Taipei diary

We had an excellent week in Taipei so I wanted to write a little bit about our experience. Taipei is the furthest east I've traveled, beating my previous best of Sri Lanka by a good distance. It's also a really long way away; with our routing via Singapore meaning that we flew 8762 miles each way. We stayed in an apartment which was very centrally located and directly outside exit 1 of the Zhongxiao Dunhua Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. We arrived in the evening and arranged a transfer via the apartment rental company. This worked very well as we'd been travelling for 21 hours and I don't think I could have coped with sorting out either public transport or a taxi.

We were met at the apartment and shown around; it was small but well apointed with 2 beds, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a washing machine/tumble dryer, aircon and free wifi. Jack came to meet us at the apartment when he finished work and then took us out for a walk to get our bearings and for dinner at Kitchen Pucci, where Lisa came to join us. It had good dumplings, but terrifying tea bags:

Teabag terror.

The next morning I nipped out for an early run and we then walked to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and then onto Taipei 101 via smith&hsu, an truly excellent tea house. Taipei 101 was the worlds tallest skyscraper until it was diminished by one in Dubai last year, although they still claim the fastest elevator in the world (Wikipedia suggests this may be a lie, but it's pretty freaking quick either way). It was pretty overcast on the day we ascended, so the 360 degree view wasn't quite as amazing as it could have been, but it was still excellent. My personal highlight was checking out the 660 tonne tuned mass damper (affectionately known as damper baby) that occupies the centre of the 88th-92nd floor and can move by 1.5 meters in the event of an earthquake or typhoon. We ate at Momoya in the Taipei 101 basement food court before catching the MRT over the Chiang Kia-shek Memorial Hall just in time to catch the 5pm flag ceremony. After a bit of a rest, we ate at Sweet Dynasty just over the road from the apartment.

On Saturday we took the train from Taipei main station to Ruifang, and then rode the Pingxi line up to Jingtong for a walk around and a browse of the market stalls. It was wet and grey so we skipped some of the stops and missed out the walk to the waterfall, but it was good fun none the less. In the evening we ate at Din Tai Fung and then had a few drinks at On Tap and played Jenga. By Sunday, the rain had intensified so we hid out in the Taipei Fine Art museum, taking in the Monet Garden exhibition and grabbing some lunch in the basement cafe. May and I went for a stroll around Ximending before we all met up at MOT Kitchen to celebrate Judith's birthday. I took a detour on the way back to the apartment and had an excellent if somewhat painful foot massage.

The rain had cleared on Monday so we visited Longshan temple and the botanic gardens before catching the MRT up to Beitou to visit the public thermal baths (80p entry!). The baths were lo-fi, but delicious with temperatures ranging from 39 - 45° C. In the evening we visited Shilin night market with Jack and ate street food whilst browsing the stalls. Best discovery was a deep fried egg/pancake combination brushed with soy sauce and the best market items were the Engrish t-shirts.

Tuesday had the best predicted weather, so we seized our chance to go and do some hiking. We headed north to the Yangmingshan national park and hiked up Mount Qixing. It was a beautiful hike through forests and then as we climbed higher through arrow bamboo. At the peak we saw an old guy doing tai-chi and shouting at at the world from the four corners. We descended to Saioyoukeng and checked out the thermal area with it's fumaroles and boiling pools and after a bit of a "have we missed the shuttle bus? why is that stray dog following us?" panic, caught the (terrifyingly driven) shuttle bus back to the park entrance.

We checked out of the apartment on Wednesday and moved to the Taipei Park Hotel for one night. After checking in, we went for a run around Daan park before having a guilty western lunch from Starbucks/Subway. In the evening, we raced up Elephant Mountain with Jack to take in the view of Taipei 101. We made it just in time for sunset, but I learned that my carbon-fibre travel tripod isn't really sturdy enough to reliably hold my 450D + 24-105L for long exposures. Thank Jeebus for the Ixus. After dinner at NY Bagels, May and Jack went to meet Judith at her hotel and I headed out to do some night photography. When my camera battery died I went over to Judith's hotel too for a quick beer and a nose around her palatial room.

We flew out to Bangkok on Thursday 31st, but not before we'd taken Wenshu line to Taipei Zoo Station and ridden the Maokong Gondola cable car up to Maokong station for a walk around the hillside and lunch at a tea house.

It's a long way to Taipei

We've made it to Taipei! We're here visiting May's brother Jack and his girlfriend Lisa who are here teaching English as a foreign language at the Hess schools.

We had planned to visit Taipei for 6 nights, then Japan for 10 before returning home via Singapore for 3 nights to visit May's friend Jenny, her husband Raj and their new baby in Singapore. Due to the recent earthquake, we've canceled the Japan leg of the trip entirely and spent a stressful two weeks replanning a way to fill our spare 10 days. We finally settled on Thailand and will be spending 3 nights at the Conrad in Bangkok before flying to Koh Samui to the Bo Phut Resort & Spa for 6 days of relaxation.

We flew Heathrow to Taipei via Singapore (5 hour layover) on Singapore Airlines. I've just started to find flying novel again since switching jobs and putting an end to my business travel, so a ride on an A380 was pretty cool. After some deft online checking in, we ended up in the economy section of the upper deck, with us in a pair of seats and May's mum Judith across the aisle.

The A380 was impressively massive and the Singapore Airlines fit out delivers a very impressive economy flight. The seat pitch is long, meaning plenty of legroom and the cabin feels spacious rather than packed. Whoever designed this plane actually thought through the details of passenger comfort, and as we all know it's the little things that make the biggest difference. Examples are a screen that pivots out enough that even a lanky body like me can see it when the person in front is fully reclined and extendible foot rests. In flight entertainment is also excellent with over 14o films on demand, plus TV shows (around 6 consecutive episodes of each) and lots of music. Further, there's a USB socket to you can connect up your own equipment to either charge or view media on screen. The service is also excellent, very attentive with plenty of snacks and drinks - you can even ask for a Singapore Sling and get free playing cards. You even get real cutlery. In short, flying economy with Singapore is like flying premium economy with everyone else; would use again with preference.

The only flies in our delicious Singapore Air ointment were called Bob and Vanessa. They were sat in the seats in front of us, and in meeting they each found a kindred spirit, much to their delight and our chagrin. At the first drinks service, Vanessa ordered a beer and Bob a red wine, and from here on in, things went downhill. As each drink was finished, the call light went on and another was ordered. Initially May and I chuckled at their poor quality flirting and chucklesome cheap chat ("can't wait to have a ciggie", "let's write a thank you note to the hostess" etc), but as all the lights were switched off for our simulated night and their volume continually increased the novelty quickly wore off.

It was all a bit too much for Judith, who had a quiet word with the staff who then spoke to the delightful pair. Much hilarity ensued along with a lengthy discussion led by Vanessa who wanted to "find our who grassed me up" she'd "rather have been told to my face, rather than snitched on". With the noise continuing, Judith sensibly asked to be moved downstairs.

After tolerating 8 hours of non-stop drinking and high volume, I felt I had to intervene when Vanessa had turned her headphones up to maximum volume and started singing along with D.I.S.C.O. by Ottowan and gyrating her rotund frame in her seat in what I assume was her approximation of dancing.

"Would you mind turning your headphones down and not singing please? I'd like to get some sleep" I said, adding "I heard you say earlier you'd rather be told to your face rather than complained about". The music was turned down, and the singing stopped (for a bit), but rather than peace and quiet, there was a continual discussion about keeping the noise down and a lot of sssshhhhing. The only time we had any respite was after breakfast when the pair fell asleep, including Bob doing bizarre musical snoring. I guess the limit when flying is nine and a half hours of solid drinking and then breakfast will definitely send you to sleep.

I think the situation was poorly handled by Singapore Air as despite the obvious intoxication of the pair, they kept on serving them drinks. We assumed that there would be a limit, but the staff were overly polite and failed to take appropriate action, resulting in a detrimental effect for the surrounding passengers. Although getting no sleep was a pain, I consoled myself with two facts: 1) I'm neither Bob or Vanessa. 2) I bet they had stinking hangovers that even their much awaited ciggie wouldn't abate.

Nike+ Coach Walk to Run training plan, my experience

When I suffered some back pain last summer I was forced to take a break from running. Once the pain had subsided, I tried to resume running with two 20 minute sessions a week, but found that I just experienced further back stiffness and pain. This was a real knock to my confidence and I was wondering whether or not I'd ever be able to get back in to running.

When I described my frustrations to my masseuse (who is a triathlon and Ironman competitor), she suggested that I try a walk-to-run plan. These plans are designed for people who are new to running, but the gentle and gradual increase also makes them suitable for recovering from an injury. After trialling walk/run intervals on my own for a week or two and regaining some confidence, I decided to start following a formal training plan. After some searching, I settled on the Nike+ Coach walk to run training plan and equipped myself with the Nike+ GPS app for my iPhone.

Based on my successful trial runs, I decided to join the plan in week 4. It took me a little while to work out how to achieve this, but all you need to do is work backwards and then set a date in the past as your starting date. Unfortunately, Nike haven't integrated their Coach plans with the Nike+ GPS app so you have to check manually each day what you're supposed to be running. To help me keep track, I decided to print out the full schedule to use as a reference, but discovered some serious errors in it, which thankfully Nike quickly corrected.

As I started to track my progress, I soon noticed that I was running much further than Nike's recommended distances. I reported this to Nike and they recommended that I shouldn't worry too much about the distance I was covering, but just stick to the advised times. I'm a little disappointed that the Nike+ Coach plans aren't personalised at all; it wouldn't be hard to ask users to input their distance covered for walking/running for a set period. In fact, if Coach was integrated with Nike+ GPS, plans could adapt to their users automatically.

I found that the issue with the recommended distances was compounded by the lack of guidance Nike provide on how to run. At 6'4" and with my stride length, if I tried to stick to their distances I'd be moving so slowly that I'd be using unnatural biomechanics. Given that this is a beginners' plan, and that the most common beginner mistake is to run too fast, I'm quite surprised that Nike aren't sharing their expertise. An article introducing perceived effort or another strategy for controlling pace would not go amiss.

To demonstrate just how far off Nike's guidance I was, here are some graphs:

I ended up running 75% more miles than advised!

Although there's been some niggles along the way, I've really enjoyed the Nike+ Coach walk to run plan. It has built up both my confidence and fitness and I've always felt safe following the plan. It also helped me to achieve my goal of returning to parkrun (free, weekly timed 5k) which I did at Basingstoke on Christmas day:

I do have some gripes with the Nike+ GPS application however. For one, you can only track running with it, which seems a bit strange. I have also experienced my workouts being randomly paused, and given that the Coach plan requires you to do intervals regularly, the lack of an interval training feature is a real pain. The easiest way I found of easing this pain is to change the "Voice Feedback, At a Set Time) option in the Nike+ GPS settings to 1 min.

The voice announcements are irritatingly frequent when you're trying to do two sets of walk four minutes and then run six, but I found it preferable to the alternative of running while holding and looking at my iPhone. That said, part of the walk to run plan in week 9 is doing 20 sets of walk 30 seconds, run 1 minute 30 - for this I did have to run holding my phone and I felt my training for those sessions was cumbersome and less accurate.

I ran yesterday using RunKeeper Pro (free until the end of January 2011) and I must say that its ability to deal with different sports and intervals place it well ahead of Nike+ GPS. Also, the quality of data available on the web seems better with RunKeeper too, check out this comparison:

Nike+

RunKeeper Pro

Interestingly, before I took those screenshots I was going to write that RunKeeper has more data, but in actual fact they're closer than I thought. I think this speaks volumes about the presentation of the data, although Nike seem to be aiming for a simple/consumable interface, at this moment in time RunKeeper are delivering more successfully.

I particularly like the way RunKeeper records your splits and you can even edit the recorded GPS points manually if you're so inclined. That said, the interface in Nike+ GPS and the screen lock feature is really nice, plus although they're a little corny I like the encouragements you're given at the end of each run and the messages from Paula Radcliffe and Lance Armstrong when you set a new PB.

To summarise, the Nike+ Coach walk to run plan is a very good way to either start running or get back into shape following an injury. Thank you Nike for getting me back into running and helping me achieve my goals. You can improve though, given you are sports experts, some of what's you provide is a little perfunctory. Your forums are good and responsive, but under-staffed (hi Clover!) and the lack of "how to run"/"how to warm up/cool down"/"how to stretch" information as part of the plans is surprising.

The lack of an intervals feature in the Nike+ GPS app is a serious defecit and if you could deliver a tight integration between the Coach plans and the Nike+ GPS app so that you could simply start the app and it would tell you what to run (plus a button to skip a day!) and personalise the plan based on how fast each user walks/runs that would be truly amazing.

Running Spotify on an O2 Joggler

Back in April I picked up an O2 Joggler on the cheap and after quite a bit of mucking about I'm now running Ubuntu netbook edition on it and using it to feed Spotify into my main amp and speakers. I have tried a few different solutions along the way so I wanted to write this post to summarise what I've found to work best.

You will need:

• an O2 Joggler
• a Spotify Premium subscription
• a USB key (min 4gb)

When considering which USB key to use, it's worth investing in one that has a high transfer rate. I started out with a freebie key and the performance wasn't great. After some reading around I settled on an 8Gb SanDisk Cruzer Extreme which was €18 from eBay. It's a bit of a beast and sticks out quite a bit, but it gives a reasonably zippy performance.

I've also tried a both Spotify under Wine and the Spotify for Linux preview and both Stephen Ford and Jools Willis' Ubuntu images for the Joggler. Spotify for Linux runs significantly better on the Joggler than when under Wine (hence the requirement for a Premium account) and Spotify for Linux behaves much better on Jools Willis' image which is Ubuntu 10.10 based, as opposed to the Stephen Ford 9.10 image which gave me issues with both installation and then playback. The 10.10 images also has a screen calibration utility built in and a much nicer on-screen keyboard.

First, download Jools Willis' Joggler Ubuntu image from exotica.org.uk (I have v1.3). Next unpack the image onto your USB key (Unix users will find instructions on the download page, Windows users should use Win32DiskImager).

Once the image is written, switch your Joggler off and insert the USB key. When you switch the Joggler on, it will automatically boot from the USB key. This process will not make any changes to your Joggler's firmware - if you want to return to the supplied operating system simply switch off, remove the USB key and switch back on.

Once the Joggler has booted up, you should be able to connect it to your network using the onscreen keyboard. Here are the two icons you need:

Once on the network, you should open a terminal window (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and use the on-screen keyboard to type sudo apt-get install openssh-server. When that has completed, you can find out what IP address your Joggler is using by typing ifconfig. Here's a screenshot of mine:

Once you know the IP address, you can connect remotely to the Joggler using SSH (Windows users, get Putty), this is really helpful as it means you can use a real keyboard rather than the on-screen one, which while very functional can be a little slow.

After you've connected using SSH (username & password: joggler) you can go ahead and install Spotify for Linux by typing the following (or cut & pasting, if you're using Putty you can right-click to paste):

sudo su

echo "deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

apt-get update

apt-get install spotify-client-qt spotify-client-gnome-support

apt-get install vino

exit

As well as installing Spotify, the above will also install Vino which allows you to VNC to your Joggler so that you can control it with a keyboard and mouse. To enable VNC, click System -> Preferences -> Remote Desktop:

The most useful thing about being able to VNC to your Joggler is that the maximizing the Spotify for Linux window is really hard with the touch screen, so being able to use a mouse makes all the difference.

I was going to write and complain that the drawback of the Jools Willis image is that it uses btrfs and as such cannot be resized from it's 4gb size. However, I've just checked and version 1.3.1 is now available which comes in both a btrfs and ext4 flavour. I would recommend the ext4 version.

A note on complaining,

I've recently resolved a little issue that I had with NatWest bank, so I thought I'd tell you about it. Before I get started, this is more a post about the art of complaining and how much I love to complain than about NatWest being terrible. Mistakes happen, so this is more about how to deal with them than anything else.

Back in February, May and I were in the final stages of purchasing our first house and I needed to withdraw money from my ISAs to pay the deposit and legal fees. After popping into branch, I learned that I could only make withdrawals from my online e-ISA free of charge into a NatWest branch-based account. As I don't bank with NatWest, the only other account I held was an online e-Savings account. Unfortunately this wasn't suitable to withdraw the money into.

Finding the situation incredulous, I had a good few phone calls, web chats and some more branch visits to try and get clued up. Alas, everyone I spoke to gave me a different story about what was and wasn't possible. I was left with the impression that branch and online at Natwest are totally separate entities and that neither understand the other.

I decided to go with the suggestion from in branch and pay £23 to make a CHAPs transfer from my e-ISA to an external account. Having to pay to get access to my own money was pretty annoying, but given the situation I signed the paperwork and went on my way. The next morning, I got a phone call to tell me that CHAPs from an e-ISA to an external account was totally impossible (contrary to the previous days solid assurances), but that if I gave my verbal approval, they would fast-track me a branch-based account into which they could withdraw the e-ISA and then perform the CHAPs to my external account. I agreed and first thing the next day I checked my online statement to check everything had gone correctly.

At first glance, everything looked fine, but when I looked closer I noticed that the newly created savings account had £X (where X is many thousands of pounds) in it, and that my e-ISA had been debited £2X. That's right, the did what they told me was impossible and did the CHAPs direct from my e-ISA and ALSO transferred the amount out of my e-ISA into the new (and totally unnecessary) branch-based First Reserve account.

Brilliant work NatWest, I've been sheltering that money from tax in an ISA for nine years and you just withdrew £X for no reason and essentially without my permission. Understandably, I was pretty annoyed to discover this and headed down to the branch to get things sorted, reclaim my CHAPs fee (CHAPs is guaranteed within 24 hours, they didn't deliver) and open a formal complaint.

Below is my correspondence with NatWest:

"Dear [redacted],

Thank you for you letter dated 1st March 2010, your reference 12687022. I am still dissatisfied with NatWest as you have merely repaired the damage you caused, rather than offering any form of compensation for my wasted time and anguish.

As I explained to your staff, the withdrawal from my ISA was to complete my first house purchase. As I'm sure you appreciate, buying your first property is a very significant and stressful time, and to be let down by NatWest at such a critical moment is simply unacceptable. You made getting at my money quickly impossible, and everyone I dealt with (branch staff, numerous phone agents, web chat) provided a different answer about what was/wasn't possible given my combination of accounts. You seemed unable to understand your own products and I was the one left inconvenienced and unnecessarily stressed by your internal deficiencies. I got the impression from this experience that there is a gulf between your on-line and branch operations and in comparison with other retail banks I've dealt with, NatWest feels about 10 years behind what's current in terms of both on-line presence and customer service.

Although you have made good the £X you transferred out of my ISA account without authorisation and refunded my CHAPs payment fee (you were unable to comply with your own contract of same day transfer), I regard this as the bare minimum of your duty to me. I suggest £200 as an adequate amount of compensation commensurate with my time and anguish associated with this regrettable event. If you are unable to offer suitable compensation I shall proceed as advised by your complaints process by first contacting the Customer Relations Manager and then the Financial Ombudsman. I look forward to your prompt response.

Kind Regards

Tim Poultney"

"To: Customer Relations

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write to you in accordance with the Natwest customer complaints procedure. Enclosed you will find a copy of my letter to [redacted] at your White City branch and also her response. For completeness, I have included a prior letter from , which I received shortly after the incident I am complaining about.

Please can you read both my letter to and their response dated 19th May. In my letter, I summarise my complaint and then request financial compensation from you in respect of time wasted and anguish suffered as a result of your banks incompetence. I am sure you place a high value on your customers happiness and satisfaction with you, and also on your reputation, so I anticipate a positive response from you. I'm not sure how I can be any clearer about what I expect from you than I was in my letter to dated 10th May; the response asking me to provide "the copy of your bills" suggest to me that they either didn't read my letter, didn't comprehend it, or lack sufficient power to act upon it.

To that end, can you respond to me directly and resolve this issue. In addition, can you share with me what steps you will be taking to ensure this type of situation does not happen again. If I am not satisfied with your response, I shall continue to follow your complaints process and will contact the Financial Ombudsman. I anticipate your prompt response.

Kind Regards,

Tim Poultney"

So eventually they refunded the £23 and provided £200 for my inconvenience after three letters.

Summary: Complaining is good. Despite the eventual outcome, I won't be banking with NatWest again. All my accounts there are now closed.

The Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone

tWe've just completed a 3 night stay at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park. The inn was built in 1903 by the Northern Pacific Railroad company to the design of 29 year-old architect Robert Reamer. It's a beautiful building and is the first example of, and blueprint for the National Park Service Rustic architectural style, otherwise known as Parkitechture. Robert Reamers rather inspired vision was that the building should seem to have sprung up from the ground, as if it had grown rather than been built. You can see this below in the use of lodge pole pine for the entirety of the lobby.

(Thanks to Kev for the loan of his 10-20mm for the above shot)

We stayed in the "new" west wing, added by Reamer in 1927 in room 4058 and a definite highlight of our stay was taking the hotel tour. The tour runs daily at 09:30 and 11:00 and we were guided by the excellent Mary. Mary was filled with fascinating facts and anecdotes, but the one which struck me the most was hearing about the hotel in Winter.

The hotel opens in early May (weather permitting) and closes in mid-October. When the hotel closes, all the soft furnishing are placed into storage, all the doors are locked and the windows are boarded. The electricity is switched off and the entire hotel sits out the winter cold and empty.

Yellowstone is full of seasonal staff from all over the place (I wish I'd done a season somewhere 10 years ago, you can apply for Yellowstone here) and although the Old Faithful Inn is closed throughout winter, the adjacent (and recent, completed in 1999) Old Faithful Snow Lodge is open through the winter and staffed by a hardcore breed of seasonal worker. I say hardcore because the weather is freezing, there's no TV and limited internet and travel is by either skis, snowmobile or snowcoach.

As Mary tells it, this year the Snow Lodge staff were given a special treat; the front door to the frozen Old Faithful Inn was unlocked for one night, and just enough electricity was turned on to power a projector. No heating or lighting was turned on and staff were instructed to turn up just before midnight, wearing all their clothes and bedding. With all the furniture in storage they sat on the floor to watch their cinematic treat.

What did their employer choose to show them as they sat freezing, in a cold, dark and deserted remote hotel? Have you twigged it yet? Of course they got to watch The Shining. Amazing scenes.

American pay phones are rubbish

America is awesome, right? If you want to keep believing that I suggest you never use a pay phone here, and particularly not one operated by Qwest. From my previous post, you'll know that I'm in Yellowstone National Park. There is no connectivity here – no mobile reception (well, there is if you're American, but O2 have no roaming), and no wi-fi. Whilst I highly approve of keeping things this way and leaving the parks as a retreat, I wasn't expecting quite such a kerfuffle from trying to phone home.

Armed with $6 of quarters, we approached the payphone and followed the printed advice: “For an international call, dial 0 for the operator”. Alas, there was no operator, just a machine requesting an area code and number. FAIL #1. Next I tried the standard international dialling pattern in the US of 011-, this took ages to connect and eventually just said “error 16”. FAIL#2. Next, I tried calling the Qwest number on the phone and got through to Danny who said he'd be happy to connect my call for me. I gave Danny my credit card details and everything was going well until he asked for my zip code. “Is this an international card?” asked Danny quizzically, “Oh, I'm sorry we only accept US cards sir”. Way to go Qwest, make it impossible to accept card payments for the calls which will make you the most money. FAIL #4.

I was reaching boiling point by now, so we went back to the hotel and sought some advice. “Get a calling card” was the tip, so we headed over to the store and exchanged our quarters for a said item, which was pleasingly Yellowstone branded. This went a little smoother, although on the first call I made, the recipient could hear me, but I couldn't hear a thing; and of course I got charged for it. FAIL #5. Finally I was able to successfully make the call, but man did it take a lot longer and involve way more complexity than I was expecting. Lesson learned, America is the land of the brave, and the home of the free, unless of course you want to dial internationally from a pay phone.

Yellowstone

I'm in Yellowstone, the first National Park ever created in the United States. It's a big place, comprising 2.2 million acres and although it's highly accessible to visitors it's still a wilderness, with only 370 miles of road and less than 1% of the park developed for tourism. Further contributing to the wildness is the abundance of wildlife including: bears (black and 'griz'), bison, moose, elk, deer, mountain lions, wolves, bald eagles and more. As if that wasn't enough, Yellowstone is a geological marvel – it sits atop a huge volcano and contains over 50% of the world's geysers, plus hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles.

The main tourist experience consists of driving around a figure eight of roads established in 1905 by the US Army Engineers Corps. There's plenty of goodness to be had by planning out an itinerary of hikes and sights, but I've found that the most rewarding experiences so far are the unplanned, unexpected and impromptu. I'm still feeling humbled today from our stroke of luck whilst driving back to the hotel last night. As we drove back towards Mammoth from the Lamar Valley (a.k.a. the American Serengeti), we spotted a long line of tail lights and a large number of vehicles parked at the side of the road at the Blacktail Ponds turnout. As we approached the turnout, I could see flashes of movement from the field below and the tripods and cameras lined up on the road side. You quickly learn that in the park, collections of cars parked off road means animals and from the number parked here it was clear that something special was happening.

After parking safely (always pull completely off the road, y'all) and walking back we discovered that the focus of all the attention was a pair of grizzly bears protecting a bison carcass from a pack of wolves. Wolves are endangered in North America and were controversially reintroduced to Yellowstone back in 1995, so just seeing a wild wolf is rare enough, but to see the interaction between a pack and a pair of grizzlies I think we were incredibly lucky. Over the next hour as the sun set and the light faded we watched on entranced as the wolves circled the bears and then darted in, only to fall back as the bears charged and swiped at them. After a while, all but the alpha wolf retreated away up the hill and we assumed that the show was drawing to a close. However, the alpha wolf continued to stalk and harass the bears. Suddenly the wolves began to howl; a solitary voice was quickly joined by others as the hillside lit up with this eerie and haunting song.

Information was being passed from person to person, most of it originating from the park rangers so we came to learn that the bears were a mother and three-year-old cub, and that a total of nine wolves were out on the hillside. We also learned that until very recently the bison carcass had been frozen into the lake, but since being exposed by the thaw the bears had been dragging it out of the water and guarding it from all comers. The wolves must have been attracted by the carcass (May has been enjoying the way uncommon words have crept into conversation – I've never heard or uttered the word carcass as much as in this week) as the rangers didn't know of a local pack or den.

Just as we were preparing to leave, someone beside us proffered her binoculars and said “Have you seen the third grizzly coming down the hill?”. Sure enough, a larger and much darker bear was charging down the hillside, scattering the wolves as he made a beeline for the carcass. We learned from the ranger that this was a male bear, and when he approached the carcass the female bears backed right off. In the twilight we watched the male bear settle down on the carcass, as the females looked on and the alpha wolf continued to circle. The whole experience felt like watching a segment from Planet Earth unfold right in front of us and was totally captivating – I don't think I'll ever forget the sound of that wolf howl as it echoed up the hillside. People we've bumped into since have confirmed how lucky we were to see this as even regular visitors have rarely seen a wolf, let alone a whole pack harassing grizzly bears.

As if to reinforce my feeling that the park is best experienced serendipitously, my efforts to catch a repeat performance this morning by getting up before dawn drew a blank. I arrived by 05:45 and found both the turnout and the roadside full of cars. I joined the line-up of tripods and my only reward was a single coyote. I think I'll stop trying and trust the rest of the holiday to luck.

Devising a new household budget

We've finally bought a house so the finances are under scrutiny. I've been analysing the joint account transactions from the last year with a view to generating a new budget plan for this year and have discovered the following:

• ~43% of our spending goes on food (food + eating out + veg box)
• We spend more on TV licence than broadband (I know which I get better value from)
• Our veg box costs more than our water rates

The categorisation was only done roughly so I'm sure the "Food" category contains plenty which isn't but it was easiest to just mark all Sainos and M&S spending as food.

We're also switching the joint account from Cahoot (who don't do faster payments, still!) to A&L so this data was all extracted from Cahoot. Alas they have no nice export tools, so this is all derived from a lot of cut & pasting and Google Spreadsheets.

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Depressing realities of modern Britain

You've seen it on the news I'm sure, a marginalised, extremist group is planning to march through a Wiltshire town in protest over innocent Afghans killed in the war. This has, as no doubt was intended, caused a public outcry and a good old media frenzy. I personally don't see what all the fuss is about, sure I find the group in question abhorrent, but we are lucky enough to live in a democracy where we have the right to freedom of speech. If any individual or group goes beyond the limitations on freedom of speech, that quite rightly becomes a legal matter.

As we saw with Nick Griffin on Question Time, providing freedom of speech allows individuals and groups to represent themselves and show their true colours; it also allows the public to draw their own conclusions. People, as they say, can be their own worst enemies. The best course of action would be to ignore the group in question, show the classic British stiff upper lip, strength of character and resolve. By reacting and providing media coverage, we make the group seem more influential and powerful than they really are; this is typically the goal of such an action.

I hadn't really given this much thought until I spotted a few of my connections on Facebook (I will not use the term friends in this instance, and may have to review the policy) had joined various Facebook groups organised to protest against the proposed march. I also got pinged a link by Morcs which started me reading the content of some of these groups. I can only say that what I found was deeply depressing and saddening; the majority of comments are racist and xenophobic. They also feature a startlingly poor standard of literacy and there is a worrying amount of claimed support for the BNP and EDL.

To save your eyes, I'll summarise the common themes. For your sanity I've corrected the spelling and grammar rather than quote verbatim:

"I'm not racist but "

"The BNP aren't racist, they just tell it like it is"

"If they want to march, they can go and march in

"If you don't like it, go back home" (What? To London/Bristol/Winchester/?)

"I'm pure white British and proud" (Umm... 18,000 years ago your genetics started out in Western Asia, or more recently you could be Roman, or Norse?)

"They should all be rounded up all be rounded up an "

"If they don't like our laws they can stop taking all our benefits and jobs and go back where they came from"

"I'm not racist, my friend is Muslim/Pakistani/etc, but "

I don't think I have the heart for further summary, if you can bear it you can read for yourself here, or specific examples here and here (don't say I didn't warn you).

The overriding message seems to be that the majority of responders on these groups (the largest has over 600k members) think that if you're not white, you're not British and that if you're not British you should be shipped out of the country. Is this really what the majority of modern Brits think? And people complain that we no longer have any national pride, I for one can't see much to be proud of right now.

Words as pictures: Snow

(I can't claim the credit for this one, it's from NASA's MODIS system which delivers near real-time satellite imagery)

Digital Media Bill and writing to my MP

There was a flurry of activity on the Interweb this week related to the proposed UK Digital Media Bill, with lots of people linking to this rather biased and inflammatory article. After tracking down and reading the proposed bill, the only area for concern that I can really agree with is the section that entitles the Secretary of State to modify the bill at will without consultation.

Rather than signing this petition, I used the excellent writetothem.com to contact my MP Mark Oaten. I did this on Tuesday 24th, sending the following:

"Dear Mark Oaten,

I write to you to express my concern over the proposed Digital Economy Bill, and in particular section 17, 302A (from http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html)

"(1) The Secretary of State may by order amend Part 1 or this Part for the purpose of preventing or reducing the infringement of copyright by means of the internet, if it appears to the Secretary of State appropriate to do so having regard to technological developments that

have occurred or are likely to occur."

If I've understood correctly, this means that the current and any future Secretary of State can modify this bill at any time in line with the purpose WITHOUT a changes being publicised and voted in.

This seems quite worrying to me.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Poultney"

In the post today I have the following response from Mr Oaten:

Now that's good service. If you've never tried it before I can recommend writing to your MP.

Hilton Grand Vacations Club Vilamoura, or how I didn't buy a timeshare

I've spent a lot of time in Hilton hotels with work this year and I seem to have attained enough status to be graced with a gamut of their targeted marketing offers. It could well be they just spammed all their loyalty club members but I've chosen to think I'm special. Either way, back in June I was invited to enjoy 3 nights/4 days at the 5* Hilton Vilamoura with breakfast, unlimited spa usage and a €50 dinner voucher as part of a special package for the bargaintacular price of €235. Given my Hilton status, a room upgrade was a cert and with a glut of cheap flights to the Algarve readily available, I booked up immediately.

To qualify for the special price, all I had to do was "meet certain age and financial qualifications and attend a two–hour vacation ownership presentation" (ts&cs). "Easy", thought I and started planning elaborate ways of getting through the presentation with either the minimum of fuss or the maximum of lols. As the departure date loomed and I talked to friends about the impending hard sell, I started to get a tiny bit anxious and the lack of available information about the process on the web didn't help to calm my nerves.

As it turned out, there wasn't really anything to worry about. We arrived at 10am as instructed and were met by "Hannah" (name changed) who was our host for the presentation. She made some slightly awkward small talk and then started asking us about our holiday habits. We answered honestly but threw in a few intentional spanners ("we like skiing, but cross country not downhill, so usually at specialised resorts", "on a long holiday we often like to stay in 4-5 different locations") to see how she'd spin the pitch for us.

After sussing us out, she moved us on to the informational wall of posters giving the headlines about Hilton Grand Vacations Club before sitting us back down to run through the detail of how the scheme works and then painting us a picture of how we could be members of HGVC. I should point out as well that she didn't use the word "timeshare" until about 25 minutes in, apparently "vacation ownership" is the new phrase.

The idea of the club is that you buy a certain number of vacation points a year for a fixed price and also pay a maintenance/membership charge every year. Memberships are available in either 15 or 28 year durations (gulp) and rather than buying a particular week which is fixed for the duration of your contract like people did in the 80s, you buy a number of points related to a number of weeks, in a particular season and type of accommodation. Each Hilton Grand Vacation Club uses the same points structure, so you can (in theory) enjoy the same standard of holiday around the world. Hannah's suggestion for us was to buy 3400 points, which is the equivalent of a 1 bedroom apartment (sleeps 4) in Gold season (aka mid-season).

You can either deposit points or borrow points one year either side of your current year, meaning you can have 3 years of points to use in a single year and spend them on a whole bunch of holidays in a variety of locations. Additionally, if you travel in different seasons then the same type of accommodation costs fewer/more points. Continuing our 1 bed example a Platinum week costs 4800, Gold 3400, Silver 2400 and Bronze 1700. Furthermore you can spend your Hilton Vacation Club points on stays at RCI timeshare properties and even swap them for Hilton HHonors points at a rate of 1 HGVC to 25 HHonors.

Hannah used her language carefully throughout the presentation, with a great deal of allusion to exclusivity and grandeur and when she finally got around to the price it really did feel like a big reveal. The price we were offered was for 3400 points a year for 15 years and had 2 components: an upfront price of €7800 and yearly maintenance subscription of €500 + $130 (annoying currency mix!). So, at today's exchange rate that's ~£1050 a year for one week in a one bedroom apartment. Also, while talking about the pricing, the focus was placed on the upfront price, which almost made you forget about the maintenance charge which is pretty clever because the maintenance charge actually doubles the price. When talking about the prices Hannah carefully used phrases like "could you afford.." for quite some time until I pointed out that there's a big difference between "could" and "would".

The sales pitch was delivered very well, and I can see that it might work out for a certain type of person, but it certainly wasn't for us. That said, the pitch was delivered so well that May got a little bit hypnotised and I had to remind her that we'd come for a cheap holiday, not to buy vacation ownership. We probably had to say "no" firmly 4 or 5 times and withstand some dubious reasoning (favourite line: "but you'd spend £1000 on a camping holiday!") before we escaped, but actually when it came down to it the sell wasn't hard at all and none of it was uncomfortable.

While writing this up and reflecting on it, I've had a good chance to think about it and I think for us there were 3 flaws in the sale.

• 1) Although the scheme claims flexibility, the fact that ultimately someone has to be offering a week in the place that you want to go to for you to be able to book it makes it ultimately inflexible.
• 2) It's expensive. A quick Google for 1 bed apartments in Vilamoura suggests that the market rate is £250-600. Although the property is lovely, I'm not sure it's an extra £500 of lovely.
• 3) During the presentation, Hannah said that one of the classic problems with timeshare is that people buy the wrong week. On investigation, I think she was trying to sell us the wrong week. Our points allocation would have enabled us to visit the Vilamoura resort in weeks 1-13, 16-19 and 44-45 (for 2010, that's 1st Jan-4th Apr, 16th Apr-16th May and 29th Oct-14th Nov). If you're considering Vilamoura, I think you need to buy Platinum as 33 weeks of the year are classed as Platinum.

If you want to read more, the Timeshare Users Group is pretty useful and the Hilton Grand Vacations Club Members Guide containing all the small print is publically available here: http://www.hiltongrandvacations.com/mg/

Banksy v Museum

Before going away to India I organised a little surprise for May that we could both enjoy on my return. When we saw the fuss about Banksy secretly taking over Bristol museum for the summer we said "we must go to that", so I booked train tickets and a one night stay in the Hotel du Vin Bristol via an Asperity "Great Mates" offer of £69 B&B. I told May to pack an overnight bag and be home from work by 5pm on the Friday and then bundled her onto the bus down to the station. At the station she was certain we were headed for London and she remained pleasingly puzzled for the rest of the journey. Only when we disembarked in Bristol did she put it all together and realise that we'd come for Banksy.

The Hotel du Vin Bristol was excellent, we checked in and were personally guided up to our lovely room. The bedroom was large and well appointed and the bathroom had a freestanding bath and huge wet room style shower. As I'd landed from India that morning, I was flagging by this point and rather than going out to eat we ordered some delicious room service (mussels for May, pork Milanese for me) and retired. In the morning I felt rather smug as for the first time in my life I was the first person into the breakfast room. As we ate we eyeballed the rival couples as they came in and started playing "guess who's going to Banksy". As we checked out, it transpired that seemingly everyone from the HdV was headed for Banksy which gave me a nice sense of belonging to a slightly smug, luxury hotel and culture loving set of people.

We were out of the hotel a little later than we'd planned, so we got to the museum at 09:45 which turned out to be a little late. The doors open at 10am, but by the time we arrived the queue was already ballistic. I think we'd overestimated the exhibition waning in popularity and underestimated the effect of being there on a Saturday. As we looked for the back of the queue, we got our first taste of the takeover on spotting a disheveled Ronald McDonald perched on a ledge way up high above the door forlornly clutching a half-empty bottle of spirits.

We ended up queueing for 2 hours 20 minutes, but it wasn't too arduous as the queue was incredibly well managed and everyone was very friendly. When we arrived the queue was split into 3 sections, a short section along the pavement, a long section of wiggling barriers down a closed road and then the queue into the museum. To prevent the queue from blocking the frontage of shops and restaurants, there's a gap between the first and second queues and you need a stamp on your hand to from the second queue to get into the first. Helpfully there's an ice cream van integrated into the queue and also lot of helpful signs giving you an indication of how much time you have left to wait.

On entry you're given a Banksyfied museum guide to help you find the "boring old plates" and "dead things in boxes". In the exhibition there are 3 large rooms given over totally to Banksy works and then other pieces interspersed with the museum's normal exhibits. This works really well as you end up experiencing the museums impressive collection almost by stealth as you play hunt the Banksy. Banksy's work is subversive, relevant, witty, laugh-out-loud funny and often very close to the bone. His art is deliciously immediate, but sometimes forgettable - there were some very memorable pieces but I'm not sure how many of the 111 on display I could tell you about in detail. My personal highlight was the insightful room of Banksy's stuff containing sketches, plans, cut-outs, photos and spray cans; the picture below was inspired by a newspaper clipping which had a photo of a group of riot police looking stern in a field, the telling scribble on the clipping read "make them skip".

Picture used under creative commons, taken by jo92

We spent about 2 and a half hours in the exhibition and I was struck by just what a clever exhibition it is. It's turned Bristol into a must-visit destination this summer and also highlighted how good Bristol museum is even without any Banksy work in it. The real genious is the way the way in which the Banksy pieces are interwoven with the permanent collection, inviting you to learn about dinosaurs, geology, chinese history and more as you search out the Banksy touches.

The exhibition runs until August 31st, so stop reading this now, grab your best queueing boots and go.

Status: July

July 1

08:58 Tim is headed for Prague. Woo!

12:55 Tim is on the 13.10 easyJet Stansted to Prague. See you in a bit.

15:31 Tim has landed in Prague, going to try and find somewhere to watch the Murray match.

July 2

00:17 Tim has a sweepstake on what time Jezworld will get to bed.

00:25 Tim is suffering unnecessary hicoughs. Boo.

11:06 Tim is pretty glad he's a very deep sleeper.

July 3

02:30 Tim has had a long day in Prague. In bed now with tip top room mate Jezworld within touching distance.

13:51 Tim just had some amazing games of table football. I'd forgotten how much fun it is,.

14:30 Tim is drinking Schofferhofer, raffing free wifi from the Haagendaz shop and watching the Prague bin men collect dvds and cds out of the bins they're emptying.

19:37 Tim is a good mixer.

22:26 Tim has pretty much had enough beer.

23:48 Tim had his buttons pushed, and crossed the line.

July 4

02:24 Tim is up late with Jez and Paul.

14:02 Tim is photographing the lightning behind Prague Castle while waiting for the airport transfer.

20:48 Tim is back in the UK, done Stansted Express and traversed London, now on the train to Winch from Waterloo. Beautiful evening.

July 6

08:34 Tim is not happy to be back on the commuter train, the only thing keeping me going is the 'nodding dog' sleeping woman opposite. Head slumps down, head goes up, down, up, down, up...

15:38 Tim is really going to Delhi. Passport sent of to the Visa office and vaccinations tomorrow.

21:49 Tim is trying to think about his 30th birthday celebrations. Suggestions? Who wants to come?

July 7

11:20 Tim has got tickets for Orbital at the Brixton Academy on September 25th, woop woop! Thanks Jaye. :).

16:40 Tim is headed home early to pick up an A3 demonstrator (yay) and get vaccinations for India (boo).

20:41 Tim is arms full of various diseases following vaccinations for Delhi. Only had a minor freak out. It's tricky, do you assume you'll be fine and apply pressure to yourself OR assume you'll freak and become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

22:43 Tim 's right arm hurts real bad. Bet you a fiver that one was diphtheria, tetanus and polio.

July 8

14:49 Tim can confirm he is still alive and not in a vaccination induced coma. I just had a very long sleep.

July 9

18:34 Tim is going to meet Paul's baby!

23:12 Tim is on the most packed, pissed head filled, South West trains disaster yet.

July 10

20:33 Tim had a sweet bit of tapas with Da Heath and his amazing hair. Good to catch up.

July 11

16:19 Tim is a bit concerned he might be turning into a tooth gnasher.

22:48 Tim failed to retain his title as Tesco Basingstoke charity quiz champion by 1/2 a point.

July 13

16:36 Tim is listening to Backdoor Boogie on his shiny new iPod Nano. BB makes up about 25% of the tunes on there right now.

July 14

08:30 Tim is getting to know some commuting faces. Today I have spotted grumpy laptop wielding middle aged woman who I saw yesterday. She's doing spreadsheets again, like she always is. I wonder what she's calculating?

15:28 Tim would like to be a Goldman Sachs employee right now please. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2009/07/goldman_recession_what_recessi.html.

20:20 Tim is arrrrghhhhshutupshutupshutupyouheavybreathingtrainfreakazoidarrrrrrggggghhhhhshutup.

23:31 Tim is the motherflippin'. Who's the motherflippin'? Rhymenocerous and Hiphopopotamus ftw.

July 15

11:37 Tim suffered a total power failure this morning. Netbook, phone and iPod all ran out of juice on the commute to work.

18:38 Tim got pwned by the London Bridge escalator failure and missed his train. Diversion cost me vital minutes in my finely tuned commute plan.

18:53 Tim wouldn't have made the train even if the London Bridge escalator had been working - all the escalators up from the Jubilee line were out of action too. 3/4 broken and 1 coming down. Knob jockeys.

July 18

16:04 Tim short 2.5k run today http://is.gd/1DkhY - followed by retail therapy in town. I'm propping up the economy with home wares.

20:55 Tim is off to Dean's for cocktails. In your faces!

July 16

08:35 Tim is making a start on season 1 of 24 on his new iPod.

14:43 Tim 's sore teeth are being caused by an inflamed gum. Hard brushing and Corsodyl is the prescription.

July 17

08:07 Tim has done his morning Corsodyl mouthwash , it is horrible. I suspect it's going to make my breakfast on the train taste rank. Damn you inflamed gums!

12:54 Tim has an unreasonable Borough Market rage. So much bimbling.

18:44 Tim is on the train trying out his new tablet laptop. The handwriting recognition is pretty impressive.

July 19

19:16 Tim is packing for Delhi. Passport, check. Immodium, check. Deet, check.

July 20

08:58 Tim is hanging about in the BA lounge at T5. Already had a robot chair massage and now having breakfast. It's nice, but it's no Virgin.

19:21 Tim has landed in Delhi and eventually found his driver in the sea of faces. It's very hot and the traffic is pretty manic. Lots of horn honking.

July 21

20:26 Tim has had a good first day in India. I survived the commute, got treated unsettlingly like royalty at work, had a swim, had my first genuine Indian curry (chana masala) and had a nice chat with May.

July 22

06:46 Tim is cooler today, but the traffic was more mental. There was a total solar eclipse this morning between 06:20 and 06:25 and the newspaper has a story on how expecting mothers don't want to give birth today as it's bad luck.

15:11 Tim can't believe he missed this centuries longest total eclipse. I could have seen that if I'd known. Gutted.

20:18 Tim has had a good 2nd day. Work was good and I caused some office hilarity with my Hindi phrases. Ran some 12 minutes of intervals on the running machine and then went back to Bikanervala (Indian Burger King) for thali which cost me £1.50. I've also ponied up for the internet at the hotel - £65 for 7 days!

July 23

13:53 Tim just got taken outside to see the rain that arrived in Delhi. It was spectacular, torrential rain with huge raindrops.

14:57 Tim is going to Barbecue Nation in Gurgaon with Mr Guarav: http://www.barbeque-nation.com/.

July 24

07:42 Tim remembered to turn the aggressive hotel aircon back on before going to sleep last night (unlike Weds), but still had bad dreams. Maybe it's the curry?

08:21 Tim just went through the fire drill in the office. Down 7 flights of stairs, stand in the blazing sun for 10 mins and then back up 7 flights. Sweating profusely.

19:04 Tim has finished his first working week in Delhi. Bed now as I'm going to the Taj Mahal tomorrow and the tour sets off at 06:30 (that's 2am British time difference fans).

July 25

07:19 Tim is totally at the Taj Mahal.

11:49 Tim is on the way back from Agra. The repetitious tour guide has lodged facts in my head. Taj Mahal means crown palace, completed in 22 years, built by 6th king in memory of late wife...

14:56 Tim is nearly back from Agra (I think), I feel like I've been in this car forever.

July 26

07:55 Tim just had an Avurvedic massage and steam bath, very nice it was too. Now off into Delhi for some shopping and tourism.

11:05 Tim is queueing to get into Akshardam in Delhi.

15:14 Tim just set a new distance record on the treadmill, 4km in 21mins. Got some badass assisted stretches from the nice Crowne Plaza gym guy afterwards too. Knackered now.

July 27

16:48 Tim is lolling at the discovery that his hotel classes Fosters as "Indian Beer".

21:50 Tim is awake with mild Delhi Belhi. I guess it had to happen.

July 28

17:08 Tim is in need of some nail scissors. Rampant big toe nail alert. Perhaps I'll see if I can find that roadside camel again for a trim.

July 29

15:31 Tim only one more day in the office in India, then home tomorrow night. My Indian colleagues threw a rather sweet "farewell tea party" for me today.

16:35 Tim was going to got out for dinner, but just looked at the time an realised that I have to pack for coming home. Room service to the rescue, although I am unnecessarily covered in insect repellent.

July 30

07:46 Tim had homemade aloo parantha and pickle made by Geeta's Mum for breakfast. It was delish.21:27 Tim now onboard BA142 from Delhi to Heathrow. Club World seat 12K in the sharp end of the plane.

12:19 Tim is hitting a n00b tolerance wall in the office. I'm ready to come home now.

15:34 Tim has finished work and said goodbyes. I have a lovely card and an 'interesting' gift. Now I just have to kill time until take off at 02:45 . 6 hours 45 to go.

17:53 Tim killed a good amount of time with a synchronised massage at the hotel. I can confirm that double the therapists equals more the twice the enjoyment.

19:06 Tim has said a sad farewell to Mr Satpal and is checked in at Delhi airport. I am gonna miss having a driver.

July 31

06:49 Tim is back back back back yay woo yay! Landed early so trapped on the plane waiting for the buses to get to T5.

09:11 Tim had a shower, a shave, breakfast and a massage in the T5 arrivals lounge. Now in the car home, 10 mins till May! Woo!

17:09 Tim has engaged operation Surprise May Treat!

19:41 Tim is pretty pleased that May still has no idea where she's going.

21:41 Tim will put you all out of your misery. I've brought May to Bristol. Staying in the Hotel du Vin and then going o the Banksy exhibition today.