slip slidin' away

Out cycling again this morning, although there was a noticeable amount of frost and ice to contend with. I decided to take the road bike in any case, although the thin tyres pumped to high pressure were not perhaps as sensible as the altogether squishier mountain bike's footwear.

It was still fun to marvel at the universe of sparkles looking up at me from the road surface, a constellation of optimism as I picked my way along the country lanes. Even my back pack water supply had an extra icy edge and the temperature on the bicycle's handlebars read 1 degree C, despite the sunlight. The fields to the sides of the road were sprinkled with icing and a few extra streams had appeared as the surface water was finding routes to the nearest brook.

I was aware of the extra slipperiness and even stopped once at the bottom of a particular stretch to consider my options. I'd felt the back wheel spinning faster than my forward speed and considered whether to turn around. No, it would be fine if stayed in the track in the middle between where the car wheels had polished the surface.

Most people I encountered were also out for the fun of the morning, other cyclists, walkers (including a group of about a dozen with sticks and staves), a group of about six joggers being led by a determined coach, dog walkers. We'd all greet each other with 'Good Mornings' and general pleasantries as we passed each other on the lanes.

Then a variation: "Be careful up there!", called a couple of cyclists in yellow heading the other way, "We just came off!". I was approaching The Big Hill and didn't need much of an excuse to slow down based upon their advice but it didn't look particularly different from the preceding section. That's before I turned the corner to see the new ice meadow across the road. I'd seen the red triangle sign with an exclamation about a quarter of a mile back and already been wondering what the particular exclamation was to signify.

Simple enough, it was a predictor of my language as I slid gently off the bike with a slight bouncing sound. In Germany I used to call it Glatteis because I'm not sure that the English "Black Ice" quite emphasises the slipperiness. It's that stuff thats almost impossible to stand up on.

The scrape on my knee matches the hole that I already had in these jeans.

A sort of co-ordinated tatterdemalion look for my return journey.

Johnny's got a boom boom

The new Mac App store helped me remember that I already own that SongGenie application which can be used to tidy up iTunes libraries.

I fired it up a couple of days ago before I headed into work and then just remembered it this morning. It's chugged through my entire library and sorted out the missing album covers, titles and even lyrics so that my largish collection is back up to date.

Some may know that I'm not so fond of all the see-through boxes for CDs and I'm almost on the point of wondering whether to keep the little flat round things that hold the music.

I suppose its a higher quality than the computerised versions, but with some exceptions I'm not sure it makes enough difference compared with convenience of finding anything with a quick search, which can nowadays be on the iPhone using the remote control facility.

For classifying genres, I don't use SongGenie's attempts though, preferring the extended classifications in TuneUp, so that I can have "Smoky Jazz Rockabilly Pop" instead of "Rock" for a track like the excellent one here from Imelda May. She reminds me what a single can be like and how much can be packed into 2min30seconds.

Johnny really has got a Boom Boom.

working it

Mid evening watching a Bleasdale television dramatisation of a German U-boot sinking the Laconia and then rescuing Allied passengers. Rather well done - with a gentler pace than some dramatisations and some very filmic looks - and a Beeb2 Thursday/Friday slot for the screening.

Less well done is that I only finished working in time to see it start at 9pm.

Tomorrow it'll be time for a bike ride as a way to rebalance (ignoring the obvious reference) before I get into some more work.

I've left the work computer abandoned alongside various papers and a big torn-off flip-chart page with meaningful red ink across it. That will get packaged during Saturday afternoon. Along with the late thing that came in at 3.30 that is needed for Tuesday in Amersfoort.

But peering outside, I can see a tall tree bending to around a 35 degree angle whilst leaves skitter in small circles around the garden. I'll find gloves for the cycling and I really do need to fit a rear mudguard to avoid that unintended racing stripe.

fade to mono then supersaturate

The fun and games of the last few days has given way to the working week with its new tasks.

I haven't quite moved back into suit and tie at the office yet, but next week the shiny shoe client facing stuff starts again.

I suspected that the meetings booked right at the end of 2010 would all get shuffled around and sure enough they have. I can understand that people returning are spending the first few hours pruning their in-boxes and calendars, even if they did have a peek during the holiday season.

By today, the traffic on the roads and the traffic of phone and email messages is getting back to normal. Everyone has reset themselves and after Tuesday's slight struggle, by Thursday they are all back onto normal schedules.

I'm starting to wake up a few minutes before the alarm again, which lets me get up and turn it off before its annoying beeping starts.

And this year there is already a sense of hectic pace where even an ostensibly quiet week is one where its important to get certain things cleared away. I know that by next week I'm starting to look outward two or more weeks to find clear days.

no reviews

Our trip back took around six and a half hours yesterday, although I deliberately chose routes to avoid traffic.

It all worked rather well even through the snowy hilly bits and by early evening the landing lights of rashbre central came twinkling into view.

I had great plans for today before commencing full-on work again, but decided instead to take it easy ahead of what is already shaping into a busy schedule.

There should really be time for some of that backward reflection from the last year, but there already too many new things stacking up ahead so it becomes more about tomorrow than yesterday.

It's probably a personal preference, but it's the fun of going forward which somehow wins over reviews.

So I haven't done any.

No book reviews: instead there's a great list of recent book reviews over at Nikki-ann's, which should be enough for plenty of new ideas.

No theatre reviews: instead for theatrical goss and oh so much more there's the untamed lightning of blurred clarity

No protest listings: instead for unusual signage, there's always three leggged cat.

No stories about gadding around the world: instead for continental decisions and unexpected venues, there's always the smoky one.

No road trip travels with music: instead there's the hipstamatic totin' ipod car adventures of the holy hoses

No culinary exploits: instead there's inspirational suggestions from Pat's Perfections.

No glitterati chatterati:instead the mountaintop society weddings are the domain of the Vladtastic.

No fitness or cycling reviews: instead there's the shimmering fitness of Beth and her people watching

No music reviews: instead there's the consistent chart and listings action of a little night music

No top notch festive sharing: instead a certain bob-kat can do that so much better

No fruity suggestions: instead go simply bananas with the Lady herself.

And certainly no trashy exultations: instead go to the original keyhole for such an organ

Happy New Year; a new kind of normal will commence immediately.

All new

Great to have the breakfast hamper arrive this morning after a night on the tiles. We'd paced ourselves unlike the folk we saw in the bar at eleven am drinking Champagne.

We were drinking coffee at that hour.

By the time we reached the evening venue at a more sensible ten o'clock, the luminous glow of unusual cocktails beckoned.

The next hours blurred past, enjoyably, and we we able to join riverside festivities before heading to the club playing bagpipe music backed by drum n bass.

A whole new interpretation of "we will rock you".

And a fine tap on the door this morning at around 11:11 1/1/11 for a late delivery of croissants and coffee.

Happy New Decade.

Looking behind before looking ahead

Only intermittent updates as we are on the road at the moment.

We managed to get in a festive show before heading North, in this case it was the version of Cinderella set in World War II London, culminating in a train ride exit via Paddington. Prokofiev's score and Matthew Bourne's choreography. Creatively staged and lit, with evocative staging, but somehow in a world between the Prokofiev romance and a possible blitz spirit from the setting.

We all wondered if a more popular music forties score could have created more of a consistent atmosphere.

Then on to the Thai place around the corner.

life in the fast lane

Last shopping day before Christmas so there's bound to be a some congestion in the main zones. Its the ideal day to visit Santa in a big store though, because the queues will have subsided for that little excursion.

Of course, you need to know which lane to be in.

super slinky to the rescue

Time to re-jig various parts of rashbre central in preparation for the seasonal festivities. The 'music room' was recently being referred to as 'the junk room' and has now been re-instated as a bedroom. No-one can quite work out how the ten cubic metres of random content has been dispersed.

It's also put paid to my working ability for the next few days because my separate office desk area now has an amplifier under it, where my knees would normally go. I think the attached equipment may also prove something of a distraction, so I might as well just give in.

Fortunately I found some spare strings so that the defective notes on the plank are now back in business. I have a feeling this could all get a little out of hand as more people and equipment turn up.

commercial ending

It's that last part of the countdown but still there's work to be done and those last meetings to schedule as a build towards the 'end of year'.

It can be quite disorientating, with many organisations powering down, the schools broken up for the festive season and the added variable of snow interfering with travel plans.

I've been in our main office every day this week and had some pretty early starts, although meetings today and tomorrow are by videoconference and phone. It's also a time to archive stuff and reset for the new year.

By the end of tomorrow I should be clear and then it will be a question of keeping a quiet check on email and breaking out the paper hats.

santa claus north pole norad xmas physics stats update 2010

Here's the 2010 link to the Santa tracking system created by NORAD.

An ideal last minute gift this year is, of course, the rashbre novel -The Triangle.

But for those of you who are more interested in the technology of Santa, NORAD's FAQs provide the following:

Plenty of people have calculated Santa's speed to cover the world, famously Joel Potischman and Bruce Handy who did the physics of the speed and payload performance criteria for Santa's sleigh. Like most, I'm respectful of this but am also intrigued by some of the assumptions in the original calculation:

The most notable corrections to be applied are:

- Santa delivers no gifts to naughty children (not even coal)
- Naughty to nice ratio is 1:9
- As confirmed by NORAD, one Santa distributes all of the gifts.
- There is only one family per household.
- Santa bypasses non Santa belief system houses.
- Reindeer have recently eaten fresh magic acorns.

Calculation Assumptions:

- World population = 6 billion
- Children under 18 = 2 billion
- Global Santa based belief systems: 33%
- Max children requiring delivery therefore 667 million
- Children per household: 3.5 (may seem high?)
- Number of households requiring distribution 189 million
- Eastern orthodox using Jan 5 instead of Dec 25 = 16 Million
- Target Households = 173 million on Dec 25
- Target Households after naughty to nice = 156 million
- Estimated child bed time 21:00 (9pm) with 7 hours sleep.

(child sleep duration on Dec 24 may also require revision)

Gives circa 31 hours (24+7) for all deliveries
Time is 1860 mins or 111,600 seconds

Average number of homes to visit per second = circa 1400.
So average delivery per household is 715 microseconds, which is why Santa normally appears a bit blurry (I previously thought it was the sherry)

Land surface minus Antarctica is around 79 million square miles. Distribute destinations evenly = 0.7 miles between households creating a total distance of circa 110 million miles.

So 110 million miles in 31 hours = 3.6 million miles an hour or circa 1000 miles per second or Mach 4770 at a linear speed.

This explains Rudolph's red nose because of air resistance creating around 20 quintillion Joules of energy per second, which would convert a non reindeer nose to charcoal at such energy levels.

Luckily Santa has lots of special powers so these mere physics facts are no problem to such a superhero.

And ps. my list is in the chimney awaiting collection.

white on #uksnow

"Here we go again!" called my near neighbour who was just parking her large vehicle under the same bridge that I was parking the green teapot.

At six o'clock this morning there was no hint of snow, but by the other side of a cup of tea it was obvious that there would be certain first mover advantages to dealing with rapidly accumulating white stuff.

Selecting the littlest car had advantages of less snow to clear, thin tyres, front wheel drive and being broadly pushable and after ten minutes of snow removal it was ready for deployment like some kind of cold war strategic device.

I was able to make the way gingerly to the main road and to find a suitable refuge on a flat bit where the car has shelter and a chance of grip if the snow gets as deep as it did a couple of weeks ago.

We've also had the exciting appearance of a grit bin in the area. It's a big blue plastic bin quite close to one of the most slippery intersections in the side roads. About 30 metres from where the carpet van was stranded in the last snow.

I'm not sure if we are really more prepared, but later I'll take a snap of the Christmas lights in the snow.

Assuming we still have power.