Chris Hamper

The meeting stalker

2011-09-10T09:39:00.003+02:00

Haven't updated this for almost a year. Probably because I spend so much time updating my website and physics blog that I don't have much inspiration left for this one, occasionally something happens that isn't really relevant to the physics blog but that I want to record. Such an event took place on Wednesday, actually it is referred to in the other blog but here's the full story.
After class I tend to sneak off home but on Wednesdays I am doing a course to help with preparing resources and conducting lessons for students known as ESL (English as a second language), well that's all my students apart from Hero (and maybe some first years but I don't know who they are yet) so pretty relevant. Maybe more about the course in another blog but the point is I had to wait around for an hour between the end of class and the course. Fancied a coffee so headed off to the staff room. The coffee maker there is really small so has to be filled up many times a day. No one can be bothered to wait for it to fill up so teachers have devised ways to get the coffee before the filter is empty. This time it didn't require such ingenuity.
Standing alone in the corridor with a cup of coffee is rather sad so I joined the group sitting in the staff room. They were talking about the TOK essay titles and whether they should advise students on which one to choose. Interested to see the titles sat down and had a look at the paper and started to go through the ones that were particularly relevant to physics. We had a lively discussion for a good 10 minutes which filled the time to drink my coffee nicely.
10 minutes of TOK discussion is about enough for me so I started to steer the conversation in another direction but Edmund kept bringing it back to TOK. After a while I started to think about the group and realised they were all teachers of TOK. I had sat down in a TOK meeting. Oops.
Realising that my interest might be misinterpreted as an indication that I wanted to teach the subject I made a hasty retreat.

Simon Rogers

2010-12-06T18:03:00.002+01:00

Went to the dance performance yesterday, very enjoyable. It's getting more and more difficult to be impressed by dance, there's so much of it on the TV that you get used to seeing people spinning on their head and stuff. There was a warning before the show that people with epilspsy should contact the organisers so that something could be arranged. It was because of the flashing lights, what were they going to do, supply a blindfold? There was a boy at junior school called Simon Rogers, he had epilepsy and had to wear a helmet everyday. I wonder if he still wears it, I guess its OK if he turned out to be a biker or something but what if he's a bus driver. People would think it really strange if the driver was wearing a helmet. Wouldn't inspire confidence.
It was quite a cool helmet, blue and silver if I remember correctly.

Top tips

2010-10-16T16:17:00.003+02:00

Quite a busy time since I last blogged on. Berlin at the weekend to run a workshop, back to Flekke then straight off to Stadt for a bit of surfing then The Beach for climbing. Yeah it's climbing / surfing PBL again. This must be about the 5th PBL of this type with the usual student group with the Nordic profile. Whilst instructing climbers I realised there are a couple of basic principles of climbing.
1. Stand don't flop on your feet.
2. If you can't see a hold then there probably isn't one.
3. If you don't move your feet then you can't climb higher than 2m.
And my 3 hints to improve the likelihood of catching a wave whilst surfing are:
1. paddle harder
2. paddle harder
3. paddle harder

After many years I know that my brain has been seriously damaged by too much physics teaching however this week I saw the effects of too much orienteering. People who partake in too much orienteering lose the ability to go from A - B by the most obvious route. When orienteerers climb they simply wander all over the cliff trying to avoid any suggestion of a line. I can imagine what it would be like if they entered a track race, half way round they might decided to take a diversion across the centre of the track.

Bananas Saved my Blogged up Brain

2010-10-05T11:35:00.002+02:00

I have a confession to make.
The reason I stopped blogging was because my brain got blogged up.
If you look back through the posts you'll see I was in Seville running a workshop for IB Physics teachers. I wrote a couple of entries about some shoes and strange fruit that was very sweet. The problem was that I couldn't switch off the blog brain resulting in 3 days without sleep. Some one told me that I should eat bananas to help me sleep, it didn't work but I liked the title.
I'm a bit scared of starting again in case I get the blog brain again. When you have blog brain you just can't stop thinking of blog entries, you start seeing everything from different angles which is fun until you can't switch it off.

Yearly update

2010-10-04T11:03:00.002+02:00

It is again ages since I wrote the last entry. Same excuse as before, that is that i spend enough time sat infront of my computer as it is without blogging. The shift button on my keyboard is sticky by the way which is why i am i and not I. Been a good year with regards climbing, managed another 8a+ which was a harder variation of one I (oh shift button works again) did ages ago but anyway. Got a mention in another blog Drammens granitt.
Its a whole new world here in Flekke without Jose Row and Floss who are now spread around a bit. Row hasn't spread very far as he's in Bergen but Floss is in Panama doing an exchange year. She has blown me away (blogging wise) with her blog, having said that she hasn't made an entry for a while.
So lets see how long I go before the next entry.
One thing this worthy of comment are these step counters that everyone is walking around with. the idea is that you count steps so that you walk around the world in 80 days or something like that. The walking is ok but i'm getting really sick of having to enter my steps onto the website. the idea that this is going to continue for 80 days just makes me feel sick. if I wanted to walk round the world then i'd do it. I think some contestants have already walked round the world and are heading for the sun, it'll end in tears.

Secret Santa

2009-11-30T13:28:00.002+01:00

Every year at about this time students and teachers get allocated someone to give secret presents to. So far I have received a small plastic Dinosaur and an angel, always nice to get presents, it certainly works to raise the happiness level for a short time. So far I have given one gift to my anonymous recipient. At the end of the period everyone gets to know who was their secret Santa. I remember once my recipient was trying to guess who it was, she went round all the boys she hoped had been showering her with gifts but could not find him. Eventually gave up and I was revealed as the one, the look of disappointment finding out it was me was not well concealed.

Lift me Level

2009-11-12T14:53:00.004+01:00

had a walk around the streets of Seville, around the streets near my hotel to be precise. Not much to report apart from all the oranges and the cycle tracks on the pavement. Thought pavements were for pedestrians but there are cycle lanes everywhere, don't they know that a bicycle travelling at 200km/hr can do as much damage as a car travelling at 30? Its all about momentum of course. If a very fat person is riding a bike then they would be lethal. Where I walked one had to cross a road about every 30m, wouldn't be much good for jogging, interval training would be the thing, sprinting between roads.
Was looking for shops but all I found was the hospital, obvious from all the people in white coats smoking outside. There was also a shop selling special shoes for people with one leg shorter than the other right across the road from the hospital. Quite convenient really, straight out of the hospital after the leg shortening operation and into the shop to buy a new shoe. Used to see loads of people with special built up shoes, wonder why you don't see so many these days? Probably due to financial cuts. People can't afford the shoes anymore so don't bother with the operation. Found the picture of the shoe on a website called "Lift me Level".

Strange Fruit

2009-11-12T10:33:00.002+01:00

I'm in Spain again, Seville this time, staying in a faceless hotel somewhere out of town.
Breakfast was welcome since I hadn't eaten for ages, I just can't go into restaurants on my own except at breakfast. Had the usual sausage and bacon, ws ok except that the sausage wasn't cooked. No it wasn't one of those dried ones that's not suppose to be cooked it was a pink soft one that is definitely supposed to be.
Ended up with a selection of exotic fruits, one was a cherimoya or custard apple like in the pic except that one looks unripe (or mine was rotten). Very nice but very sweet. I wonder how many spoonfulls of sugar it contains. I haven't drunk coke since I saw that campaign with the pile of sugar. Maybe they should do the same for fruit, stop everyone eating it.

Computers on in the cockpit

2009-11-01T19:46:00.003+01:00

Was interested to notice that the pilot had a laptop in front of him when I got on the plane to come to Barcelona. I thought it was strange that he was using a normal laptop like mine, peeped in to see what he was doing and glad to say he wasn't on facebook, I could imagine the entry.
Supposed to be flying this plane but decided to take a quick look at facebook instead
I hope he turned it off when the plane took off. What if the programme crashed or something.
The plane is delayed whilst updates are being made
When i went to leave the plane I walked past the air stewardess and said goodbye like you always do. I also said goodbye to some random person who happened to be standing waiting to leave their seat, thought she was a stewardess too, apparently not. Felt a bit silly.

De ja vu

2009-10-27T19:33:00.004+01:00

Marking lab reports as usual which this takes a lot of time, not that I complain about having to do too much work its my fault really. If I can't tell why a student doesn't get a sensible result i like to play around with their data to find out what's wrong. I guess I like solving problems. Talking about problems I'm trying to restore the drivers door on my triumph spitfire, it's just impossible to get flat, quite a challenge though. Nice thing about car body repairs is that if you make a mistake you just sand it down and start again. I built a car once, it came in a kit and you had to bolt it together. It was called a spartan like the one in the picture.
Drove it down to the south of France with a friend for a holiday in the sun, first problem was that we wore out a set of tyres on the trip down there because the wheels weren't aligned properly. When we got to the coast we cruised along the seafront waving at all the French people impressed with my English car. Then I crashed.
Spent the rest of the week fixing the damage.
I think I've probably written this in an earlier blog entry. I haven't done that much in my life so I'm now having to repeat myself how sad. I guess that's what happens to teachers, we repeat just say the same things day in day out for the whole of our working lives

30 years of teaching

2009-10-23T19:04:00.006+02:00

Came to an interesting conclusion today.
I the first years of teaching I spent all the time thinking about what I would say next.
After 10 years I started to think more about what the students were thinking.
after 20 years I knew what the students were thinking.
After 30 years I know what the students are thinking but sometimes don't know what I just said and occasionally write something random. I amuse myself by asking questions knowing the wrong answer students are going to give so that I can show them why the right answer is right and theirs is wrong.
Its a fun game.

Sleep reading

2009-10-20T18:46:00.003+02:00

Just waiting as office installs on my other computer so thought I'd write a blog entry. Had a horrible dream last night. I was doing a Norwegian exam lying in a bunk bed, all the papers got in a mess and I couldn't find the question paper, I think I had to write an essay about "100% sure of meeting someone" but wasn't sure so had to hunt for the paper. Didn't find it but started to write anyway and ran out of time. Terrible how the trauma of exams can affect you for the rest of your life. I always read before going to sleep, never used to but started reading after I wrote a book, I have noticed that when I close my eyes I carry on reading for about 10 minutes (I'm not really reading of course since I have my eyes closed). Have asked around and no one else has had the same experience so it seems I'm a bit special. Can't think of much use for my hidden talent, maybe I could be employed to finish off unfinished books.

Get any bites?

2009-06-30T20:18:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I went fishing for seatrout for the first time in ages. I always fish with a fly and this time I decided to fish from our little red boat. we bought the boat years ago to lend to people who rented our cabin out on the coast. I now realise that a 12 foot boat with a 4hp motor is not ideal for sea fishing. I can't stand using the motor because it makes so much noise so this year I'm not going to put it on, anyway I can almost row as fast, today I overtook a sailing boat. Fly-fishing is rather like hunting, you see the fish place the fly and hopefully reel the fish bites. Yesterday the conditions were perfect, as I drifted parallel to the bank a fish rolled over in between two clumps of sea weed, on the first drift it went for the fly but turned away at the last moment, on my second pass I got it, a 700g sea trout. It fought quite a bit and I didn't have a net so to get it in the boat I put my thumb in its mouth and slipped a finger round its gills. Guess what? It bit me. Today I took the landing net but as everyone knows when you have the net you never catch a fish.

Hartleys Jam

2009-06-29T11:58:00.002+02:00

I must be turning into a dog, just went for a walk up the mountain and the most noticeable thing was the smell, it was just like that peach flavoured iced tea. I think it was a combination of juniper, fir trees and ferns. Why is iced tea invariably peach flavoured? Peaches aren't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of tea, lemon yes peaches no. Did someone come up with the idea out of nowhere or was it a result of market forces. Did they start producing all flavours and peach sold best. Reminds me of an old advert for Hartley's jam where a woman serving cream teas in a Devon cafe goes through the whole range of jam's available.
We've got strawberry and apricot, Rasberry..........
For years (even now) I would always recite the advert any time anyone asked what kind of Jam we had.

Wall to Wall

2009-06-23T12:08:00.003+02:00

Back home after after the Ankara workshop. The flight from Munich to Oslo was overbooked so I accepted 250 Euros to go later, Yippee. Also got upgraded to business class which was cool. Funny how your personality can change just because you're sitting in a different seat, didn't like feeling a fraud for the whole journey though. Definitely more comfortable and better food down that end of the plane. Just joined facebook to find out what it's all about. Don't understand what's going on yet but I guess it will become clear, frightened of doing something foolish like writing on the wrong wall or something. I find the whole friends thing a bit strange, I can't separate the use of the word friend in facebook from the normal use of the word. I wonder what it would be like if you could register enemies.

**** would like to be your enemy do you accept
**** is now your enemy

It all seems a bit one sided friends but no enemies.
Disturbs my need for symmetry.
Maybe I just haven't found the right button yet.

Troublesome tap

2009-06-18T17:39:00.002+02:00

Now I'm in Ankara. Well I'm in a hotel room in Ankara which could be a hotel room anywhere really apart from the raki in the minibar and the nuts are called nuka. Had some technical problems on the way here. I pulled the towel to hard in the toilet at Copenhagen airport and a whole load came out, that's when I saw the just tug lightly sign. It seems there was some automatic sensor that let the towel out when your hand got near. On the plane from Munich to Ankara I couldn't turn off the water in the toilet so had to inform the flight attendant, yes I felt a bit silly saying that I didn't know how to stop the water. Maybe she thought I was one of those people who's been raised in the jungle and has never seen a tap before. In the toilet at Munich airport they have stuff for cleaning the toilet seat, I didn't spot it until I'd used the toilet so used it afterwards, assuming everyone makes the same mistake as me all will be fine.

Boat Blog

2009-06-17T18:55:00.002+02:00

Just had to do write a blog entry whilst sitting on the Fast boat going to Bergen. Amazing how you can log into the internet on a boat. I'm on my way to Ankara to lead a workshop for physics teachers. Its a beautiful journey but I usually use the time to do some preparation so don't look out of the window so much. Actually I gave my seat up to an old English guy who wanted to see the scenery, he doesn't seem to be looking at it much though, there's gratitude for you, kindness thrown back in your face.

Almond Shells

2009-06-17T13:04:00.005+02:00

Was just walking down from the mountain and saw some of those dung beetles again,the ones that roll about balls of cow dung. I'm not sure what they do with it but maybe they make houses. There is a tribe somewhere who build there houses from Cow dung, don't think it would be allowed in Norway (except for beetles).There is a building in Dale that is made from almond shells, when I first heard about this I was intrigued to find out how they made walls from almond shells. Do they stack the half shells ontop of each other or stick them to a sheet of plywood? The reality is that the shells are turned into powder mixed with loads of resin and moulded into what looks exactly like stacks of photocopy paper. Its supposed to be environmentally friendly but it doesn't look like it. Maybe its because it looks like a stack of recycled paper that makes it so environmental. We always use environmentally friendly toilet paper, I wish we used bottom friendly toilet paper.

Survival of the Physics

2009-06-16T16:11:00.003+02:00

Was in the lab today and saw some writing on the board "We survived 1st year of physics" well by the look of the handwriting you didn't. Would have been nice if it said we love physics with one of those red hearts like on the I love NY tee shirts, maybe I'll change it tomorrow. I want to get a T shirt with I love NYnorsk written on it, I don't really love NYnorsk but its a clever logo. My ability in Norwegian seems to be going downhill, I must have peaked. At this rate I'm going to have to start lessons. Thats why I only speak Norwegian to Per, get some practice. By the way Per managed the climb he was trying.

Roads are permanent

2009-06-16T15:56:00.003+02:00

You can't see it very well but in this photo there's a path winding up the hillside. It's taken years to build and its still not finished. I've heard that its being built by the son of the person who lives in that house in the middle of the picture, he's been building it for years. If you've lived at the college you might have heard him working late into the night. Quite an impressive feat for one person, not quite the building of the pyramids, more like the building of the road but not bad. The reason he is building it is because his dad is paralysed so can't go hunting in their cabin up on that mountain, when the road is finished he'll be able to. I just can't imagine taking on such a big job as carving a road up a mountain, what happens if you build the road and find it's too steep to drive up, you can't really knock it down and start again.

New belt

2009-06-15T13:32:00.003+02:00

I buy all my clothes on Ebay that means that they don't always fit properly. The other day i bought a pair of trousers that were slightly too big but would be fine with a belt. Problem is I don't have a belt and to buy one I'd have to drive for an hour so decided to make one. I took the strap from an old computer bag and some buckles from an old rucksack and sewed one together. Could only find pink cotton but never mind. Quite a good belt actually and its almost identical to Bens collar.

Strong wire

2009-06-14T15:43:00.003+02:00

About those gates that I wrote about a few posts back, I was going through them again today on the morning walk with Ben and realised how pleasant it was to go through the newly mended gates. I got a real sense of satisfaction just being able to open and close the gates without them falling to bits. Just goes to show how it is possible to turn something negative into something positive with a few meters of strong wire.

Positive thinking

2009-06-13T10:33:00.002+02:00

What you need to succeed in climbing a difficult route, or doing anything at the limit of ones ability is positive thinking. Climbing is painful and if you don't try hard you won't do it. This is what I told Per yesterday except I said it in Norwegian because I decided about a year ago that I would never speak English with Per again and I haven't, well almost I did once by mistake. Here is a bit of positive thinking; after a night of over indulgence I said to a friend that maybe we had had a bit to much to drink, he replied "well at least we didn't smoke".

Fishermans holiday

2009-06-12T20:55:00.003+02:00

Went fishing last night. Didn't catch anything but it was good to spend a night up on the mountains. Its a great area for trout fishing, the sort of place trout fishermen go to on their holidays but I can go there any time, I don't of course I seem to just go there on my holidays too.
Held Per's rope on his latest project this evening. He's trying a 7c route called Graduation out on the Haugland cliff. I put it up about 5 years ago and nobody has tried it ever since. He said that if he didn't do it this evening he wouldn't go home so I guess he's still there.

Bill Gates

2009-06-11T12:18:00.003+02:00

Every day I take Ben for a walk up the track behind our house, at this time of the year there are sheep and cows on the loose so the farmers have erected some gates, the problem is the gates aren't proper gates but made of old bits of wood and held together with wire. Everyday two of the gates collapse and have to be rebuilt before passing once on the way up and once on the way down. It simply spoils the whole experience. Today I decided to strengthen them with extra wire that I found hanging on a fence, now I feel very happy every time I go through. Bill Gates was visiting Norway the other day, I saw him on the telly talking about all the money he's giving away. What a nice chap. Pity all those pop stars on that programme Cripps on MTV don't give some of their money away, its a horrible programme but sometimes I have to watch it for 5 minutes. There has never been anyone on it that I've heard of but they are still filthy rich. Why do some normal people think that pirate copying of music is bad, if the artists didn't make so much money they wouldn't have to buy those big houses and would it be such a shame if people were no longer attracted to the music business by all the money they can earn?

Tube Fish

2009-06-09T21:45:00.003+02:00

A long day working through the IB questions in my new HL book ready to put in a website. Found out that the book came out a week ago so might get to see one soon. Have found a couple of mistakes as I've been working through the problems but nothing serious and just a few. Florence has an oral maths exam tomorrow, she has to make a story about a typical day weaving in as much relevant maths as possible.
Got up for breakfast, it was sausage and egg, the sausage was about 4cm long and 1cm in diameter, if we approximate the sausage to a cylinder we can calculate its volume blah blah blah.... Very useful
Its a bit like the group 4 project, have a day off classes and do some science, we once did one on fishes and my students were supposed to measure their velocity, but they don't go in a straight line. I wonder if you put a fish in a tube wether it would swim along it or just stay at one end, I don't think I've ever seen a fish swimming along a tube.

Muse

2009-06-08T10:30:00.003+02:00

Just sitting here waiting to get logged in so I can buy tickets to Muse when they play in Oslo later this year. Actually I'm not that cool that I know who Muse are or anything the tickets are for Rowan my son. Talking about sons Ben (our dog) has proved that even when a dog is conditioned not to do something from birth it always possible to become unconditioned. The only thing we taught him was not to come into the kitchen. We built a fence to stop him when he was little and reduced the size as he got older. After 4 and a half years he has realised that when we are not in the house we can't see him. Suddenly he is in the kitchen every time we go out eating anything left out or raiding the bin. When we come back in he hides under the bed. What a bong.

Bi-religious gay weddings

2009-06-07T13:31:00.004+02:00

Finished with that job now time to paint the house, not all of it just one of the walls at the back. Ended up using a pair of garden shears to do the grass, made a bit of a neater job I think. Bet the farmers thought I was bonkers cutting the grass with a big pair of scissors. Watched Mississippi burning the other night, I remembered Gene Hackman to be a racist bigot bad guy, turns out he's one of the good guys. I wonder how many more of my memories of people are completely wrong. Listened to something on the radio whilst driving our new car, it was two gay guys one Muslim and one Christian talking about how the church in Norway accepted them to be married in church. Good job I listened to the end of the interview, it turns out I was wrong, they weren't gay at all (I just assumed they were cos they said they'd been friends from school, hmm) one was getting married (to a woman) and the other was the best man, oops. The big news was that the priest thought it was ok to have a Muslim as best man, big deal. I think my version was better.

Scythe or Sickle

2009-06-06T18:36:00.003+02:00

Still cutting plants down. I suppose if I was really struck by an environmental conscience I would just leave the weeds standing. My dad used to do jobs like this in the holidays at our holiday cottage in Wales, yes we were one of those families the Welsh Nationalists used to hate, but we got away with out having it burned down because we are part Welsh and it was our only house since we lived in the house owned by my dads church (he was a Baptist minister). Anyway my dad liked to use a sickle rather than a scythe because he thought he might cut his legs off if he used a long one, so if I cut my legs off during the next couple of days I know his fears were founded.

Cutting Grass

2009-06-05T14:54:00.002+02:00

Decided to give the grass in front of our house its annual cut. In that respect its a bit like my hair that also only gets cut once a year but in other respects its not the same at all being green, growing out of the ground and basically having the properties of grass not hair. Actually on closer inspection its not grass at all its plants with thick stalks and big leaves (even less like hair). We've got two petrol "strimmers" but both have broken so instead of mending them I've decided to become environmental and shun fossil fuels in favour of arm power so I've been using a scythe, makes much less noise too. So I've made a start down at the bottom since its easier when the cut grass falls down hill onto the already cut bit. My next door neighbour (the potato man) has done a whole field in the time its taken me to do about 4 square meters, he's about 78 years old so has had a lot more practice.

Bath tub carving

2009-06-04T13:11:00.004+02:00

Its 2009 and I haven't posted since 2007, I must have been asleep for a long time.
Actually not I' just got a bit fed up of writing the blog for a while but now I'm back at least for today. I guess the main problem was all the book writing I've been doing. Spending 12 hours a day sat at the computer doesn't make you feel much like blogging. So the term has just ended here at RCNUWC (actually its not quite over the students are cleaning their rooms now and leave tonight) so the holiday has started. I was looking forward to a couple of months bouldering but I seem to have injured my left arm which is a shame because I have been training all winter. No books to write but I'm making websites for the solutions to my two books and the Heinemann SL Chemistry so that will keep me busy for a while. The photo is of a tree I saw when I was out walking, Norwegians like to carve cups out of those round lumps, well they could carve a bathtub out of this one.

Dreamweaver

2007-10-21T16:54:00.000+02:00

So why did they call it Dreamweaver I think it should be called Nightmare knitter. Opened it up and couldn't make head nor tail of it. A couple of hours with Edmund and it's starting to make sense but still along way to go. Solving problems is the best way to learn but when you've got about 50 of them it gets rather daunting. Why does the template not make all the pages the same, why does the sidebar keep changing and just when you think your getting somewhere have a look at the page in IE oh dear!

Massive meteors

2007-10-14T20:56:00.000+02:00

Does anyone read blogs anymore? I think Facebook has taken over. I haven't got into Facebook I think I'm a bit old to spend hours flicking from person to person seeing who's talking to who and that, at least that what it seems people do on Facebook, it all seems a bit voyeuristic. At least it certainly feels voyeuristic when I find someone has left their Facebook page open on my computer and I go in and have a look around. I suppose that should feel voyeuristic since that's exactly what it is, oops.
I say no one reads blogs but that's obviously not true after last weeks party revelations. Oh and if anyone is reading this those rumours about me finding students partying on teachers hill aren't true.
I've got a new project on the go. I thought that my publishing days were over, one half of a book (just over half actualy) was enough to put me off writing for ever. Funny thing is that after a couple of month of no writing I'm starting to miss it, along comes project number 2. I'm writing some stuff about the use of ICT in physics teaching for the IB. I thought it was just writing some text that would be turned into a website but it turns out I'm designing the site too. That will make Thomas laugh. So it's a bit of a challenge but I've a lot of support from folks here so should be ok. Plan to include instructional videos and some other neat stuff.

I've started reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. Interesting, especially the stuff about being hit by a huge meteor that would kill everyone almost instantly. Funnily enough it doesn't really bother me. If I die plus everyone that I know then there will be no one to mourn me and I won't mourn anyone else, sort of symmetric.

This picture isn't a massive meteor but it is a big boulder. Per found it in the woods. I wish I had found it, look how nice and shiny it is,

Terminally ill pets

2007-09-16T14:05:00.000+02:00

We have 3 pets, the obvious one, Ben and 2 not so obvious Guinea pigs called Missy and "The slug", not sure what the real name is but I refer to him as the slug because he's one of the smooth hair types. Not many people know about the Ginns since they don't go out much, they live in the shed and are fed by Florence twice a day. They've been there for years we are starting to get worried that they will live for ever. We used to have 3 but one injured its leg which died and started to rot, eventually the rest of its body died too. When you buy a pet the shop should tell you how long the pet is going to live, if they live too long you should be able to take them back to the shop. You could select an animal that was going to live for the time required. If you just wanted a Christmas present but didn't want the hassle of looking after a pet for life you could buy a terminally ill pet that would die after a few weeks. What a perfect gift to look after a sick animal during its last few days. Would be a perfect way to introduce children to the concept of death.

Rude Dancing

2007-09-03T20:57:00.000+02:00

So you've danced on stage once and now you think your an authority.
Well at least I can have an opinion.
When I did that faculty frolics dance it was a sort of take off / tribute to all the dances I've seen at UWC's. However over the past years I've been increasingly concerned about what dances are becoming. To get straight to the point I don't like all the rude stuff. Why do (especially the lads) have to do all this hip thrusting and phallic arm gestures, thats not dancing. I like watching the TV show "so you think you can dance", those people don't have to do all these sexual movements all the time. On Sunday I watched 2 hours of teenagers performing dances they had learnt over the past year, not a hip or forearm thrust in sight. Where's it all come from?

100 years party

2007-08-30T21:24:00.000+02:00

I've written a lot about parties in the past so it's time i wrote about our party. I tend to write about things from long ago so I guess this will come up more and more as time goes on. Must be something to do with how the brain works as you get older the older bits of memory start to resurface.
Hilary and I had this big party since we are both 50 this year, a sort of 100 years party. Not sure if it was on exactly the 100 year day and can't be bothered to work it out. About 30 people came from abroad (Britain and France). They were almost all people that we have both known for a long time and all connected in some way to the British climbing scene. We had planned a party for the saturday night but we ended up partying every night for a week.
It was great to see old friends again. Wonderful to know such a great bunch of people who came all the way to Norway and ended up doing the dishes at our party. Hilary organized pretty much all of it and I was supposed to do the food. Almost managed but not quite, was very touching the way everyone simply rallied round and got on with it.
First time I've danced to Lynyrd Skynyrd since the Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band played the dale Kroa 12 years ago. The picture is not of us dancing to this track, the movements were probably to fast to capture on a digi camera.

lillingstonheimen

2007-08-27T18:39:00.000+02:00

I've got a theory that since google own blogger then if you mention something in a blog it will come high up on a google search for that topic. I noticed this when searching for lillingstonheim my blog was first on the list. Now I am trying with lillingstonheimen to see how far up I can get. It takes some days before the text will be found by the search engine though.
Today I sent back the last of the proofs for "the book". I hope they make all the corrections cos there are some really bad errors at the moment. Not mine but the graphics department. So I guess that's it. Not a totally pleasant experience lets hope its OK and sells a few, the cash might make up for the suffering.

Seen um come seen um go

2007-08-24T18:07:00.000+02:00

The start of another year at RCNUWC and another group of students have arrived. Everyone is as always very keen to get to know everyone on the first day, name games, name badges, lists of names, wrong names changing names. I don't get this thing about names, what's wrong with taking a bit of time? If you know someones name do you know then at all. I have decided I don't do name games, I hat5e being put on a spot. I remember doing what was called "house bank" at Atlantic college. The students, who I knew very well, would come along for money and I would have to find their name on a list. Quite often I'd simply go blank and not be able to remember someones name who had been at the college for 2 years. I'd say "hmm, can't find your name on the list", they'd then hopefully point it out. Never had much of a memory that's why I did Physics. I can always remember faces though, sometimes pretend I can't if it's obvious someone can't remember me, why should I remember them if they don't remember me.
Intro week is same as ever, this year we are cutting all the small trees down that have grown behind the student houses. Here is a photo of what it was like before.

Faculty Frolics

2007-07-28T18:09:00.000+02:00

Here's a late entry from this years staff show. It's me trying to dance, a comedy item of course. Inspired by the "evolution of dance" on you tube and many dances at RCNUWC. It's not the whole thing but you get the idea.

Metallica

2007-07-28T14:20:00.000+02:00

One of the highlights of this summer was going to the Metallica concert in Oslo. Pretty good concert but managed not to stick my fingers in the air.
My son Rowan is in a band that plays some metallica tracks. The Youtube clip is of them playing enter the sandman, he's the bassist. Wish I could play the guitar but I can't.

Big Fish

2007-07-26T16:59:00.001+02:00

I haven't written for ages but this big fish has given me inspiration. Its a steinbit and weighs 9kg, caught it in a net in Flekke fjord. It will be eaten as part of a bouillabaisse that I am cooking for Hilary and my joint 50th party next weekend.
The book is finished just proof reading to be done. This is much more work than I had thought since the proofs come back with everything messed up. I spent ages getting the pictures right and they get ruined. The worst thing is that the pictures no longer appear in the correct places. Hopefully second draft will be better.
Haven't climbed ever since I bust my ankle. Will probably climb next week since we have some visitors from UK who will be wanting to vivit the local crags.

First post for a long time

2007-04-20T17:23:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post to keep this alive, or revive it from the dead?
Have been doing a lot of work on the book which is to be published by Heineman in december by the way. Managed to write about 200 pages of 1st draft whilst I was off sick with the ankle.
I no longer have the thinnest ankles in the world only the thinnest ankle, the other one is still alot thicker and will probably never get thin again. I heard that whan people take casts off broken bones the limbs are normally even thinner, was hoping for a super thin ankle but it was all swollen.
Haven't climbed or trained for ages, can't get motivated since my ankle still hurts so I know I'd be crap.

Why no blogging?

2007-01-21T14:41:00.000+01:00

Haven't blogged for a while, why's that?
The first thing that happened is that I started writing a physics text book. Can't say more than that but I'm using 6 -10 hours a day doing that so not much time to blog. Remember the things beginning with B (beard, blog 8b) well it looks like 8b is out and write a book is in. If any of my ex physics students want to have a preview and give some feedback then email me.
On the subject of B's I ticked another B on friday, I broke a bone. Slipped on the ice going to work and snapped my ankle. 2 weeks off work and 6 week in plaster. Hmm. Maybe I'll have time to blog again.
Oh, another thing. I lost the cable connecting my phone to the computer so can't upload pics.

So what happened?

2006-12-17T11:13:00.000+01:00

Just got back from a weeks climbing in Spain. I see there are a few commets on my last post. Looks like I'm going to have to expand a bit. But first I'm going to get some sleep.
OK, so here we go. I suppose it was to be expected that the board could not agree to all that was going on, the storage of alcohol and handing it out is illegal and since the school administration knew about it then they are sort of responsible. What was happening before (storing in roooms) was also illegal but no one knew about it so that was ok, haha.
The thing that gets me most is the way that some peoples opinion swing with the tide.
At the begiinning of term the whole idea did not get much support.
When it worked fine suddenly people think it's a good idea.
The board dissaprove, people are so glad that we no longer have to live with this bad situation.
Uh!
So, things can't continue as they were.
The institution can not have anything to do with alcohol consumption.
So it's up to the students.
We have had a good term, we have seen what is possible, now you just have to get on with it.
Good things to continue with:
Keep alcohol out of the rooms.
Enjoy your parties in Flekke.
Look after people when they are drunk.
Don't disturb students on campus when you return after a party.

The Natt Ugle thing is probably ok still but I'm not sure.

It's not pleasant when you think you've done something good and you end up being told off about it.

It's like a kid has just made a birthday cake for his mum. He's waiting in the kitchen thinking about how pleased his mum will be when she sees the cake he's made. Mum walks in ans scolds the little boy for all the mess.

Good whilst it lasted

2006-12-07T19:55:00.000+01:00

I want to write something about the boards decision relating to the alcohol policy on campus but I'm speechless.
Anyway.......Thanks.

Hush Puppies

2006-12-04T18:08:00.000+01:00

College Christmas dinner last night. I always make sure I get there early since there isn’t enough space to sit everyone in the canteen and I don’t like eating whilst sitting on the floor. It was nice food; it always is on this occasion. Read something on the internet about tides, I’ve always been uncomfortable about Physics text books explanation about this, they always talk about centrifugal force and the like. But I found this website that is basically about misconceptions in physics with many bad examples of incorrect explanations from text books. It has a lot about tides and now I think I understand what they’re all about. Why the big interest in physics text books? All will soon be revealed. I played in a table tennis comp today. I used to play a lot, my dad ran the local youth club so my friends and I would spend all Saturday there. I was quite good but whenever I played in a competition I was suddenly useless. My friend, Paul Toogood (Toog) was really rubbish but he was an only child and his parents took him on a table tennis coaching holiday. When he came back he still looked rubbish but thrashed us all. Toog also had the most horrible shoes any of us had ever seen, we were all glad he had them though because we had a lot of fun laughing at them. They were two tone suede. His mum had bought them for him and he couldn’t get any new ones until he worn them out. That’s why he always dragged his feet trying to wear them out. It took him several years. Good quality shoes hush puppies.

Disabilities

2006-11-29T22:25:00.000+01:00

The teachers had a training session about disability awareness lots of interesting issues about perceptions people have about disability. I broke my pelvis once and had to walk with stiff legs for a while, I remember one evening in a pub having a really hard time getting served. One of the girls giving the presentation had a three fingered hand. Well at least she can still do flemmings left hand rule (physics joke). I once climbed with someone who had a hand that looked like a blown up rubber glove, I was always scared that it would burst. In the early years of the college we had two completely blind students David and Pawel, the teachers were promised extensive training to prepare for this, I think we had half a day. The first weeks were quite tough for the two lads, sometimes one would take a wrong turn and end up in the middle of the bushes they'd sometimes be there for some time before someone could be bothered to rescue them. How they never fjell in the fjord I'll never know. David did physics which was quite a challenge for me (a bigger one for him) since physics is so visual, the smart board wouldn't be so good for him (although to come to think of it if he used a tactile screen and snowshoveller.....). I tried all sorts of tricks to help him visualise, whistling graphs, throwing things at him, pushing him round the room, sticking electrical contacts to his tongue, spinning him in his chair, exposing him to high energy radiation (the last one was a joke). When they did their exams some teachers had to describe diagrams to them, I did this in the chemistry exam. I remember they were sitting facing the triangle window in the Høegh. Once when another teacher (Mark) was with them I walked backwards and forwards past the window trying to make Mark laugh. I succeded.

Using time

2006-11-24T12:03:00.000+01:00

No time to Blog the past week and it's not just because of records and school stuff, actualy I've been doing other things too. In two weeks I'm going climbing in Spain with some guys from Bergen, there all very good climbers (half my age) so i'll be pushed, thats why I'm spending time in the TSK (that's rcnuwc speak for weights room) and on the moonboard. After font I realised that to get better I must get stronger and to get stronger I have to lift weights. It's one of the huge benefits (for me) of living here, how many people have a proffessional gym 5 minutes from their house? Talking about benefits there's been quite a bit of talk about that recently. So what are the benefits of teaching at a UWC? Well I've taught at several different schools and compared to some we have it easy. I started teaching at an inner city comprehensive school in coventry (Sidney Stringer). Large classes, no free blocks (you had to cover for absent staff and there were many). I never went home straight after school because this was a community college and as such was used in the evening by the kids and the local community. After school I would play squash or table tennis with the pupils, I was also very much involved with youth work (voluntarily) I helped organise parties on saturday evenings, very much like the Flekke Parties but wilder. I once got jumped by a gang in the street after I had kicked a bunch of kids out of the party, luckily they had an average age of about 12, I swatted a couple and went back inside. One kid refused to get off the table in class so I lifted him off, he didn't like this so said he'd get his dad onto me, i said go on then..... Big mistake. Luckily I saw him coming along the road so legged it into the headmasters room. Before moving to UWC I had never had a discusion in a Physics class, I would ask questions (like I do now) but would end up answering them all myself, that's probably why I always claim to know what everyone is thinking, mind reading used to be the only way I could get any feedback.
I have often had discusions with myself (not out loud you understand) about the amount of time I "waste" climbing, training, writing my blog, surfing etc. Why is this considered by some to be wasted time but marking homework and cleaning the house is not? I have come to the conclusion that all these activities have equal value. How did I reach that conclusion? let's just say it came to me from the heavens. Some things just don't have to have logoical explanations.

Practical Jokes

2006-11-16T19:53:00.000+01:00

I hate practical jokes. I don't mean jokes about physics practicals, I mean the plastic dog poo type of joke. What's so funny about watching someone think that there is a dog poo in the middle of the sitting room carpet, especially if you don't have a dog. The ones that hurt are even worse, i once swapped a bag of marbles for a packet of joke chewing gum. You offered the gum to someone and when they pulled it out a spring snapped closed on their thumb. I took it home and offered one to my dad and the spring inflicted pain to his thumb. The look of dissapointment on his face at receiving pain rather than a chewing gum was hilarious.. NOT. I just felt really sorry that I had done such a terrible thing. Imagine training a dog like that, heres a treat, snap ouch. So no more practical jokes ever since. Reminds me of a teacher who worked with problem kids in Coventry, he used to play trust games with them. You get them to stand blindfolded on the edge of a table, the rest of the group would stand in front and the kid on the table would fall forward in to their arms. As trust built up they would let him fall further and further until..... splat, they let him fall flat on his face.
Lesson learnt, never trust anyone.
nice one.

Family Slipper

2006-11-15T22:39:00.000+01:00

Got home from France to be greeted by the fact that my son Rowan is taller than me, he either grew about 4cm whilst i was away or I shrunk. It's a very strange feeling, not sure I like it really, maybe I'll have to buy some of those special shoes that make you taller. I've seen them in one of the free magazines we get in the post box, the ones that are full of useful things to buy.
There's one great item you can get called the "family slipper", it's like a great big long slipper with lots of foot holes in it. The hole family can sit on the sofa watching tv keeping their feet warm in the slipper. I wonder what you do with it when you haven't got it on? Probably have to by an extra long shoe rack or something. I wonder if anyone ever buys anything from these mags, I remember my dad once bought a portable shower from a similar brochure when I was a kid. It had a curtain and everything. The company making it was MFI, my dad liked it so much he bought shares in the company and made loads of money.

Paris

2006-11-12T18:18:00.000+01:00

Last night in Paris after an enjoyable week combining bouldering at Font and working here in Paris. Quite a contrast from the squalor of the gite to the luxury of the hotel. Had some good meals but feel like I've eaten too much, need to get into some serious training before my next trip to El Chorro at christmas. Going out for a "Plat de fruit de mer" this evening but after that the dieting will have to start again. The good thing about living in such a beatiful place as Flekke is that it's always good to go home. Several trips planned for next year, Lyon in March (another IB workshop) Portugal at Easter (surfing and bouldering with the family), Maybe Athens in the sumer and hopefully Paris again in the autumn. Jet setter or what. I think I have a very nice life.

Font

2006-11-09T16:34:00.000+01:00

The trip to Font has been and gone. Did a 7b+ pretty quickly on the first day plus a couple of 7a flashes and that turned out to be the high point. That's the way it is really, one good effort and then spend the rest of the week trying to recover whilst climbing every day. Had a good time though, stayed in a house with a bunch of boulderers from Norway. They went to different bouldrs each day and tried different wines each night. Trip was slightly spoilt due to the hire car getting dented whilst we were away bouldering, just couldn't come to terms with the fact that we might face a big bill when we returned it. Decided to own up rather than try to pretend nothing had happened, luckily the guy at Hertz was cool about it and we weren't charged. I won't get the demon negative thoughts out of my head until I see the bill though. Per practiced his cognitive therapy on me and managed to save the day (almost).
Now in Paris ready to lead another Physics workshop, the organisers have bought a portable version of a smart board so I'm well at home. Looking forward to eating some nice meals there are certainly a lot of good restaurants in the area.

WWF (World of Warcraft Fund)

2006-11-03T21:49:00.000+01:00

Juat packed ready to go to font. Several of the others I was going with have cancelled because they are sick or have too much on at work. I feel sick now as well, I'm not of course but I would still go even if I was.
Rowan has bought a new head set so he can talk to his virtual mates while playing World of Warcraft, I can occasionaly hear him grumbling to someone. Got up the other morning to be greeted by a wonderful autumn day, mist lying over the fjord and a sprinkling of snow covered the feilds. It was one of those sights that makes you stand and stare. I was wondering if world of warcraft players get the same buzz when they come across a particularly beautiful LANscape or see a sunset, Rowan reckons he does. So if the software developers decide to start building hotels in these beauty spots would the players get upset? Would they start to campaign to protect the virtual environment?

Will it settle

2006-11-02T13:12:00.000+01:00

First snow of the year is lying on the ground. Major mahem around the village as the flakes fell yesterday evening. When I was a kid we would always ask "will it settle"? My kids don't bother asking.

Pig Plan

2006-10-31T21:18:00.000+01:00

Lots of cafes this week. Halloween Cafe, Rainbow cafe. In this college we have lots of Cafes and lots of weeks. Pedagocical exchange week, PBL week, ski week, rainbow week etc. Found myself writing in lots of different colours on the smart board, realised it must be because it's rainbow week. Snowed a bit today, not enough to get the Africans excited, just a few flakes. The first snow is always an exciting moment since lots of students have never seen snow before. I suppose it's the same when students from Norway go to the Indian college and see their first poor person. I can just imagine them running around screaming throwing them from one to another. After a while they probably just get used to it.
Don't normaly remember much of the college meeting to be honest but did remember a couple of things from todays. It's fine to remember 80% of what you do but you have to remember to do it first and anyway once you've done it what's the point of remembering it. My philosophy is if I don't remember it it wasn't worth remembering.
On saturday, after the Asian dinner 70kg of food was thrown away. I knew it, it's the sitting on the floor thing. Your stomach is so squashed up that you can't fit any food in. But 70kg, that's a lot of food, I reckon everyone must have chucked more than I ate. That's it I'm buying a pig. They say that you have to boil waste food before you can feed it to a pig but who's going to know. No one cares what we feed to our dog so why are they so interested in pigs. Maybe we can dress it up like a dog, take it for walks and stuff and just feed it any old thing. They'll never know.

Doing my Duty

2006-10-28T22:57:00.000+02:00

Just been to the Asian show, I often wonder what I would have done in a European show if I was a student and had to present something from my culture. Suppose I'd do something funny. Not a Monty Python sketch though. Also had dinner in the cantine, Asian food. Food was good but didn't like sitting on the floor, it makes my bum hurt. I find it difficult to get the food into my mouth without spilling it all over myself. When that happens at the table it just falls back on the plate. Someone spilt a drink on the floor, problem was it wasn't just the floor it was someones seat.
Not much going on this evening, I could go down to the student disco but it's not really my scene. Have to go there later anyway since I'm supposed to be on duty. "On duty" is a strange concept, basically it means you get this embarassingly old mobile that you have to walk around with all weekend (it hasn't even got a camera). You can't go anywhere in case someone rings but no one ever does. I wonder if anyone actualy knows what the number is. I used to like discos, my dad ran a youth club and every saturday night me and my friends would go there, one of them was the DJ and he'd try to play black sabbath, deep purple and led zep all night. Occasionally the skinheads would make him play Desmond Dekker or some other reggae and they'd dance in a line.
Better get down to the village see what's going off. Call in on the disco, they'll probably be playing that Indian (?) tune that seems to be all the rage at the moment, since it Asian day and all. It's not really posible to speak in there so I'll just pop in to prove that I've done my duty.

I was right

Blogamonial

2006-10-26T13:25:00.000+02:00

Haven't blogged for ages, was pretty busy at the weekend roasting Lamb fo 42. Made Sushi too but forgot that you're supposed to have soy sauce with it. Guess what, a Japanese lady turned up. Managed to get away with it in a Basil Fawlty sort of way.
Have spent too many hours at the computer and have a got a sore shoulder, not good news the week before going to Font. Looks like moonboard.no is going to be finished, an ex student of mine is opening the biggest climbing complex in Oslo and is going to include a moonboard, hopefully will launch the site when it opens.
Just got an invite to run a workshop in Lyon on the new physics syllabus next march, that should be fun. Got some good feedback on my physics pages, knowing that my work is being appreciated means more then any money I might have made trying to sell it.
The anual trstimonial writing has begun again, problem is I can't stop writing in blog style.

In common with all RCNUWC students John is studying for the IB, that's the exam system we use here. Sort of academics and other stuff made into a package. Not like when I was at school when we just did 3 subjects. Anyway, John is taking four HL and three SL, don't know why he's doing so many HL subjects since three is the norm, must be some kind of masochist or something, if I was him I'd probably stick to three. Suppose it's a good thing really, shows he likes a challenge. Outside the classroom he is actively involved in relaxation activity which is a bit of a strange thing to say, i mean how can you be actively involved in relaxation. So to sum up this student, likes a challenge but knows when to stop.

Shrooms

2006-10-17T16:00:00.000+02:00

Found these mushrooms today, they are false chanterelles. First time I found them I didn't know and picked them thinking they were the real thing. Gave some to some friends of Hilaries and we all ate them for breakfast. That week on TV was a programme about mushroom picking;
"And these are false chanterelles not to be confused with the real thing. Although not poisonous they can cause halucinations in some people". Oops
Didn't have halucinations by the way, unless of course my perfectly normal day at work was a hallucination and I was actualy lying on my back next to the breakfast table all day. I guess I'll never know.
By the way you can tell the difference quite easily, the real ones have "gills" that branch the false ones don't, for the record here is the real thing. I wonder if the false ones are illegal? Some magic ones are. I always thought it strange how something can be sitting in a field quite naturally but if you pick it you can end up in prison. What if one stuck to your shoe or something.

Nerd or not

2006-10-14T19:39:00.000+02:00

Haven't had much time to write on this blog too busy surfing and then blogging about that see here. Just have to stick this picture here too though

It's not my best wave ever but it is my best picture of me on a wave ever. As they say in the surfing world I was quite stoked. Think I'll get back into surfing for a while. Rowan is into it too so no problem finding someone to surf with.

That's ma boy.

Appart from surfing had a major problem with my computer. Got "virus bust". Took me all night to get rid of it but I think I'm clean now though. Was quite proud of myself.
Once i'd sorted that out I was feeling quite nerdy so started to work on my new physics website. Started this a month or so ago when the intranet was playing up. It's mainly for physics teachers but I'm sure the hints on assessment will make things clearer to students too. It's not finished but I couldn't wait any longer. Chris Hamper's Physics pages

Signature

2006-10-06T19:40:00.000+02:00

e
We've tripled our bandwidth that's why I'm posting so much.
My phone rang three tiomes in the space of 10minutes in class today. Kept pressing busy but maybe they weren't phoning from a mobile and didn't get the message. Eventualy I rang back. At breakfast Rowan had asked me to sign a form so he could have an injection so I did.

It may not be neat but I think most people that have seen it know it's mine. Anyway it wasn't good enough for the person in question, she said a two year old might have done it. Funny how the bank, mastercard, the british embassy and Ola Hovland all accept this signature but not her. Her argument was that she couldn't be be sure it was me who had signed it, well that's not surprising since she hadn't see it before. Rowan might have forged it, but if I had printed my name he could have forged that too and anyway who in their right mind would forge a signature so that they could get an injection (I said in their right mind). She also said that my children might be adversley affected by it, that made me quite angry, it's my signature and I will do it how I want to do it, surely that must be some sort of human write.

Surfs up

2006-10-06T16:15:00.000+02:00

Yippeee. I'm going surfing next week and the surf forecast is fantastic.
Baically it means there will be waves and the wind will be at times off shore.
I still get excited when I know I'm going to be doing something that I love doing. Some people think it's best not to get too excited incase it's not as good as you expect. I believe that you should enjoy the waiting incase it's not as good as you expect. That's why it's good to plan ahead so your life is full of these high points to look forward to, enjoy and then look back on.
After the surfing trip it's bouldering at Fontainbleau during November break. The thing is I actually enjoy the bits inbetween too, although I can't say that I look forward to them in quite the same way.

My favourite Sandwich

2006-10-05T16:56:00.000+02:00

I’ve just had my usual lunch of peanut butter, honey and banana on cold wholemeal toast (left over from breakfast). I would add cottage cheese but we haven’t got any. When I eat this it reminds me of climbing, I always ate this when I was into serious training many years ago. It has calories, protein and fibre, I think it’s the perfect lunch. I have had an idea for years of producing a UWC sandwich book. We’ve had recipe books in the past but often the recipes don’t work. The college mag had a recipe recently that should have been called instant fire alarm, sandwiches are much easier to make. The book would be a collection of favourite sandwich toppings with a short paragraph of what the topping means to the writer (like what I just wrote). Maybe a photo to illustrate the contributor in a relevant setting (can’t include one today since I’ve just eaten it). The contributions could be collected online from students past and present. Do other people have a favourite sandwich topping or is it just me?

Microsoft me

2006-10-05T16:55:00.000+02:00

no blogging? Difficult to do when no internet. That’s why I’m writing this offline, not that you’d know. Seems quite strange writing in word, it’s like talking to yourself. When writing in Blogger I feel like I’m having a conversation with someone. Word also picks up all my spelling mistakes which I now find quite annoying (not to mention grammar). So this isn’t really me it’s me filtered through word, “microsoft me”. We’ve been having PEW that stands for “Pedagogical exchange week”. Teachers visit other classes. I’ve been to History, Maths HL and Chemistry. I’ve learnt that:

Writing a history essay is like writing a lab report. Description, analysis, conclusion, evaluation. So that’s where I went wrong 35 years ago.

I can understand Maths HL much better now than when I did A’level maths 30 years ago. It would be good for physics students if math’s teachers sometimes used other letters rather than x and y. s and t for example.

Chemists still use the same apparatus that I used 37 years ago. Surely there is a better method than adding liquids drop by drop. Repeated measurement will reduce random errors but not systematic ones. Why not have a thinner spout, pressurize the liquid and add the liquid in a fine spray? Why do chemists measure volume and not mass?

Recipe for 10 year fried Fish

2006-09-29T13:11:00.000+02:00

1. Move to Norway and buy second hand fly rod, practice lots of casting on dry land before tying on a fly.
2. Buy books on fly tying and learn to tie your own fly, this takes ages and you will soon find yourself spending more time tying flies than fishing. You will also spend loads of money buying every type of feather.
3. Continue trying to tie a flie that looks like the one in the book.
4. Remind yourself that it was fishing you were interested in not tying bunches of feathers.
5. Teach yourself to cast again spend this year fishing lakes and small streams before venturing onto the big river.
6. Catch your first fish on fly, a small trout.
7. Your first day on the salmon river, you won't catch anything of course.
8. Buy more books and equipment, you don't have to read the books or use the equipment but having spent all this money will make you more determined.
9. Catch your first Salmon, put it in the freezer for that big celebration.
10. Fry the fish for a bunch of appreciative students on a Global Concerns day.

It wasn't really my first salmon by the way.

Frogheads

2006-09-27T21:33:00.000+02:00

Someone anonymous asked me to upload a picture of the student with a bald head. Tried to track him down in the night but couldn't find him. Had to make do with this frog. It was trying to climb Norway house, well his head is about as smooth as the frogs.

Skinheads

2006-09-26T22:08:00.000+02:00

Over the years there have been many surprise bald heads in the student community and there is one now. I've never shaved my head, i think it's something to do with a fear of skinheads throughout my youth. I guess they are still around today, more associated with the far right than football. When I was a kid they wore drainpipe trousers with braces, check shirts and Doc Marten boots. There were a few of them at the school I went to (a rough comprehensive) and they were to be avoided at all costs. I didn't like the idea of fighting and have managed to avoid it thoughout my whole life. At school I was friends with all the best fighter so no one ever picked on me. At the weekends my dad ran the youthclub that I went to so I was protected there too. When walking on my own I learnt to keep my eyes on the ground thereby avoiding any potentialy dangerous eye contact. This has proved very useful when looking for mushrooms. There was once some troble at a party when some uninvited guests started a fight, it is the only time I ever hit anyone, however the guy was already on the ground at the time, as I said I had some handy friends. I felt really bad about this for ages afterwards.

Video no input

2006-09-23T10:41:00.000+02:00

For anyone here at the college more than about 3 years ago "video no input" was a regular announcement at the college meetings. In those days we had a huge ceiling mounted projector with 3 coloured lights at the front, it would be lowered whenever a video was to be shown at the college meeting. There would always be a minute or two to read the message "video no input" while those working it remembered that it didn't work. We now have a much smaller digital version with a different message, something like "searching for computer 1". There is a climb named after this message at the cliff, if I ever do my final project there I'll name it after the new message.
Read an article on training tips the other day. One of the tips for people training alone was to video yourself. Tried this last night and it works a treat, it's just like having an audience. Would post one of the videos but the quality from my phone is very bad and they all came out sideways.
Still haven't been into that new building yet (The Knowledge centre) I think I am now developing a phobia/obsession about going in there. I wonder if I can spend the rest of my life working at the college and never go in? Will see how long I can last. It looks very nice through the large windows, very bright, a bit like the inside of a LIDL store (another place I have never been inside). The windows are in fact so clean you can't see the glass. I walked into a glass window in Førde a year ago when the new shopping centre was opened. My kids were really embarassed not just because I walked into it but the way I played to the crowd afterwards.
Bang
"What the..."
"Who put that there. "
"Should have had a sign on it."
Should have had a sign on it? It would be like the Norwegian classroom, Vindu.

Kast Masken

2006-09-21T18:16:00.000+02:00

Went to a parents evening yesterday in Dale. It was a special evening where the parents saw a bit of theatre about drugs and alcohol (mainly alcohol). Rowans class had seen the same thing the day before followed by some work shops. After the first 5min I realised thjat I had seen it before 2 years ago when Josie was in 10th class aargh... too late to escape and anyway I had cadged a lift so didn't have a car with me. 2 hours of the Norwegian version of how to teach young people about alcohol. The message was basicaly tell them they shouldn't drink. Hmmm, now I see why there is a problem.
There was some interesting statistics and some even more interesting conclusions.
1. Young people that begin to drink at an early age are more likely to develop an alcohol problem. Conclusion: If you stop young people drinking until they are 18 they are less likely to have a problem. Maybe it's not that simple?

2. 65% of teenagers had drunk alcohol before they were 18. 65% of parents think their kids don't drink. Conclusion: since these numbers are the same all parents who think their children don't drink must be wrong (I can't remember the exact figures here but this point about the numbers being about the same was made). Well what about the 35% of teenagers that actualy don't drink, quite a lot of the parents are right.

3. Drinking underage is like driving a car underage. Not exactly, try driving a car past a policeman at the age of 16 and see if you just get told to stop.
On the whole they did a good job and I'm sure the kids got something out of it, certainly better to talk about these things than to pretend nothing is happening. I just wished they hadn't been so Norskcentric. Maybe they could have looked at what happens in other countries and tried to learn from it.
Just booked my ticket to Paris in November, going to have a few days bouldering at Font. Feel quite motiovated to train at the moment so maybe i'll manage something I haven't done before. Eclipse 7c would be great. Have found a website where you can watch videos of the problems, here think I'll be spending a few hours logged into that site.

Hands

2006-09-17T21:45:00.000+02:00

This post is supposed to have a picture of my hand on it but my phone won't connect at the moment.(it's there now) Anyway, if you could see my hand (you can) it's all brown, looks like I've been to an Indian wedding or something. Not so many Indian wedings in Flekke so it's not that, in fact it's because I've been stoning plums again. Also the skin is peeling off on the first joint of my middle finger, I've been bouldering every day for the past 3 days. Superb conditions as it cools off in the evening. Am making progress on a project at Iglekjøn jumping for a sloper, caught it a couple of times but couldn't latch on hence the peeling skin. I've also been trying out some recipes, although you copuldn't tell from my hands, made a Tart Tatin (caramelised apple tart). Took a slice round to the potatoe man hope he likes it.
I'm supposed to be making a presentation about natural food for a Global Concerns on health. I think I'll start with something about bouldering. It's bouldering and walking Ben that first connects me to nature, the food comes second. Today I picked some mushrooms and we had them in a Rissotto for dinner. Sort of rounds off the day. I've been in the nature all day and now the nature is in me. I always say that when you eat food you've picked or caught the taste reminds you of the day you've had. Today it really did, I didn't clean the mushrooms properly and one or two of them tasted of soil and moss.

Tony Hawks

2006-09-14T19:17:00.000+02:00

Last week a student (female) walked past me with a skateboard under her arm, good job it wasn't 20 years ago, she'd have been arrested. Skateboarding was illegal, they have some funny laws in Norway. There is another one, if you commit a crime, even murder, and don't get caught after 20 years then the case is closed and you can run around telling everyone about it without worrying that you'll be locked up. I read about that one in the local paper so I may have got it completely wrong. So if you had a skate board 20 years ago you can admit it now in complete safety.
Anyway, this student spent the afternoon trying to skate down the slope outside the Ekbo building, actualy she could have been trying to go up since the gradient was imperceptible. I was impressed by the her determination, it reminded me of when I started to surf, totally useless but determined. Next time she's out I'll get a photo.
Skateboarding is a sport that impresses me greatly, much more than for example olympic gymnastics. The difference is that skateboarders don't have coaches, training schedules, special diets, drugs (they probably do but not performance enhancing ones) , pushy parents or any of the other aids available to the main stream athlete. They just get out there and rip. Have you seen what some of these kids can do? I often watch extreme sports channel so I've seen it all.

30 years ago

2006-09-13T16:31:00.000+02:00

An old friend sent this photo of me when I was at university 30 years ago.
I'm the one in the middle. Strange thing is I look exactly the same and am doing exactly the same thing. I think the last 30 years of my life have been just a long dream and I am actualy still 19. Or maybe the photo has aged.

Flitting or surfing?

2006-09-12T20:31:00.000+02:00

Another 6 tablets flashed so almost back to full computational power in the Physics lab. I've been playing with google web creator, think I might make my own physics web pages. Quite alot of effort uploading all the diagrams and pics but will be much more fancy than the subject pages. The subject pages on the college intranet are a great but very under used facility at present the college has two systems for teachers to share files with students, a web interface (w3) and a system of folders on the internal network. It's difficult to convince people of the benefits of using a web based system as opposed to public directories. It's a big problem with the rate of progress in the ICT world, once people get comfortable with one system they don't like to change to another so you end up running two parallel systems (three actualy, I forgot about paper). By the time everyone is using w3 I'll have got bored with that and will have moved on to my own web page.
Have decided to run a surfing project this year instead of my usual climbing trip to "the beach". One of the sudents has a kite board hopefully get a go on that if the surfs not too big, never quite worked out how yoou're supposed to come back to the beach with one of those things so may have to continue to Shetland. My first board was bright pink and yellow stripes, I think I looked a bit of a sight battling through the waves with my home made wetsuit and matching pink and yellow hat (I have a pic somewhere that I'll scan). I was so fanatical that every holiday, even in the winter, I dragged Hilary and the 3 babies round europe visiting all the hot surfing spots. The problem was I wasn't exactly a natural talent so spent the first two years being tossed around occasionaly being hit on the head by my or someone elses surfboard. Broke my nose in Brittany, almost broke my neck in Biaritz and am sure that I died and came back to life at Hossegor. Eventualy I got the hang of it and had three great years surfing several times week then I moved to Norway.......
So I never refer to flitting from site to site on the web as surfing, that is something altogether more difficult.

Flekke Party

2006-09-10T11:39:00.000+02:00

So we had the first Flekke Party of the term and I suppose some people want to know how it was. Well pretty good actualy. There was a nice cafe downstairs selling food to raise money for humanitarian projects in Lebanon, the main disturbance there was when the ceiling started shaking due to excessive dancing on the second floor. Over 150 students turned up some drank alcohol but a lot didn't, all arrived orderly and sober and left orderly and happy. A couple maybe wished that they hadn't had so much but 97% gave a good demonstration of how to drink to have fun rather than how to drink to get drunk. We were all given a very good demonstration of how not to do it by a group of lads whose names do not appear on our student database. The demonstration was fairly comprehensive starting with the tiresome and obvious attempts to get through the door, followed by the over friendly approach. A skillfull switch in tactics enabled one group to get a free lift to another location leaving the remainder to continue their persistant attempts to score. After the inevitable half hour sleep in the car park the final act was predictably a rather pathetic punch up between members of the same team. Enough of the Norwegain approach.
So it seemed like a great success, the return to campus was quiet although I can't comment on how it was for the room mates that didn't go to the party. I'll be making a simple questionaire later today so we can try to quantify the succuess.
I tried to take some pictures but they didn't come out to well, I've included one anyway, just think of it as one of those blurred arty sort of photos.
Apart from that I have been reinstalling everything onto my new bigger, faster hard drive. I can't believe how quiet the computer is. Got another bag of plums. Since I'm on duty I have been eating in the Kantine, yesterday was the students favourite, chicken and rice. Dry Chicken and very dry rice with no sauce. It was certainly edible but I derived no pleasure from it. Hmm my next project..........

Landmat

2006-09-07T20:32:00.000+02:00

Landmat is the name of the catering company Are Morten and I are setting up. The name is derived fromLandmark , one of the families who lived in Lilingstoheim where we will be serving food. Although it isn't a real Norwegian word if it was it would mean food from the country which is what we will be making, the slogan could be:

Landmat
Food fromthis land
Recipes from another

Now we need a logo. I was thinking that we should find an old signature of one of the Landmark family and use the same style but change it from mark to mat. We could also use a picture of one of the old landmarks under the writing, or maybe an outline of lillingstonheim. Not very good at this sort of thing anyone got any ideas?

We have made a rough calendar for the year, the first will be a sushi to start flowed by Crab with fresh bread and real mayonaise. For Desert I'm thinking of Tart Tatin, this is an apple tart baked upside down so the apples caramelise and the pastry stays nice and crisp. An excellent autumnal desert.
By the way, if anyone doubts how seriously the students consider policy cahnges at the college here is a picture of some of them during the last Althing discussion. Is that serious or what?

Squirrel nutkins

2006-09-06T14:31:00.000+02:00

Was at Raudbua the other evening just seeing if the routes were dry, Ben spotted a squirrel up on the cliff. Ben frightened him and he shot up one of the unclimbed lines (Lisa i Li). Very impressive to watch especially the huge jump from the last hold to a tree hanging over the top. Have started having lunch at Raudbua, I just like sitting there, maybe I'l move into the Lavvu.
It's the first of the new style Flekke Parties this weekend, hope it goes well, very impressed with the organisation so far.
Have 6 tablets working at last so feel more at home in the lab again, Projector stopped working this morning considered going home and abandoning class. Turned out to be a loose connection. Probably because of all the vibration caused by the building work outside. It's the new boathouse that's being built to house the new boats.
Getting into Google Mail but still don't like the ads. I reckon it could solve all my problems. What I want to be able to do is to open an attachment ammend it with my tablet pen (i.e mark) then send it back without having to download and re-attach. I can then use google mail for storing all my marked work. What do you reckon Thomas? possible?

Very Sad

2006-09-04T22:25:00.000+02:00

Just to test out google mail (see previous post) to see how good it is at finding relevant sites based on email content I sent myself the following message:
"I am very sad and need to find a friend"
It's not true, just testing a theory.

These are the sites that I was refered to:
Novi Sad Putnik
Love Quotes
Dostawa do domu i biura
Punjabi Sad Song

Well I'm afraid all I can say to that is Dostawa do domu i biura.

Plumming the depths

2006-09-04T21:53:00.000+02:00

Regular readers might remember I asked my neighbour (the potato man) if I could have his blackberries, he said he wanted them but I could have some plums instead. I'd probably never have this conversation in English but when speaking Norwegian I seem to be able to say pretty much anything and get away with it. On my way home today he jumped into the road waving for me to stop (remember he's about 80). Since I was on a bike and not exactly speeding along (thin legs) I managed to stop in good time. He told me the plums were ripe and we arranged to meet at 7:30. He wasn't sure if the message had gotten through so he visited another neighbour to ask where he should meet me, neighbour two then came round to make sure that I had understood. This is getting rather complicated so I'll stop there. The point of the story is that it's not only the foreigner who is confused by the locals but the locals are equally confused by the foreigner. Any way I got 6kg of plums and another mm into the local community. I made jam.
So we've now moved to Google Mail, very flash perfect for someone like me who never organises mails into files - no need now I can search - and never deletes mails - huge capacity. There are a couple of things I don't like though. I don't like cyberspace googling my mail and telling me which sites I should look at based on the content of my communications. I don't like being told when I have no mail that I could always read the news, I'm just waiting for the dating sites to start apppearing after a couple of days with no mail. (I wonder, if my name is mentioned does a link to here appears, probably not since I'm not paying google anything) But what I really hate is the fact that the back button doesn't work, that's cruel.

Presents.com

2006-09-01T21:11:00.000+02:00

Still a positive feeling about the flekke parties hopefully we'll only have owls and no vultures. It's interesting this idea that if someone sees another person breaking the law then they are also breaking the law. Lock me away.
Ordered a new hard drive for the hp hope that sorts the problem, this tablet keyboards is just to small, think I should but a lamp for my desk too, can't see what I'm typing. Internet seems to be off more than on hence the lack of posts of late.
My new climbing shoes arrived today can't wait to try them on my new (bolted today) super hard raudbua project. One good thing about being grown up is you can send off for things that arrive in the post, it's like having a birthday when ever you want, actualy it's better since you are not sure exactly which day the parcel will arrive so the excitement goes on and on. Just thought of a new internet idea for lonely people. You enter in all sorts of personal details, pay some money and you get presents sent to you. There could be different options like birthday and christmas, random, on demand, one big one, lots of little ones etc. etc. If you want to do it just go ahead I won't mind the idea being stolen I'd hate having to wrap all those presents up.
Checked out if the domain was in use, seems to taken by a black page.

Electronic Noticeboard

2006-08-30T18:45:00.000+02:00

f
Stefanie suggested last year that we should have an electronic noticeboard well here it is. As the technology begins to fail I realise how much I now depend on it. Today I couldn't print anythng so my new first years didn't get the homework that they were all expecting, internet failed as I opened a Java applet and I realised that Thomas was right I do need a new hard drive. Talking of Thomas I also realise there is no way I can carry on with snowshoveller pity to see a project with so much potential left on the shelf.
Did the last of the "big three" at Raudbua last night, feet popped off and I pulled a muscle in my shoulder. Hopefully get to myggvegggen before the end of the season. Went on the moonboard on monday, feeling strong but it is soooo hot in there.
Just got back from a very pleasant evening visiting some of my advisees "at home". It's my new term resolution to visit my advisees more often, don't want people to think I only communicate online.

First class

2006-08-28T08:56:00.000+02:00

Here I am sitting in my room waiting for my first class of first years to arrive. Projector on, tablet connected, ready to go. Always a bit difficult to get going after such a long holiday .
Well maybe not First Class but we're off.
More alcohol meetings this week, wil be good to get this new policy understood and accepted by all, problem is it hasn't really been presented to students and staff yet so there is a lot of missinformation flying around.
Just installing XP back on my other computer, hope I haven't screwed up and end up losing all my files. Think I'll get a new one next term, I fancy a fast tablet then I won't have to carry two machines everywhere.

Mud

2006-08-27T19:43:00.000+02:00

Now I have dowloaded software on the faithful tablet so can do pics again.
This one is of intro week after doing the raudbua path. Was out there today, met one of my neighbours, they were very pleased with the new path.

Partitioned Harddrive

2006-08-26T14:25:00.000+02:00

My computer has crashed, can't get in to do anything. Have partitioned the harddrive and now need to re-instal XP. So for the moment no pics since the phone software is on the other machine. Could borrow Hilaries camera I suppose.
Intro week was fine and the Raudbua path is much improved (pics to follow). The "wine cellar" is apparentlly full of bottles ans it's not only wine. This is a huge step, never achieved before. Students and staff are still unclear about the details. Some students wanted their booze back last night to drink in the old style "off campus" way. It would be a disaster if this whole thing fell apart on the first weekend. The first party is on the 9th, hold on. The party organised by ex students that John and I went to is often used as an example of how a flekke party should be run (by John and me) so thanks to the group of 4th years who showed the way and lets hope that the first one is like that.
Looks like there are some keen climbers in the first year so that's good news. One of my first year advisees told me he'd been reading my blog all summer, maybe that's why he didn't ask me anything, already knows what I think.
Looking forward to teaching on monday although haven't a clue what I will do yet. If it doesn't rain I'll go to Raudbua today, found out on wednesday that my final project isn't that hard, should be in the bag this weekend.

First Day at School

2006-08-22T10:02:00.000+02:00

Lots of students having their first day, what do I remember about first days at school?
Kindegarten: Ripping my coat in the struggle to get me out of the understairs cupboard where I had hidden in an atempt to avoid going.
Infant school: Swapping jokes with my new best friend in the playground. Suddenly laughing for no reason and saying that I'd thought of a funny joke even though I hadn't.
Secondary school: Just glad I wasn't the kid with the short trousers and the badge sewn on upside down.
University: Why do all the other first year students know each other and it's only me walking around alone. Luckily I had climbing to turn to during these times. Was it because of climbing all the time that I didn't know anyone apart from climbers or without climbing wouldn't I know anybody?

Processes and Blackberries

2006-08-21T11:08:00.000+02:00

OK, I got the process wrong. Announcement will be made tomorrow when the first years get here. That seems pretty sensible since they are part of this community too. Met with the group helping with the Raudbua path project, I think they realised what my motivation was. Have spotted some very nice looking blackberries by the road, they are in the potato mans field I'll have to pluck up the courage to ask if I can pick them. Maybe if I give him a Blackberry pie or some jam in return he'd let me have some. On the way to work I pass a hedge with an incredible variety of plants in it including wild hops, elderberries, raspberries, redcurrants and a load more non edible things I'm not interested in. Wonder why there are so many plants in one hedge. Hope I can get out climbing this week.

Parties and Processes

2006-08-21T09:42:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was the first Althing of the year and the way students deal with alcohol was discussed, some students tried to also discuss the way staff deal with alcohol but this didn't get very far. Basicaly there are two problems; first there are students who want to drink and second there are students who don't want to be disturbed by the ones who drink. In the past there has been drinking in the rooms, this is illegal and not nice for those in the room who don't want to be around people who are drunk. In the past we have tried a "sensible drinking " arrangement but lets get real (as Tony Macoun would say) we are the Nordic College after all and Nordic culture is not all friluftsliv, folk dance and kringla baking. From the Althing a small group met and finalised some details, this was fed to the Student Council who will report back to the student body in about half an hour. So what's the idea?
It will be made very clear to all students that the time to drink is at off campus parties. These will be put in the calendar so everyone can see when they are and can save their duty free stash for the correct occasion.
All alcohol will be stored in a wine cellar / booze cupboard this will be monitored by a student group. This will be opened before parties to allow students to select their finest wine.
There will be adults present at off campus parties (not the small group ones in cabins) to help out if needed. The role of the adults will be as Natt Ugle (see previous post). The adults will also be present when students return to campus just to make sure noone is disturbed.
So far I have a good feeling about this. I think all sides want it to work. Lets see.

Legal performance enhancement

2006-08-20T08:56:00.000+02:00

Was out at Raudbua the other night, actualy spent the whole night there with Ben, Rowan had his friwnds round all night playing computer games so I took Ben away. Met Cato there for a bouldering session and completed two of my projects. The effect of an audience on performance should never be underestimated. I wonder if anyone has ever quantified this, world record with and without audience for example. In sportclimbing it's not such a problem because you always have the person holding the rope to perform infront of but bouldering is often done alone. I suppose half the students are back now but I haven't seen one yet, later today there is a satff and student meeting, we call these meetings "Althing" after an Icelandic gathering from the viking times. It's part of the democratic process by which changes at the college take place, lets see what happens.

Hugs

2006-08-18T10:46:00.000+02:00

Almost time for the students to start arriving and the hugging to start. It's something I've never been comfortable with partly cultural mostly personal. It's not a big deal, just uncomfortable. I don't know if it's a uwc thing or an international youth thing but when ever the students arrive back from a trip they always hug each other and if I am in the target area I get hugged too. It's fine when it's someone that you know but often it will be people that I've never spoken to and don't even know the name of. Here is a common scenario; I'm standing with three other staff/students, student x (who is well known to the people I am with) comes along and starts hugging the others but forgets to stop when they get to me, a person who they have hardly seen before. The Hug only happens the first time you meet someone, so if I am in the same situation and someone I have met and hugged already comes along , all the others get a hug and I don't. This also feels awkward as the others give me that look as if to say, "well you're not very popular" so to counteract this I will make some sort of noise translated to mean "yes we met earlier today no need to hug again" followed by a hand on the shoulder or something. When the first years arrive things get worse, suddenly I become best mate to all second years. Second year walks past with three first years "Hi Chris how were the holidays, do some good climbs?" "Yeah hi, who are you?"
I quite like these few days with loads of friends.
.

Clogs

2006-08-17T18:32:00.000+02:00

More meetings and things seem to be moving in the right direction, will be interesting when the students come back to see how some of the ideas are received. Blogs came up as a replacement for the CAS diary (A Clog perhaps) was surprised how few people knew I had a blog, it's not that difficult to find. If blogs are going to be used as a way for students to reflect on their daily life then some people will have to get used to reading things that they don't like reading. If you ask someone to write down their honest thoughts and feelings then sometimes you might not like what you read. I wonder how long it will take before someone is asked to remove something. Have started running with Rowan, was surprised that I could still do it after 8 years with not every day being exactly condusive to honing the running skills if you see what I mean.
I always have a strange feeling the day after doing a really hard climb, I have this internal excitement that no one knows about, a sort of smug satisfaction that I have done something really good, like doing something a bit naughty that you can't talk about. No point in trying to tell anyone they wouldn't understand anyway. I register all my routes on a website (8a.nu) so at least my climbing friends will know.

Vesle Daniel

2006-08-16T21:10:00.000+02:00

I did my project, the plan worked. Boulder for two weeks to increase power and try again. It's very powerful and dynamic. The exploding powerhouse is back! Vesle Daniel 8a.
I have written quite a few posts about the role of the advisor and today the staff discussed this topic. One suggestion was to have a fixed hourly meeting each week, I must admit I'm not keen on that one. I agree that there should be more possible contact time (for those who need it) but why put it all at the same time. I prefer a less rigid solution that all advisors select their own time. I would personally like to spend an hour or so down in the village maybe visit a room if invited (hint hint). Problem is that as soon as visiting rooms is mentioned some people think of checking up on students, I honestly don't. I just think it might be good to make myself more available and also see a bit more of the student life down there. Replacing the college meeting with an advisor slot was also mentioned (by me). I reckon it would be more efficient dissemination of info. if all advisors got a bulletin that they could go through. It would mean people would have to be a bit more organised though (Might be a good way to make that happen). In the afternoon we talked about this pedagogic platform thing, it's the ideological basis of everything we do here. We also had some small group work trying to come up with some projects to promote cooperative learning. I'm not sure about pushing this team building thing, the satff here is a strong set of individual performers,why should we work as a team when we aren't playing a team game. I'd rather look at the strengths of the group and see how we can make the most of them.

Staff Meetings

2006-08-16T13:26:00.000+02:00

I'm not going to post all the details here but we've made a start to the year and have actualy being trying to get down to some nitty gritty although haven't actualy resolved anything yet. Main issue of the morning was how to increase the contact time between advisor and student. Several suggestions, no decisions. This afternoon it's the "pedagogic platform". Not sure what that is but maybe I'll know after the meeting. Hopefully it won't go on to long because I've arranged to go climbing at 16:30. Raubua of course but this time with a rope. Going to try the project, hopefully the last two weeks intense bouldering will have given me the increased power necessary, we'll see. Going to see if I can get all my advisees to start blogs this year, that way I can follow what they are doing and they won't have to do a CAS diary. I'll still meet them as before of course.

Deep Mountaineering

2006-08-13T12:14:00.000+02:00

When people ask where I have been this summer they may think the answer is a bit sad. I've basically been to Raudbua, to be more precise I've been to a boulder at Raudbua. In fact I've spent a lot of the past week on one bit of a boulder, actualy one hold. (see chalk marks in photo) This hold has been brushed to perfection, studied from every angle and eventualy used to create a three star problem that may never be done again. Why? As a physics teacher I never answer the question why, maybe the question "what for" is more appropriate, however I can't answer that one either. Arne Næss talks about "Deep Ecology". Taking a small piece of earth and looking deeply into it. He believes that you don't need to look at breathtaking views and glowing orange sunsets to be able to appreciate the environment. I think bouldering is like "deep mountaineering". In visiting Raudbua boulder I believe I am experiencing something like that experienced by mountaineers in the Himalayas but in a condensed version. It is also very much to do with finding this thing in nature and making a lot of effort to physically connect with it. I wouldn't say that I am "at one with the stone" but we do have some connection and it has taking a lot of effort to make it.
Just found this about deep ecology in an Introduction to deep ecology by Michael Zimmerman; "The second component of deep ecology is what Arnie Naess calls the need for human self-realization. Instead of identifying with our egos or our immediate families, we would learn to identify with trees and animals and plants (or rocks), indeed the whole ecosphere."
Well, well.

GM

2006-08-12T15:07:00.000+02:00

Hilary pointed out these horrendous caterpillars in our Garden, they were working as a team eating their way along a branch stripping it of all it's leaves. I wonder if they could be genetically modified to eat paint, they could then be used to strip old paint from the walls of houses. May be difficult to confine them to only the houses that needed stripping though. Great for paint manufactures. Then we'd need bug number two that repaints the house. Earlier in the summer I found an even worse lavae that was boring into a large piece of wood. Too frightening to photograph. Spent the night at Raudbua with Ben, saw an Eagle when we got up, it must have been roosting on the cliff.

Last of the Mokringlas

2006-08-11T11:01:00.000+02:00

Didn't go surfing but did have a good bouldering session, can feel the difference now it's a few degrees cooler. Should try the project on the Raudbua roof soon, feeling strong. Hit my shin trying one project, I'll have to borrow one of Rowan's shin pads for my next attempt. He won't be needing them now he's given up football. Trouble with the football scene is that if you aren't quite good enough to make the first team then you end up driving miles to get to a match then sitting on the bench for an hour and a half. The trainers have one thing in focus - to win - nothing else matters. Had a phone call late the other night from Are Morten, he is keen to set up 3 or 4 dates for theme dinner evenings at Lillingstonheim. Will be a good start to my new career. have been watching "master chef goes large". Competitors try to impress judges to get a job in a top restaurant. Seems a bit of a strange competition, they are all middle aged people looking for a shortcut to a new life. Can't see how you can sudenly become a chef without all the training. Will hopefully be making my last batch of Kringla today.

Holidays not over yet

2006-08-09T12:18:00.000+02:00

That's a nice way of saying the holiday is nearly over. The spiders have all gone, they've retreated to the trees where they are sitting in their nests. I never realised how short the web season was. International Sheep Rescue just got another call, going to have a look on friday. May go surfing today, surf forecast is quite good. Went to Raudbua yesterday evening, did a direct start to Salvador. Hilary and the kids now back home, Ben went wild when they arrived as usual, wonder how he'll be when Jelena gets back. Students don't get back for another week but meetings start on monday, hopefully tackle some of the issues from last term, wonder if alcohol and parties will get a mention. After contacting the IB about 10 of the exam grades went up so that was good news.

Wallpaper

2006-08-05T18:32:00.000+02:00

Well, two posts in one day! Just thought that those of you who are used to seeing my desktop projected onto the clasroom wall might like to know that I have changed my background. It's a piece of the boulder at Raudbua. Wonder what sort of rock it is? The chalky hold is the first hold on salvador Dale.

Spiders

2006-08-05T18:16:00.000+02:00

So we have had infestations of midges, horse flies and now spiders. Seems logical really that the peak in the spider population should follow the flying insect population. Problem with spiders is they make webs across all the paths, when I walk to Raudbua I have to walk through hundreds. It seems such a shame to ruin all the spiders hard work so I try to duck under or walk around but such is the construction that even if you just catch one thread the whole lot folds sending the spider running for the nearest tree. There is one particular one that is there everyday,I tried to photograph it but realised that it needs not only a low sun but the web needs to be covered in water droplets. One morning, after a shower they were showing up great but I forgot the telephone. I think I'll have to cheat with a water spray. I tried to avoid one particularly fine web yesterday but caught it by mistake, as the web folded I actualy said sorry. I guess the spider won't have understood but will have probably realised I was one of those polite Englishmen.
Have been continuing my Raudbua campaign. Got all the neighbours talking when I started carrying sacks full of wood chippings out to the boulder. I was using it to make a nice landing. Thinking of making a sort of guttering so that water doesn't drain down the rock. Have completetd three more problems but am working on three hard projects. The one next to Salvador Dale is called the Dale Lama.
By the way, the library is coming on well.

International Sheep Rescue

2006-08-01T20:58:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening I had several phone calls regarding a sheep that was trapped on a ledge somewhere up a mountain. Since everyone knows about my rock climbing habit I sometimes get calls like this and as a responsible member of the community feel the duty to respond. Actualy this is one of those rare opportunities when I don't feel like the helpless foreign idiot and can actually use my skills to help someone. So early this morning I got picked up by the owner of the sheep in question and was driven up into the hills. After an hour and a half walking there it was stood on a ledge to the left of a gulley. It's offspring was also there, on the other side of the gulley, the two could not reach each other. If the lamb had any sense (they don't generally) it could have walked off to the left and walked round to meet it's mum. Anyway I set off climbing up vertical grass, slippy loose rock and mossy ledges to fix a rope to a bush/tree above the sheep. The idea was to abseil between mum and child and force each to go down in different directions. As I was fixing the rope the lamb made my job easier by trying to run across a vertical wall, as anyone who has tried this will testify it's not possible (even though Tony Hawks does it on X Box). Unfortunately the lamb died, I felt quite upset about it, seemed such a shame. Strange really since if saved the lamb would have been sent to the slaughter house. At least then it would have been eaten. Probably being eaten by Eagles right now. Anyway to cut a long story short after a bit of swinging on the end of the rope managed to lower mum to safety. I guess she wasn't so happy about Larry though.

Salvador Dale

2006-07-31T17:56:00.000+02:00

Haven't posted for a while and it's not because I've been painting the house. Bouldering wise; flashed a 7a+ of Cato's at Kvammen, that's the hardest grade problem I've flashed. Also have been developing a new boulder at Raudbua, I saw this one for the first time about 6 years ago but never bothered to develop it. Now I've started brushing and digging I have unearthed another classic boulder to add to the Haugland circuit. So far I've done one problem I've called it Salvador Dale, grade 7a+ of course. Reason for the name; the boulder looks like something from a salvador Dali painting. All other problems will take their names from his works. I used to have a poster of "Metamorphosis of narcicus" on my wall at university, I used to spend hours staring at it. Lat weekend was Are Morten and Ranghilds wedding. First time to a Norwegian wedding although this wasn't typical. Weekend before was Are's utdrikningslag (stag night) we went cruising round the fjord in his 175HP rigid hull inflatable. Lots of drinking although I was quite sensible copared to some of the others. Still don't know the story with the results, quite depressing when you work harder than normal and get worse results, awaiting the inquiry. Hilary and the kids are in London, I'm staying at home to look after Ben, didn't fancy going to London to be honest although I'll miss out on some good meals, English Beer, Billy Elliot, curry........ I blew it.

Drygolin Extreme

2006-07-20T20:39:00.000+02:00

So much for the exploding powerhouse, Knut did quite a few of the hardest problems without too much difficulty, he's a lot taller than me though (he says with bottom lip stuck out). He also tried a project at Iglekjøn, got quite close but Cato got closer. I got nowhere, I'm blaming lack of hieght and that's that.
Today went to Raudbua, Are Morten held my rope whist I worked the moves on Vesla Daniel. Got all the moves but haven't tried to link them all. It's going to be a brutal but classic 8a. Very powerful undercut moves on a very steep wall with little in the way of footholds.
Have been doing some painting on the house. Bought a high pressure hose which I used to blast off the old paint (as instucted by man in harware shop), went to the paint shop and got told off for using a high pressure hose, it'll push too much water into the wood. So who do I believe. I'm sure I've seen loads of people using these hoses to clean walls before painting. Then got taken for the idiot that I am (when painting is concerned) and got sold the most expensive paint in the world, 1400 Kroner for 10 ltr. I think it was the name that did it for me it's called Drygolin Extreme, couldn't resist it. I mean where do I think we live, In a light house or something?

Exploding powerhouse

2006-07-17T14:06:00.001+02:00

Weather cleared up for the weekend so went climbing. Was so keen to climb that I over did it a bit and now have very sore toes due to wearing my shoes too long and clipping my nails too short. Saturday got a text from Anders and met him at Myggen. He had two projects to clear out of the way, he did both and I repeated both. I think they were around the 6c to 7a mark. I also tried to onsight a route of his from last year Høvding dogfoot 7b. I couldn't work out the last move so I got the beta and had to settle for a flash. Was pleased to get it on flash since the last move wasn't easy.
When I got home had a message from Knut who was staying in Dale. He has had a very good year climbing many hard problems around the world including a couple of 8a's so I was keen to see how he foung the Haugland boulders. Well he is very strong and managed to flash slope JP and repeated the crown, he also had a look at sit down to macoun but thought it might be impossible. Watching Knut boulder I was most impressed by his explosive power on dynamic moves rather than his static strength. He could propel himself off slopers with great speed. This is how he did JP, barely touching the slopers on the way past. I think this is what I will work on next winter, explosive power. After all I was once famously described as "an exploding power house in the modern gymnastic style" so there we go.