I still can't write about the job in Muswellbrook for security reasons, so have some photos of an impressive Jacobean house in Essex. Which would not allow photos of the interior for security reasons.
Every true geek should know the name Tommy Flowers. We all remember Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Admiral Grace Hopper, and Alan Turing. Tommy Flowers is the engineer who Alan Turing came to when he needed help building something to decrypt the German codes. Mr Flowers built the *first* programmable computer. By the end of the War he'd built 10 of them.
The National Museum Of Computing has re-built one of the original Colossus computers, using as many original parts and valves as possible.
And so on day 8 I took Aaron to see Bletchley Park, and had to explain to him the significance of the place.
The Mansion where the Code Breakers worked.
Actually, this is where the head of the section and his staff worked. The real code breakers worked out of little pre-fab huts on the grounds. ( Photos )
Hatfield House does not permit photos inside, which sucked. It was very nice and had some impressive paintings. The original house was an Elizabethan palace, most of which was demolished to build the current house. Some of the Old Palace still exists.
I've been told the gardens are impressive as well, but that was an extra cost. ( A few photos. )
From Castle Rising it is a short run to Sandringham where the Queen lives. She wasn't in that day, so they let us peasants in. No photos inside, though.
After Ely, we drove to Framlingham Castle which looks like this from the air (Googlemaps image). The castle was built some time in the 12th century (records are a bit vague) and upgraded many times over the years.
Some time in the late 1800s/ early 1900s, the local Lord visited a garden in Switzerland, and liked it a lot. He had his own Swiss Garden built at Shuttleworth. It's a nice, quiet place on a cold, wet early spring day.
Took off from Heathrow at 10.30pm Thursday night, landed at Sydney at 5am Saturday. I didn't really sleep - I sort of drowsed in an awake-but-can't-open-eyes way.
I had a light snooze this afternoon, and now I am looking for something easy to cook for dinner.
I'm wrecked, but I regret nothing! I didn't want to come home.