Sunday, December 06, 2009

Vertical Chill - Saab Ice Wall


Ice Climbing has been on my "must do" list for a while. I grabbed the chance to take an hour's climbing on the Saab Ice Wall in London. It was huge fun, though quite tiring. I completed 2 straight ascents, then 2 with an overhang, and tried the most difficult face twice.



Although I'm in a fridge full of ice, it's hot work, and once I'd finished my session and changed, I headed into Covent Garden to act like a tourist, before meeting up for a Pastie with Tim who is a fellow member of Anniviers Ski. It's nearly Christmas, and I'm certain I've never seen a Reindeer this large! Santa's view December 24th....



Around and about in Covent Garden.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Chalk and Cheese

I'm don't really go to many music events, but last month I went to two. It's been two years since I saw Massive Attack in Birmingham and as they are releasing a new album soon, it was a good opportunity to hear some of the new material played live.

Coincidentally, I'd discovered that ZZ Top were playing just 2 venues in the UK, they had not played here for 10 years, and we'd never seen them live. We managed to get seats at Wembley Arena, oh the luxury!

Massive Attack, played Swindon Oasis, which is run by Swindon Council. It's grubby and run down, needing modernisation. I really enjoy MA, and would have enjoyed seeing the band play, but as we were all standing in a sports hall, and being a bit short, I listened to most of the event. Some of the new stuff is really excellent, and they were superb musically as ever.

Wembley Arena by contrast is big and bright and well run. There are plenty of facilities. The staff are polite and helpful, and I was blessed with an uninterrupted view of the stage from my seat, at pretty close range!

ZZ Top have been playing together for 40 years, and are pretty slick, needing few few stage props to hook the audience. I do enjoy my clothes flapping to the bass, and my ears rang until the day after. A really memorable event, with plenty of feel good music.

Their support act were Steel Panther who parodied every heavy metal cliche that ever existed, but could also play really well, though I think I'll pass on buying any of their released material, there was just too much swearing for the sake of it.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Irony

Today I learned the meaning of situational irony. I drove to see my ski bootfitter, to so he could adjust the fit on my wonderful new ski boots. I'd been experiencing some heel pain, and he was aiming to adjust the shells to remove a pressure point.

By the end of my appointment my Zipfit liners were being refunded, and I was back in the manufacturers stock liners. I was upset, so was my fitter, but hey, it's a really bad month for bills and I was now £190 up on expectations.

15 minutes later, as I'm driving home down a particularly busy dual carriageway, my battery warning light comes, on, and that is closely followed by engine failure. My car just stopped running. I managed to coast onto a slip road up ramp, then made the necessary phone calls to my assistance company, partner etc.

Recovery was fairly swift, we went straight to my local garage to drop off my car, and then I'm dropped off at home by the lorry.

The garage phone me, I need a new Alternator, and a Battery. I get a choice of Alternators, priced from £150-£700. I'm thinking £150 plus VAT sounds perfectly reasonable. I should get my car back in a couple of days.

C'est la vie.......

Friday, October 16, 2009

All Day in The Fridge


I'd decided that my skiing technique needed some attention, so booked onto a 1 day course at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. The event was run by Chris Fecher and Will Roberts. http://skiclinic.wordpress.com/

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With 2 coaches and 5 students it was a pretty full on day, with little time for a rest and nowhere to hide! I'd never considered that skiing for a day on an indoor slope could possibly be tiring. Occasionally we were gathered round for a briefing, to find out what we would be doing next. Then it was back to the draglift for some more drills!

I'm being realistic in accepting that it will take some more practice time before I can make lasting changes to my technique, but I intend to get some more slope time before I head for the hills.

I have recently purchased some new ski boots. I was a little anxious about wearing them for a whole day, whilst the liners were settlling. I was pleasantly surprised that they were pretty comfortable. It's around 20 years since I've worn Salomon boots, and typing that makes me feel old!


It was pretty apparent that comfy though they were, I was a bit unbalanced. I felt as though I was skiing on the two inner edges. So I'd booked to have Skier Alignment undertaken by Andi McCann of Alpine McCannix, http://www.mccannix.com/2009.htm

It would have been ideal to have me and the boots balanced up before the Course. The best I could achieve was 3 days afterwards. I met up with Andi and he worked pretty hard to get me sorted out, the work took around 3 hours. The soles of my boots have been planed, and a protective sole plate has been fitted, internal heel lifts have been added, and heaps more technical stuff !

My new boots now look just a little different....


I can't wait to try them out!

Friday, October 09, 2009

I Am Not A Number


While we were in Wales, we took the opportunity to go and visit the village of Portmeirion, which was the setting for the TV series The Prisoner back in the 1960's. The series starred Patrick McGoohan and there is still a cult following for the programme.

The village was designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis, with rescued architectural follies, which makes for a real jumble of styles. It's a private village, but is open to the public for a fee.

We were both surprised at how compact the village is, but because it's a mix of styles, there is much to catch the eye, and some of the colour schemes are pretty vibrant.







Some statues looked quite ordinary, until you took a second (or even a third glance). This one looks like quite a straightforward lion statue, until you look at what the lion has under it's foot!




It's a pretty decent way to spend a couple of hours on an overcast afternoon, and we were happy to get in for half price as it was after 3.30pm!

Be seeing you......

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Yr Wyddfa


We had never hiked Snowdon, and with settled weather on the forecast we made an early start in anticipation of a few crowds on the routes and especially at the summit. We chose the Rhyd Ddu route and the sun was trying to break through as we set off.

We found we'd been a little optimistic with our weather forecast, as we were soon in cloud. At least it wasn't raining, or cold. Apparently we were hiking up an exposed ridge at this point!



We broke through the cloud layer to see beautiful sunshine and blue sky, about 200 metres below the summit.

The sunshine had brought out the big crowds and I needed to join a queue to get to the Summit marker.

Though later on, the crowds made the summit a little more crowded.

We stopped for a coffee at the visitor centre and headed down towards the Snowdon Ranger path, crossing the railway line and spotting the source of the crowds!

To access the Snowdon Ranger route we needed to walk part way down the Llanberis Path, and here you can see the crowds heading up, the summit marker, and the train heading up to the visitor centre.

We looked over towards the PYG and Miners routes, to see more crowds heading up, and it was a pleasure to regain the peace and quiet of the less popular side of Snowdon.



Our route led us off the Snowdon Ranger, through some bogs and across a slate quarry to get back to Rhyd Dhu, before crossing the Welsh Highland Railway line.





Monday, September 21, 2009

The Valencian Summer

This week, I have read that Valencia had it's third hottest summer on record this year. The sunshine brought record numbers of tourists to the beaches, and Peniscola was declared Spain's 4th most popular resort. May was not especially warm, and we had rain, but I can confirm that July was a scorcher.

The tourists utilised every possible place to park, including traffic islands and roundabouts, and the town, opened South Beach for parking. I imagine that this tourist did not arrive on Ryanair.


Here are the cars on the beach in the evening. Also in the image is frame for the Beach Cinema, which generally starts at 10.30pm.

Here is a queue of folks waiting for a table at a popular restaurant. It's about 10.30pm and they are queueing around the cars which are parked on the roundabout. The road was also open for traffic!

I took the time to go and explore nearby Benicarlo, which is not a tourist destination and has some great buildings, and the centre is quite smart.



I did my best to try some local specialities, and eat like a local. Some foods promised much and delivered very little!


I managed to see the beach early one morning, freshly raked and almost empty, so strange for high season.

There are always street performers on the promenade in the evenings. Some are more sophisticated than others.



Each September as part of the Fiesta, young bulls are set loose to run up the beach. The view here is of the safety fencing set up on the beach with the old town in the background. This was a very still, warm evening and it's about 10pm when I took this photo.

The weather was more humid than usual, and I've heard that this was typical throughout the region. We were not too badly affected, as the estate is on a hill and we always get a breeze. I did suffer my first local mosquito bite ever! Typically the insects blow past at such a rapid pace, we need no screens or spray.

Summer ended with the usual Gota Fria downpour, and nearby Vinaros achieved 20 litres per square metre of rainfall one day.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Battle of The Beers



We were quite surprised to find our favourite Chimay beer in a supermarket 2 towns away. We made the decision to check out the flavour with the Med as a backdrop instead of the usual Swiss mountain. As it's 9.0% vol, it's potent stuff.

The next day our nearest Spanish neighbours called round and surprised us by presenting us with a case of a specialist Spanish beer called Ambar 1900, plus 4 Spanish wines.


These two beers were vastly different. The Chimay is a dark heavy beer, incredibly tangy and strong, when compared to the Ambar, which is exactly as described on the bottle, a Pale Ale! It's made only in Zaragoza, by one company, so is just as unique as the Chimay, with the exception of Chimay being made by Trappist monks!

The Chimay was a different beer to the one we'd been drinking earlier in the year, but brewed along the same lines. However it still does produce the same buzz. It's best not to even consider going out after a Chimay or two.

Ambar is a light refreshing drink, serve it chilled and it's perfect for a hot climate. Good job we were presented with a case!

Monday, August 31, 2009

El Noche del Fuego

The town has quite a few festivals throughout the year. We'd missed a Jazz Festival by one day on our arrival and I was around, for the series of concerts of Baroque Classical Music taking place in the castle each evening, at 10.30pm. Each night a large brazier was lit on the roof of the castle at the start of each concert.



To announce the start of the concerts, a large Firework Display was set to music, organised by the local experts Pirotecnia Tomas. I'd seen the guys setting up the fireworks on the beach over a couple of days. Lots of folks drove in from other towns and villages as this was quite a spectacle.

Everything in a plastic bag is explosive!



I headed up to the castle ramparts for a good view, and as they began at midnight, stopped at a shop to buy some water. My diversion meant that I passed by one of the speakers, which was powered up, and I wondered if the folks sitting nearby really understood just how much sound would come out of the tower, as it was huge.

Think rock concert.



The local police kept chasing me from each ledge I sat on, for being too close, and I eventually sat on one of the walls within the citadel, along with quite a few others.

When the fireworks began, I practically fell off my ledge, which would have been a bit serious. I thought I was used to the level of explosives in Spain, but these were bigger and better than any I had seen before.

I never did hear any of the music, and covered in the remains of fireworks and soot, I cycled back through the town at 1am, to see the temperature on an outside digital thermometer showing 25c. Perhaps I should have made it an all-nighter, there were still folks heading into the old town, instead I wove through the large traffic jam and headed back. My ears were ringing and I'm really not surprised!