St. Nick's Day

December 5th and it's Sinterklass or St. Nick's Day. Also Happy Anniversary to my in-laws Betty and Charlie! So being little devils (see below), Gary and I skipped the last scientific session of the day and caught the arrival of St. Nick instead. We managed to get a good perch at one of the side bridges of the three bridges leading into the main square (Prešeren Square - named after the famous poet whose birthday of December 3 is a national cultural day with most museums free), and camped there expecting a massive Macy's style parade. Probably should've clued in that Prešeren Square is pretty tiny and therefore doesn't leave much space for floats to congregate, but we still somehow became massively surprised when there was exactly ONE float and it was St. Nick himself!

Good Old St. Nick

Prešeren Square, with St. Nick towing along a children's choir dressed in white.

Things are of infinitely smaller scale here in Europe than in North America. Besides the one-float parade, the choir did all of two short carols and that was it (one was Jingle Bells), as in the entire parade and concert! The entire thing lasted less than 45 minutes!

Aside from the choir, St. Nick was accompanied by a troupe of devils, who handed out clementines to the children in the crowd afterwards. I managed to get a picture of one such devil, along with that dude in the red suit...

My artistic shot of Prešeren Square. Looks like all these phasers or blasters beams hurtling towards the building. Achieved this effect by setting to a 1/2" shutter speed and zooming in slightly during the long exposure. Thanks to Peter Ferguson from the Welland Camera Club for the inspiration!

Christmas Month in Slovenia!

OK, 2.5 years off the blog but back at last with new adventures. Dec 1 I flew out to my favourite European country of Slovenia for the PPTR (Physiology & Pharmacology of Temperature Regulation) conference that Igor Mekjavić is organizing in Ljubljana. Never ever miss a chance to visit Slovenia!

The first weekend, I travelled down to Koper on the coast to visit my former student Shawnda Morrison, Aljosa and their brand new baby girl Dana. Was great to connect with Shawnda again, celebrating with some mulled wine in the town square and otherwise enjoying a terrific weekend.

Mulled wine with Shawnda Morrison because it's Christmas Month!

The whole December is celebrated with Christmas and year-end festivities. Took this picture below with my tripod at night in Koper by the cathedral. Can't wait to see Ljubljana all lit up, as it's supposed to be fantastic.

Lego Art - Nathan Sawaya

Went to a really cool exhibition at the Amsterdam Expo last week, by American artist Nathan Sawaya who chose Lego bricks as his art medium. The work is really neat, as he does everything from recreating/reimagining classic paintings and sculptures, through to his own original work. With Lego, he uses a mix of both 2D and 3D depending on what he wants to impart. He has also recreated many famous sculptures including "David" and also "Venus de Milo."

An example of how Sawaya uses 2D and 3D to bring focus to different sculptures. On the left is Klimt's "The Kiss" and on the right "American Gothic." There were also ones like "The Scream" with the central character in 3D with the rest of the painting in 2D behind, and "The Wave" with layers of waves.

Sawaya will also use smaller or larger Lego bricks depending on the desired effect. On the left is a highly pixelated Mona Lisa with pretty large bricks. On the right Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is mostly 2D, with a large 3D pearl earring to put it clearly into central focus.

Bet you've never seen or imagined creating a Lego stained glass. Super cool.

A life-sized replica of Yo-Yo Ma's cello, and a very cute polar bear cub.

Some really cool work here. I really love both this swimmer and the "Disintegration" piece on the right.

Sawaya started in corporate law but saw the light and became an artist instead. Many of his personal pieces focus on breaking out a shell or conformity into a new world of your own passion and dreams. He also does most of his own sculptures in primary or monochrome colours, which has the effect of making them stand out in stark relief. The piece on the left also follows the "let your dreams be free" motif, but I kept coming back to "Man with Boy" on the right, with its use of a "toy" to sculpt such a serious scene.

And then there's this 6 m long T-rex!

Food in Ottawa

When we were in Ottawa, we decided to go to zak's for dinner on our first night.

Me and Scott decided to split the Zac Attack Special (shown above) with a side of poutine.

And of course here is me trying to fit the burger in my mouth.

On the last day we decided to get Beaver tails before we left, and here is Jacob with his.

Jacob got half Nutella and half butter maple.

Here I am with mine!

Mine was half Scor and half oreo.

The Haka

During our post-conference hike, we spent two days in Paradise, where some of the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. The scenery in the area is truly astounding, but more on that later. The cool thing that happens at U Otago's Physical Education program is that, prior to the start of 2nd year, students are taken on an outdoor experience in Paradise. There, they learn outdoor skills including firelighting, river crossing, tramping (hiking in Kiwi-speak), and teamwork. The other important thing they learn, apart from being comfortable in nature, is Maori history, worldview, approach to health and wellness, etc. It's really quite neat. At the end of each session of camp, the students perform a Maori haka, or song and dance.
Many of us know the Haka from the rugby All-Blacks, but that is just one of many songs, and both men and women can be part of it. As you can see here, the guys REALLY got into it, and it's very powerful to see it in action. Of course, if this was an angry 120 kg All-Black doing this, I'd be off to another continent (and incontinent!) in no time!

Down Under in Dunedin!

The next phase of the continuing family adventures has me down under in New Zealand with my student Geoff Hartley for the 15th International Conference on Environmental Ergonomics (ICEE) in Queenstown Feb 10-15. ICEE is my "home" conference where many of the scientists I grew up with from graduate days reside, so it really is a family reunion. It's also interesting my life evolving, from being a first-year Ph.D. student in 1994 presenting my M.Sc. project at my first-ever conference, to now being one of the senior members of the field and society.

Above is the railway station in Dunedin (New Edinburgh from the major Scottish settlement to begin the city). This is where the Taeri Gorge Railway journey begins. I took it in 2005 and it's pretty stunning.

We started with a satellite conference in Dunedin at the University of Otago, where I stayed for Feb-March 2005 with Jim Cotter during my first sabbatical. It was a fun few days of deja vu, and also far warmer than I ever recalled Dunnos being! Interesting things so far:

• Seeing Sebastian Racinais, a French working in Qatar, wolfing down a massive plate of bacon every morning (recall that Qatar is a Muslim country, and there's only turkey bacon and beef bacon there!
• Watching Mike Tipton from the UK try to run a tutorial workshop on cold water immersion with no prep time and none of the equipment cooperating - just like a real experiment!
• The irony of a busload of thermophysiologists getting absolutely boiled and baked on a long bus ride from Dunedin to Queenstown under a blazing hot sun.

The main admin building at U Otago, the first uni in New Zealand in 1868

Miyajima Island

After giving a talk and touring Hiroshi's labs at U. Hiroshima and a yummy udon noodle lunch, we took a drive over to the city itself and Miyajima Island that sits right offshore. Hiroshima is quite beautiful, with a setting right one the water with massive mountains all around. Descending into the city, I got the distinct impression of being back in Vancouver, which led me to thinking of what a horror it must have been to have the city obliterated.

The centre-piece of Miyajima is the Itsukushima Shinto shrine, another UNESCO site that I keep bumping into here in Japan. First built in 593 AD, it was rebuilt into its present scale in 1168 AD. The main corridor is about 280 m long, incorporating over 20 buildings. The main entry gate for the shrine is built right on the water's edge, so that the ebbing and flowing of the tides determine whether you can get near it. On the right is another family celebrating the 7-5-3 years. Didn't get to see anyone playing the massive drums, although I did hear them from afar.

I've got to say that fall is my favourite season, and it's not just because of cyclocross! I especially love the way the angle of the sun makes things just glow, like the shrine gates on the left and especially the red/golden pagoda on the right. Take a look on the left and tell me it doesn't remind you of Vancouver?!

The fall colours were getting very nice now in Japan! And oysters are a specialty and favourite around here. There's an oyster far between the island and the mainland, and the products are grilled all around at different kiosks. 

Okonomiyaki!

Before hitting the shinkansen (bullet train) back to Kobe, Hiroshi took me to the train station and its numerous restaurants. You could choose pretty much anything your heart desires, as long as it's Japanese! The typical Japanese restaurants are all really small, with the kitchen right there in the open with barstools ringing it and maybe a couple of regular tables. Each restaurant pretty much provides one thing and one thing only. 

Dr. Hiroshi Hasegawa and I at the big Itsukushima Shinto shrine on Miyajima Island just off Hiroshima. And we Orientals take our rice seriously - this HAS to be the largest rice scoop ever at about 5 m long!

For example, one would be a ramen shop that would only serve variations of ramen. Don't even think of asking for soba or udon, let alone sushi! And yes, another would be only soba noodles, another only udon noodles, etc. Reminds me of the Saturday Night Live "Cheeseburger" skit where, no matter what you ordered, you ended up with cheeseburger and Pepsi! 

Anyway, we went with the Hiroshima specialty of Okonomiyaki, or "Japanese Pancakes." Amazingly good! How to describe it? Well, there's an EXTREMELY thin crepe on each side. In between, you can choose either soba or udon noodles, along with cabbage and your choice of filling. We both went with squid, but you get whatever else the cook decides to put in too - in our case pork. Heck, I'm not complaining! There's also a thick and sweet soy sauce on top of it all.

The Great Buddha at Nara

November 11, Nari and I took the train eastwards to the town of Nara, about an hour away. What makes Nara special is Todaji Temple, a Buddhist Temple that is the largest wooden structure in the world. Why is it so large? Well, Todaji houses the world's largest bronze sculpture, the Great Buddha. Both are rather immensely stunning in their size and scope, and date from about 1200 years ago (the wooden temple's burnt down a few times).

 Along the way to the Temple, besides dodging all the weekend tourists like ourselves, we also had to contend with the veritable swarm of tame deer wandering the streets of the town and everywhere you can imagine. They're pretty much more populous than the local residents, and maybe even the tourists too! They're also tame and very well-fed, with lots of vendors selling packs of deer cookies.

Next up was the Shinto shrine at Nara, a nice forested walk away amidst more deer. T shrine is another UNESCO site, and home to four major Shinto spirits. I especially liked the lantern room.

There were lots of young girls dressed up in beautiful kimonos. Turns out mid-November is a time to bless 7, 5, and 3 year olds. And of course, it's also time for Ichiro sightings, as was the case in the cafe where Nari and I stopped for a snack! Dinner tonight was Japanese BBQ: veggies, seafood, meats all cooked ourselves over a very hot BBQ built into our table. Certainly popular in wintertime to keep warm! I was also warm on account of the sake we had before supper too!

Vermeer's Delft

While we were in Delft we spent some time at the Vermeer Centre Delft. Johannes Vermeer (Oct 31/1632 - Dec. 15, 1675) is an artist that was born, lived and died in Delft and so he is always associated with the city.  He was a member of the St. Luke's Guild and the Vermeer Centre today is housed in the St.. Luke's Guild House.

The house where Vermeer was born is now a cafe. When he was 9 years old, he moved with his family to the Mechelen Inn, which is also still standing but with another use. Vermeer's father was a inn-keeper and art dealer, so the young Vermeer grew up surrounded by art and artists.

He converted to Catholicism to marry Catharina Thins and lived with her wealthy mother - Maria Thins. The house where they lived together on the Oud Delft canal is now the site of a church.  It is very close to the Nieuw Kerk where Johannes and his sister were baptized. Johannes and Catharina had 15 children together, 4 of whom died at young ages. Johannes himself died at the age of 43 leaving Catharina with 11 children and a mountain of debts. He is buried in the Oud Kerk near the main Markt.

Artistically, Vermeer had a remarkably small oeuvre. It is thought that he only painted 40 - 60 paintings during his career and only 37 of them survive, although there is some dispute as to the authenticity of some of them. There are 5 Biblical scenes, 2 landscapes and the rest are "tronies", paintings of a certain type (ie peasant women, old man etc). Many of his paintings show women or groups in small intimate indoor scenes.

The Vermeer Centre doesn't have any actual paintings but they have copies of 37 that are the actual size with descriptions and locations.  We have seen several of the originals at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and Gemmentemuseum, Den Haag but "the Girl with the Pearl Earring" is on loan in Japan during renovations at the Mauritshuis Museum at the Hague.

Vermeer is best known for his amazing use of light and the fact that he used a relatively small palette of colours to achieve spectacular results. The remainder of the centre concentrated on his use of light and colour and all the emblems of love that are contained in Vermeer's work.