Autumn in Athens (not to be confused with Fall in Athens)

Looking back over the posts on this blog, you would think that all I've done since I arrived in Athens is eat. *Clearly* that's not the case ;-), so I thought I should redress the balance and add some photos from the last few months, split into 'Autumn' and 'Winter' posts. And with no food photos in sight! Well, maybe just one or two ;-)

So without further ado....

It was still nice and warm and sunny in October, so we tried to make the most of it by taking a canoe out on our local Dow Lake...

Luckily, I had my own 'outboard motor' with me, so I didn't need to exert myself too much...

Ahh..... sunshine, how I miss thee....

Southeastern Ohio is well-known locally for being particularly beautiful in the Autumn (or 'Faaaaaal' if you come from round these parts), which certainly appeared to be the case. Athens County sits in a large area of forest, and Athens in particular is located in the Hocking River Valley, so I see why these area is popular with Ohioans (yes, that is a word) when compared to the 'badlands' of Northern Ohio. Ok, 'badlands' may be a bit harsh, but it's pretty flat up there.

Anyways, during Autumn I felt quite sorry for this tree, across the road from our flat, as it seemed to be thinning a little on top...

But was still beautiful on the inside :-)

The grounds of the former mental hospital are now popular with walkers (it's that kind of town), and they give some nice views back over Athens...

And here's Omar demonstrating what 'taking in the view' might look like (and I resisted the urge to make a joke inferring that perhaps Omar had escaped from the aforementioned mental hospital. How very charitable of me)

But of course it wouldn't be Athens if there wasn't something random to see, like this chair, in the middle of a field....

And even the Walmart car park likes to get in on the nice views as well, which is certainly in stark contrast to the 'views' you get inside Walmart

So, I have already posted some photos about our slightly debauched shenanigans over Thanksgiving, but while Kieran was here we also managed to fit in some outdoorsy stuff, in between the hangovers.

First off was a trip to Old Man's Cave, near Logan, Ohio...

And very nice it was too

In addition to caves, there were also a number of waterfalls provided for our enjoyment, or mostly just to look at

How cold was it at Old Man's Cave? This cold!

Apparently the valley that we were walking through sees some serious flooding every decade or so, which shifts a lot of rock around and alters the landscape. Which I assume explains things like this...

Storms just knock over trees. Pah.

Either there are some big-ass spiders in this gorge that I didn't see, or I'm getting completely confused...

And here's another waterfall at the other end of the gorge (large American shouting "where you guys all from?" at us just out of shot)

The next activity in the Thanksgiving extravaganza was a trip on the Hocking Valley scenic railway. This would be a nice way to show Kieran around the area, or so we thought.

The scenic railway (there's no longer any commuter trains running in Ohio), starts in Nelsonville, about 15 mins drive from Athens

The train comes from old stock, bought up when the commercial railway was shut down

 And as an added, but slightly confusing (given it was November), bonus there was Santa!

Of course, because it was the Santa Express this meant that we were the only adults unaccompanied by children. But no parents complained and we still got our candy canes, so it was all good...


...until the journey started of course. The first 'landmark' on our journey was this lovely trailer. Can you spot all the spelling mistakes? I'm guessing they didn't go to Hocking 'Collage' themselves....

Nelsonville is also home to this charming 30ft tall sculpture of what I can only assume is a giant 't' (it lights up at night as well, which is a nice touch, because nothing says 'welcome' better than a flaming cross)

So I'll spare you the remaining photos from the rest of the trip, which consist mostly of the motorway, sofas left under motorway bridges, trailer parks and farmers fields. The highlight of the journey, however, was spotting this particular field... 




Perhaps the apocalypse has come early to Ohio.....

So all-in-all, not the best trip to take when suffering from tequila poisoning (see the Thanksgiving post). I guess we misinterpreted what they meant by 'scenic', although I think it gave Kieran an accurate picture of rural Ohio. The only thing worse than the view from the train was the fact that it only travelled at 10 miles per hour...... that was 2.5 hours to remember *sob*

Next stop on the 'Athens across the seasons' express...... Winter!

The Firminator Challenge

Belated Happy New Year! I have a few Christmas/New Year/general eating endeavours posts waiting in the wings, but in the meantime I wanted to write a little about a little project I'm embarking on.

In the summer I'm going to be a bridesmaid at the wedding of the very lovely Sarah and Sean, Sarah being my oldest friend (relatively speaking, not absolutely). On a recent visit to see Sarah in Vancouver (more to follow) she presented me with a bottle of Soap and Glory's The Firminator, as a bridesmaid gift. It had come highly recommended from her sister (also a bridesmaid), on the premise that it breaks down fat and thus decreases cellulite in the treated areas. Interesting. The reviews I've read online are unanimous in their praise for the effects of the Firminator, so I'm encouraged to do a bit more research on this miracle product.

The key ingredient here seems to be glaucine, which is purported to break down the fat. A quick bit of Google-based research suggests that the primary use is as a bronchodilator and antitussive (a cough suppressant). It also has some anti-imflammatory effects. I have a grotty chest infection at the moment, so I'm not put off by this. I'm also reliably informed by Wikipedia that the side effects of glaucine are sedation, fatigue and hallucinations, prompting use as a recreational drug. Bonus! ;-)

Being a committed sceptic (I prefer to think of it as having an enquiring mind) I decided that this was the perfect opportunity for a bit of empirical testing. This isn't the sort of thing I would usually buy for myself, so maybe I've been missing out? It helps that I haven't been exercising much recently, so I have cellulite in abundance :-) Also, it's been a while since I measured any monkey hands, so I've been craving 'research' somewhat.

So the experiment will run as follows:

-  I will apply The Firminator, as per pack instructions (twice a day) to a region of my choosing

- To increase the chances of seeing an effect, I have picked my most cellulite 'afflicted' area - the thigh

-  To control for the affect of any 'lifestyle change' (i.e. I'm definitely considering thinking about doing some more exercise over the next few months), I'm only going to apply the Firminator to one leg, the left one. And as all good laterality researchers know, the lower limbs are less likely to show behavioural or morphology asymmetry compared to the upper limb, so using the legs acts as a further control. See, I knew that PhD would come in useful eventually :-)

- I will record my findings on a weekly basis, until this pack runs out. The info on the packing says that I need to continue for 56 days, but I'll review this as I go along.

The null hypothesis is for no effect on cellulite levels. My guess is that, as it states on the box, it will 'diminish the appearance of cellulite' to an extent, which is not quite the same as getting rid of it. Not being a biochemist, I'm going to guess further that it will do this primarily through dehydrating the fat cells.

Today is day 1 and I applied the first 'treatment' this morning. Results so far: I smell slightly mintier than before.

I'll keep you posted!