On the way to London

I really do not like getting up so early, but I had no other choice: in order to be in time at the meeting in Granary Wharf at 9:30, I had to take the 6:05 train leaving from Leeds. What an ungodly hour in the morning!

Contrary to what many people say, trains in the UK are very punctual. At least I had no contrary experience, all trains I had ever travelled on here, left spot on time. This one is no exception: exactly at 6:05 it began to roll out. Slight rain, which cleared after a driving south for a while.

The "National Express" train has free WiFi, giving me an opportunity to post this blog entry here.

The meeting today is a workshop, organised by EPSRC on the topic "Maths of Life". The participants were invited, after submitting a one-page summary about experience and ideas. My area of interest which I pitched here is the "mathematics of music". I hope that this topic will attract some interest by others, and that thiw might lead to joint projects.

The meeting will end late afternoon. I reserved for a later train, so that I will be able to walk a bit around London and visit places where I have not yet been.

A Day in Ahmadabad

This is our last day. We have done a lot: visited several institutions, recorded material, collected information, created writings. Now I would like to see some more of Ahmadabad - we only had been there for our project activities. I had heard that the old town would be worth seeing. Also I wanted to be a bit adventurous - and take a train.

Strangely enough, nobody of the locals recommended to take the train. Our hosts at the university offered to provide a car, as they have done during all the time. But Brian also agreed that taking the train would be worth doing, to get a bit more immersed in local life. Only Brian, Jane, Asha, and myself would go. We had an invitation to a private home for lunch: a participant of the Creativity Conference last week had invited our group, she wanted to introduce us to her family and offer us some homemade Indian food. After breakfast we take off. First we take one of these rickshaws from the guest house to the train station in Anand. All four of us sqeeze into the small vehicle, and this time I record with the hand-held camera. At the train station there is a large lane-crowd in front of the ticket office. The train leaves in a few minutes, no way that we would get tickets in time. But Asha knows her way: she goes to some dealer stand outside of the station and buys 4 tickets. Each costs 15 rupies, which is 20 pence, for a 2-hour train ride.

We are rushing to the platform. Interestingly the low sensitivity for risk again shows, as everybody just crosses the railway tracks instead of using the bridge... and we do that too.



The platforms are very crowded, for trains in both directions. This is the train line which leads south to Mumbai.





The train is very crowded, people sit on the floor. Nevertheless we find a seat bench and chat a little with the local travellers. The train does not go very fast, max. 80 km/h, so it takes 2 hours until we arrive in Ahmadabad. Trupti, our host, and her husband are already there and welcome us in the station. They drive us a bit around, then we go to their home. The streets are loud, but these side streets are very quiet. A nice well-maintained house, with garden. We sit down, and Trupti wants individual introductions from everyone. So each of us gives a brief CV. I film it, and when it is my turn, Trupti films. We then have excellent food, brought out from the kitchen by the servants. Suddenly a shout from the kitchen: there is a monkey! But before I can get a climpes of it, the monley disappears out of the window from where he (she?) came from.

Jane and myself are taking off, as we only have a short time for exploring the old town of Ahmadabad. Again we feel this mode of surprise, about our desire to see some old things, when the town has to offer so many new things... it seems that many Indians consider some of their heritage as outdated, dirty, full of traffic, crowded, cramped... or is it just because the Old Town is Muslim?

Brian and Asha stay, we will meet at the bus station. So Jane and I take a rickshaw towards the centre. Again the GPS ix very helpful, as I can trace our routes and can indicate the proximity to the train station for example, even though I do not have a map of Ahmadabad on the device.



We see a great old gate and get out of the vehicle. Then we walk towards East and Southeast into the town. Narrow streets, many vendors. We follow just arbitrarily the path, always knowing that we can just get out and take a rickshaw which would bring us right to the bus terminal. Many nice old buildings, often damaged and not cared for. Suddenly a small gate, and behind there is a temple. Houses with intricate masonry work. We have no idea what these houses are, there are no signs, it is all being used for daily life and not kept as a museum.








After one hour we get back onto the main road and take a rickshaw to the bus terminal. When we arrive, we see this is a large area wich many busses... and we have no idea which one would go to Anand. Fortunately, as we go around one corner, we see Brian and Asha, and she guides us to the right bus.




So we go back by bus. Noisy, dusty, but it drives. Takes about 2 hours as well, across country roads, through small towns and villages. Unfortunately it si getting darker already, so my pictures do not come out well... too much motion blurriness. In Vallabh Vidyanagar for the last time a rickshaw, then we are back at the guest house.

Meeting my friend Marius

Right now I am sitting in a train, on its way from Peterborough to Leeds - I will arrive after midnight in Leeds. The free WIFI is nice, although a bit slow, and the connection breaks down often.

I had met my friend Marius once again, who is in London for a conference. I know Marius from my work in California at RSC since 1996, where he has been my colleague, group manager, and function director until 2003. The last time I met him in 2006 in Stratford, when he was in the UK at another conference. This time we decided to meet in Peterborough, as this would be easily reachable by train both from London and Leeds. I did not want to drive by car, as this would be a bit stressful. We had a great time. Saw the magnificent cathedral of Peterborough (from the outside only), had dinner in one pub (he had Fish and Chips, I had a Sunday Roast) and desert in another, and told stories about our ongoing and past activities, travels, and funny hoaxes.

The outside temperature was quite chilly (it had been a very nice sunny Sunday, without any clouds in the sky), but he wore a baseball hat and was ok with the cold air. I hope we have another opportunity to meet again!

On the Footplate of a Steam Locomotive

Last year, I had visited the Leeds Middleton Railway, which claims to be the oldest working railway in the world: operating since 1758, 250 years. I had taken a few photos and posted them on Flickr. A few days ago, the traffic manager of the Middleton Railway asked for permission to use some of these pictures in their archive, and I agreed. As a thank-you, I was offered to take a ride on the footplate of a steam locomotive this Sunday.

I took my camera(s) (the picture cam, the video cam, and the head-worn video cam), set myself up with the Soundman in-ear microphones, and bought a day-rover ticket for the railway. First a ride in the "coach", then a ride on the steam engine. Very interesting, to see the operation of the mechanical levers and valves which make that steam engine move.

Travel to Nicosia

Leeds Train Station

I had tried to book a flight departing from Manchester, but it seemed to me relatively expensive with Cyprus Airways. So I had decided to take the inconvenience and travel by train to London, leaving from there with Monarch Airlines. In order to get there I had to take a train. Leaving from Leeds at 8:28, I took an East Midlands Line train with destination "St. Pancras", the train station just next to Kings Cross. The usual connection from Leeds to London would be to go to Kings Cross. The train line goes more towards the East, and is shorter: the ride can be 2:10 hours, and the line is electrified. But it does not seem to have a suitable connection to Luton airport, which is north of London. And so I ended up travelling with a train on the longer route, through Sheffield and Derby to Bedford, then changing into a commuter train which stops near Luton airport.

The East Midlands train made a more run-down impression than the National Express East Coast train which I had just taken last week to London. That one even had free Wifi for everyone – and the 2 1/2 hours went by quite fast. But the East Midlands train had a more conventional approach. Diesel-driven, the line is not electrified. Sometimes 4 parallel tracks, remnants of past UK railway glory. It took almost 3 hours to arrive in Bedford. Then another 20 min, a shuttle bus, and then I was ready to check in at Luton airport.

I had not done an internet check-in – I had already my seat assignment and did not want to bother. But that was a mistake: the line for checking in took more than 30 minutes, while the line for internet check-in was almost empty.

Monarch Airways has a low base price, but charges for everything: checking in a suitcase costs 4 pound, and a seat reservation for a seat with more leg room costs again 4 pound. But it was worth: at least my knees did not bump into the front seat. Unfortunately, the increased leg room did nothing to increase the arm room as well – still 3 seats close to each other, and the usual elbow fight with the neighbor for the arm rest could not be avoided.

How I miss those free first class upgrades I enjoyed in the past years in the US when flying Northwest Airlines! Seat 1A, nice location right behind the cockpit. The free gourmet meal, beer, wine, champagne. And having the seat leaning back, the legs wide stretched, the neighbor far away. It was always nice to look out of the window during the late-evening descend into the LA basin, with its sea of lights. Yeah, that was great. Now I have to shall out a few pounds for those sandwiches, and there is no more any free beverage!

But the flight was without any incidents, we landed ahead of time in Larnaca airport around 21:00.

A real steam train, between Pickering and Grosmont, running on one of the very first railroad routes designed by George Stephenson in 1831.

Steam train waiting in station.

Steam train goes through the North York Moor.