“Are you guys from a real zoo?” I heard the girl from The Big Bang restaurant say. But nope, we’re from a Zoo of Galaxies and we come from different places to meet up and hang out frequently.
This time the occasion was the making of a documentary, which was organised by Colin and Brendon from Pulse Project. Their goal was to show how much fun it is (for amateurs) to participate in a science project like Galaxy Zoo. Besides my story about Hanny’s Voorwerp and being an ambassador ever since, they also “gave ‘my’ peas a chance” with their few minutes of fame. I say ‘mine’ affectionately, as I reported the first on the Galaxy Zoo Forum a while ago (naming them Peas), but it really became a community project when other volunteers found more and sorted them out.
I was the first they interviewed in front of the camera, in the garden of The Royal Oak pub we stayed at that afternoon. I’m thinking pre-recorded ones are a bit trickier than live actually, but it was a lot of fun and I’m sure the guys will make a nice video of it. All ‘zooites’ present got the chance to tell the world what a nice bunch we are and I’m looking forward to seeing the result.
When Chris first heard of my involvement in the Peas by the way, his joking response was: “Oh no, don’t tell me that was you again!” As he was afraid people might think you need to be Hanny van Arkel to discover something, but we still think it just shows how far an open mind and curiosity can bring you. Anyway, Chris was at this meet-up on Sunday too and together with Pamela, Arfon and Georgia, he showed us a new task involving mergers.
In the pub we had the chance to catch up, even though we all agree that a single day is too short. It was nice though to see the familiar faces again and to meet a few new and we had lots of fun there in Oxford. I brought the Playboy magazine for Chris and he had me signing it for him. It now hangs on the wall of his office.
Lots of us stayed in Oxford that night and so did Edd and I. It would be the last night of this holiday together. After an ice-cream from G&D’s and another pub stop at The Eagle and Child, we all walked to our hotels and since Tommy was staying in the same as us, we ended up with drinks in one room. I don’t drink alcohol, but I can get in a drunk mood, which this evening was triggered by Tommy noticing a clock saying it’s ten to eleven. (I know it doesn’t sound funny now, but you had to be there!)
The next day Edd had to leave early for work. Tom and I paid Chris and Arfon a visit at Astrophysics when we bumped into Christian and later Els and we had lunch with Graham, back in London. The gentlemen were being gentlemen, carrying this flowery suitcase for me, until I had to take over myself again to take it back home. Thanks everyone for a brilliant weekend and l’m looking forward to the Summer already!
A few pictures of me and my English friends in the pub. Taken by different people there.
Here’s Tommy and me.
Graham (Infie) and me, in the garden of the pub.
Els (from Belgium) and me.
Edd and me (outside again).
Chris and me. He asked if I could pose like a Playboy bunny…
One Comment
sounds like an interesting weekend, hope I can attend someday…
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[...] had a couple of more or less official Zooniverse get-togethers in Oxford before, but I think with this one we’ve established it’s going to be an annual event. [...]