WINGNUTS

In a throwback to the 1980s, when as a child I spent much time playing Superior Software's Space Pilot, I have recently been hooked on what can easily be classified as the modern tribute.

WINGNUTS is the answer to one aviator's dream: "All I ever wanted to do was fly... bomb stuff, shoot people down."

Indeed, how better to do this than to strap oneself into a modern fighter jet with unlimited ammunition and vent ones frustration on hordes of slow moving biplanes.


It is surprisingly addictive though, and this from someone who hasn't been hooked on a computer game in about 5 years.

Perhaps I will move on to the newer game, WINGNUTS2, at some point but for now as the original game is available for free download from their website (for Macs only of course) I'm working my way through that, and there are rather a lot of levels.



I've also been humming the WINGNUTS theme tune incessantly for the last few days.

Port out, Starboard home

I've just gotten back from Cork.

To complete the story of my stay in this highly un-foreign of countries I must start by talking about the Bed and Breakfast we stayed in, called Garnish House. The breakfast part was certainly the most notable. There was a simply inexhaustible supply of delicious food every morning, and all three days I ate there for breakfast we found ourselves skipping lunch.

Here's a picture of the delicious Salmon omelette I had for breakfast on Sunday.


Sunday was certainly a lot more enjoyable that Sunday because we got out of Cork itself and went to Blarney Castle, which is a few miles away. Quite a beautiful spot.


The top of the castle is also home to the famous Blarney Stone; so famous that nobody I've ever met has heard of it. Apparently it grants the gift of eloquence to anyone who kisses it. As the majority of people kissing it were American, and as getting intimate with the masonry didn't appear to change their nationality, I decided not to suffer that particular indignity.

Besides, I'm more interested in the Holy Stone of Clonrichert.

The grounds of the castle also contained a beautiful garden in which we got incredibly close to a Robin and a particularly cute wild mouse. Rosie also braved a ride on this swinging tire thingy.


After an able around the gardens we went on a really pleasant walk through the woods. Of course, as it was more than 5 minutes walk from the car park, we had the place to ourselves. It was very nice.


Pausing only to scoff several scoops of very nice ice cream at the gift shop, we headed back to Cork for dinner.


Monday's breakfast is definitely worth a mention, as it too was a work of art. Apple and cinnamon flavoured pancakes!


Sadly that was all I had time for it. With a heavy heart and extremely light wallet I said my goodbyes to Rosie and went to board my Aer Lingus flight back to Heathrow.


At least for this flight the weather wasn't quite so overcast, so I got a good view through the window.


Oh well, back to work tomorrow!

In Cork

Well here I am in Ireland.

Yesterday was a fun if tiring travelling experience. I caught the train to Heathrow via Paddington, managed not to break one of those automatic check-in machines, and then after a walk of marathon proportions I reached gate 77 and my Aer Lingus flight to Cork.


I'm not really a fan of air travel, having experienced the hell of British Airways' own brand of cattle-class travel to Bangalore a couple of years back, but this short haul flight was actually quite pleasant. I also had a window seat, which breaks a long running tradition of my sitting next to Japanese businessmen who must pre-book a window seat, only to pull the shutter down and go to sleep!


The view on the way out wasn't that great, merely a blinding white from the sun reflecting off layers of cloud above and below. As we crossed the Irish coast the cloud started to break up though, and I got my first glimpse of the Emerald Isle. It looked suspiciously like Oxfordshire to me.

Rosie met me at the airport and we took the bus to Cork, where we signed in at the B&B. They greeted us with a tonne of scones and cakes and tea.


Saturday was quite a lazy day. We had a lie in, and then went for a wander around Cork city centre. I have to say that Cork is not a pretty city at all. It's a lot like Derby, except with a worse traffic system; this is really saying something. THe other thing was that the chains of shops were all practically identical to those in the UK, such as Waterstones, Argos, Tesco, etc and a few that seemed slightly familiar such as Penneys (Primark) and Milano (Pizza Express).

No lunch was necessary thanks to the huge traditional Irish breakfast the B&B had provided.

Having quickly exhausted everything that central Cork had to offer we decided to fill the gap before dinner by going to see a film, so we went to see Monsters vs Aliens at the multiplex in the city centre. The film was in 3D, hence the hilarious glasses.


Dinner was nice but it was spoiled somewhat because knowing the exchange rate from Sterling to Euros made me realise just how much everything was costing me. In order to try to save ourselves a cent or two we decided to get our desert from Tesco before we started the plod back to the B&B. In the end we settled on a box of Irish Solero ice creams. Trust me to find the only box that has obviously fallen off the back of a lorry.


Tomorrow we shall be getting out of Cork and going to Blarney Castle, so lets hope that the weather is nice for that.

A Knight

Here are a couple of pictures of a Bretonian Knight I painted last year.




I'm hoping that this will serve as a reminder to me to paint some more sometime!

Curious behaviour

I am becoming increasingly convinced that for a lot of people when they get behind the wheel of a car and they switch on the engine, they are also switching off their brain.

Yesterday I went for another bike ride, another forray around my 50-mile circuit, and I saw a very interesting example of the way in which the minds of many motorists work. It didn't annoy me, I merely found it illustrative and amusing.

About half way around my circuit I was riding my bike down a hill toward a village, at a speed between 35/40mph. The road was quite narrow, and to be honest I don't think I would have been taking it any faster if I'd been in a car.

As I entered the village I applied my brakes to slow down to 30mph. This was for the sake of sanity rather than the law; the speed limit signs I passed don't apply to bicycles. Several seconds after passing the signs I was aware of a vehicle behind me, and given my speed I was quite surprised when a silver 4x4 roared past me, probably doing at least 40mph. I was even more surprised when, imediately having passed me, the driver tucked back in to the left and applied his brakes sharply to also drop to 30mph. I nearly had to brake myself to avoid running into the back of him!

I see this behaviour is indicative of the kind of uncritical thinking that is typical of many motorists. I have been a driver myself for many years and I am convinced that had I instead been in a car travelling at exactly the same speed this motorist would not have behaved in the same way.

Put a cyclist in front of many motorist and it becomes imperative for them to overtake, to get past. Indeed this can be so single minded in nature that other factors such as the actual speed of the bicycle, or an upcoming red light, or stationary traffic ahead are often completely ignored.

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned as a cyclist is to get into the mentality that when I am riding a bicycle on the road I am driving a vehicle, and to behave as such.

Unfortunately not everybody who uses the roads sees it that way.

Electric cars

A great line from BBC4's The Now Show this Friday relating to Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson both backing electric cars and trying to encourage people to buy them:

"It is very confusing. The government have been trying for the last decade to get us out of our cars and onto public transport. And now, they want us to buy cars! It really doesn't make sense!"

"People don't want to buy cars at the moment. The only way to make them buy them would be to make train travel very expensive, ruin local bus services, make really half-arsed cycle lanes that constantly s... I see what they've done!!"

I'm not going to follow this excellent piece of satire with a serious comment; I think it makes the point perfectly on its own.

52 miles. Ouch!

Well, today I took advantage of the reasonably nice weather to go out and explore some more of Oxfordshire on my road bike.


I've had a 52 mile route planned for a while now, so I took this opportunity to go out and give it a try. Likewise I've also recently invested in a new pair of sunglasses, which also needed a first outing.

52 miles turned out to be quite a manageable distance. I headed off at about 2:30pm and the ride took me about four hours in total. My average speed was 14mph, top speed 30mph. The countryside around here is beautiful, and unlike around Nottingham it is very easy to get away from the busy roads and built up areas. The route was basically a bit anti-clockwise circle around Didcot and the ridgeway, Taking in Appleford, Grove, Wantage, West & East Ilsley, Compton, Goring & Streatley, Wallingford and Cholsey. I'm quite proud of myself for choosing such a pleasant route entirely from looking at an OS map, and even more proud that I didn't get completely lost, although of course the GPS on my phone was useful on a couple of occasions to confirm I was on the right road.

What motivates me to go out and ride such distances? There are plenty of reasons. It's a wonderful way to get out and explore the countryside, covering plenty of distance but not locked away from it as one would be in a car. It's also nice to leave any concerns or worries behind and have time to think. If that's not enough, when I'm cycling on my own I like to do it with a good audiobook for company in my left ear, thanks to my phone and a headphone.

It also feels very good to get some exercise, try to keep the weight of and work on those muscles I didn't even realise I had until I took up cycling.

I think I shall be riding that route again in the future. Just not tomorrow, if my aching muscles are anything to go by!

Punting

Well another life first for me today. Tom and Kelly came down to Oxford today, so after showing them the sights, such as the covered market, we ended up down at the Head of the River pub, and from there we somehow ended up hiring a Punt for an hour. I personally blame Kelly.

"'O sole mio! sta 'nfronte a te!... er... just one Cornetto..."
As I understand it, the idea is to balance on the platform at the back, constantly shout at your fellow occupants not to move, and above all not fall into the Thames. Avoiding collisions with the bank or other passing boats is a secondary concern.

Lots of fun though, between the moments of absolute terror.

6 weeks/4 days in Cork

Well, it's now a week since I took Rosie to Birmingham Airport to see her off on her flight to Cork in Ireland, where she's doing her elective. This is the part of her medical training where she can go anywhere she likes in the world and do anything medicine related, so she chose to jet out to the Emerald Isle and deliver babies in a maternity hospital for 6 weeks. Yep... fun!

Anyway, she was really excited to be going and I think I'm getting a hint of that excitement too as I've not been to Ireland before either, and I'm looking forward to my trip out there to see her in a couple of weeks. I've recently been paid, so I've now booked my flights. Sadly for me this will involve a trip to Heathrow rather than the relative civility of Birmingham, as that was where the cheapest flight was from, but at least the flight won't be too long.

In the words of the Cranberries:

"Did ya' have to,
Did ya' have to,
Did ya' have to fly Aer Lingus..."

Well yes I did. It was either that or BMI baby from Manchester, or worse... Scum Airways, and I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with them!

Something else I will mention is that Rosie is writing her own blog of her own experiences whilst out there, so here's the web address:

http://www.6weeksincork.blogspot.com/

Video: Train vs Lorry

I saw this video the other day and it amused me.


In particular the narrative:

"...Then again, why couldn't the train stop? I hate trains! It's always 'me! me! me! me! me!' with trains isn't it! "I'm not stopping! I'm a train!'"

I like this minister.

Not a statement you'll hear me say often.

I saw this news report today. The headline:

"Arguments against high-speed lines are ‘comical’ says transport minister"

It seems that, in stark contrast with his predecessors, Lord Adonis the transport minister is looking beyond just the price tag of a major public transport infrastructire project and seeing the wider context, which of course includes the even more considerable costs of inaction.


This is of course the need to address transport congestion in the UK by developing a national high speed rail network, which would allow intercity trains to run on dedicated lines at 186mph or even faster. Adonis not only recognises the merits of this concept, but also seems quite insistent on pushing it forward as fast as is possible in British Politics.

A minister who is making rational, down to earth decisions, and above all getting things done! What's wrong with the world?! It's playing with my mind!!