Rough Week: Part 3

You gross bed bugs, they actually do give off a really unpleasant odour, not almonds though

Wow, and so the saga comes to an end.  We've finally figured out what was causing all these problems, and turns out it's very mundane, just bed bugs.  I can't believe such a small insect could cause such wide-spread pain. 

We'd been sleeping on the sofa bed in our lounge room, ever since I went to see the dermatologist and she thought it could be bug bites.  After a week in the lounge with no ill effects we went back to the bedroom for one night, and the next morning I had about 30 bites on me and they were starting to blister again.  It seems that a bed bug only has to look at me and my skin reacts.  I guess this is a good thing though as it means it will be impossible for a bed bug infestation to grow unnoticed in my house and given the three-fold increase in bed bug numbers in London lately I suppose it was only a matter of time.  It's the new northern hemisphere pandemic.  The fumigator who came in to take a look said we had a very minor infestation, as at the previous place she'd been too she'd lifted the pillow and there were about 100 bugs under there.  It makes me shudder just thinking about it.

The sad thing though is that fumigators are kind of expensive, and whilst we can afford it (and I would actually spend an awful lot of money to not go through that again), some people can't.  You read some horror stories on the web about single mothers with two young kids, covered in bites, but they can't afford the fumigation.  It makes me think that perhaps this really is a public health issue and maybe the local councils should be paying for the eradication.  I mean I don't want to be living somewhere where my neighbours all have massive bedbug infestations because they can't afford to get rid of them, that's not going to end well for either my mental or skin health!

Anyway in three weeks time we should have gone through the 3 treatments recommended and be completely bed bug free..... so who wants to stay at our place :)

Seriously though, do not leave your luggage on the floor at hotels and when you get home after a trip wash all your clothes at above 60 degrees, and if you ever think you may have an infestation, invite me to stay the night and by about midnight it should already be clear.

Phone Posts

Woohoo, looks like I've figured out how to post to the blog from my phone.  This means I can now post all my Instagram photos here as well.  For those not in the know Instagram is a smart phone app which applies filters to your photos, majorly reducing the resolution and then posts them.  It's good for those moments when you're just out and about and want to let people know what you are up to.  It's part of the phonography which is taking off at the moment, in fact there is even an exhibition in London at the moment dedicated solely to photos taken with iPhones, some of them look really good. 

Instagram is a funny little program, I kind of like it as it's sort of an update on the go to those people following you, plus you can post directly to Facebook (but not blogger, boo hiss!).  It's also kind of cool to see what really good photographers can do with just their rubbish little iPhone and a couple of pre-made filters.  But then that of course leads to debate, as some people just use instagram as a means of uploading their beautifully crafted, photoshopped photos, which completely blow iPhone pictures out of the water.  People think that sort of behaviour goes against the spirit of the medium as it should be about embracing the iPhone's flaws, but then I think sometimes people are waay too competitive.  So anyway a few low-quality phonographs for you and hopefully I'll be able to keep these coming in the future.

Apologies to those who have seen these already, a bit of a lazy post really :)

Golden light on the Heath

Cannot get enough of these colours at Hampstead Heath

Leaves!!! at the Heath

The river through Oxford

Tower Bridge under a grey sky

View from the top at Hampstead Heath

My first Christmas wreath, yes that is live fir and holly branches

Belfast

Queens University, where's Harry Potter?

So I think my photos may be gone, or maybe I didn't take as many as I thought I did.  Perhaps by the end of the 10 days I had  run out of space on my memory card.

I was a bit nervous visiting Belfast, all I really knew about Northern Ireland were "the Troubles", nice name for what was basically a civil war, as well as various accounts of knee-capping.  This view wasn't helped by one of the tour guides in Dublin. Upon hearing we were going to Belfast next, he told us a story of when he visited.  He went there as a tour guide, though his job was just to drive people from Dublin and back.  The group had organised their own tour guides in Belfast.  He told us that one of the guides gave him his card and later on the the Dublin guide had googled this Belfast guide.  Turns out he was one of the political prisoners released as part of the Good Friday Accord, and he had been convicted of killing a couple of British soldiers as well as some passers-by who happened to be in the wrong place.  Full-on stuff!

Apparently most of the people who are tour guides with the black cab tours, the ones who take you on tours of the more political parts of town, are these released prisoners.  This was confirmed when we walked into the Belfast tourist office and asked about doing a tour.  The lady behind the desk was very quick to inform us that they had no

That is Elizabeth Bennett's dress from the only Pride and Prejudice adaptation worth mentioning

part in recommending any particular cab tour, that they were political tours, and that we could take a look at the pamphlets if we wanted.  As we were only after a walking tour of the city we were a little taken aback by the response.

No matter how many times the tour operators would tell you that times had changed, that things were looking up, these sorts of reactions made us think that Northern Ireland still has a ways to go.  There were a couple of things that put us off, and made us feel a little uneasy.  We did one of the bus tours, mainly so we could see the murals without having to take a scary black cabs tour.  As we're driving along, the guide points out what they call a "Peace Wall", nice name for a 5m high wall running along the backs of houses to protect them from any bombs.  That was probably one of the scariest things for me, seeing this city divided still, more than 10 years after the peace was meant to have started.

It's a really strange place, I would go just to experience it.  Along one of the unionist roads were hundreds of Union Jacks, banners and banners of them, more than are even in the Mall near Buckingham Palace.  It was strange to see somewhere so fervently proclaiming who they were, especially as Northern Ireland barely seems to get a mention in the English press.  The other really strange thing was that the unionist and republican areas in Belfast are right next door to each other, these people are neighbours.  The other noticeable thing is how poor that whole area is.  The whole Troubles seemed to start in 1968 when Catholics/nationalists organised a march to protest against the discrimination they were experiencing.  The police force reacted violently to this and it all seemed to spiral out of control from there.  It really seemed kind of sad, the discrimination these people were facing, I also suppose history was against both sides reaching a peaceful agreement at that time, having been a number of times when both Catholics and Protestants slaughtered each other in the fight for Irish independence.

The burnt and abandoned Justice courts

Belfast is also home to the Europa hotel, which all the tour guides were quick to tell you used to hold a world record for the number of times it was bombed.  It's as if they are proud of it, which is a bit odd.  Another really weird incident happened just while we were walking around. It seemed that one of the roads had been closed off, as if a parade was about to start.  There was a policeman there keeping an eye on things so I asked him who was parading, he said "they're idiots"  I thought it was a bit weird, but turns out they were parading under the banner of the World War I division that unionists fought for, they just can't seem to let it go there. I guess I can see where this policeman's lack of patience comes from, I mean he's the person who's on the front line when the two groups try to kill each other.  I was actually a little scared, these unionists were all quite drunk and really seemed like they would be happy to pick a fight. So whilst it is interesting to experience this I would recommend spending most of your time in the Republic of Ireland, they just seemed more sorted.

The stories you hear about the Troubles are just crazy.  The photo to the left is of the abandoned Crumlin Road Courthouse, directly opposite it was the gaol, and they are connected with an underground tunnel.  During the Troubles judges in this courthouse handed out sentences which totalled something like a quarter of a million years.  It was abandoned in the 1990's, but recently it has been the subject of arson attacks, so nobody really knows what is going to be done with it.

We didn't end up spending a lot of time actually in the city.  Though we did go on a ghost tour, which was pretty weird, and being the UK they had to slip in the obligatory Jack the Ripper reference.  We also went to the museum there, I would recommend that, if only for their exhibit on the Troubles.  They must have been quite brave to actually have a section on it, because I imagine it still leads to some very strong feelings in the community.  To lighten the mood they also had an exhibit on clothes worn in movies and TV shows.  There was a big section on Downtown Abbey which seems to be the hit show here at the moment.  Even David Cameron mentioned it in a speech he gave at the Lord Mayor's inaugaration dinner.

Parliament House: Stormont, there was serious security getting in here

Rough Week : Update

The picture on the left gives you some idea as to what sort of drugs I've been on lately.  There's a few of them there.  We still haven't got to the bottom of it, but I think we're getting closer.  Ever since my last post on this subject I've been getting these weird blisters appearing all over the place.  At first I thought they might just be some lingering reaction to the antibiotics, apparently strange rashes are a side effect, and they did make me so sick I couldn't actually complete my journey into work in one go. 

It's been a while since I was off them though, and they were still appearing, and when one started to come up on my eyelid I thought enough was enough and it was back to my friendly medical centre and another hour long wait.  I've decided that GP's are basically help desks, in that they can't actually help you or diagnose your problem, but they are pretty good at referring you to the person who can.  Let's just say that I've certainly been getting my money's worth for my National Insurance contribution.

I have to say one more thing about my awesome medical centre, I turned up at 8:55am ready to start queuing for the duty doctor.  I was of course told that they can't start taking names until 9am, because that makes sense.  I turn around and there are already 5 people sitting, looking like they are also waiting for the doctor to open.  At 8:58 am one of the two sets of parents there got up to take their child to the bathroom, at 8:59 am one person got up and started queuing in front of the duty doctor's counter.  Which was, of course, everyone else's sign to get in line, and being in England we all tried to follow the order of who had arrived first, but then a whole crowd of people arrived and join the queue as well and all order was lost.  At 9am the duty doctor counter opened, at 9:01am the parent emerged from the bathroom to see a queue already 10 people long.  Lesson learned in that experience! 

I was chatting to some other people in the line as we were waiting, one of them was a guy who had been in to see the doctor yesterday and had been told to come back today, but unfortunately there were no appointments available.  So even though he literally lives next door to the clinic he can't go home after he's signed in, he has to wait around for anywhere in excess of 2 hours to be seen.  A word of advice for those seeking a duty doctors appointment here, arrive early, queue early and if you need to go to the bathroom, cross your legs instead!

My doctor's experience was quite pleasant this time, no nasty antibiotics, instead he took a look at my weird blisters, and unfortunately for him that's my only symptom, other than them I feel fine.  Even though they have their software now which you can just enter all the symptoms and see what pops up, with only one it's hard to narrow it down.  So he admitted defeat and said he'd get me in to see a dermatology specialist.  This is where I am again impressed with the hospital system here, I would think that to see a specialist for a non-life-threatening condition in Australia would take weeks, not that I've ever really been in that position so I'm only guessing.  I got to see one three days later, so local anesthetic and biopsies later hopefully we are on the way to working out what it is.  I'm going to attempt to fumigate the bedroom this weekend, as one possibility is bugs, have to say they gotta be some pretty nasty bugs to be causing what I've got!  But then bugs sound a lot better than immune disorder, which was another possibility.

Autumn colours

Is it winter already?

As well as seeing fireworks I was also really keen to see some autumn colours.  I was a bit worried that I might have left it too late and missed the leaves turning.  On my walk to the train station each morning, there are a few trees, but they all lost their leaves back in October when we were still having 30 degree days.  So I didn't really have any concept as to when normal trees start losing their leaves.  We planned a big walk, from the north side of Hyde park, through Green park, past Buckingham Palace and St James' park down to the river for the fireworks, with hopefully a pub stop for lunch and hopefully some colourful leaves.

Now there was a lot of "atmosphere", which means there was some serious moisture in the air. 

Guess not, still autumn here!

Whilst you don't really notice it in real life, the camera sure loves it, so there was a bit of lightrooming going on with some of these.  Apologies if they are over-saturated.

Dave admiring the leaves

As well as awesome colours the squirrels were going crazy too.  Everywhere we looked they were scampering all over the place.  They don't hibernate during winter, so in autumn they have to put on 10% of their body weight in fat.  There were some seriously plump looking squirrels out there, but still fast enough to beat the dogs.  In winter they have to eat nearly every day, but if the weather is particularly bad they may take a day off, which is why they need that extra 10%.  The ones we saw were only greys though, the reds having long since disappeared from London.  The greys carry squirrel pox, which they are immune too, but the reds aren't, sounds like the colonisation of America only in reverse, and with squirrels.

What a delicious peanut

There are still pockets of red squirrels remaining, in Scotland in particular.  In fact there is a little island in Poole harbour, on England's south coast, called Brownsea Island.  This is meant to have about 200 individuals living there.  We were planning a squirrel hunting trip there, but it turns out the island is closed (I

Leaves!!

didn't know islands could close) so we are going to have to wait until next February to see our first red squirrel.  I think though that they might be even more active then, as February is mating season, so definitely looking forward to that adventure!

We also learned that the squirrels love peanuts, just the raw ones still in their shells.  So I'm definitely carrying a few of them in my pockets from now on.  And the bonus is if we don't see any squirrels we can just eat them ourselves.

We also witnessed a mighty duel between a big crow and a squirrel.  The squirrel was digging through the ground, not sure what it was looking for, and the crow was following close behind to see what the squirrel dug up.  Every now and then though the crow got too close and the squirrel rounded on it.  I'd never seen a squirrel look so ferocious, the crow was definitely not taking that on!

The crow and squirrel eye each other off

The crow circles the squirrel

The squirrel attacks!! The crow is defeated.  Not how I would have thought this would play out

Man, there's cameras everywhere here, even in Hyde park!  Are they up in the trees or something and where are the wires?

Lovely, with a lot of atmosphere!

Princess Diana's memorial fountain, more of a circular stream really

Aren't you a nice looking swan

And your baby is looking pretty big now too

My favourite tree

More colours and birds

Upside down squirrel

After making it out of Hyde Park we came upon Wellington's arch, though you may see that it actually has a lady and four horses on top of it.  It used to be instead a massive statue of the Duke of Wellington, but I think that people thought it was too ostentatious.  When the arch was moved to alleviate traffic problems around here, the Duke was moved elsewhere.  You can climb to the top of this arch, which we did.  I love doing these things that tourists wouldn't bother doing.

Wellington's arch

They had walls dedicated to other famous arches around the world inside

The view from the top

More atmosphere in Green park

Buckingham Palace, more of a big house really, with a lot of traffic noise

Lovely colours in St James' park

Fireworks!

Autumn colours waiting for the fireworks

Eating our eggs at breakfast and looking through the London travel guide trying to decide what to do today, Dave notices that the second Saturday of November is the Lord Mayor's show.  This occurs every year and it's where the Lord Mayor of London travels from Mansion House, the Mayor's home in the centre of London, to the Royal Courts of Justice, about 3 kms away, pausing at St Paul's to receive a blessing along the way.

The Lord Mayor's of London have been doing this every year for nearly 800 years, nothing has stopped the procession, not wars, fires or plagues.  It's kind of impressive that the tradition is that strong.  It dates back to 1213 when King John granted the city of London the right to chose its own mayor, but his condition was that the mayor had to travel upriver to Westminster

The London Eye at night

and pledge allegiance to the crown.  The Lord Mayor of London is one of the oldest elected officials in the world and this vast procession has built up around this annual journey. 

St Paul's glowing at night

Whilst the actual trip is only about 3 kms long, the actual procession length is about 5kms.  That's a lot of floats.

Looking back towards the river bank, definitely need some sort of tripod

I was a bit surprised to hear that the trip is an annual one as I was sure there hadn't been another mayoral election lately.  My nightly free

Crossing Waterloo bridge after the show

newspaper has been keeping me up-to-date on the battle between Boris and Ken for the mayoral election next year.  I thought, perhaps they have changed the term of the mayoral office over the years, as an annual election is a massive expense, and really what can you get done in one year, though they kept the procession, because they love the tradition. 

Turns out there are actually two mayors of London, the Lord Mayor of London (elected every year) and the Mayor of London.  The Lord Mayor is the head of the City of London Corporation, which is a tiny area covering mainly the city, whilst the Mayor of London is the actual Mayor of London, controlling the entire greater London area.  Confused, I know I am? 

The City of London Corporation got me, but it turns out that is just the local governing body over "the square mile".  This means that the Lord Mayor of London is mainly a ceremonial role, they give about 800 speeches a year promoting the city of London's interests.  The Mayor of London has only been around since 2000, and Boris and Ken have been the only two people to hold this office, with Ken battling for his third attempt at the role. I'm not really sure what they did before 2000, some sort of local government perhaps?

Big Ben looking pretty in the evening

Westminster Abbey looking very different in the twilight

The main thing we were interested in though was the 5pm fireworks show, it is meant to be the best in London.  Those people in Australia may think that 5pm is a little early for fireworks, but we are down to under 9 hour days now, the sun sets at about 4:20pm at the moment.  I'm actually enjoying the shorter days, it means you can have these fireworks shows, and see a completely different side of London, and be home before the drunks come out.  You get a much different feel here than fireworks shows in Australia, many more families here and a much more relaxed vibe.  I don't have any photos of the fireworks, I need more practise at taking those, and perhaps a tripod of some sort. 

It was a funny feeling watching the fireworks, it was a good show by the way, there were a lot of other people watching and it felt a bit strange to be in such a large gathering where everyone is experiencing and feeling the same way, some sort of strange shared humanity I suppose. 

On the way back home I also got to see my first owl in action.  At first I thought it was a bat, being much more used to seeing them at night.  But then the wing shape was all wrong and then it actually went too-whoo.  Too awesome!

A show is never complete without a penny-farthing

Wuthering Heights

We saw the newest Wuthering Heights film last night. I have to say I'm not a fan. The director is English, which is probably why it was screened here, and she's won an academy award for best short film, so I'm sure she is talented. Whilst we were watching 6 people got up and left halfway through. They must have been serious Bronte fans. The director certainly tried something different, the story is told through Heathcliff's eyes, the dialogue is completely pared back and the whole second half of the book is cut. I think it would have worked better as a shorter film, it kind of reminded me of arty Danish directors, what with the hand-held camera work, the complete lack of any sound track and the long shots of birds flying whilst wind rushes past the microphones. I just think all the beauty of Bronte's book was removed and replaced with brutality, plus some of my favourite lines were cut. I think if it hadn't been Wuthering Heights, and if it had been much shorter I probably would have enjoyed it more.

On a plus side, though we went to this awesome Japanese restaurant before it. It's pretty dingy, but the food is soooo good. In the middle of the room is a guy manning a barbecue, grilling delicious skewers. That was definitely a highlight. But a booking is certainly required, plus some sake next time I think.

What a Day!

We had autumn leaves, squirrels, fireworks and then on the way home I say my first owl! They really do say to-woo.  More photos to come soon

Oxford

The Christ College courtyard, complete with freshers

We spent a weekend in Oxford recently, having only ever been to Cambridge I was interested to make my own judgement in the eternal Ox-Bridge question.  We managed to chose an interesting weekend to visit, it being "fresher" week.  From what we could work out fresher week is like Australian orientation week, the week where all the new graduates turned up to settle in and work out what they were up for.  It was certainly a different experience in Oxford than it was at the good old ANU.

In fact for a while we were trying to work out who all the people walking around in their robes were.  We thought it must have been some sort of graduation ceremony, what with the robes, the high spirits and the photos of people holding what looked like

Random really old house in Oxford

diplomas, but no that's just how they roll in Oxford.  I have to say I was never that excited to start university, there was popping of champagne corks from balconies.  I thought the joy came after you had finished your studies, not before it?

But perhaps that's one of the strange things about Oxford.  It is a beautiful town, but the colleges are all so separate from the townspeople.  I think this is where the idea of academics being off in their ivory towers comes from.  There was none of the openness and freedom that I'm used to from Australian universities.  Here you had to pay to go into any part of the university, and most of them were outright shut, and when I say shut, I mean the tiny door, the only entrance in their high walls, was closed. No learning for anyone who hasn't paid for the right to be there.  And that's very much what it felt like, that they were somehow protecting what they had, not letting just anyone experience what they have, at least not without paying for the privilege.

All-Saints College, complete with very high walls

Maybe this is an aspect of the class society of Britain that I am completely unaware of, the feeling that if you had studied at Oxford then you are somehow special, somehow smarter or better than everyone else.  As a very much middle-class Australian it feels very strange to see this in action.  I mean you go to any university in Australia you are probably going to get a decent education, sure some perhaps better than others depending on what you study, but in general I would say we're all fairly equal.  Whereas in Oxford I think part of the incredible high-spirits was purely the fact that these people had been accepted into Oxford, that they were celebrating before they had actually achieved anything.  Though on the other hand, as Dave put it, it is in fresher week that you have the highest proportion of people around who will fail or drop out.  Maybe all the nerds were already locked up behind their walls feverishly studying.

Stradivarius in the Ashmolean Museum

This feeling of barricades and walls could also be partly historical, being fair to Oxford, it was attacked by Oliver Cromwell during the Civil Wall, so the defenses would have had a real purpose back then.  Perhaps in those days academics had to separate themselves from the general population to avoid being accused of sorcery or witchcraft?

What is also apparent is just how rich and important this town must have been, if it not still is.  Some of the items in the Ashmolean museum, for instance, feel out of place in what is a small English town, rows and rows of Greek amphora, a Stradivarius, paintings by Constable, these are expensive items, and yet somehow Oxford can afford to have them all and many more.

We stayed two full days there, to be honest I think a day and a half is probably enough to cover the sights, and after a while you kind of get museum-ed out.  The brain can only take so much learning at once.

Haven't I seen you before?

The photo to the left was also in the Ashmolean, I took a photo of it because when we visited Buckingham Palace there was an exhibition of Dutch landscape artists.  One of the rooms had just preparatory sketches of different artists for their works, and I am sure that one of the sketches was for this painting.  Pretty freaky really, I'm already starting to see connections in my visits to places.

Hammy clouds

Apparently the Ashmolean was the first purpose built museum in England, and was opened in 1683.  Though the collection has long since moved from this original building, having outgrown it in the 1800's.  The original collection was begun by a father and son team who made many voyages to Asia and the Americas, when they died their collection was acquired by Elias Ashmole, thus the name. It was he who donated it to the university and had the special building made for it.

I had to include this last painting, it's by John Constable, and it's of clouds, in case you can't tell.  What's special about these clouds is that they happened to be clouds over Hampstead.  I'm living in the same suburb as John Constable used to live and paint.  Now that's kind of cool.

Dragon vs Elephant : Mortal Combat

Departure of Marco Polo

The highlight for me of Oxford was visiting the exhibition at the Bodleian Library, this is one of six places in Britain which is entitled to receive a copy of every book published in Britain.  It was founded in 1320, so you can imagine it has some super nice things in it's collection.

Nice building, the Bodleian

As well as recent works there was also a copy of Newton's Principia, which was exciting for me, as well as one of the copies of the Magna Carta.  Of course I didn't take any photos of these important works.

I did take a photo of a scene in a book which was describing the different animals of the world.  Shown is a dragon fighting an elephant, they are mortal enemies in case you didn't know.
  There was also a book illustrating the departure of Marco Polo for his voyage around the world.  I always liked Marco Polo, I feel like he doesn't get his due recognition, being the first person to circumnavigate the globe.  All the praise seems to go to Christopher Columbus instead.

Radcliffe Camera, it's a reading room for the Bodelian Library, built in 1748.  Unfortunately no admittance for non-students

Water lillies in the greenhouses, the approach here was very much jungle, rather than formal cultivation

For me, no city visit would be complete with out visiting the Botanic Gardens.  These are Britain's oldest, being founded in 1621, there is a yew

I've never seen a cactus so big, it's like a tree has had a cactus grafted onto it.

tree which dates from that period.  I'm assuming that's the tree which the path went around in a rather obvious manner.  I think it was a little expensive, but then that seems to be the way over here, the gardens are expensive, but the museums are free, which is the opposite to France.  Still they did have a greenhouse full of Venus fly-traps, which I can never get enough of.  I think they should sell little bags of slightly anaesthetised flies at the front counter so we can feed the plants. 

Black and white, could that be the yew tree in the background?

Bridge of Sighs, built in 1914

We couldn't go to Oxford without visiting at least one of the colleges.  By complete chance that ended up being Christ Church college, which I think is were Harry Potter was filmed, at least in the dining hall.  Unfortunately the dining hall was closed when we visited, something to do with the inhabitants wanting lunch.  We could see the rest of the buildings though, all very impressive.  Christ Church dates from 1525 when Cardinal Wolsey founded it as a school to train cardinals.  As a fan of the Tudors and Thomas Cromwell (Oliver Cromwell's less well known great-great-great uncle) I was a bit excited.

The Christ Church chapel

The Christ Church quadrangle

The buildings of Christ Church

The buildings are all very pretty, but again you get the feeling that they are trying hard to maintain their air of elitism.  Maybe that's the middle-class in me, or the fact that I'm from Australia, but it just seems odd to me to see a place which should be all about learning and sharing knowledge so jealously guarding it's secrets.  I guess though that if they didn't monitor the numbers perhaps they would be overrun.  People don't travel from all over the world to visit the extensive grounds of ANU afterall, but maybe that also has something to do with the fact that the ANU doesn't really purport to be some mystical place of learning.

After the beautiful buildings and another dose of freshers it was off to the Natural History Museum.  I'm a bit of a fan of Natural History museums, and this one had a real dead dodo.  There was also an exhibit to Lewis Carroll there (who was an Oxford mathematics professor for those who didn't know).  And an awful lot of skeletons and dinosaurs, which again just showed how long Oxford has been a place of knowledge.

Dead as a .....

Raaaaah!!! Tyrannosaurus Rex with it's non-existent forearms

Lines of skeletons

I looooved this building!

They had a really great exhibit here which was a real live functioning beehive with an exit to the outside world.  You could see the honey being made and the bees greeting each other as they went in and out.  I didn't see any of the famous wiggle dances though, so perhaps there was no nectar to be found nearby.

Oxford high street and the fields beyond

Our final visit was to the Museum of the History of Science, this was housed in the old Ashmolean building.  We were starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel with this one, as the extensive collection seemed to consist of almost exclusively astrolabes and compasses.  There was some cool stuff in amongst this.  In particular an elephant's tooth, apparently when an elephant is born all it's teeth are already lined up conveyor belt style and as they fall out the next one moves along.  When the last one falls out the animal dies, I'm not sure if that's because they starve to death or if there is some powerful connection between an elephant's teeth and it's beating heart.

An elephant's tooth

A at-home radium kit.  Hours of fun!