NYC....well airports!

As I mentioned in my last post I was planning a trip to NYC to meet up with my sister for her birthday and see Shannon. After a rough few weeks this was going to be fantastic. I had booked the flight so I had a few hours to get myself sorted before I met my sister. I had looked at the weather and knew it was going to be snowing in NYC so I had packed warm and even a jumper in hand luggage. Not just a pretty face, eh? I called Shannon from the airport and she said there had been snow but it had stopped and some flights had been canceled. I was looking at the board and a few had been but not mine so I was in luck!

About 20 minutes before the flight they were asking for 9 people to consider getting bumped to another flight. All the passengers looked round as if to say 'not me buddy'. 10 minutes before the flight was set to leave they announced it was canceled. Bugger. So I jumped in the queue to get another flight. I was two from the front, which I thought was quiet impressive and cat like of me. They said they had nothing for today, tomorrow was the best they could do but I could try getting a flight to DC and getting a train.

I really wanted to see everyone in NYC and I would only have a day that way. Also I had tickets for the NY Knicks for that evening. So I though I might as well go for it instead of just going home. So I got booked on a flight to DC. The waiting started. I was quite looking forward to a nice train ride.

I later learned that over 1100 flights were canceled that day. When I got into DC it was pretty easy getting to train station. Oh the joys of a public transport system. Unfortunately lots of other also found it easy to get there too. Upon my arrival there an announcement that no trains had spaces going north till Saturday. Bugger.

After a few phone calls I admitted defeat and made my way back to the airport. I could have tried the greyhound/Chinatown buses but I feared the same would happen and by then I would probably not got into NYC till late Friday early Saturday anyway. Also I have been to the area of town in DC where you get the buses from. It is bloody scary in the day.

I managed to get on a flight home to Durham, and back only 13 hours after I left. While it was a pretty miserable day it did get me away from it all and gave me time to chill out and get some much needed thinking done. I am happier than I was on Thursday. I even got a John Grisham book who I have never read before and am enjoying it.

When I got back I didn't do the sensible thing and go to bed. Nahh dancing in Chapel Thrill with Nathan in Mina was the order of the day. I even got my revenge by giving them shots of Ouzo. He He. Looking for that link I found this page. It's pretty geeky and involves small angle neutron scattering and papers from Langmuir (which I have been published in no less) about the ouzo effect. The aniseed separates when you add water causing it to go milky.

Anyway the moral of the story. Traveling in the US can suck but at least it wasn't the wrong kind of snow.

Plans

A quick update. I am off to NYC tomorrow for the weekend. Where I will get to see my wonderful sister for her birthday and to hangout with the lovely Shannon in Brooklyn. I have been stressed with work these last few weeks so I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully I will get some cool shots for the blog too.

Also a week later I fly out for a jaunt in California, with my old mate from school Laurence 'chief' Wall. So expect real blog updates in the next few weeks.

I will try and get the NYC stuff updated ASAP but you know what I'm like.

Catch y'all later

Bob

Chinese New Year: Not Lost in Translation

Being in the most international lab on our floor does have a lot of perks. One of them is you get to have lots of celebrations. Our latest lab outing was to celebrate the Chinese new year at Tao's house. Tao is my fellow postdoc in our lab and was very kind to prepare a feast for us on the Chinese new year, for the year of the Rat.

We had some great traditional Chinese food, obviously washed down with Coca-cola. Damn westerners.

and a good laugh playing table tennis after. Not shown here is Tao kicking my ass at table tennis.

All in all it was a great evening and it reminded me why science is a nice field to work in, because it truly is a international field. Anyway to the second point of my post; not lost in translation. As part of the celebrations, Tao, his wife and those originally from China tried to explain what was going on to those not from China. Firstly the food was all explained, although I was slightly disappointed that the promised goat actually turned out to be lamb (do like eating new animals). After this the bread was passed round. One bread roll contained a red bean, the person who found this would have to tell a love story.

As the bean wasn't found the first time round we started to talk about new year in our different countries. Andres playing the wag asked what I did. Obviously not wanting to regale people with my ASBOesq antics I did eventually get round to Big Ben. Tao, then told is the story of why there is no year of the cat. We then played a little game of guessing what brings or chases away good and bad luck. Not good news if you bought shoes in the last few days. While Chinese characters baffle me, one of the things cool things is that they all came from pictures originally. Here are the symbols for the animals for each year, you can sort of see em, well kinda.

Anyway I digress. Back to the bread. We were on the second round and still nobody had got the bean. It turns out Tao had forgot which one it was in and not cooked it. So we all made Tao tell the story of how he met his wife. Well actually Tao and his wife had to tell it. The story goes. Tao and his wife both helped the same person out on the same day but in different ways. So the person took them to dinner and after they played poker. Tao lost and had to make breakfast for his wife to be. As the dorms were not co-ed he had to drop it off with the porter, but saw her at a bus stop the next day, they had a drink and hit it off. The best bit was them telling this story. Tao's wife was telling it in broken English (she doesn't get to practice very much) and Chinese (we had lots of translators) but you could tell how embarrassing it was by the look on Tao's face. This was especially apparent when she let slip that during all this Tao had a girlfriend. Communication is not always verbal.

Adventures with the DMV

After months of abuse by the door staff of NC I decided to breakdown and get an ID. I wanted originally to get my drivers license converted to an NC one. This is not an easy task. Firstly to get a license you need a car. This is because you need auto insurance to get a license. The flaw in the system is that to buy a car...... you need a drivers license. So I got a lovely ID instead. Ah the joys of the NC Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

The DMV office in Durham is pretty bad. When we first got there, the guy giving people their ticket was also the guy taking the photos. So there were two big queues. It is painful watching somebody who is a stickler for protocol doing their job badly. Also notice the expiry date. It better bloody work after all that.

rant over.

P.S. I saw the fattest person I have seen in NC at the DMV. I felt bad for him as he had to try and squeeze into a horrible little plastic chair.

Back in Carolina, I think

Well I made it back to NC after a jaunt back to the UK. It was good to see some old faces. It is so difficult to see everyone, so I am sorry if I missed you. I was strange being back. I think I did finally get used to it by the end. Although I did miss NC. It's strange, even though it is really hard leaving friends and family back in the UK and I do miss everyone, I was ready to come back home to dirty D. It does feel like home now. One thing I don't miss about the UK in the winter is the short days and the miserable weather. We get about 2 and a half hours extra of daylight here. Also a big smile on my face.

Speaking of England, here is the end of my road in Dronfield. We got a light dusting of snow. For the colonials, that is a bend in the road.

I really wouldn't recommend doing four transatlantic flights in about 6 weeks. It really does mess with your head. Although my last flight (Philly - Raleigh) was really nice as it was the first time I have chatted to a random on a flight. It was this old guy from NY state and was flying down to see his grandson. We just talked about England and Engineering.

Just in case I hadn't mentioned it, I am now here till March 2009. I hope everyone had a good festive season. I will be updating the blog more from now on. I am even buying a new camera. Get me.

Mankini pub golf

To celebrate me going back to the UK and passing my viva I let my sister organise a night out. True to form it involved a drink...

... or three

The idea was to do pub golf down Division St in sheffield. As I said my sister made it up so it involved me wearing something stupid. A Borat mankini.

I did say we had a few drinks didn't I?
It was a little tight....
But it got a little comfier after a while
Well maybe not
We found out it wasn't that tight.... you can fit Jon and I in
and a few friends....
Introducing 'Kinky Slimer' available for birthdays, weddings etc

Good times! Thank you everyone who made it out. Also thank you to the guys over on this side of the pond for giving me another celebration, my head hurt for a while after that.

Back to the UK and back again

I have been away for a while as I had to go back to England to 'defend my thesis' or have my viva voce (depending on where your from). I passed with minor corrections just in case you didn't know. I am pretty chuffed with it, even if it hasn't really sunk in yet.

I was a strange week back in the UK. It was great to see all the old faces, family and friends. Sheffield has changed, loads of new buildings, but it was great to here the accent especially people calling each other 'luv'. Dronfield is still the same, as ever. That is comforting though. It was still really strange being back, I don't think I really got used to it at all. I was only back for a week.

The things that made it strange were the little things. The way roads look (apart from the obvious), here they just don't have the gentle curves we have, here they are wide and things make sense. The difference here is somebody thought about what was going on back in the UK some guy just went ooh that looks like the quickest way to get me sheep down the hill so I can get to the pub.

I have also got used to shopping here. The 'Hi, how are you?' ..... 'Have a nice day' that you always get. Paper or plastic? I never try and add my shopping up as the tax is always added later. Paying by card. I went to the Sainsbury's in Dronfield and you get a sweaty teenager serving you with all the social skills of a wet sponge and a granny paying in coppers. I am not saying the American or the English way is better but the American way is not as annoying as 'Have a nice day' is portrayed, in most cases it's not as false either and you do actually get genuine conversations. Maybe it because I'm in the south y'all.

I was also quite surprised about my lack of jet lag. I experimented getting up 2 hours early the week before flying back. This is so I would be 'fresher'. It worked, after two days I was pretty normal for me. My air miles are gonna be great as I will have racked up about 15,000 in just over a month.

One very nice thing about being back is that it was 26 C today. Not the kind of weather you get mid December in blighty.

Adverts on the BBC

Notice everything different?

Yes I bloody well did. They have been experimenting with the site and adverts all day. I am glad they took the banner off the top. I understand why they are doing it. I just hope us non-UK users get all the videos and radio feeds now we have to put up with the adverts.

You lucky buggers back in the UK

Trying not to get fat.......

As we all know I am a lazy man and I am not the best at being motivated to do physical exercise. Unless there is a beer afterwards maybe. The has pretty much continued if not got worse since moving to the states. Recently it has got better as I joined the football team. This is only once a week and is pretty sporadic so tonight I finally broke down and ran round the Duke East Campus track, see Figure 1.

Figure 1. Bob trying to feel better about himself.

According to the source of all knowledge, or wikipedia as some call it the track is 1.5 miles all the way around. I did it in 16 minutes which is pretty bad (I did have to walk a bit). My aim is to get it down to about 12 ish. As in my youth I ran a mile in about 7 and a half minutes therefore it would be about 8 minutes a mile. I am waiting for the abuse in the comments.

World International Beer Festival

I had the pleasure of attending my first proper beer festival. Well as long as you don't count the effort that they had in the farmer a few years ago or the Sheffield University Beer festival that was meant to last three days and all the beer was gone by 11 on the first night. No this was different, this was classy, this had tickets, a website and over 150 different beers. For $35 (£17.50) it was a four hour all you can drink extravaganza, you even got a special tasting glass. Which is beautifully modeled below, with fiver as people now complain if it's not in the photo.

The festival took place at the old Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which was made famous by film Bull Durham and Kevin Costner. It was cool actually being on the field, but that thought didn't last long as there were 150 beers to try in convenient two ounce servings as to promote 'sensible' enjoyment, just waiting to be.... well enjoyed. The beer was great. Most of it was American, thankfully none of it was Budweiser. American beer is good, Brits do tend to get on their high horse about US beer tasting like pisswater (Americans are also annoying saying that we drink beer warm), but I am sorry to the say worst beer I tasted there was Tetley's. I knew it was going to be bad but I had to for old times sake. Thankfully one of the best was the Black Sheep Hobgoblin. Now that bad boy was for old times sake. I also tried Polish Mead, you know what they used to drink in Robin Hood times. Mead is pretty much bloody strong stuff which is also sweet as it is made from honey. I whole heartily recommend it. It reminds me of a lyric by the Sonics "[It'll] make you jump, it'll make you shout, it'll even knock you out". It got a little hazy towards the end, but I can assure you a good night was had by all.....it ended up in Cosmic with me giving Andy a great (apparently) pep talk, I'm not entirely sure what I said and what it was about but I am told I had a smile on my face so all was good with the world.

The importance of speaking correctly

I asked for my hair shaved on the sides and cut short on top. This is what I got....

It was too late, by the time I had realised how short it was. Damn my eyes! I have been tempted to have my hair cut shorter for awhile now. I just guess its forced on me. A change has got to be good eh? It made me laugh for about 10 minutes non stop anyways.

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.....

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.

Return of the Fiver

As I am not going to be posting for a few days I thought I would treat you with some photos of random crap I found laying about. As some of you will remember I had a brief obsession with a monster of an apple that was measured by the truly scientific technique of placing money by it, so y'all will be pleased to know that the FIVER is back!

Here is a whopping 2.84l of orange juice. It is lovely but for the life of me I can't think why they wouldn't want to show the lovely colour off in a clear container.......

Here is a picture of my TV screen. Yes that is channel 257.... I don't think I actually have that many channels but it is probably about 200. I watch about 10 of em if that. I do get live premiership games (bloody united getting relegated) and BBC America.

I love this radio, it is so old school. You may or may not know that I do love old radios. This reminds me of the one I had in my kitchen at Evelyn Road, it used to be in our kitchen at home and was from the 70s.

Here is my new mode of transport. She ain't pretty but I do love her, she does have two different tires, which I shall be sorting soon. She had a little accident on Sunday and decided that two inflated tires was so passé and had to have a ride in Ryan's car.

Here is my new Bojays Koozie. A koozie is designed to keep your beer cold in hot and humid weather. So they are perfect for the North Carolina Boar's breath and Bojays is a fine eating establishment. The beer is a Dos Equis, a Mexican tipple that goes down rather nicely.

I just couldn't resist.

Blog Update

Here is a piece of from the annals of the Ryan Hill. It's title is: screaming man in cytochrome C.

Anyway this point of this is to say I will probably not post till the latter part of August from after this weekend. I have my thesis to write, which is proving very stressful. It was once said by a wise man "sometimes a scream is better than a thesis" - Ralph Waldo Emerson .

But on the plus side my parents are coming on the 7th of August and we are going on a little roadtrip so expect lots of blog photos and silliness (yes my sister is coming). I am super pumped (excited for you brits) about them coming and want as much of my thesis done before they come. I may have time for a silly photo update before then.

So catch you soon.

Bob

New Pad

Here are a few snap of my new place. I will put more up soon. Check the big ass American fridge out. Also I have got BBC America on the cable. It has got advert though.

Random Update

I just thought I would update you on a few things. So as you might have guessed from the picture I have become a baseball convert. I thought it was about time to get me a baseball cap. So here is a pic of me looking very American ( you can even see dirty D in the background) and also that I do indeed have a TAN......I know you can't believe it.

Also caught a really cool band in Chapel Hill called Wild Sweet Orange. Hailing from Birmingham, AL, they were really bloody good. It was an accident they we saw them as they were the first support band for Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Which is a fantastic name for a band, but unfortunately as the first band was so good, CFTPA were a bit of a disappointment and a bit too down beat for the mood we were in. Although they did a good job of covering Bruce Springsteen's 'Streets of Philadelphia' in a very Casio keyboard style. Wild Sweet Orange did a very good job of doing a Pixes loud/soft/loud and were really tight on stage.

In other news, I am moving on Tuesday to my new place. I am very excited about that, as it is really sweet place, so expect pictures ASAP. Other pluses include Internet that works all the time and my own TV with the 70 odd channels you get here. Also I am off to New York, NY, next Friday. Dan is coming for a week, so we are going to go crazy New York style, including going to Live Earth. Also we are crashing at Shannon's place so it is extra cool. So expect a big blog update after that, with pictures. Last time such scenes as this took place...

You have been warned. For those interested, this is Jimmy (my old house mate) asleep at 3 am on the New York Subway. Jon and I were tempted to leave him....

PS A couple of people comment but it would be lovely great to have more people post a few.

Is it really 2 months?

I have been in the states 8 weeks this Monday just gone. It is one of those strange time tricks that your brain plays on you. Some ways it has gone so fast. It feels like yesterday I was blowing the balloons......for the little party we had...

Which I am all bloody glad you made it. So anyway before this gets soppy (I was fine till I actually started writing and now I do actually have a tears in my eyes) the point of this post is things I miss about the UK and things I like about the US. I am going to try and do something like like this around the end of the month like I did last month. So obviously the point of the pictures is to say the thing I miss the most are the people, but it's also the thing what I like most here. I do appreciate that people are reading this blog. I really didn't think anyone would. So except for you guys here are the things I miss/like.

I was trying to think of something to do for my monthly musing and have been now for a few days. It hit me today what I should write about while I was walking back listening to the old iPod dancing away (like you do....) that I should write about what I miss etc. I got thinking about what I miss most.

So if you haven't guess already or are still wetting yourself at the idea of me dancing while I walk the streets of dirty D.... you don't know what I'd give right now to dance my drunken arse off in the Leadmill, Hot Pants or any of those places it's probably not a the best of ideas to show my face again. Yes Lou that means I will gladly let you jump on me while I spin you around.... if you're not banned from Hot Pants by the time I get round to going again. Also to sing all those songs that I love. To hold Jon back from saving his 'bap'.

ME MUM'S SUNDAY LUNCH........YORKSHIRE PUDDING

To sing at Bramall Lane. 'I can't help falling in love with you' came on the iPod as well today, it sent shivers down my spine. To just get lost in a football match. To celebrate a goal. To be embarrassed by my sister. To hear that bloke behind you shout the witty comments. Just one greasy chip butty. A draw (America needs to learn that winning isn't everything), seeing the Wednesday/ Leeds score and it makes your day.

The way people talk. The day in day out humour (it's still a laugh here but sometimes I say stuff and it just goes woosh). Blokes calling each other 'love'. Being able to get a good bacon butty. While the cheesecake brownie from the cafe in my building is truly an amazing creation it is not a hangover killer from John's Van or the flapjack made by his mum.

Just sitting in a pub/beer garden. I miss the interval last summer. West St.

The BBC

Public transport.....

But America has some fantastic things on offer.

I am addicted to Mexican/TEX-MEX food. Even after 'El Gigante' I still love it. I have no idea how I am going to cope without places like Cosmic Cantina. Burritos and a 'dosecki' till 4 in the morning. Good cheap food in general. Chick-fil-A and time out chicken.... Yeah I'm scared it's just turning into a food blog.

Southern life. It is a slower pace here. Yeah it is hot but I'm kinda used to it now. I even said 'oooh it was quite cool today' and the temp was 28 oC... Everyone must still think I am a madman all the walking I do in this heat but hey I'm now 12 stone and haven't even started going to the gym yet. I do like the accent too, Y'All.

Baseball. Ok its not football but I can't think of many places that I have paid £4 for the best seats that I have enjoyed more. I can think of a lot of worse. also they have 1 and a half pint beers which is always good. I'm not even going to go into the foot long hot dogs. The atmosphere is so chilled out. The 7th innings stretch. 'Take me home to the ballpark'...... Actually being able to watch sport on TV.

People saying 'I love the accent'

'Paper or plastic'. Also not having to deal with spotty teenagers in whole foods.

Having a good night out and still having by far the best part of £50/$100 in my pocket. 75p for a quart of Sol not £3.00 for a tiny bottle. Mountain Dew. It's so green. PBR for $3.

Ok this is getting long. I hope you get the picture. I said at the start it's feels like yesterday.... it also feels like I have been here ages. A lot has changed...... I'm pretty sure it's for the good.

Update: el gigante and random American stuff

Ok so I am finally eating again, two days after the carnage that was 'el gigante'. I managed a normal lunch and a tiny dinner. Also I haven't actually put any weight on..... which is rather surprising as the monster was estimated to be about four or 5 pounds(about two kilograms).

Other news: I might have a tan.... yes I know very surprising. Also I am moving in July, so pictures will be on they way as this place is sweet. I am loving the comments please keep em up.

So now for the random American stuff. I had to go to the 'campus orientation' today, yes almost two months after arriving. It started off bad, i.e. an 8:15 in the AM. I was still worried about food induced coma from the monster. I had to be there to sort out my benefits. So instead of telling everyone this first they prattled on about duke for about 3 hours first and got us to play team building exercises. You know it's gonna be bad when the person in charge says 'well I'm just a corny guy'. He proceeded to tell us lots of random trivia about duke, and I mean lots. I had read about it before I got here on Wikipedia. Then the team building games. We had to introduce ourselves and say where we are from, somehow the guy had to talk to everyone about duke basketball. Who are really good, but duke is really good at other things too, like biomedical engineering which was never mentioned. Ok rant over, there was a plus side I found out about the lemur center which I am going to be visiting soon.