CraigBlog

Author: Craig

  • It begins, as always, with an indifferent railway station coffee

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    This is the last few months of my ‘sabbatical’ – I’m going to a convention in the US, on to NZ via a week in Fiji, then back through the US for two more conventions, and back to the UK. That’s the plan, anyway. The trip from Aylesbury to Heathrow wasn’t entirely smooth. I got…

  • Cricket. Again.

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    This was a T20¹ match between England & West Indies, which makes it my first international cricket match. ( But probably not my first international sporting thing, because I’m pretty sure there was an NZ vs. Australia kickboxing thing I went to at one point ) Tickets happened because another person bought them but couldn’t…

  • Ferry Time

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    Thanks to the hotel shenanigans, I didn’t get the train I’d intended; Not a big deal. There was one to Rotterdam soon after, so I caught that instead. (the planned one would have taken me to Schiedam Centrum, where there’s also a metro stop on the line out to Hook of Holland, where the ferry…

  • Hotel Shenanigans

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    So, the hotel over the train station is very fun, but there was one significant downside. Not the train noise; Even with a window open it just wasn’t that loud. No, the downside is that almost no department could do their job without fucking it up. The outlier was the bar/restaurant. When I got back…

  • Keukenhof

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    My thing for the day was a visit to Keukenhof, which I knew involved flowers, but not a lot else. I’d sort of assumed it was a garden of some kind, and while that’s correct, it’s not entirely correct. The trip included a bus tour on the way out there, with commentary about the place;…

  • A Poetic Moment From Keukenhof

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    Craig
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    In one of the many gardens, or parts of the really big garden, there’s this sculpture of a bear. Possibly a steampunk bear? And it reminded me of this poem by Richard Brautigan; All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace I like to think (andthe sooner the better!)of a cybernetic meadowwhere mammals and computerslive…

  • What’s Over There?

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    I had a day where I didn’t feel like doing anything big, so instead I took one of the (free) ferries out to the west a bit, to see what was out there. Turns out to be the NDSM Cultural Centre. Used to be shipbuilding yards, and was eventually redeveloped as an arts & culture…

  • Canal Tour & A New Hotel

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    Something shifted in the vibe of the hostel, or maybe just the dorm, and I’d been having trouble sleeping. One bad night isn’t too bad, but two, with added total obliviousness from the previously OK residents, and I hit my limit; I had not realised the difference & consequences between “small chill hostel with privacy…

  • Microbe Zoo

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    The Microbe Zoo (Artis Micropia) was recommended to me by somebody on the PillowFort social media community, and I’m really glad they did because it was great fun. I followed the wrong canal initially and ended up taking a very roundabout route to get to the place. On the positive side there were nice things…

  • Sunday ( which I’m told was the actual Kingsday, but they observed it on Saturday )

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    The sea of orange disappeared by midday. Maybe earlier, but there was little sign of it by midday. I’d gone to bed a a fairly sensible time, I thought, so I went for a walk in the morning, using my standard “where does this canal go?” system for situations where I don’t really have a…