Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 63 - Birthday Celebrations Begin

Yesterday was Katie's birthday! She turned 22 too! Yay for samesies!

Anyways, she knocked on Faye and my door at like... 10 o'clock, offering us pieces of the birthday cake her parents bought for her. Tasty chocolatey goodness!

The next night, we'd planned to get birthday pizza as a kind of joint birthday celebration and watch Sherlock Holmes, the new Robert Downey Jr one. Faye was working a late at her placement, so we had to wait for her to come home for that. While we were waiting, Katie, her friend Chris and I went to the Union to have some drinks, I tried some mixed berry cider with a complex unpronounceable name. Then we headed back to the shed, Faye texted and told us she was feeling sick so she wouldn't be coming. So we ordered Dominos, they have a 2 for 1 deal on Tuesdays. We got bacon double-cheeseburger (my personal fave), and Southwestern BBQ chicken pizza... Soooo tasty.

We watched a few youtube videos before we started the movie. I showed them this funny Kids in the Hall sketch, they really appreciated it. Chris had been telling me how much he wanted to visit Canada, and one of the prime topics of conversation after that is always "stereotypes" so I thought it would be appropriate.

Sherlock Holmes wound up going way too late, but I love that movie, so I just couldn't resist. I rarely ever hope for this, but I really hope they make a sequel to that film! It's delightful :D

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 60 - Chester... Chester... Toe-knee Chest-nut?

Today, I finally went to Chester. My parents have been telling me I had to go, so I finally got my act together and went!

Turns out though, it was the day of the races so there were thousands of people coming through the tiny town's railway station. All of them dressed infinitely better than I was, and so many funny hats! XD

Anyways, Chester was lovely. I managed to find my way walking through their 'subway', along the main street and then I saw them; the half-timbered houses, the gate with the clock. I knew very little about Chester before going, I knew about the black-and-white renaissance, but I didn't know about that clock... it was absolutely beautiful, if a little gaudy. I do love things dedicated to Queen Victoria though... coated in my initials! ^.^

I hadn't had anything to drink all day, so I was very thirsty. Especially since it was sooo hot. It was so sunny; a nice change. Then I saw this cute little place built into the city wall selling Cheshire Farms Ice Cream (a local creamery). I bought myself a cone of honeycomb icecream, and even if it was trying to melt all over me, and my camera, it was so delicious! I ate it as I started to walk my circuit of the walls.

Chester is the only walled city whose walls have survived to form their complete circuit. You can walk around the whole city centre from those walls. And that's not the only surviving Roman legacy in the town. They've also partially unearthed the largest Roman Amphitheatre in the UK. As well, some of the buildings still have their original roman foundations, the building currently housing a jacket potato franchise actually still has the underfloor heating system from the original roman building it used to be.

So cool!

... I'm such a geek. :P

Anyways, I got partway through my circuit and hit the River Dee. For some reason the town really started to remind me of a cross between Stratford, ON and Riverside Park back in Guelph. Made me feel like Canada Day.

I found a great little park across the river with the most fantastic little playground. I wish I weren't there at such a busy time of day, otherwise I'd have had a really awesome time playing. That reminds me, I really want to go to that playground near campus... it's all ropes and stuff, awesome.

Continued my stroll along the river and found the castle and the racetrack. It's actually the oldest racetrack in the UK, it's been there since the 1500s, round about. There were limos and even more people in fancy dress. They've got an awesome museum down that part of town too. It has a period house, local natural history display and the largest collection of Roman rocks (gravestones specifically).

Walked through town a little more and had a Mars bar milkshake from this little milkshake and smoothie shop in the rows. It was tasty, but apparently a milkshake just involves milk there really... no ice cream. Bizarre. Makes it less than the icy cool treat I was expecting. More just creamy and vaguely cool-ish.

I saw the cathedral and decided to continue my walk around the walls. I saw the tower where King Charles watched his army's defeat in the battle of Rowton Moor in 1645, the Water Tower they built to stop the river from silting up and got an even better view of the racetrack, and the last race of the day.

I'd noticed through the day, little cut circles in the stone and concrete on the ground, with little red arrows inset into them. I'd been wondering what they were, and finally I found a plaque. It was some sort of millennium path through the city.

Then I walked, trying to avoid the newly released horde of horse-racing fans, back to the railway station.

Wound up being in time for just the wrong train. I had to wait for almost an hour for the train to get there, then, when we got to Crewe, it was over an hour before the next bus back to campus. What could have been an hour trip, wound up taking 4 hours. Oh geez... I'm glad that I decided to leave at 6, if that had happened leaving any later, I would have been so ticked off... As it was, I'm home so late I don't think I'm going to go to Birmingham tomorrow as I'd hoped... Sleep and Doctor Who sounds like the best plan for my Sunday ^.^

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 58 - This is my life.

It started earlier this week. You know back home, when the snow has started melting, but it's still pretty cold but then, one day, you start to feel it? Those warm little breezes breaking up the cold and letting you know that spring is coming. Well that started to happen early this week. Minus the snow of course. It's been rather chilly, I generally have to bring/wear two sweaters to my office because the Peer Adviser Resource Room where I've set up my makeshift editing room, is freezing. Also, the only bathroom on that side of the building has no hot water, making you feel even colder if you go to the bathroom at all. But then I started to feel tendrils of warmth on a day that was all clouds. We'd already had a few nice bright, sunny and warm days, but the cloudy and rainy days that generally prevailed were still really cold. But almost every day this week has been either really bright and sunny (and of course warm) or cloudy, and rainy but warmer than normal.

I even went out and lounged around on my blanket after work one day... it was so gorgeous! But then my allergies chased me back inside.

Which reminds me, I finally got allergy eye drops this week as well! As far as I can tell, I seem to be allergic to the grass. According to the BBC Weather, the pollen has been "high" recently, but they give no indication of which pollens they're finding. According to Zirtek's pollen map, pollen in my area is "very high" and it specifies that it is grass pollen right now. Grass pollen season from now till August 4th (oh goodie... just when I'm leaving! *eyeroll*). Turns out the eyedrops I'm used to are "available world-wide as opti-crom", but I got the discount brand "Pollenase"; saved me a whole pound!

And that brings me to the grocery store (that's where the only open pharmacy in town was). I've realized why I'm having such a hard time keeping my fridge well-stocked and my meals interesting and diverse. It's not just that I only have a 1.5' x 1' x 3" (no that's not a typo: feet, foot, inch) shelf. It's not only that bread has a tendency to go bad before I can use it (solved now, mostly by my discovery of the existence of half loaves). It's that grocery shopping is meant for families. All the packs of meat or fish, even the packs of bananas etc, are meant for families. I have no room to store leftovers, if I don't eat everything I make, it has to go in the garbage, or I have to make myself eat it. So I can't make food in any quantity. If I buy meat other than for sandwiches, it's a race to try and use it up before it goes bad (a race I usually lose). So I'll stick with my fish coming from a tin, and my protein being primarily in the form of bacon and eggs and then just scarf down fresh fruits and veggies before they start to look off as well. You're only supposed to have one serving of protein a day anyways... it's probably better for me this way. It's just not what I'm used to, and that is very evident.

I've already got a running list in my head of foods I want to have when I get home; waffles with peaches and whipped cream, good marinated steak, Kraft Dinner, mom's home made bread, my home made marshmallows, Heather's cupcakes... Mmmmmm...

I also realized just recently that my birthday will be here in just over a week. No one here knows it's coming, I have no plans, I have to film at graduation all that week, and Jon's not coming up like he was supposed to. I'm preparing myself for this to be a rather disappointing birthday.

And before I go, I apologize. I haven't been updating this blog nearly as much as I would have liked... if you've got me on facebook or livejournal, you may have seen that I've been updating more on my livejournal than I have here (though some of those entries are private, so you might not have noticed :P) It's just been things that really don't fit with this blog. This blog is about my experience here in England. Writing here about my recent interest in body politics, or my random inner musings just doesn't seem to fit. So sorry about that, I'm going to try and make this blog more regular. Even if it's only really for the next month O.O That's right. There's only about a month left in my internship. But more on that later. I have places to go and things to see!

Dippy Jones Across The Pond: Day 54 - Only I could go be a tourist at libraries...

I got out and on my way yesterday a little later than I would have liked. I wanted to be up at 6 and out the door by 7, instead I was up at 7 and out the door just long enough after 8 to have missed my bus by a minute (I calculated it. One minute.) but that still meant I got to Manchester before anything was really open.

For once, I didn't have a printed off map, and I couldn't find a tourist kiosk with free maps as I usually get. I just had preloaded my tourist map onto my itty bitty phone and had google maps open on my phone, set to Manchester, as well. I have enough faith in my sense of direction that I was sure I wouldn't get too irreparably lost, besides which, in cities like Manchester you're almost always no more than 3 blocks from the nearest train station. Lo and behold, I was fine! Go me!

View My English World in a larger map

My knee however was not. Just on my way to the University of Manchester to see it's lovely museum and one misstep and... *pop!* OW! dammit... *grumble grumble grumble*... Luckily my walking stick was enough to get me through the rest of the day, though I did cut it a little short... Steps were a little more impossible than they usually are when my knee goes. But hopping down them on my good foot was an effective last resort.

Anyways, back to the touristiness!

So I went down to the University of Manchester to see their museum, it is such an epic building... it's like the ROM, before that stupid crystal was added. In fact, the whole museum is almost exactly like the ROM, except with a little more rampant, and acknowledged, colonialism. They had a temporary display about Charles Darwin, and after reading the quotes from his writing scattered about the exhibit I've decided I really need to read his books! They had artifacts and examples of culture from every group the Brits tried to "bring to civilization", as well as some they didn't. I was impressed with their collection of Mayan artifacts, and their Egyptian displays were quite interesting. I was especially happy to see how they handled the mummy they had on display... She was removed from her sarcophagi and unwrapped, something which had been done before she came into their possession, and before displaying her, they had covered her up. But more importantly, they had a little sign explaining all this and asking; "Do you think we should keep her covered? Should we even display her at all? Is it right to display human remains in a museum? Tell us how you feel at [URL not remembered] and your voice will have an impact on how we maintain the museum." Marvellous! I've always been rather uncomfortable with the display of human remains, be they mummies, victims of Pompeii, etc. It just feels so.... intrusive. To gawk and stare at these people. People who led lives that were often cut short by tragedy and we're now using them to indulge our own morbid curiosity? Without their permission? I'll admit, I went to see Body Works at the Science Centre, and it was really interesting and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but the difference there was that those bodies were donated. These bodies, on display in museums, have just been found, had their resting places disturbed and been passed around across the globe. In fact, now that I really think about it and am writing it down, the Pyramids themselves are kind of a testament to how immensely a lot of these people wanted to protect their earthly remains from being taken, aren't they? I mean obviously, the Pyramids only really housed Kings, but still.... I really wonder about it all... Anyways, back to the museum. They also had the biodiversity displays, taxidermy and a vivarium and a rather interesting display about money. Oh and when I say it's like the ROM, in every way, I lie... you don't have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get into the Manchester Museum! It's free!

From the Museum I walked up through town and managed to find my way to the City Hall, which as far as city halls go, was pretty darned impressive! Not to mention huge!! Near by the City Hall is a church called "St Mary's, the Hidden Gem". It was actually the first Catholic Church to be built after the Reformation, so that's pretty cool. I didn't get to go inside because they were having Mass, and there was a huge sign outside that says "NO SIGHTSEEING". Now the thing about St Mary's is, it's impossible to find. They really don't want you to sightsee at this church, so they've hidden it. It actually backs onto a major street, but is inaccessible from there. It's flush on either side with newer buildings that tower over it, and in fact it's front entrance is behind a building on a pedestrians-only street along a tiny, winding, and eventually dead end, alleyway.

From there, I traipsed over to the John Rylands library, which is now one of the University of Manchester's libraries.

You know how Catholics have the Vatican, Muslims have Mecca... well I have this library. It is gorgeous! And has so many beautiful, and old, books! Walls and walls of them!

It was one of the first public buildings in Manchester to be lit with electricity, which was done because they didn't want gas lighting to set the books on fire. It even had advanced filtering technologies on the air inlets to help preserve the books; all this done between 1889 and 1900... It is home to the oldest surviving fragment of the New Testament, which is a little smaller than a business card. It has gorgeous stained glass windows presenting the likenesses of various philosophers, scientists, scholars... And oh so many old books! I was reading the bindings... 1608... 1511... 1726... *sigh* It was fantastic!

Although... ok, so here's the thing... They had this display of book bindings from around the world. A little overview of the dominant styles and traditions of each country. Some countries, like England, had quite a few examples, while some, like Lithuania, only had one. Canada had 3. One from Quebec, one from Montreal and one from "Ottowa"... :/ Ottowa? I'm sorry, but libraries are the one place I really expect to find accurate spelling. I could understand a typo... but it was spelled the same in at least two places, so not so much buying it as a typo. :( Also, Ottawa, Quebec and Montreal? Could they have represented a smaller geographic range in such a large country? They were beautiful, but still, I'm sure other regions like the Maritimes, Vancouver and even the Prairies have equally pretty bindings... I mean especially since there was practically one book from every state in the USA.

At the library, they had a great purple tote bag with "Library Bag" written across it. It was also cheap. How can I say no to the combination of two of my favourite things? Libraries and purple? Yes please! All it needs now is some glitter! XD

From the Library, I went up to see the Manchester Cathedral, which does allow sightseeing. Their choir was in the midst of practicing, so the whole space was filled with angelic voices. It was such a relief from the, but this point in the day, super busy streets surrounding it.

I also checked out the pub Fanny had suggested. It was called the Old Wellington Inn which is literally a very old Inn, repurposed as a(n expensive) pub, and had a newer addition in the form of the slightly cheaper Sinclair's Oyster. Unfortunately, it was such a nice day their whole beer garden was shoulder to shoulder, wall to wall, with people and the inside was no better. Instead I navigated the crowds to the Arndale foodcourt intent on trying the burritos I'd had recommended to me for my trip, though I couldn't find them. I had a steak bake from Greggs instead. Right nearby was the Manchester Eye, it looked smaller than the London Eye, but faster. They also didn't have a price displayed, so I decided not to bother. "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

I then went to try and see the oldest English-language library over at Chetham's. Unfortunately it's not open to visitors on weekends, so I was SOL. Luckily though, I was able to gaze longingly at it from outside the gates of the music school.

Afterwards, I went down to Piccadilly Gardens. Which as I explained to my parents is north of Piccadilly Station. :P When asked "Oh where's that" I'm terrible at finding points of reference people would actually get. Especially in a town I know so very little about, like Manchester. Really, I don't know what the "big deal" places are there... other than Old Trafford of course.

From there, I went to check out Chinatown. With it's gorgeous arch. The Chinatown itself was a little lackluster and shady (there was even a crowd of large drunk guys waiting for the nearby "gentlemen's club" to open... That was a little disturbing...) but what a gorgeous arch!

The whole day I had my eyes peeled for a Sainsbury's because there were ads in the train station for Terry Pratchett's most recent book in the Diskworld series; "Unseen Academicals" saying that Sainsbury's had it on sale for 3.99. The book's usual price is 7.99. Half price? Awesome! Unfortunately, the only Sainsbury's I was able to find were lacking the "cheap paperbacks" display in favour of cards and cheap English Flag plastered Mars bars.... Oh well... maybe some other time.

Something that really struck me about Manchester, aka. Cottonopolis (I love that nickname!), was that it had really exquisite architecture. All my favourite gothic flourishes and delicately carved arches. It was beautiful.

And given that it's so cheap to go, I think I'll be going back there! Apparently in early July they're having a few All-Stars football matches, so maybe I'll head up for one of them!

Oh! I nearly forgot! I had a group of Spanish stalkers (except not really) on this trip! Ok, so I got on the bus to go to Manchester in the morning, and there was a couple on the bus speaking what I was able to discern wasn't English, but I wasn't able to distinguish any consonants, so I couldn't tell what language they were speaking. At the Newcastle bus stop, another man got on the bus and joined them. He was speaking much louder than they had been and I was immediately able to recognize "oh! Spanish!". When I got off the bus at the train station, they did too. And they were in line behind me waiting to use the automatic ticket machine as well. I accidentally dropped my cane and the third man picked it up for me. "Gracias," I said. He returned to his friends and I I was able to make out him wondering in Spanish "Did she say Gracias? She speaks Spanish? *puzzlement*"

It wound up that they got on the train to Manchester as well, and then at every tourist place I visited, I saw them. The City Hall, John Rylands Library... When I finally took the train home, I didn't see them in the train station. However, waiting for the bus to take me to Keele, lo and behold, who should come out of the train station and start waiting for the bus as well? You guessed it! I smiled sheepishly at them, laughing to myself about how ridiculous it had been. I was far too nervous to start up a conversation though... Mi Espanol es terrible. No he praticado en mucho tiempo!

Finally, being home earlier than I'd planned, I made myself some dinner and wound up sitting around the table, chatting with Faye and Katie until 1 in the morning!

Between the late night, and the wretched state of my knee, I decided to skip Chester on Sunday and go next weekend instead. A very good plan given just how angry my knee was with me for not stopping when I first hurt it. A very good plan indeed.

Also; Happy Father's Day to all you dads! To my dad, my granddad, my grandpa... And of course to Steve, on this, his first Father's Day as a Father. Yay!!!!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 49 - Don't feed the trolls; it's just common interweb sense!

Things I have learned from my first package in the UK:

-the address I've been giving people is correct!!!
-mail between Canada and the UK is so slow! Like, molasses slow. This package was postmarked the 8th of May and it arrived the 12th of June. O.O
-stuffed animals wind up deformed when crammed into a box so tightly for that long. Poor Slush needed some love before he looked like himself again.
-Cadbury mini-eggs do not travel well. The ones that were in this package are nearly powder, but I'm sure they'll still be delicious.

I do have to wonder who gave up their easter chocolates so I could have them; I'm pretty sure I ate my Laura Secord egg on Easter. But I will enjoy it none the less, maybe it will be my dessert tonight!

In any case, I finally have Slush to cuddle, my Norwegian Troll to keep my company and some easter chocolates I've been sharing around the office (well, with Miriam; she seems to be the only on in today). And now that I know my mailing address is accurate, I could theoretically order things, and people can send me things safe in the knowledge that it will get here eventually!

In other news, exams ended on the 11th and now the campus is rather empty. My house hasn't changed at all because nursing students have classes and stuff all year, but the hours of everything on campus have changed.

Comus is operating at a reduced capacity, and Vite & Eat's selection of sandwiches is feeling rather lacking. Maybe I'll actually start bringing a lunch! I finally have a space in the freezer, so I could start stocking it with foods I can go back to my place and cook for lunch. Peas maybe... or corn. mmmm... On the bright side of hour changes, it means I'm better off buying lunch at the grocery store (better sandwich selection) where I can get Jones Fufu Berry Soda, imported from Canada! XP Love it!

I watched Food Inc. last night. It was really good. If you've seen my twitter, you know my reactions. Basically, when they were showing the poor bay-bee chickens in the factory, going down chutes and across assembly lines, I just about cried. Their demonstration of today's chickens vs. those from the 1950s and previous was really disturbing too, I was feeling really sick from it. I did have one complaint though, when they're demonstrating all the things that have corn derivatives in them (ie/ my nemesis HFCS) they said "Juice" and showed a Tropicana carton. I paused the film a second, thinking "wth, I know Tropicana doesn't have HFCS or anything in it" because I, like anyone else watching, would think Tropicana = their delicious fresh squeezed Orange Juice with only one thing on the ingredients list: juice from oranges. Then I saw what they'd done, oh very clever Food Inc., pull a fast one on us; they were showing Tropicana's Orangeade carton instead of their Orange Juice carton. *facepalm* Well duh! With a name like Orangeade you certainly don't expect wholesome goodness. If it's not 100% fruit juice (with the exception of the occasional lemonade) I would rather not drink it; juice-wise anyways.

As well, I finished reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians and am now on the hunt for a new book. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a copy of "Talking Hands: What Sign Language Tells Us About The Mind", though I did find "The Language Instinct" so maybe that'll do for now. I'm considering taking on the insane task of reading all the Discworld books. With 36 books in the series, it'll certainly last me longer than the Southern Vampire Mysteries (10) or Percy Jackson (5).

I don't think I've talked about it yet, but at the beginning of the month, I registered for my classes; and man am I excited for this coming year! It's just irrepressible! I suppose I get like this every year, but I'm taking some really rockin' awesome classes! Vampires in Cinema? YES! The Science Fiction Film? Awesome! American Sign Language level 2? THANK YOU! Plus I got into Alt, editing and sound this year, so my options are wide open. I might do the second semester of editing, or maybe sound, or both... maybe even neither. I have those options! I'm also taking a 3 credit course called "Nutritional Anthropology" which is about the relationship between food, eating and identity, which I think will be really interesting, but I'm crazy so... ya. I've even got an emergency list of 3 credit courses running in the Winter semester should I find that I'm short on anything. Fingers crossed I won't have to use it, although I'm not going to lie, Eco-feminist perspectives looks quite interesting. I think my eclectic selection is really telling about my interests; lots of philosophy and politics courses, computers, science, art, religion, language and debate.

Also, my allergies have been killing me! It really got bad Saturday night (I swear my eyes were exploding they itched so bad!) and ever since I'm having to take my allergy meds a little more often than once every 24 hours, otherwise it gets out of control. In fact, right now my eyes are starting to itch and my nose is leaking like a broken faucet; and I just took my reactine when I woke up this morning at 7! Bummer...

Yet again, this weekend I didn't travel. I did however get to go see Darrell conduct the Keele Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir! It was great! I sat (kinda) with Miriam and her sister + friend, the orchestra did a great job and it was just really enjoyable; even if it was during the England-USA football match! I felt like my sneezing was a bit disruptive, but that was just the start of my allergy troubles so I hadn't known it was going to be an issue.

Over the weekend I also went grocery shopping and indulged my unfortunate and expensive addiction: Raspberries. I ate a whole tray of them before I was even home. The second tray is gone now too, but I get to rationalize that with the fact that today was their best before date. Still, it feels like they were gone too fast for such a delicious and succulent treat. Mmmmmmm....

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 42 - Proper Kraft Dinner, the true meaning of life.

So Veronica, what awesome adventures have been keeping you away from the blog this time? What epic posts do you have for us now?

Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't done a thing. And it's been fantastic! I took a weekend off from my constant frantic travelling and it was beautiful.

I finished reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels (aka. Southern Vampire Mysteries, aka. TrueBlood source material) and they were fantastic! I've decided Sookie and Bill should not be together; she should be with Eric, a Were or no one! Also, Anna Paquin is too skinny to play Sookie, though she does a good job, she's meant to be a size 8/10 and that is not where I'd peg Ms Paquin's figure.

I started reading the Percy Jackson series. It's also pretty great so far, though having read the backs of all the novels, I'm concerned about where the story will end up... But for now, a great time. If you're following me on tumblr you probably noticed I put up a quote from the first book. The books are full of great humour like that.

Plus I imagine kids are learning a great deal more about Greek legend from it than they would through other channels.

I also played a bit of Sims 3, but that game needs another speed to go through actions with; like "skip to end".

I also wound up sick at the end of my weekend/beginning of the week. I don't know what happened, but Sunday night I got struck with a sudden, untameable headache accompanied by dizziness so severe I couldn't walk straight or sit up properly. I thought that maybe my dinner hadn't been big enough so I had a big snack, but even that didn't help. While the headache gradually subsided to a dull throb, the dizziness stayed with me through the better part of my Monday in a rather intolerable way.

What else?

Oh, the other day, I made a huge mistake. This was on Monday, as I was recovering from being sick, so it probably wasn't the best time. But I really wanted Kraft Dinner (shown on left), and I've heard (and seen in Scotland) that in the UK, they have a kinda-sorta equivalent: Kraft Cheesey Pasta (shown on right). So I thought I'd head out to the grocery store and see if I could pick some up.

When I got there however, they had nothing of the sort. I looked up and down aisles to no avail. Then I spotted this... abomination:

Of course at the time, I didn't know its status. I just thought "hey, this could be a viable substitute, you can't do mac & cheese wrong, can you?" Yes, yes you can. This coming from the girl who once made KD with vegetable oil because we had no milk, and "margarine's made of oil so it's probably close enough"; AND I LIKED THAT.

So that should give you an idea of how bad it was. Not to turn this into Steve, Don't Eat It, but really, the name "Macaroni Cheese" should have been my first tip. It's not even Macaroni AND Cheese, so you know something foul's afoot.

I had to empty it into my little sauce pan like a can of Chef Boyardee's Mini Ravioli and heat it up that way. That's how much watery sauce was in this thing. Then one taste, and blech! It's like they were burning some garbage next to the factory and just decided to throw it in there to give it "character".

Never again. I just cannot trust the canned foods here. I mean, this is the home of "Potted Meat" if memory serves, so it just cannot be trusted.

In other news, my umbrella broke. Not terribly surprising given the cheapness of the umbrella, and the abundance of wind. The pole actually came apart. I've made it so it's useable, but you can't extend the pole fully without it falling to pieces, so I'd have to hold it above my head, quite literally, as my hand would be level with my ear.

So I've started using the red panda umbrella from the Peer Adviser's office. It's much cuter anyways! ^.^

And it's got a whistle!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 37 - HTML Goodies for Everyone!

Hello all!

I know that a lot of my readers are other York Interns doing their own internships, hosting their own blogs (you may have noticed I have a list of their names, linking to their blogs, running down the bottom left side of my sidebar). And a couple people have expressed an interest, and I would like to preserve for posterity, and make it easier on those trying to find tutorials like this on Google, the special little things I've added to this blog.

I know I've mentioned that I put Google Analytics on the site, which may I just say is awesome! I think my favourite thing to do with it is go to my analytics homepage, click through visitors, into map overlay and look at the city view. I get to see all the points around the world my blog gets visited from, larger or smaller based on how many visits were made! It's really interesting!

So, fellow interns/bloggers, if you would like to put google analytics on your own site, this is how I did it. As I'm writing this, I'm trying to assume as little html knowledge as possible; just to make sure this is as accessible to everyone as I can make it.

HOW TO GET GOOGLE ANALYTICS ON YOUR BLOGGER/BLOGSPOT BLOG

First things first of course, you have to go to the Google Analytics homepage. From there, right under the big blue "Access Analytics" button is a sign up now button. It just uses your google account, you have to give it the url of the page you want it to track and stuff (which is of course the url of your blog, mine is http://dippyjonestravel.blogspot.com). It's all very straight forward.

Just go through the Google Analytics set up process, standard, nothing fancy and it will give you some code that'll start with something like < script type = 'text/javascript' > and end with < / script >. You want to copy that whole block of code and go to your Blogger dashboard. Make like you're going to customize your layout; you want to be in the Layout tab, and go to "Edit HTML". Don't touch any of the text in here, you're just going to go in, paste the Google Analytics code where it needs to be and get out.

What you're looking for is where it's describing the "Footer". Mine was just over halfway down, and with the exception of the pink stars, this is what it looked like in mine:

/ * Footer
----------------------------------------------- * /
#footer {
clear:both;
padding:15px 0 0;
}

#footer p {
margin:0;
}

/ * Page structure tweaks for layout editor wireframe * /
body#layout #sidebar, body#layout #main,
body#layout #main-wrapper,
body#layout #outer-wrapper,
body#layout #sidebar-wrapper {
padding: 0;
}


body#layout #sidebar-wrapper,
body#layout #sidebar {
padding: 0;
width: 240px;
}

]]>< /b:skin >
< /head >


< body >


*********


 < div id='outer-wrapper' > < div id='wrap2' >

So what you want to do, is paste your Google Analytics code where those pink stars are. The description of the footer may look different, but what you need is that < body > tag. You can hit enter a few times after the body tag to give yourself some space, that won't hurt, but just paste the code between that tag and the next one.

Then hit "Save Template".

And there you go! Now, you can have Google Analytics send you weekly reports about your site. You can see if people are typing your web-adress in directly, or if they're clicking through from facebook, or another blog; or if they found you through a google search! You can see what language they use, what country they're visiting from, even which city! And you can see how many individual people are visiting, not just how many times your page has been looked at.

As long as you don't touch that code in the layout, you can play around with all the features at Google Analytics. I'm having a lot of fun with it!

Now, you may have also noticed I put a map of my experience up at the top of my blog there, and I tend to insert them into my travel oriented posts. Compared to the Google Analytics, I suppose it's easy as pie.

HOW TO INSERT GOOGLE MAPS INTO YOUR BLOG

First is how to get the code. I assume you're familiar with Google Maps. You can search what ever you like, and voila, you see it there on the map. Now you can insert the map however you like. You can search for any specific point; a city, a country, a business, and share a map illustrating that point.

Or, what I do: I create my own maps, with my own placemarkers using the feature "My Maps" you can see it right next to the link for "Get Directions" in the top left part of Google Maps' search page.

After you've got the map as you want to insert it, click the button labelled "Link", you'll find it right above the map, to the right. Then you can either just copy the code given in the box labelled "Paste HTML to embed in website" and paste it where you want it, or you can click on "Customise and preview embedded map", which is what I do, and make sure it looks exactly as you like it; change its size, move the map around so you're seeing everything you'd like to, zoom in or out. Once it looks as you'd like it, just copy all of the code it gives you at the bottom of the page, and paste it where you want it.

But that brings up a whole other can of worms, doesn't it? Where do you want it? What are your options?

Well, you can put it in a post, or make it into a widget and have it somewhere on the main, and every other, page of your blog.

First the easy one, how to put it into a post.

Now when you're writing your post, you're writing it in a box, with a toolbar up top, and some tabs above that, the one that's selected is "Compose" by default. When you want to insert a map, just click over to the "Edit HTML" tab and copy-paste the code map wherever you like, then click back over to "Compose" and you'll see your little map right in the box. You can type around it, you can highlight it and change it's alignment, and post as you like. When I'm putting my maps into my posts, I like to customize the map and ensure it is 300 pixels by 300 pixels so it isn't too... overpowering.

If you'd like the map to be a more permanent feature; a prominent part of your page, or even just a sidebar, you need to make it into a "Gadget". I know that sounds intimidating, but stay with me!

If you want it to just be in your sidebar, you want to customize it to make sure that it's thin enough to fit; a width of 250 pixels is probably best.

If you want it above the posts like mine is, or below the posts if you prefer, then customizing it to a width of 425-450 is probably best, depending on your layout. Play around with it until it suits you.

Once you've got the code, you need to make the Gadget.

To do that, you go to your Layout tab again (or click "Customize" in the navigation bar above your blog on its homepage), but this time, you want to stay on the tab labelled "Page Elements". Here, you'll see a kind of wireframe layout of your blog as it currently is. You can move things around so they're in the places you like, but we're here to make a Gadget. In this wireframe layout there will be blocks labelled "Add a Gadget", one will be at the top of your sidebar and there will probably be one across the top, click on that link: "Add a Gadget".

Clicking the link will bring up a little pop-up. It will have a few tabs along the side, and you'll be in the one labelled "Basics", this is the tab you want. The fourth gadget down is labelled "HTML/JavaScript", just click on that title. Give the Gadget a title in the little text box, then paste the HTML code for your map into the "Content" box, then click "Save".

Now you'll have a new box in your wireframe layout, labelled what ever you called the map (I named mine "my trip in map form"). Move this box wherever you'd like it; under the title, above your blog posts, across the bottom of your page, wherever you like!

Once it's where you want it, click the orange "Save" button and enjoy your success!

You can actually create as many "HTML/JavaScript" Gadgets as you like and shuffle them around so your blog looks exactly how you like. That's how I put the "AddThis" button in, the Twitter feed, my Flickr feed and all those other treats in my sidebar!

I hope you enjoyed this, and find it useful.

I really wish I'd had a tutorial to use for putting my Google Analytics in that was this straightforward... I had a devil of a time finding the place it was meant to go! I actually had to copy the whole HTML from that Layout editing box, paste it into a word processor and use the Find feature to find where I was meant to put the code. Lame.

But hey, if you want these perks, you have to be willing to work for it. Well, you don't, now that I've made this tutorial! ^.^

Ciao!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 35 - Ce-le-brate Good Times, C'mon!

Today was a rather boring day.

I say was.

Part way through the afternoon, Ron and I had a visit from Darrell, one of the peer advisors from this previous year. He was dressed all spiffy-like in a suit and was practically buzzing with nervous excitement. He had an interview, in less than an hour, for the very prestigious "Student of the Year" award. He hung around until a little before his appointment and shared with us the possible answers he had prepared.

It seemed like no sooner had he run off for the interview that he was back again, all done. He set his phone down where it got signal just in case they called. He started talking about how he didn't get it because of this or that; didn't do enough charity work, it was a really close race, etc etc. As he was just winding down; the phone rang.

He got it! Ron let out a cheer while Darrell was still on the phone, only to get shushed quickly by Darrell.

*click*

And celebrations all around! If Darrell had done a fan-girl squee, it wouldn't have surprised me, to be honest, he looked so over the moon.

It was close enough to 5, and I didn't have any more work I could really do; my computer was making one last ditch effort to restore the files from my TARDIS itself before I went to any third-parties. So off we went, for my first pint at the KPA (Keele Post-grad Association; Ron and I are allowed because we're staff at the uni, and well, Ron works there). I met a few people and we sat and chatted while we drank a celebratory pint.

Darrell had orchestra later though so we didn't stay long; Ron was going with him. So I went back to the office and wound up staying until nearly 8 trying to solve my hard drive conundrum.

In our time at the KPA, I may have found myself dragged into singing in Darrell's concert in a week or so. But I don't know... my voice isn't really very good, and it just isn't used to choral singing anymore; solos and karaoke maybe, but choir needs more finesse than my voice feels like it has retained. It could be fun though...