12 Hours in London

I apologize for not blogging too much this week.  Haven't necessarily had a lot to write about.  Just been plugging away on assignments and thesis investigation.  It's been quite a challenge actually not needing to go to campus.  Very easy to get I guess claustrophobic would be the word here in my room.  I've gone to the gym every day, which of course helps, but it's hard to find places to do some work that don't involve spending money, eating, drinking, or all of the above.  It also means that I've kind of been working on something most of each day, so even though it wasn't a busy week, it feels that way.  So knowing the weekend would bring more of the same, I decided to buy a cheap train ticket to London for Saturday.  For some unknown reason, the NCSU/UNC game was on ESPN America last night, which meant that this place called The Sports Cafe was showing it.  I'm going back next Sunday with some guys to watch the Super Bowl, and was checking out the Cafe.  It's not the best, and I think we'll wind up at a BBQ joint that is showing it instead.  The Cafe is charging 15 GBP just to get in, at the BBQ place 25 P gets you a buffet of chicken, ribs, etc.

I started off pretty early, because I wanted to get to Borough Market early, before the crowds got too big.  I'm glad I did, I think I was there by about 10am, still plenty busy, but easy to walk around too.  There was tons of fresh meat, fish (including authentic Arbroath Smokies), vegetables, baked goods, etc.  here was one soup stand that was cooking an assortment of curries in big vats:

Not the best picture, but it was very cool in person, and they were giving tastes out, which were delicious.  Nearly every stand had free samples, from cheese, to bread, sausages, olive oil, you name it.  It was basically brunch for me by the time I got around through the whole market.  I even finally tried real foie gras!

This was a little wine stand where you could fill your own wine bottles out of the barrels that you can see to the right of the bottles.  Very cool idea!

The french stand where I tried foie gras was serving mulled wine, and had a big pot of duck that was waiting for lunch time duck confit sandwiches.  By the time I'd finished everywhere it wasn't quite lunch time, so I went to a nearby bar called the Rake for a half-pint of Belgian beer to wait for the duck to be ready.  And boy was it worth it, the sandwich was fantastic.  I know you can't really see the duck in the picture, but there was plenty of it in there!

Then I walked a bit to a very small brewery that has been getting rave reviews over here, Kernel Brewery.  I tried a taste of two of their IPA's and bought a bottle of the Black IPA and the Imperial Stout.  All hand bottled, and I really like the labels too.  The other two beers I picked up at Utobeer.  One is a smoked porter that I'd read about and thought I wouldn't find, and the other is Nogne's 100th barrel beer Barleywine/DIPA.

I then walked back across the Thames to St. Paul's Cathedral which was very impressive and then to the free Museum of London.  The Museum was pretty cool, as it has a wide range of exhibits, from modern art and history, to prehistoric natural history.  Didn't realize the Romans called London Londinium.  Sounds like an element to me.  By now I needed to find some dinner so I could get to the Cafe place in time for the game.  The first couple places I had targeted wound up being a bit on the pricey side.  Not terrible, just more than I was looking to spend.  I wound up at a German restaurant that actually turned out to be very good.  I had a small sausage platter and a hefeweissen.  

The Sports Cafe was packed at first, and slowly thinned out after one of the soccer games ended.  It was nothing special, not good beer, but apparently one of the only places to watch the ESPN America channel unfortunately.  Too bad the game wasn't very god, but I kinda knew that might be the case.  There was some Tarheel apparel, and I saw one NCSU shirt come in the door, but have no idea where he went to!  

By the time I got back to MK, it was 1030, so I a very long day, but good to get away for sure.

If anyone is interested, my full set of pictures is below:

29-1-11 London

I'm on the Front Page!

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/

Surprisingly Busy

I thought this week might go really really slowly, but it hasn't so far.  Been  having a good mix of working on assignments, thesis development, going to the gym, and relaxation time.

I did go out for haggis last night, and it was surprisingly....not terrible.  I mean it's far from my new favorite food or anything like that, but would never guess what was really in it.  Unfortunately the place I went did not have the Scottish dessert I'd mentioned, so I got a Black Forest Sundae instead.  I think it should've been split 4 ways, but I'm a student, and I paid for it, so I ate it all.  I'm guessing 2000 calories alone, so it's not my fault I'm withering away to skinniness!  It was also a great surprise to find a really nice IPA on cask too.

Today I had to go to campus to look at a test rig that I might need for my thesis, and to get a picture taken for the RE blog too.  I used the free campus shuttle, which took surprisingly long because of the sequence of stops it made.  But hey, at least it was free, and a comfortable tour style bus, so whatever.  The shuttle exists solely for people living on campus to go shopping in MK supposedly.  Why they feel the need to provide that I have no idea.

Think I'll finish off my pizza finally tonight for dinner, with either salad or vegetable of some kind on the side.

(H)ello!

So despite having no class or specific obligation today, it's turned into quite the productive day.  Woke up at 730 and had a good breakfast, then did some work on my assignments while catching up on some TV in the background.  Had leftover frittata for lunch and did a little more work before heading out to the gym.  Got in a good spin session since I'd lifted the last 3 days straight.  I'm now sitting in a coffee shop (see I don't always go to the Pub) after working on my other blog for a while.  Wait, hold on, other blog, what am I talking about?

Basically on Friday Racecar Engineering will be launching a revised website, and I will have 2 blog entries on there.  They had contacted the school wanting a student to write things periodically, and I guess I was the only one to reply.  Supposedly I'll be one of the 4-5 features that they are launching with.  So, uh, wow, maybe a little intimidated by that.  But hey, it'll get my name out there, which can only really be a good thing unless I really do a terrible job!

We do finally have two more exam grades back.  Not as good as the first one, but I think they should be my two worst subjects (powertrain and aerodynamics).  Still did well though, the equivalent of a B I suppose, though it's not quite the same correlation as I'm used to.

I did go get a cheap Papa Johns pizza last night, which was tasty, and will be dinner tonight again and another lunch this week as well.  Heading to the store to pick up a couple things for the week and then back home.  Probably some PS3 time, dinner, then a little more work later tonight.

The Weekend

Don't think I've said it on here, but other than a few written assignments and some thinking about my thesis that I need to do, I don't know the next time I have anything official to do on campus.  The group project "start" date is February 14th.  So basically I think I will have a very flexible schedule for a few weeks.  Might look into some travel options to take advantage of the time.  I'd just need my computer and an internet connection every once in a while.

Yesterday was pretty relaxing, played a good bit of PS3, got in a great workout, and picked up a neat mini-keg of beer from the local brewery.  It is a super small operation, with really only one employee, the brewer, Dan.  He was really nice and I'm happy to support him (it helps that his beer is very tasty!).

I did head to central MK for a couple beers and some always interesting people watching.  

Been getting a start on my project management assignment and cleaning up a lab report this morning.  I just had lunch, a turkey sandwich and pretzels, nothing exciting.  Gonna go to the gym soon, and then I'm not too sure what the rest of the afternoon will be.  There is a new Papa John's that is running a special for an XL pizza for 4.99, which I might take advantage of tonight.  Also thinking about finding a Burns Dinner somewhere this week.  If not, I at least want to find somewhere to try Cranachan.  

I feel like I had more to say, but that's kind of all I'm thinking of now.  Maybe I'll remember and I'll give you all a bonus second blog post in one day!

Done With Classes!

Can't believe that we're done with our lectures.  Our presentation went pretty good today I think, hope the actual written report goes well too though.  Finally got back to the gym tonight too which was good.

I didn't mention that I got my first produce box yesterday.  It came from Organic Trail.  This week it had a red pepper, potatoes, onions, brussel sprouts, broccoli, mangoes, pears and apples.  I used a sampling of the vegetables to make a frittata for dinner tonight.  The best part is I've got 3 servings leftover for the weekend!

The weather is back to around freezing again.  But the rain has been gone for a couple days too, so that's better.  I don't really have anything planned for the weekend, just getting going on the project management assignment and getting some ideas down on paper for my thesis.  Fun times.

There's a First Time for Everything I Suppose

The morning bus was actually completely on schedule this morning, probably because I was running 2 minutes late, and it was pulling away as I was walking up the hill to the stop.  So I suppose I got in a mini workout this morning walking back and forth...Got a ride from a classmate though.

Lecture was pretty interesting, it was a guy who had worked for McLaren, Ferrari, TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing - during the Silk Cut Jaguar days) and various other teams as well.  I guess really the takeaway message of the whole week is just to know what your getting into.  That sounds painfully obvious, but it's amazing how many people really are not aware of the ways to succeed in the environments that they enter.

I'm working a little bit on our group assignment before going to a presentation on the Bloodhound SSC.  There were some pictures of it in my album from the Autosport show too.  Hopefully it is a bit better than the last night presentation from the Renault F1 engineer.  Our assignment is going ok, I think we've finally gotten everyone focused on the task of getting our stuff ready for Friday.  We basically have to present a preliminary business plan, and it is easy to get caught up in the technical details, especially with all of us being engineers!

So it's already been quite a long, busy week, but at least it is our last lecture week, so that is making it a little easier.  I haven't gotten to the gym at all, and probably won't until Friday, which is unfortunate, but anyway.  Well I should get back to work, and I think I'm out of things to tell you for now.  Cheers!