I’ve no reason at all for saying anything much today, except to show you this picture:
This is Heidi on the beach at about 10 a.m. today. I’m looking westwards, at low tide, with Cromer in the background. The sun was bright and there was almost no wind, so that the North-Sea chill was refreshing rather than vicious.
It’s at times like this when it strikes me how lucky I am to be living in this part of the world. You lot really ought to come and visit. Bora has been here, so he can vouch that it really is like this.
Perhaps we could have a SciBlog meeting here. There is at least one decent hotel with conference facilities (possibly), lots of places to stay (much more cheaply than London), good food, great beer, and super scenery (whatever the weather). Cromer isn’t as remote as one might think. You can get here from London direct by bus … and by Stephenson’s Rocket train from London Liverpool Street or Cambridge, via Norwich. For those from abroad, it’s only a 30-minute drive from an international airport – Norwich, just 40 minutes from Schiphol, and from Schiphol, the world. Heathrow? Schmeathrow!
But don’t say anything just yet. I really should clear it with Mrs Gee, first.
OK, I’ve checked. “I think it’s a great idea” says Mrs Gee.
So do I.
Yes, it’s lovely and I would be there at a SciBlog meeting for sure!
Woof!
(I am up for it)
I think it would be a great idea for a more intensive meeting – we’d all be stuck in the middle of nowhere, so we’d have to talk to each other.
I’ve used that strategy a few times for workshops – stick people in Tvärminne, which is miles from anywhere, and hope we don’t lose too many through the ice.
Goldie says ’I’m jealous, but fields are nice too.’
This shot (courtesy Flickr etc) was just before she was beamed up.
P.S. Yes, please for a SciBlog in Cromer. Last one in’s a loser…
M@? Corie? Where are you?
Looks like the perfect place to continue our
xenophobic distopian rantingfascinating discourse on the Great British political landscape.Being out in the middle of nowhere’s a great idea, as long as it’s within easy reach of international
steamboatair travel.The sun was bright and there was almost no wind, so that the North-Sea chill was refreshing rather than vicious
I would welcome a refreshing North Sea chill; I’m honestly very tired of persistent temperatures in the 80s right now. Makes me wonder why I finished knitting an Icelandic sweater, and kept my old Barbour jacket all these years.
I suppose there’s no chance that a SciBlog meeting could be held in February? {selfish} Looks as if that’s the only time I can travel to the UK, and I plan to visit some friends in Cambridge then.{/selfish}
Henry – where’s the closest ferry? I’d do that. February would work, too – even a cold and windy day on the beach is a good day!
(seriously now, are you planning this?)
@ Mike: xenophobic distopian ranting. At least of us have learned how to spell.
@ Kristi: _I suppose there’s no chance that a SciBlog meeting could be held in February?
No reason why not. Accommodation will be as cheap as chips. But isn’t February the
only tolerablenicest part of the year on the Third Coast?@ Steffi: the ferry would be Den Haag to Harwich. You can get a train from Harwich to Cromer by train, changing at Manningtree and Norwich.
seriously now, are you planning this?
I’m never serious about anything. You know this.
But isn’t February the only tolerable nicest part of the year on the Third Coast?
It’s usually a very nice time of the year indeed. Unfortunately, though, a window of time in mid- to late February is my only opportunity to escape job responsibilities for a week or so. Medical and dental school course schedules are notoriously inflexible, especially compared to those for small grad school courses. I teach in all three types of courses in the spring, so it’s difficult to get away. And summer is for research.
Awww nuts. Just shows what a
dystopiangood old free Scottish education gets you. Anyway, no fair. It wascrossed out. Your point might be much more powerful if you hadn’t missed an important word from your own sentence. Or was that deliberate? Self-efface and sarcasm should have their own fonts here.I like the idea of late February for this – there’s a peculiar British sort of bad weather that we don’t get up here and that I miss sometimes.
I’m still having trouble thinking of Norwich airport as an international airport. yes, I know it flies to Amsterdam – I’ve even taken that flight (back in my mildew days). But it still seems, I don’t know, wrong.
It could just be the thought that Norfolk can be connected to the Outside World that’s giving me trouble.
Self-efface and sarcasm should have their own fonts here.
We assume people are smart enough to get it. And to use apostrophe’s correctly.
@ Mike. Your point might be much more powerful if you hadn’t missed an important word from your own sentence. Oh shit. Please pass me a petard whereupon I might hoist myself (in the village hall if wet: exclusions apply).
@ Bob: as you know, East Anglia is peppered with airfields large and small, a relic of the last war. My favourite is the airfield at Little Snoring …
… and the tiny village of Northrepps, a little way up-country from Cromer, has its own international airport.Don’t take on so, Mr Branson, it’ll be better once we’ve installed the quantum interstellar fusion ramjets, you’ll see
Mayday, mayday, there are turkeys on the runway. yes, turkeys, escaped from Bloggs’ farm. That’s tango, uniform, romeo, kilo, echo, yankee…
What a fantastic NOTAM.
_please pass me a petard whereupon I might _
sigh ‘with which’, not ‘whereupon’.
M@? Corie? Where are you?
Henry, please go ahead and organise this under your own steam/coal/petard if you wanna get everyone together for an informal meetup in Feb. This could be fun to do even if we can’t throw much/any money at it.
Aah, thanks for those photos, Henry. They bring back memories of the rectory at Great Melton. As well as of the acronym NFN.
Might you be able to throw any money at it at all?
Or at least some advice on how to book things up …
@ Richard sigh ‘with which’, not ‘whereupon’.
I know, I know. I can only apologise.
@ Everyone: OK, I shall make some inquiries as to a suitable venue for a weekend conference in February. The Cliftonville Hotel has a great big functions hall.
@ Steffi: seriously now, are you planning this?
It seems to be getting more and more serious by the minute.
And I’ve got a great big [REDACTED] but you don’t hear me bragging about it.
er …. bunch of coconuts?
Close enough.
@ Richard: We assume people are smart enough to get it. And to use apostrophe’s correctly.
Such assumptions can be dangerous. Excusing the fact that these fora are open to all, not just those of us who place too much emphasis on their strong science backgrounds, I’ve certainly come across so-called experts in my field who couldn’t distinguish
their arse from their elbowbetween local and biomass stability. Even when I explicitly said I was dealing with local stability. Harrumph.As Roy Castle should have said “Communication’s whatcha need.”
What should you do if you have a problem trumpet tree in your garden?
Get out your shovel, and root it oot.
Note absence of apostrophe in “Terrors”. He was a Dr. too! Or perhaps a doctor was terrorising the house of horrors. Damn you, ambiguity, my greatest foe.
Henry: February is good. Just don’t make it the end of January – looks like I’ll be at the ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Nice.. no comparison to Cromer, no comparison at all.
@Bob: there’s a peculiar British sort of bad weather that we don’t get up here and that I miss sometimes It’s a close relative of the weather in northern Germany – I missed it when I lived in Colorado. Now I remember what the advantages of a dry climate were..
Re: The Cliftonville, check out dem live webcams
Those attending such an event would become instant global science celebs !!
Coo! That’s amazing!
OK, listen up, folks, it’s official