6th April
Most of the week was a normal working week, frantically trying to get my bubble models to produce some useful data, so that I can write the current project up before the end of April. On Thursday I went to an event at an art gallery in La Jolla, notable mainlyfor the very cool oversized models of food and phones and chocolate which were made out of mirror tile. And we got to make our own bath salts.
Yesterday (Saturday) I did two wreck dives to finish my Advanced Open Water scuba course. There is a line of ships off San Diego that were intentionally sunk as dive sites. All sorts of stuff grows on them and so they provide a good habitat for ocean creepy-crawlies. We went to two, one which had been a destroyer (with guns still intact!) and one which had been something a bit more friendly. The photos aren't great as there isn't much light 100 feet down, but at least you can get an idea about what it was like.
My housemate Ayana, posing with the things necessary to make bath salts. And a giant dessert made of mirror tile.
Weird white algae, growing on the Yukon. You can see how the ship is carpeted with colourful patches of smaller algae as well - it looked as though the flower-power people had got their own back on this destroyer.
Something growing on the port side of the Yukon (the ship lies on its side so this is underneath). Don't ask me what it was... my species identification skills need a bit of work, to say the least.
Above, two of my classmates going up the anchorline ahead of me at the end of the first dive.
Below, the Ruby E, which has been down there for 20 years and is decaying pretty rapidly. You can just about make out the patches of coloured algal carpet all over it. Red light gets absorbed by water more than blue light, so it's hard to see red colours underwater. This is a shame as the algae were mostly pink and orange and yellow and red.
Sunday, 20th April
Last weekend Luke and I went to Tatyana and Jon's wedding in Philadelphia and then to New York for a day afterwards. This week has been really busy at work, because suddenly there are only two weeks left here before I start my summer of zipping about from place to place like a demented bumble bee. Today I cycled to Point Loma, a pointy bit of land that protects San Diego bay from the Pacific ocean. It's a ridge and the view from the top is fantastic. However (spot the physicist), the most exciting thing for me was the Fresnel lenses for the lighthouse, huge glass constructions that were handmade about 150 years ago. I love lenses...
Tatyana and Jon outside the church, with a flying petal in the picture too.
Some of the Cambridge crew All of the Cambridge crew
The view of San Diego from Point Loma
I love this one because you can see the people directly through the glass as well as upside-down through the lens.
27th April
This weekend was mostly taken up with organising and sorting things, with some time taken to potter around in the sunshine. I've got one more week here in San Diego now and then I'll be back for a couple of weeks to do a scientific diving course later on. After that, I'll be elsewhere... which is really a shame because summer has just arrived properly here and the orange tree has not yet run out of oranges.
Yesterday I got a place for a local 5k run, after discovering to my disappointment that the half-marathon that was part of the same overall event had no more places. I can't be too disappointed though because I won my age group division, and came 54th overall out of 2000 (including the men). Smiley faces all round then. They even gave me a medal.
I have also discovered the wonders of craigslist. In the course of my sorting and generally staring at my stuff wondering how to transport it all with me, I found a few things that were in good condition and presumably useful to someone. That someone just wasn't me. They were silly little things, like unused preserving jars and small laptop speakers, and I was happy to give them away for free. Anything rather than throw them out. So I posted them on craigslist with a photo each and within two hours people had phoned up to arrange times to come to my house and collect them. Amazing.
Oh yes, and have a look at this website: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ Play the short movie - it's brilliant, especially the cartoons.
