Neither Hail, nor...

Ciaran and I headed back to Whitelee today for what was planned to be a longer cycle. We decided to turn left once we got back to the spine road and head up towards the Drum Duff group of turbines. Depending on what the conditions were like we hoped to rejoin the spine road at turbine 79 or maybe even 115 (see map) and then return along the spine road.
Since the visitor centre has just reopened we brought lunch with the knowledge that we could get hot drinks if needed. By the time we left Troon it had just started to rain, but since it had been bright all morning we figured it would blow through, and it did.
It was near one by the time we actually started to cycle. I think I prefer starting from the spine road - you don't have the ski jump start from the visitor centre to turbine 40 and you don't have to end with that climb back up. It was quite windy but with the sun out it didn't seem so cold.
By the time we got tot he steep fast descent between 71 and 87 Ciaran was in good form and headed down the hill at good speed, with me behind him. At the bottom its gets quite rough with large fist sized rocks across the path. The plan is to go through it at a fast enough pace that you don't fall, keeping a light grip on the handle bars, and bouncing through the rough. As I watched, Ciaran bum left the seat and the bike left the ground. He headed left while the bike went right. Before I could call out all had come back together and landed and continued up the other side. I came along side and asked how he was "terrified but good fun".
We continued on our was from 88 to 29 which I think is the bleakest, most exposed bit of the trip. Sure enough it began to spit rain the droplets like ball bearings pushed by the wind. Luckily, that didn't last long - it turned into hail and we had to shelter. of course there was nowhere to shelter so Ciaran simply huddles in front of me while my back took the brunt of the showers.

Once we started off again Ciaran said that it was a bit too cold for him and could we just head back to the visitor centre. Of course we were exactly at the halfway point of our normal route so we simply agreed to head back to the car and not further into the windfarm. The trip down the spine road was difficult with the wind as strong as it was but at least it didn't rain (or hail) again.
Sadly our final run up the hill towards the visitor centre was spoiled for Ciaran by pedestrians - despite the good surface he couldn't get enough speed to get him far enough up the other side and had to walk the final little bit - he still needs to figure out how his gears work and how to best manage them.
All in all a great day with me very proud of his ability.
As we were packing the car to go home we bumped into Fiona's brother, his wife and daughter just heading out for their cycle - lets hope they didn't get any hail.

We also saw this rather odd trike. The guy got it down from the car and set it up. He seemed to steer by leaning and I couldn't see how he would pedal it, until he took a pair of huskies out of the car and tethered them into the harness.

Whitelees sheds a blade

Was out at Whitelees with Fiona on Saturday morning.
On the way in we noticed that none of the turbines were spinning with any great speed. Most were stopped but a couple were turning lazily in the wind. We initially thought that the wind speed was simply too low to spin the blades but re visited that decision when we turned to cycle into the wind. We did notice a turbine with only 2 blades and wondered if that had something to do with it.

I mentioned it to a few guys once I got back into the office and it turns out that the turbine shed a blade at about 0200 on Saturday morning, about 10 hours before we got there. The entire site was shut down while they investigated the cause. At least that makes sense, by the time we had finished cycling we could see staff working on the turbine nearest the damaged one.

After the Snow

The snow is finally away from Whitelee and Ciaran and I headed out for a cycle. He has never been cross country and was keen to see what its like.
I noticed through the week that the normal entrance is not available - they seem to be increasing the car park. That's good news as the car park was way too small, but we will have to go in via the spine road rather than the visitor centre.
Its amazing to see the place without all the snow. It was totally covered only 10 days ago, but apart from the reservoir still having some ice and a few isolated snow patches, you would never know. The roads aren't even all that wet!

 Given that Ciaran has never been off road he did really well. He took it easy down the first descent but opened up on the second one. There is a lot of loose rock and the surface is not good - he did well to keep control. He was more impressed when we got round to the other side and could see the hill we came down.

The H[ouse] is alive to the sound of music

I was sitting on the sofa one night. There was nothing particular I wanted to watch so i decided to put on some music. Rather than using my micro system I decided to use my mp3 player as it has other music which I've downloaded on it and the micro system pre dates mp3, CDRW and the whole DRM issue.
While I was listening to my music it occurred to me that I was using a huge amount of storage for the CDs I had on display. Everything on the shelves, and in the unit beside me, and the music I'd bought online all fit onto my mp3 player, which was only the size of half a deck of cards. There has to be new stereos with built in hard drives which can free up all this storage. If an mp3 player with 16Gb, FM radio and colour screen costs less than £100 18 months ago then there should be some nice systems on the market.
Only there's not.
Why? Apple have killed the stereo market. They have developed the iPod dock which allows an ipod to connect to a stereo and have its music played through the system, in a managed way. Of course I can connect my mp3 to the stereo via the line in but I have to pump the volume up and it drains the battery.
So is there anything other than Apple? Its seems that there is little choice. There is a cheap system but it has a locked in hard disk - I would have to rip all my discs again and there is no way to transfer tracks on or off the disk. There is the Brennan machines (very nice and tempting) but they lack a radio, not that i listed to the radio that much, but if I was replacing the AM/FM, CD, cassette player it had to be with more than just a CD player. Sony had just what i wanted but none were in stock n the entire western Scottish region (plus at over £800 it wasn't happening).
Since I had already ripped the music why didn't I just stream from my pc? The main reason is that the pc is about as far from green as you can go. Since my mp3 gives 18 hours playback from a single charge can I justify the CO2 generating pc being on just to push music out to another device?
USB support was my one hope. Many new stereos have a usb port where you can connect a thumb drive and have it play the music. I would take a drive with a sample of music and test the local systems. By now a few months have passed and there is less choice than ever in the shops. Most machines i looked would play the music as loaded onto the thumb drive's folder system. One system did however scan the drive and offer tracks according to artist, genre and album. So I went for it, the Phillips Streamium station. As it was ex display I got it cheaper but without a box or manual. I got it home and set it all up and have been quite pleased - until I downloaded the manual and found out that its the centre I really want as it has a hard disk I can push tracks onto.  A quick look shows this is a £600 plus expense, if it was available which is seems not to be. Ebay is a friend and I managed to actually get the centre cheaper than I got the station.
Once it arrived I set it all up but it seems to work best if you can network it to a pc as the control software is all pc based. Off we went for a wireless router for the house and with remarkable little difficulty I had a new network set up. The Pc and the centre are wired to the router, while the station upstairs in my bedroom and my netbook are both wirelessly connected. The xbox is now also wired into the net for its uploads. I can listed to music from the stereo which is stored on its hard drive. I can wirelessly transmit that to the station upstairs to listed to the same music or an internet radio station.
The only thing I can't seem to get is FM reception but who listens to radio...

Even More Training...

Its the first dry weekend that Ciaran is with me ( and not away skiing in the Alps or camping in the Highlands) so we have a cycling weekend planned. A run with Fiona into Irvine today and a trek around Whitelees for the boys tomorrow. Well that was the plan. It snowed again on Wednesday, pretty much all day. It was thawing but more snow on Thursday night/friday seems to have made Whitelees not an option. Still we had today.
Although it was a nice looking morning it was cold, especially with the moist breeze. Of course, that normally would be an excuse for going fast. We could see the amount of snow on Arran and at the windfarm over by Dalry and figured that Whitelees would be worse.
We ended up being out jut over 90 minutes for the 13 mile run, but that was over fairly flat terrain.
Back to the house for soup, crusty bed and hot tea (coffee and hot chocolate for the others)

There is now only about 8 weeks til the Maggies event and active fundraising has to begin. I will have to print out the sponsor form and start harassing the badminton crowd! Being older, they won't like using the online sponsor form at http://www.justgiving.com/tuvnel-maggies-team-2010
(subtle hint for those who I cannot physically accost)

Training Continues

Out for another bike run this morning (its saturday so morning is anything before 1400). The numbers are getting lesser and lesser - today there were only two of us. We decided on a short sharp run as both of us have plans for this evening.
It was a glorious day up on the moor. Its still a bit wet from the winter, but since its built on bog I don't really expect it to ever properly dry out. Winds were low and coming from the north east (as opposed to our normal south westerly prevailing wind, but NE wind is cold and dry while SW wind is warm and wet)

Of course, I forgot to bring my map with me, but I felt we could manage. Off we set but within a few minutes we had a route problem. I felt we should have gone left instead of right. Colin had a map, we checked and turned back only to find that the left led down to a single turbine with no route out. We were right all along. So we retraced our steps and continued on our way.
For some reason all the gates were open today which made it much easier - going over the cattle grids at high (ish) speed is better than having to navigate the spring loaded pedestrian gates.
It was quite busy also, i guess the dry warm (for this time of year and location) weather brought everyone out.
At the end of the day we did 8.25 miles in 53 minutes. This is an average of just over 9 miles an hour. Its an improvement on last week (but not over the same course) but as we spent more time on the tracks rather then the spine road I'm happy to count it as an improvement.
I'm still not confident on the rough surface. Some of the rocks are quite big! I know you are supposed to just bounce over them but I can't help but keep close rein on my brakes keeping my speed down. This then compromises me on the next climb. Live and learn I suppose.

Maggies Lunch

Since the Maggies Monster Bike and Walk is a fund raising event the team decided to hold a fund raising lunch. Team members would bring in items for lunch and the rest of the staff would support us by showing up and buying lunch and raffle tickets.
Stretching myself to my limits, I made a chocolate and vanilla marble cake which I was very proud of.

 

There was a great spread of food - soups, cold meats, green salads, pasta salads, rice salads, curry, chilli, sausage rolls, pakora,  crisps, crunchy veg, salsa, dips, cakes and a chocolate fountain.

A great afternoon was held by all.

And we raised over £300, so we're that much closer to our target.

Dermot 1 - Whitelees 1

Out today on the bikes for training session 2. Maggies (the 30 mile bike ride and up to 50 mile walk, but I only plan to do 8, Bronze) is coming up soon and my quick runs up to Irvine with Fiona or Ciaran are not providing me with the off road, hill climbing in mud that seems to be required.
Whitelees is the preferred training ground. The new windfarm boasts over 90km of track which closely approximates what we should find at the maggies event.

 

The first time I was out was before Christmas (middle of November actually). It was a miserable wet windy (windfarm, D'oh) saturday and the rest cried off.  The routes are nicely organised with maps and each mast numbered and signposted. I headed into the red section down by the lakes and did about 10k and felt pretty good about it.

This morning was a bit nicer. The ice of the past few weeks had finally gone and the temperature was above zero. It was dry, but threatening but the wind wasn't that bad. Of course being a  windfarm, there was still quite a breeze. There were only three of us going out, me, John and his son and we decided on a simple run down the spine road to 33 and then explore up in the blue "Drum Duff" estate.

Off we headed at a reasonable pace. We would get enough speed up to try let momentum drag us up the hills. So far so good. Then we came to the junction for mast 33. John said to turn left at the bottom of the hill, but that there was a climb so try and keep speed up. So I did, but hten noticed that there was standing water and deep mud through the junction. Had we been continuing straight I may have risked it but seeing as we were turning I felt it was safer to slow doand and take the corner in one piece. Of course I now had no momentum for the hill. And that hurt. By the time I had caught up with the others I was seeing down a dark tunnel. Once we moved on again and took the next bit of the climb I was completely wasted. Luckily they waited for me at mast 48 and I did make it there without getting off the bike, but it was a close thing.

John then took pity on me and suggested that we head back the way we came. I didn't put up too much of an argument.

So I see it as 1 all. Granted I had been at the gym friday night, and excuse I used liberally today. John reckons that today was equal to the middle 10k of the event. The first 10k would be harder and the last 10k easy on canal tow path. Still I got an eye opener.

Roll on next week and see what happens

New Year's Swim

When I arrived in at work for my first day back after the Christmas holidays, few people were saying things like "well done" "fair play""crazy" and "I saw your picture in the paper".

By the time I got to my desk there were about half a dozen people following me/waiting for me.

Totally confused I try to find out whats going on - apparently there is a picture of "me" in the Sun (Jan 2, pg 13) ice swimming. Having broken through 3 inchs of ice we all went for a swim. "Not me" and then they show me the picture - it took me two looks before I was convinced it wasn't me.

Total doppleganger (in a small poor picture) but scarily similar. I couldn't believe it. I then had to put up with scores of people asking about the swim "It wasn't me" "are you sure, it really looks like you" "yes, i'm pretty sure its not me, but it does look like me"

Happy Halloween

Considering that it's a lovely night, it has been a very quiet evening .
So far, only 4 people have been to the door (four very bad jokes) and only a few fireworks.
It's not even that they are not coming down the cul de sac, there seems to be no noise out there at all. Having said that, Ciaran didn't want to go out either so he decided to stay in and help with the sweets. We also watched the "Frighteners" - about the only scary film I have that he can safely watch.

Happy Halloween to all the monsters and witches I know.

Whitelee Windfarm

It was a beautiful day today so we headed out to the Whitelee Windfarm. It seems like everyone else in the EK area had the same idea also, so it was a bit of a challenge actually getting onto the site. Once on the site there is plenty of room - the place is massive - over 140 turbines and 90km of trails for walking and cycling. Its a clever idea to make the grounds into a park it both allows people to get up and close to the turbines and opens up what was moorland and commercial woodland.
The visitor centre is run by the same crowd that do the Glasgow Science Centre. There was plenty of info on the environmental aspects and the generation of electricity from wind, but not a huge amount on the mechanical aspects of these turbines.

The bit that is hard to appreciate is the immense size of these turbines. Yes, you can see them for miles, turning slowly in the breeze. And I had been up close to them before on Myre's Hill where we have our turbine lab (I'll need to check will Ali just where on the Whitelee's map Myre's Hill fits in). But you cannot appreciate just how big or powerful these things are until you stand under one when the wind is blowing.
The two pictures here show the same turbine, which is number 40 from the map. On the first one you can just make out the green shed at the base of the turbine, while on the second pic you can see it compared to my Dad.
Once the site quiets down Ciaran and I will have to take the bikes out and cycle some of the paths...

Birthday party

It was Ciaran's birthday party yesterday.
His grandparents were over since Tuesday night and he had a few friends around for a small party during the day and then we went out for dinner down to Troon's Jade Dragon.
Sounds simple?
My folks booked their flights ages ago, got a good deal but their weekends mixed up and with the school holiday wouldn't see Ciaran at all. But then they were supposed to be at a retirement party so the may have to come back early if they could get the flights. But then the ex had to work and change our arrangements. Perfect. Now my folks get to see Ciaran. But since they can't get the flights changed they may have to attend the retirement party. So they might not make their planned trip anyway.
So, for Ciaran I thought an xbox party would be a good idea. Until the console died the week before the party. Out of warrently but Game were willing to have it fixed under the sale of goods act free of charge. It was only collected on tuesday so the chances of it being back by saturday were slim. Sunday night and my mum confirmed tht they would be coming over for the week as originally intended.
By now of course there are no tickets left to book for the 'The Jacobite' the Harry Potter steam train run from Fort Wiliam to Mallaig but maybe some available on the day. With no xbox I thought we could all do the train run (but not the steam train as it finished for the season) and looked at prices for that.
Tuesday and Ciaran and I agreed that perhaps the xbox was nt happening and what other options were there. Bowling was considered. Ciaran would get me four names by wednesday
By wednesday I had a replacement xbox from Jim who would bring his in on thursday and the train run was put on hold. I never got the names though, but as the xbox waas back on it wasn't an issue. On thursday Jim was late in and forgot the xbox but would bring it friday, if I would come in for it. Ciaran called and confirmed 5 names which with him and me would be too many for the car to take safely, but we now had an xbox so that was ok.
Friday i went in and got the xbox then bought munchies for the party. Friday night telephoned the guys to confirm attendence and duration.
Saturday was cool. 4 guys showed upa nd they xboxed for a while , ate for a while and then played with Ciaran's soldiers for a while before heading home again. Almost like a quiet cub's night.

Once everyone was gone and everything was cleaned up we headed down to the jade Palace for dinner. As ever very good, but almost too much to eat, and that was with Ciaran picking from the platters.

Penne Pollo a la Ciaran

Ciaran made his penne pollo a la Ciaran tonight.
Basically its seasoned chicken mixed with peppers and corn in a creamy sauce served with penne pasta. The secret is in the seasoning whcih included crushed red and yellow chilli peppers, garlic, black and red peppercorn, oregano and basil. the sauce is Cambells (now knorr) condensed chicked soup. It has to be server with penne so that the sauce can get into the inside of the pasta

Oil in Water 2009

Oil in Water 2009 - a different hotel but at the end of the day I really cannot see the difference between these hotels. For the rate we are paying we get good rooms, plenty of hot water and reasonably quiet, so no excuse for not getting a good night sleep. i think that there is a step above the level we are at, but for simple overnight stays then I don't think we need move to that level (as if that would be authorised for us anyway) So far, the worst I've had is the threat of a ghost in Snodland, but then that gives the Priory a bit of flavour that the typical travel lodge can't match.

We had out first solo flight, Alick and me. Ming-less: for only the second time since he started the clubs Ming has not been able to attend the workshop/club meeting and has had to leave it in Alick's hands. My job is to keep him away from the sea food.


People think these events are a jolly, but they are a lot of work. Yes, its out of the office (and all that means) and there is food and drink, but you are working from the minute a delegate sees you and that doesn't include any setup work you may have to do.
This time, we have the speaker's dinner on Wednesday night. Then as we don't have access to the room we have to setup first thing Thursday morning. The change of room layout for the Club meeting on Friday should be taken care of by the hotel, but then Alick and I will have to dismantle and pack all the gear to get back to EK as Hazel and Fiona are heading back Thursday evening.

The Speaker's Dinner was very good - out for Chinese at Zen Oriental on Bon Accord Crescent. It was a nice meal and gave me a chance to meet the speakers I hadn't met before. Had a few beers before heading back to the hotel where a few of us stayed up for a few more drinks.

Early start Thursday for breakfast and setting up the room. Best to leave Hazel to issue the orders and simply do what's asked/told. Doesn't take as long as expected but at least an hour before the scheduled start the first delegates being to arrive. In order to meet everyone, albeit quickly, I volunteer to man the badge desk. Minor panic as some of the speakers are late (locals) but not enough to delay proceedings. Things get off to a start while the Nigerian delgation decide whether to shower or attend the lecture.
Thursday went really well and the feedback looks positive. No major disasters that I noticed which is probably all that matters. I spend an hour in the pool/sauna and then meet Alick, Jon, Wolfgang, and Greg for dinner in the bar. Later on Stefan comes back from his walkabout in Aberdeen and joins us for another beer or so. A good but long day.
Friday is a little more relaxed. The club meetings are les formal and Alick and I got enough info over the last 2 nights to be informed of what the other club members feel for the future. Again we have tardy speakers but after making adjustments they arrive and nothing has to change. We have a full busy interactive meeting which overruns by almost an hour due to the conversation.

Afetr getting the room sorted and our gear packed Alick and I head back to EK getting there about 1930. I drop Alick off for about 2000 and finally get back to Troon for 2100 and fill the hire car for collection. I think Ming will be pleased.


**After this was written we found out that Ming had been sent ot St John New Brunswick instead of St Johns New Foundland. Sadly he found ut from the taxi driver when they couldn't find his hotel. It didn't stop him though - he got to the right St Jihns the next day and gave his 2 courses.

Straiton Hike

Went out this morning for the first of this year's hikes.
Had a great day. The weather was fantastic and we had a great turnout - about 21 in total including Mums, dads, and little sisters.
Afterwrads dave and I managed a quick beer while Shirly and dylan went for an ice cream. All in the name of supporting local business.
Roll on the next outing.

Limited Shelf life

I got a flyer through the door about a manager's special event being held this weekend where I bought my current car. As we had no other plans for today Ciaran and I decided to head out and see what they have. Ciaran would have loved to get a Prius or a Celica or MR2 but there was little chance of that - Prius doesn't suit my drive (or pocket) and both the mr2 and Celica are out of production. In all honesty I didn't expect to buy anything and was only interested to finding out what my 7 year old car would be worth. I will admit that i wasn't happy with the car though - over the 2 plus years I've had it its had a series of electrical problems in different systems. An expensisve and difficult thing to resolve.
So we arrived at the garage and looked about for a bit before being approached by the salesman. As we were 'interested' in the Auris (the Corolla replacement) we were offered a test drive in the 5 door TR model.
Once we got back to the garage the haggling started. In order to get my info I went along with it all - specificed what model I would want, features and the trade in value for my old car. Of course, what he ofered wasn't near what I would like for it (but then is it ever?). He ran the numbers and came back to me - way to much, but I expected that. He offered a bit more for my trade in and re-ran the numbers. If I took their finance deal they would add more onto the trade in so he re-ran the numbers. Much better this time, almost reasonable. however, I had a service/MOT due and my preferred colour would not be available for 16 weeks (Tpyota build to order). They would pay for the service/MOT and any work if the new car wasn't available by then. The salesman explained that the weekend deal was only for the weekend and that their bonus depended on them hitting the targets, which, at 1600 Sunday evening with only 2 hours remaining, they still hadn't.
By this time the deal wasn't that bad and I was seriously considering it. I then asked about the steering wheel audio controls. "Not on this model, only on the next one up." "Oh, its funny how its the little things you get used to" "Wait here". Off he popped and when he came back asked how fixed was I on the colour I choose as he could get me the next model up, in silver, next week, for the same price, if I signed now.


Went and bought a new car today, I get it next week. Got a great deal. Not a colour I would normally go for, but silver is neutral enough and I'm looking forward to it.

Blair Drummond

We had our annual Staff day out today, this year at Blair Drummond Safari Park.
Like most of these events it was alright, not fantastic, but certainly a nice gesture by management.
The park is nice and you certainly can get quite close to the animals, depending on their nature, sometimes very close. Yo also get an idea of how big some animals are. I was amazed at just how big the camels were, despite seeing them often enough on TV.
There was also the play park, the pedal boats, and the zip line, so it was a busy day despite the weather.
Still, at the back of my mind, there was an uneasy feeling. seeing the animals captive was a bit depressing despite knowing that their natural habitat was probably under threat ad that the animals almost certainly wouldn't be alive if they were not in captivity somewhere.
Still I think it took a hard heart not to feel pity for the tiger as it lapped its enclosure. The info board told us about the hundreds of square km thta a normal adult would range in and it compared poorly to the few acres available.

First Night at Scouts

Ciaran has his first night at Scouts tonight. Once he sees what its like, he and the other promoted cubs will be brought back to the cub pack for a final evening where they are supposed to organise the games.
In the meantime Ciaran will continue to come to cubs with me as a helper. It means he will be able to come along on events if he wants to when he's with me, and he is eligible for a junior leader badge if he progresses with Scouts.
Depending on what Colin (the Scout leader) says tonight I may have some transposing of badges for next week.

High Tech Misery

While I was back in Dublin I looked out my old photo album from the loft. I though I had moved it over with me years ago but obviously didn't.

It was nice to look back at those old pictures. One thing is obvious now though - quantity. I took over 120 pictures in Dublin last week, most on one day. I have 9 pics from our first year trip to Kilkenny in 1983, 6 from Paris in 1985, and less that 20 from a week in Normandy in 1986, and that includes a failed funny hat picture with a church steeple!
At some point I seem to have moved up to larger film sizes as I have rolls from things like Engineering Balls (but only one portrait from my Debs) and uni trips. Once I moved to Scotland there are lots of photos and typically double sets as well (but i don't have a lot of those any more)

So I had a brainwave to scan all the photos I currently have. Of course the scanner I have is pants (why I'm keeping it in the loft I really don't know - I think I just bin it). As my printer is a bit on the old side, I thought about an all in one affair. Thing is, I'm particular. I want a laser printer since I don't print that much and toner doesn't dry out. Also I don't want the paper to curl over. No suitable one was in my range so i decided to simply keep the printer I have and borrow the office scanner for the weekend.
Once I got the scanner home and its software was installing I stared to look at all the pictures I had to scan. I certainly wasn't going to be done this weekend, and thats without rotating or cropping.
Of course once the software installed and i rebooted the scanner didn't work. So i followed the obvious troubleshooting steps and tried again, and again. afer many attempts and web hints it seems that you, or me anyway, can't get a scanjet 4400c to work under vista.

So, what now? I looked at scanning services and they looked expensive though fast. As ever, a lot of cost is added via postage, so I decided to simply buy a new scanner. so a visit to the various web sites to make an informed choice (spoils impulse buying doesn't it?) and find out that tesco sell the one I want cheaper, plus I have a coupon for money off if I'm over a limit, which the scanner is by itself. So now I have my new scanner, plus points for Christmas and a coupon for next week's petrol.

So that was last night. Today, amid the Tour de France and F1 qualification, I started scanning.

Not so bad. This was the worst lot as they were in the album from Dublin, and the oldest photos I have. The plan is to scan the rest as and when i get time and even to scan Ciaran's drawings to save me some storage space here and he constantly drawing.

Once I play about I may even be able to use either the Hugin or the Microsoft stitching software to re-assemble larger items like my degrees...

Summer in Dublin

Just got back after a week in Dublin with Ciaran.
We had a really good time but we didn't do all that much as it was difficult to plan with the changable weather. We did spend a lot of time with Michele's brood. As the boys get older the age difference between them becomes less of an issue and they all get on better.

We headed into town on Thursday to do the touristy thing.
We started with "The Body" exhibition. This was a set of real human body parts, dissected. It was really interesting, especially where they can preserve the circulatory system by injecting polymer resin and then dissolving the meat around it. At the same time, just at the back of my mind it was a bit "ugh" but quiet and faint. Ciaran, as ever, seemed to neither enjoy or dislike it. I later heard that the bodies were executed Chinese but I don't really believe that. The website (http://bodiesdublin.com/) notes tht the doners were all Chinese, but I think the executed comes from the fact that some councils etc banned the exhibit.

After having lunch we headed for the key attraction (at least as far as Ciaran was concerned)- Forbidden Planet. After at least half an hour he couldn't find anyhting he wanted enough to spend his money on so came away empty handed.

We headed up the north quay and decided to take the open topped bus tour. Once we got our tickets and found the bus we stared off up towards Trinity College. Once we got there Ciaran remembered about the "Infection" exhibition at Trinity (http://www.sciencegallery.ie/infectious). When asked earlier about going he said he didn't want to - he still hasn't learned about planning - he wanted to go to Forbidden Planet. So we got off the bus and headed into Trinity.

"Infectious" was really cool - better then the Bodies anyway. It was a simple enough exhibit - just some info about how viruses spread, microscopes, etc, and a simulator where you could control a virus outbreak and specify what type of response there should be and see the impact on both infection and recovery. There was an edge - When you arrive they give you a unique RFID wafer to wear. The hall was in the middle of an infected zone - a bluetooth virus had infected one of the RFID and was being passed onto the other visitors. You could check your health by the flashing light on the wafer or by displays on the wall. Basically as you moved about the exhibit you stood a good chance of being infected with the computer virus. There were disinfection points which weren't always effective. It was really cool to look at the live wall maps of who was where and if they were infected.
I got infected and Ciaran wouldn't come near me.
Apparently this was all real research. They had tried it before at seminars, but the nature of those meant everyone was infected quite quickly.

Back onto the bus for the rest of the tour. I had hoped to get to the Jameson Distillery but when we got to the Guiness Brewery Ciaran asked to go in, and who am I to argue with that type of request? We did a quick tour and then headed up to the "Gravity Bar" for its views and a pint.
By the time we were done and back onto the bus it was too late for any more visits. So we just continued on the bus as it made its way though Dublin, up around the Phoenix Park and back t O'Connell street where a short run had us back on the old 41 for the trip back to Swords.

While we were over it was my cousin's 40th so we headed out for that. It was good to see some cousins who I hadn't seen for a while and the porter was great (That's at least 3 times I've had beer at the Guinness brewery and not enjoyed it as much as in normal (non uk) pubs!)

Flew back on Monday night. Almost shoplifted from the gate side shop - a ryanair steward with a thick eastern european accent paged virtually my name. It was only as I told Ciaran we were being paged that he said I couldn't take those things!