At home with the Yesbergs

We're feeling much more at home now that all our stuff is here. We've bought loads of little things that weren't in our boxes (broom, sponge, baby change matress, vase, radio aerial), and a I've invested a little more in my wine education too. Haven't opened them yet, so no notes yet, but they're all French, so it is a legitimate self-education expense! Perhaps I should mention that I've had a couple of wines recently, but without the occasion to record the details. Most of them haven't been worth recording, and I can't forget one quickly enough. But I should mention the Chilean one: Casillero del Diablo. We tried several bottles on Monday night in Farnborough. I'm sure the company, atmosphere, and food had something to do with it, but the Cabernet was quite good. Not a very long finish, but quite a full and balanced flavour, and easy to drink. It seems to be available just about everywhere.

It was "Remembrance Sunday" this Sunday. It seems that the British celebrate the armistice on the closest Sunday to 11 November, whereas we would be more likely to celebrate on the day itself. For the school's service (yes, that means 13 days of school in a row for Stephanie!) the chamber choir and community choir sang a piece (Elgar's Ave Verum Corpus, in English, arranged for SSA, with TB doubling the A part), and led some hymns (St Clement, Judith, Cwm Rhondda). Afterwards, we were very pleased to be able to join the music teacher and her family for lunch at the local chinese restaurant. Their girls are in years 1 and 3, so we had a full house. Or should I call it a strait? We enjoyed the buffet, and then reconvened at the pet shop for some further entertainment.

Despite there being some rain in the afternoon and early evening, we managed to poke some tubes into handy empty flowerpots, and set off the fireworks. It was certainly a short show, even without segues from one to the next. But they were fun, and we'll have some more another time. Later last evening, I found myself at Gloucester Cathedral again for a performance of Victoria's Requiem of 1605. I have very fond memories of singing that on Good Friday in about 1988 with QUMS Chorale at St Johns. Last night's performance was with a group more than twice the size (17 ladies, 14 men), and they had a sackbut doubling the bass part. This accompaniment, along with the spanish pronunciation of latin (including latin scripture readings) made it more authentic. Perhaps the size did too. It may have been the acoustics of the Lady Chapel, but I found the whole thing rather loud. In contrast to our unaccompanied performance, departures from the original were rather apparent, and in one section seemed to confuse the group. But the overall performance was enjoyable - I'd go again. It's interesting to be able to look at so many different conducting styles in close proximity. I'd like to look into some academic literature on the matter one day - not a textbook on how to conduct, but perhaps scientific comparisons on the effects of different styles.

No progress on the computing front today. It seems to bother me less at the moment, though, now that many other things are sorting themselves out. The new laptop has a SATA hard drive, so it should be relatively easy to plug it into another machine, and copy the vital bits off it. It's just a question of finding someone with a suitable machine. Perhaps buying another hard drive for the laptop would be the best option for now. Will have to sleep on that concept.

We had quite a clear night, and so it was a little chilly this morning. There were some frosty patches on the common outside our house, and on the western side of the hills, the car was showing an air temperature of -0.5C at 8:15 when we dropped the girls at school. Some locals were walking around in t-shirts, but we couldn't manage that. It's a sign of how well the central heating is working, that we weren't aware just how cold it was until we stepped outside. There were some comments about the girls' room, but some minor readjustments should have that sorted out now.

Helen was pleased to report 10/10 and a star for her spelling test today, and I think Stephanie has had her first proper violin lesson- at least the first one with her own violin. But I haven't heard how that went, yet. Our French for Beginners pack has arrived, so we can all start to parlez the francais. We're hoping to go away again this weekend, but I have to admit the destination is more likely to be Cymru than across the channel.

The good news, and...

There was success yesterday - I got myself an "unescorted" pass to go into work. It was only a temporary one - no swipe access, so I had to make phone calls whenever I wanted to go through a door, but it was better than needing to be escorted everywhere.

At lunchtime, I went to sign the lease for our rental property. That went pretty smoothly. I even managed to spend half an hour at school helping out with the orchestra rehearsal. I ended up taking a string (ie. violin) sectional. Of the four violinists who had instruments, one had to rush off to the library, one was about grade 4 or grade 5 standard, one would probably have struggled with grade 1, and the last had never played a C natural - only C sharps. The piece, Bertie Badger's A B C was written especially for the individual members of the orchestra - so there were some 3rd position parts for the first violinist, and much simpler parts for the 2nds and 3rds. (As well as the violins, there are 4 flutes, 3 clarinets, 3 saxophones, 2 trumpets, a recorder, a cello, and a drum kit.) Looks like everyone will have at least a little challenge, and it may sound good when it all comes together.

When I got back to work, things started to go down hill. First of all, it was explained that the green pass was not feasible, and that I needed to go back to a red pass. It wasn't long after that that they explained I shouldn't be on site until all the paperwork was completed. So I'm working "off-site" for now.

That's not so bad, because I've got Internet access at home. Well, at least I did have. My laptop died quite seriously - won't boot. I tried plugging the usb broadband mobile modem into the other laptop, but I can't get it to work. "Data Modem invalid" is the error message. Also, our boxes of clothes etc didn't turn up at the new house. And the phone wasn't working either.

Fortunately, the boxes did arrive today (Sat) (after another arranged deadline passed). And there's a friendly phone-man crawling up and down the street trying to trace the signal from our phone line. So that might help. There are some people on the Internet who've recommended solutions for the "data modem invalid" error, so I've got a couple of additional things to try - maybe the planets will be more favourably aligned tonight. (And yes, I have my Holst CD now, so that could help too!) I even have the recovery CD for my new laptop, but using it would put our photo collection at risk. Yes, I know, don't even think about saying anything...

Back from Farnborough

I'm just back from my trip to Farnborough. We heard from four Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations - groups of 60-100 people from ~5 UK universities each. The directors gave very good overviews of the extensive and impressive work done in each case. Some brief extracts from my notes:

Quantum Information Processing IRC: Andrew Briggs and John Rarity presented a complex topic very clearly - I think it's the closest I've ever come to "understanding" quantum.

• If I understand "Measurement based quantum computing" at all correctly, it means that one can bypass the difficult stage of having to set up qubits into cleverly entangled states, and instead conduct a sequence of measurements, which will result in the same thing.
• Clever entangled pairs of photons promise very sensitive measurements below standard quantum limits
• Making qubits out of a nitrogen atom inside a C60 Fullerene.
• Quantum crypto off the shelf

Equator IRC - Integration of Physical and Virtual Interactions.

• Lots of fun stories about how people behave differently with pervasive/wearable computers. Some interesting thoughts about how systems are never seamless, and trying to hide the seams can be counterproductive, as people are often good at getting around the seams if they can see them.
• Interesting games "Can you see me now?"
• DRS, an interesting data recording thing, a bit like something I saw back at home.
• Ultra-cheap location systems using ultrasound triangulation, and location/mapping systems with mini cameras and clever algorithms.

Dependability IRC (Dirc)

• Some interesting talk about modelling time in bands - things (e.g. mode changes) can sometimes be considered instantaneous events, and in other contexts to be activities that take finite time. Reminded me of some work by Sanderson and Memisevic (?) presented as a keynote at Complex07.
• The DEPLOY Project to sponsor trial deployments of formal methods in industry - at Newcastle University, but no web page yet.
  
• Developing requirements for systems by modelling the environment outside the system boundary, and deriving requirements for how the system should interact with the environment.

Advanced Knowledge Technologies - semantic web.

• Using Owl and RDF to add meaning to data on the web
• A version of Wikipedia with RDF tags
• Lots of data integration mashups with interesting/scary privacy implications, and a vaguely defensive use in Garlik
  
• AktiveSA: Technology Demonstration System for Enhanced Situational Awareness in Military Operations Other Than War - Computer Journal 50: 703-716 (2007).
• A fancy demonstration of a fire emergency response situation

All the presenters emphasised that the interdisciplinarity was a marvellous opportunity, although it did come with some challenges - in particular, that it can be hard to publish such work. It was also noted that it took 1.5 - 2 years for interdisciplinary teams to reach an effective level of integration and trust, and that it would be difficult to achieve this in a shorter program.

Interesting talk from EPSRC (UK funding agency) and EU funding people about their priorities and strategies.

Also met a bunch of very friendly and thoughtful (in both senses) people from work and work-related places who I'll get to chat to more about all sorts of things (work related and more) over the coming days, weeks, and months. A well organised and run symposium, both in- and out-of-hours. In case it hasn't emerged from this blog entry yet, I had a very stimulating and enjoyable time - what a great introduction to my work environment for the next year!

Finding us on Google Earth

For those interested in finding us, I should provide Google Earth KML/KMZ files. But I'm not putting them here, because it's too late in the evening, and I still haven't packed for tomorrow. But you could trace our accommodation history in the UK by typing the following postcodes into Google Earth:
- Allen House (London): W8 6BH
- Wayfarers Cottage (West Malvern): WR14 4BJ
- Clouds End (Great Malvern): WR14 4RQ
- Moorlands Rd: WR14 2UA

Welcome tray

I needed to mention that we were welcomed to Clouds End with a Welcome tray that included some toffee biscuits, caramel wafers, the below-mentioned Farl, savoury twists, some butter and eggs, a bottle of Australian 2006 Yellowtail Cabernet Sauvignon, and some sparkling Malvern Hills mineral water. We didn't open the Yellowtail last night, because we were still finishing the 2005 Crozes-Hermitage from the northern Rhone Valley. I had hoped that it would be a nice change to get a genuine Shiraz (although they call it Syrah), but it was rather disappointing. More like weak cordial than anything else, really. I'm sure there must be some decent wines out there for me somewhere (without paying megabucks!), but perhaps I need Geraldine and Bernard to show me where. We'll have the Yellowtail with (Toulouse) sausages and mash tonight.

Thanks to Suzie Neill (of Clouds End) for the tray!

Hereford and Malvern

Our first morning waking up on the Eastern slopes: light very early, but a white, filtered light. The colour of pea soup, some might say. Yes, it was foggy. We could see the whitish disc of the sun, and we watched as it gradually drew itself up out of the soup, until it was too bright. Yes, it was even bright enough for shadows this morning.

After the Farly breakfast, we made our way to Hereford. We heard a Victoria O Quam Gloriosum introit and Byrd Justorum Animae for All Saints Sunday. It was interspersed with a Mozart Mass in G (although it was written by Schubert). The introit is sung from the retrochoir, and the sound is rather muffled by the time it gets to the nave - as though through pea soup, some might say. But the clarity of the boys' singing during the service was wonderful.


Joanna and the girls went exploring the town while I was at the communion service, and we joined up (only just) in time for matins - a service where the music is much more concentrated. And what music - Howells Collegium Regale. The last phrase of the Te Deum, "let me never be confounded," gives me shivers every time. There was nothing wrong with the psalm or the Goss anthem (These are they), but they didn't really compare to the Howells. Master Tallis' Testament made for a nice postlude, though I missed the last verse as we rushed towards the chained library to look at the Mappa Mundi and the new exhibition - not normally open on Sundays.

We explored Hereford in the sunlight, searching for a a quick lunch, and then zoomed back to Malvern, where the girls had a "date" to play with Izzy in the Priory Park. But there was a shock in store for us. We crossed the hills to Malvern Wells, and discovered ourselves yet again in the pea soup, as some might say. The playground was fun for the three girls and boy (not quite so much fun for Joanna), but it was still rather chilly.




















It was almost nice to have the rather aerobic climb home to help us warm up. In the photograph to the left, you can see our house almost in the middle. Of course it's a little hard to show the perspective, but perhaps you can imagine it.






Christopher found some dead leaves to play with just outside the front door.

Farl

We've been trying a few new foods. French wine probably counts as something new, and all the supermarkets sell lots of prepared meals. The oats that we have for breakfast come in a box called "Porage" oats, and we've just had bacon and eggs with Irish Farl instead of toast. Farl seems to be a bread substitute made from unwanted mashed potato. Quite tasty, but I'm not sure I'd want it every day.

Guy Fawkes

The atmosphere is electric. Well, no, not really. There are lots of bangs and sparks and crackles, but it's more of a smoky atmosphere than electric. It's Guy Fawkes night, in essence. From our new Eastern lookout, we can see dozens of places where people are letting off all sorts of fireworks. Just a few are close by (and generally not visible), and are keeping Christopher awake. Most of them can't be heard over the general noise of the household, however. It's quite different from the mega-shows we're used to for Riverfire etc where there is a single coordinated show with large-scale pyrotechnics. Here, there are just lots of little shows - I even bought the cheapest pack myself, although our plan is to set them off on Monday.

At school, there was a bonfire, fireworks, and a "steam up" last night. Stephanie stayed for tea after her lessons, and we took her some warm clothes. Then we walked along to near the railway shed, on a path lit on each side by jack-o-lanterns, where we could see the bonfire. Before it was lit, it was 10-12 feet high, and when it got going, the flames would have been at least 3 times that. Of course the photos don't do it justice. It's a bit of a bizarre tradition, and Joanna couldn't get over the contrast with the fact that it was Environmental Awareness Week. That very morning at assembly we'd had a talk about the importance of recycling, complete with students bringing bags and bags of waste paper ready to be collected. But after the talk, they carried all the bags out to put them on the bonfire! After the bonfire had died down a little (it hadn't gone out - there was still smoke there this morning), there were fireworks. We were rather close, and had to be careful when looking almost straight up at the higher ones, not to get ash in our eyes. Then we had our turn on the train (which you can also see in front of the bonfire. Stephanie is sitting in front of her friend Kate from year 6.

And did I mention the Halloween business at school? I understand from the excited reporting of both girls that the dining room was festooned with spider webs, jack-o-lanterns, and all sorts of ghoulish things. Instead of "roast chicken"(a la carte), they were served chicken pie, complete with bats wings on the pastry. And Helen's jelly had a "slug" in it (well a lolly really).

This morning (yes on a Saturday), Stephanie went to school for her hobbies. Having joined half way through a term, she didn't have a full range to choose from, but has ended up in Pottery and Railway. She seems to have enjoyed the railway one particularly, working the turntable being the best part of the day.

And now for something technical: Internet Connection Sharing and Adhoc Networking. As you know, I have two laptops here. One has the 3 Mobile Broadband modem plugged into a USB port, and it has dandy Internet access. I want the other laptop to have Internet connectivity too. No problem - I've done this kind of thing before. Since both were connected to my wireless router, connectivity shouldn't have been a problem. But it was. It seems that when I turn Internet Connection Sharing on, it makes the wireless network a DHCP server, rather than a client of the router. I fixed that, but couldn't get pings to work. I tried an Adhoc Network - ie. wireless networking without the access point. I couldn't get it to work with WPA, but it did with WEP. Although both laptops believed they were connected, neither could ping the other, and one didn't 'have Internet connectivity at all. Perhaps we'll be able to cope with only one Internet access point during the week. When we move to Moorlands Rd, we'll get ADSL broadband on our phone line - just like we had in Brisbane. And both computers will definitely be able to connect to that.

We've just taken a break to Skype with Nanna and Pop. It's the first time we've had almost everyone taking part in an intercontinental audio/video skype. Everyone seemed pleased with the result - and it doesn't seem to have consumed too much of my 3GB/month limit!


This afternoon's Requiem Eucharist (Duruflé) at Gloucester was good. I really enjoy singing church music in liturgical settings - much more than in a concert. Although I've sung bits of requiems during a couple of funerals, this was the first time I've seen a complete requiem performed in a service. Well, when I say complete, I have to admit a little disappointment at missing the last 8 bars or so of the In Paradisum. When I sing in pieces like that, I do occasionally think that I would like the piece to end with voices, rather than have the voices stop while the organ "finishes the piece off". It somehow makes me feel that the choir isn't really contributing at that critical time. The director on this occasion must have felt similarly. But I'm not sure that it makes sense just to cut at the end of the final word - the piece didn't really feel properly concluded.

A final photo taken during a Mums in the Malverns walk this last week showing the Malvern Link common. We're looking east, or maybe slightly north of east. On the right hand edge of the common is Moorlands Rd, and there's a train line cutting through the corner of the common. The house we move into next week is almost where Moorlands Rd crosses the railway line. In the distance on the left are the outskirts of Worcester. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)

(PS. Do you like the acute I managed to put on Duruflé now, with my fancy international keyboard setting?)

Cloud's End

Just a short post to say that, while we've loved living at Wayfarer's, the Internet connectivity at Cloud's End is a major bonus! As of this afternoon, we're on the other side of the hills, and there is a definite culture change - we look out over the town and villages on relatively flat land, rather than farmland on rolling hills. Everyone sticks up for their own side - the Westerners think their side's the best, and the Easterners think theirs is.

But I'm off to Gloucester Cathedral now for an All Souls Requiem service with M. Duruflé. It'll be challenging getting back in time for the Brewers Arms bonfire & fireworks, but it seems that the view over the East might mean that it's better to stay home and watch a panoramic display of hundreds of fireworks all over the town.

More about last night's display at school soon.

Boarding house food

The school doesn't allow children to bring their own food: they all dine together, with each table having a student from each grade, as well as a teacher (different places each day) - to instill a sense of family. They have a biscuit and drink at morning break, and (just to get those tummies rumbling) the lunches for this week are:

• Monday: Chilli con carne with vegetables, followed by arctic roll (ice cream inside a jam/sponge roll) and peaches
• Tuesday: Pork and lentil casserole, followed by syrup steamer and custard
• Wednesday: Roast chicken, followed by fresh fruit
• Thursday: BBQ sausage casserole, followed by cheesecake
• Friday: Bubbly battered cod fish fingers, followed by pears and chocolate sauce.

I've started catching a few BBC Radio4 broadcasts. I hadn't realised how much I was missing ABC Radio National! I've downloaded the schedule, and will have to decide which bits are essential. We don't have any clocks in the house, except in the kitchen. I can listen to the radio on a mobile phone in the bedroom, but it's frowned upon a little...

If we're not too busy moving house on Saturday, I'll try to catch the Gloucester Cathedral All Souls Durufle Requiem service at 4:30pm. On Sunday morning at Hereford there's Victoria O Quam Gloriosum followed by Howells Collegium Regale matins.