UniBrain Trust » England

SCCPC11155HL….

Jim — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:01:58 +0000

This week I got my VIN number from Arun at Motocorsa. It has been 3 years since I placed my initial order with Park Place. A lot has happened since that order. I quit a job of 9 years, moved the deposit twice, restored my Elan, restored a friends Elan, thought long and hard about what I wanted to do, got another job as a system administrator, and traveled to England. Through it all, I thought about the Elise. It is almost here and it is getting harder to wait.

Walking in the rain

Jim — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 19:34:00 +0000

We slept a straight 12 hours, got up and headed out for a walk. Since I’d only had half a cup of coffee and no breakfast I wasn’t sure how far I wanted to go. So we settled on a 1 mile walk to a half mile nature loop. It had lightly rained off and on and I was nicely warmed up so we decided to take a longer loop back. We hadn’t gone 12 yards when it started to really rain. We tried waiting it out under a spruce but the rain settled in. Since Jim had discovered in England that his coat isn’t really waterproof we set out at a brisk pace. Even at that blinding speed I managed to take in some of the amazing lushness and variety of the rain forest. By the time the trail turned into wooden walk over the cedar bog the rain had turned to sprinkles and we could stop to admire the mushrooms. Oh and I Saw a 3 inch brown frog who hopped across the trail. Jim pointed out how happy that frog looked far away from any actual distinct body of water.

Through the cedar bog and I pondered how hard it would be to build a trail and not have things grow from it. Trees grew from trees and ferns grew from rotting stumps. The ground is so soggy in the bog the trail is a timber path about two feet above the forest floor.

When we passed the last information sign, about a half mile before the end of the trail, Nadya called dibs on the shower. Jim called dibs on the first irish coffee. Guess who won?

Things to get/do
* new jacket for Jim
* water proof spray the camera bag
* tiny umbrella back in bag
* small towel for, bag
* small tripod?
* always bring Irish whiskey
* get the remote release
* stiff brush

Beer

Nadya — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 04:33:00 +0000

Why did we go to England? To look at antiquities and drink beer. Since Jim’s bad at remembering names, it fell to Nadya to order and fetch beer at the pubs and make sure we sampled a fair variety.

Twice Brewed Bitter
Auld Hemp
Old Peculiar
Strongbow (surprise! Cider!)
Boddingtons
England’s glory
John Smith Bitter
Black Sheep Bitter
Tetleys Extra Cold
Whitbread Extra Bitter
Fullers London Pride
Bombardier Bitter
Guinness (Which you can now “Extra Cold” in some pubs)
Abbot Ale
Courage Best Bitter (NOT recommended)
Spitfire
Broadside
Samuel Smiths extra Stout
Ayinger Hefeweizen

Real Pub Names

Nadya — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 04:33:00 +0000

We went to most of these – a few names were just so good we had to write them down.

The Plough (Our local in London)
The Black Bull
The Dyvels Hotel
The Tap and Spile* (what the heck’s a Spile?)
The Three Legged Mare*
Nags Head
Bull and Mouth
The Cambridge
The Zetland Arms
The Cambridge Arms
The Hadrian Hotel
Mr. Ants
The Crown

Pub Names that Should Exist

Nadya — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 15:00:00 +0000

The Liver and Kettle
The Cowe and Pattye
The Dwarf and Sword (you must use the same pronunciation rules for each word)
The Sheep and Lanolin
The Corn and Bunion
The Poking Willy
The Lick and Spittle
The Tap and Spew
The Croaking toad
The Trip and Fall
The Bait and Switch
The Cow and Turret
The Fly and Pye
The Stinging Nettle
The Crooked Rook
The Chilly Sheep
The Slippery Stile

Coins and the Imperial War Museum

Jim — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 15:00:00 +0000

After breakfast we stopped by a coin dealer located near the Museum. Nadya found a really nice example of a roman coin depicting the emperor Hadrian. We decided not to buy it until we did more research on how to evaluator and price ancient coins. Between the American proof sets, the British proofs and now ancient coins my collection is going to need more space. Nadya doesn’t know about the British proof coins.

In the afternoon we toured the Imperial War Museum. The museum is not, as some think, a glorification of war.

Bletchley Park

Jim — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 21:19:00 +0000

On the tour at Bletchley we got to go in the room with the rebuilt colossus mark 2. This is not normal on the tour but the man who did the rebuild was there and invited us in. Last may he decoded a tape (actually found the keys) something that hadn’t been done since 1945. Not just this tape, no one had decoded any since the war. He said he was buzzing around the room. As a point of comparison, the colossus takes about 2.5 hours to find the keys. A current (2.0 GHz) pc would take about 2.5 hours

The rebuild was accomplished using a few photographs and 10 partial schematics.

When you go to Bletchley Park take the guided tour. It is included in the price and the guides have wonderful stories to tell. Our guide relayed a story of a woman on his tour group recently who declared she had sunk the Bismarck. A WREN who had worked at BP during the war is now one of the guides.

Victoria and Albert

Jim — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 19:27:00 +0000

Off to the V&A, Victoria and Albert museum, today. Nadya found this museum much more fascinating than I did. I did manage to find another photographer to research. N. Hatakeyama. Look for Blast 1998. And of course there is always Becher and Becher.

Went shopping along Oxford Street and I out shopped Nadya. Well not out shopped, she just needed a nap. I never come between Nadya and a nap.

Tonight we are off to see the reduced Shakespeare. All of the plays in 97 minutes. I think it will be a comedy.

Another Pub and F1 on Regents Street

Nadya — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 17:24:00 +0000

To finish off yesterday.
The weather held up and we trundled past the New Globe to The Anchor Pub. There’s been a tavern on that site for the last 800 years.

Then we strolled over to St. Paul’s just because we wanted to walk over the Millennium footbridge. The cathedral was covered in tarps but they’d printed architectural drawings on the tarps so you could see what you were missing.

Then off to Charing Cross where we saw some of the “pre-race” happenings for the F1 drivebys. Saw David Coultard and hear some cool engines. I got freaked out by the crowd so we boogied. I was able to get within 8 or ten people from the road. Of course I was the shortest person there and even holding the camera high above my head could not get a picture of the road. So we didn’t see a car but did hear them. Nadya said I made the cute face when they went by.

Next stop was Forbidden Planet where we were so overwhelmed we didn’t buy anything!

Tate Modern

Nadya — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:08:00 +0000

The Tate Modern building is as fabulous as I had heard. Even Jim was impressed. The building hums; there are still transformers in the building being used by London Power. On the audio tour the architect said he thought the sound was sexy. He also felt, as we did, that it very much fit the space. Since the transformers will eventually he retired the architect likened it to “the last sigh of the old building.”