August 2009
Monthly Archive
Monday, 31st August 2009
Geoff 31 Aug 2009 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: the last day of August, and we woke up to wind and rain, and the day was quickly canned. So a bit of a flop for the BPC, not one flyable day in this round. Not that good for the hang gliders either, in the Open – Saturday they had a task, from the Mynd to Uttoxeter, which Gary Wirdnam won, the only one to make goal. But today was canned for them too; their last day tomorrow, but the forecast not too good at the moment.
So the Blorenge Bash was a lot of fun, we met lots of people, some for the first time face to face. And nice to see Nicky Moss, over from Spain for a few days (and desperate to get back to the sun!). We listened to some good talks, did some nice tourist stuff, and drank a bit too much. We also planned some things, e.g. some different types of podcasts with Tom; and, inevitably, did some LMSC-related work. So the few days were both fun and productive. But it was a real shame it wasn’t flyable! Actually flying is infinitely better than talking about flying.
Anyway, all credit to the SE Wales club, a huge amount of effort goes into organising such events, and it seemed to go really well, and people we spoke to really enjoyed it in spite of the weather.
Sunday, 30th August 2009
Geoff 31 Aug 2009 | : Holiday, Party, party, party...
Geoff writes: it seemed likely the day would be a write off, but we hung around for the briefings, until that was confirmed. Once it was, we decided to visit the Big Pit again, having first been there 13 years or so ago, on one of our first holidays together (it was raining then too). The Big Pit was a coal mine, closed in 1980, and reopened for visitors in 1983, using some of the ex-miners to run tours. The highlight for us on our first visit was the trip underground, but then it was raining so much we didn’t bother looking around the surface. This time, there’s a lot more of the museum to see on the surface, it wasn’t raining quite so much, and the queue to go underground was over an hour – so we just stayed on the surface. Unlike on our first visit, the Big Pit is, amazingly, completely free. We’d highly recommend a visit if you are in the area – it’s at Blaenavon, just behind the Blorenge, so a great activity on non-flyable days. The interpretation and historical perspective is really excellent. The only thing where it is quite weak is coverage of the Miners Strike of 84/5, which is a little odd, but maybe too close in time – even if it was over a quarter of a century ago – for the museum. Still, it was such an important event, and coverage at the time by the national media was so incredibly biased, it would have been good to see the miners’ point of view. Nevertheless, well worth a visit.
The evening was made up of talks, music and drinking. Tom Payne (who we met face to face for the first time) did a talk on the X-Alps, about which of course we also have a couple of podcasts done by Tom; and John Silvester showed a film of a paragliding journey over the Himlayas. Both were excellent.
Judith, of course, danced until the small hours. I bailed out far earlier than that. I think I missed a wild night – pilots who haven’t flown all day, tend to get a bit frisky!
Saturday, 29th August 2009
Geoff 29 Aug 2009 | : Holiday, Party, party, party...
Geoff writes: a little hungover this morning, but we knew last night it would be too windy to be flyable, and so it was. The day was canned for the BPC (PGs) early on, though the forecast is for warm, sunny weather – just too windy. Lots went for a 60 mile drive to Rhossili, to try to fly the cliffs there. We elected for a lazy day, driving out to a nice lake, a walk, ice creams and tea. And snoozing….
We were woken, though, by a call from Mark the Vet, because the HG British Open Series were asking if they could fly the Mynd, given that there would be no PGs there because of the wind. After consulting with most of the committee, we agreed it. They did have a task, 80k or so to Uttoxeter. We will post the results in the twitter bar to the right when we get them. Great that they got to fly, and got a task in.
On the way back to the campsite now, might possibly be flyable late on (but probably not!).
Friday, 28th August 2009
Geoff 29 Aug 2009 | : Party, party, party...
Geoff writes: a wet and windy day, but we were off to the Blorenge Bash. Arrived early evening, met lots of friends, drank too much…. most of the LMSC seemed to be here. We could have almost had a quorate committee meeting.
Updates might be a bit intermittent, depending on where we can get a connection.
Thursday, 27th August 2009
Geoff writes: is this really August? Cool, windy, OK, at least it didn’t rain today.
We moved to the Mynd area three years ago, convinced it was generally a better area for flying than the Peak District. I remember many days in the Peaks, wishing we were at the Mynd, because it was less windy, better flying, better for XC… but ever since we moved here, it has been consistently better in the Peaks! We are plagued here by westerlies with southerly components, a poor direction. And it is very rarely WNW or NW, a much better direction for here. To be honest, we’d move back to the Peak District, except for the absolute certainty it would be crap back there once we moved back, and epic down here. And Andy Wallis keeps trying to convince me we are better off here (but that’s just because he wants somewhere to stay when he comes down!).
Anyway, crap here today, but crap in the Peaks too (they flew, but no XCs), which makes me feel better. We had considered driving up there today, but decided it would be one or more of too windy, too cloudy, or a bad direction (give the airspace) so we stayed here. The only real option was Clatter, and probably had we gone early it might have been OK, but we thought it would blow out quickly. In the end, we stayed at home and worked, then went to do some archery, so it wasn’t a complete waste of a day. On the way, we drove past the Mynd launch, and saw one forlorn French hang glider pilot (in completely the wrong place) who has been in this area for nine days, and not yet flown. Still, he’s back to France on Sunday. Must be a relief for him.
And tomorrow, we’re off the the Blorenge Bash. Even if it’s not flyable, we’ll meet lots of old friends, including Nicky over from Spain, and also meet people we’ve known only online before, like Tom Payne (blog star). Should be fun, I’m looking forward to it.
Wednesday, 26th August 2009
Judith 26 Aug 2009 | : Boring stuff
The remains for hurricane Bill came our way today, so it was rainy and windy. Not much change there then. At least it made the synoptic look groovy.
The machine broke whilst they were doing my x-rays at the dentist, and I subsequently got my gums slashed with x-ray film by the harassed dentist. I was then told to come back to have my newest ailment diagnosed next week. The joys of going to the medical profession!
On a nicer note, the latest podcast with Melise is finally available from the podcast page. Enjoy.
Tuesday, 25th August 2009
Geoff writes: it’s getting harder to convince ourselves that we have quite interesting lives really, when all we’ve been writing about for the last ten days is working, bad weather and being sick. Yesterday was much the same, with some more LMSC stuff, a fair bit of work for our online conference in November, some podcast editing for Judith (honest, Melise, it will be out soon!). Finished in the evening by Judith going out for a drink with Kai, to hear about the British Championships in France, whilst I watched crappy (really crappy) TV. A couple of people did fly late on, but we couldn’t be bothered avoiding the wet sheep shit on launch.
Just to show that we really do work, and life really isn’t an endless holiday, the November online conference we are preparing for now is on e-learning, and aimed at colleges and universities. We work with a team from an organisation called the JISC, which provides support to further and higher education in the innovative use of new technologies. This is the fourth conference we have done with them. We provide the conference platform, work with the presenters, do most of the background admin, write guidance, provide support during the conference, etc. Last year, the conference, which is entirely online and lasts four days, generated just under 200,000 words from nearly 1700 postings (as well as all the papers and presentations); and had 392 participants from 14 countries. These are big events, which require a lot of preparation – more than just the four days that the conference actually runs.
Writing about work…. the weather must be bad!