view from workshop accommodation window

I arrived in Bad Honnef, near Bonn in Germany, yesterday evening, after a flight to Cologne airport followed by a 30 minute local train ride.  I'm attending the New Opportunities in Physics‐based Computing workshop at the Physikzentrum there.

The view from my window in the Physikzentrum is down to the Rhine:

The venue itself is very impressive, both outside:

and inside:

from the top of the stairs on the second floor, leading to accommodation wings to the left and right

The workshop itself is being held in a modern lecture theatre attached to the back of the building in a very symapthetic extension.

There have already been some very interesting talks.  I'm looking forward to the rest!

deficient

Late March was our 50th reunion for college.  One of the old friends I met there was chatting about her vitamin D experience: she had discovered she was deficient, and had needed a booster course to bring her back up to normal levels.  She mentioned some of the symptoms: fatigue, bone pain, muscle weakness,... 

I recognised some of those symptoms, although I hadn't realised the pain near the top of my pelvis I was having might be bone pain: I didn't know bones could hurt! Muscles yes. Joints yes. But bones themselves?

The conversation stayed in my mind; the fatigue was getting me down, and the (bone?) pain seemed to be getting a bit worse.  Mybe it wasn't just the decrepitude of old age.  I don't get a lot of sunshine (I'm in the UK, after all), but I have been trying to eat food with good vitamin D levels, such as oily fish.  But maybe that's not been enough.

So I booked a blood test, and I had a blood sample taken on Tuesday morning.  They said I should get my results in a week.  But Wednesday (yesterday) morning my doctor phoned: I was vitamin D deficient, and she was prescribing me a "loading dose" to bring me up to a better level. 

I went online to look at the actual test results. I was at less than 25 ("deficient"), where 25-50 is "inadequate", 50-70 is "adequate", and (presumably not too much) over 70 is "optimal" (units are nmol/l).  So yes, clearly a problem.

This morning I picked up my prescription: 6 capsules, each with a dose of 50,000 IU ("international units"), to be taken once a week.

Since the typical maintenance dose is 400 IU a day during winter, that loading dose is nearly 20x the maintenance level!  Wow!  Let's see how it goes.

I'm not sure when in the day I should take it.  The NHS site says "with your main meal of the day", which for me would be evening dinner.  Other places say to take it early in the day.  Also, to take it with fat to maximise absorption (despite being recommended a low fat diet).  Hey ho.  I'll take it at lunchtime then, with an oily fish dish.

Anyway, from blood sample to prescription in hand, less than 48 hours.  NHS FTW!

Jupiter pinwheel and moon

More fun with the SeeStar telescope this eveneing.

A nice shot of the moon:

An overexposed Jupiter and four moons:

clearly, we need to learn more about adjusting the exposure

The Pinwheel galaxy, M101, 11 minute exposure:

The same image with some simple postprocessing:

clearly, we need to learn more about postprocessing

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CLIX

The latest batch:

excursion to Segesta

The conference has been wonderful, as usual.

This afternoon was the excursion, to Segesta, where we went four years ago.  This time I was not recovering from Covid, so managed the various walks without needing to stop to catch my breath.

Everything was as impressive as last time.  

We didn't get to go inside last time.  The people certainly give a sense of the sheer scale.

trying for a fancy shot

After the temple, we hopped on the shuttle bus up to the amphitheatre.  We did the tour the other way round last time, but the main difference between the visits was due to the time of year: a parched October in 2022, and a glorious spring April now.

wild flowers: vibrant, pervasive, and glorious

On the walk back up to the Erice venue from where the tour bus dropped us at the car park by the walls, I was saying that I found the town map very unhelpful, and kept getting lost.  One of the other conference goers pointed out the reason: the town is triangular in plan, and there are two different maps in two different orientations.

this one, sensibly, has north at the top

this one is rotated 120 degrees

Aargh! I hadn't noticed this, so whenever I looked at a map (copies of which are scattered helpfully throughout the town), I had been assuming a consistent orientation, and hence was getting hopelessly confused.

If "the man who published a book without an index ought to be damned ten miles beyond Hell, where the Devil could not get for stinging nettles", then whoever decided to rotate one of the maps should join them.

Anyway, we found the very nice gelatto shop (as opposed to the merely nice gelatto shop), so that was a bonus.

Last day of the conference tomorrow (yes, it is scheduled over the weekend!)

view from an Erice accomodation window

I flew to Palermo this afternoon, for the third workshop on unconvnetional computing (the previous ones were in 2022 and 2024).  I drove to Stansted airport, to what my SatNav called the "Stansted short. Stay green car park"

The weather while queuing to get on the plane was significantly better than the last time I flew, in February.

The plane right next to the one I am boarding, with another plane in flight behind it, all against a lovely blue sky

It was dark by the time I got to Palermo, where I was fingerprinted and flash photographed at passport control for the EU's new EES (Entry/Exit system).

It was even darker by the time I got to Erice (although it was nowhere near as late as the first time I came here!), but the view from my room window was all the more beautiful for that.

The workshop starts tomorrow.

view from a Birmingham hotel window

We arrived in Brimingham for the 2026 Eastercon yeaterday, and settled right in, as we have been here before.  I have been using my new reMarkable notepad, and it seems to be working well so far.  Let's see how it stands up to a whole long weekend of use.

Here's the standard hotel window shot:

Not exactly beautiful!  However, even if the outside of the back of the hotel looks a bit like a tin warehouse, the inside is perfectly cromulent.

Now off to another day of talks and socialising.