More in a physical sense than philosophical, or emotional. BAM!! It hit me this evening as I walked back to my bedsit; after spending a pleasant day with friends (Keith and Lyn from UK), it’s simple too! I looked up at the clear night sky, and saw stars which didn’t look familiar, I couldn’t make out little ‘Casseopia’ or ‘The Plough’ all the stars and constellations were alien to me…it was nearly enough to give me that vertigo feeling too! First time I’ve properly looked at the night sky without the clouds to obstruct my view…and you know what? I saw ‘my’ starsign - Saggitarius proudly dominating the sky for the first time in my life! This kinda made things ok again for me

Whilst I feel settled, and enjoy it here, it’s the little things like this that often remind me ‘I’m not in Kansas any more’; course I’ve never been to Kansas either…possibly flown over it maybe? But hey!! It’s a figure of speech, so I’ll stick with it.

We went for a meal last night with ’said’ friends and I tried ‘Kangaroo’ for the first time, which is presented like steak - right down to the peppercorn sauce! I must admit despite having a usual aversion to liver, this was ok! It was like eating liver without the liver texture that always puts me off? I’m amazed I remember as much, because we managed to drink a fair bit of alcohol, and I only just made the last train back from town to suburbia…

Got one more day off work tomorrow, so I intend to use it as productivly as I can, gonna ring the band hall (UK band and surprise em all) and say hi, then once I’ve sorted some water out, and my backpack I’m gonna break in my new walking shoes (Gortex Treksta’s) by heading up to Lowry Lookout again it should be a good day weather wise too, then I’ll head back chill out and go to band practice.

I refer of course to a recent Guardian Article which highlights the amazing career of Peter Higgs, who postulated the existance of a particle which if proven to exist would back up his theory about why matter as we know it has mass…

It seems CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is near completion, this will be the largest particle accelerator in the world, and will basically accelerate particles to near the speed of light and collide them with each other….see? Does what it says on the tin! Who said physics was complicated eh…?

Anyhooo - this seems to be the best equipped location to prove or disprove Higg’s hypothesis regarding mass, ironic given CERN’s origional misgivings regarding his work.

This is all rather exciting?! Given that I have grown up in a world changing at exponential rates from microchips, and microwaves to nano-technology and playstation three’s! It’s seems we are reaching the edges of some boundaries that only a few years ago seemed insurmountable. In fact if you check out the pictures of the new CERN accelerator in Switzerland you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at the set of the next Star Trek movie!

I await the results of these breathtaking experiments going on with hope and excitement for the future. For those of you wondering where this tangent came from in my blog….I spent a couple of years studying Engineering Physics at university - and whilst I didn’t stay until the end through disolusionment with the course and it’s structure at the time, I remain an interested bystander in the subject.

Here’s my humble attempt to capture the current Lunar Eclipse given the excellent conditions outside! Using my EOS 350D (Rebel) and a measley 700mm Lens (Correction - 70-300mm) I took the picture on a time delay exposure of approx. 18 seconds, hence it doesn’t look too sharp, I’ve enhanced it as best i can for now, but I am still impressed with the results!

Just before totality >>

And this is a picture at the point (more or less) of Totality which will last for the next 20mins or so >>

I am no expert at photography by any means, but given the level of light pollution where I live, I am over the moon with these pictures….literally!