The last few weeks…

…were the final weeks as a UEA undergrad, living in Norwich. The days were filled with a lot of socialising, dinner parties and a constant stream of goodbye’s, sometimes saying bye to the same person several times…it’s a small place, you know. Also managed to fit in a week of walking the cornish coastal path with Matthias, pitching up more or less problem free the majority of nights. Photos viewable at www.picasaweb.google.com/percyeve

We mostly had very agreeable weather and managed to stumble into a few welcoming taverns in the evenings to watch some cracking games of Euro ‘08 football, accompanied by rather outstanding cider (Press Gang cornish) and Cornish Cream (like Guinness, but creamier and cheaper!). All in all a spiffing journey with countless stunning coves, sea views and variable fauna over mostly fairly comfortable ground (although it does get quite hilly and rocky along certain stretches). The Minack Theatre was a pleasant surprise, although we didn’t have time to catch a performance as we were in top-gear ramble mode to make the bus to Penzance.

Steps leading to the Minack Theatre, with a view over Porthcurno.

After Penzance, we headed to Bodmin to climb a few Tor’s (Cornish for big hills) and trace the steps of Jamaica Inn, a novel by Daphne du Maurier.

Camping spot on Rough Tor.

Alas, I am back in Southampton now – until the 12th – where I am filling the days on the computer, dining in the garden, baking, drinking lots of tea (renewed after discovering Genmaicha!), and light reading on Dubai and South Africa… Good times.

SA update

Flights have finally been booked! Myself, Matthias, Alfons and Hiro will be flying out of Gatwick airport on the 12th of August, stopping for a couple of days in Dubai, before heading down to SA and the adventure that awaits us there for around 3 weeks, returning back to the UK on the 3rd of September.

Still quite a lot to plan, but the pieces are slowly falling into place.

More detailed update coming soon…

From Jo’burg to Cape town

Planning a few or more rest days at the end of our (still) proposed trip to South Africa its seems like the route as it currently stands will takes us from Durban on the east coast north west to Pietermaritzburg for 3 or 4 days, then north into Kwazula-Natal for a couple of days, then continuing north to visit a couple of orgs around Jo’berg before I final push even further north into Mpumalanga, again hopefully to see a couple more orgs. Then we’ll have a break and some ‘rest’ days. It’s seems like the drive through central South Africa should be spectacular, and according to a recent article in the Times, route 62 from Jo’berg to Cape town should suit us down to the ground. I really hope we can spare a week for that – especially as it’s not advisable to drive at night…

Vegi pasties

Makes 4 large pasties.

For the dough:

400g plain flour

150g butter

Water – to   mix

1 tsp salt

For the filling:

Veg (eg. potato, onion, courgette, tomato, carrots…) chopped into small pieces

Method: To make the dough, rub the butter into the flour (helps if the butter is soft) and then gradually add enough water to bind the dough – without it being wet. leave to one side and prepare the veg. Gently sauté the veg in a little butter in a pan until onions are translucent. Seperate the dough into 4 equal parts – and roll onto a slightly floured / oiled baking tray. Fill with some of the veg, leaving a couple of cm’s around the edge. Fold over the dough, crimple together, brush with some egg and then bake at 200 C for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy.

Long weekend a la Belgique: Day 1 – Antwerp

I had been looking forward to this weekend for a long time, but even as I sat on the Eurostar from London to Brussels, I still felt like I was recovering from the intensity of the previous few weeks. At some point though (after a brief nap) I awoke from my stuper and realised that this would be my first time in Belgium and I could sense that many new experiences lie in wait.

Our journey (I travelled with Matthias and Anna ((from Austria)) started from Norwich train station at 4pm, after a busy day of a final seminar and some admin tasks, I was home by 2:30pm to check i had everything i needed for the weekend, and then it was back on my bike, heavily-laden, for the short ride through the city to the railway station.

The main reason we were going over there, was to participate in a charity beach run which some Belgian guys and girls set-up for The Comrads (www.thecomrads.org). I had raised around £50, Anna a little less, and Matthias managed around £100 following a generous donation from his parents. Freddy, from Antwerp topped the lot however, surmounting a whopping 60 euros / Km, and running the maximum 20 km distance. That’s over 1000 euros, not bad at all.

We arrived in Brussels on Thursday evening, 50 minutes later than expected following an even more unexpected delay (i’m sure i’m the cause of all these delays somehow..) and after a short hop on the metro we were greeted by Walter and Pinar at Port de Namur. I finally felt that holiday feeling and it was great to meet Walter again, not having seen him since leaving Zurich last August. His apartment is impressively situated, just off Place Royal where one has a view over the Grand Place and the city centre. His apartment was also rather plush, and thanks to their hospitability, we had the luxury of air beds to sooth our tired limbs. But not before heading straight over to a house party! 10 minutes walk away – which was a great opportunity to already get to know a little of the city – we arrived at a Quentin Tarentino themed party, where we met some of the other “Comrads”, and got to enjoy a pleasant atmosphere and friendly people. We only stayed around an hour though as Walter and Pinar both had to get up for work the next morning. We weren’t really complaining either. I was pretty tired by then and we wanted to get up early the next morning to make the most of our time in Belgium.

After a comfortable rest, and discussions the previous day, we decided we’d make the short 40 minute trip to Antwerp for the day, before coming back to Brussels in the evening to pick up our stuff for the next adventure…

Even though a few different people told me that Antwerp was nothing special, from the moment I stepped off the train I was suitably impressed. The first striking thing was the train station itself. A modern construction recently built in the shell of the older more regal and beautifully adorned station resembling a basilica with its domed roof, which has an underground level, allowing international trains from Amsterdam to pass straight through without having to stop and reverse, as they had to before the completion of the new central station in 2007. Apparantly Antwerpians think it’s the most beautiful station in the world. My knowledge of train stations certainly is not the best, but it sure is pretty.

I was also struck by the size of the city – not that I had any particular preconceptions, other than the fact that Belgium is even smaller than England. The city was very pedestrian friendly; a mostly car-free city centre with wide-pavements and as we hadn’t eaten any breakfast even by lunchtime, food was our next goal before we could continue the adventure. Not wanting to spend a fortune, we referred to the use-it map of Antwerp (http://www.use-it.be/en/page/20/use-it/), for some tips. These maps are great. They look fantastic and just as they say, they are non-commercial, made for ‘younger’ people, by locals. After a little bit of faffing, we found a sandwich / cake bar called Diksmuidse Boeterkoeken underground on the lowest level of a mall right underneath the Groenplatz (Green sqaure) which didn’t fail to disappoint. They made sandwiches fresh and had loads of different pastries which i’d never seen before. Needless to say my money was mainly spent on cakes whilst I also got a croissant with gouda-like cheese to whet the appetite first. After a good feed in the square, we headed towards the river Schelde bypassing a couple of cool churches, a castle and some small lanes. At the river we headed into the foot tunnel which was quite busy cyclists going to and fro, and the huge wooden escalators inspired a challenge to see who could run back up a down coming escalator…

…Let it play on

Monsterous pause in the whole blogging thing, but i can more or less summarise the last 6 – 8 weeks in one or two sentences, or what I remember of it at least: The two weeks leading up to the Easter break consisted of writing 2 essays and continuing research for my dissertation. Needless to say, I never strayed too far from campus and the library during this time. The easter break was just a full-out stress bomb attack having during 4 weeks to more or less write the entire document whilst finishing the results section too. I did manage a week in Germany / Switzerland however, which was kind of a welcome change of scenary if not a break at all as my mind was very much pre-occupied.

Alas, that is all over now, for better or for worse – i am really not happy with the disseration, but at least i got 1st’s in my two other essay’s which have a fairly large weighting for my course in Natural Hazards.

The weekend just gone was, I came to the conclusion my only opportunity for a slight break as it fell directly after handing in all courseworks and one week before the start of the exam period. A perfect time for a beach run on the Belgian coast, then!

Finals

Just got the dates for my final examinations at UEA. Only 3 and they are:

Tue 6-05-08, 14:15. ENV-3A1Y Natural Hazards. 3hrs. 01.07
Fri 16-05-08, 09:15 BIO 3C45 Organisms and Environment. 2hrs. 2.02
Wed 28-05-08, 09:15 LLTU2G98 Intermediate German II. 2hrs. 01.20

Bring it on…

The Comrads expedition, Mpumalanga, South Africa

The Comrads is an NGO established in 2004 by Walter De Neve, a medicine student i met last year in Switzerland. Impressed by his positive attitude, personality, and ability to make things happen, i signed up for this sometimes crazy, but incredibly fun and rewarding rollercoaster ride that is fundraising! After 18 months and several projects later (raising money to support HIV/AIDS projects), we decided that we might try and organise an expedition. The premise is that ‘we (lots of different people, mostly Belgian who, are all connected through Walter)’ have raised 10,000 euros to throw at such a project. Usually, a donation is given each year to a more organised NGO or institution (such as UNAIDS) who would then use the money to support one of their own projects. This is primarily because we, as an organisation do not have the resources to be able to directly support projects ourselves, just being a handful of student volunteers. Recently however, I saw that UEA gives out grants each year to fund travel / expedition costs. This can be anything from an individual student simply applying to help fund a holiday, to group trips and educational related expeditions. We wrote up a proposal and sent the application a couple of weeks ago. They can award up to £2,000 (i believe). We’ll find out in March whether our application has been successful or not.

Details of the expedition can be found via the website – the full-draft proposal is also available to be downloaded.

Essentially, assuming our travel costs can be subsidised, a handful of us plan to go for around 8 weeks in order to find, assess and award one or more health centres / social / environmental / educational projects with a donation. This way we can build up working relationships with the receiving centres and communities and hopefully support the sustained growth of positive development and HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.

We could always use more help in fundraising and organising – contact details via the website.

This is what it comes down to

Today is Friday of week 7. Next week I have to submit a paper entitled: ‘Interaction of Markets, Regulations and Individuals in Adapting to Climate Change’, which maybe i’ll post once i’ve written it. I also have to present the paper on Thursday (just 10 minutes), and submit my 2nd German courework the same day.

Things hot up further in week 9 though; a 3,000 word report on ‘Does policy change follow extreme events: policy windows hypothesis?’ is due in on the Wednesday, as is my 10,000 word dissertation looking at the agricultural responses (adaptation) to heatwave events in the UK since, over the past 25 years.

Eek.

Heima: The week that was

After a week of slightly unfulfilled aims, mostly relating to my dissertation, I tried to get up particularly early yesterday to clean the kitchen. 8am isn’t in fact particularly early at all, but nevertheless, it got done and I was at my desk in the Library by 09:30. I stayed there working on my first German piece of coursework for this semester, which i’ve nearly completed and read a couple more papers relating to climate change adaptation, specifically looking at the interaction of markets, regulations and individuals in bringing about emissions reductions. The light was stunning all day, and i was fortunate enough to enjoy a spectacular sunset over the UEA broad from my south west facing vantage point on floor o1 of the library. So entranced by the wonders of the natural world, I stayed in the library longer than I should have, meaning I was slightly late home for Cathrin’s Semla buns! It was 19:15 when I arrived back at the pad, and Matthias and Leslie were already there. The delicious looking buns were on display on the kitchen table – a kind of slightly sweet, soft white roll with cinnamon and cardamon, sliced in half and filled with an almond pureé and whipped cream. In Sweden they are eaten in a bowl of warm milk. It was something a bit different, and the opportunity to celebrate a tradition (especially when it involves eating) is always a great pleasure to me. Incidentally, they are eaten on ‘Fat Friday‘ observed across Scandanavia. I only had time for one as I’d planned to meet Joel at 20:00 in town, and then we were going to see Heima, a film shot entirely in Iceland and based around the music of Icelandic band, Sigur Rós. Cinema City is one of my favourite places in Norwich, for the history, the uniqueness and quality of both the building itself, and the films they show. Heima is one of those films, and Sigur Rós one of those bands which leaves a warm feeling in the belly and invigorates the soul. The three of us (Matthias joined us as well) watched it with a couple of other friends and we went for a swift one in the Playhouse afterwards. I really hope I can manage some earlier starts next week, though.