Yorkshire Pudding Hits the US

I have been down a bit of late. I am guessing it is homesickness, but it could be all sorts of reasons like feeling great after finishing my thesis and the feeling crashing etc. I'm not entirely sure. To cheer myself up I decided to make Sunday lunch, complete with Yorkshire Pudding.

I'll be honest with you, the dinner was a complete shambles, but it worked a treat in cheering me up. It was a typical Rob endeavour. I didn't have anything metal that looked like it could be used to make them, so I tried a Pyrex dish I found. Didn't have a whisk. No vinegar, which I usually add to make them fluffy. As you can see it actually rose. It tasted so good. It made me so happy. I was home for a moment or two. The rest of the meal was chaos. I haven't attempted to cook Sunday lunch in the States and only cooked one or two since I lived with Jimmy (who can be seen sleeping on the New York subway here, and was last seen somewhere in Canadia) which was last October. So my timing was bad, things got cold, I didn't have a masher and I messed up the gravy. All in all a success.

A Postcard from Derbyshire

Quite a few of the readers of this monstrosity are the from the states. So I thought I would treat you some snaps of the fair shores of home. Also I have been playing with my photo editor. Some say it is grim up north......

It's not really though. Most of these pictures are of the peak district which is a national park which is only a few miles from my house. Below is a picture of the Hope valley. It is quite strange that there is an area of Durham, NC that is named after this.

A stream behind my parents house. This was actually took on a day after Christmas a few years ago, while we were trying to still walk off dinner.

This is actually 5 minutes walk from my parents house. I have put them in because snow here in NC seems so far off. The last few days have been over 30 oC.

Back to the peaks again and this is a view of Mam Tor from the inside of Peveril Castle. How very English this is turning out to be.

This is a picture of where the second photo was taken, it really is one of my favourite spots in the whole world.

Here is Stanage Edge which is apparently one of the best places to climb in the UK. It may not look high, but I worked near it for a summer and with the amount of helicopter rescues I'm guessing it's pretty easy to fall.

I have been pretty stressed the last few weeks and it has resulted in probably my worse bout of homesickness since I got here. It's crushing me or anything like that. I don't want to leave, on the contrary I think I'm gonna stay longer, if they will let me. Normal service will resume shortly, I just can't put my finger on it.....

Tales from the bar

I was planning on an uneventful Saturday evening. I had acquired a $7 bottle of wine and was going to enjoy it and the mosey on down to a birthday party that was starting at 11. Halfway through this wine Hui called to see if I wanted to play darts. Not being very good, I of course jumped on the chance. I got to the bar early and sat down in front of the TV. A few minutes later a bloke came and was giving the guy next to me shit about letting his seat get taken. The bloke insisted that I stayed there as it was the best seat for the football in the bar and I was watching it rather than the last time it happened to him where the guy wasn't even watching it. My reply was yeah I'm watching it but I have no clue about American football. This sparked the obvious conversation about how can you watch 'soccer' or should I say 'football' blah blah. He actually didn't mind it just preferred American football, but did like Rugby.

I do like American bars that are chilled out and people talk to you. I could just imagine the exchange in certain UK bars. Which reminds me of watching and England match with my sister once. She was shouting at people to get out of her way so she could watch the game. Biggest football hooligan I know.

Lam!Lam!

On Thursday I caught a show that I have been meaning to see for ages, and as it was at the [ahem] classy Sirens Lounge and I didn't really have an excuse as it is within spitting distance of my house. It was infamous LAM!LAM!, who are reportedly the worst thing to happen to music ever! But they do have a drinking solution, so don't be put off. I have to warn you before you listen to the songs, that they are bloody catchy and will stick in your head like a sickly sweet aftertaste.

Lam lam who is also known as Betsy and is one of the funniest people I have met in Dirty D. She like PBR and Jarvis Cocker so we get along just great. Here is a picture of us discussing a CD she is making for Ryan, it's called 25 songs to make Ryan Hill uncomfortable, as you can see this made me look like I was about to puke.

Oh look at me hanging out with rock stars!

Random Americanness

Here is a quick post about life in the US. Snacks are great in the states. I got a free goody bag from the students union shop the other day. It has loads of random American items in it such as oreos, 'goldfish' (cheesy biscuits shaped like fish), chips and apple sauce. I do have to say they were all bloody good. To me apple sauce should go on a pork chop but I am warming to it as a snack..... probably should eat an apple instead but hey ho.

P.S Americanness is a word.

I made the BBC website

Ha ha check the quotes of the week on the BBC sport. Click on the photo to see it properly. I will try and sort this out.

Party Invite

Ryan threw a party on saturday, here is the invite, it made me chuckle, the party definitely lived up to the invite, my head still hurts two days later....

dearest of friends,

sorry to bother you on this most productive of workdays, however, i'd like to cordially invite all of you to a gathering taking place at my humble abode this saturday (sept. 15th, ~9pm). reasons for celebration are quite plentiful; some of which are the following: the coming of a much anticipated cool front this week (!), bob's submission of his dissertation and subsequent validation of his status as "postdoc," chilkoti lab birthdays (greg [even though he probably can't attend], sept. 16; sarah, sept. 22; and of course mine, may 8th), it will be saturday so why not, a gravel yard and a garage necessitates a proper gathering, UNC's imminent "learning experience" with UVa (does duke have a football team?), jonah's leaving for san diego, andy's recent "best day of experiments ever," and my being tired of driving places. i will provide a keg of bad beer, a garage, and a gravel yard; all of which will ultimately contribute to a venue for witty banter and philosophical, intellectual, and nonsensical debate on topics ranging from poetry and flowers to music and science (and whatever else you can come up with). though i feel a keg should be sufficient for properly teasing said banter and debate out of you, i anticipate that some attendees may need beverages in excess of what i'm able to provide. should you find yourself fitting this category you should (a) face your potential problem with hedonism and (b) visit the gas station around the corner from my house. as suggested by the flyer (follow the hypertext markup to the flyer), this will be an extremely classy event, almost completely devoid of "debauchery," "shenanigans," "tom foolery," or any other actions that could be considered philosophically lewd or otherwise inappropriate (this statement may in fact turn out to be sarcasm). please feel free to forward this invite to friends since my limited omniscient state prevents me from knowing every email address. all persons who are not intending to engage in theft or unnecessary attraction of authorities are welcome.

Party Flyer:

http://durhamatron.hoharlabs.com/party.html

??? Iredell St.

Durham, NC 27705

(park somewhere along the street)

~9pm, this saturday, sept. 15

sincerely,

ryan hill

Freedom

I have just finished writing my thesis. It's been 4 years in the making and I have finally got there. You never know I might pass my viva and become a doctor, and my research group might have a postdoc.... Here is my celebration picture. I am currently finishing the beer off and listening to loud music. I am so happy. This means I will actually be able to face writing my blog again, so keep a look out, the superman pants may even make a few outings.

Shiver me timbers, there be a cold wind a brewin'

For the first time since I moved to North Carolina it looks like it could be considered cold out side. As I am writing this it is 32 oC (90 F), but tomorrow a cold front is coming in and the temperature is going to drop to the high 20 s and later in the week we could possibly have a 24 oC. It has constantly been at least high 20 s (80 s) and more like the mid 30 s (90 s) for the past couple of weeks. Around the time my parents and sister were here it was in the 100 s. The main problem with the NC weather is that there is no respite from it. It really doesn't get cool at night, it only drops a few degrees. When I leave the house in a morning it is like a hair dryer before 9 am. Then the boar's breath humidity hits you about 11..... I'm looking forward to autumn y'all.

I interviewed a local dignitary Ryan Hill on the subject:

'I am over this heat, I want it to be autumnal'

Check weather.com out

Insect

I have been trying for a while to get some pictures of insects. They are bloody massive here! Although my camera does seem to be a great insect repellent. They usually try and attack/eat me while I am doing my laundry. Not this bugger. It jumped right under my foot and made the biggest crack ever. So I finally got a picture, ha ha.

El Gigante's Little Brother

Hopefully I will be be posting more from now on. So here is a little treat for y'all. Here is a Cosmic Cantina Burrito. As a handy reference tool I have included everyones favourite measuring device.

This is the correct size for a burrito unlike like this monster which I am told my sister still talks about. It was bloody good.

Also a quick note to say the the blog was famous for a day. It was the subject of a Red Collar myspace bulletin. It got over 30 hits. I thought it might blow up.

The Superman pants are back!!!!!

Last night was the penultimate bulls game of the season, it would have rude not to go

So we got some friends together and decided to watch the ball game.

Oh yeah there was the little issue of embarrassing ourselves while we still can. The story goes, a while back Andy decided it would be funny to pay for the privilege of singing 'take me out to the ballpark' at the bulls game. The song is sung in the middle of the 7th innings and they lyrics are:

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the Bulls,
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.

A little bit of liquid encouragement was needed

To celebrate this Superman pants made their triumphant return

They were a little difficult to get on......