Review Of The Year

At 2.30am the night before I disconnect from the world I finally, finally get round to writing long overdue blogs (which I am strangely enjoying at this point). Struggling to think of and topics at this late hour with the next 24 hours weighing on my mind I have decided what better way to round of the completion of first year :) by looking back a few of the highlights.

Lets begin with first semester. Who could imagine a better first day than a trip to the beach to “create something that didn’t previously exist” or a shelter to most people as on the day it was pretty horrible weather!

Throw into the deep end in week 2 by Brian Adams I was rudely introduced to the weirder and (perhaps less) wonderful mind of Shigeru Ban who somehow conceived that to build a house with no walls and furniture hidden in cupboards was a good idea.

After struggling through that initial project we were taken to the stunning village of Kenmore and perhaps given the most picturesque site in Scotland to design a house fortunately I had learnt from precedent that walls and furniture were, in Scotland, a good idea, most of the time.

After a relaxing Christmas break we were thrown back into action at Hospitalfield near to Arbroath. In researching this project I came across a quote that for some bizarre reason was to adorn my pin board for a semester, some declaration about the crudity of English rule in Scotland…

After completing Our Hospitalfield project and for a split second thinking the year was over I began to relax, returning home to watch my school play in a rugby match (get beaten). Unfortunately circumstances meant I ended up staying at home a lot longer than anticipated and completing the semester’s work from the comforts of home.

Luckily I was able to return to Dundee to round out the year a few parties here and there nothing to major… and to move out. It was with great relief that finally as a Crazed Royalist and Patriotic Briton that the aforementioned quotation was swiftly removed from my pin board and thrown in the trash.

All in all it has been an absolute blast and I cannot believe that it has all flown by in such a blur, not totally alcohol induced! I look forward to an adventurous summer hopefully I will find some time to charge the batteries and will be back to greet semester 2 with a renewed ambition and motivation and who knows I may even take to this whole blogging thing a little easier next year! 

With Greatest Trepidation

As I write this within 24 hours I will be catapulted, if totally by my own hand, 4000 miles from home to Uganda. Once described by Winston Churchill as The Pear of Africa it has been somewhat over shadowed by Forest Whitakers haunting portrayal of former dictator Idi Amin but I am reliably informed that it is now one of the safest and most flourishing countries in Africa.

I will be travelling with 3 others 2 of who are also Dundee students. We are going as part of a team brought together by the universities DARE society, which to the uninitiated can be translated as the Development And Research Expeditions Society.

DARE has arranged in line with Ugandan charity Little Big Africa to send a team of [some what dubious] volunteers to assist in the construction of water tanks enabling the collection and storage of rainwater for primary schools.

Apparently all materials used in this construction will be sourced as locally as the silt on the river bed and the trees on the bank which will be a novelty when compared with the British ideal of import from as far away as possible. 

This project I must admit was a bit of a last minute adventure faced with the prospect of a long summer doing well… not a lot. From one extreme to the other I have volunteered to travel halfway across the world and work long hours for no pay but admittedly I cannot wait! I find myself in the situation where I have been afforded the opportunity to help others while at the same time immerse myself in the most alien environment that I am ever likely to find myself.

I am enamoured that I have found myself in the situation where I can contribute to a worthwhile cause and at the same time have the time of my life encountering a million new things.

Bye Macbook, Iphone, Radio, Car, Running water, temperate climate, INTERNET, cooked meals, the good life….           

Hello Mosquitoes, mud, camping stoves, pit latrine, the great outdoors, adventures, and the GREAT life! 

Built In Belfast

Having returned to my own quiet, disconnected corner of the United Kingdom it is hard to gauge how events happening on this side of the Irish Sea are relayed to Scotland, England and Wales. One story that has been attracting a lot of attention locally is the 100^th anniversary of the launch of the most famous ship that ever sailed, the RMS Titanic. Having ancestral connections to the ship building industry and the Titanic I follow all stories about her with great spur.

To observers it may come as a somewhat peculiar boast that Northern Ireland revels in such glory as the life-bringer to such a synonymous vessel of disaster: but as a local laugh goes, “She was fine when she left us!”

The Titanic was built in Harland & Wolff Ltd in Belfast, designed by Thomas Andrews (an alumni of my former school as it would happen). The ship at the time was the largest structure that has ever been created by mankind and was a testament to the workforce of Belfast who boasted that the British Empire was forged onboard ships built in Belfast.

The Glory Days of Belfast were (for the time being) the first decades of the 20^th century until the partition of Ireland. Belfast was to Dublin as Glasgow was to Edinburgh. This was the golden age of industry and Belfast was at the helm of the world with the largest shipyard and some of the largest factories including Short Bros, and Mackey’s Machine Works.

The 20^th century has been a time of great turbulence on the island of Ireland and at times it still can be in the North. In the early years of the 21^st century 100 years from the launch of the Titanic Belfast is once again experiencing a time of improving social and economic prosperity. The people of this small country look to a time when Belfast was unified and when Belfast was buoyant on a world stage. This was the time of the Titanic.

The RMS Titanic launched in Belfast Lough 31^st May 1911 is a testament to what Belfast once was and will strive over the next 100 years.