As I mentioned last time, I had a very busy week, working to complete and collate my portfolio to be submitted. We are still waiting to hear whether we passed or not (we find all that out next week). Eeks!

Anyway, I have enjoyed some good food over the past wee while, which was partially influenced by Masterchef!

Here are some of the things I made and enjoyed along with recipes so that you can make them.

Poached egg and smoked salmon on a grilled ciabatta, topped with a hollandaise sauce.

Place a piece of ciabatta under the grill. Remove when lightly toasted.
Make the hollandaise sauce (reciple below)
Poach the egg; simmer water in a pan with vinegar, add the egg carefully, so it doesn’t seperate. Watch the egg, and when it is cooked to your taste, use a slotted spoon to remove it, so that the water will drain away.

Plating Up
Spread a little cream cheese over the ciabatta.
Layer some smoked salmon on top.
Put the egg on, and pour over the hollandaise.
Season to taste.

For the Hollandaise
So when it comes to sauce, you may as well just trust Delia. I followed her recipe and it came out well so just go for it!
One alteration I made was that I used cream cheese instead of butter (I didn’t have any butter in the house at the time). I would imagine that this is not recommended for a butter sauce, as hollandaise is, but it made it uber creamy! It did taste good and seemed to work well enough.

Strawberry, Banana, Pineapple and Coconut Smoothie

1 banana, 2-3 strawberries, yogurt, slice of pineapple and coconut milk.

Blend. Voila

Sushi

What I did (this could be very wrong in terms of sushi-making but it tasted good)

Boil white rice until there is not much water left and the rice is kind of mushy and sticks together.
Drain and transfer rice to a bowl. Put it in the fridge.
When it’s chilled all the way through, scoop out appropriately sized amounts with a spoon and put onto a plate. You can sort out the shape with your hands and the spoon when it’s there.
When you are happy with the shape of the rice, put a piece of smoked salmon on top.
Pour some soy sauce over.

For the stir fry
Heat oil in a frying pan.
Add cayenne pepper or chilli powder. You can add other herbs or spices now too. I used thyme and chinese 5 spice, as I don’t have enough variety in my store.
Add onion, bell pepper and courgette. Fry on a medium heat until the vegetables are browned but not soft.
Turn off the heat.
Now add some pieces of fresh pineapple and stir them through.
Turn the heat back on, low, to just warm the pineapple and infuse the rest of the veg.

Well I certainly hope that readers are not too young to know of The NeverEnding Story (to which I reference above). It’s one of those properly awesome 80s films, full of craziness!

The point of all this is to illustrate that this week is crazily busy; we submit our portfolios on Wednesday. After Wednesday, I plan to sleep and spend time with people. Up until then, however my plans include work… and lots of coffee and noms to fuel it.

I will probably spend some time listening to The Enid, who I went to see in Glasgow the other week. Joe, the lead singer is incredible, and as a band they are awesomely talented and very exciting. I also very much enjoy that they have evolved and yet always stayed true to themselves over the years since they were founded in 1973. It is also really cool that the founder of the band, Robert Godfrey is still in it (on keyboards) and inspiring the younger members for the future. It was a great night and I recommend that you go to see them if you get a chance.

So now, I need to do some CAD-ing!
Good luck to everyone with whatever you’re working on.

Whoops! I seem to have not posted in a long time! My apologies!

We are now in the Easter holidays, which last for 3 weeks :O
I don’t think I have ever had such long holidays at this time of year before! Though of course this is the time when most courses are studying for exams and although our projects have finished, we are meant to be organising our folios for the final hand in and doing any necessary additional work that will help us pass the year. Scary stuff.

I am in London for the full 3 weeks (I probably should have organised to stay for just two so I could work at home, which is much easier, but I couldn’t resist so much time with the boyfriend and in the city that I have loved for a long time! I have therefore managed to download a 30 day trial of photoshop and a copy of my student AutoCAD to his laptop. Neither of us are apple fans, but he was given this macbook and it is his only computer with enough space etc for my crazy huge design programmes! Adjusting to working on a mac is not fun, though. Everything is different and I know this is controversial but I find it much less user-friendly than windows because there is not as much control over simple things. I also really don’t understand why programmes (specifically photoshop) decide to change the commands for things. Actually I’m not really a fan of photoshop. I think it could have been made in a way that makes sense to use, so that you don’t have to learn it as much.

Well I am no programmer… though every now and then, I do have the urge to learn properly how to code programmes that I would like to use. I reckon I’d have to do a whole course at uni before I got anywhere near making a photoshop substitute though!!

So here I am in sunny (sometimes, when it’s not snowing) London, working on a macbook on some homework for next term.
It has been really nice here so far. We (my boyfriend, my mother and myself) went to Richmond Park on Easter Day and had a picnic, despite it being quite chilly!
Last night I met up with a friend of mine who is going abroad to perform for 6 months. It sounds amazing and I’m so happy for her though it is a shame that I won’t see her for so long. We have already planned to skype and have another reunion upon her return though so all that will be great.

I hope that everyone, whether at school or uni, working or unemployed, or even retired is having a wonderful Easter time (and has filled up heartily on chocolate). Good luck everyone with exams, applications, interviews and whatever else new to come over this year. And a special good luck to all my architecture people! Let’s have awesome portfolios when we return and sail into second year with many summery parties and the such!

P.S. I’m sorry for the lack of photo’s. I will take some and fill up my next post to make up for it.

So I’m not sure exactly what I have to update since my last post. Perhaps it is described most accurately in the advice my tutor gave me at me tutorial; “more of the same”.
Ok of course they give you better and more advice than just that (there was a lot more going on in that tutorial) but to be honest that is encouraging that I’m on the right track.

Hopefully I am also on the right track for all the rest of the work and deadlines. Currently we are working on….

• Our main design project in Arbroath
• Town planning analysis report
• Technical drawing
• CAD2 submission

I think that’s all? If you are one of my tutors and I’ve forgotten your submission, I’m sorry, it will be in my diary!

So the main project is pretty fun at the moment. It is fast paced but that’s to be expected. I was never overly keen on the site but I am enjoying trying to tie in my concept and create a suitable design. Definitely excellent practice for all the inevitable future times when I will get another site that I don’t have so much love for!

Town planning. Well I don’t know how much enthusiasm anyone has for that. There are so many lectures for it and the submission is very soon. I don’t doubt that it is useful for our course, and obviously we are all putting in a lot of effort for it, but I can’t say that I’ll be sad when it finishes!

Other lectures we have are history (though that is technically part of the town planning module), a materials lecture and a technology one. I am enjoying these. Especially the technology one as it is being a lot more technical than some of out others so far. It is also nicely placed, directly before the materials one as their subjects and terminology tend to tie in from week to week.

Cad and drawing… Not due for a wee while yet but I am starting off with the CAD one as I don’t want to stress and rush it at the last minute!

PS. ADAS are organising Valentine’s Day at the Union. Please come along! There are various architects, and all ADAS members selling tickets, as well as Premier and online being available to buy from!
It’s a pyjama party so why wouldn’t you come?

Am frantically trying to convince myself to start cycling to uni, but the snow/ice/frost/wind and generally brrrrr weather is pretty off-putting right now.  Also trying to organise time effectively as have hand-ins and exams on the horizon.  So far have made a plan (something along the lines of research, write up, revise), to be put into motion next week.

I’ve not really been up to much, but I did get to test my skills on a laproscopic simulator on monday which was amazing.  Really, really glad I took part.  Also just started reading Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which I would definitely recommend.  I wish I could read on the bus but it makes me feel queasy

On saturday I popped along to Edinburgh for a student conference on neurology and neuroscience (hosted by EUNS) which was quite interesting. I was probably the only first year student there but I enjoyed the guest lectures and it was good to get an idea about current research in the field.

Flat smells of burnt popcorn (not my fault)…

Kayleigh

Apologies for the lack of updates – cardiovascular is turning out to be a very busy unit, with a lot of online modules to complete. Anyway, I was just posting this to say I am in the process of flat searching (more on this when I have viewed more flats, but in the mean time I should say to the applicants that it is seriously worth looking at private halls, because you can essentially get the same thing as the uni ones for a much cheaper price) and that last week THIS HAPPENED -

SNOW. It made getting to ninewells every morning a bit difficult, but it was pretty awesome. It sadly disappeared over the weekend, but at least it’s marginally warmer now, and I can go back to wearing stupid shoes.

We returned to Uni with a trip to Arbroath to visit out new site. After a chilly day of site analysis, and a spicy vege deli sandwich (my usual) at McDonalds, we returned to Dundee to start our work for the Friday submission.
We have new tutors and tutor groups this term. I think it is nice to have a change as it has made me talk to people that I don’t usually. Because our new tutor is also tutoring for the second years, we have a much smaller group; 7 people, so that he has time to see us. I like this as it is more intimate than being part of a large group where you wont have to much time or have your voice heard. Of course it also means more pressure to contribute, but I don’t really see that as a bad thing.

So we are now at the end of the second week and it already feels like we have been back for at least 4! We have only had one CAD class so far, but we get it on Monday. I love starting the week with CAD as it gets me up bright and breezy to start the day and it’s probably my favourite, well only “class”. What I am trying to say is that if we had a Monday morning lecture, I would be much less motivated!

We are into the stage of looking for flats. We have more or less decided who we are living with and have some viewings arranged. In fact I am supposed to be leaving for one now, so I will be quick!
For anyone looking for flats, here is some advice. Don’t get one with Jamal (I have heard many bad things about them), AKG are good, as are a few others, just have a look around. Another good thing to remember is to be quick., as places get snapped up, especially the good ones. BUT if you do end up starting late.. don’t worry, a lot of the time landlords wait for their current tenants to decide if they want to stay in the flat before putting it on the market, so there will be new flats becoming available.
Finally, I would recommend contacting agencies directly. Their sites are not always reliable, and neither is Zoopla (though that is good for an overview of what is available), as they may not be updated as soon as flats are taken and cause disappointment. Or worse, a beautiful new flat could become available that you know nothing about! So give them your details, phone them, go into their office… And good luck!

Holidays are brilliant, until they end, which is when you realise the looming deadlines and the threat of exams on the horizon.

I think January is the worst. Now that the holidays are over, winter just isn’t fun anymore, and I miss the sun!

First of all there are New Year resolutions. Now, what is the point of deciding to start something, usually healthy or productive (exercise more, eat less, quit that bad habit, study more), during probably the longest, coldest, and one of the most financially stressful months of the year? Brrr

New year resolutions seem destined to inevitable failure. Super depressing.

Why not have a new spring resolution, a time that ‘going for a run’ or cycling to work isn’t a perilous expedition, and when you don’t need several extra layers of insulating clothes (or fat) before heading outside (to the gym).

I have decided that my resolution is to try and get through all my christmas choccies. That way when the sun returns I can do some gentle exercise safe in the knowledge that I’ve already done my bit for new years.