My husband sent me this, because he loves me:
Regular readers will recall that I mentioned last weekend that Monday night shopping was a “What’s Hot” item suggested by Irish Times’ journalists. Above is proof of this unlikely fact.
Archives for November 2011
Do you know the way to San Jose?
My brother is still travelling around the Americas. He sends funny emails. They deserve a wider audience. Also, I’ve got nothing.
Hi folks,
Greetings from Costa Rica…the name of the place means rich coast in case ye were wondering. Having an amazing time landed in San Jose on Oct 31…the town I stayed in first is right beside the airport it’s called Alajuela and is the second city. From Alajuela I met a few people that had a car and we went to the Poas volcano….to see the raw ferocity of nature, unfortunately we could only hear it as the crater of the volcano was covered by dense cloud, in fact the visibility was so bad that I could barely see the picture of the volcano on the board beside the view point.Next was into San Jose….I have a strange ambition in life to ask stupid questions (an ambition oddly unfulfilled by years of obsessive curiosity) like going into Tiffany’s in New York and asking for breakfast or asking someone how long the Camptown race track is or asking someone does it rain in southern California (although the latter was answered emphatically yes by mother nature during my visit there). So in the taxi to San Jose I was presented with the ideal opportunity to ask the driver ‘do you know the way to San Jose’ …….hoping for a fitting acknowledgement of my great wit instead I got a confused look and a reply ‘of course I know the way to San Jose I’m a local taxi driver’ I said you know the song attempting to back track…..negative…tried to change the subject for a way out but the increasingly uncomfortable situation ended up with me having to produce a rendition of the song which was even worse than the original if you can imagine that. The driver couldn’t produce a false laugh to conclude the episode ……finally I escaped the Irish way by talking about the weather.
Next stop was Montezuma on the Pacific coast….planned only to stay 2 days but ended up there a week, it was that kind of place. I took Spanish lessons for the week and made impressive progress albeit from a low base, so much so that I was able to spot the error in the name of the hotel where I stayed next, Casa tranquilo was the name, I questioned the owner why it wasn’t Casa Tranquila as casa was a feminine noun, it turns out I was right but that the incorrect name would be more catchy for the Gringo tourists. I also went surfing with somewhat less success, did manage to get standing on the board just about but with about as much control as a trainee teacher in a northside school.
I stayed in a really cool place in Montezuma called Luna llena (full moon). It was in the middle of the jungle which was amazing except for the time I woke up in the middle of the night to see a giant cockroach buzzing around, I’m afraid to say I left myself down badly; I was completely unable to retain my strong silent type composure, I eventually managed to kill the bug after a terrifying struggle. The mozzies also seemed to see my legs as an all you can eat buffet. Otherwise everything was brilliant met great people and had an absolute blast. The other big thing there was yoga, in new age speak the whole idea is to become one with el cuerpo and connect with the source, I’m afraid during my attempt at yoga the source remained distant, I listened to my body as instructed but my body answered back what the hell are you doing you muppet, I’m definitely in need of more enlightenment.
Next was inland to Monteverde which is a cloud forest, the big thing here is spotting wildlife in the forest. Day 1, got up at 5am for a bird watching trip, (you are thinking there is something drastically wrong here 5am me and bird watching could never inhabit the same sentence unless as a set up for a punch line or something, but no this is a statement of fact, I really did do this). We got to see some cool stuff including the Toucan from the Guinness commercial, I didn’t get any cool photos, spectacular wildlife shots are typically not captured by a sleep deprived, unskilled photographer with a severely mistreated compact camera. Also did a night hike and got to see a tarantula which was very impressive. At the moment I am in a place which is known for it’s active volcano…going to see the lava fields today, my knowledge of thermal landscapes has not been developed since Inter Cert Geography so there’s going to be some scope to learn something new I’d say……will report back.
Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth
Mr. Waffle performed some service for Michael and I said, “Who is the best Daddy in the world?” Daniel was lying on the floor staring at the ceiling and, after some thought, decided to answer the question, “I don’t know, Uncle G maybe?”
Obviously
Me: Daniel, why are you licking the ladder on the bunk bed?
Daniel: Because it tastes nice.
Outsourcing
I think it was Kara who recommended to me the radio show “This American Life” which I really love. The other day, they had an introductory piece about prime numbers which you can listen to here should you be so inclined. I told Mr. Waffle about this and he was interested and did some research the fruits of which I give you here. Because I can.
Hunt for prime numbers: the puzzle was set by Mercenne – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_prime. The breakthrough you mention was made by Édouard Lucas – see link here. [Actually not, but never mind, this is interesting all by itself].
Wikipedia says “In 1857, at age 15, Lucas began testing the primality of 2127 − 1 by hand, using Lucas Sequences. In 1876, after 19 years of testing,[4] he finally proved that 2127 − 1 was prime; this would remain the largest known Mersenne prime for three-quarters of a century. This may stand forever as the largest prime number proven by hand.”
Footnote 4 above is a link to another web site which says
“Lucas died under unusual circumstances. A banquet waiter dropped a plate and a broken piece flew up and cut him on the cheek. He passed away a few days later from a bacterial infection (erysipelas). ”PS a more exciting account of his death is on http://mirrorsoferis.com/ds/013container.html
” … he was the guest of honor at a meeting of the Association française pour l’avancement des sciences — when he was savagely, fatally, assaulted.
A waiter — whose face no-one present saw, whose escape no hand nor word thought to obstruct — came up behind Lucas, and dropped a tray full of heavy crockery on his head. Lucas’s skull was crushed, he was rendered unconscious without the opportunity to say a single word; and though the crushing itself was not fatal, septicemia killed him a few days later. He never regained consciousness.”
Another French site offers yet a third version of his death
“Lucas est mort au cours d’un banquet : une assiette portant un couteau est tombée et lui a transpercé la gorge.”
A further site repeats the crockery theory with an extract from the Petit Moniteur Universel, 6 octobre 1891
“Sa mort a été occasionnée par un accident vulgaire. Dans un banquet auquel assistaient les membres du congrès, au cours d’une excursion en Provence, un domestique qui se trouvait derrière le siège de M. Edouard Lucas laissa tomber, par maladresse, une pile d’assiettes. Un éclat de porcelaine vint frapper à la joue M. Lucas et lui fit une blessure profonde par laquelle le sang s’échappa en abondance. Obligé de suspendre ses travaux, il rentra à Paris. Il s’alita, et bientôt se déclara l’érysipèle qui devait l’emporter. L’Université perd en lui l’un de ses plus brillants professeurs.”
Family Photos
I found this confirmation picture of myself the other night. The Princess has already condemned my dress sense, so there is no need to add your voice to hers -in my defence, it was 1981 and I was 12. What she didn’t notice was how like 12 year old me she looks. When you look at my picture side by side with this picture of herself from over the summer, I think you can definitely see a resemblance. Though I seem to have been happier and cleaner. And, also, I have a pointier chin.
And here’s a picture of my mother as a little girl; it’s a bit difficult to make out but I think she looks somewhat like us as well. I’ve also posted the rather glamourous one taken of her when she got her degree – people, look, white gloves. I have never, alas, looked like that.
And here’s a final pair: pictures of my paternal grandmother and my great aunt. In the older one, my grandmother is on the right (ah, the pointy chin explained). And in the other picture are the same women photographed by my father in the sixties; there, my grandmother is on the left and my great aunt is on the right. Isn’t that nice?
That’s probably enough for you for one night.
