February 2007 Archives

The other day on our many walks to Dean Street we were met by some builders in their little orange jackets and their little white hard hats waving their arms about.

Apparently after the visitations of Talpa Snowdonia the other week, and the assesment of high risk of subsidence in the area, nobody listened (as was their want) and in typical fashion they carried on. Early one morning, earth tremours resulting from a passing mole or from the fault line in the Strait, caused one of the previous mole tunnels beneath the car park to collapse. This took at least 3 workmen and one cat digger by surprise.

Nothing much has happened in the eat-swim-eat-swim-watch quietly world of Dennis and Owyn since my last post.

 That is, until today! Ha-ha!

I bought a tank for £10 from a guy in Ocean Sciences. It is an 18l tank (so bigger than their current 10l tank) with an air stone and a filter - the air stone I won't use very often just once a week or so.

 While they themselves haven’t moved yet, the plant I bought them the other week has. Hopefully this will give it chance to grow before it is attacked again (see picture for its present state). I've also put my beach pebbles in the bottom because they were taking up a lot of room on my window ledge. While I like pretty beach pebbles, they look better wet anyway so I thought I might as well.

Just thought I'd keep you posted with the exciting life of my goldfish.

Well, what can I say, Weebls Stuff is a site which has provided such legendary cartoons such as the Magical Trevor series and their advert for the Weebls Plushies.

One of their latest is just as legendary, I present, Giraffe in my loft! 

Well, I'm sure some of you may be aware of the site that is 'youtube', I won't rave on about it, because theres so much rubbish on it, but then again, there are some real gems that you can't help but smile at, here are two slightly related ones I found hilarious lately:

Tickle Me Elmo on fire, the electronic voice and way it shakes is in my opinion, sadistic comedy at its best!

And its counterpart (found shortly after while searching for the above vid again)

Those who know the term 'Emo' and the image, you're sure to find this funny, but it is getting old now... hey ho!

Well, our first "meeting" went well today - we had a really good turn out for saying its just a quick hello and whats going off, so now we're organising when (and where) we can give people a bit of an introduction to it and generally get the club started.

 It's looking good though!

The other day on the way back from a lecture I noticed that there were some daffodils in one of the flower beds on Ffridd. This made me smile, 'cause it means its almost Spring, and the warmer weather's on its way, but mostly 'cause I love the daffodil because its so pretty, yet so simple.

Yesterday walking to a lecture with Wendy I noticed on Glanrafon that one of the trees is blossoming already, and then later that there are lots of crocuses starting to open there too.

Today, after a disaster regarding my bank account and a run down the Hill to Nationwide to see what's happening (to no joy, they say they can't tell me until tomorrow) again I noticed yet more daffodils and crocuses and trees starting to blossom.

Just as I got to the front door of the block about 5 minutes ago, I heard a sound that definitely means its getting warmer.

The first Ice Cream Van of 2007.

 Last Tuesday at the club we organised a boat outing for today because we all needed to get out and do something. I was allowed to be boat crew/assistant dive marshall for the day cos I can't dive. We said we might take divers out but chances were slim as the forecast was appauling and it was the Spring tides, so viz would be about as far as you could see if you put your hand in front of your face...no...a bit closer....thats it, but that would be exaggerating on how much you could see. These are the Strait's we're talking about, and viz isn't often fantastic at the best of times.

On Thursday the wind was very windy and we decided not to take divers out, because it would be "like putting your head into a putting your head into a pan of very cold and quickly moving soup" and then on Saturday (yesterday) we decided we would afterall, 'cause the forecast was spot on.

We went out today, there wasn't a breath of wind and it was gloriously sunny, we threw Rach, Ian and Virginia in and then pulled them out again, as the viz was genuinely appauling. Then Jules and Daniel got in, just 'cause they thought they'd give it a shot, then we pulled them out and just settled for a quick play up through the swirlies. I had a great day being boat crew. I didn't get wet and cold in my snuggly drysuit in the sunshine.

I just thought you'd all like to see a picture.

Lately I've had a lot of let downs as far as being fibbed to is concerned.

The first was Jurassic Park. Firstly, when I watched it at Christmas I realised that most of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are in fact from the Cretaceous Era, after the Jurassic Era. The second one was discovered in lectures after Christmas, when I discovered that Velociraptor, the coolest, meanest and cleverest dinosaur in the film, is actually the size of a goose. The dinosaurs in the film were modelled on Velociraptor's larger, uglier cousin, Deinonychus, which sounds nowhere near as cool or like its going to rip you to bits while you're still alive.

The second lie I've had throughout my life is about the Coriolis Force/Effect. As a small child I was taught that the Coriolis Force is what makes water drain in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemisphere. This is in fact un-true. If you get a sinkful of water and fill it up, and before you pull the plug use your hands to make it go one way, it will drain that way. If you do it again, and spin it the other way, it will drain that way too.

I always knew that University would be an eye-opener to the world around me, but I never knew it would be a spoil-sport.

These fearsome beasts can reach sizes between 11-17m in length and weighing several tonnes. Being nocturnal, this giant mole is rarely seen, although locals tell legend of a large furry beast shuffling around in brown earth soil areas at night. Their average age is unknown although it is believed that they may live for one hundred and fifty years or more. Talpa Snowdonia was first discovered in the 1800's following the increase in slate mining in the area, and was almost wiped out by big game hunters going out in the early hours of the morning and startling them with small flashbombs.

It is believed that methods used for slate mining confuse and disorientate the mole, causing it to dig erratic pathways different to the ones most frequently used. It is also believed now that that was the cause of todays sighting.

Luckily the construction workers can use their CAT digger to fill in some of the holes, although now there is the concern of dangerous subsidence in the area.

Wow!

The excitement that is travelling to and from university became unbareable these last few mornings, the ability to park in a new car park! Not only does it have a random attendent dude constantly watching the cars, but they'll also give your car a good powerwash for a few pennies! And so, my punto is once again gleaming, mum will be jealous because the local car wash has been broken for the last week or so.

Well... since I've been experimenting with colours I decided that it'd be a good idea to attack dads beard sometime... and the result was a very vivid orange (rubbish photo though).

A thought struck me the other day about committees.

 Once upon a time, I believed that committee members of a club, group, society etc were people to look upon and behold - people you could have a lot of respect for because they had a purpose in life, a purpose to serve us little people with help and advice, to use their powers for good to get the club nice things and to make sure everything worked, people got spoken to and things got done.

 Now I know this is not the case. Committee members aren't much of my idealistic views. Committee members are just a bunch of people who happened to be in the right place at the right time - in musical chairs they're the ones that sat down first. Theres a whole lot more to getting stuff done too - there are processes that have to be gone through and other things have to be done first, usually resulting in nothing really being done. Some committee members of some clubs are just people who are very handy to have around, they know the right people.

There was more, but I've forgotten it. It's strange suddenly being in the seat of a committee member. You see things from a different point of view. Maybe I will think of more later.

Yesterday Dad came over as planned and bought a surprise with him - Mum! It was really good to see them both and I'm really pleased they both seemed to have a good day with me (and together).

We went to Menai Bridge to look for spoons (Mum's going through an antique spoon phase I think) and then off into the mountains for a wander.

 The snow up there was very slippery and wet, and most of the time between ankle and mid-calf deep. Occasionally you'd step into a drift and it be up to your knees, in which case, if you were me, you fell over.

The Welsh weather continued to make the Cwm look stunning - some of the photographs I took came out very moody and again the lake was frozen over mostly, though this time it had snow patterns on it.

Someone had built a lone snowman up there. He was cold and melting slowly, his face was falling off, and his day failed to get any better when Mum round kicked his head off. I suspect that sort of thing can really put a crimp on your day.

On the way back down we saw the Mountain Rescue helicopter, and then at the bottom the Mountain Rescue Land Rover. I'd guess the poor lady they were there for wasn't having a day much better than the snowman, although possibly more interesting (after being rescued by helicopter, obviously).

 Coming down the small rocky crevice at the bottom of the Cwm, the track was perrilous in that it was slippy snow on slippier loose rocks. Leah, getting that strange feeling you get right before you fall over, crouched down and used her hands to hold onto the floor. The next step I took I slipped, and continued down the path into the back of my poor unsuspecting mothers legs, taking her out too.

After a hot drink and some Rocky Road (not as good as Mum's own!) we were on our way down, back into Sunny Bangor, where the weather was, well. Sunny.

I forgot to feed Dennis and Owyn yesterday. This was my first mistake.

The Second Mistake was not feeding them immediately when I remembered at lunch time. In a defiant rage they have pecked to bits most of their plant and now bits of planty-debris are floating around the tank.

I think they know I'm writing about them just now, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if I woke up in the night and they had somehow got out of the tank (wearing little reverse-dive equipment, 'cause they are fish) and they were strangling me with what's left of the plant. So this is probably my third mistake.

I won't forget to feed them again that's for sure.

After finding a few people who are interested in learning to kite (amongst the other sports) in Bangor, myself and hopefully another person are going to set up a club here. If we can get it right it will be a good club with a little club kit and lots of members (at least lots of people joining so we can buy club kit, or a nice SU grant). If we don't get a club running I will just have to suffice with being a loner and having nobody to go kiting with. Ever. *sniff*.

 Now all that remains is to find out how to approach the SU about it and see about getting a room for loan once a week/fortnight for meetings and such.

 Curse my weather dependent sports. At least I won't be diving for a while and so can put my effort into this.

On my way back from Physical Oceanography today I thought it would be a good idea to pick up some throat sweets being as how talking makes it very sore (and yes, I talk a lot) and my "talking" at the moment is barely audible above silence.

 I went in to Morrisons to look for throat sweets in the hope they'd have those ones with the liquid but to no avail; the only ones they had are the big fat Halls ones that poke the roof of your mouth to bits with the corners, or blackcurrant Strepsils. Now, the only reason I didn't buy throat sweets yesterday was because all they had at the tills were blackcurrant Strepsils. Needless to say I was not amused.

 I ruefully picked up a pack of 8 blackcurrant Strepsils (at 98p, which is extortion for 8 cough sweets.  12.25p each!) and put them on the counter and paid for the rest of my shopping.

 I got outside, and after fumbling with the confounded packet I managed to break one free, then watched it hit the floor and roll away down a drain after dropping it. I think it did it to spite me.

At this point in time I would like to point out that we have in fact had the first proper covering of snow this year in Bangor. It's not very deep but the clouds above Sunny Bangor are blacker than a black thing so we're all very hopeful it's going to continue.

Glanrafon is going to be evil to go down to get to physics so if I'm not about it means I slid all the way to the bottom and broke lots of bones.

I went to Morrisons earlier with the intention of buying some vegetables and some cheap food for tea. I took ten pounds out of the hole in the wall and proceeded to shop for stuff, some stir fry, a little cooked chicken. When I was young this wouldn't've cost £5. It's an outrage.

It's entirely possible that in my own mind I am omitting the fact that I also bought chocolate mousse and a bag of lollies at a pound each to cheer me up and I did manage to have change from the fiver and now at least have some pound coins to do some washing with, and I'm just being miserable because I've got a cold. I think I must have caught Man-Flu from David (who has spent the last three days going "Uuurrrrgh" and complaining about how he is on the doorstep of the Reaper himself) which is strange because I thought, being a girl, I would be immune to the deadly Man-Flu. Obviously not.

Well as some people may be aware I have been experimenting with various different hair colour sprays, my current thoughts on them are that they are pretty funky... :D. I do beleive that Orange and Blue are my favourite colours so far, the Blue seems to work best, but Orange, being such an infinately brilliant colour, is up there too. And green... well its like snot, and doesn't seem to work too well. I think Red will also be good, so wait on the edges of your seats for when I randomly decide to try it!

Well you might think with it being icy it'd put a stop to underwater photos in a lake high up in the mountains... But you'd be wrong, the ice was only about 5mm thick, and so with cold hands I held Leahs Pentax WP under the water to get this shot which was quite funky ;)

Fire Poi... Night only activity? I think not!

Would you beleive that basic access work with tables and queries is actually classed as 2nd year work at Caledonian university? And not only that but even more basic Powerpoint is considered 'Level 3' work! :O (I can see you fainting from here!).

I thought when we were offered options for this semester that taking an 'Intro to website development' would be a bit too easy for me, but it turns out that 'Business multimedia' is also just as basic. The only complex part about it seems to be that they want students to learn about basic flash animation, and even action script... Pity I've been playing with Flash since I was 14...

I can only hope that next year the work will be a bit more challenging.

I noticed today how much bigger Dennis and Owyn are lately than when I bought them in October. They are fast becoming too big for their little beginner bowl and so soon I think I am going to have to invest in a larger tank.

 The new plant is still alive and well and they haven't eaten much of it so far, I think it's growing faster than they can eat it.

 That's all really. If you have a bigger tank please let me know!

Sometimes on our way to lectures we walk down Glanrafon and the smell from Morrisons kitchens lingers in the air.

 Some days, it smells like roast chicken, crisp, juicy and succulent. This usually happens on sunny days.

 Other days it smells like iced buns, doughey, sweet and sticky. This most often happens when its overcast.

I' don't know what happened the other day, because it smelled like iced-chicken or roast buns. I'm not sure which.

Well this year I decided that instead of cramming all my revision into a day or so before the exams, I'd make more effort to sort and read through notes as I did stuff just to retain that bit more information.

 So far this semester I've had all sorts to write, go over and read up on, as well as having loads of coursework to do, in-term examinations and then all my dive stuff for the club (ringing people, emailing people and talking to other people).

 Things were so much easier when I was lazy!

Well, felt like blogging now I'm back from Leahs and have too much free time, so heres some of my current favourite songs (and accompanying videos).

The Cooper Temple Clause with 'Waiting Game' 

The Dykeenies with 'Waiting for go' 

Billy Talent with 'Red Flag' 

And there we go, for now...