2 Weeks!

It has been two weeks since my last post! I'm just not a very diligent blogger. I'm sure many of you are following my wife's blog, so you should have decent idea of what is going on. Last weekend, we went hiking in the Peaks just outside the village of Hathersage. It was beautiful.

Walking around here is done on public footpaths. This is an interesting idea which I gather has been around for centuries. The land is private, but the footpaths are public access by law. This means that you can be walking right through a farmers field or someones garden. Coming from the states where property laws and trespassing are almost religion ("You damn kids, get off my lawn"), this is an interesting feeling. Who remembers when Madonna bought an estate over here about two years ago? She tried to get the public footpaths on her property shut down because the paparazzi were using them to photograph her. Parliament kept them intact. An Englishman's right to wander was the way they described it.

It also rained a bit. When we got to the top of the hill on the walk, Amanda and the kids were knackered, so they went off to, as Jim describes it, England's rudest cafe/pub to wait for Jim and I to go get the cars. As Jim and I worked our way back to the car via the footpaths, one took us through some grazing sheep and their lambs. One lamb thought it important to stand his ground and defend his field. About two feet tall and covered in soft wool, he stood firmly on the path baying as we approached. Once it was clear that we weren't going to leave, he trotted off to his mom and hid. Lambs are cute. Tasty and cute.

This weekend, the family went to see Peveril Castle, a Norman Castle built in the 11th century. I took dozens of photos and the family and I had a great time. Amanda says she is going to post a few of the photos so check out here site in the next couple of days.

Sunday (today) I went mountain biking. Holy crap that kicked my ass. We rode on a trail near Ladybower reservoir which had a section considered one of England's 10 best downhills. The elevation change was on the order of 1500 feet. At the top, the wind was cold and brisk. And it pressed my shirt against my gut in the photo. Damn, must drink less beer. Or maybe do like James and fold my arms in photos. Yes, that's it fold my arms.

You can see the reservoir (where we started) down in valley. We started on the far side and rode around it the long way before even starting the accent. I think the whole ride was about 10 miles.

Still waiting to move. Still working constantly. Enjoying every day.

Presentation Zen

This has nothing to do with England.

I hate bad PowerPoint. Wait, that sentence might be too long. I hate PowerPoint. This is a passion of mine. I go to enough conferences and presentations (as I'm sure you have too) where the presenter is using PowerPoint as a note-card for himself rather than as a means of visually augmenting an oral presentation for the audience. If you know me well, you know that this is a hot button topic of mine.

I don't know if you've followed it, but there is a link on the side of my blog to a graphic designer's blog on presentation creation. This is probably the best website out there for thinking about the visual aspects of a presentation. I have a fairly long list of other great websites and articles for giving and writing technical papers and presentations, but I think Presentation Zen does the best job of making me think about the visuals in a completely different way. Every time I have to sit down to work out a new presentation, I read a few Presentation Zen posts to get into the right frame of mind.

If you haven't followed the link yet, do so now, and watch the "Chicken, Chicken, Chicken" video. I've seen it twice, and I can't stop laughing. It is like nearly every bad dissertation/technical presentation rolled into one great mockery. It's brilliant. The Matlab generated plots of cluster analysis. The citations in the introduction. The blocked out outline. It is indicative of exactly how many of us learned to do technical presentations, that turns out to be just plain wrong.

I'd like to embed a classic image of a New Yorker cartoon. But they are actually pretty vigilant about copyright, so I've linked to it instead. What the heck, buy a tee-shirt while you're there.

'ello

My children are already changing their English. Just the other day, my son greeted me with "'ello". I just about expected "gov'na" to come out next. He often will lilt the second to last syllable of a sentence. If you heard it, you'd know what I was talking about. I knew this would happen, I just didn't expect it so soon.

That said, it seems my own accent is starting to change. It's a strange thing. I'm vaguely conscious of it, and I fear that it is interpreted as mocking. Its just the desire to be understood and fit in. When I'm talking with Amanda, it all but disappears. I also caught myself saying "far" instead of "for" in a conversation yesterday. Damn you St. Louis.

Sunday was absolutely beautiful out. I went climbing at Froggatt Edge. It was amazing. Single pitch grit stone, trad climbing. I didn't lead (since I don't know how to set anchors) but seconded, clearing the anchors as I climbed. Very different from gym climbing, but I could use everything that I've picked up at Upper Limits. It didn't really push myself much. I onsighted all the routes we tried. The hardest was an HVS 4c, which I would put at about about a 5.8+. Pretty much stuck to cracks and dihedrals. (Okay, so the last paragraph was for Rob, Jae, Brian, and Alan.)

The most interesting thing was that chalk was only slightly helpful. You could just about smear on the stone without any chalk and just stick to it. It was very rough and very hard. Like a brand new hang-board. Great fun for climbing on. I can see why the Peak District is considered the best climbing in the UK. We even ran into a couple up from London for the weekend just to climb.

Like an idiot, I didn't take a camera. Next time, I'll post my own photos.

Beautiful Saturday

Today looks like it's going to be a beautiful day. Tomorrow promises great weather also. Today the plan is to go to the Chatsworth House. Depending on situations, I may get some climbing in at the Peaks also. Very much looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Wednesday night was clear and cool. I took a photo from the balcony of our apartment looking to the South and East across Sheffield. The shot is pushed about 1 stop, it was actually much darker than it looks in the photo, but I like the look of the deep blue sky in this picture. The full 10MP image is really pretty. Maybe I'll get a flickr account and put it up there.

This morning I went out to Tescos (small market) and picked up some hot cross buns and blueberry muffins for breakfast. I was the only one who liked the hot cross buns. I guess currants are a taste to get used to?

I find myself bouncing back and forth between tea and coffee. I've gotten used to instant coffee since it's what is commonly available. I do have a coffee press in the apartment (its what I'm drinking right now), but it is a pain to clean so I rarely brew it in the morning. While coffee makers exist, tea kettles are of course far more common.

What is really cool is how fast resistive heating stuff gets hot. The iron is ready in less than a minute. Eight cups of water boils in just a few minutes (fast rolling boil, not slight simmer) in the tea kettle. 220V rocks! I propose that the US needs to switch. 110 is for sissys.

The kids have started to settle in lately, which is nice since their constant excitement was starting to get unnerving. Its not just that they were excited, its that they didn't have constructive outlets for their excitement, so they would just end up yelling and running around our tiny apartment. This ultimately ended up in someone falling down and then crying, or simply bickering at each other. I suppose when we move, this will start all over for a week or so.

Speaking of moving, we found a great four bedroom flat near the school that the kids will go to. It is two stories with a balcony on each floor. There is a community garden right next to it. I doubt any plots are still available, but if they are I think it would be fun to let one and plant some veg for the summer. Its also out on the west end of town, so easy access to the Peaks!

The sun is now getting high in the morning sky, so I'm off to enjoy the day.

Jane is the greatest woman in the world.

I have a new best friend. Her name is Jane. She doesn't have a face, but her voice is sent straight from God, or in this case, an actress via a computer chip manufactured in China. Jane is the voice in my new SatNav system. I don't know how the natives do it. They have extra genes for navigating around here or something. I need my SatNav. I need Jane. For example, here is the route (acording to Google Maps) from our apartment to work. Oh sure, it looks easy from 10,000 feet up. But on the road, its confusing as hell. Its not natural for five roads to converge on a single location. So now I'm cruising the causways of Sheffield in my Vauxhall Zafira with Jane in my ear saying sweet nothings like, "At the next roundabout in 300 yards, take the third exit."

Today was also my first day of work. Most of the day was spent in a meeting with some guys from Manchester, NH who I already know quite well since my lab in St. Louis works as a beta tester for their equipment. So, it was just like being home. Except more English accents.

10 am, Sunday Morning (but only acording to the clock)

I didn't sleep well on the plane, and the jet lag is more noticable than usual. Normally, I'm good by the next day. Today, I still don't feel quite right. But I am awake.

The children did great on the plane. S watched Open Season, and then slept the rest of the way. C watched the movie, played some DS, and then slept the rest of the way. Yeah for overnight flights. When we arived in Manchester, it was quite foggy. We were all caught by surprise when the wheels touched down because we couldn't see the ground from the windows. However, by the time we got the car loaded, purchased a good map (Damn you National for not having Sat Nav available!) and hit the restrooms one more time, the fog had burned off and it was a very beautiful day. By the way, if you need a navigator, Amanda rocks! We didn't make one wrong turn.

We rented a minivan so that we would have enough room for all the luggage. Barely. The van was completely packed with our 11 suitcases + four cary-ons. We were all cramped in the car with luggage. It filled the back, the floor by the kids seats, between the two kids, and the floor of the passenger side. I was a bit closer to the steering wheel than I would have prefered. Horray for the tight packing gene (clearly on the Y chromosome). No cubic inch wasted. A lesser individual would have gotten a bigger vehicle.

To get from Manchester to Sheffield, you have to drive across the Peak District. It's very beautiful, somewhere between hills and mountains. The drive was pleasant, but crowded. I think all of England had decided that this was the weekend to go to the Peaks. Our 45 mile journey took about an hour and a half. Not that I minded driving slowly. Actually, it is a bit like riding a bike. It took no time to switch my brain back to driving on the left.

So, now it's Sunday. The body and mind are adjusting. We are here.

Today, the movers packed our stuff and hauled it away for shipping. So much for Thoreau. The company will pay for 1000 lbs of shipping. With 90 cu. ft. we used up 942 lbs. Of course, that also includes their giant triple thick cardboard boxes. Those things probably weighed like 20 lbs each, and they had like 7. So that means I'm only taking 800 lbs of stuff. That should qualify as below the threshold of materialistic American.

I have too much crap.

Last night I got very little sleep. I was up late packing and getting things sorted out with our house sitter. In theory, I should have gotten 4 hours of sleep, but then I lay awake in bed for at least an hour worrying. I feel like I slept about two hours. The good side of this is I'm exhausted. I should fall asleep early, wake up early and have that much less jet lag to deal with!

Tomorrow is our flight. We have a long day ahead. The thing I'm most worried about is getting the family through customs with our 12 (not a typo) suitcases. Two carts, six bags each plus two kids and jet lag. I think the trick will be to stay focused on the task at hand. Go through each step (I've done it enough times now) from landing to the hotel. Then sleep for two hours.

My next post will be from the UK!