Suzi and Ben Wedding

Olympic Victors Parade

From Olympic Victors Parade

As Games Makers, we were invited to enter a draw to be one of the lucky 10,000 invited to watch the Olympic Victors Parade from a specially allocated vantage point on the Mall.  Unusually for me, my name came up, as did five of my ten fellow Gamesmakers from my Eton Dorney team.  So we arranged to meet up for a pre-parade drink at St James Park, before heading off to our allocated viewing area on the Mall. I was not quite sure what to expect but found the we were in standing area right next to the parade endpoint at the Victoria Monument.  Luckily there were plenty of giant video screens around so that we could see the parade as it progressed towards us from its start at Monument.
It was good to see the athletes again for one final time slowing off their hoard of medals, and gratifying that so many of them took the trouble to scrawl a thank you message on their whiteboards  to the purple crowd as they drove past.
The entertainment at the end was a bit naff, and predictably Boris and Cameron both tried to jump on the Olympic goodwill bandwagon in their respective speeches.  Still, a fun day out and a fitting end to a great summer of sport.

Paralympics

From Paralympics

Having failed, after many attempts, to get tickets for any Olympic event, we decided to apply for Paralympic tickets, so that we would at least have the chance to experience some of the Olympic venues at first hand.  I applied many months ago, well before the last minute rush in August, so had plenty of events to choose from.  In the end  I went for wheelchair basket ball and athletics, which I hoped would offer some exciting action.

Both events were on the final Saturday of the games, starting with the basketball at the Greenwich Arena. Alison had been working as a Games Maker at the wheelchair basketball event all the previous week, so I was hoping that she would have become expert enough to explain the intricate rules of the game to me.  This only worked to a limited extent as it turns out that the rules for this sport are so complex that even so-called experts only have a rough idea of how it works. Nevertheless  it was fun enough to watch even with my limited understanding.

From Paralympics

In the evening we headed over to the Olympic Park to the athletics stadium  after first having a walk around the park to see some of the other venues, including the iconic velodrome, and to take in the overall ambience of the site.  Then it was time to go into the stadium itself, and thankfully on this occasion we were much nearer to the track than  on our previous visit to watch the opening ceremony rehearsal.  We were then treated to a wonderful mix of track and field events, covering virtually all the disability categories.  For me, the highlights were the high jump, where a new world record was set, and the men's 400m, which was won by the Paralympic poster boy from South Africa - Oscar Pistorius - who was clearly a big hit with the crowd.  
The only slight disappointment of the evening was that there were no Team GB finalists in any of the events (except for the javelin, where our guy was disqualified), so it was harder to get quite so passionate about the outcome of each race than perhaps would have been the case for some of the events earlier in the week where Team GB had the chance of a medal.  Nevertheless, the mainly UK crowd still got behind the athletes of their adopted nations, and the roar was still deafening as they approached the line.  Certainly a great end to a magnificent 10 days of Paralympic sport.

London Mela

From London Mela

Carnival time comes to Hounslow and Ealing!  The London Mela is held annually in Gunnersbury Park, which is only a short walk from Brentford, so no excuses for not joining in on this festive occasion celebrating South Asian culture.  Particularly since the event director was Tim's brother Julian, who has been running this show since its inception ten years ago. Even better, he had arranged for us to be granted entry to the VIP tent, where we were treated to Nepalese food and beer courtesy of the Nepalese ambassador to the UK.
Entertainment include a Bollywood dancing lesson, a spirited performance by the Chinese Red Poppies drum troupe, followed by the Mela carnival procession.


The finale of the evening was a performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra of an Indian composition by Holst, and another piece written by Ravi Shankar.
To wrap things up, we had an electrifying (literally) performance by the Lords of Lightning. Difficult to describe, but hopefully the video gives some idea.

Olympic Closing Ceremony Concert - Hyde Park

From Olympic Closing Ceremony

I thought it would be fun to see the Olympic finale in the company of thousands of happy Team GB supporters, and the Hyde Park Closing Ceremony concert, complete with big screen TV feeds, seemed like the perfect way to achieve this.  In the end, the event did not quite pan out as originally billed, in that the final act, Blur, clashed with the main part of the closing ceremony entertainment.  Nevertheless, it was a great show, and a fitting end to an amazing two weeks.
The music kicked off with Bombay Bicycle Club, who we had first seen last year at Latitude.  They were followed by New Order, who gave us a sample of their electro dance hits, and put on a spirited performance in spite of the novelty of playing during the hours of daylight. Next up was the Specials, with the crowd joining in with various ska favourites from the late '70's.  I was trying to pay particular attention to the Jerry Dammers sound-alike's organ playing technique, as his Rat Race is on our band's set list.
After the Specials, we had an hour or so of Olympic TV highlights and the first ten minutes of the opening ceremony itself before the stage curtains opened to reveal Blur, assembled underneath a set that replicated the concrete arches of the Westway.  I did not realise the significance of this until they played their (relatively) newly written song of the same name.   They took us on journey though their extensive back catalogue, with plenty of  sing-along moments, including the inevitable laddish Park Life (does Phil Daniels have any other acting roles?), the manic Song 2, and and the more wistful Tender and The Universal.
I believe that this show was a one-off.  If so, what an impressive way to depart for one of the cornerstones of Brit Pop, and indeed to bring to an end the cultural and sporting feast that  we have been lucky enough to experience over the past few weeks.

Olympic Men's Marathon

From Olympic Marathon

Jonathan was over in the UK for a short vacation and wanted to experience the Olympics at first hand, so we decided to head into town to watch the men's marathon, one of the  few non-ticketed events in the games.  Our plan was ot watch the start on the big TV screen at City Hall ten walk over Tower Bridge to watch the runners loop around the course at the Tower of London. In the event, the TV screen was not showing the live feed so we gave that a miss and headed over to join the crowds at the Tower, where we were able to watch the runners going past for the first of their three laps.  As usual for a British crowd, the loudest cheers were for the more challenged runners at the back of the pack.
We gradually worked our way along the course, ending up at St Paul's Cathedral for the third lap.  By this stage the pack was much more strung out, and it was difficult to tell what was actually happening in the race. Generally, one tends to get a much better view of any sport from the TV feed rather than watching live, but we did at least get to experience the atmosphere by being there.

Games Making at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

So, the London Olympics are now over, and the withdrawal symptoms are starting to set in.  I won't miss the early starts, but I will miss my daily fix of working with the PRD team at Eton Dorney every morning, followed by a solid 8 hour slump on the sofa watching all the other sporting action on TV.

Looking back over the past two weeks it has been an amazing and unmissable experience. I am really pleased that my Games Maker application eventually got to the top of the pile, and that I was able to participate in this historic event.  Even better, I struck lucky in being allocated to the rowing/canoeing event (apparently the allocation process was somewhat random), which meant working at the fantastic Eton Dorney venue.  Apparently we gave the Velodrome a good run for its money in terms of having the best crowd of supporters, but with the added bonus of begin able to wander around outside and actually get to see some rowing action.   And of course, begin a major part of the Team GB medal factory.

Although everyone on the team would have been happy doing what we were doing, just for the chance to be part of the Olympics, it was particularly gratifying that so many of the rowers dropped by to say hello to us humble backroom workers and to say thank you (and of course show of their medal haul). Nice also that the Games Makers got so much public recognition in the media and in the closing ceremony.

Now its time to look forward to the Paralympics!

Olympic Sprint Canoeing

From Olympic Rowing

The past week has seen Eton Dorney switch over from hosting the rowing regatta to become the venue for the canoe sprint events.  Our PRD team has stayed the same, but many of our customers changed as the rowing officials made way for the canoeing teams.  The atmosphere at the venue was also slightly more subdued, at least initially, possibly because team GB is not as well represented in canoeing and kayaking as it is in rowing.  All that changed towards the end of the week with the 200m sprint events, in which Team GB was represented in all the finals, with several medal possibilities.  The final day was the chance for Team GB to deliver, which they did in style with a gold and bronze in the men's K1 and K2 200m sprints respectively.

Team GB rowers triumph again at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

Back to work again today, for the final day of the rowing event. Team GB were contesting three of the four finals, with good medal chances in all three races. I expect you know the result by now, two golds and one silver, propelling GB into first position in the rowing medals, and third position in the overall medal table.  Oh, and by the way, the crowds at Eton Dorney were treated to some thrilling racing.
Our Gamesmaker PRD team had slightly more interest than usual in the outcome of the women's lightweight double skulls event as one of the athletes, Sophie Hosking, is the niece of one of our team leaders.  Obviously she was well pleased with the outcome.  Based in this week's results, it seems that a good rule of thumb is that if you stick two British girls in a boat and give them some oars, they will win a gold medal.  I'm sure that rowing clubs up and down the country are going to be overflowing with new members as a legacy of this event.
Looking back on the week, I consider myself very lucky to have ended up participating in one of the most exciting and entertaining events at the 2012 Olympics, at what is arguably the best of the Olympic venues in terms of its setting, and the atmosphere generated buy the spectator interaction with the rowers.
Tomorrow a day off before we start again with the canoe sprint event on Monday.

More medals for Team GB at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

Another exciting day watching the rowing at Eton Dorney, only this time I was here as a spectator rather than a worker. An unofficial perk of being a Gamesmaker is that we can use our venue pass to get into events on our days off.  It was great being able to watch from the crowd, and take a few pictures of the rowers going past, then watching the finish on the big screen.  A fantastic atmosphere cheering on the GB team, and we were rewarded by another superb medal haul.
It seems to be customary for the medal winners to do a lap of honour after the medal ceremony to acknowledge the support they received from the spectators. Normally this just takes in the spectators in the grand stands, but on this occasion, the women's pair gold medallists, Katherine Granger and Anna Watkins made the effort to row back all the way to the 1000m mark, against quite a stong headwind, to show off their medals to those of us sitting on the bank.
After the end of the ceremonies it was fun just sitting in the lakeside park with thousands of other happy spectators to watch the thrilling tennis on the big screen TV.
I did not get away with a totally work free day, as we were asked to help out with some last minute race information distubution for the forthcoming canoe events next week.

Team GB strike gold at Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

Today was the first day of the rowing finals, and what a day it was!  Team GB's first gold of the 2012 Olympics in the women's pair, and a bronze in the men's eight.  The crowd here are amazing and the volume of noise as Helen Glover and Heather Stanning approached the finishing line was absolutely deafening.  Its a privilege to be a small part of the team that contributes to making Eton Dorney probably the best venue of the London Olympics.

Olympic Rowing, Eton Dorney

From Olympic Rowing

Today was my first day as a volunteer Gamesmaker working in the technology team at the Eton Dorney rowing centre.  The term technology is somewhat inappropriate when applied to what we are doing, which is distributing printed results (PRD) to various parties around the event site, unless you consider pressing a button on a photocopier a high tech activity. But although the job itself is totally trivial, the atmosphere working as part of the Gamesmaker team at the Eton venue is actually fantastic.  There must be over 500 of us on the site doing everything from race timing to hand holding the athletes, with only a relatively few professionals backing us up, so the smooth running of the even is totally dependent on the Gamesmaker input.
Our office is in the boathouse which is at the hub of the venue, so we can get a great view of the action just be sticking our head out of the door.  An added bonus of the PRD role is that our pass gives us access to all areas of the site so we are free to wander around the athletes and press areas and in the public viewing areas.  So when there is not much happening in terms of new results to process, we can soak up in the atmosphere and watch the race from the finish line.

Malta

From Malta

A short notice customer visit to Malta for a couple of days.  All went well so hopefully I could be back here doing an implementation within the next two months.  No chance to really see much of Malta on this trip. Maybe next time?  Now need to get back home to see the Olympic Opening Ceremony, again!

Olympic Opening Ceremony

What a show! You're in for a treat on Friday evening.
Sorry, no photos yet as that would spoil it for you, but check back on Saturday for an updated link.
We had a look around the parts of the Olympic Park that were actually open on the preview day, but many of the venues such as the velodrome, were still out of bounds. Anyway, good to have the opportunity for an advance view.  We will be back for another visit in a few weeks time for the Paralympic athletics.

From Olympic Opening Ceremony

Update, 22:20, Friday:
So, by now you will have had your minds blown by Danny Boyle's fantastic Isles of Wonder. (Surely it will be Sir Danny in six month's time?).  Here are a few reminders.

BT River Of Music - Somerset House

From BT River of Music

Another series of musical events as part of the Cultural Olympiad.  Of the six available venues, we went for the European Stage at Somerset House, partly because I wanted the chance to see the Penguin Cafe Orchestra perform, and partly because Somerset House seemed as if it should be an interesting music venue.
The evening did not start well for me as I was refused entry because I was carrying illegal substances - in this case a Pret club sandwich and a packet of cheese and chive crisps.  I was forced to sit outside listening to the first act whilst eating my sandwiches, in the company of a sizeable crowd of fellow potential spectators who had been similarly caught out by the previously unannounced food policy.
I'm not sure that I missed too much. The first act was a Finnish punk accordion player accompanied by a beat-box, dressed like a character out of Mad Max. Very weird!
Next up was Mariza, a fado singer from Portugal, who put on a good performance with loads of audience interaction.  It would have been helpful to have karaoke captions though, so that we could have seen what we were meant to be singing along to.  She handed over to an Afro-Spanish singer called Buika, who launched into a series of very self-indulgent numbers, which mainly consisted of her wailing and screeching like a demented version of Bjork, and went on far too long.
Which was a shame, as it encroached on the time available for the headlining act, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.  Under the direction of Arthur Jeffes (son of the original leader, the late Simon Jeffes) they sped though a selection of their greatest hits.  I say hits, but of course none of the Penguin's tunes were actually hits back in the day. But they were the sound track to countless TV programmes, films, and adverts, and as a result they are firmly etched in the conciousness of anyone who was around at the time.  A fitting way to end the evening, in what turned out to be a perfect musical entertainment venue.  Well done to BT and Somerset House (apart from the sandwiches).

Ealing Blues Festival

From Ealing Blues Festival

Not part of the Cultural Olympiad, the Ealing Blues Festival is an annual favourite, this year celebrating not only its 25th anniversary but also the 50th anniversary of blues in Ealing.  Possibly a little known fact that Ealing was the birthplace of the UK rhythm 'n' blues scene, with the opening of the Ealing Club by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies in March 1962.  The club's artistes included such notables as the Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, et. al, not to mention the launchpad for the world renowned amp prowess of Jim Marshall.
I only had time to take in the first few acts as the evening's entertainment was to be the BT River of Music festival at Somerset House (see next blog entry), but I managed to see three sets on the main stage and a couple on stage three.  The highlight for me was a storming set from Bad Influence, who were on particularly good form that afternoon. They were obviously crowd favourites too as the main tent was packed by the end of their performance.

The Owl and the Pussycat, Brentford Lock

From Owl and Pussycat

Finally, culture comes to Brentford.  This was the premier of a performance by artistes from the Royal Opera House of a specially commissioned opera, as yet another part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.  The librettist is Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) with a score by Anne Dudley (of Art of Noise fame). The event was staged on a specially modified barge on the Grand Union Canal, right outside our apartment block, so no excuse for not seeing it then.  Except that all the tickets had sold out by the time I was in a position to make a booking.  No problem, the residents' garden at The Island fronts onto the canal so we watched it from there. That's why the performers often have their back to the camera.
The story broadly followed the version in Lear's poem, with an additional prequel explaining how Owl got to meet Pussycat in the first place.  Enjoyable performances from the principals and the supporting characters, particularly the 'ladies' from the cat protection league, although the music was nothing to go home humming about.  If you look closely at the audience in the background you can just make out the rather glum looking faces of Dudley and Jones (9th and 10th from right respectively), who were clearly not too impressed about some aspect of the performance.
Anyway, the performance has continued its tour around London on the Grand Union Canal, to largely positive reviews.  But a first for Brilliant Brentford!

Latitude 2012, day three/four

From Latitude 2012

The rain started to come down quite heavily in the early hours of Saturday morning, and continued all through the night.  By the time we woke up then next day, the campsite was looking distinctly Glastonburyish.
There were not really any musical acts that I wanted to see in the first part of the day's programme, so we spent much of the afternoon in the comedy and literary arenas.
As the evening approached, we waded over to the  iArena to catch a lively performance from the up-and-coming Django Django.  I had to cut this short to get back to the Obelisk Arena to see Laura Marling, who just seems to get better each year.  For the day's finale we took up our positions close to the front to get a good view of the festival's headliners, Elbow.  These guys really know how to do festivals, and Guy Garvey has the ability to get the audience eating out of his hand.  It doesn't do any harm that they have one of the most audience friendly sing-along songs since hey Jude, with their hit One Day Like This.  A classic way to finish off the day on a musical high.  

From Latitude 2012

We awoke on the Sunday to glorious sunshine. Hooray!  The day's entertainment kicked off with a recital by the world renowned Chinese pianist, Lang Lang, who treated us to a virtuoso performance of various piano classics from Chopin, Liszt and Brahms. Next up, in the coveted Sunday Midday slot (actually 1pm) was Rufus Wainwright and his band.  Great to listen to while lying in the sun, sipping the first pint of cider of the day. I was feeling too lazy to get up and we ended up listening to the next act, Alabama Shakes,who delivered some impressive blues/gospel songs, particularly considering the relative youthfulness of their lead singer.

Then:

 Thomas Dolby, St Vincent, Simple Minds, Bat For Lashes,

Buena Vista Social Club, Paul Weller

Latitude 2012, day one/two

This year we decided to abandon the premium camping field after our boggy experience of last year, and slum it with the masses. As a consequence, I needed to arrive on site at the start of the festival, on Thursday afternoon, in order to bag a decent camping spot, rather than rocking up mid Friday afternoon as we have done in previous years. We also planned to up the luxury factor another notch by bringing a massive self-inflating air bed, which meant that I had to do two round trips just to lug all our gear to the site.

From Latitude 2012

Entertainment was fairly sparse on the first day, but I enjoyed an energetic performance by the Aldborough Young Musicians Ensemble. By Friday, the weather took a turn for the worse as I went to pick up Alison from Diss station. By the time we got to the arena, we had missed a few of the earlier acts, but I was able to catch an act going by the rather unlikely name of War on Drugs, which was hard to classify, but certainly provided a pleasant ambient atmosphere. The headlining act was Bon Iver, who put on a much more heavyweight stage show than I would have imagined possible, based on their more ethereal studio albums.

Posted with Blogsy

Paradise Gardens Festival

From Paradise Gardens Festival

This was the first event (for me) in what promises to be a veritable cultural feast that will be offered to Londoners and visitors to the capital over the next few weeks as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Paradise Gardens is rather a misnomer for the site on which this festival was held.  It looks more like a disused gravel pit, which perhaps it was.  The best bit IMHO was the jugs of cocktails served up be the overworked bar staff.  The musical line-up was not that inspiring, possibly being aimed at a somewhat younger and more urban crowd than us oldies.   We watched a rather formulaic performance by Dreadzone, who I had liked previously in the context of a chilled out Rhythm Festival. Here they really only seemed to be going though the motions, with most of their sound coming from a backing track.  The band I would really have liked to see, Alabama Three, was on the Sunday line-up, so I never got to see them.
Our main reason for coming on the Saturday was to see the Silo D firework display.  This was a mixed media show to commemorate the death of 73 workers that resulted from an explosion of a government TNT factory in nearby Silvertown in 1917.  The show itself was delivered in a rather worthy, if uninspiring manner.  The fireworks were certainly the highlight.
Our exit from the park was somewhat challenging and disconcerting, with security people apparently blocking every possible exit.  Somehow we managed to escape and get onto a DLR train heading back home.

Crazy Elephant, Singapore

From Singapore 2012

My itinerary included two days in Singapore, to visit various friends living there, to see what's new, and to revisit some of my favourite haunts. I managed to fit in my two favourite music venues: Harry's Bar at Orchard, and the Crazy Elephant on Clarke Quay.  Good to see the Blues Machine still doing their stuff at the Elephant, currently fronted by an Aussie called Dave, and as ever featuring the inspired guitar playing of the owner, Johnny Chee.

Erawan Waterfall

From Erawan Waterfall

The Erawan National Park is about an hours drive from Kanchanaburi, and its main attraction is the waterfall, which is said to be the most attractive in the whole of Thailand. Its distinguishing feature is that it is comprised of a series of seven linked cascades, each feeding a pool, most of which offer great swimming. It's quite a trek from the base to the seventh level, but well worth the effort. Level two offer a large bathing pool, which thankfully was not particularly busy on our way up, so I took advantage of it to cool down. All the pools are teeming with fish, some quite large, but it's the smaller ones you need to watch out for as they are keen to nibble your feet. A bit disconcerting at first but quite pleasant when you get used to it. By the time we got to level five, I felt inclined to give my feet the extended fish treatment, and they were soon swarming around. Presumably it is much the same as the fish foot spars that are springing up all over the place, but here it is for free rather than having to pay 150 baht. Then on up to level seven and another refreshing swim. The waterfall and its pools are really very attractive, with a clear water that look turquoise from a distance, presumably due to the limestone that it is flowing though.

The return downward journey was much more rapid, and time again for another swim at level two before heading back to Kanchanaburi. I had wanted to visit one of the local limestone caves on this trip, but the tour company that provided our driver for the day wanted to charge a ridiculous amount for the extra 12km, so reluctantly we gave this a miss. Nevertheless, the Erawan waterfall was enough in itself to make a very worthwhile day out.

Hellfire Pass

From Hellfire Pass

The plan for today was to travel on the Death Railway to its terminus in Nam Tok, and then take a bus to the Hellfire Pass Museum, which commemorates the building of the Thailand-Burma railway. Unfortunately I managed to miss the train. Having been told that the train is always reliably 1 to 2 hours late, I had adopted a relaxed schedule. However, on this occasion it was only half an hour late and so I managed to miss it by five minutes. So the journey to the museum was on the local bus, which was quicker than the train, but missed out on some of the scenic train route.

The museum exhibition itself duplicated much of what I had seen the previous day in the Death Railway Museum in Kanachanaburi, but its main selling point was that it provided access to some of the most challenging engineering feats on the rail route, including the notorious Hellfire Pass. This is the deepest cutting on the route and was given its name on account of the flickering lights that the PoW workers used to illuminate their activities as they toiled though the night.

Bridge Over the River Kwai

From Kanchanaburi

The plan for day one was to look around Kanhanaburi, including of course the famous bridge itself, and the Death Railway Museum, which recounts the construction of the Thai-Burma railway.

I had assumed that the bridge standing today was a new one built some time after the war, but it turns out that most of it is still the original construction apart from the middle section, which was repaired after it was destroyed by allied bombing towards the end of the war (not by daring commandos, as the film would have us believe). It was certainly an unusual experience walking across the bridge while pondering on its history.

The Death Railway Museum is one of three or more exhibitions in Kanchanaburi related to the railway, but probably the most informative one. It provides a well presented history of Japan's objectives in SE Asia, and the planning and construction of the railway, concentrating in particular on the use of PoW labour to undertake this project, and the appalling conditions under which they worked, and in many cases died. This is brought home by the presence of a cemetery adjacent to the museum containing the remains of over six thousand allied PoWs who died in the construction of the Thai-Burma railway.

Train to Kanchanaburi

The first hurdle was finding a taxi driver who had even heard of Bangkok's Thonburi station, let alone one who knew where it was. This small station is miles from the main Bangkok station and a far as I can see, it only serves the line to Kanchanburi and Nam Tok. The journey was on 3rd class coaches, at a cost of 100 baht (£2) for foreigners, and free for Thai locals. It was billed as taking 2.5 hours but in the end it arrived at Kanchanaburi over four hours after departure, due to having to wait for several trains going in the opposite direction on the mainly single track line. Just as well I was not in any hurry.

Back to Bangkok

Our workshop session with True seemed to go well, and I think we now have a good understanding for what they need in phase two of the project. It could take some time to develop the customizations they need, so not sure when I will next be back here in Bangkok for a site visit.

In the evening, another chance to hit the town with the i team. Over dinner, Vince took the time to introduce me to his chosen religion: pastafarianism, and explain the powers of its supreme being, the flying spaghetti monster. It made more sense to me than most other religions I have encountered.

Another unexpected bonus of the evening was getting Vince's advice on places to go in Thailand. I had originally planned to go diving in Koh Samet, but that came to nothing when I discovered that all the accommodation on the small island was fully booked due to some local island festival that was on that weekend. Vince's suggestion was to spend a few days in Kanachanaburi, otherwise known as Bridge Over the River Kwai town. Not only that, but Mike, another member of the i team, was also planning to go there, having had to cancel the previous week due to pressure of work. So I would have the benefit of a traveling companion. Watch this space.

Kooking in Khon Kaen

From Khon Kaen 2012

Currently spending a long weekend in North East Thailand, visiting various friends.  It's too hot here at this time of year to get out much, so basically just chilling out (is that possible at 40+C ?), drinking beer and playing guitar (on a previous visit, I left one of my old instruments with friends here, for just such an occasion).  Also enjoying eating some of the spicy Isaan food.

Bangkok with the i team

Flew into Bangkok from Doha on Qatar Airways.  Quite a civilized flight except that I only got one hours sleep thanks to the time difference and being woken up 2 hours before arrival for breakfast, which the clock said was at 6am but my stomach said was 2am.  As a consequence, suffered jetlag for most of the day.
In the evening I joined up with some of the i-conX team working on the Thailand project, to get an update on how things were going with the customer, and also celebration our successful project completion in Qatar.
We ate out in a very pleasant restaurant that actually served genuine Thai food as opposed to the usual stuff they serve up to tourists.

Qatar - maybe the last time?

Back to Doha again for the final customer meeting in this phase of our project.  All went well and they are very pleased with what we have delivered over the past 6 months.  Probably no need for me to visit again for quite a while, if at all.  I can't honestly say that I will miss the place.

Damien Hirst, Tate Modern

Love him or loathe him, its hard to deny that Damien Hirst is one of this country's most successful artists.  Now, the chance for us all to see most of this better known works together in one show, at the Tate Modern.  It was all there, from his signature spot paintings, pharmaceutical and medial collages, bisected sharks and sheep, via musings on the meaning of life and death in the form of cases of flies and rooms full of butterflies, to the totally OTT 'For the Love of God' - his infamous diamond encrusted platinum skull.
Although this was the first time I had ever seen Hirst's work up close (apart from the now defunct Pharmacy restaurant in Notting Hill), I felt that his pickled animal carcasses had lost some of their shock value because we have all become desensitised to these works via constant media exposure.  On the other hand, his spot paintings were much more accessible as works of art in their gallery setting than they ever were in a glossy magazine, and his butterfly collages were simply stunning, looking more like elaborate stained glass windows.
Exiting though the gift shop, we resisted the temptation to splash out £36,800 on a Damien Hurst hand painted plastic skull (hand painted by one of his many assistants no doubt).  Not even the £9.95 fridge magnet set could tempt me.  But go see for yourself. The exhibition is open unto 9th September 2012.

Gandalf Murphy, The Borderline

It was great to see these guys again on their 2012 UK tour, thanks to the efforts of Jim Driver of Rhythm Events fame.  Although they had slimmed down to a four piece, they were still more than capable of delivering an expansive sound as they took the audience through some of the material from their new Grand Slambovians, interspersed with various classics from their back catalogue.  The first track from the new album, Trans Slambovian BiPolar Express, with its slinky slide guitar playing, proved an instant sing-along hit with the audience, whilst Talking With The Buddha was probably the most requested number from way back.  A fine night out, to the extent that Alison was easily persuaded to buy the Grand Slambovian CD!

Pretty Things, Eel Pie Club, Twickenham

I have to confess that I was not really into the Pretty Things first time around - too young I think!  However, when I saw that they were on just down the road at the renowned Eel Pie Club, I thought it would be too good an opportunity to miss seeing a band that could be said to be one of the forerunners of punk. Turned out to be a great gig, with some excellent blues guitar and harmonica playing. Sounding a lot like early Rolling Stones, which is not too surprising since Dick Tayor was one of the original Stones, along with Jagger and Richards.  An excellent evenings entertainment.

Lake Constance, Germany

The plan was to be unpatriotic by making use of the four day Jubilee weekend to take a short break to the shores of Lake Constance in Germany, thus avoiding all the street partying and pageantry associated the royal event, to say nothing of getting away from our wonderful UK spring weather.

Alison and I flew out to Zurich, with Tim and Clare, and took the train to Konstanz on the Swiss-German border, before boarding the ferry across the lake to Meersburg, where we were staying for the long weekend. On the Saturday we meet up with Suzi and Ben and headed over to visit Clare's friends Krista and Hans Jurgen, who were kindly loading us some bikes for our expeditions, as well as providing some great hospitality.

From Lake Constance

Day one highlights included swimming in Lake Constance and dinner in a restaurant situated on the island of Mainau, which contained a monastery and a botanical garden. The meal included what was to be the first of many asparagus dishes, which is a local seasonal speciality.

Day two included a visit to a hilltop fort followed by a view of the Rhine Falls.  On the way home we stopped off for a short a walk around the very picturesque Swiss village of Stein am Rhein.  Once back in Meersburg, we dined on yet more asparagus in our hotel restaurant.

The highlight of day three was a visit to one of the many thermal spas that surround the lake and are enormously popular with the Germans. I tied out most of what was on offer, including the water slide, thermal baths, and saunas, but drew the line at swimming naked in the lake, unlike some of the braver members of our party.

Our final day included a visit to the Zeppelin museum at Friedrichshaven, where the famous Hindenberg and Graf Zeppelin were built. Then to end, a ferry trip back across Lake Constance into Germany, and a train back to the airport and our flight home.

Switzerland

More snow on Thursday, which was good news, but it did mean that we could not do the full Portes du Soleil tour via Switzerland. Nevertheless, an excellent days skiing led by our guide, Ed.

Today was our final outing, and with a clear blue sky and perfect snow conditions we decided to go for the grand tour to Switzerland, via Avoriaz. The scenery was if anything even more stunning than in Morzine/Les Gets, and the pistes on the Swiss side were so well groomed that we skiied down what we thought was a blue run for some way before we realized that it was actually a black. After a long morning's ski, with a brief coffee stop at the top of a long run through the trees, we eventually returned back into France, via the notorious Swiss Wall mogul field run. Fortunately we were going up on the chairlift rather than skiing down, and were well placed to see other brave (crazy?) skiers attempting the descent of the fourth most difficult run in the world, with varying degrees of success.

Eventually we got back to Avoriaz for a late lunch in the sun, followed by the last runs of the holiday, including an interesting diversion down some skicross terrain. We ended the day with a large and well deserved vin chaud, before heading down in the cable car to Morzine and to our hotel.

It has been an excellent week and has certainly justified trying out the Portes do Soleil ski area.

 

 

Morzine

I would not normally have opted for Morzine for a ski holiday as it is fairly low and does not have a reputation for good snow coverage later in the season. However, this year the whole of the Alps has experienced an abundance of snow, and Morzine was no exception. So a good opportunity for a skiing holiday in the heart of the Portes du Soleil ski area, supposedly the largest interconnected ski domain in the world, stretching from Les Gets via Morzine and Avoriaz all the way to Switzerland.

Our first three days have been superb, with a great snow base topped up by some fresh falls on Monday. Our first two days were spent in the Morzine area and today we headed up to Avoriaz for an excellent day's skiing on some perfect pistes.

 

Argentina - looking back

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Last stop, Uruguay

From Colonia

 This was not part of our original itinerary, but we had two days to fill in Buenos Aires before flying home, and only enough interesting things to fill one day.  So we decided to take the one hour ferry trip over the Rio Plata to neighboring Uruguay, and specifically to the charming Colonia de Sacramento.

Immigration control between Argentina and Uruguay appears to be a lot slicker than the arrangements with Chile, and we were soon boarding the high speed ferry to Colonia.  Once there, it was a short walk from the ferry terminal to the old part of town, which is notable for its streets of old Spanish and Portuguese buildings, dating from the colonial era.  Not a lot to see in town, but a charming place for an afternoon visit nevertheless.  Perhaps its strangest attraction was the collection of classic and vintage cars on almost every street.   I am not suggesting that they were all necessarily drivable, but if you are looking for a Model T Ford with one careful owner, you could do worse than pop over to Uruguay for a look-see.

After a welcome end of day beer, it was time to catch the ferry back to Buenos Aires, and the spectacular sight of a deep red sunset over the River Plate.

What, no Penguins?

From Ushuaia

 Our second, and final, day in Ushuaia was to feature a boat excursion in the Beagle Channel, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, bypassing Cape Horne.  Alison had been hoping that we would have the chance to seem some penguins whilst in Tierra del Fuego, but unfortunately the only penguin colony in the area was some distance from Ushuaia and was not included on our 4 hour itinerary.  However we did get to pass various small islands in the channel containing colonies of sea lions and various species of bird, including cormorants and rockhoppers, and I managed to get some good photos.  We both agreed that from a distance, the cormorants looked very much like penguins when they were standing on their rock with their heads tucked in, so don't be surprised if Alison tries to pass of some cormorant pictures as being of penguins!

To the End of the World

From Ushuaia

 Ushuaia's main claim to fame seems to be based on the fact that it is the southernmost city in the world.  Consequently, many of its attractions are billed as "the last XYZ in the world!".  To be fair, it does also act as a base from which to explore the Terra del Fuego region, and also as a starting point for cruises to Antarctica.  Of course, we had to have our passports stamped with the "Sourthenmost City in the World" stamp! 

Our first day in Ushuaia involved an expedition to the Tierra del Fuego National Park, which included a trip down one of the rivers, paddling an inflatable raft, followed by a three hour hike around one of the larger lakes in the park.  Naturally, we also had to visit the starting point of the trans-Americas highway that runs up the whole length of America from South to North (or indeed the other way round, depending on how you look at it). All in all a very pleasant day out, if perhaps not quite as impressive as some of the expeditions that we had already done earlier in the holiday.  

In the evening we found a restaurant serving a tapas platter of local dishes, which turned out to be an excellent choice.

Tierra del Fuego

From Tierra Del Fuego

 Our itinerary involved a lengthy road journey from Torres del Paine to Ushuaia, which spanned almost two whole days, and involved an overnight stopover in Punta Arenas.  Not quite sure how we ended up with this route as a flight would have saved us at least a day's holiday, but anyway, it offered the chance to "view some of Patagonia's most stunning scenery", and cross the "mystical Straits of Magellan", according to the blurb in our itinerary.  In the event, the multiple bus hops were all comfortable enough and we did have a good meal in Punta Arenas.  However, the Tierra del Fuego landscape was pretty dull compared to some of the spectacular scenery we had encountered earlier on our trip, and the roads on the Chilean side of the island were all of the dirt track type.  As we approached the West cost of Tierra del Fuego we had to go through the whole Chile/Argentina border control again, with it's mass of paperwork. Why these two neighbours can't trust each other a bit more beats me.  After yet another bus change in Rio Grande, we eventually reached Ushuaia - the end of the world!

Torres del Paine on Horseback

From Torres Del Paine

 After much debate, I bowed to Alison's better judgement and agreed to tackle the journey to the foot of the Torres del Paine peaks via a combination of horseback and trekking, as the nine hour round trip would have been too daunting on foot alone - and besides, I insisted that Alison pay for the horses!
  Our hotel had a selection of 50+ horses available to carry guests on a variety of trips around the national park, and we were assigned two reliable and experienced animals who, we were assured, would be more than able to carry us to the staging post on the mountain trail.  I tend to distrust modes of transport that do not have at least two wheels, a brake pedal, and a reasonable selection of forward and reverse gears.  However, our guides explained the basics of how to drive and steer our horses, and it all seemed straightforward enough, with the added benefit that the horses had four legs as against our paltry two, which could come in handy on the steeper bits of the trail.
It was not long before I started to feel reasonably at ease with my nag.  Her only bad habit was to try to stop and eat every bit of green vegetation along the trail, which could be inconvenient at times.  Anyway, it certainly beats walking.  After about an hour we reached the refuge where we had to park the horses to await our return later in the day.  The remainder of the trek was to be on foot.  In the end we reached our destination, a viewpoint overlooking the towering peaks of the Torres del Paine, without too much strenuous effort. It was certainly less tiring than our assault of he Mt Fitzroy peak a few days earlier.  The peaks were certainly impressive, standing out starkly from the surrounding darker mountain rock.  Unfortunately we were not able to see their summits, which were shrouded in cloud for the whole day. (It  turned out that we were very lucky with the weather for our outing, as it got considerably worse the next day).
The return journey retraced our outbound path, and we were eventually reunited with our horses where we had left them at the staging post.  Although we could have done the rest of the journey on foot without too much difficulty, we were glad of the fact that the horses were there to take the strain and give us an easy ride back to the hotel.  In retrospect, the decision to go for the horse/trek combination was a good one, and one that I would be happy to repeat on some future occasion.

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Into Chile

From Torres Del Paine

 In fact we had already set foot in Chile earlier in this holiday, albeit only for 5 minutes to drink a hot chocolate on a mountain top in the Andes.  This time it was for real, with a trip to the Torres del Paine national park, which is located in Chile about three hours drive south of El Calafate.  Our expedition was in a rugged looking 4x4 minibus, which turned out to be an appropriate choice of vehicle, as the paved roads in Argentina turned into dirt tracks as we got close to the boarder, and continued like that pretty much the whole way into the national park.
The park itself consisted of a series of lagoons surrounding the centre piece, which was the towering Torres del Paine peaks themselves.  We had the opportunity to visits most of these lakes, which were each stringing different shades of blue, ranging from turquoise, where the lake contained rock particles from the glacier ment, though sky blue to indigo.  On the way we passed many guanacos, the llama like animal that is native to Southern Patagonia, and is currently undergoing something of a comeback.  Much of the park was still closed following the extensive forest fires that had raged there a few weeks earlier, but fortunately most of these were now under control and it did not affect our itinerary too much.
At the end of the days excursion on we were taken to our hotel, which is strategically placed as a base to tackle the various trails to be found in the national park.

Cerro Torres

From Cerro Torres

After yesterday's marathon trek, we decided on a more modest outing today - to view El Chalten' s other main set of peaks, the Cerro Torres. Rather than do the whole day trek to the lake at the base of the peaks, we opted for the much shorter 3 hour round trip to the main viewpoint. Still impressive, even from that distance.
Getting back in the early afternoon, we had plenty of time for a refreshing beer followed by loads of homemade ice cream, which is quite a speciality in Argentina.  Then it was time to catch the bus back to Calafate and an excellent vegetarian pizza in the restaurant attached to our hotel.

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