On the northern hemisphere

Sunday was meant to be sunny. It was at least dry. Last two weeks I ate a lot and did not have time for running, which I missed a lot. So I decided to do that in the Hatfield Park. Not being a resident in the parish I don't have the pass anymore so I paid 3 pounds for the entry. To get the bang for the bucks I ran for an hour, the whole perimeter then the diagonals. The park has many things, forest, water, open sky, fields.

Not surprisingly I got hungry and the Danish lunch that Lis presented, with the slightly overtoasted halloumi cheese made it to the top10 meals ever.

That was not the end of it. After lunch we went to Edna's place to say hello to her, see the garden, meet the old friend Merlin and the new puppy Symba. Before venturing out to the garden we had the afternoon high tea. Yet another lunch. We had jolly good time with the dogs.

Then we went home, to have a dinner. Digestion overdrive.  To burn some energy we watched a full episode set of Shaun the sheep. Almost ano hour continuous laugh...

Despite very little free time, Cambridge was on my todo list.There is a good university there and narrowboats. Any one of these is a good reason to visit. That's why I went there Saturday afternoon. To make it into a semi-business trip I contacted Gábor, a physicist. They now have  a summer school going on, but he could meet me in the lunch break. Then we had a coffee in the "Parlour". What a privilege!

Here, at Pembroke College.Cambridge was flooded in two different ways. By people and by water. I took interest in the second one. Jesus Green has a new pool.

The towpath is under water at some places.

A willow tree gave up and fell into the river.

So I guess narrowboating this summer is a bit more exciting than usual. Boaters have to be a bit more careful and moor up properly.

Obviously not much punting was done on the rushing river.

And finally my favourite bookshop. Once I did busking at the opposite corner. When I had 20 pounds I stopped playing and walked into the shop and bought a Algebraic Topology book. They always say math and music is related.

After 10 days, Thursday morning was the first sunny one. Not  a cloud in sight at least until 10am.

Then a fruity design breakfast.

After that nothing bloggable happened, as we just worked all day. Except on Friday afternoon I finally met Steve, whose life is getting quite busy, a baby is coming plus he has a new hobby, golfing. He is still keen on fancy mobile phone covers.

Also at the university, I found this interesting new signpost. Cafe study, whatever that is, sounds good.

For Wednesday Paolo suggested to go to his office at LSE, this coincided with Chrystopher's meditation seminar, so we went to London today. Work in Hatfield in the morning, then work in London (after an enormous lunch again). We ended up in Costa. Still titled 'Scientists in cafe'

  Then we had a discussion of the five-year plan of SgpDec (our software). I like working with an Italian as the discussions are heated debates, not boring conversations.

The plan was to have a walk in London after work. This started with skipping underground stations and regularly checking the surface for rain. Eventually it stopped. Then I was near the Tower. Here is my take on the Tower Bridge.

I told you, I like the busy British sky.

But there are some new things. I don't really remember this spiky thingy, for instance.

Ok, this brings the blog up to date...

I do coding here in Chrystopher's office all day.

Yes, the invariant element is the bookshelf. Very nice environment, while waiting for some calculation, just scanning through the titles. Then I go home and continue working in Lis' living room, also full with books. But to keep sanity and health I needed some outdoor activity as well, so I decided to do another canalside walk. Hertford is a 30 mins bus trip away, so on Tuesday I went home with this detour. It was meant to be a nice walk but I went there to soak myself completely in the evening shower. Of course, the rain did not deter me. 

Hertford lock. This has some story. In 2009 the lock was closed as the paddle gate came off. A stoppage as it is called. We arrived late and I saw the extraordinary opportunity to spend the night in the lock, despite the opposition of the female part of the crew. However, when the lock gate in the wee hours spontaneously closed itself behind us with a spooky noise then a loud bang, so yes, that was too much for me as well. First thing in the morning was to pull out from the lock.

The reward for withstanding the rain was a full double rainbow.

And also the boats basking in the after shower sun...

and another picture explaining why I like Hertford.

While I work a lot it is not that I am socially deprived. With Lis, every evening we have candle-lit dinner, red wine and long conversations. But on Saturday evening the usual set of friends came and we had fondue with all the usual 'whose bit is this?', 'Ooops, I dropped the sausage ..'

not the best shot, but to show that I was also there.

At some point someone got misinformed, so everyone asked that how is life in New Zealand.. Well, I have no idea...

On Sunday, dodging the torch relay I went to Welwyn Garden City to play music with Chrystopher and Annika. According to the Suzuki method, at least one parent is supposed to learn the same instrument as the kid. That is why Chrystopher practises every day.

I sold my boat almost 2 years ago, but recently received a product recall of a circuit breaker that was probably built into the boat at some point. What a perfect excuse to go to the cut again. Unfortunately the Cow Roast marina is under new management so they have no records available.

But once there I of course did a long afternoon walk around the Tring summit that happens to be my favourite part of the Grand Union Canal.

It is a wet summer here...

...at least the Marsworth reservoirs have decent water level.

A lockside cottage. What a nice place to live!

My favourite lock of my favourite lock flight.

Country pubs are disappearing in England at an alarming rate. In Marsworth I was heading to White Lion but it is closed and the building is for sale. Fortunately the Angler's Retreat was serving food.

I planned this shopping long time ago. I found shopping clothes in Australia not as straightforward and lot more expensive than in the UK. Here I just walked in and bought what I needed (mainly underpants) in a few minutes time. Well, I bought wool socks. Not that I need them, but I fell in love with the color combination.

Here is the aforementioned water gun. Its range is 10 meters!

However, I was misinformed. This is an anti-cat defense weapon. The squirrels only eat the seeds (and pay the price for the food with entertaining acrobatic tricks), but cats eat the birds themselves. And the super-expensive ultrasound and laser pistol designed for driving cats away was useless, but this cheap toy is efficient.

To prove that squirrels are happy around Lis' garden, here is a frequent morning scene.

The workshop finished but the work continues. If someone is interested in what we did, here is another post.

I walked to the university despite the rain. I met Chrystopher there to have a plan for next week and print the draft papers.

Lunch at the canteen of the university. Fish&Chips day on Friday. Quite nicely presented, taste average, nothing special.

Then after upgrading the big number crunching server machine I walked home. The day was getting brighter. I love the drama of the British sky.

Then inner at home, fish again. Seabass to be precise.

This was the first dinner at home since Monday. The workshop's budget allowed to eat out every evening. On Wednesday we went to St Albans. Here are the compulsory photos of the lake and the cathedral.

We had dinner at the Fighting Cocks. ...and the choice of the evening was Goat Cheese Salad.