Thwen

01:19 pm: An account of one marvellous evening
On our second day on the water, after a morning of activities around our mooring, we set off to travel several miles East, towards Canada. We had a short stop mid-lake for a swim (the slide which can be seen in some of the photos was a lot of fun). Then we set off again, this time with two people kayaking alongside (the houseboat had a top speed of around 5km/hour). It was a beautiful afternoon. We rounded a wooded peninsula to see a lovely sheltered bay in which we would tie up for the night ... but there was another houseboat there. No problem -- the next houseboat site was just a kilometre or so around the island. Also occupied. At this point two of us set off in the motorboat to find a free site, while the houseboat followed at its own ponderous pace. The next two sites we checked were also occupied, and we saw two more houseboats tied up in other locations, and another couple moving around the lakes. By the time we rejoined the houseboat, we were slightly worried ... we had nowhere to moor, the wind was picking up slightly, and there was a storm warning on the radio. We saw a disused mooring-place, and were discussing its merits when another houseboat came around the corner. That settled it -- we went in at full speed to secure our place (although we did spend the next fifteen minutes adjusting to get ourselves straight).

After dinner, we went out to see a remarkable sunset. The block of nine sunset photographs in my photo set (see previous post) all come from this time. The water was perfectly tranquil around us, but above the setting sun we could see dark clouds, and a goodly amount of lightning and thunder. Ahead of us was gold, to our left silver, and to our right black, and the world was still. After a time, though, the storm passed our way. In under a minute the wind increased from nothing to something which caught at clothes and hair. With the wind came rain, but also, magically, with the wind came waves. We could see the interface on the water between the flat and the wind-driven (just visible in the last two photos), coming towards us. It reached, and things continued to increase, the waves getting larger and larger. It was glorious. And after just a few minutes it passed, and calm returned.

I think it was the most impressive - and most beautiful - weather that I have ever experienced.

11:40 pm: Photos in the last light of the sun
Earlier this evening, cealdis and I went wandering with cameras. The light was really beautiful, both in the graveyard of St Cross and on the ubiquitous golden stone that the colleges are built from. The best of our efforts may be found here.

I've also put up a grand total of three photos from earlier in the term.

12:11 pm: A coincidence of dates
It seems that the last time one could attend the May Day festivities and go beating the bounds on the same morning was in 1913, and the next time will be 2160.

It thus appears to be slightly less common (if more erratic) than the Mallard Ceremony.

11:49 pm: Easter vacation pictures
I've actually taken several photos over the vacation, in a few batches, so here is a post providing links to the best and briefly detailing the background. (Feel free to add comments to any of the photos)

In mid-March, I spent a long weekend in Switzerland skiing with my family. We stayed in an old converted chalet, which was lovely. The weather was excellent and the snow was pretty good too. The major downside - of arriving at about 2am and leaving at 3am a few days later - is completely non-apparent in the pictures. The very best are here, with some more decent ones here. The air was generally very still - note the abundance of paragliders.

At the weekend we had snow, so cealdis, my brother and I built a snowman. It was a lot of effort rolling that up the path! (& took all three of us at times)

Yesterday we took a trip, with my mother and grandmother, to Arundel Castle. I really enjoy the architecture of castles, and in lovely crisp sunshine this was no exception. I didn't bother going to see the stately rooms, but apparently they were pretty good too. I've played around with cropping some of these photos into odd proportions.

12:42 am: Vows renewed
I went to a small ceremony for the first wedding anniversary of my favourite Australians this afternoon.

It was lovely, and I've put a few photos online at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/scatha/TobyAndDetteSWeddingEncore

06:29 pm: With apologies to the non-mathematicians ...
For a group G, does anyone know what <b>b_1(G)</b> might be?

It's used in the definition vb_1(G) := sup{b_1(H) : H is a finite index subgroup of G} ... I suppose the 'v' stands for 'virtual' or 'virtually'.

Context is geometric group theory. From the surroundings it looks like b_1 is in some way the measure of the size or growth rate of the group.

Any ideas?

11:00 am: Finishing Finals
Just to let people know that I'll be coming out of what may well be my last exam ever at 12.30 on Monday. You're all welcome to come along; I haven't got any kind of detailed plan, but it will probably involve some kind of picnic and possibly croquet.

Good luck to everyone who's still got exams!

11:25 am: College next year ...
Merton.

I'm pretty pleased about this. By the paperwork it was my second choice behind Magdalen, but really that was because I'd had to pick an ordering on them - I think they both look fantastic and hadn't deeply considered which I'd prefer.

12:24 pm: I dreamed again that I flew the other night.

I found that if I flapped my arms quite fast, in a manner faintly reminiscent of a chicken, then I was just light enough to generate lift and get myself off the ground. My friends expressed mild surprise, as while they knew it was possible they didn't realise that one could go so high (at this point I was a couple of storeys up). I had to admit that although I'd flown in this manner before, I hadn't sure whether I really could because all of my memories of it were a bit dreamlike. At no point until waking did I realise that it was a dream.

There were other bits involving one of my lecturers bemoaning the state of society to foreverdirt , but I recall them less well and I think they're less intrinsically interesting.

In the waking world I'm doing fairly well (I add, when I realise that some people on my friends list might actually want to know this kind of thing). Exams are coming up, so I need to do some more work, but they should be ok when I've done that.

11:14 am: DPhil
So, it looks like I'm going to be staying in Oxford for a few more years.

Bizarrely they've only asked for a 2:1, whereas my offers from elsewhere wanted a first. But I shall be the last person to complain of that.

The elsewheres looked good as well, but a combination of good things at Oxford has tipped me to wanting to stay here.

Looking forward to seeing various of you around more than I might otherwise have done!

I am using this to justify my first ever use of the 'current mood' function.

08:22 am: Just to point out that there's going to be a total eclipse of the moon on Saturday (22:44 to 23:57), and it's going to turn red under the light of all the world's sunrises and sunsets.

11:56 am: Memories of dreams
Based on experience this morning, it seems to me that while we have a tendency to forget dreams shortly after waking, they are not truly forgotten, and can be recalled in other dreams. It's almost as if there's a partition in the brain between dream memory and normal memory. At times, like shortly after waking, it's possible to access both, including managing to recall more details than normal of dreams that you had some time ago.

Anyone else find things similar? Or completely different?

02:15 pm: Shiny link worth sharing
Regard this as an apologetic present for never actually posting anything about me in my livejournal, if you like.

Alternatively, don't. But enjoy anyway:

Mathematical music & an animation showing where it comes from.

09:49 pm: Summer
Well, looks like I'm going to be spending most of the summer in Oxford.

I just heard back from the maths institute, and I've got a bursary for student research, on "A study of partitions of positive integers and of sets, using group theory and computaton to investigate the fine structure of set-partitions and the asymptotics of Bell numbers." This is all I know about it at the moment, but it sounds pretty shiny and it's under one of my favourite lecturers, so all should be good. Should find out more about what I'll actually be doing later this week, and then need to sort out the little details like where I'll be staying.

But who wants a boring summer?

Will among other things mean that I'll probably see those of you who are in Oxford more than I otherwise would.

*Bounce*

10:22 am: The advantages of the MCM
Now I can look back with nostalgia on the four days spent modelling irrigation systems. The powers of ten dropped and gained indiscriminately, the glee on discovering that our model worked (!), the disbelief that it bore any resemblance to reality.

It all serves as a lovely reminder of why I prefer pure maths.

02:47 pm: This is me metaphorically dipping my toes into Livejournal
This, the first sentence in my first post, is curiously devoid of any interesting information. The second sentence has delusions of grandeur and speaks of itself exclusively in the third person, but nevertheless informs the patient reader that the self-reference will stop soon.

This is the last sentence of the post, and its conclusion justifies the assertion of the previous sentence.