Had a look at Tate Britain where Fiona Banner had the installation with the Harrier and Jaguar jets. Also saw the Turner paintings.

Later had a quick look at the Golden Hind, the replica built in 1973 of Sir Francis Drake's ship that repetated his circumnavigation of the globe. Arrived a bit late for the tour inside but as it was moored practically on the street, there wasn't much left to see :).

Pics here.

Another day in london with Jim and good thing he knows what is happening there.

So managed to see the Stephenson's Rocket recplica thanks to the Science Museum on Hyde Park, only a 100m track and had to pay to get on it of course! Was surprised how quiet the engine was.

Then Bill Fontana's River Soundings installation at the Sommerset House, not much to see as it was mostly a sound installation with the sounds of the thames from the source to the sea and set in the lower levels of Sommerset House. Surprised bu the low galleris between the middle square and the building, reminded me so much of the game Ico on the PS2, including the sound effects :)

Nex we saw the Virgin Media's Speed of Light Installation on the south bank, after having to queue for a bit. Was rather impressive een if was only 4 rooms with Laser and sound effects.

There are some more random London pics later and all can be seen here.

Well, we managed to get "Rescued" on the first day, instead of coming down the bubble from the lat bit of the flims are one of the guys I wold not mention decided to go down that off piste 74. I did mention that was crap and should not go but went anyway and foolishly decided to make company just in case. The snow run out and had to walk on mud, then was unridable waist deep slush followed by a climb down when we got greeted by the ski patrol who led us down to the bottom but we had another half an hour of waist deep slush. The chair lift operators where not too happy to keep them for an extra hour for the bubble down to Flims then we got the bus back. The riding the rest of the week was slushy to say the least. We missed watching the boardercross as they managed to finish early when we just got there. The big air was interesting with the backflips etc. Got some good shots of the half pipe as well. Did not see the slopestyle as most of the resort closed down due to bad weather and we where left on other side of the mointain, haiving to take the bubble down to Flims and the bus back to Laax. Decided then to have one last run, bad mistake, managed to sprain the knee and shoulder wiping out as was building speed up before a roller that day. Well, was Friday and we finally had a powder dump and I had to ride the next day fully drigged up with all sorts of painkillers. Saturday compensated for the whole of the week. Rob somehow managed to do his arm/chest that day and at the end and did not take part the Red Bull Home Run. I took the Red Bull Home Run slowly this time due to injury. The apres ski was fun with the "Cushe" air bag, live music, "Rock Band", etc. Think the Red Bull olie might have been canceled due to snow. Lastly the Red Bull tent fell on my head as well. Must say the resort has improved facilities a lot, still pricey thought. Was less impressed with the evening parties as there where no live bands this time and mostly DJs, which is definitely not my cup of tea. So the pictures are here.

SCUK Winter Bash 2010 Tignes France
Cambridge to Tignes by train, easy trip again, just get the train to Kings Cross and walk across the road to St. Pancras and all the way overnight to Burgh St. Maurice then another 40 min tranfer up the windy alpine road to Tignes. This time managed to meet the Gang in the St. Pancras at the Betjeman Arms Pub. The Jordies lef t on an earlier train as they did not have a direct one to Bourg except ours got delayed by 3-4 hours and we missed (at leat they announced on the train that we are allowed a free eurostar ticket :) ). So we missed half a day's riding.
On the rush to get changed I did not put the socks up properly on my boot and left my ankle exposed, sounds minor but ended up with a massive scar due to boot friction for the whole week and could barely ride. On the first day on sunday took the gang from the train out round the Palafour and eventually Les Brevieres and was surprised bu the lack of good snow considering the strong winter we had.
Later we got to our swanky flat arrange by John from Draggon Lodge, rather modernly decorated 7 person flat for 5 of us and a good crew this time.
Next day went off riding to Val D., Also tried my toe straps on the front and proper cushiones board socks, big mistake, crudhed my toes and headed back early in the afternoon, counght some powder finally on the way back thought, on the minus side was crippled for the rest of the week riding gently as was excurciating riding on steeper slopes.
We had a good guiding day on Tuesday and Thursday. Note that we almost lost Charlie as he faceplanted a natural kicker jump after a trick.
Took it easy on friday and the SCUK home run due to my foot. That night we had the quiz and managed to get covered in treacle with one of the games and got back eventually at 4! After a couple of hours sleep we had to clear the flat and finally after some feet recovery managed to blast round with the train gang all they way round the resort to the back of Val D> Glacier and back! Then the train back home!

So the pictures are here.

This time the flights went smoothly in contrast with the heatwave presenced there. It was unbarable to walk outside between midday and tea time.
This time did not manage to go to the seaside but traveled to Cambará do Sul over night then next morning to the Parque Nacional Parados da Serra to see the Canion Fortaleza and Cacheira dos Venâncios then up to São João dos ausentes on 4 hour long bumpy mud track road (we found out later we could have taken the tarmac road round Bom Jesus) then another hour to stay in the farm next to the Desnível dos Rios and Cachoeirão dos Rodrigues.

Photos here.

I have it over a month now so I can testify.
Impulse buy at Borders, does not help in Cambridge as the shop can sometimes be a short cut between green street and the market square.
It is basically the same screen as the sony e-book but a lot lighter and simpler. It is disconcertingly bright. If you used to LCD sometimes it feels like it glows. The screen is very clear and high rez with 8 grey scales. Te interface is simple with a few buttons and quizzingly a sudoku button. It does not come with any software to install, it works like a USB flash drive with 256Mb storage and a SD card slot.
Adobe ebook software is an optional download to support copyrighted books.
It can read most files such as pain text, simple html, pdf and jpg.
It comes with a collection off free Gutenberg project books.
Here comes the crunch, it is excruciatingly slow, it takes half a minute to load a file and a couple of seconds to flip a page. Navigation is a bit archaic with cursor control.
On the plus side it can work as a simple picture viewer.
Note that is best to disable the auto power off as it blanks the screen when off and takes half a minute to bootup and looses the last page position.
I would not say it is a bad buy, it is basically utilitarian. Considering that cheaper models will come out soon like the Asus ebook it is better to hold off a while to see what happens.

Long weekend in Venice.
Did not manage to sleep with the first flight in at 6:30am from Stanstead, had to leave home at 3am! Then cought the 3:30 bus to arrive at Stanstead at 4:30 for the 6:30 flight.
In Treviso there was a bus shuttle service to venice, 1h there abouts. Of course had the temperature shock stepping outside at 30˚C. The road ends by the car park and railway station, is on foot there after, with canals instead of rods, there are endless bridges to cross them. Good thing I went just with hand luggage.
Stayed in a hostel in Dorsoduro near the Peggy Guggenheim museum. Bit of walk and bit hard to find first time round. Note that the addresses in Venice do not include the street name, only the house number and neighborhood name. After dropping the bags went to see the main tourist attractions. The San Marco's Square, Dojo's Palace, the Basilica di San Marco, Rhialto Bridge. The Museus are mostly paid but there are museum and attraction passes that cover several attractions and they are not time limited, allows one visit of the listed attractions each.
The Modern Art biennial was happing at the same time so I expend the next day to see the main pavilions. They where mostly around the Arsenal area, the original ship yards of Venice. The main pavilions where in two areas spread on that side of town and they charged entry. Other exhibits where spread throughout the city and mostly free.
Next day spent seeing the Peggy Guggenheim museum, Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, modern art museum and other biennial exhibits spread throughout the city.
The last day used the opportunity to take the vaporetto to Murano to the the glass museum and a quick walk round Murano. It actually only had glass shops. Only found a small mall in a alleyway with a pizza fast food, ice cream shop and supermarket where the locals went :)
Got the vaporetto back and round Venice and Lido to finish off.
So the pictures are here.

For some reason all places where booked up in fort william on friday night and the usual fort william backpackers where full. Found Calluna instead, small youth hostel with a climbing wall! On friday decided to stay on the Glen Coe SYHA.
Got there straight from work on the sleeper and dropped off by the Chacheig. After treddging up the road and dropping the bags up in the SYHA setoff to do the Ballachulish Horse Shoe, once I was passing the village I saw a sign for a mountain bike hire. So I hired a bike for a day, cycled back to the hostel, got changed to bike kit and cycled 50Km all the way round Loch Leaven. The weather was amazing and got some amazing pictures!
Next day rained alll day and headed off to Fort William early ish and had a lazy day to recover as the weather did not help. The folk at the hostel gave me a lift up the hill where the hostel was.
On Sunday was great weather, hired a mountain bike and cycled all the way round the woods by the nevis range. Still some paths where closed there due to forestry work. Wasn't so good for pictures thought, although the highland cows on the middle of the track lightened up the day :)
Some pictures here.