A Celebration of Mundanity

Insomnia

2008-11-18T02:27:46Z

(Test post from my iPhone with a new app)

Two weeks away is just enough time to completely reset one’s body clock. And the five hour time difference is particularly annoying. I’m plagued with insomnia. I need to be up in four hours. Having just watched “Fight Club” for the hundreth time, I’m reminded of the quote, “insomnia, you’re never quite fully asleep and you’re never fully awake either.” or something like that. I’m Deb’s very tired brain and body, why am I not asleep?

It is teh awesome

2008-11-12T16:08:07Z

After work I hopped on a fast train to Reading to meet Mark to go pick up my new-to-me Smart Car. Two years without a car and I’m pretty excited! We get there, take care of the paperwork and other sundry business. A few tutorial laps around the neighborhood as a passenger followed by some laps as the driver later, I was ready to hit the road. We equipped my car the with sat nav and Mark followed me out. I had one moment in my first big round-about where I became a little flustered, missed my exit and needed to go around again. But that’s the beauty of the round about.

Once on the highway, I could almost hear Mark yelling, “go faster!” If only he could hear me retorting, “I’m giving her all I got Scotty!” as the motorway had a slight incline to it. I didn’t have any problems with the semi-automatic up shifting, it felt completely natural despite not being a manual car driver. I was also much more comfortable following Mark than leading. I quickly got into the flow of traffic once up to speed and was passing and keeping up with him. It drives great. It feels great. I even think it sounds great.

In short: this car is the awesomest car that ever awesomed.

We head to the states tomorrow for a couple of weeks, so I’ll have to patiently (or not so patiently) wait to have my fun when we return.

NHM During Half Term

2008-10-29T19:59:33Z

This is a sight I won’t see at home. It’s half term in the U.K. and that brings people and their families into the city in incredible numbers. It’s days like this when you can’t deny that the Natural History Museum gets up to 15,000 visitors in a single day (free admission too). There is literally wall to wall throngs of people. Everywhere. Every corner. I hesitate to leave the department on days like this, just getting to the loo or making it out for lunch is a harrowing obstacle course. It will be this packed all this week and possibly next week, as it seems schools stagger their half term breaks. My friend and I seemingly had the Carnegie to ourselves in April visiting the newly remodeled dinosaur hall.

An interesting connection to the museum back home: taking center stage in the main hall greeting every visitor to the museum is a cast of the Diplodocus carnegii skeleton whose original is housed in the Carnegie. The BM has it’s own Dippy.

The cast was given as a gift by Andrew Carnegie, after meeting with King Edward VII who was fascinated by the fossil animal. Carnegie arranged for a cast to be created at his own expense, at a cost of £2000, copying the original. The pieces were sent to London in 36 crates. The new exhibit was unveiled in May 1905. It created a bit of a stir as the original skeleton had yet to be articulated and mounted back home. Nicknamed “Dippy,” the news of the new exhibit spread. Carnegie eventually paid to have additional copies made for display in most major European capitals, making Dippy the most-seen dinosaur skeleton in the world.

England: Smart Car!

2008-10-28T20:00:31Z

Two years without a car and now this will be mine on Thursday! I always said that I couldn’t imagine driving in any other car over here, with these roads that are so narrow. I love love love Smart Cars, now I get to put this one in my pocket and take it home to drive:

Mark wants to find a “My other car is a Lotus” bumper sticker. Expect to see a photo series involving our dueling tiny blue cars.

England: One More Year!

2008-10-21T20:32:05Z

Well, I suppose it’s officially official now. We are staying in England for another year. Mark’s original contract was for two years and those two years are just about up. That time has flown by! A blip! Now, after months of promises and waiting for contract negotiations, coming up with an offer we could live with, it finally happened. One more year.

Honestly, we were getting a bit frustrated and just mere weeks ago we were uttering the words to ourselves, “maybe it is time to go home.” Mentally, we were starting to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead at home. We have plans, big plans, that we have been dreaming about for years. Hell, we picked up and lived abroad for two years, anything is possible, it’s just a matter of acting on it and doing things sooner rather than later.

Our minds are switching gears again, knowing now that we are staying. We have plans, big plans, places to go, people to see. We went ahead and actually bought a coffee maker, something we had been putting off for two years because, well, it is silly really, we were only going to be here so briefly, the French press was fine to tide us over.

As for me, I am now able to remain and finish my own contract with my job at the museum and I’ll get to see the “big move” into the new Darwin Center. I am actually going to be part of the new exhibit in the public offer. I’m working with a film team to create a video about insect preparation. (This will go along side two other videos by other people on slide preparation and plant mounting outside one of the many windows looking into “the cocoon” where people will be working). I’m excited to be a part of the staff that’s going to be captured in snippets and snapshots for the world to see what goes on behind those doors. And I’m excited that I’ll be there to witness its start.

One more year. Yeah, we can do that, we can do that standing on our heads.

(the photo above is one of the first we took after moving here in 2006, our long December shadows on nearly the shortest day of the year)

GeoBear

2008-10-16T18:40:39Z

I am helping a friend’s 10 year old daughter with a class project, their GeoBear project. Basically, it’s like the gnome from Amelie, only a little stuffed bear. The bear will feature in a series of photos and I’ll be sending post cards to the class room. In theory, I think I am supposed to send the bear along to someone else who may be traveling further. However, we travel a lot, and if the bear sticks with us, he’ll be getting around.

This past weekend while a couple of friends of ours were visiting from the U.S., the GeoBear got off to a good start on its world traveling adventure. We were in Cheddar where we taste tested cheddar cheese made in Cheddar and matured in caves there. We had an amazing fun caving adventure. Climbed Cheddar Gorge. Had a fly-by of Stonehenge. Not to mention a day around London, hitting the highlights of Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Parliament, boat trip on the Thames, tour of the Tower of London, and seeing the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum (whew!)

It’s only the beginning for this bear, keep an eye on the photo stream for further adventures and travels!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

2008-10-09T21:31:21Z

I had the most convoluted commute in to work this morning. Starting in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. I hopped into a taxi with an incredibly chatty driver, with whom I was having an in depth conversation about how quickly the Dutch language changes, seemingly on a weekly basis. Spelling changes overnight, grammar is completely revised and half the words are being anglicized. The immediate example being the Dutch word for airport, luchthaven, is now just simply, airport. Kids these days don’t even know the word luchthaven apparently. He went on to explain how kids these days can’t read written Dutch from just thirty or forty years ago. It’s just that different. English is the second national language of the Netherlands. It’s a small enough country to not have the cultural heft that identifies with strict language identity and pride like that of France or Germany.

From there I was on to the tiny and charming Rotterdam Luchthaven, only eight gates, two for international flights. It was one of the most pleasant airport experiences I’ve ever had, given how much we’ve traveled, that is saying a lot. Latte in hand, I settled in for a bit of people watching, even though there were only a handful of people there. Once on the plane after a brief delay I was sat in my window seat on the little dual prop plane. Even on this short fifty minute flight, the passengers were taken care of, complete with little cheese and tomato pita sandwiches and squares of chocolate with the coffee and tea service.

I landed at London City Airport on the east side of London (after circling the city half a dozen times and flying so low over Canary Wharf I felt I could reach out and touch the buildings). Right out of the terminal are the platforms for the Docklands Light Railway trains. My usual rail/travel card covered the transit on this train, although at no point did I need to pull it out until my final destination. From Canning Town station on the Jubilee tube line, transferring to either Circle or District Line at Westminster and on to South Kensington. I guess I could add “feets” to my list of transport for the day as well, for the walk up and into the museum

Netherlands: Amsterdam, Artis

2008-10-08T21:52:01Z

Mark is working today so I’m up to my old tricks and entertaining myself in the city for the day. I had all these grand designs for visiting places, including the Troppenmuseum (the Tropical Museum), the Hortus (the botanical gardens) and possibly making it to Artis, the zoo. Since there wasn’t a deluge pouring from the sky, I thought I would start with the out of doors attraction and headed straight for Artis.

The walk was fabulous. Chilly, but at least sunny. It was nice to see the canals by daylight. Amsterdam is a city of concentric half circles of canals with radiating branches throughout. A watery spider web outlined with cobbled roads and impossibly narrow and slanting buildings. Every single road had a bicycle lane, I have never seen so my bicyclists, or bicycles, period. The city caters to and is designed for bikes. Crossing intersections, it’s not the motorists to look out for, it’s the people on bikes who will run into you.

I ended up spending my entire day there. It is not just a zoo. Inside its grounds is the University run Zoological Museum, the Aquarium, a Planetarium and an Insectarium (I kept thinking of the “orphanarium” from Futurama when I saw this!) complete with an enormous butterfly house, I’m talking thousands of butterflies, a photographer’s paradise. With so much on offer, it’s easy to see how I spent so much time here. After seeing some of my photos of butterflies, Mark actually said this is a place he’d like to go (this from a person who does not like museums or zoos). But there was so much else to do, maybe next time. Photos forthcoming, at some point, we are months behind in processing photos.

I found a “New York” bagel shop for lunch and was sat in a window seat with a latte for a session of people watching. I kept seeing the twins of a close friend’s mother, I don’t think they’re Dutch, but the resemblance was uncanny.

Netherlands: Road Trip, Amsterdam

2008-10-07T22:42:53Z

I am sorely disappointed that I did not get a stamp in my passport traveling through the Eurotunnel in to France. Although we did drive through France and Belgium, I don’t think I can legitimately include those countries on my list of those visited. High speed motorway travel doesn’t count. Eight hours after leaving our home in England, we arrived safe and sound in Amsterdam. Wearing ear plugs on long trips on motorways is key. They are an essential piece of kit in the Lotus.

We walked into Amsterdam for a late night dinner at one of the surprisingly abundant Argentinian (and even one Uruguayan) steak houses. Oh the beef was good! It tasted like American beef. Tired from the drive and our long late night walk through the city, full of food, we slept like the dead.

Travel: Netherlands

2008-10-02T09:19:44Z

I’m busy getting ready for a last minute trip to the Netherlands. Mark needs to be in Amsterdam and Rotterdam for work and I’m joining him for a long weekend. We are going to drive out and then I’ll fly back before him. The tiny boot will make for an interesting packing strategy too.