Wednesday 10 November 2010

INNER & OUTER SPACE

I have been thinking about space the last few days and of infinity. I can get my head around it alright, even though the concept of endlessness is amazing.

The first time that I ever attempted to understand what it was all about, was many years ago when I visually put all of the universes in a box and then realized ok so what is on the outside of the box - more space was/is the answer.


The Large Hadron Collider has done some real business recently by colliding lead ions together or rather head on, at almost the colossal speed of light and in doing so the impact manifested temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun. I wonder just how they dispersed the heat energy. Answers on a postcard please.


I have been having problems with a small space my self just recently. It all started when I was up in the loft and noticed a small cloud of smoke drifting upwards to the skylight. Now it is quite a common sight to see smoke up there, for I do enjoy a few puffs on my pipe while sitting quietly on a bench and musing on what to do next. This particular time although the pipe was in my pocket the lighter was not.

Not my smoke, this was coming from the chimney breast. I removed the fire from the stove & made a phone call. My builder returned in rapid time and rendered the brickwork.


The following evening I re-lit the stove and smoke started to enter the ground floor rooms, again I took out the fire & phoned himself. We spent the rest of the evening stripping out the alcove press (cupboard) that adjoins the chimney breast. This revealed a series small sooty cracks and soot stained walls, the same procedure as before was followed and this time we were totally successful.



Getting in is similar to Leaving


All I have to do now is rebuild the shelving that I had hastily removed and emulsion the walls. There is a slight problem caused by two pipes that go across the bottom part of the press making access difficult. And I am so glad that I started off my working life in the confined spaces of yachts and small ships. So re-building the press is rather like going back in time for me.


These days in Ireland you never know who you will find in a press.For recently our former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern made for himself a pile by doing a commercial for the Irish News Of The World. He is the actor who says "I never thought that I'd end up here"

see: www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/emeraldextracts/former-irish-leader-bertie-ahern-hides-in-a-cupboard-in-new-tv-ad-104306589.html

So following in Bertie's footsteps or better still my version of Sylvester Stallone in the 1970 film 'No Place To Hide' which I have renamed 'Dammit You Have Found Me ! '



Dammit You Have Found Me !

11 comments:

  1. you do get yourself into some tight spots... good to have discovered where the smoke leaks were coming from... must feel much safer now ..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hee hee. Something Hawkings wrote haunts me - 'The universe has no boundaries, but it is also finite'. Or is it 'The universe has boundaries but it is also infinite'? Thank goodness when I get dizzy thinking about it I don't have an open press.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Or, even 'The universe is infinite but it also has boundaries...'

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gwen, I get a sort of pleasure from tight spots and am not sure but daresay am not alone in this ???

    liZZie, delighted to receive two comments wow! I think that each individual planet might be percieved as a boundary :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Heron, I am the opposite- I need space and the ability to spread out. That said, I have often thought a tranquility tank would be an amazing experience.

    I'm glad you sorted out your smoky spots.

    xx
    AM

    ReplyDelete
  6. Such a cool post Mel, love the pictures :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mel, you have made me laugh so hard..at first glance it looks like you are "coming out of the closet" hahahaha/ Now I see that you have a "hidey hole" as the poet James Whitcomb Riley (of long ago from my city Indianapolis, Indiana) described in his poem Li'l Orphant'Annie. hahahahaha I love hidey-holes! I don't need space...I like to be scrunched up!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh I just read further ( I have a tendency to comment before I read the entire post) and you call it a press. That is what James Whitcomb Riley called it also.. He said cubby hole and press. Love this little tight spot...I want one now!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anne-Marie thanks for your comment. I am neither agraphobic nor claustrophobic :) and enjoy open spaces as well as small spaces, for both can provide a sense of adventure.

    Karen: It is always a pleasure to see your back on here ! :)

    Kim: I'm not sure that I know you well enough to be Coming out of the Closet to you er' h'mmmmm [wink]

    Someone is sure to correct me ? The word Press is an Old English word that is used in a different context in modern British English. It is still though used in Ireland, the U.S. & Canada. Cupboard has superceded 'press' in British English and similarly the word closet used to generally refer to a lavatory.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great post, Mel, it looks as if it was a great problem solving exercise, and I love the photos. I'm not that keen on confined spaces myself, which is probably strange given that I live on a rather small barge. Still, give me open spaces any day. As for the word Press, I always thought it was some kind of blanket chest, or kist as we called them in South Africa, but maybe they were cupboards too. Thanks for the information!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you for your contribution VallyP, you may well be correct re 'Press' Which I have since learned that it's origins are from French word Pressé and borrowed by the Middle English language as "press".

    ReplyDelete

Be polite at all times or run the risk of being blocked.