Thursday, April 3, 2008

Bridges of non-Madison County

Hi All!
I have recently returned from a conference(about parasites) in Newcastle (NE of England, near the sea). So there are many interesting pictures to show you. I had a fun time learning more about parasites, and all the older gentlemen of the society thought my poster was wonderful. It was an awful lot of socialization, though. Today I just hung out at home and planted some seeds, did chores, and drew some pictures for folks.

Here's the River Tyne, flowing through Newcastle:
yes, there ARE alot of bridges. I remember 7 offhand, there may have been more...
This is the famous Gateshead Millenium Bridge!
It is a pedestrian/bicycle bridge, you can see the walkway sweep around the right side of the photo there. To allow ships to pass underneath, the whole bridge tips, to the left in the photo. The previous photo was taken while I stood on this bridge. And yes, it was as cool as it looks. Cooler even. I have ALOT more bridge pictures, if anyone wants to see them leave a comment.

Let's play a game. What is wrong with this picture?

If you said 'the van driving down the middle of the road', sorry, but you are wrong. That is a normal, legal traffic pattern here. The correct answer was 'there are shadows' because this indicates that the sun is shining, which as we all know doesn't occur in England.

After those lovely bridge photos, I bring you this:

What, you ask, is this horrifying visage? well, in the building where the conference lectures took place, there was a large (8ft?), circular, concave mirror. As you walk toward it, you appear very distant and upside down. As you approach, you disappear! Then, SUDDENLY, you reappear, right-side-up and large! It is very surprising, and challenging to walk quickly up to it without flinching! the 'targeting reticule'-looking thing over my eye simply marks the centre of the mirror. I took several interesting photos in the mirror, all of them as bizarre as the above monstrosity!

Tune in next time for: "Keeping drunk students out of the garden: a synthesis of modern techniques"

3 comments:

Soontar Cerulien said...

What a horrifying visage! The pictures are very wonderful, and the blob-like glass building on the left in that first photo intrigues me. Notice in the picture of the van driving in the middle of the road it is passing a cyclist who looks like one of those old-dude-professors
-who-saves-the-environment-by-
riding-a-bicycle.

While your sun is shining, meanwhile Ohio is experiencing a bout of purely English weather. How grey and wretched!

Unknown said...

Post a picture of your poster!

saun said...

great photos, especially that scary mirror image.