Fish and Chips, Niners Win!

The Brothers Fish and Chips Bar 

So last night I decided to walk to the closest take-away food. It is "The Brothers Fish and Chips Bar" and it is quite a short walk.  The place has been around since 1966, and does have a good reputation from what I have read.  I got a large cod and medium chips for 5.30.  It was more fries than I think I've ever had in one serving, and the fish was great.  Very meaty and great flavor.  I'm sure I'll be back, it's a great quick cheap dinner option.

Today I spent studying for the most part, and walked to Sainsbury's for a grocery trip.  I probably shouldn't have worked out before hand though, as the walk back with 3 bags of groceries got heavy!

Then I headed out to try and find the 49ers game at a pub.  Unfortunately it took me 4 pubs and at least a mile walk to find a place that had enough TV's that I felt comfortable asking about switching the channel from soccer.  The Niners did pull out the win, and made it more interesting than they should have.  But hey, for the 2nd win of the season you can't complain too much can you.

This week will be tons of studying, as our exams are next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  The clocks are already turned back here, so it is just a 4 hour difference if any of you want to call me on Skype this week.

Enjoying the Weekend

I took advantage of some great weather today to take a run to Willen Lake.  It is about 2 miles to the lake, and then the trail around the lake is about 1.5 miles I think.  The lake itself is quite nice, there were a few sailboats on the water.  They also have a motorized watersport park.  Instead of a boat, there are lines that are suspended overhead that pull you along to wakeboard or waterski.  There are assorted ramps and things if you are advanced enough.  More info is on their website WakeMK.

The wind tunnel testing we did yesterday was good.  We were given a car model and told to find the best setup of ride height and wing angle.  It was up to us to decide what values we tested at.  I think we had a good strategy and will be able to come up with a good setup for the lab report.

A view from the control center of the tunnel

Adjusting the rear wing angle

The leaves around here are slowly changing, nothing like the dramatic colors we get back home, but here is a picture.

Leaves are changing some

Well I will get back to "revising" (studying) as they seem to call it over here.  I think I might go find some fish and chips for dinner tonight actually.

Hey I Could use a Car!

I'd drive this!

Since my bus ride takes me by the former Aston Martin headquarters I figured this was appropriate. The original site is still functional as a repair and renovation facility. I think the last car produced there was the Vanquish until around 2008. There's always some nice expensive eye candy in the parking lot.

TGIF

Today is only 2 wind tunnel sessions, our group got the late morning session.  So that was good, but it also means we have the late afternoon session.  It only ends at 5 though, so it's not too big of a deal.

I watched the recorded State game this morning since I had some extra time.  I've never enjoyed football with breakfast before, it was quite nice!  I didn't quite make it through though, and accidentally checked Twitter before I left for the bus.  Someone we know had mentioned the word win, and so the last 10 minutes of the 4th quarter were spoiled.  I wound up watching it on the bus though, and it was still great.  Although knowing FSU was going to screw up the last drive somehow made it less exciting when they fumbled.

I'll write another post about the tunnel testing later so I can add a few pictures that will make things clearer.  So NCSU win, plus hands on lab session, plus maybe more beer fest time tonight = happy Friday.

Oh, and I do wish I could be in Charleston for Will and Laura's wedding, so hope you all have a great time this weekend!

Xscape

Xscape is a big entertainment center in Milton Keynes.  It is probably best known for the indoor ski slope.  I always walk past it on the way to the bus stop, but had never ventured inside.  Yesterday was a classmate's birthday, so a group of us met there to go bowling.  Well the inside was nothing like I expected.  I thought it was mostly the ski slope, and the other restaurants and stores were just kind of there.  That was hardly the case, it's basically a mall with a ski slope on the side that you barely notice unless you go in.

Bowling was fun, I missed the first game, but wound up posting the high score of the night in the second game, with a 151 (I know, it's no Lighthouse bowling).  I probably won't go back too often, it was really crowded with teenagers and the restaurants are all mainstream, chain, themed restaurants.  Most of the group hadn't eaten, so we wound up going to Frankie and Bennies, which claims to be a New York Italian kinda place.  I had eaten at home, so just got some garlic knots, but I guess it was good to check it out.

There does seem to be a fair or carnival of some sorts being set up in Campbell Park.  The rides have been under construction all week.  I'll have to find out the details for this weekend.

I think I am all set up to record the NCSU FSU game tonight.  I tried with the World Series game last night successfully.  The only problem was that the stream I had cut out about an hour in.  With the new Time Warner ESPN feed that shouldn't be a problem for tonight.

Some Updates

Our group had the first time slot in the wind tunnel at 2:00, and we were done by 2:40.  Luckily one of my team members needed to do some shopping in Milton Keynes so I got a ride with him instead of waiting 30-40 minutes for the next bus.  I took the extra time to finish folding some laundry, get what qualifies as a workout for me these days in, talk to Jess, and write this post.

The wind tunnel experiment went well, at least we think.  We won't really know until we analyze the data though.  The test is to determine the lift and drag produced by a standard wing profile at a certain velocity.  Pretty standard stuff, but I've never used a wind tunnel before, so it is good to see how it all works.

Some more on my Paris trip - I used the metro to get around, which let me get all over the city, I tried to explore a little bit all around.  The best deal was a 10 pack of tickets for 12euro.  Each ticket gets you one trip, no matter how far you go.  I also never waited more than 3 minutes for a train, which was absolutely wonderful.  With just the weekend, I decided to see as much as I could, and decided for example not to go up the Eiffel tower, or go in the Louvre.  It helped that the lines were long everywhere, and I didn't want to waste time waiting.  I was amazed that at the Sacre-coeur, which I got to about 11am on Sunday, they let tourists walk in while Mass was going on.  I would've assumed it was closed then.  Inside was very beautiful and majestic, but they wouldn't allow pictures unfortunately.  The area around there was tourist central - more so than any of the other areas felt.  The view was well worth the hassle though.

25-10-10 Paris

I did order food and drinks in French, which was a little difficult, but I always got what I ordered, and the servers seemed to at least know what I was trying to say.  It was a very expensive city to eat in, I kept thinking about how easy it would be to spend tons of money if Jess had been with me.  It's probably a good thing I had limited euro's, otherwise it would've been way too easy to buy bread and crepes and pastries all day long.  I was really surprised at how expensive the coffee was, I don't think I saw espresso or cappucino for less than 2euro.  And people live off coffee there apparently, an expensive habit!  Also wine being cheaper than beer was a real culture shock.  3-5euro glasses of Bordeaux, Cotes du Rhone, etc. were great.  Beers were at least 4 euro for a half pint!  And not for really great beers either.  I would've liked to sit outside at a few cafe's, but the problem is the people that sit there seem to all smoke.  So instead of sitting in smoke I just went inside.  I was disappointed to see Pizza Hut and McDonald's packed on Saturday night.  I'm really glad I went, I probably spent a little bit too much money, which was probably inevitable, but uh, yeah, I went to Paris :)  I am still enjoying my cheese and saucisson selection.

On a completely unrelated note - well it is about food - I somehow lost a bag of lettuce that I had in the refrigerator.  Roommates don't know anything about it, I used it Thursday and have no idea what I did with it.

I think that's all for now.  If any of you ever have questions, feel free to ask by email or just in the comments.

P.S.  It is still raining

Finally Raining

So it's finally been raining most of the day today.  Not heavy, but enough to be annoying and keep the temperature feeling pretty chilly.  The wind unfortunately got a hold of my umbrella, so I'm afraid I"ll have to buy a new one.

Well our lab session is starting shortly.  Thought I'd have more time to write, but anyway.  I'll try to get a better update this afternoon, should have a good chunk of time for studying at home.