Blog Archives: August, 2004
Bathing in Bath
Roman Baths from above My mom and dad arrived yesterday for a two-week visit to England and Scotland. We spent the day yesterday wandering around Oxford, but I won’t bore you with the details most of which will by now be familiar to my regular readers. Today, however, we did something I had never done: take a trip to the bath. The Roman Bath. In Bath.
Bath (or, as the British seem to pronounce it, “Baaaarath”) is located in the south west of England about 1.5 hours from Oxford. It’s a very old city. The foundations of the Roman Baths which you see in the first picture date from just after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, although it’s believed the Celts used the hot springs feeding the pool before the Romans arrived. Although the pools are full, you can’t actually go in the water these days as the water isn’t treated; you can see the pool is green algae, but in Roman times it was clear because a roof prevented the sunlight from feeding the algae blooms.
Underfloor heating The Roman Baths were a complete spa complex, healing both the body and the spirit, as a central part of the spa was a temple to the goddess Sulis Minerva, a hybrid Celtic-Roman goddess. In addition to the main mineral pool, the spa had hot tubs, cold pools, and saunas. This picture shows the foundations of a floor of a sauna; the floor was elevated on the columns you see here and hot air flowed between the columns to heat the floor and the room above: be sure to wear sandals!
Mom and Dad near the Royal Crescent, Bath From here, we’re off to Oban, a small town on the coast in the highlands of Scotland, and then to Edinburgh, York, and then London, with a bunch of day trips from London. In the meantime, there are a few more pictures from our trip today (the last 6 in that gallery) to tide you over until you hear from me again next weekend.
Dissertation done
I should post a note saying that I submitted my dissertation (“Cryptographic Applications of Graph Theoretic Constructions”) on Wednesday morning. I have my viva (defense, from the Latin “viva voce”, literally, “live voice”) on September 6 but in the meantime I’ll be doing some traveling with my folks when they arrive tomorrow. Updates may be a bit sparse once we leave Oxford on Monday.
Yesterday I celebrated being done by going down to London for the day. I spent most of my time at the British Museum, enjoying their extensive collection of stolen artifacts. Before going to the museum, though, I stopped in at the UK’s only Roots store to pick up some Great Britain Olympic team gear to complement my existing Roots collection. They had Canadian Olympic team gear too, but I figure it’s best to get that stuff in Canada.
Harry Potter follow-up
It appears I’m not the only one that noticed the filming going on in Oxford. The BBC has a report on the filming of Harry Potter in Oxford as well as some pictures.
Extra in next Harry Potter
Divinity School, Bodleian Library Wow! So yesterday I was walking around Oxford running some errands, and I walked past the Bodleian Library. As it turns out, there were nearly a dozen trucks in front of the library and parts of it were closed off for a movie shoot. I tried to catch a peek of what was happening but there was nothing really to be seen. Just as I was on my way out of the library quad, I was pulled aside by someone wearing a Warner Brothers polo shirt and asked if I would like to be an extra in the movie they were filming, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Well of course I said yes! Apparently I’m going to be an upper year student in a crowd scene in the hospital in Hogwarts, which is filmed in the Divinity School in the Bodleian library (see picture). I’m being fitted for my costume his afternoon and then shooting is Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. How exciting is that?!
What’s that you say? I’m too old to be a student at Hogwarts? They couldn’t have a costume ready that quickly? I’m not cool enough to be in a film? Ha! And double ha! You just wait until the movie comes out in November 2005 and then we’ll see who’s laughing!
Movie trucks outside the Bodleian library Okay, you’re right, I’m not going to be in the next Harry Potter movie. But they really are filming it here. At least I think so. There really are lots of trucks outside the Bodleian Library and they really are filming something in the Divinity School, and they’re also filming in New College, where all my Oxford housemates did their undergrads. There are signs all over the place reading “WB Pickup” and “WB Loc”, and I presume WB means Warner Brothers. And one of the road crew was whistling the theme to Harry Potter while he was walking down the street, so my bet is on Harry Potter. Maybe I’ll land a cameo yet.
Canadian Rowing on the BBC
This morning I woke up early (7 am!) and watched rowing finals on the BBC. The big event this morning was the Men’s Coxless Four final, which pitted Olympic champion Great Britain against Canada. Long story short, Canada got the silver, losing to Great Britain by 0.08 seconds. Ouch. But that’s okay, I don’t mind: Britain had a solid boat, and both teams had a good race. If it had been a 2,001 metre race, Canada would have won; but the hypothetical is irrelevant: it was a 2,000 metre race. Good on ya, GB!
Rather, the part that annoyed me was having to put up with the British propaganda. Okay, I know I’m watching it on the BBC, in England, so there’s bound to be a bit of cheering for the home team. However, I had to watch 30 minutes of commentators musing about the greatness of the team, interviews with the families of the athletes, and a high school graduation-style “dedication” video to one of the rowers from his former teammate. The interviews with the athletes themselves were fine; one of them, who won a silver in 2000 by a close margin, said that no one “deserves” anything in an Olympics – the winner is the winner, and that’s all: an enlightened perspective. Of course, 15 seconds later a BBC commentator babbles on about how this guy “deserves” a gold medal this time around. Grrr. And to top it off, after the race is done, a BBC commentator goes on to talk about how Great Britain “dominated” the last 300 metres. Apparently he was watching a different race than I was, because I saw Canada come back from about 2 metres behind to within 0.08 seconds of gold. Of course, if I was a Briton watching the Games on CBC and the situation was reversed, I’m sure I’d feel as if CBC was expounding with bias. But I’m a Canadian in England, darn it: go Canada!
As for me… mumble mumble… thesis almost done… printing it out Monday… folks arriving in a week… home stretch… nothing exciting happening… Oxford is quiet…
Chalachan Immigration
Gloria at Ellis Island pointing to my grandmother's name My friend Gloria, who goes to school in Philadelphia, was recently in New York and visited Ellis Island. My paternal grandmother, Mary Chalachan, came through there many years ago. Her name is recorded on the monument there, and Gloria was kind enough to take a picture. (Grandma’s name isn’t actually as big as it is in the picture – I’ve blown it up so you can see it.)
Olympics on the Beeb
Having settled back into Oxford after a busy trip and made my move into college for my last month year, work on my dissertation is yet again challenged by the Olympics. But this will be my first Olympics without the CBC, and my Canadian readers can imagine the anxiety I have over not having Brian Williams guide me through the events. But there is hope. The BBC’s coverage of the opening ceremonies seemed okay, although with little focus on the Canadian team. And all is not lost: if I get forlorn for a bit of a Canadian edge to the Games, I can always go down to the newly-opened Roots Boutique in London and pick up a bit of good old fashioned Roots gear. And judging by what I saw in tonight’s opening ceremonies, I’d have a few countries’ kit to choose from: Canada (of course), the USA, Great Britain, and Barbados. Canada, making the world look cool at the Olympics.
In Bratislava
Glenn and I arrived in Bratislava earlier this afternoon after spending more time in Switzerland earlier in the week and then going to Vienna.
After leaving Lausanne in Switzerland, we took the train to Interlaken, in the centre of the country. Laura and I visited the area when we were traveling in April, but it is quite a bit different at this time of year. We spent a whole day trying to climb to the top of the Schilthorn, but were forced to abandon our ascent about 500 metres vertically from the top when a thunderstorm rolled in. We took an alternate route and were able to reach the top later in the day by cable car. However, after two days of hiking in the Swiss alps and biking in England last week our legs were, as you might imagine, very tired.
We will be spending the next three days in Slovakia and the Czech Republic before heading back to England. We will post pictures from there, once we get to a computer with a proper North American keyboard. Auf weidersehn!
