Daniel's teeth and self-assessment

Basic family history: last friday, Daniel had two top teeth out, in preparation for getting a brace fitted. It seems to have gone well; he wasn't curled up in a ball with pain as I'd feared, but happily playing on the computer as soon as he got back, and gaily saying "the Dentist said this was the best thing to do: takes my mind off it, and isn't exercise".

We'd taken him to the orthodontist for braces a while back - early February. The first thing they did was to take this x-ray. Then the O looked at him and said "learn to brush your teeth properly and come back in a month". How embarassing. So we did, and we did. Then he looked properly and decided that Yes D did need braces, but also he needed two teeth out. That was a bit of a surprise. But its all part of the process it seems. So we booked an apt for the braces, and then booked an appt back with his dentist to take the teeth out. And that, for the moment, is that. We wait ~6 weeks for the teeth-out to settle down.

D's self-assessment

[This via the school. We didn't take it too seriously, and neither did he, but the "must write things down more, write at greater length, and care about non-tech subjects" sounds all too familiar from my youth.]

The Perse School Cambridge Lent Term 2012
Pupil Self Assessment
Pupil’s Name: Connolley, Daniel Form: 09L

Areas of Strength

I feel most confident in maths lessons because I am good at precise, analytical skills. I almost
always manage to organise my homework and get it in on time because I organise myself well. I
enjoy Design technology because I am good at most of the skills involved – Programming, design,
and practical skills.

Areas for Improvement

I feel less confident in English because I find it difficult to write essays. I would like to improve my
performance in art. I plan to improve in this area by obtaining better equipment and spending more
time on my work.

Three specific targets to address

(At least one should be academic, and one more general in nature.)
1. I will try to get more sleep at night by going to bed on time and stopping gaming half an hour early.
2. I will try to include more detail in my written work by spending the full allotted time over it.
3. I will try to improve my performance in Spanish tests by learning the positions of f accents.

Extra-Curricular Involvement

I do Climbing club, as I enjoy climbing and sometimes do it outside of school (with my parents, who have done a lot of it).
I am also doing the Microsoft MTA web development course.

Tank rowing videos

Some videos James T took of me rowing in the Sekret Tank. Coaching by La Smith.

Look for:

* rocking over before arms straight
* taking the catch with the back

Smith wanted us to think of the "fat boy" exercise, so I think the key part is the core strength.

* https://www.youtube.com/user/jamesthecox?feature=watch [James T's channel]

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS3AcUeL0ks&context=C398b292ADOEgsToPDskKSmeYA9jYPLit5WDHeN31- [WW and me, sans blade]
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVlzNwqE1LQ&context=C398b292ADOEgsToPDskKSmeYA9jYPLit5WDHeN31- [With blade]
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYo3S2H-k1A&context=C398b292ADOEgsToPDskKSmeYA9jYPLit5WDHeN31-

On rowing under the cold moon

Last night we had the regular Tuesday M1 outing, the irregular thing was that it was cold. Or rather, coooooold. But very still. It had snowed on Saturday night, Sunday was all snowy-beautiful, though overcast; Monday was thaw-y, but Tuesday was back to dry and cold, about -5 perhaps in the evening.

As we got ready to put the boat out some thin ice formed; as we put the boat in it crunched, gently. But that was only by Peterhouse; the rest of the way out of town was clear, and so was the Reach. By the time we came back ice had formed by the boathouses and we slooshed our way through the thin unconsolidated ice, but it is noisy. Back, and the blades didn't just have drops of water frozen on, they had nice sheaths of ice like dipped candles.

But that isn't what this post is about; it is about how it felt, out at the end of the Reach. Going down, the moon was so bright, it seemed like the lights of a boat ahead of us. It was full, and the sky was clear. With snow still on the banks either side they showed up clearly. The world felt very bleak, cold, pitiless. Like, but much more weakly, the images from the sci-fi books where the space-suited figures wander around an alien artefact on the other end of a Gate, where the sun is dead and the atmosphere frozen and only the chill stars shine. Or, more realistically, like a few mountaineering trips where I've had to get up in the middle of the night, or have poked my head out of a bivvi bag, on some snowy plateau, and watched the moon slowly track across the stars. Or Alpine, Texas, by the railway tracks, with the train looming over.

I have to add to get the right effect, that it felt cold down in the bones; I was shivering when we stopped. And it felt scary, at least a little; there was the frisson of if-we-tipped-over-then... not that anyone ever tips an VIII. But the water was very black and still. And the way swans started up from our blades a few times adds a shock.

Share trading

[Ha. So this is where this one got to. Needless to say, I didn't manage another.]

I think I'm going to try to keep a log of my stock / share / bond trading. And the various random and silly reasons I do it. I wish I'd done this at the start.

So:

2012

06/02/2012 B304830991 iShares MSCI North America (£2k) - exposure to North America, which looks less troubled than Europe.
03/02/2012 B304686701 iShares plc MSCI Emerging Markets (£2k) - emerging markets for growth. Maybe.
20/01/2012 B302541261 Bought GlaxoSmithKline plc (£2k) - about time to buy something else, I have no Pharma yet, and in these troubled times a solid company looks like a good idea.
05/01/2012 B297870191 Bought Vodafone Group Plc (£2k) - as per GSK, a big company active abroad, and perhaps even doing something useful for the world.

2011

* 06/12/2011 B293833381 Invesco Perpetual Monthly Income Plus (£2k) - generic
* 24/11/2011 B292492111 CSR Plc (£2k) - we were going very cheap, and I don't think we'll collapse
* 18/11/2011 B291384861 iShares MSCI Europe Ex-Uk (£1k) - generic

(to be extended backwards?)

UPF: Budapest

My second UPF, like the first, in Budapest. This is no co-incidence: I'm keen to come here, since it is a lovely place and I came in 1986; and it isn't high on most people's wish-list.

It is still lovely. This year I had the forethought to ask for a room overlooking the river, and it is gorgeous; see pic. It doesn't always look exactly like that of course :-).

As to the work: better than last time (when I was #3 on a team and did make-work while SW did anything real). Still, NS does most of the real work, since I don't know CAT2 well enough, and CAT1 barely. That is fine; probably I don't need to be here. It would make sense if I was staying on Robinson but I suspect I'm off soon. No matter; the break is pleasant. I'm here because I was asked (i.e., for the company) and because I wanted to come. The food in the breaks is also superb.

We're busier this time than last; I've only managed to squeeze in one little walk up to Fisherman's Bastion (see pix, etc. etc.), apart from a few early-morning and late runs: the Margitsziget 10k. Last night I ran it with NSu at his request: that was quite fun (I normally run alone) though I was a little annoyed to only run at 5:30 due to stress on my calves, which I didn't want to push with the upcoming marathon. There is new graffiti and old bronze and oldish stone and people.

Now back home. I could have done with more time to tourist: I only got Friday pm from 3, and it was raining then. I found the huge synagogue (but it was shut), got lost, found the national museum and some stuff about Eotvos. It would be good to speak more Hungarian; maybe if I ever come back I'll try harder.

Grunty Fen anniversary run

A year ago I ran my first half marathon. Last year was 1:51, this year's track says 1:44:11 which you'll notice is faster (official results say 1:44:25, but I trust my watch), so that is good. But slower than St Albans 1:40. Ah well; I felt really good then, and merely OK today, and didn't like the headwind at all.

Last year was an adventure, my first big run. This time I was far more casual. Discarding tapering, I did 12k in the scull yesterday. I did take the gels, though, at 10 and 15 km (though actually at 10 k I was running well and feeling good; my just-sub-48-min time isn't less than 2 mins off my PB for 10 k; so it wasn't until 11 k that I remembered to take the gel, which promptly threw me off my stride a bit). I came 174 out of 498 finishers, 25th MV45, and 62% age-grading.

Overall, I think I have the endurance down better, but have slightly forgotten how to run fast; or have forgotten the small increment in pain required. I wanted to run sub-5-min/km, and did (avg 4:55 says the trace and the time) but it was more of a struggle than it should have been: I kept drifting over and having to pull myself down. The wind was a part of that: it made it hard to concentrate, and harder to keep a steady pace.

On the start line I met Sipper, who I now see got 1:41 in 2009 but lost him in the confusion; I suspect he came in ahead of me (waay ahead: 1:36:55). I beat James Edgoose by a minute, which is vaguely good - I spent the second half of the race expecting him to come past me (though JE's time last year was 1:42). And afterwards Tom Wilkie came over - his girlfriend was running, not him (he does not look in running shape at the moment). He is doing well, and expanding into America apparently.

Holiday in Spain: Chemin de la Mature

Though this is in France, obviously. We'd seen Canfranc, and come over the Col du Somport, down the long steep windy valley, and realised we'd go past the Chemin de la Mature, so we stopped. We'd been here before, ages ago, during one of our holidays in Lescun. It is part of the GR10, but we'll just walk to the dramatic bit.

There is a turn-off the road, then a track up which you can drive if you're lazy or have lazy infants in your car, to a car-park. Then its a 10-15 or so minute walk up a good path to the dramatic bit, pictured here. The road was hacked out of the cliff in order to get tree trunks for ships masts - hence the "mature", which has a hat on the a turning it into "masture" (Manfred taught me that). From the path, you can look down on the Fort du Portalet [*]:



Here is a better view of the cliff, and a clearer one of the path itself.

Notes and Queries: the area is good for rock climbing (indeed, M and I climbed there just one route I think all those years ago). It is quite intimidating though. The rucksac and rope that you can see in the corner of the main pic is a solo-ist who has hung his sac out of the way of hikers, flung his rope over and abseiled down, and will be climbing up self-protecting on the rope.

[*] Portalet or Pourtalet? I thought it was Portalet, and wrote that originally, before finding my ref, and adding the "u". But then a frog corrected me.

Refs

* Spot the location