Indoor skydiving

A few weeks ago I went indoor skydiving and I have finally got a hold of some of the photos from one of the teachers. (I am waiting for a copy of the DVD of the AirKix official photos.)
First you have a briefing on the basics which consists of watching a DVD. Then a guy comes in and explains in more detail the position you need to be in, why, and what will happen if you don't (which is mostly you crashing to the floor if you get it wrong!). There is a trolley thing which you can jump on to practice the position. And I mean jump on! The trolley is too high for the normal person to get on gracefully! The group I was in contained 8 students, one of the teachers and a random guy. The random guy went first but no one from our group wanted to get up and give it a go after seeing the guy attempt to gracefully get onto the trolley so I went first. After they saw me making an idiot of myself the rest followed.
After that we get dressed up in our very trendy gear to do the dive. (And yes, I know I look like an idiot!) I really wanted one of the helmets with the monkey or Shrek on the top. :-(

My AirKix group

We got ear plugs (as the fans are obviously really loud) and safety glasses which meant I could not wear my glasses. Plus I didn't want to lose them mid-flight. However, getting from the kit out area to the tunnel as interesting. Especially as I had to lead because the kids were wimping out.
The "flight" is done in basically a huge wind turbine. There is a massive grate on which the instructor stands. The corridor where the others wait for their turn is sealed to by huge solid doors. Again no one wanted to go first so I did. When it is your turn, you stand at the door, hold your arms against your chest and fall forward. The sensation is odd at first. The instructor holds you around the waist while you get the hang of it. There are a series of hand signals (similar to those for scuba diving) to tell you to hold still, straighten your legs, bend your legs, etc. Then he lets you go. And you fly!

"Straighten you legs"

Flying!

You fly about 3-4m high which doesn't sound like a lot but the instructor is standing on a wire mesh, below which are huge fans. It's a little unnerving. Luckily without glass, it's not so bad. However, looking down causes you to move down! Now that is unnerving. We had 2 flights of one minute each. While you are waiting for the second flight, there is a screen with a rerun of your flight so you see how well you did.

The whole thing was really amazing and now I really want to do a real skydive! :-)

Top gun moment!

Extreme Physics 2012

Last week, I was working for Extreme Physics in Stowe. The idea is a 3 day residential (we did 2 back-to-back) for year 10s. There are teams of 4 and their teacher from a number of schools. They do a series of challenges and compete for trophies. They have to do a presentation at the end and some of the presentations are brilliant. And they get the student helpers to do some wonderful things (like standing in a wheel barrow being pushed along, though not for long! And wearing safety goggles as protection for ...)

The school was really posh on the outside, though the inside was a little run down.

part of the school

where the girls were staying

The week was great but exhausting. We were running around all week but the kids were great though some were crazy.We had to stop them working because we adults wanted to go to bed at 11pm. (Or to go over to the common room in the boys dorm which was much nicer and had the wine!)
I had a little time to get some photos.

"Are you lookin' at me?"

Stealing kisses!

Lions and rain clouds

The big part of the week was the kids got to go indoor sky diving. And as a student helper (though no longer a student exactly) I got to go too. And I will post photos when I get hold of them. But it was so much fun!

Trieste conference

So a few weeks ago, I went to Italy for a conference on Binary black holes. Not exactly my topic but close enough. It was based at the Adricatico Guest house near Miramare just outside Trieste.
The conference was brilliant with some great talks and I learnt a lot! And there were some big names. But everyone was really nice and friendly.
The guest house is right by the harbour and the view from some rooms were amazing. (Though not mine as I got the cheap room, but the view of the park was still good.)

Adricatico Guest House

On the last day, we finished early so I went up to the park for a hike before going out for dinner. When I arrived in Italy on the Sunday previous, the weather was chilly but beautiful. Since then my rain making talent has been reining its head, and the rain has not stopped. The grey clouds don't make for great photos but the walk was great.
The park is set around a castle which was the home of the emperor of Mexico I think. Though he was from Austria. (I didn't actually go in; the outside was good enough.)

Miramare Castle

Giant clam shell fountain

Sphinx looking out from the castle

 I stayed an extra day after the conference to have a look around Trieste. The weather did not play ball. I had to get very close to most of the buildings do actually see them due to the fog. I couldn't even see the end of the pier.

The end of the pier is hidden by the fog!

Not sure if he was once standing...

Canal in Trieste

I ended the trip with two of the best three things in Italy, Gelato and hot chocolate. And brought a carton (don't mock) of wine (to complete the trio) for the evening for 0.80 cents. And it was really good wine. I like Italy! :-)

NAM 2012 - Manchester

So I have spent the last week at NAM 2012 in Manchester. Here is a quick overview of the week. It was exhausting but nothing really big happened. So...

Monday:
I spent Monday in the Manchester Science Museum and Natural History Museum. I was a bit disappointed in the Science Museum. They had a lot of interactive parts but even I couldn't figure out exactly what some of them were trying to say. The air and Space part had some great aircraft but seemed to miss the Space part. I liked the trains but really wanted to sit in one (the 5yr old in me) instead of just look at them. The Natural History Museum was good though they need to turn up the lights. I loved the life-size tiger, lion and polar bear. I think I went at the wrong time as a lot of the exhibits were being changed over so in disarray.
Monday night I went to the public lecture which was good but nothing I haven't heard before. Though I was very impressed with how the speaker handled some of the questions. One day, I hope to answer awkward people that smoothly.

Tuesday was the first full day of talks. Personally for me, there were no really interesting talks that day that I saw. On the evening, there was a reception at the Natural history Museum so I got to see a few things I had missed the day before. But it wasn't the easiest place to network. I introduced myself to random people. But some people look at you very oddly when you do that. After that I went for food and drinks with Rob and some people he knows. We were going to go to the comedy club but they didn't serve food in there. So I ended up eating and drinking wine from a plastic pint glass. Class in Manchester!

Wednesday ... Again none of the talks were really that interesting. On the evening I meet up with Victor for a drink and food and talked about possible research stuff. It was a good meal, at somewhere called Red Hot Chinese which lived up to it's name. Very nice food but spicy. It was good.

Thursday:
There were some more interesting talks. I was supposed to give a poster presentation (of about 1min) but there was another session I really wanted to go to instead about all the cool telescopes and instruments that were happening so I went to that instead. The Conference dinner was on the evening in the Town Hall which is beautiful. T hey had a picture of Jeremiah Horrocks. If anyone wants to know more about him have a look for the book Litmus on Amazon. The first chapter is on him and the forward (written by yours truly) explains the transit. I sat on a table with a group of first year postgrads. Not the best place to sit. But then meet up with Jayne, a friend from when we were at the AAO in Australia and it was great to catch up.

Friday was the last day and by then I was exhausted. Some of the talks were good though the names and abstracts didn't really match the talks. The careers lunch was interesting and depressing at the same time. There are so many things for people after one or two postdocs. But little to no help for people trying to start. And I wasn't the only one to think so. The only advice was to get one through your supervisors. So I am totally screwed. But still, I will stick to the plan. And hopefully not go insane while trying to do so...

It was an interesting week but I am exhausted. And I have to do it all again next week in Italy. Sigh. Early night tonight I think.... :-)

Weekend in Preston (sort of)

I spent last weekend in Preston having a great time with my friends.
On Saturday, I meet Katherine, Tricia, Alan, and Alan's parent to go to see Heidi's dance show. Heidi is Tricia's niece, and studies dance with the aim of working on the cruise ships. The show was amazing. Very professional and slick. The moves were effortless and some of the lifts were amazing.
On the evening, Katherine and I went to Pond for a meal. We had a very nice bottle of wine and a lot of food. (We went a little over the top.) We could barely move after it.
Sunday was a beach day. After a few errands in Preston, we picked up Abi and Kitt and went to Southport. To start off we played crazy golf.

Katherine kept the score

Kitt, the new Tiger Woods

Abi, waiting her turn

I got trounced. Apparently mini golf is not not my sport as I got my ass kicked by a 6 yr old. Though I  am suspicious of his counting! And every one managed to get a hole-in-one. Except me. After all that hot work, we went for the first ice cream/ice-lolly of the year.

Enjoying our post-golf reward

After that we wondered down to the sea front. As it is Southport, the sea was nowhere in sight. But we were going to let that stop us from paddling. So we paddled in the puddles instead and had a great time hunting for shells and finding crabs. We found some really big ones and a sea urchin shell, which is rare this far north. And we got very messy and muddy!

Kitt with his new shell collection.

Sunday evening, Katherine and I meet Tricia at King Dynasty, the best Chinese in Preston. They do a great set menu, which is really nice and great value for money. We spent 3 hours eating, catching up and setting the world to rights.
All in all, a really great weekend. :-)