. We finished up taking pictures and got back on the bus.
The trip back wasn’t so hot. We had to go almost all the way back to Galway to get a bus that would get us to the airport. That was the only way that we could get back in time. I just spent the entire time reading pretty much. I did spend some time looking out the windows, but it was all pretty familiar at that point. We got off at the stop and waited. The bus ended up being close to twenty minutes late. Pretty sweet. Another couple of hours and we were at the airport. The first thing we did was go look for a place to eat. Unfortunately, both the places to eat were closed for the day, so we went and raided one of the shops downstairs and sat around eating. After we finished and got checked in we headed through security and spent some time looking through the duty free shop. There was also a huge group of soldiers on there way through. An interesting thing about this airport was that it had a US customs post in it. I found out later that it was because there were so many American that came through here. Popular place. The plane ride back was uneventful
When we gto back we got some bus tickets for the ride home and once we found that and got going I was out like a light. I slept until we were almost home and when we got back there I started unpacking. I got some emails out and downloaded all my pictures. Once I was done with that I headed to bed.
March 26th
I got up this morning and headed out to the Imperial War Museum to go take a look at the World War Two exhibits. That was pretty interesting. I got to see some stuff from the home front that I wasn’t familiar with, so that was cool. I got done pretty early with that and headed home. I whipped up some lunch and had good intention of getting some work done. The problem was it was an absolutely beautiful day out and I really couldn’t keep focused. It didn’t help that I was in the common room with a bunch of other people who kept distracting me. Oh well, I can afford that. I did get some work done and after a few hours of that I got myself ready to go run. I went fairly short and just enjoyed the beautiful day. I went to the Union to get ready for circuit training but I was pretty early. I waited around for a while and still no one showed up. That’s when it hit me that they were all on Easter break already. They had started that at the end of last week I’m pretty sure. I headed home from that and made myself some dinner. I did get some good work done though.
I got all caught up on my journal and got a bunch of homework out of the way. I also waited around for my parents to give me a call. They eventually did and we talked for a quite a while. I also got to talk to Katie for the first time in a while, which was really nice.
March 27th
I got out for a nice run this morning and headed to work. I ended up getting there a little late this morning, but there really wasn’t anyone there. I sat around for awhile and worked on the DVD and after a little while Kate came up and asked me help get out some publications. There big quarterly journal had just come in from the printers so they needed to get that sent out pretty quick. I spent almost all the day working on that. I had to address the envelopes, stuff them, and then frank a bunch of them. I think I was actually getting high from the fumes in the room I was in. The ink smell was pretty strong from journals and then I was sending out a bunch of them in plastic envelopes which were giving off a unique odour. I made it through it alright and headed home. I made myself a big pasta dinner which I have to say I was pretty proud of.
After that I went to rehearse a scene for my theatre class. We have to memorize and come with actions for a scene out of a packet that our professor gave us. Its not a big deal, it’ll just take some time. I worked on that with my partner for a while and we had a pretty good handle on things. We got back fairly early from that and I got my computer out and messed around on that for a while. I finished up some more homework; some reading and then questions for it, so that’s out of the way. Its not due for some time, but I have a few other papers to do and I need to do some research for that.
March 28th
It was already a really nice day when I got out for my run this morning. While I was out though I came across something a little strange. Out in front of the Albert memorial there was a full orchestra putting on a concert. They were all dressed up and had the area all miked up. I found it a little weird, not gonna lie. I got back from that and after lunch I went out and took some more pictures of the park. I probably wandered around there for an hour and half before heading to class. Ethno today was great. We continued with our study of British music and started with some of the American music that influenced the artists that would come to form the core of British Rock and Roll. We listened to some Elvis and then a bunch of bands I had never heard of before. We then started on the Beatles. Justin gave us a big explanation about how they came to be and their history. I had heard a lot of it before, but it was still really cool. Fun class today.
I had to head to Metrogate during my break so I could register for my classes next semester. I ended being a little late for class because of it actually. I made it into all the ones I had wanted with no problems, so that was really nice. Theatre class was more rehearsing. I pretty much just sat around and watched since I had gone last week. We got out of that class pretty early which was really nice. I got back and ate some leftovers and then headed out to do some laundry. While I was there I worked on my blog and talked to Katie. I got my laundry done and headed back to the flat. I got everything put back and then finished up my blog posts and talked to Katie some more.
I got up this morning and missed out on my run. I usually get up and eat something before I go run. I did that this morning and I got cut out of the bathroom by people getting ready to go to class. By the time they were out of there it was too late to go out for a run and be ready for work on time so I just sat around for a while. Damien wants me to work on a DVD that has a couple different versions of a movie so that they can sell it. Since I don’t really have a whole lot of experience with that, I spent a good chunk of the morning looking around on line for a program that would work and how to use it, things like that. I eventually found one that had everything we needed so we decided to give the download a try. It worked out pretty good and I think I should be able to do everything he wants me to do with it. I played around with it for a while on his laptop, since I can’t install any programs on the computer I use. Apparently they don’t trust their volunteers with that sort of thing. I also helped Damien do some cleaning. We went down to a couple of store rooms they had and started going through boxes. We rearranged a bunch of them so that more stuff would fit and brought a bunch of upstairs to be used, but we threw most of them out. They were old journals that weren’t going to get used so we put them all in the recycling bin.
After work I was going to a movie called 300 about the battle of Thermopoli. Great movie. I got to Leicester Square pretty early so I went to a pub to get some food and sat around there for a while. After that I got up and explored the area. I have never walked around that part of the town before really so I went and took a look. After the movie we took a bus back and I got all packed up for my trip before going to bed.
March 23rd
I got up and was out the door this morning. I spent the entire day working on the DVD and things are turning out pretty good I think. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on everything and I really don’t have a lot to do to be honest. The layout will be pretty easy and shouldn’t really be that big of a deal. I have a couple more things to finish up on it, but it shouldn’t take me to long. The big thing is going to be testing it and making sure that everything works. That should be interesting.
I left work early so I could get out to the airport for my flight. The airport, Stansted, was about an hour by bus away from where I work, so it wasn’t close. I took the Tube to the bus station and found a bus. That was actually quite the trek. I walked around the entire station and didn’t see the ticket stand for the buses, so I asked one of the info people. He gave me direction and I still couldn’t find it so I went outside and looked around with no more luck. I did see the buses and that’s when it hit me that you buy the tickets on the bus. Woops. I felt pretty smart. I got on the bus okay and read al the way out to the airport. I met up with Amanda and Austin and we got all checked in through security. That was not without incident though. I brought a bag with an internal frame and apparently that looked like a knife to the screener guy so I had to have my bag searched. Not a big deal, but it was annoying. We got some food and chilled until our flight came up. For being pretty cheap, it was a nice flight. There wasn’t anything special about it, but when you’re only flying for an hour or so you really don’t need that much.
We touched down and had to hurry to find the bus to get us to Galway. We went to one of the bus parks, but apparently that was the wrong one because no one was there. We walked around some more and saw the buses and ran over to make sure we didn’t miss it. We got on one to Galway and made it there in pretty good time. Our hostel was literally right across from the stop so that was really nice. We got all checked in and set out in search of some food. The only place that was open at that point was a Domino’s so we ordered a big family meal and went out Eyre square to eat it. We found a bench and literally inhaled everything we had. The hostel we were staying at had a bar attached so we went and checked that out. There was a guy playing guitar who was pretty good. He must have played for a good two hours without a break. It was pretty impressive. After that we headed back to our room and called it a night.
March 24th
We got this morning fairly early to get going. I got up to take a shower and found out instead of shampoo I had bought a bunch of conditioner. Not a whole lot of help to be honest. We stopped down to the little kitchen and got some food to eat before we headed out to find the bus that would take us to the ferry. That was actually just around the corner from the place we were staying so that wasn’t bad at all. The trip out there was really pretty. The houses along the way were all so nice. None of them were really big or anything like that, they were just all really elegant and well designed. The country was really pretty too. The whole place had been divided up by fences made out of these flat pieces of limestone all stacked together. That was really cool to see. The ride to the stop took us about 45 minutes and when we got there we stopped at a café to get some water. We got on board the boat and had about another 45 minute ride to get out to the island. Really wasn’t much to see there.
The first thing we did once we got on the island was go to a place that rents bikes and pick on up. The island itself really wasn’t that big so almost everything was in biking distance. That was really nice. We got all set up with the bikes and we headed off along the coast. We stopped a couple of times along the way to take pictures of these old buildings or the coast line but we made our first big stop at a beach with a seal colony. It had this rock face that was neatly stepped down to the ocean. On one side there was also this huge rocky burm that ran along that side of the coast then went out to sea. When we were there, there was somewhere around 20 seals all playing around in the outgoing tide or sunning themselves in shallow spots. That was cool. On the other side of the road from this beach there was an old ruined house made of the same stacked stone as the fences. The walls were all still standing but the roof was long gone and the grass had started growing on the floor. We played around in there for a while before heading off.
This place really gave me a sense of how ancient this island was. Walking around London, I get a sense that it is a very old city and has seen a lot of things. Here the feeling is different. The place feels even older than that. It some ways it was like seeing a ghost. Something long forgotten that you just sort of stumble on. It was a weird feeling but a nice one.
After we got done with that area we moved on and made a stop a little ways further on and took some more pictures of the coast. We finished up and moved on to a proper beach with sand and everything. We sat around that and took in the view. You could see the mainland through a kind of haze that has settled in. It looked nice. There was a little village just a few minutes away so we went there and found a little café to eat lunch in. It was a cool little place with a thatched roof and a peat fire going. It smelled really earthy. We finished up with that and made a trek to an old ring fort that was two or three thousand years old and still standing. We had to walk up to that because there wasn’t any sort of road and the terrain was pretty bad. We made our way up to the fort and we were in for a real treat. Part of the defences included being butted up against a sheer cliff wall. The view was absolutely amazing looking out over the Atlantic. I took a ton of pictures of the waves crashing on the rocks and breaking on the cliffs. It really was stunning.
We finished up there and slowly made our way back. We took our time and just enjoyed the weather. That was the other great thing about this day. The temp was in the 60’s the entire time and there was great breeze coming in off the sea. It was so nice. This was the first time that they had had weather like this for a couple weeks apparently. Anyways, we got back into the port and had a lot of time to sit around. Another thing I learned on this trip was that this is were Aran sweaters originated. There the ones with all the fancy stitching on the front. Apparently, all the stitches have some specific meaning and they are all hand made with out any sort of pattern. Pretty cool. We looked around there for a while then went to a place called, I kid you not, The American Bar. There was the Ireland v Wales game on so we got some chips and watched that. Then, we returned our bikes and headed home.
I do have a story about that though. I was sitting next to a guy who looked like he was having a rough time. He was keeping to himself and I was looking out the window on the other side. As we were getting into the city he asked me where I was from. It took me some time to explain that to him but eventually we got it figured out. His name was Rorrie and he ran a fishing boat out of Aran. He was telling me about how dangerous the waters up there were and then offered me a job. There you go.
We were all pretty tired and hungry when we got back so we went out in search of some food. We found a pub that served a full Irish breakfast and chowed down. I pretty well inhaled that. It was bacon, sausage, eggs, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, bread, toast and tea. It was really good. After that we were going to go take a little nap but got distracted. We were in a dorm style room with four beds. As we were laying down that fourth roommate came in and we started talking. His name was Shane and was from Belfast via Dublin. Really great guy. He was in town for a bachelor party and was apparently in his 36th straight hour of drinking. I was quite impressed. We must have talked for half an hour before he had to go out and get ready.
After out little rest, we headed out to a pub. The first couple of places we found were all really packed and we ended up settling in a place called Monroe’s. We got ourselves a spot in the corner and stayed there for a few hours. They had a live band that was really good. They played some great songs and after they finished up we headed back to the hostel.
March 25th
We got up pretty early this morning, checked out and went in search of food. That was not so lucky to be honest. There wasn’t a lot happening anywhere in the area where we lived. We eventually found a place that was opened and seemed to cater to tourists. I had what they called a breakfast roll. It was a baguette stuffed with sausage, bacon and eggs. They also served it with ranch crisps and a little salad. I can’t say I really got the last two. We hadn’t really explored the city so we did that. We were already set up with out bus tickets so we had around an hour to wander. We just walked around the back street and explored. We came to the river and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could actually see the bottom of it. It was amazing how clean it was compared to what I have seen previously. It was a nice shock though.
We got back on the bus and started riding to the cliffs of Mohr. It was about a two hour ride there and I just stared out of the window and took in the view. It was really nice country. There were still all those fences though. We had a little over hour to explore the cliffs so we got to that. We walked up and down them taking pictures and just admiring the breath taking view. It was cool. At one end of the area there was a fenced off area with a big sign that said don’t cross. The thing was though there were probably about a hundred people on the other side and some really worn paths. We took our chances and entered into the forbidden zone. Scary. Oh well, the view was even better over there and the rangers there certainly didn’t care. We finished up taking pictures and got back on the bus.
The trip back wasn’t so hot. We had to go almost all the way back to Galway to get a bus that would get us to the airport. That was the only way that we could get back in time. I just spent the entire time reading pretty much. I did spend some time looking out the windows, but it was all pretty familiar at that point. We got off at the stop and waited. The bus ended up being close to twenty minutes late. Pretty sweet. Another couple of hours and we were at the airport. The first thing we did was go look for a place to eat. Unfortunately, both the places to eat were closed for the day, so we went and raided one of the shops downstairs and sat around eating. After we finished and got checked in we headed through security and spent some time looking through the duty free shop. There was also a huge group of soldiers on there way through. An interesting thing about this airport was that it had a US customs post in it. I found out later that it was because there were so many American that came through here. Popular place. The plane ride back was uneventful
When we gto back we got some bus tickets for the ride home and once we found that and got going I was out like a light. I slept until we were almost home and when we got back there I started unpacking. I got some emails out and downloaded all my pictures. Once I was done with that I headed to bed.
March 26th
I got up this morning and headed out to the Imperial War Museum to go take a look at the World War Two exhibits. That was pretty interesting. I got to see some stuff from the home front that I wasn’t familiar with, so that was cool. I got done pretty early with that and headed home. I whipped up some lunch and had good intention of getting some work done. The problem was it was an absolutely beautiful day out and I really couldn’t keep focused. It didn’t help that I was in the common room with a bunch of other people who kept distracting me. Oh well, I can afford that. I did get some work done and after a few hours of that I got myself ready to go run. I went fairly short and just enjoyed the beautiful day. I went to the Union to get ready for circuit training but I was pretty early. I waited around for a while and still no one showed up. That’s when it hit me that they were all on Easter break already. They had started that at the end of last week I’m pretty sure. I headed home from that and made myself some dinner. I did get some good work done though.
I got all caught up on my journal and got a bunch of homework out of the way. I also waited around for my parents to give me a call. They eventually did and we talked for a quite a while. I also got to talk to Katie for the first time in a while, which was really nice.
March 27th
I got out for a nice run this morning and headed to work. I ended up getting there a little late this morning, but there really wasn’t anyone there. I sat around for awhile and worked on the DVD and after a little while Kate came up and asked me help get out some publications. There big quarterly journal had just come in from the printers so they needed to get that sent out pretty quick. I spent almost all the day working on that. I had to address the envelopes, stuff them, and then frank a bunch of them. I think I was actually getting high from the fumes in the room I was in. The ink smell was pretty strong from journals and then I was sending out a bunch of them in plastic envelopes which were giving off a unique odour. I made it through it alright and headed home. I made myself a big pasta dinner which I have to say I was pretty proud of.
After that I went to rehearse a scene for my theatre class. We have to memorize and come with actions for a scene out of a packet that our professor gave us. Its not a big deal, it’ll just take some time. I worked on that with my partner for a while and we had a pretty good handle on things. We got back fairly early from that and I got my computer out and messed around on that for a while. I finished up some more homework; some reading and then questions for it, so that’s out of the way. Its not due for some time, but I have a few other papers to do and I need to do some research for that.
March 28th
It was already a really nice day when I got out for my run this morning. While I was out though I came across something a little strange. Out in front of the Albert memorial there was a full orchestra putting on a concert. They were all dressed up and had the area all miked up. I found it a little weird, not gonna lie. I got back from that and after lunch I went out and took some more pictures of the park. I probably wandered around there for an hour and half before heading to class. Ethno today was great. We continued with our study of British music and started with some of the American music that influenced the artists that would come to form the core of British Rock and Roll. We listened to some Elvis and then a bunch of bands I had never heard of before. We then started on the Beatles. Justin gave us a big explanation about how they came to be and their history. I had heard a lot of it before, but it was still really cool. Fun class today.
I had to head to Metrogate during my break so I could register for my classes next semester. I ended being a little late for class because of it actually. I made it into all the ones I had wanted with no problems, so that was really nice. Theatre class was more rehearsing. I pretty much just sat around and watched since I had gone last week. We got out of that class pretty early which was really nice. I got back and ate some leftovers and then headed out to do some laundry. While I was there I worked on my blog and talked to Katie. I got my laundry done and headed back to the flat. I got everything put back and then finished up my blog posts and talked to Katie some more.
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
March 21st
I think I screwed up my dates somewhere around here, but these should be right now.
March 19th
This morning, I had to run to Metrogate and type up some homework. I had forgotten about it up until last night, so I decided to get up and do it now. That didn’t take really long and I got that sent off before heading out to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. That was really cool. It was really neat to see all the old rooms just the way they were set up. I really liked the Churchill Museum though. It was a different side of him that I was used too. He was a lot more human than he is normally portrayed. They were really clear about his flaws and deficiencies. It was pretty cool.
After that I stopped by Metrogate to work on a paper. I spent some time there and went and made a small lunch. I sat around for a little while before I went out to go run. I wasn’t feeling really good for some reason, I’m not sure why. I don’t think I’ve been getting enough sleep and maybe I’m not quite eating right. I don’t know. I went out on that and was going to go to circuit training but I just wasn’t feeling that good. I came home and sat around for a while and than I had to go to a class tonight. It was my theater class because we had had it cancelled last week. It was a really fun class. We spent the first hour or two going through and playing games that were supposed to teach us about acting and feeling our position on stage. That was a lot of fun. After that we worked on some lines we had learned a while ago and went through doing funny things with that. We had to pick a certain way we wanted to portray the scene and then figure it all out. It was fun.
I came home and got myself ready for bed. I did some reading and watched some TV before calling it a night.
March 20th
I got up t run this morning but I was really not feeling well. I was just really tired and I was definitely was not on my game. It was also raining when I got up this morning, so I didn’t think that that would be a good idea. I went back to bed for about an hour and then got up and ready for work. I spent the first couple of hours finishing up the last of the Ireland entries. I only ending up scraping together four in total. There really wasn’t that much going on in there. Most of the companies that I contacted didn’t sell it anymore and they really weren’t promoting it in any meaningful way. Organic cotton is not a big thing there apparently. When I got done with that, Damien sent me on a break so he could get some stuff ready for me to work on. I spent the rest of the day pretty much working on stuffing some more envelopes to be sent out. I think I ended up doing about fifty of those over the course of the day. About two thirds of the way through I had to make a run to the printer and make a bunch more cover letters for the mailings. That was pretty interesting. It took me a while to get everything all figured out, but once I did things seemed to go pretty easily. I got those all finished up and with about half an hour left in the day Damien came and talked to me about my next project. He wants to get a DVD set up to send out to people and was wondering what I knew about authoring programs. It looks like it should be pretty simple, so it shouldn’t be a big deal.
I got done with work and headed home. My computer finally showed up so I picked that up from Metrogate. That was really nice. I spent a good couple of hours while I was eating getting my computer updated and backed up. That was really nice. I for that all finished up and then watched some TV for the rest of the night. I finished up the rest of my paper and called it a night.
March 21st
I got up today and got out for a run. I spent a bunch of time getting pictures uploaded onto Facebook, but for some reason I couldn’t get it up on my other site. I’ll try to get those uploaded later, but that’s going to take me some time because I have a lot of those. After that I did some reading for one of my classes today. That took me a bit. After that I had to go out and get some travel size shampoo and stuff like that. I hopped on a bus and was going to head to a Boots that was supposed to be pretty close. I must have missed that because I spent about a half an hour riding. I eventually muddled my way through it all and found one, but it wasn’t much. They really didn’t have much of a selection but I got what I needed so I headed home. I took the Tube because I was that far away from home. When I got back to Glouster I headed to a place to get some Euros for my trip this weekend. That didn’t take me very long then I headed to class.
Ethno today was a lot of fun. We started off going over the ethnic heritage and makeup which was pretty interesting. The really fun part came at the end though. We started tracing the history of Britain pop culture from the perspective of music. We looked at how Jazz and Blues had come in and shaped the British music scene. We listened to some really great old tracks. That was really amazing. I had to go print out some stuff after that and then went and grabbed some dinner. Class tonight was pretty cool too. We had picked a scene last class and we rehearsed the part in class. I spent a lot of time going over the scene I had picked with my partner, Austin. It was something different, that’s for sure. I definitely had some fun with it.
After that I came back and made a snack and worked on my blog for a bit. I watched some movies for the rest of the night then headed to bed.
March 19th
This morning, I had to run to Metrogate and type up some homework. I had forgotten about it up until last night, so I decided to get up and do it now. That didn’t take really long and I got that sent off before heading out to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. That was really cool. It was really neat to see all the old rooms just the way they were set up. I really liked the Churchill Museum though. It was a different side of him that I was used too. He was a lot more human than he is normally portrayed. They were really clear about his flaws and deficiencies. It was pretty cool.
After that I stopped by Metrogate to work on a paper. I spent some time there and went and made a small lunch. I sat around for a little while before I went out to go run. I wasn’t feeling really good for some reason, I’m not sure why. I don’t think I’ve been getting enough sleep and maybe I’m not quite eating right. I don’t know. I went out on that and was going to go to circuit training but I just wasn’t feeling that good. I came home and sat around for a while and than I had to go to a class tonight. It was my theater class because we had had it cancelled last week. It was a really fun class. We spent the first hour or two going through and playing games that were supposed to teach us about acting and feeling our position on stage. That was a lot of fun. After that we worked on some lines we had learned a while ago and went through doing funny things with that. We had to pick a certain way we wanted to portray the scene and then figure it all out. It was fun.
I came home and got myself ready for bed. I did some reading and watched some TV before calling it a night.
March 20th
I got up t run this morning but I was really not feeling well. I was just really tired and I was definitely was not on my game. It was also raining when I got up this morning, so I didn’t think that that would be a good idea. I went back to bed for about an hour and then got up and ready for work. I spent the first couple of hours finishing up the last of the Ireland entries. I only ending up scraping together four in total. There really wasn’t that much going on in there. Most of the companies that I contacted didn’t sell it anymore and they really weren’t promoting it in any meaningful way. Organic cotton is not a big thing there apparently. When I got done with that, Damien sent me on a break so he could get some stuff ready for me to work on. I spent the rest of the day pretty much working on stuffing some more envelopes to be sent out. I think I ended up doing about fifty of those over the course of the day. About two thirds of the way through I had to make a run to the printer and make a bunch more cover letters for the mailings. That was pretty interesting. It took me a while to get everything all figured out, but once I did things seemed to go pretty easily. I got those all finished up and with about half an hour left in the day Damien came and talked to me about my next project. He wants to get a DVD set up to send out to people and was wondering what I knew about authoring programs. It looks like it should be pretty simple, so it shouldn’t be a big deal.
I got done with work and headed home. My computer finally showed up so I picked that up from Metrogate. That was really nice. I spent a good couple of hours while I was eating getting my computer updated and backed up. That was really nice. I for that all finished up and then watched some TV for the rest of the night. I finished up the rest of my paper and called it a night.
March 21st
I got up today and got out for a run. I spent a bunch of time getting pictures uploaded onto Facebook, but for some reason I couldn’t get it up on my other site. I’ll try to get those uploaded later, but that’s going to take me some time because I have a lot of those. After that I did some reading for one of my classes today. That took me a bit. After that I had to go out and get some travel size shampoo and stuff like that. I hopped on a bus and was going to head to a Boots that was supposed to be pretty close. I must have missed that because I spent about a half an hour riding. I eventually muddled my way through it all and found one, but it wasn’t much. They really didn’t have much of a selection but I got what I needed so I headed home. I took the Tube because I was that far away from home. When I got back to Glouster I headed to a place to get some Euros for my trip this weekend. That didn’t take me very long then I headed to class.
Ethno today was a lot of fun. We started off going over the ethnic heritage and makeup which was pretty interesting. The really fun part came at the end though. We started tracing the history of Britain pop culture from the perspective of music. We looked at how Jazz and Blues had come in and shaped the British music scene. We listened to some really great old tracks. That was really amazing. I had to go print out some stuff after that and then went and grabbed some dinner. Class tonight was pretty cool too. We had picked a scene last class and we rehearsed the part in class. I spent a lot of time going over the scene I had picked with my partner, Austin. It was something different, that’s for sure. I definitely had some fun with it.
After that I came back and made a snack and worked on my blog for a bit. I watched some movies for the rest of the night then headed to bed.
Sunday, 18 March 2007
March 18th
March 16th
Work today was interesting. Everyone there was going through and cleaning out the various work spaces, and I just kind of felt like I was in the way. They really didn’t have anything for me to do with that, and I really couldn’t sit at my desk and work, so it was little awkward. What I did do was proof read the one of the quarterly journals that PAN puts out. This one was called Pesticides News and its just kind of a general publication about the big things that are going on with their work. This is the one where any articles that come from the Cotton section go into too. This issue is supposed to go out in March, and if you’ll look at your calendar, is getting pretty close to being out of time. I probably spent 5 hours going through all of that to look for typos and formatting errors and things like that. That was a nice change of pace.
Over lunch I called Fedex about my computer because I had gotten a packet of information that I wasn’t sure what to do with. I called the contact number and got that all sorted out. I even asked Damien if I could head home a little early this afternoon so I could get the papers faxed in and then hopefully get my computer in on Monday or Tuesday. So I got back from that and hurried around trying to get everything in order and then ran over to Foundation House to get it sent. I didn’t get it to my contact before she had left for the day already though, so I guess I’l just have to wait a little longer.
After that I stopped by Metrogate and then went home to make some dinner. I was going to a bunch of roasted vegetables, but that turned out to be a bit of a problem. Apparently, something had happened to out oven, so only the broil setting worked. So I “cooked” my food in there for about half an hour, before I tried one of the ovens downstairs. They have two, and I apparently picked the one that didn’t work right. It took me almost 2 hours to cook these things from start to finish. The rest of the night I just talked to people on the flat. There weren’t a whole lot of people around for some reason, so it was a pretty quite night.
March 17th
I got up this morning and got my run in and then headed out to go to Oxford. There were four of us going today and we went by train. I fell asleep almost as soon as we got going and I was out the entire time. That was a nice nap I have to say. We had to go and tour one of the colleges for one of the class requirements, so we set about finding one of those. Every single one we went to was closed and we couldn’t figure out why. At some point though, someone remembered that it was a holiday, so that’s probably why all the tours were off. From there we went out and found Iffley road track. I’m guessing that you won’t be familiar with this place, but its pretty special. This is the track that Roger Bannister first broke the four minute mile. There wasn’t much to see there really, but I’m still glad we went. We had a lot of time left now since we didn’t tour a college, so we wandered around. We came across a little canal that was renting boats and thought that that would be a good way to spend some time so we got one of those. I said I could row because I’ve done it before. I thought it wouldn’t be that big of deal, but I was quickly proven wrong. The water was really high and the current was really strong because they had had a lot of rain recently. That and the oars were continually pooping out of the oar locks made steering kind of difficult. As one of the people put it, it wasn’t so much that we went around the canal, but when from side to side on it. Oh well, it was a lot of fun.
We headed out to lunch at a pub after that. It was another one of these really well hidden places that you had to take a couple of alleys to get down, but it was a really nice place. They had all sorts of signs up about famous people that had been there, or famous things that had gone on in the premises. It was pretty cool. From there, we made an Epic quest to go forth and find the grave JRR Tolkein who was buried in a village that was right next to Oxford. We had to walk about three miles out of town. We came to a point where we had to turn and went left. We walked for about 2 miles or so before we realized we had gone the wrong way. It actually wasn’t that bad though because we passed over a really pretty canal and marshlands. It was really nice.
We got things straightened out and we were on our way. We made it there and it was interesting to see. I liked it. I have to say I felt kind of weird taking pictures of the grave. People had left all sorts of little trinkets on it too. Things like little dolls or even rings and a Silmarillion. We headed back on about four mile walk to the train station. I think we ended up walking 12 or 13 miles today. When we got back to the station, I found out that my ticket was gone. I had that and receipt in my back pocket and they just weren’t there. I though maybe that someone had picked my pocket, but I had my bad on almost the entire time I was there, and that would have had to been moved to get to it. It must have just fallen out. I had to pay almost £20 to get a ticket back for that night, which was not fun.
I did some homework and slept on the ride back which was a lot longer than the trip there because this train made a lot more stops. We didn’t end up getting back to the flat until almost 8 and I got around to making something to eat. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with people on the flat and having a good time.
Work today was interesting. Everyone there was going through and cleaning out the various work spaces, and I just kind of felt like I was in the way. They really didn’t have anything for me to do with that, and I really couldn’t sit at my desk and work, so it was little awkward. What I did do was proof read the one of the quarterly journals that PAN puts out. This one was called Pesticides News and its just kind of a general publication about the big things that are going on with their work. This is the one where any articles that come from the Cotton section go into too. This issue is supposed to go out in March, and if you’ll look at your calendar, is getting pretty close to being out of time. I probably spent 5 hours going through all of that to look for typos and formatting errors and things like that. That was a nice change of pace.
Over lunch I called Fedex about my computer because I had gotten a packet of information that I wasn’t sure what to do with. I called the contact number and got that all sorted out. I even asked Damien if I could head home a little early this afternoon so I could get the papers faxed in and then hopefully get my computer in on Monday or Tuesday. So I got back from that and hurried around trying to get everything in order and then ran over to Foundation House to get it sent. I didn’t get it to my contact before she had left for the day already though, so I guess I’l just have to wait a little longer.
After that I stopped by Metrogate and then went home to make some dinner. I was going to a bunch of roasted vegetables, but that turned out to be a bit of a problem. Apparently, something had happened to out oven, so only the broil setting worked. So I “cooked” my food in there for about half an hour, before I tried one of the ovens downstairs. They have two, and I apparently picked the one that didn’t work right. It took me almost 2 hours to cook these things from start to finish. The rest of the night I just talked to people on the flat. There weren’t a whole lot of people around for some reason, so it was a pretty quite night.
March 17th
I got up this morning and got my run in and then headed out to go to Oxford. There were four of us going today and we went by train. I fell asleep almost as soon as we got going and I was out the entire time. That was a nice nap I have to say. We had to go and tour one of the colleges for one of the class requirements, so we set about finding one of those. Every single one we went to was closed and we couldn’t figure out why. At some point though, someone remembered that it was a holiday, so that’s probably why all the tours were off. From there we went out and found Iffley road track. I’m guessing that you won’t be familiar with this place, but its pretty special. This is the track that Roger Bannister first broke the four minute mile. There wasn’t much to see there really, but I’m still glad we went. We had a lot of time left now since we didn’t tour a college, so we wandered around. We came across a little canal that was renting boats and thought that that would be a good way to spend some time so we got one of those. I said I could row because I’ve done it before. I thought it wouldn’t be that big of deal, but I was quickly proven wrong. The water was really high and the current was really strong because they had had a lot of rain recently. That and the oars were continually pooping out of the oar locks made steering kind of difficult. As one of the people put it, it wasn’t so much that we went around the canal, but when from side to side on it. Oh well, it was a lot of fun.
We headed out to lunch at a pub after that. It was another one of these really well hidden places that you had to take a couple of alleys to get down, but it was a really nice place. They had all sorts of signs up about famous people that had been there, or famous things that had gone on in the premises. It was pretty cool. From there, we made an Epic quest to go forth and find the grave JRR Tolkein who was buried in a village that was right next to Oxford. We had to walk about three miles out of town. We came to a point where we had to turn and went left. We walked for about 2 miles or so before we realized we had gone the wrong way. It actually wasn’t that bad though because we passed over a really pretty canal and marshlands. It was really nice.
We got things straightened out and we were on our way. We made it there and it was interesting to see. I liked it. I have to say I felt kind of weird taking pictures of the grave. People had left all sorts of little trinkets on it too. Things like little dolls or even rings and a Silmarillion. We headed back on about four mile walk to the train station. I think we ended up walking 12 or 13 miles today. When we got back to the station, I found out that my ticket was gone. I had that and receipt in my back pocket and they just weren’t there. I though maybe that someone had picked my pocket, but I had my bad on almost the entire time I was there, and that would have had to been moved to get to it. It must have just fallen out. I had to pay almost £20 to get a ticket back for that night, which was not fun.
I did some homework and slept on the ride back which was a lot longer than the trip there because this train made a lot more stops. We didn’t end up getting back to the flat until almost 8 and I got around to making something to eat. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with people on the flat and having a good time.
Friday, 16 March 2007
March 15th
March 15th
I got up and my legs were pretty tired this morning from the long run yesterday. I took it really easy today. I got to work without incident and spent the day working on the Ireland database. I spent most of the morning going through and calling a bunch of retailers of organic cotton that I had found or that had been given to me. That was moderately successful. I got a few to say that they would register on the database, but most of the companies that I contacted no longer stocked any organic cotton products. So, I whole lot of nothing to begin with. After I got some lunch, I worked the entire afternoon on trying to go and find more companies that sold organic cotton. We have a database of all the wholesale companies that the retailers we have use, so I went through each and everyone of those to try and find some companies in Ireland. That was fairly unsuccessful. We have something like 200 suppliers registered, but I think I only came away with about ten more shops I can look into. I even spent some time on Google seeing what I could turn up and it was not a lot. When I was getting ready to leave, Damien said that they were doing some cleaning tomorrow and wasn’t sure if I should come in or not. That should be interesting.
I got back and proceeded to make myself some dinner. I took some chicken and sautéed that with some garlic and onions and then mixed it with pasta and sauce. I have to say it turned out pretty good. I was impressed with myself at least. I really didn’t have much to do this particular night so I just sort of sat around. The movie Goodfellas was on and I had never seen that before. Bit bloody, but not bad.
I got up and my legs were pretty tired this morning from the long run yesterday. I took it really easy today. I got to work without incident and spent the day working on the Ireland database. I spent most of the morning going through and calling a bunch of retailers of organic cotton that I had found or that had been given to me. That was moderately successful. I got a few to say that they would register on the database, but most of the companies that I contacted no longer stocked any organic cotton products. So, I whole lot of nothing to begin with. After I got some lunch, I worked the entire afternoon on trying to go and find more companies that sold organic cotton. We have a database of all the wholesale companies that the retailers we have use, so I went through each and everyone of those to try and find some companies in Ireland. That was fairly unsuccessful. We have something like 200 suppliers registered, but I think I only came away with about ten more shops I can look into. I even spent some time on Google seeing what I could turn up and it was not a lot. When I was getting ready to leave, Damien said that they were doing some cleaning tomorrow and wasn’t sure if I should come in or not. That should be interesting.
I got back and proceeded to make myself some dinner. I took some chicken and sautéed that with some garlic and onions and then mixed it with pasta and sauce. I have to say it turned out pretty good. I was impressed with myself at least. I really didn’t have much to do this particular night so I just sort of sat around. The movie Goodfellas was on and I had never seen that before. Bit bloody, but not bad.
Thursday, 15 March 2007
March 14th
March 14th
I got and went for a longish run this morning. I forgot that I was going to need to take Saturday off for travel, so I had to cram some miles in there. Luckily, the weather was really nice so it was really enjoyable. I got back from that, made some lunch and watched the prime minister’s questions on TV while I ate. Those are pretty fun to see. Blair really handles himself very well. I headed out to see if my computer was here yet because Dad had sent me a note with tracking information, and according to that it was in London. I guess I have to fill out some paper work though and send that in before I can get it. That should mean I’ll have my computer back sometime early next week I should think. Hopefully.
Class today was pretty good. We just talked about a bunch of random topics. We were supposed to be discussing a reading, but our teacher didn’t have a chance to get the copies made. We cover stuff that we had talked about in past classes, but that we didn’t have time to get to. Justin had been spending most of those classes lecturing, so we really didn’t get a chance to talk, so this was that chance. After class, I headed out to dinner at a place called Wagamama’s. It’s a noodle bar in the Japanese style and it was really good. I went with a big group of people and it was a good time. Its was really cheap and really quick, so I think I’ll be going back at some point. A bunch of us also went in on a bottle of sake. I liked it. They served it warm, which I was expecting, but I guess I didn’t realize that it would taste so, bready I want to say. Maybe that’s not it, but that’s what I thought of when I had it. I would get it again. After that I made a run to the grocery store. Sainsbury, the place I normally go is going to be closed for about two weeks for renovations, so I wanted to go and get some food to hold me over until then. They also had a bunch of the perishables on sale since they didn’t want to move it I guess. That was nice. After I got that unpacked I went out to the Union pub to watch some sports and hang out. There was friend of one of the guys on the trip who wanted to go out and see what the university life was like, so we headed out there and spent the night there. That was a really good time.
I got and went for a longish run this morning. I forgot that I was going to need to take Saturday off for travel, so I had to cram some miles in there. Luckily, the weather was really nice so it was really enjoyable. I got back from that, made some lunch and watched the prime minister’s questions on TV while I ate. Those are pretty fun to see. Blair really handles himself very well. I headed out to see if my computer was here yet because Dad had sent me a note with tracking information, and according to that it was in London. I guess I have to fill out some paper work though and send that in before I can get it. That should mean I’ll have my computer back sometime early next week I should think. Hopefully.
Class today was pretty good. We just talked about a bunch of random topics. We were supposed to be discussing a reading, but our teacher didn’t have a chance to get the copies made. We cover stuff that we had talked about in past classes, but that we didn’t have time to get to. Justin had been spending most of those classes lecturing, so we really didn’t get a chance to talk, so this was that chance. After class, I headed out to dinner at a place called Wagamama’s. It’s a noodle bar in the Japanese style and it was really good. I went with a big group of people and it was a good time. Its was really cheap and really quick, so I think I’ll be going back at some point. A bunch of us also went in on a bottle of sake. I liked it. They served it warm, which I was expecting, but I guess I didn’t realize that it would taste so, bready I want to say. Maybe that’s not it, but that’s what I thought of when I had it. I would get it again. After that I made a run to the grocery store. Sainsbury, the place I normally go is going to be closed for about two weeks for renovations, so I wanted to go and get some food to hold me over until then. They also had a bunch of the perishables on sale since they didn’t want to move it I guess. That was nice. After I got that unpacked I went out to the Union pub to watch some sports and hang out. There was friend of one of the guys on the trip who wanted to go out and see what the university life was like, so we headed out there and spent the night there. That was a really good time.
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
March 13th
March 13th
I got up for my run this morning and it was pretty brisk. The temperature overnight had sunk pretty low apparently. That really wasn’t that bad though. The radiators have been stuck on for the entire trip, and up until now it really hasn’t been a problem. The weather has been cool enough where we can just keep the windows open and the rooms stays pretty nice. With it getting warmer though, that situation won’t work so well anymore. The rest of the day was still really nice once the sun came out. It’s supposed to be in the 60s all week, which is going to be really nice.
Work today was pretty good. Damien wants to launch a version of the database for Ireland, so he has had me tracking down companies for that. I spent most of the day looking around online for places that sold organic cotton and got a big list going. I then spent a little while in the afternoon calling some of the companies that I found to see if they wanted to be a part of the database. I got a hold of a couple of them and they said they were going to sign up, so we’ll see how that goes.
I got back from work and made myself some dinner. Just something nice and quick so I could get out and do my laundry. I had apparently forgot how much it costs to use the dryer, because I ended up drying all my stuff a lot more than I had intended. I was planning on letting a bunch of the stuff air dry, but now I shouldn’t have to. That won’t be too bad. While I was at Metrogate, I checked my email and got a lot of letters off. I’ve had a lot the last couple of days, which is nice. I really like keeping up with people and this makes it pretty easy. Its good stuff. After laundry is all done, I’m going to head back home and get all my laundry put away. CSI is on tonight, so I think I’ll watch that with some popcorn and just relax. One of my classes was cancelled for tomorrow, so I really don’t have a lot to do. Should be a good day. I hope you’re all having a good week.
I got up for my run this morning and it was pretty brisk. The temperature overnight had sunk pretty low apparently. That really wasn’t that bad though. The radiators have been stuck on for the entire trip, and up until now it really hasn’t been a problem. The weather has been cool enough where we can just keep the windows open and the rooms stays pretty nice. With it getting warmer though, that situation won’t work so well anymore. The rest of the day was still really nice once the sun came out. It’s supposed to be in the 60s all week, which is going to be really nice.
Work today was pretty good. Damien wants to launch a version of the database for Ireland, so he has had me tracking down companies for that. I spent most of the day looking around online for places that sold organic cotton and got a big list going. I then spent a little while in the afternoon calling some of the companies that I found to see if they wanted to be a part of the database. I got a hold of a couple of them and they said they were going to sign up, so we’ll see how that goes.
I got back from work and made myself some dinner. Just something nice and quick so I could get out and do my laundry. I had apparently forgot how much it costs to use the dryer, because I ended up drying all my stuff a lot more than I had intended. I was planning on letting a bunch of the stuff air dry, but now I shouldn’t have to. That won’t be too bad. While I was at Metrogate, I checked my email and got a lot of letters off. I’ve had a lot the last couple of days, which is nice. I really like keeping up with people and this makes it pretty easy. Its good stuff. After laundry is all done, I’m going to head back home and get all my laundry put away. CSI is on tonight, so I think I’ll watch that with some popcorn and just relax. One of my classes was cancelled for tomorrow, so I really don’t have a lot to do. Should be a good day. I hope you’re all having a good week.
Monday, 12 March 2007
March 12th
March 11th
I got and went for my run this morning, and for the first time in a while I really felt like I should be out there running. I was almost completely cleared up and it felt good again. I got back from that and made some lunch and spent some time watching TV with people as they awoke from their slumbers. After a while of that, I headed to Metrogate to get my blog updated and to check my email. I managed to get all that done before I had to go meet my group for a walking tour of part of London. We took the Tube to Hyde Park Corner and started meandering around. We headed past Green Park, to Buckingham Palace, then we went through a bunch of little back streets, through a park, and ended up around the House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The walk took us about 3 hours or so, but we could have done it a lot faster. We ended up spending about half an hour standing in St. Jame’s Park looking out on a lake with a bunch of ducks and geese. The flowers were also really starting to bloom, so that was very pretty. We picked a wonderful day to do it too. The temperature was right around 60 degrees, there was no wind, and it was sunny. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It helped make the run feel really good too.
When we got done with that, we took the Tube back and I spent a while working on my schedule for next semester and just messed around on the internet. I also got a hold of an application for an internship this summer, and I really need to get going on those. I have a couple of places in mind that might work, so we’ll see. If not, I’ll just have to get a job somewhere else this summer to make some money. I got done with that and headed home to do some reading that went along with the walk I took. I was about an hour into that when the Family called and I talked to them for about half an hour. I even got a chance to talk to Hanna for a while, which was pretty nice. After we finished, I went back to reading and got that finished.
After I was all done with that, I went out to the common room and did some writing and watched Grey’s Anatomy of all shows. Its, yeah. Not something I would pick to watch, but it wasn’t bad. The real treat of the night was a movie called Snatch. Its set in London and has all sorts London subculture references and themes in it. It’s a really great movie and a lot of people turned out to see that. The movie and my writing finished up and I went to bed.
March 12th
I got up this morning and went to class to do my group presentation on the walk and reading I had done yesterday. That went pretty well, and I can’t say that I was worried about it. After class, I went with the group I was going to go to Paris with to book our train tickets. We had already booked our hostel, which looked really cool, so this was the last step. We’re leaving really early in the morning, but it saved us about £40, so I’m not going to complain. That turned out to be kind of interesting. We got four of the five tickets booked when the computer system went down and the last person couldn’t get his ticket booked. They tried for the rest of the day, but apparently they didn’t have any luck. He should still be able to make the train, but it sucks for him.
After we finished up there I went to Metrogate with the hope that my computer would be there, no such luck. I checked my email and I had quite a few to respond too. I guess I’ve become popular all of a sudden. That took me a couple of hours and then I went home and tried to book some tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of The Tempest, but it wasn’t looking good. They might be completely sold out already, but I couldn’t get a hold of the actual theatre ticket agency, so I don’t know. I was trying to get tickets for four other people, but I don’t know if that will happen now or not. We’ll have to see.
From there I headed out on my run. It was so amazing. The weather today was as good as yesterdays and the all the trees and plants were really starting to flower. The scent was just incredible. I did an easy lap around the parks, then headed to circuit training at Imperial, and then did another short run. When I got back, almost everyone had gone out. Apparently people were on an ale trail. They would go to a bunch of pubs and at the end they got T-shirt. That really is an American thing. It’s amazing what a free shirt will get people to do. It really is incredible. Well, I made myself some dinner and then headed to Metrogate here to do the email thing again and work on my schedule. I need to email my advisor about a couple of things too, so I’ll do that tonight. I’m going to go back and watch some TV when I’m all done, and I think I’ll call it an early night.
I got and went for my run this morning, and for the first time in a while I really felt like I should be out there running. I was almost completely cleared up and it felt good again. I got back from that and made some lunch and spent some time watching TV with people as they awoke from their slumbers. After a while of that, I headed to Metrogate to get my blog updated and to check my email. I managed to get all that done before I had to go meet my group for a walking tour of part of London. We took the Tube to Hyde Park Corner and started meandering around. We headed past Green Park, to Buckingham Palace, then we went through a bunch of little back streets, through a park, and ended up around the House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The walk took us about 3 hours or so, but we could have done it a lot faster. We ended up spending about half an hour standing in St. Jame’s Park looking out on a lake with a bunch of ducks and geese. The flowers were also really starting to bloom, so that was very pretty. We picked a wonderful day to do it too. The temperature was right around 60 degrees, there was no wind, and it was sunny. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It helped make the run feel really good too.
When we got done with that, we took the Tube back and I spent a while working on my schedule for next semester and just messed around on the internet. I also got a hold of an application for an internship this summer, and I really need to get going on those. I have a couple of places in mind that might work, so we’ll see. If not, I’ll just have to get a job somewhere else this summer to make some money. I got done with that and headed home to do some reading that went along with the walk I took. I was about an hour into that when the Family called and I talked to them for about half an hour. I even got a chance to talk to Hanna for a while, which was pretty nice. After we finished, I went back to reading and got that finished.
After I was all done with that, I went out to the common room and did some writing and watched Grey’s Anatomy of all shows. Its, yeah. Not something I would pick to watch, but it wasn’t bad. The real treat of the night was a movie called Snatch. Its set in London and has all sorts London subculture references and themes in it. It’s a really great movie and a lot of people turned out to see that. The movie and my writing finished up and I went to bed.
March 12th
I got up this morning and went to class to do my group presentation on the walk and reading I had done yesterday. That went pretty well, and I can’t say that I was worried about it. After class, I went with the group I was going to go to Paris with to book our train tickets. We had already booked our hostel, which looked really cool, so this was the last step. We’re leaving really early in the morning, but it saved us about £40, so I’m not going to complain. That turned out to be kind of interesting. We got four of the five tickets booked when the computer system went down and the last person couldn’t get his ticket booked. They tried for the rest of the day, but apparently they didn’t have any luck. He should still be able to make the train, but it sucks for him.
After we finished up there I went to Metrogate with the hope that my computer would be there, no such luck. I checked my email and I had quite a few to respond too. I guess I’ve become popular all of a sudden. That took me a couple of hours and then I went home and tried to book some tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of The Tempest, but it wasn’t looking good. They might be completely sold out already, but I couldn’t get a hold of the actual theatre ticket agency, so I don’t know. I was trying to get tickets for four other people, but I don’t know if that will happen now or not. We’ll have to see.
From there I headed out on my run. It was so amazing. The weather today was as good as yesterdays and the all the trees and plants were really starting to flower. The scent was just incredible. I did an easy lap around the parks, then headed to circuit training at Imperial, and then did another short run. When I got back, almost everyone had gone out. Apparently people were on an ale trail. They would go to a bunch of pubs and at the end they got T-shirt. That really is an American thing. It’s amazing what a free shirt will get people to do. It really is incredible. Well, I made myself some dinner and then headed to Metrogate here to do the email thing again and work on my schedule. I need to email my advisor about a couple of things too, so I’ll do that tonight. I’m going to go back and watch some TV when I’m all done, and I think I’ll call it an early night.
Sunday, 11 March 2007
March 11th
March 7th
I got up for my run today and I was feeling much better. I was still wasn’t feeling a hundred percent, but I really wanted to get out and run. That turned out to be a really good idea actually. That seemed to clear me up right away and I was feeling better the entire day.
The first class today, Ethno, was a lot of fun. We spent about twenty minutes in class finishing up our talk on the Kray twins then we took the Tube to see their old stomping grounds. That was pretty interesting. The East end is a very different place from where I live. First off, it was hit really hard by the Blitz during World War One, so the architecture is very broken up in the sense that is doesn’t have the consistency that my neighbourhood does. There are also a lot of empty spaces where they just never rebuilt and turned into parks. While this is the seedier side of London by a lot of accounts, it really wasn’t that bad. I guess when I think of a high crime area in the States, I think of a nasty intercity place where you just don’t go. Here, there where families walking around and while you could definitely see some of the bad apples, if you will, I wouldn’t mind living there. We also walked by Gilbert and George’s house. There artists that I’m guessing Hanna may have heard of. They have a big exhibit up in the Tate Modern right now. They lived in a group of flats that was worth around million pounds each, right in the middle of this neighbourhood. That is what I really found interesting about this place. There are no stark divisions like you see in the US. Here, the socio-economic status of people just sort of blend together without and really sharp contrasts. At the very end of the tour we stopped at Spitalfield’s Market. It’s a covered market that sells all sorts of cool stuff. I picked up a shirt as we were walking around, King of Rice. I thought it was funny at least.
I got back to the Foundation House about ten minutes before my next class was supposed to start, so I didn’t get a chance to eat. We talked about the plays we had seen and what they meant. I did get a new understanding about the War Next Door, but it really didn’t make me want to like the play any better. If anything, it just sort of turned it into an interesting experiment, but a bad play. We then all tried our hand at writing a scene. The prof gave us three lines that had to be incorporated into as a starting point. It was easier than I thought it would be, but it proved to me once again I really shouldn’t be a creative writer.
After class I came home and made4 myself some dinner. The Patriot was on and a bunch of people were up watching that. I had some the popcorn that was brought out for me, which was really good.
March 8th
I got up for another run this morning and I still feel a lot better. The back of my throat is still a little dry so I’ve been coughing a bit, but I feel fine. Work today was pretty average. I spent almost the entire day trying to get the reader all finished up. I had a bunch of little things left to do like finish up the Index and redo all the page numberings. Nothing really big was left, just a lot of the finishing up stuff. I almost managed to finish it up and I thought only had an hour or so left of stuff to do and I would be done.
After work today was a great time. A group of us were going to see The Lion King on stage. People had gone to pick up ticket while I was at work and they picked up some pretty good seats. I and one other person had seen it and we both recommended that we get seats on the floor because of all the cool costumes and the parade at the beginning of the show. We ended up in the second and third rows. Before the play started though, I had some time to wander. I got off the tube at Covenant Garden and just starting wandering around. I hadn’t seen much of that area so I thought it would be cool to explore. Its supposed to be this cool shopping area, so I thought I might see some interesting things. I was somewhat disappointed. All the shops seem to cater to the yuppie with to much time and money on his or her hands. Maybe if I would have come back on the weekend it would have been better, but there really wasn’t anything I couldn’t see there that I couldn’t find in a mall back home. That and it was really marked up too. I grabbed a bite to eat a couple of blocks away from the actual market then walked in. When I was walking around I saw a little patisserie type place that I though looked good, so I stopped in. It was someone what expensive, but it looked good so I thought why not. My first sign of trouble should have been when the women behind the counter started second guessing my order. The food was pretty lame too. I ended up walking around the area until I found the theatre, but I still had about half and hour before the rest of the group would show up. The theatre was right next to the Thames, so I walked across a bridge and just looked at the city. London is a very pretty city at night. The lights come on and everything seems very nice. Part of that is because you can’t see how dirty it is, but its still nice.
The play itself was amazing. We were within ten feet of the stage and the actors were so close. It was especially great with all the costumes and set pieces there because we could see them so well. We paid quite a bit for the tickets, but it was well worth it. Everyone there seemed to really enjoy it too so that was plus. Once I got back from there, I pretty much just crashed.
March 9th
I got up and ran again today and I’m still felling better. Throat’s still a little raspy, but its not a big deal. Work today was interesting. The stuff with the reader that I thought would take an hour or so to do ended up taking me the entire morning. What happened was that as I started adding elements into the final draft, page number started to change. That meant I had to go through the entire index that I had made and change every single entry. That happened twice. Once there was no way I could get around it since it happened because I was actually adding the index itself and it happened another time when I was finishing up the directory. I had added a few articles that weren’t in the original copy I had and when I added those, it upped the number of pages. Oh well. The rest of the day I helped Damien get some mailings out. There is a world wide conference of some kind, I can’t remember what, and on its agenda is the banning of a pesticide called endosulfide. Pretty nasty stuff. So Damien wanted to get out some recently published literature to the people that would be voting on it. So we stuffed envelopes and got all the mail franked and sent off. We have some more to do next week for members of other PAN groups and NGO’s, but those aren’t real time sensitive so they can wait. After that I started looking up some companies for the database and spent the rest of the day doing that.
It took me a long time to get home tonight and I really don’t know why. The Tube ride just took forever. When I got home, I just sort of settled in for the night. I really didn’t feel like going out so I made some tea and just sat around and watched some TV. I can’t say I really did much at all that night.
March 10th
Today we had to be up and on a bus at 8 in the morning. We were heading to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was an interesting place. The first thing you notice about it however is that its right off the A366, a big road leading out of London. That kind of gives it a tourist trap type fell to be honest, but apparently there is a big project underway to build a tunnel to hide the road and really isolate the spot from view. It really is a quite impressive place to see when you walk around it. The stones are just absolutely massive and some were transported from 200 hundred miles away. Its just nuts. They were even dragged most of the way. The country around it very pretty too. Its nothing but rolling, green hills. Its just a wonderful place.
From there we headed to Bath, famous for its hot springs. There has been a settlement in this area for over two thousand years. The things we came to see was the remains of the posh Roman baths that once stood there. They’re now about 16 feet underground because of all the building and the dirt that haw built up over the last two thousand years or so. They were pretty cool. The most amazing part of all this was that all the plumbing still worked. It had to be cleaned of silt and debris that had built up over the years, but once hat was done it still worked perfectly. I don’t think we’ll be saying that about many of our accomplishments. That was all pretty cool. There were also some frescos left that were pretty nice to look at as well. I even ventured out and tried some of this mystical water. The water from this spring was thought to have healing powers, which is why the population here has persisted. The water was supposed to be really nasty though, foul smelling and having a very peculiar taste. I was kind of disappointed. It tasted just like well water, or really hard water. It was weird that it was hot, but if it had been room temperature it would have been fine. From there we moved on to the Assembly rooms. There were used by the upper class in the city as a place to meet and socialize. There was a ball room, card room and a tea room. There was also a dress room downstairs that I decided to skip. The place was nice, mostly because the architecture was much simpler than the Victorian places that we had visited before. I liked that. I did a quick walk through, then spent the rest of the time colouring finger puppets with a group from the trip, because there really wasn’t much to see there.
We took a long bus ride home, somewhere around four hours I think. The traffic was really bad, which made it even worse. I got some reading I had wanted to do though, so that was nice. When I got back I made some dinner, and then went out to a pub with some people. It was a place called the Seven Stars and it was really nice. It was a small place with nice wooden panelling and just a great little atmosphere. They even had pub cats that were wandering around. That was nifty.
I headed home after that with the intention of going to bed, but Minority Report was on and that drew my attention in. I got stuck watching that then headed to bed.
I got up for my run today and I was feeling much better. I was still wasn’t feeling a hundred percent, but I really wanted to get out and run. That turned out to be a really good idea actually. That seemed to clear me up right away and I was feeling better the entire day.
The first class today, Ethno, was a lot of fun. We spent about twenty minutes in class finishing up our talk on the Kray twins then we took the Tube to see their old stomping grounds. That was pretty interesting. The East end is a very different place from where I live. First off, it was hit really hard by the Blitz during World War One, so the architecture is very broken up in the sense that is doesn’t have the consistency that my neighbourhood does. There are also a lot of empty spaces where they just never rebuilt and turned into parks. While this is the seedier side of London by a lot of accounts, it really wasn’t that bad. I guess when I think of a high crime area in the States, I think of a nasty intercity place where you just don’t go. Here, there where families walking around and while you could definitely see some of the bad apples, if you will, I wouldn’t mind living there. We also walked by Gilbert and George’s house. There artists that I’m guessing Hanna may have heard of. They have a big exhibit up in the Tate Modern right now. They lived in a group of flats that was worth around million pounds each, right in the middle of this neighbourhood. That is what I really found interesting about this place. There are no stark divisions like you see in the US. Here, the socio-economic status of people just sort of blend together without and really sharp contrasts. At the very end of the tour we stopped at Spitalfield’s Market. It’s a covered market that sells all sorts of cool stuff. I picked up a shirt as we were walking around, King of Rice. I thought it was funny at least.
I got back to the Foundation House about ten minutes before my next class was supposed to start, so I didn’t get a chance to eat. We talked about the plays we had seen and what they meant. I did get a new understanding about the War Next Door, but it really didn’t make me want to like the play any better. If anything, it just sort of turned it into an interesting experiment, but a bad play. We then all tried our hand at writing a scene. The prof gave us three lines that had to be incorporated into as a starting point. It was easier than I thought it would be, but it proved to me once again I really shouldn’t be a creative writer.
After class I came home and made4 myself some dinner. The Patriot was on and a bunch of people were up watching that. I had some the popcorn that was brought out for me, which was really good.
March 8th
I got up for another run this morning and I still feel a lot better. The back of my throat is still a little dry so I’ve been coughing a bit, but I feel fine. Work today was pretty average. I spent almost the entire day trying to get the reader all finished up. I had a bunch of little things left to do like finish up the Index and redo all the page numberings. Nothing really big was left, just a lot of the finishing up stuff. I almost managed to finish it up and I thought only had an hour or so left of stuff to do and I would be done.
After work today was a great time. A group of us were going to see The Lion King on stage. People had gone to pick up ticket while I was at work and they picked up some pretty good seats. I and one other person had seen it and we both recommended that we get seats on the floor because of all the cool costumes and the parade at the beginning of the show. We ended up in the second and third rows. Before the play started though, I had some time to wander. I got off the tube at Covenant Garden and just starting wandering around. I hadn’t seen much of that area so I thought it would be cool to explore. Its supposed to be this cool shopping area, so I thought I might see some interesting things. I was somewhat disappointed. All the shops seem to cater to the yuppie with to much time and money on his or her hands. Maybe if I would have come back on the weekend it would have been better, but there really wasn’t anything I couldn’t see there that I couldn’t find in a mall back home. That and it was really marked up too. I grabbed a bite to eat a couple of blocks away from the actual market then walked in. When I was walking around I saw a little patisserie type place that I though looked good, so I stopped in. It was someone what expensive, but it looked good so I thought why not. My first sign of trouble should have been when the women behind the counter started second guessing my order. The food was pretty lame too. I ended up walking around the area until I found the theatre, but I still had about half and hour before the rest of the group would show up. The theatre was right next to the Thames, so I walked across a bridge and just looked at the city. London is a very pretty city at night. The lights come on and everything seems very nice. Part of that is because you can’t see how dirty it is, but its still nice.
The play itself was amazing. We were within ten feet of the stage and the actors were so close. It was especially great with all the costumes and set pieces there because we could see them so well. We paid quite a bit for the tickets, but it was well worth it. Everyone there seemed to really enjoy it too so that was plus. Once I got back from there, I pretty much just crashed.
March 9th
I got up and ran again today and I’m still felling better. Throat’s still a little raspy, but its not a big deal. Work today was interesting. The stuff with the reader that I thought would take an hour or so to do ended up taking me the entire morning. What happened was that as I started adding elements into the final draft, page number started to change. That meant I had to go through the entire index that I had made and change every single entry. That happened twice. Once there was no way I could get around it since it happened because I was actually adding the index itself and it happened another time when I was finishing up the directory. I had added a few articles that weren’t in the original copy I had and when I added those, it upped the number of pages. Oh well. The rest of the day I helped Damien get some mailings out. There is a world wide conference of some kind, I can’t remember what, and on its agenda is the banning of a pesticide called endosulfide. Pretty nasty stuff. So Damien wanted to get out some recently published literature to the people that would be voting on it. So we stuffed envelopes and got all the mail franked and sent off. We have some more to do next week for members of other PAN groups and NGO’s, but those aren’t real time sensitive so they can wait. After that I started looking up some companies for the database and spent the rest of the day doing that.
It took me a long time to get home tonight and I really don’t know why. The Tube ride just took forever. When I got home, I just sort of settled in for the night. I really didn’t feel like going out so I made some tea and just sat around and watched some TV. I can’t say I really did much at all that night.
March 10th
Today we had to be up and on a bus at 8 in the morning. We were heading to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was an interesting place. The first thing you notice about it however is that its right off the A366, a big road leading out of London. That kind of gives it a tourist trap type fell to be honest, but apparently there is a big project underway to build a tunnel to hide the road and really isolate the spot from view. It really is a quite impressive place to see when you walk around it. The stones are just absolutely massive and some were transported from 200 hundred miles away. Its just nuts. They were even dragged most of the way. The country around it very pretty too. Its nothing but rolling, green hills. Its just a wonderful place.
From there we headed to Bath, famous for its hot springs. There has been a settlement in this area for over two thousand years. The things we came to see was the remains of the posh Roman baths that once stood there. They’re now about 16 feet underground because of all the building and the dirt that haw built up over the last two thousand years or so. They were pretty cool. The most amazing part of all this was that all the plumbing still worked. It had to be cleaned of silt and debris that had built up over the years, but once hat was done it still worked perfectly. I don’t think we’ll be saying that about many of our accomplishments. That was all pretty cool. There were also some frescos left that were pretty nice to look at as well. I even ventured out and tried some of this mystical water. The water from this spring was thought to have healing powers, which is why the population here has persisted. The water was supposed to be really nasty though, foul smelling and having a very peculiar taste. I was kind of disappointed. It tasted just like well water, or really hard water. It was weird that it was hot, but if it had been room temperature it would have been fine. From there we moved on to the Assembly rooms. There were used by the upper class in the city as a place to meet and socialize. There was a ball room, card room and a tea room. There was also a dress room downstairs that I decided to skip. The place was nice, mostly because the architecture was much simpler than the Victorian places that we had visited before. I liked that. I did a quick walk through, then spent the rest of the time colouring finger puppets with a group from the trip, because there really wasn’t much to see there.
We took a long bus ride home, somewhere around four hours I think. The traffic was really bad, which made it even worse. I got some reading I had wanted to do though, so that was nice. When I got back I made some dinner, and then went out to a pub with some people. It was a place called the Seven Stars and it was really nice. It was a small place with nice wooden panelling and just a great little atmosphere. They even had pub cats that were wandering around. That was nifty.
I headed home after that with the intention of going to bed, but Minority Report was on and that drew my attention in. I got stuck watching that then headed to bed.
Tuesday, 6 March 2007
March 6th
This morning I got up bright and early to see everyone off on their flight. I got up at 7 and was over to the hotel by 20 after. We got on the Tube and we were there. Finding the train was a little more difficult however. I was thinking that Gatwick would be the final destination of the train that they were taking, so I didn't see that it was listed among the stops. Mom and I found a ticket counter and got that all sorted out. We got over to the platform they needed, and that's where I left them since I didn't have a ticket. We said out goodbyes and all headed off.
I headed back home and proceeded to go to sleep for another three hours. When I got up around noon, I made some lunch and headed to Metrogate to catch up on my blog and some emails. I also did a little bit of reading, but I spent most of the time typing. I guess I did do a little bit of homework as well. I came back to the flat at night to make some dinner and sat around and watched TV for a while. There really wasn’t much on, so I went back to Metrogate to read some more. I was there for another couple of hours before heading home. When I got back, Family guy was on. I ended being awake for a lot longer than I should have been, but I had a good time so it was worth it.
March 5th
Today I got up and went back to Parliament. Since out tour had been cut short the last time we were there, Ian, one of the tour guides, offered to take us back around to see it again. He took us around the House of Commons and then we went to one of the conference rooms where he talked to us about his job and British and European politics. That was really interesting. He is a researcher for the Labour party, but was just ripping into them the entire time. He was just going at them. Good natured, but it was still funny. It’s not something that you would see or expect from an American who was in the same position, that’s for sure.
After we got done with that, we had to go back and have about an hour or so of class. We talked about our spring breaks for a while and then we went over the time leading up to the second World War, which is what we’ll be studying next. I also talked to Cynthia about going to the Highland of Scotland some time soon over one of the weekends, but apparently the weather will be way to nasty to go until about the time we get done with classes, so I might try to sneak that in at the end of my trip. We’ll see. After all that, I went with Amanda to go and see about booking a couple of trips. We were planning on going to Ireland in two weeks, Paris sometime after that and then spend a couple of days on some sunny island before they have to go home. The booking agency wasn’t much help because we were booking somewhat close to the beginning of the busy season. Her computer also was shut out to the network for some reason so we couldn’t even get any more info. I went to Metrogate after that and checked my mail, then went and got some food.
Later that afternoon, we ended up booking out flight and bus trip on our own because we found a pretty good deal. That took us most of the afternoon and I actually had to cut out a little early to go and run and make it to training on time. I could really tell that I hadn’t run for week. My legs were just blah. My sinus were also really congested which was somewhat interesting. The training was fun as always, even if I was dragging a little but. I cut the run short when I was done because I just wasn’t feeling all that good. I made some dinner then the group of us going to Ireland got our hostel booked, so we’re pretty much booked for that trip now. I had some reading to do for a class and then I called it a really early night.
March 6th
I got up this morning to go run and I really wasn’t feeling that good. I was really congested and had a sore throat so I just went back to sleep for awhile. I got up and took some meds Dad has left with me, which cleared me up right away. I stopped in a pharmacy to get some more on my way to work and was really given the third degree. The cahier asked me three or four questions that would determine if I could buy these or not. I was really surprised. Not a bad idea I guess. I got to work and had some variety today. I put some entries into the database then worked on the reader for a while. Kate, one of my bosses, also had some work for me to do. She had me write some thank you notes to people who had contributed to a fund for the victims of a chemical plant that exploded in India. That was a really nice change of pace.
I had a play to go to tonight, but it didn’t start until 2030, so I went home and made myself some dinner. We got to the play fairly close to showtime only to find out that the tickets hadn’t been paid for. The people at FIE had apparently forgotten to buy the tickets for us. So a couple people threw in some money so we could get in since we only had about two minutes before the play started. It was really interesting. We walked in and the floor was made of dirt, similar to what you’d find on a baseball diamond. We sat on milk jug holders all the way around this rectangular “stage”. The stage was set up as a little kitchen. When we were walking in people were pretty much partying. There were about a dozen people guiding people to their seats and singing. It was really cool. The main part of the play consisted of six actors repeating the same lines four times through. Every repetition one of the people from the middle would leave, and the tone would get sadder. This went on until it was only the grandparents left, everyone else had died. The point was to show how families were being destroyed by AIDS and how the families cope. It was really cool. I liked it.
Once that was all finished up, I headed over to Metrogate to go through all the mail I had. As I’m sure you can see, I got myself caught up in my blog, and now I think I’m going to go head to bed. I don’t have anything to do, so sleep sounds pretty good.
I headed back home and proceeded to go to sleep for another three hours. When I got up around noon, I made some lunch and headed to Metrogate to catch up on my blog and some emails. I also did a little bit of reading, but I spent most of the time typing. I guess I did do a little bit of homework as well. I came back to the flat at night to make some dinner and sat around and watched TV for a while. There really wasn’t much on, so I went back to Metrogate to read some more. I was there for another couple of hours before heading home. When I got back, Family guy was on. I ended being awake for a lot longer than I should have been, but I had a good time so it was worth it.
March 5th
Today I got up and went back to Parliament. Since out tour had been cut short the last time we were there, Ian, one of the tour guides, offered to take us back around to see it again. He took us around the House of Commons and then we went to one of the conference rooms where he talked to us about his job and British and European politics. That was really interesting. He is a researcher for the Labour party, but was just ripping into them the entire time. He was just going at them. Good natured, but it was still funny. It’s not something that you would see or expect from an American who was in the same position, that’s for sure.
After we got done with that, we had to go back and have about an hour or so of class. We talked about our spring breaks for a while and then we went over the time leading up to the second World War, which is what we’ll be studying next. I also talked to Cynthia about going to the Highland of Scotland some time soon over one of the weekends, but apparently the weather will be way to nasty to go until about the time we get done with classes, so I might try to sneak that in at the end of my trip. We’ll see. After all that, I went with Amanda to go and see about booking a couple of trips. We were planning on going to Ireland in two weeks, Paris sometime after that and then spend a couple of days on some sunny island before they have to go home. The booking agency wasn’t much help because we were booking somewhat close to the beginning of the busy season. Her computer also was shut out to the network for some reason so we couldn’t even get any more info. I went to Metrogate after that and checked my mail, then went and got some food.
Later that afternoon, we ended up booking out flight and bus trip on our own because we found a pretty good deal. That took us most of the afternoon and I actually had to cut out a little early to go and run and make it to training on time. I could really tell that I hadn’t run for week. My legs were just blah. My sinus were also really congested which was somewhat interesting. The training was fun as always, even if I was dragging a little but. I cut the run short when I was done because I just wasn’t feeling all that good. I made some dinner then the group of us going to Ireland got our hostel booked, so we’re pretty much booked for that trip now. I had some reading to do for a class and then I called it a really early night.
March 6th
I got up this morning to go run and I really wasn’t feeling that good. I was really congested and had a sore throat so I just went back to sleep for awhile. I got up and took some meds Dad has left with me, which cleared me up right away. I stopped in a pharmacy to get some more on my way to work and was really given the third degree. The cahier asked me three or four questions that would determine if I could buy these or not. I was really surprised. Not a bad idea I guess. I got to work and had some variety today. I put some entries into the database then worked on the reader for a while. Kate, one of my bosses, also had some work for me to do. She had me write some thank you notes to people who had contributed to a fund for the victims of a chemical plant that exploded in India. That was a really nice change of pace.
I had a play to go to tonight, but it didn’t start until 2030, so I went home and made myself some dinner. We got to the play fairly close to showtime only to find out that the tickets hadn’t been paid for. The people at FIE had apparently forgotten to buy the tickets for us. So a couple people threw in some money so we could get in since we only had about two minutes before the play started. It was really interesting. We walked in and the floor was made of dirt, similar to what you’d find on a baseball diamond. We sat on milk jug holders all the way around this rectangular “stage”. The stage was set up as a little kitchen. When we were walking in people were pretty much partying. There were about a dozen people guiding people to their seats and singing. It was really cool. The main part of the play consisted of six actors repeating the same lines four times through. Every repetition one of the people from the middle would leave, and the tone would get sadder. This went on until it was only the grandparents left, everyone else had died. The point was to show how families were being destroyed by AIDS and how the families cope. It was really cool. I liked it.
Once that was all finished up, I headed over to Metrogate to go through all the mail I had. As I’m sure you can see, I got myself caught up in my blog, and now I think I’m going to go head to bed. I don’t have anything to do, so sleep sounds pretty good.
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