Triops, Solar activity and where to buy your meteorites

I've taken a break from work over the Christmas period and one of the fascinations that has gripped me is the living fossil Triops longicaudatus.

I set up a hatch of half a commercial packet of dried soil purporting to contain Triops eggs during the day of Christmas Eve. Whilst the suppliers advice is to use water above 20degC, preferably around 25degC, a trawl through Google Scholar found sufficient reference to Triops longicaudatus being able to hatch and grow at lower temperatures. We have a 20degC/18degC Day/night temperature cycle in the house this winter.

Late night on Christmas Day I thought I could see microscopic hatched life, though it was still too small to identify. By Wednesday it was clear that I had some small freshwater shrimps, a couple of daphnia and one possible Triops. By Thursday, the Triops was approximately 1mm long as measured by its carapace and swimming continuously around the tank.

Friday saw a distinct leap in size to about 2mm and a change in behaviour. For the first time the Triops stopped briefly when it encountered food particles and it also spent a much greater proportion of its time at the bottom of the small tank. Today, it had grown to 3mm carapace length, was highly active and continuing to display the stopping to feed for a couple of seconds behaviour that first occurred yesterday. Since Triops, like all arthropods, have a hard shell exterior, they have to moult to grow by expansion. The continued growth of my Triops indicates that so far these critical moults have not been a problem.

Whilst hidden behind rain clouds, the sun has also been demonstrating a more interesting active phase after an extended quiet period. Checking out the SOHO solar observation site revealed several sunspots again at last, so I may be out with the telescope to try a projection if the sky is clear in the coming days.

Solar activity has also been shown in a recent flare that not only interrupted radio signals but also led to the last Aurorae of the year 2011. Whilst hunting for the solar information, I came across a site offering fragments of meteorites from the asteroid Vest, the moon and Mars for sale – something to bear in mind for future Birthday/Christmas lists. (http://www.shopspaceweather.com/asteroid-vesta-meteorite.aspx).

Alternatively, I might try catching micrometeorites for free later in the year.

December in brief

• Alan James' book, “A View from the Lodge” published and printed.
• Contrast to the financial meeting in London – photography and filming of the public sector demonstrations in Cambridge see http://miltoncontact.blogspot.com/2011/12/nine-points-learnt-photographing.html. 
• Three trips to Hereford and back – family related. I used the opportunity to take a better set of all the available stained glass at Worcester Cathedral and spent time editing the images. 
• Also climbed up the Malvern's British Camp and Worcester Beacon with the SLR and tripod to try some panoramic views – images still to be edited. 
• Completed the total recreation of the company brochure for Jos-Reinigung Nord - http://issuu.com/miltoncontact/docs/jos-procedure-by-juengst. 
• Personal accounts and most of Company accounts done. 
• Timing totally out for my most recent speech at Toastmasters – need to tackle for 2012. 
• Had fun with Chinese Brush Painting, creating Robins and Holly for a video Christmas Card http://miltoncontact.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-do-robin-holly-feature-at-christmas.html. Originally initiated by a request by Ms Mix in Germany for an e-mail Christmas Card. 
• Saddened to hear of death of Gregor Scholz who visited the UK earlier this year and whom I acccompanied in London – article at http://miltoncontact.blogspot.com/2011/12/cheers-to-gregor-scholz-farewell.html. 
•  Saw a program about living fossils – Triops. Was so captivated, bought a kit to hatch at home and am currently nurturing a small specimen of Triops longicaudatus in a tank. 
• Had a lovely Christmas with the family.

Chancellor’s pronouncements.

Anticipation had been mounting during the day to hear the Chancellor Mr Osborne's  comments on the economy and additional measures to stimulate it , without actually spending any more money. One of the most critical elements was the bringing forward of the change to retirement at 67 to 2026, which impacts the baby boomers of the 1960s.

The level of impending doom was outlined by the dire news for one young lady interviewed on Television - she had to look forward to another 45 years of Hairdressing!

Another impending change that would only serve to fuel the anger in the public sector strikes and demonstrations tomorrow – the fact that in addition to plans to change their pension plans, their pay rises after the current 2 year freeze would be limited to 1% per year.

No doubt another consequence would be to push public sector employees to leave the area for private employment – helping to achieve the 0.7 million posts that needed shedding to maintain the books.

Other activities today – learning to paint brachiating monkeys and leaping frogs in Chinese brush painting and met up with author Mrs Lowry on progressing her book. Helped Mrs Thomas install a new webcam on her PC – remotely as over 600 miles apart.

Two headaches – migraine and phone tapping

The morning was lost to a migraine, dozing off the pain to surface at midday and begin the gradual mental climb out of numbness. The remainder of the day catching up on four days of missed e-mails, responding to personal messages and chasing the book printers re the revised proof for author Mr James.

The backdrop entertainment was the Leverson inquiry into phone tapping. And what irony it provided. The celebrities and other well known personalities who appeared before an inquiry that was televised, the newspaper speculation before and after the event, the cascade of subsidiary news items spinning off into different programs.

On the one hand we had the stories of destructive press activities, hounding, prying and following their selected prey. On the other, we have the public, myself included, fascinated by the unfolding inquiry, the news and the witnesses called – precisely the fuel for the activities that we so greatly deplore.

Innuendo in pictures by Vermeer and other Dutch artists at the Fitzwilliam Museum in “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”

Yesterday, we went to the Vermeer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”. A bit of a misnomer as it should really be “An exhibition of 32 pictures by Dutch 17th Century Artists, including four pictures by Vermeer”. However, it prompted me to buy and read “Vermeer: The Complete Paintings”, by Norbert Schneider (a bargain at circa £9) from the museum shop. Consequently, I now want to go back and have another look at the paintings, as there is a more detailed symbolism in the images and finer detail to look at that suggests why Vermeer has gained such importance again.

The fast guide to the images of women in their domestic settings is the constant struggle between chastity and the potential eruption of passion in an age where more conservative values on marriage and chastity were being promoted by the authorities. Two Vermeers with women at the virginal are alternatively; The link between music and love in “The Music Lesson”; Hints of a lover's  departure before painting began in “Lady seated at a Virginal”, indicated by the abandoned cello and the picture of “The Procuress” on the wall behind the lady at the virginal.

The contrast is the chaste purity of Vermeer's “The Lacemaker” with her demure gaze downwards on a proper lady's activity, with a very uncluttered composition. This picture is on loan from The Louvre.

Pearls, by the way, represent either vanity or purity – depending on their use. Any picture of that age featuring a woman and wine (in a glass or porcelain decanter) hints at attempted seduction. Onions are erotic symbols and hanging chickens apparently indicate carnal desire! The symbolism of the day was codified, for example in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologia". Items that look innocuous to us had special significance in understanding the underlying message within a painting. A picture within the painting or a bowl of fruit, a gesture or particular posture and dress add meaning (as do the copulating dogs in "The Soldier and the Prostitute" by Frans van Mieris, 1658, though here the message is a bit more obvious).

Vermeer's artistic technique also differs from that of his contemporaries. Here are more aspects to look for.

1. The presence of slight visual and perspective distortions, blurring around the edge of the paintings and highlights. These are seen by some as evidence that Vermeer made extensive use of a camera obscura (a lens system that projects an image onto a screen) to aid his painting. Some of you may remember David Hockney's excellent TV program on the evidence for use of camera obscura by classical painters.
2. Point 1 and the use of colours and shade enraptured the early expressionists who saw in Vermeer a kindred spirit in the way he viewed and painted the world. In fact, when you visit the Fitwilliam Museum, go in at the main entrance, progress upstairs and wander through the Impressionists gallery on your way to the Vermeer exhibition. Then compare Vermeer's brush strokes and hints at detail to the perfect representations in some of his contemporaries' work.
3. Maps. Vermeer regularly and deliberately incorporated representations of real maps in his pictures to make a point. In fact Norbert Schneider uses the pre 1609 map of the Netherlands by Claes Jansz. Visscher and other elements, to re-evaluate the symbolism in Vermeer's painting commonly known as “The Art of Painting”.  Where most art critics see the entire imagery as referring to - the Art of Painting, Norbert sees the picture as a political statement. He claims that it plays homage to the re-ascendant House of Orange and recognises the positive change in popular opinion towards the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire; all this in a critical period in the Franco-Dutch war, just before a favourable outcome in 1674. This would date the painting to about 1673, much later than others think.

With my interest in microscopy, an additional fascinating fact was that when Vermeer died, Antoniew van Leeuwenhoek took over the responsibility for managing the estate when Vermeer's wife fell into financial difficulty.

What this ultimately also reveals is that beauty and art is really in the eye of the beholder. When I go back to revisit the exhibition I will be evaluating the pictures in a totally different light.

From international finance to repairing a webcam dropped in tea

I visited Mrs Hales-Tooke, who's two books I had published, after my brush painting class. Her son, photographer, artist and author Mr H Hales-Tooke was visiting from the US and I heard of his narrow escape during the floods in Spring. Our discussion also turned to the merits of printed versus digital books and the different strategies for marketing them.

Wednesday was a day trip to London for a talk on The Future of the international Monetary System, part of the OMFIF Golden Talks series. It was held in the Armourers' Hall, Coleman Street. The talk  was illuminating – concentrating on the longer term – there is a blog article on it now, “The International Monetary System is to local crises like the climate is to weather”. It provided a marked contrast to the immediate dramatic fluctuations and contagion in the Eurozone area.

The Armourers' hall itself was worthy of note and I spent some time photographing there (see article “the Armourers' Hall of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers”) before taking a walk through London from Coleman St to Holborn Station. The route was a slight meander, taking in the stained glass in Wrens rebuilt church of St Lawrence Jewry and the Occupy London tent city still outside St Pauls.

Thursday I visited Mr Woolnough, author of the Understanding and Using the Stereomicroscope. We had worked together closely on the book as I edited the design, layout, redrew some of the illustrations, added extra photographs and the quick start guide. The book is published by the Quekett Microscopical Society.

We were working together on the start of a new exciting project and made a lot of progress on the initial planning.

This morning began with a telephone call to Mr Ebert of Feinkaeserei Zimmermann, a friend from his previous visit to the UK looking for potential distributors of the Product of Designated Origin, the Altenburger Ziegenkaese. Today's call was a social catchup on mutual news.

The annoying and yet amusing immediate aftermath of the conversation involved my accidentally knocking off the web-cam from my PC right into a full cup of tea. Quickly retrieved, I could see the milky tea sloshing behind the lens. A search online gave instructions on how to open up my particular model and I set to flushing out the tea with water and then placing the opened web-cam to dry in a warm place.

Then it was an HBN day where Mrs Burbidge was notable for ensuring that every guest arriving was welcomed to the event.

Returning late afternoon, I set about ensuring that the visible and accessible parts of the webcam were clean before reassembling it.

With great anticipation, I reconnected the webcam and started a video. All seemed to be working well until I saw the picture on screen – the image was as blurry as viewed through cold tea. I had to admit defeat and order a replacement!

Stained and etched glass in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral – and King John submitting kingdom to Pope

The drive back to Cambridge from Hereford began in pouring rain. I had contemplated stopping off at Cadbury World, but a phone call in advance established that they were not open today.

Seeing signs to the Royal Worcester factory on the ring road around the city, I decided to visit this instead and started following the erratically placed signs. By the time I was approaching the centre of the city without a clear indication on where to go next, I promptly stopped and parked near the Cathedral and made that my outing.

I spent a couple of hours photographing the stained glass windows in the cloister and then briefly touring the rest of the Cathedral. I came away with the clear intention to visit again. The photography took some time as the light was poor and the hand held camera needed long exposures that really challenged the anti-shake function on the device.

One new fact learnt from the sign by King John's tomb, he submitted the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope in order to patch up an argument about which Archbishop should be appointed at Canterbury that had led to King John's excommunication.

I edited the images in the evening, as best possible considering the quality, and uploaded them to my Picasa web album collection at http://goo.gl/uMRQn.

Losing a food reputation is all too easy. Spanish elections. Egyptian riots.

Drove to Hereford. Started in sunshine but soon hit the mists in the Midlands. Visibility was quite good, up to a kilometre or so. However, it transformed the autumnal landscape into flat shades of gray like monochrome watercolour layers.

Stopping at the halfway point of Corley service station on the westbound M6, I went for a meal. In the past year, the food and service at the Eat In had been great, contrary to the usual perceptions of a service station eatery. A fortnight ago, stopping there, I already noticed a slight decline in standards.

Today. The food in served was surely below the required minimum temperature, service was listless and indifferent at the till and the knives and the spoon in the cutlery tray were covered with crud. I asked the more positive helpful assistant to look at the cutlery and at least she immediately responded and clean cutlery was replaced.

It is so sad. Someone had previously made such a great effort to change the food quality and the perception of this particular eatery. Now it seems their effort is gradually being eroded away.

Internationally, Spain is now infected with the consequences of the Eurozone crisis. Coinciding with elections, it led to the fall of the socialist Government of Zapatero (who was not up for re-election himself) to the centre right opposition Peoples Party led by Mariano Rajoy. Austerity measures beckon.

The news of Gadaffi's son Saif being captured and likely to be prosecuted within Libya and the current crisis on Syria, on the edge of civil war have both been placed second place in the news by the increasing riots in Egypt’s cities. Major demonstrations are reported in Cairo's Tahir Square, protesting in advance of the coming elections as there seems to be doubt as to whether these will truly introduce democracy.

On making videos and writing about them

Was still thinking about the business networking event at the SJIC yesterday. On leaving I introduced myself to another visitor who asked what I did and the conversation turned to my missing out video.

A valid point as I had not generated any videos recently.

So today, I set about putting together a 1 minute video on just this point. The frustration was in achieving a white sheet background. The fun lay in incorporating additional elements in the editing, including the sound of breaking glass to accompany a point on breaking the glass ceiling for women.

Making that 1 minute video took about an hour to publication online. That set me thinking about giving guidance to others on the points that I found important in creating a video.

This resulted in a blog article “Making your own video: 10 points I found useful”. Just finished uploading it and now ready for bed.

Networking in person to learning more about Google+

Sunrise, and I was Nordic walking across the Jane Coston Bridge to the St John'sInnovation centre for a meeting of Mrs Garwoods Business Breakfast Network. A reasonable turnout for an 8am start, with familiar and new faces. Apart from business exchanges, the topics ranged from tropical fish (initiated by realistic tattoos) to breaking the glass ceiling for women.

A walk back home for a short break before departing for HBN, starting with the first committee meeting with Mr Foster, our new chairperson. I am now responsible for the newsletters and have written two, one a week, to date which have been favourable received. As an added hook, they include a soap based on business networking “Passionate Networking”.

Mr Downing returned to HBN after a three year absence in the follow on HBN networking. This opportunity was afforded by the fact that Gridsure, the company that he had been working for, had been sold outright, with the immediate loss of all staff, to Cryptocard, a major player in the field of card security.

As there was no tutorcloud meeting today, I gave Mr Wishart a lift back to his house where I profited from his greater experience with Google+, learning some additional tips and tricks. At last the start of the weekend.

Escalating Eurozone Crisis to watching a Magistrate's Court at work

These have been turbulent times economically. Since my last entry a couple of weeks ago we have had a change of Government in Greece. The Eurozone crisis then moved to Italy and resulted in the departure of Berlusconi as Italy's cost of borrowing soared and it was thought that only a change of government would suffice.

Currently the crisis has shifted to Spain. Germany and France, but mainly Germany, are trying to react to the crisis by suggesting further Eurozone political integration – but without much more financial commitment, whilst the UK is diametrically opposed to this policy. Prime Minister Cameron has already been publicly snubbed for his comments by the French Prime Minister. Mr Cameron is heading for a meeting tonight with Mrs Merkel of Germany where warning shots have already been fired across his bow.

The cubs evening treasure hunt based on science using light physics clues went extremely well. This was indicated by the general low level of noise as the cubs got into each activity. There were two activities that surprised us for the interest they generated.

The first was the fascination created by looking through 3D specs, front to back, as a laptop screen whilst rotating the glasses. The fact that suddenly the screen would turn dark (at about 45 degree angle) alone kept them occupied, even before we presented them with plastic film that would reveal colour effects.

The second was making periscopes and trying them out – the children would wander around the room with a periscope just fascinated by the fact that a different view could be seen.

Preparations for the Cambridge Open Studios EGM went well, the event itself being almost an anticlimax. I was complimented for bravery by demonstrating the COS website live. The failure of my first attempt at logging in demonstrating that even supposed experts are human. The key element was that at last the revised COS website went live yesterday.

Mr James' book is now with the printers. We have had a proof returned, the colour of the cover needs adjusting but it is close to completion.

Having helped Mr Heker with his dental technical business, it was now my time to receive some dental treatment for the premolar that had caused me agony in Egypt and that had required a second antibiotic treatment to calm it down again. The result was a full hour of root canal treatment. Strangely painless after the anaesthetic injections, it was still had an effect for the day psychologically.

Today, I had the second part of the treatment, preparation and generatation of an imprint in order to permit the production of a crown. Ironically, this affected me more than the original root canal treatment as the work was at gum level.

After some comfort shopping in Waterstones for two books, I found myself drawn to the Magistrate's court, situated where the city post office used to be. The staff were very helpful when I expressed an interest in the court. Using an empty court, the layout and roles of people within it were explained to me before I went into Court 1 as an observer. Only intending to stay for an hour, I was there for three watching the system at work. Fascinating and a great distraction from the dental treatment earlier that day.

DVD Spectrometer and waiting for EU to make a decision

Work on Mr James's book this morning, getting it print ready before passing it back to the author for a detailed word for word check. Then in the afternoon, start of planning for business presentation to Magdeburg delegation in London on Monday.

A brief but fascinating educational interlude via email from Mr Cooper, who had found a design for a spectrometer using a cardboard box and a DVD or CD (see http://www.scienceinschool.org/2007/issue4/spectrometer).

Rummaging in the kitchen non-food recycling bin, I recovered the tablet box from my antibiotics – a bit small but worth a try, I thought. Then took a DVD and followed the very simple instructions. Using a very thin slit, I could get an excellent spectrum from sunlight – with absorption lines! This is the first time that I've seen this phenomenon that I had only known from textbooks.

The different fluorescent bulbs in the house had their own unique spectra with clear peaks in intensity in the reds, greens and blues of the spectrum. Brilliant.

For once gripped by the news and following it during the day as EU leaders prepared to meet for a crucial meeting to dam the economic crisis. There are clear fracture lines between the Euro and non Euro members and also between the fiscally more prudent states, Germany, France and the UK and those suffering real problems – such as Greece and the threatened domino effect on Italy.

As usual such events bring along their own phrases and terminology. Writing off a proportion of Greece's debt has become “A Haircut”. The trillion is the new measure of financial backing required.

The currently accepted definition in the UK of a trillion is 1000 billion or 1 million Million. This is a considerable shift from the previous use of the word, because a British billion used to be a million million and a trillion was a million million million.

Phrase of the day came from one financial expert questioned about the summit “The EU has been kicking the can down the street for a while now, it's time for a decision.”

Shubunkin and Light

Mr James has decided on using Optima at 11 point for his book so I reformatted the text and also included drop capitals for the chapter beginnings. The six images to be used in the book were then introduced into a separate word file with the same margins in readiness for insertion.

At Mrs Evan's Chinese Brush Painting class, I battled with fish. Strangely, the normal carp shape was the more difficult to master than that of the rotund Shubunkin. Unencumbered by dental pain this week, as the antibiotic appeared to have achieved its effect, I had more success and time this week to master the fish - at least in part.

Met up with Mr Cooper in the evening to discuss an evenings entertainment and education for the cub scouts. We explored a variety of options to play with light, using ubiquitous materials such as DVD disks.

Gadaffi's body and that of his son were buried at a secret location in the Libyan desert, to avoid his grave becoming a shrine or focal point for followers or opponents.

In Turkey, two days after the Earthquake, people are still being pulled out of the rubble alive. Over 400 dead so far and several hundred still missing.

Am now watching the luscious Joanna Lumley on her Greek Odyssey – Lovely!

Earthquake and Floods

Yesterday was a day of rest, with a walk amongst the autumnal trees of Anglesey Abbey. Children running towards a mobility bus for the elderly and infirm were called back with and we heard the parents tell them earnestly “That's only for naughty people!”

Back home for a freshly baked cake and tea.

The major news of the day was the Earthquake in Turkey. 7.2 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre in Tabanli in Van province, near the border with Iran. Over 100 deaths so far.

On Monday, played catchup with e-mails for the morning. Received a visit by Dr Maunders, delivering a box of assorted microscope slides prepared by Mr Bailey.

MR Heker had arrived back home in Germany and called briefly. Corrected a few minor errors in the translated brochure for Mr Juengst via Skype and then looked at trying different fonts and line spacings for Mr James's book. Caught up with Mr Dodsworth on current international projects.

Today's catastrophe is the flooding of Dublin by torrential rain.

Last day at the BDTA

Today we were an oiled machine at the BDTA exhibition, which was even busier than the previous days. The weight of free gifts and bags that people had to carry increased during the day – with the more enterprising having brought trolleys to save their backs.

I did manage to continue my search for more photographs during the lunch time lull. Then it was back to the stand until the pace slowed to a drip at around 4pm.

Mr Viesteg had already left for his flight back to Ireland. I stayed till just after close at five, bade my farewells and then took the long walk along NEC corridors to Birmingham International to catch the train home.

Mrs T picked me up and I was back in my own home by 9:30pm

Friday, 21st October. NEC & Birmingham City Centre

I shared a room with Mr Viesteg, our stand's German dentist (who spoke with a delightfully impeccable Irish lilt) a circumstance which on German terms immediately put us on the informal Du. With us both being snorers, it also put us on equal footing for the night – in separate beds of course.

The Elmond guest room we were staying in had the remarkable feature of the bathroom being bigger than the sleeping area. Downstairs, we found that we were the first to breakfast – but soon the others joined us and we returned for the second day at the NEC.

It took a while for the visitors to trickle through from the main entrance and then it back into our routine. It was good that we had practiced yesterday as there was a greater flow and often all five of us would be busy talking to dentists, dental nurses, students, lecturers.

Towards five pm, the masses had disappeared and things became quiet again. I set out with the camera to take pictures of interesting close up details at other stands.

Tonight, we took a taxi to the centre of Birmingham, to the canals by Broad Street for a meal at the Handmade Burger. Afterwards, Mr Heker took us on a tour of the near vicinity, displaying an embarrassing knowledge of the area as a German, compared to myself as the only Englishman of the team.

At 11pm we returned to the agreed pick-up point where the canal crosses Broad St where people were massing for the pubs and clubs. In addition to the police who, in pairs, were keeping an eye on events, there was a patrol of City Pastors. They were there to also offer their own form af human assistance to anyone who needed it.

Both Mr Heker and I tried some photography; with the small camera, I was only really able to photograph two exotically dressed figures outside Walkabout, who were amusing the queue to enter to what they told me was a giant bouncy castle! I almost wanted to go in.

We thought it was busy, but one of the bobbies drily informed me that it would get busier, they were there till five am – and you should be there Saturdays!

Mr Viesteg and I had been moved to another room, which was, sizewise, the antithesis of the previous night's room; it was in the eaves and the bathroom was very much smaller.

We were amused first by a sign: “Notice to all Guests. Please do not take curry meals back to rooms as the sauce destroys the bedding”. Then we we could only fill our kettle for a late night drink from the shower – once we had worked out how to operate it.

The news headline of the day was the capture and death of Colonel Gaddhafi , apparently found hiding in a drain in Sirte.

Birmingham NEC with Mr Heker and Friends, from wine to beer

An hour into my train journey from Cambridge to Birmingham saw the sun rise briefly colouring the morning sky gold before a bank of clouds took over. A regular change of passengers sitting beside me occurred, beginning with a cycling student to parents off to Cadbury Worls with three young girls actively crayoning pictures to pass the time.

At the NEC I met up with Mr Heker and party at stand Y06, hall 5, BDTA Exhibtion. Whilst today was a gentle day in terms of visitors to the Hall, we had a sufficient number of dentists, dental students and journalists on whom we gradually honed our pitches on the benefits and examples of double crown attachments. With a dentist, two dental technicians, girl Friday and myself as communicator, we soon worked as a team,

Weary of standing by the end of the day, we checked into our Guest House in Solihull and then went out for a meal in the nearby Harvester.

Our conversation started soberly on Europe and the current crisis, to be enlivened by the arrival of wine in a carafe shaped like the urine waste collectors in hospitals and with a  straw coloured liquid that the service assured us he had filled himself.

As the wine and beer flowed, talk migrated around ever increasingly ludicrous tales of travel by air and sea to end on the serious subject of German beer.

The different beers and ales had been served in glasses frosted on the inside base with the mark of the brewer. This raised consternation amongst my merry German friends. Surely this would cause the beer to go flat quicker!

The German beer purity laws were invoked with warnings of dire consequences if such mistreatment of glasses and deflation of beer were attempted there. The outrage segued into a soulful reflection on the true origin of beer - as food for fasting monks - becoming the endnote of the meal and evening's putting the world to rights as we returned to our rooms for the night.

Wednesday - Poll and preparation for Birmingham

Mr James came back to me by e-mail, stating that he was undecided between the fonts Optima and Baskerville and could I decide please. Well I am biased strongly in favour of Optima, so had some qualms about choosing it outright.

My solution was to initiate a Linkedin Poll and get some external input. At the end of the day, the votes were 4 to Optima, 1 to Bakerville.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for the trip to Birmingham to support Mr Heker.

In the evening, Mrs T and I went to see the Johnny English Reborn film, which was a hoot for the most part.

The word of the day was "Interlocutor" by Mr Howell - as someone who mediates in communication between two parties.

A painful premolar and metronidazole

Awoke with a crescendo of pain in my jaw from the tooth that had already given me problems back at the beginning of September.

It had begun to flare up again over the weekend and yesterday, I'd managed to get an emergency appointment for tomorrow. Today, I did not think I would last that long. Fortunately, after frantic requests for any solution, whether with my dentist or not, I was slotted in today – I just had to last till the afternoon.

Alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen was part of the bridge to get there, the other was distraction by work and a short visit to the first session of the term to the Chinese brush painting classes.

Ms Kenny, my dentist, ushered me in sympathetically and established that the most likely cause was an infection and that the solution would be root canal treatment. Seeing as it was a premolar with three or even four roots, this would be at least an hours treatment – with additional equipment, by one of the other practice dentists – in a fortnights time!

But how to manage the pain? I left with a set of antibiotics (a necessary procedure before root canal treatment) and a recommendation to continue with the painkillers. Rather than amoxixillin, this time it is a course of metronidazole.

So far the pain has been reduced to a bearable level by the constant presence of painkillers, though I am not looking forward to waking up tomorrow after they have worn off and before the effect of a morning pill kicks in.

The advantage of Metronidazole is that it is effective against, amongst other things, anaerobic bacteria, such as those likely to be involved in gum and tooth roots. The list of possible side effects is not reassuring and I'm particularly hoping that convulsions will not arise.

A particular source of macabre amusement is that use of metronidazole in animal feed has been banned in the EU and US as a potential carcinogen. The inconclusive results of human studies suggest that in human's at least, the real benefits outweigh the nebulous risk. Source Wikipedia.

Short press release in the morning, book formatting pm

Mr Heker had sent through a previous text which had been used as a press release for past BDTA exhibitions. Taking into account all the publications he had written and I had translated in the past year and had published there was an opportunity for a rewrite. Additionally, Mr Heker had generated some roadsigns to indicate his “no clasps” principle.

To me, the dental clasp with a red bar through it looked like a cartoon velociraptor head. There was an excellent photograph of him with the sign. Since his stand at the BDTA was to introduce new techniques of telescopic crowns and invisible attachments to unsuspecting UK dentists this afforded opportunity for a play with meaning. The press release was therefore retitled “No Dinosaurs, No Clasps!” and a more interesting phrasing introduced to emphasise the expert nature of Mr Heker, his published articles and willingness to talk shop with dentists at his stand at the BDTA Dental Showcase.

For the afternoon, my attention went to Mr James's book draft, checking the amendments and finalising them. Then it was onto the next stage, ensuring that the text formatting was consistent throughout, including removing unnecessary spaces.

The page size was converted to Royal and the margins set for a perfect bound book, where the inner margins is larger, not smaller than the outer margin as is usual with a manuscript or stitched book. The reason being that perfect bound books are glued an the pages cannot be opened fully flat. Then different font examples were prepared as we began to look at the aesthetics.

Noisy all night party in Country Park disrupts sleep.

Today began before going to sleep, because of a party. By 2 am, thinking about going to bed, the night was still disrupted by the boom, boom, boom of aloud music outside. It sounded as if it might be from Old School Lane, parallel to Fen Lane, so I put on some trainers, a jumper and coat and set out into the night.

The air was remarkably still, the gibbous moon still bright, as I set off up to Cole's Road to reach Old School lane. By the time I reached the junction, it was apparent that the music was coming from further South – the Community Centre.

Yet when I reached it, that too was not the source. It appeared to now be in the Country Park itself. Walking to the Centre buildings now a kilometer from home, I finally found the party in full swing in a Marquee on the decking overlooking the lake. Spanish music was playing loudly, accompanied by full throated singing and the shadows of the dancers played on the screens of the Marquee.

By now it was 2:30am and the fun had gone out of listening to the party – bed was calling. The South Cambs noise abatement site found on my mobile suggested no one was available on the phone and attempts to use the website registration were unsuccessful.

The non-emergency line to the police finally answered – it appeared that my call was the end of a long list of similar reports and that officers were at the scene.

Quiet descended.

But just before satisfaction could set in, the noise erupted again. Back home by 3am, the boom boom boom continued and another call to the police revealed that this was a foreign language school graduation party, expectged to finish in another hour or so – and that the police had no powers to do any more than ask for the party to quiet down.

Finally, sometime after 4am the noise abated.

It was after 5am before I got to sleep.

Useful photographic software and trepanning

I woke briefly with the aura of an impending migraine, took some tablets and slept again until the medication took hold.

Yesterdays photographs at Ely Cathedral included a range of images either taken at different focal depths, e.g. of carved figures around a column, or of a scene such as a stained glass window taken at a range of exposures so that the series would capture all the detail in both the darkest areas and lightest ones.

These two different series would be used to create composite images using some extremely useful software. However, I needed to transfer and activate licensed software from my old PC for these programs on my new PC and that was a key task undertaken today.

The most important software is Helicon Focus, used to create a focus stack. A problem commonly experienced with photography, especially macro-photography and microscopy, is that when areas in the foreground are in focus, the background is not and vice versa. Whilst this can be used to great effect to achieve an emphasis of one subject, by making sure it is the only one in focus, in other instances you actually want a whole area to be in focus.

When it is critical to have more of an object in focus than can be achieved with a single photo, I ensure that the camera is fixed and then take a series of photos, changing the focus from front to back in incremental steps. With Helicon focus I can then combine all the images together and create an final image where only the elements that are in focus are used from each serial image.

The second software is Photomatix. It can combine images of different contrast range to create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo which reveals all the detail.

Our eyes and brain are brilliant at looking at a scene where there are very bright and very dark areas. Imagine yourself on a path in a wood in bright sunlight – you can see detail in the shady areas AND the bright areas. Cameras have a much lower contrast range, meaning that if you expose to reveal the detail in the brightest area, the shadows are black without detail – and vice versa.

With Photomatix, I photograph a scene from a fixed position (tripod) over a range of bracketed exposures and then combine these in Photomatix to create an HDR image.

In the evening, during the judging of Strictly Come Dancing, I started reading Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. One of the curious minor story threads is the use of trepanning or trepanation – the drilling of holes in the skull and allowing them to heal – for spiritual or health reasons.

 I'd seen a skull displayed in the International Museum of Nubia in Aswan showing a skull with an accompanying X-ray where there was lesion that I thought was a trepanation that had healed over.

Trepanning or trepanation had been part of human culture for at least 7000 years, starting with a neolithic skull found in Ensisheim, France, and in Chinese, Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Arabic and European skulls. Approximately 6% of Inca and pre-inca skulls had been trepanned, with a suggested survival rate of over 60%.

There is a small group of individuals who actually self trepan to the present date.

Reasons for trepanning include the obvious medical – to repair skull damage or antique beliefs that it helped with curing migraines or epilepsy. However, there may also have been trepanning for spiritual reasons.

The current rationale for trepanning in the absence of medical necessity is to increase brain activity with the explanations that it might help by allowing the brain to expand or increasing oxygenation of the brain. No medical evidence for these exists to date.

Whilst I am a migraine sufferer, I will not be taking up trepanation!
Two interesting links : Wikipedia and An illustrated history of trepanation.

Radio, Ely Cathedral, an ethereal chorister and angels

Last Friday, Radio Cambridgeshire's Andie Harper Show invited listeners to join them at Ely Cathedral, with the option of a tour of part of the cathedral not usually open to visitors. Since this was a first come first served offer, I jumped at the chance and phoned in to book a space.

So I arrived today at the cathedral with camera and tripod in hand. The shows presenter Mr Harper and close support Mrs Carman, Mr Williamson & Mr Dee soon appeared with radio technicians and paraphernalia. A band of loyal listeners joined the group and the Cathedral helpers plied us with coffee, tea and biscuits as the show began.

The acoustics of the Ely Cathedral are such that the radio interviews themselves took on a slightly hallowed air. At 10am we went to visit the Prior Crauden's Chapel with Mr Dee as the live interviewer and Mrs Carman as his minder whilst we listeners got to know each other in conversation.

Our guide to the Chapel was the historically well informed Cathedral Guide Mr Shank. He led us up the tight little staircase into the small first floor chapel. It had survived the reformation remarkably well, only losing the mediaeval stained glass as so many religious establishments did. However, the Victorian replacement was a very vibrant light featuring St Andrew (Sanctus Andreas), St Philip, St Paul, St Thomas and St Simon.

The chapel also had the shadowy remnants of a wall painting of the crucifiction – very difficult to make out. However, the real gem was the mediaeval tiled floor, where a large panel featured Adam and Eve at the moment of temptation, surrounded by lions (or should that be leopards) and a recognisable deer.

Another of the show's facebook friends, Mr Redhead, was also there with his SLR and we alternated views and photographs. After the tour of the chapel we both bought tickets for a tour of the West Tower to take advantage of the views.

Our septuagenarian guide Mr Sallows took us on an informative and humorously commentated tour that included the 288 steps to the top of the tower. We started out as a party of six and arrived on top as a party of five. At this altitude, the wind was fair whistling past us as we peered through the towers crenelations, photographing the map-like landscape and architectural model buildings with minuscule figures spread below us.

After the tour, I had a baked potato lunch and drink in the cathedral refectory, with the sound of a military wedding in the choir of the chapel being broadcast in the background.

Refreshed I wandered back to the Octagon space, looking for suitable photographic subjects. The sun, which had decided to hide itself in broken cloud whilst we were up the tower, now resumed full power, such that the south facing stained glass windows glowed in brilliant colours. I was taken by the depiction of the Tower of Babel and photographed that first.

Then suddenly, as part of the wedding, the ethereal voice of a chorister lifted to the accompaniment of the organ with a rendition of Ave Maria, followed by Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.

The light coming through the South Transept light shone on simple modern grey fabric seats arranged in rows, imbuing then with subtle colours and glows. The wooden seats in the nave also took on dappled shades giving some striking photographic effects.

Many photograph the Octagon, as I have done in the past. The decorated vaulting around it often disappears into the shadows and yet is in itself beautifully decorated if viewed with a longer exposure.

The vaulting photographs lead me across to the South Transept to use the telephoto lens and capture some of the Angels arranged along the beams. Their faces were sometimes serious, sometime comical and at their feet the beams ended in more grotesque faces, including a remarkable likeness of Princess Leia during her twin bun phase.

The battery on my camera was running low as I took the last shots before leaving the Ship of the Fens, to wind my way back home via a diversion to Over.

A selection of photos here: Ely Cathedral with Andie Harper Show.

Impregnation and Hydrophobization

Author Alan James and partner dropped by to pick up his watercolours that I had photographed for his book in production. The humour in his true biography of a college porter was reflected in conversation but we also discussed more serious issues such as styling and font to use.

At last I had a clear run to complete the translation and formatting of Mr Juengst's brochure, which did indeed take the rest of the day.

Two words stood out in translation, which rang as strange in my mind.  The first of these was “impregnation”.

The word was used in relation to impregnating the surfaces of historical buildings and monuments with protective agents. I looked up the definitions, I looked up its use in relation to restoration. The word is used in the industry, there is even a company called Impregnation Services that works in the area. Yet the word constantly niggled in my mind as I was working though the translation. I suppose it was the other use of the word, “to inseminate”, “to make pregnant”, with all its sexual connotations that falsely triggered my translator's instinct to say “are you sure this is the right word?”

The second word was “hydrophobization”. The immediate temptation was to replace the word with “water repellent”. But in respect to treating sensitive surfaces, façades and walls, water repellent almost implied a total sealing and waterproofing, such that a building might not be able to breathe.

Hydrophobization seemed to mean more a coating of particles within a structure, so that water would not penetrated into the particles, whilst still allowing the surface to breathe.

The problem with thinking too hard about a translation of a word can be that even the most obvious and appropriate words become suspect in the mind of the translator.

Ely parking, crop smudging and child trafficking

Off to Ely for the pre-breakfast event “Business Support is Changing”. Arriving for a 7:30am reception, this meant that the parking in the all day car park had not yet started; anyone arriving before 8:30 had to leave the car park after 90 minutes.

After the meeting there was a bacon butty breakfast, to be followed by a consultation between the county council and interested businesses. The start of the consultation was briefly interrupted as the realisation set in that our cars were at risk of exceeding the 90 minute parking time. Indeed, a car park attendant was counting down the minutes and gave us a good natured good morning as we all dashed out to move our cars to another car park before returning.

The main message of the meeting was that business support was being dramatically pared down by the UK, whilst there was still free support from EU programs promoting cross border partnering between businesses.

After lunch and catching up with mail, I photographed the watercolour paintings that author Alan James wished to use in his book. The images were optimised for contrast and then both colour and grayscale versions saved.

The afternoon passed quickly with other work interspersed with an uncharacteristic number of Skype calls.

My mind was slightly disconnected by the early start and so some of the messages that I received took on separate meanings. A tweet by London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, “Mayor secures more than £11m to boost homeless hostels in London...” raised the spectre of a fleet of hostels without a home. A friend attending a meeting “Inspiring Entrepreneurs” was equally ambiguous.

Later that evening, watching “Midsommer Murders”, one of the key items was protection of apple blossom from frost damage by “smudging” - creating a protective smoke blanket to keep frost at bay.

A search revealed that smudging was indeed a possible method for frost protection as listed in an Ontario Factsheet. However there more successful methods that could be used, including using the downdraft of a helicopter to displace the cold air boundary close to the ground. Spreading lots of small heating units through out an orchard would also work - more so than fewer large heaters which would create counterproductive convection, drawing in colder air from the surroundings.

The other reason that I would also have thought that smudging was less adviseable is that if the smoke is generated by combustion, it will invariably contain significant amounts of ethlylene, a gas known for its ability to induce senescence of leaves and flowers. Indeed this ethylene effect had beenfirst seen when the first gas street lights were installed – causing damage to nearby trees.

The most horrific news story of the day was of Ugandan children being trafficked into the UK (several hundred a year) for abuse in black magic blood rituals. Apparently the perceived value of blood in rituals is rising.

Battles with Wordfast and the importance of tattoo aftercare

The tribulations of modern technology came to the fore again as I tried to use the translation software Wordfast for the first time on the new computer with an existing file that I had started previously. All seemed to be progressing well until I tried to save the partially translated file back into the Word document as I had been able to before. - A dreaded error message appeared.

An internet search did not come up with a suitable answer, so it was back to the Wordfast site to use their help hotline – except that was not available unless an additional hefty fee of over £60 was paid. Well, it was either that or waste the equivalent in time, so I reluctantly paid. This was a software element I was paying for, so I was very surprised to find that it was not immediately available. Delivery time anywhere between 6h and two days!

Went back to basics and set up a fresh word file on the PC. I started a new Wordfast project with a new translation memory. This worked flawlessly. Eventually, by trial and error, I found that by creating a new project for the existing file and running it from a PC based folder, rather than a dropbox folder as I had done before, I could resume work without problems. Spent the remaining couple of hours working away on the translation.

A short afternoon walk was interrupted by an impromptu haircut at the local salon, which was empty when I passed by. The discussion centred around the cling-filmed arm of my hairdresser, covering a new tattoo to complement the already very aesthetic grayscale ones on his other arm. Apparently this was to ensure that the tattoo set. It turns out that having a tattoo is only half or even a tenth of the job as a good tattoo requires considerable after-care.

A tattoo is effectively a wound and therefore it is important to wear the dressing given to you for at least the time specified by your tattooist. This is followed by a gentle antibacterial wash, drying gently and then applying protective lotion or ointment very thinly.

Initially during the healing process, tattoos may appear cloudy as one develops “onion skin”. The trick is not to scratch or remove peeling skin during the subsequent weeks. Total water immersion such as in a bath or with swimming are also out of the frame for a couple of weeks as healing continues, though a shower can be taken as long as the tattoo does not become too wet.

Tattoos are also photosensitive, i.e. will fade in strong light. So to keep the tattoo pristine and dark as the day it was made, it should be covered up – or protected with factor 30 sunblock. Two excellent links are by Wiki How and About.com.

Early evening I drove to Soham for the first Cambridge Open Studios committee meeting looking towards the next year. Productive but long, I did not return home till just after 11pm.

Three weeks of Tweets, Blogs, Interviews, Travel and a new PC

I give in. I will never catch up the past three hectic weeks. A relative's need for assistance with a new central heating installation meant a journey to the cathedral city of Hereford. This time, there was no opportunity for photography. Instead, I returned to the Point4 centre run by the RNIB on a daily basis, because of the cafe with its free WiFi. I was able to at least keep up with work both on Ms Lowry's book editing and the press release for the German restorators. Tweeting about the facilities in between led to a chance meeting with the Marketing manager and an interesting conversation that in itself led on to a blog article (Blindness - disability or different life style?).

Returning to Cambridge, there was an opportunity for a longer interview on Huntingdon Community Radio, with its founder Bill Hensley, on the Sunday. Being part of a program where the interview extended over 40 minutes with breaks for music and snatched sips of tea was a more relaxed experience. A wider range of topics including HBN, Toastmasters, publishing and local authors was covered. I was able to speak more slowly and clearly as there was not the feeling of telescoped time prevalent in a short few minute interview.

The following week, I managed to get a last minute booking with the joint Inspired Group and Business Club charity event, a motivations talk by Evelyn Glennie. It was a rewarding interlude to the catchup and mundane work inbetween. I remembered Ms Glennie for her percussion performances. Her talk gave a much deeper insight into the determination and acumen she had to create a multifaceted career for herself that defied pigeon-holing as explained in the article “Who is Dame Evelyn Glennie?”.

The weekend was the beginning of four days of travel, with two days travelling to another Cathedral City, Lincoln, and back for a social call on Miss T. The evening included shadow games with the lights on the Cathedral. The next day began with a small cruise on the Foss Bank in the mellow Sunday sunshine before a lunch at the top of the hill and return back to Cambridge.

On Monday, I went to pick up a small van to help take University clobber to Lancaster and returned with a much larger one. This meant that the two hundred plus mile journey transported a considerably more air than luggage, but it was a comfortable ride to the city and back, again over two days.

Before leaving for the final university year, Mr T. had, on my request and with much prior consultation and deliberation, constructed a new desktop PC from bespoke purchased parts. I held off till the weekend before beginning the transition from the existing PC to the new one. The task included a dual strategy, ensuring that existing files were backed up and then beginning the transfer. I spent most of Saturday alone esuring that I had a complete e-mail record from 2004 to the Friday to export and then import onto the new PC.

Today, Monday, the new PC went live, beginning with the first e-mail download and replies. There was a glitch in sending that was resolved by a call to Mr Beal – a pesky little tick box in the account settings had not been ticked. Drove to Mr Beals afterwards on Cambridge Open Studios website business. The evening included the installation of most of the important programs that I expected to use in the near future. Then, in turn, it was the all important precaution of conducting the very first back-up of the new PC.

Fri, 16th Sep.: Farewell to Mrs Buck

Sadly a long time friend, Mrs Buck, is departing for Qatar. The sadness is also tinged with envy, as she will be enjoying sunshine and decent winter temperatures.

She was holding a farewell morning in Frankie and Benny's in Huntingdon, so I donned my Arabic headgear from Egypt and met her and the other friends dropping in for an hour in the morning to say our farewells.

The visit had to be short as it was then off to the HBN Committee meeting, followed by networking and the Tutorcloud meeting.

In the evening, wrote a blog article on Making shopping in Luxor an enjoyable experience. A positive counterpoint to the horrendous hawking we were otherwise subjected to.

Thu, 15th Sep.: Quick response to web site hijack Then off to New Wood Green Business Exhibition

The last leg to complete a vital project report on a year's work to help with the invoice submission in conjuction with my other collaborative partner. Not a day for interruptions really, so naturally a major one had to come my way.

Mr Heker, checking out my company website, queried the e-mail. I went to have a look and found that my site had been hacked – e-mail address and telephone number changed and a whole set of articles on tobacco and cigarettes added!

I was onto the telephone to Mr Beal like a shot; his company hosts my website. Fortunately, we had already been working on an upgrade to my site. This was the time to change the site username and password and replace the old with the new upgrade.

The new site is not perfect, but I now have the impetus to work on it. Returning to the report, I managed to finish by about 5pm.

A quick change into business dress and it was off to Wood Green to check out a new Business Exhibition, organised by Mr Cooney. The ambition was to be a new concept, not only having businesses networking and educational presentations but also including entertainment acts.

Whilst there were a number of familiar friends and faces, exhibiting and wandering around, there were also a number of companies who would not have been at other business exhibitions. Returning back home, I wrote a short blog article - New Business Exhibition at Wood Green - to go on the Miltoncontact blog.

Wed, 14th Sep.: Small businesses pull together to help a friend

Packed laptop and projector, then set off for Huntingdon to take part in Mr Wishart's social media event, arranged at a new venue at short notice.

The invitation had been sent out via different social media on Monday, by this morning we were expecting 27 attendees. Ms Ashton and Ms Ekblom were already there in support and Ms Hawkins arrived soon afterwards forming the team that Mr Wishart had asked to help in his hour of need.

By the time all the attendees had arrived, we had 32, with one coming from as afar as Colchester, attesting to the power of Linkedin.

I had to adapt my presentation quickly before the event began as we could not achieve an internet connection via the WiFi which we usually used, as is typical for any technology required when things are critical. However, this was not such a critical issue as the content and principles could be conveyed equally well with a flipchart and pen.

The event went well overall and there was positive feedback both at the meeting and later in the Twittersphere. On my return back home, close to five pm, I wrote a quick blog article - Making social media relevant to your business -summarising the key elements of the event and providing useful links and keywords relevant to the content.

Sun, 11th Sep - Tue, 13th Sep

Sunday, 11th September


A relaxed day, still stitching panoramas and also catching up on sleep. News full of the 10th anniversary services and commemorations for the victims of the 9/11 attack. Able to prepare an album of selected images for the first day in Egypt, including Karnak, Luxor Temple and pictures on the Nile.

Monday, 12th September

Seriously back to work. Spent the whole morning deleting unnecessary e-mails, catching up on interesting links and forwarding them via Twitter. Mr Heker called via Skype, to catch up on news and also talk about preparations for the BDTA Dental Showcase for October. Made a trip to Over to meet with Ms Gilmour and Mr Beal to cover progress on the Cambridge Open Studios Website.

Tuesday, 13th September

Tied to the computer completing translation and formatting of reports.

Sat, 10th Sep.: On imodium and Stourbridge Fair

Digestive disruption continues, so finally succumbed and took two imodium tablets which seemed to have the right effect. Imodium is a trade name for the active ingredient, Loperamide, originally developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals. It is an opiate that does not cross the blood/brain barrier and therefore does not cause the same effect as other opiates. Acting on receptors in the intestines, it reduces the activity of the longitudinal muscles and increases that of the circular muscles. As a result, material is held for a longer time, allowing more water to be removed. However, whilst useful for mild diarrhoea, it has no benefit with cholera, shigella or campylobacter infections.

Mrs Hales-Tooke dropped by in the morning to pick up a box of her book “The Lost Priory”, in preparation for her sales table at the Stourbridge Fair today. We therefore decided to go to the fair for the first time since living in Cambridge. Stourbridge fair now fills a small field around the Leper Chapel off Newmarket Road. There were stalls giving information about historical groups, beekeepers selling beeswax candles and honey, a story teller enthralling children and of course Mrs Hales-Tooke, selling her cards and books. Many dressed up in mediaeval clothes and with the sun breaking through, the Capriol Society dancers performed mediaeval dances to the applause of the surrounding spectators.

Apparently, Stourbridge Fair used to be the largest of it's kind in Europe, originating from a special dispensation by King John in 1199 to hold a three day fair at the Leper Chapel in aid of the lepers. It rose to a peak in the 1500 and 1600s, it income becoming a battle ground between town and gown, then with increasing technology and canalisation, it declined in the eighteenth century and finally ceased in 1933. However, it was recently revived (probably 2004 according to Wikipedia) and Mrs Hales-Tooke had been participating for a number of years, successfully selling her books and cards there.

The evening spent stitching panorama sequences using Hugin. News developing about Egyptian protests in Cairo outside Israeli embassy in response to the earlier killing of Egyptian policeman in a raid chasing terrorists. The television pictures are of a new wall being torn down and the consulate offices being raided and trashed.

Fri, 9th Sep.: Back to QR Codes

Braved the computer to check the accumulated e-mails of the past week, seeking out the most urgent to respond to.

Saved by driving to the Friday HBN meeting, dressed in my galabeya, but without the headdress. Good turnout. For the first time see the usually imperturbable Mr W quietly fuming at the way he had been treated by another business. Group very supportive.

Travelled back with Mr Wishart to view the banner which I had designed as there were anticipated problems with one of the QR codes, one combined with an image. The original design worked on screen and when printed on paper, however, when printed on the banner material, it worked with my QR code reader but was very erratic with Mr Wishart's. Based on the technology underlying the QR codes, we thought that perhaps the problem was due to the lower contrast at one of the three key squares used by the QR software to recognise the orientation of the two dimensional code. Experiments with small strips of white sticky paper found a solution that worked without impinging on the impact of the design.

Spent the evening editing the 1000+ photographs taken in Egypt.

Thu, 8th Sep.: The last miles home

We landed at about 1am UK time in Gatwick and began the long march through the terminal, feeling the chill air at about 15 degC outside. We bade Liz and Jenna farewell as they set off to find their car for the long drive back up to Scotland.

Louise and I found a Costa's for a very early breakfast, holding out till the three thirty train to London Bridge. We checked out hire cars – offices not open till 7am, and taxi - £200 to Cambridge! Before sticking to our plan.

At London Bridge, we caught a taxi to Liverpool Street station to catch a 5:40 strain to Stansted Airport, where after a 20 minute wait we caught the Stansted Express to Cambridge to arrive there at 6:40. Mercifully, there was a taxi to take us home where we crashed into bed.

We slept for nearly eight hours. I awoke to find that the Luxor Airport underheated food had gifted me with a mild stomach bug – at least the toilets were readily accessible now. The gifts for the other family members were brought out and exchanged and the photos transferred to our laptops for future editing. Tired, we were back in bed and asleep early in the evening.

Wed, 7th Sep.: Revisiting Karnak, Departure

This was our departure day, with friends leaving on different flights through out the afternoon. We were going to be the last with collection at 6pm. I used the opportunity to take an early taxi to Karnak, to revisit the temple complex now that I was acclimatised to the heat. Mahmoud, my driver agreed to pick me up in two and a half hours time, at 11am.

Having purchased a ticket, I went straight to the very first gate of the complex, intending to work my way through from there to the exit, photographing along the way. Karnak was relatively deserted at 08:30am apart from the armed guards and the opportunistic guides. I could see little buildings along the outer wall with another soldier's curious head popping out.

The guide approached offering to help and I adopted a different strategy. I smiled and gave an “as salaam aleikum” and apologised for not speaking Egyptian. I made it clear I had been here before and was here just to get some photos. Then thanked him with a shake of the hand for wanting to help. A toothy grin, wave of the hand and I was left alone. I wandered systematically from the oldest gate, through the millennia towards the entrance. Any time I was approached by a guide, I used the same approach as before and was courteously left alone.

 Halfway in, I came across two men in Galabeyas, lying head to head on a wall in the shade. They sat up when I arrived but with sign language I persuaded them to pose again, giving them a small tip and then engaging in a bit of banter about the older one's good looks, raising a good laugh before moving on.

By the time I reached the Hypostyle hall, it was about ten and the bus-loads of other tourists had arrived. It was a case of accepting that they were a part of the view and continuing with the photography.

With five minutes to eleven, I came our of the temple and rushed across the large plaza to get to the car and bus park. A large group of local school children passed in animated chatter in the opposite direction, herded to the temple by their teachers. I accelerated past the hawkers who recognised a lost cause as it zoomed past and arrived at the main bus park with Mahmoud pulling up.

A family man, Mahmoud was proud of his new taxi, a Ford, and had already covered his dashboard with a fabric and plastic cover to protect it from the dust. We exchanged basic family information (children etc.) with our limited vocabularies as we sped out of Luxor to the dock sited a couple of kilometres to the South of the city on the East bank.

I arrived in time for a quick shower before the early lunch, the last opportunity to chat to Angie and Tony before they departed for their Luxor hotel for a further week's stay. Louise and I packed our bags, filled the Nile Cruise envelope with the tip for all the staff and posted it in the collection box, before migrating upstairs to hang over the balcony to wave to the successive groups departing, including Myra and her two daughters and Zoe and Dan.

Liz and I continued to sip drinks whilst Louise and Jenna were the centre of male attention for the last few hours before Egypt gave us a glorious farewell sunset. The bus took us back to the airport where, now experienced, we firmly took control of our suitcases and entered the building – to be greeted by a smile and comment of recognition of one of the representatives I had talked too aeons ago upon our arrival.

Most impertinent scrounger of the day was the person putting our luggage into the X-ray screener, begging for a tip.

Luxor airport passport control was done with a sense of humour and a smile by the official as he checked our passport pictures and then we were through to the area beyond, before the gates. A restaurant promised food, which turned out to be trashy fare, not kept properly warm, at airport prices.

Boarding, Jenna and Louise sat together whilst Liz and I sat on opposite sides of an aisle at the back.

With my knees jammed against the seat in front, I was relieved when the couple sitting split seats in front of me asked if they could move to the empty seats on my side. However, the relief was short lived when an insensitive old goat sat in front of me slamming himself into the seat and nearly kneecapping me. Apologies at my yelp of pain? Not a bit of it.

The Thomson staff were equally unsympathetic, not permitting me to move to the visibly empty seats with more leg room up front. By stretching sideways into the aisle, I survived the flight whilst the old goat snorted, farted and bounced in his seat for the next 3000 miles.

Tues, 6th Sep.: Dendera Temple

The boat set sail for Denderah at 5am, with a new addition at the rear, a mounted machine gun and four men with an extra rifle. We heard several explanations as to why they were necessary later in the day:

1. It was a response to a shooting a couple of years ago at the Valley of the Kings, the gunman being a fanatic from the Denderah region. 
2. The area was politically more active.

Discretely tucked away behind a tent at the back of the boat, they hardly impinged at all, in fact, the little group welcomed the curious visitors in the course of the day.

Although we were promised a late wake-up call at 8:30, I was up and finished with breakfast by 7:30am as I wanted to enjoy the morning's cruise down the Nile. The fishermen were already out in their rowing boats and the village women were gathered on the shore with their daily washing.

We arrived without incident at Dendera by 9:30 and took a coach to the temple, a 20 minute drive away. Denderah temple was dedicated to the goddess of love, Hathor, and the original foundations were laid down two thousand years BC but not completed. Work resumed under Ptolomies, again without reaching completion, and then restarted in the Roman period.

The main feature of the temple is that it is the only one with an intact roof. The temple had been discovered by early Christians whilst buried in sand and they had used it as a shelter. The smoke from their fires had blackened the painted ceilings and they had also removed the faces of any figures at the visible levels. Fortunately, the sand had protected the buried walls which we could enjoy now they had been revealed.

Recently a safe method of cleaning the soot, tar and smoke residue had been found and applied to half the ceiling, allowing us to see the blue sky and stars, with Horus wings.

Within the temple, there were store rooms/crypts along either side, where offerings and valuables could be kept. However, the priests could not cross from one side of the temple to the other in front of the altar! They had to turn away to one side of the building, climb up stairs to the roof, make an offering to the goddess to appease he for walking over the altar, walk across and come down stairs on the other side to then be able to access the store rooms.

We were still able to clamber up the stairs, following in their footsteps. The stairs to the right took a square spiral route through the temple wall, intricately decorated with hieroglyphics whilst the left hand stair well went down in a straight long incline of steps. On the roof was a chamber with the Egyptian and more modern horoscope (name derived from the god Horus). Unfortunately a replica of the original which was in a European museum after being removed.

The Temple was also dedicated to the god of childbirth and children, being the only god shown with their face directed out towards the viewer. He was a dumpy puck of a figure with his tongue stuck out.

The ship steamed back to Luxor in the afternoon, arriving just before dinner. Our armed guard left discretely.

The evening's entertainment was a mediocre belly dancer and a brilliant dancing Dervish.

Mon, 5th Sep.: Valley of the Kings andHatshepsut's Temple

Five hours later at 6am, a wake-up call for a 7am bus trip to the Valley of the Kings, a forty minute or so drive into the mountains on the west bank of the Nile.

We began with tomb KV 1 (Kings Valley tomb 1), that of Ramesses IV. It illustrated the common pattern that we should look for in all the tombs.

1. The king at the entrance beginning to answer the innumerable questions by the gods that would allow him to open the invisible door into the spirit world.
2. The corridor with: the 10 gods of days of the week, 24 gods for every hour of the day, 3 gods for the three weeks in a month,12 gods of the months of the year, four gods for the seasons and the 360 gods for every day of the year, making 413 gods; the answers to questions by the gods, all starting with “I did not...”; rows of prisoners who would do the bidding of the king in the afterlife. 
3. The main chamber with the book of the second life, which includes the book of the dead, which in turn includes the book of the gate and the book of the hours. 
4. The rear chamber or vestibule for storage of goods. Because of the limited space in a tomb, the number of workers that could work in the space was also limited, meaning that a tomb in the Valley of Kings could take as much as 20 years. 

If the king died in the meantime, there would only be 7 months to finish any remaining work. So different strategies were used, such as plastering and painting or even almost cartoon like. One King specified that the tomb chamber be completed first and the rest be done later so that at least his burial chamber would be ready in the event of a premature death.

The tomb of Ramesses IV was one of the shorter ones, so the texts were more limited in the corridor. However, the presence of colour was a revelation. The goddess Nut was spread in two aspects over the ceiling of the main chamber, representing the sky at night and during the day. Stars on a blue sky filled the space between the body of the goddess and the ceiling edge. The second tomb visited was of Ramesses VII which was longer and the final tomb was that of Ramesses IX.

The valley of the kings was like an oven by 10am as we moved on to visit an alabaster factory. We were welcomed by an ebullient owner of the family run business, who had his staff piping in in chorus with different catch phrases during the introduction and demonstration. The stone products could not only be made from alabaster, but also moonstone and others.

Objects, vases and figurines could either be hand-made or machined. Ironically, the hand made ones were thinner and lighter and cheaper than the machined ones. The reason being the high cost of machinery as opposed to the low cost of labour. The selling was more western with less pressure, but I did not find anything that took my fancy.

Refreshed, we continued on the Hathepsut temple. Originally a total ruin, it was reconstructed as best possible with the help of Polish workers and was the only temple known to have three levels. The canny queen Hatshepsut, widow of Tutmosis III father, did not want to give up her role as queen, therefore married her son of eight and effectively imprisoned him and continued to reign.

This was not popular and amongst other ways to overcome this, she creatd the myth that she was a goddess (hence ruler by divine right). In part to support this story, she commissioned her temple, facing towards Karnak and Luxor on the other side of the mountains to the Valley of the Kings. At the same time, since she was King, she had her tomb in the Valley of the Kings constructed on the side closest to her temple, (with a connecting passage?) effectively allowing her to shortcut the journey from the present to the afterlife. This apparently was too much for the priests who, with the young King, arranged for her demise.

Because it had been impossible to align all the fragments of the temple, a large part of it was reconstructed with embedded fragments where they could be placed. In the light morning sun, the temple was blindingly bright. The long stepped ramp leading from ground level to the first floor, gave way to another smaller plaza from which the second ramp rose. At each level, there were colonnades left and right. Right at the top, the last plaza led to a gated inner court which in turn led to an inner temple, which we could not enter.

On the return journey, we stopped off briefly to view the battered statues known as the Colossi of Mnemnon, the sole standing remnants of a former temple.

The evening's entertainment was a treasure hunt. I gave it a miss for once, however our A team of Tony, Angie, Liz, Jenna, Dan and Zoe won under Louise's masterful direction (so I heard later)!

Sunday 4th September: Abus Simbel and a Nubian Demonstration

We were woken by a 3:15 am early morning call, to have a quick tea or coffee with cake before collecting our breakfast hampers and getting on the 4am coach to Abu Simbel.

Before leaving Aswan, we picked up an armed police escort, then set off, crossing the Aswan dam and passing the High Dam. The road soon turned into a gray ribbon in the desert. The occasional gentle curve in the road was marked with reflective signs as drivers must have been hypnotised into just driving straight on. Occasionally there was a police check point, that slowed the traffic down as it wound around road barriers.

I was relatively awake and therefore noticed how the desert changed. The sandstone mountains on either side of the Nile valley disappeared and gave way to an almost flat greyish sandy plain with slight bumps of black rock debris. This in turn gradually gave way to a more yellow sandy desert until just beyond halfway, when increasingly large pyramidal mounds of fractured black rock and sandstone with rough small debris scattered in the sand, eventually reaching up to 50 metres or so in height.

As we came off the shallow hills, the plain was interspersed with regimented developments at random, ten or more kilometre intervals. At one point there was a lush plantation of palms over a square kilometer or so hinting at an oasis. Scrub plants grew sparsely in lower parts of the plain. The road's constant companions were the electric pylons, reaching all the way to the city of Abu Simbel.

We arrived at the bus park before the site at around the same time as a number of other excursions. Lake Nasser was visible in the background as we walked around the large hill until we had our first sight of the main temple at Abu Simbel. The four images of the Pharaoh Ramesses II stared out over the lake as the Lilliputian visitors clustered in groups as the tour guides gave their explanations or what to see.

As everyone headed for the major temple, we walked across the sand in the blistering morning sun to the temple dedicated to Nefertari. This was smaller than that of Ramesses. The outside was decorated with giant statues of Ramesses II and Nefertari, unusual in that a queen is represented at the same size a the king. We entered into a marginally cooler environment. Inside, the decorations showed Nefertari first being anointed by the goddesses Isis and Hathor and then being almost elevated to equal status. Husband and king Ramesses was of course also present.

Wandering over to the now emptying Ramesses II temple, we found a similar eulogising of the king and his ascension into deity, which culminated in him being seated amongst three other gods, (Ra-Horakhty, Amun-Ra and Seth).

The original temple carved into the mountain was aligned such that on 22nd October and 20th February a ray of sunlight would enter at sunrise and illuminate the statue of Ramesses, seated amongst the gods in the inner sanctum. When the temple was moved to higher ground, this event was delayed by one day.

Our guide Osama explained that political forces were at work here. Ramesses II was originally trained as an architect as a boy until his Grandfather was married by the deceased Tutankhamen’s wife. Looking to build a great monument carved into a mountain, it turned out that the nearest suitable site was in the neighbouring kingdom of Nubia. Ramesses consequently waged a war against the Nubians but without actually achieving a decisive victory. The situation was resolved by marrying the Nubian princess Nefertari and receiving permission from the Nubian king to build his monument. During his reign, Ramesses II had been busy replacing his predecessors names on temples and monuments with his own. Obviously, the same could happen to him when he passed away, especially if he constructed a monument in his name in Nubia, a separate kingdom. Several failsafes were therefore built in, such as his seating of himself with three gods on a bench, a tableau which incidentally also pronounced his name Ra Me Ses . The other main backup was the temple dedicated to the Nubian princess, now wife and raised to godhood, in which his statues stood in equal size next to hers and the texts inside did the same. The strategy appeared to work!

Moving the temple itself was a technological challenge, after all, the temple had been carved into a mountain. Some of the solutions were: not to transfer the entire mountain, rather, to transfer the outer skin and the inner temple walls; and to fill the temple chambers with sand to support the temple ceilings and walls during dismantling. At the new location, most of the recreated mountain was a hollow chamber into which the temples intruded and which was covered with the external stone elements of the temples.

After a couple of hours in the increasing morning heat, it was back into the air conditioned coach at around 10am for the four hour drive back the way we came.

 We arrived back in Aswan shortly before 2pm but, just minutes away from the boat, we found ourselves on a tortured, twisted tour around the back streets of the city. This turned out to be a real eye opener as we saw a different city to the more sanitised hotels, banks and Nile cruiser docks. We saw a city in construction and transition where mudbrick construction was still used to some degree, followed by mudbrick within frames of concrete, followed by brick within concrete frames. After another turn, we were following a canal with scenes of ramshackle housing and rubbish flowing into the polluted water that were very third world. Donkey powered carts and staked donkeys were abundant as locals wandered unperturbed in the slum just a mile or so from the centre.

Suddenly we were back in familiar territory, near the tourist market, when our bus was brought to an abrupt halt by a blocked road just 50 yards from our quay. A procession of white robed demonstrators was marching directly between us and our goal. There was nothing for it, we had to get out, clutching our bags and, slightly ridiculously, our pillows. All eyes turned to us as we marched towards the protester's column. Like the Red Sea for Moses, the protesters parted.They began clapping and shouting “Welcome!”

The Nubian protest march was about wanting recompense for their land lost when the High Dam flooded their fertile villages. With many Nubians active in the tourist trade and on the popular felucas (sailing boats), they did not want to upset an important element of the local economy by their actions.

On the quay we met cheers and cat-calls from our fellow passengers who had seen our arrival. Fortunately, there was still a welcome lunch available for us as the Commodore set sail for Luxor.

I rested for an hour and then went upstairs to rest on deck, taking a dip in the pool a bit later before being called up for my appointment with Oscar. Oscar was the ship's masseur and, in anticipation of stiffness after eight hours in a bus, I had booked a back, neck and head massage. Forty five minutes later, I emerged smelling sweetly of scented oils and feeling like a new man!

The evening's entertainment was a quiz, with questions on ancient Egypt and general knowledge. Our team of eight was called “Goggle Types”, an anagram of Egyptologist, and we scored a respectable 32 out of 40, which put us in the middle of the pack. Having missed going through the Nile lock on the way upstream, I stayed up till we passed through them around one am in the morning. This time there were no hawkers on parade, just a rowing boat of youths who darted about like a minnow around our pike of a boat.

Saturday, 3rd September Aswan dams, Papyrus and Nubians

As with the previous days, I had had to resort to taking painkillers due to the recurring pain in my jaw. It would be fine after an overnight break but tea or brushing teeth would initiate a delayed onset of growing pain that would either gradually fade or reach a crescendo over an hour. Despite the antibiotics, the situation appeared to be getting worse. Worried about the my small pack of painkillers that had almost been depleted, I requested reception try to purchase some for me.

The mornings trip began with a trip to the two dams, the British one completed around 1906, which, whilst being one of the largest dams of the day, still failed to control the Nile floods. The road across was one vehicle wide as we crossed, downstream the rocks of the cataracts were revealed, whilst upstream there was a sizeable lake, with cruisers and crocodile netting.

We did not stop but drove on to the High Dam, the third largest in the world. At its base, the foundations were 960m wide and it reached a height of (111m). This was not apparent on the approach as we only saw the tip above the waters. Security was very tight both to get on and then when we got out. Whilst photography was permitted, zoom lenses or video were prohibited. Using my 14mm to 40mm lens immediately resulted in a soldier approaching me and it was only the intervention of Osama that avoided my having to stop taking photos.

The lake, that had seemed large behind the British built dam now looked puny compared to Lake Nasser, which stretchee to the horizon and lost itself left and right in flooded valleys. We were now on crocodile watch as these upper reaches of the Nile do harbour them. Apart from a tell tale v-ripple moving away from us parallel to the dam, we did not see any obviously basking.

The photo-session over we drove on to a small harbour on Lake Nasser to catch a motor boat to the island with the Temple of Philae, which we could see in the distance from the High Dam. It was one of the many temples that had been rescued from the inevitable flooding once the high dam was completed. As with all the monuments threatened with flooding, The temple of Philae was relocated stone by stone onto a suitable future island in the lake.

This was out first trip by boat. Everyone had to bring along their lifejacket, found under the beds in our rooms. The boats themselves were about 10m long, wide bellied with a flat deck and a bench along the sides, plus one across the centre of the boat. A large rectangular roof covered the seating area to provide welcome shade and the captain sat by his outboard motor at the back. We piled on and stored the lifejackets under the benches as we gently cruised towards the temple island. Arriving at the jetty we found the souvenir sellers with their wares on the mat. However, we had already had an Osama approved seller of necklaces and scarves on ours from which Louise bought two necklaces and I bought a camel bone one. At £E40 (£4), a good price for a future microscopy sample!

The Temple at Philae was dedicated to Osiris and Isis and linked to a tale of true love. Osiris was the god of fertility and lord of the dead and married to his sister Isis, goddess of magic and motherhood & maternity. His brother Seth god of sandstorms was married to the other sister Nephtis goddess of the west. Seth was incredibly jealous of Osiris, who was extremely popular and killed him. To ensure he could not recover, Seth cut Osiris's body into 14 parts and spread them all across the kingdom. The distraught Isis and Nephtis looked all over and collected all the body parts that they could find, bar the penis which had been eaten by a fish, which she found using magic and managed to reattach to Osiris. Then Isis brought Osiris back to life and slept with him to create Horus who would avenge his fathers death by his uncle. In is first attempt to do this, Horus lost his first eye when Seth gauged it out – a lesser loss as he had at the same time castrated Seth. Fortunately, Isis healed Horus's eye for him (the lost eye is the moon according to myth, the right eye being the sun). Horus engaged Seth in battle again and victorious, on the point of killing him, Isis and Nephtis intervened and completed the killing to ensure that it was final. Seth later becomes a divinity of unknown function after 300years of the day of Judgement.

Philae was initially began the construction in the third century BC as the last temple in Egypt during the thirtieth dynasty, by Nectnabu II (also created the last pylon of Karnak). In the fourth century AD, the Greeks and Romans continued working on the temple. However, they did not quite finish the work due to a lack of labour and disagreements amongst the late Greeks and Romans. Justinian then finally closed the temple as Christianity took hold. After Philae, it was back to Aswan to the papyrus factory. In total contrast to our ebullient guides, we were given a gentle introduction to the principles of creating papyrus by the resident expert.

The papyrus reed was given special distinction by the ancient Egyptians because its leaves looked like a sunburst, reminding them of Ra, and the stem has a triangular cross-section, with the holy number three.

The outer peel is tough and brittle, so is cut off. Then thin slices of the pith are cut longitudinally. They are beaten with mallets to break the fibres and then pressed with a rolling pin or mangle. The thin strips are then placed back in water where they oxidise slowly. After 6 days they are a light straw yellow. If left for 12 days the strips are a darker brown.

The strips are then arranged on an absorbant surface, first in one orientation, overlapping like ship planking. A second layer is then arranged over these at 90 degrees to the first layer. Note that the size of the final sheet is predetermined by the length of strips used. Another absorbent fabric is placed on top of the provisional sheet. The sandwich is then placed in a press for more than a week (check) until the sheet is dry. The final papyrus is flexible and strong. Originally, the ancient Egyptians would prepare papyrus sheets with the designs required for carving on temples etc.. Most of these were lost during the fire of the great library of Alexandria. Modern artists are currently licensed to prepare copies of original stone engravings on papyrus. The work has to be approved and individually signed.

The papyrus factory had a collection of fine signed artwork and after serious consideration, we purchased some smaller pieces.

Afterwards, we took a motorboat for a quick half hour tour around Elephantine Island.

After returning to the boat for lunch, we joined a small party to go on the visit to a Nubian village. The start was adventurous in that the traditional motorboat was moored outside the outer, starboard door of our boat, separated by another boat in-between. We therefore stepped out onto the roof of the first boat and then carefully crossed to the second boat. Mohammed, our Nubian guide, was a polite elderly gentleman and together we assisted those having to turn around on the roof to go down the narrow steel ladder to reach the passenger deck below. The obligatory life belts were more a hindrance than a help.

Once safely settled it was off to collect a few more passengers from one of the other cruise boats before setting sail for the Lord Kitchener`s island. We took a leisurely stroll from one end to the other, with Mohammed giving us an introduction to some of the important regional plants and their uses. The most memorable for me was the thorn tree species used for Christ`s crown of thorns, an innocuous looking shrub until you saw the rose like thorns along its stem. Just before we boarded the boat, I spied another building nearby, labelled “Tissue Culture”, a reminder of my plant biotech past.

The trip was then on to Elephantine Island, which Mohammed thought was most likely due to a distant association with the ivory trade. Populated with two Nubian villages, this was part of the Nubian relocation after their lands were flooded by the great Dam.

We were taken to Mohammed's home, which also included his small museum called “Animalia”. The entrance takes you around three sides of the house to the outside reception where guests were received and could sleep overnight. The path was made of sand – for a reason. In the morning, the wife could see any tracks of scorpions or snakes that had come into the area overnight.

Wandering back round we came to the communal, partially shaded courtyard of the house, from which radiated the kitchen and the bedroom. The walls were decorated with eyes, showing a link to the distant past with the eye of Horus. There was also a hand of Fatima and a puffer fish. All are symbols to ward off evil spirits. The story of the puffer fish is that they appear immediately before the fertile Nile floods. Being poisonous, they are not eaten but dried as a protective house charm. The main feature of the kitchen was the beehive oven, again with a hand print. Above it were triangular niches in which the ancestors of the Nubians come to live.

The small museum had walls dedicated to different themes; insects, wildlife, fish, the effects of the High Dam and the role of women in Nubian society. According to Mohammed, women are respected in Nubian society. They also maintain the artistic heritage.

The key plant for the Nubian's is the date palm. The wood from the trunk is used for simple foot bridges etc.. The central stem of the palm leaves is used to make furniture and the individual leaflets are excellent material for basket-work. Individual leaflets can be stained in different natural colours, derived from minerals and plants to create geometric patterns.

We walked through the rest of the village, past mud bricks in the process of drying. The buildings were arranged close to each other, just one or two storeys high, often with characteristic white domes and a packed dirt path between them. Mud brick construction was used in many of them but the newer larger houses also included brick and concrete as the villagers adopted new materials.

The overall image was of a culture breaking out of poverty that, if one ignored the satellite dishes and tangle of electrical cables strung between houses, would not have been out of place a couple of centuries ago.

The trip back to the Commodore by boat was through the narrower passages between the islands so that we could see the remains of the ancient granite extraction and the wild birds. We saw little egrets, pied woodpeckers, moorhen, grey heron, guaka herons to name but a few.

Reception had come up trumps with both paracetamol and ibuprofen during the day. I began taking paracetamol at 4h intervals and, if the pain returned earlier, interspersed this with ibuprofen which gave a welcome relief at last, suggesting that the main issue might be an inflammation of the gum.

The evening's entertainment was provided by the Nubian dancers. I gave it a miss and went to bed early as I was shattered after the busy day.