The Treasurer's Treasure Hunt- 'Bears, Bites, and Balloons'

November 26th

The Treasurer’s Treasure Hunt- a Hillwalking Club tradition that roots back to who knows when and this year our Treasurer, Alex, has the hunt to take place in Winchester. Meeting up at Southampton Central, it became quite evident when boarding the train that there were a lot of Christmas shoppers, rugby fans, and others planning to enjoy their day somewhere else. Hannah and I managed to claim seats that were next to each other which was quite a feat since from the looks down the aisle those two were the only ones. Shortly afterwards a group of women in their late 20s early thirties boarded the train dressed for a night out, keep in mind this was at 11am. They came into our car with quite an entrance; one of them said quite loudly, “Are we ready ladies?” or something to that extent. Hannah and I exchanged quick looks trying to suppress our laughter. Alex and a few others boarded too, but there was barely any room. The announcer came on the speakers stating that people can move to first class for 5 pounds, I am not sure that even guaranteed a seat possibly just to stand. Another announcement came on in regards to the refreshment trolley which would remain where it was instead of having the impossible task of getting through the aisles which were crowded beyond belief.  

Soon we came to the Southampton Airport station, where more people from Hillwalking came to join us. There were not enough people getting off the train compared to the amount that were boarding the train. The loud vibrantly dressed ‘ladies’ were now passing out glasses and opening bottles of champagne. One woman even had a hair band with devil horns. They were also passing cards which I got a glimpse of a picture of a woman’s face with ‘Happy 30^th Birthday’- ah so that is what all their eccentrics were about.

Luck would have it that our train ride to Winchester would be a short one and as we were getting ready to get off, the automatic aisle doors accidentally closed on Josh’s head as he was trying to get through- ouch! Outside of the platform, more hillwalkers were there waiting for the treasure hunt to begin.   

Splitting a group of 21 people into teams; Hannah and I ended up in a team with Josh, Rachael, Suzanne, and Alex H. The papers consisting of the treasure hunt tasks were passed out and Josh read out the intro which had a pirate theme (treasurer’s treasure hunt tradition). With that we were off! 

Our tasks consisted of taking pictures of pubs and museums within Winchester, climbing a tree on St. Catherine’s Hill, getting a sweet from a shop (without buying one), a picture of a strange drink name, and dressing up one of our members as King Alfred. Additionally there where quizzes about the history of Winchester and names of destinations we had to go to but first would need to unscramble the letters.

Walking through the festive streets of Winchester, we came across some Morris Dancers which is a very ‘English’ type of dance. People were dressed up in vibrant costumes, there was even a person dressed as Santa or a Christmas tree with presents at their feet. The Christmas season had definitely commenced. On the other side of the Morris Dancers, there was a steel drum group that was really good, playing not only Christmas songs, but I think Ricky Martin as well!

Winchester

We found some pubs where we had someone from the group stand in front of for a picture. Soon we stumbled on a Tourist Info center where we looked through the pamphlets to find answers to some of the quiz portion of the hunt. The tourist info center was probably the best stop we made for answering the quiz questions; not only did we find knowledgeable people there, but we also had access to free internet at their computers. I was able to find the answer the question for what the Romans had called Winchester and why. (If you are curious the answer is: Venta Belgarum, or Capital of Belgares, who were a local Celtic tribe that lived in the area before the Romans invaded it (http://www.localhistories.org/winchester.html).) 

 After answering most of the questions, we were off to St. Catherine’s Hill. On a previous walk in Winchester this year, Cheddar had climbed a tree there. Figuring for our tree climbing picture we should try to find the same tree if possible since it looked like a good climbing tree. In our group, Rachael had never climbed a tree before; so it was quite the treat when we had the whole group up in a tree for our picture. It was so much fun!!! Last time I had climbed a tree was probably in the quad at UW when the cherry blossoms were out; it has been too long!

The wind was quite incredible on St. Catherine’s Hill, so for our lunch break, we took refuge under another tree. After twenty minutes or so, one of the rival teams came out of the woods. When hearing that we had a picture with everyone in a tree, they decided to copy us and chosen to climb the tree that we were sitting under! Matt I think is part monkey because he was able to get up so easily it made our earlier attempts of trying to get up a tree look kind of pathetic. Despite my team pleading me not to help, I decided to be kind and take a picture with all of them in it. Matt was too high in the tree to be in the picture at first, and when he was climbing down at one point a giant branch had snapped and came crashing down to the ground only 3-5 feet away from me!!! Thank goodness no one was hurt. I snapped a picture with all of them and then my group took off with the deadly branch in hand since it would make a good sword for our King Alfred picture. Matt claimed it was their group’s stick, but I feel that since I helped his team by taking the picture and the fact that it was kind of close to hitting me, it was rightfully ours. 

Matt in the tree

Heading down the trail to get off of the hill, Alex H., Suzanne, and Hannah were ahead of the group. Almost back to the street the girls were passing a man and his ginormous dog that was the size of a small bear. I was about 30 feet (~10 m) behind them when I saw the dog lunge after Alex, a blur of white that towered over the poor girl. There were screams and next thing we knew the owner was trying to hold back the snarling dog with all his might. The dog almost overpowered the owner’s strength, but thankfully did not. The giant mop of a dog had bit Alex on the back!!!! Rachel, Josh, and I quickly caught up with the girls and we walked away from the owner who was throwing his body over his beast swearing at the dog like none other. Alex was in tears from the attack- who wouldn’t be when just been bitten by an animal that is bigger than you. We warned another team who was passing by to go up the hill to avoid the dog at all costs.

Inspecting the bite, the dog had definitely left a good size bruise and even had broken skin a little, though that might be from the friction with the fabric she was wearing. Before the incident, Alex was telling the owner if he could hold back his dog since Suzanne was afraid of dogs. The owner didn’t move back though. Theories of why the dog attacked Alex we came up with the fact that since she was around people who were afraid the dog might have picked up on that, or the dog attacked her because she was carrying a bag with a balloon on it. Whatever it was that triggered the dog, we will never know, hopefully next time the owner will be wiser in having the dog on a muzzle or something. 

For all sakes and purposes of the event though, our group is claiming that Alex was attacked by a bear. We joked around with her saying, ‘if you think this (bite mark) is bad, you should have seen the bear!’ Heading on a trail by the river, we came across another dog, but this one was the size of a small terrier. Fortunately the dog was sweet so Alex was able to once again have faith that there are nice dogs in this world.

By the road, I spotted some vines that we could use as our costume for the ‘King Alfred’ picture. Rachael helped break off a chunk of vine and I wove it into a crown, though it was bit of a druid looking thing. Grabbing twigs we used them as Pooh sticks (like from Winnie the Pooh) and raced them on a river from one side of the bridge to the other. It was there that we got a picture of an unusual sign, which for ours was ‘The University of Winchester’ as a joke. 

Pooh Sticks

Back by the King Alfred statue, we dressed Rachel up with the broken branch as her sword, Suzanne’s knitted cape around her shoulders, a vine crown upon her head, and a grocery bag with a balloon attached as her shield. We took the picture.  

In town we stopped for a quick break and found a map that luck would have it had all the museums in Winchester on it. Devising a route, we hit all the museums within an hour, even found another sign that was called ‘Archery Lane’, where we had all the archers in our group pose in front of for another possible funny named sign. In the main street in Winchester, Rachael and I found the man on the street handing out balloons and we both got one for ourselves.

Archery Lane

Finding the place where the waitress had our final clue of where to go to end our hunt and meet up with our Treasurer we discovered the place was packed. Luckily one of the other teams was there already and we joined them to our final destination which after reading the clue we knew it was at Wetherspoons. Grabbing hot chocolate and relaxing in a warm pub, Josh and I were trying to come up with a team name, and we finally came up with our team name to be quite fittingly: ‘Bears, Bites, and Balloons’. Alex, the Treasurer, went around to collect everyone’s answers and to see the pictures. Soon every team had their Alfred picture up for ranking. Finally, Alex deemed our team to come in first!!! Our team prize was a tin of Christmas goodies that we shared of course with the other teams. Hannah and I came to the conclusion that we make an amazing duo since any team with us seems to win. It was only earlier this week we won ‘best tasting’ at the pudding party, and now we won the Treasurer’s Treasure Hunt. The train ride back was not as hectic as it was earlier this morning, and I got off with some of the other hillwalkers that were getting off at the Airport station and walking past Monty. 

It was a full, fabulous, and action packed kind of day.      

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24th 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!! It is kind of weird having classes when you know everyone back home is celebrating Thanksgiving taking today and tomorrow off with family and friends. I am planning on celebrating Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday this year with some friends, but in the mean time I have been skyping with my family, being able to ‘see’ my grandparents in California, as well as my uncle, aunt, and cousin on Bainbridge Island, WA. At one point, my cousin Mary called (she's on an exchange in Mali for a semester) and so I was able to talk to her a little on the phone via skype; it was pretty cool!!!! 

I know this sounds a bit cheesy, but usually at Thanksgiving dinner we go around the table and say what we are thankful for, since I can’t be present at the table this year, I’ll just say it here:

This year I am thankful for meeting so many wonderful people this year.

I am thankful for the many opportunities of adventure and travel that I have been able to experience. I have never thought that one year could be so eventful. This summer alone, I was taking a calculus class, going on a two week research cruise which thanks to the ROV ROPOS I was able to see hydrothermal vents on the sea floor. Back for only one week on land and then I was off in the air, traveling over to Munich to visit my penpal, Bettina, and her wonderful family. Now being in the U.K. there have been numerous trips that I have taken and activities I participated in.

I guess being so far from home, tonight I am most thankful for being able to skype in and say hello to my family back home, it is weird to think that roughly a decade ago this wouldn’t have been a possibility.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Grandparents in Pacifica, CA

Mom and brother (Sammamish, WA) and grandparents (CA)

At my aunt and uncle's house on Bainbridge Is.

Had a conversation with my cousin, Mary, who is currently in Mali; on the phone via skype!

Funny that just then my dad said how it is not the same having me away at Thanksgiving. From the looks of it, it doesn't seem different at all :)

Yup, c'est mon frere!

An Eton Mess of a Day!

November 23rd

After my maths class today, I went to The Staggs to play a game of pool with Sarah and pay for my upcoming trip with the hillwalking club; though when we got there it turned out both of the pool tables were out of order. Rotten luck! So we decided to play a game of foosball (or I guess they call it here “table football”) instead. Well that didn’t go so smoothly! We struggled to figure out how to put 50 pence into the foosball table. I was literally on my knee trying to see the coin slots better wondering how come I couldn’t get our coins to go in. Sarah and I ended up asking some guys at the table beside us how to work that contraption and it turned out that it only accepted 50 pence pieces, rather than our one 20 pence and 3 ten pence. Luckily one of the guys had a 50 p on him, though we still struggled, so the guy ended up helping us again. Finally, 9 orange ping pong size balls appeared in the black track that they had set up. Sadly I was trying to work out how to get the ball out so we could play… and the guy (who probably thought we were hopeless by this point) showed us that it stays in the track, we just drag it up and there is a hole to get it on the table. It was a bit of a “d’oh!” moment for me. I guess I could use the excuse that I never had to pay to play foosball before- which after spending about 10 minutes trying to figure out ‘how’ we could play one game, I am sure anyone watching could tell- but it was still pretty pathetic. 

Once our 9 balls were up, we were still in the midst of our game but decided to forgo going through the embarrassing process of figuring out how to pay to keep the game going. 

Around 3pm, I went to Hannah’s to make pavlova for the pudding social that we were going to later that day. Once we got the three egg whites separated and ready to beat into a meringue, we realized too late that the electric beater was broken, and Hannah didn’t have a whisk at her apartment. So we ended up trying to whisk the egg whites by hand with the ‘whisks’ from the egg beaters. Roughly 40 minutes later of alternating shifts to whisk the egg whites, we had our mixture almost to a meringue viscosity, but it became a little runny once we added the sugar.  Our tired arms decided that it was close enough, so we put it on the baking sheet as one giant pancake like blob, and put it in the oven for about an hour. Both of us quickly decided that it was going to be an Eton Mess rather than a pavlova. It sounded like there was going to be a dessert competition at the pudding social, and from the state that it was in we agreed that ours had no chance in winning and just hoped it was at least edible. 

On my walk back to Montefiore, I saw a group of people lighting those paper lantern floats which was pretty magical as they drifted into the night. 

Around 7pm, I rejoined Hannah and found that she managed to borrow a proper whisk from a friend. Huzzah!!! It was quite amazing at how quickly we were able to whip whipping cream with a proper whisk- let’s say roughly 3 minutes vs. the 40 minutes we spent with the egg whites. 

After that we added the berries, and I got to have some artistic creativity with the extra strawberries by making a swirl on top and for the finishing touch, Hannah added a sprig of red currents in the middle. Our dessert was finally ready and just in time too as we got in the car to head over to the pudding party. 

Arriving at the party, we were one of the first to arrive; putting our dessert on the table. Soon afterwards the room became quite full where we ran out of seats, and the dessert table was completely covered in delicious concoctions. 

 

After a few hours, we were all experiencing a bit of a sugar coma. During the evening, we also had a casted our votes on the desserts for “Most Original”, “Best Appearance”, and “Best Tasting”. It was so hard to vote on the most original and best tasting categories since so many of the desserts were amazing. In the end of the evening, the votes were in and tallied up. At least everyone had received at least one vote from someone else on their dessert. Jenny and Josh announced the winners: for “Most Original” the winner was Tim, who had made a Guinness chocolate cake with a cream cheese frosting/icing. For “Best Appearance” the winner was Tristan, who had made a chocolate, ginger cake with raspberries on top. Finally for “Best Tasting” the winner was Hannah and me?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!! WHAT?! It was quite a shock to us, but our dessert won!!!!!!! As a reward the winners were given wooden spoons. I have to say our dessert was definitely an underdog, at least to me. 

It has been quite a pleasant day.

Tristan's scrumptious ginger chocolate raspberry cake!

Our dessert by the end of the night!

Hannah and me with our proof of a dessert done well

Always Read the Label

November 22, 2011

After a night of restless sleep, I got up at 6:40am in hopes to catch the 7:47AM bus so I could stop at the ATM in Portswood. Unfortunately there is a high correlation for me in the hours of sleep experienced vs. time it takes me to get ready in the morning. Missing the 7:47AM bus, I ended up getting the next bus that got me to class early, though I wasn’t able to stop in Portswood.

On the way back from lectures my plans consisted on getting some money from the ATM since I didn’t this morning, making myself a cup of tea, and getting some work done. Getting off the bus in Portswood, I discovered that the ATM machine was out of order, I guess it was for the best that I had missed the earlier bus, otherwise I would have been stuck there for 10 minutes without anything to do. Being the afternoon though, I was able to look through some of the shops as I waited for the next U6H to arrive, in the meantime getting some Christmas shopping done. 

Back in my flat, I was ready to make a cup of some new tea that I was looking forward to try. 

Last week I had stopped at an oriental grocery store on my way back from the library and spotted a box of chrysanthemum tea! At least I thought it was chrysanthemum tea, but it was hard to tell since the little paper indicating the item on the shelves was not really legible. The box itself was labeled: “Fitnè, Herbal Infusion”. Going on the error of optimism I decided it must be chrysanthemum tea. I was thrilled because I have been on the lookout for it since I discovered chrysanthemum tea at a phở restaurant that I went to last spring.

At the register, I asked the girl at the counter if the tea was chrysanthemum tea or something different. The poor girl tried to tell me what it was but her English wasn’t so good. She said that it was a ‘health’ tea, a ‘diet’ tea, and then asked if I still wanted to buy it. Figuring that it was something like ‘diet’ as in ‘diet coke’, I thought as long as it tastes good how bad could this herbal tea be? My response was something along the lines of “Sure! I don’t mind giving it a try”. Then the girl asked me again, ‘are you really sure? It is for fitness; diet tea’. I was trying to figure out why she was making such a big deal over a tea that could improve your health. ‘Yes, I am sure’, I replied. 

The box has since sat in my cupboard being a mystery to me. The fact that she looked almost desperate when she was explaining what it was made me both tempted to try it as well as question what was in it. 

Putting a pot of water on the stove, I inspected the box. There was little to no description of what the tea was though it was in six or eight different languages. What information that I drew from it was that you are supposed to only have one cup of tea a day, two cups maximum. Maximum cups of tea? I never heard of there being a maximum for how many cups of tea you can enjoy in the day! The other thing I read was that it contains some ingredient called senna, and it had that word again on the side of the box in tiny print sennosides.

The water was starting to steam, but I hesitated to insert the herbal teabag. The clerk’s reaction for some weird reason came into my mind. I ran to my room and googled ‘sennosides’ and up came a description: “Sennosides are hydroxyanthracene glycosides derived from Senna leaves. They have been used as natural, safe time-tested laxatives in traditional as well as modern systems of medicine”. Right below that was, “USE OF SENNA/SENNOSIDES AS LAXATIVE. How much is usually taken? It's best to follow the instructions on the label of over-the-counter senna products. ...”.  

Laxative?!?!?! Whoa, that is not what I had in mind!

No wonder the clerk was so insistent on making sure that I knew what she meant.

I quickly switched for the traditional black tea; poured in a little bit of milk, plopped the tea bag in, and poured near boiling water into my brightly colored mug. Et Voila, the perfect cup of tea without the use of laxatives!

Lesson learned: when a clerk is explaining what something is and almost seems like they don’t want to sell it to you, listen to the clerk and question the ingredients or you’ll be in for a surprise.

Wandering and Working on the Weekend- A trip from Bosham to Emsworth

November 19th 

Early in the morning I got ready for this week’s hillwalking adventure. This time the itinerary was to walk along the coast from Bosham to Emsworth. Taking another hour long train ride, we changed trains at the Havant station (?); where one of the members missed the connecting train to Bosham. No worries though because they found their way back to the group eventually.  

The weather was absolutely gorgeous with blue skies and surprisingly comfortable temperatures. Beginning our walk, we passed an old church complete with a graveyard, and then went on a road that is only available during low tide. It was so bizarre since there were many cars parked along the road and people walking their dogs. If it wasn’t for the sign, I would think it was like any other street by the beach. According to Josh, the local in the group, every now and then there is a person who forgets to move their car before high tide. What an expensive mistake that would be!

We then followed the road till it was submerged in the water. Seeing all the algae and sea lettuce, I felt more like I was on an oceanography fieldtrip rather than a hillwalking excursion- I loved it! Heading back into town, we stopped at a shop where ultimately a fourth of the group ended up buying homemade ice cream while waiting for everyone to regroup. It was quite strange how nice it was outside where we could still justify buying ice cream even though it is near the end of November (as well was 11am, but how many times this year could you get away with enjoying ice cream in the sun?). 

Continuing our walk along the beach and fields, it became warm enough where people were stowing away their jackets. I feel lucky since last I heard a lot of my friends have been talking about expecting snow in Seattle; and here I am in my t-shirt and capris enjoying ice cream and blue skies!

lunch break!

Lunch break was taken on the beach, where I noticed that the stones were way different than the stones you would find on a beach in Seattle. The appearance of the inner layer of the stones looks like opaque beach glass. I believe they are made out of chert, which has a composition made of primarily silica. 

Later in our walk, we came by a field that had sheep with LONG TAILS!!! I was pretty stoked, but what absolutely bewildered me was a black and white spotted sheep. Looking it up I guess that sheep is called a Jacob sheep, and if it is, then according to Wikipedia they are pretty rare. I have no idea why I get so excited by the sheep here in the UK, I just do! 

Finishing our walk we went to an amazing bakery, where we had tea, hot chocolate, and a variety of baked treats. 

On the train ride home, the early sunset once again threw off my judgment of time as I felt sleepy from such a full day. Arriving at the Southampton Central station though, I was back to being alert as I became aware of the chaos outside. The crowds from the football game immediately piled through the train doors before we had a chance to get off. Trying to shove my way out, a hand appeared, and Jenny pulled me out of the train!

Police were standing near, fully dressed with their rounded helmets trying to keep the mayhem at bay. After we all got out in one piece, we parted ways and a group of us piled into a very full bus. The traffic was pretty bad too, but I guess that is expected after a football game- like the traffic after an American football game in Seattle.

November 20th 

Started my day heading to the library at 10:30 am to meet up with Emily and Michael to work on a sidescan practical for my Observation and Data Analysis class, who knew the assignment would take so long. Emily and I were there till around 6pm where I headed back to Montefiore in order to make myself some dinner. I was then back to work on the practical from 7pm to 2am. After so many hours of interpreting the bedforms and lithology of a survey area out in the Solent; before going to bed I came up with this poem:   

Bed

I want to lie on the seabed

With lineated sheet flows covering my toes

And pillow basalts to lay under my head

And let the current take me where my dreams flow