Messages

5281

General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Not in Nargothrond, or, Glaurung's travels

« on: September 04, 2015, 08:24:02 PM »

Pratchett said, as I recall, "million to one chances come up nine times out of ten"; I can't confirm that, but I can say that 10% chances can happen twice a day. I got off my three-hour coach journey from Cagliari soon after 6pm, and within 30 minutes I was sheltering from a torrential thunderstorm. Fortunately, 30 minutes after that, it had moved on again, in time for me to catch a bus from the open-air bus stop.

Meanwhile, this afternoon's journey was thoroughly enjoyable, through some spectacular near mountainous scenery. Hopefully tomorrow's train journey will be better.

5282

General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Not in Nargothrond, or, Glaurung's travels

« on: September 04, 2015, 01:51:13 PM »

Alas, it feels just as humid as it did yesterday, but it's cloudy so there's less direct heat from the sun. Still not ideal for walking around a very hilly city, let alone going up the 40m or so high watchtower at the highest point, but I'm only slightly melted and the views were worth it. Unexpected bonus: hearing church bells all over the city ringing for midday.

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General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Not in Nargothrond, or, Glaurung's travels

« on: September 04, 2015, 08:08:51 AM »

The UK Met Office forecast for Cagliari showed a 10% chance of rain much of the time I'm here. It looks as if all those 10s have rolled up together: there's a thunderstorm here at the moment. If I'm lucky it will clear the air and reduce the temperature compared to yesterday.

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General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Not in Nargothrond, or, Glaurung's travels

« on: September 03, 2015, 09:09:57 PM »

I've been out working in those temperatures up against a radiant wall.

Lucky you! I went out again anyway; there was a breeze, and I tried to keep on the shady side of the street, so in fact I have not dissolved into a puddle of sweat. It probably felt worse because, as Jubal implies, the temperature in the UK when I set off was more like 60F (15C). Hopefully I will acclimatise somewhat over the next few days.

Tomorrow I will spend the morning sightseeing in Cagliari, and then head northeast to Arbatax on the east coast.

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General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Not in Nargothrond, or, Glaurung's travels

« on: September 03, 2015, 02:32:29 PM »

Greetings from Sardinia! I arrived a couple of hours ago. The temperature is about 30C (88F), and I think I might melt if I spend too long outside. Fortunately (and deliberately) I have a hotel room with air-conditioning - I'm tempted to shelter here for a couple of hours.

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The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Hello from a traveling Polish Game and Web Dev :)

« on: September 03, 2015, 09:00:26 AM »

Welcome to Exilian! I think you'll find plenty of interesting things here - please feel free to ask if you have any questions.

5287

General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Not in Nargothrond, or, Glaurung's travels

« on: September 02, 2015, 11:25:28 PM »

Sounds like a good time, G.

Yes, it was, definitely. Lots of places I hadn't been to before, along with some that I had visited previously, but not for a long time. I can see me doing some more trips like that, though perhaps not in the hottest part of the summer!

Think you'll pop over to the States again some day?

That's the plan: August 2017, for the solar eclipse, as I think I mentioned some while ago. That might well be another four or five-week mega-trip.

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The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Friendly hello, hi

« on: September 01, 2015, 12:11:52 AM »

Hi there! Welcome to Exilian - I hope you enjoy being here. Please feel free to look around and comment on stuff.

5289

General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Not in Nargothrond, or, Glaurung's travels

« on: August 26, 2015, 08:56:52 PM »

As advertised in the "Going to be away" thread, I am once again travelling in Europe, this time Spain and France. I flew to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain on Sunday, and have since made my way via Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona to Nîmes, almost on the coast in southern France. All this travel has been by train, of course. So far everything has gone according to plan: I've had a couple of late trains, but nothing with onward connections to worry about.

At the moment, I'm sitting at an outdoor restaurant table, digesting a rather good pizza, and lubricating it with some pleasant house red wine. Tomorrow I head into the Massif Central on some more scenic lines, hoping to avoid all the rail replacement bus services.

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Announcements! The Town Crier! / Re: Exilian Jam 2015

« on: August 22, 2015, 09:47:13 PM »

One question, to clarify things for competitors: you've quoted the start and finish times as "GMT" - do you mean the UK standard time, practically equivalent to UTC, or do you mean current UK legal time (British Summer Time), which is UTC + 1?

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History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / A Letter of Mr Isaac Newton

« on: August 22, 2015, 01:27:20 AM »

I ran into this today, and thought it might be of interest: the Royal Society has digitised and put online some of its early publications, and these include the copy of Philisophical Transactions that contains Newton's original work on optics.

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Change a Letter III

« on: August 21, 2015, 09:09:13 PM »

If you want to declare my move illegal and unwind back to CG's last one, please feel free. My move was just the first (and so far only) thing I could think of, and I had forgotten the restrictions on adding/deleting letters.

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Change a Letter III

« on: August 21, 2015, 01:52:28 PM »

... with extensive marine habitats on its coastline.

5294

Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: August 20, 2015, 07:32:24 PM »

Steward

5295

Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: August 19, 2015, 08:21:26 PM »

Believing