A Chilean Adventure, Day 1

Well, it is Day 1 (Sunday 19th July) of this trip of mine and I'm feeling good. I slept a solid 15 hours last night, going to bed at 5pm and waking this morning to my host-mum, Claudia, boiling a kettle and asking is a would like tea (of course I would).

The journey here was long, I won't lie. The short plane journey to Amsterdam plus 4 hour wait there felt counterproductive as we were flying further away from our final destination, but hey! that's international flights for you. P.s Amsterdam airport is expensive: £6 for mints, a bottle of water and popcorn. The really long part (the fifteen-maybe more) hour flight to Buenos Aires (brief kiss with Argentinian soil) was killer- I barely slept and the nose end of the plane felt very hot to me. I watched rubbish blockbuster-y films and willed the plane go faster. Then a short 1hr45min flight to Santiago Chile, which was a breeze. We arrived in Santiago, and what a relief! Our bags made it with us, despite all the touchdowns, refuels and transfers. Santiago-an air is crisp and fresh, especially after 24+ hours of recycled plane air.  Many, many terribly jokes about Chile being chilly were made as we walked to our transfer bus, and many many more will be made throughout the trip I am sure.

This is the view from my room in my host family's home. Chile is... Beautiful and bit cold at night so far #greenwichinchile

A photo posted by Fi (@fifinicholls) on Jul 19, 2015 at 8:02am PDT

I am currently sat in my bedroom at my host family's home in Vina del Mar. I have a big window and ensuite, which is just ideal for me. It is my Chilean little brother's thirteenth birthday today so family is coming over shortly for lunch. My home has a lovely balcony and is several stories up so I have a wonderful view of the town. There is a funicular at one end of my street and the main road (which all bus routes travel) at the other. I am very happy with my family and home. Later we (the group of Greenwich students in Chile) are meeting at a hotel to check in with our point-of-contact, Roberto at his hotel on the beach.

I best be off now, but please feel free to follow me on Instagram at: https://instagram.com/fifinicholls/, where I'll be posting using the trip's hashtag, #GreenwichInChile

Chau!

International Women's Day at the BBC

 

On International Women's Day (08.03.15) I snagged myself, and my gorgeous friend Amy, tickets for BBC Radio 3's Coffee Concert. The music was beautiful, all composed and performed by women. Female composers, I learnt, have been long been atrociously treated by the Classical Music World, largely forgotten, suppressed and underexposed. 

My personal highlight from the concert was a piece by Caroline Shaw called 'Limestone and Felt' for cello and viola. I am one thousand percent ignorant about classical music, limited to my Ludovico Einaudi spotify playlist for studying, but 'Limestone and Felt' was really very different from that. A piece inspire by contrast, as indicated by the name, it was a joy to watch the two musicians make eye contact as the piece became less conventional and increasingly intricate, strange and beautiful. 

Check out this short video that I tweeted on the day: 

Great little moment from @OdalineMartinez (founder of @LontanoEnsemble) from today's concert @BBCRadio3 #WomensDay pic.twitter.com/RbnCtng6aJ
— Fiona Nicholls (@fifinicholls) March 8, 2015

It was a lovely concert, though there was a very definite lack of coffee...

I think it's great that BBC 3 took the opportunity that International Women's Day presents to celebrate and showcase female composers, though it is sad that an event such as this is needed... it seems that every other day is dedicated to the work of male composers. I hope that the BBC Radio 3's listeners enjoyed listening to the performance and start insisting upon hearing more women composers' work. 

----

After the event, Amy and I grabbed lunch at the nearest Wagamamas, in Soho. We sat with our green tea (which is free!) for hours, reading lines for Amy's upcoming role in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, and just having a proper chinwag. As we left, we both noticed the most wonderfully lit little nook in the wall of the restaurant. Luckily I had my camera with me and I am so, so pleased to have caught this lighting on film. So lovely. 

THIRD YEAR (aka. crying in the library)

THIRD YEAR of UNIVERSITY

third YEAR of UNI versity

thir year OF uni

turd yer of universatYYY

fird yah og booniburtitty

The above is a semantic illustration of what has happened to my brain box from September 2014, to the present, March 2015. *

People keep saying I'm on the home straight. So for the moment, I'm going to pretend that all that matters is finishing this degree, whilst ignoring the inconceivable and terrifying cliff edge that I then have to face once I've done all the essays, presentations, portfolios, extended essays and exams. Cue teeth grinding and night terrors. 

Through this degree I have discovered the tactical side of my personality. Each year I've come up with some sort of document which helps my visualise an end point and what I have to do to get there.

I recently went through the notebook that I kept during first year and I came across a really funny version of one of these game plan type things. In this one apparently I was worrying about exams, and hypothesising what would happen if i were to...say....not turn up to any exams?

(I went to all my exams for the record, even earn a first in one of them!)

This year I've upped the tactical board to A3 size:

Here you can see my ambitious intentions to earn a first overall for my degree. 

If you're around my age, 23, then you'll remember the incessant attempts of teachers trying to nail you down as a 'visual learner', or an 'audio learner', or 'kinaesthetic learner' during primary and secondary school. I remember finding it very frustrating being instructed to always "make a mind map" at the beginning of every project. But here I am... making a mind map.

Sometimes I find images helpful, though I think in this case it was more the process of working everything out, and writing it down that made me feel calmer about the whole thing, rather than looking at the image after it was done.

If you are studying and get baffled about how you are doing, and what you need to do in order get an outcome that you are happy with. I recommend making a chart like this. 

The website I use is so simple, and for that reason it's perfect. You have total control over all the inputs and so can come up with lots of hypotheticals. For example I discovered the other day that even if I get a lower grade than I want for my dissertation (which I really should start soon**), I should still come out with a 2:1. 

Here's a link to the grade calculator site I use, I'm sure there are others but I have used this since day one of my degree. 

http://www.benegg.net/grade_calculator.html

Ben Eggleston, I love you and I love typing "ben egg" into my browser bar. 

Seriously, give it a go. It might make you feel less like crying and more like the empowered autonomous babe that you are. 

*It took three attempts to type 2015, rather than 2014.... further illustrating my point that I AM SO DONE

**had to take a crying break 

Oh... you're still here. That's good

This is no time to redirect my energy back into this blog. Anyway here I am. Hello.

It's my third year of university, which is hard...
I've done some interesting things lately. I didn't stop doing interesting things, I just forgot that I had a blog, I think. So, I am here, and if you are there too, you can take a look at some things that I've been up to. How does that sound eh?

Fashion Scout AW15 “Ones to Watch”

21.02.2015

London Fashion Week 

Fashion Scout AW15 “Ones to Watch” at the Freemason's Hall, Holborn

J Moon

J Moon

design by @_minjukim_ from the collection "Hero's Eyes"

design by @_minjukim_ from the collection "Hero's Eyes"

design by @angelchenstudio collection "Bunny with Short Legs"

design by @angelchenstudio collection "Bunny with Short Legs"

design by @angelchenstudio collection "Bunny with Short Legs"

Angel Chen's collection "Bunny with Short Legs" would have to be my favourite of the Fashion Scout #onestowatchAW15 show. I am a big Wes Anderson fan and instantly became very very excited when I heard the music that accompanied Chen's collection. I'm going to link it so that you too may experience the sheer joy of this music. I think it lends itself really well to any sort of visual presentation, especially a collection of garments which obviously take inspiration from Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, do you agree?

#NowPlaying ♫ The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe, Part 7: After The Storm – Alexandre Desplat http://t.co/0MhlxCtowA
— Fiona Nicholls (@fifinicholls) March 31, 2015

Chen embraced the prominant theme of nature from Moonrise Kingdom and incorporated it into all of her designs for this special collection: some garments extended into real woodland branches, others had lace than dangled in a similar way to that of the willow branches, or lamb's tails. There is a certain uniform essence to most garments, which I imagine is a tribute to the scout uniforms featured in the film. This formality set against the twigs and patchwork resulted in a charming and playful presentation. Really lovely. I had the pleasure of meeting Angel after the show, and she was terribly humble about her amazing collection.

(In my ongoing attempt to not see things from behind the screen of an iphone, I shot these photos on my Olympus Trip 35 with 200 speed film, which was the only camera I had with me. Due to the funky lighting, i.e bright on the catwalk but dark for the audience, the resulting photos give the impression that the models were parading about with their eyelids half shut, like bloody zombies. They weren't. I'm guessing my simple little Trip 35 just needed to hold the shutter open a little bit longer than normal and consequently captures the models as they both blinked and did not blink.)

On a train, through an ocean

My four year old phone is on their way out of this world, and in between its fits of anger, struggle and defeat, I am desperately trying to salvage the photos and videos that it holds.

While giving the handset a time out the other night, I decided to edit a couple of similar videos together. Earlier this year, the UK had some crazy flooding, and as a habitant of both London and Devon, I travelled through the floodlands right as their depth peaked. Most routes were underwater and impassable. This video is just a go at using that footage.

It was my first time using iMovie and it was horrible and rubbish, but probably because I went in blind and kept clicking until the thing I wanted would happen. It was fun to pick out the music though!

Physalis, raspberry and lemon zest macaroons!

I've been meaning to bake macaroons for a while- then earlier in the week I went to and found this post saying that i must not Under Any Circumstances, use a silicone whisk, which of course is what I had. Something science-y to do with a single protein or fat molecule will mean that the egg whites won't whisk. So I took a trip to TK Maxx (I'm doing a full time degree, honest), and bought a funky as hell one. It's got a whisk inside of the whisk and inside that is a steel ball, from maximum whisking capabilities.


It's crazy simple to make macaroons:
1. 150g of coconut (unsweetened!)
2. 100g of sugar (I used unrefined)
3. 2 egg whites

4. Half a lemon (for zest)

 + fruity bits for topping, I used raspberries and physalis'

Okay- I'm not a recipe person, but here's roughly what you do: 

(preheat oven to 180oC)

1. Beat the eggs whites into soft peaks, which means about 3 minutes of proper-going-at-it whisking, till the whites will drag into little mountain peaks when you lift the whisk away from them, but they don't stay there indefinitely (that's stiff peaks).

2. Fold in all the sugar(with something metal, not the whisk, like a palet knife) - don't worry about 'knocking all the air out', it's not a lot of sugar so you won't be folding long enough for the air to go from the whites.

3.Then fold in the desiccated coconut and the lemon zest

4. Put baking parchment down on a tray- a plonk scoops on the mix on to it, they don't really spread, but leave an inch or so just in case. Pop a cherry or raspberry or whatever on top now. 

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes. 

6. Leave to cool, or burn yourselves trying to eat them 

om nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom