"Started out as a lemon tart"

It's a lemon tart!

Here is the original and unedited picture of the lemon tart I ate yesterday afternoon.

Here is the HDR version of the lemon tart...

 ...and here is the retrolux version. Which of the three pictures do you like best?

As for the title of this blog post, remember the song I featured in this post? It's because of that song why I photographed this lemon tart.

Oh, and the lemon tart was delicious.

Last full month

Today's mathematics lesson marks the end of the last full month of college for my course; the class was present for seventeen of this month's thirty-one days. There were no breaks or "staff only" days, which was, in my opinion, excellent.

In April, however, there is the two-week Easter break and in May there is a bank holiday, at least one staff-only day and another half-term break; not only that but for the latter month we have our two Sociology exams. One those exams are complete, the Sociology lessons will have concluded. In June, we have an English exam and two Mathematics exams; Employability, on the other hand, does not have an exam and it carries on until the end of June.

How fast my course appears to have disappeared is alarming but it's not finished yet; there are still over two months of it left - with plenty to look forward to in that time - and after that I have my next course. Much to enjoy!

Liveland History: 29 March 2012

On the 29th of March 2012, my brother, father and I visited where I am living now: my grandparents' house in Nottingham:

http://airnicetolivelands.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/day-in-nottinghamshire.html

We took the car up here for its maintenance but we also visited my grandparents. There are two picture posts that went alongside the main one: here and here.

I should note that my grammar wasn't as decent then as it is now: "My Dad, brother, and myself spent the day in Nottinghamshire..." should have been "My Dad, brother, and I spent the day in Nottinghamshire...".

So much has changed since then.

HDR city centre

Nearly a week ago, I photographed the city centre in the early and cloudy evening:

Afterwards, I put the image through the Snapseed phone app and added an HDR filter. What do you think? I have not shrunk this image so it can be opened and zoomed.

The centre at night

I was out late today; while out, I photographed the centre of Nottingham:

The city looked so pretty at night; I like all those lights.

My next course

Earlier this month, I applied for my next college course. While this time around I will have to sort out finances, the application is easier for me because: 1. I know the teachers at my college now and 2. I have friends who are applying for the same course as me and they are willing to advise me when necessary. The next course starts in September, much like how my current one started last September.

One of my teachers filled in a reference/behavioural form about me, which I have to submit for my course. My ratings are as follows:

1. Attendance = Excellent
2. Punctuality = Excellent
3. Health = Excellent
4. Motivation = Excellent
5. Attitude to Staff = Excellent
6. Attitude to Peer Group = Excellent

I was pleasantly surprised to have such high ratings. I will endeavour to maintain these standards...for the rest of my current course, my next course and beyond.

Stir fry with cheese

My mind has been blank all evening and I had no idea what to write. Fortunately, I photographed my dinner:

It's a stir fry, which I prepared - save for the meat - and cooked. I also added some cheese slices for a little extra taste. It was a highly pleasant meal. Do you think it looks tasty?

Bus stop from the rain

I walked this morning, as it was a pleasant and sunny day with moderate cloud cover. I had been walking four about half an hour when I suddenly began to feel minute drops of water on my face. I thought little of them at first but the tiny droplets turned into a full-fledged shower, which forced me to turn around and bolt back home.

Fortunately, there was a sheltered bus stop on my route, so I hid in there. A lady was waiting in the stop and said that she had been caught by the rain, too, but unlike me, she was catching a bus, which arrived a couple of minutes after we'd started talking. After we'd said our goodbyes, I waited in the stop for between 15 - 20 minutes before the weather cleared and I resumed my original walk.

No buses came down the street while I waited but if they had, they would not have stopped for me because I deliberately kept out of their line of sight so that they wouldn't waste time picking up somebody who wasn't going to board.

Liveland History: 23 March 2012

On 23rd March 2012, I wrote a "Short Stories" post titled The Junk Salesman:

http://airnicetolivelands.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/short-stories-junk-salesman.html

Three years on, I cannot remember what inspired me to write that story. I wasn't drunk or anything remotely similar when I thought that it would make a worthwhile blog post. It's an interesting read, to say the least!

Have not forgotten

I have not forgotten my promise to post pictures from my original 6+ mile walks. I will be sure to post them soon, as well as set aside images for this month's blog party.

Ypsilanti, Michigan

On a QWERTY keyboard, "o" and "p" are next to each other, just as they are in the alphabet. On my phone, I sometimes press one when I have meant the other. I also use word prediction and auto-correct on my phone.

Occasionally when I type the word "you" I accidentally press "yp". Whenever I do, my phone predicts that I want to spell the word "Ypsilanti". On the first time I saw this happen, I thought I'd accidentally typed in "Ypsilanti" at some point and my phone was suggesting my made-up word to me as a prediction.

Fortunately, I turned out to be wrong. I researched "Ypsilanti": it turns out that there are a few people with that as their last name and there is a Ypsilanti in Michigan, as well as a tiny place in North Dakota with it, too. It's not something I spelled by accident.

Amazing what you learn from a spelling error!

Now these aren't immune

The other day, I wrote about how my phone was almost destroyed. What I neglected to mention in that post was when I retrieved my phone, my earbuds fell out of my pocket and into the road. I noticed thirty seconds or so later that they'd fallen out but when I went to retrieve them, too, they'd already been crushed.

These were the new earbuds I received in August 2014. Fortunately, they came as a pack of two so at least with one pair being destroyed, I still have the other. In that August 2014 post, I wrote that the first pair of earbuds was immune to my phone's headphone jack bug: no matter the angle of the earbud plug inside the jack, they always worked without complaint.

The second pair, however, have opted to behave in a dodgy manner. These ones do insist on refusing to work properly if the plug isn't in the jack at a certain angle. As such, I have to be careful to not knock my phone when I have these earbuds in it. Ah, well.

On the bright side, my main headphones are still unaffected!

The questionnaires

In the late morning while I was sitting in the college cafeteria, I was approached by two women, both students, who asked me if I would fill in a questionnaire about my soft drink consumption and purchasing habits. I was happy to oblige and so I answered their questions.

A few minutes after I'd completed the soft drink questionnaire, another student approached me and she asked if I could answer a questionnaire about my holiday habits. I was happy to answer her questions, too, although I laughed that it was my second questionnaire in a few minutes.

Less than a minute after I'd completed the second questionnaire I was approached by a third student and she asked if I would be willing to complete a survey on bread. As astounded as I was at being asked to fill in a third questionnaire, I was still happy to complete it for her; the second student then pointed out to her that it was my third questionnaire that morning, which made both of them and me laugh.

The third questionnaire was the last and to my knowledge, I'm the only member of my class to have completed any. Prior to today, I don't recall ever having filled in a survey crafted by students before; I wasn't expecting to answer three within a few minutes of one another!

Nearly-crushed phone

I encountered somebody with both a kind heart and good observational skills. I was crossing the road from my bus stop to my college when my phone fell out and I didn't even notice. This man then started shouting; it was only when I realised he was yelling for my attention that I turned around to see what was going on: my phone was in the road! I rushed back to pick it up and then waved to the man to thank him; he acknowledged me.

I was fortunate for two reasons: 1. that he'd noticed my phone in the road and 2. that it hadn't been crushed by traffic. The road was busy and it astounds me that no one ran it over. I am grateful to that man...I would have been fuming if my phone had been destroyed. I'll keep a better watch on my shirt pocket and will be more careful so that my phone isn't at risk like this again.

Saint Patrick's Day event

I walked to the centre of Nottingham this morning; when there, I encountered the Saint Patrick's Day celebration that was taking place:

It appeared to be a small occasion, although things were ramping up before I left. I'm not sure how the event progressed given that it started to chuck it down with rain an hour or so after I took this picture.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!