PAUL

Birthdays, earthquakes and rhinos…

Despite my best efforts and fleeing to the other side of the world in order to delay it, the Saturday before last (Feb 23) marked the end of my time as a teenager. Yes, I celebrated my 20th Birthday. The day started well with a bit of a sleep in, opening presents and cards from near and afar and then Li's specialty chocolate pancakes (mmm chocolate). The time for an early lunch came around quickly, having lazed around most of the morning and, I can confidently say, the world's yummiest nachos were prepared and consumed.

We then decided to explore more of our adopted home town, Leeds. Our quest was to find the grand River Aire of Leeds located at the southern end of the city centre, along with a few other points of interest along the way. Our first stop was St Anne's/Leeds Cathedral, once described as "the most outstanding cathedral in the country outside Westminster." Being a weekend we weren't able to go inside and so just took some photos of the exterior, though we might go back on a week day sometime and have a bit more of a look. Next we made our way south and found ourselves in the Leeds city square, more by accident than design. This relatively small public space is at the entrance the (Old) Post Office building, which closed in 2003 and then reopened in 2006 as a collection of shops and apartments. The square gave us a much needed rest from walking along with place to sit and enjoy an apple while watching the people and the pigeons daring to cross the fountain during breaks in the flow (and just between you and me, I think the pigeons had it figured out better than the people). As you'll see from the photos, the square also has a number of statues. Along with 8 nymphs around the periphery, statues includes include James Watt (think steam engine), James Priestly (the person usually credited with the discovery of oxygen along with other things), and the Black Prince of Wales on horseback.

Our next stop along the way was the impressive looking, round (well actually oval) Corn Exchange. Completed in 1864 it was of course originally used as a corn exchange. In the late 1980s it underwent a face-lift and reopened in 1990 as a shopping centre. Most of the shops that were in the Corn Exchange have either relocated or closed down leaving just 6 shops, which are mainly "youth clothing/jewellery" stores and has now become the hangout for the Goths and Emos of Leeds. It now looks like it will be transformed into an upmarket "food emporium" housing restaurants and other shops associated with food and cooking, though these plans have come up against some opposition in Leeds.

Continuing on our quest to find the River Aire, we passed the Leeds Parish Church (St Peter's at Leeds), taking the time to stop and take a some pictures of the flowers and the east stone (see photo album for an explanation). Finally, after some tricky weaving through narrow lane ways, we came to the mighty River Aire. Okay, well maybe not quite so mighty, and possibly more of a canal than a river, but still, we'd arrived. After strolling along the north bank, we crossed the river for a quick look around the south side. Not venturing too far, mostly due to fatigue, we didn't see all that much apart from office buildings and the red lion pub (complete with a red lion on the side). With heavy legs and sore feet, we decide it was time to head for home and crossed back to the more familiar north side of the river to catch the free city (loop) bus back to the university (the most north point on the bus route) and then walked home.

With something to celebrate, we treated ourselves to our first steak since we arrived here for dinner, yum. Then came the most important part of the day. Having begun the process of making what turned out to be the world's best chocolate cake (though I might need another piece to be sure) before we left for our city tour, we had then iced the cake before dinner. Finally, after a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday by Lisa and flatmate Hannah, it was cake time! All in all, not a bad birthday by any standards.

The next big event was on Wednesday morning, a dash before 1am. I had been up reading and couldn't get to sleep when I felt my bed begin to shake rather violently. After 6 or 7 seconds it stopped. Being in my half asleep state, and unsure what Li might have slipped into my tea that night, I listened for sounds of chaos but heard none and so went to sleep. In the morning (as in the next time I woke up), BBC Radio 4 reliably told me that we'd had an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 in Lincolnshire over night, the largest in the country for nearly 25 years, and that it had also been felt in London, Wales and the south of Scotland. So it looks like I can still trust Li to make the teas, but not to wake me up if the building's falling down - "What earthquake?" was her complete account of the night's events when I asked if she'd felt it in the morning.

Then, having counted down the days during throughout the week, Friday finally came and we were off to Elland Road to see the Leeds Rhinos play the Melbourne Storm in the World Club Challenge. For those who don't know, the WWC a game now played each year between the two winning teams of the Australian and English Rugby League competitions from the previous year. Unsure of where our allegiances should lie, we eventually decided the Aussies in us would have to cheer for the Storm. Needless to say, we were in the minority of supporters that night. Unfortunately the Storm went down 11-4, however, the success of the Rhinos did provide us with the opportunity to witness the, what can only be described as truly entertaining, Leeds Rhinos cheers, team songs and scoring celebrations (see videos).The "long trip home" was made longer by the unrelenting wind and rain, which had started that afternoon and continued throughout the match. Fortunately, being cheap students we had bought cheaper seats than we might have otherwise and as a result didn't have the rain blowing in and drenching us all game. We were finally able to find the right bus stop and got on the next bus, which meant changing buses again in the city to get home, but at least we were out of the rain.

Finally, I thought I'd share with you (with Li's help here) some of the "incidents" over the past week and a half. After five and a half weeks of blissful living at Lupton, things suddenly started to swing the other way:

• Our chocolate cake proved too much to resist for someone on Saturday night and so was a slightly smaller chocolate cake when we woke up the next morning.
• People (possibly riding the wave of a chocolate cake high) proceeded to let us know they were still alive by partying in the next room until the wee hours (5am) of the morning.
• A remaining meal's worth of tomato pasta sauce leant a magic trick in the fridge, now you see it, now you don't.
• The tap washes which had been on their way out for a while finally gave up the ghost and so our taps proceeded to fill the flat with the melodious sounds of drip…drop…drip…
• In response to our blatant disregard for the environment (didn't get tap washes fixed earlier), the planet decided to get it's own back in the form of that delightful earthquake.
• The Ham(peanutbutter)burglar struck again, this time leaving only an empty jar as his calling card.
• Driven to the edge by the dripping tap, the various kitchen appliances including the kettle, toaster, fridge and freezer agreed to a suicide pact initiated by the kitchen light.
• The distinct fragrant eau de toilette Ashtray began to fill the hallway on a nightly basis; and
• Who'd have believed it? Our quality £8 mobile phones have gone on the blink and now work intermittently.

We are, however, managing to laugh about it, as you must, and accepting it all as part of the experience. We hope you are all well and, for those of you who have now started back (or started for the first time) at uni, that you are managing to enjoy the start to the new semester.