Wednesday of seventh week marked the beginning of Torpids, Hilary Term's rowing regatta. Torpids is a series of "bumps" races. Unlike head-to-head races (like last term's Christ Church Regatta), the point of bumps racing isn't to try and cross a finish line before another boat; basically, the goal of bumps races is to literally bump the boat in front of you before the boat from behind bumps you. It's a bit tricky to get a bump without getting tangled up with another boat, so I was extremely stressed and nervous during the four days of Torpids, especially since I'm the one that pretty much has to make sure this doesn't happen. Bumps racing requires more luck than skill, so despite the incredible amounts of stamina and skill our boat possessed, we didn't get a blade (a reward given to a boat who has bumped every day of Torpids and does not get bumped), but the boys rowed extremely well. We looked amazing on the water, and I'm sure that next term we'll be a dangerous force to be reckoned with.
We're featured at around 2:23 in this video. We're the boat with navy blue and white striped gear and white blades with a single navy blue stripe. I think you can actually hear me shouting encouragements. =)
At the end of seventh week, Father Mike and I hosted an Asian Dinner Night for the Blackfriars houses on St. John Street. We made tonkatsu, sesame green beans, kappa maki (cucumber rolls), fried rice, Chinese pickled cabbage and for pudding, mochi and Miranda's awesome chocolate raspberry cake! ^_^ It was a lot of work, but the meal turned out to be success. The food was delicious and made me miss home a little bit less. Since I was cooking, I don't have any photos of this evening, but as soon as I steal some from other people, I'll be sure to upload them! =)
Kate's birthday fell on the middle of eighth week, which happened to be Ash Wednesday, a rather depressing day to have a birthday on. So on Mardi Gras, after we made a quick appearance at St. Benet's Hall's Benetian Venetian End of Term Party, which was similar to the Christmas End of Term Party with the food and Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band except it was Masked Ball themed (we looked awesome by the way ^_^), we threw her a small birthday party. I made my peanutbutter chocolate cake, which I don't think came out as nice as the one I made on my birthday unfortunately =(. Despite that though, it was a nice small get together, and I hope Kate had a good time. =D
At the end of eighth week, we had an Italian themed End of Term Party. It was a nice chill get-together with lots of board games, Italian appetizers and mustaches! Kate, Jonny, Tom (one of my housemates) and I played Cranium, and the Giggle Twins dominated. =D
It was nice to spend time with everyone at the end of term, when everyone's work is finished, and to see everyone off before we all go our separate ways for the spring holiday.
At the end of ninth week, one of my best friends from home Andy came to spend a weekend in Oxford. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do much, because he was pretty jetlagged and came down with something on his last day here. But we did get to explore a lot of Oxford, and somehow got into Christ Church College on a busy Saturday afternoon. Christ Church is a gorgeous college. The architecture is amazing with a lovely quad in the middle. I loved their chapel (it also has an amazing ceiling and beautiful stained glass), and their dining hall was the site for the Great Hall in the Harry Potter films. =)
I felt bad that Andy didn't get to do a whole lot, but I hope he had a great time in the short period that he was here. ^_^
Sorry for the rushed tone of this post. I just wanted to give a bit of an update before I run off to all my spring holiday travels. Where am I going? Well, the plan is to go to Greece (which I'm supposed to be leaving for in about two hours x_x) for a week, then a few days after I return for the next three weeks or so, I'll be going nonstop from Paris to Switzerland to Ireland. Is Nutmeg crazy? Perhaps. So expect a few more rather adventurous posts after I return with plenty of pictures. =D
I know I'm missing a few events like Scott Pilgrim Night and St. Patrick's Day, so I may have to do a rewind post in the future.
Oh and I haven't forgotten about this:
Until next time then.
Cheers, Nutmeg
0 comments:
Post a Comment