So I'm back in England now after 10 months living it up in Arizona and soon I'll post up something of a review of the year but in the mean time, a quick summary of the Metallica concert in Tucson on May 16th. In one word... awesome!
This was my second time seeing Metallica live (the last at Wembley Stadium in July 2007) so the gig had a lot to live up to. Whilst the arena was nothing compared to Wembley stadium (it was essentially just a field with rubbish parking arrangements), the band delivered another brilliant performance resulting in mass anticipation for their new album to be released in September. You can pretty much work out a Metallica concert set list but they threw in a few slightly unexpected surprises with Fuel and Where-ever I may Roam after opening with the classic and atmospheric Ecstasy of Gold and Creeping Death. All the classics followed including Bells, Memory Remains, Unforgiven, Master, Fade to Black and One before the usual awesome ending on Seek and Destroy. Photos will be up somewhere sometime but not exactly sure when.
One more post on this Arizona blog probably at the weekend - a summary and then thats it. Perhaps I'll open another one now I'm back in the UK, we'll see!
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Glorious Metallica Send Off
I haven't got time for a full Metallica report right now (probably not until Mon/Tues) but it was an awesome day/night in general and the concert was amazing. Now its time to come home to the mother-land; airport chao's and crying babies on aeroplanes awaits and with not a lot of sleep these last 3 nights, I'm sure a 4th in a Boeing 777 won't make much difference. I land in Heathrow at 10:45am on Sunday UK time (02:45 Arizona) so see you all soon!
Laters!
Laters!
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Crazy Golf, Mild Vinderloo and grades
It's been a funny old week this far. Saturday we went crazy golfing and decided to tackle both the 18 hole and 12 hole course resulting in 30 holes of crazy fun. One of the holes involved hitting the ball steeply uphill but gently enough to get under a wooden barrier at the top. I thought this sounded too much like hard work so decided to chip over the wooden barrier from about 20ft away, in hindsight, probably not a great idea. The resulting shock was as fluky and lucky as they get. The ball flew miles over the barrier, hit something well behind the wooden pergola surrounding the whole, bounced back, flew around the pergola narrowly missing Russ with the camera and landed just off the fairway.
Last night we went out to an Indian and ordered the classic curry's - Korma (Abi), Tikka Masala and Vindaloo (Me and Russ shared). Despite specifically asking for a hot Vindaloo, it didn't really have much of a kick, almost as if my mouth was lined with candle wax beforehand. It tasted nice though!
An finally, grades are coming in thick and fast here in Arizona. I have 4 of my 5 modules back thus far, all of which were A's including Plateaus which I was unsure about. Prof Davis, my active tectonics lecturer, was particularly pleased with how I did in his class. Just one more to go, Structural Geology, which is pretty much a guaranteed A! All is good!
Laters!
Last night we went out to an Indian and ordered the classic curry's - Korma (Abi), Tikka Masala and Vindaloo (Me and Russ shared). Despite specifically asking for a hot Vindaloo, it didn't really have much of a kick, almost as if my mouth was lined with candle wax beforehand. It tasted nice though!
An finally, grades are coming in thick and fast here in Arizona. I have 4 of my 5 modules back thus far, all of which were A's including Plateaus which I was unsure about. Prof Davis, my active tectonics lecturer, was particularly pleased with how I did in his class. Just one more to go, Structural Geology, which is pretty much a guaranteed A! All is good!
Laters!
Monday, 12 May 2008
Final week
So it's my final week in Arizona, 40 down, 1 to go before flying back to the UK. Jeez, how time has flown!
Last weekend was the first laid-back succession of days in a long time - beers and food round a friends house friday night, crazy golf saturday and tidying/packing on sunday all punctuated by playing guitar to Green Day's live DVD, Bullet in a Bible rather loudly. This week should be equally fun. I have one exam on tuesday in structural geology which should be a breeze and then thats it. Wednesday we may be heading down to Nogales in Mexico for a day just to grab some photos, souvenirs and a legal drink of beer for the first time in 9 1/2 months! Thursday is party day/night and friday is Metallica, all should be good!
As normal, the grades come in from Arizona loads faster than they do in the UK - I already have one module back (A) and should get the rest this week. Kind of puts Leicester to shame really, it takes months there!
In the news today, a M7.8 earthquake hits the South-western Chinese province of Sichuan killing atleast 8500 but the death toll is expected to rise sharply. China has a long history of earthquake activity owing, on a broader scale, to it's unfortunate position between the gravitationally collapsing Tibetan Plateau and the subduction zones of the western Pacific. Some of the largest and deadliest earthquakes ever recorded have been known to strike China killing in excess of 500,000 people. The largest recorded earthquake, however, was a M9.5 shock to hit central Chile in 1960, closely followed by the M9.2 Andaman Islands Earthquake which triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
S'all for now folks! Laters!
Last weekend was the first laid-back succession of days in a long time - beers and food round a friends house friday night, crazy golf saturday and tidying/packing on sunday all punctuated by playing guitar to Green Day's live DVD, Bullet in a Bible rather loudly. This week should be equally fun. I have one exam on tuesday in structural geology which should be a breeze and then thats it. Wednesday we may be heading down to Nogales in Mexico for a day just to grab some photos, souvenirs and a legal drink of beer for the first time in 9 1/2 months! Thursday is party day/night and friday is Metallica, all should be good!
As normal, the grades come in from Arizona loads faster than they do in the UK - I already have one module back (A) and should get the rest this week. Kind of puts Leicester to shame really, it takes months there!
In the news today, a M7.8 earthquake hits the South-western Chinese province of Sichuan killing atleast 8500 but the death toll is expected to rise sharply. China has a long history of earthquake activity owing, on a broader scale, to it's unfortunate position between the gravitationally collapsing Tibetan Plateau and the subduction zones of the western Pacific. Some of the largest and deadliest earthquakes ever recorded have been known to strike China killing in excess of 500,000 people. The largest recorded earthquake, however, was a M9.5 shock to hit central Chile in 1960, closely followed by the M9.2 Andaman Islands Earthquake which triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
S'all for now folks! Laters!
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Weird things happen in this town
I thought I was going nuts the other day, well I probably am but this is absurd! Walking towards downtown from my apartment, a motorbike went by with something colourful on the rider's arm. It warrented a second look and indeed the guy was travelling 30-40mph along the road with a parrot on his left arm! So that was weird!
What's more, the weird stories don't stop there! Many of my devoted readers (who-ever you are) may recall me talking about Professor George Davis at some point in the past. Well he had another cracker of a story today. At graduation ceremonies at the UofA, they serve the usual beverages and food since some of them take most of the day. By the time the afternoon arrives, half the audience is drunk and the other half probably bored with the formal speeches etc. Hence, it degrades into chaos. Tortilla's start to enjoy the wonders of flight across the room aimed not only at fellow students but the professors and speakers! And worse of all, no one really seems to care! I'd love for my graduation ceremony to end up in a mass drunken food fight.
This is the last week of classes here in Tucson, infact tomorrow (wednesday) is my last class before dead day (thursday) when i'll probably be working on Utah stuff and exams start friday of which I only have one (next tuesday) before flying back a week Saturday!
In other news, I've finally got some dates and information about my internship this summer with BG group - one of the leading international natural gas production companies. More information soon.
Laters!
What's more, the weird stories don't stop there! Many of my devoted readers (who-ever you are) may recall me talking about Professor George Davis at some point in the past. Well he had another cracker of a story today. At graduation ceremonies at the UofA, they serve the usual beverages and food since some of them take most of the day. By the time the afternoon arrives, half the audience is drunk and the other half probably bored with the formal speeches etc. Hence, it degrades into chaos. Tortilla's start to enjoy the wonders of flight across the room aimed not only at fellow students but the professors and speakers! And worse of all, no one really seems to care! I'd love for my graduation ceremony to end up in a mass drunken food fight.
This is the last week of classes here in Tucson, infact tomorrow (wednesday) is my last class before dead day (thursday) when i'll probably be working on Utah stuff and exams start friday of which I only have one (next tuesday) before flying back a week Saturday!
In other news, I've finally got some dates and information about my internship this summer with BG group - one of the leading international natural gas production companies. More information soon.
Laters!
Saturday, 3 May 2008
T - 2 weeks
Two weeks to go in Arizona and rather than creeping up, the last few weeks are flying by. My knee is now much better after meeting the cacti bush last weekend and even the pool looks tempting for another visit sometime soon. It's now also under 2 weeks until Metallica come to Tucson the day before I fly out. Also lower on the bill for that night is a band called Apocalyptica who, bizarrely, cover most Metallica songs on the Chello! I kid you not and it sounds amazingly good, definately recommend checking them out.
This weeks been busy but pretty decent. My presentation in Structural Geology went well (I got 100%) and amongst the few comments from the instructor was "nice shirt" (a reference to my new "Do something with your life, get me a beer" t-shirt.
On Thursday, speaking to Jon, it struck me that the choice of modules for my 4th year back at Leicester University is, frankly, shocking. The 4th year should be about choosing modules similar to what you want to do as a career or PhD but theres no structural geology/tectonics modules but rather too many palaeontology, palaeobiology and climatic study (so called soft geology) modules for my liking. Infact, the choice is abysmal... so I sent an email to my tutor to see what he recommends.
And finally, some interesting news from Texas. A 21 year old walked into a bank and tried to pay in a fake cheque from his girlfriends mother. Ok, nothing suspicious provoked yet except he decided to write the check for $360,000,000, 000 ($360 billion!!!). He told the police he needed to pay off student debts - that's a lot of student debts! Also from Texas, a thief manage to talk himself out of a jail sentance for forgery by agreeing to pay a $4500 fine. The not-so-intelligent guy paid the fine with a fake cheque and subsequently got sent down for 8 years!
Laters!
This weeks been busy but pretty decent. My presentation in Structural Geology went well (I got 100%) and amongst the few comments from the instructor was "nice shirt" (a reference to my new "Do something with your life, get me a beer" t-shirt.
On Thursday, speaking to Jon, it struck me that the choice of modules for my 4th year back at Leicester University is, frankly, shocking. The 4th year should be about choosing modules similar to what you want to do as a career or PhD but theres no structural geology/tectonics modules but rather too many palaeontology, palaeobiology and climatic study (so called soft geology) modules for my liking. Infact, the choice is abysmal... so I sent an email to my tutor to see what he recommends.
And finally, some interesting news from Texas. A 21 year old walked into a bank and tried to pay in a fake cheque from his girlfriends mother. Ok, nothing suspicious provoked yet except he decided to write the check for $360,000,000, 000 ($360 billion!!!). He told the police he needed to pay off student debts - that's a lot of student debts! Also from Texas, a thief manage to talk himself out of a jail sentance for forgery by agreeing to pay a $4500 fine. The not-so-intelligent guy paid the fine with a fake cheque and subsequently got sent down for 8 years!
Laters!
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