Granny and Gramps' Last Hurrah

With a week to recover and ready themselves for the long haul back to NZ, it was decided to keep Granny and Gramp's tikki tours to our local area.

Left: Round Church                          A few favourite spots in Cambridge.            Right: Heffer's book shop behind, Trinity

Frequent jaunts into town and around the commons, with or without dog, were allowed as useful exercise as long as afternoon naps/reads were part of the timetable. Granny usually spent her 'rest time' writing up her travel diary as long and winding emails to family. These have been good references and reminders for me of what we got up to over their time here. At this end it certainly doesn't feel like 7 weeks for Granny and nearly a month for Gramps. I think this is the longest holiday that Gramps has ever had, he coped really well!

Inside the Round Church, 2nd oldest in Cambridge. It was built round so demons wouldn't have any corners to hide in.

Left: St Mary's Church - Church of England                                     Right: The bell ropes look to have a more sinister purpose

Left:  St Mary's Organ     Right: A long, dizzy climb got us to the top of the church tower for a great view over Cambridge

Down towards Kings Chapel and Courtyard

Market Square.  Our land mark Chimney (Museum of Tech) sticking above the horizon on the left; 8min bike, 20min walk.

North towards Trinity College and St John's 'wedding cake' student residence, the river runs between the two.
Unfortunately this was the closest GG got to Trinity, it was closed for filming - the Library too - boo hoo.

Inside King's Chapel.
The stone motifs included the Tudor rose and the fleur de lis because the Tudors claimed both crowns.
The stained glass windows are priceless.

Out for lunch at Cambridge's only buffét Café, in the basement of a church! The girls still managed to order burgers.

One day Granny and I caught the train down to London to see the National Art Galleries and the British Museum.  I sleep better knowing that she has seen the Rosetta Stone!

Rosetta Stone and part of a Persian Gate.

Left: London icons through the Art Gallery window.   Right: Watching a rain storm through Silva's window.

Camden Markets are a treasure trove of bargains .... for teens! Couldn't stop doodahing as we walked along - in my head!

We got off the tube at Leicester square and headed for one of the many ticket sale booths and were able to get tickets to see 'The Mousetrap'.  Granny is a huge Agatha Christie fan so being able to go and see her play, the longest running play in the world, was a real treat for both of us. A board in the foya told us that it was the 25???th show since the run began in 1952. For all its success the playwright didn't make any money from it as she arranged for it all to go into trust for her grandson. What a cool grandma she was!

St Martin's theater is not big on leg space up in the dress circle - Luckily there were a few empty seats so we could move to ones where even Granny's knees weren't up around her ears.

After lunch at Garfunkles and an interesting sauce disaster at a table behind us, we poked our noses into the giant M&M world. After buying bags of the NZ grandkids favourite colours we headed for the Galleries.

M&M world looking a little out of step with old London Town.

In the Tudor section of the Portrait Gallery we enjoyed seeing the portraits of people we have often read about. We were amazed at how incredibly unattractive Mary Queen of Scots was - I'd always imagined her as fairly saucy. The most interesting thing we noticed was how a portrait of young Queen Elizabeth hung on one side of the gallery and further down on the opposite wall was a portrait of the man she wished she could marry, Robert Dudley. They seemed to be forever staring across the gallery at each other. So cruel that in real life Elizabeth choose not to give away her kingdom to a man the nation would not support as King yet gave her young heart to - and now for their painted eternity they surreptitiously stare at each other. I wonder if the curators hung them like this on purpose or if the angle is just a fluke.

The pain of disappointed love.  Dudley, Earl of Leicester married Lettuce when his Queen could not commit. She hardened her heart and became an accomplished flirt, barring her heart against further intrusions.
The Elizabethans must have admired long skinny fingers - their portraits (including Donne's below) look a little ETish.

John Donne - The first Metaphysical poet, William Wilburforce who died just after his anti slavery law was passed in parliament and Lord Byron: a poet who splashed around in a pool now named after him in Grantchester - a shocking rake.

On the way back from the Museum to find a place for tea close to St Martin's theater, a sudden change in the air warned us that it was going to rain so we ducked into Café Silva for a cup of coffee. We sat in a booth looking out at the street and were just amazed at the force of the rain.  The poor people out in it were getting sodden from the waist down because the huge drops landed with such force that they bounced up to hip height. The owners seemed happy to let us sit out the storm with our Portuguese tarts. If only we'd know how hard it would be to find a restaurant for tea without having pre-booked we may have had something more substantial. London always seems so closed and grey when it rains.

Local wild life missing Granny's bread tossing excursions. The signets were out on their fist excursion when Granny arrived but were well into their adolescent bodies when she left.

The first family excursion was a drive past Milton Keynes to Bletchly Park where the Duchess of Cambridge recently opened the renovated 'huts'. These were where all the code breaking for WWII was done. The world's first digital computer was invented to deal with all the data from German U boat messages and intercepted coded Morse from various enemy units around the world.

Left: The Enigma Machine with its dials, keyboard and rotas that mix up what is typed in.
Right: Colossus - the world's first computer, our phones can do heaps more, faster than this beast. 

Young uni students, both male and female, were pulled out of their classes, given IQ tests and high scorers were pressed into service around the world. Those who could translate German, Russian and Japanese were especially valued. Young people from 16 - 25yrs old were whisked away from home without parents being informed of their destinations or duties. Organisers quickly found that the younger minds were quicker to hear patterns and adapt to the crushing concentration levels required for 6hr shifts surfing the airways for transmissions.

They were 'put' in some of the most dangerous parts of the world with their radio and morse sets to catch the coded traffic of the enemy. Back at Bletchly park another group of people were allocated jobs to do, that when sequenced properly, would transform gibberish into  information.  It was then interpreted by military strategists which gave the allies the information to stop Rommel in his tracks in Africa, kept most of the supply ships from the US safe from German U-boat patrols and let them keep on top of troop movements as they planned D-day. A claim was made in some of the material in the museum displays that Bletchly Park shortened the war by 2 years, imagine how many thousands of lives that represents.

One of the courier's motor bikes. They weren't allowed to
use lights in case they were seen.  They traveled from
listening posts to Bletchly with the precious intercepts.
They never went the same way twice in a week and not in
any order so the enemy couldn't predict their movements.
Speed and subterfuge were everything.

The people at and connected to Bletchly Park worked in complete secrecy and after the war weren't even acknowledged for the secrets act they had all signed. From the tea lady through to the people running British Intelligence, they had to keep silent about the history and processes for 50yrs. Churchill demanded this because the cold war against the USSR followed hard on the heels of WWII and he didn't want state secrets discovered in case it got hot all of a sudden.

The huts we saw had been set up and decorated as they had been but audiovisual displays and interactive activities have been added to make the abstract ideas of the place a little more understandable. The 'Bombe' machines were a vital early computer that tested possible ciphers for the day's enigma settings.  When the right one was found the German messages were able to be translated and deciphered for military use. These machines were all destroyed after the war but one working copy has been successfully built and allows enthusiasts to try their hand at code breaking too. We were lucky enough to see it working the day we were there.

One of the rooms that the translators worked in - changing the deciphered code from German into English.  Most of these people were young ladies from the upper classes who had completed Finishing school before their Debutante season. 

As you can imagine the math genius' all stewing together to crack problems, that take lives as long as they remain a mystery, made the old mansion and grounds a fairly fascinating place but probably not very comfortable.
Their lives after the war were rather compromised and watched by MI5. One of the computer engineers - Tommy Flowers - wasn't allowed a loan for his business proposition because the bank thought his idea for a 'counting machine' was impossible.  Imagine his vexation at not being able to explain that he had already made one that worked jolly well. Alan Turing is another big personality of the time and his story is an especially sad tale of state paranoia and betrayal with the use of sodomy laws, it is too big to tell here.  This genius ended his life by eating an apple laced with cyanide. Steve Jobs was asked if this was the motivation for his computer company's logo; he said he wished it were. The Queen finally pardoned Mr Turing on Christmas Eve last year.

There is a film museum on site with a collection of equipment used for movies, TV and radio. We sat and watched a few of the short films usually shown before the main feature in a little theatrette. We were just gaping with what was not only acceptable but considered hilarious in the talk over black and white era.  The worst was of two very large young women diving into a swimming pool and swimming. All the fat jokes in the world must have been stuttered through by the BBC voice narrator. Another was advertising some sort of breath freshener because 'Poor Ethel will never secure a husband with her bad breath.' The social situations acted out and the rude commentary was hilarious - if people went back in time from today they would probably spend their entire time offended at what people said. We are so thin skinned now.

Watch the movie 'Enigma' - screen play by Tom Stoppard, produced by Mick Jagger, Kate Winslet, based on the novel of same name by Robert Harris.  It doesn't use Bletchly Park itself but gives a clearer picture of the cryptologist world woven through a mystery plot. (Not for kids!)

The Griffyn guards Bletchly House.    The library was used as an office along with every other room in the house.

 Granny found a book, on one of her frequent raids of my bookshelves, about an East Anglia artist - Glynn Thomas and his work, by Alan Marshall. She loved his unusual, grainy, distorted perspective prints and found some cards of his work at one of the local galleries. One of her favourite images was of 'The Orchard'. This was a place that the 'Grantchester Group' made their own and consequently famous. Virginia Woolf, Rupert Brook and E.M.Forster are a few of the members of this cohort  that would bike or punt out after lectures to solve the worlds problems over tea and scones. We stopped by for morning tea and sat in the deck chairs provided that Mr Thomas drew. Afterwards we trundled off to Wandlebury Park for a picnic. The wind was strong and the boys eager to get to Duxford so we didn't see the view to Ely or the 2000yr old Roman roads that are somewhere in this enormous reserve.

Thomas' etching to the left.     At the Orchard.  Another interesting bottle for Granny's collection.

More of Glynn Thomas' work. Ely Cathedral reflected in the Fens and a snapshot of Cambridge through Trinity's gates.
The Round Church is pictured at the top.

People still punt up the river to the Orchard from Cambridge. Willow didn't want to help pack up the picnic or she slipped?

For anybody interested in flight or machines, Duxford is a wonderful place. Gramps and M happily spent the afternoon until it closed at 6pm and saw only a portion of what was there.  Luckily for Gramps M has been often and was able to give him a time efficient tour of the highlights. Granny and I were happy for a snoop around their cram packed store for which they didn't charge an entry fee. Willow and I have spent a whole day in there (and not seen everything there!) but didn't feel the need to visit again.  Petal has enjoyed going in with M several times but had Charlie to look after. Granny had a Cambridge mystery to finish reading before leaving in a couple of sleeps so we all read in the van until M and Gramps were kicked out. They have an airshow this weekend, featuring the last two flying Lancasters in the world, so I guess M will be off there again.

Blackbird SR71 - creepy tingle down the spine when looking at this spy plane - too fast to get shot down!  The U.S. hanger

One of Gramps' favourite spots. Amazing to be able to go through the test Concorde(right) and to see the thousands of buttons and switches that the pilots had to monitor in flight.

It was so good to have Granny and Gramps come to stay - how blessed we have been to be able to share some of our adventure here with them. So many good memories. Having them here also bought siblings and aunties closer with all the yarns I've missed over the last year. Gotta love family.

This blog all happened in less than a week - hopefully we tired them out enough to be able to sleep on the long flight home.




Recent article in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29311068

Museum reunion for Colossus computer veterans

By Mark Ward  Technology correspondent, BBC News

The largest gathering of veterans who operated the Colossus code-cracking computer in World War Two has been held at Bletchley Park.

The operators met at the National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) which has a replica of the pioneering machine.

It was held after publicity around Colossus's 70th anniversary led many former operators to contact the museum.

It has also revealed plans to create a virtual copy of the huts in which 11 Colossi were sited in wartime.

Digital double

In February, TNMOC celebrated 70 years since the Colossus computer attacked its first scrambled message. The machine was built to tackle the cipher system used to secure messages sent between Hitler and his generals.

Media interest in that event led to the discovery of a picture taken just after the war of many of the women who had operated Colossus. Publicity around the picture, which included an item on the BBC's The One Show, has led many more operators to come forward and contact the Museum, said a spokesman.

In total, eight women who worked on Colossus attended, two more sent messages of support and three others who wanted to come along did not make it because they were too ill to travel, he said.

Relatives of some of the key technical staff who helped to work out how to crack the high-level messages and develop Colossus and its associated machinery were also present.

TNMOC trustee Tim Reynolds said the meeting was held in September to mark another 70th anniversary associated with Colossus - the opening of the first hut, called Block H, built to house the machines.

"It was the world's first data centre," he said.

At the reunion, TNMOC staff also talked about work it had done to create a virtual version of the two buildings that housed the Colossi - Block H and F - to give people a better idea of what it was like to be an operator during wartime.

Staff and volunteers from TNMOC have used a free tool called OpenSim to build a rough prototype that lets people take a virtual stroll through the huts and walk around the ranks of Colossus machines.

Chris Monk, who is leading the project, said a lot of detective work was needed to make sure the digital double was accurate.

"We do have plans, but when they built it they did not always build to the plan," he said.

In addition, he said, those who used to work with Colossus were being quizzed about the furniture and other items in the huts.

"We need the veterans for that and we need to get that information relatively quickly because of their age," he said.

TNMOC is now seeking funding to pay for a full-time worker for a year who will build the digital replica that will then become a permanent exhibit in the museum.

The museum is seeking cash to turn its prototype into a fully fledged digital copy

The discovery of a picture of Colossus operators has led many to contact the Museum