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April 9 2013April 8 2013

DC Day Four

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.

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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.

April 8 2013April 8 2013

DC Day Three

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.

April 8 2013April 8 2013

Washington DC Panoramas

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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April 7 2013April 7 2013

DC Day Two

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.

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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.

April 6 2013October 8 2022

DC Day One

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:

SR-71A Blackbird
Orbiter Discovery
The Enola Gay [I know!]
F-14 Tomcat
A-6 Intruder
The second ever Pitts Special

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?

March 16 2013March 16 2013

They Just Don’t Make Them Like That Anymore

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!

March 15 2013March 15 2013

Cold Morning

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):

March 11 2013

I Think It’s A Porsche

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!

March 5 2013March 6 2013

It’s Just Right

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?

March 5 2013March 5 2013

Crocus

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:

March 4 2013March 4 2013

Too Much Milk

I think there’s too much milk in this fridge door!

March 3 2013March 3 2013

Not Green Fingers

Just spent a wonderfully pleasant hour with #1 son sowing seeds in the garden. We tidied the vegetable patch and got rid of the weeds and then planted this year’s selection of veg. It’s going to be carrots, parsnips and chillies. I don’t think the chillies are going to survive the cold so I’ll get some more and grow them inside.

We also read the instructions for the tomatoes and are actually going to grow them inside. They are on the kitchen window sill.

March 1 2013March 11 2014

Wow, A Castle!

This morning I might have been having a cheeky couple of laps on Gran Turismo 5. I was possibly attempting to win one of the seasonal events (which for some reason I find quite tricky).
While racing around the GT Original track I noticed a castle in the background. I was so fascinated by this that for a few laps I couldn’t really concentrate on the track. The castle is a rather good looking building and really adds to the atmosphere. Sometimes I wonder whether game designers have bets about the most ludicrous things they can add!

Screen #1:

Screen #2

These two screen grabs were taken using the LG remote app on my iPhone that has a capture function!

February 22 2013March 5 2013

Too Early (part one)

For too long now I have been an early adopter of new technology [funds dependent]. Sometimes this has caused me issues of new tech surpassing me and then I feel a little left out.

I think the earliest part of trend setting in which I was involved was roller-blading. I know my mum was rather unhappy that I asked for a set of rollerblades (by Bauer) for my 20th birthday. I think she would have preferred that I got an iron or something else sensible. But, I was at university and wasn’t thinking about setting up kit for real-life and houses and things. I practised on the roller-blades during the Easter break from college so I was able to GO|STOP|TURN before I went back to halls. I was one of the first students on rollerblades and one of the first people to rollerblade around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Jason and I would rollerblade around London for an afternoon trying to find the smoothest pavements. It was a good time and I felt as though we were starting something big. In the next few years rollerblading really took off.

In my fourth year at college, a sabbatical year rather than a four year degree, I bought a NICAM Stereo video cassette recorder and linked it up to my new hi-fi amplifier. Watching Star Wars on a 21″ 4:3 CRT television with two hundred watts of sound power blasting out was brilliant and an excellent investment. I remember watching Fry and Laurie on TV and they had a sketch where they played the sound of a telephone ringing. In the early-mid nineties all telephones sounded the same and were plugged into the wall. Whenever they played this effect it sounded as though my phone was ringing! To make the point they put a small picture (now called an icon) in the corner of the television picture whenever they played this sound to save us mere mortals getting up and trying to answer the phone. It was a wonderful piece of television and technology.

Coming up soon in this list of things I-have-bought-before-the-technology-was-mature are HD TV, Speaker docks, wi-fi, mobile phones, pro-logic decoder.

February 20 2013

Latest iPhone Background

Here’s a picture that I have as my latest iphone background. I got it from the Hubble app. It’s just gorgeous.

February 10 2013March 11 2014

Is That It?

After playing for a long time I have finally got to 900 cars in my Gran Turismo 5 garage. This represents a large amount of effort and time playing. Also, the process for buying cars in the dealership is laborious and boring.
All I get for reaching nine HUNDRED cars is a bonus colour and car horn! I don’t even customise my cars with these.
Some money or game points would have been rather better!