Author Archives: Steve

About Steve

Man of leisure.

Cambridge weekend – Sunday

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Sunday started off cloudy.  Drove to the Botanic Garden and had a 90 minute guided tour.  The area around the pond had changed since we had last visited.  During the walk, the weather improved.

After the walk, we walked on down to the Cambridge Arts Picture House to see a 1938 Hitchcock film called the “Lady Vanishes” starring Michael Redgrave.  The file was introduced by his son Corin.  Rosemary and I had not seen the film before and very much enjoyed the humour.

Afterwards she went to Fitzwilliam to see a performance by Corin Redgrave of  “De Profundis by Oscar Wilde“.  I went to the Cavendish Laboratory for a presentation of the proposed changes to the Physics department, and then a tour of the Physics departments. I saw some high vacuum experiments, high energy impact work, low temperature experiments with super conductors, and an explanation of fundamental particles and an experiment where they neutrino is being weighed.

It was then on home, with a stop at St Neots for a quick meal by the River.  On the drive towards Milton Keynes we saw a very spectacular sunset.

Cambridge weekend – Saturday

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We were up and into breakfast by 8.00.  Continental breakfast, so there were croissants, and cheese and dried meats.  Chatted to a teenage girl during breakfast, who had stayed the night in collage.  She had been on an admissions day, and was touring a few universities to select the ones she was going to apply to.  She was from central Edinburgh and was familiar with Whistle Binkies.  A friend of hers had a band that played there on occasions.

Rosemary and I went out separate ways for the first event.  She heard a talk on Portraits and Professions, while I went and saw a talk on “A Wonderful Thing is a Phillips Machine”.

The Phillips Machine is an analogue computer, which runs on the flow of water.  It was build by an engineer after the 2nd world war to model the economy.  You could see the effect of changing the interest rates, government borrowing, savings, imports.  They were built in the 1950s.  Of fourteen build this and one in New Zealand are the only ones, which work.  Allan McRobie, a specialist in bridge design and dynamics gave the lecture and demonstrated the machine.  He had spent considerable energy in rebuilding the machine.

Next we had a tour of the Computer Laboratory on the West side.  We were shown some of the work, which is in progress at the university to do with new methods of interacting with a computer.

The first event of the afternoon was Question Time, chaired by BBC Edward Stourton.  The question was, “Where is it all going to end”.

Afterwards we saw a presentation by Sir Christopher Frayling about the image of Scientists in Movies.  Most of the examples were from older films, with very little from recent films.  Rosemary spoke to Christopher and was a bit dismayed that he had never seen the TV series CSI, where scientists are shown in a good light.

Tonight we managed an evening meal at the Galleria restaurant. First though a pint of beer, I had a very reasonable pint of Woodfords from Norfolk. We then went to the Galleria; we had eaten there two years ago on the balcony overlooking the river.  This year it was too cold to do that.  Reasonable meal, we started with a Tiger Prawn Salad and a Pastrami Salad.  Main course for Rosemary was Roasted Mushrooms, while I had Poached Monkfish.

Then it was back to college and bed.

Cambridge weekend – Friday

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Friday was the first day of the Cambridge University Alumni weekend.  We set off early (6.30), to beat the traffic and to book into Churchill College.  Arrived at Churchill with what we thought was plenty of time, but, the booking we had made seemed to have been lost, despite Rosemary sending a confirmation email a few days ago.  Luckily they still had some empty rooms, and we were eventually able to dump our stuff before going off to the Sidgwick site to register.

First visit was to the institute of Manufacturing on Mill Lane.  They are part of the Engineering department. We were welcomed by Mike Gregory, head of IfM, and then heard a talk from Finbarr Livesey.  The crux of the talk was, the country did not invest enough in R&D. Manufacturers who send their manufacture to low cost areas like China, should still manufacture some items in the home market.  If they did not, then their R&D would lose the skills required to design for cheap manufacture.  Oh and moving up the value chain, what was stopping the Chinese from doing the same.

We then had a demonstration of some robots, which are programmed by the students to perform tasks.

Afterwards we had a long lunch break wandering around Cambridge, before a tour of the Haddon Library in the faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology.  Here we were treated to a simple demonstration of reconstructing written words from shredded documents.

On the same Downing Street site we had a tour of the Archaeology and Anthropology museum.  The highlight for Rosemary and I was touching and feeling hand axes from a million years ago.  We also touched many artefacts from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and from Roman times.  They also had the bow and arrow made on the BBC program by Ray Mears.

Before the opening reception we had a quick punt along the backs.  Rosemary wanted a student to punt us, but instead she ended up with me.  I thought I did very well, keeping a straight line and only losing the punt once in the mud.  Unfortunately a couple at the reception saw me, and said I had been spotted by them losing the punt.  The other complaint was from Rosemary, who thought I knew little of the colleges we passed.

We went to the Reception in the Fitzwilliam Museum, where the new wing has been opened.  It was very smart.  There was an exhibition of impressionists, with several pictures from Monet, Degas, Bourdin, and Pissaro.  We met Peter Worsley and Catherine Side from the Berkshire Branch.  We also met John Moore from the Buckinghamshire Branch.

There were some lovely canapés, and oodles of wine to be drunk.

Couldn’t hang around after the end, as we had to rush over to Robinson College to listen to a stand-up comic called Neil Mullarkey.  Neil was educated at Robinson College, was president of Cambridge Footlights.  He has acted in a number of films (Austin Powers), several TV programs.  For his show he plays L.Vaughan Spencer, Life Coach, Self-Help Guru and Gangsta Motivator.  Kind of based on an Ali G type character.  He was rather amusing and did not descend into swearing.

A websites about Neil
http://www.thesucceeder.com

I think the glass of wine at the interval was very large, so after the show it was straight back to the college and bed without supper.  Thank goodness for the canapés.

Woodstock and Boarstall Tower

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This weekend we went into Woodstock.  Rosemary felt we had not been there for some years.  Checkout out some expensive antique shops, you can tell where the market is aimed at when you see the newsagent selling the Herald Tribune.

Afterwards into Oxford to sit in traffic jams for a long time.  Looking for more second hand shops, which we never found.

After visiting Woodstock and Oxford, we drove home across country.  As we passed the National Trust Boarstall Tower we saw it was open.  This is a superb gatehouse to Boarstall House, which was demolished in 1778.  The owner had decided the house was evil.  The tower is rented out to a tenant for over £4,500 a month, but is available for guided tours on Saturday.  The tower is bounded by a moat on three sides.  The fourth side had been filled in many years before.

Grape with RBS

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Tuesday, today back in my hotel at the Rutland.  Before the hotel, I met up with Shelley Ward, Simon Stone Neil Saunders and Ed Aldridge in the Grape for a few pints of shandy.  Another one of those Edinburgh pubs created from a banking hall.  I’m afraid it was a very much liquid supper tonight.

Staying with Ed Aldridge

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Monday, a workday.  Good weather.  Today there would be no hotel for me.  Edinburgh was totally booked up.

Tonight I was staying with Ed Aldridge,  I had my sleeping bag with me in preparation.  Payment by Cedar was for me to buy Ed a meal, so we went to the Siam Thani Restaurant on Broughton Street.  This is quite close to his flat.  The weather despite being fine was quite cold in the evening.

Started with a mixed platter of  Thai foods, called the Thani Platter, then I had a Tom Yum soup, followed by a Gra Paro.

All this was washed down with several Singha Beers.

Stopped off at a pub on the way back for a pint of beer, then back to the flat for a sleep on the couch.

Sunday and off to Edinburgh and the Santorini

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No rest for the wicked this Sunday.  Up early to catch a flight to Edinburgh.  They wanted me in to do an enhancement, which was due to go live the next week.  Despite the scheduled departure being earlier than a weekday, I was in the office later.

Worked late until after 19.00 on the problem, then went out for a meal.  Found this Greek restaurant on Broughton Street I had been meaning to go to for months.  Now was my chance, other side of town to where the end of festival firework display, so it was empty.

Nice meal of mezzos, (meat balls, stuffed vine leaves, and feta with spinach in filo).  Followed by Greek coffee and Ouzo.

Back to the Rutland for a night, fighting my way through the end of firework crowds.  The whole of Princes Street had been cordoned off, and was now being cleaned by the street cleaners in preparation for reopening.

Cannons Ashby

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Lovely warm sunny day, so decided to go and visit a National Trust site.  Chose Cannons Ashby Home of the Dryden Family. Manor House containing Elizabethan wall paintings & Jacobean plaster work, formal gardens, medieval church and parkland.

Poets Day at RBS

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Into work by 7.30, never checked my emails, straight into problem solving.  As the day progressed it was decided we would not sort out one area of the problem.  As I was leaving it was suddenly decided that this area should be looked at after all.  So the inevitable request came in, was I available on Sunday to do the code changes for testing on Monday.

I agreed and the arrangements were made, as I rushed to the airport to fly home. It looks like the hotel is going to be out at the airport at some phenomenal price.  My cheap hotel has let me down by not having a room on Tuesday night.  Oh bother.

Oh and I need never have rushed, as I am writing this, the flight is delayed by over an hour.  I have also never seen such a long queue of people arriving at Edinburgh, and never such a long queue for people flying on Easyjet.

Well unless something else major happens, you will know that I am at least late home, but nothing else major occurred.