Sunday soup

I went a bit crazy buying carrots last week, and we still had about 1.5kg left by the end of this week.  I also went to this great 'Feeding the 5000' event which was highlighting the issue of food waste (feeding 5000 people in Trafalgar Square - what a mammoth task!) and was given a couple of bags of vegetables which would have otherwise been thrown away, and which contained even more carrots...

So, I had a look online and decided to make this carrot and thyme soup.  We had some delicious organic bloomer loaf left over from lunch yesterday, and so I had myself quite a decadent lunch!  It was a nice distraction from the uni reading I've been doing today I must say...

It was pretty tasty; I liked the thyme, but there was a bit too much honey.  But if you need to make something with lots of carrots - give it a go!

Brains and poetry

A slightly odd combination I agree, but good nonetheless!

A few weekends ago we went to a really excellent exhibition all about brain donation.  My friend Megan who is a neuroscientist and really interested in art-science collaborations had found out about it and we decided to tag along.  (Oh and beforehand I had breakfast at Dishoom in Covent Garden which had the best spicy chai and egg naans...mmm).  But back to the art!

The exhibition was called 'Mind Over Matter' and was basically about de-anonymising brain donation.  I found it absolutely fascinating, and the amazing setting of the Shoreditch Town Hall basement which was all twisty and turny underground was so perfect for it.  You can see in the photos the various things the exhibition was made up of, including audio, photos dulled to represent dementia, and the other things to represent memory.  This website tells you much more about the exhibition better than I can!  We have an A5 picture of the lady from the website on top of our fridge at the moment - she was fantastic, even having a male stripper at her 100th birthday because, why not!  If it ever comes to your town, absolutely go and see it.

Then after the exhibition, we headed up to the Bloomsbury festival in Russell Square, right by Adrian's work.  They had a really eclectic group of things happening, from Siberian singers (surprisingly really good), to lots of food stalls, to art and crafts fairs, to book fairs.  The best thing though was the poetry tunnel.  You basically created a short (five or so word) poem from a selection of cards and then hung it up so people could walk through.  I think the photos explain it quite well (and sorry, no idea why these photos can't go the right way up...):

So cool with all the random things you can do in London - never a dull moment!

Prancing about in Prague

Back in July we spent four days in the Czech Republic with our friends Bas and Pip.  It was originally supposed to be the weekend he proposed but we crashed the party - whoops!  Fortunately he found another time to do it!

We spent two days in a very wet Prague, then another two days in Cesky Krumlov which is further south and near the Austrian and German borders.  I had huge expectations of Prague - everyone had said how amazing it was, and I'm sure if it was the first city of its type you had visited it would be incredible, but I think having already been to other European capitals (especially Budapest) it wasn't that special to me.  I'm such a world weary traveller!  But I think that's the thing - the first cathedral you see is amazing; the 10th, not so much.

But it was very interesting to see it finally and lots of fun to travel with our friends.  We saw all the big sights, like St Vitus' Cathedral, the castle, Jewish quarter and the astronomical clock.  We spent a fair bit of time stopping for food and drinks as well - got to fuel all this touristing somehow!  One slightly different thing we did do was go to the Museum of Decorative Arts which had so much stuff, ranging from suits of armour and a room full of clocks, to all these old posters and fantastic clothes.  I would definitely recommend including it on an itinerary for Prague.

After Prague, Adrian and I continued down to Cesky Krumlov which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and famous for its pretty setting and river rafting.  Unfortunately it wasn't so hot while we were there, and we were a little rushed for time (we got the kayak back with minutes to spare!), but overall I really enjoyed it there. Here's a quick video of some other people rafting taken from up by the castle:

They had the same basic highlights (castle, old town etc.), but other neat things included extremely cheap ice-creams, a fantastic tower and a very cool mirror maze which amused us no end.  Garnets are hugely popular in the Czech Republic and in Cesky Krumlov, after much looking around at the incredible variety of pretty things on offer, Adrian very generously bought me a beautiful little pair of earrings - how spoiled am I...

Click here to look at the rest of the photos.

First impressions of the LSE

Now that I'm officially a student again (have ID card, will get discount), I feel I should share my experiences at my new university so you can have an idea what it's like to be not just a mature student (+25) but practically an ancient student (+30!).

I'm at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE).  Yes, that's right, the one with the whole Libyan government scandal...  Or maybe I shouldn't be emphasising that one!  In serious terms, it's a pretty good university (46th in the world), although not as good as my previous alma mater (Oxford is now 4th in the world).  More importantly for me though, is its ranking as a social sciences university which is very good (check out this link for more info) and the fact that I'm affiliated with a world-leading climate research institution, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. 

For my PhD I'm going to be looking at something to do with climate scepticism and impacts on policy-making.  Or so I hope!  I'm sure that it's going to change somewhere along the lines, but hopefully a year from now it should all be pretty settled.

But enough about me, and more about the university.  Well, it's right in the middle of London, minutes from the City, Covent Garden, the Thames, and Trafalgar Square.  Hopefully I won't be too tempted to do much shopping!  The campus itself isn't really like a normal university campus, basically being a small collection of buildings virtually un-isolated from the rest of the city (so I found out the other day when a truck barrelled full-bore down what I had naively assumed to be a quiet pedestrianised street).  It's the usual mixture of brand spanking new buildings and old, falling into disrepair mazes of lecturers' offices and study rooms.  I've heard that it can get to fisticuffs in the library around exam time regarding access to computers, so luckily as a PhD student I have access to dedicated computer rooms so won't ever have to defend my computer with my body...

The other students (mostly PhDs and Post-Docs so far) are all extremely friendly and welcoming which is great, and there seems to be no end of clubs and societies, as well as interesting speakers and events to help you while away the time you ought to be spending studying...

But I'm determined to be focused and to finish on time (your three years starts...NOW!), so hopefully it'll be more reading of books than drinking of pints (although obviously some leisure time is a clear necessity...).

Wish me luck!

Autumn in Aotearoa

Paying £1400 for a four minute appointment at the immigration office (solely to get fingerprints and a photo taken - both of which they already had on file from a previous application) seems slightly OTT, but that's what it takes to get a UK student visa these days...  Oh, and that's not including the approximately £250 cost of the visa itself - yikes!

But, it made for a great excuse to go home for a three week visit.  I behaved like a proper socialite, with morning and afternoon teas, lunches and dinners scheduled at every available opportunity.  I gorged myself on sushi as it's so expensive and so terrible in London compared to NZ (massive shoutout to Umi Sushi in Takapuna - the best sushi rolls in NZ and only $1 each!).  Big thank you to Mum for supporting my sushi habit too; I was mightily spoiled.  It was great being at home in general - I certainly got used to a life of luxury again very quickly!

Another highlight was going with Dad to a Rugby World Cup game (Australia versus Italy).  We were passionate Italian supporters, but despite going into half-time at a nail-biting 6 all, it wasn't to go our way, with Australia storming home in the second half.

Here's a video of Dad and I at the game enjoying the fantastically temporamental Auckland weather:

It was great seeing everyone as well, particularly the lovely Auckland ladies who are just as gorgeous as ever.  I had a fleeting visit down to Wellington as well which was excellent.  I tried to see everyone, and even though a few people missed out, my bank balance certainly reflected the fact that I saw as many people as I possibly could!  It was so interesting catching up on what everyone's getting up to, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the next generation - little Sonja and Oscar were so adorable.

I hardly took enough photos, but the few I did remember to take are here using this link, so check them out.