Getting skating withdrawl symptoms, this sucks!!
So, since last week man things have happened. The Friday rafting was spent in the labs, fun fun, followed by and evening out somewhere, it too long ago to remember! Saturday was more memorable though, we all went to the arctic centre which was really cool. It ended up with Lisa, Maggie and I doing everything together as we took our time and learned stuffs! Whilst there we got freezing cold in a cold room, watched penguins being fed (I put a frozen fish in my mouth - dodn't taste good), and rode a Hagglund, which was awesome. It's like a tracked off road vehicle that can do anything, and its bloody good fun!
After that we went out, another nice hazy night :)
The next day (Sunday) was spent at the farmers market where I bought some spanners and Allen keys (yay), some sunglasses and a tight baller hat made of red corduroy - sexy! The botanical gardens followed, which were beautiful once again.
On Monday I managed to flood the lab I was working in with waster, which was not so fun and I think the health and safety guy now hates me. Not the best way to make an introduction anyways. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent labbing, which passed time I guess, not in the most fun way though.
Wednesday night was taken up with Cricket with Rosie, James and Emma. It was a 20:20 game of India v. New Zealand; NZ won by 7 balls. Despite being 20:20 it still took over 3.5 hours, bloody long!
So, that brings us to now. Today was spent doing lab stuff, and hopefully I'll be going out later, huzzah!
Oh, if anyone has skype, add me: robhanson745
lates x
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Sup beezys
So, another week goes by, another time when I realise I should write a load of goop down. Weirdly, I've been writing loads this week. It all started when we were playing charades type games last weekend, and I began doodling, and then wrote some fact files on things like cheese, sausages, etc. Then it evolved into my thoughts and feelings, then some more on things like pirates, and then on Thursday I wrote a 16 pages story (albeit on an A5 notebook), but still, I was impressed. The story had beluga whales, a nun and a forest fire in it, pretty tight topics.
Anyway, back to what happened this week. I can't remember what happened Monday day, but I do know Monday night was pretty good. In fact I probably spent the day in the lab on Monday. Most likely. Anyhoo, we went to the uni bar on Monday night, it was fairly good, I danced, so it must've been ok. I threw down some shapes, people ran and hid, same as normal!
So, got in around 2, woke up at 7 for a phat day of labs, awesome. Tuesday hailed the first day of my proper experiments, and at the day I had discovered that at around 60% methanol our membrane was completely wetted, thrilling stuff. Tuesday night was bbq night I believe. I only found out part way through cooking, so I took pasta to it instead. Ooooh, that’s when Rosie, James and I went to the sickest little play park. It's got a zipline, a basketball hoop, lots of play things, and a water fountain, what more could you want? Returning to uni I joined in with a quiz thing. We sucked. Team Maggie consisted of me, Danielle, Maggie, Teddy, Fabian and Brady. We came a resounding third from last. Ah, it was after this that the writing began when we were playing charades.
Actually, NZ is pretty like the UK, but with a few subtle differences. Everyone says 'Ai' at the end of each sentence, there’s less ozone here, and mullets are cool. I have no idea, but I need a haircut and think I should get one...
Anyway, onwards throughout the week. Wednesday was good, a morning in the labs, followed by lots of playparking, and sleep. Oh, and pool, blow ping pong, and some mad juggling skills as displayed by me and Maggie.
Onwards to Thursday. Up at 7 as normal, but today no labs for me, oh no. For today was the day of white water rafting. Josh had arranged it for us, and I'm glad he did. After two hours of coach trip (my favourite bit was when we reached a signpost signed 'scenic inland route' each way - can't really go wrong can you!) we arrived at a lodge in the mountains. After lunch and putting on some very sexy clothes for the trip, we headed up the river in jeeps and whatnot. The scenery at the top was amazing. I'll whack a picture up of it later, I haven't taken many, so will probably take other peoples at some point. Rafting was awesome. In one of the practice jump overboard I forgot to hold on and so just floated down the river for a while, was lovely and serene. The water was beautiful; it had been in a glacier not six hours before, so perfectly fine to drink straight from the river. The river was also in a massive game reserve, so occasionally you'd see a huge elk wandering around at a massive distance. Incredible. Also some very interesting birds, saw a couple of hawks of some kind. Oh, and their pigeons and magpies are so much nicer that ours; they're really shiny, and not everywhere!
After thirty minutes of rafting we started to reach the rapids, and after some grade twos and threes we reached our first grade five (the highest grade we can raft - not sure you can do higher if you can actually raft!). We then proceeded to get out and have a gander at it, very scary looking! Jumping back in and pushing off, we were all pretty excited (when I mean we, there’s eight in a raft including a guide) and nailed it down it. Picture Splashdown but way more intense, in nicer water and just hella better! Good times. We pulled in further down to talk to a fisherman who'd caught two salmon that day with four pounds of bate, crazy stuff. The guide said they'd caught a sixteen pound salmon earlier the week, tasty! Carrying on down the river we met our second grade five rapid, awesome. After that some rock jumping; first from a three metre rock, then a ten metre one into the rediculously nice water, which wasn't even that cold.
Wow, this is a pretty epic tale thus far. Exhausted we returned to the lodge after three hour of rafting. It was on the bus ride home that the sixteen page epic tale was started. I somehow managed to finish it about five hours later, whilst slightly intoxicated. Thursday night was also really good, got fairly drunk and chilled with everyone, read my story to about three people at three in the morning, then went to bed. Four hours later up for labs, good times!
Friday morning, two hours into my experiment, oddly feeling really good, and I realised that I'd messed up. Awesome. Restart and another hour happens, another thing goes wrong. Three hours wasted. Eventually I finished my lab around 5.30, with some awesome results, pretty stoked on that. Went shopping, went out for a bit, came home around twelve and slept, which bring me to now, sitting in my Cher shirt and boxers writing this. Tasty.
Yeesh, what a marathon type. Props if you made it this far! Off to the Antarctic museum later with all the Americans, then farmers market methinks tomorrow. I'll whack some pics up later.
Oh, I also go skype; my username is robhanson745 if anyone has it.
Tata xxx
Anyway, back to what happened this week. I can't remember what happened Monday day, but I do know Monday night was pretty good. In fact I probably spent the day in the lab on Monday. Most likely. Anyhoo, we went to the uni bar on Monday night, it was fairly good, I danced, so it must've been ok. I threw down some shapes, people ran and hid, same as normal!
So, got in around 2, woke up at 7 for a phat day of labs, awesome. Tuesday hailed the first day of my proper experiments, and at the day I had discovered that at around 60% methanol our membrane was completely wetted, thrilling stuff. Tuesday night was bbq night I believe. I only found out part way through cooking, so I took pasta to it instead. Ooooh, that’s when Rosie, James and I went to the sickest little play park. It's got a zipline, a basketball hoop, lots of play things, and a water fountain, what more could you want? Returning to uni I joined in with a quiz thing. We sucked. Team Maggie consisted of me, Danielle, Maggie, Teddy, Fabian and Brady. We came a resounding third from last. Ah, it was after this that the writing began when we were playing charades.
Actually, NZ is pretty like the UK, but with a few subtle differences. Everyone says 'Ai' at the end of each sentence, there’s less ozone here, and mullets are cool. I have no idea, but I need a haircut and think I should get one...
Anyway, onwards throughout the week. Wednesday was good, a morning in the labs, followed by lots of playparking, and sleep. Oh, and pool, blow ping pong, and some mad juggling skills as displayed by me and Maggie.
Onwards to Thursday. Up at 7 as normal, but today no labs for me, oh no. For today was the day of white water rafting. Josh had arranged it for us, and I'm glad he did. After two hours of coach trip (my favourite bit was when we reached a signpost signed 'scenic inland route' each way - can't really go wrong can you!) we arrived at a lodge in the mountains. After lunch and putting on some very sexy clothes for the trip, we headed up the river in jeeps and whatnot. The scenery at the top was amazing. I'll whack a picture up of it later, I haven't taken many, so will probably take other peoples at some point. Rafting was awesome. In one of the practice jump overboard I forgot to hold on and so just floated down the river for a while, was lovely and serene. The water was beautiful; it had been in a glacier not six hours before, so perfectly fine to drink straight from the river. The river was also in a massive game reserve, so occasionally you'd see a huge elk wandering around at a massive distance. Incredible. Also some very interesting birds, saw a couple of hawks of some kind. Oh, and their pigeons and magpies are so much nicer that ours; they're really shiny, and not everywhere!
After thirty minutes of rafting we started to reach the rapids, and after some grade twos and threes we reached our first grade five (the highest grade we can raft - not sure you can do higher if you can actually raft!). We then proceeded to get out and have a gander at it, very scary looking! Jumping back in and pushing off, we were all pretty excited (when I mean we, there’s eight in a raft including a guide) and nailed it down it. Picture Splashdown but way more intense, in nicer water and just hella better! Good times. We pulled in further down to talk to a fisherman who'd caught two salmon that day with four pounds of bate, crazy stuff. The guide said they'd caught a sixteen pound salmon earlier the week, tasty! Carrying on down the river we met our second grade five rapid, awesome. After that some rock jumping; first from a three metre rock, then a ten metre one into the rediculously nice water, which wasn't even that cold.
Wow, this is a pretty epic tale thus far. Exhausted we returned to the lodge after three hour of rafting. It was on the bus ride home that the sixteen page epic tale was started. I somehow managed to finish it about five hours later, whilst slightly intoxicated. Thursday night was also really good, got fairly drunk and chilled with everyone, read my story to about three people at three in the morning, then went to bed. Four hours later up for labs, good times!
Friday morning, two hours into my experiment, oddly feeling really good, and I realised that I'd messed up. Awesome. Restart and another hour happens, another thing goes wrong. Three hours wasted. Eventually I finished my lab around 5.30, with some awesome results, pretty stoked on that. Went shopping, went out for a bit, came home around twelve and slept, which bring me to now, sitting in my Cher shirt and boxers writing this. Tasty.
Yeesh, what a marathon type. Props if you made it this far! Off to the Antarctic museum later with all the Americans, then farmers market methinks tomorrow. I'll whack some pics up later.
Oh, I also go skype; my username is robhanson745 if anyone has it.
Tata xxx
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Rugby and beach
Weather has picked up this weekend, about time to! Theres now three people in my house, me Shih-Ju and a guy from Saudi Arabia, haven't seen much of them though.
Thursday came and there was no-one here, then Friday came and the same happened. Heard people drinking on the other side of the wall to my apartment thingy, and found a group of Americans who I proceeded to meet, and who've been kind enough to put up with me!
On Saturday we went to watch rugby in town (shock horror), which was annoyingly quite interesting, then town, meal, pub, me going home and sleeping and leaving everyone else out!
I got up early on Sunday to go to church, didn't end up in the one we intended to, but it was good none-the-less. The service started with a massive band and sing which was cool, but overall it too one hour forty five, a bit of a drag to be honest! After that the beach beckoned, I think around 15 of us went. The beach was awesome, all sandy and whatnot, with 2ft messy surf. Board rental was only about £6 for as long as you want, must say, it was awesome surfing without a wetsuit!
This week could be really long, long days in the lab Monday and Tuesday, not sure about the rest of the week, but doubt it's going to be a barrel of laughs if it carries on aas its about to start...
Thursday came and there was no-one here, then Friday came and the same happened. Heard people drinking on the other side of the wall to my apartment thingy, and found a group of Americans who I proceeded to meet, and who've been kind enough to put up with me!
On Saturday we went to watch rugby in town (shock horror), which was annoyingly quite interesting, then town, meal, pub, me going home and sleeping and leaving everyone else out!
I got up early on Sunday to go to church, didn't end up in the one we intended to, but it was good none-the-less. The service started with a massive band and sing which was cool, but overall it too one hour forty five, a bit of a drag to be honest! After that the beach beckoned, I think around 15 of us went. The beach was awesome, all sandy and whatnot, with 2ft messy surf. Board rental was only about £6 for as long as you want, must say, it was awesome surfing without a wetsuit!
This week could be really long, long days in the lab Monday and Tuesday, not sure about the rest of the week, but doubt it's going to be a barrel of laughs if it carries on aas its about to start...
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
So am in Christchurch now, this is my third day here.
Got up mad early on Monday and Dane drove me to the airport, felt rather ill on the plane over, but all good once landed. Flying over NZ made me realise how big and barren it is, most of the land is mountainous and very inhabitable (at least it seemed that way). So, I landed, got a taxi to the uni and found I had accomodation which is nice. I'm in a corridor of 6, but theres no-one else here which sucks.
I then met my personal tutor and discussed my project (I got very confused), and had the rest of the day off to wander. Ended up wandering to a mall and got a phone which was a bit of a mission, but I guess I had nothing else to do! I then called Rosie (also here from Bath) and we met up and shes taken me under her wing which is lovely as I know no-one else here.
I got fairly bummed out on Monday and wondered what I was actually doing here, but after a crappy nights sleep I got over it. Tuesday came and I sorted out a load of uni stuff and began my project. Its on membranes and methanol and whey. Quite sadly I'm fairly interested in it now!
So, now Weds afternoon, have met Rosie and Rachel for lunch and bashed out 4 pages of intro. I'm off to get some food and then I think to the pub where Rosie is going to make me make friends :)
I'll leave with some pics of Auckland:
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Home to now
So, left home 2pm Wednesday, 2 days 7 hours 38 minutes later I left Auckland airport. In between that there was three flights, and two stop overs, one in Dubai and one in Brunei. Brunei was cool, had a massive stopover and the plane company put on a free tour which was interesting. We went to a markety thing, which as obviously for tourists, but a full meal cost less that 2 pounds, awesome! Had some weird chickeny thing and rice wrapped in leaves of something, was really nice to try something completely new.
So, eventually arrived in the airport and Dane picked me up. it was 10.30 am and already 25 degrees out, blooming warm! Its crazy, Auckland is twice the size of London, but only 1 million people here. Just from driving from the airport to the city you could see how the country is so different (in a good way). Instead of high rise buildings theres a massive sprawl of homes, all unique unlike England's rows and suburbs. Here it seems like houses just get placed at random, which to me is far nicer.
Anyhoo, we went round the city, looked at hills, and I got shown around. It's strange, the main street in all of New Zealand is just a normal road with no fancy shops or anything, and its really quiet compared to any other main street anywhere. Bridport is even more crowded than it.
We then met up with Josh and Matho and spent the rest of the day skating, swimming, then went out to a 21st in the evening. Tradition here is to do a yard of ale, 4 people did them all with some great projectile vomming! I then fell asleep in the car as was exhausted and literally crashed on Dane's floor around 11pm.
The next day involved a lot of the same, driving around, skating, swimming. Life here is good! In the evening a few of us went to a Chinese New Year lantern celebration thing, which involved a park filled with different lanterns, which was very prettyful.
A picture is worth a 1000 words apparently, so I'll put some up when I'm on my own laptop.
So, eventually arrived in the airport and Dane picked me up. it was 10.30 am and already 25 degrees out, blooming warm! Its crazy, Auckland is twice the size of London, but only 1 million people here. Just from driving from the airport to the city you could see how the country is so different (in a good way). Instead of high rise buildings theres a massive sprawl of homes, all unique unlike England's rows and suburbs. Here it seems like houses just get placed at random, which to me is far nicer.
Anyhoo, we went round the city, looked at hills, and I got shown around. It's strange, the main street in all of New Zealand is just a normal road with no fancy shops or anything, and its really quiet compared to any other main street anywhere. Bridport is even more crowded than it.
We then met up with Josh and Matho and spent the rest of the day skating, swimming, then went out to a 21st in the evening. Tradition here is to do a yard of ale, 4 people did them all with some great projectile vomming! I then fell asleep in the car as was exhausted and literally crashed on Dane's floor around 11pm.
The next day involved a lot of the same, driving around, skating, swimming. Life here is good! In the evening a few of us went to a Chinese New Year lantern celebration thing, which involved a park filled with different lanterns, which was very prettyful.
A picture is worth a 1000 words apparently, so I'll put some up when I'm on my own laptop.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Got here
Sup,
Just a quick post to say I got here ok, am in Auckland with Dane now, heading to Christchurch Monday. It's like 25 degress out, have spent the last 2 days skating, swimming, chilling, gnar!! NZ is amazing, so beautiful and spread out. Auckland is twice the size of London, but with only 1 million people, awesome city.
Will write something properly when I get set up in Christchruch, off for a nap then out somewhere
Lates x
Just a quick post to say I got here ok, am in Auckland with Dane now, heading to Christchurch Monday. It's like 25 degress out, have spent the last 2 days skating, swimming, chilling, gnar!! NZ is amazing, so beautiful and spread out. Auckland is twice the size of London, but with only 1 million people, awesome city.
Will write something properly when I get set up in Christchruch, off for a nap then out somewhere
Lates x
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Last day
So, heading to the airport in a bit. Snow may be nice, but when you want to catch a flight it's not so fun, pretty worried that it may be cancelled/delayed, so fingers crossed. I've got a 10 hour layover in Brunei, so a delay won't matter too much. I'm hoping to spend some time there in my layover, so it'd be nice if everything was on time...
Everythings packed, longboard taken to bits and stowed away (am buying a new deck over there, so just taking trucks, wheels, etc, can't wait for new deck, is beautiful!). The hardest decision so far has been whether to take my Cher t-shirt or not, decided on yes, as everyone loves and needs a bit of Cher in their live!
Reet, will post again sometime once I'm there, will leave with some pics of my village.
Everythings packed, longboard taken to bits and stowed away (am buying a new deck over there, so just taking trucks, wheels, etc, can't wait for new deck, is beautiful!). The hardest decision so far has been whether to take my Cher t-shirt or not, decided on yes, as everyone loves and needs a bit of Cher in their live!
Reet, will post again sometime once I'm there, will leave with some pics of my village.
Also just noticed the time stamp is wrong, weird. Written on Tuesday, had to point this out as I'm pedantic!
Sunday, 1 February 2009
I'm leaving
As most of you know, I'm leaving for New Zealand on Wednesday to do a research project (on membranes, hells yea!) in Christchurch, and to travel.
This is going to be the mad exciting page where you get to find out what I'm doing (or not in the cases of no-one reading this, or my life turning out rather dull).
So, this is my first post, from the UK. What a truly riveting one it is at that. Erm...
Well, I'm going to miss you guys a lot whilst I'm gone, but I'll be back in June, but then off to Guildford for a year for my placement (I finally got one, schwing!). Hopefully I'll get to catch up with everyone round then sometime, would be lovely.
On that note;
tata x
This is going to be the mad exciting page where you get to find out what I'm doing (or not in the cases of no-one reading this, or my life turning out rather dull).
So, this is my first post, from the UK. What a truly riveting one it is at that. Erm...
Well, I'm going to miss you guys a lot whilst I'm gone, but I'll be back in June, but then off to Guildford for a year for my placement (I finally got one, schwing!). Hopefully I'll get to catch up with everyone round then sometime, would be lovely.
On that note;
tata x
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