The Man with No Time

Today is very much a day of recovery. I got back very early this morning from my holiday, and although I had a lot of fun isn't wasn't exactly the most relaxing of holidays - I spent a week cycling around France with a group of friends from the orchestra I play in! The group had previously done a cycling tour of vineyards in Burgundy, and this year thought that they'd do something similar. Except instead of wine, they'd tour the cider (or should I say cidre) region of Normandy.  Since I rather enjoy cycling they invited me along, and I eagerly said yes. I promptly spent quite a lot of money getting my bike ready for the trip; I took the opportunity to replace a few parts that were getting a bit old (the saddle, handle bar grips, rear tire, and brakes), and fitted pannier racks front and back. I also had to buy some panniers, although fortunately only a front pair as I was able to borrow a set of rear panniers from one of the others. I was slightly apprehensive...

I've just got back from my latest holiday of the summer. This time I was visiting the Sherwood Forest Center Parcs  for 4 days with my family, my girlfriend Ellen, and my brother's girlfriend Rebecca, who was visiting Center Parcs for the first time and seemed to have a great time. We were staying, for the first time, in an executive lodge, which came with a dishwasher (hallelujah!), wi-fi, and a sauna! Sadly we never got to use the latter feature, but we did make good use of the blackboard that was on the wall. The blackboard after the girls had finished drawing caricatures of all of us. (Credit: David Brown) It was a really fun weekend, and as usual we crammed it full of activities. Fortunately for us the weather was also glorious; it turns out that England is currently enjoying temperatures in the mid-to-high 20s, with beautiful sunshine and a nice, cooling breeze. So much better than what Scotland has been putting up with for the last month or so! Travelling home ...

The last couple of years has seen a sharp increase in the number of films of a genre that I'm going to refer to as 'sports docu-film'. These are feature-length documentaries following either a particular sporting event from the perspective of a team or individual competitor, or following a particular sports-person through their career. Such features have typically been the domain of television, and where they have existed they have been very much focused on the documentary style, with a dry, 'facts-only' presentation style. The more recent style has tended more towards cinematography and the desire to tell a compelling story, with more emotional content. As such they fit much better into a cinematic setting than the more traditional version. The film "Senna" is probably the best known example of the genre, certainly amongst the general populace, owing to its relatively wide release thanks to the high profile of both Formula 1, and the legacy of Aryton Se...

The 8th and final part of the series introducing my plethora of hobbies will be a "bucket"post, encompassing the varied activities that I get up to that haven't already been covered. Mostly these are sports, which would be a shock to people that knew me at school!