Right well things happened. It's relentless this linear progression of time, isn't it?
So what have I been doing? The majority of my time for the past few weeks was taken up by alternately doing exams, preparing for the doing of said exams, watching large storms happening, or watching 22 tiny people in coloured shirts run around with a ball. Thankfully all the exams are finally over now so that leaves more time for frivolous pursuits, and also more watching of 'feet ball' as I believe it is called. Oh yeah and then I have occasionally been spluttering dumbfoundedly at the sheer quality if the recent Doctor Who output.
But more interesting to write about is my foray into the besuited world of the european space think tank, courtesy of flatmate, german, friend and European Space Policy Institute intern Andreas. The occasion was the opening of an art exhibition in the ESPI offices by a one Gerald Martineo, an Austrian-Romanian artist who makes paintings by pouring colourful plastics onto canvasses. His art is apparently quite science and technology focussed, and his latest series of work consists of colourless resin poured over huge canvasses, studded with used radiation sensors from various satellites and then themselves irradiated at Austria's only reactor to discolour them slightly. It was pretty good actually, though I was more immediately attracted to the coloured stuff. As I remarked at the time it is interesting that to look at one of his newer pieces you have to know a lot of background about it, without which none of the point of the work is evident. I've always thought that whether or not your art has an amazing message it should also look really cool on your wall, but this is just an opinion.
Anyway, although the art was fun, I really came because I've never been to a european space policy intitute before and I wondered what it would be like. I like to think I got a glimpse into a way of life/ career that is very different to my own. That week was the annual meeting of the UN Comittee on the Peaceful Use of Space so there were many UN types and hangers on wandering around. Unlike me free posh food and wine at a random exhibition opening are probably more the rule than the exception, so they all looked a lot less lost than me for the beginning of the event. However I got into the swing of things after some sandwiches and a couple of interesting speeches by a physicist and the artist himself about the meeting between art and science (in short our primary reward for doing either is the fact we are doing them) and an interesting but overlong speech by the ex-astronaut head of the COPUOS. Do you think that's an ugly acronym, or is it just me? It reminds me of coprolites for some reason (it might help to point out that in conversation it is pronounced 'cop-wuss').
I get the feeling that as I am not normally exposed to such speeches I actually found it far more engaging than some of the more experienced space-people. Frankly I was excited enough that there even exists a comittee on the peaceful use of space that says things like 'guys, let's use space for peaceful awesome things!', a fact which was naturally pretty obvious to everyone else. I'd kind of put my interest in space on the back burner, not having the benefit of a large planetary science department at Uni Wien, but being in a room with all these people who deal with space all day every day, even if primarily from a political/legal viewpoint, brought it all back. I very much enjoyed being able to wander up to people and get reasoned answers to things like 'Who's going to be taking people and stuff to space in 2030?' And true to form, I also got to add my two pennies on the importance of geology in space, or rather the importance of space infrastructure to the progression of geology. I believe geologists are the only scientists who would claim that it is absolutely undebatably better to land a man on the moon rather than send a robot. But even if that doesn't happen any time soon, geologists will have to rely on the political and technological developments in the space industry for a massive amount of their future research, from planetary geology to the use of aerial measurements of the earth, so I think it's time we got more interested in this sort of thing as a science.
Aaanyway so there you go, that's my pompous way of justifying why it was good to go to a place where they gave me free food and wine.
Bye for now!
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Yt anthr blg ntry
Well I got carried away posting videos of Austrian pop bands last post so now I'll bring things a little bit more up to date. Apart from some more of the seemingly neverending exams (I'm even starting to see the benefit of having an exam term, things must be bad!) the most important thing that happened between then o'clock and now p.m. was my first field trip with the university here. I guess I was sort of apprehensive at the start what with not having a clue what was going to happen, but it turns out that the field trip experience in Geology is one that is relatively constant across language and cultural barriers.
Basically when you group geologists together they are suddenly surrounded by other people who will not only listen to but positively encourage discussion about rocks. Combine this with the fact you are being shown tonnes of new exciting rocks by an expert in the field, you're in the countryside, and in the evenings plenty of whatever the local food and beverages are is to be had, and you have a rather pleasant holiday. On this trip there wasn't even the pressure of marks to spoil the enjoyment!
Due to the differences in geology between the UK and Austria, almost every rock I saw in the 3 day trip was one I had never seen outside of a hand specimen. Whole cliffs stuffed with lovely minerals I never saw more than one of in the lab... Anyway what it all amounts to in not so rock speak is that I had fun. Especially cool is that the people leading the trip were working on research of the area, and so half the time we'd stumble upon something interesting and cool for them too, sometimes even something they couldn't identify at all! At which point we would usually have to break out the sledgehammers, because even normal geological hammers wouldn't make much of a dent in any of the rocks we saw...
It was also a pleasant change to have a full three day immersive german course too. No escape! Well, I could have escaped by speaking english but I really tried not to do that even though everyone is always really keen to show you they can, because (as good old WRN put it much better than me), if you start talking to an Austrian in english you've immediately ruled them out as a potential speaking-german-together person... It's weird how when you start out in one language, there's a sort of language inertia even though you're both pretty good at either. The countryside along the banks of the Donau near Melk and Krems is beautiful, (even with the Donau filled to overflowing the roads at some points due to the recent spate of rain), as are the small and very Austrian villages of the Waldviertel. Something that really does improve on the UK experience were the Gasthoefe we stayed at along the way, simple countryside hotels (maybe inns is a better word??) where the food is always tasty and pig and dumpling related. I tried some Schnapps made from what I reckon (translation problems aside) were Rowan berries. Actually pretty tasty, even though the original berries are supposed to be poisonous...
So yeah, lovely.
Time is really getting tight now, I'm wracking my brains and trying to make sure I don't accidentally sleep away my last few weeks here, which would be easy to do in the current 32 degree heat! Also I still have YET MORE pesky exams which I also need to learn for without letting said learning take over my life. I had an hour and a half long oral exam on Thursday. Granted half of it was basically being lectured at rather than asked questions of but still, phew! A far cry from the good old (mind numbingly terrifying for no discernible reason) 10 minute oral exams at school!
Der Tommington
Basically when you group geologists together they are suddenly surrounded by other people who will not only listen to but positively encourage discussion about rocks. Combine this with the fact you are being shown tonnes of new exciting rocks by an expert in the field, you're in the countryside, and in the evenings plenty of whatever the local food and beverages are is to be had, and you have a rather pleasant holiday. On this trip there wasn't even the pressure of marks to spoil the enjoyment!
Due to the differences in geology between the UK and Austria, almost every rock I saw in the 3 day trip was one I had never seen outside of a hand specimen. Whole cliffs stuffed with lovely minerals I never saw more than one of in the lab... Anyway what it all amounts to in not so rock speak is that I had fun. Especially cool is that the people leading the trip were working on research of the area, and so half the time we'd stumble upon something interesting and cool for them too, sometimes even something they couldn't identify at all! At which point we would usually have to break out the sledgehammers, because even normal geological hammers wouldn't make much of a dent in any of the rocks we saw...
It was also a pleasant change to have a full three day immersive german course too. No escape! Well, I could have escaped by speaking english but I really tried not to do that even though everyone is always really keen to show you they can, because (as good old WRN put it much better than me), if you start talking to an Austrian in english you've immediately ruled them out as a potential speaking-german-together person... It's weird how when you start out in one language, there's a sort of language inertia even though you're both pretty good at either. The countryside along the banks of the Donau near Melk and Krems is beautiful, (even with the Donau filled to overflowing the roads at some points due to the recent spate of rain), as are the small and very Austrian villages of the Waldviertel. Something that really does improve on the UK experience were the Gasthoefe we stayed at along the way, simple countryside hotels (maybe inns is a better word??) where the food is always tasty and pig and dumpling related. I tried some Schnapps made from what I reckon (translation problems aside) were Rowan berries. Actually pretty tasty, even though the original berries are supposed to be poisonous...
So yeah, lovely.Time is really getting tight now, I'm wracking my brains and trying to make sure I don't accidentally sleep away my last few weeks here, which would be easy to do in the current 32 degree heat! Also I still have YET MORE pesky exams which I also need to learn for without letting said learning take over my life. I had an hour and a half long oral exam on Thursday. Granted half of it was basically being lectured at rather than asked questions of but still, phew! A far cry from the good old (mind numbingly terrifying for no discernible reason) 10 minute oral exams at school!
Der Tommington
Monday, 7 June 2010
Writing on the internet about things that have occurred to me.
Quite a full agenda this week. Let's press on, shall we?
Last weekend was the Vienna Stadtfest. I didn't realise at first how much of a big deal it was going to be, but walking through the city centre the day before I noticed the massive crowds and the many many stages sprinkled liberally about the place. I started out watching a Balkan brass orchester, the Orchestr Marijan Krstic. If you don't know what Balkan brass music sounds like already, you should probably just go listen to some. It's basic premise is to make you happy and cause you to dance by the masterful combination of many many brass instruments, all played with incredible skill and at high speed. These guys were masters of their art, and the dancing really got going when all 9 descended from the stage in the Heldenplatz and wandered about in the crowd, blasting full on trumpet solos into the faces of occasionally exstatic and occasionally just confused looking Viennese...
By this time my flatmate Joseph/Giuseppe had turned up, and we proceeded to wander towards the other stages. On the way we saw a VERY large number of tourists, lots of living statues and a man walking on a tightrope while juggling flaming torches. Arriving at the Radio Wien stage we stopped to observe the antics of several, I assume extremely cool, stunt bike rider type people. It is always faintly embarrassing hearing German speakers using english words while trying to be cool, and the music was deafening and a bit rubish, but I have never seen anyone do a backflip on a bike befoe, so i was pretty happy. All through the DJ set a band were slowly setting up with a drum kit, a violinist and a tuba player. I got that familiar feeling of excitement when you can;t figure out what the next band are going to sound like, and persuaded Joseph to stay and see the band. As it turns out, this was a highly excellent decision.
Binder and Kriegelstein is the name of the band, they consist of one man on vocals, drums and laptop, one man on trombone and occasionally tuba, a man on violin and a small, smiling ridiculously clothed frontwoman. The attire is an integral part of the group's appeal, and I think shows up an important point about them, namely that they are in no way at all serious about what they are doing. Each member was dressed for a completely different band, the violinist with a solemn face, trousers and a leather waistcoat like he was some traditional austrian session musician. The trombonist in a full on ska-esque suit, the lead singer in a weird combination of traditional austrian dress and cape with an electric pink wig, and the drummer in a scruffy T-Shirt.
The music was a genius mix of ska-pop, rap, pure sugary pop goodness and honest-to-goodness folk music, with hefty doses of silliness in behaviour and lyrics. The main aim of the band is to entertain you, and entertain us they did, with an aptitude for the ridiculous which was more suited to a band taking part in the Brainlove festival, incidentally happening at the same time back in London. The mighty crushing together of genres is a powerful mix, and it fills me with happiness that such a band are popular enough here to find a number 2 spot on the biggest stage at the Stadtfest.
After the end of the set we escaped to the haven of the classical music stage, where some waltzes were the perfect background to some delicious Kaesespaetzle (basically thin gnocchi like stuff with heaps of melted chesse and the odd bit of onion and pepper. Unhealthy and tasty, as all street food must be). On the move again we quickly escaped the pedestrian rock of some beloved Austrian band of yesteryear to find ouselves in the more unusual company of 'Angelas Wean Herrn Band'. These guys combined tradition Viennese songs with Jazz, with some success I feel. The Jazz kept on the right side of utterly insane, so I was able to deal with it and enjoy the songs and solos, rather than just stand there and wander why the heck everyone was tapping their knees in time, as I have been known to do when exposed to Jazz in the past...
All in all a successful day.
I shall leave you with a couple of musical gifts from Binder and Kriegelstein, to brighten up your day. First a crazed video:
And now a pop hit:
And to finish, the live experience:
Last weekend was the Vienna Stadtfest. I didn't realise at first how much of a big deal it was going to be, but walking through the city centre the day before I noticed the massive crowds and the many many stages sprinkled liberally about the place. I started out watching a Balkan brass orchester, the Orchestr Marijan Krstic. If you don't know what Balkan brass music sounds like already, you should probably just go listen to some. It's basic premise is to make you happy and cause you to dance by the masterful combination of many many brass instruments, all played with incredible skill and at high speed. These guys were masters of their art, and the dancing really got going when all 9 descended from the stage in the Heldenplatz and wandered about in the crowd, blasting full on trumpet solos into the faces of occasionally exstatic and occasionally just confused looking Viennese...
By this time my flatmate Joseph/Giuseppe had turned up, and we proceeded to wander towards the other stages. On the way we saw a VERY large number of tourists, lots of living statues and a man walking on a tightrope while juggling flaming torches. Arriving at the Radio Wien stage we stopped to observe the antics of several, I assume extremely cool, stunt bike rider type people. It is always faintly embarrassing hearing German speakers using english words while trying to be cool, and the music was deafening and a bit rubish, but I have never seen anyone do a backflip on a bike befoe, so i was pretty happy. All through the DJ set a band were slowly setting up with a drum kit, a violinist and a tuba player. I got that familiar feeling of excitement when you can;t figure out what the next band are going to sound like, and persuaded Joseph to stay and see the band. As it turns out, this was a highly excellent decision.
Binder and Kriegelstein is the name of the band, they consist of one man on vocals, drums and laptop, one man on trombone and occasionally tuba, a man on violin and a small, smiling ridiculously clothed frontwoman. The attire is an integral part of the group's appeal, and I think shows up an important point about them, namely that they are in no way at all serious about what they are doing. Each member was dressed for a completely different band, the violinist with a solemn face, trousers and a leather waistcoat like he was some traditional austrian session musician. The trombonist in a full on ska-esque suit, the lead singer in a weird combination of traditional austrian dress and cape with an electric pink wig, and the drummer in a scruffy T-Shirt.
The music was a genius mix of ska-pop, rap, pure sugary pop goodness and honest-to-goodness folk music, with hefty doses of silliness in behaviour and lyrics. The main aim of the band is to entertain you, and entertain us they did, with an aptitude for the ridiculous which was more suited to a band taking part in the Brainlove festival, incidentally happening at the same time back in London. The mighty crushing together of genres is a powerful mix, and it fills me with happiness that such a band are popular enough here to find a number 2 spot on the biggest stage at the Stadtfest.
After the end of the set we escaped to the haven of the classical music stage, where some waltzes were the perfect background to some delicious Kaesespaetzle (basically thin gnocchi like stuff with heaps of melted chesse and the odd bit of onion and pepper. Unhealthy and tasty, as all street food must be). On the move again we quickly escaped the pedestrian rock of some beloved Austrian band of yesteryear to find ouselves in the more unusual company of 'Angelas Wean Herrn Band'. These guys combined tradition Viennese songs with Jazz, with some success I feel. The Jazz kept on the right side of utterly insane, so I was able to deal with it and enjoy the songs and solos, rather than just stand there and wander why the heck everyone was tapping their knees in time, as I have been known to do when exposed to Jazz in the past...
All in all a successful day.
I shall leave you with a couple of musical gifts from Binder and Kriegelstein, to brighten up your day. First a crazed video:
And now a pop hit:
And to finish, the live experience:
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Some things what I have been doing.
Well I guess I owe you all another blog nugget, or blogget. Despite the almost comically miserable weather, things are going rather well at the moment. I feel like I've really finally managed to completely settle in here. One month before I leave, naturally.
One of the many things that makes Austria a fine place to live is its position as the country with the second most national holidays in the world. This means that in May not only do we get Thursday off for the ascension of Christ, we also get a holiday for Pentecost too, only a week and a half later, and then a week and a half after that we get another Thursday off for a reason which I am not currently sure of. I think of it as 'Holy Thursday The Return' or something like that. My two day pentecost holiday combined with the department policy of not having lectures on fridays led to a sort of mini half term break last week. I spent a lot of time creating colourful A3 depictions of the regional geology of Austria, and I can I think happily say that I sort of understand the formation of 1/3 of the Alps. Which is a start. Inbetween the regional geology funtimes, I found a couple of opportunities to leave the house (during breaks in the incessant surprise thunderstorms).
The one and only WRN (currently firing lasers between space telescopes above the clouds on top of a volcano in the canaries, dammit) had informed me that right down the bottom of the Prater was a sort of reed filled nature reserve place, so I resolved to find it. I was very excited when I found the place, some old cut off arms of the Danube from before it was coralled into the rather dreary straight line channel that it occupies today. The place was FULL of wildlife. I was surprised by a Black Woodpecker hacking away at rotting wood only a few metres away, then minutes later I spotted my first of two probable water voles, and listened to a chorus of absurdly loud frogs. Oh and admired some mandarin ducks sitting calmly on the fallen logs. It was a beautiful spring evening, warm but not hot, smelling strongly of the flowers from the chestnut trees... I decided to extend my walk out of the Prater, however I took a wrong turn and ended up walking around in the outskirts of Vienna proper, past a huge power station. But this is Vienna and I was walking along a pleasant road with trees along each side in the sun, so I didn't mind so much. I eventually realised my mistake and made it back home, generating many delicious pictures.
That extended weekend also brought yet another trip to the Albertina, excellent as always, and a much needed but very boring shopping trip. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long until interesting things started happening again, on Thursday I had to go look around a flat for Ash. The owner was apologetic and said actually we couldn't go see the house today, but then invited me into his amazing first district appartment for a drink. He was an old ex dancer who had danced for 25 years at the Staatsoper, as well as many other places. He had even danced the Viennese waltz with the Princess of Kent, after which she tripped over and fell on him, meaning he got in ALL the papers, many on the front page. I mean I know this must have been in the 70s or so but still surely there was other stuff happening?? I sat round a table at which he had entertained Robert Redford and Meryl Streep of all people. Fascinating conversation, once I got over the initial confusion of someone being so nice to me.
Then yesterday it was the Lange Nacht der Kirchen, when most of the churches in Austria are open late till 12:00, with services, cakes/ other food, displays etc. The Stephansdom was lit up by an honest to goodness LASER DISPLAY shining through the incense smoke, backed up by a choir. Seriously, wow! I maintain that lasers are not inappropriate for the modern church, if people had been able to make heavenly laser displays back in the 16th Century there is no way they would have left them out! We went down into the crypt to gaze at the huge piles of bones and skulls, ossuary style but a little less artfully arranged. Plague victims, cardinals, it;s all down there. Apparently Mozart was probably in one of those piles, a far cry from his lovely and fake gravestone in the Zentralfriedhof. After that little memento mori we headed off to see the inside of the Orthodox Cathedral (amazing paintings, not a bit of wall blank) and passed through (somewhat surreally) an Anglican church where they were singing a mass in English. We then proceeded to the Museumsquartier for beer, just to balance out all the holiness. An excellent evening!
The city is still really busy as today and tomorrow are the Stadtfest, with stages and events happening all over the place. I'm off soon to check out some Balkan brass band in the Heldenplatz! I just hope it doesn't rain again....
Bis Bald, der Tom
One of the many things that makes Austria a fine place to live is its position as the country with the second most national holidays in the world. This means that in May not only do we get Thursday off for the ascension of Christ, we also get a holiday for Pentecost too, only a week and a half later, and then a week and a half after that we get another Thursday off for a reason which I am not currently sure of. I think of it as 'Holy Thursday The Return' or something like that. My two day pentecost holiday combined with the department policy of not having lectures on fridays led to a sort of mini half term break last week. I spent a lot of time creating colourful A3 depictions of the regional geology of Austria, and I can I think happily say that I sort of understand the formation of 1/3 of the Alps. Which is a start. Inbetween the regional geology funtimes, I found a couple of opportunities to leave the house (during breaks in the incessant surprise thunderstorms).
The one and only WRN (currently firing lasers between space telescopes above the clouds on top of a volcano in the canaries, dammit) had informed me that right down the bottom of the Prater was a sort of reed filled nature reserve place, so I resolved to find it. I was very excited when I found the place, some old cut off arms of the Danube from before it was coralled into the rather dreary straight line channel that it occupies today. The place was FULL of wildlife. I was surprised by a Black Woodpecker hacking away at rotting wood only a few metres away, then minutes later I spotted my first of two probable water voles, and listened to a chorus of absurdly loud frogs. Oh and admired some mandarin ducks sitting calmly on the fallen logs. It was a beautiful spring evening, warm but not hot, smelling strongly of the flowers from the chestnut trees... I decided to extend my walk out of the Prater, however I took a wrong turn and ended up walking around in the outskirts of Vienna proper, past a huge power station. But this is Vienna and I was walking along a pleasant road with trees along each side in the sun, so I didn't mind so much. I eventually realised my mistake and made it back home, generating many delicious pictures.
That extended weekend also brought yet another trip to the Albertina, excellent as always, and a much needed but very boring shopping trip. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long until interesting things started happening again, on Thursday I had to go look around a flat for Ash. The owner was apologetic and said actually we couldn't go see the house today, but then invited me into his amazing first district appartment for a drink. He was an old ex dancer who had danced for 25 years at the Staatsoper, as well as many other places. He had even danced the Viennese waltz with the Princess of Kent, after which she tripped over and fell on him, meaning he got in ALL the papers, many on the front page. I mean I know this must have been in the 70s or so but still surely there was other stuff happening?? I sat round a table at which he had entertained Robert Redford and Meryl Streep of all people. Fascinating conversation, once I got over the initial confusion of someone being so nice to me.
Then yesterday it was the Lange Nacht der Kirchen, when most of the churches in Austria are open late till 12:00, with services, cakes/ other food, displays etc. The Stephansdom was lit up by an honest to goodness LASER DISPLAY shining through the incense smoke, backed up by a choir. Seriously, wow! I maintain that lasers are not inappropriate for the modern church, if people had been able to make heavenly laser displays back in the 16th Century there is no way they would have left them out! We went down into the crypt to gaze at the huge piles of bones and skulls, ossuary style but a little less artfully arranged. Plague victims, cardinals, it;s all down there. Apparently Mozart was probably in one of those piles, a far cry from his lovely and fake gravestone in the Zentralfriedhof. After that little memento mori we headed off to see the inside of the Orthodox Cathedral (amazing paintings, not a bit of wall blank) and passed through (somewhat surreally) an Anglican church where they were singing a mass in English. We then proceeded to the Museumsquartier for beer, just to balance out all the holiness. An excellent evening!
The city is still really busy as today and tomorrow are the Stadtfest, with stages and events happening all over the place. I'm off soon to check out some Balkan brass band in the Heldenplatz! I just hope it doesn't rain again....
Bis Bald, der Tom
Monday, 10 May 2010
Oh dear, someone let Britain have an election again...
Seriously, what. Apart from the fact I was deprived of my democratic right despite Jaques getting his postal ballot in Israel (note he is in the same constituency), and the brilliant discrepancy in the votes cast to the seats gained, what really annoys me is the media (for which read BBC as there is no other media, right?) reaction to the election. Basically the British people have screwed up by serving up this unpalatable result. Yes, those idiots should have known this was going to happen and voted differently. Well, they will get what they deserve! Also, can I be the only one thinking that Nick Clegg + David Cameron is better than David Cameron + David Cameron? PERHAPS. Anyway, considering that most other European Nations have had species of proportional representation for years, our terror at the mere thought of coalition agreements seems sort of cute.
I am still alive over here, and infinitely glad to be able to switch off the news whenever I want and remain blissfully unaware of the latest political bowel movement, or whatever it is that is happening on News 24 right now. Last week was the European Geosciences Union conference, so many UCL geoscientists were in Vienna. This was a cause for great celebration and beer in the Siebenstern brewery, and I caught up with 2 PhD student friends of mine (demonstrators quickly become your friends in the Geology department, due to the joy of field trips). It was really great to see them and get some department gossip, and also meet some other members of the department who I only really knew by sight. Geologists are absolutely the most fun scientists you could find yourself with in a bar, I am pretty sure. There's even a section of American Dad honouring them I believe.
I had an exam on friday. I spent hours and hours revising but my 20 sides of coloured A3 notes where once again proved foolish by the 30 minute test I took. I am not annoyed at the university any more, I am annoyed at my inability to readjust myself to the new system and not waste time I could have spent learning yet more things... Ho hum.
Sunday was way better, after a day or two moping around with an unseasonal and annoying cold, I felt better and the sun was bright, so I headed out for a walk in the hills next to Vienna. And by next to, I mean I reached them with a 30 minute public transport ride from my door. I use this word far too much but the scenery out there is just beautiful. And made all the prettier by the incredible fact that for the most part you are still just on the border with Vienna, and even inside it. If I was in London, it would be like going for a hike in Brixton or something, distance wise...
Anyway, I indulged in my absolute favourite pastime, looking at stuff from high up. Pictures ---> SO COOL
Der Tom.
I am still alive over here, and infinitely glad to be able to switch off the news whenever I want and remain blissfully unaware of the latest political bowel movement, or whatever it is that is happening on News 24 right now. Last week was the European Geosciences Union conference, so many UCL geoscientists were in Vienna. This was a cause for great celebration and beer in the Siebenstern brewery, and I caught up with 2 PhD student friends of mine (demonstrators quickly become your friends in the Geology department, due to the joy of field trips). It was really great to see them and get some department gossip, and also meet some other members of the department who I only really knew by sight. Geologists are absolutely the most fun scientists you could find yourself with in a bar, I am pretty sure. There's even a section of American Dad honouring them I believe.
I had an exam on friday. I spent hours and hours revising but my 20 sides of coloured A3 notes where once again proved foolish by the 30 minute test I took. I am not annoyed at the university any more, I am annoyed at my inability to readjust myself to the new system and not waste time I could have spent learning yet more things... Ho hum.
Sunday was way better, after a day or two moping around with an unseasonal and annoying cold, I felt better and the sun was bright, so I headed out for a walk in the hills next to Vienna. And by next to, I mean I reached them with a 30 minute public transport ride from my door. I use this word far too much but the scenery out there is just beautiful. And made all the prettier by the incredible fact that for the most part you are still just on the border with Vienna, and even inside it. If I was in London, it would be like going for a hike in Brixton or something, distance wise...
Anyway, I indulged in my absolute favourite pastime, looking at stuff from high up. Pictures ---> SO COOL
Der Tom.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
T-Shirt weather!
Finally the nice weather has returned, I think we have just about reached the point where one can walk out the door wearing no more layers than a T-shirt and expect to be warm most of the time (except for during the random outbreaks of torrential rain, but I guess they come with the warmth). This is quite a good thing, obviously.
These past few weeks have been pretty leisurely, I am enjoying for once being a mere spectator to the plainitive cries of those stuck in the revision mill, even if the prospect of most people I know finishing exams 1 month before my last lecture is slightly daunting. I have to remind myself that just because I haven't been given a big long holiday in which to freak out about exams, doesn't mean I don;t have any. Even if one of them IS a multiple choice exam. You know, before university the last multiple choice exam I did was probably the 11+, this is the second time I've had one at university... To be fair, this is only a fragment of one course unit. A weird fragmentary effect tends to occur with many courses consisting of sets of lectures by 4 different people. When this leads to 4 separate exams this can be pretty annoying. As far as I can guess this is further evidence for my theory that you're probably supposed to read deeply about the small number of things you're actually interested in and coast through the rest. I'm not really into that attitude, but I will see what I can do. A lot of the exams would mormally be held in september, which is a it rubbish for me, as I will have to fit them in before I leave.
On leaving: If you had asked me a couple of months ago if I was ready to leave in 2 months, I think I might have said yes,but now spring/summer are here I'm not so sure. Chatting with Ash about London has realy brought to the forefront of my mind how amazing it is to live somewhere this pleasant, in weather as much as architecture or people, and I think it will make the walk back from Manor House to 80 Warwick Gardens (if that is indeed where I end up living) on an overcast day in October just that little bit more forbidding. Ho hum, that's what you get for daring to widen your horizons I guess!
Speaking of 'widening my horizons', (which is in itself one of those beautiful school foreign language lesson catch-all phrases that can be used to pepper oral or essay work at will), I have a feeling my grand TV experiment may be working. Ever the scientist, I cannot be sure whether to attribute my recent improvement in German to watching TV almost every day, to some kind of psychological factor where I think I should be getting better so I do, or something else entirely, of course. It helps that I am practising regularly with Ruth on our now twice weekly climbing trips to the Haus des Meeres Flakturm. When Hitler ordered the building of these concrete behemoths, I doubt he imagined he was creating opportunities for future climbing wall-sea life centre combos... I must remember to take my camera one day. And subsequently remember not to drop it from a 30m climbing wall...
Hmm, I gues there are many half finished thoughts that have drifted in and out of my head in the last few weeks, but I can't remember them now thus they are by definition unimportant.
Enjoy your election hype, Britain fans!
TG
These past few weeks have been pretty leisurely, I am enjoying for once being a mere spectator to the plainitive cries of those stuck in the revision mill, even if the prospect of most people I know finishing exams 1 month before my last lecture is slightly daunting. I have to remind myself that just because I haven't been given a big long holiday in which to freak out about exams, doesn't mean I don;t have any. Even if one of them IS a multiple choice exam. You know, before university the last multiple choice exam I did was probably the 11+, this is the second time I've had one at university... To be fair, this is only a fragment of one course unit. A weird fragmentary effect tends to occur with many courses consisting of sets of lectures by 4 different people. When this leads to 4 separate exams this can be pretty annoying. As far as I can guess this is further evidence for my theory that you're probably supposed to read deeply about the small number of things you're actually interested in and coast through the rest. I'm not really into that attitude, but I will see what I can do. A lot of the exams would mormally be held in september, which is a it rubbish for me, as I will have to fit them in before I leave.
On leaving: If you had asked me a couple of months ago if I was ready to leave in 2 months, I think I might have said yes,but now spring/summer are here I'm not so sure. Chatting with Ash about London has realy brought to the forefront of my mind how amazing it is to live somewhere this pleasant, in weather as much as architecture or people, and I think it will make the walk back from Manor House to 80 Warwick Gardens (if that is indeed where I end up living) on an overcast day in October just that little bit more forbidding. Ho hum, that's what you get for daring to widen your horizons I guess!
Speaking of 'widening my horizons', (which is in itself one of those beautiful school foreign language lesson catch-all phrases that can be used to pepper oral or essay work at will), I have a feeling my grand TV experiment may be working. Ever the scientist, I cannot be sure whether to attribute my recent improvement in German to watching TV almost every day, to some kind of psychological factor where I think I should be getting better so I do, or something else entirely, of course. It helps that I am practising regularly with Ruth on our now twice weekly climbing trips to the Haus des Meeres Flakturm. When Hitler ordered the building of these concrete behemoths, I doubt he imagined he was creating opportunities for future climbing wall-sea life centre combos... I must remember to take my camera one day. And subsequently remember not to drop it from a 30m climbing wall...
Hmm, I gues there are many half finished thoughts that have drifted in and out of my head in the last few weeks, but I can't remember them now thus they are by definition unimportant.
Enjoy your election hype, Britain fans!
TG
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Decidedly non-volcanic Ash
I thought of the hilarious pun above ages ago, and almost didn't use it after it transpired that my parents had already thought of it. Bang goes my originality, I thought. Nevertheless, I feel I should take the chance offered to me by my great benefactor geology.
Ash came to visit! And this time it wasn't -2 degrees, or snowing, and his flight wasn't even cancelled once! His arrival was mighty timely, for I was still in tourism mode from my Finland trip. I am really glad that he turned up and jolted me out of my routine and back into properly noticing Vienna. I had got into a bit of a rut, travelling only between home and university or occasionally the odd climbing wall or cafe, but this gave me a chance to spend a whole week showing off Vienna to Ash and myself and doing those things I kept 'meaning to do' but never did. Of course, part of my enewed enthusiasm for the city has been created by the spring weather too! My, it is lovely here at the moment, in between the rainstorms.
I hope Ash won't mind (as he posted this on his facebook status I'm guessing not) but I will allow you to browse through the photos of an actual photographer (that is Ash) this time. Simply go here and type the word Vienna in the box. Even with his non monstrous camera Ash captured some impressive shots. While you're there, check out his other work, I think you will agree it is pretty impressive.
When Ash arrived I took him on a proper long walk round the whole city in delicious sunshine. On the way I was shocked at how suddenly spring had crept up on all the parks and things I last remember looking at in about february, making them all green and flowery. This realisation that things had been growing all over the place really surprised me with how little I had visited these places recently. We went up the scaffold in the Karlskirche, as you can see in the pictures. The roof painting was incredible, the wobbling scaffolding (60m high), less so. Worth the entry price though! Ate tasty food at the restaurant with the self proclaimed best falafel in Vienna. Ooh yeah.
Tuesday we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Hofburg museums (arms and armour and ancient musical instruments), both things I had kept meaning to do but never got round to. We only properly managed the Kunst half of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and even then it took several hours... Literally every pre 19th century painter of fame seemed to be there. The amount of talent and the sheer age of most of the stuff was a bit overwhelming. Highlights? Seeing several real Arcimboldos, (6 or so years after we had to constantly analyse the man's work for art lessons) the giant wall covering epics, the odd excellent Titian, seemingly almost everything done and still existing by a Dutch legend called Pieter Bruegel the Elder. All the people in his pictures had their own little expression and impression of a story behind them. Especially cool was 'The Battle Between Carnival and Lent'. Just take some time to look at all the brilliant characters! Also fascinating was an exhibition all about one single picture by Vermeer, and all the inspiration, methods, research, restoration and themes around it. I like the idea of knowing so much about just one picture by an artist.
Wandering around the Hofburg in seemingly endless classical marble halls surrounded by random ancient things, especially on a day when the museum was otherwise deserted, was a surreal experience reminiscent of exploring some kind of mystery computer game setting... The arms and armour collection was crazy. One of the largest in the world, and really what more is there to say than there was a LOT of exquisitely designed armour and weaponry on display. Some exquisitely designed but not actually meant for real use of course, as the ludicrous shield-gauntlet-sword-oil lamp-spike combo in Ash's pictures demostrates (if used it would have doused your arm in hot oil, apart from the many other design flaws). Equally interesting was the collection of old musical instruments. There are a LOT of ways to make noises, my goodness. The free audioguide was especially appreciated for this one, because really what use is looking at an instrument without knowing how it sounds?!
Thursday was spent at the zoo (sealion feeding! pandas! giraffes! you know what happens in zoos) which was pretty darn cool. As the afternoon sun (19 degrees ) began to go down we made it to the gradens arguably Vienna's most famous palace, Schoenbrunn. Stunning, even by Viennese standards. Friday we went to Bratislava. I feel this place gets a bad rap from people, yeah I suppose the biggest part of the city is just ugly tower blocks, but the old town and castle area (where we spent all our time) really is beautiful. Plus can you really complain about a place whre a 500ml 10% beer costs you €1.10? No, I thought not. A few of my photos of Bratislava can be found here.
Saturday the rain came down with a vengeance, but I still managed to give Ash a brief tour of the Naschmarkt and let myself be ritually ripped off by it. Gosh darn it, if only the food they rip you off with wasn't so tasty! The combination of bergkaese and true (in saltwater) pickled gherkins is definitely unbeatable. We also toured the Schatzkammer, I'd been before but you still can't really prepare yourself for that much sheer opulence and age... Sunday we went to the Naturhistorisches Museum, my favourite museum here, at least taken by number of visits (I think I have been 4 times at least). Every time it is fantastic, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
The last day and a bit of Ash's stay I had university, but we still managed to meet up in the evening for a semi traditional Siebensternbrauerei visit. Ash (against my advice) went for the chilli beer. He loved it, but seriously people, a warning, when they say chilli beer, they mean it! That beer has serious burn! As usual the food was stupidly filling but also stupidly tasty.
So yeah, there you go. Who knows soon you may find out what's been going on more recently.
Until then!
Der Tom
Ash came to visit! And this time it wasn't -2 degrees, or snowing, and his flight wasn't even cancelled once! His arrival was mighty timely, for I was still in tourism mode from my Finland trip. I am really glad that he turned up and jolted me out of my routine and back into properly noticing Vienna. I had got into a bit of a rut, travelling only between home and university or occasionally the odd climbing wall or cafe, but this gave me a chance to spend a whole week showing off Vienna to Ash and myself and doing those things I kept 'meaning to do' but never did. Of course, part of my enewed enthusiasm for the city has been created by the spring weather too! My, it is lovely here at the moment, in between the rainstorms.
I hope Ash won't mind (as he posted this on his facebook status I'm guessing not) but I will allow you to browse through the photos of an actual photographer (that is Ash) this time. Simply go here and type the word Vienna in the box. Even with his non monstrous camera Ash captured some impressive shots. While you're there, check out his other work, I think you will agree it is pretty impressive.
When Ash arrived I took him on a proper long walk round the whole city in delicious sunshine. On the way I was shocked at how suddenly spring had crept up on all the parks and things I last remember looking at in about february, making them all green and flowery. This realisation that things had been growing all over the place really surprised me with how little I had visited these places recently. We went up the scaffold in the Karlskirche, as you can see in the pictures. The roof painting was incredible, the wobbling scaffolding (60m high), less so. Worth the entry price though! Ate tasty food at the restaurant with the self proclaimed best falafel in Vienna. Ooh yeah.
Tuesday we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Hofburg museums (arms and armour and ancient musical instruments), both things I had kept meaning to do but never got round to. We only properly managed the Kunst half of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and even then it took several hours... Literally every pre 19th century painter of fame seemed to be there. The amount of talent and the sheer age of most of the stuff was a bit overwhelming. Highlights? Seeing several real Arcimboldos, (6 or so years after we had to constantly analyse the man's work for art lessons) the giant wall covering epics, the odd excellent Titian, seemingly almost everything done and still existing by a Dutch legend called Pieter Bruegel the Elder. All the people in his pictures had their own little expression and impression of a story behind them. Especially cool was 'The Battle Between Carnival and Lent'. Just take some time to look at all the brilliant characters! Also fascinating was an exhibition all about one single picture by Vermeer, and all the inspiration, methods, research, restoration and themes around it. I like the idea of knowing so much about just one picture by an artist.
Wandering around the Hofburg in seemingly endless classical marble halls surrounded by random ancient things, especially on a day when the museum was otherwise deserted, was a surreal experience reminiscent of exploring some kind of mystery computer game setting... The arms and armour collection was crazy. One of the largest in the world, and really what more is there to say than there was a LOT of exquisitely designed armour and weaponry on display. Some exquisitely designed but not actually meant for real use of course, as the ludicrous shield-gauntlet-sword-oil lamp-spike combo in Ash's pictures demostrates (if used it would have doused your arm in hot oil, apart from the many other design flaws). Equally interesting was the collection of old musical instruments. There are a LOT of ways to make noises, my goodness. The free audioguide was especially appreciated for this one, because really what use is looking at an instrument without knowing how it sounds?!
Thursday was spent at the zoo (sealion feeding! pandas! giraffes! you know what happens in zoos) which was pretty darn cool. As the afternoon sun (19 degrees ) began to go down we made it to the gradens arguably Vienna's most famous palace, Schoenbrunn. Stunning, even by Viennese standards. Friday we went to Bratislava. I feel this place gets a bad rap from people, yeah I suppose the biggest part of the city is just ugly tower blocks, but the old town and castle area (where we spent all our time) really is beautiful. Plus can you really complain about a place whre a 500ml 10% beer costs you €1.10? No, I thought not. A few of my photos of Bratislava can be found here.
Saturday the rain came down with a vengeance, but I still managed to give Ash a brief tour of the Naschmarkt and let myself be ritually ripped off by it. Gosh darn it, if only the food they rip you off with wasn't so tasty! The combination of bergkaese and true (in saltwater) pickled gherkins is definitely unbeatable. We also toured the Schatzkammer, I'd been before but you still can't really prepare yourself for that much sheer opulence and age... Sunday we went to the Naturhistorisches Museum, my favourite museum here, at least taken by number of visits (I think I have been 4 times at least). Every time it is fantastic, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
The last day and a bit of Ash's stay I had university, but we still managed to meet up in the evening for a semi traditional Siebensternbrauerei visit. Ash (against my advice) went for the chilli beer. He loved it, but seriously people, a warning, when they say chilli beer, they mean it! That beer has serious burn! As usual the food was stupidly filling but also stupidly tasty.
So yeah, there you go. Who knows soon you may find out what's been going on more recently.
Until then!
Der Tom
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