This is a great time to buy stuff. I am paid in pounds and the dollar has slumped to 2 dollars to the pound. Well this means that things are particularly cheap for me and a suspect (I may be wrong) that the dollar will recover a little over the next year so we are buying big items now. So far we have bought:
A car
Two kayaks
Two paddles
Two bicycles
There is something of a story linked with each of them.
Perhaps the stories will unfold with time....
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Catch-up
Time went surprisingly fast while Georgina was in England which is definalty a good thing. Two kayak pool sessions a week and a kayak trip took up most of my spare time. Work has become more relaxing in one sense, I have some idea what I am doing. The NP synthesis appears to work well for me these days and I actually enjoy seeing the colour transitions of the solutions and followed by the photo-luminesence (induced by UV light).
I took a trip over to see my brother, Dave, who lives in North Carolina and the weekend before George’s return. It’s about 1.5h flight from Detriot to Greensboro so not too much effort there. Dave and Jane picked me up from the airport. They were a bit late because they were on their way back from Las Vegas trip and their flight was delayed. It was pretty late by the time we got back to his house and my nieces and nephew were asleep. Just time to have a pint of Dave’s homebrew beer (actually pretty good). Jessica and Megan normally share a room so that meant I could sleep in Jessica’s room (to her amusement). We didn’t get up to that much on Saturday we hung around the house and garden and basically chilled out. The girls gave me a tour around the house. Ollie had a sticker book with an aeroplane theme. I had a game of pool with Jessica and Megan and then against Dave. Later on Dave, me, and Bill went for a drink at a bar which was about 15 minutes drive. We got totally drunk and ended up being the last to leave Not sure how it happened… Sunday was a total hangover. I hate bad hangovers at other peoples houses. I think Dave felt bad too. I got back to Ann Arbor and basically went to bed.
Meanwhile George had been in England and had no problems getting her visa (except for not having her appointment letter and having to get another appointment form sent there and then!). Talking long distance was not easy actually the phone in the cottage has a terrible reception. We were looking forward to being back together. I was well prepared for Georgina’s return to the US. I had cooked and tidied. We were hoping to go straight to kayaking but that never happened. The flight was late and customs at Detriot took over an hour to get through.
George was very organized when she got back and even did her driving theory test – something I still had not done. At the weekend we hired a car and decided to go somewhere away from Ann Arbor. I wanted to go to a water park but the weather was still winter-like. An indoor waterpark it was then. We went to Frankenmuth, which is meant to have a German Christmas theme. It was very weird- totally bizarre. It is like a holiday town and part of it was a bit like a family Butlins type place. Not sure how else to discribe it. We wangled a half day ticket and got into the pool. It was very busy and had to slides that you ride down on inflatable rings (two or one person). It was great fun. By eck there were some big people in that pool. Eventually we decided to leave. This was after it was reported that a kid had been sick in the water. They fixed it by pouring bleaching into the water. Yuk! We drove north until we got bored and then drove all the way home.
On the next morning George did her driving test. She passed despite not stopping close enough to a line (2ft is the allowence), and knocking down the cones on the parallel park. Apparently you can have 6 faults in the parking lock test. Georgie then went off for the rest her test, which included changing lanes and turning the stereo on. She passed! Two driving tests in the same year in two different countries. The US test was considerably easier. It will be me next!
I took a trip over to see my brother, Dave, who lives in North Carolina and the weekend before George’s return. It’s about 1.5h flight from Detriot to Greensboro so not too much effort there. Dave and Jane picked me up from the airport. They were a bit late because they were on their way back from Las Vegas trip and their flight was delayed. It was pretty late by the time we got back to his house and my nieces and nephew were asleep. Just time to have a pint of Dave’s homebrew beer (actually pretty good). Jessica and Megan normally share a room so that meant I could sleep in Jessica’s room (to her amusement). We didn’t get up to that much on Saturday we hung around the house and garden and basically chilled out. The girls gave me a tour around the house. Ollie had a sticker book with an aeroplane theme. I had a game of pool with Jessica and Megan and then against Dave. Later on Dave, me, and Bill went for a drink at a bar which was about 15 minutes drive. We got totally drunk and ended up being the last to leave Not sure how it happened… Sunday was a total hangover. I hate bad hangovers at other peoples houses. I think Dave felt bad too. I got back to Ann Arbor and basically went to bed.
Meanwhile George had been in England and had no problems getting her visa (except for not having her appointment letter and having to get another appointment form sent there and then!). Talking long distance was not easy actually the phone in the cottage has a terrible reception. We were looking forward to being back together. I was well prepared for Georgina’s return to the US. I had cooked and tidied. We were hoping to go straight to kayaking but that never happened. The flight was late and customs at Detriot took over an hour to get through.
George was very organized when she got back and even did her driving theory test – something I still had not done. At the weekend we hired a car and decided to go somewhere away from Ann Arbor. I wanted to go to a water park but the weather was still winter-like. An indoor waterpark it was then. We went to Frankenmuth, which is meant to have a German Christmas theme. It was very weird- totally bizarre. It is like a holiday town and part of it was a bit like a family Butlins type place. Not sure how else to discribe it. We wangled a half day ticket and got into the pool. It was very busy and had to slides that you ride down on inflatable rings (two or one person). It was great fun. By eck there were some big people in that pool. Eventually we decided to leave. This was after it was reported that a kid had been sick in the water. They fixed it by pouring bleaching into the water. Yuk! We drove north until we got bored and then drove all the way home.
On the next morning George did her driving test. She passed despite not stopping close enough to a line (2ft is the allowence), and knocking down the cones on the parallel park. Apparently you can have 6 faults in the parking lock test. Georgie then went off for the rest her test, which included changing lanes and turning the stereo on. She passed! Two driving tests in the same year in two different countries. The US test was considerably easier. It will be me next!
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
I Will Pedal On
A follow-up to the I pedal off. This time its good news both Dahon and the company I purchased the bike off have been great. I sent pictures of the pedal and crank. They are sending me a new crank and instructions of how to fit it properly. I'll be back on the rode next week!
Another day wasted!
Had minor breakthrough. The NP solution that doesn't form nanowires (never goes dark) went dark under ambient light at room temperature for about 4 days. Tried to image them all day today and saw nothing - just couldn't understand it. I was sure I was imaging them correctly and even prepared several different substrates to rule out problems with the substrate.
Daniel came in to the AFM room. We chatted for a bit. Then I showed him my solutions. They were black which I thought was good. Turns out black is good except they had gone too far and had agglomerated. Sure. What a wasted day. On the up side I have some more clues about this system, I know that the NW are not stable. So now I have another side plan. How to stabilize them. I will have a good read and think about it. I reckon it should be possible. Bad news is I now have nothing to show for this weeks work. Nuts...... I will work something out tomorrow.
Daniel came in to the AFM room. We chatted for a bit. Then I showed him my solutions. They were black which I thought was good. Turns out black is good except they had gone too far and had agglomerated. Sure. What a wasted day. On the up side I have some more clues about this system, I know that the NW are not stable. So now I have another side plan. How to stabilize them. I will have a good read and think about it. I reckon it should be possible. Bad news is I now have nothing to show for this weeks work. Nuts...... I will work something out tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Lab space
We I spent a couple of hours today on a lab. safety course. Actually, it was a good idea and I think Leeds should have something more formal for all laboratory based work and study. At least then everyone would be clear on what procedures should be carried out. I also felt that at Leeds it was difficult to talk about handling hazardous chemicals without people going totally overboard. The impression is somewhat different here. Here you can handle really hazards materials as long as you tell the necessary people and get the relevant personal safety gear. They seem to understand that research often demands the use or undesirable material -BUT you should get approval and make sure you minimise risks.
I look at our lab though and I really do think we need to tighten up. We have HF improperly labeled, people working without safety glasses, goggles, or lab coats (not everyone). Unlabeled bottles. Unknown powders next to the scales, overcrowded work space (bottles of samples everywhere). It could be worse but something should be done to sort it out. I will do something tomorrow I think - trouble is I don't want to upset anyone before settling in. Then again just writing that last sentence makes me think that's a stupid thing to say!
I look at our lab though and I really do think we need to tighten up. We have HF improperly labeled, people working without safety glasses, goggles, or lab coats (not everyone). Unlabeled bottles. Unknown powders next to the scales, overcrowded work space (bottles of samples everywhere). It could be worse but something should be done to sort it out. I will do something tomorrow I think - trouble is I don't want to upset anyone before settling in. Then again just writing that last sentence makes me think that's a stupid thing to say!
Monday, April 2, 2007
Science
Well I have been going a couple of weeks now and not a lot of progress. In terms of the orginal proposal I am still well on course. However, I have been working on other stuff too and no/little progress has been made. All I can say at the moment is that the nanoparticle solution I have just isn't working for me. I spoke to Daniel about it. He said the colour of the solution was lighter than usual. I asked if this could have been a yield thing, i.e. producing a lower concentration. I followed by saying I had tried increasing the NP concentration and it still didn't work. Daniel shrugged and said "It's a black art..."
In my experience this is pretty much the truth....
In my experience this is pretty much the truth....
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Slippery Rock
Just got back from a weekend away kayaking. I got picked up at 5.40am on Saturday morning by Daniel and Michelle. We had to get to the get-in by 10am and it's about 3.5hrs drive from Ann Arbor. We picked Katie up at 5.50am and headed on the road. I was expecting to sleep and whole way there but instead we all stayed awake and talked. The conversations were not intellectually based but that's okay. After an hour or so we stopped off at Harvey's; an American fast food place that serves breakfasts not too dissimilar to McDonald's. My US friends claim that there is a world of difference. I ordered a sausage biscuit (??) combo, which means you get a drink and... you've guess it, hash browns. The food was okay. We ate while on the road.
Just before arriving at our destination we got a bit lost and it took about 30 extra minutes to to where we were heading. We arrived at about 10.45am. The get in was next to a closed road bridge that went over the river. The woods area around made for a convenient toilet. We unloaded the boats and got changed into our gear as quickly as we could. The weather was overcast, but not cold. Many of the other group members had stayed overnight either at a hotel or camped and they were more or less ready to go. After the usual faff, and a shuttle run we were almost ready to hit the water. Paul gave his safety talk - which was mainly aimed at me since I was the only one not to have paddled this river in the group. It all helps build up the nerves. I was sporting my new dry cag which came through the post on Friday. We did a short warm up and it was down we go. The group was surprisingly large and consisted of about 18 paddlers. I decided to stick around with my car buddies and Paul and Karen, who would hopefully give me some guidance.
After a couple of small waves we reached a pool. At this point everyone decided to practice their roll. This is something of a ritual in this club and they take it seriously. They believe it gives you confidence with your roll and gets you wet to reduce the shock later on... I did two rolls for the hell of it. The guys said it was cold but to be honest this was positively warm compared to the usual paddling we do in the UK.
A little further down, there was a place perfect for tail squirts. I decided to give it a go and to stop being so wet. The first couple lacked commitment. Then I went for it and got the boat vertical (I was in a Jackson Fun). The boat fell slightly sideways and I was able to brace out of it. I heard some cheers from the guys, then bang; I was upside down. While I was recovering from the squirt I drifted into an eddy line which took me off balance. I rolled up without much difficulty. I went on and did some more. Each time the boat looped over (to much commitment now). looping leaves me disorientated and I have problems working out where I am and which way is upstream, so this is probably good practice for me.
A little further down was another rapid called the tea-room. It was difficult to see what was below on this rapid. Paul gave me some instruction. I went down eddy by eddy following the leader. Next was a fast ferry glide with rock behind me. I hit the stream with full confidence but the water took down the front of my boat as if I wanted to do a bow stall. I panicked and turned my boat out of it - but this left me with no chance of ferrying across so I had to hit the drop below without inspection.... I rapidly approached some confused water a funny looking hole to the left and a pinning rock infront of me. My panicked strokes put me straight infront of the rock. Shit. I reacted though and glanced the rock but then piled over a small shoot which avoided the bottom rapid. I got to the bottom. The way I panicked made me nervous. I never normally panic on the river so this was a strange thing for me. From this point on the rapids seemed much harder than they actually were. Tension in my arms perhaps. I looked at how others approached this situation and saw that a reasonably large eddy was upstream and to the right of the eddy which actually makes it very easy. The hole was not a holder either. Dam it, this should have been easy.
I can't remember all of the drops below this or at least not the order but I will mention some of the ones I can. Airport was a good rapid. A lead into it a couple of waves and eddies then the river narrows between two large boulders. The line was left side of the drop. The hole at the bottom can flip people and there is a potential undercut a little further down. The trick is if you do flip say in your boat for a couple of seconds and you will flow past the danger. I passed through without any trouble although I was very nervous. Marissa swam on this one. She made a mess-up above the drop and went down upside down. Her roll failed her.
A few more rapids that weren't to much trouble and we reached the mill. I was still unhappy with my paddling and this really affected me. We portaged the weir at the mill and had lunch. Getting back on wasn't fun. The water moves fast through here and its straight into it. Basically a mile of rapids before the get-out at the bridge. Karen swam not long after getting in. She had been playing and her roll failed her. Triple drop is series of drops separated by 50 yards or so. It was not what imagined - actually quite spaced out with lots of big eddies to wait in. One drop had a hole at the bottom. this one looked about the worst. Martin told me right was good and left was deep. I watched Michelle go right, then get kicked further right onto a rock. I decided that looked bad (she was fine mind). I decided to go more left. Shit wrong angle. I was hitting the hole in the middle while facing at too much of an angle. I sort of lean toward the wave and did an almighty brace on my left. I so thought I was in, but I cleared it without a dunking.
Now I just wanted to end it. A few more drops stood in my way. A bouncy rapid with some curling waves looked nasty to me. I bashed through it with a poor line.
After one or two more small drops the trip was over. Myself and Daniel did some rolling practice until I got ice cream head. Once dried and loaded up we took a walk back to the mill (one mile). The river looked so different. It still had some bits that didn't have a clean line, however, I did see some routes that would make it easier the following day.
We drove straight to the restaurant from the river. It was a Mexican place. The food was awful and the service was worse. I only eat about half of mine. We arranged for an 8am meeting at EAT. We headed to our hotel. Daniel and Michelle picked up a 6 pack of beer and myself and Daniel stayed up for a while watching the basketball on TV. I crashed out at about 11pm.
EAT was a good breakfast and I was less nervous of the rapids today. The weather started terrible though. It was raining cats and dogs. This had no consequence on the river height. The group had shrunk in size and was now 14. A group of 5 split and went down the river ahead of our group. The routine was the same, but this time I didn't make any mistake on the Tea rooms rapid. All of a sudden the river became considerably easier. My demons had passed me by. I surfed more now and grow in confidence. I saw Daniel take a nasty swim. He got too brave and ended up in a hole. He couldn't get free and popped his deck. When he surfaced he was still in the stopper. It took a 10s for him to work out how to escape. It shook him for a while, but not for long.
We finished the river without to many problems. I certainly found reading the water much easier. Far less panic and much more control.
We headed home, but not without doing a tour of fast food joints!
Just before arriving at our destination we got a bit lost and it took about 30 extra minutes to to where we were heading. We arrived at about 10.45am. The get in was next to a closed road bridge that went over the river. The woods area around made for a convenient toilet. We unloaded the boats and got changed into our gear as quickly as we could. The weather was overcast, but not cold. Many of the other group members had stayed overnight either at a hotel or camped and they were more or less ready to go. After the usual faff, and a shuttle run we were almost ready to hit the water. Paul gave his safety talk - which was mainly aimed at me since I was the only one not to have paddled this river in the group. It all helps build up the nerves. I was sporting my new dry cag which came through the post on Friday. We did a short warm up and it was down we go. The group was surprisingly large and consisted of about 18 paddlers. I decided to stick around with my car buddies and Paul and Karen, who would hopefully give me some guidance.
After a couple of small waves we reached a pool. At this point everyone decided to practice their roll. This is something of a ritual in this club and they take it seriously. They believe it gives you confidence with your roll and gets you wet to reduce the shock later on... I did two rolls for the hell of it. The guys said it was cold but to be honest this was positively warm compared to the usual paddling we do in the UK.
A little further down, there was a place perfect for tail squirts. I decided to give it a go and to stop being so wet. The first couple lacked commitment. Then I went for it and got the boat vertical (I was in a Jackson Fun). The boat fell slightly sideways and I was able to brace out of it. I heard some cheers from the guys, then bang; I was upside down. While I was recovering from the squirt I drifted into an eddy line which took me off balance. I rolled up without much difficulty. I went on and did some more. Each time the boat looped over (to much commitment now). looping leaves me disorientated and I have problems working out where I am and which way is upstream, so this is probably good practice for me.
A little further down was another rapid called the tea-room. It was difficult to see what was below on this rapid. Paul gave me some instruction. I went down eddy by eddy following the leader. Next was a fast ferry glide with rock behind me. I hit the stream with full confidence but the water took down the front of my boat as if I wanted to do a bow stall. I panicked and turned my boat out of it - but this left me with no chance of ferrying across so I had to hit the drop below without inspection.... I rapidly approached some confused water a funny looking hole to the left and a pinning rock infront of me. My panicked strokes put me straight infront of the rock. Shit. I reacted though and glanced the rock but then piled over a small shoot which avoided the bottom rapid. I got to the bottom. The way I panicked made me nervous. I never normally panic on the river so this was a strange thing for me. From this point on the rapids seemed much harder than they actually were. Tension in my arms perhaps. I looked at how others approached this situation and saw that a reasonably large eddy was upstream and to the right of the eddy which actually makes it very easy. The hole was not a holder either. Dam it, this should have been easy.
I can't remember all of the drops below this or at least not the order but I will mention some of the ones I can. Airport was a good rapid. A lead into it a couple of waves and eddies then the river narrows between two large boulders. The line was left side of the drop. The hole at the bottom can flip people and there is a potential undercut a little further down. The trick is if you do flip say in your boat for a couple of seconds and you will flow past the danger. I passed through without any trouble although I was very nervous. Marissa swam on this one. She made a mess-up above the drop and went down upside down. Her roll failed her.
A few more rapids that weren't to much trouble and we reached the mill. I was still unhappy with my paddling and this really affected me. We portaged the weir at the mill and had lunch. Getting back on wasn't fun. The water moves fast through here and its straight into it. Basically a mile of rapids before the get-out at the bridge. Karen swam not long after getting in. She had been playing and her roll failed her. Triple drop is series of drops separated by 50 yards or so. It was not what imagined - actually quite spaced out with lots of big eddies to wait in. One drop had a hole at the bottom. this one looked about the worst. Martin told me right was good and left was deep. I watched Michelle go right, then get kicked further right onto a rock. I decided that looked bad (she was fine mind). I decided to go more left. Shit wrong angle. I was hitting the hole in the middle while facing at too much of an angle. I sort of lean toward the wave and did an almighty brace on my left. I so thought I was in, but I cleared it without a dunking.
Now I just wanted to end it. A few more drops stood in my way. A bouncy rapid with some curling waves looked nasty to me. I bashed through it with a poor line.
After one or two more small drops the trip was over. Myself and Daniel did some rolling practice until I got ice cream head. Once dried and loaded up we took a walk back to the mill (one mile). The river looked so different. It still had some bits that didn't have a clean line, however, I did see some routes that would make it easier the following day.
We drove straight to the restaurant from the river. It was a Mexican place. The food was awful and the service was worse. I only eat about half of mine. We arranged for an 8am meeting at EAT. We headed to our hotel. Daniel and Michelle picked up a 6 pack of beer and myself and Daniel stayed up for a while watching the basketball on TV. I crashed out at about 11pm.
EAT was a good breakfast and I was less nervous of the rapids today. The weather started terrible though. It was raining cats and dogs. This had no consequence on the river height. The group had shrunk in size and was now 14. A group of 5 split and went down the river ahead of our group. The routine was the same, but this time I didn't make any mistake on the Tea rooms rapid. All of a sudden the river became considerably easier. My demons had passed me by. I surfed more now and grow in confidence. I saw Daniel take a nasty swim. He got too brave and ended up in a hole. He couldn't get free and popped his deck. When he surfaced he was still in the stopper. It took a 10s for him to work out how to escape. It shook him for a while, but not for long.
We finished the river without to many problems. I certainly found reading the water much easier. Far less panic and much more control.
We headed home, but not without doing a tour of fast food joints!
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