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.