Todd and Clare's wedding

My oldest friend was married on Saturday back in Australia. I had the honor of being Best Man and so made a lightning visit for the long weekend.

Arriving back in Australia Thursday evening I had mixed feelings. Although I was looking forward to seeing family & friends again, my heart was back in England with my family. It was odd to hear all the Australian accents around me; from people, on the radio, ... Not having a home also made me feel that I was a visitor. I'm sure that as time goes by we'll be looking forward to returning - just not right now.

Friday I caught up with Todd and had the opportunity to relax and talk about the wedding. I got the first glimpse of the astounding effort both he and Clare went to when Todd showed me the shirt, tie and cufflinks he'd bought me for the wedding. We tried them on and I have so say we cut a sharp figure!!

That night we settled back for a few drinks. By 10pm I was exhausted - the jet lag definately getting the better of me. I was struggling to put a sentence together. Not good - given that this time the next day I'd be warming to my speech.

I found myself awake again at 3am. Jet lag! Rather than try to adjust to the time zone I was up and working on the speech. I have to admit to a little anxiety; not so much because of the crowd (I knew a fair chunck) but rather because I was struggling to find the right words to express my thoughts.

I spent Saturday morning at our favourite Brunetti. It was almost worth the trip alone to catch up with our friends and enjoy a wonderful coffee. I found that my appetite was gone so I didn't tuck in to the pastries as I used to do.

After lunch I met Todd and we travelled to his hotel in St Kilda Road - just a few minutes walk to the reception at The Willows. We enjoyed a drink, got on the kit, and put the final touches on the speech. Then, we set of to walk the short distance to the venue.

Todd and I have known each other for 24 years. I enjoyed catching up with some of his family that I hadn't seen for 15 years. The ceremony was so impressive. Both Todd and Clare had gone to tremendous effort to have it reflect their individual values and everyone felt honored to share the moment with them. Its a great credit to them both that so many of their good friends were able to celebrate the wedding with them.

I've posted a few photos that I took before the wedding. I hope to get many more and I'll post them as I get them.

Sunday I crammed in more family and then it was off to the airport for the return flight home. 2 1/2 days in country - that would have to be about a record!

Snow in Windsor

We awoke this morning to find it had showed overnight! Not a lot - just a light dusting. We woke James and he was excitied to see his first snow. He ran in to the lounge where Merrilyn had opened the curtains. He first saw the snow on the roof. But then, looking towards the Long Walk, he saw the snow in the trees, covering the cars, and on the ground. I'm off to the airport to fly to Australia. Merrilyn is down at the car scraping off the snow abefore we take James to pre-school.

Here are a few photos.

Magna Carta

This weekend we finally got around to visiting the Magna Carta memorial that’s just around the corner at Runnymede. It’s located near the banks of the Thames mid way between Windsor and Staines. Which is no surprise as it was negotiated in 1215 between King John (at Windsor) and disgruntled Barons located at Staines. The water meadow was established as common ground.

Although the actual site where the document was signed is unknown Runnymede itself is named. The memorial donated by the American Bar Association and is reached via a short walk through the meadow. Well – on this Saturday afternoon – its description as a water meadow is well deserved. Fortunately Merrilyn and James both had their wellies (ideal for winter walks) so the walk through the mud was no problem. For me….

There’s not too much to see at the site. Although we did pass a path leading up a hill to the Air Forces Memorial. Apparently there is a viewing platform that provides a good vantage for overlooking Windsor. Better add that to the list.

The afternoon light have the bare trees an orange hue and I thought that the long shadows against the deep green of the fields looked very beautiful. I tried to capture a view of these views in the photos.

We intended to visit the Copper Horse on the way home but James was asleep as soon as we pulled the car on to the road. So intend we made our way home, picked up the stroller, and walked the Long Walk. I had hoped to take a few winter shots of the Castle but the sun was lost in clouds. I have posted a few photos that show the walk and bare chestnut trees.

See them here.

Wild winds & our lucky escape

Although we’ve had an unusually mild winter the weather turned today. All through the night we could hear the wind lashing the flat. Occasional gusts would find their way through the latched double glazed windows and make strange whistle sounds.

The journey to work this morning was calm. But before long the wind again picked up. Reports of building damage at other Fujitsu sites started to trickle in.

During the day most train services were suspended due to signalling problems and power outages. Traffic on the way home was a problem as people jammed the roads to get home.

Arriving home I found that a huge gum tree had blown down right across our car space. Luckily Merrilyn & James were out at the time as there is no doubt the car would have been completely crushed. The trunk has missed the bike shed but it has been severely damaged by branches. I’m very thankful that we were nowhere near the spot at the time. I dread to think what might have happened otherwise.

Here are a few photos I snapped tonight. Its difficult to make out much but you can see the bike shed in one. Our car usually parks right beside this.

Tonight there were only three lines running in England. To see the rail carnage check out this website showing the rail status.

15 lorries have blown over, and a container ship is breaking up off Cornwall.

And here is an article from the Times describing the winds and damage across England. There were 80mph winds reported up at Cheshire. A cold snap is on the way and snow/frost is forecast for the weekend.

Bletchley Park & Enigma

Today we visited Bletchley Park, located in Milton Keynes, a little over an hour north. During World War II it was the home of the Government Code & Cipher School (GC&CS) which was the nexus for allied code breaking whose most famous achievement (although arguably perhaps not the most important) was breaking the German Enigma.

It is a fascinating visit and we were fortunate to catch a guided tour which provided interesting insight. And today a member of the group was a lady in her 80s who recorded intercepts in Station Y (more later).

GC&CS (or Golf, Cheese & Chess Society as it was colloquially known) was sited at Bletchley Park in 1939. It housed both code breakers and intelligence analysts. The most recognisable element of Bletchley Park is the rather confused architectural styling of the mansion’s façade. However, most of the work was performed in huts. Each hut was paired; one of the code breakers and the other for the intelligence analysts whose job it was to interpret the messages. There were pairs of huts for different communication stream. For example, the Army & Airforce, and one for Naval intelligence.

Bletchley Park was chosen for a number of reasons. The motivation was to relocate key services out from London. Bletchley Park is located almost equidistant from London and from both Cambridge and Oxford (from where mathematicians and linguist were drawn). Importantly there was an existing major telephone exchange in the area. This allowed the government to add the enormous communication infrastructure required to receive and disseminate the intelligence without drawing attention to the location.

There were many outstanding achievements at GC&CS (aside: the “School” in the name was used as disinformation so as to disguise the true intent of the outfit). One was leveraging the concept of attacking machine ciphers with machines. This was led by Alan Turing who, due to his work on analytical engines, is now considered the father of computers (what would John von Neumann say?). GC&CS turned code breaking into a factory. Code breaking machines (such as the Bombe and Colossus) allowed massively parallel analytical attacks on cipher intercepts leading to obtaining the all important keys leading to the decipher within hours.

Intelligence arrived in Bletchley Park from intercept points known as Station Y. Due to the speed of the German Blitzkrieg communication with the front lines was wireless. Such communications were intercepted by Station Y in either fixed location or via mobile units that were positioned near the action. Intercepts found their way to GC&CS either by electronic communication or by motorcycle courier. The intelligence product was referred to as “Ultra” and was provided directly to Churchill.

On site are a number of Enigma machines. Rather than a single type, Enigma is a family of encryption devices. There is also a working replica of the Bombe. Of most interest to me was the rebuilt Colossus Mark II. This is nearing completion after 12 years of work by a dedicated team of enthusiasts. These are arguably the first computers and were used to decipher the German Lorenz SZ 40 – used for the most sensitive traffic. It reads paper tape representing intercepted teleprinter communications at a rate of 5000 characters per second. We stepped into the room housing the working replica and was hit both by the warmth and strangely familiar smell of valves (all 2500 of them – generating 1.5kW of heat). Lights on a panel – reminiscent of an old science fiction film – showed the progress of the machine.

Interestingly the Colossus was secret until the mid 1970s so its role both in computing and cryptanalyst terms was not known for a long time after the war.

Photos here.

London Science Museum

Today we visited the London Science Museum. And what a terrific experience!

We set off at 9:30am and caught the rainbow bus in the centre of Windsor which took us in to Kensington. It's only a hour journey in to the Royal Albert Hall. From there we had only a 10 minute walk to the museum. The bus certainly is a far better option than the train when heading in to Kensington.

The museum itself is free to enter. It has five floors of amazing displays. Most are interactive. And for the children, the basement has a discovery centre that is geared towards learning through involvement. James just loved it. He ran about playing with the exhibits such as a dynamo to make lights turn on, a helicopter that turns when the tail rotor slows, and even a light sensitive wall that captures your shadow when a flash fires. What fun!

One of his favourites (and mine) was the rocket hall. There were real rockets (such as the black arrow), engines, satellites, and lots of models. James delcared he was "very happy" and told me his favourite rocket for the day was the Space Shuttle. The highlight for me was the Apollo 10 command module. I really didn't expect to see this outside of the Smithsonian or perhaps Kennedy Space Center. I found a link to a photo taken when recovering the capsule after splashdown.

Another favourite of mine was the history of the computer (no suprise there)! I saw a TI99-4A (my first computer) for the first time in decades. Not to mention a ZX80 and Cray-1 supercomputer. And for my Dad - I've even snapped a photo of an old dentist thingy (you know - drill, basin, suction....).

Another of James' favourites was the nautical exhibit. There were models of boats, some real equipment (such as gyro compass), and a recreation of a ship's bridge. James, of course, had to steer.

The Museum has many other exhibits such as mechanical, materials, mathematics, genetics, and energy. There was of course so much to see. We spent about three hours there before returning home to Winsor at about 2pm. James was so exhausted he slept all the way home.

It is so easy to get too and so much fun for the little ones. Merrilyn will be back with James and some of his friends the next cold wet winter day.

Here are the photos.