Jane Goodall

A friend posted this video on Facebook and I thought it was too good not to share. Not only is Jane Goodall an amazing human being for all that she's already done, but she's such an inspiration to keep on doing everything you can to make the world a better place for as long as you can.

If I'm 80 and still as articulate as her I'll be very pleased!

A zero waste town?

I saw this video and thought I had to share it - particularly given how much I've been indoctrinated into sorting all my rubbish (we had all sorts of different bins at LSE and now I get really annoyed at my new work when they throw all sorts of things into the compost bin) and also how much I thought Mum and Dad would like it given how well they recycle at home!

I've also been learning more about the concept of a circular economy which really seems like it's becoming a very popular idea and I definitely think it's the way forward. An old idea really but one that's really important - if only to have a better sense of how much "stuff" we really use in our day to day lives.

I like how they realise that it wasn't easy - imagine sorting your waste into 34 categories! But it's also great how they show what things get recycled into, and talk about reducing the waste that gets made in the first place. An inspirational town for sure - good luck to them becoming 100% zero waste!

Jacob's Ladder and Kinder Scout - walk #4

Our final walk was an absolutely stunning circuit from Edale, onto the Pennine Way, up Jacob's Ladder and onto Kinder Plateau.

The day started off a bit grey but after a windy drive to the heart of the Peak District we arrived at Edale and to the beginning of the famous Pennine Way which goes all the way to Northumberland.

We started off on a path through the trees towards paddocks where the way was marked with large flagstones. After walking for a few kms up through the Edale Valley we reached the bottom of Jacob's Ladder. It was a hard 22 minutes up to the very windy top but very rewarding once we got to the end!

Here's a (very noisy - so don't have the volume up too loud!) video of us at the top:

Then it was right across the Kinder plateau (also known as Kinder Scout) where we walked across very springy black peat to the gritstone tors of the Kinder Edges which was like walking through a moon scape of giant rocks. The view out over Edale valley was just spectacular and the silence was something quite unusual for us city dwellers! We did encounter other walkers (or ramblers as they're known here) but it was nowhere near as busy as I imagine such a famous walk would be during summer or on the weekend.

We made it through the tors back onto the moors where the light was stunning over the heather. Unfortunately I must have been overly distracted as it was on the (mostly flat) flagstones that I toppled right over, spraining my left ankle and right shoulder and putting a massive bruise on my left knee... Very annoying but after accepting the very kind offer of some paracetamol from a passing Duke of Edinburgh leader, commandeering Adrian's Lesothan walking stick and taking his helping hand, we finally made it down to the end of the walk just as it started to rain. Pretty perfect timing all in all, and then off home to relax with plenty of ice (including in my G&T) on the couch.

Despite the mishap it was a brilliant walk and well worth doing if you're in the area. We had a fabulous time up there and it was just the thing we needed. Now I just need to get this swelling down before my new job starts on Monday!

At the official start of the Pennine Way

Don't think we'll be going all the way to the end this time!

The very pretty Edale valley

At the bottom of the ladder

Nearly at the top!

Made it! At the top on Kinder Plateau

Heading off across the peat

The tors on the Kinder Edges behind a pair of very squinty ramblers

Jump!

Pretty mountain stream

Can you see the two faces of the dog?

Such pretty heather (and lethal - to me - flagstones)

And the unfortunate end of the walk - should be right soon though!

Gratefulness

I was recently challenged by a friend to do this gratefulness challenge online - basically, you have to say three things a day that you're grateful for, for seven days, and then each day, also nominate someone new to take up the challenge.

Realising that most of you who read this aren't also on Facebook, I thought I would repeat it here. I've already done five days out of seven, so I guess I'll split it into two posts.

Day one (29th October):
1. The wonderful people involved with LSE Bees! Despite the rain, we had a brilliant honey festival today (I will put photos on the LSE Bees blog at some point too...)
2. There being a single bus from my house all the way to uni that I can get on rainy days like this, laden with things
3. The freedom to spend my morning icing cupcakes and my afternoon talking to people about bees – I will miss you PhD when you’re gone…

Day two (30th October):
1. Lunch with a friend rather than at my computer
2. Looking forward to dinner with some of my lovely NSEP peeps who continue to delight me so many years down the track
3. My awesome new 'party pants' - if you can't have fun with fashion, what's the point?

Got so much love for my floral trousers!

Day three (31st October):
1. An inspiring and productive meeting with my co-author
2. Sunny London weather making for an invigorating ride in and a beautiful view out over the city from my office
3. Great new tunes from the 2014 Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers:

Day four (1st November):
1. Bopping out to cheesy music while spending a Saturday in the office
2. Stunning fireworks display in St Albans and having the opportunity to hang with lovely peeps after said day in the office
3. Finally finding the perfect outfit (not) to wear for when I finally graduate (read the reviews, they're hilarious)

Day five (2nd November):
1. A lovely lazy sleep/lie in complete with masala tea from Nepal and listening to the rain beat against the windows
2. Making roasted butternut squash seeds - I really like finding a way to do something with things that you may otherwise have thrown away
3. Buying tickets for next Friday for this completely random cabaret - I'll let you know how it goes!

And that's it so far - stay tuned for the last two days!

Planting poppies at the Tower of London

We had a very unusual Thursday morning today, as instead of going to work, we went to the Tower of London as volunteers to help plant poppies for their remembrance art installation for WWI called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red.



There are 888,246 poppies being planted in the moat to commemorate every single British death and each poppy is handmade and then planted by us, the volunteers. Apparently there are nearly 300,000 left to plant which seems incredible given how many there were already there! Here's a short (3 minute) video showing how they're made:

It was fun to be part of, both making the steel rod/washer combos to support the poppies, and then the actual installation of each poppy. The fact that it's something so iconic is great as well, particularly given how much I enjoyed our trip to the Tower of London a few years ago - absolutely one of my tourist highlights of London. I also laughed at all the tourists taking photos of us - total paparazzi!






There are some more photos here, and if you're interested in buying one, they're selling the poppies for £25 each after Armistice Day here in support of six different service charities.

Apparently they also need volunteers to help remove them come November, so get involved!

Rekindle

I've just come across this beautiful video introducing Rekindle, which is an amazing social enterprise based in Christchurch using salvaged wood from the earthquake to make the most gorgeous furniture.

rekindle - waste wood into furniture from Dollarmixbag / Ash Robinson on Vimeo.

It is well worth watching the full video as it tells a truly inspiring story about the types of people and ideas that I think should be encouraged throughout our community.

And, if you'd like to support Rekindle you can either (if you're Christchurch-based) let them know about any wood available for salvage, or buy a piece of their furniture.  If I wasn't a poor student I definitely would!  Their website is at www.rekindle.org.nz. 

Abu Simbel and cruisin' the Nile

One of the optional extras on our trip was a visit to Abu Simbel.  Having had it highly recommended to us by people who'd already been to Egypt (thanks Pam!) we decided to go have a look and it definitely did not disappoint.

A 3am start was followed by a long convoy bus ride down from Aswan to the site.  Abu Simbel, which is only about 50km or so from the border with Sudan in the south, is the name for two temples constructed by Ramesses II in in the 13th Century BC and then moved, in their entirety, in the 1960s to save them being flooded by the Nile as a result of the construction of the Aswan Dam.

As well as being absolutely amazing to look at inside and out, these temples (one for Ramesses II himself and the other for his wife, Nefertari) are amazing feats of engineering.  And I'm talking here about their original, and relocated, construction!  Just thinking about the size of each component part and how they were constructed, then moved, piece-by-piece (they moved this entire mountain!) was quite awe inspiring.

They're situated right on the banks of the Nile (much better than underneath it) and have an amazing atmosphere.  I took a video but unfortunately the strong wind makes it pretty impossible to make out what I'm saying, so you'll just have to make do with this one from the BBC:



After the long trip back to Aswan we boarded our felucca for a few days sailing up the Nile.  I have to say that while I wasn't really expecting much, this was a major highlight of the trip.  Although in hindsight, realising that it was all about lazing around and doing nothing in the sun, how could it not be a highlight!

It was just so relaxing and peaceful to be gracefully swooping down the Nile without a care in the world, apart from whether to read or have a bit of snooze!  It was also really cool to actually go swimming in the Nile and realise how clean it was - it was clear to beyond our toes even.  And lots of fun to jump in and be towed behind the felucca on a rope.

All our meals were cooked on board our felucca (called 'Butterfly') by our crew and we got to try all sorts of things like fresh dates and other goodies.  Unfortunately the food didn't agree with some of us (although I was fine - absolutely could not believe I didn't get sick in Egypt despite eating everything under the sun including dodgy street kebabs; it was an absolute miracle) so my extensive collection of diarrhoea tablets and rehydration sachets came in very handy.  Considering the toilet was the bushes at the side of the river I'm very pleased it wasn't me!

We also had a couple of fun nights up on the banks of the river playing a long game of charades which, while starting between a couple of us as a way to pass the time ended up involving nearly the entire tour group, as well as another night hanging out by a fire, dancing and toasting marshmallows.

I was pretty devastated to have to leave, but there were more temples to see and hieroglyphics to read!  Onwards to Luxor...

Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That)!

Flight of the Conchords (for all those who haven't heard of them, check out this compilation video), have just released a new song raising money for Red Nose Day 2012.  The charity organising the event is CureKids, a NZ-based charity that funds medical research into life-threatening childhood illnesses.

It is one of the funniest things I've seen in ages - make sure you watch all the interviews with the kids and then listen to the lyrics!

You can buy the track from iTunes for only NZ$1.79 (about £0.90) - bargain!

Kathmandu comes to life

One of the things that I tried to do during my trip to Kathmandu was to take more videos, as I think they're great at showing a different perspective from photos.  I hope you enjoy them!

This was in one of the little Suzuki taxis taking us from central Kathmandu to Swayambhunath - I stuck my hand out (not too far!) of the window so that I could capture the incessant honking and noise, as well as the general feel of the city streets.

This is us at Swayambhunath, the monkey temple, attempting to increase our lucky chances.  I don't know if the fact we were throwing UK pennies in, rather than Nepalese rupees made a difference, but I did manage to hit the platform which was pretty good!
 

Another video from Swayambhunath, showing the monkeys being quite excited about having just been fed some apples by a visitor.  Mazida wanted to take one back with us...I wasn't so sure!


This video is looking out over a square in Bhaktapur.  It was just lovely being up there (we're atop a temple) and looking out over the cloud covered hills.  I also really liked the roofs covered in grass - looked like you could graze a goat on some of them!


I particularly like this one - it shows the view from the 'hippie temple' in Kathmandu's Durbar Square.  I could totally imagine how people could just spend hours and hours sitting up there, just taking in the sights.  It was so cool to see the square so alive with people - not just a staid monument area.




And finally the Boudhanath stupa.  The video is taken from the first tier of the stupa, looking down.  It was so magical there, really an amazing place.

Summer lunch

Today we're finally seeing some sunshine peep through the rainclouds which is making both me (and my beans - more on them in another post!) very happy.  In its honour I decided a summery lunch was in order, and here's the result:

I cooked up some pasta (in my case it was a bit of vermicelli), chucked some baby peas in when the pasta was nearly done, and then tossed it up with some sliced lemon rind, mint (from the garden!), some fancy olive oil and lots of cracked black pepper and some sea salt flakes.  Yum!

And while I was eating it, one of my favourite summery songs came on the radio - perfect timing!

Coastal meanderings

After months and months passing without seeing the sea, it was time to rectify the situation with a few spring-time trips to the beach.

First, we headed down to Brighton for a night to catch a band in concert that Adrian really wanted to see and completely lucked out with the weather.  Adrian had cycled down, and I met him there after getting the train.  We visited the Brighton Pavilion which was quite incredible (George V's boy's weekend getaway palace basically) and walked down the pier and just enjoyed the sun.  We were staying right on the seafront too which was fun and made it really easy to get around.  Lunch on the Sunday was at a delicious restaurant called Food for Friends, a vegetarian place where the food was absolutely beautiful - and yum!

On the rollercoaster on Brighton Pier

 

Our second trip was to Cornwall for Easter, where we based ourselves at Holywell Bay, just south of Newquay, and spent five days exploring.  We covered a lot of ground, starting from Exeter, crossing Dartmoor, then visiting various towns including Polperro, St Ives, Fowey, Padstow (where we had Rick Stein's fish and chips - yum!) and right down to the bottom to Lands End, and then Lizard Point which was really beautiful - quite wild and untamed.

However, probably my favourite bit of Cornwall was the Eden Project.  It's basically a huge garden, half of which is under these huge biodomes, built on the site of an abandoned clay mine.  One of the biodomes is a tropical rainforest and the other is a Mediterranean garden.  I would definitely recommend clicking on the link to find out more - it was so cool!  We spent hours there, just in awe at what they'd made.  I loved it and would definitely recommend anyone to go if they're thinking of visiting that area.

And then the third of our coastal trips was to Guernsey and Sark.  I've wanted to go to Sark ever since I read about it here at the beginning of last year, and it absolutely didn't disappoint - I've never seen stars like it!  We were really lucky apparently, with Venus super bright, and then Saturn and Jupiter really yellow and red respectively.  The local astronomy society's president (the 'Star Fleet Commander'!) Annie was so welcoming, and spent an hour with us in her back garden explaning everything, and even pointing out the International Space Station going overhead.  

Sark itself is so neat - there are no cars allowed, so it's only bicycles and tractors, and the main street is tiny!  It's only about 4.5km from one end to the other, so we explored the whole island in one day, just cycling about and walking down to the sea at the edges.  We had beautiful weather, and really enjoyed camping under the stars after boogieing down at the Mermaid Disco - Sark's premiere night spot!  We also had delicious food, including some amazing croissants and a half lobster - so good.

Here's a really cool video showing the incredible stars :

 

Guernsey was also really interesting (you have to go to Guernsey to get to Sark via the ferry) and we were lucky enough to have friends there who we could stay with.  We walked through a beautiful bluebell wood, visited Victor Hugo's house, did a circumnavigation of the island to see all the bays, saw the Little Chapel and again, ate really good food!  (I'm sensing a theme here...).

All in all, I feel completely rejuvinated by our time at the sea - unfortunately it's yet to get warm enough to swim, but hopefully that's not too far away!

Click here for the rest of the photos...there are some good ones I promise!

Welsh choir

At the end of February, the Six Nations rugby tournament started.  One of the games was England versus Wales at Twickenham, which meant that London was inundated with Welsh supporters.

We were out and about in Kensington of all places, and we (Adrian, me, and Bruce, a friend of ours) ended up in a pub filled with rugby supporters.  They ran through the most amazing line-up of songs, doing nearly every traditional rugby song imaginable.  The singing was pretty good - check it out!

Soapbox

In honour of my departmental presentation on my research tomorrow, I thought I'd share a little video which I think pretty much sums things up...

Inspiration

Not that I'm planning to walk 4000km across China any time soon, but I really love the sense of adventure and discovery in this video.  It's definitely worth a watch!

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

And if you click here, there are lots of other timelapse videos, including repainting a Boeing 747, blizzards, lunar eclipses, and an amazing one (#2) of a dot-picture being drawn.  Really cool!

Out of the cold came Russia: Moscow

Arriving bleary eyed at 5am may not be the most glamorous way to start a visit to a new city, but sometimes it just has to be done.  We had caught the night train from Novgorod to Moscow and travelled third class (which basically means open bunks to the corridor).  I got a bit of sleep, but Adrian was so paranoid about being robbed again (shades of Serbian night trains) that he pretty much hadn't slept a wink.


We stayed at Hotel Vega, one of the hotels built for the Olympics, and they were amazing enough to let us all check in early so we could have a wee nap before starting the day.  Vega also had the best buffet breakfast of any we came across - it was actually quite incredible with everything ranging from soup to cakes, to fried cauliflower, to sliced goldfish (yes, you read that right) and salmon strudel.  That breakfast was probably the main culprit behind both of us having a slightly more snug pair of jeans than usual by the time we flew home...


We all reconvened and headed out on the incredible Moscow metro for a quick walking tour and orientation of the city.  The metro is incredible not due to its speed or efficiency (although the frequency of the trains was much higher than in London, leading to feeling like a sardine much less), but the beautiful decorations in the stations.  It's all chandeliers, mosaics, sculptures...  Every station is different and every mosaic tells a story which was really cool.  The below video (not my handiwork) gives you a really good look at what it's like:





But as fascinating as the metro is, what's above ground is even better.  Walking onto Red Square for the first time is just amazing - seeing St Basils at one end and knowing all the history of what's happened there.  We were lucky enough that Stalin's mausoleum was open that day (as it was closed for the rest of our time there), so we all dutifully filed down past his pale, waxy corpse and along the paths were all the other Russian leaders are buried.  It was really quite odd I must admit - he's very shiny and it definitely doesn't look like a body at all - hopefully he'll get buried up in St Petersburg with his mum as he wanted someday soon.

We had a delicious lunch at one of the communist eateries in the famous GUM department store right on Red Square (more beetroot!) and then went on a tour of a 'secret Soviet bunker'.  This bunker, 18 stories underground, was built in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood, totally on the sly, and was enormous.  It housed all sorts of information gathering people and machinery, but has now been opened up for tourists to visit.  We had a great time playing with the authentic stuff left behind!

Other things we did in Russia included a visit to the Kremlin where there are some incredibly ornate cathedrals (sadly no photos of the interiors but some are covered in frescoes from hundreds of years ago which have survived because they were only used extremely occasionally such as for coronations and that was it), a visit to a very quite and eerie sculpture park, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour which had a whole other layer in the crypt which we nearly missed, the enormous (and quite tacky) monument to Peter the Great, Gorky Park (which had an amazingly elaborate ice-skating rink and some cool snowpeople), and walked right up to the top of one of the hills overlooking the town for a spectacular view.


The main point of being in Moscow though was to be on Red Square for New Year's Eve.  However, seeing as there had been a lot of protests there lately (and was another one that night in which several hundred people were arrested), it was completely different from normal.  Police absolutely everywhere - we would have gone through nearly a dozen different metal detectors - and very limited freedom of movement.  That turned a bit sour for some of our group who wanted to go to the toilet and then weren't able to make their way back to us, but Adrian and I had bladders of steel so luckily didn't lose each other!  The night ended back at our hotel hanging out with a group of 19 year old Russians who hardly spoke any English (and we speak no Russian at all!) who were having a huge party in one of the rooms down the hall!  Definitely an interesting experience!


Overall, the whole trip was incredible; I couldn't have asked for more.  I would definitely recommend Russia to anyone!  Click the image below to look at the rest of the photos:

Out of the cold came Russia vol 2: Moscow

Running for happiness

In Novgorod, there's a tiny wee church (surrounded by about four others - they like their churches there) which has a beaten path completely encircling it.  Apparently (so we were told), if you run on the path around the church three times, you'll have happiness for life.  So, obviously, we had to give it a go!  If you listen closely you can hear Pam squealing with joy as she runs in the opposite direction to us - getting some of that happiness already!

I've since found all sort of other rationales for the 'lucky' church, including this one about marital bliss.  Considering Pip was the only one amongst us even close to matrimony, hopefully the good luck will last for the rest of us a bit longer into the future...!

Singing hedgehogs!

This is fantastic - don't click it unless you've got a spare 10 minutes though!

Prancing about in Prague

Back in July we spent four days in the Czech Republic with our friends Bas and Pip.  It was originally supposed to be the weekend he proposed but we crashed the party - whoops!  Fortunately he found another time to do it!

We spent two days in a very wet Prague, then another two days in Cesky Krumlov which is further south and near the Austrian and German borders.  I had huge expectations of Prague - everyone had said how amazing it was, and I'm sure if it was the first city of its type you had visited it would be incredible, but I think having already been to other European capitals (especially Budapest) it wasn't that special to me.  I'm such a world weary traveller!  But I think that's the thing - the first cathedral you see is amazing; the 10th, not so much.

But it was very interesting to see it finally and lots of fun to travel with our friends.  We saw all the big sights, like St Vitus' Cathedral, the castle, Jewish quarter and the astronomical clock.  We spent a fair bit of time stopping for food and drinks as well - got to fuel all this touristing somehow!  One slightly different thing we did do was go to the Museum of Decorative Arts which had so much stuff, ranging from suits of armour and a room full of clocks, to all these old posters and fantastic clothes.  I would definitely recommend including it on an itinerary for Prague.

After Prague, Adrian and I continued down to Cesky Krumlov which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and famous for its pretty setting and river rafting.  Unfortunately it wasn't so hot while we were there, and we were a little rushed for time (we got the kayak back with minutes to spare!), but overall I really enjoyed it there. Here's a quick video of some other people rafting taken from up by the castle:

They had the same basic highlights (castle, old town etc.), but other neat things included extremely cheap ice-creams, a fantastic tower and a very cool mirror maze which amused us no end.  Garnets are hugely popular in the Czech Republic and in Cesky Krumlov, after much looking around at the incredible variety of pretty things on offer, Adrian very generously bought me a beautiful little pair of earrings - how spoiled am I...

Click here to look at the rest of the photos.

Autumn in Aotearoa

Paying £1400 for a four minute appointment at the immigration office (solely to get fingerprints and a photo taken - both of which they already had on file from a previous application) seems slightly OTT, but that's what it takes to get a UK student visa these days...  Oh, and that's not including the approximately £250 cost of the visa itself - yikes!

But, it made for a great excuse to go home for a three week visit.  I behaved like a proper socialite, with morning and afternoon teas, lunches and dinners scheduled at every available opportunity.  I gorged myself on sushi as it's so expensive and so terrible in London compared to NZ (massive shoutout to Umi Sushi in Takapuna - the best sushi rolls in NZ and only $1 each!).  Big thank you to Mum for supporting my sushi habit too; I was mightily spoiled.  It was great being at home in general - I certainly got used to a life of luxury again very quickly!

Another highlight was going with Dad to a Rugby World Cup game (Australia versus Italy).  We were passionate Italian supporters, but despite going into half-time at a nail-biting 6 all, it wasn't to go our way, with Australia storming home in the second half.

Here's a video of Dad and I at the game enjoying the fantastically temporamental Auckland weather:

It was great seeing everyone as well, particularly the lovely Auckland ladies who are just as gorgeous as ever.  I had a fleeting visit down to Wellington as well which was excellent.  I tried to see everyone, and even though a few people missed out, my bank balance certainly reflected the fact that I saw as many people as I possibly could!  It was so interesting catching up on what everyone's getting up to, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the next generation - little Sonja and Oscar were so adorable.

I hardly took enough photos, but the few I did remember to take are here using this link, so check them out.

A taste of Japan

This is at the Cold Stone Cremery, an ice cream chain which was highly recommended to me as worth a visit while I was in Japan.  This one is in Roppongi Hills where the staff were super enthusiastic!

More photos and stories of Japan to come...