Fyse’s Floating Face

Posted by Fyse on Thursday, 16 December 2004

It’s pretty good to be home. I wouldn’t like to give the impression that stocked cupboards are the only reason for this, or even the main one, but it’s certainly nice to go to the kitchen and find more than rice and a jar of sandwich pickle. Funds were somewhat limited toward the end of the term, and even my culinary flair doesn’t stretch to creating a viable meal from half a bag of ‘American long grain’ and a jar of ‘Branston’.

I don’t want anyone to think I’m being waited on hand and foot though, as I do try and pull my weight in the kitchen department. Tonight I crafted my ‘Shepherd’s Pie of International Renown’, a masterful concoction that defies even the most poetic of description. It was, of course, rapturously received. Whilst my sister erroneously believes her recipe to be superior, and has vowed to demonstrate so on Sunday next, it is a truth universally acknowledged that union of lamb and potato has never been achieved with such transcendental perfection as in my oh-so-humble contribution to humanity. Our younger sibling has been appointed adjudicator to the contest, and the requisite threats and intimidation are already in full swing.

I’ve been back in St Albans since Monday afternoon, and will be returning to Cambridge around the 8th of January. Between then and now, I will spend three days in Yorkshire for Christmas with relatives, then three or four days down in Devon for New Year with sister and friends. I’m looking forward to both, but the rest of the intervening time, which is only around two weeks, I have to spend working very hard on academic stuff.

It’s slowly dawning on me that if I don’t work now, I never will, and I don’t want to end up regretting missed opportunities. There’s not much doubt that I’m studying at one of the best Physics departments in the world, let alone Britain, and it’d be pretty foolish not to make the most of it. It’s noticeable that the times I have found the course most interesting have been the times I was working hardest, so putting in more effort can only be a good thing. In the weeks preceding my first year exams, blind fear drove me to harder work than ever before (or since), to the extent that I was in the library for upwards of twelve hours a day. If I can get myself to even half that level of concentration and focus ever again, then I’ll be happy. And surprised…

They say that explaining concepts to others is the truest test of your own understanding, and to this end I’ve been toying with the idea of starting another blog. It would be a blog about Physics, in which I attempt to explain the more interesting concepts behind what I’m studying at the time. The popularisation of science is a field I am very interested in, and it might be useful practice in jargon-free writing. It could also help clarify my own thinking, crystallising my chaotic thoughts into a succinct explanation. Then again, perhaps the setting up of an additional blog is a distraction from work that ought to be avoided…