Neil Cowburn — Freelance iPhone & iPad Developer » Other

Ten things to do in 2009

Neil — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:50:43 +0000

It’s almost a week into 2009 and, for the most part, I’ve been thinking about what I want to achieve during the rest of the year. I thought it would be a good idea to document my personal goals here so that come 2010, I will hopefully can hold my head up high and say I at least tried everything the list.

For the last week, I’ve had a text file on my desktop and whenever I thought of something I would like to do, I jotted it down in the file. So here is the list:

Lower my body mass to 65 kg
Run 8 km in 40 minutes
Cycle 100 km per week
Complete the orienteering course at the Padarn Country Park
Boulder at V5 (for non-boulderers, that’s F6c, 6a, 5.11, etc.)
Take up sport climbing
Complete in at least one adventure race
Learn the basics of Welsh
Take more time off from work
Take a real holiday at least once

Some of the goals are pretty easy (a map of the course can be purchased from the gift shop in the slate museum car park!) while others require a lot more commitment. I would go so far as saying that 7 out of 10 are challenging. However, I’m not one to back away from a challenge.

The adventure racing goal involves some sports I already enjoy doing (running, mountain biking, etc.) and will give me a chance to try out some new sports, such as kayaking. The trouble is selecting which event to enter! I’ve already identified several, one of which is a fairly epic 4-day event. I have a feeling I’ll be entering more than one.

Thank you!

Neil — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:57:58 +0000

This weekend, Sarah came to visit and help ease the path of becoming a thirtysomething (which I did today). Steve also joined us after by far the most epic journey — 2-hour bus ride, 9-hour flight to London, 280-mile drive from Heathrow to Llanberis. That’s crazy, but very much appreciated.

Steve introduced us to icewine, which is one of the best wines I’ve ever tasted. Very sweet, but very true to the grape with only a subtle hint of alcohol. Very expensive but well worth it!

Thank you, Steve and Sarah for making my weekend!

Mmm tasty cake!

Neil — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:39:57 +0000

Today I found myself in a baking mood, given the gales and torrential rain today, so I decided to give Claire‘s fresh gingerbread with lemon icing recipe a whirl. I would link directly to the recipe if it weren’t for a lack of a permalink If you’re interested in the recipe, you can find in the January 2008 archive. You’re looking for the post on Wednesday, January 16th, titled Velvet Antlers fresh gingerbread & lemon icing.

The cake itself is delicious! Kat went a little crazy with the lemon icing (I was busy demolishing the remainder of the lemon flesh… Mmmm!). I can see this quickly becoming a post-mountain biking or post-bouldering treat.

I wasn’t sure how much the cake was going to rise, so I only half filled the loaf tin which meant we had some batter left over… so we have not one cake, but TWO! Yay! As you can see, we’ve already tucked in. Well, someone has to give it a taste test

Update: Added the permalink to the recipe (thanks, Claire!)

Virtual Earth vs Google Maps

Neil — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:52:01 +0000

I’m planning on using either Virtual Earth or Google Maps for a little Ruby on Rails project so I thought I’d compare how the satellite imaging weighed up from both service providers. You can see the results below. The images are at exactly the same location (53° 5' 47.4756" N, 3° 56' 51.6294" E; aka RAC Boulders).

I find the Virtual Earth image to be a little too bleached, while the Google Maps image is not vibrant enough to give the same level of detail as the Virtual Earth image. Which do you prefer?

Winter days

Neil — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:25:25 +0000

Yesterday, we had our first splattering of snow this season. Admittedly, it was just a light dusting on the peaks down to about 2,500 ft, but still it snowed. So winter is well and truly under way. Today, the snow is all but gone, with just a few isolated patches remaining, but it will be back. Given the feeling in the air, it won’t be too long before it returns too. At least, it better not be… we have christmas card to make and no snowy pictures yet!

I finally got around to buy Kat’s birthday present last week. I got her a 12-month membership to the climbing wall at Plas y Brenin. I got one for me too, afterall I wouldn’t be right to make her go on her own It turns out it’s quite a bargain; the equivalent of 12 visits. That means we effectively get 11 months free! I already took advantage of the membership on Saturday while Kat was in Oxford. It felt a little strange just walking straight down to the wall and paying at reception.

It’s been a while since we went climbing. I think the last time was when Sarah and Steve came to visit in August. Bad Neil! I really must climb more just because I love it so much. I want to be doing solid V4s (indoors) before the spring, so I better get to work! I’ve no excuse now that I can go climbing whenever I like and don’t have to think about having the cash to do so.

We’ll be heading down to “the Brenin” on Saturday for the BMC Cymru “Fun Day”. I only recently found out about it so no workshops for me, but the evening events should prove to be interesting. Especially, the Ray Woods and Martin Reeves presentation on climbing photography.