Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[RED-DOG]

What you might call raven mad.

[Rod Paradise]

Good thing he's got those gloves. I'd one as a pet & had to hold him while he got his leg splinted after coming a cropper. They have a very strong beak!!!

[tikay]

BBC TV's "The Sky at Night" is celebrating it's 55th birthday. Think about that - 55 years, started in 1957, most of you were not born even 20 years after that.

Throughout those 55 years, it has had just one Presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, who has missed only one show in all that time, back in 2004. I think that's extraordinary.

R5 had Jon Culshaw, the impressionist chap, on the other day, & he "does" Sir Patrick superbly, & appears in the Show from time to time.

Respect to Sir Patrick, & to the BBC, for sticking with it & not dumbing it down in the modern fashion. It even still has the original title music. Good music never ages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sky_at_Night


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Moore

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Jon Culshaw does Sir Patrick.

[gatso]

the thing about the sky at night is every now and again these stats are reeled out about it and they sound all impressive until I realise that I've never once seen it. not only have I never seen it I've never even seen it listed on a tv schedule

is it just on like once a year or something? that would make the stats much less impressive

[tikay]

the thing about the sky at night is every now and again these stats are reeled out about it and they sound all impressive until I realise that I've never once seen it. not only have I never seen it I've never even seen it listed on a tv schedule

is it just on like once a year or something? that would make the stats much less impressive

Once a month. 700 Shows in total, I believe. The "extra" Shows come from "Specials" which they do from time to time.

Sadly, they sometimes have Brian May on the Show, but very little in life is perfect.

[neeko]

That, Mr Neeko, is incredible, & respect to you for doing it.

How much did it cost?

Preparation required?

How long were you away?

Any other such adventures?

My admiration for you is immense, wp Sir.

The trip was organised by a company called Red spokes, Exodus and Explore do similar trips but take less days, these are not as good as you get less time to acclimatise to the altitude and they bus you up some of the mountain passes. Details of the trip are below with a gallery of pics they have taken over the years. We did the trip in August / Sept so the weather was not so bad, cycling into the wind made it hard some days but at least it was not -15 degrees as they sometimes get in spring / autumn trips.

http://www.redspokes.co.uk/cycling_holidays/cycling_holiday.php?TOUR=Tibet_Cycling_Holiday&ID=4

With flights it was £2.5k plus buying some decent gear to wear on the trip.

I was the least fit person on the trip, a couple of the riders did 100 mile "sportive" rides for fun at weekends, others were serious club cyclists. I had done a half marathon the year before so was ok, but we did a lot of cycling as training and the Easter of that year we (gf + me) caught the train over night from Birmingham to eventually Wick in the far north of Scotland and then cycled down the coast to Edinburgh over a week so about 70 miles a day. I was capable of doing the miles but the impact of the altitude was the unpredictable part. Mostly the key was just to be focused on keeping going, that and consuming bananas and water that our guides kept handing to us was all that was required.

Total trip was nearly 4 weeks, boss was not overly happy, but didn't give him much choice.

Ive not done trips that would compare to that, but i have always done adventurous holidays but not normally as energetic, previously the best was in Belize and i got to scuba dive the Blue hole.

[tikay]

Incredible stuff, Neeko.

I never cease to be amazed at the amazing stuff some of the blondes do.

What is your line of work?

[TightEnd]

Our old friend St Maartens airport/approach/beach again

http://www.josefhoflehner.com/jetairliner.html

[tikay]

Our old friend St Maartens airport/approach/beach again

http://www.josefhoflehner.com/jetairliner.html

Hard to believe that 747's fly in & out of there!

[Machka]

Only in England.

There was a really quirky piece in yesterday's Times, & then "bobby1" - currently on holiday in Majorca, contacted me to tell me about it, too.

The Princess Royal was at The Tower of London on ceremonial doots, & she was presented with a new raven for the resident colony. By Royal decree, there MUST always be six ravens there, but they usually keep 8, in case a few disappear. We can't have the Empire crumbling, can we?

The ravens have their wing feathers trimmed, to limit their ability to fly, & are looked after by, of all things, a "Yeoman Warder RavenMaster". That's his job, no more, no less. With half the world's governments living on ever greater credit, I guess his job will eventually disappear, but it would be rather a shame in many ways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeomen_Warders

Click to see full-size image.

Leo's in training, you can't start 'em too young for a job of such importance.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[RED-DOG]

That, Mr Neeko, is incredible, & respect to you for doing it.

How much did it cost?

Preparation required?

How long were you away?

Any other such adventures?

My admiration for you is immense, wp Sir.

The trip was organised by a company called Red spokes, Exodus and Explore do similar trips but take less days, these are not as good as you get less time to acclimatise to the altitude and they bus you up some of the mountain passes. Details of the trip are below with a gallery of pics they have taken over the years. We did the trip in August / Sept so the weather was not so bad, cycling into the wind made it hard some days but at least it was not -15 degrees as they sometimes get in spring / autumn trips.

http://www.redspokes.co.uk/cycling_holidays/cycling_holiday.php?TOUR=Tibet_Cycling_Holiday&ID=4

With flights it was £2.5k plus buying some decent gear to wear on the trip.

I was the least fit person on the trip, a couple of the riders did 100 mile "sportive" rides for fun at weekends, others were serious club cyclists. I had done a half marathon the year before so was ok, but we did a lot of cycling as training and the Easter of that year we (gf + me) caught the train over night from Birmingham to eventually Wick in the far north of Scotland and then cycled down the coast to Edinburgh over a week so about 70 miles a day. I was capable of doing the miles but the impact of the altitude was the unpredictable part. Mostly the key was just to be focused on keeping going, that and consuming bananas and water that our guides kept handing to us was all that was required.

Total trip was nearly 4 weeks, boss was not overly happy, but didn't give him much choice.

Ive not done trips that would compare to that, but i have always done adventurous holidays but not normally as energetic, previously the best was in Belize and i got to scuba dive the Blue hole.

Is that price each? Did you hire bikes or take your own?

[Chompy]

Yuh, not played at Luton for about a month. One must stick to one's guns. Back in April though. Prob.

When are we playing golf please? Suggest you put together a Friday fourball on here?

You did a "I'm never coming back to Luton" flounce? Shame on you!

Incidentally, I saw young LutonRover there on Wednesday, enjoying himself.

Golf? Jeez, make me do it, I so want to start again.

Of course not. A) I don't flounce and B) It was just feet-votage over the chip mountains. Back in April fo sho.

It can't have been LutonRover, his retired and never going back.

Where we playing Ralph? Let's get something booked and put some pressure on. Those 19th century blades will then soon be out of the loft.

Golf >>>> poker

[JaffaCake]

How come I've been to St Maarten and never noticed planes on me head?

Noticed those MSN pics again today teeks, linkage here http://news.uk.msn.com/week-in-pictures-29-march-2012#image=1 guessing from the name they're weekly but I only seem to run into them every now and then. Take a peak and post your take on your faves, this one's mine I think, it's Beyonce (on national cleavage day u should have some Beyonce on here, where's lil dave)...

[neeko]

That, Mr Neeko, is incredible, & respect to you for doing it.

How much did it cost?

Preparation required?

How long were you away?

Any other such adventures?

My admiration for you is immense, wp Sir.

The trip was organised by a company called Red spokes, Exodus and Explore do similar trips but take less days, these are not as good as you get less time to acclimatise to the altitude and they bus you up some of the mountain passes. Details of the trip are below with a gallery of pics they have taken over the years. We did the trip in August / Sept so the weather was not so bad, cycling into the wind made it hard some days but at least it was not -15 degrees as they sometimes get in spring / autumn trips.

http://www.redspokes.co.uk/cycling_holidays/cycling_holiday.php?TOUR=Tibet_Cycling_Holiday&ID=4

With flights it was £2.5k plus buying some decent gear to wear on the trip.

I was the least fit person on the trip, a couple of the riders did 100 mile "sportive" rides for fun at weekends, others were serious club cyclists. I had done a half marathon the year before so was ok, but we did a lot of cycling as training and the Easter of that year we (gf + me) caught the train over night from Birmingham to eventually Wick in the far north of Scotland and then cycled down the coast to Edinburgh over a week so about 70 miles a day. I was capable of doing the miles but the impact of the altitude was the unpredictable part. Mostly the key was just to be focused on keeping going, that and consuming bananas and water that our guides kept handing to us was all that was required.

Total trip was nearly 4 weeks, boss was not overly happy, but didn't give him much choice.

Ive not done trips that would compare to that, but i have always done adventurous holidays but not normally as energetic, previously the best was in Belize and i got to scuba dive the Blue hole.

Is that price each? Did you hire bikes or take your own?

Price was each - but we had 3 guides from Nepal and another 3 from Tibet who came with us the whole way and moved the tents, and all the stuff each day set up camp for us and cooked for us.

I hired my bike and Kathmandu flew it to Lhasa and cycled it back, my gf used her own bike as she had bought one at great expense. We arrived at Heathrow airport and had to make our way down a couple of floors, loads of people were queueing for the lift so we just carried her bike box and our other bags down the stairs - we got some strange looks.