Goodbye Hermes

My last shift ever was brightened by speaking to a guy called Lu. I've forgotten his first name, and will probably never see him again, but we got on well. Lu has what I used to have: an excitement about all things physics.

My boss tried a few times in the last couple of years to interest me as to what happens to the spin of an electron if you make the electron go round in a circle, which is one of his favourite little topics. My unspoken response was to think "vacuum leak, broken magnet, radiation damage, it's an academic question as that electron aint never gonna get round a full circle anyway". As my boss was also here today, he started explaining this problem to Lu, who then spent the next hour working out this problem using the basic principles of physics. I'd like to think that there was a time when I'd have done this, and that one day I'll feel like that again about physics again.

As it was, I spent the last few hours finishing off the Guardian crossword. Today I learnt about the Crimean war, 19th century russian literature, and finally about the Sea of Azov (it's the light blue sea in the picture), which happens to be next to the Crimean peninsula, which happens to be under a whisp of cloud.

Lanose and other words.

Whilst sat on shift here in Hamburg I have been quite busy solving crosswords from the Guardian. My favourite clues of the past week have been

8's is 2. (two words, four letters each)

and

Author who can balance a pint on her head whilst playing snooker. (two words, first word seven letters, second word six letters)

The first is very easy if you think in the right way, the second requires a knowledge of english children's literature and of bad puns. In total I needed several hours and a few extra letters to solve them, though. In addition to these nice clues, which give an AHA! feeling when you find the answer, there are some clues which give a WTF?! feeling. One such answer was "Lanose", which was the last clue I found today.

Lanose is of course a little-known synonym for woolly. Little known in this context means that I have never heard of it. Any reasonably all-round educated person (such as my intelligent and discerning readers) would spot that it is derived from "lana" which is latin for wool, but being a beer-swilling germanic sort of bloke it passed me by.

But now I know, and I will try to remember. I will also try to remember that 2 is the cube root of 8, and that beer-tricks potter wrote some lovely children's books.

I now only have one shift left, and am slowly getting the hang of it. The key is to turn off your mind, and just follow stupidly the rules from here. It is then very refreshing to occasionally turn on the mind again and take a random journey through the world of english language and culture.