As some of you may know, I'm learning how to drive, again. This means that I need to practice driving. Enter the Ford Mondeo. Our group has an experimental vehicle outside of the city, and the Mondeo is the car we use to get there. The guys were kind enough to let me borrow it. After spending an hour practicing parallel parking, 3-point turns, and reversing into parking spaces (seriously, we did), we drove out of Cambridge to Wimpole Hall. Wimpole Hall is a large estate and National Trust property. Enjoy the pictures; it definitely was one of the prettiest places we've visited (the weather certainly helped!)
- Will
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Learning to Drive
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Tourists for a Day
(Photos from Top to Bottom: 1. Will at Magdalene Bridge, 2. The Round Church, the oldest building in Cambridge, 3. Will with the offspring of Newton's apple tree, 4. Bicycle, 5. Gardi's, the best known late-night student eatery, 6. Carrots at the Cambridge city market, 7. Red telephone booths, 8. Gonville & Caius college, 9. Jackie at Senate House Passage, 10. One of the better city center shops selling college apparel, 11. Will at R&A, 12. The Eagle Pub, where Watson and Crick first announced their discovery of the double helix, 13. Jackie at Granta Place Puntyard, 14. Peterhouse College gardens, 15. Cambridge City crest.)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Rain, Rain, Go Away
Sometimes, when the weather has been particularly gloomy, I (Jackie) have to remind myself that it *does* get sunny here. Although, perhaps thinking of the beach isn't the best way to do it. Hmmm... Nevertheless, it does help. It's not that it rains all the time - Cambridge is the driest place in the UK -it's just grey. A LOT. And it can get to you. When we visited England during Summer 2006, our trip to Cambridge coincided with the first grey/rainy day we had had the entire week. Needless to say, our first impression of the place was soured somewhat by the weather; but that did not last (otherwise we probably wouldn't be here now). So even though weather.co.uk (a far superior resource to BBC weather. More on that later.) calls for rain and greyness most of the weekend, we're still going to have fun. Tomorrow we're playing tourist around town, so expect a update and photos from our "trip" to Cambridge. For now, I'm off to bake foccacia...and maybe something sweet.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
"The World Famous" Panjabi Hit Squad!
In case you haven't spoken to us in the past, oh, seven months then you won't have heard about BBC iPlayer and how it is the greatest invention since the Internet. iPlayer is the BBC's online source for everything that is shown on BBC TV or played on BBC Radio over the past week. Everything. All TV shows, all radio shows. It is fantastic; it is free. This weekend we were trolling around the iPlayer website looking at what was available. We have used the TV much more than the Radio because, frankly, British radio involves either really bad Brit-pop, house music, or emo. Enter the Panjabi Hit Squad.
England has a large South Asian population, particularly in the London area. As such, there is a strong Desi, Baghra, and other South Asian music genre scene. The Panjabi Hit Squad, as their website says, have sought to blend the styles of Desi and urban Hip-Hop. Hence their shows jump between "Chaya Chaya" and "Whoomp! There it is." Seamlessly. It's the first music with a danceable beat that we've heard since coming here. It's good to see that the BBC's insistence upon racial diversity and cultural exposure is being put to good use. Needless to say, they've found two new listeners in a couple of American ex-pats.
Oh yeah, and it's hilarious, too.
(Image credit: BBC)
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