Wedding Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations to Monique Maselle and Michael Kelly on their wedding. All the best for the future from myself and the rest of us in Santander.

My 21st Birthday and visit to England

Woohoo! This week I turned 21 years of age: officially now an adult! As such, I flew back to England for a 5 day extravaganza to celebrate with friends and family. Festivities involved a Friday night pub crawl around London (Blackheath, Fulham Broadway, Chelsea) followed by a house music night at Key Club, King's Cross. On the Saturday night, my friends threw me a little surprise party in a pub we used to work in and I got to see some more on my UK buddies. On the Sunday we booked an Italian restaurant for the family meal and invited some of my closest friends along. Good time was had by all and the food was excellent (although in an Italian restaurant that is hardly a surprise). What a lucky young rascal I am having three birthday parties, even the Queen only gets two! Photo link to follow in the sidebar in the next few days.

Cheers to Richard for making the Friday and Saturday nights happen, you're a legend!!! Thanks also to everyone to came out over the weekend, thanks for a great birthday.

My Drunk Aussie Mate

Here is a video of my friend Hartley drunk on St Patrick's Day. Needless to say he was in no fit state the next morning to cook the afforementioned meal.

Dazed Chicken Model

Who said Physics had to be boring? Below is an amusing analogy I found that has been proposed to help people remember what happens when a solid is subjected to positron bombardment.




Source: Physics World (IOP Publishing)

First Visit to Racing Santander!

Last Sunday I went to watch the local top division football team, Real Racing Club de Santander (commonly known as Racing) play at home in their stadium, the Estadio del Sardinero. It was the local derby against the nearest other top division team, Athletic Club de Bilbao. In addition to this local rivalry, Bilbao is in the Basque country (a province in Spain that is striving for independence) whereas Santander is in Cantabria and is loyal to Spain. The strong nationalistic emotions evoked add a further element dimension to the already tense setting of a local derby: all these factors add up to a guaranteed electric atmosphere! However, this comes at a price: it is the most expensive game of the season and the cheapest tickets start at a sizeable 60€ (£40).

Before the match, Athletic were languishing in the relegation zone, whereas Racing were in the respectable position of 9th in La Liga. Racing were the odds on favourites but that didn't seem to bother Athletic, who scored within the first 10 minutes, scored a dubiously awarded freekick by smashing it low under the legs of the mid-jump wall where it was deflected past the motionless Toño. The rest of the half saw an almost silent stadium and a tame performance from a Racing side who couldn't wait for half time. I was beginning to doubt the extortionate price I had paid for entry.

Well that all changed in the second half: what resulted was 45 minutes of end to end football and 8 goals! The final score? 5-4 to Racing, all thanks to a hat-trick from the Serbian striker, Nicola Zigic. Racing's comeback was, from my point of view, mostly down to excellent performances produced by three players. The two Racing strikers formed a classic little-and-large partenership: Zigic using his 6'9" frame to full effect, acting as a solid target man and making his presence felt; Munitis rapidly scampering about and feeding off the little nod-downs from his Serbian teammate; and Balboa the able and nippy right winger who caused Athletic all sorts of headaches down the righthand side, constantly getting the better of his marker. He provided some excellent crosses for Zigic as well as linking up well with Munitis, playing some attractive one-twos and some nice through balls allowing the striker to whizz away from the Basque defence.

The win took Racing to withing 2 points of a UEFA cup spot and committed Athletic to almost certain relegation. They were very vulnerable to the Athletic set pieces, with 3 of the goals being conceded in this manner and if I go to see them again I would hope this situation would be remedied. But all in all, very attractive football and well worth the entrance price!

Scary Statistic

Here's a scary quote from a recent issue of The Economist. If this doesn't make you want to give up smoking after reading it, you are a crazy fool indeed!!!!

"The single most shattering statistic about life in America in the late 1990's was that tobacco killed more people than the combined total of those who died from AIDS, car accidents, alcohol, murder, suicide, illegal drugs and fire. The deaths of 400,000 Americans a year, 160,000 of them from lung cancer, make a strong case for the prohibition of tobacco, and particularly of cigarettes."

I agree!!

Another Visit by a Professor

Last week I had a visit from my university's Spanish Coordinator. She was in Cantabria with her husband visiting friends and decided to pay me a visit to see how I am doing on my placement. She also wanted to come to my department to talk to my supervisor about promoting the University of Cantabria as a choice for physics students from my university to do Erasmus. It turns out that UniCan in fact boasts one of the oldest and most prestigious Civil Engineering departments in Spain! This was as much of a surprise to her as it was to me! After a very good meeting with the head of the department, I am pretty sure it is going to be offered to the engineers at my university and will turn out to be a popular choice!