Climate Changed Mind

I was slightly disappointed that the topic for the third Blog Action Day ended up being Climate Change, as I was under the impression that was the same as the topic chosen on the first blog action day two years ago. In fact I was wrong and it was actually about the Environment, which is obviously very similar. I used the day two years ago to urge more political progress on the issue of Global Warming. However, in the last two years, I have grown increasingly sceptical about it.

Sensationalized stories like this one from the supposedly unbiased BBC do not help. As pointed out on the Stirrer forum, all I need to do is rearrange and juxtapose a few sentence to show what nonsense it is.

This route is usually frozen but rising temperatures in the region caused by global warming have melted much of the ice allowing large ships to go through.

But the once impenetrable ice that prevented ships travelling along the northern Russian coast has been retreating rapidly because of global warming in recent decades.

The passage became passable without ice breakers in 2005.

Both ships left South Korea in late July, negotiating the passage off north-eastern Siberia behind two Russian icebreakers.

World Half Marathon Championships

It was a rather strange site waking up this morning to see some of the top half-marathon runners racing past my house but it was certainly an exciting and welcome one. The course was quite disruptive to people living in South Birmingham particularly if one happened to be, as I did, cut off by the course but had been picked to provide a potential record breaking time. Unfortunately that did not happen on this occasion (not helped of course by Paula Radcliffe having to pull out at a late stage) but I understand the winner of the international female race broke her own personal record.

BNP Suicide Bomber?

West Midlands Regional organisor Mike Bell has been well and truly caught with his pants down. After years of denying the BNP have any links to nazism and proudly boasting that his family had "a pround history of opposing the Nazis in both world wars" (sic) and of collecting money for the Royal British legion, he was photographed this week at a Neo-Nazi Rock concert in Germany where he was the headline speaker. His reaction on the Stirrer forums was really quite disturbing:

prod, probe, attack, destroy me , just be aware that the preservation of the martyr within me will live on.You will all see me very soon unleash the wrath of gods heil Odin, Heil Thor.I shall go down in flames,remember my name it will be etched into your memories forever.You will be part responsible,an unwanted trophy which you will have to take the credit for.

Now, what does this remind you of?

California Day 9: Wal-Mart

With the plane leaving for Britain at 14:30, there was not much we could do on our final half-day in the US. After ensuring we were pretty much packed we headed to Wal-Mart to buy some bits and pieces for the folks back home. Then it was the long drive back to the car rental place at the airport to drop off our trusty Canyonero which had served us so well. We nearly got charged for the scratches that were on it despite the fact it was like that when we got it (and the diagram pointing it out had been marked wrong). We passed the security checks relatively quickly and after reading up on the history of the Pacific Baseball League from the display at the airport, we finished the holiday as we started it with some pizza and a couple of beers.

The flight back was relatively uneventful. I had hoped to watch a few films but only managed to watch the Start Trek one which was decent enough. I did manage to get some sleep though, which proved to be useful as although we arrived back just after midnight California time it was 10:30 in the morning when we arrived in the UK. My only explanation for the missing ten hours was that we were abducted by aliens. As everyone on the plane lost this amount of time as well, I can only conclude this is more common than many people think.

California Day 8: The Beach

Our last full day in California was spent relaxing, firstly at the hotel recovering from the epic journey to Yosemite and then to Half Moon Bay, a nearby beach which also took us near the airport which would prove useful for the final journey home. The unfortunate thing about the beaches in California is they proved not to be suitable for swimming; this beach had unpredictable waves which made it dangerous, while our trip to Santa Cruz had a notice of potentially contaminated water. Not a patch on Barmouth...

The evening saw us go back to the Cheesecake Factory for a goodbye meal with out hosts. The restaurant was filled to the rafters so we had to wait for a table. As with Fuddrockers on Tuesday we got one of these fascinating gadgets which flashed and buzzed when our order or in this case our table was ready. The wait, however, allowed me to nip to the mall and buy some stuff from a rapidly dwindling amount of dollars. When we got back to the Cheesecake Factory I ordered the amazing Eggplant Sandwich which was not necessarily amazing, but was not bad.

California Day 7: Yosemite

It would have been a crime to come so close to Yosemite National Park and not visit and day 7 was the day we set aside for the two/three hour drive. It was fortunate we had three drivers registered to use the car as it turned out we would need all of them. The journey was pretty interesting leading us to a variety of roads including country roads that we had not encountered in the US yet. At one point we had to stop at a railway crossing for 10 minutes while a very, very long goods train went past.

It cost $20 to enter Yosemite in a family car and this was the point I took over the driving. We headed to Curry Village where we briefly thought about renting a tent for the night before dismissing it and renting a boat to take out to the stream instead. It was literally a case of three men in a boat but the low water level and our combined weight meant we had to get out a couple of times to push it. We reached the other end an hour or so later and took a shuttle back to Curry Village where we stopped of for a quick snack at the Taco/ Burrito bar before climbing towards the first waterfall (Vernal) on the half-dome day hike.



The website says it is a walk of moderate to strenuous difficulty. I wish I had visited the website first as I would have been better prepared. I went up in black jeans, a t-shirt and trainers ("pub wear") with the temperature near 100 degrees Fahrenheit when everyone else was in hiking clothing. My friends were not much better prepared with one of them going up in in little more than plimsolls. It was far and away the most tiring thing I have ever done and there were times when I thought it might have been my final destination. I was absolutely cream-crackered when we got to the footbridge and that was only halfway there, although it was arguably the hardest bit because after that the steps started. Steps as high as my knee with pensioners and kids doing this. Going up was bad enough but I did worry how I was going to get back down (although actually it turned out to be a lot easier). Carrying a bag did not help and we had to share the burden which I think was fair because it contained our only water bottle that we supped from regularly. Our boy in plimsolls nearly slipped on a few occasion on the descent but managed to keep his balance, unlike the lady we saw on the way up who had large cuts at her knees after what must have been a particularly bad fall. The top of the waterfall was impressive though and I would not mind attempting the full trek to the top of half-dome in better shape with the proper gear. Maybe the ascent turned me mad.

When we got back down we decided we had enough time to see the giant sequoia at the other end of the park. It took us an hour to drive there and by the time we made the walk the sun had set and none of the photos I took came out. It was pretty scary walking through that part of Yosemite in the dark in the knowledge that there were bears about. An hour there meant it was an hour to drive back, and we had to fill up at a self-service petrol station we passed in the park. We got back to the Valley and managed to catch a glimpse of the nutters ascending El Capitan at night, who spent the time in the dark hanging off the edge of a cliff shining torches at each other. After two hours driving I had to finally give up the wheel to member one of team Le Mans and fell asleep for the other three hours back. We reached home at nearly two which perhaps meant we would have been justified in staying over.

Yosemite is an amazing place which quite literally will take your breath away. I might have a convenient excuse that I live too far away to justify going back and completing the half dome trail. One would have to be incredibly fit to do it, but Yosemite will inspire you to give it a try.

California Day 6: Mount Diablo

Time to take our 4X4 up some rugged terrain: we spent the morning driving to the top of the tallest local mountain, Mount Diablo which may have initially been a mistranslation of thicket! The views from the top were indeed impressive and with binoculars one could see San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. We had to pay $7 to take the car to the top of the mountain, but the price does not allow you to take home any momentos from the state park as we found out when we were prevented from taking some cones as big as coconuts back in our car.

The afternoon was spent lazing about the pool back at the hotel before going out in the evening to a burger place near to where we went on the first night. Fuddrockers is a bit like McDonalds but different; the burger comes in a cob, the fries are wedges, and the smallest size is a third of a pound (as compared to a quarter pounder in a British MD). You can put the salad and ketchup on yourself. After this meal fit for a king (or kings), we went to an electrical store that I was prevented from going into on the first day due to a cotton candy gummi bear ice cream problem. I had not missed much as it reminded me of Curry's digital on Highgate Middleway although it probably did have a wider variety of goods including DVDs, Games and musical instruments.

We planned to move on to some Go-Karting later on but ended up playing another round of mini-golf.