Marjorie in Qatar

I'm back in Doha after two weeks visiting my family in Oxfordshire.

Realizatons made on this trip:

• babies are cute
  
• childbirth is not cute, but anyone who has gone through it has my undying respect and awe [Edit: gone through it on the birthing side, that is. Obviously we've all been through childbirth on the being-birthed side.]
  
• I desperately desire to live in a city that is not just walkable but walking-centric, like English towns with a medieval city center tend to be
  
• Britain is full of these brown, fibrous upright cylinders with little green wavy bits at the top; Doha should look into acquiring some:
  

The original plan had been to go hike the Ridgeway Trail for a week, but for various health reasons I had to scrap that plan. In the end I managed a 1.5-day, 29-mile hike from my sister's house in Abingdon down the Thames Path for a day, and then east on the Ridgeway following a prehistoric earthwork called Grim's Ditch (pictured above). It covered some really beautiful scenery, and hiking is always good for my overall serenity. I wish I could do more of it.

Pictures of the trip are here.

And in case anyone is jealous of my jet-setting ways, I also spent three days in bed with a migraine and a new medical condition that you don't want to hear about. I like to travel, but my body sure does not. Dear roboticist friends: please to make me a cyborg body to transfer my brain into, for I am royally sick of this one, kthxbye.

I am home from my spring break trip to England!

I spent half the week hiking in Yorkshire, and half the week hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law in Oxfordshire. It was glorious.

The pictures are here, although I am missing the days that we used my sister's camera instead of mine. I may post her pictures (or links to them) in the near future, so stay tuned for more pictures of us trying to interact with statues of famous scientists, and a really hilarious one of me boogying with a peregrine falcon.