ado

Posted on March 25, 2014 by kaan

When I was 10 I lived in the town of Llangollan for several months. I did a fair chunk of “grade 6” here.

Exploring the town these years later, the old house was elusive but the church yard I hung out in was easy to spot.

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It seemed smaller than I recall and I appreciate different things about it now. The old yew trees were stunning.

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After a trip to the pub to appreciate the parts of town I missed when I lived here, we shuffled down the road a short distance to the home of Aunty Pauline. My cousin Sara is a hairdresser and had agreed to smarten us up a bit.

Theo enjoyed a cup of tea with his cut.

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Jenna had her bangs trimmed out of her eyes. Mothers, by definition, develop superhuman sight, I’m pretty sure. Now hers is also unimpeded by hair. Watch out Elizabeth…
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Cousin Lorna and aunty Pauline made an incredible dinner while this production was underway. Uncle Llewelyn made mischief with Elizabeth.

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Sara first outfitted me with an aluminum hat.

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After about 30 minutes of folicular sizzling, it was time for a wash in the kitchen sink. It took a team, but we got’er done.

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That is when the master really got to work – chipping away the rough edges in search of something worth salvaging.

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I am overjoyed with the result.

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Thank you Sara!

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Anglesey faring

Posted on March 24, 2014 by kaan

Today was spent exploring some choice locations on and around the island of Anglesey.

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There were a few different species of bird but the one that surprised me was the oystercatcher. I haven’t seen them since Haida Gwaii.

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We encountered the wreck of an abbey built in the 1200s.

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It also had many wild ponies.
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Next up was a mesolithic site named Bryn Celli Ddu.

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I thoroughly enjoyed that! It was a site I read about quite a bit and had grown quite keen on it.

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family awesome

Posted on March 23, 2014 by kaan

We arrived in Wales to a wonderful assembly of family.

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From left to right: Theo, Jenna, and Elizabeth; aunty Pauline; Alex partner of Hazel; cousin Gavin; me; aunty Bev and uncle Merry; cousin Hazel; cousin Sara; aunty Melanie and uncle Llewelyn; cousin Lorna and her partner Dan.

I am going to get my hair done by Sara before I leave Wales. I’m very excited.

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Yorking

Posted on March 22, 2014 by kaan

If you are interested in medieval history, York is top ten all time. The city walls are built on Roman foundations. The Romans arrived in 71 AD and finished their wall around 200 years later.

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Only the top third or so was built after the Romans left, the rest is almost 2000 years old.

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This is what the walls look like from the streets.

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I attended about 2/3 of a Catholic mass in this cathedral. It evolved a lot of standing then sitting. The choral music was phenomenal.

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The York museum had this gorgeous 1100 year old helm. I had no words.

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The museum also had a dodo.
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On the train to Leeds, birth place of Todd Margaret, Theo and I had a magnificent beer.

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And then my beautiful niece peed on me.
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past Scotland

Posted on March 21, 2014 by kaan

The last day of my first visit to Scotland was spent substantially at the museum of Scotland.

Before we went to the museum, father and daughter arranged our accommodations in York.

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The museum was amazing. I could have spent days lost in there.

It was a bit surreal to find a Nisga’a pole in Edinburgh.

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I remain an ardent fan of the echidna. Electro-sensing quills impress me greatly. I suggest it is near impossible to hide from a predator who can sense the electrical signals of your nervous system.

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This is a picture of a platypus’s ass. Note the spike at the base of the rear foot. It has venom. I am not sure how it gets deployed in practice, but I am certain the platypus does not squat to pee.

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The common name of this beast is “horrid elbow crab”. Apt.

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This rock is one of the oldest bits of the earth. It is from BC.

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No museum stop would be complete without visiting T-rex.

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I lost myself staring at the intricate clockwork of the orrery. This one was built in 1913 and has a single set of gears to simultaneously drive all the planets and their moons.

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The “life at the limits” exhibit had an amazing statue honoring Zoe the llama.

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The day ended with some final enduring views of Scotland.
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exploring Edinburgh

Posted on March 20, 2014 by kaan

A sunny morning afforded Theo and I some beautiful views from the nearby hills and a summit named Arthur’s Seat.

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The wind was howling.

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We made our way back down to the city and discovered the Museum of Edinburgh had a costume and dress up section.

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In the evening we had our real prize. We have now been joined by Jenna and Elizabeth. I am quite excited to be on a European adventure with my niece.

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wee, not so wee, and fricken huge

Posted on March 19, 2014 by kaan

Theo and I arrived in Edinburgh at night to a wonderful view of the pink castle.
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The city has some things that I looked at. I like stuff.
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Alastair gave us a great list of places to visit so we set about the task.

Brauhaus,The Abbottsford, Cloisters, Doctors, Ghillie Dhu, The Wash, and The Black Cat have all enjoyed us so far.

But first I donated blood, in order to be totally in my prime.

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Regulus and the occult

Posted on March 18, 2014 by kaan

Friends living between Toronto and Ontario: Thursday morning is a gnarly opportunity to be part of the first ever crowd sourced astrometric observation experiment! This is so cool.

From the planetary society:

Just after 2:06 am on Thursday EDT, March 20th, the bright star Regulus (Alpha Leonis, magnitude 1.3) in the constellation Leo will disappear for up to 14 seconds for more than 20 million people in the New York Metropolitan area and parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, upstate New York, Ontario and Quebec as the asteroid (163) Erigone passes in front of it. The image below shows the predicted path of the shadow of the asteroid over the ground.

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The idea is that by recording when, where, and for how long Regulus disappears it will be possible to calculate the exact shape and spin of the asteroid blocking it. Essentially mapping the shadow.

A google map of the shadow’s path can be found here.

Full instructions are on the planetary society’s web page. That is also the source of the images above.

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Strg+Alt+Entf

Posted on March 17, 2014 by kaan

A new day in Amsterdam led to new discoveries. We visited the
Rijksmuseum but were unable to tell if it was commemorating the first or second Rijks. Clearly not the third though.

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A canal ride beckoned. En route I discovered a very large gymnasium next to another very large gymnasium. Clearly we were in the gymnasium district.
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We found a boat for hire.

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I also took a photo of a funny looking tourist.

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We cruised by many marvels of Amsterdam, including a former jewel: the Anne Frank house.

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Shortly after we discovered either a 2-D death star impression or an attempt to compete with Sudbury by crafting the world second largest nickel.

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No trip to the Netherlands would be complete without a dutch rudder.
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Eventually we wanted to ride the tram, commencing our journey back to the home of Jillie. Unfortunately our Dutch tram ran on a German version of Microsoft windows that crashed and was waiting for someone to press “Strg-Alt-Entf”.

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The North Sea

Posted on March 16, 2014 by kaan

Today we visited the west coast of the Netherlands and noted the north sea.

We are staying with mum’s cousin Jillie, her son Max, and her husband Guy. Today the five of us went to the beach.

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Theo and I went for a walk in the ocean. It was colder than a bastard.
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The beach had an oil soaked albatross. Yeah for the north sea.

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At first when I was taking the photo it was for Miki but then when I saw the oil I realised it was for no one.

We ate crokettes at a beach cafe and the went to inspect the Dutch flower industry. We are a month or so early but it was still beautiful.
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As we drove off to find a good forest in which to have a fight to the death using blow darts, we went by the Netherlands’ mountain. I am pretty sure it goes above sea level. BIG DEAL.
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