Manchester Survivor

The time is coming

2006-12-03T22:28:00.000Z

Probably this will be my last post of the year, and I really don't know why I am here writing when I should be studying!

Estuardo just told me (as a "pleasant" surpirse) that the oral examination for my first year will be on December 13th, which is a rather... inconvenient time. The next 2 weeks are gonna be busy as hell, so I'm trying to make a brief schedule:

Tuesday 5th: Christmas lunch with the people from the lab.

Wednesday 6th: Packing for Mexico (yes, even though I leave on the 14th!)

Thursday 7th: Packing for Scottland.

Friday 8th to Monday 11th: Trip to Edinburgh (staying in a pretty B&B owned by a funny mature Scottish couple).

Monday 11th (yes, the same day I return!): Performing in the Ashburne Christmas concert (Abdelazer by Henry Purcell;) and most likely meeting Elinio and Cha-Cha.

Tuesday 12th: Receiving Celia, possibly having a pre-Christmas lunch with Monica and Mr Shepherd, and starting Manchester tour with some Ashburians of yore.

Wednesday 13th: First year viva in the morning (aaaahhhhh!!!!!), 2nd part of Mancunian tour in the afternoon, Christmas carol service in the evening (receiving Mr. Angus Beef) and then pre-Christmas dinner.

Thursday 14th: Flight to Mexico.

Considering that I need to study for my exam (cos I don't intend to cancel any social activity), pay the TV licence for Ashburne Hall (bloody stupid committee!), get the last Christmas presents for my family, revise a bit my violin piece and submit the last draft of a paper... I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHY I KEEP TYPING!!!!

Anyway, I know I wont post anything while being at Mexico (I have to gain some kilos back=) so happy holidays to all the incautos who might drop by this blog.
Thanks for making my life such a big joke :)

May the Cheersita be with you!

Edale reloaded (never take fussy girls to the peak district)

2006-10-26T17:19:00.000+01:00

Hiya!

I thought I had already posted this one, but turns out I just saved it as a draft. I think the British beer is finally making permanent effects in my brain.
Anyway, here it goes:

Just as the autumn is turning England back to normal (rain 22 hours per day, wind that pushes you behind the OP tower and 5-minute-rain-sun-rain cycles) Joao, Marco and me thought it would be a good idea to go to Edale for the last time this year.

After a broad publicity in Ashburne, we gathered an astonishing group of six (taking in account that Marco shrank back from it): Isabel, Lindsey, Vijay, Joao, me, and only one of the new girls: Noemi, from France.

Urgent measures had to be taken so I invited Maria, a Slovakian girl I met at the church, and she kindly brought three other friends from Owens Park, who I didn't know by the time.

The forecast was just great: heavy rain, wind and poor visibility (god, I still can't believe we actually went for it). However, the morning turned out quite decent so we happily to Piccadilly train station, where we were supposed to meet Maria's group.

Once we got there and saw them, even the brightest sun could not have cheered me up: Maria was wearing high hills, and the outfits of her friends ranged from leather moccasins to Gucci coats (Roman, does that ring any bells for you?).

Off we went, and more than being afraid of these girls slipping down the rocks of the hills, I felt truly embarrassed in front of the hikers we met on the way. They all looked at us surely thinking "how could they mistake the London outlets with the Peak District?"

Of course they barely made it to the first peak and just wanted to go back as soon as possible. If that was not enough, Vijay was complaining all the time saying things like "last year we were like 20 people", "last year we walked like three times what we did today", "last year the weather was much nicer..." (actually I should dedicate an entire post of the things that Vijay says we don't have anymore)

Anyway, I had a couple of rewards: I got some of those edgy pictures that I love, and by we had a lot of time to spend at the pub, where that lovely apple pie with vanilla ice cream could make me forget even the complaints of that FU#"$%NG American girl who spent the whole walk crying things like "ohh, a cow! how exciting! let's go!!"

When we came back to Ashburne Isabel fixed some Spanish tortilla and we had dinner at her huge flat (Now that she's a tutor she's got many privileges). She, Don Oscar, Rafael and me just spent the afternoon eating and mocking on Lindsey for sinking her feet into an icy stream. It was the first moment Manchester felt so much like home.

Throwing the Latvian away...

2006-10-23T22:06:00.000+01:00

Just to post these pics of Marquiño, Joao, Shizuka and me making sure Elina left Ahrburne.

Elinio: thanks a lot for the chocolates!!!!!!!!
And remember we'll be seeing you at Riga in no time.

Excess of Manchester & Molten steel

2006-10-08T12:46:00.001+01:00

I'm getting those bad habits of shooting pictures of my food (like in someone's blog), but come on, look at that! :-p

After happily waiting for my supervisor to correct my 1st year report, I happily bonded it (by the way, my surname was spelled incorrectly in the back of the volumes and now I'm officially Mr. HENANDEZ), then happily submited the two copies... and now I'm desperately waiting for the fu#$"%ng date for the oral examination.

Since dear Estuardo is in a conference at a remote country (I've been told it's even farther than the Phillipines--) and he will not be back til next Thursday, once more I can't make any plans as long as I don't know the date for the exam.

Anyway, I kept on with my expriments:
I had to heat up my sample to 1200°C in order to vitrify my zeolites (all the people remaining in Manchester know this already as I've told it to death) but the porceain containers used in this kind of furnaces don't resist such temperature, so I felt quite brilliant and used a thick piece of stainless steel, which in theory would melt at 1400°. I happily placed my sample in the furnace, and the next day I found a beautifully melted piece of metal that just crumbled in my fingers. What's worse, the furnace (which is the only one in the faculty reaching those temperatures) was not working anymore.

After the shame of telling Estuardo about the incident (the stainless steel was actually part of a reactor container worth around ₤1000) we went back to the lab with the nice but almost-never-available Bob, who saw the furnace with concern.

B: The fault alarm is on and the heater just wont respond... what did you do to it?
O: Uhhh--
E: Don't answer to that!!!

Well, in the end Bob found out that the overheating alarm of the furnace was not working from the begining, so we can only guess how hot it got inside. In fact I should be mad at them for spoiling my samples!!

After (not so happily) waiting for the furnace to be repaired, finally I'll be able to repeat the experiment this Monday. Erick, the crystal blower, made some really nice silica containers for me, which in theory should resist the temperature. Hopefully I'll have enough material for a decent publication after this.

At leat I'm glad cos in 2 weeks time I'll be visiting (again) my properties at Lyme Park. You know, I have to make sure that the servants keep the place neat and don't steal the silver and china.

Silla!

Moving in, moving out... hello and goodbye...

2006-09-24T23:28:00.000+01:00

See! Angie and Me helping Joao steal the matress!!!
Can't believe how much things can change in a matter of days. I saw this picture and felt like it happened years ago.

Since my last post I moved to my new (and huge) room in Ashbrune (those who have my postal address (some French people owe me a reply...) should now write to Ashburne Hall - WA12); also most of the people I knew said goodbye while many new people came by.

Right now I'm in that odd period when I miss the old friends but still don't feel so intimate with the new arrivals. It's quite a pain in the arse despite I knew it was going to be like that. I was kinda trying to force myself to get acquainted quickly, but I guess it's one of those things you just have to let unwind by themselves. It's actually a funny process: even if I don't mean to or think about it I always end up hanging out with the right people. I guess that the fact that I can't hide when I don't like someone is an important factor.

Anyway, I'm getting ready for my first official session as demonstrator in the University of Manchester, basically pretending that I'm able to answer questions from undergraduate students. Hope I won't die on my first session; I'll just stand there looking unfriendly so the students don't feel like approaching me.

Hopefully I'll post something in a shorter time. By now you must forgive all the miss-spelling in this post, but my laptop was infected and I still don't find my CD of the Larousse English-Spanish dictionary.

Cheers!!!

Thought cebollas; though caballos...

2006-09-04T15:17:00.000+01:00

The other day I was complaning with a British friend about how difficult it is for me to distinguish the words thou, thought, though, taught and tough (actually just writing them all together has been a challenge).

Anyway, his answer was quite elocuent: "that's much easier than your "caballos, cabellos and cebollas".

In fact I had never THOUGHT about those words as confusing for they have very different meanings:

caballo = horse
cabello = hair
cebolla = onion

which I guess is the same case as in thought, though... and well, the rest of that crap. Thinking more about it there are actually a couple of cases in Spanish that I think would be even harder for a foreign to learn:

baya = berry
vaya = subjective present for "he/she goes"
valla = fence

In Spanish accent the sound of these words would be slightly different, but in my relaxed Latin America we pronounce them practically the same and just distinguish them by context. In writen language you could be saying "I hope he fence to the berry before eating the goes" only if you write:

"espero que valla a la baya antes de comerse la vaya"

instead of the Correct form:
"espero que vaya a la valla antes de comerse la baya".

However, my favourite case is:

pérdida = loss (the stress falls on the é)
perdida = whore (the stress falls on the i)

Here the entire difference between saying "the loss of my wife" and "the whore of my wife" relies on that little accent on the é, to pronounce one vowel harder than the other.

A similar case is "año" (year) and "ano" (well....)

As you can see for the length and uselessness of this post, I've just submitted the first draft of my first year report and I'm happily waiting for my supervisor to check it, without anything better to do.

Anyway, in the end I still enjoy saying "I thought it was tough, even though thou taught me so"

Cheers!!!!

(if this seemed long, wait to see me complaining about that furchtbar schwierig German...)

Blank Bank Holiday

2006-08-28T12:04:00.000+01:00

Those few remaining in the UK will know that today is one of those British oddities called Bank Holiday, which most people wait for since they go to bed at the end of the last banking day.

Must admit that I have kind of a curse when it refers to Bank Holidays, which worse case was that dreadfully boring Easter weekend (still remember a friend saying "cheer up, the long weekend is almost over!").

Either I have no money, or am too slow to make plans and all my friends have previous engagements, or -like today- have work to do.

Anyway. Since there will be no more Banking Mondays for the rest of the year, I can safely assume that these next months will be quite active and pleasing. :)

By the way, I keep receiving rather threatening messages from my French contacts. There's just one line I didn't quite understand:

non mais, je t'ai a l'oeil Oscarito....

Does that mean "Don't worry, publish all this e-mail Oscarito..."?

Cheers!!!

Comments and Le postcardè

2006-08-21T18:11:00.000+01:00

Hiya!

I can see by the counter that some people have come here, but as the honourable Mr Shepherd kindly pointed out, the comment section was not open for everyone. I've banged my head against the pavement and then fixed this, so you can add your valuable comments now.

I also received this impressive... most impressive e-mail from ma chère mademoiselle Sandggga:

i didn't receive any postcard and i know you forgot me, so perhaps the people you forgot this time already know you forgot them (you see what i mean? i'm gonna make it clear: WHERE IS THE POSTCARD YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SEND ME??????!!!!!?????!?!?!?!?!????? :) ).
see you

It's easy to imagine how happy I was to read the warm words of a dear friend after so long. Anyway, after expossing this e-mail to public mockery, I just need to add that the... "postcard" will be on its happy way tomorrow.. ;)

By the way, congratulations to Mr. Shepherd on the acquisition of his new blog.

Opening...

2006-08-19T23:00:00.000+01:00

Hiya!!!

How egocentric is it to start the blog with a picture of meself??

Anyway. As you guess by now, I'm starting this blog to keep in touch with all the wonderful people I've met so far...
Don't get used to it, I won't flatter you too often after this, but I'll be truly glad if you guys come here from time to time just to see how things are going on in Manchester. And if you take time to add some comments that will certainly assure you a place to stay in Mexico after 2008 --well, if I finish the PhD without any casualties.

I do apologize for the present lack of content, but it took me like three hours just to put this page together. The best I can do is to show you this really cool video of Gil Shaham, one of my fave violinists.

By the way, if you wish to see more photos besides my vain self, you can always send me some pics from your places.