April 28, 2006
Filed under: David's Posts — David @ 10:53 am Comments 11
Last night I decided to stay up late and finish reading Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. This is one of the best written book I have read in a very very long time. It is a wonderful story of relationships, life, faith, and grace. I don’t know if I can do it justice and explain just how good it really is, but put it this way, it won a Pulitzer in 2005. I normally do not like books which have won big awards. In fact, I don’t think I have read a Booker Prize winner which I have actually liked. This one was fantastic.
JP, if you are looking for something to read (i know your reading list is way to long), put this near the top of you reading list of fictional books. If you are going to trust me with one book recommendation, read this one.
Other books I recommend (not that they are favorites, just fantastic books):
- Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
- Les Misérables (Victor Hugo)
- Bysantium (Stephen Lawhead)
- Microserfs (douglas Coupland)
- A fine balance (Minstry)
Anyone have a copy of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson i could borrow?
April 24, 2006
Filed under: David's Posts — David @ 9:12 pm Comments 27
I am motivated by a post some friends of mine here did about people who lurk on blogs. These are the people (known and unknown) who read a blog (regularly or not regularly) but don’t comment. We are sad because we know that many of our friends and family back in Canada read this blog yet never (or hardly ever) comment. You know who you are!!!
I must admit, I sometimes lurk. But if it is someone I know well, or if they put up a really good post, I’ll usually comment on something. Even if it is just to stir up some trouble (sorry Jonathan).
Neyir and I want to hear from everyone who reads this. Whether you are in Scotland, Canada, or another part of the World; If you are known to us or unknown to us; If you see us often or hardly ever; If you know the proper use of the semi-colon or not; Please post a comment on this post and say Hi. Let us know who you are, and if you have been enjoying our blog.
K, must go rest my tummy. I just ate a huge plate of spaghetti (with meat sauce) and am busily digesting. If you are from Vancouver and have tasted this wonderful spaghetti sauce of mine, please comment and let people know how good it is.
April 17, 2006
Filed under: David's Posts — David @ 9:17 pm Comments 5
I could not resist sharing these photos with you.
I’m going to have a whole series of photos of Neyir beside crazy signs
This one was taken yesterday as we walked around Hollyrood Park.
This one was taken near Roslyn Chapel.
April 14, 2006
Filed under: David's Posts — David @ 11:33 am Comments 6
Here, I am sitting on the chesterfield, listening to Neyir busily working away in the kitchen. I think to myself, I should be up and about the flat as well. I look down at the coffee table and notice that my tea is still scalding hot. I think to myself, I know the super power that would be way too cool to have.
I would like to have the super power to change the Heat Capacity of Water.
Think of the benifits. No more getting a cup of tea (or coffee for you freaks out there) and having to wait for long agonizing minutes for it to cool down. You just change waters heat capacity and voila, it cools instantly and you could drink it normally.
Or, for those early winter weekends at the cottage and the lake isn’t yet frozen over, you again, change waters heat capacity and it cool down faster and freezes so you can play pond hockey or ride you snowmobile across the water.
You could even make the air cooler on those hot days (not in edinburgh though) cause of all the moisture in the hair. Good for those scorching summer days in Toronto or Montreal.
You can even cause your enemies to be uncomfortable in your presence. After all, is the human body 98% water (or something like that).
I wonder if this is How Frozone in the Incredibles is able to make Ice at will? He seems not only able to change the heat capcity of water, but also control where it goes. I would just be happy to do the former.
Ok, my tea should be cool enough to drink now so I can go help Neyir out.
April 6, 2006
Filed under: David's Posts — David @ 2:42 pm Comments 4
It turns out that I have secured enough funding to attend the CamBody summer school this summer.
This is a two week long intensive summer shool program on N-body computational astrophysics. Cambrige will fund half of the total colst of me attending. This, along with some funds I have secured from the School of Mathematics, will almost fund my entire trip (I estimate having to shell out about 100GBP for misc. things).
You may ask: Why would I be interrested in attending a N-body computational astrophysics program? I will answer you in 4 fold
- I am a big geek who digs that kind of stuff.
- My advisor’s adivisor is going to be teaching, along with a few other researchers whose research I have been studying.
- I dig programing N-body astrophysical problems.
- did I already mention I am a big geek?
Woo Hoo, I’m excitied. Mainly, I am excited cause i don’t have to go into a chunk of debt for this. Plus, I’ll get to go to Cambridge again. I have been before, but way back in 1997, and not for academic purposes. I went cause my brother put me on a bus to Cambridge for a day to get me out of his hair. I look forward to going back in the summer time and flaunting my Canadian stuff.
April 5, 2006
Filed under: Neyir's Posts — Neyir @ 9:56 am Comments 4
There is really no other way to characterise the wonderful weekend we had in Ireland.
Saturday morning David, Melissa, Alan, JP, Lisa and I were up first thing to hop in our taxi at 5.45 to head off to Edinburgh international for our flight into Antrim. Back on the ground we were picked up by our fantastic and increadibly generous hosts Maria and Morgan who had left there house at 7.45am - on a Saturday morning- imagine. It was quickly decided that we would have a girl car and a boy car, aided by the size of Morgan’s Volvo which happily accomodated the guys.
We headed off to in our ‘Canadian Convoy’(Melissa speak) to Ballycastle on the coast where M & M (Maria and Morgan) supplied a picnic lunch of freshly roasted chicken, infused with garlic and rosemary by Morgan, mini baguettes, russian and polish pickles, cheese and carrots mmmm. The weather was spectacular and I was tempted to stay and set up shop for the tourists.
Back into our repespective vehicles and off we went to the Giant’s Causeway - how amazing is that place!!!! Thousands of sandstone colums all lined up together that stretch from Ireland to Scotland and can be seen on the north east coast of Ireland. Here we took what I dubbed out ‘U2′ album cover shot, alas sans David as he was doing the shooting. Then back into the cars to a crumbling castle for another stretch and photo op. Still in Northern Ireland we took a detour into the sea-side village of Portrush to a yummy cafe for lunch/dinner as we had all been up so long. I had a fantastic rhubarb sour cream type pie - yummmmmm. The boys then did a little tour in Derry to the murals and the girls headed to the house in Letterkenny where naps were had to strengthen us for our trip to the 24 HOUR TESCO (civilisation returns!!!!) where we purchased a nutrition dinner of fried appetisers, salad and ice-cream(Rollo and After Eight). Then surprise surpise it was off to the pub. As David had been quite ill last weekend we have yet to experience smoke-free pubs in Edinburgh but if Letterkenny is any indication I am overjoyed!
Sunday we had a ‘wee lie-in’ and a fry-up breakfast made mainly by Morgan then it was off to the spa for the girls! All I can say is that I did not want to leave. The spa (Marble Hill, Shandon Hotel, near Port-na-blagh) was located at the ocean but a bit further back and on an incline and situated on the 1st (North American 2nd) floor so the views were spectacular. Included in our spa experience were 2 sets of scented showers where each scent had a different temperature and spray quality (mist, rain-like etc), a plunge pool with back jets and shoulder massage spray (amazing), ice fountain, lemon-grass and vanilla scented sauna, eucalyptus scented salt grotto steam room, foot baths with heated seats, outdoor Canadian hot tub (overlooking the ocean of course) and finally erganomically designed heated loungers.
From there we grabbed a quick lunch and then drove south west down to Smugglers Creek on the West coast (site of the picture of David and I where I have the ‘wind-swept’ look) where we met the boys at this fantastic pub set on a cliff high above the ocean. The girls mostly had cake and coffee and the boys stuck with beer (I think i was a bad dessert fairy all weekend!) Then back to M&M’s where the girls cleaned out Maria’s wardrobe a la Trinny and Susannah (Melissa is an expert) and JP prepared a spectacular dinner. Oh did I mention that JP just happens to be a Chef? Used to work at Hotel Vancouver! We had herbed goat’s cheese and crab meat stuffed mushroom caps, pan-fried salmon on zuchini and potato rosti with steamed green beans finished with a mouth watering tarragon beurre blanc sauce -mmmmmm. Then off to the pub again where Morgan, who is a professional musician played guitar, along with his friend Sean, an unlievable squeeze box player, regaled us with music and we all had a little sing-a-long. Lisa, a trained singer, did a fantastic rendition of Summer Time.
Monday morning of course necessitated more food so en mass we prepared bacon, black pudding, fruit salad, fried mushrooms, pancakes, raspberrry sauce, caramel and bannana sauce and raspberry organic yogurt. By the time we were done with that it was nearly lunch time. The boys went off to see Morgan’s studio (he is also a phenomenal painter!!) and the girls did a little shopping and then there was just time for a quick dinner before the drive to the airport. Maria came back to Edinburgh to spend a few days with Melissa and Morgan was left with a somewhat messier house but at least some peace and quiet.
Maria and Morgan were spectacular hosts driving us all over Ireland, housing us (Morgan even slept at a friend’s) and just being darn entertaining. JP taught me a few tricks in the kitchen and can prepare a caramel sauce with fresh bannans in the time it takes me to put on mascara! I have not mentioned the relaxing time spent in M&M’s lounge around the peat stoked fire or the guy’s Sunday trip to a crumbling castle which along with a little slate may suggest a new artist direction for Morgan 
or how thankful I am to have spent so much time at the ocean. It was such a great week-end and we are indebted to the ultra generous Irish-Canadian couple who, incidentally, just bought a new house with 4 bedrooms! Believe it or not they told us to come back - I sense more good food and the good company is a given!!
April 4, 2006
Filed under: David's Posts, Uncategorized — David @ 11:27 am Comments 4
Over the weekend, Neyir and I traveled to Ireland with two couple friends (Melissa/Allan and JP/Lisa) and spend 3 days in Donegal. We stayed with some friends of Melissa and Allan who were wonderful hosts and really took care of us. I’ll let Neyir post more details but for now enjoy a few pictures.
Click on the image to view a larger version
