Bristol

"[Learning] promotes one's innate power"

So it's been a while since I've blogged, mainly because I am far too busy with actual chemistry to do it (and a little socialising inbetween), and also because I haven't had much to say.

However to start off a new year I thought I would write a little about my experience at Bristol university... it's been such a busy time that I can't really sum up how it's been other than saying it is brilliant.

I love the city, I think it's absolutely beautiful, infact one of my favourite days was when I had just finished my lab on magnetochemistry (putting things in tubes and measuring their magnetic moments) which took 1/3 of the time set aside for it, and I realised I had lost my jacket. I went down to the porter's desk and asked if him if he had seen my jacket, which he had and he gave it to me, offering me a pair of gloves he had also found. I declined the gloves but couldn't help myself when he offered me sandwiches that the cafe couldn't keep until Monday, so I walked off with a bag worth £9.50 in sandwiches. As I looked out of the glass wall I suddenly noticed it was snowing (this was the first lot of snow England had this winter) and my day just couldn't get any better. Walking to the bus stop I took a shortcut through Royal Fort Lodge gardens which looked amazing in the snow.

Anyway after a couple of weeks I still couldn't get over how beautiful Bristol looks in snow, especially across the Downs in the morning.

I often go through Royal Fort Gardens and the other day I was there with Beth and a squirrel scampered right up to us and eyed us up, perhaps wondering if we would be suitable to climb?

Then we sat on a bench where a robin joined us and kept flitting from end to end of the bench looking at us and singing... but whenever we tried to take a photo it flew away. Wildlife in inner cities is always surprising... they seem so used to people and just so... unfased.

I feel I should add some chemical relevance to this post, so here it is:

I have just revised all of my quantum mechanics. It was not fun, but it only took me 2 hours and then I watched a terribly sad episode of House to relax.

I think that's enough for now.

Roar!

One of my A-level textiles projects was based on the self-chosen theme "expressions" I veered off into a musical expression direction and ended up basing my large piece on The Lion King (the musical) but to be different I based my dress on a tiger.

It was actually really fun to make, basically I wrapped some hand-dyed scrim around a mannequin, then used thin strips of silk and other scraps of fabric to create the stripes (and give the wearer a subtle hint of dignity, as the scrim is see-through) These strips lead round to the back, where the dress does up on an off-centre lace up, and down over the orange skirt, which does up with four enevenly spaced, mismatched black buttons at the back.

I would definitely wear it... if ever I'm invited to a tiger party...

I made my sister model it, as I get quite particular about camera angles, otherwise I would have worn it myself. It was great I really got into the hair and makeup side of it backcombing her hair into a wild quiff and giving her a more mature version of the classic tiger face-paint.

Ok, maybe it was quite a standard, albeit sparkly, tiger face-paint.

The best thing was that she let me, she's usually quite particular about messing up her hair, or doing stupid makeup, so all in all I was very lucky.

Although that hair does make her head look weirdly big...

Anyway sorry that I haven't written in a while, my imaginary readers,

A Touch of Toga

I turned 18 on the 7th of July and, following in the footsteps of my brother, held a toga party in my garden.
A few weeks in advance I got stupidly excited one day and made my toga (even though you can easily make one on the day).
So I sat down in my sister's room, which I was sharing due to mine being surrendered to visitors, and I took 3 half sheets left over from my brother's toga party two years ago and fashioned a toga out of them using a Primark t-shirt as the base.
Yesterday, with the aid of my family and friends, I put up a marquee, blew up bunch-of-grapes-balloons, ate chili con carne, and generally got ready.
I seemed to be cheif toga-maker and made/fixed at least 7 people's togas, so it was really lucky that I made mine early in a weird fit of excitement.
The party was really nice, quite mellow compared to the usual parties I hold, but in a nice way.
I went for a full length toga (despite my lovely tanned legs from Tenerife) and wore the gorgeous shoes that my sister bought for my birthday. You can't see much of the toga but it has a pleated neckline and shoulder, a horizontally ruched bodice, overlapping panels on the skirt, and a diagonal hanging drape along the back falling into the skirt.

Toga II was definitely a success.

The waiting commences

I hate waiting, especially when I don't know how much longer I will have to wait. It's been so long already, in reality I suppose its only been a short while, but time slows down for those who wait.

To the ball!

On Friday I went to my last ever Fullbrook party... the Leavers' Ball.

About 2 months ago I went to Bicester Village with my family and I came across the most gorgeous Amanda Wakeley dress. It was only £125 but I studied how it was made and decided I could totally make my own.
So with my brand new mannequin (now named Claudia), I began to fantasise about the dress I was about to make, I decided red silk opposed to the purple that the other dress had used.
In Tatters I found the perfect deep red satin (which luckily some scary-looking teens had decided was definitely the wrong colour for their superhero costume), some boning (Amanda Wakeley's dresses have built-in corsets for support), and some ribbon, costing me £20 altogether!
Once I had made the corset I decided that I liked it too much to hide it inside the dress and so I completely changed my design idea.
It didn't take me long to make it, afterall, it was the perfect way to avoid revising.

I used purple stitching to accent some seams... I love it, it fitted like a glove and I could actually breath in it.

I even made Chris a tie out of the same fabric!I had such an awesome night from champagne, to chicken, and clubbing, to yearbook signing.

Nailpolish

Getting ready very early for Leavers' Ball, which is tomorrow evening, mainly due to the fact that I have no purpose in life since exams finished.

So i sat upon my sofa, watching Gilmore Girls and painted my nails the exact same red of the dress I made for my final Fullbrook event (ok apart from results day and that certificate evening).

I really hate nailvarnish. Don't get me wrong I love how perfectly manicured you look. But. It makes my nails feel dirty from the moment I put it on, and I feel like i can't touch things properly for days. And it still seems vulnerable to smudging four hours if not days - how?

Anyway. That is all.

Red Hot Chili Pepper...

I have just spent the last five hours nursing some very sore fingers after deciding that what my lunch really needed was a little Thai chili to spice it up.

How to get (and get rid of) chili burn:

1. Decide that your lunch looks rather plain, and actually it would be a lot more interesting if you added those super-hot chilis that you had in your dinner the other day and had to douse your mouth with milk after.


2. Get the chili and feel really clever when you remember to take all the seeds out, that way you wont taste too much heat - what a clever girl you are!


3. Chop it up (forgetting gloves, of course - who would be sooooo over-cautious?)


4. Cook your food and think 'This smells really nice!'


5. Just before you eat your super-hot stirfry get a bit on your finger and lick it off - holy christ! You remember now, these teeny chilis are stupidly hot. Like really super-power-hot.


6. Eat the food quickly followed by about a litre of cool white milk. This was surely why milk was invented, for idiots who like to ruin their food by "experimenting" - I get this habit from my father...


7. On the way to the post office to return that parcel, which is a crappy dress that could have been sewn by a 2 year old, that's what you get for ordering online. As you drive you notice that not only do your lips feel steamy, your nose feels like its been flushed with olbas oil vigourously and is strangely hot.


8. On the way back from delivering the parcel notice that your fingers feel like they have each individually consumed a chili themselves. By magic.


9. Get home and scrub your hands with soap and water - that ought to do it.


10. After half an hour look up chili burn online to see if you made it up or if it actually exists.


11. Find a million highly unusual tips and begin on the quest to find the cure.


12. Begin with olive oil. Move on to lemon juice. Try both again. Notice that the burning is increasing.


13. Text boyfriend feeling very disgruntled that he managed to chop the very same chilis just the other night without feeling a thing. He suggests milk.


14. Look for kitchen roll to soak with milk. Soak loo roll with milk. Dab at hands impatiently, while wondering how on earth this can happen?!


15. Read that using alcohol can help. Find bottle of vodka left from last party (make mental note to thank Becky for leaving it) and pour over hands in bathroom silently laughing at how weird this would look to anyone. Wash hands because they smell like an alcoholic's breath.


16. Feel a bit stupid as you mix water with baking soda and cover your hands with it. Somehow unlock door with elbows(!) and go outside. Sit in the garden waiting for it to dry while wondering why the burning is actually INCREASING?


17. Try the oil again. Refuse to pee on own hands as there seems to be a 50% customer satisfactoin with that one.


18. Aha! A sudden flash of inspiration, sunburn cream WITH aloe vera! ... doesn't work.


19. Read that you're not supposed to use anything cold as it makes the oil set in your pores. Curse a bit. Wash hands in warm water... curse a lot more - it hurts.


20. Try the baking soda again, maybe it needed more time, everyone online is swearing by it. Attempt to turn on TV with powdery white fingers. LOL


21. Take an anti-histamine because your dad swears by it.


22. Put a deep pore cleansing mask on your fingers, and attempt to watch TV.


23. Wash it off and realise hands are dyed green.


24. Smother hands in sour cream and put them in sandwich bags. Take the bags off when they feel worse.


25. Take some ibuprofen.


26. Try the aloe vera cream again.


27. Stick hands in a bowl of milk of magnesia - the pain seems to have lessened to a mild throbbing.


28. Decide to write about it in your blog - and that honey will be your next choice if the burning returns.

And now I look up the chemistry behind it and find out - it's all in the mind. The chili oil doesn't even burn you at all!

The chemical responsible for it all is capsaicin:

It bonds to the receptor responsible for feeling pain (specifically burning and abrasion) and allows cations to pass through the cell membrane, which depolarizes the neuron, which subsequently alerts the brain. This makes us THINK we're being burned.

Stupid brain, hurting my fingers all afternoon.

Ahh well, we all learn our lessons, that's probably the last time I'll touch a chili. Ever.