Category: Other

Well, I’ve survived my second Capital to Coast charity cycle ride. Not only did the London to Hove cycle ride seem further this year, it actually was as we were diverted an extra couple of miles due to an accident.

Last year’s ride was in sunshine all the way, and this year the weather held up amazingly well too. Somehow we managed to avoid showers and hailstones that hit everywhere behind us. As a result I came away rather more sunburnt than I was planning…

Anyway, here are the photos:

Chris Greenway, on his bike:

Greg, who was generally moving too fast to be in focus:

And then there was Gemma who looked much more tired than this at the end:

Early on, Chris was already giving the whole experience a hearty thumbs-up (and a small tongues-out):

This is the only shot I have with all four of us in, albeit only the top of my cycling helmet and everyone else out of focus:

It felt like such an achievement reaching West Sussex that I had to take a photo of the sign:

Chris celebrates a famous victory, or something:

And then follows up the victory (of getting to the second rest stop) with one of the excellent biscuits they had on offer there:

Gemma also joined in this biscuit-fest:

One biscuit for all, and all for one! (Actually, there were many biscuits for all.)

As last year, I wore my special cycling shoes:

Not only were there biscuits, from the third stop onwards there were cakes. This is where the real action started.

Chris was dressed in a high-tech outfit, complete with intravenous water:

Whatever lay ahead, Chris was ready for it:

Chris “I stick my tongue out in the face of hills” Greenway:

At the fourth stop we were a little tired, to say the least.

But Chris re-energised himself with a rather large cookie:

By this time Gemma was starting to feel it:

Yet, somehow, we all made it to the top of Devil’s Dyke:

And, as with last year, my bike got to be president:

By the time we reached Hove the beer was very welcome:

And of course there’s still time to donate online if you haven’t already done so due to forgetfulness or stinginess.

Puntourists 2007 fundraising page

Capital to Coast

Capital to Coast 2006 photos

I’m cycling 60 miles to Hove on Sunday to raise money for Norwood Children’s and Families Trust, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and the Downs Syndrome Association. If you could sponsor me there’s a form here: http://www.justgiving.com/puntourists2007.

You can read about last year’s event here.

Sponsor the puntourists

The new proposed Highway Code will apparently make it compulsory for cyclists to use cycle-specific facilities rather than roads wherever they’re available. Knowing the state of some of the cycle lanes I’m faced with I don’t see this as sensible and hence have signed the petition to have the new highway code rejected by MPs.

Obviously, it’s not going to make any difference, (the government has far stronger groups than cyclists that it doesn’t listen to on a regular basis,) but that’s no reason not to try. The cycle lanes I’d be forced to use are currently half full of diggers around the Olympic site. Am I meant to hop on and off the pavement, into and out of the flow of traffic? It’s just not very well thought out.

Petition to: Listen to cyclists and not approve the revised highway code.

I was camping in Cornwall with the Sainsbury Clan over Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend. It really wasn’t the best time for it, as this picture of our tent as it looked when we came back to it on a very windy Sunday afternoon shows:

We decided to call it quits at that point and pack up and drive back to London.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 is over and despite a low turnout (at our place, of course, not in total as apparently over 10 million people watched it in the UK) it was still quite excellent.

The quality of the songs was as variable as usual, although certainly not as soul-destroying as has been in the past. There were a middle patch of songs that were especially good (in the context) and I was worried that I was giving out too high scores too early by about song 10. Not to fear as they soon nose-dived, but it was good all the same.

The voting does, of course, leave something to be desired. Eastern Europe seems intent on dividing states like a rampant single-celled organism trying to reproduce until they have enough countries to vote for each other. It’s even enough for one MP to call an early day motion to change the voting system.

Our scoring and judgement was first class, it goes without saying. We had the projector set up with the scores on the wall and you can download our Eurovision scoresheet here.

Ukraine scored highly for sheer laughter but Hungary were truly robbed. They made the fatal mistake of actually entering a good song and I was surprised to see them come through the semi-finals. Scooch, for the UK, didn’t get votes from anyone except some political votes from Malta.

The contest itself was one by Serbia, who were represented this year by Jimmy Krankie (shown right). The song was okay if a bit anonymous and was certainly a surprise winner for us.

Next year I’m expecting more of the same: songs varying from passable to atrocious, voting doing the same, and some more snide comments from Terry Wogan who must never be allowed to retire.

The official Eurovision 2007 scores

Our improved Eurovision 2007 scores

Something I didn’t know (before now) is that Firefox won’t let you use the file:/// protocol link from within a web (i.e. http) environment. Or rather, anything linked to with file:/// won’t open.

There is a local machine fix detailed here but it looks like for my intranet app I’m going to have to find another way to open files on the hard drive or network through the web browser.

I’m most overjoyed at having a week with a Honda Blackbird early in June. Not only that but I’ll also be racing around Cadwell Park (though not on a Blackbird, I hasten to add). Hopefully I shall be doing similar speeds to this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0nWAmKAbHY]

I received a phishing e-mail claiming to be from the Co-op and, for a change, I actually looked at the link. Strangely, the link was FTP (not HTTP) protocol and contained a username and password. So, instead of clicking on the link, I opened it in my FTP client and lo and behold I was in the FTP server.

Now, I doubt if that server is in any way connected with whoever’s attempting the phishing scam, so I didn’t want to cause any damage. But it did seem an ideal opportunity to upset the scam, so I uploaded this as a replacement: What a poor phishing attempt this is..

Someone kept trying to replace the file with their phishing version but a scheduled script to FTP my replacement was enough to make them give up after a while.

What a poor phishing attempt this is.

From Koyosan we had to travel back to Osaka and then a bullet train all the way to Tokyo (in about 3 hours) for our last night in Japan. I certainly don’t feel like I’ve seen anywhere near enough of the country and even with four nights in Tokyo had barely scratched the surface.

On the way back from Osaka to Tokyo we passed Mount Fuji and I was able to grab this hazy photo. It’s quite spectacular the way it rises from the ground in such a gradual arc:

In Tokyo we stayed at the Keio Plaza, a very plush hotel which we didn’t really get full value out of given the huge number of facilities it had. However, it was tall and had a good view:

A night view from the hotel room:

A similar view in daylight:

Our last meal wasn’t to disappoint in terms of strangeness. This time, we had everything cooked in a paper bag over an open flame:

And, for completeness, a photo of a plane taking off from Tokyo airport. (Obviously it’s not our plane otherwise I wouldn’t be back here, but it looked just like this one.)

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From Osaka we took a train and then a furnicular to Koyasan (Mount Koya), where the monks live. Billed as ‘staying with the monks’ it would be more accurately described as ‘staying in a hotel the monks have set up to cash-in on the area’ and, although interesting, it wasn’t quite the spiritual experience it might be billed as.

Renoji Inn, Koyasan, where we were to stay:

Koyasan does have an impressive cemetery, however, with something like a million graves and rising:

It isn’t just a tourist attraction as real pilgrims come to visit the shrines and temples at the heart of the cemetery:

As well as ‘regular’ graves there were a number of larger monuments:

This ziggurat-type structure is quite far into the cemetery:

As well as traditional stone and marble memorials there are a number of corporate installations, such as a statue of a car worker which is there for Toyota workers. As with so many things in Japan there’s always room for something a bit different such as this space rocket:

The monk’s accomodation wasn’t the most luxurious. Although all fine, there wasn’t any of the things you might expect in a hotel, such as locks on the doors, a bathroom, or anywhere private to wash or brush your teeth. They did, however, have electric blankets to keep their feet warm. These seemed to form part of the table furniture and I’m left again to wonder why they have table-blankets but they can’t get round to putting legs on their chairs:

The monks also had a strange view of our sleeping arrangements, obviously deciding that all four of us were going to be sleeping in a free-for-all across two rooms. That’s what you get from staying somewhere that’s usually full of hippies, I suppose:

There was a religious aspect to the whole thing, though, with this great hall being the place where meditation took place. I tried it in the evening but the whole sitting crossed legged with your eyes closed for 40 minutes thing didn’t really do anything for me.

The furnicular on the way back. It’s steep:

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Next: Japan Trip, Part 9 – Tokyo and home