Winter

It seems that my blog posts have become seasonal.

Woke up to an amazing frost today, it was a shame that the sun wasn't, but all the same it was nice to be treated to a true winters day.

I decided that I would go do some work in Offshore and brought my camera along incase anything caught my eye. I had very cold fingers by the end of the day, looks like the frost is here to stay for a couple of days and there might even be some snow on the way. An amazing start to winter, hope it stays this cold for the entire season!

Autumn

Autumn has arrived and with it comes beautiful colours.

London Design Week 2008

About a week ago I headed down to London to check out the Design Week and also to visit two design practices, with my course. The trip was an interesting experience and in a way inspiring but from a slightly odd perspective. Anyway it got me thinking about design and also injected some motivation in me for the start of the academic year.



I headed down on at the start of the week and assuming since the event was called London Design Week that there would be lots of stuff on, in reality all the events up to Thursday were very small, which meant I did a lot of trooping around London to see very little and then as of Thursday had little time to see everything as it was all going on at once all over the place. This was a bit frustrating and I will learn from the mistake, I was also kind of expecting to see a lot more interesting gadgets and uses of technology than I actually did in reality. Most of the products I saw came from the more arty, thought provoking side of product design, the side of which I am not particularly involved in but all the same enjoy certain aspects. I especially enjoy playful design, a little tongue in cheek. People who design objects with a completely different purpose to what their original use was for. I think in a way people feel that this form of design is a bit pointless and almost of waste of money, but I tend to think of it as a usable form of art or sculpture. A product with a message, that you can interact with as opposed to looking at it from a distance surrounded by do not touch signs.

I was interested to go check out the new designers exhibition, as it is interesting to see what work graduates produce. The show was varied, a mix of products and graphic design, I particularly enjoyed the work of James Plant with his removable lightbulbs being a particular point of interest for visitors. Glowing spheres suspended from the ceiling by guitar cables, the spheres could be removed from the cables and moved around the room as a transportable source of light. The idea was playful yet functional, it was funny watching people's faces as someone would pull the bulb off the cable.

Tent is a major exhibition space during the festival held at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch. It combines new work, by designers and also old design classics sold by showrooms across britain. 4 Designers stood out here, Tom Price produced 5 chairs in a series called Meltdown. These were essentially random off cuts of plastic based materials, melted together to form chairs. I liked the use of obscure materials, and the fact that the process of manufacture was still completely visible, the designs weren't essentially about the final visual outcome but about the process.



Pencil bench by Boex was another highlight, essentially a bench with a series of holes drilled into it and then hundreds of pink pencils placed in these holes. Watching people tentatively sit down in fear that they would snap the pencils, and then to be surprised by the comfort, again a fun and playful design, the choice of pink pencils added an nice aesthetic touch.


The showstopper came form Freshwest Design (I think, should have probably taken a note of the name at the time!). Yet another chair probably not functional as a chair. Based up on the small wooden toys with little animals held together by pieces of string, which when you pressed the underside of the base of the toy, would cause the string to loose tension and the animal to collapse. Well they applied this idea to a chair, really intriguing and eery to watch. You would be looking a this chunky chair and then suddenly to everyone's shock it would just collapse. But what really made the design was when it became a chair once more, it was as if the wood became possessed or there was someone in the room controlling the chair, it would essentially come back to life in a way that was hard to believe. Unfortunately I can't find any info on it but I would imagine somewhere on the internet there is a youtube video of the design.

Finally I visited DesignersBloc, this event was set up gorilla event to 100%design attracting newer practices and a more laid back attitude. There were lots of interesting pieces of work and it was well exhibited in an interesting and none pretentious environment. One idea that really stood out, and I wonder if the designer really realised the potential of the idea was by 1000 Volt Design. In a series called Punchuation, was a plate that had a hole in it so it could be hung, I get the impression this was just a playful idea, but is actually an extremely practical way of storing plates both in a shop and at home.

Overall it was an interesting week, that really had nothing to do with my degree. Although I definitely got something out of it, and really appreciated the craft and aesthetical element to product design. It made a change from the user focused, engineering side of design that I am currently working in.

J

Post travel blues, synical brits, the future of the budget traveler and pavey ark?

Well I have now returned to the beautiful land of Britain and have yet to have not seen a cloud in the sky, it now feels like winter and I am wondering when I will see blue skies again. The weather with out a doubt has an affect on how we live our lives and our mentalities. I am sure Britain would have a more european vibe if the weather would allow us to hang out in lovely squares sipping coffee and watching the world go by. We would also make more time for leisure, as we would be able to enjoy the outdoors as opposed to cowering away from it in our lovely dry offices.

Anyway I left LA, and enjoyed a lovely 10 hour flight back to London. I spent the journey sitting next to an English couple, who definitely fitted one of my many british stereotypes. I am not a fan of flights back home as it means that you have to rapidly have to come down from your holiday and be faced with british people moaning and queing. Anyway the guy I sat next to really fitted my moaning brit stereotype, having chosen his seats on a aeroplaneseatexpert.com or something making sure he got the best seats on the plane. He didn't like the fact that I pointed out that probably the seats in first class were better than his. When we got off the plane he started moaning to me about the fact that people stand on escilators slowing him down, people need to seriously chill out, why is everyone in such a rush?

Anyway it was quite cool arriving in London, as it isn't like arriving in the rest of the UK. I used to think that London wasn't that cool in comparison to other european cities but it seems to have changed recently. Although I think what makes it cool is the fact that it is such an international city therefore not really british. I stayed in Shoerditch, the coolest of the cool neighborhoods, I like the place but at the same time its hard to take it seriously it is just too cool for itself. What makes the neighborhood cool is the fact it is full of galleries and creative industries they are here because rent was cheap, however the neighborhood has become so cool that they can no longer afford to be based there and I assume the edginess will soon be removed the area will be gentrified as the scene moves further east or maybe north? The place has a strange irony about it.

Hoxton Graffiti

I feel I learnt and experienced a lot from my travels, I enjoyed traveling by myself and enjoyed meeting people. America has many flaws, and I am sure California is not the place to experience them all, it gets slated, I slate it but at the same time life in California is good and I very much enjoyed my time there. Most people were genuinely nice, the quality of life for most was excellent and the great outdoors were amazing. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of years, I feel that America is about to go through a change in fact I feel it has to, so it will be interesting to see what the place feels like in a couple of years time.

Couchsurfing, craigslist and gumtree are definitely the way forward for budget travellers and I think these sites bring an overall different outlook on life. Next time I go travelling I would like to use couchsurfing for my accomodation and ridesharing sights to try and get from A to B, this would be very cost affective and give you the opportunity to meet people of that country.

On an entirely different note, I got out in the lakes over the weekend and sampled some climbing, this time on Pavey Ark overall a good day, did one of the best routes I have done in the lakes Golden Slipper HVS, the second pitch is a dream, relentless climbing on lovely rough edges every move balancy and technical. We then put a dampner on this excellent climb by doing the shittest climb I have ever done, right next to it, which was essentially a bit of gardening on a just off vertical green slab of slime. Still though, nice to get out into the mountains and enjoy what home has to offer.

J

Public Transport Rant

Before I came out to the states I was a little reluctant to travel solo for two reasons: One I thought it would be hard to meet people as they would likely assume I was a terrorist due to the fact that I am not from America, the second that I wouldn't be able to get to many places because I didn't have a car. My second reason was completely just, and I in fact feel a little trapped in California. 

So Bush, wont sign any greenhouse gas bills etc, and the US blames asia for destroying the world. Currently everyone over here is going crazy about the price of gas, which incidentally is half the price of that in the UK. Obviously things are beginning to affect people over here and soon people are going to want to/have to reduce their emissions. A challenge for the average american, how can they do this with out public transport. 

There is no public transport network. Getting from a to b is a nightmare and it is often cheaper, quicker and more convenient to rent a car and drive. Getting across large distances is a tiring and arduous affair, and once you get to your next city getting about is often equally as challenging. 

The US cannot reduce its emissions without improving its public transport, this needs to happen and it needs to happen fast. I in fact predict it will happen, it kind of has to. So I guess now is the time to invest in amtrak and greyhound. 

J

Carl and Ginger

I have been staying with Carl and Ginger for a couple of days now, I met them through Duncan as they are good friends with their family. Carl and Ginger are amazing!

They are two well travelled, californian, bohemian, hippie architects. Well this only begins to describe them. 

Their house is located up in the hills, towering redwoods surround the house and every day I lay in their hammock looking down on the pacific and watching the humming birds suck at the nectar from the flowers infront of me. I feel that this place has its own eco system, and you can not help but feel calm and relaxed being here. 

Bathing is another unique experience inspired by Japanese culture. To have a bath, one must first in the morning drain, what is essentially a big metal cauldron, fill it and light a fire underneath it. It is such a relaxing experience just sitting in this of hot water, watching the stars above you and listening to the bamboo screen sway infront of you. 

Carl and Ginger are wonderful people, incredibly intelligent, well travelled and educated by their travels, welcoming, caring and probably most of all giving. I find being around them inspiring, inspiring in the sense that they make me question things and consider things that I have yet considered.

Yesterday I went to watch Carl work on the job, he has an unbelievable knowledge of trees, forestry, carpentry and many of tangents of these things. Watching him I felt I learnt a lot, he was also with people who were theoretically as experienced as him, but yet they were still learning from him. In fact by sharing his knowledge with these people, Carl has probably jeporodised some of his business. But he clearly doesn't care, he wants people to benefit from his knowledge and for people to do stuff correctly. Watching some of the people ignoring his advice, was annoying to watch and very hard to understand, why would you not listen to someone who clearly knows more than you and not be willing to learn from them?! Arrogance I guess, this is  a "quality" that this couple most definitely doesn't have.

The other striking thing about them is that they are happy, extremely happy. These people are not poor, but they still have to worry about paying the bills and all the other mundane worries of life, but this is not important to them, being happy with life is and they clearly are. 

I would love to stay here and learn more from them, and one day I feel I probably will. They are absolutely amazing people and I feel very lucky to have met them.

J

A month of many wondrous adventures

Well I am writing this blog post pretty much in the same place that I was sitting a month ago, in the hills of the redwood forrest above Santa Cruz. 

I am staying with some "friends of friends" I guess, and this place can only be described as good for the soul. Full of peace and tranquility, a good place for a break from the manic life of travelling. 

Up on leaving SB I travelled up to SC for a night and was treated to spending the night looking out over the pacific in a tepee (purchased from tepee.com if you ever need one!). It was an amazing night and I got to catch up with Duncan and discuss the pros and cons of the american dream, the conclusion..... society is pretty screwed but all the same california is a nice place to live. 

After that we headed to San Fran to sample its delights and meet my girlfriend who was due to arrive that evening. I had high expectations for San Fran, from talking to people I was given the impression it was similar to Vancouver, ie many hippies. In reality this was not the case, it is a surprisingly grungy town, I have a feeling it is a bit like Glasgow in the sense that it doesn't make a great first impression but the more you get to know it the better it becomes. Certainly a place with lots of interesting people. 

Having had our metropolitan fix, it was time to head to the wilderness and on the way sample the amtrak. Amtrak is a pleasant way to travel but unfortunately they aren't that organised loosing one of our bags. One long day of travelling behind us we finally ended up in Toulumne Meadows and by some fluke bumped into George and Mason (his climbing partner) and got ourselves a campsite. 

We then spent the next week hanging out and basically watching George climb, the highlight being an unbolted ascent of Bachar/Yerian. This turned out to be pretty big news and the next time we had internet access we discovered george was all over the climbing sites. 

After a week in Toulumne we headed down to Yosemite valley, for more climbing. The valley despite its beauty does not compare to Toulumne, Toulumne in fact makes the valley feel like a small city. All the same it is a pretty amazing place, with granite towering above you in all directions. Here we met 3 people from Portland who were looking for people to climb with so Eva and I jumped at the opportunity and finally got a week of good cragging in. This was great fun and I finally got introduced to "freedom climbing" ie crack climbing, something I could definitely get into. 

The week ended and I was left by myself for the first time on the trip, with the plan of meeting everyone in roughly a week. Since I didn't get any climbing done up in Toulumne I decided to return and try and climb some of the routes I had been staring at. Things just began to fall into place. As I got off the bus, Justin and Sara (the people I met in the valley) pulled up and a guy who just got off the phone came over and asked if I needed a partner and if we needed somewhere to stay, the answer being yes and yes. The place to stay being very important since the campsite was booked up. Two days of awesome climbing ensued before Justin (actually spelt Jasin) and Sara left to continue their travels. At this point two girls who we had met moved into the campsite and my next little climbing adventure began. 

Tori and Sara, two super cool, pysched climbers from Tahoe, perfect people to share a site with. They also had more people visiting so I spent a couple of days bouldering with them as well as having a couple of long awesome multipitch days. That weekend everyone left and I was alone once more for a couple of days, I took this time to soak up the beauty of Toulumne some more and just relax. 

Sara then returned and we had another week enjoying the wonders of Toulumne. In my mind I have never been to a more ideal place, beautiful scenery, crystal clear rivers, amazing climbing, quiet, cool people, just a great place to end up spending two weeks. 

Sara and I were however about ready for civilisation, in particular showering, electricity, none camping food and toast! So we headed to Santa Cruz for the weekend to soak up the wonders of society. Still you can't go too many days with out climbing, so her boyfriend took us to Castle rock, a mini font in the mountains above santa cruz. I also got another california tick and tried my hand a surfing, which is very difficult. 

And after a couple more unforeseen I find myself back in Bonny Doon writing this blog entry. Only a couple more days of my trip left, and since I have no fixed plans there is still a little time for some adventure.

Croisantwich, burritos, bishop and IV

America, America! Currently chilling in Santa Barbara, living the student life. 

Arrived in the LA and stayed in the most sketchy hostel of my life, basically it attracted unsuspecting travelers and the down and outs of LA, got an amazing nights sleep and was awoken and 4 in the morning due to a fight going on outside with pool furniture. 

In the morning I got on a plane and headed to Reno to catch a bus to Bishop. On the way I experienced the most ridiculous breakfast of my life a croissantwich, croissant egg, cheese, sausage and hash browns, ridiculous!! 

Bishop in the most amazing place, massive massive boulders with beautiful mountains in the background. It is however extremely hot and all the climbing was hard! Got to see some audacious ascents by George, and had a pretty sweet time. 

On the way back from Bishop we headed to Death Valley, to check out the dessert, it was HOT! 40c at night, we camped out on the dunes and saw the sunrise, which was pretty sweet.

Am now in Santa Barbara hanging out in Isla Vista, the uni area of the town, student life is very special, everyone lives right by the sea and cruises around on skateboards and bikes, it is a very good way of life! 

Hanging out here for a couple more days then heading to San Fran and then onto Yosemite and Toulumne, can't wait.

Photos to follow

J

Troutdale Pinnacle

After a pretty depressing weekend in Glasgow doing nothing. I got picked up from Penrith and went and climbed troutdale pinnacle with my Dad.

I have been wanting to do this route for years, and for one reason or another have never made it there. It was totally worth it, probably the best climb I have done in the Lake District, a little polished but other than that absolutely fantastic. It had everything you could possible want, interesting moves, exposed moments, good gear, strenuous moments it was fun from bottom to top and in beautiful weather to.

I wont dwell too much as I don't have pictures. Looking forward to my next Lake District Classic Rock tick.

j

Tilberthwaite

Its been ages since I have added a post on here. Basically my life was taken over by coursework and exams and I did nothing other than that.

Anyway once I got that out of the way I headed back to the Lakedistrict to try and find a job and get a bit of climbing done. The weather wasn't super kind to me but I managed to get out a couple of times, twice to Badger Rock where I have got a couple of on going projects, and got beaten by midges.

And once to Tilberthwaite Quarry. My first slate experience, and the conclusion..... its ok. I guess we weren't in the best climbing mood at the time but we got a couple of things done, had a go at a E2 which was basically two boulder problems with easy climbing in between. The E2 grade is extremely dubious since it was semi bolted. Tried a couple of other things and got attacked by midges some more. In fact the midges won again with at least 50 bites on one arm!

Dave did a rather scary E1 and I dangled off a rope photographing the experience:



Bring on California!

J

First trip to Dumbarton 08

Headed to Dumby last night for the first time since last may or something ridiculous. Went in high spirits and had my eye on numerous 6a's, needless to say this motivation didn't last long when I got spat off everything I tried, or looked at how high some of the problems were.

All the same though it was quite a good session, and I definitely noticed the difference in my strength between last year and this year. We spent a while playing on Slap Happy (6c), which one day probably will go. It is a bit of a one move wonder but when you get your hand on the hold and pull you are never quite sure what is going to happen. This happened to Dave:

Thom on Slap Happy

After this we went and had a go on Toto, a much more amenable slightly obscure problem. It involves a toe jam into a very slippery crack then you pull up into a sort of layback position get your foot behind the toe jam, swap hands in the layback go for a crimp do some fancy footwork and get a jug. So far I have got to attempting the hand swap, and it is awkward, although I reckon with a couple of sessions will go. Dave was the only one to succeed and subsequently started trying the sit start which he came desperately close to getting but had to give in due to a well and truly fucked finger.

Didn't really do much else, tried the 6a traverse on the warm up boulder. Again was getting a lot further than last year so hopefully that will get sent soon. Although I didn't get up anything I feel the only way to enjoy Dumbarton is to keep going and working shit, so I am going to make the effort to get back and enjoy it.

Thom cutting loose on a problem next to slap happy

Dave on Toto Sit Start

Ben Lister working Requiem

J

Font

Also whilst on my easter holidays I had my first taste of font. Could really describe the taste, maybe bitter at first but sweetening after time.

The story begins in Newcastle where I traveled to blag a lift with my mate Dave, his brother and also his friend Chris. I wont dwell on the journey as it was quite frankly dull, although I must say went worryingly straight forward considering we were traveling over easter weekend. Another highlight of the journey that I feel is worth mentioning is the first french vehicle we saw after getting on the tunnel had two kids in the back who both decided to give us the finger as they over took us. Bienvenu a france!

The forecast for the weekend was looking devastatingly shit, however we arrived in good spirits and pitched our tent in the dry, hung out with some mates from Cardiff and hit the sack eager for some climbing the next day. Woke up nice and early to the delightful sound of a large quantity of rain, so decided to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Finally the rained stopped and it soon became dry to the extent that climbing was possible. So we headed to some gorge but got lost so ended up and Rocher Cannon I think, or maybe it was the other way round.

I didn't know what to expect of Font, from what I heard was that it was nails and quite demoralising. Anyway I decided to completely ignore this and went out the goal of climbing some 6a's (a mid term goal of mine that I had yet achieved in Britain). Rocher Cannon suddenly put me in my place, and I was finding the whole thing a bit of night mare making to the top of about 3 problems in a whole afternoon, pretty shit considering I was kind of doing a circuit. Also the top outs are sporting to say the least, they basically involve slapping for some sandy none existent hold, make some ridiculous noise and doing a lot of frantic wriggling using any body part you have to try and get on top. This technique is known as the "Simmons Seal" for some unknown reason to me.

The next day, rather frustrated from my previous performance I decided to have a go at the blue circuit at le col du chien. This became pretty frustrating as we arrived at the beginning of some very light but all the same wet drizzle. We pissed about for a while, but in the end kind of gave up and decided to get some lunch. This was a good idea as the sun got out and by the time we had finished the rock was "dry", so we headed to the quieter part of the circuit and started ticking some problems all between 3a and 5a, and by no means easy. Anyway it was nice to finally get up some stuff and try and get used to the topouts. We were then graced by a thunder storm and snow, which stopped play, after it passed we did a bit of slacklining then headed back to the campsite.

Cardiff but on a pretty amazing if not slightly random party in a field with a large bonfire and an even larger quantity of alcohol that evening. So with the knowledge of a shit forecast the next day, we fully embraced the party vibe. A little to vigorously for some, who just stumbled off into the forest and some how found themselves in tents in the morning.

Rather un/fortunately we woke up the next day to a glorious days sunshine. We decided to head to Gorge aux Chat for our final day. Despite the fact that everyone was feeling very rough we had a quality day. The place was absolutely amazing, really quiet with just us and a couple of french guys in the sun, perfect and made even better by quality problem after quality problem.

I started the day on a slabby little number, which involved some delicate moves to crimps then slapping for the top into what turned out to be a large sloping puddle. We then tried a problem round the corner which was basically a one move wonder but eluded me. Dave on the other hand managed to get the on sight in his boxers and nothing else. His reasoning for not going all the way was that he didn't want to offend the french. We then did a quality rising traverse with a cool rockover move to finish and another delicate slab route with crimps just the right size. After lunch we watched dave work some font 7b+ which he was frustratingly close to sending but his fingers were not up for it. The problem did produce the best quote of font: "that hold is the shittest pile of wank I have ever had the displeasure of laying my hand upon" so well done there dave. Shortly after everyone got obsessed by a slabby 6a, which had a landing in a tree and a rather dodgy decent so I decided to opt out. I found a really cool 5c, that I ended up working for about an hour and was elated when I topped out.

The climbing continued, with quality problem after quality problem until it got too dark and cold. Just before leaving I decided to go a try the problem that eluded me in the morning and sent it on my second attempt, very happy and tired I headed back to the car.

That evening it rained so we all retired to our tents then spent the next day traveling home, which was dull.

Font overall was good, a bit frustrating but quality. With more consistent weather the place can only get better. Definitely go!

J

Back in Scotland

Arrived back on thursday in a state of utter confusion and sleep deprivation, took me until way in the afternoon to function remotely normally. I have now about recovered and am back into a routine.

Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge

The rest of my time in NY was good, wondered round two parts of Brooklyn, did Grand Central Terminal (an absolutely stunning building) and the Chrysler building. The highlight would be the MOMA, it is definitely the best art gallery I have been to, the quality of the work they have is excellent and it is so diverse. There was an exhibition on called elastic design and it was the best design exhibition I have seen. It was very refreshing and interesting to see really up to date work from young practices being exhibited.

Grand Central

Having returned everyone has asked my how was New York? Its a pretty hard question to reply to, it is so many things. I had a great time, it is an amazing city that I am glad I visited. I only feel like I scraped the surface, but to get to know the city I think you would have to live there. I'm not sure if that would be for me, maybe some cities are just too big.

Back to life, routine, climbing and friends.

J

Touristy stuff and Soho

Woke up early courtesy of jetlag and started the day by heading up the Rockerfeller Tower to check out the view of Manhatten. Overall it was very impressive with stunning views in beautiful crisp clear sky. You don't really think about how old some of the skyscrapers are, but it is an impressive achievements.

After this we headed to the bottom of manhatten to check out the statue of liberty, wall street and ground zero. Having had the touristy fix we then headed to tribeca and soho. Found tribeca rather disappointing/frustrating, I was expecting lots of nice boutiques, interesting cafes etc but it all seemed a bit dead and spread far and in between. Soho on the other hand lived up to my expectations, a mixture of upper end high street stores combined with one off boutiques on every street. The area had a bit of community vibe to it and loads of people were on the streets. Sitting in this lovely bakery/cafe it almost paresian. The architecture was very interesting and I would love to see inside a soho flat.

Ney York, New York

I have started this blog to document my travels and my thoughts whilst traveling, as much for myself as anyone else. I guess as time progresses I will probably write about other things but for now it is traveling.

So I have been in New York since about lunch time. I feel pretty jet lagged and am doing my best to try and resist the temptation of going to sleep.

The city is intense, it feels huge! It also feels like a bit of a contradiction, it seems very american but at the same time has the edge and excitement of a european city. I am here for 5 days which I don't feel is enough to appreciate the place, and in fact would probably like to live here to discover it properly at the same time I don't think I could live here.

First impressions: I like it, I think. So far I have only strolled round broadway, 5th avenue and times square which are all massively commercial. I love finding local independent places and found the area rather frustrating but at the same time enjoyed seeing all these flagship stores, it made the place feel important. I am looking forward to discovering less commercialised neighborhoods and getting a better feel for the city. I really wish I had more time to do this.

USA is a different world to anywhere else and New York is different to anywhere in the USA, this is cool.