Ware Eagles Dare

Todays theme is the Eagles of Vancouver.. a lions club institution,
as it was Polarbears when here in 2006.
Basically companies sponsor a fibreglass statue or three
(usually, though I have seen what looks like a bronze one
inside a big building too), which a selection of local artists paint.
Then they are stuck outside, bolted to the pavement for 6 months
and then auctioned off to the rich and famous in the spring,
for charity. Simples.

Anway there is a flight-path map you can get to visit them all,
but this time we are restricted to greater vancouver,
whilst on our roadtrip back in 06
the bears grabbed us all over British Columbia.

Here: http://www.eaglesinthecity.com/default.aspx?PageID=1119
Probably record interest this year being olympic year....

Here is a sample of what I have seen recently,
and a bit more inspiring than talking about cold walls.
Ironically I havent actually seen an eagle on this
trip yet, but maybe with the rain I have simply
missed them for my feet!

Instead as a cheat I post my favorite bird that comes to hand..
an english channel gannet, sorry eagles and sea eagles,
but these guys fish in pairs using their
wingtips to corral and indicate the fish by the first,
just by skimming the water with a wingtip
as if using a lazy arch of chalk,
and the second on this cue dive bombs from a height,
enters the water like a folding pair of scissors.
Simply amazing.

COLD WALL NEW CHALLENGES

Is it really 20 years ago today, that the Berlin Wall fell?
and Sargeant Pepper came to play?
I remember exactly where I was, do you?
Me, I was sitting on a sofa (probably with
an empty Ben & Jerrys pot beside me,
and before I knew it was made with pure cream)
watching CNN on the television in the lounge
of the Visiting Scholars House at Brown University,
somewhat amazed. My mouth fell open.

I had been to Hungary several years before in a VW Beetle,
in a dash across europe to visit a Hungarian scientist friend,
(courtesy of a 2 hour passport renewal by Canada House)
so I knew the iron barrier was real, that Trebants were classics,
the brick museum was only open on the first Monday of the month
the British Embassy was advising not to eat the honey
(aftermath of Cernobyl) and Hungarian people were stoic
and inherently friendly.
The Eastern Bloc border guards were also efficiently active with their prod
wires on the way out at Hegyeshalom; and the electric eyes
in the toilets, the question was a man or a woman watching?

Back at Brown Scholar House that night
The thing I remember the most was my fellow house guests
as they returned home from their various evening
occupations..an international crowd as it happened,
about 15 minutes apart the reactions were all the same:

A pair of Russian lady economists from Moscow State University:
"What? Unbelievable? and their mouths dropped open, amazed.

A single Chinese lady
"What?" her mouth dropped open, amazed,
after a while of silence
"You know we had something like this happen in China."
'Tiananmen?" "You knew about this, I didn't know?"

An individual American and an individual Brazilian chap, I think,
both their mouths also opened wide, equally amazed.

The Russian ladies were the same ladies that had been taken
to the Mall with me as a favour by my sections secretary
the previous weekend, and were convinced the lines of cars
for sale on 'Auto-mile"on the way to Fall River was a US plot,
an elaborate piece of propaganda.
"These cars are awaiting delivery?" "No they are for sale"
"These cars are not already promised?" "No they are available
to buy now." "They are on a waiting list?"
"Nobody owns them", "So these are SPARE capacity, Nooo?"
"This is a western trick". "No, you can walk in with dollars,
buy one and drive off".
"Yes." One was convinced and the other was not.
One of these economists suggested this would cause big problems
if people at home in Russia knew. Well the surprises were
coming thick and fast that week.
The Wall was of course the really big news
and I heard faint talking into the night.

Twenty years on, I am not the Ivy league academic,
or even employed, and not even sure Capitalism survived
looking around at the government supported
economics of the present order:
Capital gains and socialist losses!

What I do know is we now have more pressing problems
than rival national political ideologies, though the consequences
were real enough for those that suffered under the Soviet regime.

The pressing things now are resources, finite earth, population impact,
atmospheric pollution, global warming, loss of biodiversity
and potential collapse of food systems such as honey bees,
salmon and tuna;
the food-chain predators are the mine canaries now
...the new world order is in disarray so far
and looks like a rocky road to come;
Why do economists insist on growth, when steady state
is what we are really after?
Why do we grow and burn biofuel when we should bury it
in order to remove CO2 from the atmosphere?
Tough love but we have nuclear and tidal-wind renewables.
There are still many challenges in Eden,
twenty years after the Cold Wall came down.

Simon Fraser University (not Poundbury)

Well, not hanging about with suspense we are indeed in the big Van,
beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Spent a few days getting to know our new area, the transit system,
the parks, downtown, the supermarkets (more of these later)
and of course the fantastic Universities.

Now UBC at western Point Grey is a lovely campus university like
Reading or Nottingham, that sort of thing but bigger with some quite
impressive investment in their buildings (Canada generally does
great investment in public infrastructure), with a many year plan,
once the Botanical Gardens catch up, though in its defence it has
a better botany selection than many a uni bookshop.

Simon Fraser University is a newer kid on the block, built on top
of a mountain in something like 1200 acres(!) more in the sixties
vein of Bath, East Anglia and Guildford: the Dalek complex or Captain
Scarlet Cloudbase flying aircraft carrier sort of approach to higher learning.
Reaching for the ivory clouds with jetpack futurescope vision,
but not good for the carbon footprint these heavier than air machines.
Anyway as a ten year old I always wondered where Cloudbase
came to land for a refit and here it is on Burnaby Mountain.
Been decomissioned and makes a great place of learning.

Gave up looking for the nano-science grey-sludge collective....
someone seemed to have furtively removed the signage in a
academic bunker sort of way now the funding has arrived?
However the scientists at SFU do make a pretty mean
maglev linear-motor children's trainset, just have to make it work
on ice-cubes rather than liquid nitrogen, then they'll own Hornby
and a real Cloudbase SFU.

SFU also have their own working replic of the Tamar Elephant Park
(earlier blog).

Rumour is that the'next King of Canada' is visiting SFU Very soon
(Indeed HRH Prince Charles is being promoted in the free press this way).
Just hope he doesnt get a lightbulb moment and plan to thump an SFU
knock-off down on Maiden Castle back at Poundbury.
Please don't mention the Gondola idea either as the Durotriges
baint be wanting that either.

The 2nd last photo is Burnaby Moutain from Stanley Park.

Interesting to me is that Halloween has just come and gone,
but unlike other commonwealth countries like New Zealand
no sign of Guy Fawkes; all-saints-day's a bit more intriguing having
diffused all the way up from Mexico, and far more scarey.

Eagle Landed

So enough suspense..nobody visited my blog
so much for suspense, you need an audience.
Therefore I am not going to say where I am
you can figure it out for yourself..as everyone who
knows me already knows where I am anyroad!
Actually when I posted Tamar Elephant Park,
Elephant being the operative word I had visitors
from Thailand and Indonesia, So Welcome!
A pointless blog..excellent! Enjoy the photos!

Eagle Landing

Well its would be too easy to say where,
with clues of where the borg we have landed.
Starting at 40,000 feet and its minus 43 outside
(shirt sleeves 7 miles up cold enough to freeze
the strongest bulgarian rakia if they served it here),
it could have been over the top of the world
some great circle to save on fuel.
Hope pilots get that right, stones or kilos?
It was well into 8 hours flying before I saw the first roof!
Then about half an hour before landing it came thick
and fast lakes and some big open cast mining...
Clear skies coming in, last time I flew this we were
told by the pilot before we left London
the landing would be hands off autopilot as the fog
was so bad at destination. He was right, vis
at groundlevel, so why make the journey?
He didnt make medic on bedside manner either
....plan B, pilot!
Well today eagles eye view was a bit of a giveaway
you can almost recognise the yachts below.
Yep there's the Atessa (I admit not knowing at the time!),
and dont goggle as thats cheating.
Landing, water, islands odd ship or too.
Its Kai Tak without Hong Kong, Wellington maybe?
Thirty degree flaps and don't drop short of the runway
touch and shout..here we be, after 3 minutes shy
of ten hours those Rolls Royce Trents spun down..
what lovely engineering!
Airbus does pretty good Lego too. Like the new nylon
strips on flap boundaries to reduce friction lines.
Jobs a good'un!
Street scene? Kyoto, Atlanta, Bangkok, Rio, Capetown,
Singapore, Atlanta, Sydney, Hawaii, Dubai, Gretna Green?
Not yet...

Where the borg are we?

A
After six hours flying your eyes expand,
you are half way thorugh your third movie
and you give up, go for a walk.
Every hour after 6 you count the minutes,
like Hugh Grant in "About a boy."
Trip to the loo one unit, wait for
coffee service one unit, spill coffee another unit,
that sort of thing, disembarkation forms one more,
getting your shoes back on with the seat upright etc..

Forget water though, stripped of water before airside
then sell it back at £5 a litre, complimentary 500ml
for a ten hour flight, dehydrated at 40,000 feet
flying fish are better hydrated than we are!

We cleared customs last, we got our luggage first
no sport in destroying damaged luggage..
then hunted for a water supply.

Then the zombie march for ground transportation
was refreshingly easy. Well done pacific town!

The last 2 blocks to the hotel were a bit difficult,
the last wheel fell off the bag, and I was left to
sledge the last few kerbs, would have ben easier if
the roads were wet... finally there . Shower, snooze
and take out sushi!
Couldnt sleep, open the curtains, we are borg!
There are people in the building
opposite clutching coffee at 7am! And over there!

One Wheel On My Wagon...

Well the time arrived.. our last sunset in Budleigh for a little while.
And a very colourful display it was too. Next day off to Exeter
Stationwith almost our total allowance...wheelie luggage is the
new travel.
Well it was for the want of a nail. Turns out that the lift at Exeter
station was out of order, as a special widget had broken and
they were calling a guy out of retirement to tool-up and
machine a new one. But until the forge had poured the metal we
were out of luck... so a professional chap with a UHF radio and
a orange jacket got us lined up behind the yellow
line at the end of the platform, when he said go we raced
across the tracks..except one of the wheels got stuck.
No risk of derailment, but our journey
had only just started.. about 50 yards of wheelie into it.
Never mind one wheel standing.monocycle luggage...
train boarded next stop reading
...not via Yeovil but Taunton and then Wiltshire valleys,
so stops at Taunton havent been there since I was diverted
because Westbury was closed for lost snowploughs on the tracks
back in the big chill of nineteen seventy eight...,
wont stop at Frome neither (population 20,000) but stops
at all those little first class carriage villages (pop less than 500)
on the way to Newbury, where the tow-path falls away into
the canal villages. I venture to think the locals dig the tow paths
up and the approach roads for that matter!
Even my GPS cant find them..or even Banksy?
Dont think you can alight here without the right ticket,
indeed the grass IS greener here, even the cows have
green envy, how do they do it!?
Village envy..never its just not somerset.
Time to snaffle our boots meal deals as we press our noses
to the windows and look on at green wellie brigade cleaning
up their horse manure in their bespoke villages where the train
can stop with the wonka golden ticket.
After Newbury we spot an enclave of what appear to be
resistance postal workers. If that was the special-delivery Harley
hardtail motorbike with leather panniers they promised you,
I'd be striking too.
French posties have proper mopeds with headlights and chrome
exhaust pipes and stuff!
Next stop Reading, and this game hasnt changed in 30 years,
up the stairs, over the ramp, down the stairs, along abit and
hard right onto the little Gatwick train with no room for luggage.
The inspiration for Hogworts express no doubt.
Actually 2 seats have been removed to allow placement of
luggage in the aisle so everyone else can steeplechase
or Quidditch?
We then went along seeing lots of greenery outside
the M25 toward Guildford via deep dorking and shallow grindstead
and such fictious places. Muggle towns maybe.
Finally we got into serious commuter belt stuff..
and there we were Gatwick
just the sort of place youd spend a day of your holidays
travelling there. NOT!
After all that these heavier-than-air machines better be worth it!