Monday, 22nd November, 2004

When in Rome...

Big gaps in my diary usually mean one of two things. (1) I've been grumpy and can't think of anything to write. (2) I've been away having Fun™

Fortunately, in this case, it's the latter

But before I go off into a "What Katie and I did at the weekend" ramble, let me first just get a little bit excited about my camera...

Would you look at the quality of that?!

Friday morning was, well, cold to say the least. So cold that the rubber on my windscreen wipers was frozen — and so were my windows. Fortunately, I've got some fab de-icer, but still ... brrr

At work, there were some puddles that were frozen solid — and when I looked at the ice, I could see little traces left by bubbles that had tried to rise while the ice was forming. SO you got these strange almost splash-like shapes in the ice.

Cool huh?

This one wasn't as good — I was just seeing how close I could get to an object without having to resort to macro extension tubes

I'm still slightly cursing myself for spending quite so much on a camera, and leaving myself a little bit short of cash, but as a friend pointed out, if I hadn't bought it, two months down the line I'd have just frittered the money away, and I'd be as skint — but with no camera.

Plus, I can do a lot of new work with it, and (as soon as the remote control I bought turns up) my pictures should get a lot better

Anyway, a couple of photographs from work on Friday:

Noooooooo! You can't throw out a PowerMac 8100! Even if it is broken!

Is that cool or what? I've never seen so many planes in the air at once. They looked like they were all converging on one spot (which got me a tad worried) and the one nearest the bottom's trail (just before I took this) was all wiggly — it was as if the pilot was drunk or didn't know the way...

...

Anyway, the weekend:

Katie and I went down to the South — she was going to a party in London, and I was taking the opportunity to pay Beth a visit, to see The Dress™ she's making for me.

On Friday night, we stayed with Katie's family in St Albans — the drive down was a bit poo towards the end, but...

Oh. My. God. The M6 Toll Road is quite possibly the greatest thing ever to have appeared since someone took a knife repeatedly to a loaf of bread!

Seriosuly, for years whenever I've driven south, the drive is fine until you get to Birmingham. Little sods who live in Birmingham (la la la Hi Sally ) use the M6 as if it was a local road — so it gets absolutely chocca

It usually takes 1-2 hours to get from one side to the other.

But not any more I couldn't believe how fantastic it was! £3 is a price worth paying to steam past Birmingham, trust me True story.

So yeah, St Albans. Well, it's a Roman town, or at least it's built right on top of the old city of Verulaniumimunmuiniumunium (sorry, it's hard to pronounce). The two of us did the whole tourist thing and went to the musuem. Which was fab. The plaster walls were particularly impressive Also, outside, there was part of the original Roman town wall:

First Century Now that's old.

What was very cool was that it was built in the same way that a lot of the more modern buildings are built — out of flint, with a strengthening brick course.

Oh, and also we saw lots of ducks. And Coots

...

That afternoon we headed into London. It was only a quick visit for me (which is why I hadn't arranged to meet up with anyone — I only had a couple of hours), so we legged it to the Tate Modern.

There was a sound sculpture in the Turbine Hall by Bruce Nauman which was, well, um, oh, I dunno — what would I know about art?

Actually, it was quite good — as you walked up and down the hall, you passed through different 'bands' of sound — different people saying different things. It made me feel quite uncomfortable, what with the constant "Mmmmmmmmmmmmm" going on (reminds me of certain chatroom people )

But what interested me most was how the people in the hall all crowded round the speakers — it was as if the concept was too much for them, and they needed an object to focus on.

Hmm

Anyway — my favourite place in London is the Rothko Room at the Tate. It was 7 of the 9 paintings, the Seagram Murals, he did originally for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York there — which he donated to the Tate because the Four Seasons pissed him off.

I love to just sit there, and think quietly.

And then we left. But not before I'd bumped into one of my colleagues in the foyer. Which was odd

...

Anyway — hurrah for Katie and Siobhan picking the weekend that half the Tube was closed for repairs We trotted off to get the Tube near St Pauls — but couldn't, so we walked along the embankment until we found a station that was open.

And as we were going down the escalator, we passed my colleague again as he was coming up.

Odd++

...

It was good to see Beth The dress is coming along well (bigger honey! Bigger!) and I got to spend a lovely night with her and her housemates.

I got pissed

The next morning was a bit of a mad dash to get the train back to meet Katie. Train repairs seemed to be a bit of a theme this weekend, I had to get a bus for part of the way (I hate buses ) and I was a bit hungover. But eventually we were back in my car, driving up the M1 & M6

...

We've been listening to a novel along the journey — "Monday Mourning" by (um, Katie — who wrote it?)

Katie writes:

Kwimble Reichs

Thanks honey

One of the things I love about Katie is the number of things we have in common. I'm reluctant sometimes to admit the things that I like — novels being one of them. I dunno — I guess I'm just afraid that I'll buy a crappy one, so I never buy them at all.

Ack, whatever

I've got stacks to do today — I'd better get on with it.

Oh, and BTW, I know I haven't mentioned dressing for a while. So, I'm wearing stockings and suspenders today. I think I'm going to wear them all the time during winter — they keep me warm ... and feel nice .

beth writes:

I was a little naughty today and sewed an extra layer onto the petticoat. Then a housemate cought me and made me go inside

Sally writes:

Of course those of us in the know can save the £3 for that rather short bit of expensive motorway. Actually as the M6 Toll has got busier — guess what? — the M6 is better than it used to be. Well it is whilst out of rush hour times — only a crazy person would try and use the M6 during rush hour. I use the M6 Toll a lot — well I used to but I'm finding it's quicker now on the M6!! (that's 'cos I live right by Spaghetti Junction). hugs

Davew writes:

Great first picture

Thanks Dave Although the original [1.8MB] isn't completely perfect — it's slightly out of focus ... my fault — I had no tripod so I got a teensy bit of camera shake.