3 days in suffolk and many happy memories

Very early train on Monday took me via Ely (beautiful huge cathedral) to Ipswich where I was picked up by personal taxi (Mum and Grandpa) and driven to Waldringfield where Granny and yes hard to believe even Dad were waiting. Hadn't see him since Christmas so it was good to see him although his jokes never change.

Lunch at the Maybush - the Waldringfield pub on the Deben - consisted of big chunks of lobster, crab and other things that came out of the water somewhere locally. And of course delicious deserts. The first storm missed us by about 30cm, the second hit us full on but locally we were done and could just run for the car. Afternoon walk along the river and up to the church: people scrubbing boats and crabbing.

Dad left Tuesday morning and we then set off to Aldeburgh to go to the summer craft festival - Mum of course could not resist buying an admittedly delightful print or etching or whatever it is called of the Cat and the Owl in their boat in the waves - and then on to lunch at the lighthouse: fish soup, lamb burger with feta, and a shared lemon and raspberry tart. We had been to farm shops on the way to buy veggies, chocolate cake and all that is needed to survive and went to a butcher that had been visited by royalty nonetheless because of its delish pies on the way back. Wednesday we went for a wander to see Marjorie - one of my grandparent's old friends in the village who always likes my brother's legs. Somewhat depressing I think but hey-ho. More food at home for lunch: parsnip crisps, chicken and sweet potatoe mash, tesco's finest belgian chocolate mousse and chocolate cake later in the afternoon. Transcribed my last interview and then got engrossed in Antony Beevor's account of D-Day, which I then could hardly get my nose out of all the way home in the train. Got the train that evening via Norwich. 3.5 hours later I was in Nottingham after having enjoyed stunning views of the English countryside and open skies (it helps that everything is veeeeery flat around there).

Back "home" now and need to get down to work with dissertation and PhD application. xx

things done and things to come

wow, two months since my last post. I don't even know where to start on things that have happened since then. Maybe a list would do:

• all assignments handed in including project proposal
• project proposal accepted and ethics cleared
• three exams
• all assignments and exams passed with reasonable marks
• celebrated exams over and was ill all next day
• knew two instead of the usual one answer at the pub quiz (out of 40 questions)
• PGSA summer ball
• UoN summer party
• qualified at BPS level A & B in occupational testing during a two week, fairly intense workshop
• BGP summer formal with delicious Asian buffet food, chocolate fountains and great entertainment by Britains got talent almost-winners Signature and Faces of the Disco
• weekend in Edinburgh with the PGSA - beeeeautiful city that I would love to go to again! drank some whisky, walked up a hill, did some sightseeing and bought a hat and some wool ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119099&id=663901806&l=80118d7830 )
  
• went SKYDIVING! absolutely overwhelmingly incredibly AMAZING! words cannot describe the feeling but it was beautiful and I will nevernever forget it! ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=120424&id=663901806&l=6866f6d2d1 )
• got awarded the UoN students union award 2009 for outstanding contributions to the union
  
• went to Basel <3>
• 
• seeing friends, drinking cold beer by the Rhine, swimming in the Rhine, going to Winterthur, and even doing some work for my project! ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125550&id=663901806&l=d9dd4e3622 )
• got a tattoo
• went boating on the lake and had a proper and very yummy sunday roast

That was a very short version of the massively busy past two months and here is what is still to come in the next two months:

• write my dissertation!
• go to Anglesey (Wales)
• go to Brighton to see Steffi
  
• go to Suffolk to see parents and grandparents
• go to London with Cynthia
• go to Leeds to see James
• find out what comes next
• move out of Cloisters and leave Nottingham :(
  

a good choice

Someone asked me recently if I had made the right choice in coming to Nottingham. My answer was that I don't know but what I do know is that it was a good choice.

I will never know if it would have been better to go to LSE or Exeter or even Bern to do a Masters. Or maybe I should've looked for an internship? Or stayed in Central America?

But I know that I have met lots of great people here and so far it has been an eventful year. I have seen new parts of England and am planing to go to Scotland in about a months time. I have made friends from all round the world some of which I will hopefully stay in touch with wherever the future takes me. I have been to two formal dinners (with a third one coming up), dressed up for Halloween, played ring of fire, bought take-away for supper, and am the proud owner of two hoodies (and more have been ordered). I have learned a lot; personal things, study-related things, and random things.

And the summer is yet to come! Barbecues, formal dinner, birthday celebrations, Edinburgh, sky diving, Switzerland, research, etc. First it is time for exams though. Wish me good luck!

my Easter break

I have been back over a week and only now am I taking the time to write a post about my Easter break. A lot of people probably know a lot of bits of what I am going to write about but I figure this blog is also a good way of keeping memories for the future. You know they worry about how everything is done electronically nowadays and there will be nothing about our times for people in the future to read but blogs are a perfect example of how that is not true. There are thousands and thousands of blogs and although I am sure mine won't become the Anne Frank's diary of the 3000s maybe someone will be interested in my fairly average comings and goings. You never know!

OK, Easter. As announced in my last post I was going aaaall over England. Considering I was doing a lot of travel by rail, I feel obliged to say that I am very impressed with how well the English rail system works considering all the bad things one hears about it. I only missed one connection (and still only arrived half an hour later than planned) and had to get on one rail-replacement bus (and still arrived on schedule). First things first, on Monday the 30th March I traveled across to Liverpool. My uncle Dan kindly picked me up at the station and took me back to their lovely house on Mossley Hill where I spent a few hours relaxing and reading before the red-haired bundle of energy a.k.a. my cousin Flora came back from school. This was the beginning of never-ending colouring sessions, visits to the field across the road and discussions about boyfriends, embarrassing parents, eating rabbits (preferably not actually), and many other interesting topics. And of course early morning violin practice including a private concert while I was still in bed and barely awake at about 7.30 in the morning. Good times! (Yes, seriously) Tuesday and Wednesday I spent a few hours each day wandering around the centre of Liverpool and visiting some museums and galleries (and a few shops of course). Tuesday I went to the Fashion and Sport exhibition in the Walker Art Gallery and also saw the exhibition of the pictures of George Melly whose autobiographies I am now reading and thoroughly enjoying even though I really know nothing about him (and after reading them I will probably know more than I wanted to know). I then carried on down to the world museum where I had a look at the football exhibition. Quite interesting but I am not interested enough in football (especially not the English league - if the Swiss league had featured more often however...) to find it especially interesting. I also went to FACT where they were running a swop shop where you could basically take something along and swap it for something else. Some things that were there you could only use there and some things you could borrow and had to take back. Dan had given me two CDs to swap. One of them I kept for myself and the other I left there although I did not take the book with me that I really wanted as it was a rather large book about spying and secret stuff written in about the 60s - it was GREAT! But my baggage was very limited so I decided to leave it even though it almost broke my heart. Thankfully I then discovered Bold Street, which I also fell in love with as it has lots of fantastic little shops on it and also a not so little Oxfam shop, which I spent quite a while in. Charity shops have quite generally become one of my new interests even though I hardly ever buy anything (thankfully or my room would be full of randomness). On Tuesday evening (I think - to be honest I might by lying about when I did what but who cares) Dan and I went to the theatre - lets make it short and painless: thanks to a few glasses of wine we had the odd giggle but actually the theatre was rubbish. It was supposed to be a farce and was originally written by someone who Andy approved of but whoever the theatre company was had ruined it. Wednesday I made my way down to Albert Dock through a few shops (mainly part of Liverpool One - the huuuuge and fairly new shopping area down near the water) to go the Tate and the Slavery museum. Last time I was in Liverpool I went to the slavery museum and it was full of schoolkids. Thankfully this time it was not and I enjoyed it much more. In the Tate I went to look at the special exhibition by Glenn Brown. There were one or two pictures I quite liked but I was generally not impressed as everything was rather sci-fi and had totally unfitting names usually with some sexual connotation even if the picture was in no way sexual. Thankfully I did not have to pay. On Thursday it was time for the longest part of my journey: Liverpool to Bexhill-on-Sea to see Nanny Peggy. This was the journey where I missed my connection but it only added on 30 minutes to my journey so that was fine. Seeing Nanny Peggy again was wonderful, the weather was nice and the food abundant and tasty. On Friday we went to Rye and had a wander and lunch in the same restaurant as always (Kent hop sausages, mash and green beans followed by warm chocolate fudge cake with ice cream) and then we went to the arts and crafts shop and bought some wool as I had decided I needed further entertainment and was going to have a go at knitting (I had not knitted since primary school). The scarf is now completed and I am very proud of it as it is rather nice. Too bad the weather is so warm and I can't wear it. Saturday we were going to go to Eastbourne but then the weather wasn't too great so we hung out in Bexhill and had fish and chips and a look in every charity shop (and there are quite a lot). The sun had come out by lunch time and in the afternoon I went for a walk along the front and NP headed back to relax. The evenings were taken up by having a good chat while watching television and knitting. Sunday we went down to the fron for a walk together and then all of a sudden the sea mist came in and Bexhill disappeared but we still found our way to the Northern for Sunday lunch. In the evening we went for a little walk around the Manor Barn gardens. Or was that Saturday? I don't remember. On Monday it was time for the shortest bit of my journey from Bexhill to London to stay with Vicky and Johanna for a few days. I fall in love with London every time I go. It is so vibrant yet quiet in the right areas, so multicultural yet still always the same, and everywhere you look there is something happening. Tuesday I went to the V&A where there is a fantastic exhibition about hats. I spent about three hours in the V&A wandering up and down and around and around looking at exhibitions on fashion, photography, jewellary, classic art, modern art, and also immensely enjoying their museum shop - although I did not buy anything! How restrained. From there I walked up to Harrods, which I dipped into as it is worth it just for the atmosphere and to see the people buying small things just to say they had done so. Well I can now say I walked through, and that will have to do! I then walked back aloong towards Kensington High Street past the Royal Albert Hall where there was a photoshoot with burning cars going on to Vicky's office to meet up with her to go the cinema with Johanna. We saw Duplicity, which I think they enjoyed more than I did but I do like Julia Roberts even if she is looking skinny for her age and also whatshisname Clive Owen. We then went out for a deeeeelicious dinner at a very nice restaurant - I especially remember the dessert (what a surprise), which was Eton Mess i.e. rhubarb, lots of whipped cream, and crushed up bits of merengue mixed up together, yummy! On Wednesday I wandered up to Portobello street and then just carried on wandering until I had circled round back to Kensington Gardens where I sat for a while in the sun reading my book and watching people and worrying that a bird might poo on my head as I was sitting under a tree. I then went back to Vicky's office to interview her for one of my assignments. Very interesting it was as well even if Vicky was rather daunted by the prospect of being interviewed about her job. That evening we were invited for supper with Mike and Philip where we also got to see a video of their cruise to the antarctic, which was very interesting and impressive (especially the landscapes and the fauna). Thursday I got stuck even further into the tourists (it was Easter week so London was full of people) and went to Nelson's column, the National Portrait Gallery, Covent Gardens, and then Oxford Street. Phew. It was a lot to take in but I loved it all! Then it was already Friday and time to move on again to Waldringfield (Suffolk) where my other grandparents are to spend the Easter weekend with them. This meant many walks down to and along the river, a lot of time to read and the odd trip to a farm shop or Woodbridge. Mum and Mark joined my in Waldringfield on Sunday so things got more lively (or should I just say louder?) then. Jill and Barrie joined us for pub lunch on Tuesday and on Wednesday it was time to go back to Nottingham. Simon was in Ipswich with his family for Easter and kindly gave me a lift back to Nottingham by car, which was very nice as it would have taken me a lot longer, so, Simon, I am very appreciative.

Since then I have got stuck back into work as much as possible and have been going swimming and to the gym, been to a few committee and other meetings, and even a lecture. I have about a ten different assignments of one kind or the other and exams coming up too but a big part of my thoughts are spent thinking about my research project, which I am really looking forward to so I worry that it will not work out as I hope it will. Ah well.

I am planning to be in Switzerland from around the 5th to the 19th July and need to book cheap easyjet flights asap. Might do that now. Gosh already half past nine. There is much more I could write about but I will leave it for now and (as always) try and write another post sooner than usual.

xxxxx

adventures and visitors

Again almost 25 days have passed since my last post and of course many things have happened! It is always the same sort of story in these posts only my adventures and visitors and things change slightly.

I'll have another go at going through it all chronologically: On the 6th March Aurelia came up from London for a day to visit so we had a great day of shopping, some sightseeing, pub lunch (Lasagna, yummmyy) and ale in Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. 7th March - day trip to Manchester. I rather liked Manchester - more than I thought I would - with its slightly eclectic mixture of massive old buildings and modern glass constructions. I saw some great exhibitions (especially one about the Black Panthers and civil rights in the US) and did some shopping (new trainers and a jumper I am very much in love with) although I could have stayed there for a day or two in order to also visit the huge science museum and maybe have a look at Old Trafford but it is not that far away so might go back again one day. Then on the 10th March it was time for the next formal dinner - this time James Bond style! After travelling for ages by bus we had a delicious dinner, some rather strong Dry Martinis (out of a jug - not shaken or stirred), watched some fireworks and danceddanceddanced. After just a few hours of sleep I had to get up for my second group meeting with my supervisor about my research project and then in the afternoon went on to Sneinton Library to do some more reading with the kids but we couldn't compete with the arts and crafts afternoon on at the same time!

Just over a week later it was already time for Steffi's visit and before then I had plenty to do for uni (coursework, coursework and more coursework) as well as supper in town, more telephone meetings about my research project, and the odd lecture. On the 21st Steffi arrived from Geneva and we spent the afternoon looking around town and deciding which shops to go into when we came back and there were less people, Sunday was a beautiful day so we went to Wollaton Park and walked around the lake there then on to main campus and over to Beeston to go to Sainsbo's. In the evening we went out for a few drinks at the local pub which lead to a lie-in on Monday and then an afternoon shopping, pub supper, and cinema in the evening. We watched the Young Victoria and both madly fell in love with Prince Albert and thought it was a fantastic film with the actress playing Victoria capturing her very well and have I mention Prince Albert was adorable? Tuesday we went to Birmingham for the day. An interesting city although not one of my favourite from the many I have visited recently. It seems to be fixated on shopping, shopping arcades, shopping malls, markets, etc and less focused on its history, and other attractions. We were quite amused when it took us about 20 minutes to find a canal after reading in the Lonely Planet that there were more canals than in Venice!! We then went to the Millenium Point, which sounded interesting but turned out to be a building slightly in the middle of nowhere full of art/fashion/dance/theatre-faculties of the various universities and colleges and also a rather overpriced science museum and IMAX cinema...

Theeeeeeen Wednesday - Wednesday was my birthday! I woke up very early without realising how early it was (about 6.20) and opened my birthday cards and my package from James (the book Tom's Magic Garden - a fantastic read, which I have now read once and plan to read again especially chapter 5, which is my favourite (don't think I have ever had a favourite chapter before so this book must be speical)) and was very excited. Then went back to sleep for a few more hours, got up checked my emails, had breakfast, and then baked about a million cupcakes. Yes, I baked my own birthday cakes, and no, I didn't mind at all as they were very good and I rather enjoy baking. In the afternoon we went for a walk onto campus - the sun was shining and the campus is looking beautiful with trees flowering, and daffodils, and everything generally looking green - and on to Beeston (again) to get some drinks and snacks for the evening. For my birthday supper we had Chinese takeaway - my first time ever! It was a good choice especially as I didn't have to cook for another two days or so afterwards thanks to all the leftovers! After that my flatmates surprised me with a wonderful little collection of gifts: four different varieties of tea, biscuits to go with the tea, and a magic mug that is black when it is cold and when you poor hot water in it goes white and a picture of our whole flat appears!! Oh yes, and a scrubby fish, and four real zebra fish called Henry, George, Fred, and Gertrud who are currently living on our kitchen window sill but will have to go because our hall management does not approve. Very sad... After a few drinks and some excellent magic tricks from Graham we went on into town to the Bodega Social Club and Electric Banana where we danced the night away until 2am!! Altogether a fantastic birthday so thankyouthankyouthankyou to everyone who particpated and helped make it such a wonderful day!

On Thursday it was sadly already time for Steffi to leave for Switzerland again but she left me with a webcam so I can see here whenever I like (well technically whenever we are both online on skype) and I am very pleased with it so if anyone else has a webcam please let me know and I will give you a little wave and make sure not to pick my nose while you are looking! Thursday afternoon I met up with Damon from the local branch of the Red Cross who I will be doing some Volunteer Coordinator work for and after that decided to myself take part in one of their Challenge Events and instead of going for hiking, swimming, or golfing I decided to go for skydiving! Yes, I have registered to do a tandem skydive for charity out of an airplane from 10'000 feet!! I am very excited already but have to raise a minimum of £325 so please do sponsor me with a few pounds if you can afford to: www.justgiving.com/eleanor-skydive

Yesterday I did some more sightseeing/being a tourist and went on a trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury! Rather a long trip from Nottingham but definitely worth it as Stonehenge is impressive especially thinking about the effort of building something like it without modern tools like cranes and tractors and the precision with which they managed to build it by hand! Salisbury has a beautiful cathedral with the highest spire in Great Britain (123m) and which houses one of the four remaining original Magna Carta! Other than that I have spent lots of time printing off a rainforest worth of articles to read on my journey. I am off to Liverpool tomorrow to see Dan, Andrea and Flora, on to Bexhill on Thursday, then to London to stay with Vicky and Johanna on Monday in a week and then to Waldringfield on the Friday of the Easter weekend where Mum and Mark will join me in staying with Granny and Grandpa for a few days.

Phew. As always life has been quite busy and is going to carry on being busy but I do rather like it that way.

So, please sponsor me - any size donation helps - and do keep in touch!

xxx

oops, nearly forgot to give this post a title

Nearly a month has gone by since my last post - I can't believe how the time is flying past at the speed of a Concorde! As usual, quite a few things have happened. I must say however that I do believe that this blog makes me sound a lot busier than I actually am. The truth is that my time management skills could do with improving so I spend a lot of time procrastinating in between being busy. The best days in my opinion are days like yesterday where I had lots of place to be and was running in between them but the problem is that those are the days where I get the least work done...

So what have I been up to since the 11th February? Well, I have continued looking into different options for volunteering to fill up some time in my week that I would otherwise use for procrastinating. I had a meeting with someone from the local Red Cross office and will hopefully be doing some volunteering for them as a volunteer coordinator and fundraiser. Sounds good, huh? Also, yesterday, I went for the first time to Sneinton library to be a Reading Auntie. Basically this means that I get to hang out in the library for an hour and have kids read books to me! How much better can it get? I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definately be going back next week!!

I have also started work on my applied research project (i.e. my dissertation). I had a meeting with the lovely lady who is now my supervisor and we discussed my ideas and came up with a good piece of work to do. What is most exciting is that after getting in touch with the company I want to do it in they told me that they were just starting a project that it is in the same area as my research and they would like to get me involved in it! Wooo! Anyway, the title of my project so far is: Cross-cultural comparisons of perceptions of diversity policies and trainig in a global organisation. I will hopefully do a few interviews and send out a bunch of questionnaires and get back lots of interesting data, which the company can then use to discern where they stand in terms of implementing their new project and I can use to write up into a nice little portfolio.

Next, days away from Nottingham: Firstly, we went on the PGSA trip to York, which would have been better if we hadn't got stuck in traffic and therefore lost a lot of time and also if it hadn't been Valentine's day and the rest of the world hadn't also been there BUT York is beautiful! I will have to go back one day to explore some more and go into some of the many little shops and look at some of the many museums. The minster is very impressive and so are many of the other architectural quirks around the town. This past weekend I went to Leeds to meet up with my godfather James who I hadn't seen in about 10 years and I spent a fantastic Saturday there getting to know his life a bit and talking a lot about books, dogs, and all things him and I both seem to love.

Visitors: Lena was here!! Oh yes, and Andi, Christian und dr Zürcher :) We enjoyed various pubs in town and I have now been in most pubs that are proclaimed as old and famous and whatever and I have also drunk a lot of ale, seen English ice hockey (not at all impressive!! but it is quite funny that although we thought it was bad, five of the Nottingham Panters players have been nominated to play for the English national team...), and danced at Rock City! It was a fantastic weekend and was over far too quickly... Tomorrow I will have a brief visit by Aurelia who is currently hanging out in London and then in about two weeks Steffi will come for about five days to celebrate my birthday. Hopefully we will manage a day out to the east coast (Skegness) in between parties.

My course is still going well. It is interesting and I am looking forward to the research project and also the workshops coming up in the summer. In the meantime I have an incredible number of essays to write, a workbook to work my way through, and a portfolio to do. And of course - don't forget reading for exams! We just had a consultancy workshop the other week, which was interesting as it gave more insight into how the speakers got to where they are now and what their experiences have been as consultants as well as teaching us or making us aware of necessary skills for the real world.

Hopefully I will be able to get quite a lot of reading and thinking done while travelling in my Easter break. I am planning to go to Liverpool for a few days to visit Dan, Andy, and Flora then travel all the way down to Bexhill (possibly stopping in Brighton just to have a look) to stay with NP, then to London for a few days of relaxing with V&J between grandparents and then on to Waldringfield to stay with G&G and hopefully also catch up with Mum and Mark!!

Before then there is the Broadgate Easter formal, more ARP meetings and teleconferences, reading in Sneinton, lectures, bday celebrations for various people, visits to Manchester (this Sat) and possibly Stonehenge and Salisbury at the end of the month, seminars, film nights, and then of course Steffi's visit. Plent of stuff to do - maybe I should write a list and then not follow it or scribble things in my diary I then won't do.

I am still very sad that I missed Fasnacht but am hoping that my research in the summer will take me home to Basel and I will have the opportunity to catch up with more people then. I miss everyone a lot (even though it has been said that I have a heart of stone, pah, American bitch, you know it was you).

xxxxx

hobbling goblin gobbling

This is a little celebration post to celebrate .... me! What a surprise! Well actually to celebrate my success in the exams and essays so far! This is my way to let the world know that I passed all of my exams and essays and am more or less pleased with my results and am averaging about 65%, which is very pleasing. Woooo!

Other than that life is nearly going on as usual. Nearly because at the moment I am hobbling around with big blisters on my feet from being to energetic on the treadmill. Am a bit sad about this because it was going very well and I was getting quite into the running thing. Anyway all this hobbling and nastiness on my feet means I am missing meetings and things that I would have liked to go to in order to air my feet and let my wounds heal but still there is plenty of things going on: Human Rights Film Series tonight, lectures and seminars tomorrow, meeting with someone from the Red Cross to hopefully organise some volunteering, and with a potential (hopefully not only potential!) supervisor for my research project on Friday, day trip to York on Saturday, and then lots of visitors, first hand-in date, counselling workshop, etc next week! Sounds exhausting just reading it.

Not sure if I had already mentioned the snow in one of my last posts but thought I would mention it again. The UK (and I think the continent too) is suffering from bizarre extreme weather periods. It has snowed about three times in the last week here in Nottingham and we have had snowball fights and built a snowman. Now it is back to the usual mixture of sunshine and grayness (usually both on one day) but other parts of England are still having snow I think. My wellies certainly came in very useful. Hopefully the weather will be ok on Saturday to go to York and next week when Lena & Co. are here. I think I might have said this already in one of my previous posts... Sign of old age. Heyho.

xxx