Entropy1024 Blog

Somerset &Sulis

Saturday 17 September,2011

Tracey and I booked a weekend stay in Bath,or Aquae Sulis (Waters of Sulis) if you are a Roman. As it turned out this weekend was a special Jane Austin event, this duth maketh for a most agreeable visit.

Coming Soon at Bath Abbey

We arrived a Bath Spa train station at about 10:00 and headed off towards the Jane Austen Parade by Bath Abbey.

There was a bulletin board there titled ‘Coming Soon at Bath Abbey’,it was blank. Fortunately the city had other things to see and do.
I was expecting to see a dozen people in period costume for the parade but was delighted to find about a hundred or so. So we navigated our way through the crowd and got to the head of the line and watched all the Mr Darcys and Elizabeth Bennetts stroll by with assorted other characters. As a photographer Bath is a very target rich environment,with this parade it was hard not to get a good shot. Twas a good breaking in of my new Canon 60D,a vast improvement on the Box Brownie I wager.

After the parade we checked into our hotel to dump our bags then we walked up the East bank of the river Avon towards Pulteney bridge which is somewhat similar to the Ponte Vecchio in Italy. It is named after Frances Pulteney,heiress in 1767 of the Bathwick estate across the river from Bath. Robert Adam changed Pulteney’s original simple design to the one we see today. Evidently he was inspired by the Ponte Vecchio in his travels to Venice. That explains that then.

Just downstream of the bridge is a beautiful ‘V’shaped weir. On the other side of the river is a small park and some large columns with the road above,grand design and architecture all round. I went mental with the shutter. Thankfully Tracey is very tolerant of my hobby.

On the steps leading up to the bridge is a hobbit sized archway that leads to a small eatery called Riverside Cafe. There we ordered fish and chips,it was huge. It was also served with a small cup of what looked like sick. I think it was mushed peas,but I declined to try it. The meal was gorgeous and the view of the weir superb. Whilst eating we spotted a couple in period costume,we both jumped out to snap some shots, Tracey shouted out and got their attention and they kindly obliged us in a bow,complete with doffing of hat. On our walks we saw quite a few people still in period dress,I called them period people. ‘Oh look’I would say,‘More period people’.

We walked west to The Circus and the beautiful Royal Crescent. These two places are joined by a road called Brock Street and when viewed from above these two areas look like a key,check it out using the Google map at the end of this blog. Someone told me this was on purpose and had links to the Freemasons. I think the Royal Crescent has to be the most attractive set of terraced houses in England.

After much walking about taking in the sights we stopped to have a delicious meal at Browns Bar &Brasserie,by the time we left it was dark and so we went to take a look at the Abbey at night. I got my tripod out and started taking some long exposure shots. We walked round to the front of the Abbey and there was a lady sitting on her own on one of the benches there.

Woman:Where are you from?
Us:London.
Woman:Do you know how many pictures have been taken of this church?
Me:No. How many?
Woman:Thousands and thousands. Do you think your picture will be any better than theirs?
Me:I believe I can take a nice photo,I like to think I would have a chance.
Woman:You are stupid,you are wasting your time.
Me:Well I think I will give it a try thanks.
Woman:You’re being stupid,whats the point?
Me:What is your problem lady,seriously?
Woman:You’re the one with the problem.

I thought it best to try and ignore this most impertinent woman,she was obviously spoiling for a fight for some weird reason. She did not sound drunk so perhaps she simply found sport in goading people. We moved to get another angle. After a bit she pitched up again with some other nonsensical comments and how pointless my actions were. I had finished taking my photos of the Abbey so I walked off. As I was just about to walk round the corner onto Stall Street she shouted ‘Prick’. Oh lordy I thought,can’t have that. So I had to walk back and continued my phlegmatic approach.

Me:I feel sorry for you,I really do. You are a very sad and pathetic person.
Woman:You are the pathetic one my friend,you’re a prick.
Me:Nice comeback lady,and I am NOT your friend. Do you have any friends? I can’t imagine you do with that attitude.

At last this shut her up,so I guess I had struck a nerve. I stood there for a few seconds waiting for some retort,nothing. I did consider taking a photo of her then uploading some local ‘Beware the Goth’message on Google+ just to warn others,or perhaps I could have printed it out and added it to the ‘Coming Soon at Bath Abbey’ bulletin board ‘See the batty bint of Bath’. Thought better of it. So I wished her a good night and walked away.
I think that is one nil to the away team,back of the onion sack. Finally, I rather think my photos of the Abbey and Bath are quite good if I say so myself,certainly a cut above your average tourist snapshot. So in your sad face mad Bath lady.

Tracey insisted I let her write the following:

So we are in Newmarket Row shortly after meeting the mad woman. Tim is busy taking some photos and I’m enjoying the peace and quiet when,suddenly,Tim goes “Oh,Shit!”(in a really urgent way like something is wrong). I’m like,OMG –whats up with Tim? So I ask him. “What’s up?”He keeps saying “it doesn’t matter”,“it doesn’t matter”but I’m not having any of it and get it out of him. He goes on to explain that he thought for a moment that he lost/left his glasses in the restaurant as he couldn’t see through the camera properly. Then it slowly dawned on him that his glasses were,in fact,in front of his eyes all along and that the camera was out of focus. That was the funniest moment of the weekend,for sure. LOL.

We then walked back to the hotel,both of us were glad to put our feet up after 12+ hours of sightseeing.

Sunday 18 September,2011

For Sunday breakfast we headed off to Sally Lunn’s in North Parade Passage. It’s allegedly the oldest house in Bath (c.1483). This is a tiny eatery where we ordered a famous Sally Lunn Breakfast bun with scrambled egg and tomatoes. Was lovely, especially with plenty of tea. It certainly set us up for the days sightseeing.
Whilst we were eating a couple of walking tours stopped by outside and a whole host of them pressed up against the bay window and peered in to watch us eat. The place is listed in some guides as a museum so perhaps they thought we were all animatronics,I was tempted to do one of those robot waves but did not. At the end of the meal we realised that neither of us had any change for a tip and asked the waitress if she could give us change of a fiver,she could not. So we rummaged through all our pockets and came up with about 37 pence in shrapnel. I kinda hope they saw it as a tip befitting an establishment of the 1400′s.

On the list of things to see and do for today was to take a dip in the spa. We arrived and found there was no queue so I walked directly up to the receptionist to find that Tracey had decided to go via the empty zig zag barrier thing off to the side. The receptionist and I looked at each other and grinned then we followed her movements looking left then right and back,not dissimilar to watching a tennis game. Eventually she made it through the vacant line. Being my usual tactful self I said ‘That was retarded.’Luckily she took it in the good humoured way it was intended.
Unfortunately the spa was booked up for most of the day. I was not terribly upset however as £25 each for a couple of hours sitting in water that is somehow supposed to magically make you feel better is not a great deal IMHO. I can make my fingers prune at home for free in my bath. Great business model however,money for old rope. It’s sorta like a large scale Homeopathy deal and I think I have made my feelings on that subject very clear in the past.

Next stop the Roman Baths. It had started to rain pretty hard by then so this was well timed. After the winding round the internal museum bit we got to the main bath area where the rain was lashing down into the bath which seemed to make it steam more than usual. A little further on the tour is a raised glass floor leading over some of the old excavations,Tracey was tentatively treading on the glass looking concerned,so I just had to come running up and jump in the air and come slamming down next to her. This was great fun,for me anyway,and I’m pretty sure the other people on the glass bridge at the time thought it was a wag also. With the Abbey Goth,Sally Lunn tip &glass bridge incidents I really felt I was making friends in Bath.

Be Seeing you.

Ofter leaving we set off for the Jane Austen Centre. Jane Austen who is probably most famous for her book ‘Sense and Sensibility’ lived in Bath from 1800~1809,she did not write very much when there however. It is said she was shocked to be told she was moving to Bath. It may have had something to do with the address,if you were told you were moving to Gay Street you may also be upset. ‘Where duth you hail from?’,she may have been asked,‘Um,Gay Street,Queen Square.’Chortle,chortle.
The tea rooms at the top of the house were fab,lashings and lashings of tea &cake. We also bought some tea to take home,one of the less exotic brews,or as I called it,the plain Jane.

Then we were off home via the iron horse back to Londinium. Bath was certainly a great place to have visited, especially on the Jane Austin weekend.

…..Tracey is still laughing about the glasses!

Review of Travelodge Hotel we stayed in. (My Review is the one by T D)

Bath_sep11_

Crab &Winkle Way

On Saturday 6th August,Tracey and I decided to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big smoke and go for a walk in Kent. We settled on the Crab &Winkle Way which is a cycle/walkway that mostly follows the route of an old train line from Canterbury and Whitstable. This line was possibly the first train line in the UK,it operated from 1830~1953 and is approximately 10k as crow flies.

A person in Cornhead yesterday. Possibly shopping for corn.

To get there we took the train from London Bridge to Canterbury West. On the way an announcement on the speaker said ‘Next stop Cornhead’ which we both thought was very funny,‘Imagine living in Cornhead. Hello I hail from Cornhead’, we said in a country accent whilst laughing,‘Almost as bad as Dorking.’,then the train stopped and the lady next to us got off,Doh! Perhaps they don’t speak English in Cornhead and she was none the wiser.

When we arrived at Canterbury West we thought we may have fallen asleep and passed through the chunnel as everyone at the station appeared to be French. Luckily we were not in France,it must have been a load of tourists. Anyhoo,we stopped for some breakfast at a small cafe in Dunstans Street called The Refectory,next to a funeral directors. Lovely food and great service,the cafe,not the funeral home (although it may have good food and service,but we did not go there). This set us up for the long walk ahead.

Before the walk we thought we should take a look at the Cathedral. On the way there in St Peters Street one of the shops had a mannequin that looked totally insane,she looked like the jokers wife.

All down the road you do get a bit hassled by people trying to sell you boat trips. One bloke who looked about 30 told us that they had been here for seventy something years,he looked very good for seventy something. A little further down was some weird faith healing thing. Now,as anyone who knows me will tell you,I am very skeptical of this kind of thing so I gave it a very wide berth. The treatment here seemed to be that two kneeling men would touch you lightly and talk to you whilst looking sympathetic,then your cancer is gone. Not going to happen is it.

So on to the Cathedral. After the obligatory mugging to get into the grounds it was time to get serious with some photos. The cathedral is very impressive,as indeed most are,it never ever ceases to amaze me the unbelievable grandeur of these churches. For a group of people who preach to live humbly they sure have some amazing wealthy properties themselves and charge the common man a lot to see them. I’m sure God is very proud of the Church and how they operate in his name,spending money on such material things instead of feeding the world. However all this opulence makes for a good photo,so I spent a fair amount of time happily snapping away.

Photographing the inside of Churches are perfect for a technique called HDR or High Dynamic Range. Because of the low level lighting in churches and very bright light coming through the windows,you normally can either get the exposure correct for the illumination inside or the light from the outside. With HDR you take 3 or more exposures at different levels and mix then all together with some specialist software that takes the best parts of the multiple images and mixes them into one image. This can lead to a great photo with some surreal look. See the two images here.

After this photographic interlude it’s time for the walk from Canterbury to Whitstable on the coast. The route starts off going through some housing estate and alongside a main road,but soon winds it’s way out into the country and the city noises vanish into the distance.

The route is pretty well signed and has markers every now and again to let you know how far you have been and how much farther you have to go. The initial part is quite hilly and the original steam engines use to have a pull from a static engine to haul them up some of the hills.

Tracey decided to pick some of the berries along the way,she was worried that hey were not clean,so to ‘clean‘them she blew on them. Genius. Not sure why this method of getting someone to blow on things to sterilise them is not adopted in bathrooms or hospitals etc. ’Nurse,this scalpel is dirty.’,‘No problem Dr.’Pufffff,PUUUUUFFF,‘There you go’.
Tracey offered to clean some berries for me,I declined.

About halfway along the trail is The Winding Pond,which formerly supplied water for the static winding engine which brought trains up the hill from Whitstable. It’s now a picnic and rest area for cyclists and walkers on the route. We stopped here to eat our lunch and take the load off. The table and seats here have to be the most over engineered picnic table I have ever seen,I guess he used old railway sleepers. It’s called the Winding Wheel Seat and was made by Tim Norris,Godzilla would not be able to smash this picnic area up .

After eating we continued North to Whitstable. On the entire trip we probably saw only a couple of dozen other people. I had that ‘Feuding Banjos’ tune from the film Deliverence going through my head for some reason. I think it was such a change from the melé of people in London,which in places can be as busy as Piccadilly Circus.

Eventually we got to Whitstable just in time for everything to close,which was about 17:00. We did get a fantastic cream tea at a cafe called Elliotts on Harbour St,which thankfully was still open. Then when we finished a parade started and went right past the cafe. It’s a shame as it got a bit dark and started to rain,however even with it raining on the parade a good time was had by all.

CrabWinkleWayWalk(6Aug11)

Wave-Particle Duality of Light

I think it’s about time I wrote about something that rocked my world and really got me interested in Quantum Physics. In an experiment carried out by Thomas Young over 200 years ago he proved that light travelled as a wave,however it would take another 100 years before the true and extremely strange nature behind how light travels to be determined. I found the results fascinating and sent me off on a quest to try and make some sense on Quantum physics. It’s an unbelievably hard subject to get your head around,due to the fact it’s so counter intuitive,but I would THOROUGHLY reccomend anyone to give it a go to find out how your world &the Universe works. In my opinion one of the best books on the subject is ‘In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat‘by John Gribbin. It’s so good I named my cat Schrödinger.

The story starts in 1660 with two theories on how light propigates. One by Pierre Gassendi who proposed a particle theory of light and another by Robert Hooke on the wave theory of light. Who was right? An experiment would seem to be in order. In 1803 Thomas Young came up with a double-slit experiment whereby he had a light source shining onto a piece of card with two narrow slits in it. The light from these two slits would then be projected onto a screen. If light were to act like a particle then you would expect to get two lines of light on the screen. This would be similar to having a machine gun firing bullets through two slots. The bullets travel in straight lines and so you would expect to see a large collection of bullet holes in the screen in a couple of lines.

Interference Pattern

If light were to act as a wave then the light would pass through the two slits and spread out on the other side and interfere with each other,if they are in phase (Peak to peak) it will be brighter and where they are out of phase (Peak to trough) it will be darker thus creating a series of light and dark bands. This is like having a pond that you drop a pebble into creating a ripple,as the ripples hit a wall in the water with two small entrances the ripples pass through these and spread out on the other side and hit a far wall creating high and low points. Where the waves meet you get a bigger wave. When the experiment was run it created an interference pattern,so light acts as a wave. Job done.

But it’s not that simple. Late in 1900,Max Planck came along and introduced the concept that light must carry energy in discrete quantities. Those quantities,he proposed,must be units of the basic energy increment,‘hf’,where ‘h’ is a universal constant now known as Planck’s constant and ‘f’is the frequency of the radiation. Albert Einstein advanced Planck’s theory in 1905 when he studied the photoelectric effect. If the energy in light comes in bundles or quanta’s,then you can think of light as containing tiny lumps,or photons. When these photons strike a surface,they act like billiard balls. This is the quantum theory of light,the idea that light exists as tiny packets,or particles,called photons.

With modern equipment it is now possible to create one photon at a time and send that through Young’s twin slit experiment. As this one photon is emitted and radiates away from the light source it can go through one slit or the other and register on the screen. Over time what image would you expect to appear? Common sense would say that as only one photon is going through one slot at a time then it can’t interfere with photons from the second slot,therefore no interference pattern. However what you get is the very same interference pattern. It’s as if the same photon is going through both slots at the same time! Surely that cant be correct?

In 1905 Einstein embraced wave-particle duality, he treated light as a collection of one or more photons propagating through space in electromagnetic waves. This definition,which combines light’s wave and particle nature,makes it possible to rethink Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment in this way:Light travels away from a source as an electromagnetic wave. When it encounters the slits,it passes through and divides into two wave fronts. These wave fronts overlap and approach the screen. At the moment of impact,however,the entire wave field disappears and a photon appears. Quantum physicists often describe this by saying the spread-out wave “collapses”into a small point.

All that is pretty weird but things get stranger. If we run the exact same experiment but add a detector to each slit to detect these photons passing (One at a time again) you don’t get an interference pattern! By observing the experiment we have changed the outcome. I did say earlier that Quantum Physics is counter intuitive. This brings us to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, but that’s a whole other propellerhead blog for a later date. Suffice to say that something as seemingly simple as light is in fact very complex and fascinating.

Holiday in Lanzarote

Sunday,22 May

In preparation for the transatlantic voyage next year Dad and I flew out to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to spend one week working on the boat to get it all ship shape (literally). The second week will then be spent relaxing at a hotel in Playa Blanca,also on the second week the rest of the family were going to fly over.

Lanzarote is the Easternmost islands in the chain of seven. It’s a volcanic island and has been greatly influenced by the artist César Manrique who recognised its tourist potential and lobbied successfully to encourage sympathetic development of tourism. One aspect of this is the lack of high rise hotels on the island. Those that are there are in keeping with the use of traditional colours in their exterior decoration.

We arrived at the marina in Puerto Calero in the late evening. All the locks on the boat had rusted up,so spent first 20 minutes breaking in.

Went to a restaurant to get some food. They served is something that looked like a mini Cornish Pastie,was nice however. The music playing in background was extremely odd,it was well known stuff such at Team Spirit by Nirvana,but done in a very mellow Sade style. It was as if the soul of the track had been ripped out.

Tentatively turned on phone to see if there was any Wi-Fi. Tried to make sure it would not download anything over phones cellular network. Roaming is bad enough for voice,data is extortionate. Did find some free Wi-Fi in the marinas toilets,which is a rather odd location and somewhat creepy but,‘When in Rome,don’t be a christian’.

mymap

Monday,23 May

First thing today is to get boat out of water an ‘on the hard’to start work. Engine solenoid was jammed but eventually got it started and reversed towards travel lift to get boat out of water. On the way the engine jumped out of reverse and would not go back in,but had enough momentum to get there.

After lifted out and chocked up on boatyard we set to work on various jobs. One of which was sanding down old anti-fould on hulls. Had a random orbital sander for this job,sander disks were attached to it with some Velcro lookie likey type affair. Think it was a bit worn as sanding pads tended to vibrate off and shoot off into distance every 30 seconds or so,random sander indeed.

Finished up first day and went for a shower only to find out we had been locked in the boatyard. Luckily I had been Bouldering the week before so got to put these skills to use. After escaping the boatyard I had a shower and when finished,and with closed eyes,I turned off the tap not realising it was just the cold and suddenly got scolded with boiling water,recoiled away from burning water and slammed into the cubicle door. As cubicle was so small I was still being showered with the hot water and had to reach through and fumble for the hot water tap. So end of first day all rather fun. At least the shower block had free Wi-Fi.

Whilst catching up on the news I found out that there was a new ash cloud from Iceland heading towards England and that Scotland had 100 MPH winds. Perhaps I would be stuck in Canary Islands for longer than planned.

Tuesday,24 May

Dad got a mechanic called Jean-Michel to fix the throttle cables and solenoid. Looks like they had been rusted also.

I spent the day painting the hulls with anti-foul and got speakers in cabin working. Hands were pretty much black after today from painting,was nasty stuff to get rid off,petrol seems to be best thing to remove it. In all this dirt and chaos we somehow seemed to buy some bread with the crust cut off, seemed odd to have this decadent foodstuff in all this chaos and mess.

We now have a key for the boatyard so did not need my climbing shoes on to get to showers.

Wednesday,25 May

Rainy day today so we decided to tackle one of the inside jobs as it’s so much cooler. The job in question is replacing the ceiling covering in the toilet,or head as it’s known on a boat. The existing one is a carpet like covering and pulling this off was pretty easy albeit very dusty. Next a thin foam backing needed to be adhered to the hull. This proved to be pretty easy,the spray glue worked a treat and as the spongy foam had enough give to be placed in position,which considering the complex curvaceous shape was very welcome.

The second layer was a thin vinyl finish,but had no stretch in it. The glue worked great on this also,but it’s kinda a one shot deal. Once it’s stuck to the foam you can’t move it about and pulling it back off tore the foam. Because the shape of the toilet is all irregular curves and there was no play in the final layer it all ended up looking a bit of a mess.

That evening we drove to Porto Del Carmen to have a meal. We could not get the key to open the hire car door,then after a bit realised we had the wrong car,could have been embarrassing. Saw a fantastic sunset that evening from the restaurant.

Thursday,26 May

Winched Dad up the mast in bosons chair so he could attach the new wind direction/speed sensor. This worked first time which was good. I also went halfway up the mast to look at a light there and managed to fudge a fix to get it working.
The rest of the day was spent making some brackets to mount a solar panel on the rear of the boat. Somehow we managed to get some measurements wrong and ended the day with some rather lopsided affair. Bit of a depressing end to the day,especially after yesterdays wrinkly wallpaper affair.
Drove to see hotel in Playa Blanca on South of island where we would be staying for the second week. Candy had read on the net that some of the hotel rooms were in poor shape and that the kids pool was closed. We went round to try and secure the recently renovated rooms and check out the pool. We achieved the new rooms,but pool was indeed being renovated. There was another pool and it looked OK for kids. On our little reconnaissance we saw a Tom Jones impersonator singing in the main hall,evidently that’s not unusual.

Friday,27 May

Re-positioned brackets for solar cell and finished it all off. Looks very good and is very sturdy,so job well done. Wired up output to the boats main bus and ran radio off it to prove it all worked. Cell is rated at 40watts so hope it will have enough power to run auto-helm.
Got boat put back in water and moored back up on harbour wall.

Saturday,28 May

Had a relaxing day today doing small jobs but mostly taking it easy. Later in the evening we met a couple at restaurant on the seafront,one of them used to be a travel agent who specialised in Canary Islands and they gave us some tips on what to see on the Island. There were some cats at this restaurant waiting by a couple of fishermen. Each time the lines bent the cats would rush up to beg for some food. Caught one of them playing with a rope (Cat,not fisherman) that was fencing off the restaurant.

Saw some fireworks that evening,not sure what it was for but think Spain was playing England in some football game today so was probably to do with that.

Sunday,29 May

Sunday,day of rest. According to the Ten Commandments;#4 ‘Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy’,punishment for breaking this commandment,death,Just for forgetting it’s Sunday. Mind you the first two ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’ &‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image’ carry the punishment of Genocide,Entire cities with men,women,children and animals must be killed. Bit severe. Not sure what happened to turn the other cheek. Then again the Bible is a mess of contradictions and nonsense. Anyway,what I am trying to say is it’s Sunday,day of rest,time for some sightseeing.

Started off by seeing the wreck at Arrecife which is Lanzarotes capital city. This is a large shipwreck just off the shore,I am not sure of the history of this ship but it’s huge,even with the sharp end missing. Whilst taking the photo above I nearly lost my camera as a wave rolled in and almost washed over it. I just managed to grab it in time,camera strap got soaked however.

Next stop was ‘Jameos del Aqua‘ it’s part of the Atlantida volcanic cave system formed by the eruptions of the Corona volcano about three to four thousand years ago. You descend down some stairs to a cavern flooded with incredibly still and clear water harbouring tiny blind albino crabs,blind and white due to the lack of sunlight and they have evolved to adapt to these conditions. Unless of course you believe the Bible and reject evolution. Anyhoo, In an attempt to get a shot of these crabs I stepped closer not realising I was stepping into the pool. So with a loud splash I planted my size 11 Crocks into this mirror like pool sending a mini tsunami (yes I know that’s an oxymoron) across to the other side,I probably wiped out a few of the crabs also,so much for ‘Thou shalt not kill’ . The person standing next to me trying to take a shot of the crabs just shook his head.

In the same complex they had a series of mirrors on the floor and ceiling. It made me feel like I was in a game of Portal. Which reminds me that Portal 2 is out now with one of the characters being voiced by Stephen Merchant,got to get that when I get home.
A little further outside looks rather like Tracey Island complete with palm trees and swimming pool,very relaxing.

Last bit to see today is Mirador del Río. This is a James Bond Villan style hideout in the side of some very high cliffs on the North West of the island with stunning panoramic views over the strait of “Río”(naming the viewpoint) towards the archaic island of La Graciosa.

From here we went to the Airport where we met with the rest of the family and then we all checked in to the Lanzarote Princess Hotel in Playa Blanca. The lobby of the hotel reminded me of something but I could not put my finger on it. Just got there in time for Dinner.

Monday,30 May

At breakfast I saw a lady with a truly ridiculous hairstyle. It looked like she was balancing a coconut on her head. Not sure if it was solid hair or wrapped around a wire mesh or something. Perhaps she had her valuables stored in there. Probably not.

Visited the local beach which is a 3 minute walk from the hotel and read last few chapters of the Peter F Hamilton book Mindstar Rising,Nowhere near as good as the epic Pandora’s Star which was possibly one of the best books I have ever read.

On the way back to the hotel I walked past a huge chess set by the pool where a kid was asking his Dad ‘Why do people play chess?’His Dad said ‘I Don’t know son,I just know I like football’,I felt sorry for the kid.

After dinner we went to the main hall for the evenings entertainment. Part of which was a guess the title of the film from a sample of music,or as the lady in her broken English called it ‘What is tittle of film?’One of the films was Pirates of the Caribbean,or as she called it Pee Rats of the Caribbean.

After that there was a kids disco. One of the girls of about 6 had obviously gone to some dance school as she was dancing in some very choreographed way. Either that or she was some gypsy kid.

Next was a magic show which Charlotte got to go on stage and help with one of the tricks.

Tuesday,31 May

Mum,Dad &myself went to visit El Golfo on the west coast of the island today. El Golfo is a natural amphitheatre open to the sea which was formed from the volcanic eruptions of 1730. The lagoon,which fills the base of this semicircular crater,is a result of flooding,and its green colour is from the algae that inhabit its waters. It looks very unearthly and has been the location for a few films &TV shows such as Enemy Mine, One Million Years B.C. & The Martian Chronicles Truly amazing place,the colours of the rocks are all over the shop and with a lake of washing up liquid green it’s certainly unique. Grabbed a black porus rock from the beach here as a memento.

From here we went to the Timanfaya National Park just north of El Golfo. This is the location of the Timanfaya Volcano which erupted last in 1736. The volcanic activity continues as the surface temperature in the core ranges from 100 to 600 °C at the depth of 13 metres,which is demonstrated by pouring water into the ground,resulting in a geyser of steam,one of which I got sprayed with. We had a meal at this place and the food was cooked over one of the hot vents from the volcano. Girlfriend had been complaining I had not sent her many texts so I sent one saying I was on a volcano eating food cooked by said volcano and asked if her lunch back in the big smoke was as exciting. It was not.

Took Mum to see the Mirador del Rio and then headed off to see the Cavela del los Verdes. This is a section of The Tunnel of Atlantis,part of the Jameos del Aqua cave system which is just down the road. This tunnel extends 6km above and 1.5km below sea and is the largest volcanic tunnel in the world. The cave was created by a lava flow that,resulting from an eruption of the volcano La Corona,flowed down to the ocean more than 4 million years ago.

Wednesday,1 June

Started reading Zero Day by Mark Russinovich whilst relaxing on sun lounger near the hotel pool. Book is pretty good,it’s all about a series of viruses playing havoc with planes,nuclear power stations and the like. It’s not really Sci-Fi as it’s all possible now which makes it rather scary, especially as Mark is a big security expert and knows a lot about this area.

Went to see El Papagayo,a local cove about 5k east of hotel. The last 4k of the journey is via a dirt road. The turning off the roundabout is tarmac for a few yards then it turns into a boneshaker. Cove and beach is lovely here if somewhat crowded,were also a few girls going topless. Being the good boyfriend I am and wanting to keep up my promise of increased communication I sent Tracey a text asking if it was OK to take photos (of the cove),did not go down very well. I just can’t seem to get these texts right. Oh well.

Used balcony from my room for first time today and noticed it would not lock. Hotel fixed it straight away which was good.

Used LogMeIn on HTC Desire cell phone to remote to home PC,then used TOR to connect to bittorent. So hop from Lanzarote to England,bounce all round world via TOR then fall out in Norway. Cool. Why do anything direct when you can have fun.

Thursday,2 June

Dad and Candy sailed boat from Marina to beach by hotel. They moored just off the rocks and eventually motored ashore in the dingy after getting outboard to start. Had a drink at cafe on beach front Jungle Bar then Dad,Paul Charlotte and myself went out to boat in dingy and motored short distance into Rubicon Marina.

Friday,3 June

Not sure what happened this day, was probably just relaxing. Oh wait,this was the day Dad wore that truly hideous t-Shirt of his,the one with the kitten and mice on it. Was so traumatised by this my mind blanked the rest of this day.

Saturday,4 June

Read book by pool. Tracey had a charity 5k run back in UK. Sent her a picture of me relaxing by pool in glorious sunshine. Lets hope that went down better than the last two texts. Finaly realised what lobby of hotel reminds me of; Logans Run. Except the people here are much uglier and dress very poorly. Teletubbie shaped people. Old men with sandles and long socks,Not to mention bun head lady. Shocking.

Sunday,5 June

Lastday,Capricorn 29′s. Year of the City:2274. Carousel begins.

Packed bags and checked out of hotel. Spent the morning at beach then relaxing in cool lobby of hotel. Went with Dad to his marina to make sure boat all OK then returned hire car to airport. Back to rainy England.
Renew!

Below is a map of where we went on the island:-


lanzarote (2011-05-20)

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Holiday in Lanzarote

Sunday,22 May

Monday,23 May

Tuesday,24 May

Wednesday,25 May

Thursday,26 May

Friday,27 May

Saturday,28 May

Sunday,29 May

Monday,30 May

Tuesday,31 May

Wednesday,1 June

Thursday,2 June

Friday,3 June

Saturday,4 June

Sunday,5 June

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