All posts by roger

When in Rome

Travel

Have you ever been to a wine tasting and sipped something that you just had to buy?

Rome is like that. Sipping it is not enough. You can’t just have a taster of Rome – you want the full experience with plenty of time to explore its narrow streets and hidden treasures.

Work had me going to Rome for a business presentation and given that the UK weather was having one of its “once in every 20 years” tantrums – the travel agent recommended that I travel, not via London which had ground to a halt under a foot of snow and a raft of Government excuses the day before, but via Paris which seemed to have escaped the worst of the weather. They also cautioned my to get there early just incase there were knock on delays.

Well of course I arrived without incident – no delays or diversions and so had half an afternoon to wander round this lovely city.

First thing I had to do was buy an umbrella because it was raining to monsoon proportions. Umbrella sellers were making a killing. What a shame it was so wet. The city is colourful and vibrant and the grey sky and constant lashing rain washed away that veneer. It would be so good to see this city basking under a hot sun and blue clear sky.

I stayed at a lovely little boutique hotel, check it out it is called the Isa Roma. Very lovely rooms with flat screen TV, balconies and contemporary furnishings. The hotel had a delightful rooftop restaurant and bar serving excellent Italian wines. The house red was delicious.

The Colloseum was very impressive. I couldn’t help thinking of the CGI enhanced version in the Gladiator film. Just think all those centuries ago the life and death struggles going on inside that arena. Now outside retired Italian men dress as Roman soldiers and charge 10 Euros for a photograph.

The city is brimming with restaurants. Most of them call themselves Pizzarias – but don’t let that put you off. They bear no relation to the horrible commercial pizza outlets in the UK. These are lovely family run establishments serving fresh food – great meat and fish. If you want you can select your fish from an iced display.

The Vatican was closed and I didn’t get chance to visit half the places I would have liked. But the city is alive with culture. Even down to the men playing jazz in the streets this is a place to be savoured.

So I enjoyed my sip of Rome. Very soon, on a hotter day in the summer, I would like to go back and finish the bottle.

Unbelieveable Airmanship – The Hudson A320 Ditching

Travel

I have been flying on business and pleasure for nearly 20 years and despite clocking up mass of flying hours I am still a nervous flyer. When turbulence hits I grip the armrest of the seat until the whites of my knuckles appear, and I dig my heels into the floor of the cabin because I know that this extra pressure will help to stabilise the aircraft.

Maybe I think that it is fate but I always watch the safety briefing even though I could recite the British Airways one out in my sleep. But even though I pay close attention, there is always that little voice cackling away in the background, “What if….what if?” And the little voice always gets a little louder when the safety briefing gets to the bit about “in the event of a landing on water!”

A landing on water? Is that really possible? Could an airliner, however well built and tested really land intact on water and stay afloat for long enough for everyone to get out?

The little voice in the back of my head always paints some quite graphic pictures at that point.

Well just look at what the pilot of that US Airways Airbus A320 achieved in New York yesterday. He got it down, safely and everyone got off.

Amazing.

A testiment to the training and dedication of the flight crew and to the design and durability of the A320 aircraft.

Review of Body Combat Release 38

Fitness and Yoga

Review of Body Combat Release 38

Okay so that’s all the launches for BC38 out of the way and plenty of feedback from the people along with pained expressions brought on by muscle burn in the shoulders and the legs. I have to admit when I first saw the DVD for this release (and I couldn’t get to a Quarterly for this one) – I couldn’t hide a sense of disappointment. I thought it looked too simple. I’m not saying that I thought it looked easy – I just thought that the chorry was so basic. Millions of knees and Street Brawl punches in the Muay Thai – again. Repetitive avalanches of uppers and hooks in track 8. I found myself thinking where are all the good combos of old? Can we not have them back?

But of course once you do this release you realise that despite the simplicity of the chorry that it is a tough work out – and I suppose the simplicity in the Muay Thai is to give your brain a break after the initally complicated series of moves in Track 6. I’ve never seen so many red faces, pools of sweat and in some cases looks of disbelief on the people’s faces. “Do you really expect us to do tricep push ups after THAT track 8!!”

Upper warm up (Writing on the Wall): – gosh I can remember the film St Elmo’s fire from which the original version of this song came from. That was in 1985 – cripes. Great if not a little cheesey music and fairly basic moves as a warm up should be. The 5 reps of the travel sequence and the 6 reps the second time catch people out – they still expect there will only be 4.

Lower warm up (Because the Night): – I like Cascada. They sound sort of Scootery. Heavy pounding beat and the moves fit well. I love the way the travelling sequence starts in a relatively quiet phase and then the beat bursts in and you can just go wild (though it’s still the warm up so not that wild).

Combat 1 (Try it Again): – have had mixed feedback about the music and have heard others say that there are two many reps. On the whole though I like the feel of the music and like the fit of the moves. The roundhouse combo is particularly good and the lengthy repetitions require a good focus on technique. The quote about the definition of madness is doing the sames things and expecting different results (usually heard in dull business meetings out of the mouths of expensive consultants) – is interesting and of course by the by the end of the three months will have a slightly different meaning in the context of the song.

Power 1 (Like I Feel): – Speedball hell. Not sure about this one. I like the full combo with the jumping jabs – but not sure about all that running on the spot. One of my personal gripes with recent combat releases is the lack of travelling. In BC37 there was no travelling after track 2 and in this release there is none after track 3. This is a hard track – there’s just something missing. Still I like turning the music down during the jump jabs so that everyone can hear their feet on the floor. Can we have different directions of travel? On the diagonal maybe?

Combat 2 (Rock Da Club/Cold as Ice): – very very sore glutes. The first half moves are good but I find the music a little dull with nothing to hook onto (the problem with instrumentals I suppose). The second half is just mad and the words reflect the pain – “pay the price” etc.

Power 2 (The Best Damn Thing): – this is the track I expected moans about not least because many people have a whinge about Avril. But you can really work the levels of this track and totally exhaust everyone’s shoulders. And some of the words are great. “Let me hear you scream loud”. I also like the line about “coming home smelling of your ex girlfriend” and as we’ll see make sure people hear that line so that we can use it later.

Combat 3 (No Good):  – tough tough tough. The combo is hard and balancing is difficult but when you get it the work out is fierce. Spent some time on getting the ginga arm moves correct here so it looks great too. I still don’t like having a leg conditioning track here. I would prefer a proper combat track here and move this to track 8 (giving press ups and sit ups a rest).

Muay Thai (Raver’s Paradise):– typical muay thai combo to start and then just endless reps of single moves. The music is awesome and I think the track deserves more combos to complement it. For example after all the descending elbows it would have been nice to have a elbow and knee combo. Having said that it is a breathless work out and a calorie burner. I always like to get people saying something during street brawl punches like “DON’T DO IT AGAIN”. This time I’ve introduced, “DON’T COME HOME SMELLING OF YOU EX GIRLFRIEND”.  try it – one word for each punch.

Power 3 (What Hurts the Most): – despite the simplicity this is an epic finale. Great pounding beat and sheer exhaustion. The first time you teach this you can convince people that there are 3 full rounds – just look at the looks on their faces when they think they have one more round to go.

Conditioning (When I Grow Up): – after that track 8 this is hellish on arms. Muscles are almost failing. When they grow up do they want to get Groupies or Boobies?

Cooldown (Say): – I love the music but it is far too short (though it couldn’t be longer because the release is already nearly 57 minutes). You have to encourage people to do more stretches afterwards. As there are no Katas in the main tracks I would have had some more streteches rather than the one that is tagged on here.

So a mad bad work out and I see why some of the chorry is so simple. I would like to see some more combos in future though.

Are we all like Goldfish?

The Crazy World in which we Live

I sometimes wonder whether TV producers think that we all have the memory spans of goldfish.

Actually that is unfair on goldfish.

People have been led to believe that goldfish can only remember things for three seconds – which they say means it’s okay to have them in small bowls because by the time they’ve swum round once they have forgotten where they started from. Of course scientists have proved that goldfish do in fact have quite good memories and tests show that they can learn what time of day they will be fed.

Hence why my mother-in-law’s goldfish congregate at 4pm every day in the left corner of the tank – 16 wide eyes and gaping mouths silently saying, “Come on then”.

Back to the TV producers who treat us as if we can’t retain memories for longer than a few minutes.

The next time you watch a programme about someone swapping their wife, or how to look good with their kit off, or how to completely screw up an easy business task before being humiliated in a board room; just look at the narrative flow of the programme.

The intro will go something along these lines. “This week we meet Jane. She has no self-confidence. Over the next hour we are going to completely change her life. First thing we are going to do is give her a make over.

Then 10 minutes later as we approach the first commercial break they’ll say, “So now Jane has had a full make over and although she started out the programme with no self confidence she is well on her way to completely changing her life. Join us after the break when we move into stage two and revamp her wardrobe.

After nipping off to make a cup of tea during the adverts you return to the sofa to be reminded, “Before the break we met Jane who has no self confidence but we have made a great start in completely changing her life by giving her a complete make over. Now it is time to have a look at her wardrobe.

And so it goes on. Even the BBC with no commercial break to fit this structure round are increasingly guilty of such recaps and “coming up” spots every ten minutes or so.

I have always been an advocate of the “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you have told them” approach. But do the TV programmes take it too far? They tell you what they are going to tell you then tell you a bit of it. Next they remind you of what they are going to tell you and the bit they?ve already told you, and so on, so you are never in any doubt.

It’s enough to make you want and go and do something relaxing like swimming round and round in a pool.