I’ve been told that however much you prepare for the experience, seeing the pyramids for the first time will blow you away. And it does.
The first glimpse
They really are impressive. Close up they are beyond huge, and when you reflect who made them, and how, you just get even more impressed.
Not small
The key is 52 degrees apparently. Anything else falls down.
Antiquities Police
Obligatory tourist shot
Went to a steam fair today. I love the smell of steam engines, and there were a lot there, along with assorted classic cars, tractors, models and all sorts.
The weather was kind to us and a good time was had by all.
I’ve not been to a rock concert for ages. I’ve never been to one where the headline act is 64 years old. But today I found myself in Nottingham Arena, surrounded by lots of people of a certain age, waiting for Neil Young to come and play his guitar at us.
By gum he was good though. I’ve not been a huge fan of his in the past, but I can see I’ve been missing out. I knew quite a few of the songs because they are standards, and they were all delivered with a gusto and energy that belied both the age of the performer and the fact that he must have played them many times before. It must be particularly strange for him to sing songs he wrote ages ago about being 24, but he did it all very well.
I took a camera and was a bit worried about taking pictures, but I knew I was OK when the security folk started ducking so that they would not be in my line of sight.
The support act were very good too. I’m afraid I didn’t catch their name though.
Great night out. I enjoyed it so much I even bought a T shirt…
Lovely weather today, so we went for a walk around the marina in the middle of Hull. I took the big camera.
Jolly Boating Weather
No, it wasn’t a catamaran.
Time for another bash. We had a good turnout, even though it was the last but one day of the session and lots of folks had headed home for free food and drink.
We had our first Unreal Tournament Bot programming event at a bash, which was fun although next time I’ll hopefully have a bot that does something more than stand in the corner.
I took the big camera, and got some happy snaps. There are more on Flkickr, tagged with 2009Hullsummerbash.
Subtle product placement?
A useful prize for a change?
Rock Band gets some hammer (that mysterious black blob at the left side of the picture is my camera case…)
Adam looks superior, as well he might…
I was doing some tidying up recently and I found a sheet of stickers:
I really have absolutely no idea what they were for. They remind me a lot of the notice that I once saw in a lake that said “Do not tie boats to this notice”.
My final session of the trip had me in front of another great audience. Thanks folks. I’ve put the code for all the demonstrations here.
This is my setup for the presentation. If you want to find the other pictures you might be in, you can find them on my Flickr pages.
After the talk it was off to grab a taxi to the station and then on to a very nice train (they have very nice trains in Holland) back to the airport and a plane home.
I like the seafood bar at Schipol airport. Not that raw fish before a flight strikes me as a massively good idea.
I took this picture on the way to the conference centre this morning. I’m sure there is a face in those clouds…
Went to a wedding today. Not been to one for a while. This one was splendid. We had super weather, a really great ceremony. 
..and a really great setting.
This is Thrumpton Hall.
.. and looking the other way.
Thanks to Mark and Juliette for inviting us along, and all the best wishes for the future.
I just liked the colours last night. Took the picture on the way out of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” which is an X-Men movie, and that is all you need to know about it really.
This is the middle of Hull. No, really.
If I have to work somewhere, I reckon this will do nicely.
I took these on the way to try and teach the first years about threading in C#.
We went down to Slimbridge today. We like going there. If you are going to bird watch I reckon it is best to go to a place where they keep loads of birds.
Apparently these chicks are all part of a record breaking brood. But how many can you find in the picture?
The weather forecast wasn’t wonderful. But that hasn’t stopped us from going to Whitby before, and it wouldn’t this time. And the Big Camera went too.
Beach Huts
The Harbour
We did get rained on. But we did manage to get into “The Magpie” for lunch. This is quite famous for serving really good fish and chips. And it was really good.
Round Thing with No Purpose I can Understand
I took this on the walk from the car park to the office. I like working here.
I don’t know who David Millington is. But I would love a go with his crane.
Today was the day of the Mad March Bash. This follows on from the Christmas bash we had at, er, Christmas, and has pretty much the same format. With a treasure Hunt too.
We had to use a different lab for the FragFest, but this did mean that we could have more systems, with 32 players taking part in mammoth Counterstrike action.
Network Gaming Action – but the only things moving are mice and keyboards
We tried using the Buzz quiz, and that was a great success. At Counterstike I got shot every time, but with Buzz I actually managed to win one contest. Go me.
Getting the Buzz
The food was the usual Pizza, fizzy drinks and afters. Including (of course) Easter eggs.
Meat Feast was still the most popular…
We actually had a winner of the Treasure Hunt. The team “The Nuzzling Badgers” managed to find every single cunningly hidden tag. Even the very high one.
Now, that’s a prize worth winning.
The Dance Mats were popular as ever.
..as was Rock Band.
Thanks to everyone who came along, I think a good time was had. Now we start preparing for the Grand Finale Midsummer Bash.
There are some more pictures on Flickr. I’ve tagged them with hull2009madmarchbash.
We had our biggest open day of the year today. Perhaps the biggest we have ever had. Thanks to everyone who came along, it was great to see you all. As usual I took a snap of the assembled multitude:
Funny how people always sit at the back in lecture theatres…
I gave my talk as usual, and I must apologise for the jokes. But, of course, I will be using them again…
We gave away a PSP to one lucky winner, ticket number 65 as I remember.
Warren, using his specially big hand to give the prize away. Note cunning product placement of C# Yellow Book (you can get yours at http://www.csharpcourse.com/)
I went outside with the big camera and ran straight into a rather nice photo-op.
I just love skies like these.
Anyway, thanks very much for coming and I hope you all have a good journey home.
Well, I did my lecture. Thanks to everyone who came along, it was fun. I’ll post the video tonight, once I’ve got it off my little camera. If you have any pictures or video of the fun and games, please get in touch and I’ll set up a group somewhere to share the magic…
We did rather well on the day:
..what it is all about. I’ll take it down to the bank later today. If you want to add to the pile, just drop by my office or sponsor me at:
http://www.myrednoseday.com/LectureInRhymeWithRob
I hit my target, and so I’ve moved it up a bit.
Update
on 2009-03-13 20:51 by Rob
We've counted all the money, and it turns out that the bucket had two hundred and fifty eight pounds 11 pence in it. All through the afternoon people were dropping by who couldn't make it to the lecture and they were dropping more cash in. Thanks to all the staff and students who were so generous. We are going to take the cash down to the bank tomorrow and this should bring the total earnings to well over 500 quid, which is ace!
I've put the lecture slides up here.
Our flight left early afternoon, which meant there was time for one final Seattle breakfast. It was as if the city was putting on its best show ever in an attempt to get us to stick around. The weather was the best I’ve ever seen in the place, which exposed some superb views.
Market sign
Ferry and mountains
Ferry arriving (as seen in “Grey’s Anatomy”)
To be honest, it won’t take much to persuade me to come back. Then it was off to the airport.
Plane spotting at the airport.
It has been a great summit, here’s to next time…
Rob Miles is technology author and educator who spent many years as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Hull. He is also a Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP. He is into technology, teaching and photography. He is the author of the World Famous C# Yellow Book and almost as handsome as he thinks he is.
Make your own programming language. Find out more here.
