alunthomasevans

Build your Bike with BuildYourBicycle.com!

2010-04-21T14:01:00.002Z

So I've started a new company, which teaches you to build your own bike. BuildYourBicycle.com - check it out!

Formal end of this blog, and start of a new one.

2009-11-25T12:14:00.004Z

The more astute among you might have noticed that I stopped updating this blog some time ago (no shit, Al!).

I started writing this blog as a little diary of my new life in Barcelona, to let friends and family know what I was doing and what things were like out here.

However a year ago I realised that it had served its purpose. I was starting to write about another climbing trip, or another terrace party, or another skiing trip, and I realised that, basically, I nothing really interesting to say anymore!

So I stopped, and I think it was the right thing to do. A lot has happened since my last post, I got married, changed jobs, changed flat, got a cat, spent a month in Brazil etc., but I never really felt the need to write about it.

However now I've finally got back into my rock climbing in a serious way, and to motivate myself I've decided to start a new blog dedicated only to my rock-climbing. Apologies if you're not really interested in climbing, as it may not make much sense, it is written in climbing geek-speak. However, if you do want to go and check it out, the new address to remember is

http://www.8amyarse.com

Love you all,
Al

First climbing of the season

2008-09-21T17:17:00.001Z

So finally the temperatures have dropped (to a pleasant 25ish degrees) which permits Spanish climbers to emerge, tanned but very weak from a couple of months sunbathing, from their summer hibernation (on the beach!). If you have been following the blog you'll know that over the summer I've done zero climbing, but in the last few weeks I realised that the climbing season was about to begin and I've been training again to get some fitness back, in anticipation of the first day back on rock.

Today was the perfect day for it, slightly overcast and with a light wind, though it's still September and that means still hunting the shade - climbing in the sun will still be too hot for another month or so at least. We drove 40 mins south from Barcelona to the Garraf national park. Those of you with particularly good memories will recall that this was the place where Djanira and I first went climbing after moving to Spain, about 18 months ago. Time flies and all that. Unfortunately Djanira was working today, so this time my companion was my Belgian pal (and fellow mountain biker, see last post) PJ. We visited a new sector, a place called Sectors Bombers (no panic, bombers means 'firemen' in Catalan) on the crag of Pic de Martell. While most of the routes on this crag are amenable trad routes of about 4 or 5 pitches, Sector Bombers is a very steep cave with a handful of harder sport routes. It's not very tall but the routes are about 20m long once you factor in the steepness, the view is unsurpassable and the routes are of excellent quality.

After warming up I managed to redpoint* a route graded 7a+, which is equal to my best efforts in sport climbing. Considering this is practically the first day of the season, I'm chuffed. I had kind of set myself the goal of redpointing 7c this season, but wasn't sure if it was too ambitious or not. The fact that I redpointed 7a+ in one day gives me a bit more confidence, but we'll see, it will require quite a bit of dedicated training. Still, it was a very good start to the season, and a good way to boost the confidence. Now where's that fingerboard...?

*non climbers note: redpoint is the term given to when you practice the route first i.e. climb a section, rest on the rope, work out the best sequence to do the moves, rest, climb, rest, climb, rest etc. until you reach the top. Then you come back down to the bottom and have a looong rest, before trying to climb the route in one go, without resting at all on the way. It's a very different style of climbing to the traditional 'onsight' approach, but it can also be very satisfying, as you end up climbing routes that at first seemed completely impossible. For more understanding see this.

Last riding of the season

2008-09-16T10:12:00.004Z

On Saturday morning, PJ and I headed up to Andorra for one final weekend of riding this year. In actual fact the lifts are open for the next few weekends but this was the last opportunity that we have, now things like weddings take priority! Also, in July we had bought a "5 days for the price of 4" lift pass deal, which still had two days needing using up, so a perfect excuse - or at least it would have been, had PJ not forgotten to bring his tickets...!

Anyway the trails were in perfect nick, there was a very light periodic drizzle which kept the dirt moist and really grippy. Above is a moody shot, taken by PJ, (bigger) of me dropping in on a section of the MaxiAvalanche trail, which is several kilometers long and takes in a 500m drop in altitude. It was all great fun but now it's time to pack the bikes away and get the skis/boards out - there was already snow higher up the valley! I'll leave you with a couple more shots, one of PJ motoring downhill and one of a tired Alun setting the world to right in the gondola!

5 steps to understanding why we need the LHC (or, Quantum Mechanics for Dummies)

2008-09-08T19:21:00.005Z

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is about to be turned on this week, with the noble goal of recreating conditions as to how they were shortly after the Big Bang, in an attempt to find the Higgs boson. Brilliant!

The only problem is that if you are anything like me, you're probably wondering what the hell a Higgs boson is actually supposed to be. It sounds very exotic, but unfortunately the wikipedia page is full of unhelpful jargon, which I'm sure is technically all very correct, but fundamentally dull. As luck would have it I've just finished reading through a book called The Void, by Frank Close. It's a little heavier than your average popular science yarn, but it does a pretty good job of explaining a few mysteries. So, as much for my benefit as anybody elses, I thought I'd try to summarise my understanding. If any clever physicist type people happen to read this, and think it's all tosh and I've explained it rubbishly, then do please let me know.

To understand what the Higgs boson is supposed to be, and more importantly where it's supposed to come from, we need to have a little background in quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is famous for having lots of wierd bits to it. So I'm going to structure the argument around those.

Weird Bit #1: The Heisenberg uncertainty principal is probably the least weird bit of quantum mechanics. It basically says that you can either know a thing's exact location, or you can know its precise speed, but you can't know both at the same time. This kind of makes sense - as even the act of measuring something's location will change its location, because your measuring tool will move it slightly (even beams of light have energy which can 'move' things). The weirdest part is that, if you know something's location exactly, then it must be moving (if it wasn't, both relative location and energy (speed) would be zero, which violates the principle). Given that the act of measuring something's location inherently moves it somehow, the only way we can be 100% sure of something's location is to remove it i.e. create a vacuum. In a vacuum we know, with all certainty, that there is nothing there!

Weird Bit #2: Zero point energy is the name given to the consequence of Weird Bit 1. If we create a vacuum in a room, we know the exact location of things inside it (i.e. they don't exist!). The uncertainty principle means that therefore there must be some energy in the vacuum. This is Weird Bit #2 and I'm you'll agree that it is exceptionally weird. But I'm afraid that it is a fact, verified experimentally. We just have to accept that a vacuum is filled with a level of background energy - a very very very low level, but there all the same. The technical term for this is zero point energy - i.e. the lowest possible energy state that can exist.

Weird Bit #3: Virtual electrons and positrons. We all know that -1 and +1, when added together, equal zero. A positive counters a negative. That's logical. Well, think of it from the other side and then it follows that 0 = (+1) + (-1) i.e. by reversing the addition process you can end up with something positive and something negative. In physics and chemistry, 'negative' is frequently represented by an electron, which is essentially a negative charge which has a very very small mass. Its positive equivalent is the positron (which isn't so famous, as it doesn't really have much of a role in standard chemistry. It's basically the mirror image of an electron, and has a positive charge). Weird bit #3 is that fluctuations in the zero point energy field can occasionally reach levels high enough where they reverse the equation above i.e. zero changes into an electron (-1) and a positron (+1). Technically, the electron and positron existed as 'virtual' particles, and the energy fluctuation became high enough to turn them into 'real' particles. Unfortunately for our newly born electron and positron, it is impossible for anything to exist in the same place at the same time, so they very (very) quickly disappear (i.e. +1 and -1 equal zero again). This seems exceptionally weird, but it has been proven - the current particle accelerator at CERN manages to achieve such high energy levels, by smashing things together at such speed, that it manages to push apart newly born protons and electrons before they disappear - literally generating something out of nothing.

Weird Bit #4: The Higgs field. Weird Bits 1-3 were important as background, but this is where it really starts. One of the biggest questions that faces science is: what are we made of? i.e. what is mass? Physicist Peter Higgs has proposed that mass is the result of everything's interaction with an all permeating field, which has become to be known as the Higgs field. You can think of it as the fabric of the universe - a human, a protein, a molecule, an atom, a proton, an electron, a quark and everything only exists as it is due to the way it interacts with this all-encompassing field. The problem with the Higgs field is that, right now, it is just a theory. There's lots of theoretical evidence for it, but unlike Weird Bits 1-3, as yet there is no practical proof. Which leads us finally to…

Weird Bit #5: The Higgs boson. If the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (Weird bit 1) applies to the Higgs field, then Weird bits 2 and 3 should also apply i.e. there should be a zero point energy level in the field, and some form of virtual particles popping in an out of existence (the situation is much more complex than this, but this is currently the limit of my understanding!). The name given to this hypothetical virtual particle is the Higgs boson. The only problem is, that the equations that result from Higgs' theories suggest that, to even stand a chance of creating a Higgs boson, we'd need a colossal amount of energy.

The LHC is designed to be able to create such an amount of energy. It will accelerate protons around a 27km wide ring until they are at almost the speed of light, and then let them collide head on. This collision will generate vast levels of energy - enough that if a virtual Higgs boson decides to pop into existence at the right time, it will sent flying by the collision, and detected by the surrounding detectors, before it has time to disappear. This would then prove Higgs' theory, and give us concrete evidence of the very fabric of the universe. I think.

Phew!

N.B. Of course, I should point out that this is just one of the problems the LHC will look at. To find out about some of the others, check out the British LHC page.

Update: The Grauniad has a simple but good interactive guide.

More Flashdance pics

2008-08-28T08:49:00.005Z

Flashdance is the trad highpoint of my climbing career so far, and as it was during the BMC International Meet, I was lucky enough to have professional climbing photographer Alex Messenger snapping away at the time, so here are a few images that he took of the moment.

On the same day he also took a spectacular photo of Jo on Cystisis by Proxy. Such determination!

Incidently, these photos were taken in the very same quarries we went for a wander around on my stag do.

All photos copyright Alex Messenger, 2008.

Braid

2008-08-27T14:20:00.003Z

Despite the release of many excellent titles in recent months, I haven't written about a video game for a while. However, Braid appears to be something rather special. Available for download to your Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Arcade (a service that has several hundred games, of varying quality, available to download for a few quid each), it is has been exceptionally well received by the gaming press, and thankfully appears to be making its developers some money.

The basic engine of the game is a hark back to classic 2D platformers of the 80s, such as Super Mario World or similar, in which the controllable character (named 'Tim' here) runs backwards and forwards, climbs up and down ladders, and kills enemies by jumping on their heads. So far, so familiar. The crucial difference is that you, as the player, have the ability to reverse time - by holding down a button on your controller, you can rewind everything that has passed since you started each level. What makes it really interesting is that each area of the game introduces different time-bending properties e.g. objects glowing green are immune to your time-reversal powers, and occasionally you can deploy a ring that slows down time in a decreasingly powerful radius surrounding it. In one world time is stationary, but every step you take to the right advances it, and every step to the left reverses it. It turns the game into less of a standard platformer (after all, there is no concept of death or 'lives' - you just reverse time!) and more into a puzzle game, where you have to manipulate switches, platforms, keys, doors and other characters through time.

It is both visually beautiful and thoroughly engrossing to play through, but an extra twist is the story. Presented to you rather basically as a series of short sections of text that flit up on the screen, at first read through it appears that it is a load of sentimental tosh about rescuing a Princess (a la Mario). But upon reaching the end of the final level, you realise there is a darker theme that has been running through the game. A bit of thinking (and background reading) and it becomes clear that the whole thing is an allagory for the development of the nuclear bomb, and of scientists' desire to pursue research, even when it yields such destructive power. Tim, depicted as a rather bland hero, with a mop of unruly hair, shabby suit and red tie, is a scientist researching the bomb, pushing others away from him in his quest, fearful of the outcome, but unable to stop driving himself towards it.

"Now we are all sons of bitches" was the legendary remark made by Kenneth Thomas Bainbridge as he congratulated Oppenheimer and others after they succesfully tested the first nuclear bomb in the American desert. The story of Braid both pays homage and criticises those scientists, wrapping it up into a short yet addictive platform puzzler. Like a good book or film, this is something I'll be fetching down from the (metaphorical) shelf for several years to come.

Road Trip 2008

2008-08-20T12:06:00.003Z

Well I'm back from my second whirlwind tour of Western Europe this year. This time, however, I was driving instead of flying; although fortunately I had Stephen Fry's reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to keep me company. Highly recommended, the audiobook-while-driving option. Makes the hours fly by.

So anyway there I was last week, in my van, driving through the south of France. The first destination was the Swiss Valais alps, where I met up with Lau, Claire Symes and Matt Freear. We camped in quite a big site just outside the town of Randa, which is near the big mountain/ski-resort of Zermatt, which is under the shadow of the Matterhorn. Unfortunately Matt was suffering from a very nastily infected blister on his heel, so the remaining three of us decided to bag a couple of non-technical peaks, rather than go rockclimbing and requiring to faff around with three on a rope. This suited me as, while I am pretty good shape in general, my climbing fitness has plummeted since the International Meet a few months ago. So the day after I arrived, Claire, Lau and myself walked up to stay at the Bordier hut, a relatively small mountain hut situated just below 3000m.

The walk in wasn't too bad but that night I really felt the altitude. Every time I drifted off to sleep my breathing would slow down and then I would wake up with a massive intake of breath. It surprised me really - I knew that most people begin to suffer the effects of altitude at about 2400m, but I wasn't expecting not being able to sleep. What made matters worse was that we had a 3am alarm call - there was a glacier right outside the hut that needed crossing on the way to (and, more importantly, from) the nearest peaks, and it's always better to cross glaciers before the sun gets on them and starts melting those crevasses! Anyway I managed an hour's sleep before we got up and started walking. I was tired but the glacier at dawn made it all worthwhile.

So we pushed on through to climb a few peaks and the next day we did something similar. The highest we reached was 3925m which is not to be sniffed at. Shame we couldn't reach 4000m but the mountains will be there a while longer yet. You can see more of my photos from Switzerland here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alunthomasevans/RoadTrip2008

Once back at the campsite in the valley the weather broke and Lau and I hightailed it north for Fontainebleau. As I said I'm not in top climbing shape but figured that, since I was only there for a day I might as well go all out. So I pretty much climbed myself into destruction, and was rewarded by a tick of the very famous problem Marie Rose, which was the first ever 6A-graded boulder problem in the forest. My payment was four trashed fingertips and set of muscles that ached for the next three days. Ah well.

Then after an exceptionally long day in the car, Lau and I arrived in North Wales for my stag do. It was held in the Scout's hut in Bethesda, which holds special significance for me as it was the place where I first laid eyes upon the beautiful girl who is shortly to become my wife. Just under 20 people showed up this weekend. Saturday day the weather was a bit dodgy so we all went for a poke around the Llanberis slate quarries:

It is a fascinating place, with loads of old buildings containing rusting machinery, and some that even still have miners' jackets hanging up on hooks, and old shoes rotting away on shelves. We found a tunnel from one quarry to the other, which was partially submerged in about a foot of water. Being boys we had to get through it so we managed to create a chain of people passing rocks towards the front, til we had a series of stepping stones to get across! Great fun.

Anyway so Saturday night was the usual shennagins of drinking games and noise, though I was fortunate and pleased to not have anything nasty done to me. Phew! Then there was the long drive back to Barcelona, made with stops in Swansea in London to see my parents and parents-in-law-to-be.

So, a great trip all in all. But, as always, it's nice to be back.

Kangoo camper conversion

2008-08-05T11:25:00.002Z

This thursday I am off on a road trip: up to the Swiss Alps for a few days, then to Fontainebleau, then up to Wales for my stag do, then down to London, and then the long drive home. While I will have Lau with me for about a third of the journey, to keep me entertained I have still been downloading podcasts and audiobooks by the gigabyte!

I also have done a bit of carpentry in the back of my van and installed a foldable bed-platform. It is based on the design of Guillaume Dargaud - many many thanks for publishing it Guillaume! I have followed the basic design but changed a few things to suit me e.g. I haven't bothered with a twin hinge, and have added a few extra support struts. I am very pleased and looking forward to trying it out in anger next week!

I didn't fancy working out on the street and having to cut all the wood/screw things together by hand, so I was fortunate enough to be able to use a garage and tools belonging to GoCar Barcelona, Djanira's employers. Very kind - frankly I don't think I would have finished otherwise! The whole thing, including going to buy wood and stuff, too me about a day and a half, but that's because I've never done any form of carpentry before so was learning as I went along. I'm sure somebody more proficient could have got the whole thing knocked up in a few hours.

I took a video of the almost-finished product, here it is:

Andorra riding

2008-08-01T06:59:00.002Z

Last weekend, Muir, Rhys and Paul flew into Barcelona from London, and together with my mate PJ we headed up to Andorra for some downhilling action. The weather was mostly excellent and we had a lot of fun on the trails. Yesterday afternoon I compiled the various videos of our exploits into one four minute short: (note for Mums and Aunties, it has a couple of rude words in it, I blame Rhys)

La Molina 2008

2008-07-15T19:56:00.001Z

Last Sunday PJ and I headed up to La Molina for some biking action. It was my second time there this year, but PJ's first ever experience of getting to the top on a gondola! You never forget your first time...!

My first trip on a gondola with my bike was in the French resort of Morzine, about 5 years ago. Suddenly, everything I knew (or thought I knew) about mountain biking flew out of the window as this wonderful world opened up ahead of me. It's not that I don't like riding uphill - there are some very satisfying moments to be head battling your way up an incline to the reach the top - it's just that I would much, much, prefer riding down! Since then I have been back to the alps several times, and last year made the short journey to the Pyrannees a few times. This year I'm committed to riding up here as much possible - there are three bike parks open in the area during the summer, and my motivation to ride is sky-high.

Anyway so we both had a great time; while it was sunny on Sunday, there were massive thunderstorms over Catalunya the night before, so some of the trails were a little slippy. Other sections were perfect as the heavy rain had washed away all the dust and dried to that lovely grippy consistency. The photo above is taken on what is probably the longest trail at La Molina, a fantastic trip down the far end of the resort. La Molina Bike Park is now officially sponsored by Kona (one of the largest bike manufacturers) and so has money to improve, and it shows. This year it is considerably better than last year, and they just keep building more and more things. Here's a video of PJ on the north-shore* corkscrew:

Next weekend we are hosting a raiding party from Britain - Muir, Paul and Rhys are coming over to see what the fuss is about. I'm pleased as it's always good to have friends over, and I'm sure we'll have a great time. We'll spend most of our time in Andorra - the parks there are bigger and better than La Molina, but about an hour further away. We're there for five days though, so plenty of time, and we might drop by La Molina on the way back to Barcelona. Can't wait!

* wooden structures such as these are referred to as 'north shore' because the first people who had the idea to build such structures were the mountain bikers of the forests on the north shore of Vancouver, Canada.

Motivation

2008-07-10T14:20:00.002Z

It's funny how motivation to do things comes and goes in waves. Not so long ago I was crazy about climbing, going training in my lunch breaks, feverishly devouring guidebooks and planning trips. Now the motivation has waned and I'm distinctly not bothered. Maybe it's the heat, as I mentioned in my last post, summer has hit with a bang and temperatures have barely dropped below 25 degrees (even at night) for the last month. It drains you of energy, and I when I went sport climbing in Montserrat a fortnight ago, I realised that I really could not be arsed. I'm not down about it though, the same thing happened this time last year, and I pretty much stopped climbing for several months. Then I got back into it and led my first E5. If you've reached a level of fitness once before in your life, getting back to it (or getting back near it) is much easier than 'breaking new ground'. You just need the motivation to train. I'm going to the Swiss Alps soon, which will be nice, as it will be mountaineering and long rock routes, which will make a pleasant difference to hard sport climbing.

So anyway all this means that I've had time to lots of other fun things. Jack Johnson came to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago and we went to see him - along with about 10,000 others. Perhaps aware that his latest album's a bit rubbish, he played a varied set with all the best tracks from his previous albums. We really enjoyed ourselves. Here's a poor quality video but it gives you an idea of the scale of the venue.

Then of course it was Euro 2008 finals, which we watched down the beach. Adam sets the scene:

But the best thing about summer, of course, is that the chairlifts are open again. you may remember reading last year about my exploits with a bike in the pyrannees. This year I intend to get up there a lot more, and last weekend I took my first trip up to La Molina. The trails were as good as I remembered, and I'll be back there this Sunday too. Then in late July, Muir, Rhys and Mr Paul are coming out for a (very) long weekend of riding. Should be bloody good fun!

2008-06-26T08:51:00.000Z

It is reknowned as being a very British thing to talk about the weather all the time, but this year the habit has really taken off in Catalunya. Over the last two months, we were subjected to daily press updates on the state of the reservoirs in the main river systems that supply Barcelona with its water. Conversations would inevitably mention how *good* the weather was, feverishly recounting the latest levels (67.2% and rising - up from 22%). By the second month, however, the smiles had become a little bit fixed: "Yes, all the rain is very good, but surely we can start the summer now?"

Fortunately, normal service has been resumed, and summer has hit with a bang. High pressure, sunshine, and temperatures in the low 30s across the whole Iberian peninsula have caused the beaches to become as overflowing as the reservoirs. To escape the heat and crowds, Djanira and I travelled up to the Pyrannees for a weekend in the hills.

Catalunya is looking absolutely spectacular at the moment, the excess of water means that everything is green and the rivers and lakes are overflowing. Above and below are pictures of the Estany ("lake") Sant Maurici, and the two peaks in the background below are called Els Encantats. The lake and peaks are two of the most famous sights in the Pyrannees. DJ and I took a leisurely stroll around the lake on the first day; the combination of hot weather, crystal clear water and lack of people motivated me to strip of for a quick skinny-dip (very quick, the water at 1700m was freezing!); fortunately for everybody, Djanira wasn't quick enough with the camera!

The second day we went for a 20km walk with a whole 1000m of ascent/descent. It was hard work but we were rewarded but more spectacular views - and a cold beer at the campsite bar at the end of the day! We didn't manage to bag any peaks, content as we were just to hike around the valleys. Next time though we'll see if we can bag a summit or two!

The weekend was rounded off by an extra couple of days off (for me, poor DJ had to work). Tuesday was a bank holiday so I, along with most of Spain, took Monday off too. We headed up the coast to a small town called Sant Pol de Mar, where the water is fantastically clear, you can go snorkelling around some handy rocky reefs, and there is a fantastic paella restaurant right on the clean, sandy beach. It's good that summer has arrived at last!

European travels

2008-06-19T11:52:00.004Z

So I'm back in Barcelona after a week and a half on the road; Frankfurt, London, Swansea, Luxembourg, Brussels, 2500 miles of travelling and five different beds. I'll be honest, I don't really like flying around so much and I'm looking forward to the AVE connection up to the French TGV rail lines, which will make European travel a lot more pleasant. It will be a while yet though, so I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, despite all the work I had time for a bit of fun. My work mate Marco and I were in Germany on the evening of their first Euro 2008 game, which they won. It's always fun to be in the same country as a winning team in any sport, and Marco really got into the spirit!

Then we were in London where after a different sort of work meeting (different in that it was held in a pub in Soho - that's what I'm talking about!) I played the 'London Guide' to Marco and Sònia, showing them round the main sights.

Then I managed to get up to Gower to see the 'rents, and get some climbing done with Lau. Here I am in the beautiful Gower countryside after a great day's climbing. I look miserable in the pic but I'm smiling, honest!

And then at the start of this week I headed to Luxembourg to present a European research grant proposal. Cross fingers we'll get it. Afterwards there were no flights available out of Luxembourg so we had to catch a train to Brussels, stay a night, then fly out from there. I had never been to Brussels before so was glad for the time to wander around a little bit. It's actually a very nice city. In Britain I think most people think of Brussels as an 'institution' (that represents the EU and all it stands for) rather than a city. This is shame, because whether you are an Europhile or not, Brussels is actually a very pleasant city to wander around; lots of old buildings and history, and plenty going on. My rubbish camera-phone and even rubbisher photography can't do it justice, of course, but there was a very nice sunset view over the Grand Place a couple of evenings ago:

So, anyway. Now I'm back in Barcelona and I'm very happy to say that the summer has finally arrived. With a big high-pressure settled over the Iberian peninsula, temperatures in the high 20s and clear blue skies are predicted for the next week and indeed for the reasonably forecastable future. What with all the recent rain the Catalun countryside is looking absolutely stunning. This weekend Djanira has a weekend off (whoo-hoo!) and so we are headed off up to Pyrannees, to the Parc nacional Aiguestortes i Estany Sant Maurici. Its supposed to be one of the most beautiful areas of the Pyrannees, and only a 3-4 hour drive from Barcelona, so we're looking forward to checking it out, and maybe get a little suntan while we're there!

PS Firefox 3 is out. Go get it.

Dave and Laura visit

2008-06-08T08:45:00.004Z

And so the rain continues in Catalunya. 6 weeks ago, we'd barely had a drop of rain for several months, the water reserves were down to 20% capacity, and Barcelona was importing drinking water in by boat from France. Now, however, the reservoirs are riding high at over 60% capacity and we're all beginning to get a little bit tired of the rain. Our friends Dave and Laura visited us this weekend, and a sunny afternoon down the beach rapidly became a hunt for shelter as a thunderstorm blew in and the heavens opened. The only place we could find to provide shelter was a table-tennis table, which just about kept us out of the worst of it!

Dave and Laura have been in Catalunya for a fortnight, walking and climbing. They had originally planned to hang around the pyrannees, but the sight of classic rock climbs still in full winter condition (in June!) sent them scurrying southwards to the gorges around Vilanova de Meia. There they found good weather and several good days climbing, but also found evidence of the abundance of water, the picture below is of the overflow chute of one of the reservoirs!

Anyway they finished off their trip with a weekend here in Barcelona, which was great. Yesterday the sun was out and so off they went in one of Djanira's GoCars. I took a little video of them at the start of their tour:

Anyway now they're off back to Blighty and so will I be shortly: I am going to Germany for a work meeting, and then to London for another. And then I am going to Luxembourg the week after. International man of mystery and all that, but I'm not sure all this flying is good for green credentials. Good job I ride my bike to work!

Alun's timeline

2008-06-05T08:20:00.004Z

And so the Web 2.0 juggernaught roles ever onwards. The latest thing that I discovered that made me think (in a Yank accent) "that's pretty neat" are Timelines. They are basically webpages that contain zoomable and movable graphical interfaces that represent a timeline. As the owner of the timeline you can add and remove boxes and pictures at any point along the line. Dipity.com offer a free service where you can create your own, and look at ones that other people have created. I registered to see what all the fuss was about, and in about 5 seconds I had created my own timeline using the RSS feed from my blog. What was even cooler was that I could then add the blog feeds from my mate Richie Astbury and my cousin Mei. So at a quick glance now you can see exactly what three of the most important and talented men in the world have been up over the last year - a pretty special opportunity, I'm sure you'll agree, and one to put at the top of the bookmarks list ;) As you zoom in an out it expands/contracts the prominence of the posts, and links directly to the photos and text in each post. Check it out.

edit: it would seem the popularity of my new timeline has caused Dipity.com to crash! So the link above doesn't show anything at the moment, it doesn't remember my login and the registration process has broken. Let's wait to see if it comes back up...

edit2: it appears to be working again now

Barcelona surfing pictures

2008-05-26T19:39:00.002Z

Following on from my last post, on my way home from work I took some pics of the waves, which were still pumping. Sorry for the low res, it was only my camera phone. (Clicky make biggy, so you can actually see some surfers...)

There is also a quick video, but I'm afraid the resolution is even worse. Gives you some idea though!

Barcelona surfing

2008-05-26T14:52:00.003Z

This year so far has been pretty rubbish for waves in Barcelona. I had one excellent session back in February, and a couple of hairy blown-out sessions in March, but since then the sea has been flat flat flat. Very disappointing, especially considering last Autumn, when there was a rideable wave more often than not, and I was getting in three times a week.

So you can imagine how excited I was on the ride to work this morning, when my eyes alighted on perfect 3-4 ft groundswell and a very very light offshore wind. Result! Lunchtime couldn't come round quickly enough and, come 1.30, I was sprinting off back home on my bike, jumping into my wetsuit and paddling out by 1.50. Check out the photo above, grabbed from the coastal monitoring station webcam here in Barcelona. The second beach up from the bottom is where it's at - you can even see a nice wave peeling from the groyne.

I haven't really talked much about my local wave on this blog, so I might as well give you a quick description. Obviously, Mediterranean waves are not worth travelling from afar to surf, but they do exist, along with a healthy local surf scene. My local break is Bogatell beach, a five minute walk from my flat in Barcelona city, and on days like today...well, quite frankly it's a little bit gnarly. Context is everything of course, I'm sure Kelly Slater's description would be something along the lines of "a disappointingly short, yet reasonably fast wave which closes out too often*". Needless to say, Kelly Slater I am not, and so I think of it more as vertical drop from hell straight onto a churning sandbar in inch deep water. Basically the waves come from deep water and dump straight onto a shallow sandbar (or series of sandbars) which lie about 30-40 metres offshore. Slow, fat waves hit the sandbar and suddenly jack up to three times their height, sucking up vast quantities of water before chomping their jaws shut.

From a surfing persective it makes it all rather unnerving (for me) once it reaches 3 feet or so. Basically you have to paddle like crazy man to try and pick some speed from the slow approach of the wave, then time your pop** to split second perfection. Too early and the wave won't take you, too late and the jaw will open wide with you right at its very top, and your board pointing vertically downwards. Ouch. Get it right however, and you'll be up and riding in the split second before the jaws open - enough time to angle the board down the wave, pump a bit for speed if necessary, and then when the jaws open, slash down the face at a million miles an hour, heart beating at 10000bpm, and occasionally releasing an involuntary shriek of terror/joy. Within a couple of seconds though it's all over, the wave passes the sandbar into deeper water and either closes out or backs off again. If you're lucky you get something inbetween the two which is my cue to try and pull off a couple of turns. Most times I fail after one off-balance attempt - I'd like to say I'm a good surfer but the reality is that I am still a little bit shit (and probably always will be!).

Anyway today was typical good conditions at Bogatell, in an hour I had four good rides and about three ohmygodimgoingtodie wipeouts. The last one of which saw me stuck on the sandbar while a set of four of five big waves broke straight over my head, one after another. Enough is enough, I thought, after being tumbled for the umpteenth time. Homeward bound. And back to work to finish off my paper for SIGGRAPH. I will be back though!

* non-surfer's note 1: when a wave 'closes-out' it means that the whole length of the wave breaks at the same time. This is not so good for surfing, as it turns the whole wave into white water mush, and leaves no nice clean faces for turning on.
** non-surfer's note 2: the 'pop' is the bit where you push from a lying/paddling position and up into a standing position.

BMC International Meet

2008-05-22T08:11:00.002Z

Two years ago I attended the BMC international Meet at Plas-y-Brenin, and at the end of the week vowed that, wherever I was in the world, I would be back for the next one. Basically, you just get to go climbing for a whole week in North Wales with a variety of foreign visitors, with the goal of showing them what traditional (i.e. no fixed bolts) climbing is all about. Needless to say this is bloody good fun, as you make loads of friends and get to go climbing all week. It's great. The 'Summer' meets occur every two years, with Winter meets, which are equivalent but held in Scotland and focus on winter mountaineering, happening in the intervening years. Last week was the date for the Summer meet 2008, and as per the promise I made to myself, there I was again.

North Wales is a pretty unique climbing venue. While it lacks any truly big walls, it makes up for it in the sheer variation of climbing available. Within a 45 minute-drive radius from Llanberis you can climb on several different rock types, ranging from various volcanic rhyolites and tuffs, to dolerite, quartzite, limestone, gabbro, slate and (if you're a bit crazy) mudstone and shale. Each different rock type requires a different style of climbing, from steep overhanging limestone that is well-endowed with pockets and holds, to featureless slate slabs that require pulling and balancing on razor thin edges. Very few other places in the world have such a variation in such a small area.

The meets traditionally always luck out with the weather, and this one was no exception. Snowdonia was basking in 25 degree sunshine for almost the whole week, which essentially guaranteed the success of the event. There were 44 guests from 24 countries, and an equal number of British climbers to show them around. I climbed with a Belgian, a Pole, a Portuguese guy and Ferran (who I met at the last meet, and who I climb with a lot over hear in Catalunya). They were all great people and good fun to climb with. I was also particularly chuffed to onsight my first E5, Flashdance (see snap above), but a bit miffed to fall off the last move of the classic E4, Resurrection; though I'm glad I gave it a go, and managed to get to the top after giving my tired forearms a bit of a rest.

All in all it was a superb week and I am already looking forward to the next one in two years time...!

A year in Barcelona!

2008-05-07T12:48:00.004Z

Last Saturday evening we attended our third barbeque in as many weeks, which leads me to conclude that the bbq season here in Catalunya is well and truly open! Here's a picture of Daniel 'Ferran Adrià' Evans-Jones on his terrace, "lightly crisping" a couple of sausages :)

The opening of the bbq season has double significance as it marks the first year 'anniversary' of when we moved here - our first Saturday evening as Barcelona residents was spent on the very same terrace you see in the photo above, having a barbie and half-watching old 80s movies on a big wall-projector. Djanira and I were discussing that very evening with Kate (Dan's missus) last night - it's odd looking back and remember who we met, who we became good friends with, which people have stayed in Barcelona, which have left etc. I even mentioned it on this blog, in a post written a couple of days after we arrived. I'm glad I've been writing it, even if it's just for my benefit in reminiscing.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing about it now is that I won't actually be in Barcelona to celebrate the exact date that marks the end of our first year here, as I will be in Wales. Two years ago, I attended the BMC International Meet in North Wales, and had such a good time that I vowed I would go to the next one. Well, that time has now come and I'm taking a week off work to go climbing in the motherland and make new friends. I can't wait!

More biometric bollocks from the British government

2008-04-25T06:18:00.002Z

So now Britain is introducing a pilot scheme at British airports, where a facial recognition system attempts to automatically confirm that you have the same face as the one that is stored as biometric data in your new passport.

Aside from the the obvious big reason why biometric ID is a bad idea, there is another problem with this new scheme. You see, the last time I checked with somebody who knows a bit about facial recognition technology and has done some work in the field (viz. me) I found out that the current state of the art in the field is, to put it bluntly, shit.

But what about this pearler - "The technology will err on the side of caution and is likely to generate a small number of "false negatives". I'll bet it bloody will - but I'll also bet that their definition of a 'small number' is different to mine!

Ian Lau visit

2008-04-23T06:25:00.002Z

Lau came over to visit us this weekend for some climbing and some r&r after a busy few months involving lots of work and breaking his leg. Ouch. Still he is recovering well, and we had a couple of good days of sport climbing. Unfortunately we the weather was a bit ropey and we couldn't do the 12 pitch E1 we wanted to get on at Montserrat, but we spent an interesting day at Pas de la Mala Dona, a rather unconventional crag, in that the 'ground' is actually the top of a large concrete 'tunnel' built to protect the train track below! To make it even more bizarre, it is a sea cliff, and so this 'ground' area extends 5m from the base of the cliff, before dropping abruptly into the sea! The climbing is actually very good, mostly in the 6s, apart from the 'sector cueva' which has a handful of 7s and 8s.

I'm getting into the whole taking-a-video-on-the-mobile-thing now, so here's one I took of the place. If you look carefully, you might just see a certain Ian Lau allowing himself to be on camera. Shock!

Cavall Bernat Montserrat

2008-04-15T16:06:00.003Z

Last weekend Jo Bertalot came to visit and we went out on Saturday to climb one of Catalunya’s famous peaks, the Cavall Bernat of Montserrat. It’s the obvious, err, finger, in the photo above. There are several routes to its summit, including an amenable 3 pitch grade 5 on the south face, but we plumped for the longest of the lot: a 300m, 8 pitch expedition up the north face. It is basically shaped like a giant scoop, with the first pitches being little more than scrambling, but then they get gradually steeper and harder as you reach the top! It was a great day out, though we did get royally whipped on the penultimate pitch, which was very stiff indeed for 6c+. Post-route discussion with Ferran suggests that there are some hidden holds further to the left – now he tells us!!

Here’s a video of your two heroes on top of the world, and with a funny steel statue to prove it:

Guest post: Dr Jonny K

2008-03-29T16:13:00.004Z

Hello all you chaps out there. Dr Searle and I (Dr Kelly) are here enjoying Dr Evans´s hospitality. We have had a jolly fun time riding our bikes down the local dusty trails. A delicious beer on the beach topped off our bikey adventure.
Well this is Dr Jonny signing off, toodle pip and tinkety tonk! XXX

I love Barcelona so much, I've been Barcelonafied!

2008-03-20T18:41:00.005Z

My mate Adam has restarted his blog about living in the capital of Catalunya, Barcelonafied. By all accounts it was going strong a year or so ago, but then the pressures of work and whatnot took their toll, and he left it slide. But now he's back - and with sidekicks! Raoul and I have been invited to contribute our er, scything wit and err, floorles righting stile to educate the public about how wonderful Barcelona is.

More specifically, I have an eye to write less about the city itself, and more about what's to do outside it. It should be good as Adam and Raoul's posts will probably focus more on the city and Catalan culture, so if you're interested then add it too your bookmarks or RSS feeds.

As you might have seen by now, my first post was about skiing, but these last two weeks have really reminded me how much of a cool place Barcelona is if you like outdoor sports. Apart from our skiing trip, I am back out on the rock again and climbing every Friday evening after work with Ferran. Here are a couple of pics from Gelida (a sports crag near me) and Montserrat:

I've also been out on Junior again recently. In my lunch break I can get up to the top to Tibidabo (the main hill overlooking the city), down the other side, back up again and all the way back down into the city and back to work. It's a good work out, and I've discovered a couple of excellent new trails. Unfortunately they're on the 'other side' of the mountain i.e. the side that faces away from the city, and the side that doesn't have funicular running up it! So it's saddle up and pedalling time. Ah well, good for my fitness. In a couple of weeks time Jonny K and Graham are coming out here to do some riding, and I'll need to keep up with them!

Spring sunset

2008-03-17T20:03:00.002Z

I don' t usually 'do' neither photos of sunsets, nor stitched panaromas, but the view from our balcony tonight was one to break the rules...

a bigger version is here.

And we were singing...

2008-03-17T09:28:00.003Z

...hymns and arias

Land of my Fathers

ar hyd y nos

Politics times two, this time local:

2008-03-10T15:27:00.003Z

Despite saying I don't usually like talking politics on the blog, I thought I'd give you an update on the general election which occurred yesterday. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Worker Party) was re-elected yesterday with an increased majority over Mariano Rajoy's PP (Partido Popular - People's Party, conservative), but not enough to form a majority government. He will probably form an informal coalition government with Catalan nationalist party Convergencia i Unío. The latter were the only minority party to come out unscathed, all the rest lost seats to the two main parties.

The election campaign was one of the most bitter and divisive in recent history, with Rajoy having consistently claimed Zapatero's last election victory in 2004 to be 'invalid' (the PSOE won a surprise victory, due to public backlash against the PP trying to pin the blame for the 2004 Madrid bombings on Basque separatists, when it was actually the work of Muslim extremists). The two television debates pitting the two main candidates against each other were seethingly tense affairs, with the more relaxed Zapatero winning one but the other resulting in a score-draw as Rajoy challenged hard on the economy and immigration. Tensions were further increased after the Basque terrorist organisation, ETA, murdered an ex-councillor of the PSOE just days before the election.

Yet Zapatero has prevailed with a fairly convincing victory. Undoubtedly the result is a good one for Catalunya, Zapatero is quite Catalan-friendly and the main Catalan nationalist party (which actually leans more to the right) will probably be part of his conglomerate government. It's also a good result for Spain as a whole, Rajoy is quite hard-line and several of his policies struck me as very regressive and poorly thought through, especially those on immigration (which would affect me, of course!), the devolution of power and his approach on how to deal with the problem of ETA.

Another very good bit of news was the turn-out statistic, a more-than-respectable 75%, equalling that of four years ago. Britain can only dream of such a high election turn-out, though I wonder whether it has anything to do with the fact that full democratic elections are still relatively new in Spain - only 30 years ago Franco was still ruling the country with an iron fist and a policy to shoot anybody who disagreed with him (not an exaggeration, unfortunately).

The only real shame of the result was that it has confirmed the bipartite nature of Spanish politics, though there are advantages and disadvantages to that. The big challenge now will be to see if Zapatero can steer Spain through the economic difficulty that lies ahead - despite low unemployment Spain is at the end of a boom, and without careful management and fair bit of luck the economy risks being bought back down to earth with a bump. Interesting times ahead...

Boris' buses

2008-03-07T09:47:00.002Z

I rarely talk about politics on this blog, but Boris Johnson's claims of political bias in Transport for London has got me interested. It's quite an easy one to imagine, that a strongly unionised employer would support the left wing candidate for the election of over the right-wing candidate.

The row is over Boris's plans to bring back conductors and routemaster buses back to London's streets, replacing the bendy buses. It's a romantic idea, and quite a popular one I should imagine, becuase nobody really likes those bendy buses.

Boris is claiming that it would only cost 8 million pounds to hire the extra conductors, based on the fact that there are 337 bendy buses, thus 337 * 24,500 (salary of a conductor) = just over 8 million. Fine.

TFL has released it's figures about this. There are actually 390 bendy buses, and 350 on the road at any one time. Each bus works a twenty hour day, and is staffed by a rotation of three drivers. So actually you'd have to hire 350 * 3 = 1050 extra conductors.

But hang on, the capacity of bendy bus is 150 people. The capacity of a routemaster is 69 i.e. half. So you would actually have to have twice as many buses to maintain capacity, thus hire twice as many conductors. 2 * 1050 = 2100.

But hang on a little longer, becuase if you're doubling the buses, you'd need to double the drivers as well. So that's an extra 1050 drivers, each earning 35,000 a year.

So the total increased staffing cost for replacing the bendy buses with routemasters is:

2100 * 24,000 + 1050 * 35,000 = 87,150,000

More than ten times Boris' headline figure, and that's excluding the cost of hiring and training the extra staff, and replacing the actual buses themselves!!

I don't like Red Ken that much, there is undoubtedly some truth in the cronyism stories and so on. And it's very easy to like Boris, he's such an affable chap. The fact that TFL's figure disagree with his has got him crying of bias. But figures are figures, and Boris' just don't add up. If he can't do the simple maths for buses, he's in no way capable of running one of the world's greatest cities.

February update

2008-03-03T14:01:00.003Z

Busy busy busy. That's what we are at the moment. Djanira is starting her new job today, as general manager of the Barcelona branch of GoCar, a tourism company just starting in Europe. Very exciting. My work is sort-of-busy, in that I am working on a European proposal and coordinating the work of several different universities and companies across Europe, which is time consuming without being busy, per se. I've also been back in blighty recently for Duples' stag do, and then of course there is our wedding to organise too!

Fortunately spring arrived right on time this weekend (a ga i ddymuno Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus i bawb!) in Barcelona with beautiful blue skies and 20 degree temperatures. On saturday DJ and I went for a walk around Collserola, which is the national park just outside Barcelona, quite literally on the other side of Tibidabo (the hill that forms the backbone of the city). It is very strange to think that, as you stroll through peaceful forest, one of the largest cities in Europe is just over the hill, beyong Tibidado cathedral.

The fine weather continued for Sunday and so we headed out climbing. We'd been planning to go to la font de l'ametllò for some time, as it has a nice broad spread of grades. Unfortunately the rest of Catalunya seems to know this, and as we turned up at midday on Sunday it was as if we had arrived at Stanage on a nice spring day (only plus the bolts and the sunburn!). Towards the end of the day the crowd thinned out though, and we still had a very pleasant afternoon.

Earlier this month I was back in the homeland for Duples' stag do, which involved an 'adventure' thingy on some converted farm in north Wales. We had an afternoon go-carting and quad biking before going and watching Wales put one over Italy in the rugby, then onwards for a curry and a lot of beer. Shurely days don't get much better?!

me, dr kelly looking daft and Duples:

and last but not least I should report briefly on wedding plans, we have chosen our venue now, a beautiful old Masía (sort of country house thingie) about 20 mins drive from Barcelona. Here's a shot of the dining room for now, I'll see if I can find where DJ stored all the others she took of the outside:

Okay that's it for now, you never know I might even post again before the end of March...

Some January photos

2008-01-30T14:06:00.000Z

Happy new year and all that. Here are some pics from January's activities.

Erik the Canadian visited Barcelona at the end of this two month Spanish climbing tour. We took him to Montserrat, an experience very different from the rest of Spanish limestone!

Yes , it really is this lovely in Catalunya in January. The next weekend Duples and Laura came out for a visit:

which was lovely, and I am seeing him again next month for his stag do, and again the month after for his wedding!

Every couple of weeks the crew out here (the male members of which, at least) get together with an Xbox or two and some wall projectors for some multiplayer computer game madness. Good fun indeed:

And most recently my old mate Richie Astbury was out here last weekend and we headed up to the pyrannees for some snowboarding action...

...and I invented a new move...the ass-grind:

And last but not least, I got engaged :D

Some early results

2007-12-21T15:34:00.000Z

As you will recall, I am now working for Fundació Barcelona Media, and the main focus of my work at the moment is on a pan-european project called SALERO, which "aims at making cross media-production for games, movies and broadcast faster, better and cheaper by combining computer graphics, language technology, semantic web technologies as well as content based search and retrieval".

Specifically I am working on facial animation, and recently I was invited to upload a short video to the project's youtube channel. The official blurb to go with the video goes a bit like:

The purpose of this video is to demonstrate the concept of being able to transfer pre-exising facial animation from a low-resolution mask to any high resolution face. The 'Maskle' is placed over the face, allowing the bone structure to be automatically created, and the animation skin weights to be transferred. Current work is focussing on movement of the maskle to enable its automatic fitting to a variety of face shapes.

and the video itself looks like:

10 essential bits of software

2007-12-19T09:20:00.000Z

My new laptop arrived the other day and the first thing I did was to wipe the drive and reinstall Windows, partially to ensure there was no bloatware hanging around the system (although Dell are actually very good about this, there was very little pre-installed rubbish) and partially because I wanted an English language copy of Windows, and the installation of a language pack to the pre-installed Spanish version was proving to be a more-hassle-than-it's-worth jobbie.

After reinstalling I went through the usual rigmarole of downloading and installing all the "bits of software I can't live without" (or, at least, "can't use a copy of Windows without"), and I thought I might aswell write a short list of these, simply because I found many of these excellent programs through recommendations published on blogs, just like this one.

The most important criteria for any of these programs is that they have to be as small and as fast as possible - by that I mean they should use as little system resources as possible, and not worm themselves into every single corner of your Windows installation. I don't like waiting 10 minutes for my PC to start up, and the more things that are hidden away in the registry, the slower everything runs. They should also be pretty easy to install/remove and, of course, they should be free! So here's my top 10, pretty much in the order that I would download them:

1) Firefox - Bit of a no-brainer this one. If you're not using it, you're missing out on the wonderful world of Extensions. The fact that Firefox is open source means that anybody in the world can develop a plugin that 'extends' the functionality of the browser, in a way that neither Internet Explorer or Safari can manage to the same level. My must-have extensions are Adblock (with Filterset.G), the Google Notebook extension (more on this later) and the wordreference.com search tools for English-Spanish and vice versa.

2) Grisoft AVG Free - Forget paying for McAfee, Norton, Symantec or F-Secure. For some time Grisoft have offered their free, cut-down version of their anti-virus software, and it's great. You don't get all the bells and whistles, but you do get a virus checker that provides live scanning of every file that passes through your system, and lets you schedule exactly when you want it to update itself. Unless you are given a free copy of another product, there's no reason to use anything else.

3) SpyBot Search and Destroy - One of the original spyware killers which, through creaking a little on Vista, still does a good job. Download and run once in a while, just for piece of mind. It's a shame the other 'must-have' spyware killer, Adaware, has shot itself in the foot with its 2007 release as it has an 'updater' that permanently runs in the background, which is rather ironic when you think about it.

4) 7-zip - Windows does an okay job of integrating zip-file functionality, but doesn't deal with other compressed formats, notably *.rar. 7zip is to my mind the king of compression software. Small, discreet, well-written, and very very powerful.

5) Google Talk - Instant messaging, file transfer, VoIP telephone calls, and email notification. Essential for those with a gmail account, useless otherwise. You do use gmail though, right?

6) uTorrent - Contrary to popular belief, there are legal uses to file-sharing software. Just the other day I downloaded the freeware version of Rebirth RB338, which is only available as a torrent. Of course, the less-than-legal use of such technology (which of course I whole-heartedly condemn) is why there are hundreds of bit-torrent clients, of which uTorrent consistently gets the best reviews.

7) Picasa - While I'm a little bit alarmed by Google's increasing world dominance, there no denying that if you like fast, useful software, much of their stuff is up there with the best. Picasa is a pretty good photo management software, and has a fair stab at being photo editor, but its strongest feature is a seamless link to an excellent web album. If you already have a google account, it's the easiest way of publishing photos on the web.

8) Paint.NET - Windows' old Paint program is a throwback to the days of Windows 3.1 and I was astounded to see it still bundled with Vista. Yet on many occasions you don't want to open up Photoshop or the GIMP just to save a screen grab, or to do some simple image editing. Enter stage left Paint.NET, the MS-approved-unofficial-replacement to Paint. It is simple, quick, yet vastly more powerful that its predecessor.

9) Real Alternative - RealPlayer is a horrible bit of software. The default install spreads itself everywhere, tried to hijack your system so that it is the default player for everything, throwing popups every now and again, nagging you to update it every 5 minutes, and generally being a pain in the arse. Unfortunately, if you are outside the UK, to listen to BBC Radio online you have to use it - or so I thought! Fortunately there is an alternative - the Real Alternative only installs the codec (the file required to decode audio data encoded in a certain format) that RealPlayer uses, thus letting you listen to the BBC free and without hassle.

10) Foxit Reader - For similar reasons to number (9) above, I don't like Acrobat Reader. The latest version is ridiculously slow, is bundled with all sorts of useless nonsense, and has an annoying 'update' program which lurks around in the background. There are variety of alternative pdf readers, but this one was the first I found, and I can see absolutely no reason to change, as it is small, unobtrusive, and over twice as fast as Adobe Reader. And while we're talking about pdfs, don't forget there are some nifty tools that such as PDF995 and Bullzip that let you 'print' a pdf.

Lastly, honourable mention should go to something which is less software and more of a service. Google Notebook is essentially a mobile, searchable, bookmarks folder, which lets you save interesting pages or useful bits of text, and access them via the web from anywhere in the world. When combined with the relevant Firefox extension, I think it is the single most useful thing that has come out of internet development for several years. Of course, all this means that I am now sharing my emails, photos and personal favourites which one of the largest companies on earth...let's just hope they stick to their "Don't be evil" motto!

Windy Weather at Pooh Corner

2007-12-11T11:13:00.000Z

For the last 24 hours much of the eastern coast of Spain has been battered by 70 mph gusts of wind, which has seen a fair bit of damage but no serious accidents. Last night I woke up at 3pm, cursing the neighbour that had forgotten to secure their window shutters, which were clattering away in a very annoying fashion. 10 noisy minutes later it dawned on me that that annoying neighbour was in fact, me; so I spent a chilly five minutes on our balconies tying things down. On my commute to work this morning I was expecting to see big waves, but as you can see from the photo, it was pretty flat, and the wind and had completely died, very disappointing.

In other news, Djanira and I drove down to the Costa Blanca this weekend for some climbing. It was a 'puente' weekend - bank holidays in Spain are taken on the exact date, not the nearest monday as in Britain, and the result is that if the holiday falls on a tuesday or thursday, most people 'make a bridge' ('hace puente') and take the intervening monday or friday off for a four day weekend. This is what we did this weekend, and it's a good job too becuase it's bloody miles down to the Costa Blanca. The climbing there is excellent and it of course the weather was superb - sunny and 20+ degrees every day, much warmer than up here in Catalunya (although, it IS still sunny here ;) Here are some piccies:

Both of us were quite pleased to get climbing again and, although not at peak fitness, there were still signs of life in the forearms. Dj was doing particularly well as she led several routes which has given her some more confidence in ropework and the leading system. She's yet to take a lead fall though! On Saturday we hope to able to get out again to one of the local crags, and we might even try and get a bit of floodlit climbing done at La fuixarda (Barcelona's crag/climbing wall). Might be a little chilly though!

Why biometric ID is a bad idea

2007-11-26T17:29:00.000Z

I'm not all that against the idea of an compulsory ID card. I mean, most of us carry around enough stuff with us anyway - driver licenses, bank cards, AA cards etc. that it makes no difference. And here in Spain (and elsewhere in much of Europe) everybody carries their photo ID (which you have to show when buying anything using a credit/debit card) and it's not a big deal.

However, I am very against the use of biometric data, such as fingerprints or iris data, for the purposes of identification. For one simple reason: once it is stolen, it cannot be reset.

If somebody gets hold of your bank card details, your PIN number, your passport number, your email, your drivers license etc. it's a pain, yes, but a quick phone call to relevant people and the old number/card/document is declared void, and you get a new one. If somebody steals your fingerprint, they have it for life. Furthermore, we leave our fingerprints on every single thing we touch. And yes, it really is that easy to make a copy, as the ever-reliable Ben Goldacre demonstrates.

Via Ferrata in Andorra

2007-11-04T18:47:00.000Z

The rest of the piccies are here.

While Djanira was away in Madagascar over the summer, I popped back to London for a week or so, and one afternoon I ended up in Stanfords on Long Acre (as you do) where I happened upon a newish Cicerone guidebook entitled "The Mountains of Andorra". Within seconds of picking it up I was walking to the counter - it is a well-written summary of about 50 walks in the Andorran Pyrannees, and just what I was looking for. But the really interesting stuff was at the end of the book, a chapter describing the Via Ferrata of Andorra.

Via Ferrata is a style of climbing which, to paraphrase the guidebook description, "goes against the primary rule of the mountains (leave only footprints, take only photographs), but there is no denying it is a lot of fun". Essentially, a via ferrata ("iron way") is a metal cable which has been laid or strung up the side of mountain, for the purpose of the safety of people who wish to climb it. Basically, you clip a carabiner, attached to your climbing harness via a metre of rope to the cable, so if you happen to fall, the cable saves you from doing so to your death. The story goes that the original via ferrata were created to enable the Italian army to rapidly cross the Dolomites, and it is there that this style of mountaineering is still most famous (though, thanks to Helicopters, the army doesn't use them any more). Yet as the popularity of climbing and mountain sports in general increases, many other areas (such as Andorra) are spending the time and money creating Via Ferrata to increase tourism and boost the economy.

The construction of the Andorran ferrata has been quite a success. As a country, Andorra is blessed with a vast quantity of rock (it is right the middle of Pyrannees) but unfortunately much of it is quite shattered and not so suitable for pure rock-climbing. This is where the Via Ferrata comes in, as it lets you link the good bits of climbing by letting you quickly and safely scramble over the less attractive sections (you climb Ferrata with light walking boots). They are very generously equipped with metal rungs (more so than in the dolomites, so I've heard) so that if you can climb a ladder, you can reach the top. However, what this means is that they lead you into wildly overhanging and exposed territory (in climbing terms, places you'd need to be leading E-something to get to) and they are not for the faint of heart or those without a head for heights.

This weekend was a bank holiday weekend and so DJ and I spent four days in Andorra with some friends, did three via ferrata and a Very Long Walk. It was completely awesome, the last day in particular leading us up a mountain that is essentially one large cliff, finishing off with a tightrope suspension bridge. I say again, it was completely awesome, and we are hooked on this via ferrata stuff. It's going to have wait for a while now though as, despite this weekend's good weather, the first snows have reached Andorra already and everybody's fingers are crossed for a good ski-season. Still, there's no reason the ferrata can't be done in the snow!

2007-10-30T12:17:00.000Z

Some time ago I blogged about how the Wii was looking like the way forward for the gaming industry. The Xbox 360 and PS3 may have the better graphics, but the Wii has its motion sensitive controller, possibly the most revolutionary item of gaming hardware since the joystick was invented. I was interested to re-read my words from back then, because I raved about how the Wii looked great, while the PS3 looked dead in the water, and that I wasn't that impressed with the Xbox360. Yet, as you will notice by scrolling down the page a little, the other day I got me an Xbox, not a Wii. Why? Well to answer that question, we have to talk about the Wii version of a game called Rockstar Presents Table Tennis.

The game was first released on the Xbox 360 over a year ago, and made a big impact due to it's outstanding graphics, addictive gameplay, and cheap price. In fact, the existence of the game contributed to my decision to buy an Xbox360 rather than a Wii or PS3, in that it is part of a large catalog of excellent games that I wanted to play, that were only available for the Xbox. The news that it had been ported recently to the Wii made me feel a little sick - surely the idea of actually being able to *play* virtual table tennis, crafting shots with a motion sensitive controller, would make this version superior to that on the Xbox? In which case, had a just bought the wrong console?

Well, from reading about the game, and from having played around a bit with other games on Wii, it would appear that my fears are unfounded. Yes you can use the motion sensitive controller to play table tennis, but in a completely unrealistic way. You don't hit the ball as you would do with a table tennis bat, you have to learn to make the correct gesture in order to hit the ball in the desired direction - it doesn't even separate the different swings for forehand and backhand - and to impart spin (crucial in table tennis) you have to resort to pushing buttons on the controller body. Basically, you still have to learn an artificial control scheme before you can actually play the game which, for me, rather nullifies the point of having motion sensitive controller.

The other big difference is the fact that there is no online play in the Wii version. Playing another human being is vastly more satisfying than playing an artifical intelligence, and online play gives you a greater opportunity to do that. Lastly, the graphics are crap, at least compared to the almost-lifelike quality of those of the Xbox verion. I know this shouldn't matter, but when you're comparing two versions of the same game, there's no doubt that it does.

I must admit that, in general, and having played it a bit at a mate's house and in FNAC, I'm quite disappointed with the Wii. Yes, it is a significant milestone in computer gaming. Yes, it has been a commercial success. Yes, it has drawn in grannies and mums and all sorts of people that never thought they would play a video game, ever. And you have to applaud Nintendo for achieving that. Yet all it has managed to do is pull the wool over people's eyes, glossing over the necessity to learn an artificial control system by making it seem more real - but real it is not, and learn it you must. For those of us less scared of traditional console joypads, the wiimote is actually a regressive step, offering less precision and less opportunity to practice and master a game's interface.

So although the Wii is a step in the right direction, I'm happy with the Xbox for the time being. Eventually, somebody will develop a commercially viable controller that is able to properly mimic the motion of a virtual table-tennis bat, and let you play near-as-dammit real table tennis against some random person in another part of the world. That would be worth paying money for.

Rugby Final

2007-10-21T00:14:00.000Z

I watched the game in some Irish bar downtown. Possibly the dullest game of rugby I've ever watched. I spotted this on the Guardian's website, a comment by some anonymous person,

Well done England for getting to the final with a crap team. I hope it will be some solace to you to know that Wales scored 50 points more than you despite playing three games fewer.

Home come Johnny didn't do that thing with the drop goal in the dying minutes?

Xbox 360

2007-10-16T21:11:00.000Z

Despite my last post, it would seem that recently I've gone all Microsoft crazy in that I've installed Vista, and got me an Xbox 360. Now I'm no great fan of Microsoft, but neither am I a Sony/Nintendo/Mac/Linux/Unix/ fanboy, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

So, the Xbox. I have been thinking of getting one for ages, tempted by stories of online gaming, cheap retro games and Media Centre compatibility. What finally tipped the cart was a miserable wet Saturday morning (after I'd just come back from a miserable week in Germany), a lack of Djanira in the flat, and only the sixth ever 10/10 given to a game by Edge Magazine, for Halo 3.

So, is all the hype worth it? Well, there's no denying that, by and large, it all seems to work very well. Xbox Live (the name given to the online gaming portal) couldn't be easier to set up, but the biggest novelty is not just being able to play games online (the PC sorted this years ago), but being able to speak to other players in real time. The Xbox comes with a (wireless) controller and a headset unit that plugs into it, which enables communication between players. It's quite something to be able to play Rockstar's Table Tennis against a human-being located who-knows-where in the world; but it's something else entirely being able to speak to them as you play, congratulate them on a good shot, complement each other after a good rally or, more usually in my case, excuse oneself for being completely rubbish. The headset, and its default inclusion into the Xbox Live experience, is what elevates online gaming on the console above that what is available for the PC. Sure, there are a million and one gaming-talk applications on the PC, while on the Xbox there is only one - but everybody is using it.

There other excellent feature of Xbox Live is 'Xbox Live Arcade', a growing collection of old-school (though not necessarily old) arcade games that can be downloaded and saved to the console's hard-drive for a few quid each. Most of them have a free demo-level for you to try, and while many of them are rubbish, some are excellent. Geometry Wars is one of the most popular and has become a classic, proving that you don't need amazing graphics to have a great game, but I'm very excited about SpeedBall 2, a classic amiga game which I used to play with my cousin John when I was a kid, which is being revamped for Xbox Live Arcade. Lastly, Xbox Live lets you download free demos for all the latest full-price releases, nothing new for a PC gamer but a welcome bonus for your average consolista.

The final clincher for me is the console's integration with a PC running XP Media Centre or Vista. The Xbox connects with the Media Centre, allowing you to access the music and video stored on your PC through the console. This works well for me as my PC (and all my music) is not in the lounge, but my Xbox is: ergo I can listen to tunes in the lounge without having to go through the hassle of burning a CD and all that. There's no doubt that the interface is very slick and it all works well, though the lack of native DivX and Xvid video support on the Xbox is what prevents it from being the all-in-one solution. Still, it is very impressive.

So, to conclude; from what I've experienced and read of the PS3 and the Wii, the Xbox is quite comfortably ahead in terms of functionality, at least at the moment. Of course, the fact that it is an accomplished single-player gaming system is one thing, but what really sets it apart is its online and media centre capabilities. All I need now is get some of you lot to come and join me in Halo 3's cooperative mode...

Old Microsoft joke

2007-10-08T09:38:00.000Z

I was searching the internet for some help with a little code problem I had, and stumbled across this page, which consists of some bloke asking a question (exactly the same one as I had) and a Microsoft employee giving an answer:

http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread300172.html

Upon reading it I was instantly reminded of old joke which, given the employee's response in the link above, is based upon reality...!

A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft's electronic navigation and communications qquipment. Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter's position and course to fly to the airport. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, drew a handwritten sign, and held it in the helicopter's window. The pilot's sign said "WHERE AM I?" in large letters. People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign and held it in a building window. Their sign read: "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER." The pilot smiled, waved, looked at her map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely. After they were on the ground, the co-pilot asked the pilot how the "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER" sign helped determine their position. The pilot responded "I knew that had to be the Microsoft building because, like their technical support, online help and product documentation, the response they gave me was technically correct, but completely useless."

Barf!

Internet at last!

2007-10-05T07:09:00.000Z

You may recall a solution that a friend of mine employed to gain access to his neighbours wireless networks, with the aid of a wok as an arial to boost the signal. Well, had i been following my friends example over the last few months, then I would no longer need to, because now finally our flat is connected to the outside world! We had organised for one company to come and connect us up, but after three months of waiting nothing had happened, so we said bugger it and went with another company - and yesterday (less than a fortnight after I had requested it) the engineers came and installed the service. I'll be changing the default 'security' settings on my wireless router though!

In other news, the last three days have seen a solid 2 foot of swell, which in the mornings is glassy clean, but more choppy by the evening after the wind has picked up. Unfortunately, lazy bones Alun hasn't been bothered to get up early enough to enjoy it clean, and has only watched it enviously on his ride to work, and gone in in the evening instead. But the clocks go back sooner rather than later so ther'll be no time for surfing after work, so I'll have to get my arse in gear in the mornings.

And one funny story to finish off. Yesterday afternoon it started to rain, and I couldn't help chuckling as the whole off office stopped working and walked to the window to look. In fairness, it was a quite impressive heavy shower, but the thought struck me that if people behaved similarly in Britain, nobody would get any work done!

Graduation, new job, and surfing!

2007-09-19T19:10:00.000Z

A lot to catch up on this time because I've been away for a while, back in Blighty for a three reasons. The first was to do my last week's work in my old office in London (though I go to Germany for a conference next week), the second was to attend my mate Mark (as in, Mark-I-did-my-MSc-with-Mark)'s wedding, and third was for my graduation. The picture above is of me with my beautiful, wonderful girlfriend, in Russell Square just before the ceremony. I must be honest, the last two graduation ceremonies I've been to have been rather rubbish, and I didn't have much hope for this one either, but it was actually really well done - they were doing the year's honorary degrees in the same ceremony, so there was a bit more pomp than there is usually. After eating and drinking as much free wine and nibbles that we could get our hands on at the post-ceremony reception, we rounded the day off with a few beers in outside the Jeremy Bentham with my old workmates and supervisors, Tryphon and Cliffy.

In other news, I have started a new job! I am leaving my old job at UCL and have started in a company called Barcelona Media, a not-for-profit research entity setup as a spin-off from the main university in Barcelona, Universidad Pompeu Fabra. I have joined the computer graphics research group, and it's pretty much my perfect job - I would have applied for it had it been in Britain, so it's a total bonus having it here. Although I've only been there three days everything is going swimmingly, my first 'warm-up' project is to see if I can help a PhD student who is a bit stuck on his project which is to do with facial animation, so I am busy getting up to scratch on my 3D modelling and animation. All good.

Finally I ran the gauntlet of surfboard air-travel the other day, and fortunately my board arrived in Barcelona airport in exactly the same condition that it left (i.e. very good!). Also, for Djanira's birthday I bought her a bodyboard plus all the kit, something she's been talking about getting for ages. Yesterday was her actual birthday and, right on time, 2' of choppy swell arrived in the evening, so we trotted off down the beach. Needless to say Djanira caught several really good waves and thoroughly showed me up (although I did manage a couple of half-decent rides) and we both left the water after sunset, tired but with big smiles on our faces. Although the swell had dropped I sneaked in another session this evening while Djanira was off doing some temporary translation work, it was only a foot and barely rideable on my board, but good to get out and get some practice for the bigger days. I must admit it's thoroughly bloody marvellous being up and riding on a board again, I had almost forgotten how much fun it is. Roll on the winter and bigger waves!

Image resizing using seam carving

2007-08-24T12:51:00.000Z

It's very rare that I see something in Image Processing that makes me go 'wow'. The fact is that a lot of the current state-of-the-art in the field is becoming increasingly limited in its scope, and many good research groups are either wallowing in their own success or pursuing ideas that are more and more mathematically complex yet lack any real purpose.

This video on youtube though is brilliant. From a technical point of view, the work is quite basic. But from a 'bugger me that's such a cool idea' point of view, it is superb. It just goes to show that the best ideas are not necessarily the most complex or technical ones.

And I can't help asking myself why I didn't think of that for my PhD?! I'd have made millions!

Bollock-steep, bollock-rocky and bollock-hard

2007-08-19T18:06:00.000Z

(not in this photo, though, obviously)

At about 3pm on saturday, Raoul and I sat down for a beer and some lunch, having had a morning's riding at the Grand Valira Bike Park in Andorra. I decided to rub things in a little bit for the boys back home, so texted Mr Paul my whereabouts and current situation. To immense joy and delight, his swift reply was thus: Currently pushing up Aston Hill (a mountain bike spot near London) with Muir and Rhys. Rhys says you're a ****. I agree. I laughed like a tit for a full minute.

The Grand Valira is the name given to the largest ski-lift network in the Pyrannees. For years it was split into two halves, as the two biggest resorts, Soldeu and Pas de la Casa, argued over which was the biggest and best. Fortunately, they have settled any differences they had and have now joined their lift systems. They have also invested in a bike park for the summer and created 11 downhill mountain bike trails and a myriad of cross-country trails, so they can draw tourists into the area in the 'off'-season, in an attempt to copy the success of other areas such as the Portes du Soleil in the French/Swiss alps. This of course means that bikers can take chairlifts and gondolas to the top of the mountain, and ride all the way down. It goes without saying that this is GOOD.

To be honest, though, I was left a little underwhelmed. To put it bluntly the trails just aren't as good as those in the Portes du Soleil. With a few notable exceptions, the construction feels a little lazy; many trails are just taped off sections of hill that have no flow and betray a lack of thought. I had a great day but left the tiniest bit disappointed - although I should also point out that I didn't get the time to ride all of the trails, so a repeat visit is certainly warranted.

So, after a night in Soldeu, we headed back across the hills to La Molina, to the second of Catalunya's three bike parks, and completely different to the Grand Valira. There is only one gondola here open in the summer, but the place could not be a bigger contrast to its Andorran cousin. The lift takes you up 800m and dumps you right at the top of a 2,500m mountain, so all the trails are very, very long - twice the length of those in Andorra. The biggest difference though, is the quality of the trails. The blue run is, without a shadow of a doubt, THE best trail I have ever ridden. Perhaps it is slightly more 'enduro' than a proper balls-out DH trail, but it is simply awesome. It weaves it's way down the hill along seemingly endless narrow technical singletrack, never too steep but never too slow. About halfway down it dawned on me that this was the best experience I'd ever had on a mountain bike, and it just kept coming and getting better and better. After who-know-how-long it dumps you out at the bottom, where a kilometre of easy fireroad takes you back to the lift station, but not before you hit a north-shore section, with a variety of drops and wall-rides. The whole place has obviously been designed by somebody who really knows what they are on about, and I simply can't wait to go there again. In fact, on my way down I had ridden the first third of the red run and then switched to the blue. The red was bollock-steep, bollock-rocky and bollock-hard. I don't know whether to be happy or scared at the prospect of the black!

The only shame was that we only had one ride up on the gondola, and then only just. Thunderstorms were around and by the time we'd reached the bottom again the lift was shut. Bollocks. Still, we had a time for a piss-about on the shore and it means there is more to come back to.

The best news, of course, is that less than two hours after leaving I was unpacking the car outside my flat. You lot (and you know who you are), you really do need to get out here...
A video, taken by some friendly Catalan chap, and the rest of the pics.

Junior is complete!

2007-08-16T16:37:00.000Z

And here he is! Today I finally got round to visiting a bike shop that was actually open, to get the necessary bits to finish assembling Junior. Looking good, eh? The build is mostly what I was running on my old Specialized: Marzocchi Z150 forks, old (but effective) Hope 4-pots and full XT gearing, with the exception of the cranks, which are old Deores and will be the first target for an upgrade, though probably not until next year now.

A quick spin down to the beach confirmed that all was working but the first real opportunity to put him through his paces will be this weekend. The plan is to have a day at Vallnord, which is about a 3hr drive away, come back home for a few beers and then head out a little later on Sunday to La Molina, which is a the closest ski resort to Barcelona (only takes 90 minutes to get there), and which conveniently also has a bike park - only one lift and three proper trails, but apparently they are all very good. And it's reachable for an afternoon's riding from here, so I can't complain!

In other news the sun is shining after some refreshing rain this morning, and there was even a lovely little clean wave being enjoyed by about 10-15 surfers this evening down at my nearest beach. Djanira is back in London and has had great time in Madagascar, and is arriving back here in Barcelona on Monday. I'd better start cleaning the flat soon!

Street riding around Porto Olimpico

2007-08-15T10:21:00.000Z

Today I went out on the Charge, with the main goal of going to the bike shop to buy a new cassette and seatpost for Junior. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that today is a public holiday (the Spanish take their public holidays on the exact date, rather than the nearest Monday, which is what we usually do in Britain), and so everything everywhere is shut. Rats.

The best thing about the Charge though, is its flexibility. I have taped him up to make him look less attractive to thieves (see pic - although it still looks quite badass unfortunately), and so use him for commuting and getting to and from places all the time. But today I took the the long way home from the bike shop through the Olympic Port, and ended up putting the saddle down for a good two hour's worth of street riding. The Olympic port was redeveloped and renamed for the 1992 Olympic games, held here in Barcelona, and this was where the Olympic village was, with all the accommodation for the athletes. It has now been converted into a modern housing estate which, while very safe (and actually quite upmarket) is actually quite soulless, in the way that all thrown-up-overnight sort of places tend to be. Fortunately for some, such places also tend to be very good for interesting street furniture, and the Olympic port is no exception! There are "lines and lines and lines and lines" (to quote a character from the League of Gentlemen TV series); pretty much everywhere you look, every corner you turn, you stumble across another possibility. From easy gentle wall rides to big-ass gaps that will brook no error, there is just so much to do. After an hour I was knackered (the heat is particularly draining, it's 30° today), but I kept getting diverted on the ride home by more cool stuff. In the end I had to stop as my tiredness was forcing mistakes, which eventually and inevitably result in a face-pavement meeting if left unnoticed, so I stopped before having any nasty crashes and headed home.

I'm getting used to the Charge now. The rigid forks in particular took me some time to adapt to, but I'm actually quite happy with them now and it makes me a more careful rider. I'm also finally getting better at manuals and a couple of lines today involved some pretty long manuals (for me that is, not Aaron Chase) across various bits and bobs. I even managed a decent "Manualeeeeeeeeeeeeeroooooooo" under my breath at one point!

The only disappointment of the day was that I didn't get my parts for Junior. Not to worry, it is only Wednesday, so plenty of time for me to sort it out before Saturday when my mate Raoul and I are heading up to the Vallnord Bike Park in Andorra. Oh yeah! Here is a shot of Junior 'work-in-progress' build:

Junior

2007-08-09T18:31:00.001Z

Here he is. Some of you may recall my old green Kona Stinky Dee-Lux, an original 1998 model, complete with curved seattube and a whole 5.5" of travel. He was called Konrad (the Kona) and died three years ago in the alps. Well, here's his younger cousin, who I shall name Konrad Junior, or just just Junior, for short.

It's hard not to compare the two frames because superficially they are quite similar. Both are from Kona's 'freeride' lineage, both employ a 'faux' four-bar suspension linkage with the rearmost pivot directly above the axle on the seatstay (as opposed to a truly active fourbar linkage where the Specialized-patented 'Horst'-linkage is in front of the rear axle on the chainstay), and both appear (or appeared) reliably big and burly. But seven year's of evolution is obvious to the trained eye. The curved seat-tube, where Konrad orginal snapped, was dropped from the range several years ago. One of the chainstays is dropped lower than the other, to counter the strong forces that go through that point that snapped many a previous Stinky frame. The downtube and seattube become increasingly box-sectioned as they rise to the junction with the headtube, to improve strength and increase weld area (I'd be surprised if this frame failed in the same way as my old Specialized. Crucially, the main pivot point has been raised and a longer stroke shock used, so travel is a smooth 7" without the need for an extra long pivot arm to create large stresses. All in all it the product of the best part of a decade of product development, and looks very smooth for it.

I bought it second hand from some bloke I met through www.foromtb.com, the buy-sell section of which is very similar to that on southern-downhill.com or descent-world.co.uk. It was a very good deal and, as you can see, it is absolutely mint, and has obviously been barely ridden at all.

My sister Tracey is out visiting at the moment so this weekend we will head off up to the Costa Brava for some snorkelling and sunbathing. But next weekend I think a trip to the chairlifts of Andorra is called for...

Bodge of the day

2007-08-08T16:15:00.000Z

This is a picture of the solution employed by, er, a friend of mine, who was so pissed off with waiting for ADSL to get installed in his flat that he has resorted to using the www.aircrack-ng.org suite of tools to gain access to other wireless networks in the area (only temporarily, mind you, and he has assured me that he is using them very sensibly, not downloading GB of movies). But to get a decent enough signal he resorted to some interesting bodges, as you can see here.

A day of ups and downs

2007-08-01T10:59:00.000Z

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs, in more ways than one. In the physical sense, I went up the Tibidabo funicular (twice), and down a really quite good mountain bike trail (twice). Needless to say, the knowledge that I can pay €2 for a train to to take me to the top of the biggest hill in the area is A Very Good Thing. This, then, represents the metaphorical 'up' to today's post. My world this afternoon took a turn for the better.

It also, inevitably, took a turn for the worse. Well, in fact, two turns for the worse, and these represent the metaphorical 'down' that completes the allegory. You see, upon driving (the 20 minutes(!)) to and from the foot of Tibidabo funicular, my worst fears were confirmed. Pleb the Passat, my erstwhile companion of the last few years, is ill. In fairness, he doesn't appear to be dead, and still pootles around town perfectly happily. Only when we reach the motorway though, does something appear amiss, vis., he doesn't change to top gear. Refuses. No matter how fast we're going or how high the revs are, his automatic gearbox will not shift into its fourth and highest gear. This means, when driving along the motorway, I am stuck with having the engine screaming at me - I dare not take it above 60mph in case it blows up. It is very sad, because the problem is terminal. Automatic gearboxes like Pleb's keep going until the stop, at which point the cost of fixing/replacing one becomes several times more than the value of the car. So, while Pleb is still alive, he's very much on this last legs.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for my bicycle frame, which is well and truly DEAD. For some time (in fact, since I got it second hand) it has creaked quite a lot, but it did me proud for a week in the alps a couple of years ago - in fact had it only lasted that week it would have been worth the £80 I paid for it! Recently, though, I've noticed the creaking getting worse, and after two 10 minute runs (down exceedingly rocky trails - with a few north shore drops put in for good measure) I had noticed a significant increase in creak-noise. Only a quick glance was necessary to confirm my worst fears - there is a now monstrous long crack at the point where the headtube joins the main part of the monocoque frame (see pic above). Proper 'terminal'; so this afternoon I shall strip the frame of everything of worth and chuck in in the skip. I remember first seeing the frame when Oli pulled up out side Mat's parents' house in Clent about, ooooh, I'd say 7 years ago. I was impressed with it then and have been impressed with it ever since. Given that neither I nor Oli are reknowned for our 'delicate' riding styles, such an ending was to be expected, but it doesn't make me any happier.

So, to summarise, my day of ups and downs ends with me with me sitting here, facing an iminent bill of several thousand euros to replace today's physical losses, but offset by the gain in knowledge that there is some awesome mountain biking around the corner. Given that the biking was always there (I just hadn't discovered it yet) I think I am probably worse off out of the deal. Still, 'push on through', as Fatus* would say. Barcelona is still awesome place to live, money can be earned and material things replaced. Eventually. Anybody know any good car/bike shops in Barcelona?

* (Muir)

PS Check out some photos of a new DWS venue at Rhossili!

A comprehensive dissection of MMR scare stories

2007-07-18T10:25:00.000Z

MMR has back in the news again recently, what with Andrew Wakefield being investigated by the GMC. Wakefield's original paper, asserting a link between MMR and autism, has been pretty convincingly rejected by the scientific community - largely on the basis that his research was being funded by parents of autistic children who had received the MMR jab, and who were trying to build a legal case to claim compensation. This fact places Wakefield's 'research' firmly in the same the same boat as those 'scientific studies' that conclude that smoking isn't bad for you - coincidentally those are the studies funded by the tobacco companies. There were other quite glaring research errors too, there was a good New Scientist article a few years ago on the whole situatiuon.

So it was with some trepidation and disgust that I read the Observers front page a few weeks ago, stating that there was fresh evidence in favour of a link between MMR and autism. Putting aside the fact that this would only be the second study that suggests such a link, disagreeing with the tens of comprehensive, peer-reviewed and statistically significant studies alleging otherwise; AND the fact that the first supportive study (Wakefield's) is thoroughly discredited, even a numpty like me could see that there were several holes in the Observer's story.

Fortunately, Ben Goldacre, seemingly the only mainstream science journalist who is capable of rational thought, has investigated the new study behind the Observer's front page. Rather unsurpringly, it falls apart under analysis. Ben shows that:

a) the report that the Observer based its story on is neither published nor peer-reviewed

b) the study isn't actually even finished yet, the Observer got it's data from an interim report

c) The Observer cherry picked the most shocking statistic, ignoring the context of the report.

d) The Observer misquotes the lead scientist, Professor Simon Baron Cohen, who has since labelled the Observer's story "inaccurate and scaremongering".

e) The Observer flatly lies about the opinions of a 'leading academic' on the study, Fiona Scott. It says she was 'concerned about the results'. In fact, Scott is considering legal action against the observer for repeatedly lying about her opinion. Her actual opinion is that "I absolutely do not think that the rise in autism is related to MMR." And: "My own daughter is getting vaccinated with the MMR jab on July 17."

f) The other 'leading academic concerned about a link', Carol Stott, is not an academic. She doesn't even work in scientific research. She works in the private clinic of yes, you guessed it, Andrew Wakefield!

Will the Observer publish a front page apology and retraction of their story, which has now been quite comprehensively discredited? Probably not. The sad thing is that last March, a young 13 year-old lad who didn't receive the MMR jab became the first person to die from Measles in Britain for 14 years. Sadly, until the press grow up and start behaving responsibly, that statistic will surely rise.

Back in Barcelona, but no internet

2007-07-01T13:37:00.000Z

Apologies for long delay in updating, I know you avid readers have been waiting on tenterhooks for next intallment! (tumbleweed) Well, here it is! (more tumbleweed) Anyway, I am back in Barcelona after being in London for a week, for work. My Dad and I drove all the way down from Britain with a car load of stuff, so now DJ and I have almost a complete flat full of our stuff, and (as you see above) our bikes, which is cool as it means we get to explore the city a bit more. The photo above is taken in Plaça Real, in the old town, just off Las Ramblas. I have bought my heavy suspension bike out, lured by stories that it is possible to take your bike up on the Funicular to the top of Tibidabo, the biggest of all the hills that border the city. Hopefully next week I'll go with my mate Raoul to explore and find some trails. Cool.

Djanira an I have become regulars at the local internet cafe, as we still don't have neither a phone line nor internet in our flat. Everything here goes very slooowly, but hopefully by the end of the month we will have a fat 4Mb pipe, and our flat will be complete. It's looking pretty cool now, if you go and see my Dad's photos that he took during his visit, you'll be able to see some pics of the flat. The best thing about it is that we're so close to the beach. Yesterday we spent the day down there, and were joined in the afternoon by Dan and his girlfriend Kate. We stayed until sunset, sunbathing, eating spanish omelette, drinking cold tinnies, dipping in the sea and playing frisbee, before heading back to the flat for grub around 9. Time for a quick shower then it was out on the town! Last night we discovered that one of the main 'late night' spots is about a 15 minute walk from the flat, and we ended up playing table football in some bar around there at 4am. Bit tired today, I'll be honest.

Djanira is buggering off to Madagascar for six weeks on Tuesday, as base-camp manager for one of BSES' expeditions. I shan't pretend I'm very happy about it, but it will be a great experience for her and brilliant for her CV. Once she's back she'll be able to start looking for a job! So I'll be living on my own for a while, time to complete Final Fantasy XII on the PS2, get back on my skimboard (the little summer med ripples are just about rideable) and start remembering how to ride a bike - I have found some cool 'street furniture' around the olympic port, and there's a natty little skate park right on the beach, with a spined double mini-ramp (i.e. two quarter pipes with a spine in the middle), which seems to have a really relaxed vibe between skaters, BMXers and rollerbladers (agressive grrrrrrrr). I haven't ridden a park for years though, so I need to get some lines sorted before I turn up during 'rush-hour' on a 26" bike, hopefully a couple of quiet morning sessions will increase my confidence.

Also, speaking of work, it looks like I'll be starting a new job soon, working 15 hours a week to complement the 18 hours or so that I do at the moment for UCL. More news of that in the next installment, when everything's a little bit more confirmed. Keep your eyes peeled!

Charge Stove: first impression review

2007-06-15T22:03:00.001Z

Edit: I posted a follow up to this review a few weeks later.

Since my lovely Trek 1000 got nicked by some TEA LEAF SCUM in Mile End a few months ago, I have been on the hunt for a new bike to use to commute to work. I do still already have two bikes, but a heavy full-suspension bike is a bit overkill for the Barcelona seafront, and let's face it, a BMX really isn't the most practical of tools for commuting. All of which gave me a handy excuse to try out a bike I've had my eyes on for a while, the Charge Stove.

Charge are a newish British bike company and the Stove is their bottom-of-the-range 'Pub' bike. It's a rather bizarre label, and it means that da kidz over at the comic's forums get very confused. To paraphrase a typical young know-it-all's opinion "the Stove is not a jump bike or a street bike. It's a pub bike. Can't you tell that by looking at it?"

Well, I'd class a 'pub' bike as one that's as-near-to-free-as-possible, and impossible-to-be-nicked (rather like a Barcelona Bicing - they really are great). And while the Stove fits neither of the above criteria, I'll just run us through a list of what I'd expect to see in your average jump/street riding bike, and we can see how many boxes the Charge ticks:

- Heavy chromoly frame with gussets in all the right places. Check.
- Heavy chromoly forks with oversized dropouts. Check.
- Heavy chromoly 3-piece cranks. Check.
- Heavy wide rims supporting heavy fat tyres, built on heavy 10mm axle hubs. Check.
- Single speed, with heavy BMX chain linking heavy chainring and heavy freewheel. Check.

Now I don't know about you, but I see a theme developing here, wouldn't you agree? Okay okay, so the geometry's all wrong for an out and out jump bike - the top tube is rather high and seat tube a little too straight; but it's certainly not going to fall apart on you in a hurry. And, in fairness, the little squirts at the comic forums do have some sort of a point - because it isn't designed to be and out-and-out jump/street bike. That frame geometry enables you to raise the saddle to a respectable commuting height, which makes it the perfect commuting-while-being-able-to-stop-by-the-skate-park-on-the-way-home bike, or the Cwbatsbtsp. Doesn't roll off the tongue in the same way as 'pub bike' bike, I'll give them that. The only shame is the confusion such branding causes for da kidz. Ah well.

So how does it ride? Well a full analysis of its ability to commute to work along the Barcelona sea front, periodically stopping to play on interesting street furniture, will follow forth-with. For now my experience is limited to riding from Kings Cross to Cricklewood (oh yeah, I'm in London til next Wednesday, by the way, for work), and going out for a little play this evening. However, I can confirm that it's really rather good fun. It commutes perfectly adequately, yet with the saddle slammed down it hops very easily and rides really smooth, basically like a 26" BMX. Good fun, and I'm very pleased I bought it.

Cathy and Mark visit

2007-06-11T16:13:00.000Z

This weekend saw the visit of Cathy and her boyfriend Mark, his first time in Barcelona. A good time was had by all. On Saturday we did quite a long walk along the beach and then all the way into the old town to see the sights, before heading out to Gracia in the evening for beer and lots of very good tapas. Sunday was spent having a lie-in, then while Cathy and Mark went to look at the Sagrada Familia, Djanira and I moved the first load of stuff to our new flat. Finally we went climbing at a nice limestone crag called Gelida, where it started to rain (?!) for about 20 minutes, but cleared up nicely in time for sunset. Lovely!

On Tuesday we'll have moved permanently to the new flat so it's bye-bye to the terrace, but hello to the nicer area, so we're looking forward to that. I am back in London on Wednesday for a week, fortunately for DJ her friend Rachel is coming to stay for that week (must be the way I smell, or something!) so she'll have some company. The the week after that I'm driving down to Barcelona with a carload of stuff with my Dad! What a legend!

Sport climbing on La Mola

2007-06-08T07:39:00.000Z

Last night I met up with Ferran again and we went sport climbing at a crag called La Soleia. It is situated on a hill called La Mola, just near Sabadell, a city about 20 miles from Barcelona, and is in a really beautiful location. The climbing is excellent but slightly strange, because all the routes start up a band of rather poor chossy conglomerate for a few metres, before reaching the main band of grey conglomerate. The latter is some of the finest rock I have climbed on, a really rough texture and loads of pockets; I like pockets, they are generally very positive and you can wrap your fingers around them and crank.

The strangest thing is that, in one sector at least, the lower band of rock is so devoid of holds that it makes all the routes much harder for the first few metres, as the decent rock above tends to be better furnished with holds (if a bits steeper). So the resourceful Catalans have sorted the problem out by chipping lines of holds in the lower band - the size and spread set strictly in keeping with the difficulty of the upper section of course. On a couple of lines they have actually bolted on a series of plastic climbing-wall-holds. Can you imagine such a thing happening in Britain?! The end result seems to work though, because rather than all the lines having to climb something 7c-ish on 5m of rubbish rock before finishing up 25m of something 7a-ish up decent rock, the routes become a lot more balanced and more people get to enjoy the good climbing above.

Anyway after warming up Ferran and I set to work on a 6c and couple of 6c+s. One of them apparently gets 7a in some guides and I was quite pleased to onsight it, but I was so tired afterwards then I failed miserably on the last one which is supposed to be easier. I was so weak at the top that I couldn't hold on to clip, and had to make a chain of three quickdraws to elongate the belay!

Djanira is coming back today, which I'm very pleased about, and then Cathy + new boyfriend arrive (very late) this evening. Should be good!

El Paret dels Diables

2007-06-03T15:45:00.000Z

On Saturday I was invited by my mate Ferran - creator of the finally updated http://www.caranorte.com (molt bé, Ferran!) - for my second ever Montserrat climbing experience. The first was over a year ago, when a group of us from London visited the south face of the mountain to do some sport climbing. The south face is a very pleasant place - accessible, sunny, with generally quite short routes that are well equipped with new bolts. The north face is a different beast; its dark, sheer walls are only breached by a handful of routes, almost all of which resort to aid climbing at some point (non-climbers: see note at bottom). We were off to El Paret dels Diables (The Devil's Wall) with the goal of doing one of the very few all-free routes i.e. no aid climbing. 330m, 10 pitches, max grade 6c+. Gulp!

Fortunately, it wasn't quite as scary as it sounds. The route, called Sanchez-Martinez after the first ascensionists, has been recently rebolted (replacing the original hand-placed nail-bolts) and so we could afford to enjoy the exposure and climbing free from the worries of having to place protection, although we had a rack of nuts with us which were used on occasion. The route starts up a 6a+ wall before diving into a chimney, which was ascended in true mountaineer, back-and-foot style. After three pitches we were spat out on a handsome ledge which was the start of the route proper. A pleasant V+ pitch led us up to the start of the difficulties, a 6c+ hanging crack which was led in fine style by Ferran. I thought the pitch was completely nails, and was absolutely knackered as I came round the corner to the belay. After a minute or so's recuperation I glanced up in trepidation at the next pitch (my lead!) knowing that it was 6c and therefore almost as difficult. Then my mouth dropped as I saw the most perfect hanging slab you ever seen, capped by a huge arcing roof. The crack where we were stood led straight up for a few metres for gradually curving round to the right until it reached horizontal. It reminded me instantly of photos I've seen of the Great Roof on the nose of El Capitan in Yosemite (except half a kilometre lower off the ground, and several grades easier to climb!). The climbing was perfect, delicate slab padding up along the crack, not tiring at all, just absolutely, mind-blowingly, brilliant. Undoubtedly the finest pitch of rock-climbing I have ever done in my life.

After that it was all over, with only a handful more pitches around the V/6a mark to reach the top, where hands were shaken in the traditional style and off we trooped to find the descent path. A brilliant day's climbing was topped off by driving round to the south face to meet up with Raquel who, like Ferran, I had met at the BMC international meet last April. It was great to see them both again and good to climb with Ferran. Moltes gràcies!

Finally it was off on the 45 minute drive back to Barcelona for a quick shower and then out to party with Dan + friends. Today I'm shattered!

Note: Aid climbing is the opposite of free climbing in that you are required to pull/step on bits of metal that you place into/onto the rock - it was once common everywhere but now is generally practiced only in areas where free climbing is too hard/dangerous.

Ma and Pa Evans visit, and new flat!

2007-05-30T14:44:00.000Z

This weekend saw the visit of my Mum and Dad to stay with us in Barcelona, along with our friends John and Julia who live across the road from my folks. A good time was had by all poking around the city, and we fitted in a day trip to Montserrat as well. Shame we didn't win the pub quiz. Ah well.

The last thing they managed to squeeze in before leaving was a visit to our new flat in Poble Nou. We signed the contract yesterday and so are very pleased. Location wise it is (almost) perfect - I say almost because it could be right next to the beach, instead of four blocks away, but it is right in the middle of an area that we really like. We still haven't quite figured out how we are going to configure the rooms - if I had bought the place I would knock through a couple of the partition walls and make it a really big two bedroom flat, rather than have four rather small bedrooms (actually, three bedrooms and a glorified cupboard!). And the new place doesn't have a terrace like our current flat does, but then it is in a much much nicer area and is €400 euros a month cheaper, not to be sniffed at.

Anyway my parents and John and Julia have left now; and in fact I'm on my own for a week because Djanira jetted off for a week to Madagascar! Nice for some, eh? This summer she is going to be base-camp manager for an expedition organised by her old company, BSES, and so is flying out there now to do a recce. Sounds suspiciously like a 'holiday' to me!

Fortunately I have lots of stuff ar y gweill, plenty of work to be doing, parties and pub quizzes to go to, and this weekend I'm off to climb one of Montserrat's big walls with Ferran. Speaking of which, I shall leave you with a pic of my Mum and Dad there two days ago:

Climbat Barcelona indoor climbing wall

2007-05-25T09:33:00.000Z

Last night we wanted to go climbing but work and chores delayed us til past 8pm, which is probably a little too late to head to the crags in May, so we decided to check out what indoor walls Barcelona has to offer.

The two major ones are La Fuixarda, an old road tunnel up on Montjuic that has been converted into a (very overhanging!) wall, and which is free and lit up at night; and Climbat, a 'more conventional' indoor bouldering wall not far from the city centre. We went to check out the latter (not realising it was bouldering only - fortunately the rope was hidden in a bag so I didn't look like a proper twit).

The first impression one gets is that it's small. When you're used to the super-walls of London, a single-storey bouldering room, about a quarter of the size of Mile End, seems quite claustrophobic. And expensive - €12 for a session! That's around 8 quid, exchange-rate fans. So, pricier yet smaller than Mile End; not a great start.

Spend a bit of time there though, and you begin to warm to the place. The staff are friendly and went out of their way to explain the way the problems/grading worked. Like Mile End and every other sensible wall, all problems were sensibly graded on a colour scale, but better still the colouring is consistent for all panels i.e. green problem uses only green holds, and all green problems are roughly the same grade. Very simple and no confusion. There is a very strict no-loose-chalk rule (only balls allowed) which I was worried about because I only had my super -8-euro-Decathlon-mega-chalk-refill in my bag, but it turns out that I didn't feel the need for chalk at all - not once in a 2.5 hour session. Why? Air conditioning!! It is absolute revelation to climb on plastic in cool, dry conditions, the friction was superb.

The whole place reminded me of a slighty larger, air-conditioned version of the bouldering room at Dynamic Rock in Swansea, which is no bad thing. Yet, at €12 a session, and with the long summer evenings approaching, I can't myself spending too much time there in the coming months.

Walking in Montserrat

2007-05-23T21:32:00.000Z

Computer troubles today (now fixed, thanks to a borrowed Windows Repair CD from Dan) meant that Djanira and I went for a walk this afternoon. It was drizzling this morning in Barcelona, but by the time we'd got out of the house and driven the 50ish minutes to a car park half way up Montserrat, the sun was out. We went for a great little walk which lasted about 3 hours, the photo above is of the Monestary, and several of the more famous pinnacles above it. Apparently there's an Elephant and a Mummy there somewhere. The pinnacle furthest left is the one Djanira and I climbed with Ferran back in November. Anyway, today was really good, and we're looking forward to the next visit.

First day's climbing

2007-05-20T20:19:00.000Z

Last night, my old mate Dan had a bbq on his terrace, which was very nice and we made lots of new friends. However, upon arriving home at 3am we thought that our plan of doing something outdoorsy the next day might be scuppered. Not so! One the reasons that we chose to move to Barcelona was because it is close to lots of fun things that you can go and do of an afternoon or even an evening, and so around mid-afternoon we decided to head out to do a bit of climbing.

We had parked the car down in Poble Nou so it was a bit of a walk before we could get motoring. Unfortunately, as I sat down in the drivers seat and turned the ignition, disaster! An interior light had been left on and drained the baterry. Bugger. Fortunately a quick trip to the petrol station round the corner for some jump leads, and after waving down somebody who was pleasant enough to give us a jump start, we were back on the way.

The crag we went to was Penya Ginesta, which is just to the south-west of town, near Castelldefels. It is a very pleasant place to be with a beautiful view across the Med:

We arrived at about 5pm so only did a few routes. Djanira did well to get up a 6a, and I dogged a 7a which will should go clean when I am fitter - the last time I climbed routes was in Pembroke at Easter, so I'm not in best shape. Here's the classic 'from below' shot of DJ on the first route we did:

Later on, we finished off the day with a beer and some tapas on Castelldefels beach, which you can see in the photo above. Very nice too.

Oh yeah, and to all those doubters, Plebby made it to Spain no worries, and is serving us well as usual (despite us mistreating him by leaving his lights on).

Hasta la proxima....

View from our balcony #2

2007-05-18T21:26:00.000Z

At the weekend Torre Agbar, one of Barcelona's latest additions to its already impressive architecture, lights up at night. We currently live about half a mile to the north-west ('up', on the map):

Llegamos!

2007-05-17T19:26:00.000Z

We have arrived! Finally we are in Barcelona, and thanks to our holiday we have already a nice suntan so we don't stick out too much. Fortunately all the prospects are that the tans will stay with us for while - the weather, as you might expect, is sunny and in the low twenties. Very nice too.

We have moved into a flat on a temporary basis, for one month, in an area to the north-east of the city centre called Glories. Compass directions are always a little confusing in Barcelona, because every map of the city is drawn with the sea at the bottom, so you expect that way to be south. Except it's not, it's actually southeast. Muy confusing. Anyway, the flat is great for us at the moment, nice and big and with a huge roof terrace - so far all our meals have been al fresco (or, should I say, a fuera). Also we are only half an hour's walk from the area where we want to live, Poble Nou, so it's easy for us to get down there to see long-term-let flats. The photo is the view from our balcony, not spectacular but it's better than brick wall.

You might have noticed that the blog colour scheme has changed. New town, new country etc. I thought I'd make a new start with the blog too. Remember to check back to see what's going on out here! We've already had an invite to our first party - Dan's having a 'classic 80s film night', (complete with projector setup on his terrace) at his flat in Gracia on Saturday. Should be good!

Anyway I'm off to sign up for this facebook thingy. I've been putting it off for ages because I object to the facts that a) you have to sign up, and we sign up to enough things on the internet as it is, and b) people reveal so much about themselves, I find it quite embarrassing. However, I realise that all this is slightly hypocritical, as it is coming from the man who's currently writing a blog using a service you have to register with. And DJ signed up a few days ago and already appears to have half of my friends in her 'friends' list. So, why not? Hasta pronto!

Trip to Barca: The final leg

2007-05-15T08:20:00.000Z

After a fortnight's holiday, we are about to make our final section of the journey to Barcelona. And the best news is, we're going by boat!

Our holiday was always going to be of the 'winging it' variety, which is why we've ended up down in Levanto, just to the south-east of Genoa. Completely coincidentally, it is one of mainland Italy's most consistent surf spots, and the waves today (3'-4', though pretty choppy) are testament to that fact. Shame I neither have board nor wetsuit. Sigh.

We've been here about a week and been relaxing on the beach, not really doing much. It's a great place, not too touristy and plenty of 'real' people about, but still a beach town with all the trimmings. It reminds me a little bit of a bigger version of Mumbles. We did a long old walk along the coast to visit all of the Cinque Terre, five very famous picturesque villages clinging to the coastline to the east of here, and which are the most famous tourist attraction in the area. The walk was great and villages pretty enough, even if they are a little touristy (but what can you expect?).

Anyway so today is a our final day and we leave our campsite (very nice, best we've stayed in all holiday), make the short drive to Genoa to catch the 9.30pm ferry, arriving in Barcelona at 4.30pm the next day. Looking forward to it actually. Still, until then we have one more day here at Levanto, I might see if I can hire me a board somewhere...

On the road part 2: Italia

2007-05-08T13:40:00.000Z

There are three things that I have noticed thus far about Italy:

1) There are no fat people. I reckon the combination of a healthy diet (lots of fresh veg and olive oil) and good weather is a good one, as the only excess fat you see around is a bit of late/middle-aged spread. Much better than all the fatties in the States.

2) It is obviously against the local Trade Description Act to sell sunglasses that have lenses smaller than small dinnerplates. A further law stipulates that for any gathering of three or more people, at least one of them must be wearing such a pair of glasses, and smoking.

3) All the stories about Italian drivers are true. They are all crazy, as our hellish two hours getting lost in Genoa will testify.

The best thing about Italy, of course, is the sunshine. We are in a small town called Chiavari, on the mediterranian coast, to the east of Genoa. Our small campsite is right next to the sea (breakfast was taken on the beach this morning) and a 15 minute walk away from the town centre, which is a nice size and would probably be quite lively in tourist season. Currently though it is a little bit dead, but hey, such is the price of travelling in May.

The difference in the weather on the southern side of the alps is striking. We drove up from Geneva to a cloudy and damp Chamonix, where I completely failed to find the famous Bar Nacional (does it still exist even?!), and practically as soon as we came out of the southern side of the Mont Blanc tunnel, we were in the sun. After a three hour drive we were by the sea and changing into shorts. What a treat.

Our plan now is to go a little bit further east to the Cinco Terre, five very famous towns perching on clifftops, each about a mile away from each other. After a couple of days there we'll see, maybe drive back along the Med, or maybe head to Tuscany for a while, before catching a ferry to Barcelona?? Nice idea but we need to look into it. Ciao for now!

The Road to Barcelona: London - Fontainebleau - Geneva

2007-05-06T15:48:00.000Z

After weeks, months, if not years of talking about it, Djanira and I are finally moving to Barcelona! We have trusty old Pleb (the VW Passat) back to ferry us there, so we thought instead of driving there direct, we'd take our time and wander down leisurely.

First stop was Fontainebleau to do some bouldering, a familiar place as we've been there several times in the past. The difference this time was that we decided to stay in a different campsite; usually we stay in La Musadiere near Milly la Foret, but we'd heard that a different site may be nicer, so we'd thought we'd check it out. The new place is called Camping Les Pres, and it's to the south of the forest. Our official verdict is that the advantages of being able to have an open fire do not outweigh the disadvantage of location - it's an extra 20 mins drive to most of the bouldering, and we do really like Milly la Foret. Also, in this day and age there's no excuse for having sqaut toilets - yuck!

Anyway, we spent a couple of very pleasant days milling around the forest. My climbing highlight was a return to Franchard Isatis and the famous problem Le Statique, which I had battled with greatly three years ago (and failed), but this time ticked on my second try. Chuffed. Unfortunately I had no such luck with another classic problem, this time at 91.1, called Le Flipper. Hopefully I'll do it next time.

We left Font and drove down to the old Volcanoes near Clermont Ferrand, with the intention of climbing the Dent du Rancune (google it, it's quite impressive) but we left the area after only one night. The fine weather finally broke and the towns up there are a dive, they remind me a bit of Matlock Bath, all geared up for tacky summer tourists. Not recommended.

So we bailed after a wet night and drove East to Geneva, where we are staying with some of Djanira's Brazilian family who emigrated here many years ago. We had a roof over our head and comfy bed for the first night in a while, and have just eaten a huge raclet, yum! Our current plans are to stay one more night here and then head for the Med. The weather is closing in for prolonged rain in mainland France so there's no point staying inland. Maybe we'll take the Mont Blanc tunnel through Italy, hit the Med, then drive along the coast to Barca. We'll see. Hasta luego!

Dr Alun Evans

2007-04-23T11:12:00.001Z

Review: The Villain, by Jim Perrin

2007-04-22T18:34:00.000Z

"You do know that he was an absolute bastard, don't you?"

The words of Very Famous British Climber, Joe Brown, referring to another of the same ilk, Don Whillans. These two names, forever linked, are two of the very few that the general-non-mountaineering populace of Britain have ever heard of. Along with Hilary, Bonington and only a few others, the names of Whillans and Brown cast a very long shadow over British mountaineering. In The Villain, Jim Perrin takes it upon himself to separate myth from fact and produce the definitive biography to one of climbing's greatest characters; Don Whillans.

I've never really been a fan of Jim Perrin's monthly columns in various climbing magazines. Yes, the guy has a way with words, yes he is a bit of a legend in British (and especially Welsh) climbing, but a lot of his writing is rather overly prosaic for my tastes. Over at UKC, tobyfk wittily commented recently that he had come up with a random Perrin article generator, sample output:

Large sensual hands lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, onto the ridge of Moel Llyfnant, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Sed quam tortor, resonates with ancient dignissim sagittis descending from Esgeiriau Gwynion vestibulum vitae magical landscape. Looking across to Foel Hafod Fynydd suspendisse sit amet extraordinary richness of textures .....

which is about right. I mean, the last piece I read of his was in the Guardian, where he'd written a small column about going out at night to watch badgers shagging. Each to their own, I suppose.

The point of all this is that it left me a little bit worried when I got my hands on The Villain. Wouldn't Perrin's propensity to eulogise over-dramatise such an important story? Given the reputation of the subject, this is a book that really has to be done right, if at all. Yet on the flip-side, who else is better qualified to undertake such a burden, given that there are few other people who can a) say that they are/were on first name terms with most if not all the characters in the book, and b) have several years of professional writing experience (no matter how prosaic it tends to be)?

That Don Whillans was one of Britain's greatest rock-climbers and mountaineers is beyond doubt. He blazed a trail of new routes over the entire country that are almost unanimously direct, inspiring, brutal, and hard. After several failed expeditions he finally bagged a major first ascent in the greater ranges, after he and Haston summited Annapurna via its south face, an achievement that ushered in a new era of Himalayan climbing, both capping Whillans' career and simultaneously sowing the seeds for its demise. For unfortunately Whillans was known as much for his brash persona, arrogance, fighting, drinking and womanising as he was for his climbing; traits that were increasingly difficult for his peers to gloss over as the years went by.

Fortunately, Perrin seems to be aware that this book is not the place to waffle on about badgers and the beauty of Welsh hills. He keeps his most prosaic style firmly locked up, at least until the final chapter, by which time we are happy to forgive a short burst of it. His chronological account of Whillans' life sticks to the facts, allowing the stories generated by Don and his peers to maintain the reader's interest. I was interested, and rather pleased to see that Perrin avoids painting too bad a picture of Whillans. Fundamentally, he seems to be saying, Don wasn't the monster that myth and legend would have him to be, and several passages of the book pay tribute to more positive aspects of his character. However, he never gets too carried away with the notion; every now and again a brief anecdote (usually revolving around drinking, fighting, womanising, or all three) reminds us of how unpleasant a character he could be.

The one passage that entertained me the most was the story of Whillans and Haston (again) this time within a couple of hundred feet of summiting Everest, by a new route direct up the south west face. They had managed it 9/10ths of the way up, and saw an obvious traverse line out to the (much easier) south east ridge (and thus the summit). To take this traverse would have been understandable, but a bit of a cop-out - the main challenge was to make an entirely new route, independent of others, and to take the traverse would have diluted the purity of the climb. To a mountaineer like Don, this was not good enough; the lure of summiting Everest without taking the new, independent line was just not present, so they carried on up their independent line. Too late they realised that it was much harder than they anticipated, and with worsening weather they decided to retreat, having neither succeeding to climb the entire new line, nor even reach the summit via the easier route. Their eventual return down to a lower camp, after 21 days at high altitude that ended in failure, was described by another climber, John Clears, and is quoted in the book:

"I watched Dougal [Haston] come down the fixed ropes and stagger towards us down the Cwm. He was zonked. He looked like a Belsen victim and dragged his feet through the snow. Pemba rushed out to meet him with a big kettle of hot fruit juice. Dougal flopped in the snow to drink it, and then, supported on Pemba's shoulder, he staggered into camp - shot.
Ten minutes later Don swung off the bottom of the ropes. He strode down the path towards the camp humming a tune and dribbling a snowball at his feet. Pemba ran out with the kettle and Don dismissed the friendly little sherpa with a friendly slap on his shoulder: 'Thanks, Pemba, but I'll have what's left of the real stuff'. He reached inside his down suit, pulled out what was left of a half-bottle of Glenfiddich, and knocked it back in one gulp. Then he chucked the bottle over his shoulder and strode on down to the accompaniment of a loud belch"

I thoroughly recommend reading the book.

Flat hunting in Barca

2007-04-17T14:00:00.000Z

I'm so chuffed that the Med has decent waves, that I'm going to show you another picture from www.funkysurfing.com, this one taken four days ago. 3-4 feet of solid swell, and pretty clean to boot. Sigh...

The good news is that I confirm that the pic above, and all the rest on that sight, aren't fakes - this Saturday Djanira and I strolled down to Barceloneta and there it was, a solid 3-foot swell (unfortunately messed up by a strong cross-off breeze), and about 50 surfers enjoying it. Further up the coast at Vila Olimpica a fatter wave had about 30 longboarders on it, which tbh looked like it would work better on a westerly swell instead of the southerly that was present, but showed promise nonetheless. The swell dropped a little on Sunday but was still rideable, and by Monday it had gone.

So, wave-hunt successful, we returned to the lesser-important of our two goals for the weekend, finding somewhere to live*. Barcelona is quite a compact city, squeezed in between the mountains and the sea, and it would appear that all city architects had this on their mind while designing the apartment blocks - why have one large bedroom when you could have three tiny ones, right?!

Our number one criteria for a flat is that it has to be near the sea. After years of neglect, Barcelona has spruced up its beaches and they are really brilliant now; clean, safe, pretty, modern and easy to access. We saw a couple of flats downtown but they weren't right - they just made us realise how important being near the sea is to us. The barrio of Barceloneta appears perfect on paper (yes, that's the main surfing beach!) but unfortunately the flats there are almost exclusively only 35m2. Which, frankly, is too small. So we're looking further up the coast, specifically at Poble Nou. It's a suburb, but quite a nice one, and it should be possible to get a bigger place there. Vila Olimpica, in between the two places, has some big flats too but frankly the place is soul-less. It was build for the Olympic games as housing for the athletes, and while it's pretty enough it has all the character you might expect from an area that was effectively razed to the ground and re-built within a few months.

We didn't find anywhere ideal this weekend but we learned a lot. We plan to arrive there mid-May, and so our likely course now is to live in short-term accommodation for the first fortnight while we find the right place.

* this is a joke, Mum. Aha.

Pembrokeshire climbing

2007-04-10T10:26:00.000Z

Since the late 70s, the Easter bank holiday weekend has seen vast quantities of climbers descend on the small village of Bosherston to climb on the cliffs of the Pembrokeshire coast. 'Big deal', you may say, the same happens at any number of crags all over Britain. The difference is that the Easter 'meet' at Pembroke has a bit more tradition about it - in the late 70s/early 80s, the campsite at Bosherston would swell with some of the leading climbers of the day who would all head off out to force new routes and generally explore the coastline. In those years the brilliance and sheer volume of rock climbing in Pembrokeshire was rapidly unearthed, and the Easter weekend was the unofficial 'opening weekend' of the season. These days the supply of new routes has all but dried up, with only the most difficult challenges remaining unclimbed, but Easter time at Pembroke has still retained that special vibe, where pasty climbers emerge from their indoor walls and leave their freezing gritstone problems, and enjoy a long weekend ticking a seemingly endless stream of quality rock-climbs, probably getting a healthy tan along the way. This Easter was no different.

A few months ago I started making noises to see who'd be interested in Pembroke at Easter, and thanks the efforts of Ian Lau the numbers swelled until there was a good 15-20 of us who knew each other, joining the couple of hundred climbers camping in the various fields that are opened up by the Bosherston residents. The atmosphere in the village was great as usual, loads going on, lots of smiling faces and a great buzz around the pub in the evening - which, incidently, probably took around £20K over the course of the weekend. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm but with a crisp air temperature that ensured climbing conditions never got too greasy. I climbed on alternate days with Djanira and Jo Bertalot, and managed to tick off several classics that I have had my eyes on for a while, from the uber classic Hard-Severe Bow-Shaped Slab at Flimston Bay, to seconding Jo up a the 3* E4 Body Language at St Govan's East. I led a couple of E3s, the best of which was probably Forbidden Fruits, a pumpy face-climb also at St Govan's East. My fitness is good but I still have plenty to learn - I didn't fall but spent ages faffing around with gear during the crux sequence, so making the final moves harder than they should have been. Still it was my first trad weekend since a visit to the Wye Valley last September, so I'm pretty pleased. I was also quite happy to speak as much Welsh as English this weekend - the Bertalot brothers grew up in Pwllheli, and all my climbing with Jo was done through the medium of Welsh - a first for me and very nice too.

I was particularly pleased that Djanira really enjoyed the weekend too and has refound her climbing 'mojo'. We had quite an adventure on the classic VS Blue Sky at Saddle Head, which involved a free-hanging abseil and getting drenched by a big wave on the belay ledge at the bottom. Good job it was hot and sunny, and that the climbing was so good! DJ also seconded Cathy up an E1 at St Govan's East, Calisto, so well done to both of them.

Climbing wise I have one more weekend's trad in a fortnight before it's off to Spain and the world of bolts. I have no doubt though that I'll be back in Pembroke next Easter!

Barcelona waves

2007-03-27T09:52:00.000Z

So the move to Catalunya comes ever closer (beginning of May now) and we are just starting to get plans in order. There is a lot to do and think about - how do we get out there (fly/drive/ferry), how much/what stuff to take, bank accounts, accomodation etc.

The only one thing that has been worrying me about Barca is that, for all the amazing climbing nearby, the quality mountain biking just outside the city, and the fact that the ski-lifts of the Pyrrannees are only a 3 hour drive away, the fact is that the Med is not exactly famous for it's waves. In fact, for 8 months of the year it is pretty much as flat as a mill-pond. I had heard rumours that the winter months bring some small swell every now and again, but months of web-searching only found a couple of low-res pics, and a lot of hearsay.

Yesterday though, while searching for an example to show Mr Rhys, I happened to stumble upon www.funkysurfing.com, a photo-diary dedicated to "the waves of Barcelona and Tarrogona". Check the waves of two weeks ago, at Barceloneta (the city's main beach). Needless to say, my mouth hit the floor, and perusal of the rest of the season's waves revealed at least some sort of consistency. From the pics I'm guessing that the winter waves of the Med are about the same size and consistency as summer waves in Wales (i.e. usually a foot or two of wind-chop, with the occasional bigger and/or cleaner day). I guess I'll only be able to see how consistent it really is when I live out there, but one thing's for sure - if waves like the one below come along even once every couple of months, I'll definitely need my board!

7a+

2007-03-26T15:48:00.000Z

Two weeks ago I was sport climbing down at Portland with Macca and Hugh Merrick and, bearing in mind the difference between trad and sport, worked the moves on a 7a+ called Victims of Fashion. 7a+ is a bit of a funny grade for me, technically I've onsighted at this level in the past, but that was in Spain and everybody knows that Spanish grades are soft(!); the highest I've managed over in the UK is a redpoint of a 7a at Blacknor (also in Portland - Medusa Falls for those that know it). So anyway I worked Victims of Fashion two weeks ago and got completely knackered, I couldn't even link it on a top-rope let alone think about trying to redpoint it, so I put it in the bag for another day. That day arrived on Sunday, and I was pretty keen. I'd been doing a bit of finger strength work in the last fortnight and I was hoping that it would make the difference.

The key in this sort of situation is to remember that you're trying to redpoint a sport route. So after warming up on a couple of other routes (including an onsight of Out of Reach, Out of Mind) I didn't jump on my project and try and climb it one push straight away, I spent half an hour hanging around on it (thanks Al!), resting at each bolt, not using too much energy, working the moves over and over until I was satisfied. Then I came and rested for 20 minutes, went through the entire sequence of the route in my head, and set off for the lead. The result: 7a+ ticked on first redpoint, and a big smile on Alun's face.

In fact, I had so much energy left in the bank that I redpointed a 7a (Trance Dance) an hour later! Chuffed!

Trad vs Sport

2007-03-21T10:06:00.000Z

One of the threads on UKC has raised a very important point with regards to the difference between 'traditional' and 'sport' climbing (non-climbers: see note*). As sport climbing is so rare in Britain, many climbers here don't understand its attraction, as it is simply not as adventurous (no real risk, relying less on your own initiative, usually not even reaching the top of a given crag).

But of course they are different games, something that was summed up nicely by UKC poster abarro81:

I think a lot of people in the uk, particularly those who dont enjoy pushing themselves technically so much, just arent used to climbing sport so they do it in the same way they go trad climbing.

They'll go out and do a bunch of stuff below their limit and maybe top rope something their mate lead which is a bit harder. I can see how they find this lame - I find easy sport climbing boring tbh. i think those who like sport climbing generally like that you can onsight at your absolute limit and work stuff that at first seems absurdly hard.

A lot of people i know who dont like sport so much have just gone trad climbing with bolts rather than sport climbing in the above way. i think it takes a different approach than trad.

Which mirror my thoughts exactly. There's no doubt that the rush you get of getting to the top of a brilliantly exposed trad route is amazing - but succesfully reaching the lower-off chains on a really hard sport route, which you have been practicing and trying for days, is also a brilliant feeling. As Lito Tejada-Flores wrote years ago, there are lots of different games in climbing, and being able to appreciate the draws of the different games makes climbing the satisfactory and fulfilling hobby that it is.

* 'trad' climbing is when you ascend the rock placing your own equipment in natural features and fissures to save you in the event of a fall, which is removed with little damage to the rock by the person following you; whereas 'sport' climbing sees you relying for safety on bolts and hangers that have been drilled into the rock. Trad is more adventurous than sport, but the relative safety of sport climbing makes it easier to climb at a higher standard, as the only thing you risk hurting when you fall is your ego).

Finally

2007-03-19T11:12:00.000Z

Well, we managed to get a victory at last. And let's face it, if you'd come up to me, or any other Welshman, before the tournament saying "you can only beat one team this year, which do you choose" then it's a bit of no-brainer.

But let's face it - England just did not show up on Saturday, and Wales didn't really play any different to the how they played in the rest of the tournament. This isn't actually such a damaging statement - we should have won against Ireland (people forgot that pretty quickly), drew against Italy, and while the Scottish game is one to forget, we didn't embarrass ourselves in Paris. Yet the reality is that we're still not clinical enough. On Saturday was that the our pack got the upper hand and turned the screw on the English from an early stage in the game, which meant quick ball and consistent movement over the gain line. That, coupled with Hook's excellent kicking game, meant that 75% of the game was played in England's half and to lose a game with that amount of territory is a almost impossible - but the scoreline didn't reflect the Welsh dominance. Let's be blunt about this, Wales should have been 30 points up at half-time, and should have won by 40, and only a lucky bounce, a moment of magic from Ellis and several moments of selfishness from Shane Williams prevented that. There is still a lot of work to do before the world cup.

As for England... only more questions, no answers...

News flash: time warp discovered in Stadio Flamino, Rome!

2007-03-10T17:36:00.000Z

Science boffs worldwide are in shock this afternoon, after a freak time-warp incident occurred at a popular sporting event.

Awarded a penalty in the dying seconds, and with the choice to draw the match by kicking for goal, or go for the win by going for a lineout in the corner, the Welsh rugby team were clearly told by the match official that there were 10 (ten) seconds remaining on the clock. The Welsh decided to go for the win, and so drilled the ball into the corner for the lineout.

Yet, amazingly, the mid-flight ball must have entered what scientists are terming a 'local anomaly in the space-time continuum', because despite leaving James Hook's boot at high velocity, the time it took to travel the 30 yards to the touchline must have been greater than 10 seconds, because the ref blew for full time immediately afterwards.

Controversially, some Welsh supporters have suggested that the referee made a mistake, thus robbing Wales of at least a draw, and maybe a win. However their calls were jeered by the mass of physicists all excitedly discussing the new era in physics

Gower Bouldering Wiki

2007-03-01T16:29:00.000Z

Over the spring of 2006 I was writing up my PhD, and during my better efforts to avoid it I went off bouldering around Gower. Finally, my labours have now come to fruit (it was a hard job etc. etc.) with the Gower bouldering wiki:

http://gowerbouldering.wetpaint.com/

check it out...

Another training article

2007-02-21T17:10:00.000Z

Dave MacLeod has written a short article for UKC. The most interesting bit of it for me was this:

...[improvement] isn’t possible without showing a bit of backbone. Everyone makes excuses, you can hear them all the time if you listen. Keep one ear on the ones coming out of your own mouth and every so often you have a ‘wake up call’ moment. Right there is the scaffold of your motivation to make a break to the next level.

I like this attitude; it emphasises a can-do approach to becoming better at whatever you're doing. Training to improve at anything is all about identifying your weak-points and working to improve them - and the first step to doing that is to admit what your weak-points are.

No more Capoeira

2007-01-11T10:39:00.000Z

After a few days of jet-lag, I'm just about getting back up to speed with the world here back in London, a feat that's been double hard thanks to the fact that there is just so much ar y gweill at the moment. Work is busy, PhD viva soon, and I am preparding for the move to Spain, both professionally and logistically. The upshot of it is that play time is in short supply at the moment yet, as I have said before, all work and no play makes Alun a dull boy.

Recently, play-time has been split between climbing and capoeira, but I'll be honest the situation hasn't been ideal. I have reached the 'first peak' in capoeira - I can confidently step into the roda and play a simple game, and enjoy and appreciate and enjoy a good game when played by others. Yet rather than being happy about this, it's actually a little daunting: I've scaled the first peak, only to see the huge mountain range ahead, and realised just how much hard training is required to scale those mountains.

The mountaineering allegory is a good one, because it leads back to climbing. I realised last night, when riding home from the wall (or rather, the pub next to the wall), that climbing is still my number one. It is what inspires me and motivates me, drives me and pleases me. Because of capoeira, my climbing has suffered over the last few months, and I'm not happy about it. I have realised that I have to dedicate to one or the the other - trying to do both means that I will never improve at either, and risk getting bored with both.

If this reads a bit like a confessional, then it's probably because it feels like it is. I love capoeira, I think it's brilliant, and strangely I feel guilty for stopping. But stop I must. You know you've made a correct decision becuase once you've made it, you feel this massive weight lift off your shoulders. That's how a felt last night.

Bouldering in the Peak District on Sunday. Alright!

USA Trip: Final Photos

2007-01-10T10:26:00.000Z

Well we're back safe and sound, and recovering from the jet-lag, which has been awful for the last few days.

Of the 350 (!) photos we took there's a more manageable 60 now uploaded here. Let me tell ya somethin'...

USA Trip: Back to Vegas

2007-01-05T16:11:00.000Z

There's a classic Monty Python sketch in which Death (that's with a capital 'D', i.e. the Grim Reaper) loses patience with a Yank who's trying to butt in all the time. Death, who is frightfully English, of course, snaps:

"You always talk you Americans; you talk and you...talk, and you say things like, 'let me tell ya somethin', and, 'I just wanna say this!'. Well, you're dead now, so shutup!"

It makes me chuckle every time I hear it, yet the truth is they talk different over here, and the worse thing is that I've found myself joining in - for example, it takes the average waiter a couple of seconds to realise that "can I have the bill please" actually means "can I get the check please"; or that "we're going to leave now" is actually "we're gonna shoot off right now". So me and DJ have found that changing the way we speak is easiest, at least temporarily. I draw the line at subsituting 'real' for 'really' though e.g. you're never going to hear me say that something is 'real nice', or 'real sweet'. Ych a fi.

Anyways, so today is the beginning of the end, as it were, and we have a 10-12 hour drive ahead of us, from San Francisco back to catch our flight in Vegas, although we are splitting it over two days. We've done a lot of driving - from Vegas to Oceanside in 'SoCal', then up Highway 1 past plenty of famous spots: Laguna, Newport, Huntingdon and Venice Beaches, Santa Monica, Malibu, Santa Barbara, the coastal road all the way up to Santa Cruz, and finally to San Francisco. It's been great.

From a surfing point of view, it's fairly obvious why so many world class surfers hail from California. The waves have been uniformally superb, all the way up the coast. Usually glassy clean and I've barely seen a single closeout. I managed to fulfill a lifetime dream and catch some pacific ocean waves down at Oceanside, perfect 3' peeling waves, no wind and totally glassy. Even on a crappy rental foam board, the waves flattered to deceive and I caught more good waves in 2 hours than I think I've caught in the last five years. Going back to relentless onshore Gower closeouts is going to be difficult! Up at Santa Cruz we nipped out to the point at Steamer's Lane a couple of morning's ago. It is one of the most famous breaks in the world, and you can see why in the photo in the post below. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to get in - though the be honest the thought of tackling that wave on a slippery 8' rented foamy didn't really inspire me, not to mention having to freeze in a 3-2 rental suit in the 10 deg water - the Pacific is cold in the winter!!

If you look in the gallery you can see our car. Due to it being the only one they had left, we were 'upgraded' by our car hire people from a little economical run-around (which we chose specially for it's ability to do 30mpg) to a complete behemoth of a Lincoln, which does 20mpg if we're very lucky. It's very comfy for travelling, but less pleasurable for the bank balance, and not to mention the environment.

Still, we've got two days of solid driving ahead of us, so maybe the added comfort isn't too bad...

PS You may also notice that, after 10 years, I have cut my hair! The dreads are still there, they're just really short. Feels different!

USA Trip: Vegas and Joshua Tree

2006-12-28T16:36:00.000Z

Well, of all the stories I had heard about the States before I came here, there's one that is 100% right. The cars here are huge; and I do mean huge. In fact, pretty much everything is huge, the landscape, the food, the roads, the people, everything. It's quite overwhelming, to be honest.

Djanira, her mum Uby, and I flew over here on Christmas Eve and we fly back to Britain on the 7th Jan. We flew into to Vegas, which is just as dros ben llestri as you'd imagine it to be, eveything is done completely over the top. We stayed in the Sahara hotel and casino, which is one of the cheaper places to stay, but still on the strip and quite good fun. We spent Christmas day wandering the strip in the sunshine, and had a massive buffet lunch at Flamingo - all the casino's have these amazing all-you-can-eat buffets, which are pretty good value. I'm not much of a gambler so I didn't play much, a few goes on the slots and computers, and one go on a blackjack table. I lost about 20 bucks on the machines but stayed even on the table. Good fun though.

You may notice the photograph above is not in Vegas - in fact it's the Grand Canyon! As a christmas present to ourselves we flew by helicopter from Vegas to see the canyon, passing the Hoover dam on the way. It was all very impressive, and we landed on the canyon floor for a champagne brunch. Very nice indeed!

After returning to the city we picked up a hire car (which, naturally, is huge, and I do mean huge), and drove through the desert to Joshua Tree. J-Tree is a national park that represents the boundary between the Mojave and Colorado deserts, and is famous for the unique Joshua trees that grow there - U2 stayed there when writing their seminal album of the same name. It is also one of the most famous rock climbing areas in the whole world, so I was very excited to pull on my boots and do a bit of bouldering, when I get more time I'll dump the photos in my album.

After stopping there we drove an impressive road from Palm Springs over the San Jacinto
mountains, and are now in the house of DJ's uncle Francisco, in Vista, just to the north of San
Diego. Lovely weather today, and we're off to see 10ft swells breaking on the pacific shoreline - I don't think I'll go in the water today!

More to come soon...

Multilingualism

2006-12-20T14:27:00.000Z

Being bilingual, and living with somebody who is trilingual, I am a big proponent of the importance of learning foreign languages at school. The issue has raised its head again in the news recently, with the government promising a drive to get kids to do more foreign languages - though it baffles me why they are suggesting this now, when only a few years ago they changed the curriculum so that it isn't mandatory to do a foreign language GCSE.

There is an interesting article in the paper about it today, written (in very elegant English) by a Frenchwomen, which got me thinking a little more on why I think learning a foreign language is so important.

"The global culture we live in is a double-faced creature, part angel, part devil. It induces two sets of behaviour in world citizens: a greater openness and a new curiosity towards others, or the illusory and self-satisfied conviction that the world has come to them. The first group, embracing multilingualism, have learned that a better understanding of other cultures, based on mutual knowledge of each other's languages, can foster stronger business partnerships, richer cultural exchanges and lasting peace. The second, often found in the English-speaking world, are proud of their monolingualism, and have retreated into a fantasy world in which it seems everyone speaks their language."

The monolinguist's arguments are usually along the lines of "all the world speaks English, what's the point in learning another language?". In that respect, they have some sort of point, even it is a touch arrogant. Yet, to me, the main benefits of learning another language are not limited to the ability to converse in that language; rather, they are the enlightenment of realising that you aren't limited to a single method of expressing yourself linguistically*, and the appreciation of different cultures that can only be acquired by immersing yourself to the level where you have to use that culture's language.

At school I learned French to GCSE level, and went on two exchange visits to France, staying with French families. Being forced to speak French meant that I began to see the world a little bit through French eyes, and as a result I am a big fan of France, and the French people - not a view shared by many of my fellow Brits! But how many of them went on a French exchange? And if they didn't, would their prejudices against the French still exist if they had gone on an exchange?

The point I'm trying to make is that, even though I have forgotten much of my French now, I don't think for a second that learning the language was a waste of time. I learned far more than 'just another language'.

* For some time I've pondered the best way of describing this (the idea that there isn't always an equivalent translation) to an English monolingual, and the best example I've come up with is translation of the word 'Welsh':

Cymraeg = Welsh (the language e.g. "she speaks Welsh")
Cymreig = Welsh (something that is from Wales e.g. "a Welsh harp")
Cymry = Welsh (the people of Wales e.g. "the Welsh sing very well")

so;
the English can talk about English things in English;
but (to paraphrase)
the Cymry talk about Cymreig things in Cymraeg

Changes afoot...

2006-12-14T16:16:00.000Z

If you link to this page via my main webdomain, alunthomasevans.co.uk, you may have already noticed that there has been a bit of a change. If not, go there now to have a look at the first iteration of my 'professional' website. The idea is that I'll be applying for jobs again soon (I stop work here in the Ear Institute at the end of April), and so I wanted a more professional presence on the web...you know, a place to list my papers, download examples of my work, my CV etc. etc. and this is the first effort.

Being the bit of the geek that I am, I decided to make it a bit more impressive to fellow geeks (i.e. people that may be employing me in the future, and write it in a way that completely separates content from design. Hence I nipped off to learn about XSL, and the result is a page that always has the same design, despite the changing content, if you have a peek at the source code, you'll see it's all in XML, which is transformed by an XSL stylesheet to create the HTML, and I have used this to show-off my language madskillz, so that the same stylesheet transforms the content in three different languages. I'll probably write a bit more about it in Code Corner soon.

Some requests for help:

-My designing skills are atrocious, if anybody has any ideas how to make it look nice (without going over the top) then please do tell me.

- Siaradwyr Cymraeg: dwi heb ysgrifennu unrhywbeth ffurfiol ers talwm, felly dwi'n siwr bod 'na digonedd o gamgymeriadau yn fy iaith. Os oes gennych unrhyw cywiriadau neu syniadau, dwedwch plis!

- Los que hablan español: bueno, es obvio que todavía estoy aprendiendo español, por eso si tienes algunas correcciónes o sugerencias, por favor, dime!

if you don't know my email it is alun AT alunthomasevans.co.uk

Pinochet is dead

2006-12-10T19:43:00.000Z

So, like Pol Pot, Idi Amin and several other criminals before him, General Augusto Pinochet cheats real justice and escapes to the land of the dead. He will not be missed by the majority, yet his death still comes as a blow to the thousands of Chileans, Spaniards, and people of all nationalities who wanted to see this man stand in the dock and face responsibility for his crimes.

Pinochet assumed power in Chile in a military coup d'etat in 1973. The incumbent president, Salvador Allende, had led a socialist government which had followed policies unpopular with the Chilean right, such as the nationalisation of industry and health service, and the seizure and redistribution of land and wealth. The coup was short, bloody and violent, with troops and tanks surrounding the Chilean palace in Santiago while it was bombed from the air. Allende died in the attack, and Pinochet emerged from the shadows to head the new military dictarship. The following months were a humanitarian disaster, with thousands of 'subversives' picked up by the secret police. At least 3000 people were killed, and several tens of thousands tortured - 40,000 alone were detained in Chile's national stadium, which had been converted to a concentration camp.

Despite these horrors and others, Pinochet remained a hero for many in Chile for some time after his removal from power, as some on the right still saw him as the saviour who prevented the country's slide into communism. However, this support had gradually eroded since it was discovered that he stole millions from the country's exchequer, skimming off funds and transferring them to a private swiss bank account. This was no upstanding citizen doing his best for his country; Augusto Pinochet was a common thief.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher is said to be 'deeply saddened' by his death. While I appreciate her point of view that his assistance during Falklands War may have saved British lives, it reflects rather badly on her judgment that she should continue to support a man who's name will forever be mentioned alongside some of the most infamous in history, and who be remembered by most as a repugnant man who had not a single redeeming quality.

Game reviews: Oblivion and God of War

2006-12-06T11:54:00.000Z

What with all current the hoo-haa regarding various new console releases, recently I had the urge to dust off my gaming madskillz and play a couple of titles that I have meaning to look at for a while. Mr Paul kindly gave me a copy of God of War about a year ago, but to be honest I dismissed it completely at the time, because it looked a little bit of a teenagers game. You see, I'm an adult, I like mature games with decent storylines and non-linear interaction and if they must be violent, then at least make it tasteful violence. :P Hence the reason that for the last few months I have been playing a rather different sort of game to God of War, called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Oblivion is a role-playing game in which you play some punter who is rather randomly drawn into a whirlwind quest to save the world from ultimate doom. Okay - so the story's a bit of a hack, but the game is pretty much about as non-linear as you can get, without making it so random that the player doesn't know where they are or what to do. The game world is completely huuuge, and while it is possible to 'fast travel' by clicking on a map, you can quite feasibly walk the whole way should you choose to do so. And you might as well - this is first game I have played where, when descending a mountain trail at sunset, I have actually stopped to admire the view. It really is rather impressive.

The vastness of the world, and the non-linear method you can use to explore it, is both the game's strength and weakness. There's no doubt that having such a large and engrossing world is wonderful; there's one large city and several small towns dotted about the map, and loads of stuff to do and explore in each one. You can spend hours, days even, just poking around and sticking your nose in to the thousands of side-quests that exist. And the 'main' quest, where the central story of the game unfolds, is always there in the background for you to do as much or as little as you like - until you complete it of course.

Yet therein lies the problem. Classic epics like Final Fantasy VII worked well due the world developing alongside the main story, Oblivion's world feels static by comparison. It doesn't help that they used the same five actors to voice every character in the game, and the 'random' conversations between NPCs (non-player-characters) become laughably repetative. At the end of the day, Oblivion's failings in this regards highlight an interesting point - while non-linear gaming gives a greater sense of freedom, unless the gaming world develops over time, that same non-linearity hamstrings the game as much as fully-linear-walk-this-direction-only experience.

Which, neatly enough, returns us to God of War. After getting it, the game gathered dust in it's box for a while until my old flat mate, Chris Jennions, picked it up one bored evening, about a year ago. While half-watching him play the first few levels, my initial suspicions seemed to be confirmed - it appeared to be nothing more than button-mashing, disengage-brain, 3D scrolling beat-em-up. Yet, after a few weeks, I noticed that Chris was still playing it, and thoroughly enjoying it. When I discovered, some time later, that itwon a few 'Game-of-the-Year' awards and that even the very strict Edge magazine awarded it 8/10, I decided that one day I would get round to playing it. A fortnight ago, that day arrived. And don't you know it, it's rather good.

It is still, of course, a button-mashing, disengage-brain, 3D scrolling beat-em-up. What separates it from the dross that is 99% of the rest of the games in this genre is the fact that it obviously has very high production values. The camera, traditionally a sticking point in such games, is almost always in exactly the right spot, following you relentlessly through corridors and across deserts, and panning, zooming and rotating to show your environment when necessary. The graphics are great considering it's only the PS2, and everything from the greek-mythology story, to the control system that expands throughout the game, to the suitably grandiose soundtrack, is well conceived. It is undoubtedly an entirely on-rails linear experience, with little chance to deviate from the path in front of you, and as such it couldn't be more different to Oblivion. But if I was forced to play one of the two games again, I would probably choose God of War - maybe I'm still a teenager at heart!

Capoeira Canal Christmas Roda

2006-11-28T11:38:00.000Z

My capoeira teacher, Monitor Risadinha (Jacob is his real name, Risadinha is his Capoeira apelido - once you get to certain standard you get 'baptized' and given a nickname. Monitor is his 'grade') is on a plane to Brazil as I write, for a three week holiday and to train with an academy out there, and last night we had our final lesson of the year with him. So we decided to make it a bit of an occasion, especially as it coincides with the two year anniversary of the school, Capoeira Canal, which is a good achievement for Jacob.

The class followed a slightly different format to normal. Usually, we warm up together, then the beginners and intermediates split for the majority of the class, and we get back together at the end for a little roda. The roda (Portuguese for 'wheel') is the circle of people and instruments, within which two people play Capoeira. It is the whole point of Capoeira, really. Anyway usually we just have a little roda at the end of the class, lasting 20-30 minutes, everybody has one quick game, and that's it. Yesterday, however, as it was a special occasion, we had decided in advance to start the roda early and have a 'proper' one. So after a quick warm up we got the instruments out and started playing.

It was great. My capoeira has improved loads and now I feel confident enough to not embarrass myself, and I really enjoy playing the instruments and singing also. Towards the end of a roda the music speeds up, the capoeira speeds up, and the whole thing becomes really engrossing - especially when you're watching two really good capoeiristas play a game, it's spellbinding. It's also amazing how fast the time goes, I had barely had two games before I glanced up at the clock and realised an hour had gone and I was unlikely to get another, as time was running out. Ah well. Still a brilliant evening, which we discussed and washed down with a couple of pints afterwards. Very nice indeed.

So now I'm really enthused for Capoeira and, fortunately, classes are continuing, despite Jacob being away. For the next couple of weeks we have some intructors from our 'parent' school (i.e. Jacob's old school) the London School of Capoeira coming to take the next two Monday classes, so it will be interesting to see how their teaching methods differ to Jacob's. Cool beans.

Katherine Schirrmacher article

2006-11-21T12:34:00.000Z

Katherine Schirrmacher, who recently recently has been signed up for the Moon climbing team, has written a short article for moonclimbing.com, "10 ways to revamp your climbing".

It is only a few hundred words long and yet I can't think of any other article that contains so much excellent information that is so concisely written and expressed.

https://www.moonclimbing.com/index.php?form_action=school&school_id=27class=

Portland sport climbing

2006-11-20T13:53:00.000Z

It's been a busy weekend so I'm treating you to two posts in one day, you lucky things! Saturday morning found me loitering outside Hammersmith at some god-forsaken hour, waiting to picked up by Paul Mac on the way to Portland. We picked up Paul Mealor on the way, and after boring them to tears telling them just how good Casino Royal is, we met Darcy for breakfast in the Blue Fish cafe at Fortuneswell (nice place, incidentally, good food, though a little overpriced for what you get) at around 10.30.

The slightly late start suited us nicely actually, as it meant the sun had time to get round onto the Blacknor crags on the west coast (see pic), where many of the routes are a decent 28-30m long, so you really feel like you're getting your money's worth on every route. The last time I did any proper climbing was in the Wye Valley with Alastair in September, so it was good to get back on the rock again. I climbed with Darcy and we did several routes around the 6a-6c range, all very pleasant - yet the problem with this cliff is that all the routes follow the same pattern: 5m of heaving on dusty jugs, 10-15m of delicate conglomerate balancing, followed by 5m of really good clean limestone at the top. As a result the routes feel rather similar to each other, even though they are very good if considered individually.

So we spent a night in the old lighthouse (now a bird-watchers haunt) and got up bright and early (well, ish), and set off for The Cuttings, where the route of the day for me was The Cutting Edge, which I was quite chuffed to onsight, especially given that I've been off climbing for the last few months. Then I went and burst my bubble with a fall off New Saladin, though I wasn't too miffed as it was a juggy pump-fest, a bit more fitness would have dispatched it. So another good day was had by all. Special commendation should go to Macca who is a having a bit of a purple-patch at the moment, it seems that a summer off has done him good and he's come back with a vengeance. Oh yeah and props go to Paul Mealor who red-pointed his first 7a during his recent visit to Thailand!

And I'm really pleased because I had a brilliant weekend which has relit my passion and enthusiasm for rock climbing. Roll on some decent training over the winter, I'm looking forward to Easter at Pembroke already...

Casino Royal review

2006-11-20T10:04:00.000Z

For some time, I have had a suspicion that the Sunday Times' chief film reviewer, Cosmo Landesman, doesn't actually know what makes a good film. Perhaps, if I were to be more polite, I would say that my opinion of what makes a good film differs from his. Either way, the fact is that I now have final conclusive proof that I am right and he is wrong, because the latest James Bond film, Casino Royal, is the best film I've seen all year, and certainly one of the best Bond films ever made.

Short of Tomorrow Never Dies, the more recent Bond efforts have been, if not completely pathetic, then largely forgettable. This is probably due to the fact that they ran out of Ian Fleming's books to convert to films some time ago, and so the films have relied on action and gadgets to get by. For Casino Royal, this isn't the case, because it is a remake of the original film, and based on the book of the same name - the first ever James Bond book. As a result, the film is very very different to almost every Bond film, with our hero being a slightly naive raw recruit (albeit one with an ego the size of Vauxhall Cross) who has just been promoted to his new title of 007. We get to see how the plot of the film moulds Bond gradually; tellingly, the famous Bond theme tune only appears right at the very end of the film, perhaps indicating that only then has transformed into the character that we have seen over the years. The scenario is given a clever twist by the film being set in the modern day, with internet, wireless communication and computers featuring heavily.

Daniel Craig is excellent in the main role, although I think he was lucky with the situation - the whole point of the film is that this 007 is very different to the more experienced one we have seen so many times before, so he had some license to stamp his own mark on the character. The rest of the acting is adequate, although it occasionally hampered by the slightly clunking script, which rather overstates the plot in case any thickos are watching and don't get it. In a way, though, this is a compliment to the plot which drives the movie at a relentless pace and high level of tension. Constantly twisting and turning, and with several factions all playing against each other, it is the plot that really raises this Bond effort high above the bar.

I haven't even mentioned the action sequences - - but quite frankly I needn't bother. Even if they were rubbish (they're not - one of them Djanira thought was the best chase scene she'd ever seen, the others all having you on the edge of your seat) it wouldn't really matter. Go and see this film, I can guarantee that you will enjoy it. Unless, of course, your name is Cosmo Landesman.

Viva date

2006-11-14T11:35:00.000Z

I have received word for the date of my PhD viva - 2pm on Tuesday 30th January 2007. I'm not sure whether I'm happy/scared/excited/nervous/relieved or what. Probably a mix of everything. My fingers are sweating now just thinking about it!

New Zealand vs. the rest of the world

2006-11-13T11:08:00.000Z

Just too good. I managed to catch the second half of the France/NZ game at the weekend, and to be honest it was really rather depressing. France are currently the number 2 team in the world rankings, yet they were completely and utterly outclassed by a New Zealand side that just does everything right. For 20 minutes, I saw France sit on the NZ 22, trying everything, using every trick they could think of to break the All-Black line. They might as well have been throwing pebbles at a concrete wall. A sea of black shirts soaked it all up, without appearing to make any effort, before quite casually stealing the ball and running in another try from their own half. If they can maintain this form for another 11 months, for the rest of us can only aspire to second place in the World Cup.

The rest of the weekend's rugby was more pleasant viewing. A second string Wales eased passed the Pacific Islands without actually playing a very good team game. Yet the signs are promising - if Gareth Jenkins can organize a strong and consistent squad, there's at least a semi-final place for the taking in the World Cup. The Irish gave the 'boks a stuffing, and nobody's ever sad to see that happen. The Scottish had a glorified training day, and poor old England got rolled over at home by a team of amateurs who'd had four days preparation. Personally I'm all for the Argies making the 6-nations the 7-nations. Wales has strong ties with Argentina, and they are only strengthened when they humiliate the old-enemy so!

But, dear-oh-dear, I'm really not looking forward to the 25th of November.

Barcelona and Montserrat updated photos

2006-11-08T10:55:00.000Z

Last weekend Djanira and I returned to Barcelona (rapidly becoming our favourite place to be) for a quick holiday, and to catch up with a few friends. Dan (as in, Dan-I-used-to-live-with-in-Chalk-Farm-Dan) is still living in the city and appears as settled as ever. It was really good to catch up with him; we had some tapas for dinner before going out to meet a few mates for drinks. I still can't believe how cheap Barcelona is compared to London. Everybody out there thinks it's an expensive place, but when three of you can eat as much yummy tapas as you like and drink several glasses of beer/cava in a fantastic small place which has a great vibe, for €50 total, you know you're in the right place. Better still, when we left we got a free shot of any liquor we could see behind the bar - when I saw they had some decent 12y.o. Islay single malt, I very nearly fell off my chair. Awesome.

So we ended up in a bar down in El Raval, which is reknowned somewhat as one of the dodgier areas of the city, but one which is now 'up-and-coming'. In terms of character, it reminded me a little bit of somewhere like Hackney - still dodgy, but with enough cheap cool places opening up to attract a less-rough crowd. Incidentally, you can imagine my shock and disgust at having to pay less than 9 euros for a round of four bottles of beer. That's about £1.50 a bottle, exchange-rate fans. Sigh. Anyway we stayed there til about 1am (just as it was warming up), but felt that we had to leave because we had an earlyish start later in the morning.

So after not-enough-sleep and quick breakfast, we caught a cab to the north-east of the city to meet my friends Raquel and Ferran. I met them both in North Wales last spring, at the BMC international climbing meet, and they were kind enough to invite me and DJ over and be our guides for Montserrat. They are both so, so sweet; really friendly and outgoing, and they were fantastic hosts. Unfortunately my injured shoulder (and lack of fitness) precluded us doing any hard climbing, so we just did some walking, and one easy route.

Montserrat is an awesome place. It's basically one big mountain, 45 minutes drive from Barca; it's about the size of the Snowdon massif, but littered with enormous rock faces and (literally) hundreds of 'needles' - rock pillars anywhere from 20 to 200m high. It is a rock climbing mecca and, quite frankly, it puts all of the fuss we in Britain give to our small crags to shame. On saturday we took a 'grand-tour', walking along the whole of the north face, which is Ferran's home-from-home - he even runs a website dedicated to it, which has gradually extended to encompass ther whole of Catalan climbing - check it out at www.caranorte.com, though both your Catalan and Spanish will need to be up to scratch. Saturday night we walked up (in the dark) to some hermit's cave in the middle of the mountain - just big enough to sleep four people and with a breathtaking view out over Barca and the med beyond. Sunday we climbed an easy route but to my shame I backed off the lead on my pitch. The climbing was barely harder than VS but 'protection', such as it was, consisted of rusty old bolt heads that needed to be threaded with a nut. Needless to say, I couldn't spot any small, grey/brown dots hidden among the (grey/brown) pebbly rock and, between you and me, I don't like running out 30m without knowing where the next belay is, especially on unfamiliar rock and with a bad shoulder. So I let Ferran take the lead, which he of course made short work of, and we arrived at the top of needle, with brilliant 360 degree views. Amazing.

The only problem with the whole weekend was the fact that our return flight on Monday was cancelled - that's the third time in a row that this has happened to me! I couldn't believe it! Anyway, we still had a brilliant time, and I shan't imagine that'll be took long until we're back!

**UPDATE:**
DJ's and my photos are now on the web too, here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alunthomasevans/Montserrat_Nov_2Alun

Raquel's pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alunthomasevans/MontserratNoviembre06RaquelSPhotos

Injury

2006-10-31T16:30:00.000Z

You will notice, if you look to the right, that the number one thing that Alun dislikes is injury. Why? Becuase it stops me doing the vast majority of things that I enjoy doing, which result in me being grumpy. All work and no play makes Alun a dull boy.

At the moment, Alun is a dull boy, because he is injured. Shortly after Capoeira last week, my back started hurting, and became increasingly painful as the week progressed. Fortunately it is now improving but I suspect it will niggle for a few more weeks. I went to see a physio the other day and she reckons it's all to do with posture, both while sitting at work and just in general. So we talked about how to improve all that, and then beat seven shades of shit out of my back. Ow.

Anyway I'm doubly worried because Djanira and I are going to Barcelona on Friday and meeting up with my friends Rakel and Ferran, who I met while on the BMC International Meet in Wales in April. They are taking us climbing in Montserrat, which should be brilliant, but I don't want to be in pain the whole time! Hopefully I'll be well enough to do some easy stuff.

The recent good news is that my cousin Meilyr wrote to say that his wife Catrin has given birth to Brychan. Llongyfarchiadau mawr!

E11 film review

2006-10-26T09:20:00.000Z

Earlier this year, Dave Macleod, the Glasgow based professional rock climber, finally got to the top of what is now the hardest traditionally protected rock climb in the world, Rhapsody, grading it a mighty E11. The route takes pretty much the most direct line up smooth overhanging face of Dumbarton rock, a large basalt outcrop near Glasgow, and is undoubtedly the biggest thing that has happened in the British rock climbing scene for several years.

It is only right therefore, that there should be some sort of film record this effort - yet I wasn't expecting an entire flick dedicated to it! 41 minutes focusing on one climber and one route may not sound too exciting, but what the chaps at http://www.hotaches.com have done is not just document the story of how the route was conquered, but painted a picture of the determination and hard work required to reach this level. Most poingantly, we get to know Dave's wife, Claire, almost as well as we get to know Dave himself, and we see the strain that she is under - the strain that must affect the partners of all professional athletes who are completely obsessed with their goals.

As such this is a film that even non-climbers will appreciate - they won't even get bored during the section of actual climbing footage, due to the gut wrenching falls the Dave takes over and over again. They really are horrendous, if you don't believe me, go and download the trailer here.

So how does the film compare with other classic climbing movies, such as Hard Grit or Stone Monkey? Well it is different to both. Hard Grit is a classic becuase it defines not just a style of climbing, but also an era. Stone Monkey is a classic because it paints a portrait of one of the most influental British climbers of all time. E11 doesn't aim to do either of these things, yet it is undoubtedly utterly compelling viewing; it is the first film that really gives you some sort of inkling of what it must be like to be at the cutting edge of the rock climbing world - and in fact any 'small' sport (i.e. one that doesn't provide big bucks to it's participants). As such it deserves a place on the shelf of anybody who has more than a passing interest in climbing, and I suspect my copy (which has been watched twice already) will see plenty more repeat viewings as the years go by.

More reviews here, here and here.

DIRT - the classic MTB flick

2006-10-18T09:23:00.000Z

A couple of days ago I bought Mountain Biking UK for the first time in several years. No, I haven't gone mad, nor have a I turned into a whining teenager. The reason I bought it was because it came with a free DVD which, apart from some awfully filmed 'modern' riding, has the first (and possibly only) digital copy of 'Dirt' on it, one of the original and best mountain bike flicks ever made.

It's basically Rob Warner, Scott Dommett, Dave Hemmings and the late, great, Jason McRoy pissing about on their bikes in the sunshine. With the exception of a guest appearance by 'Jumpin' Jez Avery, there is very little 'impressive' riding in it (and even Avery's section is ridiculously tame by modern standards, despite the orginal GT STS and green body-armour!), but then that's not the point. The point is that it perfectly encapsulates the spirit of going out and riding with your mates on a warm summers day. It harks back to a more innocent time (well, for me at least) when you didn't go 'downhilling' or 'XC' or 'street-riding'. You just went for a ride.

I still have a well-watched copy of the original tape somewhere but, given that I don't own a VHS and aren't likely to ever own one again, I though it was worth getting it on DVD, for posterity's sake.

The first six minutes of it are available to watch online at http://www.jasonmcroy.com/jmc/, go to the downloads section and press play. Classic stuff.

The Burgher

2006-10-17T09:52:00.000Z

As proof of my recent transformation from 'dossy student' to 'dossy professional', this week I went on my first ever 'business trip'. A major part of the project that I am working on right now involves speech recognition, and we are lucky enough to be working with an expert in the field, Mike Lincoln, who is a researcher at the University of Edinburgh. I am doubly lucky in that he is a sound bloke who has a very similar outlook on life/work/getting-things-done as I do, and we get on well. So on wednesday I took the train from Kings Cross up to the 'Burgher, with the intention of working with him on establishing a framework which we can use to work remotely in the future to help get things working.

The train from Kings Cross to the Burgher is wicked. It took four hours and 15 minutes, and was very pleasant and relaxing. If I'd caught a plane from, say, Luton, it would have taken me an hour to get there (from Kings X), an hour and half waiting at the terminal, and hour's flight, and half an hour's transfer from the airport to the middle of Edinburgh. That's four hours in total, and rather than sitting in one place as with the train, you can never settle for long, as every hour you have to move about and walk/queue. So not only is the train more comfortable, it is just as fast, and it satisfies my inner eco-warrior by being better for the environment.

I feel quite at home in Scotland, for three reasons. One, the countryside is beautiful; two, it is usually raining; and three, we share a dislike for the English! As an example, on Wednesday Scotland were playing Ukraine in football, and I walked into the pub at a bad time - Ukraine had just sealed their win by scoring their second goal, a penalty, in injury time. The atmosphere was very morose. At that moment, the teletext service flashed up on the TV screen, showing the result of England game that had been played simultaneously. Croatia 2, England 0. An enormous cheer rattled the very foundations of the building, and I couldn't help joining in - I felt right at home!

David Cameron - all style, no substance

2006-10-04T13:10:00.000Z

For several years now (in fact, almost a decade), one of the biggest complaints that the Tories have had about Blair is that there was too much spin, too much media focus, too much style. It is one of the few issues that they and I have ever agreed upon. Yet now that David Cameron is on the scene, they appear to forgotten all such criticisms, at least officially. www.webcameron.org.uk is possibly the most pathetic piece of 'politics' since Blair said "This isn't a time for cliches, but I feel the hand of destiny on my shoulder" or some such nonsense. It is a ridiculous site, trying to package 'Dave' to being a media-savvy, trendy, down-wid-da-kids hero.

Take, for example, his video blog that was recorded after his speech to conference. It is obviously set up. Everything that is said, from the 'summary' of his conference speech, the 'interview' with his web-tech geek, to his 'response' to the enormous amount of comments on the site, is so blatantly un-genuine it is laughable.

Fortunately, it appears I'm not the only one who's noticed the similarity between Cameron and Blair...of course, the irony in me linking to this video is that the chap who made this video is campaigning for UKIP!!

Children of Men review

2006-09-25T08:40:00.001Z

About 30 minutes into Children of Men, there comes a moment when you realise that, unless you like cold-blooded murder in your films, this isn't going to be a particularly easy one to watch.

Filmed mostly with hand-held 'documentary-style' camerawork, this is a dark, raw, film set about 20 years in the future, at a time when the human race has become infertile, the youngest person on the planet is 18 years old. The majority of the world's countries have collapsed into anarchy, and Britain is the only place that has managed to hold itself together and keep a civilised society - although one which is effectively a police state, with closed borders and a paranoid immigration policy. Clive Owen plays the hero, a world-weary ex-activist who somehow finds himself in the position of having to protect the most important person in the world - a pregnant girl.

The problem with the film is that it doesn't know what it wants to be, or what it wants to say. Part semi-futuristic sci-fi, part-political commentrary, part-action thriller. Undoubtedly, it is as third type that it succeeds most. After a slow start the action and excitement is pretty non-stop, and anybody who's played the latter levels of Half-Life 2 will feel right at home in the last 40 minutes. In such all-out thrillers you tend to ignore any silly plot holes as your belief is already suspended, however that doesn't happen in this film as the director is constantly cutting back, as if he is trying to say that this is something that could really happen.

On that note it fails. While the futuristic world is intriguing it is not fleshed out enough to make it truly believable (mostly because of all the action sequences), and so when the action stops for a bit and you catch your breath, you're left a bit puzzled as to why this is all going on.

Djanira didn't like it at all, partially for the above reasons, but also becuase of the violence. Although actual moments of real goriness are few and far between, it is a violent and rather cold-blooded film, and I was surprised to see it only got a 15.

By contrast I quite enjoyed it, but left a little disappointed that more wasn't made out of the world and the scenario - it would have been a gamble to do so, as many of the action sequences would have to have been dropped, and perhaps that would have made the film a little too slow. But it might just have paid off. Incidentaly, it is an adaptation of a P.D. James book, so it will be interested in reading the book to see if it succeeds where the film stumbles. In conclusion, I would say that it is definately an interesting film that is worth going to watch, but perhaps a missed opportunity.

Capoeira at the Octopus Street Party in Notting Hill

2006-09-18T15:32:00.000Z

This weekend my Capoeira school, Capoeira Canal, did a demo performance at a street party in Notting Hill, organised by the Octopus Challenge - a charity raising money for cancer research and support. We did a couple of shows, once early on, and once a little later - the later one was definately the better one because the crowd was a lot bigger (maybe up to a couple of hundred), they had drunk a bit more champagne by then, and us capoeiristas had a little bit of Dutch courage after a brief visit to the pub also! We were a little bit nervous before the first performance, because only a handful of beginners (including me) had turned up, and I was worried that our basic moves wouldn't do any justice to neither the school nor the game of capoeira - fortunately, just before we took the stage a couple of more experienced players arrived, so inbetween politely applauding the beginners, there were plenty of oohs and aaahs from the crowd when the flips, handstands and big kicks came out.

Djanira managed to make the second performance, and has video footage of me - looking like a rank-amateur, of course, but fortunately I didn't fall over and make a complete prat of myself. Unfortunately it's too big to put on here, and she didn't get any photos of me, so you'll have to wait for another day to laugh at my inabilities. However, here's a couple of photos of some more impressive play going on.

It's looking Wii-lly good

2006-09-14T15:11:00.000Z

The other day I nipped into PC World to buy some paper, and grabbed a chance to a have a quick go on a couple of Xbox360 demo machines. The two games I played were MotoGP (a motorbike racing game) and Dead or Alive 3 (a beat-em-up). The first thing I noticed was the fact that, on MotoGP, the graphics were nigh-on video quality. I'll be honest, my jaw dropped - I simply couldn't believe how realistic and life-like the game looked. Dead or Alive 3 was more stylised (thus less life-like) but still looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Yet I eventually left the store rather unimpressed. Why? Because, once a certain standard has been reached, graphics just don't make much difference. Superbike 2000 had brilliant graphics, and when played with a joystick, was pretty much all you could ever want from a motorbike racing sim. Is Dead or Alive 3 really much better than Tekken 3, or Soul Caliber? I guess what I'm getting at is, is it worth paying hundreds of pounds for a new system, and £50 each for games to play on it, when the final experience you get isn't much different?

My current thinking is 'no'. Which is why, each time I hear a little more about Nintendo's console, the daftly-monikered 'Wii', I get more and more interested. It's now well-accepted that the graphical power will not be as high as the Xbox360 or the PS3, yet the new control system (which is based around the detection of motion of a wireless controller) opens up an entire new domain of gaming options. Fine, if it works well. Yet from reading reports on the internet (e.g. http://wii.ign.com), it looks like Nintendo, and the various developers who have working on the launch titles, might just pull it off.

In conjunction with the facts that the Wii is likely to cost around £150 at launch (under half the price of the PS3), the games will be around £30 (rather than £50), and many classic Nintendo games of previous consoles will be available for direct download for £5 or £10, Nintendo might actually have a chance of taking top-dog in the console market. Previously I have been a Sony die-hard when it comes to consoles, but unless Sony announce something really revolutionary with the PS3 (and drop the price!), my money might well be going Nintendo's way.

September the 11th

2006-09-11T17:21:00.000Z

Today is the fifth anniversary on the attack on the twin towers of New York. Remembrance services are being held around the world. But are we remembering the right things? Today's newspaper had some interesting 'official death toll' statistics, based on worldwide activity since 11/9/01:

US citizens killed in terrorist attacks: just under 3000.
US citizens killed in 'the war on terror': just over 3000.

Worldwide deaths due to 'terrorist attacks': just under 5000.
Worldwide deaths due to 'the war on terror': >95,000.

So. While it is right to mourn those who died five years ago today, shouldn't we also be mourning the other 90,000 people who have died, mostly innocent civilians in Iraq and Afganistan?

And while Saddam Hussein deserves to be tried and punished for killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians; why isn't anybody being tried and punished for the deaths of nearly one hundred thousand people who have died thanks to military action that has occured since September 11th?

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

2006-09-02T14:38:00.000Z

This is the second Iain M. Banks I've read, and I approached it with great expections after enjoying Consider Phlebas so much. It tells the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe, a human employee of the Culture who is basically used to do their dirty work - sent in undercover to change the political or military situation in a given location. As capable as Zakalwe is though, there is a secret buried deep in his past...

The manner in which the way the book is written is quite different to normal. It has two strands than run in alternate chapters through the book. The first is what could be called the 'real-time' thread, which describes the story of the current events; whereas the second thread is, in essence, a series of short-stories that describe aspects of Zakalwe's past. Crucially, the stories in this second thread are presented in reverse order - the later the chapter the earlier the point it describes in Zakalwe's life. It works quite well, as the events in the 'real' story reach a climax, so the timeline of the reverse story reaches a crucial point alluded to through the entire book.

There's no doubt that the book is an enjoyable read, Banks' style is very readable and there is plenty of meat to the book. I do, however, have a bit of a problem with the ending. There is a twist, of sorts, though to be honest it is less of a twist and more of a complete surprise. A good twist should make your mouth drop and get you riffling back through the pages to find half-remembered references and hints. The ending of this book does no such thing, it's just a bit of a slap in the face, with no explanation. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but if so it's because I think the quality of the rest of the book deserves a good twist.

Nonetheless it is still a good read. Excession is up next and apparently that is more similar to Consider Phlebas, so I'm looking forward to it.