Any Colour You Like

I have never liked exams, never been good at them and never have any idea whether I did well or not until the results come. So I tried really hard this year to choose relevant, non-wimpy units that have a high proportion of coursework assessment. However… as Anders Arnberg eloquently puts it, I have really shot myself in the foot this term.

Before easter I have to design a elevated tramway in composite materials, design a high level wind-turbine system with a detailed glass fibre blade layup and design,  write a realistic mathematical model for the relative energy usage of hybrid and electric cars vs petrol cars, mathematically model the AP-X natural gas liquefaction process and do preliminary sizing for gas turbine drivers and compressor geometry, and asses the potential for integrating the value ratio into a triple bottom line sustainability assessment of the big five british supermarkets.

Basically, if any of you feel that you are experts in any of these areas and have a few spare brain cycles in an average evening then you are welcome to borrow a project for a bit =)

It has finally begun. Equipped with my Lonely Planet guides to SE Asia on a shoe string and Japan on a considerably longer shoe string I have finally begun working out some rudimentary plans for the summer. Fortunately I have decided to look into budgeting after I have decided where I want to go and what I want to do. I believe this is the correct approach to make me save money properly.

The pressure is on to choose a hub airport so I can get the out and return flights in the January sales and I guess I am going to have to at least look into money to do this – it would be somewhat embarrassing to book for four months and run out of money after two and a half weeks. If any of you have and suggestions then feel free to comment. Cata, do you have any idea where you will be and when??

A good name for a night I think. Once again Orsolya was annoying enough to come to Bristol and then tell me what is going on and where we should be going. Unfortunately she was also right again – the Golden Lion was a fun place with lots of ‘real’ people, the live band were great and I had no idea DJ-ing was so complicated. It is good to see the resurgence of 7″s but I can’t help squirm when they scratch them (so much needle abuse). I will have to venture out of the student bubble more often I think…

I have now finally finished my intensive module on wind-power (except the stack of coursework I have to do for it obviously). It was all very stimulating and worthy of debate. It is even potentially an area I would like to work with in the future. But probably the most interesting part of the week was the biological issues surrounding wind turbines that cropped up from time to time:

(1) After only 9 months of operation, the efficiency and electricity output of wind turbines will have reduced by 45% due to the number of bugs that have stuck to the blades (nasty way to die in my opinion). The goo and carcasses mess with the aerodynamics.

(2) The resistance of the blades to bird-strike is tested by firing a 7kg frozen turkey at them at a speed of 20m/s.

(3) Wind turbines are designed to conduct electricity and pass it on to the ground so that they can survive being struck by lighting. Unfortunately this has the offshoot of electrocuting lots of cows that like to stand around under the turbines. Farmers then get very annoyed at this.

So there you have it – think twice before voting ‘yes’!

It was great to zoom over to London for two days this weekend and see Orsi and Cata. After some strenuous calculations we concluded that I hadn’t seen Cata in over a year (and that time even more briefly than this) and it was certainly more than six months since Orsolya came to Bristol for some undistracted exam revision. Regardless, the best thing about our group of friends is we can just pick it all up again however long ago it was that our paths crossed.

Cata knew an amazing japanese tea place in Soho – first time I have ever been shown to a table by a waiter for afternoon tea. We had a pot of Taiwanese green which was a first for me. It was a little like Japanese Sencha, but more ‘crisp’ and very refreshing. We also had unbelievable cakes. Mine came in a small glass and was a mixture of exotic fruits, green tea flavoured mouse, sake and some other unrecognised ingredients. Needless to say I have never tasted anything like it, but it was without a doubt the most ‘flavour-diverse’ ‘cake’ I have ever had.

And then after wandering around some record shops it was time to meet up with Orsi for dinner at a great (and very reasonably priced) Thai place. The calimari was sublime, as was the jasmine and fruit smoothy. The curry could have been hotter but all in all…

‘Potion’ by the UCL area and BT tower was the cocktail destination. Embarrassingly I ordered the same cocktails as Ina did the last time she visited, but you can’t go wrong at £3.50 each.

And brunch up Orsolya’s end of town was beyond belief – pancakes with maple syrup have never been so needed. Finally to round off a ridiculous marathon of eating, drinking and catching up we went to a cute little cafe (don’t know where) but it looked something like this:

Orsolya and Pecan Cake!

Cheers both for a great time x

Went to Bristol’s shiny new bouldering centre yesterday. Alas it is still 45mins walk away (55 since we got lost), but it is really great. The routes are clever and you have to think quite carefully about how to do them. And there are so many to choose from! The cakes and sofas are also great but the best part of all is the fingerprint scanner that confirms your membership. No annoying plastic card and oh so cool =)

Can’t wait to go to London and see Orsi and Cata. It will be awesome to eat good thai food and go out dancing. See you guys tomorrow!

It was a noticeable return to studendom for me. The house was in a state (they managed to break two windows over christmas), the banter returned and the beer fridge was raided before a start-of-term night out. Unfortunately we decided to go to Versa. Please remind me not to bother if I ever suggest going again. And even that was a warm, sticky and somewhat distasteful welcome back to Bristol. We still have no idea how Adam managed to get a massive graze across his forehead, but I can easily imagine a few typical scenarios involving harassment, eviction and fights with the bouncers. Still, I have stuck it out for nearly four years now so the extra year and a bit shouldn’t be too hard =)

Josh and me

Continuing on the theme of why people should come back to Malmö we have Solde. If the most technically perfect espresso and peerless ambience wasn’t enough, their opening times video surely is!

Not to try and bring any of you that didn’t make it back this year to tears, but I thought it only fair to dedicate a post to our old faithful Cosmo on Djäknegatan. Same people, same pie (both ‘matpaj’ and dessert), same lemonade, same hallonsoda (if you ask nicely). Tables still all in their proper places and same door that is difficult to shut and so there is still the same draft until someone else shuts it. And it is still packed all the time and just as difficult to get the sofa!

It was pretty epic really, for being a spontaneous snowboarding trip to Dalarna. Since when does Sweden get such perfect blue skies? Minus twelve was quite crisp and the snow wasn’t perfect but it was great to be outside all day every day. Even our relatively tame new years eve was quite nice, with a plentiful supply of fireworks and the most crystal clear night sky I have ever seen. I have never seen ‘star dust’ before, when even the most remote stars contribute to the shimmering night sky. I must be turning into a romantic puddle of philosophy =)