Week 6- Hummus and Pancakes

By the fifth week of lectures, most lecturers have decided that they have taught enough to give you a test of some description. Fortunately, I still found time to keep myself entertained. On Monday I went to talk to one of my lecturers about the design of the air foil for my group wind turbine project. For starters, his office is on the 5th floor where you need a special access card to get to. Perhaps to keep pesky students away. It took quite a while of riding up and down the elevator to happen upon someone with an access card but I eventually got my man. He had quite a spectacular view from his office, looking down on Auckland and the bay. He was happy to help and once he was finished I brought his attention to a desk of toys in the corner of his room. An array of robots, drones and other contraptions, he didn’t need a second invitation to tell me about them. He quickly grabbed a minion toy (from the film Despicable Me) with helicopter blades on its head. Once turned on it would accelerate up from the table, hover for a while and then start to fall slowly. When it sensed that there was something below it, it would shoot up again. This was particularly entertaining when he tried to catch the toy and it would fly away whenever his hand went near!

Pikelets are a type of Kiwi snack for afternoon tea. I can only describe them as some sort of hybrid pancake-crumpet. They’re made from eggs, milk, flour and sugar and taste great! As part of the study abroad society I had the chance to make a batch and of course eat them. I did my best to make the most of the opportunity to have as many toppings as possible. My favourite combination was Nutella, peanut butter, banana, maple syrup, cinnamon and chocolate chips. I decided that this was to be a week for trying new foods so I had my first taste of frozen yoghurt. I sampled both the original and the green tea flavours but quickly decided that although the yoghurt did taste like green tea, it should never have been made and the original was horribly sweet but it was an experience nevertheless.

I also tried a cooking experiment of my own. I had heard some of my friends say how much they liked hummus but how it was particularly expensive here so I thought to myself ‘Hummus? That’s just chickpeas. I can do that!’ I set about looking up recipes for hummus and discovered that a key ingredient is tahini (along with chickpeas, garlic, lemon and spices). I didn’t want to go buy tahini so I tried to find a substitute. Every site said there wasn’t one but I did find one recipe that said you could use any nut butter so I went with peanut butter. I was also in a rush when making it so I forgot to put the garlic in. Consequently, I was left with a bland hummus-textured substance with slight peanut butter undertones. I thought it was excellent but my friends weren’t so complimentary.

On Monday I had my final coaching session before the final on Wednesday. The boys finished the session very well and we were feeling good about the game. I went with the team out to Lloyd Elsmore Park, a two-pitch hockey stadium, ready for the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t start well and soon found ourselves 3-0 down. We changed a few things at half time and our captain really stepped up to lead by example but we were unable to claw the game back and it finished 3-2, despite our dominance in the last ten minutes.

The lessons of the week this week are that a candle burning in the international space station won’t burn in the upward trajectory that we would recognise on earth but rather in a ball. This is because the candle only rises on earth due to the buoyancy forces caused by gravity where the hotter, less dense air rises and cooler, denser air falls. Due to the reduced gravity on the space station this wouldn’t happen! It’s two for the price of one this week. Due to water’s phenomenal property, that it becomes slightly less dense from 0-4 degrees, the cooler water actually rises in lakes. This means that there is no heat transfer by convection and only by conduction which is a much slower process in water. This explains why the top of a lake can freeze but fish can swim about happily underneath.

On Thursday I applied for my Australian visa for the summer. I received an email telling me that the application had been received and literally two minutes later received an email telling me it had been approved! As part of the Ultimate Frisbee team we had a team evening where we played some interactive games on the TV using a site called jackbox.tv. The game asks a question on the TV and then you type your answer into your phone and then after everyone votes for the best one. We also discussed our goals for the tournament in a weeks’ time.

Saturday morning was pancake day with my neighbours before I went to the first day of Frisbee training. After training we had a potluck dinner for all three teams. I made a pasta bake which disappeared rather quickly. I’ve certainly settled in well at the club. We had training again on Sunday morning before I went to visit Jack and Tara. We had more pancakes and treats before I had to go and said goodbye to Tara who is headed back to the UK for university on Tuesday. I headed back to the pitches for a tight Frisbee match which we won to set us up nicely for the tournament next weekend.