Wordless Wednesday ~ 8: Green

Four Days: Greenwich Observatory

It was a sunny autumn day in early October when I drove through to Heathrow to pick up my friend Patrick visiting from South Africa.  After settling in at home, we drove off to one of my favourite places in London, the place where I take all of my visitors without fail: Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

The View From Greenwich Park

    National Maritime Museum with Canary Wharf in the background

The Old Greenwich Power Station with The O2 in the background

I believe that Greenwich Park has some of the best views in London and so we sat for a while taking in the sights.

The Meridian Route

Once inside the Royal Observatory, you have a choice of taking the Meridian or Astronomy routes.  We took the Meridian route first which is all to do with the recording of time, navigation around the world and of course, the Greenwich Meridian where time begins!

Armillary dial // William Herschel's telescope

The grounds of the Royal Observatory are exquisite, as are most parks and attractions in England.  The Armillary is a sundial in the shape of a globe and it was constructed in 1968.  You may have to be an astronomy geek like me to find the last remaining part of William Herschel’s telescope as exciting as I did.  William Herschel had discovered Uranus in 1781 and this telescope was paid for by King George III and completed in 1789.  Sadly, it was rarely used as it was difficult to set up and maintain.

The Gardens in the Royal Observatory // The Greenwich Meridian

Most people step right over the Greenwich Meridian before they realise what it is.  This is the Prime Meridian of the World with a longitude of 0° 0' 0".  I am facing due south there with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one foot in the western one.  

 
Camera Obscura // The 28 Inch Telescope Dome

I would have walked right past the Camera Obscura if Patrick hadn’t dragged me back to look at it.  I have no idea how it works but the Camera Obscura uses a lens to project a real-time moving panorama of Greenwich onto a disk inside a darkened room.  It took my eyes some time to adjust but you could see buses moving and everything!  I was glad to get out though as I am (at the grand old age of 36) still petrified of the dark and felt very suffocated inside there!

The telescope in that dome is over 100 years old and is the largest of its kind in the UK.

The Octagon Room

We spent quite a long time in the Octagon Room at the top of Flamsteed House.  This is one of the few surviving interiors by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral.  The Octagon room was designed to observe celestial events including eclipses, comets and planetary movements.

 

Ceiling detail // Replica telescope tube // Astronomical quadrant // The Tompion Clock

The Astronomy Route

We then took the Astronomy route where sadly, less photographs were allowed.

 

We walked all around the Astronomy Centre as well as the interactive Weller Astronomy Galleries.  I wasn’t too concerned about the ban on photography though as there was so much to do!  I would have loved to have visited the planetarium but as it was Patrick’s first day in the UK, I think we decided to not spend all of his pounds and to let him get some rest!  I took a photo of the books in the bookshop, by the way, because many of the authors featured there were speaking at the TAM Conference Patrick was attending.

Kathu Tin Mining Museum

The Phuket Tin Mining Museum in Kathu district is now open (more or less). There is still work continuing, it's not 100% open, maybe by the end of 2010, but anyway, I decided to go check it out with my kids on Saturday. It's not the easiest place to find unless you know the back roads. Coming from Kathu you have to take the back road around behind Loch Palm Golf Club that heads through the hills to the British International School (see location on Google Earth). It's not a road that many people use. I guess the museum was built here because they needed lots of land, so had to find a place where land was not too expensive.

• Update - I blogged the Phuket Mining Museum again in January 2011



It's been years in the making. We first went to have a look more than 2 years ago - you can see a photo here on my weather blog. That was October 2007, the main building was ready and it looked like the museum might open in 2008. Since then we have looked in several times to see if anything was happening - we use the road as a handy shortcut from Kathu towards the north of Phuket.

So now it's January 2010 and I am happy to say you can now visit the museum, and happy to say that I think they have done a very good job - we'll be back for sure later in the year. There were not really any staff around when we went. A guy gave me a ticket with a 200 Baht price and charged me 100 Baht, free for the kids. Another older guy wandered around and showed us a few things and opened up a door to a display that seemed shut and shouted at someone to turn the lights on! There were actually a few other visitors, but given that the museum has cost 50 million Baht to build, it's going to need more than a few tourists to pay that back!

I am also happy to say my kids enjoyed the museum - I was worried they might find it boring, but actually there is a lot to see here. We started just inside the entrance with some rooms full of antiques and photos. The museum building has been built in the old "Sino Portuguese" style that is common in the older areas of Phuket Town.







Then we entered the geology section... maybe my daughter will be a geologist... although I did get calls of "Boooring!" when I started to explain about Igneous, Metamorphic and Sedimentary rocks :) This section of the museum is educational with displays about rocks and evolution and such.



My kids, bored with the difference between intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks, walked off ahead, only to come back screaming with fear and hiding behind my back.. I wondered if there was a snake or something around the corner, but no...



It was a scary caveman :) Around the next corner we started with dioramas showing early mining techniques progressing to more modern tin mining methods used in Phuket. It was tin mining that made Phuket a rich area, as well as rubber plantations, fishing and the fact that Phuket was an important trading post. Tourism is bringing new wealth, but Phuket has a lot of "old money". Tin mining was an important industry in Phuket since the 18th century. The last mine closed in 1992.





The miniature diorama below shows an open cast mine, Many of the mines in Phuket were like this - you cannot see any now, or can you? In the Kathu area there are many lakes and ponds - all were former tin mines. My kids liked this display - just like the mini people in the movie "Night at the Museum" :)





(above) My son looks at a display about tin dredging - bucket dredgers started operation in 1909 and operated for over 80 years. We then move on to a (not quite complete) display about tin processing where my daughter enjoyed looking at rocks under a microscope and my son enjoyed banging rocks with a hammer :)



The museum building is done in that old style with a huge courtyard and rooms all around. Many of the rooms are as yet undeveloped, and we thought we were all done until the man appeared and the lights came on and we entered a new section built like old Phuket streets with shops and houses, a shadow puppet theater, a Chinese shrine... cool!



I think only because we were almost the only visitors were my kids allowed to play with the shadow puppets.. not sure they'd want each and every kid to mess about, but my 2 enjoyed it :)





My daughter also enjoyed pretending to make clothes in an old Chinese house..



Again, once the museum is 100% open I don't think they'll want people touching everything, but exceptions were made here.. the old dude seemed to be the museum curator and he said it was fine for the kids to explore. I am happy they enjoyed the experience and they already want to go back. Good, I'll make nerds out of them yet. A bit of history, a bit of geology, a bit of engineering. A lot to see and learn at the Kathu Tin Mining Museum and looks like there will be plenty more once everything is finished. Still more to play with outside - an old Chinese style rickshaw. OK kids, I'll give you 20 Baht to pull me home....



More museums in Phuket:

• Thalang National Museum
• Thai Hua School Museum
• Phuket Post Office Museum

Wordless Wednesday ~ 7: Blue

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You Make Joburg Great

I found this wonderful little video on my friend Vanessa's blog.  It is all about what makes Joburg great and I think all Joburgers are in agreement that it is the people.

You can visit the You Make Joburg Great website if you’d like to learn more.

The main song in the video is Prime Circle – My Inspiration.  They are one of my favourite South African bands.

Four days in South East England

In October, my friend Patrick came to visit from South Africa for a couple of days.  I’d always promised that I’d start posting about our four days together when I finished blogging about New York and we all know how that went!  Thankfully, the weather was abysmal for most of his time here except for the first afternoon, so hopefully the photos won’t look too incongruously sunny!

Patrick’s primary purpose for being in London was to visit The Amazing Meeting which was a sceptic's conference.  Personally, I believe that sceptics apply as much magical thinking, zealousness and blind faith to their beliefs as do the spiritual and religious people they mock but Patrick and I don’t let that get in the way of our friendship!

I’ll try not to let my posting of the four days that we spent travelling around drag on for too long.  Patrick is hoping to come back in September after all!

Over the next week or so I’ll post about our trips to:

Greenwich Observatory

London Science Museum

London Natural History Museum

Dover Castle

Wicked

What Falling Snow Looks Like

A lot of my South African friends and family have never seen snow falling before (in fact, many have never seen snow) so I thought I’d take a short video.  Snow usually floats down softly and quietly so this was quite a downpour!!  What I love most about snow (apart from not actually having to be in it) it how silent it always is when it falls.

This was taken at 3.34pm, to give you an idea of how early it gets dark.  It is post-Winter solstice now and in fact, it is staying light just a little longer.

I tried so hard to take photos of the snow flakes as some of them were up to an inch in diameter!