Friday 15 April 2011

weekend plans

This weekend I'm doing something a little different, as I'm going to see a friend who lives all the way over in Cambridge as it's her birthday.

I've not seen her in what must be years, so it will be good to see her again. I'm planning to make some fairy cakes to take along just as a sort of little gift and to add a few more calories into the mix! Part of the reason I described last week's weight gain as a disaster is that I'd been planning this Saturday as a "day off" from the diet, so I'm expecting the goodies this weekend will have a similar sort of impact.

It's also the Chinese grand prix this weekend, so I'm going to be thoroughly busy watching that as well.

I seem to recall China is an okay race. Apparently it has the longest straight on the Formula one calendar, so we'll have to see how the DRS fairs.

I'm also rather glad I couldn't be bothered to swap my summer and winter clothes over last weekend, as it's gone decidedly chilly as this weeks gone on. Hopefully it'll perk back up again, though - I'm definitely going to make the switch come Easter, so if it's a cold summer I'll be annoyed.

Saying that, though, last weekend it really was a bit warm for the clothes I had available - a pair of shorts would definitely not have gone amiss.

Thursday 14 April 2011

not just bad

But really fucking awful.

This week's weigh in was an absolute disaster, as I'd gained 4 pounds.

To be fair, this wasn't an unexpected gain, given that the week turned into a bit of a nightmare, diet wise. This doesn't make it excusable, just understandable.

I mentioned last week that I'd been feeling tired on Sunday, so hadn't gone for a walk in the afternoon (which was likely the start of the problems that caused the gain) and that this fatigue had continued on Monday. Well it actually continued on Tuesday as well, despite getting a good night's sleep and Wednesday too.

This worried me a bit and I don't know why, but I thought that perhaps I should each some more as, if more sleep wasn't solving it, perhaps more calories would. I also was slightly worried I might be suffering from a bit of anaemia. Generally speaking my diet almost makes me vegetarian and I've been worried that the lack of red meat was possibly leading to a bit of iron deficiency.

Therefore, on Wednesday I bought some high calorie treats as well as some red meat to have at the weekend. As such, I was thoroughly prepared for a weigh in that was unchanged or maybe up one pound.

The increase in calories did seem to work, by the way, Thursday I felt much better and while I can't be sure the lack of red meat had any impact, I certainly feel good today.

But then the other problem happened. Basically, on Thursday, a work colleague came in and announced that on the previous Friday, which she'd had off, she'd actually gotten married. We're talking eloping / getting married in Las Vegas type level of suddenness and surprise - they'd told nobody except parents and the people that acted as witnesses.

But she'd also bought a cake in, which I obviously had to have some of so as not to be rude. So that was a problem.

There was also talk of going to the pub for lunch to celebrate, which was fair enough, but I'd understood she wasn't going to be in on Friday, so it would be on Monday or Tuesday. But she was in on Friday, so we went.

The pub didn't have a hue menu choice, so I ended up having steak and kidney pudding, which is hardly low calorie.

But of course I'd also brought my packed lunch in, so I had to have that for dinner or it would have gone off (it spent all day in the car on one of the hottest days of the year yet, so wasn't in the best of shape when I looked at that evening). And that of course meant I couldn't compensate by not having anything in the evening.

So yeah, bit of a disaster, all told.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

clash of the titans

Something a little different for this week's rental - a Blu Ray.

Having recently set my PC up with its Blu Ray player, I thought I'd add a few Blu Rays to my rental list, and the first one that's turned up was Clash of the Titans. I figured action stuff would probably be a good use of high definition.

I knew Clash of the Titans was a remake of a film from the 1980s which involved Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects, but I must admit I didn't know it was direct remake with the same name. Id' sort of imagined that it was one of these more modern remakes where they're only inspired by or they use some bits and not others.

But actually it's pretty close to the original film, which is in itself basically an adaptation of the best bits of the Persius myth of ancient Greece.

If I'm totally honest I don't think I liked this film as I remember enjoying the original film. Now obviously it's a long time since I saw the original and I'm sure special effects wise, and despite a great affection for Harryhausen, this new one is much more visually stunning. But I dunno, this felt a little lifeless and some bits of it didn't really make a lot of sense.

Of course, those may be hangovers from the original film, but I think they were more to do with the tweaks made to this version. A good example of this is, with the Kraken due to come and destroy the city, how come all of the residents don't bugger off?

I mean, if you knew a huge, scary sea monster was going to come and flatten your city and kill everyone, wouldn't you leave? Now if there hadn't been much time or if some sort of guardians had been put around the city, this would have made more sense.

In the original film, the set up was slightly different - the Kraken was there to eat Andromeda or destroy the city. For this purpose she's tied to a rock way outside the city. From memory this was done by common consent with only Perseus trying to save her. So in other words, there's no need for them to run away, because they know Andromeda's sacrifice will protect the city.

In the new film, she's virtually kidnapped by a band of what are roughly religious fundamentalists who decide to sacrifice her to save the city basically at the last moment. She does go willingly, but she's tied up in the middle of the city. This also means the kraken makes its way into the midst of the city and half trashes it.

So, in other words, apparently everybody is hanging around just waiting to die.

And it's things like this that which took the edge of to me - more to do with problems with the internal logic and quality of the story telling than anything else.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

road works

There have been a lot of road works around my local roads recently.

The first lot are gas works in the estate where I live. These have actually been on the go for ages. It turned out that this was in no small part down to the fact that the contractors hired to do the actual work went bust.

I'm not at all sure what they're actually doing. They only seem to dig bits of the road up and from looking in the holes, it's mainly around the actual junctions. So, if you've got the main gas line going down the road, where you have the branches to take gas into people's individual houses - those are the bits they've been digging up.

This also means they seem to have worked their way along the pipes, digging up small bits like that in sequence. This means that while there's been general disruption for ages, the specific bit that disrupts each house only lasts for a short while.

So when they did where I am, they completely blocked off the road for about 3 days, so I had to park in the estate, but then they moved on further up the road.

As I say, it has been a general pain, though, as there's bits you have to avoid and cones and barriers and machinery all over the shop.

The other bit of road works that's been a pain has been some way down the road. They appear to be putting in some bits for pedestrians to be able to cross the A325 close to the first of the big roundabouts.

At first I thought it was more of the gasworks, but then it became apparent it involved pedestrian crossing elements. I've been a bit cagey with how I describe that, because the place where they're putting it in is actually a rather busy part where both sides of the road are dual carriageway. However, it doesn't currently look like it will involve any sort of pelican crossing or traffic lights to actually stop the traffic.

I know from experience as it's where I often walk at the weekend that crossing these roads on foot is tricky so part of me is keen for them to put proper crossings in, but I'm very mindful of the fact that without lights or a pelican crossing, it won't actually make it any easier to cross.

The part of me that has to drive that way to get too and from work is also mindful of the fact that traffic already queues around there, so sticking in lights for pedestrians won't really help traffic flow. To be fair you don't see that many pedestrians around there as it's kinda in the middle of nowhere, so I think I'd prefer if there was a proper crossing with lights.

It does make you wonder where they get the money to pay for these things, though. I mean, gas I guess is private companies nowadays (although it wouldn't surprise me if actually it's coming out of the public purse - that's how a lot of these "privatisations" seem to work) but the pedestrian crossing has to be public money.

Not that I fundamentally mind them doing the work, it's more that if the country is so cash-strapped at the moment, surely that sort of money could be better spent. And if they have to do work on the roads, I'd have thought repairing a few more potholes would be a better use of the cash.

Monday 11 April 2011

malaysian grand prix

So this last weekend was the Malaysian Grand Prix.

As I mentioned on Friday, I couldn't remember if it was a good one or not, but when I saw the circuit I realised it was one that can produce some interesting races. It's the worst race for the drivers from a physical point of view, as it's so humid, so you can get lapses in concentration.

Also, the circuit has some tricky corners where the drivers might make a mistake, giving the possibility of overtaking. And finally, the weather can produce a bit of randomness, as rain is quite frequent. Of course, some years it's torrential and has delayed races/qualifying and I seem to recall one year the race being stopped as it was too heavy.

So yeah, it can be a good one, but also this year we have all sorts of new toys Firstly there's the Drag Reduction System or DRS, which is actually a moveable rear wing. The idea is that by tilting a part of the rear wing you reduce the amount of drag, allowing the car to go faster. This small speed boost is intended to help and encourage overtaking. The implementation of it is complicated, though, as they've tried to do it so that the teams won't just be able to use it all the time, like they do with the KERS.

KERS is back this year, which is essentially a version of regenerative braking that you get on some newer road cars and can give a little speed boost. This can be used for around 6 seconds or so per lap, and unlike the DRS, it can be used anywhere. This is it's flaw, really - for those that have it, it essentially just becomes a routine thing used in the same way and the same place every lap, defeating it's supposed purpose as being like the old turbo boost back in the turbo days. Also, there's no particular penalty for using it under the new regs - if you don't have it, you just have to put ballast in the same place.

Finally there's the new tyres, which are designed to be quite grippy for a short number of laps and then to suddenly loose grip - phrases like 'falling off the cliff' have been used. The intention with this is that some drivers will be kind to their tyres and so they'll be grippy for longer, requiring less stops, but then other drivers will get more out of their tyres and be able to catch up while they're still grippy, so maybe having a stop will be better for them.

Last time at Melbourne, these new toys didn't really seem to impact on the racing. The track was quite cool and so the tyres didn't seem to do quite what was expected. Also the DRS seemed to not give quite what we were expecting. However, it was suggested that this was in part due to its positioning - on the corner it activated, it was difficult to get behind another car and the straight wasn't long enough and the following corner not helpful enough to really help overtaking.

In Malaysia, the straight used is huge, with a preceding corner that worked better and a following corner that was already a reasonable overtaking spot. As such, DRS really did seem to enhance the racing.

Also, the tyres seemed to work as advertised, being good for around 15 laps or so and then really degrading - you could clearly see people making up a lot of ground because they'd got fresher tyres, and people were finding it difficult to defend because they had poorer tyres. So yeah, I think these two worked, though DRS I think is going to be highly circuit dependent. It will suit some, like Malaysia, but not others, like Australia.

KERS I think is still a bit naff - it needs a different approach, making it more powerful or restricting how and when it can be used. As I say, the current version just because a fixed thing used every lap in the same place.