North Tour Holiday – Part 3

This is part 3 of 3, covering the end of the holiday. Part 1 is here, and part 2 here.

Day 10 (Wednesday)—Beaches and a Castle

The sand and sea

Bay

The sand and sea

Once Heather had bounded to breakfast and back we bounded down towards the seaside. Excitedly we went down the hill to the north bay sands, walking along the beach with the castle looming high up in front of us on the headland. The tide was making its way in but there were still plenty of rock pools to explore as we went along the sand and Heather could paddle. We climbed up from the end of the beach to follow the road round the coast beneath the headland.

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North Tour Holiday – Part 2

This is part 2 of 3, covering the middle of my holiday. Part 1 is here, and part 3 here.

Day 5 (Friday)—Arrival

The Millennium Bridge is lit with ever changing colours each night

Rainbow

The Millennium Bridge is lit with ever changing colours each night

Having left Liverpool we had to change trains at York. That proved to be a minor problem as we arrived just outside York station and stopped (coincidentally just next to where I used to live) and waited. And waited some more. Using the live train tracking we could tell that one of the trains we saw passing us towards the station was actually our connecting train. Eventually we made it into the station, delayed by a steam train apparently though we caught but a glance of it going by. That meant we had a pick a random train for the last leg of the journey but there were seats available so all was well.

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North Tour Holiday – Part 1

The corner which appears on all the postcards

Tourist Shot

The corner which appears on all the postcards

Went away with Heather for a few days on a “tour of the north”. We headed to the north-west and Chester before going across, with a stop off in Liverpool, to the north-east and Newcastle before finally heading to Scarborough via York (again!) It’s quite a lot to fit in so things will be split into three posts. This one will cover Chester, the second part Newcastle and the third Scarborough.

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Six years ago I walked off a train and into your arms. And you into my heart. You will never leave there; and my love for you will never fade. I miss you Lady Swalwell, my partner in crime. I miss you my pixie.

Today I Wear Black

Today I am wearing black. It might be to mourn a year since you left. It might just be coincidence; for there is no point in Earth’s turning about the Sun where I do not feel the loss of you. That Sun shines brightly today, a fine day to walk among the flowers and birds. How you would have loved that, your face lit with a smile. How I miss that smile, that laugh. All the joy; my pixie. It does not matter that I write this today. It could have been yesterday, or tomorrow. There is no day where I do not miss these things, miss you.

The road of life may wind on but some of me always remains there with you. I will for always be your Dragon, my Pixie, my love. x

Reading A Scientific Paper

Quite a good article on just how to read a proper scientific paper—medical based but I think applies to most fields (it occurs that the point about too many laymen reading only the abstract, if they bother with the paper at all, is perfectly valid but said from the ivory tower of an e.g. university association; the abstract is all too often the only part readily available without paying out a small fortune otherwise)

When I log onto my online banking part of the security, after I’ve entered my password, is to ask for three characters from my “memorable phrase”. 20% of the time when it asks for e.g. the third character I enter C, because that’s the third letter of the alphabet…

[Feeling stupid]

The End of Time

Time: Frame 1

First Frame of Time

Time: Frame 1

This is something of a strange post but it needs marking. For about four months or so I followed a single panel of a comic; slowly; a single scene changing every hour.

The sandcastle has risen

Time: Frame 870

The sandcastle has risen

For quite a while it was simply about two people building a sandcastle. They started off small and then got bigger and bigger, until they could build no higher. Unfortunately, the sea was rising, to claim their castle (not that the understood why the sea was rising).

Whilst I’ve been following through one of several community made viewers when necessary (particularly to look back at past frames) it’s been mainly through the remarkable community that build up in a forum thread. I never had the time to participate but I have watched as a diverse range of people have analysed, joked, created (art, music, traditions and language) and bonded one picture at a time. If you wish to learn about what experiencing Time was like you could do worse than to “blitz” that thread, starting from page 1, though you could always read the Wiki.

Frame 2047 from Time

Time: Frame 2047

Frame 2047 from Time

We followed our heroes (Cueball and Megan, collectively “Cuegan”—or “Megball”) as they set of on a lonely adventure through unknown lands. There was danger, and mystery with strangers met and insights gained. None of which goes even part way to doing justice to the artistry with which Randall Munroe (the GLR—Great Lord Randall) worked.

A frame from Time

Time: Frame 2440d

A frame from Time

I’m going to miss that thread, and The Comic. I will not know what to do with myself in idle (and at times not so idle) moments anymore.