Winter

The recent wintery weather here in Bristol reminds me of my recent trip to California. I've been there enough to know that, despite what people think, they do have poor weather occasionally.

It seems they had the coldest weather for a decade while I was there. The picture on the left shows snow on the hills to the east of San Jose. I've seen a light dusting of snow on the hills before but not a blanketing.

However, in twenty-something years of visiting Silicon Valley I've never before had to scrape ice off my windscreen which I had to do for two days running.

It was really good to get back to the mild climate of Bristol.

Aeroplanes take off

From Aeroplanes

What a great gig last night. Bristol's Blue Aeroplanes played a pre-SXSW gig at The Thunderbolt. The line-up was Max Noble (guitar), Dave Chapman (guitar), Chris Sharp (bass), Wojtek Dmochowski (dance), Gerard Starkey (guitar and vocals), John Langley (drums), Garard Langley (vocals), Rita Lynch (guitar and vocals) and John Stapleton (DJ). I don't know how long it is since John Stapleton has performed with the 'planes but I don't think I've seen gim since I saw the 'planes play the Hope Centre back in the year dot.

From Aeroplanes

The band played a great set ("Raise The Roof", "Warhol's 15", "Sulphur", "25 Kinds of Love", "Angela Carter", "Play On Empty", "Oak Apple Day", "Police 38 Divinity", "Lover and Confidante", "One World Passport", "Tied To You", "Nothing", "Birthday Suit And Badge", "Jacket Hangs", and "Bury Your Love Like Treasure") and great encore ("Your Own World", "Too Drunk To Fuck", and "Breaking In My Heart"). The new material sounds great - "Sulphur" is excellent on a first hearing (I think - maybe they played it at Christmas) and "25 Kinds of Love" is not enough. (Sorry, I mean is fast becoming a favourite).

From Aeroplanes

This gig was so much better than the sad years when the Christmas show seemed like a "Gerard Swaggers - a Blue Aeroplanes Tribute Band". It's great to hear the good new material and the old stuff being revisited. It's as though the "Swagger" is no longer weighing down the band and they have moved on to pastures new and old.

Don't believe what you see

I think a lot of people have become wise to what can be done with Photoshop when it comes to faking things. But video?



Thanks to Engadget for the lead to the Univeristy of Washington.

The Next Prime Minister

Thursday's local elections in the UK have shown that people are prepared to vote Tory again. The possibility, neigh likelihood, of the next Primer Minister being David "Lord Snooty" Cameron, is being treated seriously by the political commentators.

However, I think the elections have started the process that ensures Labour's fourth term. Step One (taken): Ken Livingstone frees himself from his mayoral duties. Step Two: Ken re-enters Parliament (Gwyneth Dunwoody's safe Labour seat is up for grabs, although I think Ken really wants a London seat). Step Three: Ken forces leadership election in Labour party; Livingstone beats Broon - Ken becomes PM. Four: "In the interests of democray" Ken calls snap general election and achieves Labour's fourth term.

Thanks to Topsy Grewlike for the photo which in published under a creative commons licence.

And how many others?

I can't work out what this should say. Should it be "Muller only use 7, natural ingredients in their ...", or maybe "Muller use only 7, natural ingredients in the their ..."? I think their wording begs the question "And how many unnatural ones?".

View from my hotel in Las Vegas

San Francisco

According to the wisdom of the net, Mark Twain never said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." He should have.

The first time I got to see the whole of the Golden Gate Bridge was from the window of the 747 jetting me to London. And it's not just me that got picked on.

A-W-E-S-O-M-E

Since the Getty I have visited Pismo Beach to quad-bike across the dunes; visited the amazing Hearst Castle; visited Big Sur and hiked up Mount Manuel; seen elephant seals, sea-lions, and sea-otters in the wild; visited the Monterey aquarium and been on a roller-coaster on the Santa Cruz boardwalk.

But nothing compares to visiting Yosemite. As the local teenagers say - awesome.

The Getty

After the pure tackiness that is Hollywood, we witnessed the opposite extreme yesterday (Tuesday) - the Getty Museum.

Set on a hill, high above Los Angeles, the Getty has decent air quality. We'd thought the LA air wasn't great, but it wasn't until we visited the Getty that we realised just how bad it had been. But the air was the least of the Getty's qualities.

The buildings are stunning; works of art themselves. The art was great. Some superb drawings and wonderful paintings.
The garden was wonderful. A work of art.

We had a lovely lunch in the restaurant, overlooking the hills to the north of LA, very good food, but not a work of art.

All in all, absolutely wonderful and worth travelling all the way from England for.

European Journey: Part II

In my previous post, I said that normally I travel from Milan to Grenoble by car. I had made the journey a few times a prior this trip, and I knew that when you follow the obvious route - Turin, Féjus Tunnel, A43 and then A41 to Grenoble, the journey takes between four and five hours - depending on the traffic on the Turin ring road. This time, as I was travelling in high summer this, I decided that I would go a different, longer, more scenic route - if I had time. My idea was to go over the Mont Cenis pass (2,082m), then over the Col de L'Iseran (2770m), down past Val d'Isère, Bourg St Maurice, Moutiers and thence Grenoble. I thought this would take about six hours, although with mountain passes you can never be sure.

I left my morning meeting at about two-thirty; by three o'clock I was sitting in my hire car, talking myself into taking the long route. The weather in Milan was good, and the clouds over the mountains didn't look too bad.

The start of the journey ran westward along the Milan-Turin road - horrible as expected. The Turin traffic was bad and I didn't reach the A32 towards France until later than I had anticipated. The weather was also a little worse than it had been in Milan. However, as I couldn't see myself getting the opportunity to drive over the Alps in summer again, I decided to press on.

The SS25 was a good fun drive, my destination was not always clearly signposted so I was pleased I had my gps with me. The only memorable point before the Italian-French border was the Bar Cenisio. The border itself was unremarkable and unmanned. The road up the Lac do Mon Cenis was populated by keen cyclists.

Then the lake. There were very few people around; I'm sure if I did the journey a month later the area would have been packed with tourists but the end of June certainly wasn't high season. From the lake I drove on to Lanslebourg-Mont-Cenis from where there is an alternative, shorter route to Grenoble via Modane and the A43. The weather was beginning to look cloudy and there were warning about various road closures but I chose not to be seduced by Modane.

There were lots of roadworks as I climbed up to the pass. The road had only opened for the summer three weeks previously and it was evidently the time to repair the winter's damage. The temperature fell and the weather deteriorated as I climbed. At the top it was misty, snowing and subzero. I was very disappointed I couldn't see much - visibility was much worse than my photo suggests - I had been looking forward to comparing the Col in summer with the one I know from skiing there.

From the col I headed down towards Val d'Isère. The gps told me to go back down the way I'd just come up, trying to persuade me to do a U-turn as I drove down the blue piste - well road, but it is a blue piste in winder. Before long things improved, the gps came to its senses and the visibility improved. This is what I had wanted, seeing the pistes covered in grass, with the lifts looking very out of place.

I drove into into town to take a look at the Solaise bumps and La Face (above). La Face looked very lush. There was a lot of construction work going on, perhaps in preparation for the World Championships in 2009.

From Val d'Isère I drove past the ski resorts of Les Arcs, La Plagne, Les Trois Valleys. The roads seemed better than when I was last in the area, and there were certainly at lot less cars than in the winter. I was only overtaken once by a mad-man on a blind bend. Moutiers to Grenoble was straightforward and mundane, excellent roads and autoroutes. I made it to my hotel in time to have dinner before ten.

European Journey: Part I

As my regular reader will know, I frequently travel to Grenoble on business. I normally fly from Bristol to Geneva, hire a car and drive to Grenoble. I've made this journey many times and it has become quite routine. The only unknown is where I'll stay in Grenoble. There is quite high pressure on hotel rooms and unless the trip is set up well in advance getting a room is a bit of a lottery.

I was all set to make one of these routine trips when my presence was requested at a meeting just outside Milan on the first day that I was supposed to be in Grenoble. What to do? I could rearrange my travel to fly to Milan instead of Geneva, but however I got to Milan, I would have to drive from Milan to Grenoble. Well, have may be too strong a word, but in practice driving is the best option. Anyhow, I decided that as I was travelling in high summer and the days were long, I'd keep my flights as organised, and drive from Geneva to Milan.

The route is pretty straightforward as shown on the map below:

From Geneva you take the Autoroute Blanche to the Mont Blanc tunnel. Then you go through the tunnel, through the Aosta Valley and intersect the main Turin to Milan road west of Turin. A pleasant drive through the Alps. A perfect way to spend a summer evening.

When I reached Geneva it was raining and miserable. It rained all the way to the Mont Blanc tunnel. And then it rained on the other side of the tunnel. But the weather did improve as I drive down the Aosta valley and the remainder of the drive was dry. Fortunately.

I say fortunately because the autostrada between Turin and Milan is one of my least favourite roads. It's in the process of being upgraded up the moment, but the non-upgraded parts are the narrowest three-lane carriageway I've encountered. I'm convinced that the road was constructed with just two lanes in each direction, and was upgraded to three lanes by simply changing the lane markings. Overtaking other cars is OK, but overtaking a goods vehicle is interesting. I don't like to think about driving it in the rain.

McJobs

I'd read that McDonalds weren't very happy about the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of the word "McJob" as "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, ..." but I'd not noticed their threat to start a petition to get it changed.

However, it appears to be for real. I was in London last night, Picadilly Circus, to be precise, and I saw a huge, vibrant, moving advertisement for McDonalds asking for people to join their petition.

Regular readers will know what I think of the big mac.

Fake photo from New York

Fake photo from New York
Originally uploaded by Roger Shepherd

This is another "fake" photo from our New York trip. Actually, the irony is that when you went up the Empire State Building, you could have your phototaken in from of a blue screen on the way in , and then buy a fake photo of yourself against the New York Skyline on the way out.

But who needs to buy fake photos when they can take their own?

I was in New York - Honest

There was one comment posted to this blog about the photograph of me in front of Andy Warhol's Soup Cans, saying that the picture look faked. I agree, but it was genuine. So, to give some more evidence of my visit, here is a picture taken in the lobby of the Empire State Building.

Back from New York

So, I managed to blog from my N800, and I managed to send e-mail. For some reason the mail-with-picture didn't send until this evening, when I logged into G-mail and found it in my drafts.

I don't quite know how the blog ended up with the right font on my previous post. Blogger doesn't seem to render the "font" icon on the N800.

So, on the right, you can see me in front of some Wharhol soup cans. Photo taken by my wife in the Museum of Modern Art yesterday.

Climate Change and Fame (of sorts)

I'd like to say "Hi!" to GloriaDawsonPhoto if she reads this. She's the first person to contact me to ask whether she can use one of my photos on her web site. I don't know whether she found the picture on the blog or on Flickr, but she's contacted me via Flickr's mail system. I really appreciate the courtesy of the enquiry - not strictly necessary as the pictures carry a creative commons licence.

What an ego boost! Internet fame here I come.

One for you Grev

Finding Nemo 2
Originally uploaded by IFDImages.

I found this fine photo thanks to Boing Boing and I immediately thought of my ex-colleague Greville Commins who likes scuba diving and sushi.

If you like interesting images, particularly those used in advertising, them IFDimages Filkr pages are worth spending some time looking at.

Happy Times

In case I've given the impression that we didn't have a good time in La Clusaz, I thought I'd post this photo of my two sons with the Monte Blanc range behind them.

Wonderful view over to Monte Blanc, wonderful snow underfoot, wonderful skiing at this altitude.

Coach Class To La Clusaz

Our trip to La Clusaz was organised through Ski The Edge who specialise in skiing holidays based in French Youth Hostels. The half-term deal they offer is amazingly good value; travel, accommodation, full board and lift pass all included.

A whole party of us from around where we live in Bristol travelled out together by coach - only one person found a reason why she had to fly back. The journeys were long (about sixteen hours) but tolerable.

The accommodation was fine; our family had a four bed (bunk) room with its own shower. There wasn't a lot of room but I've had chalet holidays with less space.

The catering was great. Good, unpretentious French food for lunch (yes lunch was included) and diner. And we got breakfast and tea. Oh, you could swap your cooked lunch for a packed lunch if you so wanted.

Finally, the staff were great, very friendly and helpful.

Would we do this type of trip again? That's a tough question. It can't be beaten as a cheap skiing trip but it did have two downsides. The first was the snow; but that was bad luck (or global heating). The second was the journey - it would have been greatly preferable to have flown from Bristol to Geneva and taken a road transfer to La Clusaz. However, that would probably added 40-50% to the total price given we were travelling at half term. So, can't be beaten for value but I think I'd like to apply a larger budget to my skiing in future.

Global Warming and Skiing

The break in postings on this blog is due to my having been on a skiing trip to La Clusaz in France.

This year has been very poor for snow in this part of France. In mid-February there should be lots and lots of snow in La Clusaz. This year there wasn't. The southern facing slopes were pretty much bare below about 1600-1700m. Above that things were better, but the snow conditions left a lot to be desired until you got up to around 2000-2100m, and in La Clusaz there isn't a lot of skiing at that height - La Balme and L'Aiguille were the only places with really good snow.

We had rain/sleet/snow on the morning of our final day in La Clusaz. There were a few centimetres of powder to play in. Unfortunately the wind was quite strong and the chair (as seen in these photos) leading up to L'Aigille wasn't open so I was stuck with rather heavy powder. Then it started raining....