Snow, Snow, Quick, Quick, Snow...

Now it's pretty clear why progress was erratic for so many participants on the Monte Carlo Historique rally. Just look at these conditions:


Peter Barker and Willy Cave plow through very slushy conditions on their way from St Etienne to Gap in their ex-Works Morris Mini Cooper.


A 911 goes off -another victim of "Porsche pendulum effect".


A Citroen Maserati SM gets out of shape, blocks the road and causes a traffic jam (I bet that crew was popular!).


A venerable Citroen Light 15 gets a helping hand from spectators.


Rear engined Alpine Renaults thrived in these conditions (BTW, just look at the negative camber on rear wheels).


A Fiat Abarth 124 storms along despite the treacherous conditions.


A tiny Fiat 500 maintains good traction unlike the macho Austin Healey 3000.


A Lancia Fulvia HF 1600 struggles for grip. Note to co-driver: Dude, your car is frontwheel drive and I think it would be better if you sat on the bonnet...!


The mid-engine weight distribution of the Porsche-VW 914s gave them a huge advantage.


The MkII Innocenti Mini of Laloge and Borremans placed 38th overall -the highest of all the Coopers. I would say from this picture that they are using 13" diameter wheels; 12" at minimum. It's easier to get snow tyres for these larger diameters but as far as I know only the original 10" wheels are homologated and thus legal.

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2006: Final Results

Well here are the final, official, results. Porsches occupy the first three places and four of the top 10 spots. The highest ranked Mini was 38th although I note that as with 2005, the Col de Turini stage was won by a Cooper (well done to car no. 78 driven by Albuzza and Colpani for upholding the honours). Judging by the enormous time penalties -97 minutes by the outright winners, 138+ minutes by the 10th placed car, the weather conditions must have been chaotic. My analysis seems to be borne out by the fact that only 252 cars out of an original 363 starters were classified at the end of the final stage. Geoff O'nion and David Wilkinson finished bravely in 222 place and Peter Barker and Willy Cave manged to claw their way up to 149 which was a gallant fight back from their upset on the Classification Stage. I'll try to talk to Geoff O'nion in the next few days and get some first hand reports so watch this space for a bit more commentary.Now I'm off to plot how Mad Dog rallying is going to compete in the 2007 event...

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2006: Progress Report 3

Peter Barker and Willy Cave at the finish of the MCH rally last year. Photo courtesy Christian Malin.

By now all the car that have struggled through the mountains are parked on the quayside in Monte Carlo and the crews are nervously awaiting the start of the dreaded night loop over the Col de Turini where Bill and I came adrift last year. I've been studying the posted results on the ACM website in minute detail of the past few days. There a lot of discrepancies but I have deduced the following:

Geoff O'nion and David Wilkinson clearly had a bad day yesterday after their brilliant start. The were "non-efectuée" for Stages 7 and 8 yesterday and 9 and 10 today. So either they were delayed by the weather and didn't think it was worth risking life and limb today or they suffered damage and/or mechanical problems. Peter Barker and Willy Cave were "non-efectuée" on Stage 3 but have been valiantly fighting their way back through the field and are now lying 195 out of the 287 cars left in the running.

The attrition rate seems unusually high this year and I suspect that the weather is to blame but as yet I have no first hand information. Currently there are three Porsche 914s in the top 10 (two 914/6 and one 914/4) and one 911. After three decades of being treated snottily by other Porsche owners, these cars finally seem to be showing their worth.

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2006: Progress Report 2

Geoff O'nion "parking" on the 2001 Winter Challenge rally: amazingly he completed the event.

I'm worried. This morning when I checked the ACM site, Geoff O'nion and David Wilkinson were running 40th overall and first in class; a great result for a 997cc Cooper which gives away 300cc to other cars in its group. That was after the first regularity run of the day -the St. Laurent en Royans to La Chapelle en Vercors. On the second stage the crew had fallen back to 153 place overall and incurred more than 4000 penalty points. Something obviously went wrong and looking at the fortunes of other crews I'd guess that the weather was probably to blame. However I'm more concerned that Geoff and David have not even recorded times for the next two regularity stages. Furthermore they are not on the "retired" list. I hope they are ok. Geoff is a very able rally driver and a noted "hard charger". Please keep your fingers crossed...

PS MD would be grateful for any more detailed information anyone has on the event. Please email me if you can help.

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2006: Progress Report 1

Goeff O'nion on the 2005 Monte Carlo Historique rally

Regular visitors to this site will have noted that I've been whining about not competing on the Monte Carlo Historique rally this year. So ever since the event started on Friday evening I've been living vicariously through the Automobile Club de Monaco's website. Notable results to date are:

The regularity first stage (St. Felicien) was won by Kurt Schimitzek and Michael Kronenberg in a Mini Cooper S (Yay!) who zeroed the stage with no penalty points. A nigh on impossible feat as the timing is measured to 1/100 of a second. A brilliant result.

Mad Dog pal and former Cooper Car Co team member, Geoff O'nion and crew member David Wilkinson in their 997cc Cooper drove consistently throughout all four stages of the Classification Run and finished the day in 46th place and second in class. Geoff's engine was built by Bill Richards so this result is not surprising.

Rally veterans Peter Barker and Willy Cave, also Cooper Car Co compatriots, made a good start but had a misadventure on the third regularity stage and incurred 3000 penalty points and are now in 257th place out of the 318 cars still running.

At the end of the Classification stages, Porsches (three 911s, a 914/6 and a 356c) occupy five of the top 10 places including 1st 2nd. Bugger! The highest placed Mini is running 14th (Treves and Calegari).

A quick survey of the prevailing weather in south east France looks like conditions are treacherous which should favour smaller, more nimble cars. I'll report again tomorrow when I have more information.

Another Mad Dog -No Relation

The Mad Dogs and Englishmen Citroen 2CV rally car.

Well it seems that we are not the only Mad Dog rally team on the planet. I came across this crew of certifiable lunatics while roaming around the web just recently. Actually I'm unbelievably impressed. While my own rally driving effforts are quite superficially macho with lots of revs, opposite lock and power slides, its all done with a car in top condition, driving through civilised countries and (more recently) with a service crew to look after us when things go south. Furthermore the whole event, including return to the UK, is over in 7 days and almost everynight is spent in a comfortable bed (OK, OK, we spent most of one night on the side of a mountain when we crashed last year but you know what I mean).

On the other hand these guys spend 4-5 weeks driving 10,000 miles in (by the definition of the rally organisers) a crap car from London to Mongolia and endure all sorts of hardships including bandits, corrupt officials and marauding yaks, not to mention every kind of road surface possible. One of the aims seems to be to collect bizarre stories to tell in the pub afterwards although apparently the primary purpose is to raise money to buy cows. The whole thing sounds unbelievably difficult, dangerous, hilarious and very worthy: I raise my glass to you all with the utmost respect and admiration. Oh and do check out the Mongol Rally website: it makes a very good read.

Oh, and needless to say a couple of total maniacs did the 2005 event in a Mini...!

Rallying Rumifications

Timo Makinnen and Paul Easter on ther way to a famous victory in the 1965 Monte Carlo rally.

The 9th Monte Carlo Historique rally is due to start in two days and all I can do is "spectate" through the Automobile Club de Monaco's website. Some great names of motorsport will be competing including Clay Regazzoni, Antonio Sainz (brother of Carlos), Yves Jouanny, Alain Lopes, Erik Comas to name but a few. A total of 352 crews in all. I feel really left out and you can expect a few rally reports and commentary over the next few days.

Oh and before you ask (and I'll say this very quietely) -Seattle is today enjoying brilliant sunshine and the temperature is a very pleasant 52°F.

Super Bowl 2006

Seattle Seahawks fans in clouds of celebratory confetti yesterday.
Picture from the Seattle PI.

While not a particularly avid devotee of spectator sports, I note that the Seattle Seahawks yesterday bludgeoned (apologies to real football fans but I don't know the verb of choice) their way past the Carolina Panthers to reach the Super Bowl finals in Detroit where they will entertain the Pittsburgh Steelers on February 5. This is the first time the Seahawks have been in an SB final and I wish them well.

Still Raining

It's still raining in Seattle although the relentless downfall has eased off a little and now we have intermittent showers. What's more the weather forecast says that sunshine is possible for the Sunday and the early part of next week. Please keep your fingers crossed as I'm fed up with singing...!

Observations

Now this looks like fun (from the perspective of a middle-aged male with questionably arrested development)...!

This is shameful, if true. I note the person concerned hawks a perfume; -I wonder what it smells like?

And this is just a sad loss.

Feeling Left Out

Classic photo of a Mini Cooper on the 1963 MC rally close to the spot where the MD car crashed last year.

Four times in the past six years I've spent early January marking up maps, fussing about tyres, working on logistics and otherwise preparing for long distance winter rallying to the South of France. This year the Mad Dog team will not be competing because of pre-existing work and personal commitments. The situation can't be helped but I'm feeling distinctly left out. Roll on 2007...!

Mad Dog's Morning... typical!

Today I got off to a bad start and I'm now lurking behind my desk hoping no one will hold an unscheduled meeting that requires me to move in the next hour. So what exactly is the issue?

Well it's still raining in Seattle and on my way in to work I thought I'd cheer myself up with a cup of coffee so I duly headed off to the local Starbucks drive-through. Now it may be that I brought the following incident on myself as I'm fundamentally opposed to the dispensation of comestibles by drive-through means (i) the potential for error is high and you are miles away before you realise that you received someone else's (invariably disgusting) order; (ii) it's usually slower than parking, going into the place and ordering at the counter; (iii) it promotes laziness and unnecessary use of cars and (iv) I generally try to support the independent coffee shops. But hell, it was raining hard so I ignored my rules, zoomed up to the window and ordered my beverage. Unfortunately I should have listened to my inner voices as this visit proved no exception to the rule. As the barista passed me my coffee, the cup (a grande) clonked the window frame, knocking the lid off and half of the hand-crafted, decaffinated, non-fat, cappuccino was deposited in my lap. The discomfort to my nether regions was nothing compared my embarrassment at the prospect of looking like an incontinent old fart. The barista fussed and apologised profusely, possibly thinking I would bring a multi-million dollar law suit aginst her (now there's a thought), gave me a zillion paper napkins and topped up my drink. I then completed my journey and slunk into work, making sure my raincoat was buttoned up. So now I'm sitting at my desk feeling more than a bit damp and hoping I'll dry out in the very near future. Typical!

Rain, Rain, go to Spain

I'm rarely bothered by the weather but it's now rained for 30 consecutive days in Seattle and the forecast is for more of the same for at least the next 5-10 days. I feel like I'm going to get Trench Foot if this goes on much longer. The cats don't like it either and are urging me to build an ark. I'd love to get away to somewhere warm and dry for a couple of weeks. Spain, for instance.

Murphy's Law

Isn't it just typical?! Earlier today Steve Jobs at Apple Computer unveiled the new Mac Book Pro line of laptops built around Intel microprocessors. These machines are considerably faster than their iBook and PowerBook predecessors and look capable of performing all sorts of amazing computational feats. So why my ire? Because last Friday I splashed out on a brand new iBook G4 (Mac Book Amateur?) and it has now become obsolete in four days. This must be a record. Before buying my new machine I specifically asked (yes, it's a split infinitive; -don't interrupt me just now as I'm not in the mood for nit-pickery) if a new range of computers was due out soon. The answer was "We don't know". I bet you didn't. Bastards!

Fruit Cake Recipe

I seem to be in a food and drink phase lately. Hardly surprising considering the season, I suppose. Anyway to maintain the leitmotif here's another. Several readers have commented on or requested the recipe for the fruit cake I described on Boxing Day. So here it is.

This recipe is from my Mother, the late E.E. 'Frida' Morrow. It’s virtually bulletproof. The cake is very rich and sustaining and I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t loved it. It’s great on cold winter afternoons and evenings and it’s fantastic sustenance when hiking or engaging in other such outdoor pursuits. Indeed it was virtually the official foodstuff of the Mad Dog rally team on last year's Monte Carlo Historique rally and even served as survival rations when Bill and I crashed around midnight just below the summit of the Col de Turini (height 1600 meters) and spent several hours freezing our rear ends off before Jim and Juliette Wirtz rescued us.

In more conventional circumsatances, the cake was served up at high days and holidays; typically Christmas and Easter with birthdays thrown in. It’s very good when covered with layers of marzipan and hard sugar icing. Ideally it should be prepared a couple of months before consumption as it becomes very moist and absolutely delicious when stored in a cool dark place for a period of time. In this time it can be “fed” with sherry or rum according to taste.

Ingredients
•350g (12oz) butter
•150g (6oz) plain flour
•150g (6oz) self-raising flour
•150g (6oz) white sugar
•150g (6oz) soft brown sugar
•6 eggs
•150g (6oz) glacé cherries (chopped Maraschino cherries will do)
•150g (6oz) finely chopped almonds
•225g (8oz) raisins
•450g (16oz) sultanas (golden raisins in the US)
•450g (16oz) currants
• half a teaspoon of mixed spices (cinnamon and nutmeg)
• half a tbsp of vanilla flavoring or powder
• half a glass of sherry, port or rum, to taste
• a small pack of toasted almonds for decoration (optional)

Beat sugar and butter to a thick cream, then add eggs one at a time (do this by hand, electric mixers seem to destroy the texture; if the butter is hard microwave it first). Sift flours and mix plain and self-raising. Add mixed spices and vanilla and sherry/rum. Slowly mix (do not beat) flour to butter then gradually add fruit. I like to decorate the top with whole almonds. Bake slowly, 150°C (300°F) for one hr. and 140°C (275°F) for 2 1/2 hrs. Allow to cool for at least eight hours.

Now it's 2006

Happy New Year!

I'm feeling very optimistic.

Now, if you'll excuse me I'm off to find some ibuprofen...

Fags, Blags and Slags

My penchant for low-brow entertainment was given a treat over the past few days. While pre-Christmas browsing on Amazon, I located a double DVD containing both of The Sweeney movies for the bargain price of $14. So I settled down in front of the television with a nice single malt (well several, actually) and transported myself back 30 years to the era of flared trousers, kipper ties and autmotive icons like the Austin Princess (which makes the AMC Pacer look like a Rolls Royce). Now for those of you not resident in the UK or simply too young, The Sweeney was a wonderful TV cop series that really changed the shape of the genre. Its two lead characters "Regan" and "Carter" were played by the late great John Thaw and Dennis Waterman respectively (curious that the these characters' names were of American Presidents but as neither were elected before the start of the series this has to be a coincidence). The hallmark of this wildly popular programme as well as the two spin-out movies was a gritty realism that was carried by a gloriously pithy script by Troy Kennedy-Martin (yes he of the original Italian Job) -all fags, slags, blags and shags. For the time the violence, bad language and sexual content was quite shocking. American offerings of the period such as Starsky and Hutch couldn't come close. Unfortunately political correcteness has ensured that we'll never see the like of this material again. Oh, well...

Postscript. On re-reading this post I thought I'd add a glossary of some English slang words found in The Sweeney to aid comprehension by non-British readers. So from the Mad Dog Dictionary I offer the following definitions:
Fag = Cigarette.
Blag = Armed robbery.
Slag = Low class individual of either sex, likely to be a criminal.
Shag = Oh come on, you've all seen Austin Powers by now!

Final SETI

Somehow this seems a bit sad but the original Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project ceased to give out work units just before Christmas. This little screen saver had been chugging away on all the computers I owned or had influence over since August 1999 looking for signs of space aliens. It was the first time I has come across distributed computing and back then seemed like a great project for the New Millenium. I don't think I found ET although several IT helpdesk people seemed to find the churning multi-colour graphs visually annoying and technically(from the standpoint of my computer) quite dubious. Personally I liked the graphics and miss the perpetually ongoing calculations. Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a screensaver. I'm not going to install the Son-of-SETI, otherwise known as BOINC as it looks very prosaic and appears to be a mish-mash of worthy but dull projects that don't inspire. And in any case I don't feel inclined to help in the rational design of a blockbuster drug without the promise of a share in the royalties!

If anybody has any suggestions for an interesting replacement screensaver (and not that wretched aquarium thing) please let me know...

PS Note the name of my account on the SETI screen shows an email address that ceased to be functional in 2001: please don't write to me there!

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is the time to break out the fruit cake (as if I needed any more food). This one I baked myself. I use my Mother's recipe. It's quite foolproof and the cake is invariably delicious although has the density of a black hole -you know, super dense matter collapsed around its own weight. Yum! Tomorrow I'd better get back to the gym...

Season's Greetings

Photo of Mad Dog's kennels, Bellevue, Washington


Merry Christmas to All!

There is no Sanity Clause

Oh goodness, tis the night before Christmas and I've finally got time to blog. I'm really sorry everbody but the pre-holiday period has been very stressful and work has been relentless so there's been little time for writing. Still deadlines have been met, the house has been decorated, presents have been bought and wrapped and I'm finally in a position to sit down with a glass of wine and relax a bit. Indeed I'm feeling quite festive. Handel's Messiah is being give its annual airing and the house if full of cooking smells. All very pleasant and soothing after a rather bruisng year. Even the cats seem more jolly than usual. So in the true holiday spirit I've hung out my stocking in the hope that Santa might drop something in it. I gather from the best brains in the country (indeed rocket scientists) at NORAD that he's been sighted nearby...

Routemaster Buses

Unfortunately this is another obituary. Britons everywhere are mourning the passing of the iconic doubledecker Routemaster bus which is being superseded by much more practical but quite charmless and decidely foreign-looking articulated things. That's progress I suppose. I'd no idea there were so many bus anoraks, though.

World Cup 2006

First Round Draw Results
England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

Well, no Group of Death here! This must be the easiest first round for decades. Will Sven's boys proceed beyond this? (I hope so but am not very convinced; recent performances seem to be lacking). But things could be much worse and I'm remaining optimistic...

The Smell of Victory

Well I'm hugely relieved to know that Dubya and cronies now have a plan for victory in Iraq although it might have been better to have formulated it three years ago!

Anagrams

Thanks to some silliness at the The Disgruntled Chemist, I now know that rearranging the letters of "George Bush" gives "He bugs Gore", "Madonna Louise Ciccone" gives "Occasional nude income" and "William Shakespeare", "I am a weakish speller"??!

This new found knowledge comes from a devilishly clever anagram generator that can be found here. I've wasted too much time playing with this bloody thing today but some of the results are quite hilarious. Here are some topical examples:

George Best = "Go get beers"
Tony Blair = "Tory in Lab"
Saddam Hussein = "UN's said he's mad"
Margaret Thatcher = "That great charmer"
David Beckham = "BV dickhead am"
Sarah Beeny = "Hen by areas"
Kirstie Allsopp = "Praise top skill"
Gary Glitter = "Try get a girl" (Over the age of consent, preferably)
Mad Dogs and Englishmen = "Handsome meddling nags"

Let me know any other interesting revelations...

PS I've got to add this one: Weapons of Mass Destruction = "US team swoops. Finds no trace!"

More Passings

Richard Burns 1971-2005

While I, along with legions of others, mourn the passing of footballer George Best and actor Pat Morita (whose script line "...wax on, wax off..." has become part of cinematographic mythology) we must not forget Richard Burns. Richard, who won the World Rally Championship in 2001, died on Saturday at the tragically young age of 34 after battling a brain tumour for more than a year.

Political Commentary

This little slide show is just hilarious, unless of course you are a Republican without a sense of humor...

Nod to The Disgruntled Chemist.

News Roundup

Do You Want to be in My Gang? (No, don't touch me you old perv)
So the egregious Paul Gadd, aka Gary Glitter, has been detained by the authorities in Viet Nam for having sex with a 12 year old girl. This after he fled the UK and then got run out of Cambodia for the same reason. I understand that in Viet Nam child rape has a maximum sentence of death by firing squad. I have no sympathies; he should have been shot for that awful "Rock 'n Roll Part 2" years ago...

Travellers' Advisory
When flying, watch out for chemically compromised, nicotine craving foreigners who may not be aware of the realities of air travel. A cursory search reveals that this kind of thing is not uncommon and indeed something similar happened locally quite recently. Bugger! Now there's another thing to worry about when flying other than the lack of food and deep vein thrombosis.

Beware Bioterrorists
The head of Interpol, Ron Noble, announced recently that it's only a matter of time before mean spirited individuals unleash the horrors of a bioterrorist attack on us. Actually he's been banging this drum for some time (lazy hack/recycled story alert). He's even warning about "suicide bio-weapons". Look Ron, I hope you don't prove me wrong but the concept of a person, deliberately infected with a virulent pathogen such as Ebola, running around in a viremic state long enough to infect large numbers of the public is improbable. Biological weapons have never been very effective in human populations. Americans in particular should be much more scared of a lack of health insurance.

Microsoft Malignancy
Stories of the new Microsoft xBox360, released today, seem to dominate the offside front lead in just about every newspaper and on the planet. Public reaction has been to form serpentine queues of epic lengths with punters willing to put down as much as $600 to ensure ownership of one of these devices. Look everybody, let's get this in perspective. The richest corporation on the planet has run a marketing campaign of unparalleled brilliance to make us believe that without one of these machines our lives will have no meaning. And the press have bought the whole thing, hook, line and sinker and are now running stories on how there may be a shortage. Oh dear, what a tragedy. The xBox is just a toy and there are shortages of real things like clean water. What's that you say? Oh yes, disaster fatigue...!

In Vino Veritas

Now that's more like it!

Ever sane feline (Crotchet) is not impressed by the concept...

Soundfiles: Can Anybody Help...?

I've been trying to put links to some MP3 soundfiles for the last couple of days without any success. I'm not sure if the hosting ISP I've been using (putfile.com) is being difficult or whether I'm just not getting it. I'd prefer to stay with a free service if possible. If anyone has any bright ideas please let me know -all constructive suggestions will be gratefully received.

Update: I've been fiddling a bit more and the problem is frankly driving me to distraction. There appear to be a host of issues including file format, Mac-PC incompatibilities and code idiosyncracies. Or maybe I'm just incompetent. Comments on a postcard please

Too Old to Rock 'n Roll, Too Young to Die

My all time rock heroes, Jethro Tull, were in Seattle the other night and for the nth time since 1968 when I first encountered the then fledging band at the UK's National Jazz and Blues Festival, I trotted off to see them. Ian Anderson and the boys were in fine form playing a mix of (mostly) old and new material, much to the delight of the crowd (I had no idea that many hippy types were still around). Most of the band are now 60ish and are certainly not too old to rock and roll as they so ably demonstrated -may they go on for ever! Here's one of my favourite songs.

Woops! Sorry everybody, I've completely bungled this link to a sound file. I'm not sure what I've done wrong so bear with me while I do some troubleshooting. And there I was thinking I was a clever bugger...!

Bird Flu

It seems that everyone in the media and blogsphere (I hate that word) has become an armchair virologist, so to save boring you all to death I'm saying nothing more on the topic...

On the Road Again

It seems that I've spent most of this year at work either writing grants or reviewing them. Now I'm off to Washington DC for the rest of the week to do the latter. These sessions are quite intense and my diet on these days seems to comprise mostly danish pastries and coffee (note to NIH; you have some of the best nutritional scientists in the world so how about heeding their advice and laying on better victuals -this sugar and caffeine diet has most of us buzzing around the room with advanced ADD after an hour or two). Next week I'll be hitting the gym. I doubt I'll be able to post until the weekend so bear with me.

So while I'm on the topic, I've updated the "Science and Scientists" links sections with a few additions. I've no time to do so just now but I'll try to say a few words of introduction about the newcomers very soon.

So while I'm away please talk among yourselves or check out the latest JibJab animation. Brilliant!

10,000th Visitor!

Congratulations to the individual above from the UK. You are the 10,000th visitor to site since I went public back in February. By the look of your search terms "Oliver Tiger Model Engine" you are a model airplane enthusiast. Possibly a sad bastard but not as sad as those on the perpetual Sarah Beeny/Kirstie Allsopp quest (oh, how they still flock here). If you ever come to Seattle, I'd be happy to buy you a pint of ether/castor oil/ amyl nitrate. Oh, and you can find a picture of my Oliver Tiger here.

The Seven Ages of Man

Well maybe not quite the seven ages of man in the Shakespearean sense but a commentary on how we change during four years of undergraduate study. My inspiration for this post comes from Dawn over at Webmiztris who published a delightful series of pictures of her own evolution through grade school years. Sadly I don't have such a complete set. But I was rummaging in a box of snaps of my student days wondering how it could possibly be 35 years since I started out as a student at University of Wales in Cardiff. Well I can't explain that but here for your amusement is a pictorial record of my “development” through those heady days…

October 1970. Freshman. Picture from Student Union ID card. Long hair, cluelessly styled. Awful glasses. No confidence.

October 1971. Picture from SU card or similar. Better haircut (I’d found a barber who could do layering). Still got the awful glasses though somehow confidence growing. Cool leather jacket that got stolen from the SU cloakroom.

October 1972. Another SU card photo. Big improvement. Now looking like I’d got a clue. I still have those trendy gold octagonal glasses somewhere. Hair is noticeably bleached by spending six weeks baking myself in Greece. I’m still terrified I’ll develop melanoma from those days.

October 1973. Getting serious for the dreaded final year and hitting the books big time (mostly to compensate for behaving like a reprobate in the previous three years). Precision haircut with artfully sculpted facial hair. Fitted puke green shirt; I seem to remember I wore a lot of brown back then…

Graduation, 1974. Somehow proud owner of a very respectable degree in microbiology. I should have kept that tie as that style seems to be back in fashion. Don’t know about the brown suit though.

Citroen 2CV

I haven’t posted on the “Vehicles I have Known and Loved” series for awhile. So here’s one for the memoirs. A Citroën 2CV, circa 1959/1960. I bought this little car in 1969 for £100 and borrowed most of the money from my parents. I’d finished my studies at Guildford Tech and was taking, what is now know in the UK as a “Gap Year” prior to going to University of Wales as an undergraduate. During this time I worked as a lab technician for the pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, and a commute was involved from the parental home. Back in 1969, Citroëns were rarely seen outside of France and having a left hand drive car in the UK was seen as eccentric, to say the least. But I loved this little two cylinder beast. It was very spartan but had some wonderful features. The canvas roof would roll all the way back and al fresco motoring was great fun. Furthermore the backseats could be lifted out and used for picnics and beach trips. The windscreen wipers operated from a drive on the speedometer cable so the faster I went the quicker they moved however when I stopped at a light they would also come to a halt and in heavy rain this would reduce my visibility to about a foot in front of the car. There was no gas gauge, just a 4’ long dipstick in the tank that I would examine at petrol station to the great amusement of onlookers. I don't remember any seatbelts.

I ran around in it for a year. It was probably the most fun, reliable, economical and easy to fix car I’ve ever owned. Indeed I once changed a rocker arm by the side of the road with a very minimal toolkit. It wasn’t fast and the body rolled like crazy but it stuck to the road like glue thanks to a suspension that was the work of genius. I repainted it in its Gallic Grey colour for the sum of £6 (the deal was that I would do the rubbing down and masking) and eventually sold it for £150 prior to heading off to University. A nice tidy profit -I don’t think I’ve achieved such a satisfactory conclusion on an automobile sale since…!

Rallying Update

Photo courtesy Chris Brown and MiniWorld.

Slightly disappointing news I'm afraid. Bill Richards and I have decided not to enter the 2006 Monte Carlo Historique rally for a number of reasons. First, I've got a lot of private and professional commitments for the early part of next year and wondering how I was going to fit everything in was becoming very stressful. Second, we hadn't achieved the level of sponsorship necessary to compete at top level. The 2005 event showed us exactly what we need to do to place well. As you might expect there is no real secret to success, but it is essential to do a lot of homework (including a practice run through the route) and a great support team. But all this costs more money than can be covered personally so we need sponsorship. Frankly we didn't get this organised although this was more down to our approach rather than lack of effort. Thus we've decided to wait until the 2007 event but we'll get going on our sponsorship deals early; that is to say almost immediately after the 2006 rally is over. Last weekend Bill and I discussed a revised fundraising strategy in the light of this year's experience and I'll share that with you in another post. So for now PRX 720B is going to remain in his warm lockup, but not for long. Watch this space for more details to follow soon...

Atlantic Crossing

It's the fourth anniversary of my third Atlantic Crossing (in the residential sense). A lot of water seems to have swirled under the bridge (or perhaps I should say "around the ocean"?) since then. I hasten to point out that while travelling economy class on United Airlines lacks a certain sense of adventure, the flights are mostly reassuringly dull and those little underseat life jacket thingys that we love to disparage would have been quite welcome to passengers on the Titanic.

What a Dick!

"That's about the size of it..."

Today I woke up to the sensational report in the New York Times [you might need to register to read this story] that Dick Cheney was the one that had fingered CIA agent Valerie Plame. And there I was thinking it would be Karl Rove's neck on the block which in itself would be bad enough for Dubya -but for the Vice President to be complicit in a possibly treasonous act is beyond the pale. I have no doubt the White House's Damage Limitation Machine is about to strip its gears on this one. Interesting times...!

California Bound

Phew, I seem to be a on a treadmill these days. Now I'm off to California for a couple of days. Specifically to the architecturally-challenged University of California at Irvine to organize a scientific collaboration. Blogging may be light and the usual caveats about getting smog poisoning apply. Otherwise I'll be back on Wednesday...

PS The latest obsession with Google searchers finding the MD & E site is "Jasmin Harman". I really have no clue about this! Can anyone enlighten me...?

PPS OK I couldn't stand it and did a Google search myself; now I'm enlightened. All this presumably prurient interest is understandable. See here for more details. Indeed it would seem that Ms. Harman is extremely easy on the eye and rather more interesting than either Sarah Beeny or Kirstie Allsopp.

Miscellaneous Musings

Wow, It's been a busy week with no time for proper blogging. Here's a few observations that are neither here not there...

England have qualified for the 2006 football World Cup by beating Poland 1:0. Somehow this news is underwhelming. Why do I get a sense that the infamous old laissez faire attitude has returned to the squad...?

The choice of Harold Pinter for the Nobel Prize for literature was, to me at least, unexpected and deserving. Especially after that odd Austrian woman last year. Pinter manages to make profound statements while being quite hilarious. Definitely one of the 20th century's greatest playwrights...

In a similar vein, hats off to Mohammed Al-Baredi, who along with the International Atomic Energy Commission won the Nobel Peace Prize last week. Dr Al-Baredi stood up to the most mean-spirited bullying from the current US Government by stating repeatedly that there was no evidence of (nuclear) weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that military intevention was not justified.

The world's news media continues to propogate a culture of fear regarding bird flu. Thosuands of birds in Romania have been slaughtered as a precautionary matter. It would seem birds have more cause to be worried.

My site traffic counter has gone totally berserk this week. Of my last 100 visitors, about 60 were searching for Sarah Beeny,10 for Kirstie Allsopp, 3 for Seetha Hallett and 2 for Jasmin Harman (who?). What's going on? Has a new series The Property Ladder started? UK readers, feedback please.

Infection Control

Following my post last week (October 5th) the spectre of an epidemic of Avian flu, the disease seems to have remained in the news. Now I'm very suspicious that the news media is happy to amp up this topic it takes our minds off the Iraq quagnmire and and the US and UK governments are of a similar mind. In addition W's macho posturing seems to be overcompensation for the royal screw up he made of managing the Hurricane Katrina disaster not to mention the fact that the economy is going down the tubes, petrol prices are going through the roof, his own party is apalled by his overt self-serving cronyistic behaviour and it looks like Karl Rove is going to be indictated.

But never mind all that for a minute. The point I'm trying to make is that a military solution to a flu pandemic is not going to work. Professor George Annas, Chairman of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health, describes why in this superb article in the Boston Globe and reprinted on the Effect Measure site. Take a look; it should be compulsory reading for members of the government at least!

Python vs Alligator

Workwise, I feel a bit like this python who bit off more than he could chew when he swallowed an alligator and EXPLODED!. The Tuesday grant deadlines are looming and I've got piles of work to do beforehand. There won't be much respite until then. I just hope I won't explode...

Spanish Flu

Normally George W has me worried when he attempts to speak on topics that require anything more than the ability to count to 10 or an understanding of polysyllabic words. His look of dumbfounded cluelessness when confronted by a slightly complex question does not befit the leader of the Free World. But yesterday he positively terrified me. He was talking about the Government's preparations for an epidemic of Spanish flu -a very nasty infection that killed more people in 1918-1919 than the First World War. The thing that worried me was not W's carefully enunciated sentence alluding to the "H5N1 virus" (how long did his handlers take to teach him that tidbit of scientific jargon?) but his overall approach to another domestic disaster. Essentially he wants to use troops to enforce quarantine in infected regions. Now apart from the political ramifications of such an action (states don't like being overruled by the Federal Government) and that such measures are unlikely to be very effective for disease control what really bothers me is how badly he's missed the point. What we need is increased research to develop better anti-viral drugs and vaccines, not cuts in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget to give tax breaks to the rich and fight illegal foreign wars! A global pandemic of Spanish/Avian flu is predicted to kill 140 million which could mean 5-7 million deaths in the US alone. George, this is serious! For goodness sake get your priorities right and get a grip.

Ronnie Barker

Ronnie Barker OBE

September 29, 1929- October 3, 2005

Comedic genius

R.I.P.

George Best

George Best in Manchester United team colours, c1970.
I've read with great sadness that George Best is in intensive care with some kind of infection. I hope he makes a speedy recovery but the signs are not good. Since his liver transplant a few years back, he's reverted to drinking, suffered a humiliating prosecution for driving under the influence and his wife has left him. Overall it's been a sad, undignified and very public descent from superstardom. To non-UK readers, George emerged as a brilliant football (soccer) talent in the 1960s and 70s. He was the first celebrity sportsman in Britain and lived the high-life to the full. But although the media came to be obsessed with stories about his partying and checkered love life, where he really entertained was on the football field. George had masterful ball control and his ability to dribble through massed ranks of defenders was nothing short of breathtaking. He was certainly one of the finest players of his gereration and many pundits consider him to be an equal of Pele.

So, George, get well soon. After all you've got to love a bloke who can say, "...I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered..." !

Fame at Last

My 1965 Cooper S at the old Ashford railway station. Picture by Chris Brown and courtesy MiniWorld.

SaneScientist's blog contains a weekly feature, The Tuesday Twat, in which he draws attention to the moronic behaviour of certain elements of society. His latest award (September 27, 2005) goes to boy racer types who spend vast amounts of cash on their hopeless cars in an attempt to make them appear sporty (they usually end up with a stereo thet is more powerful than the motor) and then annoy the hell out of the neighbourhood by driving about in a psychopathic manner and making way too much noise in the process. These sad Twats are invariably devotees of MaxPower magazine which appears to be geared primarily towards knobhead antics.

With this in mind I'm slighly sheepish about announcing my lastest publication in the October issue of MiniWorld magazine, which being a serious member of the automotive press, would never encourage boy racer cars. The article is a full feature on the build of my 1965 Morris Mini Cooper S, the rally exploits of which launched publicly this blog back in February. I have to say I'm very pleased with the article. It has been my experience that any kind of media, broadcast or print, can make the subject look extremely silly. But to be fair MW has done an excellent job and the pictures of the car, taken by ace photographer, Chris Brown, are quite superb. Fame at last...!

And will Mad Dog rallying be competing in the 2006 Monte Carlo Historique rally, I hear you ask? Good question indeed -the answer is hanging in the balance and will be the subject of my next post.