A Bit Star Struck - Amanda (And Then Genie)

Last night we were hanging out at the Mut Mee for a bit of lesson planning because Lofter is closed on the 1st of every month (something we both remembered as we walked to the entrance and saw how dark it was inside). We enjoyed a delicious Pat Thai, affectionately spelled pad Thai back home, with the soupiest tzatziki sauce we've ever had. The tzatziki is also served with a small side of French bread instead of pita bread of fries, interesting combo, but the flavor is on point.

Julian eventually had a seat next to us for a while, which is always exciting because he's full of stories. The conversation began with Julian stating that Genie was special (which I fully agree with) because she had the same name as his mother...Virginia. She corrected him and he was enamored that Eugenia was where her nickname came from. He was then catapulted into talking about his mother: a woman he clearly admires with his whole heart. "My mother was truly a special woman, you know, she worked in WWII on cracking the Enigma code..." cue both of our mouths dropping open because we both know exactly what that means. Julian's mother worked with Alan Turing! I can't speak for Genie, but I tried very hard not to bombard him with thousands of questions. He proceeds to explain that there was the secret group working on the enigma machine but there was an even smaller, more top secret group working on breaking the code that people don't know any details about. He referenced the film The Imitation Game quite a few times and how they over-romanticized the relationship Turing had with Joan Clarke (Keira Knightly's character). We received more information about his mother's romantic exploits and her work experiences with Great Britain's version of the NSA. He reminisced about this beautiful woman that was at his home when he was 16 who is mother deemed "the smartest person in the world." We were just getting into his mother's placement in Iraq with a M6 officer, she was adamant about not "needing a babysitter" when he was whisked away by his staff.

According to the rules of '7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon' this now makes us 2 degrees away from Alan Turing!

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A Genie Update:

Amanda was fully correct in speaking for me. I had to breathe very deeply and consistently put water in my mouth in order to not ask him a slew of nosy questions.

As someone who loved the college class: Numerical Theory, Analysis, and Cryptology, I am quite the WWII coding nerd. My college English course was also based on mathematics and science and my research final was on Alan Turing. Needless to say, I'm a little obsessed.

He also suggested watching The Bletchley Circle on Netflix.

Conveniently, I've already watched it about 3 times because it's amazing. However, I'm watching it again because Amanda hasn't!