pumpkinstrokemarrow

Yesterday was exhibition day for the dancing water bowl. It performed after a fashion, but not too well. Perhaps I should have had a warm-up. Later in the day, had another go and despite the absence of audience it took a long time to get going. Eventually realised that the water level might be wrong and gradually added water until I got some action. The colder weather seems to mean that one needs a fuller bowl. But after a slow start it did really well, getting drops dancing to perhaps six inches above water level. Coverage maybe 75%. That is to say, the vibrations seem to be rooted in the four markings around the sides of the bowl at the north east, north west, south west and south east positions. Presumably the markings have some obscure effect on the dynamics of the water, in the same sort of way as the widgets they have in the bottom of lager glasses these days, I am told, to encourage frothing rather than dancing. Nevertheless, I think there must be a connection. So the vibrations start at these four positions and spread over the surface. In my case, the south west vibration is consistently the strongest. And I cannot clear the calm patch to the north east of the centre position. Perseverance!

In between times, a stroll down to Southfield Park (part of the grounds of one of our late and sometimes lamented asylums) to see if the parakeets were performing. Some evenings you get flocks of them swooping about on their way to roost, it is said, on their natal patch on Ham Common by the Thames. However, this day, we had a South African health management person flying his aeroplane, notable because it was almost silent, unlike the aeroplanes flown up on the downs. On closer inspection it turned out to be called a Yak and made, essentially, of three polystyrene (or something similar) boards, maybe three eighths of an inch thick. One for the fuselage and two for the wings with a couple of carbon fibre strips to stiffen the butt glued joins of the wings with the fuselage. Maybe two feet six wide and two feet six long. Battery powering a large slow propeller with a life, depending on action, of around 10 minutes, which the pilot said was about the length of his attention span. Need to concentrate to fly the thing. Batteries chargeable maybe 333 times. Plane illuminated with strips of something like LEDs - each one looking like a small printed circuit maybe 3mm square - several colours - so it looked rather good swooping about in the gathering gloom of an early winter evening.

For once, failed by Mr G.. He can find a Yak model aeroplane OK, but not this one.

PS: for followers of trusty news, I have just learned that one of the Mexican equivalents is called the 'Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia' (see http://www.inah.gob.mx/). Lots of (ruined) stately homes to look after in Mexico and the drill seems to be that the federals own the ruins themselves, the states own the land that the ruins sit on and the institute looks after them. I wonder if they have middle aged and middle classed volunteers in the same way that we do?