Spreekt u Engels?

On Sunday evening I returned from a four-day camping weekend which I can only describe as wonderful! The 1st August was a national holiday in Switzerland so using one of my holiday days gave me a nice holiday weekend! I've already uploaded a new album, "Camping #3". I also put a couple of pictures into the Day Trips album, as I visited Basel last weekend and went to the Swiss national circus! The sharp-eyed amongst you may notice another new album.. just a sweet little thing.

I continue to worry about the rate at which time is passing - for the same reasons as before: exam looming; make a discovery and write about it. Hmmm. Blasted website remains offline... Apart from these things, life is very good! I really can't complain. I shouldn't be put off by a bit of looming hard work, either. But... I enjoy holidaying.

The camping began on Wednesday after work. We had a long and quite tiring drive down to Acquarossa, a small town in the Italian area of Switzerland. Setting up the tent in the dark as it began to rain was not the highlight of the trip, I can assure you. But we really did have a wonderful time and I'm not quite sure where to start... but I can tell you about the cars I noticed! Amongst the majority of Swiss cars (expected) were a surprising number of Dutch drivers (and by the by, there are many Dutch families camping in Switzerland too), and occasionally German, French and Italian. I was pleased on the return journey when we spotted a GB number plate! The only British car I have seen all summer! It was almost a Union Jack moment... but I refrained from pulling the non-existant flag from my bag and waving it manically ;)

Actually, the thing about making a discovery and writing about it might not be so difficult, because yesterday work looked up immensely. I am developing what would appear to be a very good method to study the surface of tin foil. You never know when you might want to do that! Of course, I am kidding... this is the early stages of research and I am just trying out various materials to see which produce good results. Tin foil is exceptional. I am actually really pleased with the results I've been getting - after several failed reconstructions, I finally got a really nice result. This is the first time this stuff has ever been done, in the world, ever... cool, no? These reconstructions take time, by the way. A scan takes on average three hours and the reconstruction (in Matlab) takes another three. and if several reconstructions in a row produce nonsense, it gets a bit depressing.. so to get a really nice result makes it all worthwhile. Oh, the area I am scanning that takes all this time? A whole square one and a half millimeters...

I wonder what the world will think if I come back to Switzerland in a year? (TCW...and TWT...?) :)