Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Look Right then Left

That title is my new mantra! It is repeated as I come upon any form of motor way... be it busy street or empty drive way. It may not always be correct, but I feel as though repeating it will constantly remind me not to dive headfirst into kooky London traffic, and therefore save my life a high percentage of the time.

Ah London! I've arrived! Maybe I should start from the beginning of this adventure...

hmm... Let's see, the plane... the flight was speedy. We arrived a whole hour early due to strong tail winds. There's something about the idea of a strong gust of wind pushing an aluminum alloy machine through the sky that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable... but anything that eliminates the need to be stuck in a enclosed space for too long can't be all that bad now can it?

Anyway the flight was rather uneventful, Safety demo, TV, food, movie, TV, old movie, more food. I was seated next to an abnormally tall, skinny man who apparently thought that it was completely normal to enter into an enclosed space without having washed his hair for at least 3 months. I grinned and bore it while silently cursing him and his equally oily scalped, pda-loving girlfriend who was seated in the row behind us. Let me tell you... nothing got in the way of their love... not even the chairs. ughhh!

Once I had arrived, the adventure truly began. I picked up my luggage, and proceeded to the tube station, the beginning of my long trek to Hackney. Not having Craig's number I was unaware if he would even be home when I got there... Oh let's face it, even if I had had the number, it would have taken me precious time to figure out how to use all 27 of it's digits effectively.

Monday night:

My friend Craig had a friend hosting an amazing event at the Tate Modern Museum (my favorite museum ever) The event featured interesting scientific materials, all of which could be touched and manipulated by the participants. The two most interesting materials were the Aerogel: a substance that is lighter than a feather and is the least dense solid on the planet; because it is made up of 99.8% air. The second was a Shape Memory Alloy. Once it is set in a particular shape, you need only to blow torch it... yes I held and operated a blow torch... for it to return to it's original shape! At the end of the night we all slid down the slide to Turbine hall.

That's it for now. The adventure continues tomorrow... so until then... look right, then left; and mind the gap!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip! Any pics?
Lauren