Arcadian Functor

occasional meanderings in physics' brave new world

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Location: New Zealand

Marni D. Sheppeard

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Moving North III

It cost me a month's wages, but I decided to buy a ticket to Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at Covent Garden next year! I can't wait!

13 Comments:

Blogger CarlBrannen said...

When I checked, it seemed that all the cheap seats were already taken.

November 16, 2008 10:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does this confirm that you will be stationed in or near London? I'm afraid there are not many mountains around here.

November 16, 2008 11:15 PM  
Blogger Kea said...

Hi Phil. True, no mountains. Oh well, I will just have to focus on research.

November 17, 2008 7:18 AM  
Blogger Mahndisa S. Rigmaiden said...

11 18 08

Hope you have fun! How exciting. I love Wagner. I have always wanted to see die Meistersingers. I got married to the Prelude to the second act heh!

November 18, 2008 11:40 PM  
Blogger nige said...

So you're coming to London next year? Wow. I hope you can find time to visit the museums. The Science Museum isn't as good as it was (they're modernised it with too many gimmicks for kids), but the Natural History Museum is as good as ever.

The British Library relocated from Bloomsbury and Holborn (for the Science Reference and Information Service library) to one big building St Pancreas a few years ago, and that's a great place to visit.

If you are staying for a postdoc near London, you can always get away to the mountains in Wales or Cumbria by train at weekends. I did mountaining climbing in the scouts at the mountains around Abergavenny in Wales twenty years ago, and there are some pretty steep hills there. I remember getting stuck and dizzy on a steep rock face, and having to be rescued. It was harder going down than up, due to seeing the drop on to hard rock. So the nearest I come now to mountain climbing is putting the treadmill on an incline at the gym.

Abergavenny is a really beautiful place, but here's a warning tale. In the scouts we camped in a field beside a forest and a stream, with mountains in the background. The stream was supposed to be pure mountain water, and we used the water for drinking for a week without boiling it. Then one day we went on a hike upstream, and just round the corner there was a dead sheep lodged between rocks in the middle of the stream! Yuck!

I hope you'll enjoy your stay in England, and you'll be a lot closer to America than you were in New Zealand. There are lots of cheap flights available to the USA from here. Let me know if you give any lectures or conference talks, please!

November 19, 2008 12:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kea, I am in London at the end of June, will you be around ?

Anyway, enjoy the show!
T.

November 19, 2008 12:50 AM  
Blogger L. Riofrio said...

Best wishes! It sounds like a done deal. Things are going extremely well at this undisclosed location too.

November 19, 2008 2:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cool cat Bill Edwards is a serious climber. He knows where to go in the London suroundings.

November 19, 2008 5:40 AM  
Blogger Kea said...

Wow! Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic comments! Mahndisa, I was fortunate enough to go to the Australian Opera regularly when I was younger, so I have been to a performance of Die Meistersinger. But I haven't been to the opera for many years, and am really looking forward to it. A little climbing would be an extra bonus, because I have been too busy waitressing to go lately.

Tommaso, I probably won't be there in June, unfortunately. But hopefully we can catch up another time.

November 19, 2008 7:52 AM  
Blogger Kea said...

Heh cool, Bob. I see that you have posted about stuff happening in January.

November 19, 2008 7:59 AM  
Blogger nige said...

"Cool cat Bill Edwards is a serious climber. He knows where to go in the London suroundings."

Then spill the beans, please if there's somewhere nearer! If there's somewhere decent to climb within an hour of London, I'd like to know. Apart from climbing walls, buildings, or walking up box hill, I'm not aware of any mountains nearby (unless they're compactified in extra spatial dimensions!). With some basic equipment (rope, harness, etc.) I think it's pretty safe. That's a bit like the difference between wearing a safety belt in a car and not doing so.

November 19, 2008 1:15 PM  
Blogger CarlBrannen said...

Kea, about "But I haven't been to the opera for many years, and am really looking forward to it. A little climbing would be an extra bonus",

The natural synthesis is to climb up the side of the opera building and watch the show through a window.

November 21, 2008 8:42 AM  
Blogger Daniel de França MTd2 said...

Kea, when you move to London, will you keep us updated with you research? I imagine it will be much more intense, so I guess it will demand more time to type.

November 22, 2008 7:30 AM  

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