I watched the BBC’s Frozen Planet recently and it reminded me just how good the BBC are at making such programmes. The seven episodes took the viewer on a tour of the polar regions. The team went to great lengths in the filming and the episodes showed some of the methods they used to film [...]
Yesterday I was in London for the evening, at the Times Higher Education Awards. These took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, which is a rather fancy hotel on Park Lane and hosts many awards ceremonies – the Mercury Music Prize was held there a few months ago. As one would expect from such a [...]
A cooking day – vegetable thai curry and bread! Life and happenings I went off and visited my nephew and my parents last weekend. There was orienteering and roast pheasant. Work has been quieter these last two weeks – mainly due to there being no time spent in the server room. I finished my 111th [...]
I’ve been a bit busy these last few weeks. Life and happenings The Sirens 2012 website went live on the first of the month. The theme is tales retold. The new cluster has been keeping me busy at work. Or, rather, one node has. The problem child node has consumed lots of time in diagnosing [...]
‘I have a tortoise in the garden.’ (Ilya Gavrik in Spooks.) Life and happenings The Ocelot has bounded onto my netbook and work desktop. My first impressions are positive – especially the kubuntu-low-fat-settings package, which aims to reduce memory and processor usages on older machines. Links Sounding the Deeps – here comes the depression. A [...]
This covers two weeks as I have been too busy to post recently. Life and happenings Last weekend I took Friday off work and visited family. This weekend I watched TV. Our new cluster turned up in work and I also have a new desktop. With the Rugby World Cup being in New Zealand all [...]
Still busy and getting busier. Life and happenings In work, the code I have been working on for a while appears to be close to finished. Just in time for our new cluster to arrive next week. There was a lack of exercise this week. I do wonder if some new websites/services give any thought [...]
Busy, busy bee. Life and happenings Lancashire! The Rugby World Cup is on. One impressive win for Ireland, over an Australian side who still do not seem to realise the value of a good pack of forwards. Beyond that there has been little excitement. I managed one run this week. The good news is that [...]
A short post this time, as I’m a bit busy. Life and happenings My parents visited over the weekend and we went to London for a couple of orienteering races. More on those at some point. I have a new phone. It is one of these fancy new ones where making phone calls seems to [...]
Athletics on the TV! Life and happenings I spent much of the week trying to get rid of the remains of the cold I had. Monday was a public holiday and I took Tuesday off work. I decided against exercise until the cold has fully cleared. There was athletics on the TV – the World [...]
A couple of weekends ago I went off to Wales to race a train. This is a multi-terrain race where the competitors aim to beat the train on the Talyllyn Railway. The course, for the main race, is around fourteen miles, starting and finishing in Tywyn, roughly following the railway. The route has a couple [...]
I am ill. Life and happenings I got back from Wales and developed a cold. Really, really unimpressed. I went to the Reading Festival on Saturday. I’ve lived here ten years and decided it was time to go along. Links Book Piracy: A Non-Issue How to get $12 billion of gold to Venezuela Books The [...]
A busy week, with only one day in work. Life and happenings I visited my nephew on Wednesday! I went away to Wales and raced a train. There’ll be more about that soon. Links We’ve been warned: the system is ready to blow. (The system in question being the global financial one.) Flickr Not Dead, [...]
A good week. Life and happenings Work is quiet at the moment. It is that part of the summer where many are away on holiday. I am still trying to decide what to use Google+ for. The mess they are making with the real name policy is frustrating and does not encourage me to set [...]
August is here and the second half of the year! Life and happenings The physio cleared me to get back to more training, but while keeping on with the stretching and going back to see him if there are more problems. On Friday I rearranged the furniture in the lad. We now have a sectioned [...]
Two recent orienteering events. Lower Earley The local orienteering club were putting on an event near to where I live and I decided it would be silly to miss out on the opportunity to orienteer around an area I run regularly. The 1:10000 forest spec map, for an urban area, was disappointing and difficult to [...]
It is the summer and some warmer weather is here. Life and happenings Last week the physio suggested I try some running, while keeping on with the stretching. I ran three times, with Sunday being six miles in about an hour. There are some hopeful signs that the injury is clearing. I took Wednesday off [...]
More watching cycling, but little exercise or books. Life and happenings I took myself off to see a physio last Monday. The good news is that there is no big problem. It seems that I will have to do more some stretching. This means that there was little exercise during the week. One evening out [...]
Not much to report this week – I spent a good chunk of time watching the Tour de France. Life and happenings There was Thai green curry and beer on Friday evening. My race number went round a half marathon in sub-100 – sadly it was not attached to me. I did not run at [...]
I have finally found some time to catch up on the orienteering race reports from the events I went to just after Easter. Staying in Northern Ireland allowed time for a couple of post JK events in the Mourne Mountains and then it was down to the Wicklow Mountains for the Irish Championships. Post JK: [...]
Life and happenings There is lots going on in work at the moment. Yet again there was only one run – that is three weeks in a row now. The core work and strength and conditioning are going well. Link A new complexion for the Tour and a serious day of crashes – talks about [...]
A wedding! Life and happenings I went to a wedding on Saturday. A rather good day was spent next to the river watching friends get married. I then spent Sunday recovering! There was one run last week. There was also core work and strength and conditioning. There is a rumour that I am running a [...]
We are having a mini heatwave. Yesterday and today are hot and then it will be much cooler again. Life and happenings I seem to be gaining plants. From having none a few months ago, I now have: tomatoes, peppers, and three types of mint in tubs on the balcony; and basil and a chilli [...]
It appears I forgot to post last weekend. Life and happenings Last weekend my parents visited – to deliver a few items to me. We went out for a curry. Yesterday I baked some bread. The fresh bread for lunch yesterday was good and I intend to continue baking my own bread for a while [...]
It seems that I forgot to post last week. I lost track of days of the week, due to the holiday weekend and work being busy. Life and happenings Over the holiday weekend, I went up to the fens to met up with friends I had not seen in a while. We barbecued and there [...]
I seem to still be failing to catch up on my race report writing. One day soon I will catch up! Life and happenings I took Friday off work and visited family. Friday was spent out on the Dorset coast – I took my nephew to the beach and on a steam train. I ran [...]
Just a little late in updating. Life and happenings Work is currently giving me the chance to ‘hunt the needle in a haystack’. Oh joy! Over the weekend I ran 20 miles, including a 5k race and a 10k race. There was also lots of cycle commuting and some strength and conditioning. Books Breaktime by [...]
Over Easter I went across to Northern Ireland, to compete in the JK – the annual UK orienteering event. Four days of competition. There are another three posts to come, covering the rest of the holiday and the other orienteering competitions I took part in while away. Sprint – Stranmillis This was a rather frustrating [...]
Three weeks in one post. Yep, I’ve been away on holiday! Life and happenings I have spent eleven days in Ireland – part staying on the edge of the Mourne Mountains and part staying in the Wicklow Mountains. Sitting eating meals while overlooking mountains is rather good. The main reason for the time away was [...]
Sadly I was ill in the run up to this race and had not fully recovered in time to race. I attempted the qualifier, but my pace and HR information show that I was putting in too much effort for the speed I was managing – meaning that I should not have run. My route [...]
Having run the inaugural Poole parkrun, it was then off to Stockhill for the South West Middle Orienteering Championships. Generally, as my route shows, I had a good run. A number of other competitors had bad days, which meant that I finished a lot higher in the results than I had been expecting – particularly [...]
I see a holiday approaching! Life and happenings There was absolutely no training last week. I am still feeling the effects of being ill and decided that some rest and recovery was needed. (Though I still have to catch up on my race reporting!) Work was interesting and time was spent discussing some of the [...]
The weekend before last I visited my family and I ran in the inaugural Poole parkrun. Also taking part in the race was local runner Liz Yelling. As we were going to the South West Orienteering Middle Race later in the day my parents supported, rather than ran, and dad went out with his camera. [...]
A week that started well and ended with me being ill. Life and happenings It was the British Sprint and Middle Orienteering Championships over the weekend. I did a lot less running than I would have liked due to being ill. Work was quieter than it had been for a while and the students are [...]
Anyway, eleven days ago I went to my local parkrun. This race happens a few miles from where I live and I run there and back, giving me a nice 10(ish) mile run. This means that I tend not to do the race flat out, as I want some energy left for the hill on [...]
A busy weekend leads to a late update and there were several babies around. Life and happenings On Thursday I went into town with a friend and we had a rather good brunch of Samosas. Before going into town I said hello to my friend’s ten month old. On Friday I went and spent the [...]
The Southern Championships took place the day after the JOK Chasing Sprint, at Hambledon, which is just north of Henley. This is a very runnable area of beech woodland and the estate catering were on hand with some tasty post-race food options – I went with the venison burger! My route shows both the good [...]
I do not remember much of the past week and my calendar and to-do list are not providing any useful information to help me out! Life and happenings I spent most of the week playing with CUDA. The general theme of the results was that some impressive results can be generated, but the problem has [...]
My first orienteering of the year was at the JOK Chasing Sprint. Having not orienteered for four months my technique was a bit rusty. My running was OK, but I never seemed to be moving that smoothly. Overall I finished in 58/71 and looking at the results suggests that even a perfect run would only [...]
There was rather a lot going on last week and that has caused this post to be delayed by twenty-four hours. Life and happenings On Wednesday evening I went to a talk, by my boss, on The evolution of language – past, present and future. On Thursday I went out for drinks with the lads [...]
I am writing this at a far too early time in the morning, having failed to remain asleep for very much of the night. Life and happenings This weekend saw my first orienteering of the year. It was a struggle at times, but generally good fun. More detailed race analyses will follow. Italy beat France [...]
It seems that the training I have been doing is starting to have an effect. I was down in Dorset over the weekend and while there I raced the last of the Poole Runners Winter Time Trials – a 5k race along the promenade at Boscombe. I ran the first half at a fast, but [...]
I had a long weekend away and I am writing this while waiting for a software to install. (Though I was then distracted and took several hours to get back to finish the post.) Life and happenings I went away for Thursday to Sunday. I visited my nephew and took him out to play. There [...]
An earlier post this week. I’m feeling rather tired and I envision an early night. Life and happenings It continues to be busy at work, though at least I have now seem to have finished benchmarking computer systems. I ran just under thirty miles this week, including a ten miler this morning. There was also [...]
There are fireworks going off outside as I post this. No, I have no idea why, though I suspect it may be something to do with the local teenagers. Life and happenings I spent many hours in work this past week as I benchmarked yet more computer systems. The high point was arriving home in [...]
Ouch. This was a week in which I learned that overdoing the strength and conditioning work is not a good idea. Life and happenings Work was busy. At the moment I am benchmarking the performance of several different computers. I watched the second round of Six Nations games this weekend and the skills on display [...]
February arrived this week. Life and happenings Friday night saw a pizza and beer evening with the lads. I watched the first round of Six Nations games this weekend and was disappointed with how bad some of the basic ball handling skills were. I then got up early this morning to watch the Match of [...]
The end of January has nearly arrived and it has been a good start to the year. Life and happenings I forgot to mention last week that I had sorted out my long Easter break. I am going to Northern Ireland and Ireland, to go orienteering. This week I entered a fourteen mile multi-terrain race [...]
Last month when I ran this race my running was not that smooth and it felt difficult. This month was a definite improvement, with my running feeling, and looking, more smooth. I went off more slowly than normal and then picked up the pace on the return leg – the race being an out and [...]
A busy week, ending in a long weekend away for a first birthday party. Life and happenings I took Friday off this weekend and went to see family. The main reason for the weekend away was to celebrate the first birthday of my nephew. There was cake! At work I started several experiments going and [...]
This week was quieter than the first week of the year. Life and happenings In work it was all about the dark arts of code optimisation and obscure compiler flags. Both seem to be giving us small improvements! Sunday early afternoon was spent cooking lots of Thai green curry and Panang curry. In to both [...]
The first week of 2011 has been rather busy. I have added the first couple of days of the year in this week, to push the weekly update that I am intended to do throughout the year to the weekend. Though, in what may well prove to be typical fashion, the first one is a [...]
