i think you already know how much i love visiting ruth at her place in portobello... but i won't hesitate to tell you again (and again if i so feel the need to!).
yesterday evening, i went over to join in ruth's flatmate emily's little farewell-do (she's going to namibia next week for a few months to help with the health work there)... and coupled with the glorious 22degC yesterday... it made a perfect escape from the frustrations i've had to face. i particularly enjoyed the stroll along the beach with ruth... bare-footed, we pranced in between the ugg-worms that surfaced on the moistened sand... the fresh soft lime-green seaweed washed ashore... the buried seashells and under the canopy of the beautiful skies...
we also indulged in a very 'proper' dinner-picnic by the sea... we had salads galore, veggie sticks that we greedily dipped into the lush roasted-peppers-and-tomatoes humus and there was also yummy coconut-banana-pineapple smoothie that tasted like virgin pinacolada...
with a company of english, scots and irish (united-kingdom sans welsh -- perhaps i could represent that since atlantic college is there!) we couldn't possibly have escaped the typical scenario of utter-politeness... the usage of "could... possibly... perhaps... maybe... might... lovely...." dotted much of the conversations particularly when everyone was starting to feel the chill and would like to go into the warmth... it was hilarious... and i couldn't stop giggling over our irish friend's utterances... the combination of the accent and the way everything was said was just so amusing... he reminds me of Pippin... and it all made sense why ruth said he's a hobbit (*wink*)... i wonder if my cousin-in-law has that accent too... hmm.
before it got too cold... we dashed to say hello to the sea... i dipped my feet into the gentle lapping of the dissipated wave while some of the others were brave enough to soak their legs in the cold sea... and then we walked back into the warmth of the little house to have some profiteroles laced with hot chocolate sauce and ice-cream.
sadly, i had to catch the last bus back into town and i couldn't witness the much-renowned moon-illusion that was supposed to have occured last night.
Wow, what a lovely time. 22 degrees sounds perfect. And it's a pity you missed the moon-illusion! What exactly is that though?
Posted by: monoceros on Thursday, 23 June, 2005 at 15:01 hrsGlad to hear you had a good time, and a break from the frustrating visa issue...:)
nice pics, esp the shadows :)
Posted by: Lynette on Friday, 24 June, 2005 at 07:16 hrsmonoceros, the moon illusion is an amazing one; i wish i could witness it myself. briefly, the illusion highlights how our perception of the world is much influenced by the context in which they belong. the moon appears larger when it is nearer the horizon but as it moves up to its zenith, it looks smaller to us. however, the moon is the same moon and should have the same size -- the idea of 'size-constancy' in objects which is illustrated here. this, however, doesn't fully explain why we see it this way.
psychologists, vision scientists and astronomers have been trying to find the real explanation for this illusion for a long time and it is still debatable as to what might be the best explanation.
the question they are asking is whether the moon appears larger because it is perceived as being closer, or because it seems to be far away... but i guess there are also factors of how we perceive the 'sphericity' of the world in which we live, at play... but i am not sure how and what these are.
here is a nice article that describes one of the recent research (don't think you can access http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/97/1/500) into this phenomenon.
here is an artist rendition of the illusion.
but i don't know if knowing about these possibilities make you see the moon differently... ie. whether the illusion cease to exist... so i was curious too, as to whether this moon-illusion would still work on me... alas...
Lynette, it was good fun to be at the beach! =C)
this just came out on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4619063.stm
very lovely!
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