Blog Archives: July, 2004
England with Glenn
Glenn arrived on Monday and we’ve been conquering England the last few days. Tomorrow morning at 4am we’re off to Switzerland, but before we go, here’s what we’ve done so far.
Oxford city wall in New College On Monday we wandered around Oxford. The picture at left is of the old city wall inside New College. Mostly we just took in the standard tourist sights, and frequent readers will be familiar with them by now.
Glenn at Buckingham Palace We visited London for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and took a tour of Westminister Hall, the home of the British Parliament. Glenn went back on Friday for a visit to the British Museum.
Wednesday. You may have noticed a short note about the joys of sleeping that was posted Wednesday night. That’s because Glenn thought it would be a good idea to force me to go through ridiculous amounts of pain and bike 44 miles. 44 MILES! That’s 70.8 kilometres for those in metric land. That was painful.
Stonehenge Perhaps I should tell you where we actually went on Wednesday, seeing as how I’m complaining about the distance and all. We took the train to Salisbury and visited the very old (dating from 1220) Salisbury Cathedral. After lunch, we started our bike trip. We cycled about 11 miles to Stonehenge, where someone a long time ago accidentally left some rocks lying around. 
After 40 miles of biking We continued on some 23 miles over rolling hills to the Avebury Stone Circle, where we had dinner with 200 motorcycle bikers. With only 1.5 hours until we had to catch our train, we booted it for the last 11 miles to the train station in Pewsey, and I was particularly happy to arrive in the town. But we made it with time to spare.
Thursday, as you might expect, was a slow day, spent in Oxford. We went punting and had tea and cake in an old church cafe. Quiet. No biking. It was great. Friday Glenn went to London while I worked on my dissertation. No really, I actually did work. I swear.
Paper input tape and controls of Colossus computing device Today we were pure geeks and went to Bletchley Park where the British codebreaking went on during World War II. The folks there have reconstructed a Colossus machine (at left) which was based on the work of University of Waterloo Professor Emeritus Bill Tutte, who broke the German “fish” code while working at Bletchley Park. We saw an Enigma machine and the corresponding British machine “bombe” used to break it. 
Release of messenger pigeons in World War II By far the most unusual sight at the Park was the Pigeons at War museum, which contains information about how pigeons were used to carry secure messages during the War. Did you know that messenger pigeons could be released from aircraft in flight at speeds of up to 200 knots? Now you do.
Tomorrow morning we’re off to Switzerland, to spend some time in and around the Interlaken area where Laura and I visited briefly on my last trip. Then we’re off to Vienna, Bratislava (to spend some time with Stebila relatives), and then Prague. We’ll try to update you along the way. In the mean time, be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from our jaunt in jolly old England.
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Sleep
Tonight, when I lay myself down to bed, I will sleep as no human being in the history of the world has ever slept before. All the heavenly choirs of angels and archangels will softly sing their lullaby to me. The heavens will open and God himself will say, “Well done, my child. Now rest.” And I will.
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News from Away
It’s News from Away, except I’m neither Jimmy nor Seamus O’Toole. I suppose you could call me “Douglas O’Coole”, but that’s not cool. At all.
It’s been so long since I last wrote that my blog front page was actually empty, so I decided to tell you all the exciting news in my life. Okay, that was short. Now I’m done. Go away.
Still here? Fine. All the exciting news in my life? Well, I’m, uh, working on my thesis. Nearly done my first draft, only a few pages left to do. Glenn arrives this week and next week we’re off to Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic for some traveling.
Though my life may not be newsworthy on a daily basis, others’ lives seem to be. And so here is that news from away (away meaning away from me, although for most readers this will be news from your continent).
- Kirk (Waterloo friend) got married last weekend. It was apparently a big Grebelite shindig, probably pretty scary and I think by being in England I achieved MSD (minimum safe distance).
Rollerblading with Melissa Melissa (Windsor friend) just got engaged to her boyfriend Steve (that’s not him in the picture, that’s me, doofus). He proposed two days ago while they were vacationing in John Mellencamp‘s hometown in Indiana. Yes, they went there because it’s Mellencamp’s home town. And this isn’t their first visit.- While we’re in marriage mode, I’m sure this is old news to many readers by now, but the one and only Heathermurray (Waterloo friend and former/future housemate) is getting married in October, and I’ll be spending a few days in Cape Breton to attend the wedding.
Allison and I Allison (Windsor friend), who has been over to visit a few times in the past year for cancer treatments in London, has met with success so far in her treatments and her cancer seems to have gone into remission, which is absolutely wonderful!- Léna (Windsor friend), of whom I just discovered I don’t have a picture, is in Peru for a year teaching at a school and is currently heading off to stay in a lodge on the Amazon River for a few days. I’m so jealous!
- My folks celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary earlier this month and are coming over to visit my last two weeks here.
The end of time my time in Oxford is now in sight. My flight home is booked for September 10th, and I’ll be moving to Waterloo on the 12th just in time to start classes on the 13th. Assuming, of course, I get my thesis done. And you know what happens when you assume something…
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Rain! In England!
I know what you’re thinking: how can rain in England be blogworthy? Because it’s actually raining right now, a right proper rain, not the dismal gray showers that they call rain over here, but a good, old-fashioned, couple hours of solid rain with lightning and thunder. That’s notable.
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A Hermit Visiting London
Browsing a gallery, Tate Modern Starting today, I am officially living the life of a hermit. The start date could have been a few days ago, but I actually interacted with someone yesterday, so today marks the beginning of my hermitage. All of my housemates have finished their various degrees and are now on vacation, and with Trinity term having finished a few weeks ago, most people I knew in Oxford are now gone, so I am on my own.
With Anna Chalachanova On Sunday and again yesterday I was in London, meeting people that I knew (or people that I now know) who were visiting London. On Sunday I saw Connie from the St. Jerome’s choir, who has just started a 2 week European Vacation, sans Chevy Chase. Yesterday I met Anna, a relative from Slovakia, who was visiting England for a few days. Her father and my father are cousins, so that makes us… something. I’m hoping to go to Slovakia for a few days in August and hopefully will see her again. While in London yesterday, I also visited the Tate Modern, a comprehensive collection of modern art housed in an 
Tate Modern old power plant (the first picture above is an interior shot of a gallery of the Tate Modern). I stopped in at 
St Paul's Cathedral and Millenium Bridge St Paul’s Cathedral as well and climbed the dome, although I couldn’t go all the way up on account of the gale-force winds in the city yesterday.
Now I enter deep hermit mode to finish the thesis. As I was doing the slides for my presentation last week, I realized that I’ve got lots of work still to do. Off, off and away!
