August 2006 – Page 9 – a sibilant intake of breath

Scotland 2006 photos: third batch

Taken over the course of all three days of hiking, these photos show a few more aspects of Scotland.

Weather in Scotland changes rapidly and dramatically, especially at altitude. I was literally holding on to my hat on a lot of these peaks and ridgelines.

There was a wedding happening in this castle which several members of the group were able to briefly crash before being escorted out by men in kilts.

You get a better sense of the scales involve when there are people in the photos.

Brief periods of proper blue sky were much appreciated. Along this ridge, I shot a good portion of my roll of Velvia.

Not a Monroe, this was the last peak we climbed before going home. By this point, my legs were so sore they became difficult to move if I stopped for more than five seconds.

Tutorials very successfully concluded

My tutorials this afternoon went exceptionally well. Discussing an area that you really know a great deal about with someone who is interested but just starting out in their scholarly examination of it is both engaging and rewarding. I am especially enjoying the tutorial on distributive justice. I remember how interesting it was to first read Rawls, Mill, Singer, et al and it is particularly gratifying to be sharing such ideas with someone else. The only danger is assigning a reading list that is far too long. As far as the tutorials on globalization and global justice go, I need not have worried about being short on communicable knowledge.

The other tutorial, on OPEC and the oil price shock, was also quite interesting. I have gone over 20th century Middle Eastern history enough times now that I feel quite comfortable talking about it and have a list of sources in mind basically all the time. In general, the tutorials were a reminder of the excitement that can be associated with the conveyance of knowledge.

I am looking forward to the four tutorials that remain with these two students.

You think you’re so clever, but you forget about the VAT

So much for saving money by using price differences between the US and UK version of Amazon. Today, I received not my headphones, but the duty bill for them:

Cost of headphones from Amazon.com: US$75 (C$85) (£40)
Shipping from USA to UK: US$26 (C$29)
UK Value Added Tax: £12 (C$25)
UK Parcelforce Clearance Fee: £14 (C$30)
Total: C$169 (Ack! Ack!)
Delivery time: about five weeks

Cost on Amazon.co.uk (with all taxes and shipping): £74 (C$156)
Delivery time: 4-6 days

In any case, I suppose I will cycle the five miles or so out to Kidlington (where the depot is) to pick them up either after my tutorials today or tomorrow. Many thanks to Jessica for her help with the ungainly trans-shipment process above.

The moral of the story: ye who think you can get $160 headphones for $85 are probably mistaken.

[Update: 9:01pm] I rode the six and a half miles to the pickup depot. I paid the $100 in taxes. I put in the headphones with the flanged eartips… and was disappointed. It sounded more precise than the default iPod earphones, but not enormously better. An hour later, I tried the foam eartips and I understood. Tori has never sounded more astounding. If it keeps up for a few years, the Etymotic ER6i headphones will have been worth every cent.

[Update: 2 August] It should be further noted that the Etymotic customer service people are unusually polite and helpful. I wanted to order the larger flanged tips to see if they work as well as the medium foam tips. There was no time spent on hold at all, and I was immediately put in touch with someone who is going to send me the large flanged eartips internationally for free. Such things are always pleasant surprises.

[Update: 8 August] I got the larger and smaller alternative eartips for the Etymotics today. The large flanged ones work much better than the normal flanged ones, but don’t sound quite as good as the normal foam eartips. That said, the normal foam ones get somewhat gross quite quickly and are hard to clean. I think I will mostly stick with the large flanged eartips.

[Update: 30 January 2007] I had a few minutes of abject panic today, when it seemed that the right earbud in my pair of excellent but expensive Etymotic ER6i headphones had dropped to 10% of its original volume. I had been listening for a few straight hours, working on a paper, and found myself wondering why the song I was listening to was so biased to the left. Thankfully, when I called their very helpful tech support people, we realized that it was just a clogged filter. I replaced it with one of the replacements included in the original set and all is well. (Actually, the right side is a bit louder now, but the filters are $2.50 each and I should wait until the other is more clogged).

Scotland 2006 photos: second batch

All taken during our first big hike on Friday, this series of photos shows a bit of the majesty of the Scottish highlands.

There is really no mistaking the glacial origins of these mountains, though the erosion patterns of the rocks look quite unusual to someone used to mountains in British Columbia.

These are three of the five peaks we climbed on Friday, including at least one of the three Munros.

While requiring less exertion, descents were often rather more daunting than ascents.

Continuity of hats is an important element of hiking trips.

From left to right: Milan, Mark, Helen, Kathleen, Dengli, Chris, and Bruno. Photo taken by Andrew or Roman.

With tutorials tomorrow, I need to get some sleep. More photos and descriptions of the trip should come online tomorrow.

Scotland 2006 photos: first batch

Before putting anything on Photo.net, I will put a few of my better photos up here. I used my film camera for the shots I hoped would turn out more artistically. These digital shots are meant more as a documentation of the excursion. These are all from the ‘Five Sisters of Kintail’ hike that we did on Friday.

When we first got out of the minibus on Friday morning, I joked that we were about to climb the steep rise in front of us. We then went on to do exactly that: through the fog, with one backpack dropped and recovered from at least 100m below before we reached the first ridge.

Here we are atop that ridge. On account of the fog, we didn’t get much of a view for quite a while.

Bruno and Andrew leading along the ridge.

Ecology on Scottish mountain tops is a study in grasses, lichen, and perhaps sheep.

When the fog did clear a bit, we got a close up view of the legacy of glaciers upon the Scottish Highlands.

Back from Scotland

After an excellent few days, those parts of me not devoured by midges are back from Scotland. Over the three days, we climbed seven proper mountains (each more than 900m), including four designated as Munros. The mountains were quite spectacular – a nice reminder of home – and the fellow walkers were a great pleasure to spend time with. Interesting, knowledgeable, and friendly people all, we had some excellent conversations about everything from quantum chromodynamics to medieval theology. The combination of physical scientists, computer geeks, and a political theorist was nearly ideal. I was really glad to meet everyone, and I hope I shall meet them all again.

Sorting everything out, both physically and in terms of all the data, may keep me a while. Digital photos will appear both here and on Photo.net as I process them. I should have the roll of Velvia I shot off in the post for processing and scanning shortly, as well.

In closing, I should quickly thank the trip’s superb organizers. The Oxford University Walking Club is an exceedingly professional organization, run by very capable and helpful individuals. I really appreciate the opportunity they granted me.