2012 - Museums

 The great thing about living so near London is that you can be in a museum within an hour of leaving work. Stressful Saturday morning at work, no proble, jump on the next train and before you know it you are surrounded by objects of art, science, literature and more...

I have enjoyed many events at museums this year, from recording podcasts at the British Library and the V&A, A strange talk about inanimate objects at the Wellcome Trust, the superb "Writing Britain" Exhibition at the British Library, and all the delights that the British Museum offers.

The below picture is from the British Museum, despite having been maybe 8 or more times I still have not seen everything, and every visit discover a new room of things. this bird statue is perhaps my favourite of all things in there!

2012 - Winter in Wycombe

In Devon it hardly ever used to snow, here up in the Chilterns it seems to snow for no apparent reason at all, and comes really fast and suddenly.

Although these pictures are not of snow, they are of the week leading up to a massive amount of snow. It was below freezing for the whole week, and we recorded -16c on our balcony one night!

2012 - Skeptics

When I moved here just about the only people (outside of work) that I knew were part of a group called Skeptics in the Pub. It is hard to sum up what the group is in a few lines, but it is a place inquisitive people can chat about issues as diverse as alternative medicine, ghosts, religion or psychics... although we usually end up talking about technology, beer, TV shows and beer. It is mostly, but not exclusively, made up of people who would describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, rational, or humanist.

I have met some really great people there this year, we had our first talk (Stevyn Colgan on Luck), our local MP came along, the journalist Martin Robbins is an occasional visitor, and the usual crowd are always up for a drink, beer festival or night out at short notice, which was really good when I didn't know anyone else in town!

I has been designated an assistant organiser, and although I have no idea what this entails I am trying to get a bit organised for next year, some more talks (a few big names have promised to help us out!) and hope to expand numbers a bit. I am looking forward to it, but we need a suitable venue for the events, which is proving the really hard bit! So if anyone has a small hall in Wycombe they are willing to hire cheaply...

More about Skeptics in the pub at the Wikidedia page.

More about our group here.

2012 - Settling in.

Although we didn't actually move towns in 2012, it was as good as. We moved in just before Christmas last year, and then were both away for a bit over Christmas and New year, so all the sorting out of the flat happened in January.

Our flat has many advantages over that last one.
1. It is not in Aylesbury.
2. It has a balcony.
3. It is not in Aylesbury.

Actually they are the main three advantages, I can also walk to work in about five minutes!

I never quite felt at home in Aylesbury, and any friends I had made were in High Wycombe anyway, and my job was also in High Wycombe. It made sense both geographically and financially to live here. We did breifly look at flats further into London, but the prices sent us running back to Buckinghamshire!

Another advantage is that Wycombe is surrounded by lovely countryside, with many parks and woods within easy walking distance. So I spent much of the early part of the year exploring the area... cue picture...

The sixteen, or so, days of Christmas...

'On the sixteenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a series of blog entries, hastily written, but with some nice pictures to pad it out a bit.'.

If the popular Christmas song had contained more days that is what the 16th would have been. the fifteenth day involves a stoat, a pencil and some Vasoline, and has been banned from being sung since 1929.

Over the next few weeks I will do a mini review of my year (how vain!) and put a few of my pictures from the year alongside it (vanity in words AND pictures!).

I will start with a picture I took last winter, just around the corner from the flat we had just moved into here in High Wycombe...

I've been through the mill this weekend.

 No, I literally have. Pann Mill in High Wycombe had an open day last Sunday as part of the National Mills Weekend. As I live a few minutes away, and have often tried to peer though the windows to see what is in there, I thought I would pop in.

 

Back when I lived in Exeter I enjoyed a morning at Cricklepit Mill on the river Exe, I knew that Pann Mill is a lot smaller, but it's always nice to see a water mill in action. The grounds of the Mill had a few stalls, including a second hand book stall, where I gave into my weakness and bought 2 books (Carl Sagan - Cosmos and the Pale Blue Dot) and then I made my way into the mill. I was surprised how tiny it was, but luckily it was not very busy, so was able to see the huge driving wheel and the gears. Fine flour was pouring down from the roof into a collecting pot.

 

 I then went up the stairs (think of the stairs you go up to get into a loft) and saw the stones where the grinding takes place (stop sniggering at the back!). Had a good chat to the miller about the history of the Mill.

 

 Great to see a little bit of local history, and meet a few people. Maybe next year I will go up to the Windmill at Lacey Green (or is it Loosley Row?)

Crawley. Rainy, not creepy.

I spent most of last week in Crawley. It rained the whole time.

This means I am in no place to judge how the place is, no where looks good in the rain, and Crawley was not good in the rain



But the course was good, and in a boring worky way I feel more confident in what I am doing. Sadly the food in the hotel was awful, was a great relief to get back home for my taste buds sake!