Seattle Museum of Pop Culture. And Microsoft Imagine Cup Alumni.

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It's hard to avoid the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture. For one thing the monorail actually drives through the middle of the building on the way to the Space Needle. For another it has the most amazing architecture. We've never got round to taking a proper look in the place. Until today.

To be honest I wasn't expecting that much, perhaps a few guitars in glass cases. But there was much more than that, including a really good Star Trek exhibition and stuff that kept us occupied for just about half of the day. They even had a David Bowie film where he actually mentioned Hull. 

This is a Star Trek console. Really. 

After our does of culture we headed back to Capitol Hill to meet up with a bunch of ex-Hull students who are now Microsoft folk. Quite a few of them got their big break as part of Imagine Cup teams. All doing very well, lots of great chat and lovely to see them all. They look so grown up. Probably because they are. And we got a bunch of recommendations for places to visit during our final days here. 

Seattle Space Needle. Again.

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Another day. More amazing weather. Apparently temperatures records are on the verge of being broken (They are back home in England too, but in an entirely less pleasant way). 

Anyhoo, whenever I'm in Seattle I go up the Space Needed. Always have. Always will. They're in the middle of a great big refurbishment exercise at the moment, replacing the sides of the viewing platform with enormous slabs of glass. This meant that we didn't get to walk all the way round the outside as we normally like to, but even so the view was rather nice, and you can actually see the mountain, which is nice. 

Heading for Capitol Hill

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Last night we went into the MVP party for a while. Great fun. They are usually very loud affairs, but not this time. They had loads of headphones that you could use to hear any one of a number of different disco soundtracks (including classical music). And you could even change the colour of the cool lights on their sides. Awesome. It's been a great summit. Lots of lovely technical content. Lots of chances to say what we thought of it, and a great place to catch up with folks. 

Today we're heading for an apartment in Capitol Hill, a rather nice part of Seattle for a few days. 

Tram 28

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We're in Lisbon for a few days. Lovely place. I came year a few years ago to do some Microsoft Technical conferences and loved the place, even though most of my views of the city was through the windows of the taxi on the way to and from the airport. 

We've got a little apartment and the place is lovely. Today we took Tram 28 for a tour around the place. This is a forth minute tram ride from the centre of the city around most of the tourist areas. It was lovely. Then we wandered back across the city to the apartment where I spent a happy time working on the pdfs for chapter 8 of Begin to Code Python. 

Then it was out for tea. We seem to be near a street with a whole bunch of really nice cafes, restaurants and shops. But, from what we've seen so far, this is actually typical of downtown Lisbon.  

Must see Hull: Hepworth's Arcade and Trinity Market

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If you're from Hull and you haven't been to Trinity Market in a while, then go.

If you're not from Hull, but you find yourself in our excellent city for one of our awesome City of Culture events, then go to Trinity Market.

It's down the end of Whitefriar Gate. You can get to it from Hepworth's Arcade or from the street. It's got all kinds of interesting stores and shops in there. Along with the staples like meat, fruit and sweeties (and, er, staples), it's also got a whole bunch of boutiques and an amazing vinyl store selling records that I actually own. There are quite a few places you can get a bit to eat too.

And in Hepworth's Arcade you've got Fanthorpes, a proper HiFi shop, and also a really good, traditional joke shop.

 

If you're a student wanting to show mum and dad some local colour then you could take them along.

If you are just in the market for something interesting you should definitely go take a look.

New to Newcastle

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I've not been to Newcastle for a holiday before. I've been for external examiner duties and up until now it's primary claim to fame as far as I'm concerned is that there once I found two "extra tall" shops next to each other on the road up from the station. I hope they're still there. 

Anyhoo, we came up to Newcastle for the weekend and it is a lovely place. We found a hotel close to the Millennium Bridge and, although the weather hasn't been the best, we've had a bit of a chance to make the most of the splendid architecture around here. 

As we walked around the riverside I found myself thinking about what's happening in the Fruit Market in Hull. We have a similar waterfront setting and even a fancy bridge or two of our own. I'd love to see the same kind of thing happen where I come from. 

Burnby Hall Tulip Festival

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I'd not heard of Burnby Hall until this weekend. They are presently having a tulip festival, and number one wife wondered if I'd fancy going along an taking some pictures. 

Would I just.

So it was into a bag with a goodly assortment of lenses, tripods and kinds of other paraphernalia (that's the great thing about photography - plenty of scope for paraphernalia) and then off down the road to Pocklington. 

It was lovely. We got there nice and early when there was a bit of an angle to the light and it was nice and quiet. It's a great place to visit. Good food, good weather (at least today) and lots of tulips. We saw loads of families with picnics making a proper day of it. And there was even a brass band at 2:00.  

Not sure they've fully grasped how Secret Gardens work though....

Hello from Paris

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Pointing the fat lens at the tower

Pointing the fat lens at the tower

Well, this is nice. I'm in Paris for the Microsoft Devices and Networking Summit 2015. A chance to look at some very interesting embedded stuff. In Paris. What's not to love. The hotel is just down the road from the Eiffel tower. So of course I headed over there.

I took the stairs

Not a bad place to reach your steps goal....

Not a bad place to reach your steps goal....

I love the Eiffel tower. Fantastic place. And great for photographs too. If you want to see full size versions of the pictures you can click through to the images on Flickr. The conference starts tomorrow. Can't wait.

I love these telescopes

I love these telescopes

View from underneath

View from underneath

Not a bad view from the balcony

Not a bad view from the balcony

Very nice reception

Very nice reception

Just got back from a great reception on the 11th floor of the hotel. There were splendid views of the tower from the balcony, and huge glass windows that let give you a great view of the surrounding neighbourhood - but proved quite hard to walk through. Even though I tried. Talk about making an impression.....

I'd love to have stayed longer, but it turns out that I'll be updating module descriptions for the rest of the evening. In Paris. Such is life.