Moving Places

I'm temporarily moving out of my room in Panns Bank, because of this-



When I arrived the room smelled of damp carpet, and I was told there was a leak prior to my arrival, well this mysterious leak came up again a few weeks back, I thought it was going to dry out on it's own, but it only became worse. I spoke to the residential services people about it, and they recommended I move out so they could fix the leak and the carpet.
So, I've been moved to an adjacent hall- Scotia Quay, mainly a postgraduate hall, I haven't met all my flatmates yet, in fact I haven't really moved yet, doing that later today.
My temporary room is much bigger and it has an en suite toilet and shower. And from the communal room I have a great view of the river and the North Sea!
I think the room is a bit more conducive for studying, hopefully I'll gain a lot more ground studying there for the next few essays coming up.
I don't know how long the repairs in my Panns Bank room will take, from the looks of it, it shouldn't be too long.

Getting Ready to Leave

The contents of my room have been emptied into three bags, my coach to London leaves at 7:20, my 1st year at Panns Bank has ended.
A rather eventful year, great flatmates, great food, and a great view from my window (seagulls, sunrises, fishermen)
In September I'll be back again at Panns Bank, I pray I get a room with a river view- and great flatmates as well.
I'm ready for my trip, the bitter lemon is in the fridge (peanuts have been entirely consumed however), Saturday's Guardian still remains unopened, and I'm about to fill up my mp3 player with travel music.
On Tuesday I fly back to the continent, but I'll return to London in mid/late July for a PR internship in Londres.
Goodbye Panns Bank, I'll see ya in September.

Looking for Amphibious Villains

Essay Spirit

Essay season brings out peculiar behaviour in me. I become rather superstitious or ritualistic, I have to perform certain activities before I can begin studying, note-taking or writing an essay.
The first ritual that had to take place was the acquisition of a 60 Watt bulb for my tablelamp. My tablelamp had been bulbless for a while and I felt that the central room light was just not enough for my studies, I had to wander around town looking for a bulb (Tesco has an aisle clearly stating 'Bulbs' but there are no bulbs there) I finally found my bulb and studying could commence.
Second ritual is that I need to eat first before I start working. I go down and prepare a large meal, eat, watch something on BBC iPlayer and then begin making an essay plan.
Once the essay plan is done, it's time to begin writing the essay, but first I must take a shower. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, just before I start an essay I take a long cold(ish) shower- I feel it helps me focus better. I get lotioned up, comb my hair and sit at my laptop- play a randomly selected song and then begin the writing process.
My breaks are often 5-10 minutes long, and I can do a various activities ranging from simply staring out my window, to reading about a country on wikipedia, to grabbing Sophie (my camera) and actually going outside to photograph a seagull eating a crab (a photo-op I spotted from my window)

But essays are done, and boredom sets in..a boredom that is relieved by watching programs on iPlayer or reading random facts on wikipedia..yesterday I was reading about- Bermuda, Bora Bora (French Polynesia), The Odyssey, Paul Robeson...Wikipedia is a great source of knowledge, and I urge everyone to go on it everyday and pick up a random bit of knowledge, I know it's easily vandalised, but it's still quite reliable in most cases.

Coconut

I was wandering through Tesco yesterday and came up to the fruit aisle, I was feeling odd and decided to get an exotic tropical fruit, my first thought was: Mango! but then I recalled that I usually get tummy trouble after eating it..I then thought about Avocado, but I had eaten that a few weeks ago...I scanned the aisle, and my eyes fell on this round, brown, hard fruit...with hair! yes The Coconut. I picked it up and checked out.
When I got home I picked the coconut and stared at it, I asked myself two questions. Firstly, with the absence of a hammer, how on earth was I going to break it open? and then How could I incorporate coconut into my meal?....I also asked myself other questions like Who was the first person to eat a coconut? I mean he or she must have been stranded on an island with absolutely no food, just coconut trees and large stones.
Well, Tesco advises to use the blunt end of a very large knife and hit the coconut at its widest point. I do not endorse this method, as it involves a large blade pointed at your face. If you wanna eat coconut, go to Tesco and get it, then go to hardware store and get a hammer.
Well, I tried the Tesco method and all it did was mess up the kitchen, with coconut hair flying everywhere. My flatmate Vishal (who is less scared of big knives) managed to half the coconut using this method, I then proceeded to break the halves into smaller pieces using our kitchen wall..it worked.
What was left was to seperate the endosperm (or Coconut meat as it is known, but I prefer coconut white....as it does not look like, taste like, or feel like meat) from the husk, this proved a daunting task, and involved us Googooling (notice the extra 'oo' after the 'l', this is to prevent you pronouncing it -Goog-Ling', and since 'Googleing' would add to confusion, I have come up with 'Googooling- Smart!)methods of removing the white from the husk...suggestions included getting 'Indian coconut scoopers from Calcutta'...we didn't have the time, but I had an idea. I decided to boil the pieces for about 20 minutes, this softened the white a bit, and it was much easier to scoop out.
I was eating the remnants of my whole chicken...actually it was still pretty much whole, just missing thighs and wings, so yes, I was eating that, and pasta. I grated the coconut and fried it with the breasts I had carved out, I also added some to the pasta, and it gave it a nice sweet tinge! Innovative!! So yes I had once again formed a new recipe "La Noix de Coco avec le Poulet et Pâtes" (never have recipe names in English it makes it sound normal...use a Latin language instead) which in English simply means "Coconut with chicken and pasta", now you see why French is better!

Unfortunately no pictures of this meal exist as I gobbled it up as soon as it was done.

Oh God I Love Cooking!