Day 6: Would You Offer Your Throat To The Wolf With The Red Roses?

Just got back to the Flat With No Name a little while ago, after a very pleasant evening out. My Friday night started in Newbury, where I was treated to a tasty dinner by the Astronomy Society there. I then proceeded to "sing for my supper" by presenting the lecture on Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays that I had written in April for my talk at the Oxford University Astronomy Weekend. The lecture itself went quite smoothly and was rather well received.

Afterward, I returned to Oxford and joined cheshcat, who was attending at party at the lovely wolfpeach's house. I hung out for a couple of hours and played a couple of games of Werewolf whilst there.[*] A good time was had by all!

Hmmmm... Cosmic rays and werewolves? My Friday evening sounds a lot like a comic book!

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[*] Why does it not surprise me that wolfpeach likes playing Werewolf so much?

Day 6a: Don't Rock The Boat, Don't Tip The Boat Over

Writing this entry on the Oxford Tube, as is my norm. However, I am not in London for work, as it is Saturday![*] Instead of passing the day at Imperial College, I spent it on the Walden III, cruising along the Regent's Canal.

At about eleven o'clock -- twelve weeks almost to the minute since I first set foot on the Walden III -- I met TH at the central London boatyard where he moors his narrowboat. After a short tour of the yachting club, we set off along the Regent's Canal, making our way from the King's Cross rail station to the Paddington Basin. En route, we cruised through the Camden Lock Village, the London Zoo[**], and Little Venice. All quite lovely! It didn't hurt one bit that the weather today chose to be utterly magnificent -- the best that we have had in quite some time![***]

When we reached Paddington, we moored the boat and enjoyed a picnic boat before making the return journey. Overall, we were out for about six hours, which makes for a very nice Saturday afternoon!

I must say that cruising through the London canals was very different from our Oxford-to-Reading weekend cruise back in June! Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed both -- but the experiences diverged in a number of ways. For one thing, the Regent's Canal is generally considerably narrower than the Thames. For another, the urban backdrop sets a markedly different tone than our idyllic mostly-rural Summer cruise. Of course, there are also technical differences, e.g., the locks on a canal work very differently than they do on the river. And, being in London on a warm sunny Saturday afternoon, there were throngs upon multitudes of people mulling about. I don't even know how many times my picture was taken this afternoon!

Again, both cruises were much fun. To illustrate the differences with more than words, though, take a look at these pictures from today... then compare them with the ones that I took back in June:

In the lock approaching Camden Lock Village


We passed a Pirate Castle -- no joke!


I am really enjoying these narrowboat outings! The next month or two are going to be quite full for both TH and for me... but we are starting to discuss doing a Winter evening cruise (with D&J) about London sometime after that. Very much looking forward to it! Meanwhile, in the much nearer future, I have a date with my darling bunnypip to look forward to tonight!

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[*] To be fair, it is not at all uncommon for a physicist to work on the weekend.

[**] Which I remembered from our trip there on my thirty-second birthday.

[***] I seem to be very lucky in this regard; in June, my weekend Thames cruise on the Walden III was also smiled upon by the Weather Gods.