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Sj visit 2017    University of Cape Town

   Thursday July 13

Cj had gotten a tour of the labs at Stellenbosch the day before but he hadn't visited the University of Cape Town properly so first order of business was a tour. Tanya dropped the four of us next to what can only be described as the strangest sculpture and from there we walked up the hill, passing first the (now removed) Rhodes monument.

What can only be described as the strangest sculpture.

Tw contrived to reproduce, for cj, the view he had of the University on the day of his interview.

The view just the icing on the cake of the post and the facilities on offer.

Cecil Rhodes statue no longer on its plinth but it still casts a shadow.

Eventually we arrived at the physics building where tw proceeded to give us a thorough tour, first of his office, then of the various teaching labs and then his lab.

To be found in the physics teaching lab is this wonderful example of a Rudolph Koenig manometric flame apparatus. It well deserves a post just to itself, but follow the links for more information.

Rudolph Koenig manometric flame apparatus.

More links to Rudolph Koenig's manometric flame apparatus

Koenig's analyzer and Helmholtz resonaters 4 links

Looking up the links reminded me about being mystified by some old apparatus we had a Sir John Deane's grammar school when I taught there. When Northwich converted its gas supply from the smelly gasworks in town, all the kit that used to be powered by 'town' gas was replaced or adapted to run on the new-fangled 'natural' gas. I am afraid that our 'sensitive flame' apparatus ended up in the bin when it was found that it could not be converted to run on the new, and non-toxic natural gas.

Then we headed to the lounge for the daily coffee break at 1100 where we met up with Tanya who proceeded to show us her lab and explain the neutron beam she has designed and had built for her research and which ends [we hope] before it gets into her office even though it is heading there.



When we'd seen it all tw drove us down to the Albert and Victoria waterfront where we proceeded to split a number of spring rolls for dinner before walking back to where we'd been the day before so that we could see the Company Gardens, a botanical Garden built by the Dutch east India company, and then to tour the African history museum.

None of us all that interested in the model animals at the museum but all in agreement that the exhibition of original African cave paintings was outstanding.

The exception to the model animal display being the view of js caught in the jaws of a [fibre glass] great white shark.

All tired and with museum feet so off to find tea and coffee when we were done in the museum. Ended up in a specialty tea restaurant that might have been a bit too niche for the likes of us. Not sure any of us really enjoyed our teas, certainly cj pronounced his to be undrinkable [but at least the pot plants got some needed irrigation] so off to find [proper] drinks when we were done there.

Ended up in a funky little restaurant called Kloof House that had fantastic cocktails. Texted a photo of the drink menu to Lauren in hopes she could help us recreate a few of them. Tw picked us up about 6pm and we headed back to the house via the off license where we purchased a good supply of beer and wine. None of us recognized any of the bottles so had a grand old time picking a variety of bottles based only on the merits of the label. Ts made 5 foot sausage and assorted vegetables for dinner.