Maker Faire

Posted by Andrew on Mar 13, 2011 | 3 comments

So we had quite a collection of experiences today. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. Andrew had a full English breakfast and I had poached eggs with homemade English muffins. Yes, they actually did call them “English” muffins on the menu. A little redundant if you ask me. Anyway, then it was off to fix a quick train ticket mishap and on to Maker Faire which is part of the Newcastle Science Festival.

What fun! They had everything from a giant fire-breathing robot dragon to remote controlled trash cans named Sid and Nancy to DIY electrical kits to music made using Tessla coils. Andrew was in seventh heaven. They also do this strange thing called yarn bombing as part of the festival which is basically where people knit items and vandalize public spaces with them. For example, one person knit a seat warmer for a public bench and another thought a tree sweater would be a nice contribution. Who knew knitters here are such rebels? After spending all morning at Maker Faire we had lunch at a little noodle house which was surprisingly good seeing as though there isn’t a large population of Asians living here as far as we can tell.

By the time we were done with lunch it was about 4:00 p.m. and we went back to the hotel for a little R&R to rest up for an evening concert and seminar on creating music using brainwaves. It was pretty interesting although a little anti-climactic since the guy just stands there with a headset thinking about music while a computer outputs sounds. It was an amazing scientific feat, but the entertainment factor could have been amped up. The best part about the evening was the walk to the concert hall. The river and bridges here are really beautiful! I promise to post pictures tomorrow as we have no wi-fi at our hotel so there is no way to get the pictures onto the blog. I am currently posting this from Mickey’s iPad. Our hotel tomorrow night has it so I will update this post then. Andrew took some really beautiful ones of the Newcastle Bridge that I can’t wait to share. Because we had a late lunch and were pretty beat by the time the concert ended, we decided to forgo dinner and just eat some snacks we brought. At the time I’m writing this, Andrew is already sleeping. Hope everyone is well at home. Cheers, Chelsie and Andrew

UPDATE…The photos are here!