Duck down in Ivybridge

a lone dead duck, found by a passer-by, who reported it to whoever. He was told to just bury it - as it was harmless. Eh? How did they know - nobody even bothered to look at it! The powers that be (ie the police etc) have said that nobody needs to report just one dead bird - only suspiciously high numbers of dead birds. In clumps, one presumes? So the birdies get sick and all die together and fall in the same spot? That would be suspicious! How many dead ducks were there in France? How many dead swans in Poland? Complacency, bone idleness and more than a touch of arrogance. The public are in good hands ....

Close to pneumonia

or, at least, I have a nasty bout of bronchitis and a cold, which is hardly surprising given the ENDURANCE of the weekend and the bitterly cold weather. This morning we had the double glazing man out (we invited him!) and he measured up for new doors. I would like less glass, but we are short on light here, with all the trees, so we opted for plain glass French doors for the back and a half panel of stained glass poppies for the front. Nobody usually asks for that one, apparently, and it has to be specially ordered. The man was taken with it and said he might pop up and take a photo when it's done (do we get paid for that? Free fascia boards or something?)

BUT, none of this gallavanting and spending is getting any of my WORK done. Where can you buy motivation?

Whim!

I had one Friday afternoon and decided that we would go to London!! So I booked a night at the Queen's Gate Concorde Hotel, near the Natural History Museum and we set off after the hub got home from work on Saturday (at about 3:30!). It's a long, boring drive to London, but we got there at around 8:30, without too much hassle, except that we couldn't quite find the hotel! When we did find it, they couldn't quite find our booking ... however, I was armed with email confirmations and they gave us a room with 4 beds. Mind the step! I didn't (there was no warning and you had to get past the step to turn the lights on!)and went flying, much to Paul's amusement. Hub parked the car (a mile away) and then we walked down to Gloucester Road for some provisions.

Sunday was very busy. Nice breakfast, walk, Victoria and Albert Museum (loved the Cast Courts), walked, queued, Natural History Museum, walked, and walked, and walked some more, ate, walked, climbed a mighty high escalator,


hadn't been to the Earth Galleries before - experienced the Kobe earthquake, bought things, walked,Science Museum - but not for too long, then walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, up past the Royal Albert Hall, to the place where we were parked. Cold. Soaked to the skin. Tired. So we drove through the thronging streets, to Greenwich (we didn't get lost!!). Parked. 20p for 20 minutes and that's all you got. Walked. Miles. Knew how Scott felt when he was freezing to death. Bought things. Walked. Froze. Drove home. FROZE as the central heating wasn't working - brrh and grrh - and Captain Bunzee was very hungry by 11:00pm ....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUM

Vivian Foxworth is coming home

We went to fetch her from the garden centre, yesterday, but she'd done a runner! Finally, with much relief, we found her in Telford, Shropshire and she will arrive by first class post. What a flighty madam!!


Today's Haiku (to a picture of a deer in thicket)

Get out of there; run!
Men with guns crave new coat hooks!
Casserole for months!

Beware Yahoopoo

Suddenly, I wasn't getting my emails in! A quick investigation found:


Basically they WANT MORE MONEY. Don't I pay enough, as it is, for my few pages of ad free geocities? And didn't I TRY to log into my account, oh, a couple of months ago, when they shut me down completely as I hadn't used my ancient geocities account for a while?? (And yet I paid for it!) So I couldn't log into my account - and getting in touch with somebody to complain (via email and phone) was almost mission impossible (almost because I did eventually succeed in getting myself reinstated).

I am seriously tempted to take my ancient (though-want-to-keep-sentimental-trash) geocities pages elsewhere - brick by brick. (If only I had time).

Memory Lane

This is where I used to play as a child!!


It still looks like something out of Dickens!!! Ah though, memories! I had bad dreams last night - actually about tarantulas. They were everywhere in the house - black ones, brown ones, white ones (white ones?) And then was awake early, so didn't feel like studying today (any excuse; although I did have a marathon session yesterday!) - and, after going into town to make an appointment for the door men to come out and give us an estimate, we went to the road where I grew up and I took some pictures of the outside, front and back! I lived here until I was 8 years old.


My paternal grandfather died in the room at the top right and both of my brothers were born here - one in the right hand bottom room and one in the left hand bottom room. Funny how I can remember it so clearly! I wasn't born here - I was born in Freedom Fields Hospital, where Paul also was born, many years later! Freedom Fields started off life as a workhouse and now is, alas, no more at all, as it's been demolished and replaced by charmless, grey houses.

Still in a nostalgic mood, I scanned a painting I did of the Pilchard Inn at Bigbury, wondering if my Dad will recognise where it's meant to be! We had some happy holidays there!



Talking (loosely!) of art - I've decided to start entering the Haiku Competition again - I still crave that mousemat! This should do it ....

Frivolity

I am Lacy Panties

"You're one seductive chica, but you've also got a ton of class.

You are like a pinup girl, with timeless beauty and sexiness.

Men are afraid to talk to you, knowing they'll be addicted to your charm immediately."

I am 32% Abnormal

"You are at medium risk for being a psychopath. It is somewhat likely that you have no soul.
You are at low risk for having a borderline personality. It is unlikely that you are a chaotic mess.
You are at medium risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is somewhat likely that you are in love with your own reflection.
You are at medium risk for having a social phobia. It is somewhat likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement.
You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer."

I am 50% Weird

"Normal enough to know that you're weird...
But too damn weird to do anything about it!"

blogthings

And Ed says that an extension (of however long I need) is OK for SXG390 TMA03 - phew!

NOT my Valentine!!

Gay-Lussac all is forgiven! This fellah is far more heinous. Evil! Harald Sverdrup. Torques and curls. YER WHAT?? M = b + curl tau. Has to be Klingon or D'Ni. Even the blasted buoys are either Langrangian or Eulerian! And there's the geostrophic equation


(haha!), inertia currents, wind stress, Ekman motion. What's all that got to do with fish??

I've done my project plan for SXG390. It's not looking good. It seems that, because of our holiday, I shall have to do most of it by the middle of June - yeah, right!!

I'm not getting good vibes.

I downloaded the The Largest Climate Experiment ever today. The world is whirling around in the background and is currently on 11/1/1921. It has to go to 2080!!



When I first downloaded it, there were 750 people in the UK participating, 70 in the USA and 1 in Japan. Now there are 8666 people in the UK participating, 1509 in the USA and 3 in Japan. Are they just not very keen on climate in Japan, or are they asleep?

Oh.

Must be Harald Sverdrup in disguise!!

The Moon last night ...

... was amazing - I'd never seen anything like it before - it was surrounded by a HUGE circle of nothing! Apparently this is due to ice-crystals, and the phenomenon is known as a Moon Halo.


Everton won (again!) and are now in 10th place - whoo!

Oh, and I found this place in Montana - it is so beautiful that I just had to book a couple of rooms, Sagebrush and Bitterroot! :) And they have Fjord horses!

Today

we paid of our mortgage.

WE PAID OFF OUR MORTGAGE!!! :)



That IS a nice feeling!!

As Paul is on leave all this week and it was hub's day off, we celebrated by braving the cold, but very sunny day, and went to Salcombe, where you can buy a nice house for £1.6m or a small apartment for £0.5m ...


Then we went to Slapton


And finished off at Dartmouth, with fish 'n' chips by the harbour (sorry Mr Cod).


Devon really is extraordinarily beautiful - I guess we take it for granted.

I WISH I could get some momentum going on my courses, though. I appear to have hit a wall or something. I suppose this is understandable, with so much going on at the moment - and so many changes. TOMORROW I will do my skills audit for SXG390. I will.

Things is happening!

Went to Looe, Cornwall, this afternoon and saw the first daffodil of the year outside somebody's cottage - spring is certainly just around the corner!


In Looe, apart from a nice stroll along the harbour, along the beach and through the old, narrow streets, the hub bought a pair of thermal gloves and a new blue washing up bowl (£1), while I bought a dragonfly on a stick, one of those nylon anoraks you fold up into a little pouch and a big bar of chocolate covered marzipan! Oh, and we rescued a little bear who was looking completely forlorn, sitting out in a basket, in the cold, and had one ear and one arm squashed and deformed. I dunno, some people don't know how to look after critters properly!

The hub has a new JOB!! Already! Grocery deliveries for Asda!! He gets to wear a green fleece and drive a big truck (well, quite big!)


And I've been busy changing holiday hotels again! I've changed the hotel in Banff to one much (it seems) nicer - real class! The Juniper.


And I'm about to rebook the hotel at Grand Coulee Dam (we had moved to Spokane, but, minds are for changing, right?) And I've said "NO" to the Holiday Inn Express in Vernon, who wouldn't let me change/cancel my reservation, because I made a little error when I booked and clicked the "pay now" thing - I mean, WHY would I have intentionally done that? To save 6 cents? We're going to stay in Kelowna now, in a nice bed and breakfast down by the lake. I think. Oh and I've been messing something awful with Waterton Lakes - and have not really reached a successful conclusion to the business. I'm getting a little muddled, actually.

As for the learning' .... well, I haven't touched S330 since Friday. It was all Coriolis force, wind stress and inertia currents - had a whale of a time with that!!! I don't see a way of typing Greek thingies onto here, or I would most certainly share otherwise.

My SXG390 tutor, Ed, phoned from Ireland on Friday evening. He is very nice - and very helpful - and very encouraging! He has given my chosen topic the all clear and even likes my title - although it really is only provisional.

"The History, Cause and Effect of Debris Flows (Lahars) and Risk and Mitagation to areas surrounding Mt Rainier, Washington, USA"

It's way too fussy, even for an academic whatsit - I really want it to be less fussy, even if I have to make it longer.

So, I was all geared up to get on with the project plan and the skills review - but, was too busy doing nothing in particular. I MUST get weaving tomorrow.

165 898 feared dead

in Metropolis, Tranquility and Auto City, after earthquakes and a vicious (super) eruption from Mt Spur. All the deaths were my fault as I am the new Chief of Emergency Management for Bluebear County. I'm surprised they let me stay on actually, as I killed 310 022 yesterday! :)



Well, the hub has left work (with a golden watch!), the carpet has been laid, the Mt Rainier book arrived and I haven't done a thing for a couple of days! I'm really worried about when (and where) I'm going to get time for study. Maybe some people can manage to think anywhere (like, a lot, I know, do study on the train on the way to work) - but I can't do that - I have to have quiet.

Good news today though, spring's on its way!


Spring is sprung
The grass is ris
I wonder where the birdies is
Some say the bird is on the wing
But that's absurb because
Of course
The wing is on the bird.

Who wrote that?

Oh, and talking of birdies, I saw a new one (for me) on Sunday. A turnstone! Miserable looking thing!

Well ....

I typed out my first draft of S330 TMA01, today. So that means I went through 2 whole blocks of mindbogglingly difficult stuff, in, erm, just over 3 weeks. What does that say about my TMA attempt?? I've left notes to myself, throughout - like, "enlarge" and "add diagram?" and "WHAT?"

Well ...
The SXG390 materials (what little there is of them) arrived this morning. I can play with the project plan over the weekend (maybe - let's not forget that the Rock and Gem show is at Newton Abbot Racecourse this weekend - and a nice pair of ammonite bookends beckon; together with a lump of aquamarine in matrix, if not too expensive - and we have to varnish the sides of the stairs). Anyway, I have quite a few links already, and have filed those over on Furl (thanks Bill) and am having a look at RefWorks, as recommended by the course team for reference generation - although I'm beginning to think it might be quicker and simpler to do it myself. And I think I have a title. But I need to talk to my tutor about it first. And he lives in the Republic of Ireland ....

I'm beginning to get so scared of Mt Rainier lahars, that I'm afraid to go there! :)

Well ...
How's about tracking a space suit?



It's a satellite. The Russians have bunged it loose in space. You can track its orbit, by picking up its signal on an FM Radio. See also NASA.

Well ...
I dunno. What next? A nice glass of wine for me, I think!



FirstScience.com!

Whale takes turn for worse

Well, I'm not surprised that the poor thing has taken a turn for the worse - his (her?) internal organs will be squashed to billio with the air pressure - not to mention the stress. But they are trying. If his health doesn't improve, they will put him down ...



Sky have been following it all day! Even now, in the dark! Even CNN has the story as headlines on its site. I hope he makes it.

MUCH better news for (the mighty) Everton as they beat Arsenal 1-0 at home, lunchtime! (And the hub paid to watch it - LOL!)



And I received the tutorial information for S330 - we get a day school at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth - wow!!



Aw, the whale died ... :( Very difficult not to start blubbering ....

New Horizons

After 3 days of hanging around NASA TV at tea-time, listening to the very patient man telling us what was going on ("Hello, this is Atlas command .."), high winds, too many clouds and several aborted countdowns - finally New Horizons blasted off to Pluto!



What a great sight! Brought tears to my eyes! I hope I'm still be around when the data comes back, in 9 years time!

Sweet Sensation!

I dumped MU120 and now feel FREE!! I was getting really stressed out, wondering how I was going to do all that work and I knew that something had to give. I really didn't want it to be the Oceanography - so it had to be the maths. I didn't need the 30 points for anything, that was the thing. (And, note to self, next time you decide to do a 30-point course 'through the winter', remember that it's NOT a short course and will go on until June!)

Sinking ...

in a sea of work! I've been happily working away on the Oceanography and thought I was getting somewhere (though slowly) and had 2 TMA questions drafted. And I bought the most lovely book "Invitation to Oceanography", at a fraction of its cost price, from eBay, which will help me enormously (I also bought, from eBay, a maths book, "Engineering Mathematics 4th Edition" for 20p, but I don't want to talk about maths). Only yesterday afternoon, I was thinking to myself how lucky I was, sitting in the cozy sitting-room, in the peace and quiet, warm and contented, reading about the oceans. Then the 3rd mailing of MU120 arrived ... And I realised just how much work there was still left to do. And HOW am I to fit it all in? And I tried to do some work last night, but, with other people home, it was just too noisy to concentrate properly (parabolas, oh boy). So, I am thinking of deferring S330 til next year now. I'll see how I get on with the maths - maybe if I can get the majority of it behind me in the next couple of weeks, S330 still stands a chance. If not.. :(

There is no rush.

Still not started SXG390, although I *could* be getting on with some 'plans' - I still feel I'd rather get my topic sorted with my tutor (whoever) first. I bought a 2nd hand book from Amazon today though, which will help me a bit.



(I'm so lucky to be able to do a project on something so interesting, too - but I would like to have time to enjoy it).

Yesterday, the feedback letter for U316 arrived. Very goods and excellents for everything - surprisingly, more excellents for the report than for the project - and I thought what I wrote was complete garbage!! And, today, confirmation of my Bachelor of Science degree popped through the post. I dunno how I feel about it, actually - it makes me feel a bit stressed for some reason. Certainly this graduate Can't Do Maths!!

Oh, and I sorted out some more holiday accommodation. The 3 Bears person let me down and told me I could only rent for 3 nights, so could I please spend another night there. No. So, we're now in the cabin at Jasmers, called Laze Daze.



And I booked a lovely place, down by the lake at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta - and another place on the plains of Montana on the banks of the Missouri at Fort Benton. Never heard of it? Nor me - but it's peaceful and interesting and there's an ice-cream parlor on the premises ....

And the paint stripping stuff works! It's a slow job and it does stink a bit - but it works - that is a surprise!

Getting ready to strip!

A man's coming out, tomorrow afternoon, to measure up for our new stair carpet (at last!) - so now I want to strip the white paint from the stairtreads(?)- getting it back to its natural wood and varnishing it. We're going to try this stuff, which claims to work and not to half choke you to death. They did actually stock it in B&Q, although it was hiding away, behind the cheaper poisons. I'm not sure I'm holding too much hope for success.



Well, I have swapped the night in Portland - and the night at Grand Coulee (although we'll still go through that way) for, not one, but two nights at Mount Rainier! And I've gone mad and booked us Three Bear Lodge for the two nights. 200 yards from the park entrance ... hot tub in the woods ... xbox .... sleeps TEN!! :)



S330? Struggling, but at least there's been no more geoids. SXG390? Not started yet - but I've already embarrassed myself on the conference, by not understanding the little instruction we already have!!



Bummer! After telling me it was OK to reserve, the owner of the 3 bears has now told me 3 nights minimum! Rats!

The year starts today!

My National Parks Calendar 2006 finally arrived from Las Vegas. January is the Grand Canyon, which is apt, as Paul bought our 2005 (in 2004) National Parks calendar from there - which is really why I wanted to replace it with similar. Along with the calender, I ordered a book on Mt Rainier - and I'm not disappointed with that! Thoughts now turn from the mysteries of the deep oceans (briefly, I'll attack it again this afternoon!) to my SXG390 project (on Mt Rainier!) - but, more joyously, to our trip to the USA in June and seeing Mt Rainier in the flesh! And now I'm tempted to swap the night in Portland, for a night up there (the Chief Seattle room!), on (or close to!) that mountain, so we can see it when we wake up. Bring on those wild huckleberries!! Apparently, there are blue ones and red ones, growing on the slopes - as well as salmonberries and thimbleberries!