Serre Chevalier – New Year 07/08

As we have done in recent years, we headed of for some snowboarding over New Year. Our destination this year was Serre Chevalier, mainly chosen due to a) it being a couple of hours drive from Turin and Grenoble, b) having hotels willing to have guests for a few days rather than a full week and c) World Snowboard Guide giving it a 10/10 rating.

We stayed in Monetier les Bains, also referred to as Serre Chevalier 1500, the highest of the villages, in the Hotel Le Rif Blanc. The hotel was on a half board basis with a continental buffet style breakfast and a 3 or 4 course dinner. Our room was small, (for only 4 nights this didn’t bother us) but clean and warm. Monetier was a lovely village, and wasn’t built up and as touristy as other resorts we’ve been to over the past few years. It had a supermarket, butchers, bakers, several bars and restaurants as well as ski and snowboard rental places.

Serre Chevalier as a resort is pretty large, with access along the valley floor by bus to different starting off points, and along the slopes via a series of interconnecting lifts and pistes. There are a lot of drag lifts around Serre Chevalier, but we managed 3.5 days on the slopes without having to go near one without compromising on our coverage of the mountain. The pistes are well marked, like the marker Richard is standing next to in the picture, with a count down from the top of the run to the bottom, and coloured according to the colour of the run – this is the same as the system used in Avoriaz and the Portes Du Soleil.

We’ll probably return to Serre Chevalier sometime, and will again try and base ourselves at Monetier.

More Snowboarding at New Year photos.

GPS tracks:
New Years Day
New Years Eve
30th December
29th December

NaVloPoMo 2007 Screening

This afternoon we spent a couple of hours at The Werks watching the highlights of the NaVloPoMo 2007 project. Some of the films were funny, some were sad, a lot were well thought out with a story to tell.

I used the video feature on my phone and recorded snippets of the afternoon, which I’ve edited in iMovie as a tribute.

I don’t think I should give up the photography and switch to video any time soon :-). Having said that Node 101 is a skill swap style idea to help people learn how to produce video, so if it gets off the ground in Brighton, maybe I should head along.

Big Food

A brilliant weekend. First, we find huge parsnips:

Richard and parsnips

Second, Neela and Ash visit Brighton (which is superb in itself) we end up at Bill’s where we find huge cake:

Neela and cake

Hurrah.

Switching to Final Cut

I’ve been noodling around in iMovie for a few years, but there was plenty just bugging me and slowing me down with it. Mostly I found that going back and editing a sequence could really screw up the timing of the whole movie. So the logical thing to do was to move on, and I decided to move on to Final Cut Express (version 3.5 when I bought it).

Here’s what happens: you install Final Cut and all the tools it comes with, fire it up all excited, and… panic. Then get frustrated that you’re doing less than you could in iMovie. Then get depressed. What I did, pretty much the same day I installed Final Cut, was go out and get a copy of Final Cut Express HD 3.5 Editing. I found the book exactly what I needed, with a DVD containing sample projects I could work through to check I was getting the right end product, and a section on moving from iMovie to FCE. Recommended.

I’ve also found a couple of vodcasts that were helpful: Creative COW Final Cut Pro Podcast and Final Cut Help Podcast.

Turns out it’s not so daunting after all, but of course I always knew I could just phone Ray…

Economist Audio Edition

For six months or so I’ve been grabbing the audio edition of The Economist. It’s superb in terms of quality and mad in terms of size. Each week they churn out about 6 hours of word-for-word reading of the week’s articles (the christmas edition was over 9 hours). That’s a lot of stuff, and they manage to get this out by the end of Friday every week.

It’s not a substitute for the newspaper for a couple of reasons. First, the download is a ZIP of MP3 files (which is fine), but you have to guess if you want to listen to a story based on a rather short file name. I find I can make better decisions on what I want to read by flipping through the print edition. The second reason you don’t want to rely on the audio is that the print and web editions include graphics, which are often excellent. Check out the free daily charts web site if you don’t believe me.

Vintage ToonCast


Casper the friendly ghost
Originally uploaded by Jane Dallaway

I’m now a happy owner of a lovely iPod Touch and so headed off to the iTunes podcast directory in search of good video podcasts to make the most of my lovely new screen. I’ve no idea how I stumbled upon the Vintage ToonCast but I’m happy I did.

The image is from Casper the friendly ghost, a sentimental cartoon that really appealed to me.

If anyone has any other recommendations for good video podcasts, then please let me know.

Happy Christmas


Gifts
Originally uploaded by Jane Dallaway

Richard and I have spent the last couple of days with his folks in Margate. We’ve taken a couple of walks with the dog, watched 2 excited great-nephews open their own body weight in presents and munched our way through turkey, sausages, bacon, roast potatoes and plenty of vegetables. Lovely!

Final Cut December

Tonight is the December Final Cut screening at Komedia, and I’ve not had chance to blog about the last one I went to in October. As it starts in an hour and a half, I’ll just quickly say it’s an evening of short films. All sorts of short films: funny, serious, animated, local… I’m not sure if there are any rules.

We primarily went in October to see Dave’s Work Socks, but I enjoyed every minute of the whole evening. Go to it, it’s good.

Tonight is a Christmas special. With mince pies… but I’m going to miss it. 7:30 at Komedia, £4 on the door.

Pie Season

Pie

Mince pie season has kicked off for me, starting with a six pack from KaiOrganic in nearby Hove.

These are billed as “filled with naturally fruity mincemeat laced with cognac”. This is incorrect. It should say “absolutely packed” not just simply “filled”. The filling is not only generous, but very tasty. Quite rich, as you would expect for a mince pie. Working outwards we encounter the pastry, which is sweet and soft, rating around 2 or 3 on the Crumb Drop Scale. A light dusting of icing sugar gives the impression of a home made quality product.

The packaging is a reassuringly flimsily cardboard box with a large cellophane window, sealed with a silver label along one edge. Inside the pies are further sealed in two rows, each of three pies each. In our tests 2/3rds of the pies suffered significant damaged in transit. So take care.

Our rating: Buy! Plus, being organic, and having a short shelf-life, you have a great excuse to munch your way through the lot.

Ingredients: Mincemeat (raisins, sultanas, currants, sunflower oil, sugar, apple juice, oranges (juice and zest), lemons (juice and zest), dried apples, mixed spice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, flakes almonds, cognac, cinnamon), Self raising flow (wheat flower, raising agent* (calcium phosphates, sodium carbonate), sugar, margarine (sunflower oil, palm oil, coconut oil, carrot, juice, emulsifier: lecithin*, lemon juice, natural flavouring*), Unsalted butter, water*, icing sugar (sugar, corn flower). All organic except when indicated by *.
Allergens: Gluten, nuts, sesame.
Suitable for: vegetarians.
Suitable for home freezing.

Availability: available throughout Sussex.

The Crumb Drop Scale:

  • 5 – Pieces of pastry explode off the pie or pastry at high speed, making “ping” noises as they hits crockery. Someone comments: “you could’ve had an eye out with that”.
  • 4 – You look down at your shirt, or lap, in horror at the amount of crumbs.
  • 3 – Light flaking: may be difficult to contain in a strong breeze.
  • 2 – Very little crumb drop. Slight risk of small flakes adhering to the lip.
  • 1 – A solid pastry producing no crumbs at all. Consider returning the pie to the store.