Enjoying the British Lake District ...

Ullswater, Lake District, Cumbria

Our trip to the Lake District was very pleasant, although some cold and rainy weather meant that we got trapped indoors for some of the afternoon. Our friends Kalani and Kevin got married at the Inn on the Lake on the banks of Ullswater, which was a stunning location. After the ceremony and lunch, some guests braved the wet weather to take a ride on one of the lake steamers (Uthpala and I were not among this group because we didn't have any change of clothes). A wonderful day was capped by a evening of Dixie/Jazz music in the hotel bar. All in all an excellent weekend! 

Supporters Equation ...

With the number of international sporting events going on at the moment, it is hard to know who to supoprt in what. Tennis at Wimbledon, England vs. Sri Lanka in Cricket and the hard to miss Football World Cup. Here is my equation :-)

- sport(cricket) and playing(srilanka) -> support(srilanka)
- sport(football) and playing(england) -> support(england)
- sport(tennis) -> support(??)

Notice that these formlae assume that there will be no occassion when Sri Lanka will play England at football :-) ... Between watching the tennis / cricket and football this weekend, I am not sure that any other work is going to get done. Will have to generate some herculean will power to overcome the urge to stay glued to the TV and finish writing the research paper I am working on at the moment. Have been fiddling around with this for too long now.

Back to work for now .... must try and post some pictures from our Lake District trip at some point.

A triumphant return ?! .....

As the Sri Lankan cricket team are experiencing a triumphant return to form on English soil at the present, I figured this would be as good a time as any to make a return to this blog. Posting here has been on my list of things to do for a long time but the usual excuses excuses about work, travel etc. etc., apply.

On the work front, things have been busy with the end of term looming and student project assessments in full swing. Have been sitting in on a number of interesting demonstrations over the past couple of days, the most entertaining of which was a project to build a 'Magic Wand', ala Harry Potter. Essentially this is a gesture/voice activated input device that allows the holder to interact with his computer (and any devices connected to the computer) through magical gestures and incantations. So a circular swish and the utterance of 'Wingardium LeviOsa", and an animated feather flies around your screen :-) See the type of useful stuff we teach students here!

On the personal front, Uthpala and I are gearing up for a major change in circumstances because I have a new job starting in October and we are going to be leaving London for the suburban charms of Milton Keynes (My new job is as a lecturer in the Department of Computing at the Open University). We are both looking forward to the move, although there is the process of selling our current place and then buying a new one, together with all the fun and games involved in the process to get through first. Can't wait!

The coming weekend promises to be fun as we are going to a wedding in the Lake District (see picture) which will take place on Saturday evening. Old friend (and my best man) from Boston is going to be coming over for this as well, so am really looking forward to catching up with everyone.

Will post more once we get back .... promise ;-) ....