Letter - II 
  

In the this episode: London and the_saga_of_the_luggage....

Well my work phone number has changed....

it is now 01-223-334-760 (w)

Everything else is the same.


Cambridge
---------

Well, extraordinary is the only description.  I have not been out a
single day without being amazed by some part of the city or skyline.

I attended an Evensong at King's College chapel, certainly enjoyable
however you were conscious that this was a full service and people
"rubber-necking" gazing at all there was to offer, was not
appropriate.  I will have to come back during a tourist-open time, to
get a chance to look at the church itself.

Certainly the choir was up to expectations, although their numbers were
reduced, a number of them being ill, this caused a change in the
programs, but little else, at any rate a re-visit is expected, (and in
particular I'd like to hear "Jerusalem" sung, by the choir, in Kings.)

Just about every site (and sight) in Cambridge has a piece of folklore
or trivia (or both) attached to it.  Such trivia covers varied topics
as the buildings and bridges, as well as the many more famous students
of the University.

One folklore item involves a bridge in Queen's College.  The bridge was
supposedly made completely from wood, with only a few timber pins holding 
it
together.

Apparently designed by Newton, it was disassembled by 
students/staff/town_folk
(pick your story) 'cause they were curious/concerned (pick your reason)
but they were not able to reassemble it correctly.  As a result it was
reassembled with metal pins and rods.  (It is worth noting the bridge
on the same site nowadays was actually only built in 1904, replacing
the previously rotted one.)

Among all the folklore there is the occasional grain of truth, but I am
still sifting...

Each college is quite proud of the achievements of its ex-Members, or
the peculiarities of the buildings or the wonder of its collections of
art and literature.  The expression "...in the world" or "...in the 
country" 
(whether its first, last, oldest, youngest, largest, smallest or whatever) 
features commonly in College literature.

There is an interesting link between Emmanuel College and Harvard
University.  Emmanuel College had a student, John Harvard, in 1638 he
sailed to New England and began the process of setting up a "schoale at
Newetowne", unfortunately he died of consumption a year after arriving
in New England, but with the donation of half of his estate and books,
America's first University, Harvard, was born.  A period later the
Newtown area was renamed Cambridge to honour John Harvard's academic
home.

Having not known the origins of the Cambridge, MA I found the story
interesting. Emmanuel College and Harvard University have several
intertwined traditions including the exchange of students between
them.  The student from Harvard stays in John Harvard's original room
at Emmanuel.


the_saga_of_the_luggage
-----------------------

Well I had two regular suitcases, fine no problems each about 25kg, no
problems at all (the allowance was 32kg per luggage item)...

However I had two boxes, one containing mostly books, the other
containing my road bike. I costed selling it in Melbourne and buying a
new one in the UK, but shipping it turned out to be cheaper.  Why all
this worry about a bike ?  well I rather like my road bike and as it is
for racing, having it with me would give me inventive to continue to
use it.

Unaccompanied luggage, wonderful concept, relatively expensive, but the
only option (no excess baggage as the flight was booked out.)  It
turned out to be very fast getting from Melbourne to Heathrow (arrived
Wednesday the 3rd, 3 days) the problem was Heathrow to Cambridge, this
took over two weeks.

Simply put, the luggage was too heavy to take by train or bus, and I
didn't have a convenient car. (Actually I was less than thrilled at the
prospect of driving any car only days after getting into a foreign
country, just a bit chicken I guess.)

Well British Airways (the people who shipped the luggage) offered a
"door-delivery" service. Wonderful stuff, they take the luggage through
customs often the most time consuming part of the process, 5 hours or
more in some cases. Then a courier is organised to deliver the items
to the final destination.  Brit Air didn't charge an excessive amount of
money for the facility and certainly cheaper than hiring a car for a
day or such.

However, between organising a packing list and customs declaration,
realising customs wont accept fax'd version of these (why did I feel BA
should have known this?), sending forms, BA loosing forms, sending
forms, BA getting forms, and finally having luggage cleared through
customs and sent out, two weeks passed surprisingly quickly.

Bicycle and owner doing fine.  (Also the books, misc. clothes and other
rubbish all arrived without trauma or incident too.)

Bathroom Amenities
-------------------

A friend remarked that British bathroom facilities always seemed so
"quaint".  This was very polite is my only thought.  For a nation that
until recently encouraged everyone to put their own mains plugs on
appliances, it strikes most from overseas (myself included) as anywhere
from amusing to crazy that electrical sockets are not legally allowed
in bathrooms least someone get too cosy with the hair drier and the
bath water. Oh well. The upshot of this is that only the newest
bathrooms have a power socket for an electric razor. Sad really.

London
------

I was delighted to go back down to London the first week I was in the
country.

When I had arrived at Heathrow, it was far from an introduction to
London, seeing little more than the bus depot at that time.

My first impressions of London, and to a significant extent the (small)
parts of England I had seen were that they were as I was expecting,
this did not make them any less exciting, but it did give a terrible
case of deja-vu.  Too many British authors and British books and films,
I think...

Actually one of the funniest was a realisation that on the trip from
Cambridge to London I felt I was on a Hornby model railway.  It would
appear far too many hours of youth was spent pouring over Hornby
catalogues and the result was that street signs, railway via-ducts,
trains themselves, houses, and so on, all felt like they were right out
of the catalogue. Of course, it only took me a split second to realise
that of course they were out of the catalogue, these are the originals
after all.

A long time friend has been in England for the past twelve months, and
was able to show me parts of London both in my first weekend and
another. Thanks to Amanda for willingly acting as tour hostess, an
excellent guide at that.

The first, lasting, impression of London was how close each of the
"traditional" sites were to each other.  I was taken from place to
place, taking pictures, admiring views and ooh-ing and aah-ing in the
traditional tourist manner.

Sites seen included the British Museum, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar
square, St Martin in the Fields, National Gallery, Admiralty Arch, The
Mall, St James Palace, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Houses of
Parliament, the theatre district, St. Pauls, Tower bridge, Greenwich
Observatory, the Horse Guards, a scenic time on the Thames (coming back
from Greenwich to Westminster bridge by boat), Royal Opera House, Camden
Market, Hyde park, Marble Arch and several other items I am sure I have
forgotten.

Most of this was done at break-neck pace (a little like "1000 tourist
attractions in a day") but the main objective was to get a feel for
where things were in London, and how easy it was to get from place to
place.

The Underground is as interesting as the places it can take you, there
seems to be a station at almost every second street corner, at any rate
a bit of a change to the "wait 35 minutes, if your lucky" MET system.

There were certainly places we spent a little longer than it must
appear, and the second weekend I had in London I also spent a bit more
time in fewer places.

Highlights included:

British Museum seeing such things as the Elgin Marbles, various
extraordinary books in the Library (ranging from illuminated manuscripts
to rather prominent historical documents) and the wonderful Egyptian
collection including the Rosetta stone, a personal favourite.

Greenwich Observatory, including the mandatory "standing in each
hemisphere" (I think everyone does that, don't they ?)

Charing Cross Road, I note there are the required enormous number of
bookshops along Charing Cross Rd, although that more famous address was
now, of all things, a Pizza Hut, sad really.

Kings Cross Rail station, a simple pleasure and at this stage I had not
seen Waterloo or Victoria, both considerably more impressive, but it is
amazing to see the "Flying Scotsman" and to gaze at the roof of the
building and note where the smoke of an unknown number of steam trains (now
long gone) had left their mark.

The Barbican, the London home of the Royal Shakespeare company, from
the outside quite a dishevelled collection of odd shaped buildings, but
walking around the towers, the ability for this collection of buildings
to create many performance corners and spaces as well as having a
collection of galleries and theatres seems quite clever.  I didn't
really have a chance to more than glance in a few foyers, but Barbican
will be on the (long) list of places to look at and enjoy a performance
at also.

Hertford house and a fascinating collection of art called the Wallace
collection. I seemed to spend a significant amount of time going "I
always wondered where that piece of art was" notables included a
beautiful picture of the young Queen Victoria, The Laughing Cavalier,
numerous .great masters.  including Rembrandt (and a significant
collection from the Rembrandt studios), the design drawings for
"Adoration of the Magi" were also among the collection. (The Adoration
of the Magi is now above the Altar at King's College chapel.)

Portobello Road Market, well it seemed to go on and on and on (and sold
just about everything that could be sold, and perhaps a few things that
should not).

Seeing The Royal Ballet Company performing Sleeping Beauty at the Royal
Opera House, this was quite extraordinary, while we were seated in the
"gods" it was an excellent view, and a fascinating performance.  I
think I was as impressed by our ability to go from "queueing that
morning for tickets and seeing the performance that evening", as I was
by the performance itself.  In truth the performance was quite
wonderful. It was made more interesting by there being significant
injury and illness among the company, resulting in many substitutions.
The substitutions however went unnoticed by yours truly.  The
performance was the same as the tour of Australia ?recently?.

Monument, the Christopher Wren creation to mark the Great Fire of
London.  (Obligatory trivia: the worlds largest free standing marble
monument)

The banking district of London, really the centre of London city, it is
interesting to actually .see. the Bank of England (no samples I'm
afraid), other notables were the ill-fated Barings Bank (obligatory
trivia: Baring's bank financed the Louisiana purchase and the 100 year
war with France.)

A time was spent wandering along the river, looking at such things as
Cleopatra's Needle, and a re-creation of Globe Theatre, this is due to
be finished and open for the Royal Shakespeare Company in September.

I came to a quick realisation on my first visit (and confirmed by my
second) that each item I whooshed past (and many I did not see in the
whirlwind tour) could consume one or more days in themselves...

I think I saw more "Sir Christopher Wren" Churches than I could take
in, including:

St. Pauls (I have not been into its various galleries, yet, next time.)

St. Mary's in the Strand, this church is literally in the middle of the
road, on a traffic island, it looks rather forlorn actually.  It has
earned the dubious knick-name "St Mary's in the Way" by most Taxi
drivers.

St Bride's with a delightful, if unusual tower, that legend has it inspired
the first tiered wedding cake. Apparently the dress from the wedding
are in the Church, I hope the cake is not there also. However the
preservative qualities of Almond icing being as they are, maybe it also
survived.

Well with the Cambridge to London train just 40 minutes on an express
to 70 on a stopping all stations, I can see myself regularly making the
commute.

Food
----

Nope, no food in this episode.

Although after my flippant remark in the previous letter, someone
pointed out to me there is a Holiday Inn about a block away from my
work (I shuddered at the thought).


TV licences
-----------

One of the people I am sharing accommodation with feels a TV/Video would
improve the quality of life (I commented she had not seen the
quality(?) of TV programs recently.)  An interesting aspect of this is
the TV licence.  TV licences are the "user-pays" method for funding the
BBC. Somewhat unfairly, this form of funding is used the whole of BBC
(BBC-radio, BBC world service, etc as well as BBC-TV), however this
policy is popular among radio-only households.  TV licences cost about
80 pounds.  Certainly food for thought for those who complain about the
estimated cost of 8cents a day for the ABC.

The Term begins
---------------

Well since the last letter, the transient/student population of
Cambridge has returned and the Lent term (2nd term to those that need
numbers, like me) is back in full force.  This transient population is
estimated at around 12,000.

It would appear that all 12,000 take a bicycle to 9am lectures, running
late, each morning.  So many bicycles is quite an impressive sight, as
long as you don't want to cross the road.

The main reason for the bicycle's popularity is that undergraduates are
not allowed to own cars, without the special permission of the college
to which they belong.

Actually this law predates motor vehicles:
1798:
Scholars were forbidden to drive carriages "particularly in the
streets, to the great danger of order and discipline"

Amusing really.

Minimising cars is a good thing in the opinion of most. Cambridge is
quite polluted in parts with numerous buildings undergoing perpetual
cleaning and restoration from damage. The motor car is the main cause.

Well one result is that bicycles are common and as a result car drivers
are a little more bicycle aware (sometimes anyway).  Another effect is
that there are a number of good ideas in the road system designed to
accommodate the bicycle more fully.

One of these bicycle-friendly things is a special one way street.  One
way streets are commonly used as a traffic control mechanism in
Cambridge, it gets a little like Brisbane city centre at times.  Some
one way streets are two way for bicycles, with a very narrow lane
allowing bicycles to ride in the opposite direction to the flow of
traffic as well as the same direction in the "in the thick of it" with
the traffic itself.

One colleague remarked that bicycles act/are_treated/should_be_treated
like very fast pedestrians with about the same possibility chance of
changing directions suddenly, stopping and so on.

Another significant difference in the sign posting for traffic in
general is that the signs are illuminated, making them a bit more
visible in the fog.

Cambridge ? Which bridge ?
--------------------------

It was not quite the first question I had asked myself, but when I
found out the answer it turned out to be more than a simple matter of
"that one there".  The short answer was the Magdalene bridge, but this
bridge was certainly not the first, it just happens to now carry a road
that was older still.

First a thumb-nail history of Cambridge...

Cambridge itself was first considered "created" when the Romans made
the Cam river shallow enough to cross.  The Romans built a road (as was
their want) between Lincoln and Colchester and the road crossed the Cam
at the city site.  The estimates are that this all occurred around 40-50
AD give or take a few years.

The Romans also built a fairly significant castle mound (which still
exists) and some sort of fortification on top of that.  The Romans left
in about 400 AD and after various historical ups and downs (including
the Dark Ages) the Doomsday book documents about 2,000 occupants in
1085.

The Normans built a castle on the site of the Roman fort (mainly
because there were many Saxons to be subdued in the surrounding fen
land.)

Edward I converted the castle into an impressive stronghold during his
reign (1239-1307).  During this time a fairly significant event occurred
in Oxford, but more on that later...

Cambridge became a significant inland trading port as the connection to
the river.

(time passes...)

In Elizabeth I's reign the original castle stronghold was broken down
and the stone sold, much of the stone went into some of the University
buildings (including the Great St. Mary's, first built in the 1400's).

Well in time a college was built opposite the quay and this is
Magdalene college, the college lends its name to the bridge.

The quay of Cambridge was still an active inland port up until the
1920's.  Now-days it is a typical tourist trap with glittery stores
selling trinkets.

A Cambridge education
----------------------

Not having understood the education system (particularly of the
undergraduates) to any large extent when I arrived I thought others
might be interested in my understanding of the system.

Background...

In 1209 a handful of teachers and students were fleeing the Oxford
riots, and found their way to Cambridge.  The first mention of a
University chancellor was in 1226 and mention of laws and statutes of
the University in around 1250.  In 1318 the Pope of the day (John XXII
for anyone who thinks I am making this up) waved his magic pen and
recognised the Cambridge community as a "studium generale". In 1284 the
first of the colleges, Peterhouse, was founded and by 1352 there were
eight colleges.  In 1475 there were twelve and by the time Trinity
College was founded in 1546, the University had both grown in size and
international reputation.

In 1546 the University got a new set of statutes, which went largely
unchanged for 300 years.  An example of these statutes was that all
students were to be members of a college, this is still the case
today.  In 1750 Isaac Newton revised the subjects of study, placing
Mathematics as a compulsory requirement (replacing theology). In the
early 1800's the subject range was revised once more and the classical
tripos (Cambridge name for an exam leading to a degree) was
introduced.  During the 1800's Mathematics ceased to be compulsory,
natural sciences and engineering were introduced and all religious
tests were abolished.

A significant change occurred in 1920 following a Royal Commission. At
this time the faculties were organised, also the university was
charged as responsible for all public teaching, while the colleges
retained responsibility for individual supervision of the students.

Not long after this the University also became responsible for the
conferring of degrees (this used to be the duty of the colleges.)

Now-a-days...

Well as that "tiny-history" shows college's formed a fairly significant
role in the education of students.  Today all students must be a member
of a college, there are the high prestige colleges such as Trinity or
Kings and many lesser known ones as well (about 31 now I think.)  Between
them there are about 10,000 undergraduates and 4,000 postgraduates.
The University supplies the lecture facilities, lab facilities (where
required) and the exams.  If successful in the exams, the University
also supplies a student with the degree.

In parallel to this the College's supply their own form of education. A
College allocates a student to a tutor, now the tutor doesn't generally
do any tutoring directly, he or she is more in charge of the students
welfare and to ensure the student is set up for the appropriate
supervisions.  Supervisions are periods of education between one, two
or three students and a supervisor.  Supervisors are drawn from all
over the University, they could be college tutors, or graduate
students, even senior undergraduate students or researchers from
various laboratories.  Supervisors are paid for by the college and this
low student-teacher ratio is what makes the Cambridge education so
(darn) expensive for undergraduates.

A student can attend supervisions in as many different subjects as they
wish.  The only condition is that the student does the work the
supervisor gives out.  The number of supervisions for a particular subject
in a term can run from as few as three for a given subject to as many
as eight or more, the actual number is decided by the tutor and such
things as the opinion of the supervisor, the progress of the student
and the particular subject all have a bearing on the actual number.

Okay a little more background, a Cambridge year is broken into three
Terms: Michaelmas, Lent and Easter, running October-December,
January-March and April-June respectively.  Each Term is about 8 weeks,
but most subjects do not actually run for 8 weeks.

Most subjects run for 4 weeks. A typical computing subject has 12
lectures in four weeks (lectures occur on Saturdays).  But once the
four weeks is up, the subject is over.  As I mentioned a few subjects
run for all 8 weeks, most usually because the subject has a laboratory
requirement or such.

The result of this is that a student is able to do many more subjects,
because effectively they only run for half a term.  In the final term,
(Easter,) there are no lectures in the last four weeks, this is the
revision (swot-vac) period.

The students all sit one huge exam called the tripos, the tripos
contains questions from every relevant subject of that year (from all
three terms.)  A typical undergraduate course runs for three years,
called (for reasons I don't pretend to fathom), Part 1A, Part 1B and
Part 2.

Well a typical student will often start off attending all the
supervisions they possibly can.  This gives them a wide variety of
choice of subjects and so on. Of course some specialisations have their
own particular subject requirements, but every course allows for
students to select subjects from other courses. If a student satisfies
the requirements for a particular course, in general, they are awarded
a major or minor for that course. The end result of this is a lot of
students turn up to the first supervision (and first lectures) but not
to any others, and students often graduate with interesting combination
degrees such as Pure Mathematics and Russian Language.

I was invited to supervise students for several subjects and at the
moment I supervise a single pair of students for an Operating Systems
subject.  The students in this case are actually studying a graduate
diploma degree, but this degree involves doing some subjects from the
regular undergraduate course.  As is common with the graduate diploma
students in Australia, they are typically older (and a bit more mature)
than the average age undergraduate in their course.

In my case (and this is quite common) the two students are very
committed to their studies and are quite "smart" and a pleasure to
teach.  As is common in this university, there are many international
students, in this case both my students are from overseas, one from the
US and one from France.

From the supervisors point of view, these students are smart and you
have to really know your stuff (no problems there for me, I had
lectured in Operating Systems related material and tutored the
undergraduate subject my department ran at Monash.)  Also with such a
small teacher/pupil ratio it is a lot of fun.

I have no formal feedback on the assessment of the student, my main task
being to prepare the student for the Tripos. My only feedback is to the
tutor of that student in the form of a student evaluation at the end of
the year (this usually forms nothing more than part of a student
evaluation by the tutor).  Although I should note if a supervisor is
having trouble with a student (or a student with a supervisor) the
tutor is the point of contact.

Work
----

Well finally I have moved office.  A move was expected, however I have
exchanged external windows and a view of the Zoology museum for a piece
of computing history and a rather efficient air-conditioning system.

About two weeks before I started work another Researcher was appointed
on similar work (there were a lot of work positions to fill).  It turns
out she is an "almost" Australian.

By citizenship she is Australian and British, however she spent all her
early, primary and secondary years in Australia (Melbourne mostly ! She
went to University High) and still has relatives in Brisbane.  Her
parents and family moved to Glasgow, where she did her University
education.

At any rate it was somewhat of a surprise to go all this way and find
one of the people with whom I am sharing an office, and who started at
about the same time as I did, was also an Australian.

(warning some technical rubbish ahead, skip to the "Weather" if
computers are a mystery and you want to keep them that way.)

Computer Rooms and Names

The room I was moved into is one of several rooms that once together
housed the University's main computer system, (singular).  You know the
sort of computer, the one that "once this filled whole buildings, but
now it fits neatly into a single room.  Well I am in a room that made
up a quarter of the original "single room" and let me tell you the
single room was quite large, at around 120' by 70' and of course this
doesn't include the room for support staff offices housed in the rest
of the building or any of the other support needed for the computer
itself.

Because I am in an old "machine" room, the air-conditioning is very
enthusiastic, managing to keep a very consistent "freezing".  (Okay,
well its about 20 C, but it feels like freezing.)

At any rate I am in one part of the original "Titan" room, for those
with a computing historical bent, the primary designer, a gentleman
called Wheeler, is still a part of the laboratory, and while about 80
years old is quite active in a number of fields.

Titan _didn't have VM, just Wheeler-designed `segmentation' of a sort.
(Maximum 2 segments for user processes, most only had one.)  Only three
of them were made: the other two were at the CAD centre (the computer
lab used that machine while Titan was being moved to this building) and
AWRE Aldermaston (which stayed at v6 of the OS, while by 1973, the
computer lab had got to v16, for security reasons; people who
maintained it said it was somewhat surreal trying to debug things,
since none of them were security cleared and so they were never allowed
to look at dumps...)

At any rate there is a precedent for naming rooms after machines and
the room I have moved to is called Atlas, this was the name of British
"supercomputer", built around 1958.

Atlas was built by Ferranti with the University of Manchester; only 3
were made, so it wasn't exactly a commercial success.  (The death knell
was when CDC beat it to a big Australian order.)

So officially I live in the "Atlas room" a bit of trivia for you
all...

All silly names at any rate.

My own workstation has also changed, now I am in front of a nice 21"
display on a pentium Linux box. One of the main project machines are
some Digital Alpha based machines (generally based around the EB164 a
fast Alpha on a PCI bus.)

What am I currently doing ?

Up until recently I had been filling my time writing documentation.  A
number of procedures as well as the oddities of some of the systems had
never been given significant documentation.  So being a new person and
knowing almost nothing about the local environment I am perfectly suited
to write "Idiots guide" type introductions.  I should quickly note
these "Idiots guide" are written for those with a background in the
broader areas (this is a box, this is a disk, this is a blinken light..
well not quite.), but not having any ideas on how the Computer
Laboratory does things.

At any rate I have to laugh a little as I never considered my writing
to be Pulitzer prize material.  It appears that just about every new
Research Assistant or Research Associate gets the joy of writing an
"Idiots guide"...

The main work I have been doing (apart from writing guides and moving
offices) is the work related to adding software to this micro-kernel.

I am building a communications stack (an ATM API) that is based around
the Fore company's SPANS specification.

This is an initial starter ATM API and the longer term is to implement
an API (Applications Program Interface) that people in the project have
designed specifically.

Some of you must wonder "why build an API for the switch that will be
eventually replaced anyway" well its really a test rig we are building
and the work we are doing is not useless, as it means others in the
project group can do proof of concept work on such a prototype system.
Another aspect is that the Laboratory has several Fore ATM switches so
whatever they build for the Fore should work with my stuff.

Currently I am coming to terms with a micro-kernel that is largely
undocumented (hence an "Idiots guide"), but that seems really quite
neat.

I mean neat as in neat and tidy as well as neat and fast/bright and
shiny.

The main machine this micro-kernel runs on is the ATM switch fabric
that was designed in the Computer Laboratory.  The switch fabric,
"Fairisle", has been in existence for a significant time and as a
result experience with it in particular and ATM in general is very
high.

A related project is building a workstation without a primary bus,
rather put a switch fabric in-between the main components instead.  Sun,
DEC and HP seem to be very interested in this particular project (or
at least pretend to be...)

Weather
-------
Well it has been cold, without a doubt.  Things have frozen over in
places all over the county, but not for very long.  At least it is
getting light earlier and dark later now (about 7:50  and 5pm
respectively.)

However, being in Cambridge has already given me a unique weather
experience...

>>> SNOW <<<

Yes it is true, I had never got around to visiting the Snow fields in
Winter, so I had only ever come as close to the stuff as a picture tube
will allow.

While, I wont bore you with some pathetic metaphor, I will say it is
exactly as I had been told, sometimes like icing sugar, sometimes like
cotton wool, and always wet.  It was wonderful fun, and some lovely
photo's were taken.

It does not snow often in this area, (a few times a year on average).
This was emphasised to me by the inability of everyone at driving in
the icy conditions.

I must have watched car upon car lock and slid, then bump gently (and
not so gently) together,  like a pathetic ballet.  Possibly the most
extraordinary site was a (double decker) bus locking up and sliding right
past the bus stop.  This was made more extraordinary because it happened
in slow motion (about 5kph) but seemed so inevitable and unstoppable.
Well a curb soon intervened and nothing was injured more than the
drivers pride.

Sadly there was not enough snow to indulge in "Calvin and Hobbes" type
activities (snow-men, snow-things, snow forts, etc) but much snow was
thrown through the weekend.  Next door attempted a rather amusing dwarf
snow-man.

Darkness
--------

By now you will have heard the news about the docklands bomb. 

One thing quite odd was in many respects is the total imperviousness of
some people to the whole situation (not that they don't care, but that
they know it is not going to affect them or that they will not let it
affect them), myself ? it gives a lot of clarity to unease I have had
ever since I arrived in the UK, this doesn't lessen the unease, but it
certainly makes clear the reason.

There have been many odd things about London in particular I could not
put my finger on, great feeling of danger in some parts of the city,
but not in others.  Much of this feeling was to do with an image of
London I had absorbed from the news over the past years however when I
arrived there were many little reminders that this was a city with a
strangeness about it.  Little things like no rubbish bins at any railway
station for example. The ever present security cameras (not just
traffic control or such, but dozens of them in every nook and cranny)
and signs (everywhere) indicating to take care of your parcels, and to
report unattended parcels to a staff member. Depressing.

Regarding the bomb itself, I went past that particular building (the
buildings around the Canary Wharf area are built around/over the
docklands light rail) when I went down to Greenwich a couple of
weekends ago. Amanda had worked for a while with a company located in
that building.

There will have been a considerable change in the city between when I
went for the sight-seeing last and when I next go down.  It may be
"interesting" to see the effect on the people of the city, but I notice
there is a level of acceptance. One visible change spoken of is the
city cordon called the "collar of steel". In its most visible form it
is checkpoints and road-blocks surrounding the "city proper" as well as
a vastly increased police presence.

The "city proper" or "The City" of the City of London is the expression
used to now indicate the financial district more than anything else.
Within a few buildings radius of the Bank of England, which really
marks the centre of "the City", are exchange houses, the London stock
exchange, and the head offices of every major British bank.  Added to
this, this area contains the offices of just about every bank in the
world.  Once this area was the centre of the city of London itself, now
it is the financial centre.  Because it is the centre of commerce for
England, it is considered a very significant terrorism target.

I should also note the docklands are not part of "The City", but for
reasons I don't understand they are also a popular target.

Of course it is uppermost in my mind that while the change and any
change in the ceasefire in London is depressing, in Belfast and
surrounds the ceasefire is manifest as guns and bullets.

The strongest thought in my mind is the Australian fortune, to be
relatively free of such terror.  I am confident of being safe, Cambridge
is a long way away from all the IRA preferred pickings, still these
events have been rather sobering.

Sad to end on that particular note, I promise something upbeat next time.

Best wishes to all and once again I say if you don't want to read this
stuff, let me know. If you know others that want to read this stuff,
and feel left out, let me know too.

cheers,
Andrew.