Lent term, London trip!

January comes to a close, so does the London trip. My first ever road trip in the UK. Thanks to Alex for driving me from Lancaster to Oxford. It was indeed a super experience doing this especially with a super companion. Brilliant driving, endless and thoughtful conversations 

and some lunch on the way, until we got to Oxford. I took about 2 hours to go around Oxford before I got on the train to Cambridge.

Much awaited part of this London week! Got to meet my cousin and spend 2 days there. Loved the fun and the very sense of feeling at home. Wish to go to Cambridge quite often and next time I plan to cover some ground. From there, I pushed off to Enfield to spend some time with another cousin. Perks of having family in the UK, if not around Lancaster.

Then began the Finance week. Monday was rather void with only a few logistic stuff. That day, I managed to do a bit of site-seeing to make my pictorial experiences of London, real. I must say, it was indeed a moment of reality come alive. The following day began the rigorous schedule. Macro-economics and finance occupied most part of our agenda through the week. Guest lectures, exercises and reading kept us a bit busy if not thoroughly occupied as it did during our last trip. Complementing the course work were also industry visits and event participations. Not too many assignments to take home, but definitely quality work to do for the upcoming exams in these two subjects.

Fun aspects of the London trip included watching Raees at Shepherd's bush with a super exciting bunch of people, a river cruise on Thames on a chilly night and visits to many new restaurants for dinner/lunch - Wasabi, Cinnamon Kitchen and Zaika being the top picks. I also earned a new name - 'Flash'. Lol....from a Pasta ingredient to a cartoon character, what a shift! Absolutely love it! :)

Friday evening, while most of my classmates left for Lancaster, I caught up with Boaz at Soho before I headed to Victoria to spend quality time over the weekend with my extended family. Read more about this weekend on Afrikaa Calling.

Penning this on my way back to Lancaster. Best wishes to everyone and specially to my Chinese friends for the new year. Cheers to the year of the rooster!

Normalcy flows through

Over a week since my last post. Not that I was covered under snow and took me this long to get out.  But yes, the mild snowfall last week was great. Statistics, Finance and Macro-economics covered the table and they will continue to remain on the menu next week as well. New softwares, new learnings seem to be opening new and unexplored waters. A little less load of assignments this week has been helping me spend a bit more time in the kitchen. Not a graph that will continue to grow. Also spent some great time having delicious dinner at Radhika's, Niharika's and Deepika's over the week.

This week, I also got to resume conversation with Jane on an innovation initiative that we are looking to work on. While I am very excited about it, I am also concerned about the time I will be able to spend on it. Let's see how it goes. Another incentive of the meeting was some amazing suggestions to go around and explore Lancashire. Looking forward to doing that after I am back from London.

Oh, did I say London! London Finance week is coming up. A packed and exciting week with a very busy agenda. Looking forward to it. Well, I actually leave today. Alex drives me to Oxford and from there I am headed to Cambridge. Join the cohort on Monday and return to Lancaster on the following Sunday.

Very excited to be meeting family in Cambridge and London this weekend. The next weekend, very much looking forward to meeting my global family. Can't wait to see them.

Back home in Hyderabad, things aren't so good. Hope it gets better soon.

Treading the Lent term with sentience

After 3 weeks of time away from school, Monday was the back to school day. Lent term or the term 2 opened with an exam. It has been long since I had written a formal essay type exam and this brought back memories from 7 years ago in college. The following day we resumed working on Statistical Thinking from term 1. Working our way thorough the SPSS tool, we spent a great deal filtering the Markor Survey data. Thanks to everyone who filled the survey for me. We are to submit an assignment on this one soon. Wednesday turned out to be a super windy day. I woke up to the sound of the wind hitting my window. Today's events also brought in a very personal feeling of self-awareness and personal motivation to do more. Thanks to the numerous little mindful tasks we undertook in class today. A busy yet very rewarding day.

Back home, we welcomed back 2 more guests from their vacation. I am guessing they will need a couple of days to re-enter into the C43 'Rolo' family! There is a slight snow shower forecast tomorrow in Lancaster. Let's if it does snow and if I can get some decent instagram posts.

The opening week!

Five days into 2017 and tomorrow is the First Friday of the year/ of the month. New year kicked off to a great start at The New Inn. Walking down to Galgate on a rainy night and ending up at this place to celebrate new year's eve was a one-off but a fun experience. We have already decided to visit this place at least one more time. The pictures below should speak a lot!

Spent the next 2 days messaging, calling, talking and wishing everyone a great start and good luck for a wonderful 2017. Connected with many people and ended up into intense conversations. Loved it.  A general visit to meet the doctor also got ticked in the very first week. 

Most part was however dedicated to sleeping and writing impending assignments and essays. Caught up with a huge heap of sleep this week, I know that wouldn't be the case starting next week. These days, I also get time to cook, so I end up cooking a good lunch and dinner. Another icing on the cake this week is 'Oo Zaalima'! :) :)

Winter is in the air, frost everywhere and you know it is cold when you feel the pinch on the tip of your ear! I like the tingling sensation, only to realize that the poor guy goes numb in no time :)

Today, me and Pankaj decided to take a break and headed to Silverdale - a nice train ride on the Northern line. Alighting at the isolated station, we walked straight into the Leighton Moss Natural Reserve. A brilliant place preserved by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds. Spent close to 5 hours at this calm, serene and beautiful place, except for the 2C (that felt like 0C) temperature. But time worth spent. The next three days is expected to be busy preparing for the upcoming term - sorting clothes, bags, books and preparing for the exam. Opening week is off to a closure soon. Hope it opens up to weeks filled with excitement, energy and experiences.