gasoline

When we stayed in the lodge at the far end of the 100 kilometer dirt track, it was another twenty minute drive to the nearest gas station. I was advised to call ahead if I was making a trip, because they were not always open. So when I arrived alone in the population 43 town, I noticed the only gas station looking deserted. I drove to the pumps, which were chained and saw the note saying that the owner had needed to go out for a a couple of hours.

I checked the map, and the next town was only over the next mountain range and it also had a little 'S' on the map for services which in this case included fuel. So I headed off along another single track, which was also being repaired from the last rock slide.

Another twenty minutes and as I drove in, I was greeted by a large black and white sign saying "Thursday to Saturday". It was right by the second gas station. And it was Monday. This town looked even smaller than the last one and didn't seem to have any people in it at all. The map showed that this road didn't go any further. I wondered if the sign referred to the whole town.

I looked at the fuel gauge. "85 km to E" said the readout. I worked out the next big town with fuel was now around 120 kilometres away. Not enough fuel to make it. I'd have to go back to the last place and wait for the owner to return.

Somewhere along the journey I stuck my cellphone to the sun visor with Scotch tape to make the 90 second video above.

broken china?

A few days before the Olympics kick off and the UK press are now all in place around Beijing and we are beginning to see other stories reported.

The thought that Chinese people would seize the opportunity for peaceful protests to advance other freedom agendas seems to have been mainly quashed. The added special agents and special representatives are supposed to be already monitoring local people for any signs of political actions. If previous times are anything to go by, then suppressive action can be swift and violent.

It will be interesting to see how other world leaders really treat this. Some parts of China are now so intrinsic to the way that global economics operate (eg manufacture of electronics) that there is a delicate balance which could mean that some leaders choose to look the other way.

Sports bodies claim to make the events apolitical, but there's much to question in a society with such a poor human rights history and use of military pressure to quell dissidents. The Chinese version of the military intervention in Tianamen Square seems to have pretty much erased the whole event.

Quite some time ago I set up an experimental web cam feed from a Beijing hotel to rashbre central. It was supposed to be an inquisitive window into the city but then as a side effect exposed the fog levels. A few weeks ago it mysteriously stopped working and then a week or two later was replaced 'their end' with a link to a Chinese newspaper in English which extolls the positive virtues of the Games.

I still have the link working from an obscure page inside this blog and have noticed increased traffic to it over the last 3-4 weeks as increasing numbers of people are trying to get a glimpse of Beijing. For the whole of China I could only locate about a dozen webcams, so its probably not surprising that traffic levels increased. In its own small way it also illustrates the lock down of news flow from China.

Amnesty International has recently updated its assessment on China and still features key areas around the continuing use of the death penalty; abusive forms of administrative detention; the arbitrary detention, imprisonment, ill-treatment and harassment of human rights defenders, including journalists and lawyers; and the censorship of the internet. Needless to say, Amnesty's site is one of those that has been blocked despite the IOC saying originally that they would not accept Internet blocking during the Games.

Part of the point, I seem to remember, when China was awarded the Games, was to use the prestige and world focus to show positive progress in the way that China operates. Current signs are not very convincing.

no pressure

I managed to start Monday at a regular commuting time and this, coupled with sensible meal-times, seems to have reset my internal clock so I'm now back on London hours.

Monday's 45Mb of new messages comprised maybe 750 non junk-filtered messages with perhaps 10% requiring some form of action, often contained in 2 or 3 sentences. So overall the return to work has run fairly smoothly, without too much pressure.

Unlike the steam clock I spotted a few days ago.

waiting for the soul to catch up

Back to the commercial world later this morning.

Normally I'm good on de-jet-lagging, but this time I've returned but continued to have late nights sliding towards dawn, so I've probably stayed on Pacific time more than I intended.

Tonight's late 'spresso hasn't helped me regain a London state.

Its nearly one a.m. and feels like mid afternoon but I'd better get into the sleep zone or today will be really tough. I downloaded 45Mb of work emails earlier and assume I'll need a machete to hack through them.

Perhaps I should go for a bike ride.

No.

I should go to bed. Sweet dreams.

la poule au pot

By the time we'd finished waving to the pedalo and walking though Battersea Park, it was heading towards seven pm and we decided to move on towards a bite to eat. 'Lets go to somewhere in Pimlico' came the inspired suggestion - 'near to the Orange'.

So we zig-zagged our way from Battersea Bridge to the little square in Pimlico by Mozart's House and targeted the lovely French restaurant that sits on the corner with all the pretty pavement tables.

The signs, even at seven, were not good as there seemed to be large and small groups arriving with reservations from all directions. "Give me a minute", winked the maitre d', "Do you mind an outside table?". We smiled and a few minutes later were sitting in a prime spot outside watching the world go by. Then four hours of chatter blissed past us and as darkness descended the candle on our table started to have a purpose in the balmy evening. A lovely supper, great food, wine and company and then we all headed back towards a midnight Chelsea.

Rupert's Pedalo creates great mood in Pimlico

Time by the Thames today, supporting Rupert's pedalo marathon from Lechlade to London.

Rupert Young has been raising money for the Mood Foundation which he created as a charity reated to support for people with depressive conditions. Whilst the conditions do not discriminate, the recovery process can with treatments inaccessible and often only affordable to a few. Rupert admits there is no magic wand but wants Mood Foundation to help support people gaining access the appropriate services.

So why the pedalo? To raise profile via the 133 mile journey along the Thames, supported by Radio Stations, particularly Magic fm and various celebrity supporters such as Bear Grylls, Sebastian Faulks, Rachel Stevens, Amanda Lamb, Dermot O'Leary, Neil Fox and finally with Rupert's brother Will along with Karen Poole as they cross the finishing line at Chelsea/Grosvenor Bridge in Central London.

A bunch of us turned up to wave and cheer them across the finishing line on what was a sunny and hot afternoon, with the wind and tide generally operating in Rupert's favour. Let's hope the foundation can turn the tide for the people it intends to support.

Donation links are: rupert, sebastian faulks, will, devoted.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, pedalo, rupert, young, mood, foundation, london, thames,

avalanche

Just as an illustration of the interesting road conditions in some parts of Canada, I noticed this headline just before returning to the UK.

The avalanche is on a major route between Vancouver and Whistler and was one we'd travelled a few days earlier. Compared with the smaller roads where we'd seen minor rocks tumbling from the slopes onto the roads, this was a somewhat more spectacular incident taking out the main road and also the railway track.

Luckily we'd chosen the other rail direction from Vancouver and therefore missed this. The report estimates five days to restore the road and rail link. We've cut out the article and included it in our rather large amount of hand luggage along with the maple syrup.

goodbye to canada

Sitting in the hotel, pre departure to Calgary airport. Sipping a Margarita. Time to take one picture on the toysrus mini laptop 1.3 megapixel camera before dropping it into the backpack for the last time on this trip.

Amazingly, my attempt to blog whilst vacationing seems to have worked with only marginal techology glitches - mainly low speed links from places out in the wilds.

And the size and profile of the computer means it hasn't in any sense dominated the trip, with my notes being typed in a few chill-time minutes, or like now whilst sitting in a bar. The amusing point is that various people usually ask about the computer if they spot it, because of its small size. I'll admit I added an Apple sticker to the lid as well, but I don't think that really fools anyone.

Here in downtown Calgary there are about 10 wifi services in reach and the 'free' one that I'm using courtesy of the hotel.

Back to UK by Friday morning, highly refreshed.

timber moment

After the driving from East to West, the two day ride back to Calgary (maybe 1000 kilometers?) gave a different view of the landscape with many views of the mountains, lakes and forests. Naturally, with the emphasis on logging business in British Columbia, there was much evidence of logs being stored in the rivers, logs being transported and of course logs being made into timber planks.

traintime

One of the good pieces of advice we received about Vancouver was to ditch the car and use public transport. The roads are pretty busy, not in an undriveable way, but in a losw way, whereas the public transport and taxis have special lanes. So I'd dropped off the car downtown at the local Alamo depot and we spent the time in the centre on foot.

Time now to head back towards Calgary, and we've decided to use the train, which takes a different route from that we used to get to Vancouver, but still goes through the Rockies as well as other mountain ranges and across part of the desert around Kamloops.

Stanley Park

The dolphins in the Aquarium in Stanley Park were less bashful than the Gray Whales in the Pacific, and jumped for joy at the approach of us to their large tanks.

In a separate enclosure there was a (white) Beluga whale with its June born offspring and despite long queues of people to see it in some kind of special enclosure, we just walked to the main area where the two were swimming around with the young one trying to hitch the occasional ride from the fast swimming mother.

Vancouver

Easy enough to navigate Vancouver, which is a proper city but with a compact centre. Water in every direction in the downtown area and some striking landmarks. This feels more like a city that is getting on with whatever it does, but that visitors are welcome to take a look around.

We tried a jazzy bar the first evening, and then today, Sunday, have been wandering the waterfront which is easily accessible from downtown.

Despite significant reconstruction in progress, there's an attractive walk from more or less one end of the northern shoreline to the other and then cut through the West End with its smaller shops and cafes, which seemed attuned to the local lifestyle more than overt tourism. We'll be checking out Stanley Park and a few of the other attractions later, but it already feels right as a city.