Nothing that important

01/02/11 - Herp derp

2011-02-01T02:20:00.003Z

For one: I've just realised I haven't yet posted Japan 5.0 and 6.0 - COMING NEXT TIME I GO HOME, HONEST.

For two: Lots has happened! I have a house next year, I'll find some pictures and put them up soon. The whole of that new year and christmas thing happened, too.

It's been pretty cool - updates to follow when something interesting happens.

14/11/10 Delayed lake district

2010-11-14T15:28:00.017Z

Went to the lakes last weekend and had an absolutely fantastic time. Two days of hiking, perfect weather, good pub, nice people and mad games [oh, and good curry]

The two walks I went on were quite similar, the first day travelling around a horseshoe whereas on the second day we went down onto the lake after the first peak.

Then, all of a sudden, fog!

And, even more suddenly - Snow!

Descending the other side

The sunday, awesome autumn colours.

Snow capped peaks

Lots of walk later, down at the lakeside

Flooded

4/11/10 - Whitby Hiking

2010-11-04T11:32:00.016Z

Last Sunday was my second trip with the Hiking Society, this time to the east coast for cliff walking in Whitby.

STATS!

View Whitby Cliffs Walk in a larger map

Total Distance: 11.35 km (7.0 mi)
Total Time: 3:56:22
Moving Time: 3:31:00
Average Speed: 2.88 km/h (1.8 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 3.23 km/h (2.0 mi/h)
Max Speed: 9.90 km/h (6.2 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 54 m (176 ft)
Max Elevation: 145 m (477 ft)
Elevation Gain: 256 m (839 ft)
Max Grade: 12 %
Min Grade: -16 %
Recorded: Sun Oct 31 11:14:51 GMT+01:00 2010
Activity type: -

This was a really leisurely slow walk - but a lot of fun with some really good views, despite the fog.

A really good day, but bizarrely calm with almost no wind up on the cliffs.
This coming weekend sees my first full 3 day trip with the society up to the northern lake district. Should be fun.

30/10/10 - Tomorrow, content. Today - photodump (same as always, then)

2010-10-30T23:10:00.009+01:00

Sheffield is much prettier than Leeds at night.

And based only on the bits I saw while walking through the city lots of people are perhaps a little annoyed at Clegg

Lab is getting quite fun, if manic and stressful when they're on, but it does make me feel like I'm doing a science degree as opposed to maths with some extra words.

Also, Halloween archery means shooting pandas, zebras, elephants and moomins because... hell /why not/

27/10/10 - I'll give you my heart.

2010-10-27T12:25:00.002+01:00

So, I volunteered for an MRI scan last week. This is the result.

21/10/10 - Science

2010-10-21T09:06:00.006+01:00

Is pretty neat.

Nothing much here, just some snapshots from a quantum lecture playing with diffraction glasses.

The artefact in the middle of the image is light from the emergency exit getting split into a full spectrum, just like a prism, whereas the single colour lights to either side are the emission spectra from the Hydrogen (red) and Helium (blue) lights in the middle.

It's pretty cool

11/10/10 - Malham hiking trip

2010-10-11T22:00:00.045+01:00

Went on my first trip with the hiking society last weekend and, being the coolest kid in the universe had my phone on gps the whole time. STATS:

View Malham 10/10/10 in a larger map

Total Distance: 19.82 km (12.3 mi)
Total Time: 5:04:44
Moving Time: 4:29:03
Average Speed: 3.90 km/h (2.4 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 4.42 km/h (2.7 mi/h)
Max Speed: 14.40 km/h (8.9 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 236 m (774 ft)
Max Elevation: 565 m (1854 ft)
Elevation Gain: 628 m (2060 ft)
Max Grade: 22 %
Min Grade: -14 %
Recorded: Sun Oct 10 10:53:07 GMT+01:00 2010
Activity type: hiking

And now, picture spam.

Overall it was a brilliant first trip and we were really luck with the mixture of blue sky - no rain - shining sun - cool breeze... a perfect day for a hike, really.

Really warmed up for Snowdonia next month... and some more Sunday trips wherever they turn out to be!

30/09/10 - Leeds

2010-09-30T00:12:00.009+01:00

So, freshers has been and gone and I'm in the middle of a weird start-up week... some of my modules are onto lecture 2/3 and doing proper hard work while others are yet to start.
Week 1 is a strange twilight zone of half hard work and half introductory still.

But, all in all it's been pretty fun so far - I'm settled in and feel like I'm at home despite being at not-home-home.

Societies are beginning to kick off now - Archery/anime are starting their regular meets while Japan/Hiking are both holding their welcome parties at the same time in the same club tomorrow night... so it'll be interesting to float between the two groups!

Also.. I don't remember taking this picture - but I'm glad I did.

That's all for now, 10am lecture tomorrow v0v

Japan 5.0 - Doesn't exist

2010-09-28T07:48:00.001+01:00

Japan 5.0 and Japan 6.0 are delayed until the middle of December.

I've now moved to Leeds and have only 600KB versions of my Japan pictures and not the 5.5 MB beautiful originals.

So... sorry! to the ten or so people who read this blog frequently.

Leeds/uni based entries will follow shortly but first, Archery time.

Japan 4.0 - Osaka and around

2010-09-11T13:32:00.014+01:00

So.. 17 days gone, 3 to go...
I am about a week behind on the blogging, too.

I wrote this much of this update and then forgot about it. I am so good at being up to date.

So yes, I'm home in freezing cold England now and a bit miffed by it all.
But anyway - Osaka, that happened.

And, courtesy of たきさん

And this cool sculpture from later in the day, in Kobe.

[I am for some reason writing this post backwards]

The day before this we travelled around Nara and to the Fushimi Inari shrine

So yes, Nara has this enormous temple hall [Todaji] with a huge statue of the Buddha inside it - Scale is really hard to show but it is properly awesome.

And to Fushimi Inari which is beautiful

And Osaka's main downtown area - which is crazily busy but rather cool

07/08/10 - Japan 3.0 - Nagoya

2010-09-07T08:49:00.010+01:00

So,　Nagoya.　On the first day I went to Ise, a town on a peninsular to the west of Nagoya which has two very sacred shinto shrines - It was a good place to visit though felt very exclusive... perhaps you need to be Japanese to really /get/ Shintoism v0v

A little further along the peninsular, by the coast, is a small town famous for Meoto no iwa - two rocks just off the coast linked together with a rope and its accompanying shrine.
The two places together made for a really good trip out from Nagoya.

I then spent the following day in the city of Nagoya itself - after meeting and making friends with Yuichiro-san who I later bumped into in Miyajima, but more about that one later.

But yeah, I`ve decided Japanese castles are really cool. Although they all seem to be reconstructions as opposed to the original castles [except Himeji... which is currently undergoing restoration work! So the main keep is behind scaffolding ;-; another thing for a future trip...]

I`m behind on these updates because　computer use here in Hiroshima and Osaka [infact all of the chain guesthouses] isn`t free! So, I`ll do　them little by little whenever I have a spare 100yen

Here`s the obligatory shinkansen picture.. which I haven`t done yet!

Until next time...

1/09/10 Japan 2.5 - Shizuoka Gundam

2010-08-31T23:04:00.006+01:00

This

Gundam

Is

Awesome

That`s all I`ve got to say... about to miss a train! -runs-

31/08/10 Japan part 2 - Nikko

2010-08-31T11:27:00.020+01:00

So yeah, Nikko`s pretty neat.

Had two full days and one morning in the end - First day in the city where there is a huge temple elaborate temple complex

Down in the gorge of the main river is this walkway paved with statues in red.. lot`s of fun.

Second day, up in the mountains to the west [Oku-nikko]

It`s 1.2km up the mountains and so much, much cooler than everywhere else so far - which was a welcome break

Then... then I thought I`d be mad and follow this trail upwards

So far so good

An hour later

Then another

Then another... and finally

It was only later I saw the whole mountain from the floor - Thanks for 8 hours of fun, Nantaisan

And then at 8am this morning... Ryuzu falls!

So that`s Nikko...
Spent most of today travelling west to Nagoya, with a stopoff in Shizuoka for Gundam hilarity.... mini Gundam post to follow later tonight or tomorrow

o7

29/08/10 - Japan Part one... Sendai

2010-08-29T11:00:00.020+01:00

It's only been four days...? Really?
Landed on Thursday morning and then took the train up north to Sendai staying in a youth hostel in a stereotypically sleep suburb called Taishio.
The hostel itself was an old converted hall - proper Japanese furnishing and layout - and as such a really nice start

Friday was a daytrip to Hiraizumi.. it's a really fascinating place. The shrines there are old style shinto ones and totally unlike the Buddhist temples I've seen before [and today, in Nikko as it happens]
The style is quite plain but as such fits into the surroundings really well

Sadly though you're never too far away from the ugly, ugly shinkansen viaducts

Hiraizumi has a few awesome things to see - Chuusonji temple, a big complex of temple buildings up on a hill

And Motsuji, a huge lake and island based garden.

Then, Saturday - Matsushima - So-far kings of adorable Engrish.

Silliness aside it's another beatiful place - this time naturally - huge bay full of islands.

This one had statues carved into the side of it

Next, the main island - designated as some sort of a sancturary for hundreds of insect and plant species. It also has a cool 252m bridge to cross to get in :3

There were also lots of cool shrines in the town itself... but they were so cool that I wasn't allowed to take pictures of them

Except this one.

Biggest picture dump ever? And that's only half of them!

PS: It's really, really hot. Please send help.

24/08/10 - Pretending to be posh - Also, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

2010-08-25T00:58:00.004+01:00

We went to tea again in London... and it was brilliant.
I really love going to tea and pretending to be posh - but despite the fantastic food Claridge's hotel takes it too far...

Employing somebody in the toilet to hand you towels and turn on/off taps for you is just creepy

Gold on a cake. - Madness I tell you!

In other news: my phone just beeped to remind me I'm spending all my money and flying to the other side of the world alone tomorrow...
Much too late for second thoughts, I guess.

Also, results day happened and I got into Leeds University.. but I think that everyone who reads this knows that already :3

12/08/10 - Perseids

2010-08-12T03:29:00.003+01:00

Amazed I managed to take any pictures at all in the pitch black of the common... but there you go - Orangehaze of light pollution over London

Took an hour out this morning between 2-3am with Luke and managed to see 10 Perseids in 30 minutes once we got somewhere dark enough.
The 6th meteor was amazing. It lasted a good quarter of a second and was incredibly bright... flashing brighter than the planets at its peak. I don't suppose I'll ever see something like it again in my lifetime..
We were then to be later foiled by the oncoming blanket of cloud from the north-west.

Still made for a pretty picture :3

02/08/10 - NASA results

2010-08-03T04:16:00.002+01:00

1/08/10 NASA Trip: Sightseeing

2010-08-01T13:42:00.006+01:00

29/07/10 NASA trip - Journey

2010-07-30T04:57:00.005+01:00

Heathrow T5 in the morning, pretty impressive building - looks all future-y

Happiness and excitement which was not to last... sat in those seats for 10 hours ;_;

And the crazy minibus, will try and get better pictures today in daylight

Not much to say really, all very tired and minds mucked up by the time-zone difference; by the time we were finally here and trying to sleep our brains were telling us it was time to wake up ;_;

Off into the city for a bit today for some tourist-y things... should be pretty good

27/07/10 - NASA trip: A prelude

2010-07-27T19:14:00.003+01:00

All the fun starts tomorrow... sometime in the next week we'll either be crowned collective kings of the space nerds or run home crying..

I might write up blog posts during the competition but it depends on how much free time I can muster up.

I'll be posting small quips to http://twitter.com/Vanagib though if anyone is interested in following it as the drama unfurls

In the mean time...

American money is weird it's all out of proportion and long! What's all that about?

Also...

Coloured berries = black cartridge
Black berries = coloured cartridge

Thanks, Tesco. Every little helps.

26/07/10 - National theatre - "The Habit of Art"

2010-07-27T02:05:00.009+01:00

Went to the national theatre on Sunday to see "The Habit of Art" which, as is usual for the national, was absolutely fantastic.
Alan Bennett's latest is a play within a play, following a company of actors as they perform a first run through of "Caliban’s Day" in the presence of the writer which unfurls to reveal a lot about the work behind a production in a brilliantly funny way. Richard Griffiths playing Fitz, the old-timer, is a particularly fun character intermittently stopping the action to argue with the writer or other actors about a particular line or plot device which in itself is a handy device to explain some of the gags/plot to people like me... who don't know much about the protagonists Auden and Benjamin Britten.

The layered approach is something I've seen before but really love and this play builds on it further with two different genres present. Gripping on the inside and brilliantly funny on the out

And, at £5 [or free] for entry pass tickets it's a steal.

There was a 'second hand book stall' running outside underneath Waterloo bridge but on further inspection they were mostly second hand first editions running at £8-20 each... ouch

Next, two different flavours of street art..

BUT WHICH IS MORE FANTASTIC AND EXPRESSIVE?!?! [PROTIP: It's the second one]

And, something set up for the Brazil festival (?) made from xthousand bricks... I think it looked pretty awesome

That's all for now.

Onion volcano

2010-07-21T23:22:00.003+01:00

Click here for HD vid'

21-07-10 Comedy Store in London

2010-07-21T22:28:00.008+01:00

Is a very cool place.

Wednesday and Sunday are improvisation nights which are great fun for both the impressiveness and audience participation.
The 2 hour night was split into 6 basic game scenarios and then all of the content is provided by the audience.
But with mild power comes embarrassing responsibility as one woman discovered after being berated for twenty minutes after shouting out that "CHERRIES GROW IN THE GROUND."

It's a small but tightly packed venue and gives a fantastic atmosphere... the only downside is the £17 ticket, plus £5 travel into London means it isn't something I can do too often. But definitely a recommendation to others and something to do again myself :)

In other news:
First Gundam Zeta film was hilarious, 鉄板焼き place was delicious, Inception was brilliant [best film of the year material], Toy Story 3 was a surprisingly dark film... and the wonderful patisserie was wonderful.

I leave you today with the most 19th Century [but frankly awesome] person in London.

16/07/10 - The illegitimacy of an austerity economy

2010-07-16T10:15:00.002+01:00

More and greater cuts in the British economy are being announced day by day under the new conservative-libdeb coalition government.

Yesterday brought the announcement of plans to completely restructure University funding.
The idea is to introduce a graduate tax system, such that, those who go through University will not have any fees - but instead - pay an increased rate of income tax as 'graduate tax' thereafter.

On the face of it this seems like a sound and surprisingly progressive idea. Away with £3000 per year per person, pay based on your ability to pay, those who benefit more pay more.
However, it also means that the amount your education can cost if unlimited... and people around the average yearly salary could see the cost of University double.

However, although the graduate tax plans were the headline grabber, it isn't the /real/ story here.
Elsewhere in the plans to change the way University is run is worrying talk of condensing.
The plan is to condense a University degree into just two years.
This, say lecturers' unions, is possible. But, would severely damage the quality of education and research that our institutions can achieve.

Particularly Science based degrees will become teaching heavy and many individual/extended parts of the course removed. Lecturers will spend a greater proportion of their time teaching to doing individual research and the quality of all activities will fall.

And don't forget you'll be paying double for this new 'quality'

However, it is at least marginally better than the 'alternative' of removing all fee caps and allowing Universities to become even more business driven and an education market set up.
This could see annual fees for red brick Universities shoot up to £14,000 a year... something I doubt I cold ever repay for my four year course.
Other, smaller, Universities would drop their fees. Enticing in poor families for a poor education, while the rich pay over the odds for theirs.

Overall, I worry about where this country will be in a few years down the line.
It may make sense in times of budget deficit to save and increase taxes, but selling off nationally owned services, cutting investment in the future and increasing the basic cost of living will not help in the long term.
Cutting corporation tax will not encourage more employment. The large, multi-national employers will simply say - wonderful, we've cut costs in Britain so now we can make more money in the USA!
Small employers cannot make a large enough difference by themselves.

What is needed is an educated, willing workforce for the future... and slashing away at our fantastic University infrastructure is not the way to help

08/07/10 - Pardon the dust

2010-07-08T01:17:00.007+01:00

I'm sorry that I've not updated for a while now ;_;

So... UPDATES!
It's been a busy while for the past week with birthdays and parties all over the place... so a lot of fun, too.

Had a meal out with friends, then out to tea in London with the family for my own party :3

Tea at Brown's hotel is really, really great :D

If just a little overindulgent... :3

If I could sum up my opinion of life at the moment in a picture....?

This:

30/06/10 - 誕生日

2010-07-01T00:17:00.006+01:00

今日は１８才になりました。
とても楽しい日でした　＾＾
お母さんとお兄さんとTapasを食べました。
とてもおいしいかった。 :D

お母さんに新しい時計をもらいました。

すごくきれいな時計です　:D

あと、お兄さんに日本語本とポケモンカードをもらいました！

家族と友達にカードをもらいました　(^^)

みんなさん、本当にありがとうございました！
すごくすごくうれしかった！
幸せー

30/06/10

2010-06-30T00:58:00.001+01:00

I became old today...
This is weird.

29/06/10 - Transformice

2010-06-29T10:25:00.002+01:00

Everyone in the universe should play this.

Transformice is a wonderful browser based multi-player game.

You are a mouse, you like cheese. Go get the cheese and bring it back to your hole with the aid of a magic shaman mouse....

Just do it :3

27/06/10 World cup and nationalism

2010-06-27T22:56:00.005+01:00

As a sport, football is by no means my favourite... but I still like it.
I'm not infatuated enough to take the dangerous plunge of picking a side and following the on and off pitch drama week in week out for the rest of my life. But when the World or European championships come along I'll certainly have a watch.

During the world cup anybody and everybody instantly becomes a life long football lover and St. George's flags crop up all over the place but what really rattles my cage is just how quickly the sport becomes second to the worrying xenophobia and nationalism.

Shortly after our well deserved loss against Germany today, and during other games, I heard people saying things like
"Well, we're better than the Germans where it counts. Remember world war II!" and

"We should have stopped them entering the competition as a part of reparations!"

"Slovenia is full of communist faggots"

Well, thankfully it's all over for England now... so the hysterical xenophobes can go back to where they bloody came from.
[and stop stealing our jobs while they're at it]

26/06/10 - お父さんとロンドンに行きました　＾＾

2010-06-26T21:28:00.009+01:00

The Okinawa day event at Spitalfields was good, but not great.
Things seemed a little off-the-cuff and in the midday sun it wasn't easy to sit still to watch/listen to the performances.
I imagine it would've been much better toward the early evening when more food stalls were due to open to bring a busier atmosphere to the place.

Next, out for lunch for my birthday!
Managed to find what seems to be the only place in the country selling okonomiyaki.. and it was great :3
次、昼ごはんを持っていました。お好み焼きを食べました　＾＾とてもおいしいです！

I need a haircut ><;
必要なカットですね　><;

Afterwards we had a wander around the national gallery and Leicester/Piccadilly and the Häagen-Dazs café... which is wonderful.

24/06/10 - いちご

2010-06-24T22:17:00.001+01:00

もうすぐいちごをできます　＾＾
The strawberries will soon be ready　:D

I wish I had my good camera at the moment :(

21/06/10 - Century Rain

2010-06-21T08:49:00.004+01:00

This is a book which has held my interest and been enjoyable despite its flaws rather than because of its overwhelming strengths.

You'd be forgiven for thinking there'd been a printing error when you pick up this book, with reviews singing praises of 'mastersinger of the space opera', to find that it is initially set in 1950s Paris and reads like a surprisingly good crime investigation novel. Reynolds sets the characters' environment swiftly

'One thing I've never got straight,' Custine said. 'Are we musicians supplementing our income wiht a little detective work on the side, or is it the other way round?'
Floyd glanced into the rear-view mirror. 'Which way round would you like it to be?
'I think I'd like it best if I had the kind of income that didn't need supplementing.'
'We were doing all right until recently'.
'Until recently we were a trio. Before that, a quartet. Perhaps it's just me, but I'm beginning to detect a trend.'

Then, Floyd's Paris is demonstrated to be an increasingly dangerous place, with fascism on the rise and the beginnings of a police state as Floyd and Custine are pulled aside, searched and their instruments destroyed.

The second chapter begins in an altogether different Paris, set in the 2300s through the eyes of Verity Auger, an earth archaeologist. Auger's Paris is packed under many meters of ice and thick with 'furies', evolving man-eating nanobots from a series of failed attempts to fix the ever worsening climate on Earth in the 2050s. Nice.
Verity's world, which is revealed to be our 300 year future, is split into two distinct factions. Threshers, who survived the nanocaust and watched the earth be devoured from near earth orbit and vowed never to use high technology again and the Slashers, who proclaim that only higher technology will be able to save humanity. The Threshers control access to the Earth and the Slashers to the rest of the Galaxy. So far, so standard. The story then evolves into an interesting twin narrative from Verity and Floyd's viewpoints.

Things go sour for Verity when one of her students dies during a dig in Paris and she seems sure to be imprisoned for death by gross negligence when the story begins proper. She is told the case will be settled if she undergoes a secret mission for Tanglewood, the settlement of the Threshers.

The twin narrative joins together surprisingly quickly and a series of surprising and chilling plots unravel on E2, Floyd's world. Reynolds makes a good job of increasing the tension in the story as the final, horrible goal is revealed.

However, the final third of the story becomes a quite boring chase scene and many major plot points never receive proper explanation. I was left wondering 'why?' too often at the end of the book. Century Rain also has elements of love story to it, though a very disappointing one. The characters are not developed enough for love and again, the point just appears without explanation or need.
The book, though, does end nicely as opposed to many other Sci-Fi books which feel like driving a train full pelt into a wall at the end of the book. I think the greatest culprit for this is the Foundation series where after a thousand years of story telling and 7 full novels the narrative moves from finale to conclusion to end in a mere two sentences.
Unfortunately the finale seems somewhat misplaced, the tension so expertly built up is released 3/4 of the way into the book and the final chase seems somewhat a laboured point further to the story as a whole.

But, despite of all this the book as a whole is a good page turner and genuinely and thoroughly enjoyable.

もうすぐ...

2010-06-16T22:54:00.003+01:00

１０週間後に日本に行きます！
お金「￥」と三鷹の森ジブリ美術館のチケットを着か

次、ＪＲーＰａｓｓを買います

何となく怖いです。Now that everything is beginning to come together... I wonder if I can be alone in a foreign country for three weeks ><;;;
気持ちはたぶんに普通です・・・ね？

14/06/10 試験 2

2010-06-14T21:47:00.001+01:00

明日は試験が明日は試験がつづくです。
力学試験と日本語試験があります ><;

がんばります！

11/06/10 - The hustings

2010-06-12T15:21:00.011+01:00

The event as a whole was somewhat dull, all questions to the panel were vetted and so I mostly enjoyed the time afterward where individual more specialized questions could be asked.
Thankfully, despite being a youth event, there were no attempts to dumb down proceedings with perhaps the most partonizing person by a longshot being the GMTV chair of the panel.
But overall, the hustings themselves were a great experience to attend. And I've certainly had my initial ideas about my favourite future leader turned upside down.

So, from left to right:

Diane Abbott: I'm not sure what it is with Abbott... but I just don't like her. I found her impersonal and very London/'my constituency' The party desperately needs a unifier, perhaps she'll change her tone at a hustings not held in London? It remains to be see but I'm sceptical at the moment.

Ed Milliband: A more high profile candidate and on paper my favourite before the evening. However, nothing did it was above and beyond being just a 'good politician' for me. He stayed around for questions for a good time after the event so I took the opportunity to ask him about Science research, however, he didn't seem to get that Science is a vote winner for progressive people in [and out of] academia [Scivote] and the huge part that Science plays in our economy.
Sadly he was rushed on out of the building by his manager before I got a satisfactory answer from him.

David Milliband: Definitely the most 'blairite' of the candidates and while impersonal seemed to be the most confident of the panel. As such I think he would make the strongest prime minister of the candidates, but I'm not convinced if he is the labour leader that would represent my views most closely; He was the only member of the panel to not stick his neck out for abolishing university fees altogether in favour of a graduate taxing system thus opening up University for all for good. I wonder if he'd be able to describe himself as a democratic socialist without hesitation?

Ed Balls: Balls is one of my favourites, he's clearly an intelligent man with strong labour beliefs close to heart but I wasn't struck with a sense of 'this man can turn the party around.' I wasn't inspired, merely quietly pleased with his performance last night.

Andy Burnham: Burnham came as a bit of a surprise to me as I'd barely heard of him before the event. However I was very pleasantly surprised. He was the only one of the candidates to come into the holding area before the panel began, and, he was there for questions at the end for the longest; devoting an extra hour in total to answering individual, direct and unscripted questions. He was the only member to really understand the failings of the previous election which is good: We must come to terms with the mistakes that were made so that in 5 years time a new Labour goverment can begin.
However, despite his confidence in speaking to small groups his body language during the main event was slightly worrying. It would be interesting to go to a second hustings in a month or so time to see if he is more into his stride.
With individual questions he seemed to 'get' my worries about Science and the state more than the other candidates saying that he understood the importance of science and during his time working with the treasury was tempted, but never cut the science budget.

As such, if the vote were to be held tomorrow I would through my lot in with Andy Burnham.

However, I worry that there is no 'messiah' in the current leadership race. No one candidate who could turn around the fate of the Labour party and at this rate we may well have to sit through some years in opposition.

11/06/10 - London & Labour hustings

2010-06-12T14:33:00.020+01:00

昨日はロンドンに行きました。
Thamesの東から西まで歩いていました。

これはTower BridgeとHMS Belfastです

あと、Shakespeare's Globeに行きました。I was hoping to see Macbeth in the yard [Standing] but it was sold out :(

So, instead I went down the river to the Tate modern

And whiled away an hour inside. Most galleries and museums are free entry in the UK.

Outside I count 10 cranes..! Lots of construction going on at the moment.

This area has been given over as an 'official graffiti' location... it's not very good though ><;

次、アカシロで昼食を食べました。安いと美味しいです。：）
あと、Stratfordに行きました。Labour Hustingsですから。

09/06/10　今朝

2010-06-10T00:39:00.001+01:00

08/06/10 試験

2010-06-08T22:20:00.005+01:00

明日は試験を恥じます。
怖いです。　>_<; The night before an exam I write down each topic onto a note to make sure I am certain I know everything.. and revise anything that I don't last minute!

明日は数学試験です。だからたぶんに大丈夫です。
来週は力学試験と日本語試験と生物学試験です　;_;
がんばりますね　ＸＤ

06/06/10 London

2010-06-06T10:01:00.015+01:00

Went up to London last Friday for a meeting with the rest of the team going to Houston in July
金曜日にロンドンに行きました。Space Settlement Design Competitionのチームを会いましたから

Even at 11am it is nigh on impossible to get a seat on the tube... and it's really hot, noisy and stuffy >_<; １１時までチューブの椅子がありません・・あとすごく厚いや賑やかです。

Despite forgetting to change train at Croydon [And having to take the long way round to Victoria station] we made it to Imperial College on time and had 3 hours of meeting/instruction about the final competition in July... It's getting quite exciting.

After that we still had plenty of time in the day so went for a walk around London, from Covent garden to Piccadilly,

Japan-Centre has started selling Taiyaki!
It's the first time I have had it... it's great :3
Japan-Centreでたい焼きがあります！
初めての食べます。。。おいしいです！

Up Regent/Oxford street...

And finally into Hyde Park which was holding a water fight which got out of hand and made the news...

There are 258 Elephants dotted around London at the moment as part of a conservation awareness programme
今、ロンドンで２５８のぞう像があります。

But I have only found two so far, I'll look for more when I go back to London next week.
でも、まだ二つを見ました。来週にもっとを見ますかな。

The Serpentine.

02/06/2010 - Inwood

2010-06-02T18:55:00.018+01:00

Today, the cold and rain stopped and we may finally be in for some prolonged nice weather.
今日は寒い天気と雨が終わりです。もしかして、厚い晴れの天気がありますか？
During the past week Cow Parsley has grown furiously. This is one entrance to Inwood and it is totally overgrown with the stuff!
先週にCow Parsleyを成長した。この写真はInwoodの入り口、とても草ぼうぼうです！
Although, It looks rather nice en masse.
でも、きれいです。　

Moving further inside the woodland brings with it a sense for the age of the place
This one tree was blown over in the hurricane of 1987 and has lain ever since

森林の中に、古を見ました。
この木を１９８７年のハリケーンにひっくりかえす。あのにある。

This tree has been coppiced so that each the new individual trunks can be harvested without killing the tree.

Finally up onto the top of the ridge to try out the panorama mode on my new camera.
It takes a nice picture.
新しいカメラはパノラマモードがあります。
いい写真ですね　:)

31/05/10 - The Downs

2010-05-31T21:09:00.028+01:00

Went out onto the downs today.

今日はDownsに行きました。

The downs near where I live are mostly chalk grasslands although there is woodland, too. It's made up of a series of valleys and chalk ridges.

家の近くでDownsはチョーク草地。でも、森林もあります。

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
写真はクリックをします。

It looks very plain at first sight [Not helped by the overcast weather!] but there are all sorts of things growing in the grassland.

初めは簡素な見かけです[あと、曇ったの日です]。でも、たくさんの植物がいます。

Underneath some of the trees at the bottom of the valley we found something very exciting.

谷の下部に木の下に面白いの植物はいます。

In for a closer look!

These are wild strawberry plants... some of them are beginning to grow fruit. I hope nobody else has found them yet! We may be in for a treat in a few weeks time.

これは野イチゴ植物です！数週間でイチゴをなります！

31/05/10 - New Camera

2010-05-31T18:33:00.002+01:00

I got a new camera yesterday... and it is the greatest thing I've ever owned!

It's a Sony Cybershot DSC-W350.

Good bits:

It's tiny at only 8.9x5.1x1.6 cm
Less than 2 seconds from off to taking a picture.
Automatic mode selection which actually works.
14.1 MP churning out v. nice resolution pics. (Though at a hefty 5MB each)
HD Videos are cool.
Panorama mode that has been advertised a lot is actually really sweet.
Playing around with it today has been a lot of fun. I particularly like macro mode for awesome close-ups.

Downsides:
It's more expensive than other cybershot cameras at about £150
No viewfinder which is a bugger in bright sunlight, but I've found that it doesn't matter too much due to the good automatic mode selection; It still gives a good picture even when you don't have total control.

Yet to try it at night time/bad light but that'll be the next test!

But, it's one hell of an upgrade from the camera on my phone :)