Morning Quickie

Don't have long, because, well, I think you know what's coming - the bus was 15 mins late this morning, so I have a little less time before our group meeting at 10.  We're just presenting preliminary findings from each of our topics.  The goal is to narrow down some focus areas for the directions we want to go in our designs.

Yesterday was good, the weather was decent in the morning so I wound up going out for a long bike ride.  Was heading north towards some lakes I'd seen on the map, but never got there as I got a little turned around looking for a path.  So I accidentally wound up in Newport, probably between 4-5 miles one way, and then about the same back home is my guess.

For lunch I had a coupon for 2 P off an Indian buffet, so I did that.  It was good, the chicken Jalfrezhi and vegetable curry were the best, and both were actually spicy, which is harder to find around here.  Lots of milder, sweeter sauces.  The rest of the day I spent doing more reading for the most part while watching some of the rugby on TV.  I also watched some spring training with my new MLB.tv subscription.  Video quality was pretty good, and no real buffering or streaming issues either.  I think I will really get my money's worth out of it this summer.  And I can finally watch Orioles and Nationals games, if they are worth watching this year!

Well I should get going, don't wanna be late for our meeting.

Help Me Out

I've put a poll up on the right side of the blog. I'm racking my brain trying to decide where I'd be happier for the next 6 months of my time over here. I'll list what I see as pros/cons for each place. If you want to help me out, vote in the poll for the choice which you think I'd be happiest with

Stay in Fishermead
Pros
1. Larger room
2. Desk in room
3. Outdoor balcony area in room
4. Gym is pretty good, fairly convenient, but often crowded
5. Can ride bike to Sainsbury's/Asda, other shopping
6. Can ride bike to train station for trips to London

Cons
1. 35-40 minute bus ride to campus + 10 min bike ride to bus stop
2. Crappy kitchen, utensils etc.
3. Noise in room from roommates, neighbors, dogs outside
4. Smelling like fried food when roommate cooks
5. Other roommate oddities and frustrations
6. Not many unique restaurants/too many chains

Move to Newport
Pros
1. Cuts bus ride more than in half, to 16 mins by time schedule
2. Bus stop is much closer to house
3. People just seem friendlier in Newport to me
4. Cheaper by 70 Pounds/month
5. Has a dryer and dishwasher, and much nicer kitchen
6. Much better living room with a big flatscreen TV too
7. Still has a nice outdoor covered veranda area
8. From my experiences, the restaurants are better and more varied and more of them are locally owned and not chains
9. Don't have 3 other people to steal internet bandwidth which limits my ability to watch ESPN3 and Hulu

Cons
1. Slightly limited grocery shopping in town, but can do online delivery from Sainsbury's/Asda/Waitrose too
2. Gym is much smaller with less equipment, but should be much less crowded
3. Pubs are slightly more expensive (but better atmosphere) due to no Wetherspoons chain options
4. 20ish minute bus ride to train station to get into London


The biggest debate I've got is if I can be happy with the gym situation.  The room is not big enough for a room workout, though I guess I could probably use the veranda area.  I'm not as concerned about the size of the room because I'll be much closer to campus, so more likely to go there to work.  I would also have more space in the living room, so less time in my room to begin with.  I'd be living with a middle aged guy and his 12-13 year old son.  From what he said his son spends most of his time in his room.  Obviously they might have habits that annoy me just like my roommates do now, I do realize that.


So anyway, I had a productive morning, did a round of laundry, got to the gym and the grocery store and just finished with lunch.  Gonna put some more reading time in this afternoon while watching rugby on the computer.


Oh, and next time you're in London, check this out Baby Gaga Ice Cream.

Taking a Break

To write up a quick post.  The last few days have been filled with lots of research, meaning lots of library searches and downloading of various papers related to "green" cars for our project.  We've split up the subjects we need to look into, and will discuss our findings on Monday as a group.

Yesterday we did finally get to meet the Caterham driver, Jamie, and see the truck/transporter that he has purchased.  The first test day will be March 23rd at Snetterton, and we're going to set up a day or night to come over and do some routine things on the car as practice to make sure nothing is too big of a surprise on the first test day.  There is still a very real possibility for a second car, but he wants to make sure his car has adequate support before committing to it.  Sounds like it's going to be a great experience, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm slowly having the realization that moving might be best for me.  I'm finding that being here, I just have no motivation for the long ride to campus.  I think it would be beneficial if I was a little more apt to go to campus to work during the day.

Not too much planned for the weekend, some writing I need to do for a couple various things, and a few workouts of course.  I do need to go buy a helmet and lights for the bike too.  Also planning to find a recipe to do something with a swede (rutabaga) and leeks that I have from the produce box.  

Group Project!

We have been given the task of designing a sustainable rally car and event or series.  Now obviously we won't be actually designing the entire car, it's more like developing some very specific targets and specifications for it.  So we're not designing all the parts or anything like that, which would take way too long for our time frame.  The event can be a once a year thing, or an international series, but we have to actually plan and specify one event in that case.

It's quite a daunting project, though one that could actually become reality in the near future.  Gonna be a busy few months no doubt though!

Of course the bus was 20 minutes late tonight too.  So an hour long ride home wasn't exactly the best finish to the day on campus.  I did go get a workout in before coming back here which was pretty good.  Did some Chimay cheese, Spanish charcuterie and some vegetables and hummus for dinner.  Was not in the mood to cook or clean up, but resisted going out and spending money.

Gonna go brainstorm some about our project now.

Belgium - Day 2

We were only out till about midnight on day 1, which was a plenty long day, and it did lead to a slightly later start for day 2.  I did sneak in a quick but good workout, which was better than expected due the most complete hotel gym I've ever encountered.  A pleasant surprise for sure.

First up was finding breakfast, which was easiest back towards the city center, so that is where we headed.  As you can see from the picture below, we got very lucky with the weather, it was nice and sunny, about 45 degrees.  The building below we saw a lot of, as we walked past it every time we went to or returned from the center of town.  We eventually settled on an admittedly touristy looking spot (they were kind of hard to avoid where we were) for waffles.  Adam tried a ginger tea that turned out to be pretty good.  Both of us ordered Liege waffles, which were chewier and breadier than the Brussels style, and very good as well.  Their pricing on eggs and bacon was a bit off though, a huge plate of bacon was 2.50 Euro, which was the same price as one egg!

Next up we'd decided to take the Metro (which was running again) north to the Atomium, which had been built for the World Fair in 1958.  As we approached it, we both thought it was smaller than anticipated, but it did look more appropriate as we got closer and closer.  The exhibits were only mildly interesting, some things about the Worlds Fair, and about space and the universe, but the views were better.  It was a bit hazy, so you couldn't see as far as they advertised.  It could've been much worse though had it been cloudy or rainy of course.  There's plenty of other pictures of the views in the album linked at the end of this post.  We did figure out that we took the long way around the Metro, as the map didn't seem to show a connection at one place.

The Metro took us back into town to the Cantillon Brewery, a traditional lambic, family run brewery, and I think the only brewing operation still truly in Brussels.  The tour consisted of a short information session with basic information, then they handed you a guide book and let you walk around the completely operating brewery.  Being towards the end of the work day, they were crushing grain for the next morning's boil.  The grain room was so dusty that pictures came out cloudy because the flash was picking up all the particles in the air!  You definitely come away from this tour with a much greater appreciation for what they do and the reputation that they have built on their beer.  Oh, and the smell was intoxicating in a good way.  We tried their base lambic, their oude gueze (a blend of 3 different years of lambic), their kriek and their rose gambrinus (lambic aged with cherries and raspberries respectively).

Walked back towards the center again to stop at a couple of the big beer stores, where I picked up some bottles to bring back.  Adam finally found the beer stein he was looking for too, and I also picked up some chocolates.  The walk wound up taking us by the Mannekin Pis, which no matter what you think, is smaller than you expected!  Oh, and another waffle from a street front store window as well :)  After the walking around looking for our various purchases, we were both a little hungry and thirsty.  Luckily, right by the little statue is a well known bar that we stopped in for drinks and a small bite.  We split a large plate of Belgian cheeses, paired of course with some great Belgian beer.  The bar's atmosphere was great, very old school feel that was definitely helped by the music selection.  Just a very cool ambience to it for sure.  By this time the camera's charge had run out, so no pictures, sorry...

We continued walking back to the hotel to check emails, drop off purchases, charge the camera some, and a little rest from all the walking.  Then more walking back to the center for dinner and a night of beer.  So around the center, there are a few rows of restaurants (by rows I really mean streets) and the people stand outside and try to convince you why you should come eat at theirs.  Touristy obviously, but convenient and the food can't be terrible right?  Well we wound up convinced by one of the places, and ordered a mixed seafood grill and a bucket of mussels again.  It wasn't as good as the night before, but still tasty, and plenty, plenty of food to soak up the beer we knew was coming.  

We then wound up going through a good number of beers at Delirium again, basically closing it down sometime around 3:45 before walking back home.  Good times, good conversation, and even met another pilot who works for Express Jet like Will does.  The picture below I just thought was really neat.  I forget exactly what church it was, and don't feel like looking it up right now.  Let me know if you're really curious for some reason.  If you go to Brussels, it's pretty impossible to miss though.

One final picture on the way to the train station

So it was a rushed but packed few days.  The late night at Delirium meant we did nothing on Thursday morning, but that was ok.  I guess I never mentioned we had some delegation from Sierra Leone staying at our hotel, which pulled up with a police escort as we were getting back one time.  The next time I'd really like to rent a car so that we can explore some of the country side and see some of the smaller towns, though I could spend plenty more time in Brussels too!!

PS - Nicole - Adam's French was spot-on all trip long, just thought you might want to know ;)

02-11 Belgium

Belgium - Day 1

My trip started with a 3:15 wake up call.  Yes, that's correct, not a typo.  Had to be at the train station by 4:20 for the train to London.  No quick trains that early, so that was a touch over an hour ride.  Then I walked over to the St. Pancras station where the Eurostar leaves from.  It was probably quicker to walk (less than 10 minutes) than wait for the Tube train to come.  Eurostar says specifically that check-in is minimum of 30 minutes before departure, and I'd read online some stories about people not being allowed to check-in after that.  So I was pushing the 30 min deadline a little, but it turned out not being an issue at all, and you can't even board the train until 20 minutes before departure.  The train was pretty darn comfortable, plenty of leg room, power outlet for the laptop, and no one in the seat next to me.  We were delayed about 30 minutes due to a power supply issue in one section of the Chunnel, so that was too bad, but overall not a big deal at all.

As I was a little late, Adam was waiting for me, and we wound up walking to our hotel.  We tried to find a free map, but were unsuccessful in the train station.  The GPS took way too long to find satellites, and so we probably walked a little more than we should have.  But we found the hotel, got a good map there, and dropped our bags off in our room.

Then we walked towards the city centre, with the intention of finding some food (I had been up for something like 7 hours at this point).  After Adam practicing his French trying to get a locals recommendation for waffles we wound up in a place along the Royal Gallery where we both ordered Brussels style waffles.  I got cherries on mine, and Adam had banana and chocolate or Nutella, can't remember.  The Brussels style is crispier and less bread like than the other Belgian waffle, the Liege style, which we also tasted on Wednesday morning.

From there we continued to find the Grand Place, which was absolutely stunning. I'm not sure pictures really do it justice.

Then we wound up noticing a small alleyway and exploring down it to find a small old bar, and decided it was worthy of having a beer.  First bar I'd been in in a loooong time that allowed smoking, and you could tell.  The historic feel and appearance of the space made up for it I think.  

 Next up was Autoworld, a collection of historic cars.  It was ok, plenty of pictures that I took, but to some extent I don't really know enough historically to appreciate a lot of these kinds of museums.  The cars are definitely interesting to look at though.  We continued the night by getting away from the touristy city center some to find a restaurant for some moules frites.  We got them cooked in white wine, but the mustard sauce that was brought on the side stole the show.  The place we found wound up being very good, though we did notice that 3 of the 4 other tables were all English speaking!  Our nightcap was a few beers at the rather infamous Delirium Cafe. The bottle list is basically a catalog, and was honestly very hard to use.  Though honestly you can't go too wrong with most of the list!

The beer that stood out the most from the first day was Adam's Rochefort 8 from the bar we just happened to stumble upon (Au Bon Vieux Tiemps).  It might've just been the atmosphere and mood we were both in, but something about it was just absolutely perfect and wonderful.

I was trying to write one post, but I'm not gonna make it through the second day at this point, so I'll just split the post and finish up tomorrow.

Feeling Better

Thankfully whatever had me feeling so bad yesterday I seem to have gotten rid of.  Still took it pretty easy today and skipped the gym.  Probably better to recover than force myself back early.  Caught up on some laundry, played some PS3, made some fajitas (that came out pretty good IMO) for dinner and now I'm actually watching the Daytona 500.

Probably wouldn't be if there were better basketball on, but there's not, so there you go.  I think this push drafting that they can do now with the new pavement is too ridiculous (though apparently they do it at Talledega too).

We do finally get to know what our group project is on Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to that big time.  Then Thursday we're going over to meet the Caterham driver and take a look at the car.  He's still finalizing some testing dates, but there should be at least one coming up in March.

I am looking at possibly moving to a new place.  I can leave here on March 29th.  I found one place in Newport that seems pretty good, though the room is much smaller.  But its a much shorter bus ride, has an actual living room, and a dryer and dishwasher.  It's also cheaper than what I'm paying now.  I just don't know yet.  Haven't found much else available in my price range either.

Not quite sure how I'll fill up tomorrow.  I'd like to get in a morning workout, the gym is much less crowded then.  And getting up will make Tuesday's wake up call a little easier to deal with.  I wish our professors would be more responsive on my thesis stuff.  I know they're busy, but they have to be involved, and it's just been very slow developing and frustrating to me.

So that's the update for now, I might get a post up about Belgium tonight too.

Sick Day

I know most of you probably don't follow the Twitter on the side of the page, so just letting you know that I woke up sick this morning.  No fever, but just really lethargic, aches all over, not good.  So I was pretty worthless today other than going to get some medicine that might be working to make me better.  Hopefully I'll feel like writing a real post tomorrow...but  no promises :)

Hi Again

I'll get a more detailed post about Brussels up later, but just wanted to say hi.  Got back safely yesterday to London, and went to the British Library to finish up a couple things on our business assignment that was due at noon today.  Went to Cask for a good dinner before getting my train back to MK.  Today I had to do some grocery shopping, as I had basically no food around, and I've been doing laundry too.

Brussels was a fantastic time, it is a really beautiful city for the most part, though it's compact city center area makes it feel too touristy and fake at times.  Had both Brussels and Liege waffles, which were different and both very tasty.  Of course we drank plenty of good beer, which was on average about 3.50 Euro per bottle at the bars.  We did eat mussels for dinner both nights too!  I brought back a chocolate assortment and some beer as well.

Gonna finish watching the NCSU vs. Clemson game, wait for my load of laundry to finish, and get back out to the gym.  I'm thinking about going to the Lions game tonight, but I'm not sure, the ticket is kind of expensive I think at 11.00 GBP.  Maybe they have a student price though.

Been a While Again

Sorry for that, I don't realize sometimes how long I go between posts.  It should improve once our projects start.  Finally think I've gotten over the little sickness I had, so that's good.  I've managed to sleep until almost 9 the last two mornings which has no doubt helped.  I did wind up getting my bike tire fixed, with some help from a roommate.

Yesterday I went to campus for the afternoon.  We were doing a little Motorsport Club fundraiser which involved Gran Turismo 5 and a really sweet Logitech G27 and seat setup.  Didn't raise too much money, as it probably wasn't advertised far enough in advance, but it was fun anyway.  It was a play on Top Gear, we had one of our classmates who drives a Formula Ford play "The Stig" and then let everyone try to beat his time.

Spent the night watching a little basketball and working on a couple simple things for the Caterham guy.  Which by the way I definitely have a spot for the time being, regardless of if they get a second car.  Looks like we might be going to Oulton Park on the 25th for an open test day, so that would be fun.

Currently I'm watching the Ireland France 6 Nations match, mainly just trying to understand what's going on, but at least it's way more exciting to me than soccer is.  Been trying to plan a bit of our Belgium trip.  We are staying in Brussels, so we'll probably spend most of our time there.  Gent or Brugge are accessible by train, but I'm just not sure we need to venture there in the few days.  Finding the details of when various breweries are open for tours or tastings has been quite difficult.  Most of them have websites, but they are really pretty primitive and basic with not all the information you need!

 

Fun Times

First off, I'm going to Belgium next week to meet up with Adam!  Second of all, I think I'm coming down with a throat virus.  Third, we have our last exam score.  Last I think, I might be a Race Engineer with the Caterham team this summer if they can pick up a second driver and car.

So as I was on campus to interview for the Caterham thing, I was walking over to the computer lab to meet with our business group, and saw Dr. Njuguna.  Without me or Rob even asking, he volunteered that we would not start or even know any group project information until the 22nd!  We'll know our group members on Friday supposedly at least.  But that leaves all next week to work on the business assignment that we're working on this week too.  I'll save you all the details, but Adam and I had been trying to plan a few days in Belgium next week for a month or two.  So the gist of the deal is that I probably wound up paying more for the Eurostar ticket than I needed to, but anyway.  We're still working out the details, but the train drops me in Brussels, and we're looking at ways to get around to Gent and Brugge too.  There are also tons of breweries just out and about in Belgium, so if we can make transport work for some of those, we may try to get off the beaten path a little.

The Caterham thing - basically I was the second choice, mainly down to the fact that I didn't have a car to get around..... But, Rob got the official offer, who lives pretty close to me in MK.  The professor thinks there is a good chance they will pick up a second car, and even if they don't will probably need help anyway.  So I can just get rides with Rob, and we'll be good to go.  It should be a great opportunity, and the series is a support race for a lot of the GT races, which would be a great place to get a job.

Last exam score was data and electronics, which was my worst one of the bunch surprisingly.  I guess one of them had to be disappointing.  I don't know if we'll get our exams back or not to know what we messed up, I sure hope so though.

And my throat - started last night feeling a bit dry and sore, and still feels like that this morning.  Hope it doesn't get any worse.  I do feel a little run down.  Might skip weights at the gym and just go sweat it out on the bike for a while.

Speaking of the bike - don't know if you saw my "Tweet" or not, but I got a flat tire on the way home from the train station Monday morning after the Super Bowl.  So my luck on the bike is just like my luck on the car, phenomenal.  I'll need to sort that out, but honestly I might wait until after Belgium next week simply to spread some cost out a little more.

I Made It

So yesterday was fun.  Had a good time before the game, didn't get nearly enough time in the British Museum though, they close down at 5:30.  Wound up eating dinner at a place called the Drunken Monkey, and got Singapore Noodles that were very tasty.  The venue for the game was a bit disappointing,  too small for the crowd, and I don't understand why places over here think HD is optional these days.  It was weird watching without commercials since we were on the BBC feed.  Sounds like the VW Darth Vader commercial was the big winner though.  At least the game was good.  Afterwards we went to a 24 hr cafe called Polo, and got a big breakfast that included my first black pudding.  It was definitely different, more different than haggis for sure.  Got back to MK at around 6:45, slept a little bit on the train, and another few hours once I got back to my room.

Gotta get back to work on our group business assignment this week.  Hope it goes smoothly.  Really want the group project to start though, want to get busy with things again.

Sleeping in Fail

I tried, really, stayed up till about 1:30 watching TV (no thanks to our basketball team for an absolutely awful game), but the lovely dog next door was let outside a little after 7 this morning, and continued to yap for the next 20 minutes.  I kind of got back to sleep for a little while but it was hardly good.

Anyway, I'm heading down to London again in about 2 hours.  Gonna grab some lunch here shortly, then get over to the train station.  Gonna check out the free British Museum, and maybe Regents Park if the weather is alright.  We have a group of 11 coming, most of them are coming later, so I'll meet up with them then.  The party should be interesting!

Still Really Windy

Like hurricane windy, like Charles feels like he's pulling a truck tire behind him windy.  Sometimes it is legitimately difficult to walk!

I tried to sleep in a little bit this morning in anticipation of the Super Bowl tomorrow, but I couldn't get past 8:15 unfortunately.  Spent some time catching up on news and blogs and such, there's been tons of news in F1, with a lot of the teams showing their new cars.  And of course Super Bowl news, Egypt, etc.  I've also watched bits and pieces of a couple of the Six Nations Rugby matches, which are quite a big deal here.  They implied they were showing it on BBC America live if any of you are curious.

Had some lunch - still using up my roast beef from earlier in the week, and I've been using my fresh vegetables with hummus and guacamole that I found on sale.  Then I got motivated for a leg and shoulder workout at the gym, which went well.  I also found out that the monthly membership is going down to 19.99!  They're charging separately for the classes now, so that's where the drop is coming from I think.  Otherwise there haven't really been any changes. They've moved equipment around and repainted, and renovated showers, so I don't know how that warrants a price reduction!  But I'm certainly not complaining.

Then I finally got an email back about a bike that I'd seen for sale on Gumtree - basically Craigslist.  It was located about 4 miles directly west of me, and I didn't feel like both figuring out the bus to get there, the schedule, or walking to CMK to wait for it.  So I walked.  I actually did it in less than an hour, which is pretty good for that distance.  I'll need to go buy a helmet and lights, but it came with a lock, so that's good.  Really looking forward to having the bike, it will make it much easier getting around here.  Now that I don't have to be on campus early when it is still dark, I will probably ride it to and from campus if it's not raining too hard.

So yea, legs at the gym, 4 mile walk, 4 mile bike ride back home.  Fun stuff.

My baked fish and assorted vegetables are probably almost done downstairs, so I should probably go take care of that and I'm starving too.

Stuff

It's nice to finally be done with all but one assignment.  Everything was submitted yesterday, and then we got the nice surprise that we had to turn in hard copies of them as well.  Good thing I was already on campus for a meeting about my thesis.  Apparently they actually grade the hard copies and only use the electronic files to check for plagiarism.  Which is interesting since this is the first year that they have not provided students with hard copies of all the lecture notes.  So if we are expected to use electronic copies and print if we need to, why can't the lecturers do the same.  It does cost us money to print too, though I'm still working on the print credit we got from the University to start the year.

The meeting about my thesis went well.  I have two ideas which we are going to propose and seek sponsors for.  Then once we have options, I can choose either the project I'd rather do, or the one that we get the highest profile or biggest pocket sponsor for.  One involves tyre modelling and further understanding of their grip behaviour, the other is an investigation into a pretty radical new suspension design.  Yes I've been writing in UK English, sorry :)

I also have an informal interview for a position as a race engineer with a Caterham R300 race team.  I think the driver is a professor here, so asked for some help, and I was lucky enough to be chosen for an interview.  

Last night's trivia/quiz event was fun, we didn't win, but had a good time and raised some money for the Motorsport Club.  The funds will go towards subsidising some of our trips to races throughout the year.  Today I'll get to the gym shortly, then back here for some lunch, and then to campus to get a ride to the Prodrive factory.  It's about 50 degrees here, but we have 27 mph winds with gusts to 45 or 55 mph that started last night, they are pretty insane.

We finally have all but one exam grade back.  I think I'm doing very well, not the best in the class, but much better than a lot of the guys I've talked to.  Suppose that's about it for now.

Still Plugging Away

At our assignments and working on thesis ideas.  Mixing in some streaming TV in the background as well.  Found a couple more shows on BBC that I'm enjoying, Hustle (kind of like Leverage from TNT but better so far) and Not Going Out (just a comedy sitcom).  I get most of the jokes, but there's quite often names and references that are obviously supposed to be funny that I don't know!

Friday a group of us are going to a tour of Prodrive, who used to build the Subaru World Rally Cars, and currently are building the Aston Martin LMP1 cars for Le Mans. So that should be exciting, hopefully they'll let us see some of the current LMP build that is no doubt in full swing right now.

Yesterday was nice and sunny all day, but cold, so that was enjoyable.  Today is still cold, but overcast and a little drizzle here and there.  Taking care of some laundry this morning, and need to go find a haircut this afternoon probably.  I'll work that in with a trip to the gym of course.

Wouldn't it be great to be in Valencia with one of the F1 teams this week though?  The first test sessions are this week, and the weather is much better there!