Wedding Music
I often get asked by couples preparing for Marriage what music they should choose for their Wedding ceremony.
It’s amazing how many people think they have to choose Wagner’s Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin for their Church wedding. This is a traditional choice but there are lots of other options to choose from. Many people also forget that, as well as choosing the music for the entrance of the Bride, a typical Church wedding will also use a lot of other music which can be chosen by the Wedding party.
I’ve added a simple page to this site to try to provide a brief explanation of the choices. To view the page, click here
Long Delays Ahead
As I walked out to my car this morning, I found this road sign apparently abandoned in front of my vehicle.
Is someone trying to tell me something about my prospects for today?
Leeds Garden wins Gold
Congratulations to the Leeds City Council entry at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
The design, which is themed around the links connecting the city centre to surrounding countryside, has a 12ft pair of lock gates at its centre.
Finally, after 7 years of trying, the Leeds entry has won a Gold Medal. So, it’s good to know that part of my council tax gets spent on turning water and wood into gold.
If only the council could turn water into gold more often, it might stave off some of the cuts which are now almost certain, in light of the Government’s cost cutting exercise. Let’s hope projects like these – investing in the environment around Leeds – have their real value fully realised over the coming months as Councils everywhere try to save a few billion pence each.
Pilling Lock Marina
Pilling Lock Marina is situated to the North West of Barrow Upon Soar on the River Soar Navigation. The Marina is new, having been built in the last couple of years, and offers berths for 240 wide beam and narrow boats.
I visited the Marina today hoping to be able to use the Marina as the starting point for a ramble along the canal. I was disappointed to find I could only walk around the perimeter of the Marina and that I couldn’t get access to the canal towpath. That said, there was an excellent cafe on site which served up a fine Bacon sandwich as consolation. The cafe / restaurant menu seemed quite varied and I imagine it provides an excellent stopping point for boats cruising the canal.
As it’s been such a nice weekend, I wanted to use the location to get some photographs of the Great Central Railway London – Sheffield route as it meanders its way across the River Soar. I was trying to get a “killer” shot of train, boat and idyllic countryside being in perfect harmony. I couldn’t get close enough to the canal, or the railway, to get any decent pictures. All I came away with were a couple of shots of the marina, with its resident boats glimmering in the early morning sunshine.
I’ve come across a number of very different descriptions of this section of waterway. Some call it the Loughborough branch of the Grand Union Canal; others refer to it as the Leicester branch. The British Waterways website, waterscape.com, refers to it as the River Soar Navigation. Whatever its name, the waterway which runs past Pilling Lock connects the Grand Union canal at Norton Junction, where navigation to central London and the River Thames is possible via the Chiltern Hills, to the River Trent at Trent Lock.
The route from Norton Junction to Trent Lock, past Pilling Marina, is made up of three sections which collectively are referred to as “the Leicester Line”. I wonder whether this accounts for the confusion of its name?
12th IMA Early Career Mathematicians Conference
I’m just on my way back from Newcastle and the 12th IMA Early Career Mathematicians Conference.
I don’t often get time to sit and think broadly about Mathematics any more. When I do get the chance it’s usually very specific thoughts, to help me broaden my understanding of the fields I’m concentrating on, such as Logic, Computability and Decision Making Processes.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed today as it gave me a chance to escape from my “usual mathematics” and listen to lectures on different mathematical topics.
I particularly enjoyed Ron Knott’s lecture on Fibonacci numbers, as it reminded me of the early days of my Degree course when we studied them in some detail. The patterns you find in Fibonacci numbers are particularly beautiful and a great signpost to other areas of elegance and beauty within Mathematics.
Lindsay-Marie Armstrong and Sharon Evans gave a talk discussing the differences between a Ph.D route and a route into industry for Mathematicians. I came away from the talk pleased and satisfied with the route I’ve taken so far which has seen me steer past both options to work specifically in the Commercial world. Everyone is different and had my choices and opportunities earlier in life been different then maybe I’d be saying other things right now. That said, I realised that I do enjoy how the application of my Mathematics brings about real change in Commercial fortunes and the results can be seen relatively quickly.
I’ve always been fascinated by the History of Mathematics and how the work of great Mathematicians has changed the face of the world as we know it. I was particularly pleased to see a lecture on the History of Euler on today’s agenda. Robin Wilson’s lecture was fun, very informative and gave a real picture into the life and work of the great man.
The lecture on Dynamic Networks by Nira Chamberlain showed how the topology and nodes of a network can change over time. I came away wondering how some of the concepts discussed in this lecture impact on problems in Game Theory and Probability, such as the Gambler’s Ruin problem, which I consider in my daily Mathematics.
Robin Johnson’s lecture on Single Perturbation Theory reminded me how important it is for a speaker to be passionate about their subject and enjoy what they’re talking about. I haven’t used the methods Robin talked about for nearly 6 years and some of it was a little hazy. Without the enthusiastic and knowledgable delivery of the lecture, I’m not sure I would have dusted off the dark corner of my memory concerned with methods of solving awkward differential equations. It was an impressive demonstration of how to make a very technical lecture interesting and engaging. I’ve taken away a lot from this lecture which I’ll apply to my own teaching and training in the future.
The final lecture was on Magnetohydrodynamics and the Solar Corona by James McLaughlin. This is an area I’ve never looked at before. The meshing together of Electromagnetism with Fluid Dynamics provides an interesting example of how distinct areas of Mathematics cross over to produce new and important results.
It was a great day of Mathematics which has re-energised my appetite for Mathematics away from the problems I study day to day. I’m really pleased I made the effort to travel to the conference and hope it will prove fruitful in the months to come.
Site revamp
I’ve given my website a bit of an overhaul. It’s been nearly three years since I last redesigned the site so I felt like it needed a bit of tidying up and dusting down.
England 3 Egypt 1
Egypt dominated the first half of this Pre World Cup friendly. England looked confused during a first half where they simply needed time to play as a unit and figure out the best way to play.
The low point was the 23rd minute goal from Mohamed Zidan, who did his chances of playing in England no harm at all.
Things got better in the second half, mainly due to the arrival of Peter Crouch. His 2 goals take his International tally to 20 goals, from only 37 caps.
Today’s Daily Graph shows my expectation of England’s chances in the 2010 World Cup as tonight’s match progressed. My expectation of England’s chances in the World Cup campaign is higher at the end of this match, but, not by much.
England still have a lot of work to do if they are to be confident of a good result in South Africa in June. That said, half way through the game, things could have been much worse for Capello’s men. At least with a win in this game, England haven’t slipped up at a time when they can ill afford to.
Irrespective of how good England actually are, the expectation which surrounds the World Cup campaign will surely be short lived unless Rooney et al can produce something very special.
The win against Egypt was the 500th for the 3 Lions. Their first win came in 1873 in their 2nd game, which was played at the Kennington Oval, where they beat Scotland 4-2. With their 245th victory, the 3 Lions sealed the 1966 World Cup with a win over Germany. Will their 508th victory be in the World Cup Final on 11 July?
I’m getting sick of the snow now…
It’s snowed again today. That made me think about how my views on snow have changed over the last few years. After all the snow we’ve had over the winter of 2009-2010, I’ve decided I now officially hate snow.
Lenten Pastries
I gave up pastries for lent. Well, when I say that, I mean I’ve given up sausages rolls, pasties of any description and sugary buns. I toyed with the idea of banning all kinds of pies too, but I thought that might be a step to far. As it is, steering clear of sausage rolls is proving a real test of my will power.
Today’s graph shows my progress on this difficult task. I’m particularly pleased with my progress.
Lent 2010
I’ve decided to give up pastries for Lent. This may be an impossible task, but i’ll give it a try….