So long and thanks for all the...

...er...actually. I'm not going to include the long list of things I just typed out.

There are a couple of friendly Americans I have met in my time here.

They do not change my opinion of the place, but they do make me think twice before broadwaving it on this blog. I shall hold my peace, unless asked. So if you really want to know what I think of America. Ask me.

But. This blog post, thanks to Dan, Zach, Annie, Cresten, Maddie, Ashton, Charles, Kat and Gerry, is going to be upbeat. They are great people. They do their country proud.

The rest of you suckers need to wake up.

Anyhow. In 10 hours I head for the Airport. From whence I shall, using two aeroplanes and a car (a downsizing from two aeroplanes, four trains, a bus and my feet), travel from here to there.

Which, personally, I think is awesome. What? Like a hotdog?

So, join me in bidding farewell to this short lived blip of a country. And I shall, all going to plan, see you on my next whirlwind adventure.

Greg

Ps. On the demand of the North Carolinians, I have to include that I built a wall, mowed some lawns, dug some holes, took a stanley knife to some carpet / underlay and generally caused trouble in this state.

Ooops outside yer boat...

..say Ooops Outside Yer Boat.

That's right. White water rafting.

But that is jumping ahead of myself, so I shall start on Thursday, which I believe is where I left you. Thursday: Chillin. Friday: Chillin. Friday evening: Getting to the amazing Jack's Tap On The Corner. I don't believe this is the name of an injury or wrestling move, but since Americans call taps fawcetts , then I'm left with no other options. Anyhow. Great choice of beers (I may not drink, but this is important in a gastropub), good food and chubby waitresses. Good establishment.

From there to the banks of Lake Norman. The aim was to take a star trail with the stars reflected in the water. But upon arrival we were faced with not only the effects of Public Enemy Number One, but also mother nature screwing with our plans.

Saturday: Biggs Amazing Camera Emporium. Which is awesome. Seriously. I kid you not it's amazing. Big bins of second hand gear to rootle through. Interesing inventions to try out and incredible lenses in strong glass cases which they let you get out and play with even if you make it perfectly obvious that you don't intend to buy it.

Then lake boating, which involved about 30knots and lots of diving. I have no photos of this, you'll just have to take my word for it that every dive I took was incredible and Olympics worthy.

Then today, which was entirely taken up by the Überexcellent White Water Centre of Amoebia.

At which they put the tiny American Olypians through their soggy paces. So, yeah, much getting flicked out of boats, much surfing rapids, much climbing out of the rapids and jumping back in the boat to do it again. And then rock climbing, there was lots of that too. Ouch.

So, yeah, anyone care to hazard a guess at just how much I loved it.

Chris, man, you should have been there.

Anyhow, now I intend to sleep as if it's just been invented. That's right. In a suit. And hat.

G

Damnit, hummingbird, come here...

...so I can take your photo.

I have my camera hooked up to my laptop. So I can trigger it from over here. I have a humming bird feeder set up and it's all going well. apart from the bloody models keep flying away.

Anyhow, I shall persevere.

In the mean time: Here are some of the photos from the trip.Have a look and have fun.
G

( 2 hours later: POW!


)

(and half an hour later, with a little more refinement:
















)

Journey's Break

So, I've made it to the Tarheel State.

I'm staying at the house of Dr Kat and her family. Which is very kind of them. In return I am trying to be jovial and entertaining. I am also being schooled in the lawn mowing arts and I'm sure, since history tends to repeat itself, I shall soon break part of the house.

As most of you know I have been looking forward to this section of the journey for ages. Although, I guess it's more of a chronological section than an geographical one. You know? I have been looking forward to it for about 3 reasons, which I list here in inverse order of importance: One, I get to stop cycling. Two, I get to sleep in a bed. Three, I get to see Kat, whom I have known since she was knee high to a grasshopper.

Since she was about 5'5" at the time, I would estimate that this grasshopper would be eight or nine feet long, if it is the back knee in question.

Talking of knees: Ow. MRI sir? Yes, yes please.

So, where was I with this cycling story? If I remember correctly, we had just made camp on the banks of the Susquehanna. From there we headed south following routes 405 and 147. It was all going well, the terrain is gorgeous and the people were a mixed bunch of grumpy, crazy and friendly. We stopped at a tiny road-side fruit stand and June (one of the ancientest and most sun tanned folks I have ever met) showered us with various carbohydrates and refused our monies. Which was nice. A raw sweetcorn each and some blackberries later we continued rolling hills and coming down a long downhill we were overtaken by a few juggernauts.

The very last one of which had a surprise for me. The surprise consisted of a plastic bag, which was full of rotten cow entrails, which were...how to put this...also full.

Which, the gentleman driving applied to the back of my neck, my left leg, my bike and worst of all my face. Liberally. Through his window. At 50mph.

What a bastard.

Whatever, I'm a vet, I've been covered in worse.

So, over I pulled and I strode fully clothed into the river, rinsed off, got given some water by some bow-fishing gents and get ready to re-depart. Incidentally, while doing so I go chatting to one of these bow-fishermen and it turns out that he's a member of both federal and local law enforcement. So a detailed description of the truck followed and I was given the firm promise that if the offender was caught up with he would be hauled from the cab, placed gently upon the ground and kicked to faecal incontinence.

He didn't word it quite like that.

I politely declined their offer and mentioned that perhaps jail time was more appropriate, but, to be honest, I'm not sure if they were listening at this point.

Off we set again and we made good time, stopping for lunch after about 40 miles. My knee was giving me some serious trouble by this point and the wrenching of nearly being taken off my bike hadn't helped much. This being the case, when my favourite bow-wielding copper drove past, stopped and offered me a lift to Millersburg (which has one of the oddest things I've ever seen in a town: An Order Of Loyal Mooses) and a shower, I accepted gratefully. My bike went into the boat he was towing and I went in the cab.

So, I must report that the house was lovely, the shower was even better and he's got one cool son, one young daughter and one incredibly hot daughter. And an awesome dog. And some odd (possibly not odd for an American) views on capitalism and healthcare. And a nice house. Did I say that?

Arrived Ashton and Charles in town and we made a break for Harrisburg, our daily destination. The cycle itself was uneventful apart from the stress-based auditory hallucination of my right patella grinding on my right femur.

There was one final hurdle to surmount before broaching Harrisburg. That being the stretch of Cycle Route J which goes along Route 22. That being, for some of its length, a raised highway. Made of concrete sections on concrete supports above the forest canopy below. Being hit by a car on 22 would go something like this. Screech, bang, mash against the concrete barrier, flick over the edge, fally fally fally, crash into forest below.

Needless to say we booked. The three of us formed a pace line and flew through there. Knee pain notwithstanding. I was not going to get squished and the mental image of a truck right behind one does wonders for one's endurance and acceleration.

And then it was Harrisburg and the fun of an evening spent relaxing, flirting with a purpose (which I've not really done before, but it occurs to me that it would be an easy was to secure lodgings, aside from it not working on hot waitresses which have angry housemates), enjoying my first, or possible second beer of the summer and bidding farewell to Ashton and Charles.

Which pus me on AMTRAK and you all know how that went :P

Right, I shall write more when more occurs. Right now I'm going to go watch Sherlock.

G

From the depths of time, there came....

...Amtrak!

Actually, the American rail system isn't even old fashioned. It's worse. I'm sure that trains have never been managed so badly in the past either. Look at it this way: I've taken trains on four of the seven continents and I have honestly never hated a system so much as Amtrak.

I just want to rant about this for another couple of lines and then I'll get it out of my system: the trains are uncomfortable, have no litter bins, have no bike space, go at about 30kmh and are hugely bloated so they don't fit onto their small rails properly; the stations are poorly run, poorly deigned and poorly managed while also being made to look like roman temples (or at least Philly is); And the staff schizophrenate between gleefully helpful to maliciously stubborn like bloody pulsars.

Ok, I'm done. Anyhow. As you can guess, I had a pretty hideous train journey to Charlottesville, but I'm here now and have crept into the UVA library to post this.

So, I was going to tell you about the cycling? It was epic. I loved it. I'd got to hitching to Waverly right? Good. From there Tom and Dixie (the folks that picked me up) looked after me and took me (and Charles and Ashton) to a bike shop. Fixed my spoke (drive side, back wheel or I would have done it myself) and got me back on the road.












Managed another 20 miles and stayed behind an abandoned school in Towanda. Got up early, started riding again and managed to make it down past Canton before...punngggg! Another drive side back spoke. Come on! Seriously. And then just as I'd started pushing it: Punnggg! Another one, which pushed the rim onto the brake. So that I had to push a bike with the brake on about 4 miles before I go picked up and offered a lift to Williamsport. Which left me with a 6 mile push to get to a bike shop (which I found out about from a bored lady with Google on her shop till) that...you'll love this...turned out to be closed.

o m F g

Closed on Mondays.

So I thought sod it, I'm going to sling my hammock right here and wait for it to open tomorrow. Luckily I started asking the surrounding gardeners whether they minded that and one of them turned out to be the father of the guy who runs the shop.

So, he opened up the shop and offers to fix my bike. Er...right, I have no idea of this guy knows anything about bikes. He doddering about like the 75 yo he is and I'm worried that he's going to seriously damage either himself or my bike. But what the hell...

Anyhow, this old guy, Dan Devito (seriously), turns out to be a mechanical genius and strong as a bloody elm. It transpires that he was the third of four generations to work the shop and it's been open, like, 100 years. So. That was cool.

So, hit the road again. Up a massive, massive hill. Whipping down the other side (which I got on film, so I'll put it in the video when I do it) and camping in a little old lady's riverside garden on the Susquehanna. With permission (3 rules: no loud music, no litter and be safe in the river). Much to the chagrin of the annoying old bloke who said we should feck off because the lady didn't like to be bothered and would never let people stay there.

Score: Greg's diplomacy 1 : Annoying old bloke 0.

So, aside from swimming in the river, some cool photos and falling asleep watching fireflies there was the large "thing" that was splashing around in the water and turning over rocks (the size that go clunk instead of clatter) looking for crayfish at about 03:00. Which was fun.

Ok. Once again, I grow weary of this story, I'll finish later.

G

So. Er. Right.

So...

Yeah, where to begin? I've crashed out. I have a few reasons, mostly because I was doing terrible grinding things to my knee. Other reasons are trifling, but will be mentioned.

Anyhow, the first day went well, set out from Ithaca. Huge climb out of Ithaca. Then settled down for a good long slog and some fun dirt-roading. Followed by a nice straight through Spencer. Or at least it would have been, if I hadn't blown a drive-side back spoke. Which, meant hitching to Waverly to a bike shop.

But, spoke fixed we hit the road again...

...actually, you know what, I'm knackered, I'll finish this some other time.


Roadkill Totals: Marmots 40+; Rattlesnakes 1; Cats 3; Massive Bloody Alligator Snapping Turtles 1; Little Turtles 5; Possums 4; Skunks 3; Bears 0

Day Three of Cycle...

...is, due to a small scheduling mishap, actually day zero. But yeah. All the gear is the the bags. All the bags are on the bikes and all the maps are in the minds.

We're going to be clocking 50-70 mile days (80-116km for my friends outside the states).

Hitting the road tomorrow at 06:00

And I'm actually too exhausted to say much else. It's been a long couple of days.

Tomorrow is the first day on bikes...

...although, thanks to a minor scheduling discrepancy, the first day will be from Ithaca to Ithaca. And the next two days will be...er...around and about Ithaca.

So, here's the deal: I will be recording things for YouTube and I will be taking photos for devArt, but I won't have any internet to post with. So. Hold your horses and wait.

See you on the other side.

Grey

I don't post here often enough?

Well you don't post here at all, so you don't get a say. :P

You are of course welcome to. Provided, of course, that what you want to post is in no way factually accurate. I intend to be the sole purveyor of truth around here. So there. Ner.

So what's been going down? Not me! Which is good 'cos I went to Niagara Falls and had a bit of a climb about and played silly buggers at the top. I'd noticed that as the water ripped out of the rapids and over the falls it left the sediment at the side sorted in a density gradient. Of course me being me and having a certain Arthurian Legend on my mind I scrambled over, around and under various minor shrubbery to reach the bit that I thought might approximate the density of treasure.

Needless to say I found a lot of treasure. Mostly it was in the form of cool bits of mother-of-pearl, but also some dead caddis flies and a crab spider. And a bone. Not sure what from.

But the best bit was watching things float past me and then...disappear. That was pretty cool.

In other news, I finished my research project. I have invented four really sticky proteins. Which I'm quite proud of. So, yeah, that's all good banter.

And finally, I also finished editing that really short nature documentary at Beebe Lake. Please note that the only reason for my projectile release of the snapper was that I wasn't wearing shoes. Filmed by the amazing Nick Righi.



Later

On waterfalls...

... a quick dissertation.

Ok, there have been many huge rainstorms. I have enjoyed them. I have sat out in a couple with a tiny canopy made of a tin tray to cover my tiny paraffin burner and my bag of marshmallows. Obviously, this had to be weighed down with rocks to prevent its removal by the surrounding squall. And, also obviously, cooking marshmallows in a thunderstorm while unable to see properly due to the water streaming into your eyes is the BEST thing ever.

These storms however have swollen the river to the point where Ithaca Falls (which, I was considering doing without a rope back when the water was low) I now can't even get close to doing, even with a rope (which wasn't long enough, the falls is more like 160ft than 105). So, that didn't happen. Ah well.

I did however got wicked heatstoke from the long climb down to the top of the falls. Which has lead to two days of D&V and a fair amount of pain. Which was not fun while watching MacBeth outdoors (Shakespeare in American? Hilarious) But that's all fine because it cleared up in time for...

...Me to present a nature documentary. I spoke abotu 10 minutes on dragonflies which, I'll edit down to two or three for a BBC showreel (read "Give to Shamini, so she'll get off my back"). While doing so I found a huge snapping turtle in the pond. The pond which I was standing in without shoes on. So, me being me, I caught it and talked about it on camera. And suddenly felt like Steve Irwin. So put it back.

Which leads me to here. I have jsut got back from the last pool above Ithaca Falls, where my friends (a bunch of very hot young people) and I have been swimming and jumping off waterfalls entirely naked for the last two hours. I managed to make myself a lifejacket using my backpack and two air...er...bladders, so the swimming was fun, but I'm sure I looked daft wearing my trainers, socks and backpack.

But hey, I was the first to stand on the end of a rock, jutting out of the face of these falls and howl at the night sky. So, that was worth every second of it.

G

Speedypost...

...nothing to say. Check out this little vid I made of a thunderstorm.



Grey

They who dare...

I have a plan.

Which for me is pretty novel, I've always been a just do it sort of a fellow.

But I went here:












And I looked over the 105ft precipice:



And I thought about this:












But, then I also considered this:










But then I thought about this t-shirt:














So I went to eBay and bought these two:












So, I have to rig a way to lash them to me and then expect scrapes and a very happy smily Greg.

A Meal Of Mostly Broccoli

Broccoli is *not* a lactose free option. However, it is incredibly tasty so I had my steamed broccoli with salad and saw that it was good.

In other news, some of these photatoes from New York are turning out pretty well. So that's good.

We've also just had the Merck guide to surviving Job interviews and Careers in Industry. So I'm whacked from that. But they have high hope for us as a group.

That's about it for today. Why am I telling y...

...oh wait!

That is not it at all! Today has been a fecking momentus day! It jsut slipped my mind for a sec. Today is a turning point for my knee pain. Which I realise I haven't told you about, but that's because someone else's mum told them and they told me that if you don't have something nice to say you shouldn't say anythign at all.

But now I do.

So, my knee (right knee for you *fact* seekers out there) has been pretty sore since I crashed off my bike doing silly speeds about 7 months ago. It's been grinding a bit more than usual and the kneecap has been sore to touch. So, I've been taking it easy (Guen? Shhhh.) and not doing weights (*cough*) or planning really long rides (*cough*) or sprinting against the buses (*cough*).

But since I arrived here and have been without a bike, the muscle mass has just fallen off me. Hooray! says I, for it'll make me a more energy efficient cyclist for my Ithaca, NY to Charlottesville, VA ride. But no! Without the added support from my daft quads my knee has been getting really really really sore. Like walking up stairs sore. Which really started to worry me, 'cos as you know a lot of my plans for the future involve a bike and a track.

Anyhow, to cut a long story shorter, I finally got and fitted my new carbon seatpost today. And believe me long seatpost is looooooooooooooooong. So my knee got a full flex physio workout this morning and now it feels A. Mazing. Like 60% better. In a day.

So that is why I'm feeling chirpy.

Later folks.

G

Photo for today:


(click for largeness)

Ladies and Gentlemen...

...may I present. My view of New York City.

(Click to enlargenate)

Ok, fine, so it's been a while.

Bugger off. I've not been writing because I've been busy. Also, because the temperature has gone up so far here that the top of my thermometer exploded like in the cartoons showering me in broken glass and red ethanol. I've been having stitches.

Ok, so that didn't happen. What I'm saying is there have been mitigating factors.

Lots has happened. The most fun of which is, while walking in the Cornell river, I got something thrown at me from one the bridges (bear in mind that this is a gorge and the bridge is like 30-40m up. So it hit the water with quite a splash). It turned out to be an orange. So I ate it.

The important bit is this: Oh My God. It was possibly the best orange I have ever eaten. Seriously. I'm not sure if it was the meteoric impact with the water breaking up the long chain carbohydrates into short chain sugars, or if it actually was divine providence (for not a minute before had I licked my parched lips and pronounced: I could really do with some fruit).

So, yeah, that was fun.

The research is going really well and the three proteins I've tested have turned out to be crap, good and "really pretty good" at binding to their intended ligand. Which is nice. I think I might go back to formula though and combine the two point mutations from the two that worked into one, genetically engineered, super spider er... protein.

In other news, I am now in NYC. Which is large and doesn't quite live up to the hype, but I shall tell you more about that when I'm not just about to go out for breakfast.

Later

Greg

Roller Derby! MJ Club fiesta! First ride of my new bike!

All this and more!

So, to keep things short, 'cos I have to present about the recent "epidemic" of TB tomorrow and so far, I'm stuggling to work out how to get the big picture across in the five to ten minutes I've got. So, that's what I'm going to be working on for the next two hours.

But, this weekend: Wicked awesome.

Spend most of Saturday chilling out and taking photos. As is my wont. Also, got a ride of my new bike in (photos of which I'm sure will show up eventually). It is HOT. Racing gear cassette, which means I can't max it out. Which is nice and it's really light too. Put my aero bars on. And a couple of other bits of gear. Still needs a longer seatpost, but otherwise, it's perfect.

Found this on the back of stop sign:











Then saturday night I hitched a life with some fun, fun Ithicans over to Cortland to watch Roller Derby (apparently pronounced DAR-by. Who knew?). Watched the game, bought some merch for Guen, 'cos I think she needs a bit more millitant feminism in her life and generally the night was brilliant.

Even more brilliant though, was getting invited to the Rollers' after-party, which was at a club called the Dark Horse (No, not the thoroughbred of sin, you're thinking of *Bad* Horse, although that did get sung in the car on the way there) Wherein, there was a massive dance-off and lots of good Michael Jackson numbers. I, needless to say, danced my tiny cotton socks off.

Sunday has been more relaxed. There has been a quick skype call home, which I had to cut off because of need to work and the watching of Wolverine. Which is a silly film. But I like it on account of omFg SuperHeroes!

So.


Yeah.

Life continues. And I just got my stipend cheque, sorry Check, so am now FLUSH.

Grey

A Weekend Aquatic...

...is a perfect weekend in my books.

So, really since you last heard from me: there has been lab work, including an awesome amount of mRNA processing, PCR, inventing a new type of bacteria, all sorts. Also, there has been inventing a hypothetical new drug and planning a presentation on emerging diseases.

In other news there have been blue jays, crayfish, amazing dragonflies, and I discovered utopia. But mroe about that some other time.

Teh really exciting things that happened this weekend involved jumping off cliffs into the gorge and sliding down a naturally cut waterslide with a skijump at the end to launch off into the boiling plunge pool at the bottom of a huge waterfall. This has been amazing. And also an interesting exercise in risk management and the control of fear.

A 15-20m drop is scary. But various factors must be taken into account when deciding if it's logic or emotion stopping you from jumping. These factors include the answers to these questions: "How tired am I? Could I swim to the side?", "Is there overhanging rock that might fall as I jump? Can I jump far enough out to prevent this?", "Have I tested the water depth? Do I think it deep enough?" and finally "Do I have the nerve?"

That last one is physiological, do I have the nerve to keep a clear head and think straight while plummeting? Because if not, it may lead to illogical behaviour and unpredicatable outcomes.

So, yeah, I went cliff diving. And then Clint and I took the other troops down to jump as well. Was excellent. There was also a waterfall to attack:

This is to prove that I'm not dead...

..just busy

Why do I only post at weekends?

Two reasons: I'm cooped up in a lab all day. Doing nothing blogworthy.

And to make you look forward to weekends! :P

Today I have taken many photos. Post later.

Also, cliff jumping is yet to happen. It will :P

Naked Day!

So far today I have not put on any clothes. This has been an excellent day of chilling the hell out, buying a bike on eBay, eating shredded wheat from the box, watching "Going Postal", chatting to people on line and DOING LOTS OF ART!!!

I have *loved* today.

G

Today's Photos:

Back from Washington...

Yeah, I missed a few days.

So, washington involved the National Intitutes of Health and a day at WRAIR. Both of which were fantastic. I have learned much. Including how sarcastic you can get away with being in the American Military. Also that having cycling cleats in your smart shoes is a great way to continually set of every metal detector you go through. :P

...I'm sorry, but what? I've just got out of bed, right? And I thought, I'd write this blog before I went to do my teeth and have a shower. To maintain my teeth in the interim I thought of chewing gum. Only to find out that the chewing gum I have on my floor has sugar in it. Que? I thought the whole point of it was to be Good For Your Teeth? Aaaanyway...

Where was I?

Oh yeah. So, got home. Went to bed. Got up. Wandered about taking photos. Went to a brand new, shiny Shaved Ice stand and got chatting to the owner (who is very cool and wants to go waterfalling with me some time). Went to the (Packed Out) Collegetown Bagels to watch England and America both play useless football. Was the only person waving a little George's Cross. My god, they have no rules when it comes to cheering for sporting events! You don't cheer for other players getting hurt, that is not the point. Aaaanyway...

I've done it again, what was I talking about?

Then got some great shots of a chinpunk and went to the Reunion Barbeque at Zeta Psi. Which was incredible, the old Zetes showed me how to get up on the roof, the old nicknames for various house rooms and they then set fire to the lawn. Generally a good day.

G

Photos from Washington


Video on the Way back from Washington

Wildlife Extra-post...

...Today's haul of new and exciting animules.

Firefly

Fireflies

Woodchuck

That's all folks.

Washington. Washington. 6'8"...

...weighed a fucking tonne. < Youtube to explain the swearing...

I'm in Washington DC. Which is nice. Raining a fair amount and very warm, but nice.

Yesterday was a full day in the lab. Picked up the plasmids from my PCR, digested out the original bacterial ones (don't carry the useful mutation) and then forced some poor, unsuspecting E.coli to take up my new groovy plasmids by electrocuting the hell out of them. And hoping that they don't all die. That's the plan. Those then got plated out on agar and I'll check back in a couple of days to see what's happening.

Anyhow, that was yesterday.

Today was an entirely different kettle of fish. Fishes. Fish. Fooshe.

Eels.

It started with a dream about walking back to 106 with Karmen, McLeod, Gary, Page, JP and Guen. Walking through the park we espied three gently slumbering tramps on a park bench and a cute girl in the distance. A girl in sight, Page (with McLeod in tow) starts a rousing serenade promptly embarrassing the filly (Page = just as smooth in dreams) and awakening the sleeping hobos.

At which point, annoyed at having been woken they charge our group with a pitchfork (two prong variety) and hand scythe. We scarper and, being long of leg and fleet of foot, I am quickly out of harm's way. Thing is, I realise, that the shorter of our group may still be in peril so I run back to check, just in time to hoik Karmen out of the path of a rusty old scythe blade.

Unfortunately, in throwing her out of the park, thanks to that prick Newton, I find myself headed back into the park towards our bumbling assailants, who by this point have managed to surround me.

Now, manners dictate that one must try not to harm confused old men. But, that becomes increasingly difficult whist one is dodging pointy things and bladed weaponry. An it becomes less appealing once one has been jabbed hard enough to draw blood. In the but-tock.

Thing is...the thing is the thing is...the closer we get the street lamp, the worse these poor fellows look. Sallow and pale skinned, with horrible red conjunctivitis and a fair number of unhealed wounds. I dive back as a scythe blade swings through where my pancreas had been seconds before. The tramp to the left however wasn't so quick and took the blade firmly in the abdomen, spilling his intestines and their contents.

Which he started picking up and throwing at me as another form of weaponry.

So, right, zombies then, not tramps. That makes more sense. It also removes any worries I may have had about doing them any damage, so one gets a kick to the chest, the other gets pinned to the wall of a barn using the pitch fork and the third gets his head removed with the scythe.

A job well done I thought as I turned to leave the park. Or rather, turned to be faced with the first tramp. These guys don't stay down for long. And to make matters worse the gent pinned to the barn has started throwing whole potatoes and curly fries from his open abdomen. Nice. Rotten stinking food and blood that have been festering in a dead gut for weeks.

Oh, come on! Not on my shoes! You horrible thing. I'm now running about trying to stay out of range of the Artilleryman and out of reach of the (now scythe-wielding) Footsoldier. I think a tree is in order.

So, as you can imagine. Things went from bad to worse: Old Mr Slicey is climbing up to meet me and Shiteflinger has managed to drag himself along the fork, climb the edge of the barn and make the short leap to the tree above me. And, of course is now raining down infective particles of digesta and egesta while trying to kick me in the head.

I plot quickly and plan a simultaneous attack on both parties: I lash out with a boot at the head of Old Man Scythe and try to grab the exposed shin of Rainman. Needless to say, things backfire as they each grab the respective limbs and start trying to pull me apart diagonally. Pain sears across my collar bones and one hip. And I think, right, maybe now is the time to rethink my - never wake from an unresolved dream - rule.

And I wake up. I looked outside at the dawn over Cornell and I felt beaten and depressed. I *never* wake up if the dream isn't done! Never! I'll feel haunted by the failure of it all day. Do I relaly want that? Just for safety from being torn apart and eaten? Do I ?

Right, I'm going back in to finish this.

I open my eyes again and everything is still. On pause. I rewind about a minute. I'm still in the tree. One below. One above. But no limb grabbage has happened by this point. I erase the barn, there isn't a barn in the park, what was I thinking? I also put a 9mm semi-automatic in my left pocket. And press play.

...eedless to say, things backfire as they each grab the respective limbs and start trying to pull me apart diagonally. Pain sears across my collar bones and one hip. My right hand is in the clammy cold grip of Dribbler and my left leg is about to be torn off at the socket by Farmer Death, so I grab the grip of the pistol and knowing I have 11 shots, put five in the face of each monster, with one for emergencies.

Un-undead, they fall from the tree and I, trying not to inhale too much infected sewage, breath a sigh of relief. And wake up again.

A much more respectable start to the day. Five thirty AM. Get up, read a couple of papers pertaining to the lectures I'm attending tomorrow and get ready to go photographing with Eliza. (Half an hour late? Seriously? :P ) Which is where today's photos come from.

Apart from that it's all been sitting in a van, choosing radio station after radio station as we drove on and on and on. Apparently, the choice out here is Country, Country and Western or Country.

So, that puts me here. Awaiting a certain name's appearance on Skype and a nice shrimp dinner.

Later

G

Big leadership exercise...

...happened today.

I summed up.

All went well. Big leadership dinner too. I didn't sum up.

To sum up: I miss you.

BIkes, The FBI and Finally Shooting A Dragon...

Today was a good one.

It started with lots of skyping. Then followed sitting a listening to the heavy rain. Cooking tasty pastas and the devouration of the same.

Then began an excellent afternoon. I set out to get to RIB, with the idea being to buy a second hand bike to do up over the summer to then cycle down to Virginia on starting August 12th. I had a back up plan of a bike I'd seen on Craig'sList, which I had asked to go check out.

I first accompanied Sanne (excellent dutch student) over to the nearby lake, so she knew where it was and could have a look about. There, against all odds, I finally found a rain drop laden Dragonfly to photograph. Which is where today's photos came from. I then set off for town...

On the walk down I walked past a house, in front of which there stood a car laden with studential paraphernalia. Mini-fridges and the like weighed down said vehicle and thought I: "Lo! What if these folks have spent some years here in Ithaca and are leaving? They surely will know what time of year Mantids come out in these parts. I shall enquire!"

It turned out that the mother and daughter occupants had no clue about the habits of local mantidodea and were, in fact, ingressing rather than egressing. I offered a hand unpacking the car and ended up being invited for dinner this evening and having various items of fruit thrust into my hands.

Wandering down Buffalo Street sucking watermelon juice off my fingers and with rain dripping from my hair, eyelashes and earlobes, I happened upon a group of tramps. By which I mean vagrants not ladies of negotiable favour. I stopped to ask directions and ended up walking along with one gent on a beautifully rusty old heap of a bike, which, apparently, he had bought at the self same shop to which I was headed.

When we arrived at 530 East Buffalo, I went it for a look about. The place was pretty empty and they had no bikes in my size, so I left my email address and volunteered to work some Sundays if they wanted a spare mechanic.

I wondered on further to meet my mystery bike salesman and test rode his 1998 (-ish) very light road bike. Which, to my great regret was too small. I gave it back to him and we chatted about his time in Edinburgh and how he could make his bike more efficient. Then I strolled back to the ladies with the car to help carry the rest of the gear up the four flights of stairs.

They were as good as their word and we set out for the BoatYard Restaurant. Just before we departed though a mischievous look crossed the mother's face and quick as a flash whipped out a Badge and demanded that I get "Down on the Ground! Now!". Apparently, she was just checking I wasn't the trouble making sort. But she did give me dinner.

And what is more, her hat.

So, I ended the day with a $30 steak, no new bike and a new hat.

Grey

Today's photo:

(click for daft levels of detail. Daftail)

Ha! Travels Past!

Just discovered this lost gem.

Warning: Video may contain geeks.

http://vimeo.com/8010538

In other news: Took a few people under the waterfall with me this time.
And came back with only one injury (6 stiches, well done that girl!) and this photo:

Click for largeness:

In other news...

There are two things I should point out:

One, Fireflies! They are neither on fire, nor are they a type of fly. But the *are* here. Now.

Bioluminescence, along with evaporation, gyroscopes and Van der Waal's forces, is one of those things that makes me smile all the way through.

Two, Girls! There are some really hot girls here. There are some of those upsetting ones which are hot and boring. But there are also some exceptionally intelligent and brave chicks on this course. Which is nice.

Greg

On Millipedes...

Very simple day: Got to lab, no one there. Read all the research posters. People arrived. Sat me down to talk me through their research. I inserted various bits of knowledge from posters. Long story short, they all think I'm a genius and they're just letting me get on with stuff.

So, have set up a 10 hour ultra hi-fi PCR on some plasmids and left that running and worked out how their chromatographic purification machine worked from the vibrations. Which was fun. I got a couple of the sensors wrong, but otherwise was ok.

Oh YEAH! There's also a centrifuge that goes at 35,000rpm, which is hamazing. It has to evacuate the spin chamber, or the rotor would cook the sample apparently. Whooo!

Then escaped. Found a way down to the river, had a house meeting (ah, bureaucracy, however, my college "daughter" was elected House King, so I guess I can get things I want done now...), grabbed some company, headed back to the river and waded/swum downstream until we got to a 10m waterfall.

Climbed down the side and found a way underneath. Was Ossum Like A Possum.

So, yeah, got very wet, had a lot of fun messing about with waterfalls. Then walked back up, I *nearly* caught a crayfish and found a whole bunch of groovy millipedes. Which are the subject of today's photos:

First Day In Labs...

The day in brief:

2.5hrs of safety balls: Don't set your face on fire, try not to eat the delicious viruses, please be aware that looking down a laser to see if it's on is a bad idea...

3,5hrs of being dropped in at the deep end in the labs. Much more my style! Here, run a quick modification pcr on this bacterial plasmid and then remove the original plasmid from the resulting soup while leaving the new ones. Er...right, then, I'll just start over here then shall I?
This desk ok? No...er...supervision? No? Right.

So, yeah, I've been having fun :P

Then I thought I might go get lunch. At 4:30. What? I got distracted. Don't judge me.

Went to Collegetown Bagels. Guen? Good call. then wondered back, tumbled down the gorge and played in the waterfall for a while before walking back and taking fun photos of caterpillars. All in, a good day.

Today's photos:

Cambridge - Cornell

04:30 GMT

Home to Cambridge - Rachel's Car
Cambridge to London - Train
London to Heathrow - Tube and Train
Heathrow to JFK - Boeing 747
JFT to New York City - Yellow Cab
New York City to Ithaca - Greyhound Bus
Ithaca to Cornell - Jeff's Car

20:30 EST

Total = 21hrs in transit.

There are some things that bike commuting every day can prepare you for. This is not one of them. Still, Marie and I arrived in high spirits.

Next day, I went out for a recce in the rain. I got very wet, very quickly and then ran off to Walmart, which is a couple of miles out of town. Apparently, one is not meant to do such things here, I got some odd looks. I also had a good run about, tried out the bus, explored the lake, went to a bank and just generally caused trouble.

As a result of 48 hrs in wet trainers I now have trenchfoot. So, am hobbling :P

Right, I'm out for a while.

Photographer's Travels

Good Morning.

I can say that without fear of correction for two reasons. Firstly, it's always morning somewhere and secondly, I've not given my most pedantic friends this blog address.

This is the Photographer's Travels. With me, your host, Grey. You might know me from such hits as GP @ DevArt or GP @ YouTube.

This blog is a brief account of my travels. It serves three purposes. One: It's fun to write. Two: I can read it when I'm old. Three: It lets my mum know I'm ok.

So, without further ado: