Trying, but failing, to fly
Archived posts from this Category
Sunday, 31st January 2010
Posted by Geoff on 01 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly, Work
Geoff writes: we woke up and it was sunny, though the forecast was poor. In the end, we decided to give it a go, but got part way to Santa Brigida, and the clouds were getting bigger, and darker, and it started spitting/hailing, so we turned back. After we got home it started snowing, so it was a good decision really – though having said that, I think some people did fly earlier on, amazingly enough. But we’re not that desperate to fly in snow! And at least we got a lot of work done.
Wednesday, 27th February 2010
Posted by Geoff on 27 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly, Work
Geoff writes: a lovely sunny day. Would have been great for skiing, especially since it snowed last night in the mountains, but we opened our conference for the reading week today – 12 countries, 260 participants and counting … this is our largest Supporting Deaf People conference yet. Reading week isn’t that busy, but certainly today we couldn’t go out all day, we need to make sure no-one has any problems. Later on we took a quick drive to Santa Brigida, but it was too much north – in spite of being quite light – so we didn’t bother waiting around, but decided to have a walk round St Feliu de Pallerols instead. It’s a nice old village with a stream running through it. We actually discovered a few parts of it we’ve not been to before.
Sunday, 3rd January 2010
Posted by Judith on 03 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
I’ve tagged this ‘trying, but failing, to fly’, but really it was more a case of trying, but not bothering, to fly. The forecast for today had been really bad, but the promised rain never materialised and although it was cloudy, the wind was SE and it seemed worth a go.
When we arrived Enric was doing a pre-lunch top to bottom and advised us that there was no wind on top. We had tea, sandwiches and our books, so we decided to have a parawait. It briefly wafted on to the hill but only enough for a launch, not a soar, so we waited some more. Then Joan arrived and we chatted and waited until the next Joan arrived. The second Joan is also quite partial to a little wait, so he joined in the fun. What little breeze there had been died to nothing, but we managed to persuade the first Joan to give it a go. Good man that he is he did, but had to forward launch to get off and then did a ‘salto de gallina’ (a chicken jump). We didn’t even bother getting it out of the bag.
Tuesday, 29th December 2009
Posted by Judith on 29 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
We were going to go to the beach for a walk, but got sidetracked with some work. By the time we finished, it was too late to make the most of the day, but it seemed less windy than forecast, so we thought we would give flying a go. Meteocat has brought back its semi-live weather info and Angles was giving light SE winds, so we were seduced to go and have a look.
Predictably it didn’t work and it was howling and NW. We had a nice picnic and sat in the sun for a while and then drove home to do more work.
Wednesday, 16th December 2009
Posted by Judith on 16 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
We was scuppered by the forecast!
Yesterday the forecast indicated that it would be better for flying today in comparison to the rest of the week. Skiing would be fine any day. So we opted to fly today, ski tomorrow and Friday. It was lovely and sunny this morning, and the warm front wasn’t due until late this evening. Decision made, we had a lie in and then did some work, as the sky progressively clouded over. We had posted on the Parapent Girona list that we were going out, but as we left the house we were less and less optimistic. It was strong west wind and no sun to bring it on. By the time we got to Olot it was pretty clear it was going to be rubbish, but you never know, so we continued. By Les Planes de Hostoles (8km from Santa Brigida) we couldn’t kid ourselves any more and no hoping it would be on would make it so. So we turned round and came home to do some work.
Sunday, 6th December 2009
Posted by Judith on 07 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
The forecast said high cloud and moderate S wind. South is good for lots of sites. Moderate is bad for them all. For some reason, which I am yet to fathom (even after flying round here for 6 years), when it’s strong north it’s south at St Brigida and when it’s moderate south, it’s NW. Go figure! So at home there’s no wind, so we give it a go and go out flying. We see evidence of wind in the Val d’en Bas. On getting to the landing field, it’s howling. Gusts which shake the car and NW. We ate our sandwiches, read out books and then went home to work. You can’t win ’em all.
Saturday, 28th November 2009
Posted by Judith on 29 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Miscellaneous activities, Trying, but failing, to fly
The forecast was for windy weather, and so it was. We took our paragliders just in case and drove out to Olot, but could see the cloud duvet on Puig Sacalm and knew it wasn’t worth going flying. Instead we continued the tourist activities. Today’s turn was Vic, which is near Belmunt. We first went there nearly 14 years ago on our first foreign holiday together. At the time we were much taken with the town and tried to persuade my parents to move there when they came to live in Spain. However, being in the central depression, it is prone to strong inversions, which trap fog and smog under it, which can lay over the place like a blanket – sometimes for days on end.
However, when the sun is shining it’s a lovely place and even more improved since we went there all those years ago. With the new tunnel it’s only 45 minutes from home. We’ll go more often, as the landscape changes over the pass (or through the tunnel). On our side it’s very green, on the Vic side there’s more exposed rock and the place looks very different.
When we got to Vic the Saturday market was on. It’s a big affair, taking up all of the Plaza Mayor and the streets around it. We browsed and then walked around the old town.