"Nothing but the rain"
What happens when you ask a four year old to pick a present for his seventy one year old granddad? This:
Fair enough I guess. #1 wasn’t interested in getting Granddad a book and thought he would like these diggers. Granddad took these home so that my sons can play with them when we visit.
My last day in Washington DC! I knew I’d be leaving for the airport at around 19:30 so I had all day and plenty more to see. Another sunny day in DC and slightly warmer than the last week or so.
Got up, had coffee and then prepared for another run. I hadn’t seen the World War II memorial so far and that was my destination for today.
On the run I saw a coast guard helo. My helicopter total for the trip was as follows:
Back to Georgetown and time to get ready for a busy day. I had lunch organised at midday and so I wandered in to town at about 11. I was planning to get the metro from Foggy Bottom and go two stops to McPherson Square but I had plenty of time and so kept going on foot. I got to 14th and Eye just on time and walked a little further to The Hamilton bar for lunch.
After a Hamilton burger for lunch I walked towards the Newseum. I hadn’t quite decided whether to go there or the National Museum of American History. I happened to wander past the FBI Headquarters building and didn’t blag my way in to that place. I figured if I wanted to see inside I could try and get arrested somewhere, although that would probably not be worth the effort. I like my body cavities as they are!
I saw a sign indicating Ford’s Theatre and so I walked to see that. There were many many school children waiting outside. I understand, it’s the place of assassination.
I decided that the Newseum would wait and so I walked to the Museum of American History. Half of the museum was shut for the year to be refurbished which was a shame. I saw the original flag that inspired the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner and some pieces of American History. Again, much like the Natural History Museum, I have a feeling that we do museums far better than the Americans and it all seemed a little “not quite the nation’s museum” even though it was.
I headed for the National Aquarium close to the White House and waited in line to be searched and pay my entry fee of USD10. I’m glad it was only a small amount of money as the Aquarium was pretty rubbish. The London Aquarium is far superior. Apparently there is a branch of this aquarium in Baltimore and I would hope that one is much better. Maybe another trip.
It was time to start wandering back to GT. I was feeling a touch peckish and thirsty and I wanted more coffee so I found a bar on M street in GT. Mr Smith’s saloon fed me coffee, buffalo chicken sandwich and a Goose Island beer.
Much refreshed it was now cupcake time. There are two shops in Georgetown that feature in their own TV shows on some small time channels. I though it might be worth buying a cake from there however, the queue was around the block and I don’t like cupcakes enough to wait that long. Instead I had a muffin and coffee from Saxbys.
Packing my suitcase in Winfield Lane was methodical and calming and then I played some guitar hero Metallica while I waited for Rich to come home from work. The journey to the airport was uneventful and the flight home was boring. I tried to sleep but don’t think I managed it.
It was great to see my boys and spend the next few days with them in the UK.
On this sunny day spent in the capital city of the United States Of America I had an appointment with a Segway tour company. I had to walk to Foggy Bottom. I could have ridden in a cab or bus but the weather was nice although blowy and walking means you see so much more. It’s also free! I arrived about an hour early and so I went to a coffee shop, ordered a ciabatta sandwich which came with crisps and drank a caramel macchiato coffee. The coffee was lovely and might become my standard although I am reminded of a former colleague’s t-shirt that said “Latte means you’ve paid too much for your coffee”.
I proceeded to the Segway Tour offices and signed all the relevant disclaimers and bought some water to take on my tour. We had some instruction from Rory, the female tour guide, and although I was quite happy once on the Segway I wasn’t very good at getting on and off. I needed a little extra help to do that, although I didn’t care. Better that than falling on my arse! Once everyone was ready we visited the following buildings and monuments:
All of these were stunning and beautiful buildings or monuments. It was well worth the money to experience the Segway and see these sights. Really good value.
After the tour I needed some food and also wanted to see the White House a little closer so I walked to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and took some pictures of the front of the White House or the North Face. It’s quite small in comparison to the other buildings in the area but much bigger than Number 10 Downing St. Although really the comparison should be made with the official residence of our Head of State which is Buckingham Palace. I could see the West Wing and plenty of people milling in and out of security. I didn’t think it worth the risk to blag my way in. There was a sniper on the roof!
I bought a hotdog from a street vendor and headed to the National Museum of Natural History. It was, again, a lovely building but I think I may have been spoilt in the UK with our museums. I didn’t think the museum anything special although I guess it is probably the best of its kind in the USA. Science and natural history are definitely the way to go people. The museum was ok. Lots of families there again as it was spring break.
I wandered back home and met Kate at around 4. Sorted out my photo uploads and then waited for Mr O to return so we could get to the baseball game.
I had bought some tickets for the baseball as we were hoping to meet some friends there, as it happened we didn’t managed to speak to each other but it was really well worth going to the Nats ballpark. We arrived just as the game was starting after trying to find a left turn way into the parking and having whistles blown at us and lots of waving hands but no instructions about an alternative route. I found that just a little rude! It turns out that baseball is a lot like cricket. Not a lot happens in quite a long time. The Americans just sit and eat and drink and occasionally cheer. Pretty similar to cricket. It’s a game full of statistics (like cricket) and involves trying to hit a ball thrown at around 90 mph. We should import cricket and regain our colonial rule! I saw someone reach 1st, 2nd and 3rd base. Also saw a home run by a Nats pitcher, Gio Gonzalez. The Nats won the game against the Miami Marlins by 3 to 0. We drove home and just went to bed. It had been quite a busy day.
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Tuesday morning in DC and I decide to run to the Pentagon. Now, I’m in the top left bit of Georgetown and so this was going to be a biggy. I headed straight down 35st NW and over the Key Bridge. From there I had to find a footpath by the Potomac and that took a little while. Once down by the river I had a short diversion onto T. Roosevelt Island to see his memorial and then carried on my way to the Pentagon. I got reasonably close and was impressed with its great size. I also could see the Air Force memorial in the distance but decided if I ran there I probably wouldn’t make it back to Winfield Lane so passed on that one. I ran over a bridge to the Lincoln Memorial again and then headed home. A lovely chilly morning and a really enjoyable run.
Upon my return and shower in Georgetown it was apparent that we were running slightly late for our scheduled Capitol tour time of 11:40. A cab was hailed and we arrived to join the queues [line] at the Capitol Visitors Centre. A quick search and metal detector later and we were in the line for our pre-booked tour passes. Some “locals” weren’t too happy about a foreigner having been able to book a tour but I didn’t care, the website allowed me to do it. To be honest I had just bought some of their currency and was spending my foreign money everywhere, they couldn’t have been more lucky!
The Capitol building is lovely, stunning, beautiful and massive. It’s also a long way from the Lincoln Memorial. In fact everywhere in DC is a long way from everywhere. I’m quite jealous of a country that has so much space. The tour took us into the rotunda and then the former house of representatives. The Brits might have got the blame for burning down the building in 1814 which in all fairness is fair as we did! Just a wonderful space.
Through the tunnel to the Library of Congress and WOW. Perhaps one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen in a long time. Such wonder. I loved the quotations around the main hall. My favourite being:
Science shall inform books and not books science.
Funny how the religious right are trying to gain control of the laws of the country where God is absolutely NOT mentioned in the Constitution.
Folloing this we walked to the National Air and Space Museum on The Mall. It was nice to see the X-15-1 on display along with the Apollo XI Command Module. That and an F-104 just about made my day. The problem with the museum was how busy it was. Spring break in the USA sure brought the tourists out. I could only manage two hours and then needed to get out!
We caught a cab to Georgetown and I bought an Up by Jawbone iPhone thing to moniter how much I move. Then we walked back to Winfield Lane.
Tonight’s dinner was fajitas and Rich and I rounded a lovely day off playing Metallica Guitar Hero.
On the evening of my first day in DC Rich and I worked out a plan of action. This would allow Kate to organise food and other such sundries. Monday, Day Three, is a trip along the Skyline Drive of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Luray Caverns.
We set off after rush hour so we weren’t delayed on the way. There were some signs along the freeway informing us that our speed was being monitored by aircraft. I find this somewhat interesting. I’m not sure it’s possible. The only thing I can think they do is track vehicles for a set distance and then radio ahead for a patrol car to interdict. I doubt they can track a vehicle and get a good identification of the vehicle at the same time. One would require distance flying and the other close flying. Doesn’t matter, I’m not going to find out.
For this trip I decided to wear an evolution t-shirt [although it does have man evolving into Tim Minchin]. It wasn’t deliberate, and essentially probably an accident heading out into the Virginia countryside wearing a pro-evolution shirt. I also removed my Atheist pin, no sense in pushing the locals.
The weather was a bit dull and overcast. But this did not detract from the views along the road. We could see a reasonable distance and also saw plenty of Turkey Vultures flying the thermals and updrafts. Lunch was a most excellent picnic organised by Kate at Elkwallow picnic site. The toilet there was a rather spectacular hole in the ground surrounded by a prefabricated building – real countryside! Lunch was a lovely chicken roll and crisps followed by coffee in china cups. You don’t get much better than that!
From Elkwallow we followed the road to pass through the 600 foot Mary’s Rock Tunnel and then turned around to head to Luray and the caverns.
These caverns were spectacular. The tour was really well organised and everywhere was accessible (this is for Americans though), our guide was knowledgeable and delivered well. Some of the sights were really impressive. Just the time it takes for stalactites and stalagmites to grow was awe inspiring. The biggest cavern had a mechanical organ that played a hymn. The notes were created using hammers to hit certain stalactites and the vibrations picked up using a solenoid and then amplified. The sound was a wonderfully natural calm sound, not like my usual musical tastes!
Our return to DC took about an hour and a half with some reasonable traffic on the freeway.
That night we ate at Ruth’s Chris Steak House out at Tysons Corner. It was a nice meal and the dessert, chocolate explosion, was particularly worth it. Such a wonderful day.
I’ve finally become really grateful for the iPhone 5. Not only does it have the storage space I require but the panorama photo option is excellent. Hence, this page of some of the panoramas I took on my DC trip [are you bored of this yet? I’ve got 21 years of “when I was in America” to make up for].
This is the river Potomac from Georgetown Harbour to the Key Bridge.
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This is the National Air and Space Museum – the Udvar-Hazy Extension.
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Space Shuttle (orbiter really) Discovery
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Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
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Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument
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Skyline Drive View
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Theodore Roosevelt
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The Capitol
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The White House, West Wing and Government Building
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Nats versus the Marlins
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Ford’s Theatre
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The second communication in a series of not many giving you the highlights of my trip to DC during the Easter break 2013.
This being the USA and me being a big eater of food, I decided to bring my running stuff, just in case I wanted to go for a jog. As it happens DC is a wonderful place to run and I might one day start a business doing jogging tours [not going to happen!].
On the sunday morning I woke up early and so went for a jog. The plan was to head through the woods down to the Potomac and then turn left and see where I would end up after about 2.5 to 3 miles. I jogged past the Watergate hotel and could then see the Lincoln Memorial, so I just decided to get there and attempt to run back. If I run more than 10k my body starts to break so I was a little worried about the distance I was going. It was well worth the effort and time.
After showering and breakfast, Rich and I headed to Nasa Goddard, aware it was Easter Sunday but according to the website they should be open. The weather was not brilliant but it was nice to be chatting and seeing more of the city. The car park at Goddard seemed rather empty and so it proved that the place was shut. Bugger. So we headed to Arlington.
Arlington Cemetery is one of those places that are fascinating to visit but leave you feeling bad about humanity and what we do to each other. We saw JFK’s grave and also the Lee house on the hill. The Pentagon was just peeking through the mist and rain now and then it it is HUGE. A reasonable walk took us to the United States Marine Corps Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, and the size of that is breath-taking. Just incredibly large. All of the places we saw are huge. I think everyone feels so comfortable with Washington DC because they have seen it on TV and film that they don’t realise just how much space and how big everything is. That and I come from quite a small island just off Europe which has no space and small twisty roads even in the cities.
We drove back home via Safeway and Barnes and Noble, where I bought my postcards and then we had lasagne for dinner. The evening was filled with Guitar Hero and Rock Band playing. Nice to have someone to share a game with. We mostly played Metallica guitar hero.
This and the following communications will be a brief summary of my time in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. I won’t go into excrutiating detail, except possibly for the aircraft [come-on, I’m an aircraft geek].
I flew out from Heathrow, T5, on the 17:30 British Airways flight to Dulles it was a Boeing 777. I got bumped up to Premium Economy class which was nice and then did a seat swap so a family could sit together, this saved me and my new neighbour hours next to babies. The flight was wonderful [it says earlier I’m an aircraft geek] and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Upon arrival at Dulles, Rich was there to pick me up and question me about the flight. We drove home to Georgetown and had some rum and coke. Ended up sleeping at about 5am my time but did well and woke the next day feeling good.
After breakfast we drove past many sights to pick up Mazza and son from Union Station and from there we went the the Udvar-Hazy Extension to the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space Flight.
The extenstion part of the museum is absolutely, really excellent, so much space and so many aircraft of all types. The highlights:
After lunch and more geekdom we eventually drove back to Winfield Lane and had some drinks before taking Mazza and son to the railway station. We drove past more of the sights which will all be mentioned later in further communications. Dinner that first proper night in DC was a curry at the Taj of India in Georgetown, what else would three Brits end up eating?
No, not the town in Kent. What I mean by sandwich is what most of you would think about straight away. Food! Now, I like bread and I like fillings in bread and hence I like to eat sandwiches. However, I am rather fed up at being made to feel as though I am greedy when sandwiches are on offer. Here’s an explanation.
At Home
If I make a sandwich at home I will use four slices of bread and make two sandwiches, or in proper terms, two rounds of sandwich. A round of sandwiches is what I would call a sandwich and has two pieces of bread.
In A Shop
If I buy a sandwich in a shop it normally comes in a triangular prism package and contains one round of sandwich cut diagonally with all the filling showing. This makes it look like there is a lot of filling, but there isn’t, it’s all pushed towards the middle of the bread and hence on display. It is socially acceptable to buy one of these packets but not two, that would be greedy but equal to what I would make at home.
At An Hotel
If you eat sandwiches from a buffet then they are normally single rounds of sandwich cut into quarters.
Now, I will grant you that the filling tends to be a little thicker and substantial that the supermarket offering but there is a social awareness problem when deciding how many quarters to put on a plate (or how many “returns” to the buffet are acceptable). If I eat two rounds of sandwich at home and I expect to be able to eat the same amount when out then I will put 8 quarters of sandwich on my plate. This looks greedy and also restricts what other items can also be placed on the buffet plate. It would seem socially acceptable to place four quarters on a plate (although this looks a little greedy being a male ape I tend to get away with this). This means I need to make two trips to the buffet table to ensure I have eaten what I would consider a polite amount. Socially this a mine-field and deserves more academic in-depth study. The social pressures of buffet eating should be considered when designing the food and perhaps, one day, mankind will break through this glass ceiling of the sandwich/buffet trip dilemma.
Image credits: Tesco and some blog.
Here’s the latest addition to the Lego collection. A Lego City sports car and breakdown truck. All glued and lovely.
It doesn’t have to be said, but I’m going to say it anyway. Those Victorians really knew how to build lovely buildings. Just look at the ceiling in this cafe area of the Natural History Museum!
It was a touch cold the other morning. I know it gets colder elsewhere in the world but I live in the south-east of the UK where it’s not often this cold. The worst I knew was -10 Celsius, both the dog and I felt a bit cold that morning!
Car in the cold (spot the engine insulation lines):
Although I understand the connection between sponsorship and sport, especially in the USA, I was somewhat surprised to see a Porsche on the tennis court at the ATP Delray Beach Competition. If you look carefully you can see two people sitting in the car. I guess they are either the dealership owners or winners of a competition. I guess they’d be ok if they have the air conditioning on!
I thought I’d seen it all!
I have officially started a new meme. Whether it will get very far I don’t know, but I’m going to try. Last week I had mentioned to my department that we should introduce the acronym WTF when marking. We would have to do this bit by bit, starting with the full term:
Write The Formula
After about a term or so of general use within the department we would then be able to abbreviate the phrase to WTFormula and finally WTF. I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be any problem doing that!
We also use the following acronyms; RTQ and RTFQ. These stand for:
Read The Question
and, obviously:
Read The Full Question
sometimes it’s essential to make your point properly.
While at a course, last Thursday, for people like me I mentioned these things and some others wrote them down. I hope, but don’t expect, these terms to make the zeitgeist sometime in the next 10 years. Now, there’s a prediction we can test!
Just in case anyone reading this wants to buy it, I have a home cinema amplifier up for sale. If you can collect it and pay me GBP50 then you can have it. It’s a Sony STRDG-910. I do not have any speakers for you, you’ll have to get them yourself.
Here’s the gumpf I have collected about it:
For Sale
Home Cinema Amplifier £50
Looking for a bit more bang for your buck?
Buy this 700W 7.1 Sony Amplifier (no speakers supplied)
Sony STR-DG910
Feature packed High Definition home cinema receiver with HDMI, autocalibration for easy set-up and BRAVIA Theatre Sync for one-push button operation. Also listen via the DMPORT connection to all audio files stored on your Walkman, mobile phone or laptop.
Features
Future-proof HDMI connection (3 In/1 Out) to bridge multiple High Definition sources to Flat TVs/Home Cinema Projectors without any picture/audio quality loss.
Digital Cinema Autocalibration – just place the microphone on your couch and plug it into the receiver. The receiver adjusts automatically the perfect surround sound according to your room and speaker set-up.
BRAVIA Theatre Sync functionality, The feature enables you to operate your home cinema system just by pushing one single button if connected with BRAVIA TV.
DIGITAL MEDIA PORT (DMPORT) connectivity. Just plug in any of the 4 available DMPORTs and enjoy your audio files from your Walkman, mobile phone or laptop.
Video Up-conversion to HDMI. You will need only one HDMI cable to your TV and just switch the video sources on your receiver.
8-channel Linear PCM for High Definition sound from Blu-ray discs. Enjoy 7.1 sound in CD-quality for each channel.
1080p pass through – HD film quality passed to screen with no loss in quality
Discrete 6 channels with equally 100W (+subwoofer) for powerful home entertainment.
All relevant surround formats are supported: Dolby® Digital / DTS / Dolby® Digital EX / DTS-ES (Matrix/Discrete) / DTS 96/24 / DTS NEO:6 / Dolby® Pro Logic / Dolby® Pro Logic II / Dolby® Pro Logic IIx / Dolby® Dual Mono /96k/24Bit PCM
Sony’s Proprietary Digital Cinema Sound (developed together with Sony Pictures) to bring the sound from the best cinemas to your living room.
This text is probably (c) Sony as I lifted it from their website.
This Fooyah Communication concerns the weather and cars. It does not concern the fact that my car doesn’t like starting if the temperature is below 2 Celsius and nor does it concern the run of cold weather recently. I also have not done any controlled, scientific tests to confirm my observations but I would be interested in doing so.
Observation:
When there is a frost and the cars in my street have ice on the windows the side of the car that is closest to the buildings has less or zero ice.
Hypothesis:
One side of the car is warmer than the other resulting in less ice.
Mechanism:
The nearby buildings radiate heat and keep that side of the car warmer or slow its loss of heat.
Pretty picture:
Cars parked in the road in position A have less ice on the SW facing side which is nearest the buildings in the street. Cars parked in position B have less ice on the NW side which is closest to the buildings there. It is not a phenomenon to do with the sun as both of these positions are shaded from the sun’s rays in the early morning and there isn’t any sun when I go out to the car in the deep dark midwinter.
Most of the houses in these streets were built around 1880 and so have brick-thick walls and no cavities to insulate. Therefore they radiate the heat energy of the house quite efficiently. I need to park my car outside a modern house with cavity insulation to see what effect that has on the frost of the car.
Some not-very-sciency-maths-stuff:
I have made a huge number of simplifcations in the following calculations but the order of the result will be about correct and if it isn’t then I am sure that one of the F5 +1 will let me know. Essentially I have estimated the amount of energy lost by the air in my whole house and have assumed that about one third goes through the front of the building (the roof is quite well insulated). I have also assumed that the bricks of the house will lose some heat over the night and that this is radiated out although some will be radiated in. Then the car absorbs the energy without any loss. Basically, the final answer is a big ISH.
So the car absorbs about a couple of Watts per metre squared. That seems about right, but what do I know? Thermodynamics freaked me out at college!
Once a fortnight is just about the correct frequency.
Private Eye is a fortnightly news magazine to which I subscribe. It’s possibly the only newspaper willing to spread the truth and print what is going on. It’s quite frightening really just how corrupt and dodgy most organisations and societies are. Maybe corrupt is the norm and I’m just hoping for an idealised society that can never exist? The other magazine I subscribe to is Scientific American.
In the same week that I receive Private Eye the Merseyside Skeptics Society release their podcast called Skeptics With A K. It’s a show about an hour long which features three normal (ish) guys chatting about skeptical items that interest them. There’s a bit of swearing and a reasonable amount of poking fun at people but it is very interesting and I learn a lot.
Both these subscriptions arrive in the same week and have for a few years, even allowing for the Christmas break they have. Each new year I wonder if the synchronicity will be altered but I haven’t found so this far. Perhaps it’s deliberate?
Saw this earlier today in the sunshine and it warmed me through. So nice to see spring flowers and sunshine. It’s been rather grey for the last few months.
A garden in Kent:
I think there’s too much milk in this fridge door!
As an encouragement to one of my classes today I decided I would declare them as a genius on this website if they produced a scattergraph that looks better than mine. The criteria I used were:
The following pupils succeeded and are therefore declared geniuses:
Ed
Louis
Leo
George W
Cameron
Stewart
James
Note: genius should only be taken to mean able to draw a graph.