Look out for updates

I'm soon going to be moving to a new blog now I'm ready to graduate and hope to write about weather and climate events that are happening on the new blog, but I haven't got a name for it yet so look out for the post telling you where to find my new page.

Kate xxx

Look Behind you there's a TORNADO!!!!!!!

TORNADO we were all very happy as you can tell

It was a very active weekend on the 25-26th April. Two days where chasing looked set to be good. One problem, the vast amount of work and revision to be done with looming dealines and exams coming up the next week, not to mention a job interview for the summer. So I decided that I would pick just one day to go chasing and that day would be sunday. With everyone else gone I managed to power through the assignments and got lots done so was very happy to go out chasing the next day.

On sunday, looking at all the models and forecasts it was a HIGH day so there would be a good chance of seeing tornadoes. As it turned out it wasn't really a day worthy of high status but we got on the right storm and a little before 4.30pm on sunday 26th April I saw not 1, not 2 but 3 tornadoes. It's what we came for knowing the odds were against us and we were delivered with a real treat of a day.

(i) The wedge just about to descend and form a tornado, (ii) The first tornado of the day, (iii) We knew we were in the right place because the TIV was there that drives through the storms

I was so excited that I didn't grab my camera so my pictures have kindly been borrowed from Rob Lee. I was driving though, I did about 5/6 hours fo driving that day, and Becky and Rob did the rest. At one point during the day we pulled into the side and Rebekah's car got stuck in the mud so we left it to the boys to push it out, the ground came off worse as the car left a deep gash in it.

Stuck in the mud!

It was really worth me waiting till the sunday to go chasing and it made my week which hadn't been a particularly good one.

In the Words of Bon Jovi...'Ride Cowboy Ride!'

Today I fullfilled a life ambition and that was to ride a horse.Me and my horse Buzz, she was a lovely horse and I felt really high up.Thunderbird stables and all the horses waiting for riders, in fact the horse in the middel is my horse Buzz

Pete, Becky and I headed up to Thuderbird stables to ride the trails there for a full hour of horsey fun. Becky had ridden before and found it highly amusing that both Pete and I had got to the grand old age of 21 without ever havign ridden a horse, (apparently you can count riding a donkey though I'm sure becasue of my age the relative size of the horse was the same). I rode a brown horse called Buzz who was lovely. Becky and Pete rode Diego and Gus. Diego seemed to have issues with direction and Gus never seemed to want to trot, not that Pete found trotting that comfortable.

(1) I liked this sign, (2) Pete riding Gus and ahead Becky riding Diego

We made our way around the trails through the woods and past part of lake Thunderbird, walking and trotting away. It was a nice amount of time to be out riding and I definately want to go back a couple of times again before I leave. The staff were all really friendly and showed us what to do and told us a bit about the differences between english riding and western riding.

Katie's Bridal Shower

Yesterday I went to Katie's wedding shower. Basically this involves getting together all of the bride's female friends who each bring a gift of some form of lingerie and you eat, drink and play silly games.

The first game involved writing down a chore you hate and why to 'get the bride looking forward to married life', only there is one small twist the chore gets changed to the word sex so some of the explainations come out very amusingly.

Next we split into two teams for a relay race, this involved one person standing with a loo roll between their legs, the other person then runs to them with a sink plunger between their legs and you have to get the plunger through the loo roll, then swap items and run back for the next person. As you can imagine you can't help but look comedic and it becomes a lot harder when everyone is laughing. I think we might have lsightly disturbed some young boys who were playing football in the field next to the apartments.

The third game was another team game where you had to make loo roll wedding dresses for the bride who then had to pick her favourite design.

Finally, everyone had a piece of paper with a word on such as noun, food, verb etc etc... and you had to fill it in with anything you liked. These then got fed back into a story with the missing words. Our story ended up with the minister saying..."wantonly beloved..." and ..."you may now jump the bride, then Katie said 'STOP, hold on a minute'!".... no one knew how that was going to turn out until it was put together, I promise no one knew what was written in the story already.

After all the games were over and the presents were opened and admired it was time to go home, my head full of ideas of what to plan being the official planner of Denice's wedding shower for next year.

Everyone at the bridal shower

Mum and Dad's American Visit

Easter brought with it no acknowledged bank holiday something so strange in a country which even though its secular is so strongly driven by Christianity, but it did bring Mum and Dad to Oklahoma. A cancelled flight meant that they couldn't arrive on the thursday afternoon as planned and I was all ready to pick them up at the same time the enxt day, but to my surprise, I recieved a phone call very early on friday morning and they were 10 minutes away in a taxi.

On friday afternoon I took Mum and Dad for a walking tour of campus pointing out all the important buildings and statues and we stopped off at Sooner Rocks on the way back so that Mum and Dad could sample the delights of frozen custard which is like a very creamy ice cream and is much better than ice cream.
In the evening after my lectures we and my host parents Sandy and John took a trip out to Fred and Kian's mansion for their traditonal dance evening. There was lots of persian food to eat and several dances from different countries were performed with traditional music and national dress. The dance evening is held every year during the celebration of the persian New Year which is celebrated for 2 weeks starting on the first day of spring.

On saturday Dad and Mum helped me to write a cover letter for a job that I'm hoping to get over the summer working downin Oxfordshire for 4 months on an official research project with FUGRO, then in the afternoon we and Robert Graham along with his sister who was also visiting went to Oklahoma City the see the State Capitol building, then onto the Memorial from the bombing in the 90s, and finally into Brick Town to have a walk around the canal where there are statues to commemorate the centenial anniverary of Oklahoma state. It was a beautiful day and the sun was beating down making it so hot. It was nice to get home and inside for a couple of hours before everyone and our familiy members who were visiting (13 in total) went out to one of our favourite places Ken's steakhouse in Amber. It didn't dissappoint and yet again we were recognised by the waitresses who were very happy that we were bringing even more new people to visit.

Sunday, I walked Mum and Dad over to the National wearther Centre so thart they could see where it all happens and where I spend most of my time during the week. I think they were fairly impressed by the layout and the access to computers and things that we have.
We walked straight to the Natural History museum which I live next to and can see from my living room window. I've never actually managed to get there until now and it holds an good selection of exhibits amongst which tells you about the tribal indians many tribes of which still exist today in Oklahoma. By the evening we were ready for a rest so I cooked dinner with a little preparation help from Dad (well I wouldn't want him to get withdrawl symptoms now would I?) and we hired out a film from the club house.

Early monday morning we were all up and in the busy traffic on the way to the airport so that Mum and Dad could fly onto their final destination before returning home New York. I'd had a great weekend and them leaving meant that I now had little time to wait until I see them again.
When I got back, another long week slowly began.

Flood Management Project

As part of one of my classes groups of us have been set different 'real jobs'.  This involves being given a project which is current and working with the clients to solve the issue, a bit like what I had to do for the Engineering Education Scheme but on a slightly smaller scale.

My teams project involves the fact that the city of Norman has recently been re-zoned for flooding and areas that were once in the flood plain are now no longer considered at as high risk. The emergency managers however think that 

this area is still going to flood and want to obtain funding to protect this land. This project then has involved several important and official meetings already and has really given me a taste of working in emergency management in the real world. An area which whilst interesting I definitely don't think I want to submit myself into full time. 

The first meeting involved meeting with the city's emergency manager. Whilst at the meeting there were several phone calls interrupting us because there were high winds that day and on the Main street there is a high rise building called the Vista which is structurally unstable, and if winds of over 50mph were sustained for at least 3 minutes then the building would collapse. It was decided to close the street and evacuate the people from it and surrounding buildings, but was quite exciting to be there when the decision was made.

Next we had to attend a local meeting which was broadcast on local cable channels in which a plan for the city's storm water management plan was discussed, and then later in the week a trip to the State Capitol in Oklahoma City to sit in on the state emergency manager's meeting and to meet the lady who we will meet this week to help us produce an application for the money needed to protect the area, so another trip to th

e city is due soon.

Oklahoma state Capitol Building

Our job is to produce the application for submission to the State for the flood man

agement funding. Some other members of the group have also been on a field site visit to document the area. It really is interesting to be able to work on a real project which on its completion will help the city where I've been living for the past year.

The Mantel

Last night I went to a gormet restraunt in Oklahoma City called The Mantel, and it was a great night despite the late table booking.

Inside the ceiling was close to black and the walls and furnishings were in a dark red and cream colour, there were wooden beams up to the ceiling also in black and from these there were imitations of gas lamps for lighting giving an ambient and relaxed mood. The waiting staff were very polite and well dressed in their uniforms and complemented everyone on their choices as they took the orders. Everything was done very systematically which made things very efficient. Maybe that's not an interesting point but its the kind of thing you start to notice when you've work in the restraunt industry.

To start off with I had a cup of lobster bisque which was creamy but not over poweringly so, and beautifully smooth, it was topped of with a puff pastry crouton. It was really delicious and I was glad that I decided in the end to have a starter (or appetizer as they say here).

For my main course (or entree) I decided on duck breast with a port and cranberry sauce which came with roast potatoes and aspargus. The asparagus was a little bit too al dente for my personal taste but it was lovely all the same, and the potatoes were lightly roasted with plenty of garlic on them. The duck breast was cooked beautifully and tasted abolutely fabulous, just the right texture and full of flavour. The sauce which I wasn't totally sure of when I ordered, I turned out to really love too, the slight bitterness of the port was offset by the cranberries and were added just right so as that I could individually pick out the flavours of just the port and cranberries, it complemented the duck perfectly. Upon collecting my plate the waiter said that it was a very happy plate as it was empty.

In between the courses herb bread was brought to the table with a dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was made from olive oil, balsamic vinegar and chillis and had a lovely, but not over powering tang to it and tasted even better with a tiny bit of lemon added to it. Plates of lemon slices had ben brought out to the table for the water.

It was definately an experience and even though I initially wasn't going to spend as mucj on he meal I was glad that I did. I don't know when I'm going to get chance to go to a gormet restraunt again, let alone for such a reasonable price. I wouldn't be surprised that if I went to a similar restraunt in UK that the same meal would cost me the same in pounds as it did in dollars.