December 2009
Monthly Archive
Wednesday, 30th December 2009
Geoff 30 Dec 2009 | : Miscellaneous activities
Geoff writes: we’ve finally got around to setting up a podcast feed, so you can subscribe to them – see the link on the right hand menu. At the moment, it’s just for iTunes, but we’ll add others if required. We’ll also put more useful ID3 tags on the podcasts, making them a bit easier to find on your iPod. Let us know if there are any problems with subscribing – you will, of course, need to have iTunes already installed on your computer.
Other than that, a very warm day, pushing 20C, but very windy, so we just wandered out for a walk around Besalu, with lunch outside in our t-shirts, and did some work. We almost managed to see the Jewish baths there, which are always closed when we go, by trying to surreptitiously join a guided tour, but we were spotted at the entrance and turned away. Oh well, we would pay if we could ever find the information office open!
Tuesday, 29th December 2009
Judith 29 Dec 2009 | : 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.
Monday, 28th December 2009
Sunny and warm, but howling, so no flying for us. It would have been good walking weather, but we decided to stay in and do some work, podcast editing, etc. Tomorrow we have a forecast for 20C. Blimey.
Sunday, 27th December 2009
Christmas was nice with the family but everyone departed yesterday, when it rained solidly most of the day. Today was a gorgeous sunny day and it might be the nicest day for a while, so I went out to make the most of it before picking Geoff up from Girona airport.
The forecast said north at the coast, but south in the interior. Then the 11.30am forecast changed to south everywhere. I got to Santa Brigida and it was NW. Some people were already there and so I drove up with Joan to have chat and distribute some of the leftover Christmas biscuits. John, Pepe and a pilot from Ager were already there. We all decided it would be worth the wait to see if the sun would bring the wind on, and after 20 minutes it started to switch. I didn’t want to launch first as it was still very west and I didn’t want to risk going down, what with an appointment at the airport. The guy from Ager went first, but he ignored a lot of the lift over the monastery and made up for it with some too-close-for-comfort scratching. At one point he brushed the trees by the monastery with his wing!
Given that you could see there was lift around, I went off second and got a lovely little thermal to 450′ ATO. I flew for a while and then top landed when it got more scratchy, to let others have more room. As I packed up to go to the airport it turned NW again, so only a short window of about an hour to be had in the day. Still, nice to be in the air again.
23rd – 26th December 2009
Judith 25 Dec 2009 | : Holiday
We’re doing Christmas. Have a nice time everyone!
Tuesday, 22nd December 2009
Judith 23 Dec 2009 | : Boring stuff
The forecast was grim, but we woke up to a startlingly blue sky. Geoff started to wonder if we hadn’t made a mistake not going skiing, but Meteocat was spot on. At noon the sky clouded over and it started raining. Family arrived this evening, via a very long and expensive alternative route, so Christmas is back on schedule.
Monday, 21st December 2009
We were hoping to go skiing today, but the forecast was terrible. We like skiing when it’s sunny, not when you’re in cloud and snow.
Instead, Geoff worked on the conference environment for the SDP conference, which seems to have suddenly crept up on us. I recorded another section of a podcast and am planning a web cast on thermalling. More news on that later…
My sister and family should have been arriving in Spain tonight, but the bad weather in Stansted had them grounded. It’s now hanging in the balance whether they’ll make it here for Christmas.