All entries for October 2005

Manchester

Last Saturday, Silvi and I visited Manchester. It took us nearly 2 hours to go there, but it was worth it. Although there aren't many big attractions, we liked the city. Our first image of the city was a good one: There are free buses in the city centre! The weather was also OK, i.e. it was better than the forecast expected it to be… it nearly didn't rain. We went to a nice museum (Urbis), which gave us good impressions about the history and culture of Manchester. Later, we attended a guided "Rock Music Tour" – that was very cool. Our guide knew the music-scene very well and gave us insight into the history of rock music in the city. In the evening, we wanted to take our train back. However, it was not that easy… As there were some 'fans' of Tottenham (which played vs. ManU that day), who apparently did not behave very well, we could not sit in our coach, because the police guided those 'fans' back to London in there and wouldn't let us in ("Oh no, you can't go in there, it's going to be trouble…"). For this reason, we had to ride in the First Class – what a pity… (for pictures of Manchester just visit the gallery)
On Sunday, we attended the service in 'St Martin in the Bullring' – the atmosphere was very welcoming and friendly. Later, we had a good lunch at 'Wagamama', an Asian restaurant chain.

: 27 Oct 2005 00:17 |  Tags: Manchester |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Weather Forecast

I'm looking forward to Thursday, 27th of October…

No, in fact, it's not that terrible: Right now the sun is shining into my window and there are only a few clouds on the sky you can see blue sky through the clouds.
I took some nice pictures today in the morning, e.g. this one:

: 20 Oct 2005 14:23 |  Tags: Weather |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Fiesta Mexicana

I nearly forgot to write about an important event on our floor:
Last Sunday, we had a cool Fiesta Mexicana in our kitchen! Some people had the brilliant idea to prepare delicious mexican food for 20 people and others prepared stylish sombreros. I was in the third category (the ones who enjoyed the evening…). Nevertheless, I had the task to take a group picture… this is the result:

: 19 Oct 2005 22:58 |  Tags: Fiesta Mexicana |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Trip to Canalside and Stratford

Again I am a little late to report about last weekend…
Anyway… Last Saturday, Silvi and I joined a group from the Chaplaincy to a trip to a tour along a nice Canal with lots of locks and to Stratford afterwards. We started at 10am and soon arrived at the canal, where we walked for about one and a half hours. It was amazing, how many locks there were! We saw several boats working their way up and spending at least 5–10mins per lock…
After a nice lunch we went to Stratford, where we spent about 2 hours – we went to Holy Trinity Church, where we saw Shakespeare's tomb and afterwards to his birthplace.
You can see some pictures in my gallery of this nice excursion!

This week has not been very exciting up to now. Besides another firealarm, there is nothing special to note… Therefore, I am looking forward to the next weekend, when I will make a trip to Manchester.

: 19 Oct 2005 22:42 |  Tags: Canal Stratford |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Beer Review (3): Gulpener Korenwolf

After the comments on my first beer reviews I had intended to test a 'Real Ale', of course. But, unfortunately, the Graduate Bar ran out of these last Saturday (that was at least what they told me…). So, I took the 'Gulpener Korenwolf', not knowing I had chosen a 'witbier' from the Netherlands… However, the taste was quite familiar to the famous 'Neckarmüller Weiße' and I thought immediately it was a good choice.
So, although I might compare apples to bananas, I go on with the test:

1. External characteristics:

The froth is white, the beer itself has the (for wheat beers) typical golden, a bit fishy, colour.

2. Taste:

As I mentioned above, the taste reminded me strongly of the 'Neckarmüller Weiße', which means, I really liked it. For those (poor guys), who never had a 'Neckarmüller Weiße': Its aroma is fruity and has a bit of 'nature', i.e. of grass and flowers. And of course the wheat adds a tangy note to it.

VALUATION:

Overall: 9 out of 10

www.gulpener.nl

: 17 Oct 2005 22:03 |  Tags: Beer Review |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Wednesday

Time passes by really fast… the week is nearly over again and I did not even write about my weekend… which was very nice. I was in Birmingham, staying with Silvi. We went shopping on Saturday (I bought a nice Squash racket) and to church on Sunday. Afterwards we were invited for lunch (it took 3 hours and was very good!) and spent the rest of the day in the city.
On Monday, I had a little group presentation in 'Project Management', which was OK. Furthermore, we had the Careers Fair with approx. 50 companies. Quite interesting – I think about applying for a summer internship, we'll see. The whole thing was sponsored by – ALDI!! It seems as if they want to expand strongly here in the UK: everywhere you can find adverts ('37k GBP + Audi A4 + 5 weeks holiday')...
Today was more or less quite boring – I only had one seminar (not easy, though) and spent the rest of the day studying. And in the evening I met some friends and tested the 'Carling'. ;-)

: 12 Oct 2005 23:30 |  Tags: Miscellaneous |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Beer Review (2): Carling

Tonights test object was a Carling – 'Britain's best selling lager'

1. External characteristics:

Its colour is golden. The froth is white, although I think it doesn't froth very much or disappears a little bit too fast.

2. Taste:

The froth is good, the beer has a likeable, even fruity taste, perhaps a whiff of lemon. Nevertheless, like other malts, the aftertaste is a little bitter.

VALUATION:

Overall: 8 out of 10

www.carling.com

: 12 Oct 2005 23:09 |  Tags: Beer Review |  Comments (6) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Beer Review (1): Guinness

Here comes the first part of a loose series of short beer reviews. The test object today was actually not a British beer, but an Irish: Guinness

1. External characteristics:

Its colour is black, the froth is beige and is actually not a 'real' froth, but has more or less the consistency of cream, looks a little bit ugly when it comes out of the tap.

2. Taste:

The froth tastes as bad as it looks like. The beer itself is much better, although for me it is a little bit too bitter. Especially the aftertaste is … well, could be better.

VALUATION:

All in all: 6 out of 10

-> http://www.guinness.com/

: 08 Oct 2005 00:18 |  Tags: Beer Review |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

20% of term over!

Yeah, that's right: 20% of the term is already over! I nearly cannot believe that… time passes really fast here. But as I feared, the relaxed part of the term is gone by now and lectures/seminars require quite a bit of work…
Additionally, I did some sports this week – went again running several times, joined the Sports Union and played Squash! That's really fun! I'm going to do that more often now and perhaps I will even find a nice racket in Birmingham tomorrow.
I also visited the Bible Study group (just a couple of hours ago), which was a very nice meeting (and also nice food/drinks).
Afterwards, I wanted to play pool in 'the bar', but we didn't find a free pool table – it's really annoying that they block the whole students' union when there is a party… all the pool tables there… empty…

OK, that were the most important things of my week so far, I guess.

: 08 Oct 2005 00:05 |  Tags: Miscellaneous |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Green Day – American Idiot

Just a view words to their latest album:

I like it.

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WARNING: Before you go on reading: No stupid comments about this entry, I am only an amateur expressing his opinion! I do not even possess a copy of the album, just heard it over itunes network (thanx to 'Owner's limewire tunes'!).
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It is their typically Green Day style of fast beats, distorted guitar chords and front voice, which makes it easy to recognise their music. The ones who loved older songs will (most probably) also love the new ones. My favourites are American Idiot, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams (although it's always in the radio!), but also the slower ballades Give me Novacaine and Wake me up when September ends (-> that would be now! ;-) ) are not bad. So, if you have some pounds too much, buy it.

: 04 Oct 2005 00:28 |  Tags: Music |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem