weekend in norfolk - part 2

It wasn't a great start to Sunday morning. It was grey and drizzling. We felt cocooned in our little tent. At least it was warm. The weather forecast predicted the rain to "clear to the east by midday". I wasn't sure what that meant. We wandered into Thetford village. Most of the shops were shut. A coffee break in a little hotel bar provided much needed refreshment from the grey skies. Amused ourselves in Woolworths for a bit. By lunchtime there were breaks in the sky and we felt that we weren't going to be let down by the British forecast for once.

We made our way to Thetford Forest. Arrived way too early so we and went for a short walk before our slot at half past three. Waited a bit. Signed the waiver and soon we were part of a group of fifteen huddled around an instructor Megan. The age and height limit was 10 years old and 1.4m. So there were quite a few small people around. They put to shame the adults who freeze up there. The "challenges" aren't too high - about two or three storeys high. I always enjoyed the outdoor challenges we had to do at school camp (apart from wall climbing - that's really hard) and maybe this could be like OBS all over again.

Here's a picture taken during the practice session on how to put our roller things on the tight rope and how to secure the other two carabinas. As the odds would have it, we had a worrisome mum in our group who wasn't very confident and had to repeat almost everything that the instructor said. One time she asked about her carabina auto-lock not being very tight at which her eleven year old son rolled his eyes and sighed. Pete was very good at not letting her spoil our adventure. Me, not so good.

There are five sites in total on the course, of which the first is a training one and doesn't really count. This meant that there were four huge zip wires altogether! I was looking forward to those. Zip wires are always the most popular at any kids adventure park/playground. The zip wires they had here must be about 75m long. Anyway, they were so far that I couldn't see Pete when he was on the other side. Lucky I'm not embarrassed to communicate by shouting.

The course was expected to take three hours from start to end. Quite a bit was spent waiting around because only three persons can be waiting on a platform while one on a challenge. Unfortunately we got stuck behind the worrisome mum and quite often we had to mumble words of encouragement so that she would hurry up a bit. One of the tarzan swings was when I felt slightly scared. The drop was quite high and I had to double check that the harness was still holding okay. So off I went and it was like being a kid all over again.

So it wasn't like OBS because there wasn't any teamwork. A few of the challenges was hard work but not impossible. The harness meant that I really only felt scared at one of them. I guess one can only overcome their fears once in their life. So when I get old I rarely get scared then? Interesting.

Anyway, here's a video of my only proper landing off the zip wire - by that I mean I didn't land on my bum or my back. My yellow t-shirt needs a second wash.

weekend in norfolk - part 1

We went camping in Norfolk over the weekend. Monday (today) is a holiday and the weather promised to be fairly good so on last Friday evening we booked ourselves a tent pitch and on the high-rope forest adventure course Go Ape for Sunday in Thetford Forest. We downloaded a couple of walks that we might do and packed our tent, sleeping bags, lunches and off we went at Saturday lunctime. We finally decided that we were going to do a 6-mile route near East Wretham.

The first photo is of the sign we followed for about half the route. The walk starts off in a forested area. And I managed to park the car right next to a tree. I got no end from Pete about that - he insists that the car was in the tree. We should have taken a photo. Anyway, so we start off in the forest and there were quite a few other walkers and dogs in this area. It's nice how you can take dogs along on such walks here - dogs aren't allowed in Bukit Timah Hill or MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore (I remember).

Pete's very pleased with this second photo of the green bug so I have to put it up here. He did an excellent job map-reading and bashing nettles. I was busy avoiding nettles and bees. The weather was sunny and warm but not too hot. Perfect for walking. We brought plenty of water with us. A couple of summers ago we went walking along the Fens and got quite dehydrated - it was the hottest day of that summer. This time we had plenty of fluid, nothing heavy on our shoulders, a warm sun sun and a light breeze. My mind kind of switches from my thoughts to watching out for nettles to appreciating the countryside. This walk is rather different because we didn't see anyone else for the first half. It was just the sound of the trees, fields and insects.

Shortly after this photo of me in the field of some-type-of-grain was taken we had to walk through an overgrown area with thistle. These are plants with sharp pointy leaf edges. They don't sting but can hurt quite a bit. Then we got to a field with a neighbouring field of evil-looking black cows. Cows are fantastic from a distance when I think of how great milk is. But they are pretty scary when they start getting up and staring at you. We got out of there not fast enough. Soon we found ourselves in a little village and stopped for a quick drink at the local pub.

The walk took us three hours to finish. Our legs were pretty tired at the end. Another half an hour or so later and we were at the campsite. £8 for a night's stay! Pretty good if you ask me. The lady tending the site was friendly and allowed us to drive around to pick our spot. We parked beside a couple who had a similar sized tent. Most of the other people had crazy big tents (the ones with like a west wing, central wing and east wing kind) or caravans with gazebos. Their makeshift homes did look really good and we thought about how long it took to put those things up. We made do with, what felt like, our play tent. Ours was literally a five minute job. It was nonetheless very well made, and we were waterproof from the next morning rain. We parked beside a family of four (we figured from their conversations) which provided endless amusement. "I don't like camping anymore!", screamed their little boy at one point, despite profuse apologising from his father. Haha. I can only imagine how much fun it would be camping with a family.

michael phelps in the 80's

 

oh well

There's this conference that I really want to go to. It's the angiography club that is going to be held in October in Graz. I attended it last year in Istanbul and gave my first overseas talk . I met lots of people and got to know some people quite well. There's this girl from China who works at the military hospital. Her life in China and her talk dressed in her uniform left a deep impression. The chair of the session in which I spoke in was really encouraging and so friendly. I met some big names in the field and actually got to chat with them. I saw from this year's preliminary program that the people I missed at this year's major conference in Toronto are going to be in Graz. This conference is small and cosy and you actually get to approach people and be inspired. I submitted an abstract for the conference and it got accepted.

But I cannot go. Because I am going to be in America. I'm really looking forward to the three month work in America but I can't help feeling so sorry that I won't be able to make it to angio club. I'm so sad. You know how sometimes it's been a really long time since you cried and you feel like it's about time for a good bawl. I feel a little bit like that now. Oh well. Maybe next time.

nearly after work

I'm starving. And waiting for Pete to ring. He's been working quite late recently. A lot of testing to do I think. I know less and less about what he does as time goes by. He used to tell me quite a lot about his projects but I think it's now become too specialised and developed. He throws up all these acronyms that have got something to do with wireless technology and assumes that I understand what he's talking about, which I don't. I wish I could tell you what they are but my memory fails me. CDMA is one. So another similarity between our work, apart from Fourier Transforms, is the incessant use of acronyms. In MRI, there's RARE, FIESTA, FLAIR, STIR, HASTE, SENSE, ASSET, SMASH, VIPS, BURST, and on and on and on. I really don't want to talk about work.

Guy Goma

I cannot watch this at work. My colleagues probably think I'm having a quiet fit.

Rome, December 2002

As referred to by thegreatsze.

One of ctl and syt's rear


And my favourite one of syt and zmc


This trip was a memorable one. Not only because it was with great company, we got to see the pope in his pope-mobile, and the leaning tower of Pisa on a great day but also because I had just broken up with my boyfriend. I have never felt that sort of pain so much, ever in my life. I am still forming my thoughts (I know, after six years!) about what happened then and how I got into such a mess and how I've changed/grown because of it. Anyway, it's all history now and like syt says, I have to put it all behind me and talk to him. Maybe someday.

Moved home

A new home since I am a big fan of Google and its apps especially Calendar and Bookmarks. I also found this software which allowed easy export and import from livejournal to blogger.

It's been a month since I've been back in the UK from the month-long holiday at home. (I wanted to write "back home from.... at home." but that wouldn't make much sense huh.) Nothing new except that I might be suffering mild depression from this writing up. Editing is one of the most difficult things in the world, apart from painting and making music.

Anyway, we haven't been doing much apart from drinking lots. We've had a few friends round and the wine at Tesco's are 3 for £10! (Pete has sworn to a detox-week - I say he won't last past tonight.) He's been pretty busy at work and I am just generally bored. The weather's so-so and the plants don't really need attending to yet. We're not planning on any major DIY although it would be nice to change the ultra-dated red bathroom suite.

I really haven't got much else to do and when I do something else, I feel really guilty about not spending time on work. I used to be a real stress bunny apparently - I don't remember this so much anymore until my dad reminded me of this when I was home. I remember him picking me up in the afternoons after school and we'd go to this hair place where they'd rub lotion into my scalp. I was so stressed that I was losing a lot of hair. I don't understand this because I only ever remembering having lots of hair, and still do. I used to hate my hair because there was so much, now, it's okay. Anyway, I think/hope I am better with coping with stress these days.

Tonight we're having burritos for dinner. Maybe time to open the remaining bottle of red!