Posts from — November 2007

Today was a bit of a ‘day-off’ as I like to think about it. Woke up pretty late and decided that I didn’t want to sit through talks that I didn’t want to listen to.

So, Jeremie and I headed to the Scotland Museum. The museum is in a pretty cool round brick buildling … the one below.

Inside the Museum must be the most confusing museum I’m ever been in. You start with the whole making of Scotland (for your Geology dorks). Then move to different times in Scotland. I went in thinking it’d be very William Wallace emphasized. Very narrow thinking I know but he was the one who ‘freed’ Scotland. Well, that was WRONG (notice the capital letters). It was a tiny little booth and we missed it when we went through it. Anyway, they did have a fun little catapult game. Myself and the swiss guy played with it for a while… I’m still trying to figure out why the Swiss are attacking Canada. Aren’t they suppose to be Neutral?

Then on the main level (which they call 0 here. So 1 is actually the first floor up… confusing for us North Americans) they had a games room place. They had an F1 race game simulator which apparently is super close to actually driving an F1 car. Very neat… but HARD. I was terrible at it. Jeremie set one of the best times for the day!

Then I went shopping because my shoes that I brought here actually have a hole that goes right through the bottom of the shoe. So I bought myself some shoes, which are REALLY cheap… if you don’t convert to Canadian dollars.

Oh and the final picture is Jeremie and I celebrating last night. This is in the Blue Blazer pub that is right across the street from our hotel. They don’t serve any food… just alcohol. Which is very foreign to us Canadian’s.

No need for concern…I survived swimming the other day and even went back for more today. This time I brought along some friends so I swam way longer ( probably 700m!!!)

Since my last post I’ve been trying to keep busy enough not to notice Jeff’s absence. What, he’s gone? I have also been frequenting a few pubs, but don’t have quite the same drinking problem that my husband has so this post will be F-bombs free. On Sunday it was nice enough to disc golf and we went to Shady Lurker (the sketchy zoo course). I managed to shoot a fabulous round (defined to some as +7 or better). Fandoubulous equates to +14 and fantroubulous…well I hope to never have to define that.

On Sunday evening I went to go watch some ultimate ladies play hockey. Their team name is Nellies. Last year I would have told them “stick to ultimate” but this year they have totally improved and they are quite good!  They won 1-0! I really enjoyed the game. In return for Terri accompanying me to the game as “Pseudo-Sill” (Jeff’s sub) I taught her a few key rules of hockey: offside and icing. The Nellies were then nice enough to demonstrate those two things over and over. I was impressed with their skills nonetheless. If their ice times weren’t at 11pm on weeknights, I would consider joining them for sure!!! It looks like they have a really good time out there.

Would have loved to put a picture up of the ladies playing hockey, but somebody took the camera to Europe…

Here I am day four.  Finished all my commitments to work and now just ready to enjoy my trip. (not that I haven’t been enjoying my trip but you know what I mean? )

Today was the big presentation… turned out pretty well.  No questions though which is kinda strange but interesting.   What was really interesting was introducing myself to one of the “big guys” in the field.  And him saying “oh!   wow.   We’ve never met have we?”  Thought that was kinda neat.  You know that he knows who I am.   Here’s me looking all spiffy in my suit today.

Kind of a boring post so far so maybe I’ll talk about washing my hands.

Seriously.  I don’t get how people wash their hands in this city.  Or maybe it’s Europe or whatever.   Two taps.  One hot one cold.    So your turn the hot on get some water, get some soap and now the rinse.  So the hot has heated up to a fairly scorching level.  How are you suppose to rinse your hands?   Cold water?    So far I’ve tried “the burn the one hand while adding cold with the other” method.     And I’ve tried “the back and forth burning and cooling both hands”.     Anyone have any ideas?  I know that you’re ’suppose’ to fill the sink with water but I’m not that dedicated….

OH!  And last night while preparing for the talk today I looked outside the window.  Apparently this is the view of my hotel room.  Ummmm.  yeah.  Am I in the red light district?

Well, I’m off to celebrate.  Or as I like to call it ’see the town’.  Especially, Considering this town is probably made up of half pubs.

Today was day three (2nd full day) in the-city-that-shall-not-be-named (TCTSNBN). It was a self adventure today as the other people that came needed to study so I was off on my own.

First I headed to the Scotland National Gallery. I’m a big fan of National Art Museums for some reason. When I lived in Ottawa I went to the Canadian Nationals Gallery probably around 10 times in 4 months. I really like the quiet respective atmosphere of those places. Here’s a picture of the gallery.

It’s funny how this building in a different city would be a center piece of the city. Whereas, here in TCTSNBN I almost missed it when I was searching for it. Go figure.

The gallery itself was ok. I like the one in Ottawa a lot more. However, this one does definitely have a more Scottish feeling then the Ottawa one having a Canadian feeling. (if that makes any sense whatsoever). My two favorite paintings were a Monet named “Poplars on the Epte” such a nice picture (maybe even gorgeous). It was based on a river with poplars and the colours, lights and 3d effect, super cool.

The other one was just awesome in a totally different way. Named: “Le Temps Menaçant” (Threatening Weather), 1929.

‘Apparently’ the artist saw a dream of a Women’s torso, a tuba and a chair in a dream.   and ‘apparently’ this is an erotic dream.  He liked to paint the clouds because ‘apparently’ he was scared of the way they just hung over him.

Anyway, from there I headed to the Conference to watch an invited speaker. Pretty good talk, but funny how the more respected you are in your research the worse the talks can be and no-one seems to care. “Oh! This slide. Ok. Um. Right. This is where we ….”

Here’s a picture of the conference center.

It’s not a bad building and apparently Lunch is provided so that’s cool. Tomorrow is the big presentation (my presentation) 10:40am or 3:40 am (MST). I think it’ll go good I’ve practiced it a bagillion times and everytime it goes pretty good. I’ll let you know all know sometime tomorrow.

Sorry about that last PG 50+ post. Was going to change the F-bombs but really that’s the best part of the story. Secondly, I’m going to be putting my pictures up at my Picasa site which you can find at http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.sill which is way easier for me.  I’ll select a few pics and talk about them as I travel (probably).

Anyway, today was a full day of tourism here in the Capitol of Scotland (look at me here, trying to educate my fine readers). Hiked Arthur’s seat, walked the royal mile and ate a bit of Haggis.

So we started the day by hiking up Arthur’s seat (which I’m guessing is named after King Arthur, I could be wrong though). Was a nice little hike up a small mountain.  Funny though because as we were walking to it we saw this hill like structure.

When we were about a third of the way up the back side we actually saw a much larger hill.   So I stopped and asked the Swiss guy which way he wanted to go.    Of course he picks up.  (not that I wasn’t going to go up but it was kinda funny).   So this is the mountain we climbed and a couple of pics from the top.

From there we walked the Royal Mile from the Holyroodhouse Palace (Queen’s official residence in Scotland) to the Edinburgh Castle. Quite a neat little walk with all kinds of little shops from touristy shops to authentic kilt making shops.   Lots of Cobble stone / brick streets and the like.   Apparently the Royal Mile dates back to the 1600’s and some of the buildings are from way back when…   Sorta neat.

On the Royal Mile we stopped for some food at a little pub (which are EVERYWHERE).  Michelle was brave enough to order the Haggis so we were all able to have a little nibble of the ol’ Intestine.  Here’s a pic of it.  FYI.    The black part is the haggis, the white was Tatties (mashed potatoes) and the orange was Neeps (yellow turnip)

In other news I’m thinking about re-naming Edinburgh to the City-who-must-not-be-named.  Kind of a tribute to J.K. Rowling because apparently she wrote the first book while sitting in a cafe (as if it was a cafe …. more like a pub) pub in Edinburgh.

Enough about drowning in that pool, Lindsay. We’re here to talk about me in Scotland (which if you can’t tell, I’m still having problems spelling. Needless to say, I’m having problems saying the word Edinburgh.)

To recap:

Checked in at the airport. Running an hour late. Called the lady Fuck Face. (actually just mis-pronuced edinburgh to edinburge. apparently it is like saying “hey, Fuck face.” thanks hez….. oh and I let the check-in attendant know that saying edinburge is like sayin “hey, fuck face”). plane another hour delayed… that’ll teach me.

Heathrow airport….. crazy shit. Seriously. CRAZY. I arrived…had to take a coach (bus in UK language) to the next terminal…..waited there, cleared customs…. Then waited at my terminal. Boom. Called…. When’t down some stairs (basically to a cellar) popped out and boom…. waiting for another bus… catched the bus to the next flight…. So caught two buses and two flights in the last day and the weirdest part was the coaches (buses). go figure.

In other GREAT news…. I won’t be bringing the book that I brought here home with me. Why? No, I didn’t read it …. Lindsay bought me “Tony Hawk, proving ground.” which basically means that I won’t read the book at all even if I have 2 minutes to spare. That game is awesome and addictive. Thanks honey (she hates being called honey) I Love you. You’re the best.

Finally, we (Jeremie and I) have managed to drink enough beers that we’re almost running out of types to try here in Edinburgh. We’ve also met Magnus (true name, serisously.) and … .seriously, how do you not laugh at a guy named MAGNUS when he’s 6′4″ and weighs 140 pbs? seriously.

I’m out. Have a great day everyone more tomorrow.

Love,

jeff

All is well so far without Jeff. Speaking of which, got news this morning that he arrived safely and was off to the pub for a beer. Traveling for 14 hours mixed with jetlag, a beer sounds like a fabulous idea!

But enough about him, because this is an update from the Sill house.

The big news here is that I won $50 on a lottery ticket this week!! I had a bought a ticket this week as part of my plan to retire ASAP after the sad news that our “invention club” might not actually take off. My win wasn’t quite enough to retire on, but I was really happy to win something, and I reinvested $3 for a chance to win again.

I’m off to go swimming today. Jeff and I hit the pool the other night, to get in swimming shape for Hawaii. What a humbling experience! Swimming is hard work. Good thing we have a membership at the university and didn’t pay because I would have felt ripped off. I swam a total of 400m before my legs were absolute jello. Not to mention my arms or my lungs. On one lap I timed myself and 50m took just under a minute (for all you swimmers out there, don’t judge me…it was my first time out and there’s lots of room for improvement before I hit the waves in Hawaii!). So 50 X 8 gives me 400m, so the same math equates to 8 minutes of swimming. Wow, pathetic. Can you see how I would have felt ripped off?

Swimming isn’t the only thing I’m trying to get better at at the moment- our squash club is still holding strong. Last week was definitely a record. We had 12 people out! Since I’m super competitive and always trying to get better, I was reading up on squash and came across the funniest thing on wikipedia: . ‘Once a game has been won, the winner shouts “and thats squash,yeeehaa!” as confirmation of their win. This also signifies the end of the game’. When I went back to Wikipedia to find this today, surprisingly enough it had been edited, and I had to go into the archives to find it, so I’m not sure how much truth there is to it, but I thought it was quite funny!

Well, off to the pool. If you don’t see a post any time soon, send the lifeguard!

As some of you know I’m going to Europe in tomorrow for “work” and by “work” I mean a conference. I have to give a 20 minute presentation on the research that myself and others in the group have done for the past year or so. The title of my talk is Breast Models for Second Generation Tissue Sensing Adaptive Radar. And yes, I actually do show breast models in my talk. Although, they are MR (magnetic resonance) images…. I wonder if I’ve said too much and must make you all sign a non-disclosure agreement until I present my research?

I’ll be following the wise wisdoms of Heather who just finished travelling in Germany. Actually I probably won’t be following her wise wisdoms as she’s been to the naked spa and been amazed at the large beer in Germany. I’m just not going to the naked spa.

Anyway, I’ve been requested to have a little post on my travel plans and as I have finally …. sorta …. figured out my travel plans (as Jayanti knows full well). So, I thought I’d let you all in so that you can

• a) Stalk me in Europe
• b) Give me advice
• c) Web-stalk me in Europe

Anyway, the conference is in Edinburgh, Scotland which I fly into. I’m there for 6 nights and my cousin, who lived there for 4 months, has given me a ‘brochure’ thing that she made. It basically says go to the Castle in Scotland and to these pubs. Thank Cuz!

From Scotland I fly with my Swiss friend to Geneva (which I’ve always wanted to go to because of the whole UN thing). From there his brother picks us up and we’re off to some year-end school party for his old University. I’m gathering it’s going to be all Swiss (speaking French) people partying….sounds like fun. I’m hopeing that my French actually gets better after a few beers. I’ll let you know. Then we’re off to tour Swizterland for 4 days… I heard something about going to the Matterhorn. I’ve already been on the ride so we’ll see how the real thing compares. I sure hope I get slight whiplash and see a Yeti at this Matterhorn too!

It’s then back to work for me as I travel to Zurich to meet up with a company for a day or two.

From Zurich I’m kinda confused on what to do exactly. I know that I need to be in Munich on Friday night….. So I’ll have Wed night, Thursday night and Friday day to figure something out to do. I’ve got three ideas and think I only really have time for 1. Anyone have any brilliant ideas?

• Baden-baden, Germany – naked spa…. need I say more?
• Innsbruck, Austria – Site of Olympic Winter Games in — Plus the “Sill River” is here
• Lucarno (or Lugano), Swizterland – I’ve always wanted to go to Italy and apparently Swizterland has a Swiss Italian region. And Lucarno gets the most sun in all of Swizterland (or something like that). But this is directly south of Zurich so I’d go South to Lucarno then back to Zurich then to Munich…. sorta Silly really.

I’ll let you know more when I actually get there. I’m starting to think one night in Innsbruck is the way to go but we’ll see.

Anyway, I should get back to doing all the stuff that needs to be done before I leave. Aka: pack, get money, finish work, cook more food for Lindsay, etc…

Oh and that large mean scary dog that Lindsay bought for while I am gone is ferocious! Seriously, mean. Be warned.

So Saturday I went on a crazy bike ride with a friend from work Trev. Trev is a CRAZY (double underline quadruple bold “CRAZY”) triathlete guy. He’s finished ironman three times (finishing 14th one year at Ironman Canada and finishing Ironman Hawaii) and has won at least 4 half-ironman’s. So basically a supreme athlete guy.

Anyway, at work on Thursday he said,

“Do you wanna go on a little cyclecross ride on Sat?”

I said,

“Um, how little is little?”

Trev

“Like an hour or two”

So I’m thinking this sounds ok might be a bit out of my league but apparently it was to be a relaxed pace.

Then he started the planning of what I was to wear.  Apparently I had the wrong stuff so he outfitted me with all the correct cold weather gear. And told me that we’re going with two other triathlete guys (one possibly crazier then Trev. Although, probably not in as good of shape, but still crazy).  So now i’m thinking I might be over my head.

Anyway, we headed out at 10am on a nice bike ride. I was planning on driving to the meeting location but apparently that’s SUPER dorky. who knew (just a little FYI)?

The route (for us Calgary people):

From our house. To the Extreme bean on Memorial. Across the bridge under Crowchild. Up behind Shaganappi golf course. Along some road south. Down to Weaselhead park. Over to the Native Reserve. Then back East.   Further south to the 22X. Further south. …. Then back.  Luckily with about 1Km to go (when I was dead tired) I had to go up a little sidewalk which was about 2 inches high.   And pulled a sweet endo.

Anyway, it was a total of 68.45 Km’s. Which isn’t really that bad but we only stopped 4 times. Yes, 4.   For a total of around 8 minutes.   How do I know the times?   Well, I have a GPS tracking thing for my bike (yes, I’m a dork). Take a look at the route we took. Kinda neat. And if you want to take a look at the other dorky stats that the GPS thing track you can simply click HERE.

Avg Speed: 22.8 Km/hr

Max Speed: 55.1 Km/h

We went over to Tim and Kir’s to see baby Owen the other night. Jeff’s mom had graciously made him the cutest little quilt and we took a picture of him lying on it so that she could see how much he loves it:

Jeff and I both held Owen, making that a record for the youngest human we have ever held (3 days old). And despite the fact that I was shaking like crazy, I didn’t even break him!

In other news, Jeff is getting ready for his trip to Europe since he leaves this Friday. He will post more about this later!

Please note: If you are a wife-knapper or a thief I’ve hired two big dogs and a bodyguard so you can forget about trying to come around here while Jeff’s gone!