St Peters Square

After checking into our "hotel" we decided to go for a walk to see what is around locally. A short walk around the Vatican wall brought us spectacularly into St. Peters Square. I had been warned about this one - I was told I would not believe the sheer magnitude of it. Can you understand my disappointment when upon seeing it I clearly did believe it? Anyhow, it was still quite spectacular, and well worth seeing. We spent some time wandering around it, and viewing the various monuments and buildings.

Afterwards we went for a Coke to cool down in the blistering heat. The rest of the family then went for a rest, and I went for another walk. After the kids went to bed I went out again, to see St Peters in the dark, and at 9:30 in the evening the bus loads of tourists were still arriving. A pretty cool day.

In Rome you can park anywhere : it seems that if you run out of road to park along, a zebra crossing can be used too!

Friday - Belfast to Rome

Today has been a long day. We started at 3:45am getting up for a 6:30 flight from Belfast to Rome. There were some spectacular views of the Alps from the plane.

After landing in Rome we were quickly embroiled in the chaos which would characterise our holiday. Finding the bus from the airport to the train station was relatively simple, and the journey was great. We were clearly going through non-tourist parts of Rome with lots of graffiti, and run down housing.

Arriving at the "Termini" station, our confusion continued. We knew we needed to find the Metro to near the hotel. We knew what line, and what station we wanted to get to. What we didn't know was how to buy a ticket. So after attempting to find out, I eventually tried one of the automated ticket machines in the lobby. I selected my route, and pressed go. The machine promptly gave me a message to the effect that I had to join one of the mad queues to talk to a real person ticket agent, and so we did. We queued for about 30-40 minutes before the nice man told us that tickets were available at the Metro, at newsagents and tobacconists - basically anywhere.

After we got the tickets and found the platform we boarded and were very impressed. Air-conditioned carriages, in great condition, swish and fast. We were pleased to see we were going in the right direction too!

We managed to find our hotel by asking for directions, and in the end we got to the street and spotted the small brass nameplate on the wall for our "hotel". The hotel turned out to be only four rooms, on the 4th floor of an apartment building. But it did the job nicely for us. It was also suitably close to the Vatican.

Cabin Fever [2002]

What an awful film. Truly awful. Most horror-genre films have some redeeming aspect, but this was just poor. imdb link


The only slightly positive element to this film was the filming locations. Having just been tripping around the US, I am truly unimpressed with the lack of character in Florida. I enjoyed NY, but I really quite like the idea of getting out of the modern US into the kind of place captured in this film (preferably without the flesh eating disease). With great country locations around North Carolina, I think that will be on my list to visit*.

* Avid readers may have noted that I spent some time in NC last visit, but 6 hours in an airport, and 5 hours in a hotel do not count as a visit.

allofmp3

allofmp3.com is dead. Long live alltunes.com

cron in cygwin

For all of the cool unix stuff that cygwin provides I have often wondered, but never tried cron. Today I did a google, and it turns out to be relatively trivial (from this link):



1. Need to set the mode of cygwin1.dll

$ chmod +x /bin/cygwin1.dll

2. Need to create another directory (I didnt need this step)

$ mkdir /etc/cron.d

Also make it accessible, by changing the permission.

3. Then, follow the standard guideline to start cron service, as

$ cygrunsrv --stop cron

$ cygrunsrv --remove cron

$ cygrunsrv --install cron -p /usr/sbin/cron -a -D

$ cygrunsrv --start cron



And all is well.

Central Park

The upside of all these travel delays including last nights is that I get to spend some time in New York.

Today we went back to the Manhattan area, and used the subway to go to Central Park. We only had a short time, so we walked around part of it, near the South end of the reservoir, and the great lawn.

Later I took a bus tour, which I was assured would take up my remaining two hours. The tour went around downtown Manhattan with a running commentary of all the various buildings of interes.

It was certainly interesting, until we got about 3/4 of the way around, and I discovered that I had about 30 minutes to get back to the train station. I was at a stop on 48th street, and the bus was about to go north. I had to make it back to the station on 32nd street, so I decided to get off the tour bus and walk/run to the station. I made it there in about 15 minutes! Actually a little too early as the platform hadn't been announced. So I got some water to quench my thirst, and waited for the train. After a few minutes I was on the train, managed to get a seat today, and soon I was back at the hotel.

The hotel bus took me directly to Terminal 3, where I used the automated checkin as I had no suitcase to check in. Now its just a waiting game to see if :

a) my plane goes on time

b) my plane goes at all!

Home, at last

Last night and today went substantially better than than my last two attempts to get home. We still left late, but I had a seat on the plane, but apparently the Jetstream is overactive at the minute, and we made the time up. We arrived on time in Belfast, although it seemed to take an age to get the luggage. Home safe and sound, and well relieved!

Didnt work

Well my optimism was not rewarded. The flight was delayed, then they changed the plane, then they fixed a light on the plane, then they fixed some seats, then they loaded everyone, then they told the four standby passengers there were no seats. I am back in the hotel, this time without any luggage, no change of clothes no chargers, no nothing.

Great, off to sleep then :) Keep watching for updates....

More delays

I am sitting at Newark airport, which it has to be said is a relatively nice airport, at 9:16PM waiting on a flight which was supposed to leave at 8:55, and is now scheduled for 10:45.

Apparently the incoming plane has some sort of mechanical problem, and they have to find us a new plane. I can really see this being cancelled again, and even if it does go, I don't have a confirmed ticket. I should have just stayed at the hotel, and waited for my confirmed seat tomorrow night...

Stuck in NY

Due to landing at the wrong airport and having our flight cancelled, we had to fly to Newark today, where we had a 9 hour stopover.

The other guy decided that the flight tonight was too chancy, and he booked into a hotel to wait for his confirmed ticket tomorrow night.

I think I will give the flight tonight a try. The eternal optimist.

To kill the 5 hours in the afternoon we caught the train at the Penn Station to 34th Street in Manhattan. There were no plans, other than to get off the train and start walking. So we did, and it was pretty cool with zillions of huge high-rise buildings. Then we found ourselves standing outside the Empire State Building, which it has to be said is pretty big.

So we decided to take the tour, and some guy persuaded us to do some combined ticket thing that would get us expedited past the queues (or lines as they call them here) and also on some extra stuff. The queue jumping was great, we must have saved at least an hour (the queue was huge). The extra stuff turned out to be a video, which to be honest was interesting and informative.

Then it was into the elevator for the 82 flight ascent. Normally elevators count in 1's, but this one counted in 10's! It was pretty fast at taking us up, before the final 6 floor ascent to the roof. We decided to jump the elevator queue again, and use the stairs, which seemed like a good idea for the first two of the six floors.

Anyway, it was pretty cool. Although it was a bit misty I could still see for miles, but the weirdest thing was the noise. It was just like a loud static rumble, like you get from a TV, except more bass. Very weird, but cool.

... to Miami

Today we had no meetings, so it was just some time to send a few emails, and a conference call to dial into. After that it was off to the airport with my customary detours.

We stayed around Miami, so we were never too far from the airport, just in case. First stop was Miami Beach. Now, you have to understand that what we call a beach, like at Castlerock, is not a "Beach" in the US. Miami Beach is a town, or area, and yes, somewhere there is a beach too.

We arrived at Miami Beach, and to be honest, it just looked as bland as any other part of Florida, so we didn't even make it to the East coast real 'beach'.

Instead we went further South to Cape Florida State Park, on an island (or "key") called Key Biscayne.

This turned out to be smaller, and hence a lot less time consuming than we had expected, which was great. Unfortunately the lighthouse which had drawn me to this island was closed, although in the heat I don't think I could have managed to climb it anyhow. Nevertheless we managed to get a nice view of it from the beach, and IIRC we also spotted some nice birds ;)

On the way out of the park we noticed a sign for the curiously named "no name harbour". Needless to say, we just had to satisfy our curiousity, and see what features would cause a harbour to be christened "no name." Turns out its just so bland, that that was probably all they could come up with.

West again - in daylight

After the potentially cool place I found last night I thought I would make a concerted effort to get out there before sunset (around 8:30 in Florida). I managed to make it out in good time, to see that there was a park area, where there seemed to be a lot of private parties with boats who would go out fishing for the day.

It was a pretty cool place, obviously popular with the locals, and an epic setting on the edge of the glades.

I had studied the maps last night, and discovered that the road didn't actually stop completely, but in fact changed into a dirt track, and continued to a real road again after a few miles. Being the sort of person to try stuff, I had it in mind to have a go along this track, you know, just for fun. I was disappointed to find a big yellow barrier there to stop me :(

Anyway, I'd paid my $5 to get into the car park, and so I stayed and got a few shots of the sunset. Another cool evening. I do enjoy a good sunset.

Going West

Having tried, and exausted East, I thought I could give West a go. Unfortunately tonight work lasted longer than the daylight, so it was West in the dark. Before I travelled this time, knowing I probably wouldn't have the time to go hundreds of miles, I looked to see where I could go with relatively easy reach. Turns out there are a few places where roads go into the 'glades, and come to a dead end - so I tried one of those!

I went out a road called "Lox Road" which was perfectly straight for about 6 miles. Upon entering the road I could see a flashing light, which seemed close, but as I travelled towards it, it became clear that I was not close. After 6 miles I could make out a "Road Ends" sign, which of course I continued on past.

It seemed that there was dirt track beyond it but darkness and the thought of alligators disuaded me from going any further. So I just took a couple of long exposure shots, and went back to the hotel.

Going East

Tonight, after a long difficult day, I took the hire care and headed East, towards the coast. I didn't really expect to see anything new as I did some extensive coastal driving last time I was here on business. But I stumbled upon a pretty cool wooden pier at Deerfield Beach. So I duly paid my $1, and made my way out onto the pier where there were loads of folks fishing. I managed to see a guy reeling in a fish he caught. Pretty cool.

I also managed to see a fairly decent sunset. A grand evening in all.

Travel, and delays

Once again I set off for Florida today for more customer meetings. This week could prove to be another hectic one, with less time for sightseeing, but I'll try and squeeze a few sights in...

Today we had a relatively timely, quick, and painless flight from Belfast to Newark, apart from the usual disgracefully loud and messy N Ireland crowd.

I had risked booking a quick change at Newark, but upon arrival at Newark I discovered my flight would be delayed. This was also awkward because a colleague was going to pick me up from Ft Lauderdale.

Fortunately (?) his flight was delayed too, so he arrived at the terminal with the hire car just as I had picked up my luggage! Great timing! All worked out in the end. Me sitting down to a big steak burger at 2am (9pm local time). Madness.

Automating Clearcase

Playing around a bit with clearcase tonight. We will shortly be trying to use rsync to keep a remote clearcase instance up-to-date with our code. This will require quite a fudge on our part as far as I can see, but will still be preferable to using clearcase over a slow link.

The following are some commands, which I will no doubt be integrating into a nice automated script shortly. They do all the things I need to do - add view private files and directories to clearcase, upversion files that have changed, or back out files that are the same. The only thing I haven't got yet is automated removal of files / directories, but I suspect this will be the job of the script.

############################################
# mkdir : [view private object]
while(<>)
{
chomp;
print < < TAG;
mv $_ $_.1
cleartool mkdir -nc $_
mv $_.1/* $_
rmdir $_.1
cd $_
TAG
}
############################################
# create a new element
cleartool mkelem -nc -ci _element_name_
############################################
# show view private files
cleartool lsp -other -l
############################################
# show view private and checked out files
cleartool lsp -co
############################################
# list checkouts including directories.
ct lsco -recurse -short
############################################
# checkin or revert if not changed
# (always creates a new version of directory)
ct ci -nc _element_name_ ct unco -rm _element_name_
############################################
# if [checkedout but removed]
cleartool co -nc .
cleartool unco -rm _element_name_
cleartool rm _element_name_
cleartool ci -nc .

XP stops loading at mup.sys

Had a weird problem with a PC - it was all running perfectly normally, then one day wouldn't start. Starting in safe mode printed out all the drivers until it gets to the line ending in mup.sys, apparently something to do with USB drivers.

After that line the screen flashes a couple of times, and the PC reboots. Repeat. Forever.

I spent some time reading of the gazillions of people who have had the same issue. Some have tried changing disks, RAM, PSUs, reinstalling operating system, USB drivers, everything conceivable about the computer.

Then I stumbled on this post:
http://cyberiapc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5288&st=15&p=33885&#entry33885 in some random forum. Try "chkdsk". Just before this I had run fixboot, which hadn't really made a difference. chkdsk had to be run with a force, but reported a few errors.

Upon reboot, the machine started normally. Great, thanks OP!!

That's better

Woke up this morning feeling 10 times better. Still not perfect, but not poorly enough to mope around the house. Went to work, and worked almost 12 hours. I'm sure that'll help me recover ;)

Ill

Today I was ill. You might think this is not exactly blog-worthy, but frankly, I don't care. It's good to keep a record of these things. Last time was 13th August 2003 (see http://www.ccso.co.uk/sb/13Aug2003.html)

Got up this morning feeling not great, but thought it was one of those things that would pass by mid morning. But it didn't. I ended up bowed at the great white throne at work (which may I state clearly was cleaner after I was finished...) and heading home sick.

Spent the rest of the day between bed and sofa, not even feeling fit enough to walk, and generally feeling sorry for myself. Watch this space for more exciting installments...

More lawn, last lawn

Having a rather large site, we have put a lot of it into grass. This has been done in several sections, beginning in the summer of 2004 (http://www.ccso.co.uk/garden_blog). Today saw the last section of grass go in (I hope); a little area beside the road. We had originally thought of flowerbed, wall, and a variety of different solutions, but when someone suggested grass, I thought that sounds easy to keep :) So grass it is. Hopefully. It is all nicely seeded, all we have to do is wait for it to grow...

Kitesurfing : Day 4/5

Due to loads of work and lots of other stuff going on at the minute, its one of those times where there is no "leisure" time. Not ideal.

Yesterday we managed to spend part of the afternoon at Benone, getting the kitesurfing kites out again to do some static flying. The wind was strong and steady, giving good practice time. I really think I should have had the 12m instead of the 8m, but the 8 was going well.

Today we headed back to the beach, but the wind wasn't just as steady, or strong, and I think the 8m was really too small - it didn't fly well at all. And then the rain came on. Good thing we've got a reasonable length of washing line :)

It is still going to take a few more outings before it'll be time to take to the water!!

White Park Bay in a storm

Tonight we tried to organise a coastal walk for the "young adults" of the church. Unfortunately only a few of the committee types turned up, but we still went ahead anyway, and it turned out great.

We were about 15 minutes late of getting started, which meant we missed a huge rain shower before we started out from White Park Bay. The waves were massive, most rolling up close to the sandhills, so we had to dodge them!

We proceeded around the coast, enjoying the stormy sea, and the wind in our backs, until we arrived safely at Ballintoy Harbour, where another car, and a hot flask was waiting for us. As we arrived the rain came on, and again persisted for some time, so we took cover in a small shed and had a wee cup of tea.

Overall what could have been a wet and miserable evening turned out to be one of the best walks I've had in a long time!

Shopping, and then off

Great. So, imagine you have one morning left in Orlando, what could you fit in? Maybe a quick tour? Maybe another drive? Maybe just go early to the airport and sit for hours waiting on your plane?

All of these options sound tempting, but I chose another, I chose to go shopping. I had promised several non-specific presents to several members of my household, and so I spent the morning shopping for these gifts.

After walking around the entire Florida Mall twice, I had managed to load my credit card sufficient, and it was time to leave for the airport. Got the car filled, and returned to what seemed like the busiest rental return facility in the world.

After that I managed to bypass the American Airlines waiting lines, which seemed to be longest waiting lines in the world, to my Continental check in, where there was one person ahead of me.

After getting my boarding pass I proceeded to walk around the airport passing the 2 hour wait (walking round more shops ;) I really wouldn't like to do this a lot. Once in a while is fine.

The flight to Newark was on time, and we arrived into the airport as the sun was setting.

Parts of the ride home were very bumpy, I woke at one stage, thinking we were landing, but we were still at 35000 ft.

Friday Adventure

Today was the last day of work, meetings booked for the morning and afternoon. Fortunately the host decided that he would prefer if we squeezed everything into the morning, so we stretched the morning session a little, meaning I was on my way by 1pm.


I had decided that if I got away early rather than driving directly to Orlando I would take a detour through the country, maybe through part of the Everglades.

So after work I headed West, into the country, nowhere particular in mind, just going West before turning North to avoid the huge roads. On the outskirts of the urban area driving through the edge of the Everglades I stumbled on a small outfit that does Air boat tours, and I went in to see if they were open. To my surprise I was told the next tour was in twenty minutes, so I booked my $20 seat.

The air boat set off, engines roaring, into the middle of nowhere, and after a few minutes we came to a stop and were told to look in a particular direction. After a few moments I spotted what we were supposed to be looking at - an alligator! It was about 9ft long, right by the boat, pretty cool, to be honest this is exactly what I was after for my "tourist" experience.

After that tour, I headed North through the smaller roads of the country. It was about 93 degrees (about 34 in Celsius) thankfully the air-con was working 100%, but that blistering temperature dropped quickly when clouds filled the sky, and the sky started to empty. It was one of the coolest storms I've seen for some time, rain so thick the wipers were no good, massive, clear fork lightening straight in front, and flooded roads.

This persisted for many miles, I was wondering if I would see rain in Orlando too, but all of a sudden the sky brightened, the road was dry instantly as I came out of the other side of the storm.

I made my way on up through the small roads and small towns, around Lake Okeechobee, before joining the turnpike toll road again at Cypress Creek.

The remaining hundred or so miles went by relatively quickly, bringing me to check in at the hotel at about 8pm, as predicted by my GPS system.

In the evening I decided to see if I could see any of the local features quickly and cheaply, so I took a drive, and ended up in the car park for Universal Studios' "City Walk" - which is a "City" - more like a normal town with a great pedestrian area. Ironically this manufactured "town" was the place that felt most normal to me, looked like a real town, albeit relatively small.

Pretty cool place, 10pm and still roasting, outdoor concert and hiving with people. It was a pretty cool experience. Then it was back to the hotel room where I caught up with the latest episode of 'Lost' using the abc.com online viewing service I am normally barred from because of my non-USA ip address.

All-in-all a great day!

Coastal Drive

Living near the coast I tend to have a fascination with all things coastal, and I like to see stuff, whatever "stuff" is. When I heard I was travelling to Florida I realised that the prospect of getting to see a lot of "stuff" was slim. Today was a busy day at work, between visiting sites, and working in the hotel room where I have real internet connectivity.

From about 7:30 tonight I took the chance to have a drive around the coastal area, I only had time for a short drive, as I had some work to get through, but it was good to get a quick tour.

The inland area is highly urbanised, you would hardly know you were ten minutes from hundreds of miles of beach. Tonight I headed East, just aiming my GPS randomly at the coast to get somewhere, and then I drove North along the shoreline.

Got a couple of pictures, not that great, it was a little too dark, and I have no stand.

I'm surrounded by Disney

This morning when I woke up in my 17th floor hotel room, in Orlando, I got to see just what was outside. From my room I could see the rides in a part of the Disney "World". (you can just about see them in the picture if you squint! - see the hotel here: http://tinyurl.com/2ylbcd and scroll left for the huge Disney carparks, then the center).

I put World in inverted commas because, while it's not quite a "World" it's not far off it! I had to check out of my hotel today a couple of hours before my first meeting, so as well as grabbing lunch I decided to go for a drive. I aimed to go slightly out into the countryside, but managed to find myself rounding the edge of Disney world. It is absolutely huge, you can drive for miles (like 10's of miles) around it, taking various exits off the Disney branded freeway into the various attractions.

The sheer scale would kind of put me off ever really going.

Had to drive back down to Boca Raton tonight, and did it all in one go this time, that's a long drive :(

On the upside, there was another cool sunset before I left :)

A long drive

Today was the first day at work in Boca Raton, and we decided that tomorrow we would meet in the facility in Orlando.

This is a fairly straightforward journey, with only a little complexity at either end, the middle part being all on one road. When I got onto that one road, my sat nav told me in its best American accent : "Continue for one hundred eighty two miles"

When I got less than 1/3 of that distance I decided it was time for a detour, so I headed out to Jensen Beach, which took me through some great Florida scenary. It is generally very urbanised, but in a strange way, that it's all flat, with a lot of waterways. See my detour here : http://tinyurl.com/yost9h

I also got to catch a nice sunset on the way.

P.S. It isn't nearly as nice as this everywhere, I did a lot of miles to see these nice sights. More often its just cars and buildings.

Its a dirty job....

...but someones got to do it. Yes, I will admit that being a software engineer is not as sexy as they made out in careers class, but it is not without its perks.

Tonight I am writing from the Hilton in Boca Raton, Florida. That's the sexy bit, the no-so-sexy bit is that today I spent a total of about 10 hours in 2 planes, and 6 hours in 3 airports travelling just over 4000 miles. Work has sent me to have some meetings, so thats what I'll be spending Tuesday-Friday doing.

However, as I only do this once in a blue moon, I'm not going to complain. (I may complain on the way home on Saturday...)

The travel all went well, arrived in good time, and in one piece. And the Hilton is just fab.

On yer bike!

It seems logical to me, as people get older they get wiser. My Dad, in his wisdom has decided to purchase a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Tonight we travelled to Larne, where the bike was waiting to be picked up, and Dad rode it home while I followed behind.

It's a noisy beast, all part of the character if you ask me. When we got home we went for a spin down the road, and it was great. That was the first time I ever rode pillion in my life, and I can safely relate that it is a scary experience.

The bite of the 2-cylinder engine is fantastic on that drag bike, which has a very high first gear. The torque even in 5th gear is amazing.

Command interface : Tab completion in perl

For a project I'm working on just now, and because I'm very lazy, I wanted to have tab completion of the many variable commands entered. Finding a module was easy : Term::ReadLine - finding a simple example was difficult, but in the end I got it.

It is not complete by any means, but it will get you started!

use strict;
use warnings;
use Term::ReadLine;
my $term = new Term::ReadLine 'Simple Perl calc';
my $prompt = "cmd >> ";

my $attribs = $term->Attribs;
$attribs->{completion_function} = sub {
my ($text, $line, $start) = @_;
return qw(a list of candidates to complete);
};

my $OUT = $term->OUT \*STDOUT;
while ( defined ($_ = $term->readline($prompt)) ) {
my $res = eval($_);
warn $@ if $@;
print $OUT $res, "\n" unless $@;
$term->addhistory($_) if /\S/;

}

Board building continues...

The varnishing, drilling and hammering continue....

The board is coming on well, but it'll be a day or two before I get out on it. That's ok, it'll be a day or two before I'm ready to venture out!

Glenveagh National Park

Today we decided to venture into international travel, and pop across the border to Co Donegal. We had it on good authority that Glenveagh National Park was well worth a visit, and it definitely was. The kids had a fantastic time, and the adults all enjoyed the spectacular scenery. A grand day out.

Starstruck

As anyone who knows me will know the only stars I am interested in are those in the sky. I liked a definition I read somewhere for what being famous meant: "A person who is well known for being well known," - a valuable trait I am sure.

Today in a visit to Morellis in Portstewart after all 12 of us had ordered, we discovered we had nowhere to sit. So we stood around looking gormless, and these nice people took pity on us and got up to go, leaving us their tables.

Turns out the centre of the party was a man called Jimmy Nesbitt, who is indeed "famous." Isn't that great? We saw someone in the flesh, who we know of, but don't really know. But what makes him special is that lots of other people don't really know him too!

Kitesurfing : Day 3

The perfect, steady wind continues, and so we made our way to the beach once again, at Castlerock this time. The wind was fairly steady, and relatively strong, so I decided to go with the 8m again, and I think that was a good decision.

The kite flew reasonably well, but I think the wind wasn't really strong enough to lift it too high. This was fine, as I am still in the process of becoming comfortable with the kite. If we go out again in a similar wind I might try the 12m one to see how it flies.

I had some trouble raising it above 45 degrees in the window, and again, I'm not really sure if I am doing something incorrectly, or if there simply wasn't enough wind. Perhaps I am just too timid. Better timid than injured, that can be my new motto.

DIY Kiteboard

Although we managed to find budget for some second hand kites, and picked up some other cheap stuff, the cost of a board is prohibitively expensive.

Kiteboards are available second hand from about £150, sometimes £250 plus - well beyond the available empty budget!

Many keen DIY kiters have decided to make their own boards, so I decided that would be a good route to persue. Some are very professional, made of fibreglass and finished with great detail. However, the way to begin seems to be plywood. So I got a sheet of 1/2 inch birch plywood, and tonight Dad and I spent some time cutting it to shape.

Next step is some more rounding (the ends aren't quite symmetrical), then getting the foot straps attached, and painting.

Kitesurfing : Day 2

Having a contractual half day on a Friday is great. I'd recommend it to anybody!

This afternoon turned out to be another beautiful one, with lots of sunshine and a light wind. We decided to give the new kites another try, and today was altogether more successful.

We spent some time reading and watching tutorials, and training SWMBO in exactly what we need to do, and what not to do.

The first stage in learning to fly a kitesurfing kite is to learn to launch, and fly the kite just above the ground. With substantial help from SWMBO, we managed to get this done, and it gave me a lot of confidence in the kite, and its setup. I think it'll be fine.

However, there definitely wasn't enough wind for anything more, or we would have needed the 12m instead of the 8m. I was very pleased with today, we achieved the first stage perfectly, including boosting my confidence. Now we're ready for day 3. Bring on the wind (relatively light, and not gusty, please ;)

Kitesurfing : Day 1

After the arrival of the kites in the middle of the week I was looking forward to getting out with them this weekend. However, I was delayed in getting home from work yesterday, and was asked to help out at a CU event in Limavady Grammar School for the afternoon/evening.

Today we all got up, had breakfast, and packed for the beach. I wasn't sure how it would go, because the forecast was for almost zero wind, and outside our house that was exactly what was happening.

However, when we approached Benone we could see windmills turning and trees swaying. On the beach we met with another problem - high tide and lots of shells. We found a suitable spot, parked up, and began to unpack. However it actually turned out to be a bit too windy for a pair of learners, even on an 8m kite.

It took a good while getting set up, and by the time we were ready to launch the wind had really picked up, and although my faithful assistant had been helpful and patient, she found the force of the wind pulling the kite a little too strong for comfort. If she isn't comfortable, then I can't be, so we called it a day and packed it up. Didn't even get the kite into the air.

We got the old faithful 4m buster out, but unfortunately it was too gusty even for it, so we had to pack up and go home. Unfortunate, but there will be other days....

There was no action, therefore no photos, but I have to include this one taken by Kate. I had removed my camera and phone from my pockets because of the harness, and left them in the car. Kate obviously found the camera and decided to take a few snaps, and managed to take this shot which is not very level, but amazingly has me framed nicely in the wing mirror!