Tag: bobble the little blue owl

Canada trip redux

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I’m back in the land of cheese and chocolate. I was in Canada for the last 2 weeks – a “workation” – as I needed to work remotely while trying to relax and visit with family and friends. The work part got done. The visiting part was mostly done, but the relaxing part was… less successful. There’s a lot of anxiety around my dad’s health concern, and there was some family drama on both sides of the ocean, which meant that there was a lot of things to still juggle. I’m happy I went and saw my family – I needed that – and I managed to do/see some of the things I had planned, but not all of them and the return home was brutal.

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Bobble has gotten around quite a bit

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The first mention of Bobble the owl in my blog goes all the way back to 2005. I don’t honestly remember when Bobble started living full-time in my bag. Probably while I was working at the EBI and traveling a lot for business.

In the years since, he’s been to Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the US. He’s driven boats, ferries, tractors, planes. He’s travel on planes, trains and automobiles. He’s drunk lots of coffee, beer, wine, gin, port and cocktails. He’s eaten everything from gourmet meals to roadside fast-food. He’s enjoyed vices like cigars, gambling and tattoos. He’s attended scientific conferences, training courses and workshops, West-End plays and movies.

Not bad for a little ball of stuffing :)

Long live the owl!

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#dateday

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Has our first date day in a loooong time. Unfortunately, it started out with a frustrating 2h wait/argument at Barclays Bank to try and sort out a bank fuck-up on their part (still unresolved), but it finished with Wagamama and cocktails so it’s all good.

6 oz tomato juice
1 1/2 oz vodka
1 tsp wasabi paste (or less to taste)
1 tap balsamic vinegar
freshly ground black pepper and sea salt to taste
dash of hot sauce
ice
cucumber wedge and lime wedge for garnish

Also, random fox and gang signs :

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Bobbles celebrates Katy’s birthday

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We walked into town to have a bit of quiet adult time. We met up with the oldies and youngun just before the movie – we’d booked to see the latest Star Wars and then we went to Wagamama’s for dinner. I got tots emosh with the movie. Now my belly is full and I’m enjoying coffee and a timbit because, random, a Tim Horton opened in Leicester. I just realized that between having found a source of poutine cheese in Switzerland and timbits in the UK, there’s no longer a need for me to go back to Canada!

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Bobble goes to CERN

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And is disappointed.

Paloma, her flatmate Elies and her friend Bianca, from Spain, had plans to go to the CERN open days. We had big plans to visit a few exhibits, the data center, and had hopes to go down and see at least one detector. That… proved to be ambitious.

No, we’re not lost at all.

It was packed, badly indicated, we couldn’t really see anything and all the detectors closed early because there were too many people. In the end, we walked in an industrial estate for 2 hours under a very strong sun, we spent 15 minutes seeing the data center (which was cool, if you’re a geek) and we listened to a 2 minute tesla coil concert.

We then spent 25 minutes driving to get to CMS – to find out it was essentially closed. So yes. Not the best use of time. The side trip to carrefour for impromptu grocery shopping was more enjoyable.

Update: this is what we wanted to see. Dominik Gehl and his family were able to do down into CMS when they went on Sunday. Pictures are his:

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Made it home

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So, after a hectic night, the flight home was anticlimactic – and only 1/3 full. What they did with the rest of the passengers, I don’t know.

Did you know that if you ask nicely, you can take a picture of your son’s cuddly toy in the cockpit of a plane (though not in the air)? There are lots of buttons, knobs and dials in a modern airliner…

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