How big are your carbon feet?

Carbon footprints are all the rage these days, so I decided to calculate mine using the Act on CO2 website provided by the government. Its a nice site, and I recommend you have a go. I was astounded to find that our household footprint is over 22 tonnes - maybe I should change a few light bulbs. How does yours compare?

http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/

Board stupid

Long time, no posts - I've been too busy snowboarding with Al and EJ (as pictured above).

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GRIM Challenge 2007

On Saturday I successfully completed the GRIM Challenge, an 8 mile off-road race over a vehicle testing ground used by the British Army. It was wet, really wet, and on several occasions I was waist deep in cold muddy water. Surprisingly though - it was really fun - and I can't wait to do it again - well I can wait until my joints have stopped hurting. There were 1560 people running on the same day, I came 705th, with a time of 1 hour 21 minutes - which I was very pleased with. Many thanks to all of my supporters (including those who couldn't make it). I'm trying to decide what to do next, a marathon or Mont Blanc?

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Brussels

Clare and I just spent a long and very cold weekend in Brussels with Kev and Suzanne. We had a great time eating exotic uncooked meats, drinking rather nice beer and sampling the sights and sounds of the city. We headed over to Bruges for a day trip, although the highlight was taking part in a debate in the European Parliament - yawn.

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Book review: Frankenstein

I don't normally do book reviews, partly because I'm a really slow reader, but this book surprised me so I thought I'd write something about it. I was expecting to read about the green monster complete with bolt through neck, brought to life with electricity. However, none of these elements exist in the original book. Instead it's a sad story describing how Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with a scientific experiment to create a life form. The result of which is a polite, well meaning and rather pleasant being with an unfortunate appearance, so disgusting that his creator abandons him without giving him a name. A series of rejections, and the refusal of Frankenstein to create a partner for the monster forces his creation to seek revenge, and to destroy Frankenstein's life. The story is really more about how the scientist attempts to make good his tragic experiment, rather than the trail of destruction left by the monster. At times the book's linear path begins to drag, but it was written by a 19 year old girl in 1818 so I guess I can forgive that!

6 Months Left...

There are now only 6 months left until Clare sits her final medical exams, so the long slog of revising started today with the creation of the 'revision plan'. This mass of paperwork has been stuck to the wall to assist in the planning of time, and to record the coverage of each topic. I'm not sure I quite understand it, but hopefully Clare will by the end of May.

Richard is doing his part by cooking and baking some delicious food. Sadly yesterday's apple pie was not a shining example - bit too much butter in the pastry :¬[

Esbjörn Svensson Trio Live

Last week Clare and I went to Warwick Arts Centre to watch E.S.T. play live. The Swedish three piece played an awesome jazz set, I particularly like the way they mixed traditional grand piano, double bass and drums with modern effects units, such as delay, overdrive and phaser, to achieve some brilliant 'soundscapes' (for want of a less poncy word).

Anyway, the video above is from another concert, but if you get the chance to see them live, I recommend it.

http://www.myspace.com/esbjornsvenssontrio

Holidays

Clare and I had a two-stage holiday this year, starting with 5 days by Lake Garda in northern Italy.



View the Lake Garda album


We then spent a week by the Coast in Wales, with Heather, Joe, Steve and Kim. The holiday involved the usual rounds of 'Ring of Fire', with a vocal accompaniment on the Sing-Star (my singing skills, whilst very entertaining, do not seem to score many points - I need to have a word with Sony about their customer acceptance testing). We also did some walking, went into a dragon infested cave and sat on the beach. Awesome.



View the Wales album


Whilst in Wales, Heather and Joe treated Clare and I to an afternoon of mountain boarding, as part of a 30th birthday present. It was excellent, and surprisingly easy to pick up. Sadly confidence got the better of me and it didn't take me long to sprain an ankle. It didn't stop me though - can't wait to have another go. Here's a video montage of our boarding skills:

BBC iPlayer

I have been trialling the new BBC iPlayer (beta) service. The basic concept is that you can download programmes up to 7 days after they are broadcast, you then have 28 days to watch them before they expire. This is the perfect thing for me, as I'm stuck on a train for two hours a day with nothing to do, and in the evenings I'm normally busy.

I have to say, I've been quite impressed. The files download quite quickly, the quality is almost as good as broadcast TV and the application doesn't take over your computer (like the channel 4 on-demand service).

However, there are some short-comings, firstly the lack of content. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the TopGear Arctic special, there haven't been that many programmes that have caught my attention. Secondly; it's a bit complicated. You have two usernames and passwords, you use a website to browse the programmes, and an windows application to download them. Thirdly, the service needs some features like 'subscribe to this series' or 'favourites' to make it easier to find the programmes you want. This is only a beta, so I'm sure things will improve, but it's a great first step towards a far more preferable way to watch TV.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta/

Draycote to Rugby

To celebrate the only sunny day of the year (well that's what it feels like anyway) Clare and I cycled from Draycote Water to Rugby, stopping in at the walkabout pub for a much needed Australian beer.

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