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MSSL & CSS

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags Cardiff Scientific Society, Jet streams, MSSL, Mullard Space Science Laboratory on February 17, 2011 by telescoper

I was up early yet again this morning to catch a train to Guildford. From there I was whisked off by a taxi into the Surrey countryside to visit MSSL, or the ~~Minimal Supersymmetric Standard~~ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, which is an outpost of University College London. No sooner had I got there and I was whisked off again to a very nice local country pub for lunch and a pint, before being returned, suitably inebriated, to give my seminar.

I’ve never been to MSSL before – nor Guildford, for that matter – and my day out was a very pleasant surprise. Not only were there no disasters on the trains, despite having to travel via Reading, but the fine springlike weather gave me good views of the green and pleasant land that is Surrey. MSSL is itself on the top of a hill, and on a clear day you can see as far as the Sussex downs to the South. But not quite today as it was a little misty.

I had to leave not long after my talk finished in order to get back to Guildford, a drive of about 40 minutes. I got there with about 15 minutes to spare, but it turned out that the train before the one I was intending to catch was about 15 minutes late so I got straight on it. I thus got to Reading two minutes ahead of the train before the one I was planning to catch there, so in the end got home about half an hour early. Which was nice.

I enjoyed the visit there enormously. Everyone was very friendly. Apparently, some of them even read this blog so I’d like to say thanks for the invitation and for struggling manfully to stay awake as I droned on after the pub lunch.

I didn’t get much time to post yesterday either, because I had to attend a function organised by Cardiff Scientific Society (of which I am a Committee Member). This was the occasion of the annual Lord Phillips Memorial Lecture, given this year by Professor Sir Brian Hoskins on the subject of Jet Streams in Weather and Climate. Jet streams are fascinating but highly complex phenomena and it’s clear that there’s a lot about them meteorologists don’t understand fully. One thing I did learn during the lecture, however, was that when people say that changes in the Atlantic jet stream “cause” unusual weather (such as our recent cold spell, or the floods of 2007), they’re wrong. It seems clear that the jet stream is part of the atmospheric pattern that gives rise to such events but can’t be said to be responsible for them.

Anyway, after a fascinating lecture we adjourned with the speaker to the Vice-Chancellor’s dining room, for a (fairly) late supper. One of the perks of the job, I guess. I wasn’t too late getting home, and got to bed early enough to make getting up at 6am not too stressful.

With another busy day tomorrow, and a UCAS event on Saturday that I (unwisely) volunteered to help with, I think I’m going to get an early night tonight.

Toodle-pip!

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The Day of the Rat

Posted in Biographical, Columbo with tags Columbo, rats, rodenticide on January 22, 2011 by telescoper

The last two days have been a bit different from usual, owing to the arrival of an unexpected visitor in the Coles residence.

About 5am yesterday (Friday) I woke up suddenly to the sound of something moving downstairs. I thought it might be a burglar, so I switched all the lights on and rushed to the landing just in time to see a large rodent running along the hall on the ground floor. I followed it into the sitting room, but it had vanished somehow. Looking around I found a number of tell-tale holes in the skirting boards and floorboards through which the rat might gone to earth, including one hole which has been there since I moved in but which looked suddenly larger. I blocked them all up as best I could and, there being no further sign of my house guest, went back to bad.

Columbo didn’t seem to be in the slightest bit bothered by the intruder and, although I put him in the sitting room to act as sentry in case the critter appeared again, within a few minutes he was upstairs sleeping on my bed.

I couldn’t get back to sleep, as every little sound I heard made me think of the rat so in the end I got up, had breakfast and got ready to go to work. Thus it was that went into the department bright and early, put a full shift in, and then went along to the Poet’s Corner for a few drinks with the astronomy folks afterwards. This was even more pleasurable than usual because it was an opportunity to celebrate another succesful completion of a PhD; Well done Vanessa!

Anyway, I got home quite late and was pretty tired so went to bed hoping that I wouldn’t woken up in the early hours again by the rat. Unfortunately, about 6.30 I was disturbed by the sound of frantic scuttling and gnawing downstairs. This time the rat wasn’t on the surface, but moving about under the floorboards, trying to find an alternative way up. Clearly I’d managed to block the normal route. I made sure everything was secure and tried to get some more sleep, which didn’t work, and eventually when it seemed a decent hour I called a pest control operative who promised to come about mid-day.

I busied myself with some domestic chores until he arrived, while periodically checking on the sitting room and whether the rat could still be heard. It could. However, about 11.30, the noise grew louder and finally the creature surfaced again. It had made a completely new hole in only a few hours. Rats must have some gnashers on them. I chased it with a sweeping brush and it holed up under the television. There then followed a standoff, only interrupted by the arrival of the rat catcher about ten minutes later.

The guy went for a net – although there isn’t much room to wield such a thing in my house – and we devised a cunning plan to trap it. The plan failed as the rat was much quicker than either of us and its daring escape bid made full use of the element of surprise as it charged straight at us.

The rat vanished again under the floorboards, so we had to settle for plan B which was to lay traps and poison anywhere it might get to. Various forms of rodenticide were deployed, including difenacoum and brodificoum. The traps are baited with a mixture of peanut butter and chocolate, both of which I hate, but which apparently rats adore. With that he gave me the bill and left.

Columbo slept through the whole adventure, but came downstairs to say goodbye to the rat man.

There’s been no more noise from under the floor, but I’m pretty sure the rat is trapped. If it eats any of the poison then it will die there, slowly, and the only way I’ll know about it is when its rotting corpse starts to reek. So I have that to look forward to, unless it hurls itself onto a trap and dies an instant death.

The remaining mystery is how the critter got into the house. It clearly wasn’t through a direct route into the front room, otherwise he could have got out the same way and wouldn’t be trapped. Columbo once caught a rat in the garden, but it wasn’t dead when he brought it into the house. The rat catcher suggested he might have done the same thing with this one, and it managed to escape and roam free. Perhaps guilt is the reason Columbo kept such a low profile through all this?

I’m still kicking myself for not acting quicker when it broke cover. If only I’d had a shovel like when I was little…

That’s enough about the rat. Time to get cracking with my dinner. Followed perhaps by a biscuit.

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Bristol and Back

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags Bristol University, Colloquium, Physics on January 17, 2011 by telescoper

I almost did the unthinkable today by not posting anything on my blog. It’s been such a busy day that I wasn’t able to post at lunchtime, chiefly because I didn’t have a lunch break. I don’t want to let the side down, so I decided to put something up, but the following “quick” post will have to do for today.

After an interminable meeting (zzzz...) of the Board of Studies this morning in the School of Physics & Astronomy at Cardiff, where I work, I had to rush back to the office, grab my things and dash off to the station to catch a train to the fine city of Bristol, where I was giving a colloquium in the School of Physics at the University of Bristol. I got there just in time for a quick slurp of tea before heading off to do my bit. I hope the talk was OK, but that’s not really for me to judge.

After the colloquium I got the chance to relax over a pint of beer, chat to staff and students and was then whisked off for a splendid curry. One of the folks that looked after me was Professor Mark Birkinshaw, who taught a course I took when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge; he seemed quite chuffed when I told him I still had the notes! And if Anton is reading this, he asked me to pass on his good wishes to you too! Thence it was back by train in the rain to Cardiff.

I think that’s all I have the energy to write. In fact, this is the first time ever I’ve used the “Quick Post” feature on WordPress, a streamlined interface limited to shorter items without graphics and other complicated extras which I don’t usually use because my typical posts don’t count as “quick” on account of the fact that I usually keep on writing long after I’ve made the points I was going to make and have run out of useful things to say, the excessive verbosity of the resulting articles giving me a bad name in the blogosphere, which, notwithstanding its more problematic aspects, does seem to me at least to have the virtue of encouraging a more concise form of communication than is to be found in other contexts while at the same time … [continued, page 94]

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The Travellers and the Rest

Posted in Biographical with tags Athenaeum, Cardiff, First Great Western, fox, Herschel, Jackson-Gwilt Medal, Matt Griffin, Pontcanna, Royal Astronomical Society, SPIRE, Travellers Club on January 15, 2011 by telescoper

Yesterday’s journey to the Big Smoke wasn’t as bad as it might have been, although it was a bit frustrating at times. The train was diverted through Bath to avoid flooding near Bristol, which added about 20 minutes to the journey time. That was expected, so didn’t cause any major anxiety. After the rather scenic detour we found ourselves back in familiar territory on the Cardiff-London line, Swindon. I never thought I’d see the day when I was pleased to arrive at Swindon! However, my pleasure soon evaporated when we sat on the platform at Swindon without moving, and with no announcements or information or explanation, for another 15 minutes. Obviously 25 minutes late just wasn’t late enough for First Great Western, so they had to hold the train to enhance further their record of unpunctuality. In the end we arrived at Paddington 40 minutes late. Not good.

I still got to the meeting in time for a quick cup of tea before the afternoon’s proceedings. Straight away there was some great news. The President of the RAS, Prof. Roger Davies, announced the recipients of this year’s medals and awards and among them was Cardiff’s own Matt Griffin, who receives the Jackson-Gwilt Medal. According to the RAS website

The Jackson-Gwilt Medal is available for award annually for the invention, improvement or development of astronomical instrumentation or techniques; for achievement in observational astronomy; or for achievement in research in the history of astronomy.

Matt Griffin’s citation reads as follows:

This year’s winner is Professor Matt Griffin of the University of Cardiff, for his work on instrumentation for astronomy in the submillimetre waveband, the region of the electromagnetic spectrum between the far-infrared and microwave wavebands.

Matt Griffin is one of a select group of scientists that helped establish a UK lead in the technical development of instrumentation for submillimetre astronomy. He has been involved in most submillimetre instrument projects over the last three decades, including the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) camera on Herschel. Matt led a diverse international team to bring this project to fruition, encompassing 18 institutions on three different continents.

SPIRE represents a step change in capability. With the ground-based SCUBA camera, 20 nights of observing led to the detection of 5 galaxies at submillimetre wavelengths. With SPIRE, 6000 galaxies can be detected in 8 hours.

Matt Griffin thus receives the Jackson-Gwilt Medal for in particular his outstandingly successful work on SPIRE, an instrument that is transforming submillimetre astronomy.

Heartiest congratulations to Matt and, of course, to the rest of this year’s awardees!

After the RAS meeting it was time for dinner. Owing to a muddle with bookings The Athenaeum wasn’t available for this month’s RAS Club dinner so we dined instead in the unfamiliar surroundings of The Travellers Club, which is actually next door at 106 Pall Mall.Given the trials and tribulations of travelling with First Great Western, perhaps I should apply for honorary membership?

The room we had was smaller than usual, but cosy, and the staff were very friendly. The dinner wasn’t marvellous but as always there was no shortage of interesting conversation, some of it even relating to astronomy! I got grilled by a few people about what’s going on with STFC new consolidated grants system. I told everyone who asked everything I know about it, which didn’t break any confidentiality because I don’t know anything at all.

The table service was a bit slower than at the Athenaeum so it was quite late by the time we got onto the club business. The January dinner is the “Parish” dinner at which new members and, if necessary, new officers are elected by an amusingly arcane process. A few members had to leave to catch trains before the business was completed but I stayed to the end at about 10.00pm, placing (perhaps unjustified) confidence in the 10.45 train from Paddington actually existing and getting there in time to get it.

I did get to Paddington in good time, and the train hadn’t been cancelled, but it was a bit late leaving. It then apparently developed an unspecified “mechanical fault” which made for slow running. I got into Cardiff about 25 minutes late. No diversions on the way back – presumably the floods had subsided. Perhaps there’s an excuse for the chaos ensuing from the floods, but poor maintenance is surely entirely the fault of the train company. Not a good day for First Great Western, especially when they’ve raised their already exorbitant fares for the new year..

Oh, and one other thing that’s not at all connected with anything else. As I walked back through Sophia Gardens from the station to my house in Pontcanna about quarter to two in the morning, I saw a fox hurtling across the path in front of me then vanishing into the trees. When I lived in Beeston (a suburb of Nottingham) I saw foxes very regularly, often in my own garden. Likewise even when I lived in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London. I was quite surprised when I moved to my house in Cardiff, right next to Pontcanna Fields and Bute Park, that no foxes were to be seen despite the apparently more promising surroundings. I’ve now lived here for two and a half years and this is the first one I’ve ever spotted. I wonder why there are so few foxes in this area?

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Flooding into London

Posted in Biographical with tags Cardiff University, Chipping Sodbury, flooding, Herschel, Rain, Royal Astronomical Society, trains on January 14, 2011 by telescoper

A brave bunch of hardy Cardiff University astronomers are heading into London today for a meeting of the Royal Astronimical Society in London which celebrates the first year of science from the Herschel Space Observatory. This wouldn’t normally constitute too arduous a trip, but it turns out after the last couple of days torrential rain in Wales and the South-West of England, there is flooding on the line at ~~Sodding Chipbury~~ Chipping Sodbury which has sent the railway network into one of its regular episodes of chaos. Half the trains from Cardiff to London are cancelled, and the other half diverted all round the houses so they will take at least an extra half-hour to reach their destination at Paddington.

There isn’t any flooding actually in Cardiff, but the River Taff, which hibernated peacefully through the recent snowy period, has now sprung back into life and seems to be in an angry mood. I took these snaps yesterday as I walked into work, so you can see the water level is high enough to submerge some of the riverside shrubs and trees, but not high enough (yet) to threaten the embankments.

At times like this the Taff is more than a little scary, not so much because of the way it looks but because of the sound of it growling along down to Cardiff Bay, carrying the occasional car tyre and traffic cone with it.

I suppose this is small potatoes compared to the terrible floods in Australia, Brazil and elsewhere in the world, but it is quite exasperating, especially since it happens so regularly yet still catches the train companies completely unawares.

Anyway, I don’t know if the first wave of Cardiff folk managed to get to London in time for the start of the meeting. I had a couple of things to do this morning so decided to go later, even though that meant missing some of the talks that are closer to my own interests. I did think about cancelling my trip entirely, but decided in the end to give it a go. I hope I make it there at least in time for dinner at the RAS Club.

But then there’s the question of what time I’ll get home tonight…

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Einstein and the Eclipse

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags Channel 4, Eclipse, Eddington, Einstein, general relativity, Ken Campbell, Physics, Six Experiments that Changed the World on January 4, 2011 by telescoper

Following on from my previous post, I thought you might be interested in this. It’s the last programme in a series called Six Experiments that Changed the World which was presented by the late Ken Campbell. It was made for Channel 4 and first broadcast in 2000. It’s in two parts. If you watch the second one, you might see someone you recognize…

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Blydhen Nowydh Da!

Posted in Biographical, Education, Music, Politics, Science Politics, Sport with tags astronomy, Cardiff University, Planck on January 1, 2011 by telescoper

I hope the blogosphere hasn’t got too bad a hangover this morning. I don’t, although I did have a nice lie in until about 11am when the lure of the Guardian prize crossword drew me out of bed and down to the newsagents. Luckily, I remembered to get dressed first. The crossword turned out to be quite a nice one to start the year with, by the perennial Araucaria, but it didn’t take all that long to do so I’ve got time to do a bit of shopping and a go on my exercise bike. Yes, that’s my New Year’s resolution. More shopping.

I know 2010 was a tough year for many people for many different reasons. I wouldn’t say it’s exactly been brilliant for me either, but I am looking forward to 2011 whatever it might bring. The first results from Planck will be released very soon (on 11th January, in fact), which will give me something exciting to blog about. More generally, the recent financial settlement for STFC was not as poor as many of us expected so the future doesn’t look quite as grim for UK astronomy as we feared.

There are exciting developments in store for the School of Physics & Astronomy at Cardiff University, where I work, with (hopefully) a number of new staff members joining us soon. Later on in the year we’ll be rolling out a completely redsigned set of physics courses which we’ve been working on for over a year. In addition we’ll be starting to work more closely with Swansea University in order to provide a broader range of advanced options for physics students at both institutions.

Of course behind all this there’s still considerable uncertainty about the funding situation for universities which are facing big cuts in government grants and having to increase tuition fees charged to students. Whether and to what extent this will deter students from going to university remains to be seen. The financial pressure will certainly lead to mergers and possibly to closures across the UK over the next few years, although only time will tell how many.

On the cultural side there’s a large number of concerts at St David’s Hall and a full season of Opera at WNO to look forward to, including a performance of Cosi fan Tutte on my birthday. Cardiff plays host to the First Test match between England and Sri Lanka at the end of May, and a one-day international against India in September. I might even get myself a membership of Glamorgan Cricket Club, something I’ve toyed with doing for a couple of years now. There’s also a good chance that Cardiff City F.C. might get themselves promoted to the Premiership, something that would be great for the city of Cardiff. It wouldn’t be beyond them to fall at the last fence, as they have a habit of doing..

May 2011 will also see the Welsh Assembly elections, and there will be a referendum on further law-making powers for the WAG on 3rd March.

On the wider political scene the question is whether the governing coalition’s cuts will force the economy back into recession or not. I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that many ordinary working people are going to lose their jobs and many less advantaged members of society will have their benefits cut. Meanwhile the people who took us to the brink of economic ruin will no doubt carry on getting their bonuses.

In spite of all that, let me end by wishing you peace and prosperity for the New Year and beyond. And if that’s not possible, just remember Nil Illegitimi Carborundum.

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Thaw

Posted in Biographical, Poetry with tags Edward Thomas, Poetry, Thaw on December 28, 2010 by telescoper

Back from the Frozen North, after a very enjoyable but over-indulgent Christmas, I just thought I’d pop on line to say hello to the blogosphere again.

I flew up to Newcastle in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve from Cardiff airport via an airline called Eastern Airways which operates the only direct flight on that route. I booked the flight some time ago, as I was a bit nervous it might fill up given the annual chaos on the railways over the holiday. As it turned out, the outbound flight on Christmas Eve had only five passengers on it; the return, yesterday, just six. Obviously they’re not making a lot of money on this route!

The plane was a small propeller-driven affair which can seat a maximum of 29 passengers. I thought I’d get a nice picture of the sunset at Cardiff as we took off, but unfortunately the vibration of the engines made that quite difficult, as you can see from the blurry effort shown above. Despite the inclement weather and the snow and ice at both airports, outward and return flights kept immaculately to schedule.

Newcastle was cold and snowbound so me and my folks stayed in, ate and drank a lot, lounged around watching a bit of telly here and there, warmed by news of the cricket from Melbourne (of which more, hopefully, tomorrow!) and were otherwise entertained by their cats Tilly, Daisy and Lucy. It was very pleasant but the combination of eating and drinking too much and not taking much exercise has no doubt left me quite a few pounds heavier. I haven’t plucked up courage to weigh myself yet.

Anyway, I got back safely yesterday evening and said hello to Columbo (who, incidentally, is doing fine). Pretty much as soon as I got into the house it started raining, which it did most of the night. The thaw is definitely in full swing, and soon quite a few of my neighbours will no doubt be out doing repairs. Several lengths of guttering have fallen off various houses on my street, pulled down by the weight of accumulated snow and ice. There’s now also much less danger of me falling over on the slippery pavements like I did just before Christmas. Why can’t that happen when there’s nobody watching? It’s so embarrassing…

I’m not so foolish as to think that the melting of this lot of snow means that winter is over, but the thaw did remind me of this nice little poem by Edward Thomas, yet another Welsh poet and yet another killed during the First World War, in his case in 1917 at the Battle of Arras.

OVER the land half freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed,
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as a flower of grass,
What we below could not see, Winter pass.

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Term’s Ending

Posted in Biographical on December 18, 2010 by telescoper

Well there we are. After a clutch of meetings and the ritual handings-in of interim project reports by students, as of yesterday teaching term is now officially over. Most of the students left yesterday afternoon (to try to beat the inclement weather) and most of the rest will be departing this weekend. A merry Christmas to one and all.

Now we have a week until Christmas itself, and then a break until 10th January when teaching resumes. The first week back is “guided study week” and is immediately followed by examinations. Teaching proper doesn’t start again until Monday 31st January, so those of us who won’t have exams to mark (yay!) will have a relatively gentle reintroduction to termly life.

Monday 20th December is our departmental Christmas lunch – a notoriously boozy affair which usually wipes out the whole afternoon and usually involves senior members of staff disgracing themselves – but after that I think there should be time to finish a couple of papers that have been waiting on my desk for quite a while, awaiting revisions and responses to referees. I am also supposed to give a talk at a meeting of the Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences (on Tuesday), if I can find out where it is.

I’m going to see my folks in the Frozen North for Christmas itself, or at least I’m going to try. The way things are at the moment it’s not looking hopeful. Snow fell overnight in Cardiff at an even greater rate than English wickets in Perth and I’d say there was a good six inches of the stuff on the pavements when I went to get the paper this morning. Still, there’s a week for it to clear so hopefully things improve before I actually have to travel anywhere.

The day after Boxing Day I’ll be back here in Cardiff ,trying to get on with some writing, with a short pause for New Year. Holidays are the best time to get some proper work done, and I’m looking forward to finishing off a book project I’ve been working on for ages. I doubt if I’ll have time to blog much until the new term starts, but we’ll see how much I need a displacement activity.

I was hoping to be able to pass on news about the funding situation for STFC, which I was expecting to hear about yesterday, but apparently the latest rumour is that no announcements will be made until next week at the earliest. The final Astronomy Grants Panel plenary session, at which we should wrap up this year’s recommendations, now isn’t going to take place until 25th January which means a lot of people are going to have a long anxious wait. It’s hardly a satisfactory situation, but there you have it.

Messiah

Posted in Biographical, Music with tags Handel, Lothar Koenigs, Messiah, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera on December 12, 2010 by telescoper

Just back from St David’s Hall, Cardiff, where I’ve been listening to a performance of Handel‘s great oratorio Messiah by the Orchestra, Soloists and Chorus of Welsh National Opera under the baton of Conductor Lothar Koenigs. I haven’t got time to write much (as I’m famished), but I enjoyed the concert so much I wanted to write something before the buzz disappeared.

I don’t mind admitting that Messiah is a piece that’s redolent with nostalgia for me – some of the texts remind me a lot of Sunday School and singing in a church choir when I was little and then, a bit later, listening to the whole thing at Christmas time at the City Hall in Newcastle. I loved it then, and still do now, almost 40 years later. I know it’s possible to take nostalgia too far – nobody can afford to spend too much time living in the past – but I think it’s good to stay in contact with your memories and the things that shaped you when you were young. I haven’t seen Messiah live for a very long time, and tonight was like meeting an old friend after a long absence, and discovering that he’s just like you remembered him all those years ago.

Setting aside the wistful reminiscences it brought to mind, tonight’s performance was in any case exceptional. The Orchestra of WNO was on top form, and Lothar Koenigs directed them with great skill and vision. The tempo might have been a bit brisk in places for some tastes – or so I was told in the bar at the interval – but I thought the pace was excellent. Soprano Laura Mitchell and tenor Robin Tritschler both sang with crystal clarity, and bass baritone Darren Jeffrey was in fine voice too. Mezzo Patricia Bardon seemed to struggle a little bit to assert herself; her chest tones have a slightly woolly sound which at times got lost in the undergrowth of the orchestra’s string section, but that was only a problem in a few places.

The centerpiece of the performance, however, was a magnificent display by the WNO chorus. They were kept under a pretty tight rein for most of the time by Chorus Master Stephen Harris, who had them holding back enough in reserve that when they unleashed the full fortissimo the dramatic effect was truly thrilling. Little surprise that they got such warm applause at the end; I thought they were magnificent.

The one thing I wasn’t sure about before the concert started was whether and to what extent the folk at St David’s Hall would observe the tradition of standing during the Hallelujah Chorus. I’ve never been sure how widespread this practice was; it was definitely accepted (and indeed expected) way back when in the City Hall, Newcastle, but I fear many in the rest of the UK think of us Geordies as uncivilised rabble and for all I knew the posher parts of England might have abandoned this quaint practice decades ago.

Cardiff is actually a bit like Newcastle in some ways, but the tradition of music making is much stronger here in Wales. On the other hand -as one of my former colleagues from London days warned me when he heard I’d decided to move here – Cardiff is also a bit old-fashioned. I know what he meant, and I think he was right, but I don’t think it’s at all the worse for being so.

Anyway, I was delighted that, when the time came for the Hallelujah Chorus, the entire audience rose as one to its feet to hear a stunning rendition of this most majestic piece of music. It was King George II’s decision to stand in acknowledgement of Handel’s genius that initiated this ritual, and there’s a very special feeling knowing that you’re celebrating something that’s been celebrated the same way for over 250 years and is still something that’s completely exhilirating to listen to.

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In the Dark