Hard work in Sheffield

At the Sheffield trainstation

Finally, I managed to post the bike-trip pictures on my flickr account (last month I only found out about their monthly uploading limit after uploading tons of large sized pictures). Feel free to browse through! Warning: shocking contents... Let's say we got a bit slaphappy and drunk from the hilly bits. This photo you see here was a nice start of our trip. We should have one of those on the door of our lab! I wonder if anybody would ever dare to come in for a cup of coffee though. So, enjoy the pictures, and I'll promise to post more soon.
ttfn (tataa for now)
MJ

Trip report [2]: over hoe we van de heuvel af werden geblazen

Peak District, The Edale Skyline Walk, 17.5 km (if completed)

Mooie wandeling, of de hoogste pieken in de Peak, 17,5 km, echt geweldig mooi. Maarrr... toen we eenmaal op de eerste piek waren, voelden we pas hoe sterk de wind was. Op dat moment scheen ook nog de zon, maar je raadt het al: die wind nam een hoop regenwolken met zich mee en binnen no time werden we besproeit. Het regende niet hard, maar wel horizontaal: erg vervelend dus. De wind was ook erg onprettig, aangezien de hele wandeling over de 'skyline' liep. Een half uur later waren we min of meer onderkoeld, dus besloten we de eerstvolgende weg naar beneden te lopen en af te snijden richting een dorpje waar we de trein pakten. Al met al nog zo'n tien kilometer gelopen, met flinke heuvels en pijnlijke wind en temperatuur (en natuurlijk er niet op voorbereid zijn, wat het allemaal een stuk onprettiger maakte), dus we waren bekaf. En dat terwijl er 's morgens om zeven uur in Notts geen wolkje te zien was! Aan de ene kant was ik wel blij dat we het niet afkapten door mij: ik liep op mijn goedkope gympies en had nog pijn in mijn knie van het over-enthousiaste frisbee-en van de dag ervoor. Maar vastbesloten om het toch te proberen, dribbelde ik achter de twee reuzen aan. Eenmaal terug in Sheffield, waar we over gingen stappen op de trein naar Notts, besloten toch nog even die stad te bekijken. Het resulteerde meer in het geforceerd opzoeken van de city centre, en dan het eerste cafe induiken voor een kop koffie. Dat was het eerste moment dat mijn handen weer langzaam op temperatuur kwamen. Kon ik eindelijk die knoop van mijn broek weer dichtdoen! ;-)

Robin the Fox

Yesterday night on campus, cycling home from a visit to friends in city centre, I met my new friend: a FOX! I have seen plenty of squirrels and other small animals on this lovely campus, but I didn't expect to see this one. Was he lost, coming from the Wollaton Park maybe? He looked up quickly, and than ran away, carrying a small animal in his mouth. I think this is the first wild fox I have ever seen in my life. I will call him Robin because he reminded me of that cartoon of Robin Hood I once watched as a child. In that cartoon, Robin Hood was a fox (can anybody confirm this for me? Can't find it on IMDB...). Anyway, it was a pleasure to meet him!

Trip report [1]

Where: The Peak District, from Hope to Matlock
People: Petr and Marije
Equipment: Two mountainbikes, two cameras and a big lunch
Weather: Cloudy, not rainy, not cold. Good!
Remarkable: Is this the second sheep country, after New Zealand?

Last week Monday, Petr and I left with the early (7:43 AM) train to Hope, a village of which we have not seen a single building, except for a big factory that provides 10% of Britain's cement supply (reminding me of the ENCI in Maastricht, that took an enormous bite out of the hill...). For a moment it felt like we ended up in the middle of nowhere, if it were not for the kind British hikers we met. Before showing us the way to go, they just had to tell us about their visit to Prague and their love for the Dutch radiostation called "Arrow Rock Radio" (even not all Dutch people know of that one, right Bram?). Very soon though, we were climbing a very, very steep hill. I write 'climbing', because there was simply no option of cycling! The reward was a gorgeous view on the moors of the Dark Peak, definitely worth the climb. After this rough warming up things could only get easier, and fortunately it did. Descending was sometimes quite challenging with the muddy ground and stones, but that gave us the right amount of adrenaline to prefer the off-roads (mostly bridle-paths) over the paved roads. The results: two mega-muddy bikes and the fear that the pub would not let us in that evening at around 6:00 PM in Matlock. But also: two happy kids proud of their achievements. Petit Yohan would say: " 'core, 'core!" (more, more...).
Photos soon!

Please mr Mailman, take good care of my thesis!

That's it.
I've just posted and emailed my thesis to the people that are supposed the receive and evaluate it. No more revisions, no more reviewing, in fact, I'd rather not want to look at it anymore now, in case I discover some kind of stupid error somewhere...
People ask me if I feel lighter now. I realise it has the same effect as being asked whether you feel like it is your birthday (dutch: jarig voelen...). You are very conscious that you are supposed to feel relieved or happy, but ... you don't (although I admit I went into the nearest Spar to grab some chips, or better: crisps, as soon as I mailed the thesis to the University at the post office).
Anyway, that chapter is almost closed. Now I will wait for the verdict to see if I may pay a last official visit to the University of Maastricht, to pick up that little piece of paper.

In the meantime, we've introduced my favourite tradition in a research centre: Frizzzbee! Last week an email has been sent around through the school of psych announcing our 'lab activity'. Some of you may be familiar with this. Let me give you a short history to make sure you know what I am talking about. It all started at my stay at the FC DC in Nijmegen, where the coolest PI started a very nice tradition: Ultimate Frisbee, every week. This is a teamsport, comparable to football or rugby. If you'd like to know more, come and visit me here :) . When I moved to Montreal, I made an attempt to introduce it at the MNI as well, which was less succesful although there were always some enthusiastic labmates present. So, as the labmates seemed to like it, including our supervisor, it was just inevitable to launch it here in Notts as well. This afternoon will be the kick-off. I am very curious how many people will turn up, because the weather does not look too encouraging. Quite some people have reacted enthusiastically to the email though, so we'll see. And otherwise we'll just continue with the already existing tradition on Friday afternoons: the pub!