What I did in May 2019

I did a talk on "Esoteric Programming Languages and "Hello World!" Cocktails" at BarCamp London XI.

I also went to talks on:
How to improve the UK government using democracy by Nick Murdoch
Programming with yarn (the fluffy stuff NOT package manager) by Lily M
How I did the ZX Spectrum bits for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch without murdering anyone by Matt Westcott
Building teams with Lean Coffee (coffee not provided) by Nigel
How to kill people with VR (BBC!) by Jamie & Lion

I went to the Boring Conference and there were talks on subjects such as containers, box certificates, police call posts, Battersea Park postcards, tomato ketchup. People played Jenga live on the stage and we all sniffed socks.

I went to Glug at Shoreditch Town Hall and listened to talks about designing cars for Jaguar, diversity, a talk by John Hegarty and then a talk by the editor of Creative Review.

I went to stay in Kent while asbestos was removed from my flat.

I walked through the fields and to the woods and the bluebells were fading but they were still there and the wood felt magical anyway. I stared at the graffiti carved into the trees from the 1960s, the fallen cherry trees, the swing, the tree that looks a bit like an elephant, the place where we camped one night as teenagers when I held a Fidonet meet up I called the Eynsfest, and the place where we burnt our school books when we escaped from school. Sometimes there are butterflies or foxes, but on that day, I just listened to birds.

On May Day Bank Holiday, my mum and I went to the Sweeps Festival in Rochester. We watched Morris dancers, ate cake, stared at the Medway, watched folk bands, tapped our feet, browsed charity shops and hippy clothing shops, and watched the parade, with the chimney sweeps and the Morris dancers and the Jack in the Green.

After work, one evening, I bumped into a group of colleagues going to the pub, so I joined them standing outside for a while in the sunshine, drinking an elderflower and cucumber cider, and then we sat on the steps of St Paul's for a while, sharing our concerns.

I met up with Doseybat and Pyrokaren in the Southbank Centre one evening and I wasn't much help with ideas but luckily they had ideas for Burning Man, that might involve vegetables.

Obandsoller and I saw the Dorothea Tanning exhibition at the Tate Modern. I enjoyed the oversized sunflowers draped in hallways and the large soft sculptures and the creepy room and the skirt made from twigs.

One Sunday, My mum and I walked by the river and through the fields, across the level crossing, to the Roman villa, and then onwards to the castle and then following the river again, staring at the reflections, to the visitor’s centre. We sat on a bench briefly before turning around and walking back past the river, past the castle, and then underneath the viaduct and past the cows and by the river where there was a horse, and over the bridge by the ford. I headed onwards to the other castle, and wandered inside the castle and then walked around the moat.

My mum and I went to the Soundpit, an installation by Di Mainstone at the Royal Festival Hall. It consisted of a number of sandpits. You could run your hands through the sand in some of them, or walk through some of the larger ones. Then, the images would change and move in response to your action. There were also sounds playing. It was fun to play with.

After that, I headed to St Albans to see my niblings. We played lots of games! Football, hide and seek, making and flying paper aeroplanes, reading stories and making animal noises, tying bits of newspaper as bandages on my nibling and on trees, spotting ladybirds, matching pairs, singing stories, dancing to the riding shotgun song, making blanket forts, helping my nibling try to write numbers, and so on.

I went to the Martin Parr exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, and really enjoyed it. Then I did a few quick Ingress missions around Trafalgar Square.

I visited Kew Gardens and did an Ingress banner, saw cygnets, wandered through a human sized badger sett, stared at the swirls of the Chihuly sculptures, walked through the greenhouses, peered into the lily pond, wandered by the chrysanthemums. I didn't quite manage to see all the sculptures before needing to meet the others at the pub for a roast, so will have to go back again sometime.

I met up with two Ingress players at a pub, to form plans for organising a First Saturday event in Richmond. Planning seems to be going well. We sat outside the pub as it was fairly warm. Then after that, I went for dinner at Chez Lindsay and ate a galette and a crepe.

I saw Amelie the Musical.

I went on holiday to Cumbria:

I walked on the beach in St Bees one evening and was so glad to see the sea! The stones were pretty and colourful and the sea roared.

I watched the sea from the window of the train and glanced over at Sellafield, and then disembarked in Ravenglass. I took the little steam railway through the ferns and bluebells, past the hills pink with rhododendrons, past sheep and fields, and then at Darthgale, walked up to see the waterfall. My mum and I laid on a rock with a sheer drop, peering over the top, watching the water flow down. "Close your eyes and then open them again, and it seems magical," my mum told me, and it did. We caught the train back to Ravenglass and wandered around briefly, staring at the water and the signs warning that the area might be dangerous. It rained while I walked around Whitehaven, dashing into shops such as Michael Moon's bookshop which had so many rooms of old books.

I walked along the cliff tops, to St Bees Head, staring at the sea, listening to the waves, past thrift and foxglove and gorse. I watched guillemots flying and saw cliffs full of birds. I walked down to the beach at Fleswick Bay, peering in pools at tadpoles, looking for puffins, photographing rusting machinery on the beach. I walked onwards to the lighthouse and the most westerly point of Northern England and then headed back and ate Irish Velvet ice-cream at a cafe. I enjoy walking along cliffs.

I visited Keswick and walked to Derwentwater and to Friar's Crag.

I walked up Latrigg and admired the views of the fells and the lakes and it was beautiful. My mum and I sat at the top for a while, staring at the world beneath us. Back down in the town, I ate some lemon & poppyseed ice-cream, wandered through Hope Park looking at the flowers, and took a ride around Derwentwater on a boat, and saw the lake from a different angle again. That evening, I could see the sky glowing orange in the distance, behind the rooftops.

The views of the fells from the 77A bus were tremendous and I spent some of the journey just saying, "wow!" and "look at that!". I got off the bus and walked along Buttermere Lake in the rain. The fells were misty and looked somewhat spooky. My mum and I had coffee in Buttermere before catching the bus back and staring out the window at Crummock Water and Whinlatter.

Back in Keswick, I ate dragonfruit ice-cream and visited the Pencil Museum. I particularly liked the map and compass hidden inside a pencil. Then we wandered again beside Derwentwater in the drizzle.

I took the bus to Ambleside and peered out at Thirlmere and Grasmere on the way. I walked up to see a waterfall - Stock Ghyll Force, which was pleasant. I then ate some cake and had some coffee in Ambleside and then walked as far as Lake Windermere before concluding the downpour was too heavy and we were drenched, so got the bus back.

In the Keswick Museum, my mum and I played in the musical stones (pieces of slate), and saw some props from the new Swallows and Amazons film, and some pretty stones and more large pencils.

I ate rainbow bagels with chuckleberry jam. (Chuckleberries are a redcurrant, gooseberry and jostaberry hybrid.) I imagined having a garden/orchard where I could grow framberries, pine berries, honey berries, jostaberries and plumcots.

I found I had walked 5000km while playing Ingress.

I walked around Richmond Park, visiting the Royal Oak (about 750 years old), hiding inside a smaller tree, passing squirrels and deer and crows, wandering around Pen Ponds, as if I were still in the Lake District. Except there were skyscrapers in the distance, aeroplanes flying by and no-one wearing hiking gear.