I had this before Facebook (then called “The Facebook” and only open to uni students with valid uni email addresses) was public!! Blogs were still cool then.

Went to the Rhyl Air Show on Sunday. It was a good day. Even if I did get a £35 PCN for parking on double yellows. But all in all, I spent the whole day taking photos. My telephoto lenses look like tinker toys compared to some of the stuff that I saw there. But all in all, it was an excellent day out.

Some of the displays were awesome, such as the Red Arrows, and the Yakolevs, when one of them stalled their plane deliberately and then somersaulted it in freefall, regained control, and flew on. We waited for a Lancaster bomber to flyover, but unfortunately we were a day late for that, as it was in Mold on the day we went to Rhyl.

On top of those, there were the Breitlung Wingwalkers (previously sponsored by Utterly Butterly), a Spitfire, a Douglas A-1 Skyraider, and the RAF Falcons, who were almost an hour late due to low cloud cover forcing them to forever circle around above.

Eventually they made the jump which meant it was time for us to leave. Rather than get stuck in the traffic, we made a rush for Conwy and stopped there for eating purposes, before heading down through Llanwrst along the A470 and back via the A5.

There’s plenty more to come.

Also, It seems when I get near alcohol, the good times automatically flow. Just check out this Helium rap battle. It was awesome.

Playa Esmerelda (Emerald Beach)

On Sunday I returned from Cuba with a whole ton of photos (449 to be precise), memories and high blood alcohol content. Two weeks in the Sun and warm climate of Eastern Cuba, in the state of Holguin. The hotel we stayed at was the Sol Rio de Luna y Mares, an all inclusive resort near the town of Guardacalava with all the free food and drink you can drink. We flew with Thomson Airways on two of their old First Choice liveried 767s. Luckily, on the way, the plane was at a plane stand and not at your standard jetway, so it was a bus to the plane and going up the stairs, which I much prefer to walking down a steel tube. Holguin’s airport had no jetways at all, so the same experience was had, as can be seen in the below photo!

B767 at Holguin's Frank Pais international Airport.

I, of course bought some consumable souvenirs for the journey back!

Cohiba Cigars!

Our hotel had it’s own beach. It was shared with another resort that was merged into ours in 2002, so all the more for us. There was also a separate “no children allowed” luxury hotel that had access to our beach, but they seemed to lack our beach facilities, which included free usage of small catamarans. This hotel was described by ours as “The best Hotel in Cuba”. Our hotel was owned 100% by a Spanish company, but as Cuba does not usually allow large private business, they have to share the profit 50/50 with the Cuban Government. I was surprised to learn that tourism is not the largest source of income for Cuba itself, but the export of it’s ample Doctors to Venezuela in return for oil is!

The beach and Atlantic Ocean

I also got several short videos on the D5000, which I am still in the process of uploading. I want to preserve a high a resolution of my photos as possible, so I have uploaded at the full photo size, usually around somewhere between 3MB and 7MB, now, times this by 473! I have been uploading during off peak times when bandwidth is truly unlimited for me (no silly usage clauses you get with the major ISPs). In short, the videos come later. They’ll be on Flickr as all but two are under the 90 sec limit.

All in all, I had an excellent time, but like all holidays, it had to end sometime and I came back home! Anyway, it is nearing the time of the necessary photo montage of some of the more interesting parts of the holiday. This time, however, there will be a small twist; I shall include a bit more than the usual four!

Myself at the Helm!

Old American cars are abound!

As are old American Steam Trains!

The Hotel

So, as can be seen, an excellent time was had!

Even though it’s the rainy season here I have yet to see any rain, although though massive behemoth T-Storm clouds can be seen every so often in the distance.

So the weather is good, the women are good looking and the beer is free!

See you in a few weeks with a tan and a boat load of photos!

The route we took upward

We climbed another mountain on Sunday. This time it was the turn of Glyder Fach; second highest of the Glyderau, second to Glyder Fawr. That was just next door, but we descended once we reached the top of Fach. The wat up was exhausting, as the Glyderau are rather rocky, and it was steeper than sections on Snowdon and Cadair Idris. We eventually reached a flattish area near the top which was very boggy and filled with sinkholes! One last rocky climb over giant rocks got us to the top. However to get to the actual summit, a massive rock pile needed to be climbed. Eventually I made it up, but one of the others had to leave my D40 on a rock near the bottom to climb up! After sliding down rocks and stepping over deep gaps in this big pile, we could turn our attention to leaving. Before we left, I attempted to take a group photo, but couldn’t find a person to take one, so tried putting the timer on. Unfortunately the rock I put the camera on was not that flat, so it missed most of ourselves off it!

The Cantilever Stone

On the way down, we followed what I thought was a path, until half way down a treacherous and steep rocky descent when we stop to let the girls catch up (catch down?) with us, I took a look at the map that had been in my bag. Horror struck my face.  I realised it was not a path that we had followed, but a boundary between some local authorities! After carefully negotiating our way down this near vertical side of the mountain using sheep paths and small areas of grass, we made it to a “cwm”, which we walked down. We followed a boggy riverbed to an actual river, and then followed that to the car.

Unfortunately, while we made it down with only immense aches and pains, a couple saw me flaunting a map before the descent and decided to follow us! They had no idea we had gone completely the wrong way and blindly followed us. Along one of the more hairy sections, where the only places to put your feet was a wet stone or grass, we saw the woman break down and burst into tears! Not good times.

This wasn’t the only problem. The boggy area evidently becomes a dangerous torrent in times of heavy rain. Not that there was any water, but the deep, concealed holes it had scoured out remained, and there was an instance of someone falling in a particularly deep one, jarring their leg! I managed to slip off a rock and, while not falling over, I jarred my back in a way that putting too much weight on it caused shooting pain up my spine.

The route down

Despite these hazards, the lower part was the worse as it was thick with mountain bracken which scratches your legs. In this area though we came across a waterfall, which we used to refill our water bottles, and/or wet ourselves in! However I had used non waterproof sun lotion, so it worked itself into a soapy mixture which was pure white. Not good!

The rock descent really took it’s toll on me; my legs are torn to ribbons in the number of deep cuts present! Combined with the sunburn they received followed by the minor scratches from the bracken, and they are sore all over. At least I’m not limping like the others!

After this was over, we retreated to the Saracens Head hotel in Beddgelert for a pub dinner and a pint. I myself had a Welsh Beef stake and chips, and a pint of Bulmers Pear Cider in the absence of the normal stuff. Well deserved after that climb!

Now, enjoy a 720p HD video of the entire ordeal! The D5000 seems to be alright with the quality of these things, just need to use a tripod! Or as orudge suggests, Steadicam!

The movies are okay, but ‘ve got to figure out where the mic is so I can shelter it from wind with my hand. As it’s mono there’s no noise cancellation, and the slightest breeze becomes a mighty hurricane.

The two new lenses are most awesome. One is a VR version of the same 18-55mm I already possess, and the other is a telephoto macro that can zoom further than the 55-200mm, and also pick out finer details on Macro mode. The two photos here are made using the Tamron lens. Hopefully the 70mm will also be more adaptable for indoor use, as currently I need to switch between the two. However I suppose I could sell my VR 18-55 and VR 55-200 and simply purchase the 18-200mm. This would leave me with the two best lenses, although the larger the lens, the heavy the camera for normal use. This should now be less of a problem, as I have a new bag with the kit. It fits all three lenses, and all the accessories I possess, such as the remote, and the crazy USB it uses. On that note, the camera interfaces with Windows 7 quite well, having come out over a year ago, the Nikon devs would have had time to work on it – The icon on the taskbar is an image of the camera, and mousing over shows battery time, and a button to go straight to the photo folder. Most usefull.

As can be seen above, that’s everything the kit included. It was £689 from Jessops including the postage, but this comes down with the £200+ from the D40 I’m going to be selling, and the £50 cashback from Nikon. I could potentially get £300 off it in total. I leave you with the video test. I apologise for the sound, but there was a slight breeze!

We made it up and down with no major problems, apart from a ridge near the top which was very narrow and flanked by steep, near vertical 1000ft drops. The weather was horrible, although initially sunny and clear, this became cloudy. Then overcast. Then rain. Then heavy rain. Then heavy, freezing rain. Combined with the Snow at the top, which in places was in excess of 8ft, this was the worst weather I had ever experienced. Below is a truncated video of the 13 minute Facebook one. Sorry for the crazy Aspect ratio, first iPhone video.

With Cadair Idris, it was completely different. The weather was sunny and clear all day. So much so that we burned ourselves. The climb was a lot easier, and the views, perfect. We got lost in Dolgellau for a short while, but made it to the Snowdonia National Park Car park for the Pony Path. On the way down, I broke the strap on my birthday watch when I fell and smashed the steel buckle to pieces between a rock and my wrist. Almost two weeks later, and the scratches the buckle left in my wrist are still present. Cadair Idris was particularly busy, so we stopped and waiting on a particularly comfortable piece of grass for people to overtake until we were relatively alone. We made it up and down inside six hours, but the weather was partly to blame of this; we weren’t exactly rushing up the mountain, and stopped several times to take in the view and the weather.

We will be climbing Glyder Fach in May; hopefully we can be photographed on the Cantilever Stone!

Cadair Idris was definitely the better mountain to climb. We will be retackling Snowdon’s other paths inevitably, including the notorious Watkin Path. There’s even been talk of learning to rock climb!

And now for the obligatory photo montage. Only the last two are from Snowdon. I didn’t want to break my camera with rain! Not that it matters much, but there’ll be a post on that in a few days…

There was also the TT meet in York back in July which I hurriedly left to get to the annual unofficial Avox summer party which was awesome even more so. The journey back was perhaps the fastest I had ever driven my car, definitely over 110mph for at least most of the M62. I managed the entire York to Coedpoeth journey in 1hr 35mins! Speeding through towns and villages is dangerous and I do stick to the speed limits there, but the motorways, everyone seems to go faster anyway!

I got quite some things for Christmas, namely a few DVD box sets. I also spent money on other people this Christmas! Not going mad and buying a D40 like I did two years ago when I should have been paying for the car repairs.

I have now come into possession of a fancy iPhone 3GS. I have upgraded my phone, but downgraded my contract. I now pay £10 less!

Of course, the Winter of 2009/10 will always be remembered as the one with all the snow. It first fell, to my memory, on or before the 18th of December. I look outside today, on the 20th January, and it is partly still there. This is the longest there has been a snow covering where I live since the 1960’s. I liked it. I kn The added danger of driving on the snow and ice made the journey to and from work a lot more exciting and varied, a feeling I used to try to induce by trying a new route or shortcut every day. I have only been driving since 2006, but I can tell the amount of traffic on our roads has grown exponentially even in these past four years.

I could once, given a minute or two early departure from Redwither Tower (which we always used to do, running for the cars!), I could be at home by 5:15. Now, in 2010, I cannot get home until after 5:30. The only hope is the industrial estate access road project, the last of which I heard was meant to start work on Dec 1st. This has not happened which has mostly annoyed me!

Oh well, here’s to more blog posts this year.

P.S.: BTW, this is my first attempt at a post with Windows Live writer. It’s quite good, if I do say so myself, for a Windows program (see image below)!!

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Just Guess

Last week I had a week off. During that week, I went to Cardiff to watch the Australia vs Wales rugby game, which we lost, stayed over for a night, and then also went to London later in the week.

On Saturday we went to Cardiff. it was a standard drive, I’ve even driven there and back in a day without stopping just as part of one of my random drives once. We have an early start, and then drive. I went in my own car, and arrived first, parking in an NCP next to the Hotel. We then wandered to the Stadium, and watched the game. It was disappointing for us, as the Welsh team just didn’t seem to make any attacks until it was far too late.

Welsh attack!

After the game we walked all the way to Cardiff bay in the pouring rain, but couldn’t find a place to eat, so caught the train back. It was a beaten up old Class 121, which must be the oldest thing on the British Rail network, as it appeared to be made from wood! Once we got back to Cardiff Queen Street, we found it closed, so had to catch another train to Cardiff Central, which was teeming with drunken Wales supporters by this time. We saw quite a few Australians, but this was true of last year as well, they seem to be the only people who make an effort to get here! We eventually made it to a KFC and then retreated to the hotel

The fine urban view.

The hotel itself is The Big Sleep Cardiff, they apparently have a few UK locations. The Cardiff one was an old Office tower block converted to a hotel. It wasn’t bad, and there was kind of a view (left). Fortunately, we all got a good nights sleep, and, as in Edinburgh in February, me and my Dad got in a few drinks at the Hotel bar before bed.

After a few days of really late sleep ins, we went to London, through Wrexham & Shropshire. Although taking a lot longer than alternatives, the service was direct, and generally a pleasure to use, not to mention value for money. Although it was dark outside, as we caught the 5:12 from Wrexham.

Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast

We got to Marylebone at around 9AM – and hopped on a tour bus. This took around around all the major sights, which I promptly took photos of. During this tour I am certain I viewed an A380 flying over the city. Even though they have apparently made a touch and go on the nearby Broughton Airbus wing factory, I have never seen one. Missed a photo though, unfortunately.

After the tour, we walked around some of the minor attractions, and then made motions to head for Marylebone, where there was a pub where we had some beers. Then we got on the train. The return route was slightly different – it avoided New Street and went via Birmingham International instead. Even though this happened, we were only five minutes late. There were a bunch of Shropshire ladies talking about their horses and how slow the train was – I swear those type of people would purchase Easyjet tickets and then complain about the service.

Anyway, it was a good week off, and as Christmas fast approaches, it looks like I’m going to have some more things to post as christmas draws near.

Obligatory photo montage, attack!