One Wheel Short of a Unicycle...

Europe Trip Top Gear Style!

2010-03-16T22:26:00.003Z

So the plan is to recreate the challenge set by top gear producers to find the best driving road in Europe. This mega voyage will take in the best scenery that Europe has to offer, with spectacular views to be seen along the twisty mountainous roads in southern Switzerland / Northern Italy. The short list of the roads we're looking into travelling on are:

- San Bernardino Pass: a high mountain pass at an elevation of 2065 meters in the Swiss Alps connecting the towns of Hinterrhein and Misox. This road has its share of bends and hairpins but is more known for its scenic views and smooth roads. It also has a 6.6 km long tunnel but with a speed limit of 80km/h (50mph).

- Davos to Stelvio Via Bormio: miles of deserted road with breathtaking views, unending number of curves that would test every aspect of the car – steering, power, grip, brakes & handling. Not to forget a few tunnels for those in the mood for some tunnel blasting.

- Stelvio pass: at 2757 meters it is the second highest paved mountain road in the alps. Regarded by the motorists as one of the most challenging roads in the world, it has 60 hairpins with 48 of them on the northern / eastern ramp.

- Lake Como: is widely regarded as being one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, a must see especially as the above roads are less than 100 miles from it!

Unfortunately we won't be driving a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, a Porsche 911 GT3 or an Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24! However looking into the possibility of doing it in a mini adventure style by purchasing 2 other classic mini's for the trip! If that falls through then it will be either a fly-n-drive or straight drive all the way from the UK depending on which ever turns out to be the cheapest! I can't wait for this adventure, I'm sure it is going to be LEGENDARY!!!!

Work avoidance technique no.8!

2010-03-07T12:23:00.001Z

So it seems that I have really neglected this blog somewhat, having not posted anything new for over 3 YEARS!!!! Uni wise not alot has happened over the past 3 years, to summarise: 3rd year of uni (and end of second year) was pretty standard, going out, lectures, c/w, exams exams exams blah blah blah etc. I spent an amazing year out living and working for an aerospace company based in Gloucesterhire to earn my DIS (Diploma in Industry Studies), and am hoping to go back to them on their leadership development program once I graduate! Final year of uni has been stressful, even though i don't have lectures as such, the onus is now totally on me to organise my time and to motivate myself to do work… which as it conspires is quite hard to do (hence currently playing the "uni work avoidance update a blog that hasn't seen any new posts for 3 years" card!)

Anyhoo this is just a short update post for now to show i'm still alive! I shall try my hardest from this day forth to regularly post to this as often as I can! =)

Current Status

2006-12-18T15:14:00.000Z

I'm now at home for Christmas (4 weeks off!) and after the chaos of the last 2 weeks I definitely need a break. The last few weeks have been spent mostly doing coursework (one day spent 12 hours doing c/w!), as well as sorting everything out in order to come back home. I stumbled across some photos that I must of taken on my digital camera (and forgotten about) when I first moved into the apartment:

Anyhoo, that's all for now, got to continue sorting the mess that is my room :-(

Work, work, work

2006-11-23T11:42:00.000Z

What a busy week. This is the first time since I got back on Monday that I've had a chance to write my blog. After getting back on Monday morning and dropping my stuff off at the house with half an hour to spare, I then had lectures until 6pm. Tuesday was even worse as I ended up spending over 12 hours of work, comprising of 8 hours of lectures and 4 hours of coursework! Wednesday was not as bad as after the morning lectures I went to watch the new James Bond movie in Leicester followed by fish and chips from the local chippy (which were both great). Today I've had some lectures this morning, and have a board meeting for my project group for 2 hours this afternoon.

Bit of a boring post, but I'll talk more about my interesting project in a later post as I'm getting hungry, so that's all for now. (Photos to follow once I have my camera from home)

2nd Year Uni Life

2006-11-16T20:13:00.000Z

Now that I have sorted everything out (house, internet, coursework etc) I have some time to write some posts. I'm now living with 2 of my mates in an upstairs apartment in the middle of Loughborough town centre. It is alot better than last year, especially the food. At first I thought that I would not enjoy cooking the food, (mainly because I'm lazy), but I have found that it is quite fun. Having ventured away from ready cooked meals (boo!) I'm now surprising myself by cooking Shepards pie, Chinese stir fry, spaghetti bolognaise etc and of course the mandatory pizza every now and then :-)

Part of the reason I've not been posting was because in the first 3 weeks I was on the phone to Tiscali most of the time, trying to sort out why they had not activated our line- (which in the end took over 28 days!). Then when everything with Tiscali was sorted, the wireless router decided to play up and make our network "disappear" for no reason.

So all in all it was a stressful first few weeks, but now that everything is sorted and I'm settled in I'm starting to enjoy my course more and the free time that I have (not that there is much of it!)

More posts on the way (with pics hopefully) after my visit to my Nan & Granddad's over the weekend.

Picasa Web Album

2006-09-26T16:54:00.000+01:00

Long time no post I know. It seems that doing nothing somehow takes up more time than working! Anyhoo below is a link to my new web album that contains photos from our hols etc.

Germany 2006

Aug 28, 2006 - 87 Photos

Photos From Germany

2006-09-03T20:36:00.000+01:00

Uploaded a bit later than planned but below are some photos from our trip to Germany- more photos will be available from our home website- which is another thing I need to sort out soon!

Microsoft Timing...

2006-08-30T22:33:00.000+01:00

Just got back from my holiday to Germany (pics to follow tomorrow hopefully) and planned on making a short movie of the photos taken, but apparently according to Microsoft Movie Maker I might have to wait a while for it to be made...

Which is equivalent to 234999780 seconds, or 65278 hours or, 2720 days, or even better 7.45 years!!!

Laminate Flooring

2006-08-08T12:05:00.000+01:00

I've spent the last 4 days laying laminate flooring in the two upstairs bathrooms with my dad and can say that I won't be attempting to do it again in such a compliacted and small space. For a start, we tried to do it without the correct tools- no jigsaw, no workbench, no file. We soon discovered that it was very hard work shaping around stuff (like the toilet bowl) after spending 4 hours on just one strip of the floor! So after that palaver, dad decided to call a friend and he bought around all the right tools for us- including a mitre saw to do the beading around the edges. Without these tools we would still be laying the floor now!

On another note, today is dad's 50th Birthday, so Happy Birthday to you and may you have many more!

Pimp That Snack!

2006-08-04T22:53:00.000+01:00

It had to be done...

Possibly the greatest idea since sliced bread, think of a snack and mega size it. Pimp That Snack "take Snacks to their limit, and show what they're capable of with a little ingenuity, a little cash, and a lot of imagination".

The Book That Was Grabbed...

2006-08-02T22:52:00.000+01:00

Tagged by Thomas

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag three people.

Here goes:

"Bureaucracy next. Researchers at the Harvard Medical School found that the administrative costs of the US system, public and private, exceed $1000 per person. In other words, when you count all the taxes, premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, the typical American spends as much on doctor's receptionists and the like as citizens of Singapore and the Czech Republic spend on their entire medical care."

Wow, thanks to the Undercover Economist (Tim Harford) that turned out ok. I didn't cheat either. I'm reading it at the moment (thanks to my dad) and believe everyone should read it because it certainly changed my view on how business works in the real world!

Waddingotn Airshow 2006

2006-08-01T11:42:00.000+01:00

Here are some pics I took at the airshow this year:

Call Off The Search Party

2006-07-31T17:36:00.002+01:00

It is official, I have neglected my blog somewhat!

Anyhoo, I have now completed my first year at uni and passed all my exams so am able to continue into the second year. I have been on holiday in sunny Reading and Wales- I know, really exotic places - and been to Nottingham a couple of times.

Sometime in August I'm heading off to Germany with my parents to stay at a guesthouse in 'die Schwarzwald' with some family friends (The Hechts). Apparently I'm supposed to get my German up to scratch to help translate for my parents, but I'd prefer to take a step back and watch my parents tell the that taxi driver "Normalerweise trinke ich Kaffee, aber heute trinke ich Tee. " or "Ah, ich brauche auch noch Motorenöl." The BBC languages website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/index.shtml) can be praised for such phrases.

Over the summer I was meant to get a job, but it seems that nowhere in Lichfield wants to hire part-time students, and M&S just messed me around for 4 weeks. So I'm left to selling items on ebay such as 355 of my parents LP's and my nice koi fish due to somehow being the cause of too many heated debates!!!

Stuff

2006-02-13T21:27:00.000Z

Whilst browsing the list of free software you can download from microsoft I found this cool drawing program where you can create amazing paintings- I can't of course because I can't draw to save my life. But for the artists out there, I would recommend it because it is fun and simple to use. I downloaded the free version which is quite good from this link: http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

Some more pics edited via picasa:

Some more pics edited using Picasa

2006-02-08T21:45:00.000Z

So it is true...

2006-02-07T19:21:00.000Z

... there is water on Mars :-)

Picasa Photo Editor

2006-02-06T22:57:00.000Z

Whilst watching the telly the other day, I discovered a new photo editing software that is free and is amazing. It's called Picasa, (http://picasa.google.com/index.html), and I would highly recommend it for people who have trouble using other software such as Photoshop, and just want to organise and edit all their photos instantly. It scans your computer and finds all your photos and puts them in specified folders in date order, and it has an extremely simple user interface- i.e. it is easy to use. Below are just some examples of what it can do:

Plans for the future...

2006-01-24T20:59:00.000Z

Next year I will be moving into a newish apartment in Loughborough town centre with two of my mates from uni. Before we found our new home, we went house hunting around Loughborough and I can say now that what we have found is a golden gem compared to the rubbish that is on the housing market at the moment. The first house we went to look at had condensation on all the windows, the back garden was a mess, the kitchen was about 5ft by 5ft and the current tenants didn't seem to grasp the concept of "tidying up".

After frantic searching, I managed to find a newly built student apartment complex, so I booked an appointment to see as many of the flats as possible so we could choose the best one. It turned out that all the apartments were really nice, and we settled for an upstairs apartment on the end of the complex. It has 3 parking spaces, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms- one being an en-suite, and a kitchen. It is fully furnished with brand new furniture and will be totally repainted and cleaned- even though it is only 2 years old- before we move in this summer.

I can't wait to move there as I will get to cook my own food instead of eating the junk they are serving in my hall at the moment.

Why didn't I think of that!

2006-01-18T19:31:00.000Z

I may not have exams this time around, but I sure do have alot of coursework that needs to be done. I wish I could of thought of that million dollar webpage which a student at Nottingham Uni, (Alex Tew), created, then I wouldn't be so stressed! But every success has its problems as Alex found out this week, (see link below). In his case it was from so called "net criminals" who "knocked the site over with a massive denial-of-service attack.” Sounds scary but basically they forced the website to go offline for a period of time by overloading the network with customer requests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4621158.stm

Good news: I heard from my lecturer this week that we will be having an extra day added to the Easter holiday in celebration of the universities 40th anniversary since it was granted university status! My lecturer then said he complained that a day wasn't long enough and that we should have a week off instead :-)

printf("Programming, whats that all about?");

2006-01-13T20:45:00.000Z

I started my course not knowing a single thing about programming in C, I am now at a stage in my course where I still don't know much about programming in C. This is due not having a lecture in programming for the last 4 weeks and won't be having any more until the start of semester 2- in 3 weeks time! For some reason the lecturer took it upon himself to only read through his notes- most of which are copied from a book by Ivor Hoton- and once he had completed that decided to cancel any further lectures. Might sound good, but it has left me in a position where I now have to design programs to produce lines between two points on a page, then circles, and finally the union jack- which must be perfect in all dimensions (see link below), and I have no clue what to do!

How to draw the perfect union jack: http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/union-jack/union-jack.html

It gets better... I not only have to learn to program in C, but VHDL and Matlab as well! That is the equivalent of 3 new foreign languages! O well, better continue with the coursework or it isn't going to be done!

Some Funny Pics

2006-01-11T20:19:00.000Z

Found some more funny pics:

For the programmers out there:

Maths Test

2006-01-10T19:49:00.000Z

Found this whilst browsing the internet today. It sums up the difficulty of my maths tests at the moment :-)

Happy New Year!

2006-01-08T21:16:00.000Z

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had an amazing christmas and new year like I had at home with my family. I arrived back at uni last Sunday to a nice clean room, which I found out from the cleaners wasn't used at all during the xmas holidays so i didn't actually have to empty my room at all! Anyhoo, this week I am overloaded with coursework that needs to be done, but luckily I don't have any exams like the rest of the campus seems to be having. I will upload some xmas photos to my blog when I go home next as I saved them on my parents laptop instead of my pc- big mistake :-)

I was shown the following link the other day. It's written by an eBayer and is a really funny storey about his car that wouldn't die:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4600692892&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Spasmodic contraction of the thoracic cavity!

2005-11-17T18:43:00.000Z

Basically I've had a cough for the last 5 weeks and over the last week it has got gradually worse and worse up to the point where I coughed up some blood! At that point I thought hmm, better go see a doctor. I went last night to see a "replacement" doctor as mine is currently on holiday, and he said that "you may have a viral infection, you may not", and that coughing up blood is normal if you have a cough for a while. He then proceeded to talk in medical terms and lost me, but concluded that the prescription, (the "patient information leaflet" that came with my prescription and it says that tablets are used to treat bronchitis and pneumonia!), he gave me "may or may not help". What a helpful guy.

Why I Like Maths Tests

2005-11-01T20:18:00.000Z

Shocking isn't it, I now like taking the math's tests. This is all down due to the fact they are taken online in your own room- with your notes of course, but the best bit is the practice paper questions. Basically I log onto the local network and take a practice test and it tells me how i did (100% of course :-) ) but it also goes through the methods of the answers. You may say, so what you have the methods big deal. But if I were to tell you the only difference between the actual test that is marked by my lecturer and the practice paper is the numbers in the question, it becomes clear why I now like math's tests! All I have to do is the same method, but with different numbers! So unless I somehow forget how to use my calculator in the near future- which is not likely!- I should get at least 30% of my module without too much effort!

*Celeb Watch* The England rugby team were training again today on the first's rugby pitch, didn't get to see them train though as had to go to lecture.

Fire Alarm

2005-10-22T11:39:00.000+01:00

Our block has been reported to the Health and Safety Department for failing the fire alarm test...twice. On both occasions it was around 7 on cold, wet mornings and we failed because we had peeps who didn't hear the fire alarm (probably because they were drunk still!) and had to be woken up by the sub wardens!

*Celeb watch* Apparently Paula Radcliffe was at the Union cafe yesterday

Systems Engineering

2005-10-19T21:49:00.000+01:00

Systems engineering, whats that all about then? Well to answer this question, you must first ask yourself why a car can be allergic to vanilla ice cream. This was what I was told yesterday, and we had to spend the next 2 hours evaulating this question and write it up in a 2 page report to be handed in at the end of the 2 hours- hmm... So that leads me to conclude that systems engineering is about thinking about the most absurd question you can, and then write a report on it, just for the hell of it. Anyhoo, if you want the answer to the question visit:

http://www.americanautoclubuk.com/articles_gm.php

The Weekend

2005-10-17T16:08:00.000+01:00

This weekend I went home, still suffering from freshers flu i.e. a cough and the sniffles, for the first time since I went to uni. It felt a bit weired at first, but soon all was ok. On the Saturday we went out with the Calvers to visit Sudbury Hall (near Ashbourne), and had a pub meal at the Vernon Arms- which was very nice. On Sunday I went to visit my grandparents before coming back to uni to find out that I had even more work to do :(

Here are some pics of Sudbury Hall:

Events Last Week

2005-10-16T23:11:00.000+01:00

Since I have been so busy with freshers week and starting my course etc, I have been delaying starting my blog. So here's whats been happening;

Started my course on 3rd October but the lectures started on the Thursday (6th). So far all is good, but I can't believe the amount of peeps that actually fall asleep during lectures. I don't mean just nod off, I mean fall asleep and start snoring!!! It is probably due to the fact the rooms are all really warm, and the lecturers (one in particualer who manages to talk non-stop for the whole 50 mins), are not "teaching" us anything new atm i.e. it's all A-level stuff atm.

The only problem I have had so far is with the programming lab work- which is probably the most important part of the course! We arrived in the computer room and had to wait 10mins for the lecturer to turn up and then another 10mins for the photocopies to be made. Once we got started, me and my assigned work partner got to work on the programming (using C++ visual studio 6). First bit was fine, creating the "hello world" programme. But then we had a problem. We were given a huge piece of code and told to input it into the program and see what happens, and o btw the code is wrong. 8 errors is what happened. Eh? now what do we do? We called over a so called "helper" person, who didn't actually know what we were doing, knew nothing about the programme we were using, and probably works in the sports science department. He called over the other so called "helper" whom proceeded to look at the code and came to the conclusion that there was an error in the coding somewhere! Then he said (in an avid merrion bo selecta accent), "there is an error somewhere, you should have been taught this already" and walked off. O great, so on the first time ever I had looked at this programming code I was meant to magically "know" what the problem was, hmm... But then, and it gets better, both the helpers and the lecturer walked out the room never to appear again in the whole 2 hours I was there!

*Celeb Watch* Last week I watched the England Rugby team's training and found out that Matt Dawson really is small. Also I met Colin Jackson wandering around the campus and he had, as always, a huge smile on his face.

Freshers Week

2005-10-16T22:32:00.000+01:00

Last weekend saw the end of freshers week, and what a week it was. Everyday was packed with activities to do during the day, or places to visit, and nights out in the evening. I couldn't go to them all, (as it is very tiring), but what i went to was great.

On the first day we had an informal "buffet" meal in our dining hall which was followed by a disco. I met soo many peeps in this first evening from all over the country and made many friends.

I spent the following day walking around lufbra town centre with the peeps from my block trying to find a cowboy outfit for the cowboy and indian themed night out at the Union. We eventually found a toy shop that sold a hat with a badge, guns etc, and happily handed over £4 for the cause. Little did I know that when I got back the hat was way to small for my head- couldn't check b4 as it was in stupid vacuum formed wrapping, but I still went wearing my badge, guns and bandanner thingy. It was another amazing night out where I met tons of peeps from all the halls around campus and got into alot of "friendly" banter, which we had to practice for the sing-off later in the week. When I say banter, I mean generally yelling at the top of your voice a song that the returners have madde up when they were drunk and thought sounded really really cool at the time- basically just taking a football chant and changing the words. Such as:

"You are my Royce Hall, my only Royce Hall,
You make me happy when skys are grey,
You'll never notice how much I love you,
Until you take mt Royce Hall away.
Nah nah nah nah nah..."

The other songs are along the same lines but alot, and i mean alot ruder!

The next day we hopped on a bus to Leicester to go ten pin bowling and play laser quest. We arrived at about 12ish and played 2 games of bowling and then asked our hall rep what we should do next as the laser quest was full. She said something like "erm, whatever, you got another 4 hours to kill so, play more games of bowling?" Another 4 more hours to kill!!!!! We ended up playing on the arcade games/lots of games of pool to kill the time- which btw wasted alot of money!

Over the weekend I went to stay with my Aunt and Uncle so missed the sing-off -which was apparently rubbish and was won by Faraday or as we are meant to call them Faragay- Royce Halls greatest enemy.

The following night there was a bingo night (o wat joy) followed by a pub quiz, both of which we didn't win anything! Then we had Hey-Ewe. Hey-Ewe is the social night out for all the sports clubs and socials where every drink, and i mean every drink is £1 only! It turned out to be a rubbish night as I lost everyone and ended walking back to my block only to find 2 other guys who walked back too because they lost everyone!

The conclusion of freshers week was the Freshers Ball. This was truley an awsome night out. There was laser quest, fairground rides- including dogems!, mini golf, and the comedy club. Not to mention the great acts, (phh yeh right- liberty X great, i don't think so!) The Faders and celebs from Hollyoaks (Becka and Jake).

There are way too many pics from peeps in my hall which can all be found on my hall's website: www.roycehall.co.uk

Uni Life

2005-10-16T22:00:00.000+01:00

At the moment I am studying Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Lufbra Uni. The course is 5 years long with a sandwich year in the 3rd year. This is not a year of eating sandwich's but a year in which I will work for a company and get paid! Hopefully this money will help me repay my loan, or it could be used to buy a new car...

Anyhoo, atm I'm living in student accom. on campus (Royce Hall- the best hall on campus) which isn't as bad as it sounds. I applied for an en-suite room (as everyone does) and failed to get one- no suprise there! But I have ended up with a room right next to the shower and toilet which I only have to share with 3 other peeps. So all is not bad. The block I'm in has 3 floors with about 20 peeps (ratio of 13:7 girls, with 5/7 girls on my floor!) in total living in it, and the sub-warden (who has an apartment on the top floor- right above my room so music can't be too loud :( ).

I'm in catered accom. so i don't need to cook, just roll out of bed walk to the dining hall and eat, and then go back to bed- unless i have a lecutre of course. The food is gr8 as we have an Italian chef so it is mainly pasta every day and cheesecakes/ice cream- i'm not complaining!. But there is always another option like fish and chips or pizza for those who like unhealthier food e.g. me (sometimes). Thats about it really, the sports facilities are out of this world (as you would expect for Lufbra being an international sports academy for every sport imaginable- even ultimate frisbee!), and the Union is also a great night out.

Here are some pics of my room: