Cruising the canals

DESY

Captain Kirk

Marston rose

Brilliant, Committed, Crazy, Dedicated. ie Kirk

Oxford is so beautiful, full of old buildings and museums everywhere. Pitt Rivers Museum is hard to describe, someone has collected more stuff than I have? Holy smokes it is jammed full of stuff, makes my garage look really clean and empty!  Darwin, samari swords, ships, uzzies, canoes, list is endless. Also saw the Natural History Museum had lots of old bones, dinosaurs , triceratops, and the celebrated coelacanth, fish that was thought to be extinct millions of years ago but turned up in 1938 on the end of a fish hook, evolved 4,000,000 years ago. Look that one up in your Funk & Wagonalls. 

Trickiest thing about England is not getting hit by a bus or bike. You want to look the wrong way every time you come to a crossing. Have scared me more than once. 

Toured Ian and Daniela's high energy physics labs to be and they will be incredible after renovation. Saw where Atlas was built and is way cool to actual see how the other detector was built and compare it to CMS. Two different ideas, Russian Doll vs 2001 Space Odessey ( monolithic construction) both worked but came from each end of the spectrum. The next generation each group is coming closer together less Russian Dolls less 2001 Space Odessey. Cool science. 

At Oxford the work force is all hired, no students. No students are learning how to build detectors, not sure how they will be built in the future, no more slave labor.  

:(Can not hire students, 1. they do not have time, 2. They are not interested? I guess. I really enjoy having students around. The physicist of the future will be pretty much hands off, when it comes to building these things. Not sure where they will learn to build these.  They also have no wirebonders here, all wire bonding is done at Rutherford. Will need to visit Rutherford next time we are in town. Saw one old K&S that is similar to one I have at Birck.  I do not think anyone uses it.  They did not do any wire bonding here, they Integrated modules here.  Great support labs, and good people in them. 

Will be hard to find brilliant, committed, crazy,  dedicated people to experiment,  if they are not also attached to the education system to help build the future detectors. Never had luck hiring off the street in Purdue. 

Poetry, Punting, Pubs and Tubs

What a week! These Brits do everything in the rain. Our first rain since we arrived a week ago was walking to our flat.  Saw people in the park picnicking, punting, and just getting on with it even though the rain was coming down. Holding a umbrella, with double coats on( would not fit in suitcase) rolling a suitcase, backpack on back, purse over shoulder with an additional bag of groceries in the rain. ( Kirk had the big bag!) that was a hall, 1 mile come to figure out, said it was a fifteen minute walk, RIGHT! ( Yelling Caps!) great walk through the park to Martson area where our flat is. 

Moved in to a lovey flat with a tub! Very comfortable, kitchen, living, bedroom, wifi, tv, cable, nicely decorated. It is only a short walk to Physics through the park and punting grounds. 

Went on a poetry walk  in the rain, by every major sight with poetry. By the  end we had sunny skies, my favorite, The Bridge of Sighs , poem by John Donne, No Man Is and Island. 

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” 

― John Donne, No Man Is An Island

We finished with the walk at The Eagle and Child, Lewis, and Tolkien's favorite pub. Delicious salad, and of course fish&chips, the beer was warm but that is normal for Brit beer.  Lots of taste, but to warm for Kirk. 

Walking everywhere, feet are sore, nice to have a tub in every place we stayed and a pub on every corner, all is well! 

Had a great dinner at Bangkok House, delicious before we moved to next hotel.

Bath Place
Andrew the boat renter,  was nice enough to drive us to Bath Place, although Kirk still tried to get into the drive side. I really do not think I have the stomach to have Kirk drive. 

As you enter Bath Place alley , it is in a place where the walls recede as you enter then close up behind you, did I say narrow, that does not even begin to describe it, more like something out of Harry Potter. And I thought our house is uneven, out of sorts, off kilter uneven..... There is nothing square, level, straight in the place, very quaint?  The rooms are off to the side of the alley as you approach the main entrance. Our room is like going up stairs that would make the  Weasley's house look normal, twisty, no headroom, (there was more head room in the boat) and very narrow. Not one stair is level. We went up two flights, ducked our heads, and into our room. The greatest thing was a view a New College Bell Tower, and a full size bath tub, king size bed, luxury at last, whilst to keep tipping your head to try and straighten it all up and not hit a rafter. Not a chance! 

Ordering at a Pub is trickery too, you go to the bar make a order, pay for it or run a tab, then they deliver to your table. If you just sit at the table no one waits on you. You can get awful hungry! Also i do not think you tip, although I do. 

The rooms are situated above  one of the oldest taverns in Oxford called the Turf Tavern, they party all night and day seems like. Out the window of my hotel room you can see the beer garden. Had dinner their last night, you enter and go from outside beer garden to low ceiling, ancient stone wall rooms to open air beer garden, very dungeon like midevil look. As we left through other entrance, you follow tight passage ways round and end up at the Bridge of Sighs.  So our  hotel backs up to the bridge.

Oxford University is made up of a bunch of colleges, Christ Church, Magdalene, New, Merton....this is where most the students live, have assigned tutors, and take some classes, then I have seen physics building, business school, science building, all of these are interspersed throughout the city, intermixed with libraries, museums, stores, hotels, bus and train station, canals, cafe houses.....I think there is a main campus but for the most part Oxford is both city and University. 

The Ashmolean Museum was fantastic, the order of things was a lot different as in most museums. It is ordered with as things evolve from all,over the world in ordered together, very interesting. Also some great impressionist art. 

FYI there user sign on network for Oxford University is the OWL network!