Continuing the Antarctic theme for now.
November heralds the start of the Antarctic summer.
So a new programme of events gets underway, starting with the AGM of the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute.
In Cambridge.
Where it's winter.

So, to keep warm, there's a buffet get-together.
Under a nice warm polar bear skin in the cosy SPRI lecture theatre.

Somewhere in these photos there's a granddaughter of Scott, a granddaughter of Shackleton, a grandson of Frank Debenham (Scott's geologist) and a granddaughter of Scott's Chief Engineer on the Discovery.
And other descendants of early Antarctic explorers.
There's an electrifying enthusiasm for all things Antarctic at these gatherings which gives a great sense of shared fascination.

Afterwards there's time for a visit to the pub. Being in Cambridge, these places are well used by the students.
In this case, it seems, Civil Engineering students.
Practising Newtonian Mechanics.

As the crane driver goes off for his tea break, we end up with a pretty wobbly structure.

Newton's Laws take over and Mike has to leap clear of tons of falling masonry.
Next time, safety helmets will be worn!

Earlier in the day, before the buffet, the AGM was held in a grand Cambridge University lecture theatre across the courtyard from the museum.
There, I spied a few notices imploring the students, "Don't throw your chewing gum in the toilets. Put it in the bins."
Now, I would think the one place in the world where students would not have to be told about the problems of chewing gum sticking to everything, would be Cambridge University's Department of Chemistry, the owners of the lecture theatre!

So I looked at their website. It says,
"We pride ourselves on offering our students an excellent education, and strive to provide an inspiring environment to encourage and enable the best science."
So there you are, they even place revision notes in the toilets.

Now, it's a small world.
On the Clancy Centenary Ride we had a big lunch at the Giant's Causeway Hotel. There I met a local Northern Ireland rider named John who also has an interest in things Polar. He asked me to pass on his regards to Kari Herbert who gave one of the presentations at the Shackleton Autumn School.
Well, Kari was pleased to hear from John, so I said I'd pass her regards back. Which I did. Whereupon John told me he'd seen the video on this blog of Mary Peters switching off the last analogue tv transmissions.
And that he used to work for the BBC, in the 1980s at the Crystal Palace transmitter (I put a photo of that on the same blog posting) and then at the Divis transmitter (where Mary Peters was filmed switching stuff off) in the 1990s and later.
John tells me that in the second half of the youtube video, the transmitter engineer with a large folder of papers and the yellow jerkin is checking the BBC 1 analogue transmitter, that had already been switched off and had large "Do Not Repower" notices hung on it.
So it was poetic justice I suppose in light of my work on Channel Four, that it was the last channel to be switched off, and caught on video.
Pity about the lack of turn-ups.

Back in Whyteleafe, on a particularly sunny morning earlier today, I cycled onto Kenley Airfield as I had an errand not far away. (A new dose of hormone treament - hence the Movember link at the top of this entry).
I attempted a few photos of the gliders taking off, and thought they came out OK so here they are.

A takeoff flying away from the camera and into the sun.

Kenley Control: "Your traffic is an inch in front of your nose."

"Left for Gatwick, right for Heathrow"

(It might be tricky to see the direction here. We're looking at the top of the glider and it's flying upwards and away from the camera. The towing cable about to detach)

I'm getting the hang of the video buttons on my camera. So while the sun was shining I put these on youtube.

The 'Despatcher' on the right is signalling to the winch operator to slowly wind in the slack cable.
If it's done too fast the front of the glider will be ripped out when the slack is taken up.
There are a couple of loops of slack just visible on the ground to the right of the cockpit. When all is wound in the Despatcher signals for full speed.

Must get back to motorbikes some time.