1 January 2007
Hello. What are you doing here? You should be at http://iamsilk.blogspot.com/
18 December 2006
There was no super-Bothamesque miracle. Though I was impressed with the efforts of Geriant Jones. Having never got a duck in 52 innings, he got a pair in the match England simply had to win, and dropped a catch and missed a stumping. What a guy!
I've been in Exeter today. Here are my observations on pubs.
The Jolly Porter : Perhaps it's just nostalgia but The Jolly Porters seems to have lost some of its atmosphere. Refurbished, with the result that its lost both the stuffed bookshelves and the Bar Billiards table (note to self : when King pass law requiring all pubs to contain Bar Billiards table). The resulting paint job is just a touch too bright, and the music, including Jackson 5 doing Santa Claus is Coming to Town, far too loud. I mean really loud. Interfering with conversation loud. But the beer is still good, if my pint of Doom Bar was anything to go by. Still a pretty decent pub but not, I fear, what it was.
The Angel : Formerly Envy, before that The New Victoria Inn, The Angel was never my favourite pub, particularly during its Envy phase. However, it's now become what I call a decent 'Saturday afternoon pub' with a relaxing High Street feel and a comfortable interior. I also noted that there were serving Harvistoun 'Bitter and Twisted' which is a bloody good pint. I don't recall The Angel ever serving decent beer in the past, so that's an improvement, as is the loss of the Envy period DJ.
The Well House : Now owned by the magnificent Michael Caine, I didn't go in but I did note that it's in the 2007 GBG, so that's OK.
On the pub vandalism front, the Brewery Tap in Bristol (which was excellent) is being ripped to pieces. Even worse news comes from The Cornubia, also of Bristol, which was one of the best pubs in the country. This is also being torn to bits. There should be a law...
17 December 2006
Barring a miracle of super-Bothamesque proportions tomorrow, the Ashes are returning to Australia. Though, somewhat irritatingly, if England had batted this well in the first innings, as the could and should have, we'd still be in with a shout. Indeed, if we'd batted this well throughout the series, it might still be level.
Still, there is most excellent sporting news. England's football team, rugby team and cricket team may be woefully under-performing, Arsenal may not be able to beat Portsmouth, and my 8 year old cousins team unluckily lost 1-0 today, but Colchester Utd are storming towards safety in The Championship, and possibly a play-off place. To put this into context, well, I can't put this into context. I can't think of a similar football analogy. All the pundits said we ould be relegated this season and yet here we it in 6th, ahead of the likes of Sunderland, Leeds and Crystal Palace. Stoke City, who visited yesterday, hadn't conceeded a goal in over 700 minutes of football, but it took Jamie Cureton about 75 seconds to score the first and we ran out 3-0 winners. Hurrah!
16 December 2006
The Ashes, are not, it seems, coming home.
14 December 2006
In a country where, if it's raining, you must be outside, and in a city that has a cørnucopia of shops and bøutiques, one would expect to be able to find a wide range of umbrellas in various styles, shades and prices. This is not, actually, the cåse. Perhaps the recent rain is unexpected, and all the shops have sold out. I suspect not. Perhaps Dånes use umbrellas so much that they are buy the mail order (in bulk). Perhaps each Dåne gets a yearly umbrella from the Gøvernment. All I know is that I was looking at the Little Mermæd and getting very wet. In the end I nearly gråbbed someone with an umbrella and screamed 'Where did you find that'. Nearly. Instead, I went to the pub.
I haven't done a pub review in quite some time, but it's really just like riding a bicycle. Actually, the only way it's like riding a bicycle is that both are quite fun to do drunk, but the end product is markedly inferior. Of course, it's not illegal to be in control of a pen while drunk, so the analogy is, in fact, worthless. I digress.
'The Brewpub' (for that is it's name) is, but some considerable distance, the most expensive pub I've ever been in. I've been in more expensive bars, paid more for alcohol in resturarants, and probably ended up spending £8 on a 'cocktail' in a 'nightclub' at some point, but I've never been in a real pub this dear. And this is most certainly a real pub. It says so on the door.
The homebrew is really very good, and comes in at between £5 and £7 for a half litre (slightly less than a pint, slightly more than an American 'pint'). I had one of the three Christmas ales on offer (they also have at least three year round ales, including an IPA, available). St Nöel. It was dark and just fruity enough to be interesting, without cloying sweetness (British brewers, take note). Plenty of bitterness and a long, dark malt aftertaste. Almost worth every Krone.
Food was hearty, non-vegetarian and tasty. The actual pub is a modern looking cellar bar (the brewery is above) with just enough dark to give it real atmosphere. There's a restuarant too, which I didn't investigate.
I'm now in the airport. I should be in the air. What exactly is it with BA? Do they just have their watches set to a different time to the rest of us?
13 December 2006
Finished work now. Will spend tomorrow walking around and looking for Christmas gifts. Copenhagen is very pretty, if you will excuse the dull and blindingly obvious observation.
12 December 2006
How can a hotel possibly £142 pounds a night for a poky room with a view over a carpark, and not include breakfast in the price. Kate told me this would be the case but I simply couldn't accept it.
The world has gone mad.
11 December 2006
One of the main problems facing us in the fight against Climate Change is the rising tide of aviation emissions. How do we deal with this problem? Buggered if I know, I'm in Copenhagen. With work, I hasten to add.
2 December 2006
Spamalot is very very funny indeed. I would argue that you probably have to be a fan of the film to appreciate it fully, but then again, if you aren't a fan of the film, you must be a very odd person indeed.
26 November 2006
Oh, hello.
Back from Nairobi now, and two groups of thoughts are swirling around in my head. Or rather, there were two things predominately on my mind when I woke up this morning, alongside the slightly more mundane worries about breakfast, shopping and doing the laundry. The first thing I thought about was Kenya and the wonderful things I saw. I am trying to think of a way to present the vast splendor and range of what we saw, without boring you rigid (or forcing you to download gigabytes of images). Anyway, here is a taster
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I think the best way to go from here is to prune the hundreds of pictures I have (courtesy of my travelling companions Steve and Amy, I still haven't replaced my camera following the robbery last month), zip a selection and make them available for download. If you like.
But politics, as per dull old usual is what is mainly on my mind. I woke up this morning with the (blindingly obvious) revelation that the parallels between Iraq and Vietnam have been, perhaps, overstated and that a more apt comparison could (and should) be made between Iraq and Afganistan. Not Afghanistan of 2001, of course, but Afghanistan of 1979. (Boy! I love wikipedia!)
Afghanstan was, if not the high water mark of Soviet style communism, at least its last stand. Within months of the eventual Soviet withdrawl in 1989, Poland and Hungary had abandoned communism and the Berlin Wall had fallen.
"Ho hum!", I hear you sigh. Well, perhaps. But one could argue that Iraq may mark a significant turning point in the international political balance. Western-style democracy has, since the end of the cold war, been pretty much the only game in town. The assumption was that, sooner or later, everyone would realise our system of government was the best (or at least, least worst) and adopt it. Maybe they still will. Or maybe Iraq marks the end of Western democracy, or at least the end of its spread, and Theocratic rule, neoCommunism or whatever it is they practice in China these days, and good old fashioned dictatorship, will come back into vogue. Certainly I see no signs that the Iraq will lead to the spread of democracy in the world. If that was the intention (as stated by some) its been a collosal failure. Palistine, Iran, North Korea and Russia, to name but a few, have become more hardline in the last few years, and Africa is still mired in war and corruption.
So what does this all mean? Well, as a supporter of secular liberal democracy, the Iraq invasion has been nothing less than a catastrophe. And an entirely avoidable one, seeing as it was clear from the evidence that Saddam didn't have nukes (despite claims the the evidence proved he did have one). If you don't believe me, take a look at Hans Blix's reports.
Anyway, my main beef with Iraq is not that the invasion was illegal, or carried out under false pretences, but rather than the blindingly obvious happened. We invaded Iraq, forgot about Afghanistan and now we have two states sliding into the abyss. Wheras, if we'd concentrated our minds (and tax $$$) on sorting out one problem at a time, rule of law might just extend across Afghanistan right now. "Prove to me you can make Afghanistan a functioning democracy and I'll let you have a crack at Iraq" was my motto. Sadly, we proved exactly the opposite.
Like all good ranters, I offer no answers to the current mess we find ourselves in. I just hope we can find a way to minimise the loss of life in Iraq and spread Western style democracy across the world. Ideas are stronger than bullets, I think.
My other concern is, what the hell is happening in Russia?
18 November 2006
This week has passed extremely quickly and, even as someone who was at COP throughout, I find it very hard to describe exactly it all means. We have a series of decisions and agreements, but I'm not sure what they amount to. Progress, certainly, but it will be very hard to judge the sort of progress that has been made until a lot of time has elaspsed and a lot more progress has been made. What happened at this COP was very much predicated by what happened at the previous eleven, and what exactly this COP amounts to will be determined by future COPs, particularly through to 2009. 2009 could be a very interesting year (and there's a lot of work to be done between now and then to ensure that it is an interesting year).
It all feels a bit anticlimactic right now, but I'm sure this feeling will pass when I get out on safari. I'm not taking the computer to the Masai Mara, so this will be my last journal entry for a week or so.
Oh, and I forgot to say. The NGO party was excellent, in a 80s school disco kinda way.
17 November 2006
We now enter the endgame. Last year it lasted until 7am the next morning, so I'm glad to have had a long and relaxing sleep last night. Whether or not we resolve all the issues on the agenda today, there is still a lot of work to come back and do next year.
16 November 2006
Some links, and some photos. This may give you an idea of what is going on here. Or not.
www.unfccc.int, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Convention is the overall international framework on Climate Change and has been ratified by 180-odd countries. The Kyoto Protocol, ratified by 165 parties, is a Protocol of the Convention (i.e. you have to ratify the Convention before you can ratify the Protocol) and fixes targets for 37 so-called Annex I parties, listed here .
You can find agenda items and what we are talking about here and it looks a bit like this
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11 November 2006
Today was very interesting, and in the interests of diplomacy I will say nothing about it, other than to suggest that I have learnt a lot about negotiation.
Tomorrow is a day off, which will be a welcome rest. It has been rather difficult to keep track of days as one meeting rolls into another. However, everyone knows when Saturday comes around, because tonight is the fabled COP NGO party, at which everyone gets drunk and proceeds to spend their day off with an evil hangover. This is something of a COP tradition, so I'll certainly be partaking.
No internet access today, so you won't see this until Monday at the earliest.
8 November 2006
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COP looks a bit like this |
I have still not been into central Nairobi. My schedule is basically get up, grab a very swift breakfast, head to the UN compound on a minibus, spend the day in various discussions, meetings and plenary sessions, then head home, exhausted, have a beer and go to bed. We will, hopefully, get to go out on Saturday night, but I'm really looking forward to the end of COP, whereafter I shall be going on safari for a week. Hurrah.
7 November 2006
Shikamo. Wi-Fi is a wonderful thing. I'm sitting in the second plenary session of SBSTA at the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP12), in Nairobi, Kenya and, as delegates discuss avoided deforestation (a subject which is not my specialist area) I can access the internet. Wonderful.
COP is absolutely fascinating and I'm learning an awful lot about the way international negotations in general, and climate negotations in particular, work. If you have taken the time to study the actual text of the Kyoto Protocol you will have no doubt wondered how such an arcane document came about and why such a series of complicated and obscure articles are necessary to achieve what is ultimately the reasonably simple goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Spend a few days in plenary at COP and you begin to understand why the whole process is as complex as it is. Since I'm here in a professional capacity I should probably not submit my own personal opinions and prejudices in this journal, so I will instead attempt to point you in the direction of a number of interesting articles that are already in the public domain. Strangely, one good introduction (and an interesting historical document, since it dates from 1997, shortly after the Protocol was designed and long before it came into force) can be found on the website of the Heartland Insitute (back to the tune of $500,000 by ExxonMobil) : Understanding the Kyoto Protocol. Wikipedia also has a useful description .
What I can say is that Nairobi is a lot like Leeds, i.e. cold and wet. Here we are 1°17' South, and it feels like a wet weekend in West Yorkshire.
1 November 2006
It has been pointed out to me, by several people, that I haven't really updated the webpage this year. In particular, until today, the webpage stated that Kate and I were still split up. Since we got back together back in January, this has caused some confusion. Apologies. Kate and I are going out, very happy and living in the same place, for a change.
22 October 2006
Disaster! While my back was turned, the miscreants who I had feared where trailing me broke into our flat and removed much of value, particularly to Kate. They stole her I-Pod, Bose SoundDock, Laptop and Mobile Phone. They also removed my much loved camera and other things. They even had the temerity to abscond with Win's work laptop.
We've had the locks changed. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.
15 October 2006
Like many of us, I hold the paranoid belief that I am stalked by assailants and assassins wherever I go. Of course, such evil-doers are bound to read my journal in order to find out what I'm up to in order to plot further wicked schemes. To this end, I have been forced to use a series of cunning anagrams to disguise the names of the places I am visiting over the next few weeks, lest I arrive to find myself dead with a poisoned arrow in the chest, or a chest of poison in my luggage. Please forgive me for such extreme measures. Then again, I suspect most of you understand, threatened by mysterious and nefarious foes, such as you are.
So, tomorrow I am off to sBrussel tomorrow, for a meeting of the UE gReportin tExper pGrou (I know how exciting that would sound to you, if only you could decipher it) and in rNovembe I am off to iNairob, aKeny, to attend the 12th Meeting of the eConferenc fo eth sPartie ot eth oKyot lProtoco. So there!
8 October 2006
Today was mainly spent looking at pigs, sheeps, goats, chickens and guinea fowl.
7 October 2006
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Rowers : Charlie (Cox), Line, Ewa, Vickie, Hannah |
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Cyclists in Montreaux : Kate, Alex, Ben, Silk, Kevin and Freddie Mercury (back) |
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(My) wounded knee |
Finally I have a useful piece of advice for anyone planning on indulging in a spot of long distance cycling round a Swiss/French lake. And that piece of advice is this, if you are cycling in a group, take care not to cycle into the chap ahead of you and mess up your knee, because this hurts and leaves you with blood running all down your leg.
Remember kids, don't do it!
25 September 2006
There are a number of problems in my life. I often suffer from motivation problems and I get distracted easily. I have mild asthma and mild excema. My posture is poor. My spelling worse. But my number one problem right now is that I'm trying to hang some bloody shelves in my bloody room and the bloody things keep bloody falling down.
No ordinary shelves these. With ordinary shelves you just drill a couple of holes, stick raw plugs in (if you need to) and screw the brackets in. Hey presto! Shelves. Wonky shelves, probably, but shelves nonetheless.
Unfortunately my shelves need to be afixed to the external wall. An external wall that appears to be made of kevlar, not concrete. (Well, to be quite truthful, kevlar is a polymer, so it would probably be quite easy to drill into. Anyway, you get the picture).
So they drill won't touch it, even with a masonary tip. I turn to "No More Nails", which is would probably win a prize for "Thing least likely to do exactly what it says on the tin" if such a prize existed. Sadly, even my favourite method of fixing things, Araldite, has failed in this case. I suspect the only way out may be to stop trying to fix the shelves to the wall, and install a set of shelves that rest on the floor.
Just be thankful you don't have my troubles.
24 September 2006
While cycling down the Rhine the week before last, Colin, Ruth and I worked very hard on a number of exceptionally witty limericks. If you recieved a postcard of some Rhenish Burg or other, you may be lucky enough to find one of the back. For the rest of you, I have been busy working on this, which I call "Rhineway to Hessen".(This map may help you navigate your way through our trek.)
There are cyclists who's sure all that Rhenish
is gold
And their biking the Rhineway to Hessen
When they get there they know if the Kolsh is
not cold
then the Alt Bier is bound to be tasty
wie komme ich zum Bahnhof bitte?
So they're biking the Rhineway to Hessen
There's a sign on the in Germanic but there no need to
panic
'cos you know sometimes wurst have two
meanings
On the rock by the river there's a
siren who sings
But to tell you the truth, it's a statue
die Bratwurst ist in die Straße gefallen
And they're biking the Rhineway to Hessen
There's a feeling I get when I look to the East
And my spirit is crying for Reisling
In my thoughts I have
seen crumpled Burgs through the trees
And
the voices of those who speak German
Ich möchte ein Paket des Kaugummis bitte
So we're biking the Rhineway to Hessen
And it's said at this juncture, if we don't get
a puncture
Then the Rhineway will lead us to
Bingen
And a new day will dawn for those who stand
long
And the Stadtmitte will echo with singen
And it makes my legs hurt
If there's a tinkle of a bike bell
Don't be alarmed now
It's
just some Radfahrer overtaking you
Yes there
are two paths you can go by
but in the long run
If you take the ferry you can change the bank
you're on
Your head is humming because you drunk
too much Weissenbier
The train is calling you
to join it
but don't be tempted by the Bahnhof or the
cruiser
Your Rhineway lies on the riverside
And as we cycle on down the path
Hoping to get there, take a bath
See
the sights and have some dinner
Spend the night in some
comfy zimmer
And if you cycle very hard
Then Mainz will come to you at last
When all is done, the Rhine is finished
and that fat paunch has been diminished
hast du Geschwister?
And we've
cycled the Rhineway to Hessen
23 September 2006
Looking back over the last 6 months, it's difficult to think of a way of actually reducing it to a few words. And it would probably be quite dull, so I won't bother trying.
I will, however, draw your attention to the following story from The Times. "Watch out, Sarge! It's environmentally friendly fire" BAE SYSTEMS, one of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers, is designing a new generation of “green” munitions, including “lead-free” bullets and rockets with reduced toxins.
Clearly my concerns of a UK irony shortage have proved baseless.
22 September 2006
Permission to land.Back again, finally. Dull broadband problems have plaged Kate and I for a while, but these are now solved.
So, er, what? Well
I think that's it.
Pictures of trips to Mauritius (IPCC Plennary meeting (with long holiday tacked on the end)), Paris, Northumberland and Germany to follow, as soon as I can work out what I did with the USB cable that connects my camera to my PC.
18 March 2006
This is a holding position. I am alive. I am happy. I am going out with Kate again. I am very busy, I do not have internet at home and security prevents me from editing my journal at work. This is not an excuse. I am sorry for not updating the journal recently, and I hope to supply you with more rubbish in the near future.29 January 2006
3-1 to United. 2 goals from Danns and one from Garcia. Hoping for Newcaste Utd at home in the 5th Round.29 January 2006
Happy New Year.
So I've been in my new job for a month. I'm really enjoying it.
Unfortunately, the setup of the IT system in my new office prevents me from accessing my journal there. Or rather, I can see my journal but I cannot edit it. I haven't managed to get broadband installed in my new flat yet, so updating this page is proving to be a little problematic. Please bear with us as we carry out these necessary engineering works.
Annyoing security issues aside (it would, for example, be against the rules to install software on my PC to allow me to synchronise my phone and Outlook calendars, and I'm not allowed to use POP3 to download my Yahoo! e-mail onto my laptop) I absolutely love my job. Aside from the fact they have given me a lovely, tiny little Dell laptop, a very nice pay package and an utterly splendid retire at 60 pension scheme, I actually find what I'm doing tremendously exciting.
It's not all that impressive when you write it down. I've been writing letters to members of the public about various aspects of global warming science and policy, answering parlimentry questions (PQs) about UK Greenhouse Gas emissions and dealing with reports to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) to which the UK is a signatory, and which is the parent agreement of the rather more famous Kyoto Protocol. You may be pleased to hear that the UK is on target to meet its Kyoto commitments. See, for example, this recent statistics release. Oh yes, I am now a mouthpiece of the government.
The thing that's making it enjoyable, however, is the sheer craziness of the whole thing. Every day 5 things land on your desktop and your expected to be able to do them all by 5pm. Of course, you can't actually do them all by 5pm, so a certain amount of juggling and fuding takes place, but the fact that I'm always busy, and that my targets are clearly defined, makes me very happy. Of course, it helps that Global Warming is what I'm really interested in. I came up with some great bar charts yesterday.
The people I work with are quite brilliant. Jim, our boss, is a genius who happens to understand both the science and the politics to a quite astounding degree. Steve, Susan and Raquel have made me feel really welcome and showed me where the stationary cupboard is (I have access to an infinite supply of document wallets and paper clips), and another new recruit, Amy, started this week. The people who work in Climate change at DEFRA are in general young, enthuiastic and extremely friendly. Two weeks ago we went for a curry and continued to a night club. Bonza.
None of this really matters today of course. Today is a football day. It might have snuck up on you, but Colchester United are currently top of League One and a 3rd Round FA Cup vicotry over Sheffield United (2-1 at Bramhall Lane) has set up a home time with struggling Derby. My family have got tickets (it is a sell out) so I'm off to Layer Road this afternoon, hoping that we'll win and get a home tie with someone really big next time.
United!
28 December 2005
I have moved into a very nice flat in Battersea with a very nice flatmate called Win. At present I do not have a PC but I will buy(!) a laptop sometime in the near future and when I do I will post some pictures of my flat, my flatmate and interesting buildings on the Winstanley Estate.
My local pubs are The Galleon and The Duke of Wellington. Both of these are derelict.
I'm afraid that I may not add much to the journal over the next month or so, as I have no internet access from home, and only limited access from work. I shall do my best to add something however. In the meantime, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
13 December 2005
I have, I hope, begun to develop a warerobe that could be described as "Business casual". To be perfectly honest, I'd much prefer to have to wear a suit to work every day. That would make things much simpler.
9 December 2005
The part of my brain that deals with generating interesting things to write in my journal is sadly empty right now. I can only point you in the direction of Get Your War In and hope you find something of interest there.
7 December 2005
I have a job. I have a really, really great job. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I have found my dream job. From January 3rd I will be working with DEFRA, the UK Government Department of the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, in London. My responsibilities will be related to the UKs emission of Greenhouse Gases and the way in which we mitigate (i.e. reduce) these emissions. I could honestly not be happier.
It has been a strange time since I found out about the job. I've been moving around a lot (living in Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and now Wimbledon) and trying to find somewhere permanent to live. I've visited 21 or some rooms. Some I liked, some I hated, most were OK but not quite right. I think I've found right, right now. It's all in the hands of the landlady. I hope to be able to move in this week or next.
26 November 2005
The whole of the FAGE group , and a lot of other people, made sure that Leeds ended with a bang, not a whimper. We went to York brewery, took the tour and drank beer. There are pictures .
25 November 2005
CEAM is not the only smog chamber in Europe. SAPHIR, in Jülich, Germany is a rather impressive piece of kit, and I went there this summer, dragging Shona along with me, as usual, to try and compare FAGE to other instruments, from all around the world, that measure OH. I stopped writing the journal for pretty much the whole time I was in Germany, so forgive me for not writing much at the time.
The project itself was not a success but, as usual, we were surrounded by good scientists who also turned out to be extremely decent and supportive human beings (which has been my general experience of scientists as people) which meant that even when things were going badly in the FAGE container, we had something to look forward to at the end of the day. And, from a purely selfish point of view, the breakdown of our system enabled us to take a weekend off which we spent extremely profitably, journeying up and down the Middle Rhine on a number of different trains and boats. The Middle Rhine is lovely. I know I overuse that word, but it is. Lovely.
That is pretty much it really. We returned from Jülich with a large amount of beer, no lasers and really feeling not much wiser than when we went. The group worked extremely hard, and extremely diligently, to try and ensure that such a catostrophe would not occur in the future. I decided that I had taken the job as far as I could take it, and I decided to move to London and seek fame and fortune (and be nearer to my friends and family). I'm rather proud of the work that I did in my last few months in Leeds. Shona and I went through the experiment with a fine tooth comb and came up with what will hopefully turn out to be solutions for the major problems we faced. I churned out long and boring FAGE documentation. Dr Lisa Whalley bravely signed up to take my place.
I hope that the two years I spent working on FAGE have added to the development of the instrument, and to atmospheric science in general. I think that this is the case.
Finally, by now it will be obvious to most of you that Shona features fairly heavily in all of this. Indeed, her name appears in the journal more often than anyone apart from Kate, I think. This does not mean that we are having an affair but is rather a reflection of that fact that everything I did with FAGE I did not do alone. Shona, though 'only' a PhD student was an absolutely brilliant person to work with ; dedicated, organised, intelligent, and I cannot thank her enough. If we have achieved anything over the last two years, we achieved it together.
23 November 2005
Pete suggested I try some of his Scotch. Glenfiddich Special Reserve (12 Years Old). It's rather good. My throat feels a lot better.
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Dr Trevor Ingham, Dr Lisa Whalley, Me, Ms Kate Furneaux, Mr Cedric Floquet, Ms Shona Smith, Dr Bill Bloss, Ms Rosin Commane, Prof. Dwayne Heard and Dr Dan Self |
It was sometimes tough, was Leeds. Trying to adapt to a very different way of doing science and a very different way of organising my experiments. The time pressure and pressure to perform to the best of your abilities for long hours is very different in field work, when compare to lab work. Once again I had a great group of people to work with. A larger group this time. Aside from those in the picture to the right, I also have to thank Andy Goddard, Mark Blitz, Prof. Mike Pilling, Andrew Rickard, Antonio and Klaus at CEAM and, of course, the uberknowledgable Dr James Lee. And scores of other atmospheric chemists who haven't recieved proper credit.
Whatever I have said otherwise, FAGE is a really great project to be associated with. Tropospheric Chemistry is a tremendously interesting subject and one that, even if you have no interest in science whatsoever, is undoubtedly worthy of study. I suffer from asthma, and I can assure you that tropospheric ozone peaks are no fun. In fact, they kill people, and not just old people. I don't think anyone associated with FAGE would claim we were saving lives, but at the very least the science we were doing was contributing to the understanding of chemical systems that have a direct impact on the chemical system we interact with 24/7. The air we breath. So that's why we do it.
One thing you have to get used to when you are working in atmospheric chemistry in acronyms. FAGE stands for Fluorescence Assay by Gas Expansion, the EUPHORE (EUropean PHOto-REactor) smog chamber is located at CEAM (fundación Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo) and TORCH is the Tropospheric ORganic CHemistry Experiment. Glad to have cleared that confusion up.
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MOST campaign : The scientists |
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EUPHORE chamber at CEAM, Valencia |
And socially Valencia was a fantastic time. It is a beautiful city, with lively and outgoing citizens and some fine, fine tapas bars. And we got to watch AC Valencia lose to the bottom team in the Primera Liga. Which was an awful lot of fun.
At this point Joanna and Martha will not forgive me if I don't mention the fact that some exceptional Portugese students are working at CEAM. Here they are.
22 November 2005
I'm battling a cold today. Litres of Earl Grey tea and soluble vitamin C tablets are the only weapons I have in my fight. I'm not sure who is winning.
Meanwhile ...
From this side of the lake of time, sitting on the shore and staring back across the water, it's impossible not to have a sense of regret. Things did not go as well as they could have done. Mistakes were made. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it is an open question as to whether going to Leeds was a good thing in general. Certainly at the time it was the perfect career move, so no regrets there. On the other hand, looking at things now, as I move away from academia, there is certainly an arguement that had I made that break immediately on my return to the UK, I would be in a better position today. Perhaps.
But I learnt a lot, about science, and about myself over the last two years. Not all of it good, but all of it important. Probably, more than anything, I learnt about managing. About managing people and about managing work. Working in athmospheric chemistry is much bigger in terms of the ineraction with other scientists than the types of work I had done previously. I found it very difficult to adjust to these demands, to move away from an insular way of thinking and embrace the ideas, and responsibility, of being part of a larger scientific program. I don't think I did a good job in Norfolk. I think I did a much better job in Germany, which is why it is such a shame that the German project was a failure.
Of course, I'm glossing over a major incident which has nothing to do with science. Kate and I broke up this year. That obviously is the most important thing that has happened in, oh, the last 8 years. So it colours everything else, looking back. But I'm not ready to talk about that any further right now, save to say that it hurts like nothing has ever hurt before.
21 November 2005
There follows an interlude, a description of which can be found precisesly at the start of this journal . It was a beautiful, gentle time. I could live in a really classy (if slightly small) flat bang in the centre of London and the entire capital was just there, outside, waiting. Of course, I didn't have a job but it was only a matter of time. Most importantly Kate and I got to live together, in the same place, for a time. And it was a good time.
But a man has to get a job (unfortunately) and I wanted to stay in science and there was a great job to be had. But it wasn't in London, it was Leeds.
So I went north, to a place I had never been before, to do something I had never done before. To take Chemistry out of the lab and into the field (a rather damp field, in North-Norfolk , to start with) and make measurements of real things . I mean, the things I measured before, in Oxford, Exeter and Philadelphia, we real. But we made them. We created the conditions that gave them existance and saw them in the milliseconds between formation and destruction. It's true, certainly, of the work that I did in Philadelphia, that these species exist outside of the lab, but we were not capturing them in their natural environment. It was an experiement.
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Ti : Saph laser used with FAGE |
Leeds was different. FAGE , my experiement, was different. We were not creating conditions, we were going to places, to airmasses and investigating them. We didn't create them, the sun, the weather, nature, pollution created them. We were just observing. And trying to understand. Trying to understand the troposphere (that part of the atmosphere in which we live, the part that is closest to the surface of the earth) is important. The quality of the air we breath impacts on us in ways we do not completely understand, but we understand enough to want to make it better. I mean, you can change your eating habits, the amount of exercise you do, you can even stop drinking 15 pints a night, but unless you want to move you house, job, friends, life, you cannot change the air you breath. No use visiting an Oxygen bar, people. An hour of pure O2 is not going to protect you from years of exposure to ozone, NOx and particulates. (It will probably make things worse, in fact). Air quality is important. It's also something we can control, to a degree, through the choices we make. Essentially, the work at Leeds (of which I was a very small part) is about working out what those choices might be, and what impact they will have.
That's a why. The whats, wheres and nows will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now there's a huge pile of washing up in the kitchen, and I'm the man to bring it down.
20 November 2005
Incidentally, I feel I should thank Pete and Juliet . I'm stay with them in Bermondsey at the moment. It is very kind of them to put me up and I promise I won't cook anything containing tuna (or any other type of fish or meat) in the kicthen.
I like Bermondsey. We haven't found a good pub yet, though.
19 November 2005
I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the fantastic time I had in the States. Gwen was a great friend to me when I didn't know anybody, and introduced me to many, many other great friends. Amanda and Adam (at different times) gave me a place to live and a place to hangout & drink rum. Jocelyn once dropped a candle in a church and the resulting fire killed seventy-nine people (this is not actually true but it would have been if I had not saved the day by picking the candle up again. Well that and the candle went out when it hit the floor, starting no fire whatsoever). Then there was Chris .
The people I have to thank the most, however, are Beth, Meg, Ilana, Maria, Ian, Eunice and Marsha. Because going to the States was about doing work. Great, interesting, challenging work. And I think we did do great work. And without them I couldn't have survived, professionally or personally.
18 November 2005
The journal is a useful kind of creative outlet, but at the same time it is, by its very nature, sporadic. I tend to write most entires in about 10 minutes, reflecting on precicely the last interesting thing that happened to me. Which is usually something to do with plumbing. Or a snake. Or the country of Turkey.
Part of the idea of the journal was to allow those of you who know me to keep up-to-date with what I was doing. It is very difficult to maintain meaningful e-mail contact with over 50 people. It often feels to me like a second job. Therefore I decided to write in the journal and direct people's attention in that direction, if that had questions that ran along the lines of 'What are you up to these days?'
Right now, I've reached a fairly major junction in my life. I have spent 3 years doing a PhD in Exeter, 2 years PostDocing in Philadelphia and nearly 2 years working as an atmospheric chemist at Leeds. I have been a professional chemist or professional chemistry student since Matriculating at Oxford in September 1994. That feels to me like an awfully long time.
And I am a professional chemist no longer. I'm not sure what I am going to be in the future and I won't talk about there today. Instead, I shall wax somewhat lyrical about the past.
So I went to Philadelphia. And it was fantastic. Utterly fantastic. As I said at the time
Welcome to Philadelphia. I've only been in the USA 48 hours and already I have no idea what it is like. As for Philadelphia, well, the only things I've seen to distinguish it from a big city in England are the steam grates. Steam, like, rising from a grating in the pavement (er, sidewalk). The same explanation has never been given twice for the emission of steam. It's been attributed to the subway, the power station and factory central heating. Whatever.
So here I am, feeling no culture shock whatsoever. People don't stop me on the street and ask me if I know Mrs. Smith from Birmingham. I don't merit a second glance as I queue for my lunch (falafel). No one has had a noisy argument with me about the Irish problem. I haven't even been wished "a nice day."
Philadelphia
I have been asked "how are you?" a lot though. I must remember to stop answering this question truthfully and just say "fine." It seems to throw them when I respond with: "pretty tired actually. I've been rushing around filling in paperwork and I have a nasty cold." People don't want that information, it seems.
Thus far I fail to see what the "big deal" about America is. I'm sure it will hit me soon (Thursday is Thanksgiving) but for now I just appear to be living in a big city with the average number of Starbucks (not as many as I expected) and a 19th Century university campus.
No drive-by shootings. No police chases. No paperboys hurling "The New York Times" as they whizz by. Just an average, ordinary city. And how am I? Oh, I'm fine.
This article, from a few weeks later, reminds me of the time it took me to settle in. So it shouldn't be too surprising that it is taking a little while to adjust to life in London.
Time passed. I developed a passion for American Football, vegetarian meatballs and Yuengling lager. I visted New York City, San Francisco and The Veterans Stadium. I ate at Le Bec Fin, Ruby Tuesday in State College (yuk!) and Dunkin' Donuts. I consumed alcohol with a large number of people, including Gwen, Jocelyn and Peter, I lived with Amanda, Adam and Chris. I even had time to do some chemistry. But all to soon, it came to an end and I was forced to return to sunny England.
It is very odd, but things were different when I got back to the UK. Everyone looked different. When I sat on the Tube, winding my way from Heathrow airport to central London I noticed that everyone was very pale. And wearing black. And had colds. It's strange how being away for a while changes your persepective. I started saying things like "how you doin'?" and "sidewalk", "wrench" and "cheque" instead of "path", "spanner" and "bill". I don't call it "soccer" though.
17 November 2005
You know how these things are. One minute you are sitting around the house, feeling bored and restless. Unemployed, unwed, unloved. Bermondsey feels like a very large and very scary place and you wish for the quite life of Leeds and the pleasant throughfares of the Headrow.
Then, suddenly, you find yourself with a python draped over four shoulders, playing poker and drinking beer. It certainly jerked my out of my lethargy.
It's an amazing feeling when a pyhton constricts around your hand. I imagine somewhat less amazing and more distressing if the python in question is trying to eat you, but in this case the python was rather small and probably couldn't have swallowed a baby whole, let alone me. We didn't let it near any babies, just in case.
Did you know a python can go for more than a year without eating?
16 November 2005
So. Here I am. A little dazed, a little overwhelmed. I've known about the move to London for so long but I've never really been able to anticipate what being here would actually feel like. I'm really not sure what I should be doing, or thinking, or feeling, and who I should be seeing & drinking with and what parties I should be going to. So I haven't really done much at all.
What will life here be like? How will I fit in? And, perhaps more importantly, what will I do for a job?
9 November 2005
Usually a decline in output here indicates that I'm feeling depressed and unmotivated. This could not be further from the truth at present. I'm just very busy. I move to London Sunday morning.
Lots to do before then.
5 November 2005
Did I mention that I spent a lovely weekend in Oxford with my friends, back in August?
4 November 2005
Good golly, I have a lot to do. Only 5 working days left now.
I have an interview on the 15th of November, for a job I really want. I'll tell you all about it, but only if I get it.
28 October 2005
I found this article extremely depressing. It has always been my opinion that, despite all his (extremely impressive) rhetoric on climate change, Tony Blair was never going to deliver. Blair talks a good talk (from education to the environment to government reform to tackling poverty) but lacks the ability or will to deliver any of his grand visions. Or at least so I thought. It seems that, sadly, he is proving me right.
Strangely, the Conservatives have impressed me considerably more with their vision and commitment to CO2 emission reductions. I suspect, somewhat cynically, that it's easy to be tough on pollution from the opposition benches.
I have always voted Green on the grounds that I honestly believed that none of the major parties were serious about the environment. Today I feel even more strongly that the Green party is the only one I could possibly bring myself to vote for.
27 October 2005
Sorry for the slight delay. My impending departure from Leeds has left me somewhat distracted. I didn't get the job I wanted, either, so the world of unemployment is beckoning, which is worrying in the extreme.
Still, on the bright side, I'll be living in London very soon.
I'm going to organise a piss up in a brewery for my leaving do. Which is proving to be harder than you might imagine.
20 October 2005
The end of an era? Last night I had dinner with Prof. Marsha Lester, Prof. David Parker, Prof. Mike Pilling, Prof. Dwayne Heard, Prof. Ben Whitaker, Dr Mark Brouard and Dr Marcello Miranda. We discussed university funding, student politics and the Dutch. It was a very interesting evening, ending with a few pints in The Pack Horse. And, in all likelyhood, it is the last seminar, conference or dinner that I will ever attend as a academic chemist. It left me with a slight feeling of sadness.
17 October 2005
Returning to the travel theme, I realise that I wrote precious little about Barcelona. This should be rectified. Barcelona is utter splendid. I wrote my own brief Homage to Barcelona in April.
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Barcelona |
Let's get some things straight. Barcelona has an abundance of great bars and splendid restaurants (some of which are very cheap, despite their excellence), a gaggle of great museums, beautiful architecture (and strange weirdness), miles (or at least a couple of kms) of sandy beach, hectares of parkland and a Funfair on the top of a mountain. I liked ; The precipitous cactus garden on the edge of Montjuïc, 99.99% Origenes (one of the FIVE BEST eating places I have ever been), The Miro Foundation, everything by Gaudi, Vrabac (but not the smell of paint therein, which will probably have dissipated by now), Tapas, Paella, Poble Espanya (very much the Spanish Portmerion) and the Port Veil swing bridge. The cable car ride is fantastic but the wait to get onto it is excessive. The copper whale is most splendid. In summary, go to Barcelona. I love this city.
16 October 2005
I'm travelling back from Colchester to Leeds. The darkness of winter evenings is now full upon us, although the daytime is unseasonably warm. It really has been lovely weekend. Bright sunshine. I wished I was in short-sleeves.
Colchester United were in short-sleeves at Layer Road yesterday. Unfortunately this didn't inspire them to victory. For sixty or so minutes they comprehensively outplayed Bournemouth AFC but lacked anything resembling final product. Too lightweight when in the opposition box was my opinion. Finally they hit the inside of the post and you knew it wasn't going to be their day. Bournemouth made a few unsuccessfully forays down the right wing, beating the full-back with alarming ease. United failed to learn the lesson from these attacks and in the dying seconds of the game a Bournemouth played once again nipped down the right flank, crossed low and the ball was slowly deflected into the net, trickling over the line infuriatingly slowly.
Alas.
15 October 2005
The Journal is more than happy to accept requests that seek to draw attention to important events and occurrences. In this case the event is so momentous, so exciting and so pleasing that I am only too happy to oblige. In short, Ms Kate Bush is to release a new recording, a double album, no-less, featuring collaboration with, amongst others, the esteemed Mr Rolf Harris. Indeed, two of the tracks on the new album feature Rolf, who has, I am reliably informed, worked with Kate before. Details are available from a number of online media sources.
In other news, I have just realised that whatever Coldplay are doing now Jeff Buckley did goodness knows how long ago.
14 October 2005
Today was extremely interesting. I had an interview at Oakdene Hollins which I felt went rather well, and certainly convinced me that it would be an exciting place to work. There's more to waste than you know, especially in the (hopefully) upcoming era of sustainability. Perhaps most importantly the ideas around sustainability and policies we think might lead there are subtle and tricky things. Which is where Sustainability Consultants come in.
Through the interview I learnt things about remanufacturing that had never even occurred to me and because of the interview I got to visit Aylesbury for the first time. Having already ticked off Barcelona, Valencia, Moscow, St Petersburg and Koblenz this year, I consider that a fitting finale to my travels this annum.
I moved on to Colchester in the evening, to see the folks, and an interesting thing happened. No, really. It did. It so did.
On arrival at Colchester, then man opposite me left his mobile phone on his chair and the woman opposite me left her handbag on the floor. Without my eagle-eyed assistance both would have lost their prized possessions. Do I need to use an apostrophe in "possessions" there? The question arises because each would, of course, have lost only a single possession, though in the case of the woman, the bag, one would assume, contains several possessions. Answers posted to me on the back of a copy of Fowler's 'Modern English Usage' please.
I hope to hear back about the job on Wednesday.
13 October 2005
I have a job interview tomorrow. www.oakdenehollins.co.uk I am rather looking forward to it.
In other news, the lasers are all still broken. Sadly my system will not return from the United States before I leave Leeds. It seems odd to think about it, but I may have aligned my last laser.
12 October 2005
Wish I could be like David Watts. (Lead the school team to victory. Take my exams and pass the lot.)
7 October 2005
Where was I? Ah yes, drinking coffee in Florence.
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The Middle Rhine, South of Koblenz |
Well, there I was. Those of you who know me well will spot a discongruity (is that a word?) here. I don't drink coffee. Well, this is true. However, when in Rome. In fact, I find Italian coffee very pleasant. It doesn't, according to my tastebuds, resemble that Nescafe crap you get in my office. Now technically I was cheating by drinking cappuccino instead of Espresso, but it's a start.
So there I was, heart rate racing (not used to all that caffine) trying to relax and think of something coherent to write. I came up with the following :
Let us praise the Gothic majesty of The Dom in Cologne, the Imperial Splendor of Rome -- still tangiable two millenia later, the urban chic and youthful exurberance of Barcelona and Valencia, which contrasts wonderfully with the medaevil centres of those cities and, of course, the hidden wonder that is Philadelphia, a city that virtually nobody rates and that everyone who lives there loves.
On a personal level, however, over all these cities, looms London. Massive, intimate, ugly, beautiful, intimidating, accessible, cosmopolitan, British and, above all, English. I'm really looking forward to living in London. It gives me a feeling of being part of something massive every time I am there. I can see myself enjoying London. Indeed, I've never really felt a connection with Leeds as a city, but London feels like a place I can call home.
I am looking forward to being a Londoner.
6 October 2005
So I was sitting drinking coffee against a bar in Piazza Tasso on the south bank of the Fiume Arno and I started thinking about travel. I realised I'd jotted down many many words in various notebooks during the last year or so, but never got round to transcribing them. Nor did I get any pictures up loaded. I still haven't sent my disposable cam. off to development, so no pictures of Florence yet. However, as you see, there are a few other pictures here. I'll tease you with a cross-section from the last year and add more later, when I'm not meant to be applying for a job.
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5 October 2005
Experimental evidence from our latest lab research indicates that human flesh is softer than the material used to make drill bits.
4 October 2005
I am getting old. I know this because all the Undergraduates look like children.
When I was in Primary School it took me a long while to work out why the Juniors weren't as tall as they had been when I was an Infant.
3 October 2005
I may be about to quit my job but I should point out that it has offered, to me, some remarkable opportunities and some brilliant trips. Aside from two field campaigns (the scientifically and personally satisfying campaign in Weybourne last May, and the scientifically fruitless but ultimately enjoyable campaign in Jülich this summer) I have travelled to Rome, L'Aqulia, Cologne, Dusseldorf, the middle-Rhien, Valencia, Barcelona, Urbino and Florence on trips largely made possible by my job. Not to mention the fact that I'm probably going to visit Leicester in a few weeks. Huzzah!
I will talk more about my travels later on this week. With pictures!
2 October 2005
Context? What context?
OK, so I went to Italy on 10th September, spent a day in Bologna (which is a beautiful and lively city), a week at a conference in Urbino, then a few days in Florence. I am now back in Leeds. I need to find a job. I finish here in about a month.
1 October 2005
The closest thing to heaven? Well, eating beans and drinking Chianti in 'Porks' deli, Mercato Centrale, Firenze is pretty near the top of my list. Just watching the owner in action at lunchtime is something to behold. The speed of the man. Pork roll. 2 cappuccino. Pithcer white wine. Beans. Uncork bottle of rosso. More pork rolls. Americans who speak no Italian. Germans who speak only German. Between each movement he must calculate bills, take money, dole out change. He races through.
30 September 2005
Last day of the month (and I got paid) so I guess it is appropriate to comment on John's Smiths Extra Smooth. It really is smooth. So smooth, in fact, that it barely tastes of anything at all. It has texture, that much is obvious, but as a bitter it is completely lacking in maltiness, fruitness or, indeed, bitterness. I have come to the conclusion that people who drink 'smooth' bitter don't actually like bitter, which is a shame. I didn't like bitter five years ago and now I like my beer as bitter as possible. IPA is certainly my favourite tipple. Cornish IPA from St Austell is excellent, as is Deuchars. Strange how one's tastes change, over time.
29 September 2005
I have a note-book full of scribblings from several recent holidays and trips. It's all a bit of a mess really. For example
Things still to do
- Design and build Renaisance inspired palace
- Stroll around Ognissanti Cloister and view 'Last Supper Fresco'
- Cycle to Siena
- See interior of Basilica di Santa Croce
- Paint fresco (note : need fresh plaster)
- Visit Basilica di Santa Maria Novella
- Design new type of flying machine
- Spend a morning in the archaeology museum in Florence
- Sculpt seminal work (before the age of 30), fresco chapel in Vatican, finish relgious painting (Annunciation? Last Supper? Or Pieta?)
- See Pitti Palace. Many important works including Carravagio and Rubens
- Sculpt front door (in bronze) for new house. (Scenes from the life of Peter Cook?)
- Send disposable camera off for development
26 September 2005
I'm just back from Italy, and I have lots to say, but I though I'd post some simple rules for a game of cricket. After all, I've only a thousand and one others things to do.
The official LAWS OF CRICKET are somewhat more complex than this, but that's the basics. A more involved guide, explaining the full rules, and different varations that can be played, can be found here.
8 September 2005
It has been an absolutely enthalling Test series, and it has been an absolutely brilliant day of cricket. Even as an England fan, I mus pay tribute to Shane Warne. He has, throughout his career, been simply incredible. In fact, as the TMS commentators said today, you run out of superlatives when trying to describe him. Like Ali, like Jo DiMaggio (did I spell that right?), like Carl Lewis, like Imran, Botham, Bradman and Sobers, he is simply beyond words.
www.cricinfo.com for the scorecard.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23069-1769213,00.html for a quite remarkable piece of Ashes poetry. Thanks, Lewis.
Off to Italy now. See you in a few weeks.
6 September 2005
News : I will, officially, be moving to London in November.
Not news : I had a really nice sanwich for lunch today. Feta and humous.
5 September 2005
The final match of The Ashes starts on Thursday. Americans will want to familiarise themselves with the rules.
31 August 2005
I'm moving to London soon. I recieved the following from Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) I found it tremendously uplifiting and touching, so I thought I'd post it here...
As I write this I am sitting on a packed Central Line tube donning my Saudi garb and have yet to clear a single seat adjacent to me, leave alone an entire carriage.
As has been the case for as long as I can remember, people on the London underground never make eye contact with fellow commuters, unless of course they happen to be foreigners unversed in the etiquette of public transport. It is as if the entire compartment full of people are working toward a PhD in advertising judging by the duration, intensity of concentration and tremendous interest they exhibit whilst reading and re-reading the overhead billboards.
No. There is no perceptible difference between this trip and any other I have made. I thought that I would be spat at, verbally abused and tried about my complicity in crimes that I didn't commit. But no. No such excitement. People were as detached, impersonal, friendly or unfriendly as they have ever been. That is why I still love London.
30 August 2005
Where was I? Ah yes. Some notes from the past...
...it is believed, at least according to what I heard at the pub last night, that the plagues described in the book of Exodus were caused by talking frogs, spreading the word of a giant feast of flies and locusts that were to be had. Pete's teacher thought that "Red Sea" was a corruption of "Reed Sea" and that tidal forces were at work during the flight from Egypt. We doubted that the words "Red" and "Read" are in any way similar in Aramaic.
Rumours that the frogs poisoned the cattle to get the whole fly plague started off were unconfirmed at the time of writing...
...Pete and I agree that this pub makes good stout...
...I bought some really nice shirts in H&M in Cologne...
28 August 2005
Did I say I was enjoying the cricket? That last hour and a half nearly killed me. We won though.
27 August 2005
I'm rather enjoying the cricket right now. For what seems like a lifetime (indeed, if you are younger than eighteen, it is a lifetime) England have been being beaten by Australia. Every two years, without fail, Border or Taylor or Waugh and their boys would pummel us (always given us the last Test as consolation) but now it seems England are really on top. As I write, England enforce the follow-on. Australia haven't been forced to follow-on in 17 years or so. The Ashes really are there for the taking.
Note to Americans : You are not expected to understand any of this.
24 August 2005
Nothing much happening here. Applying for jobs and trying to write a paper. Not getting very far with either project.
Matt (brother) and Lucy (partner thereof) came to Leeds this weekend. And the sun shone. Which was nice.
This is all rather dull. I'll try to come up with something witty (or at the very least political) next time.
18 August 2005
My ribs hurt. I was in a bicycle accident last Wednesday and my ribs have just started playing up. The Doc says take Ibuprofen, which will reduce the swelling as well as pain, and by golly is he right. Marvelous stuff.
17 August 2005
Why did you resign?
I'd become increasingly unhappy with my job.
Could you be more specific?
The job had become basically a technical struggle between me and the FAGE experiment. With the experiment, or rather, the problems posed by the experiment, winning. I wasn't doing any science and I certainly wasn't forwarding my research career.
So this was entirely the fault of your job?
Well, no. I was also finding it increasingly hard to motivate myself on a day-to-day basis. There was a period during which the experiment was in Antarctica. I could have made headway in terms if reading & writing journal articles, investigating grant proposals etc. during this time. Frankly I wasted it.
Did splitting up with Kate have an impact on your decision?
It certainly did. It forced me to analyse my life in more detail. I'd been coasting for to long. I need to change things, I need to get moving again.
and now?
I move to London in a few months time. I find something entirely new to do. I can't see beyond a career in science. Science has been my whole career for a very long time now and it is something that I enjoy. I need to find a position where I can use my scientific training but not necessarily in a research lab. I'm thinking of governmental jobs that require science advice, for example.
Will you be happy?
Who knows?
5 August 2005
So, it’s been some time. I’ve been through a break-up, I
quit my job (to finish on December 31st) and I
spent a month in
We drunk a lot of Paulaner. This helped us get through.
Friendly Germans and a trip down the
2 August 2005
As most of you will have heard by now, Kate and I have recently ceased to be a couple. We have, indeed, split up. As you might imagine, this has been absolutely devestating for both of us. We remain good friends and will be seeing each other, on a social basis, fairly regularly, we imagine.
The Journal is back now. I'm sorry that it returns with such unhappy news.
20 June 2005
You cannot have failed to have noticed a decline in both the standard, and volume, of journal output in recent times.
The truth is that I have found it increasingly difficult to put myself in the right frame of mind to write it. Recent events in my life make me even less inclined to write here and so, for the time being, I'm going to declare the journal Closed until further notice.
I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading it. I hope to be back with you soon. In the meantime, feel free to e-mail me.
1 June 2005
My mind has been slowly rotting, which, one would agree, is probably not a good thing. Ergo, I resolve to do something about it, and the something I resolve to do is this
So there you go. Let us see how long that lasts.
20 May 2005
Well, hello!
I'm having some problems with the journal at present, due mainly to my own technical incompetence. I've lost of load of entries and I don't have time to reproduce my earlier creative flair right now. So, in brief
That is all.
28 April 2005
Not very happy at the moment. Work is very boring. Feel frustrated and caged. The experiment doesn't return from Antarctica until 19 May, and in the meantime I have very little to do. Or rather, lots to do, but none of it very compelling. Or chemistry related.
Still, on the plus side, I have had a haircut, and I'm off to Russia tomorrow.
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Watch this space for long awaited photographic additions, including 'Spain : Kingdom of the mullet' and pictures of Russia (if my camera doesn't get stolen.)
18 April 2005
He drew a deep breath. "Well, I'm back," he said.
15 April 2005
The MOST Campaign has just ended, sucessfully. The instruments worked for the entire campaign, we got lots of useful results and the weather was generally good. All is all, an absolutely brilliant campaign. Huzzah.
Off to Valencia for a nice glass of wine and some tapas tonight, I think.
8 April 2005A lot of people appear to be reading this journal. Traffic is so high that my ISP is beginning to charge me extra. Who the hell are you? Make yourself heard on my guestbook
Or don't, as the case may be
4 April 2005Today is a Valencian holiday. The Valencians, Catalans, Basques, Aragonites et al appear to take their holidays fairly regularly. They also keep to a rigorous siesta schedule and don't believe in working weekends. I've been on more intensive field campaigns, that is for certain. Tomorrow we will probably have to get in at 7am, get the laser turned on and prepare for action. Today, however, is a day for careful contemplation and reflection, and the watching of Spanish daytime television.
So, to begin at the beginning. I am working at the European Photoreactor Experiment (EUPHORE) at CEAM (no idea) in an industrial estate in Northern Valencia. EUPHORE is a great big plastic dome, covered over with a retractable steel cupola, a bit like on of those old fashioned telescope observatories. Open the cover and lo! the sun shines through and the experiments start. The floor of the chamber is covered in various high tech instruments to measure things such as HOx, NOx, CO, solar flux and other pollutants. I'm here to run the HOx instrument, which is basically the same of the one I run in Leeds. However, the bloke who runs it here is perfectly able, so I'm essentially redundant. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow the show will go on. If he gets hit by a bus, things may be a little more difficult.
By injecting (very) clean air into the chamber, one can generate a pure atmosphere, into which one can introduce carefully controlled amounts of specific pollutants. One can then monitor the decay of these pollutants, monitor any new species formed and the rates at which these new species are formed and, hopefully, determine they way in which a set of complex chemicals interact with one another in the atmosphere. Well, that's the general idea.
Of course, it is possible to determine what would occur on a computer, but, as Andrew points out, models and measurements never agree (if they did, he says, we would all be out of work) so in a very real sense, chamber (and field) experiments highlight the degree to which we do not understand chemistry. Which is a good thing.
So that's what I'm doing in Valencia. I hope it makes some kind of sense.
3 April 2005In Barcelona. Again. I have filled up with about as much contemporary Spanish art as I can possibly handle and I can tell you this. Modern art isn't half as much fun when you can't understand the captions. Next time, I will take the audio guide.
La Pedrera, by Gaudi, was exceptional, however. Kate and I had already seen the exterior, but the interior was equally impressive and I was pleased to find that, despite the fact that most of the building is now a museum or office space, 5 apartments remain. I found a right angle in the apartment we visited, though only one. The roof, where Gaudi might, if you will excuse the pun, have been tempted to cut corners, was just as spectacular, and curvaceous.
His Segrada Familia, is even more remarkable, though being inside doesn't do a lot for it, since it is mostly a building site. It is due to be finished in 2017 but, if the original vision is to be adhered to, this will involve the construction of a 170m high tower in the centre, over the next 10 years. It will still be completed before Leeds has a functioning tram system.
The night-time drifted away, as we located a bar with a 5 hour long 'Happy hour' and cocktails for 3.50€. So I spent Sunday hung-over and looked at art. Shona had ice-cream, Andrew had a mojito and I got to eat grilled aubergine, so everyone was happy. Next weekend I think we should take the coach to Romania. It's only 100€.
In other news; the Pope died.
30 March 2005
I am, it seems, alive and in Valencia, Spain. Everything is wonderful here but I don´t have much time to write about it now, so I shall try to communicate it to you tomorrow. I wish those of you who are getting married, having babies or moving house the very best of luck.
10 March 2005
Well, I have found an at least temporary place of calm in the midst of all my angst. Today I will deliver a talk to the Polluted Troposphere group. I leave for Manchester very shortly. I have found that the best way to warm up for such an occasion is to stay out until 2am the previous night, playing Samba.
3 March 2005
I just shared this with the lovely folk of Junk List (don't ask) and it sums up the situation nicely, so I thought I'd post it here, too:
You know that thing where it's New Year and you haven't much to achieve before Easter so you might as well take things at a gentle pace, then Easter is approaching and there is rather more to do than you first anticipated but it's OK because there is still plenty of time and then suddenly it is 3rd March and you've left everything to the last minute and your going to die!
Well, that's where I am today.
February 28 2005
On a lighter note, I now have a new hat, which I'm very pleased with. I've never owned a proper hat before. It makes my hair stand on end in a rather ridiculous way when I take it off. I guess this is why Brylcream was invented.
February 27 2005
Occasionally, usually on a Sunday evening, often just after Kate has left, I get the urge to write something. I generally manage to subdue it by mooching around a bit and waiting for it to fade. You can quash just about any active or creative spark by mooching. This is why the Internet is a bad thing, and I would get far more work done if I were barred from it.
Of course, sometimes I decide that instead of crushing my creative urges, I end up feeding them instead. Which would be great, except that as soon as I sit down at a keyboard, they flee, like sprites or fairies or something. Actually, this isn't quite true. Usually I manage to crank out a really exciting paragraph or two (well, I think they're exciting) and then suddenly realise that's it. I've run dry. I'll never make a novelist, or playwright (why is that word 'playwright' rather than 'playwrite'?) or, most especially, comedian. Material would never come fast enough. I might be able to manage to crank out a column a week for The Observer, but that's about my limit. I'm always impressed with Steve Bell, the cartoonist. Despite his fairly limited subject matter (UK and World politics, and chimpanzees, basically) he never seems to run out of things to draw. He's not always good, but when he's good he's great. But I digress.
So, I read three interesting things today. Or rather, I read one excellent column regarding the death of Hunter S. Thompson, one appalling (IMHO) piece on Woody Allen (which makes it interesting, for the purposes of this entry) and one very boring piece of commentary on what exactly Tony Blair was thinking when he took the UK to war with Iraq. And, more importantly (or rather, more boringly) when he thought it.
I'll start with Allen first, because the other two are (loosely) related. So the interviewer, Bryan Appleyard, doesn't like Allen, or rather, most of Allen's films. He interviews him, discovers a not particularly surprising fact (that Allen has been terrified the idea of his own death since childhood) and uses this fact to rubbish Allen's recent output. The sad thing is, it's clear that Appleyard knows what he's going to write before he meets the man, which makes the whole article a little pointless.
So I think they should invent a rule, which forces interviewers to declare their interests before they write articles. If you like your subject, you can only publish the article if it's critical (there is probably nothing worse than slavish admiration) and if you dislike the subject, well, you get the idea. To much acclaim (from a fan) or criticism (from an anti-fan) and the interview should be burnt. We could extend this idea to political commentary too, which would ensure that left-wingers, rather than upbraiding the West for it's failures in Africa/Inner Cities/Art Galleries, would instead turn their attentions to their own deficiencies. This would, in turn make the left stronger (and more importantly, smarter and more introspective) which would be nice. And I'd love to see commentary by Dick Cheney where he attacks the roles of multinationals in conflict zones.
So the Independent seems to be missing the point so far as Iraq is concerned. The inner workings of Blair's mind are not for us to guess. Second-guessing intentions isn't really helpful and I don't think it tells us much about what Blair is going to think, and do, in future. Furthermore I'm not all that interested in the legality of the Iraq war. 'Legality' can only exist where there is rule of law, and we can be damm sure that even if Blair and Bush are found to have authorised the most heinous of war crimes they will not face sanction. History is written by victors and other such clichés. How the hell we are going to make Iraq (and Afghanistan) functioning democracies would seem to be more important questions to focus on. Blair isn't going to stand in the dock, even if he has committed a crime, but it might be possible to make something wonderful in Iraq, even if you do think things are a mess now.
As for stopping Blair and Bush doing something even more irresponsible in future, well public opinion doesn't seem to matter much here. If Bush wants to invade Iran or Syria he's got a whole team that can, and will, convince most of the USA that the evil ones will be ready to attack their kindergartens any day now. In the UK we will eventually back 'our boys', as we did in Iraq, then complain bitterly about it afterwards, ignoring that fact that the politicians acted with, rather than without, the backing of the majority.
Which brings us to Hunter. Basically, our columnist (I forget who) in the Indie on Sunday says 'Thank God he's dead. Now the rest of us can sell out without having that nagging voice in Rolling Stone telling us what a bunch of gutless swine we are.' I think he saw Thompson as a sort of LSD taking Jimmeny Cricket, nagging us to do something, anything, to break out of the cycle of depravity we inflict on ourselves and others. He's probably right. 'Sod off Thompson, and let us vote for murderers, pay for bombs and feed like pigs at the trough of commercialism. We clearly weren't listening to anything you had to say, anyway.'
So there we are. Miller, Foot and Thompson are dead, Blair, Bush and Putin rule the world and Woody Allen isn't funny any more. Bleak, isn't it?
February 22 2005
As promised, I have researched, and written something about Prof. Susan Solomon. (This follows on from my January 30th comments about men and atmospheric science).
Susan Solomon earned her doctorate from University of California at Berkeley in 1981, studying atmospheric chemistry. Solomon's major contribution to the field is something of a biggy. Solomon, Garcia, Sherwood, Rowland and Don Wuebbles suggested an answer to a problem that had puzzled a number of atmospheric chemists. Namely, if gas phase chemistry (my field) could not fully explain ozone depletion (and it couldn't) what was causing the observed depletion? Cl radicals from CFCs were doubtless involved, but why should a hole in the ozone layer occur in Antarctica, where emission of CFCs was nil? And why did this event occur in the Antarctic spring? This was not a merely academic problem, it required Solomon to travel to the Antarctic to measure the depletion. There's a lovely account here of Solomon's trip to the Antarctic to work on this problem, together with a basic explanation of the reasons for the well known, but poorly understood, Antarctic ozone hole. See Nature 321, 755 - 758 (1986) for the full paper.
Solomon is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the French and European Academies. (For non-scientists, let me assure you that this is somewhat impressive, roughly equivalent to getting knighted by three different Monarchs, in three different kingdoms) She also has a glacier named after her, which is somewhat cool.
To prove that scientists are more than just cold (no pun intended) rationalists, she has also written a book on Captain Robert Scott and his heroic, yet ill-fated, journey to the South Pole, The Coldest March. Prof. Solomon continues to research both ozone loss and also climate change.
Extremely good, and Antarctic related news, is that my container has been safely loaded onto the Ernest Shackleton and will be home from Antarctica in May. Hurrah!
February 21 2005
When I was a young man, or rather youthful PhD student, I enjoyed the elicit late night pleasure of the fish-finger sandwich. After a day of tough microwave spectroscopy and a few beers in The Brook Green or The Well House, nothing went down better than toast, ketchup and Captain Birdseye’s tasty treats. Fish fingers were on two-for-one special in Morrison’s this week. Ah! I thought to myself. A chance to re-capture the excitement and enjoyment of those halcyon days in Exeter.
The simple pleasures in life are perhaps those which we most enjoy, or enjoy most of the time. Schott's Original Miscellany is a book of simple pleasures, as it Leigh and Woodhouse's Lexicon of Football (thanks to Kate's parents for the former and Colin and Elaine for the latter). It really is a joy to be able to flip to page 25 and find lists of blood groups or an explanation of what exactly Graham Taylor means when he says that Scholes played a blinder.
So from now on, it's the simple pleasures for me. Mugs of coco, practising my samba drumming with wooden spoons, reading books in the square outside my house on a sunlit day. I just ate my first fish finger sandwich in 4 years and it was lovely. I was over the moon.
February 11 2005
I have promised Meg I will write something about Susan Solomon, a brilliant Atmospheric Scientist and woman to boot. This will have to wait until next week, however. Right now I am off to London.
Samba drumming is fun!
February 6 2005
I have far too many vegetables. More than I could possibly eat. What to do, what to do?
February 1 2005
I feel I have done Dr's James Lee and Bill Bloss a disservice by not mentioning the sterling work the have been doing in Antarctica. FAGE has been deployed there for about a month now, and despite some problems, they are measuring OH and HO2 concentrations daily. Soon it will be time for these brave men to pack up the instruments and head back home. I think I will owe them a few beers.
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Monday 31 January 2005
The Iraqi Elections appear, from my vantage point, to have gone well. It is difficult to say anything more about them at this point.
I hope that within a few years, Iraq (and, indeed, Afghanistan, which has had its own elections and been promptly forgotten by most) will have all the other gubbins associated with a democracy, like property law, a functioning police force, universal education and sewers.
My main objection to the Iraq war was that we'd just nicely invaded Afghanistan and left it in a seething mess civil of conflict, half-completed promises and unfulfilled democracy. I wanted us to finish the job there before we started somewhere else. I hope we do manage to finish the job in Iraq, but I'm skeptical.
Sunday 30 January 2005
Spent a lot of the weekend walking around Leeds with Kate. Did you know that you can walk from the Golden Acre Park to Woodhouse via the Meanwood Valley Trail? Seven splendid miles that start in rural near-wilderness and grow steadily more built-up and Leedsy as you progress (or, if you prefer, you can start in Leeds and work outwards.) An X84 bus to/from the Ramada Jarvis Hotel on Otley Road works in either direction.
So, while I was walking I mused on things that had been bugging me.
I'd written a whole big thing about why P J O'Rourke and Clint Eastwood hate Michael Moore so much, but then I checked my sources and found that actually, they don't hate Michael Moore so much. So that's that. (For the record, I didn't think Fahrenheit 9-11 is that good but I think it is a film the needed to be made. Just made better.)
The other thing that bugs me is global warming, but not in the way you think.
Lets look at the players in global warming. The head of the IPCC is Dr Robert Watson. The famous hockey-stick graph was first published by Professor Michael Mann and co-workers. You'll have heard of Bjorn Lomborg and his book 'The Skeptical Environmentalist'. Senator James Inhofe is the primary critic of global warming in the Senate, while Senators McCain and Liberman those pushing hardest for CO2 reduction to be adopted in the US. David Bellamy, Richard Lindzen, Fred Singer and Benny Peiser have queued up to debunk global warming as a myth or invention at a recent conference at The Royal Institution. Scientists, people who claim to be scientists (such as Michael Crichton) but aren't actually, politicians, economists, environmentalists, journalists and just plain ordinary oil companies throw claims and counter-claims back and forth with a viciousness that is rarely seen in science.
They all seem to be male. I can't think of a single woman who involved in the climate change debate at a high level, though I'm doubtless wrong. Sometimes I wonder if a few more female voices and a lot less testosterone might lead to more measured debate.
Well, it's just a thought.
Friday 28 January 2005
I have just been struck by a sudden and intense for a bacon sandwich. This is odd, since I haven't eaten a bacon sandwich in about 8 years, and I have eaten pork since I was in Prague in 2000.
Thursday 27 January 2005
Where was I? Well, the news in Nature today was not as alarming as the journalists were making out. So, no surprise there, then. The results from the climateprediction.net calculations seem to me, at first glance, to be very much in agreement with those published in the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC. That is, that global surface temperature is going to increase by, most likely, between 2 and 4.5 degrees C by 2100. However, I should point out that, if CO2 emissions continue to increase (or even plateau at some point) in the future, this is not the end. The warming shall continue, as CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere continue to increase.
I'd also like to point out that there is no evidence that we are going to run out of oil, gas or coal in the next 100 years. There is more than enough to get CO2 above 700 ppm.
Wednesday 26 January 2005
If I hear, or see, the words 'post 9/11 world' one more time, I swear I shall scream.
The nice man, Charles Clarke, has appeased us lefties by promising to release the bad men from Belmarsh. All he wants is the power to lock any of us up, at any time, for however long, whenever he wants to. Is it this much to ask? It's for our own safety, you know.
In other news, there is going to be a very interesting (and somewhat alarming) paper published in Nature tomorrow. Global warming is a very topical ... erm ... topic, this week, and one that is close to the Prime Minister's heart, as well as my own. He has been talking about it in Davos and I have been talking about it in Leeds. I have to say, I thought my talk was a little catchier, but there you go. If you are interested in the issue, the science and economics is explained in a great deal of depth by the IPCC while realclimate.org offer answers to simple questions, like why Michael Crichton is a science fiction writer, and why (Rep.) Senator James Inhofe is a disingenous twerp. The great thing is that, just as Senator Inhofe is free to slander the names of respected scientists on the floor of the US Senate, I am free to call him a self-serving, Exxon-loving, soft-cash guzzling, climate terrorist, right here. The internet is a wonderful thing.
I learnt a lot about climate change this week. Not all of it was heartening, but I was quite inpressed with Tony's speech today. We shall see how the Americans respond at the G8 summit, but I am not full of hope.
The Eagles won, of course. I can't afford to go and watch them in Superbowl XXXIX. Pah.
Sunday 23 January 2005
It's snowing in Philadelphia. Despite this, The Eagles will play their 4th consecutive play-off final in a few hours time. They have lost the last 3, and if they win this one I am too poor to go and see the Superbowl. This makes me feel sad. However, this year, unlike last, I will be able to watch the play-off final on TV, which is something to be grateful for.
You lucky people should be grateful for all the hard work I have put in on my CGI programming in recent weeks, for you can now see lots and lots of pictures. There are photos from Italy, Turkey, my birthday in Leeds and some of Philadelphia . I will add captions later, but right now it's time for the game.
Wednesday 19 January 2005
Lots of things have occurred in the last week, most notably 29th my birthday, which was tremendous fun, involving 4 days of celebrations, countless pints of bitter, 4 Margaritas, some flapjacks, a room full of Goths, the most excellent Royal Oak in the Borough (purveyor of fine ales from Harvey's of Lewes), the members rooms of both London Tate galleries (something of a disappointment, both rather like the coffee longue in my sixth form college), Wong Kei and a Russian Winter Festival in Trafalgar Sqaure.
Of course, all you want to do is look at the pictures. Very well.
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Wednesday 12 January 2005
You will doubtless have noticed some changes around here. Accessing http://www.iamsilk.com/journal.htm now automatically redirects you to make_page.cgi?file=journal.htm&style=2004.css&template=template.htm&sort=all which is almost, but not exactly, the same thing. Content-wise, most of iamsilk.com is exactly as it was before. Structure-wise it is more powerful and dynamic. Oh yes! For my PERL CGI script allows me complete control over what you see before you. For a start, if the BBC ever get wind of my rather familiar page
