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iguanaSeptember was awesome! Lots of memories, lots of photos. Grab some tea and read it all!
EMF Camp
What do you get when you mix together 500 geeks, a microwave internet link, and Pineham Park in Milton Keynes? EMF Camp, that's what!
On the day after we got back from Berlin and Vienna, Emily and I met up with Emily's housemate Tim, and hopped on a train to sunny Milton Keynes, tents and camping equipment in tow. This was the first EMF Camp, a bi-annual festival for geeks that ran from Friday to Sunday this year, providing all kinds of activities from Arduino programming to Zombie makeovers
The camp itself was made up of a large camping field for the visitors, along with three main tents that were used for talks and workshops. A few of the country's hackspaces also had their own marquees, and there was a great atmosphere to the whole place. Wifi was provided by 'dataloos', portaloos crammed with electronics, scattered throughout the camp. (There were also regular portaloos.)
Briefly, here are the events I attended:
* Crochet at scale - learning how to crochet with the aim of making a colossal hammock.
* Using lasers to generate 3D models of objects.
* Making camping stoves from beer cans.
* Hexayurts - making temporary shelter/housing from 4x8ft boards.
* I helped assemble some of the camp's TiLDA badges - custom Arduino boards with wifi and blinkenlights. I programmed mine to spell out my name two bits at a time in ASCII on the two LEDs on the device. Then I overwrote my git repository with that code in it with the original example code. Oops. And this is why I don't usually program late at night!
* High Altitude Ballooning - how to do it and what to know. They also launched and tracked a balloon from the camp itself.
* Introduction to lockpicking - it was interest to see how easily basic locks can be picked! I managed a couple of padlocks myself.
* Blacksmithing lessons!
* Hypnosis show - I am apparently immune to being hypnotised, while Emily is a particularly good subject. Slightly freaky but good fun!
* Introduction to Esperanto
* Everything you never wanted to know about bees!
* Tom Scott's talk about coping in/with the TV Industry
I also got to sample the hackers' favourite energy drink, Club Mate, in the camp bar by the river under an M1 flyover. It tasted like how I imagine engine oil would (remember that scene in The Matrix?).
Without a doubt the highlight was learning to blacksmith. Emily, Tim, Emily's brother and his wife, and I were in our own group, and we made ammonite-like key fob/necklaces out of a solid stick of steel. I'm really proud of mine! Lookit!
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The next Friday, we took a picnic to Kew Gardens which was showing Breakfast at Tiffany's at a temporary open air cinema. It was great to see another classic on the big screen, and we got a good seat without too many people in front of us. The evening was really lovely, with a cloudless sky above and a warm blanket under us.
Heritage train journey
On Sunday 9th, we went to Harrow-on-the-Hill, where we caught a heritage 1920s electric locomotive called Sarah Siddons to Amersham, and a 1938-stock Northern Line tube train back to Harrow, after reading about it on the Ian Visits blog.
We were lucky enough to get a first class compartment to ourselves in the heritage carriages, complete with curtains on the windows, reading lights, and a mirror.
On the way back on the 1938-stock tube train, we read the adverts above the seats and discovered what kind of salary we could have got from joining London Transport as a station foreman or guard (£25-8-6 and £27-2-0 respectively).
Apple Japple Japple
The next weekend was very apple themed. On Saturday we went to Darenth Country Park, where there's a public orchard, to pick some apples. Most of the trees had already been stripped bare by other like-minded gatherers, but some of the cooking apple varieties and older varieties (the orchard is arranged with older types at one end and newer varieties at the other, in chronological order) were still around, which was perfect because we were planning to make tarte tatin. We gathered a few apples with varying names and came back to tarte them up.
On Sunday we went to Apple weekend with Emily's housemate and friends at Fenton House in Hampstead. It felt like going back in time somewhat. We had raspberry lemonade and tasty burgers, and bought even more apples, this time eating apples, which were very tasty!
Stonehenge at the Equinox
For equinoctes and solstices English Heritage allow members of the public to actually walk amongst the stones for an hour either side of sunrise - we have the druids to thank for that. Emily's mum lives fairly near to Stonehenge so for the equinox this month we drove down there to take part in the celebration.
It was pitch dark in the countryside when we woke up at five in the morning or so, and for the first time I got to see the Milky Way splashed across the starscape. By the time we'd driven to Stonehenge the sky had become deep blue, and we were ushered up to the stone circle along with the druids getting ready to celebrate the equinox.
The druid leaders took the crowds through some traditional chants and prayers, as the clear sky turned from blue to red at the horizon, and at 6:52 the sun peaked up from behind a copse in the distance. We watched it climb slowly into the sky through the ancient stones until the whole circle was bathed in warm morning light. People started playing music and others danced to it.
Avebury
After going back to Emily's mum's place for a few hours to catch up on a bit of sleep, we headed out to Avebury in the afternoon. Avebury is part of the Stonehenge heritage group, with plenty of its own stones and even a burial cavern. Also cows.
Hall Place Gardens
This weekend, Emily and I went to Hall Place in Bexley, which has massive gardens including herb gardens and sculpted bushes. We lay in the sunshine looking up at green tree leaves, and had the most amazing hot chocolate in the cafe there.
EMF Camp
What do you get when you mix together 500 geeks, a microwave internet link, and Pineham Park in Milton Keynes? EMF Camp, that's what!
On the day after we got back from Berlin and Vienna, Emily and I met up with Emily's housemate Tim, and hopped on a train to sunny Milton Keynes, tents and camping equipment in tow. This was the first EMF Camp, a bi-annual festival for geeks that ran from Friday to Sunday this year, providing all kinds of activities from Arduino programming to Zombie makeovers
The camp itself was made up of a large camping field for the visitors, along with three main tents that were used for talks and workshops. A few of the country's hackspaces also had their own marquees, and there was a great atmosphere to the whole place. Wifi was provided by 'dataloos', portaloos crammed with electronics, scattered throughout the camp. (There were also regular portaloos.)
Briefly, here are the events I attended:
* Crochet at scale - learning how to crochet with the aim of making a colossal hammock.
* Using lasers to generate 3D models of objects.
* Making camping stoves from beer cans.
* Hexayurts - making temporary shelter/housing from 4x8ft boards.
* I helped assemble some of the camp's TiLDA badges - custom Arduino boards with wifi and blinkenlights. I programmed mine to spell out my name two bits at a time in ASCII on the two LEDs on the device. Then I overwrote my git repository with that code in it with the original example code. Oops. And this is why I don't usually program late at night!
* High Altitude Ballooning - how to do it and what to know. They also launched and tracked a balloon from the camp itself.
* Introduction to lockpicking - it was interest to see how easily basic locks can be picked! I managed a couple of padlocks myself.
* Blacksmithing lessons!
* Hypnosis show - I am apparently immune to being hypnotised, while Emily is a particularly good subject. Slightly freaky but good fun!
* Introduction to Esperanto
* Everything you never wanted to know about bees!
* Tom Scott's talk about coping in/with the TV Industry
I also got to sample the hackers' favourite energy drink, Club Mate, in the camp bar by the river under an M1 flyover. It tasted like how I imagine engine oil would (remember that scene in The Matrix?).
Without a doubt the highlight was learning to blacksmith. Emily, Tim, Emily's brother and his wife, and I were in our own group, and we made ammonite-like key fob/necklaces out of a solid stick of steel. I'm really proud of mine! Lookit!
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The next Friday, we took a picnic to Kew Gardens which was showing Breakfast at Tiffany's at a temporary open air cinema. It was great to see another classic on the big screen, and we got a good seat without too many people in front of us. The evening was really lovely, with a cloudless sky above and a warm blanket under us.
Heritage train journey
On Sunday 9th, we went to Harrow-on-the-Hill, where we caught a heritage 1920s electric locomotive called Sarah Siddons to Amersham, and a 1938-stock Northern Line tube train back to Harrow, after reading about it on the Ian Visits blog.
We were lucky enough to get a first class compartment to ourselves in the heritage carriages, complete with curtains on the windows, reading lights, and a mirror.
On the way back on the 1938-stock tube train, we read the adverts above the seats and discovered what kind of salary we could have got from joining London Transport as a station foreman or guard (£25-8-6 and £27-2-0 respectively).
Apple Japple Japple
The next weekend was very apple themed. On Saturday we went to Darenth Country Park, where there's a public orchard, to pick some apples. Most of the trees had already been stripped bare by other like-minded gatherers, but some of the cooking apple varieties and older varieties (the orchard is arranged with older types at one end and newer varieties at the other, in chronological order) were still around, which was perfect because we were planning to make tarte tatin. We gathered a few apples with varying names and came back to tarte them up.
On Sunday we went to Apple weekend with Emily's housemate and friends at Fenton House in Hampstead. It felt like going back in time somewhat. We had raspberry lemonade and tasty burgers, and bought even more apples, this time eating apples, which were very tasty!
Stonehenge at the Equinox
For equinoctes and solstices English Heritage allow members of the public to actually walk amongst the stones for an hour either side of sunrise - we have the druids to thank for that. Emily's mum lives fairly near to Stonehenge so for the equinox this month we drove down there to take part in the celebration.
It was pitch dark in the countryside when we woke up at five in the morning or so, and for the first time I got to see the Milky Way splashed across the starscape. By the time we'd driven to Stonehenge the sky had become deep blue, and we were ushered up to the stone circle along with the druids getting ready to celebrate the equinox.
The druid leaders took the crowds through some traditional chants and prayers, as the clear sky turned from blue to red at the horizon, and at 6:52 the sun peaked up from behind a copse in the distance. We watched it climb slowly into the sky through the ancient stones until the whole circle was bathed in warm morning light. People started playing music and others danced to it.
Avebury
After going back to Emily's mum's place for a few hours to catch up on a bit of sleep, we headed out to Avebury in the afternoon. Avebury is part of the Stonehenge heritage group, with plenty of its own stones and even a burial cavern. Also cows.
Hall Place Gardens
This weekend, Emily and I went to Hall Place in Bexley, which has massive gardens including herb gardens and sculpted bushes. We lay in the sunshine looking up at green tree leaves, and had the most amazing hot chocolate in the cafe there.
