Wicklow Mountains coach tour

The Worldcon is over, and we have an extra day to enjoy Ireland.  Yesterday evening we went on a bus tour of Dublin; today we went on a longer coach tour, to the Wicklow mountains.  We had tried to book the Newgrange tour, but it was sold out.  As we were wondering whether to take the Wicklow tour instead, another customer in the Tourist Office, who had also been at the Worldcon, highly recommended it.  Thanks!  You were right!

First stop was the Glencree Cemetry and Barracks, for a cuppa and a loo break.  There was also the Glencree Grotto down in a beautiful small valley.

everything is so green

Next stop was a photo-op at the "P.S. I Love You" bridge.

the bridge that features in a film I have never heard of

Then another photo-op, at the Guinness Lake.

The Guinness Lake -- so called not because it is made of Guinness, or used to make Guinness, but because the land was owned by the Guinness family (until recently)

Then the main stop -- Glendalough ("Glen of the two Loughs").  We had two hours to walk round the loughs; it didn't start raining until we were nearly back!

walking along the woodland path, along the south side of the smaller Lower Lough

between the loughs: view across the larger Upper Lough, with the rain clouds beginning to thicken

view from the boardwalk along the north side of the Lower Lough: a magnificent Rowan, laden with brilliant red berries, with the Lough in the background

mossy branches; the boardwalk was well clear of the very boggy ground

an impressive range of lichens

The rain set in quite seriously at this point, but we were nearly back at the coach, so no problem.

Then off to our final stop at Avoca Village, and a late lunch at Fitzgerald's pub.  The exterior of this pub starred in the TV series Ballykissangel (which I have heard of, and seen, although long enough ago I have no memory of the pub).

After that, we returned to Dublin along the motorway, rather than via the windy backroads we had travelled down.

A great day out.

colours of my tea

a bit too strong!

I drink white and green tea black, but black tea white.

Isn’t language wonderful!

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When "organic" is not "good"

The word "organic" is nowadays associated mainly with "environmentally friendly", as in "organic food", "organic agriculture".

Back when I was a student, Chemistry was taught in three main parts: organic chemistry (essentially the chemistry of carbon, and hence the chemistry of molecules in living stuff); inorganic chemistry (essentially the chemistry of everything else); and physical chemistry (focussing on the processes and laws rather than the constituent elements).

And I learned that many organic compounds are toxic and/or carcinogenic. When I was at school, benzene was the organic solvent of choice in practicals. By the time I was at university, benzene was no longer used, because it was realised to be a carcinogen, and toluene was the organic solvent of choice. Thanks, school.

Also, we were gleefully informed (by the physical chemists) that the lifespan of a bench organic chemist was reduced by 10 years on average. I have no idea if this is true (or if it was true then), but it certainly stuck in my mind.

So my strongest association with the word "organic" is "probably a nasty poison!", followed by  "molecules found in living stuff". This makes my reaction to the term "organic food" go something like:

1. Potentially poisonous?  Surely not...
2. Made from living stuff? Isn't all food made from (once) living stuff? If it's not "organic", it's not food. (Well, okay, except for salt.)
3. Oh... food produced without the use of inorganic chemistry

I often have this problem of trying to figure out what people mean when using a technical term I know, but in a non-technical context. My favoutite example is when I first saw a sticker saying "Nuclear power? -- No thanks" with a picture of a smiling sun.  "They want to turn off the sun?  What?  Oh..."

Anyway, if "organic" is the adjective of choice to mean "envinronmentally friendly", what should we call envinronmentally friendly chemistry, given that we can't call it "organic chemistry", because that almost means the opposite?  Well, it uses that other environmentally friendly adjective; it's green chemistry.

not shopping

I hate shopping for clothes. (Books are a very different matter.)

I hate it so much that my current clothes have to be literally falling to pieces before I will rouse myself to go hunter-gathering for more. Not only that, I'm picky. I only like certain colours (nothing bright, nothing pastel -- only browns, green, yellows, and other earth colours) and plain styles.

This Christmas vacation, I realised all my jumpers had holes in them, so I needed a new one. I grumbled out into the New Year sales, and found that Cambridge's Edinburgh Woollen Mill had a sale on. Not only plain, earth-coloured jumpers, but at half price! I used a technique my other half taught me (he's even pickier than me: he'll only buy in blue or grey): buy two. This means you have to shop only half as often. I've broadened the approach: buy four, and you have to shop only a quarter as often (and it's a great incentive to stay the same size). Four jumpers later, I sigh in relief -- no more jumper shopping for ages.

Now, this multiple purchase techniques doesn't always work. Shops often have only one or maybe two items of a given style and size. But, with the advent of the Web, this is no longer a problem. Buy the one successfully hunted down, go home, log onto the shop's website, type in the product code, buy several more, get them delivered to the door. I've used this technique successfully, too.

Surprisingly, though, even this technique does not always work. When next my shoes fell apart (hole in the sole, one of the two standard failure modes), I needed another pair. Off to Clarks, where I found a comfy pair, eventually. So, I thought I'd use the same technique. (I find buying shoes even worse than buying other clothes, for some reason.) Off to the Clarks website: try to order three more pairs. It won't let me! I can order pairs in other colours or styles: I don't want other colours or styles. I can't order three identical pairs. I fire off an email to the company, pointing this out. "Yes", they say, "the site doesn't allow you to buy three identical pairs." Yes, I know; that's the problem. But why won't it let me? The only suggestion I have heard is that companies don't want you ordering a whole range of styles or colours, trying them all, then sending back all but the one you like. Okay, that might make a sort of sense. Except that this site would have let me buy three different styles; it's buying identical things that's the problem!

Oh well.