November 2021
Sunday, 12 December 2021 17:18![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iguana
In November I had skating lessons, visited a surprise art exhibition, and got to meet up with my friends in Zürich.Skating lessons
I started a six week course of roller skating lessons at the beginning of the month, and I'm so glad I signed up for them!
By the end of the month I had just about got the hang of forward crossovers (at least, in one direction) and I've been enjoying myself enough that I bought my own quads half way through the month.
They're a bit stickier on the skate rink than the house skates, but they are suitable for outdoors use too; I'm now just looking for an opportunity to give that a go!
I started a six week course of roller skating lessons at the beginning of the month, and I'm so glad I signed up for them!
By the end of the month I had just about got the hang of forward crossovers (at least, in one direction) and I've been enjoying myself enough that I bought my own quads half way through the month.
They're a bit stickier on the skate rink than the house skates, but they are suitable for outdoors use too; I'm now just looking for an opportunity to give that a go!
The Marble Arch Mound
I had a work thing in London and Samathy, who I was also there, persuaded me to go to the notorious Marble Arch Mound after we arrived at our hotel. It turned out it was still free, so we went on in.
It was pretty uninspiring from the top in the dark, without even being able to see Hyde Park, but I hadn't realised quite how cobbled together it would be! The exterior was for ascending only, while the exit was down through the metal inner structure via a stairway in the middle of the roof.
However!
Something I haven't seen advertised at all is that at ground level inside the structure is a really nice art installation by Anthony James, a set of mostly geometric shapes with mirrored surfaces inside, lit up along the joins with LEDs.
They are extremely captivating. I spent quite a long time there, and I'd go back again if I were in London, they'd be worth an entrance fee to be honest.
The one in this post's thumbnail was my favourite one, the shape reminded me of the Crystal of Truth from The Dark Crystal. Thank you to Samathy for taking the photos with me in!
It reminded me how much I like art installations that use light as a medium. I'm really missing the two luminaria from the pre-pandemic spring and summer, and the last installation I went to before March 2020, Olafur Eliasson was light-based too. I wonder if there's a site I can follow that lists all of this sort of thing in the UK?
I had a work thing in London and Samathy, who I was also there, persuaded me to go to the notorious Marble Arch Mound after we arrived at our hotel. It turned out it was still free, so we went on in.
It was pretty uninspiring from the top in the dark, without even being able to see Hyde Park, but I hadn't realised quite how cobbled together it would be! The exterior was for ascending only, while the exit was down through the metal inner structure via a stairway in the middle of the roof.
However!
Something I haven't seen advertised at all is that at ground level inside the structure is a really nice art installation by Anthony James, a set of mostly geometric shapes with mirrored surfaces inside, lit up along the joins with LEDs.
They are extremely captivating. I spent quite a long time there, and I'd go back again if I were in London, they'd be worth an entrance fee to be honest.
The one in this post's thumbnail was my favourite one, the shape reminded me of the Crystal of Truth from The Dark Crystal. Thank you to Samathy for taking the photos with me in!
It reminded me how much I like art installations that use light as a medium. I'm really missing the two luminaria from the pre-pandemic spring and summer, and the last installation I went to before March 2020, Olafur Eliasson was light-based too. I wonder if there's a site I can follow that lists all of this sort of thing in the UK?
Zürich
Finally I get to use the 'travel' tag on an entry! Was the last one really nearly two years ago? Sigh.
With my second vaccine in full effect and what looked to be maybe the final waning of cases (Omicron not yet identified), I took a flight to Zürich and got to stay with Rae, Thereza and David for a long weekend! It was so good to see them; last time I visited Rae and David hadn't got together with Thereza, and seeing the triad was not only adorable but also really revelatory for me in terms of seeing how they communicated between them.
I got to hear some Rae Lore, Thereza let me try on practically her whole wardrobe, and David showed me how Twine works and some of his own interactive fiction (particularly relevant since I also played through some of IFComp as a judge this year).
Rae and I had a lovely walk up the mountain to the north and it was a blissfully sunny day, with views all the way to the Alps. At the top was a small café booth, so we also had some delicious glühwein (mulled wine) with the view.
In the way down we only got slightly lost (Google Maps thought a river was a footpath) and the autumn woodland was exceptionally pretty.
Rae, David, and I wandered around Zürich to see the highlights. It's a beautiful city, and we had some more glühwein, this one surprisingly strong!
Rae, David, Thereza, and I all went to Zürich Zoo as well, which was nice. We got to see penguins being fed, definitely a treat.
For that matter, we also got to see giraffes and elephants being fed (indirectly, via food searching enrichment). I have not seen giraffes outside of a zoo, but the elephants reminded me very much of Laos.
The Zoo also had a huge biodome, with various lizards, giant tortoises, birds, and even bats (I think) flying around the 27°C enclosure. It was warm and humid and extremely luxurious. I would have loved to have taken a nap there for a few hours!
Not to mention the flora! All sorts of giant-leaved plants, ferns, and some exotic fruit trees.
I had decided to return home entirely by train, so on the Monday I caught the TGV from Zürich HB to Paris Gare du Lyon, crossed Paris on the metro, and then got the Eurostar from Paris Nord to London St Pancras, and finally St Pancras back up to Nottingham. It took about eight hours in total, though threatened to be longer when the TGV was delayed for long enough that I was certain I'd miss the Eurostar. Fortunately I breezed through security there to reach the platform just as boarding started. Phew!
The TGV itself was very comfortable, and about half full with nearly everyone adhering to the face mask policy/law. The journey through Switzerland and southern France was very pretty. The Paris Metro was rubbish, but at least I knew which ticket to buy (thanks Seat61!) Eurostar was pretty empty, which was just as well because the ticketing system had sat me on a table with a family of three (what system does that??) so I was able to distance myself from them pretty quickly after we left. I totally missed going through the tunnel, since it was already dark at that point. Leaving the train at St Pancras and having barely a two minute walk to my Nottingham train on the adjacent set of platforms was a treat, though I was unimpressed that even some of EMR's staff weren't masked up, let alone the passengers. Fortunately I didn't pick anything up, except perhaps a mild cold.
All in all a lovely trip, and just wonderful to see friends again. (And spoiler for December: my only foreign trip of the year, making it doubly special.)
Bonus pics: Sinister and Dexter cats, and Thereza's pet gecko and hognose snake, whose names I forget:
Finally I get to use the 'travel' tag on an entry! Was the last one really nearly two years ago? Sigh.
With my second vaccine in full effect and what looked to be maybe the final waning of cases (Omicron not yet identified), I took a flight to Zürich and got to stay with Rae, Thereza and David for a long weekend! It was so good to see them; last time I visited Rae and David hadn't got together with Thereza, and seeing the triad was not only adorable but also really revelatory for me in terms of seeing how they communicated between them.
I got to hear some Rae Lore, Thereza let me try on practically her whole wardrobe, and David showed me how Twine works and some of his own interactive fiction (particularly relevant since I also played through some of IFComp as a judge this year).
Rae and I had a lovely walk up the mountain to the north and it was a blissfully sunny day, with views all the way to the Alps. At the top was a small café booth, so we also had some delicious glühwein (mulled wine) with the view.
In the way down we only got slightly lost (Google Maps thought a river was a footpath) and the autumn woodland was exceptionally pretty.
Rae, David, and I wandered around Zürich to see the highlights. It's a beautiful city, and we had some more glühwein, this one surprisingly strong!
Rae, David, Thereza, and I all went to Zürich Zoo as well, which was nice. We got to see penguins being fed, definitely a treat.
For that matter, we also got to see giraffes and elephants being fed (indirectly, via food searching enrichment). I have not seen giraffes outside of a zoo, but the elephants reminded me very much of Laos.
The Zoo also had a huge biodome, with various lizards, giant tortoises, birds, and even bats (I think) flying around the 27°C enclosure. It was warm and humid and extremely luxurious. I would have loved to have taken a nap there for a few hours!
Not to mention the flora! All sorts of giant-leaved plants, ferns, and some exotic fruit trees.
I had decided to return home entirely by train, so on the Monday I caught the TGV from Zürich HB to Paris Gare du Lyon, crossed Paris on the metro, and then got the Eurostar from Paris Nord to London St Pancras, and finally St Pancras back up to Nottingham. It took about eight hours in total, though threatened to be longer when the TGV was delayed for long enough that I was certain I'd miss the Eurostar. Fortunately I breezed through security there to reach the platform just as boarding started. Phew!
The TGV itself was very comfortable, and about half full with nearly everyone adhering to the face mask policy/law. The journey through Switzerland and southern France was very pretty. The Paris Metro was rubbish, but at least I knew which ticket to buy (thanks Seat61!) Eurostar was pretty empty, which was just as well because the ticketing system had sat me on a table with a family of three (what system does that??) so I was able to distance myself from them pretty quickly after we left. I totally missed going through the tunnel, since it was already dark at that point. Leaving the train at St Pancras and having barely a two minute walk to my Nottingham train on the adjacent set of platforms was a treat, though I was unimpressed that even some of EMR's staff weren't masked up, let alone the passengers. Fortunately I didn't pick anything up, except perhaps a mild cold.
All in all a lovely trip, and just wonderful to see friends again. (And spoiler for December: my only foreign trip of the year, making it doubly special.)
Bonus pics: Sinister and Dexter cats, and Thereza's pet gecko and hognose snake, whose names I forget:
Cleopatra 2525
Interrupting my Xena watchthrough a little, I have started watching Cleopatra 2525, an utterly ridiculous sci-fi series from 2000 that was created by some of the crew on Xena. I've been tweeting along as I go.
Interrupting my Xena watchthrough a little, I have started watching Cleopatra 2525, an utterly ridiculous sci-fi series from 2000 that was created by some of the crew on Xena. I've been tweeting along as I go.
Snow
And finally! We got a scatting of snow on the 28th, enough for me to run to to the nearest open space for a frolic. Have a selfie.
And finally! We got a scatting of snow on the 28th, enough for me to run to to the nearest open space for a frolic. Have a selfie.
AMPDG: Three Simple Words
AMPDG this month was "Three Simple Words: pick 1 to 3 random words and make a piece of art/performance/song/poem/story/anything else inspired by them". The randomly chosen words I ended up with were "buggies", "deflections", and "hookah", which felt like quite a challenge! I ended up writing a sci-fi short story about a retired bounty hunter trading information in order to get tickets to an astronomical event being viewed on a desert planet. Half-way through I realised I could set it tangentially in the Star Wars universe, so I had an excuse to put it on AO3; here it is: Deflections (1275 words).
AMPDG this month was "Three Simple Words: pick 1 to 3 random words and make a piece of art/performance/song/poem/story/anything else inspired by them". The randomly chosen words I ended up with were "buggies", "deflections", and "hookah", which felt like quite a challenge! I ended up writing a sci-fi short story about a retired bounty hunter trading information in order to get tickets to an astronomical event being viewed on a desert planet. Half-way through I realised I could set it tangentially in the Star Wars universe, so I had an excuse to put it on AO3; here it is: Deflections (1275 words).
