Summer holidays!

This summer we managed to get in a proper summer holiday, a big trip with activities and visits to friends and family, all in one! Despite being done on a bit of a shoestring budget we managed to squeeze an impressive amount into nearly two weeks worth of travel to London and back again, at the high of the summer heatwave...

The first of many new living rooms to play in... this is at Auntie Liz's house on the way down.

And the first of many parks, this one in Loughborough.

Next stop was at my sister Heather's in Chingford.
Lots of paddling pool fun. It was HOT in London!

A very excited Miriam and Lydia getting to try out Uncle Theo's car!

Naomi getting somewhat adventurous at the park in London.

A most welcome ice cream break.

It so happens there was a funfair at the park near Chingford so the girls got to try out some classic amusements. A shame the steam trains that run in the park weren't on that day...

More of the funfair

Cousin Kirsty came over for a visit with her sausage dog slinky (recently also featured on Supermarket Sweep; yes, really), and the girls overcame their fear of dogs

On the hottest day we went for a train ride to the cinema with our cousins

Miriam was most pleased to be seeing Toy Story 4!

Esther just liked having a ride on the train!

Another day and we went to the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.
A really fun day out.

The museum has lots of classic toys 

And a few other fun things!

...including a puppet stall for children to have a go at.

On to Jay's sister Fay, and inheriting a lot of Barbie stuff. Here they are giving it a workout on day one.

Biggest swing ever!

A grand day out to a certain block themed adventure park.
Brilliant.

Lego everywhere!

And a lot of rides very suitable for wee ones.

Lydia having a go at controlling our helicopter.

Miriam had a shot too...

A brilliant puppet show to entertain us during lunch.

Lydia, Miriam and Naomi had a go on the cars (Lydia was on a different track for smaller ones) but I only got a photo of Miriam. It looked really fun.

Best part of the day was seeing Miriam on rides like this. It turns out she *really* likes them - lots of squeals!

Miriam liked this pirate ship one too.

Naomi had a great time as well, but just trying to capture a natural-looking picture of her happy is too much.

Hey, a local landmark!

Back to Loughborough and a Pizza Hut with friends. This means some Ice Cream Factory action!

There seems to be a theme of foot-related statues in Loughborough.

Naturally, of course, we still needed Pancake Saturday!

All in all, a brilliant time had by all.

Work travels

I've been away a fair bit the past few months, particularly in the earlier part of the year. I'll do a quick roundup here - though I think the trip to Japan probably deserves a post of its own...

In late March I had a day trip to Manchester Airport to talk with them about their aircraft taxiing operations. This included a tour of the tower and a drive around among the planes. Very good stuff indeed and certainly some hope that some of our research project will find its way into a real airport some time in the future.

I flew straight from Manchester to Aberdeen, where I had a meeting about my sounds project. We got a good level of participation in the project and how have some evidence that we can use my optimisation algorithms to produce sounds that people associate with different places. Still, several months on, I have yet to write up the paper on the results, but all good stuff. This team was a real pleasure to work with!

No photos from the meeting, but this is the view from my B&B - the glow in the distance would be Pittodrie.

I was then off on my Easter holidays for a little under two weeks. On return, I was off to London, twice in five days. Trip one was to talk about the airports stuff with the whole project team. This was accompanied by a visit to my sister (and a stay in exactly the same room at Chingford Premier Inn as last time).

Chingford Plain, and a Premier Inn car park.

Back again a few days later (we tried so hard to make the two meetings at the same time, but too many busy professors were involved). This time as an external assessor for a second year PhD student.

The view from Queen Mary University of London's offices

and the view from my hotel for this visit. If you look closely there are some famous buildings in the distance. 

Finally, a few days later again, I was back in Loughborough for a catch up with various staff and students there. Also a worthwhile visit: lots of nice researchy things going on there.

Gregory Street - just along from our old house and the very first place we ever stopped in Loughborough.

One fringe benefit of the trip to L'boro is the hotel I stay in - Holywell House, with very nice hosts and (crucially) an excellent breakfast.

All this travel has been useful (keeping all these links going is an important part of my job now) but I am not planning to travel nearly as much again any time soon!

Loughborough

We've had a hectic few weeks so blog posting has taken a bit of a back seat. We'll try to catch up soon...

Back in February, we took a wee trip to Loughborough, Mostly catching up with friends but we also took a look at the National Space Centre, which Miriam and Naomi were really too young for when we still lived there. It's a brilliant day out and well recommended!

Breakfast in a house made for even more people than us!

Yes, that's a real rocket in the tower behind us.

Lunch under the Earth.

There was also a "make your own weather forecast video" attraction, here's the girls watching ours. (Sorry - we didn't manage to record it!)

Drawing in the moon's shadow

Naomi having a go at landing on the moon.