crowcity

In late autumn I found a brown caterpillar on my living room floor. Since it was so cold outside, I kept him in a jar and fed him. His preferred food was hazel leaves, but he also ate dandelion leaves.

After a couple of weeks he stopped eating and wrapped himself in a leaf and became a chrysalis.

Last night (Jan 22) he hatched out. I put a saucer of sugared water out for him, but Mambo (cat) chased him down, so it was clear he couldn’t live inside with us.

I put him in the shed on top of Skull Tower (a tower of skulls) and left the shed door ajar so he can come and go as he pleases. It’s still really cold, so this should keep any frost off him. It was raining last night as well, and I didn’t fancy his chances just chucking him into the wet night.

This morning he’d vacated Skull Tower for his own choice of home. I checked he hadn’t got caught up in a web in the shed. I’ll continue to leave the door ajar in case he’s still living in there. And put saucers of sugary water in there, as there’s little nectar around at the moment.

I couldn’t get a photo as it was a full-on panic trying to get him to safety. I’m not sure what sort of moth he is, but his body is really creamy and furry. His wings are quite stubby, with brown, black and cream markings. I think he’s a dusky sallow, or maybe a light feathered rustic.

I’ve long dreamed of filming Hamlet starring insects, and this moth is the exact moth I’ve always seen as Hamlet himself. I couldn’t keep him captive though.

Good luck, Parsifal Moth. Do come back and see me sometime if you’d like to. Prince of Moths.

This time we actually were on the Witham. Last time we thought we were, but it turned out to be the Welland. This trip could not have been more different. Instead of hail and horror, we had nothing but glorious sunshine; rather than (grade 1) whitewater terror and a ripped hull we had gentle flow and no major catastrophes.

We put in at the bridge on Meadow Lane, just to the south-east of North Hykeham. First order of the day was to crack open a beer. I don’t know whether there are laws about drinking in a canoe, but my grandpa once got done for being drunk and disorderly in charge of a horse (it jumped over a baby in a pram), so I guess anything’s possible.

This first stretch was all meadowy banks, with the occasional fisherman. We’d ask if it was OK to come by, and they were all really friendly, so I guess it’s a myth that fishermen and canoeists are mortal enemies. This bodes really well for increased river access.

A grassy bank presented itself so we put in and had a rest. It was a rest from largely resting to be honest, as we were really just drifting along. Tom had developed a method of paddling with one hand, which had so little effect and made me laugh so much that I had to beg him to just sit and enjoy his beer. Quite cunning, that.

There are so many footballs floating in rivers. We fished one out and chucked it to a kid. Last trip there were 6 or 7 footballs, but this time that was the only one we found. The cathedral came in and out of view as we drifted along, and it was easy to believe we’d been transported back to Medieval times. What would we do if we had? Would we even be able to understand what people were saying? Maybe we could earn a living as scribes. Never mind the arguments about altering the timeline, would we even be able to build a steam engine or something?

Once we reached the residential areas, plenty of people were chilling in their gardens. There were ducklings galore, and this little group of newly hatched cygnets:

It’s great seeing a town or city from the river, largely for the old industrial buildings and feeling of being lost in time. I don’t know if I’d have the guts to live alongside a river, with fears of flooding, but on this day it seemed crazy to live anywhere else. In the photo you can just make out the cathedral in the distance.

Pretty soon we came to hairiest part fo the journey, which we’d actually scouted earlier, having learned a little from the horrors of our last trip. As the Witham feeds into the Lincoln Marina, there are a couple of bridges with barely any headroom. No photos I’m afraid, as I had to concentrate on steering through. We flattened ourselves down in the boat and Tom dragged us along with his hands on the underside of the bridges.

Suddenly we were in the busy marina, and I felt very much like a bug that could get so easily squashed by all the giant paddle steamers or whatever they were chugging around. I wanted to stop for a beer, but Tom was afraid of being recognised, so we shot straight through the marina and half-hitched ourselves to a free barge spot a little further along, and Tom popped into the university for lager and crisps.

A couple of swans came begging for crisps, and after chucking some in the water I tried feeding them from my hand. The female took the crisp gently and seemed to smile at me all doey eyed. The male took half my hand with him. I don’t think they’ve got teeth but there’s some kind of hideously sharp things in their beaks.

We then headed onto the old Roman canal. I personally hate the (ancient) Romans and everything they stand for, but actually this canal wasn’t too bad. Apparently it’s the oldest canal in Britain. Presumably that’s because the ancient Britons were happy to live more in harmony with nature and didn’t feel the need to alter it to their will.

There were a few fast motorboats along here, and we got some nice waves as they went by. All too soon (maybe 4 hours) we arrived at out destination, the Pyewipe Inn. By some weird coincidence, a whole bunch of mates turned up at the same time.

Excellent fun! Bring on the next one!

I bought my Sevylor Ranger months ago, but hadn’t been able to take it out because I’d knackered the tendons in my feet and couldn’t walk. Real progress over the last few weeks meant that finally today I could give it a go. I talked my friend Tom into coming along. He’d never been on one of my trips before, so didn’t know what to expect. I think he thought it would be fun.

We put into the Welland on Stamford meadows, amid laughter from onlookers. It took around 5-10 mins to inflate the Ranger and get it afloat in clear skies and sunshine. The river was flowing nicely, and we barely needed to paddle at all. Seeing Stamford from the river for the first time was fantastic, as we cruised past the old stone buildings, imagining the waterway in Medieval times, when there was a thriving wool trade and loads of alchemists.

We portaged the big weir to the south of the town (photo) and stopped for a bit of lunch. Pretty soon we hit our first white water. I use the term extremely loosely. It was genuinely scary, but we made it through OK. Just a few minutes later however, we hit more white water and got stuck on a rock and pulled broadside to the current. I jumped out and pulled us clear, but it turned out that we’d ripped the polyester hull. If it hadn’t been there, that probably would have been the end of the trip, but the hull saved our inflatability nicely.

The following stretch was probably my favourite. We saw a heron and three kingfishers, and I may have seen a water vole, although at one point I was convinced an otter was swimming alongside us, and it turned out to be a log.

A torrent of hail was then unleashed upon us. It lashed into the water around us, and bit any exposed flesh. The journey was still enjoyable at this point, but soon a serious storm blew up, and we were assailed by hail, sleet and rain, with an icy wind thrown in for good measure. At this point one of the self-bailing plugs came open and soon we were sitting in cold water. We were also pretty lost. Suddenly a horrific stretch of white water came into view. We were fairly shot at this point and only just noticed it in time. Luckily we made it to the bank, but once we climbed up to the top, the wind was excessively cruel on our wet bodies. We did however spot a church steeple from the top of the bank, so Tom ran off to see where we were (photo).

After draining the boat and stoppering the plug, we carried along for a while until we got stuck again. I hopped out again, but got sucked into the mud and had to really wrestle to pull my feet free. A little while later we came to a bridge (photo). At this point Tom decided he’d had enough and would walk to the car from there, even though we had no idea where it was. Another minor miracle when we climbed up the bank and realised the car was just on the other side of the railway track. If Tom’s spider-sense hadn’t stopped us there, we would probably have been killed in more rapids.

It was sad to see the rip in my pretty Ranger, but I’m sure it can be fixed fairly easily. All in all a fun trip, and just what I’ve been missing whilst cooped up indoors for months with knackered feet. Bring on the next trip!

The repression in Tibet continues, and many people are wondering what they can do to help the Tibetan people in their struggle to be heard. Below are some ideas to get you started. Please add comments if you have further suggestions of your own.

What can I do to help support Tibet?

1. Send a letter/email/fax to Gordon Brown. Urge him to call for a UN team of investigators into Tibet as soon as possible.
   • Fax: 020 7925 0918
   • E-mail the PM.
   • Write to: Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, 10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA
2. Write to your MP. You can find your MP’s contact details here.
3. There is a march in support of Tibet taking place in London. Join the march from Park Crescent (west side) to the North terrace of Trafalgar Square: Starts 12 noon, Saturday 22nd March.
   
   Edit: This has now taken place. Read the Times Online write-up.
4. Sign this petition at avaaz.org.
5. Sign this petition at thepetitionsite.com.
6. If you are a British citizen or resident, sign this petition at petitions.pm.gov.uk.
7. Further ideas on what to do.
8. For the latest news and what you can do to help, go to FreeTibet.org

I’ve been having a nightmare with tendinitis in both my feet since the start of the summer. There’s a lot of information out there for Achilles tendinitis, but hardly any for the other tendons (posterior tibial, anterior tibial and peroneal tendons), which are the ones I’ve messed up. I thought I’d post here what I’ve found helpful, in the hope it might help someone else.

The image above shows all the tendons in the foot. I’ve messed up all of mine except the Achilles tendons. It was a classic case of going from no activity to ridiculously intense activity (killer rip currents jealously guarding swell I just couldn’t resist, as I only get one week in the surf a year). My feet went incredibly creaky afterwards, then became very painful to walk on, and subsequently swelled up massively. After rest, ice, Voltarol and elevation they eventually got better after a few weeks, but flared up again a couple of weeks later. I think standing in line at a theme park caused it, but I’m not 100% sure. I didn’t rest them completely as taking time off work seemed impossible, and within a few weeks I couldn’t walk at all. Then began my current obsessive quest - trying to get my feet sorted.

Acupuncture

First off I tried acupuncture. My Mum had tennis elbow a few years ago, which is a form of tendinitis, and one acupuncture session was enough to sort her completely. I had several sessions which worked incredibly well to get rid of the muscle spasm and get the bloodflow going in my feet again. It also helped to get rid of a lot of the pain.

Ice Bandages

I then saw a physio who imparted a fantastic secret … ice bandages. You soak a crepe bandage in water, squeeze most of the water out of it and freeze it. You then wrap the frozen bandage tightly around the foot and ankle and elevate the feet for fifteen minutes. This gives compression, ice and elevation at the same time. The swelling in my tendons went down very quickly using this method, and I’m currently doing it four times a day. I follow this up with stretching exercises (with a latex strap), an application of Voltarol (anti-inflammatory) lotion, and gentle massage, to get the blood flowing again and get rid of any muscle spasm.

Neoprene Ankle Support

I’ve also invested in some neoprene ankle supports. As well as supporting the ankle, they improve bloodflow in the area they cover, promoting healing. I’ve been wearing them when I’m doing anything other than sitting with my feet elevated. I’ve also been wearing them when swimming, and my feet feel much stronger after the exercise than they did without them.

Swimming

I started out just treading water really gently, and have been building up to very light swimming and some walking whilst supported with water in the pool. It’s easy to overdo it, but swimming seems the best way to get my muscles working again. I’m currently up to half an hour and am going every day, unless my feet are feeling strained.

That’s pretty much it for now, but I’ll update this post with any further tips if they arise. Please add any suggestions you might have by adding a comment.

Heat and Exercises

The physio gave me some stretching exercises, which really helped to stop my muscles or whatever seizing up. They were:

• pulling the foot upright towards the ankles and moving from side to side
• standing leaning against something, with one leg stretched backwards, leaning in on it until I could feel the muscles at the back of my foot stretching, and holding it
• rising onto the balls of my feet and holding it
• standing on one leg, progressing onto standing on one foot on cushions

Update 7/2/08

I’m getting nowhere with my tendons. Perhaps I’ve torn or shredded them and am just going to have to have the surgery. I can’t walk on them anymore, not even when the majority of my weight is supported on sticks. If anyone has experienced anything similar, please contact me. I’m desperate now, and will still have to wait weeks for the specialist.

Update 21/3/08

I’m pleased to report that my feet are finally on the mend. I basically bought some Crocs knee-pads and crawled everywhere and it seems to have given them the space they need to start to heal. Still resting them majorly, as I’m so scared of over-doing it, but swimming is helping, and at last I have some hope for the future.

Update 11/5/08

I’m now back at work, and driving, and mountain biking. The feet are still fairly dodgy, and I can’t stand for more than a few minutes, and can’t walk very far or very fast, but at least I can get my life back to some degree, and with any luck they’ll make a full recovery. I’m convinced it was total rest (crawling everywhere) that gave them the chance to heal.

Update 12/10/08

It was pretty clear that my feet (largely now just my ankles) were not going to be ready in time for the new term, so I took voluntary redundancy at the end of the summer. I figured this would give me around three months to get better before my money ran out. I really had no choice. Once I’d gone back to work, my feet got worse and worse. I was eventually given more physiotherapy, which really helped, but as soon as I do anything beyond walking on them for seven minutes then resting with heat for an hour or two, they get really bad again.

Last weekend I must have overdone it, and am back to crawling again. There’s clearly something very wrong still with my ankle tendons. I’m not going to fobbed off by anyone this time. I’ve already lost my job. If I don’t stick up for myself I’m going to end up losing my house fairly swiftly. Past experience has shown me that doctors, even specialists, don’t always know best, and it was listening to their advice (keep taking anti-inflammatories and walking on them) that caused this to drag on so long in the first place.

I’ve just accessed an email account I haven’t used for a while, to find I’ve got 162,369 messages, all of which I’m assuming are spam. I suppose at least my spam filter will be pretty well trained by the end of it. Unfortunately there’s a catch-all at the domain that I can’t get rid of, so anything@the_domain gets through. Not a good idea!

I spent yesterday at Alton Towers. It rained pretty heavily for most of the day, as had been forecast, so there weren’t many people there at all, and there were no queues for the rides! I went on Rita twice, Air three times, Nemesis twice and Oblivion four times, as well as riding the less high octane thrills quite a bit as well (River Rapids three times, Runaway Mine Train three times, Enterprise twice, Duel twice, Hex once). Here’s my breakdown of the rides:

Rita Queen of Speed - an electromagnetic start catapults you from 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds - faster than the space shuttle. The first time you ride this, you think your body is going to break apart under the G force. It’s supremely extreme. One of the funniest things I ever saw was my friend Kathleen’s face turn from laughter to horror in a nanosecond and then she was gone (I was watching from the queue). Once the speed’s up there’s tons more to the ride - loads of curves and air time, all incredibly fast and exhilarating.
My thrill rating: 9/10

Air - on Air you fly along like Superman, with your feet dangling. I can recommend riding with bare feet for extra sensation. This is a gentle ride, which really makes you feel you’re flying. In the rain yesterday there were warnings that riders “may find the ride uncomfortable!” At one part of the ride you’re held upside-down for a few seconds and beaten with torrents of rain. It’s more pleasant when it’s not raining!
My thrill rating: 7/10

Nemesis - the idea with Nemesis is that you’re being tossed around by a giant monster, and it really feels like this. You’re sat with dangling feet, and again, it’s worth riding this barefoot for extra vulnerability. This is a classic ride, and you go round loads of loops and bends and get swung out and thrown around to the extreme. It doesn’t make you feel sick though and is just incredibly exhilarating.
My thrill rating: 8/10

Oblivion - Oblivion is a short ride, but very intense. The carriage is wide with just two rows, so it’s the easiest ride to get front rider for. This one cranks you up for quite a while at a steep angle, then you get hung over a vertical drop for a few seconds. When it drops you, gravity sucks you in at a ton of pounds per second per second or whatever, through a stack of dry ice, down to pitch darkness. The first time I rode this I got memory loss it’s so extreme. You then roll back into daylight and round a nice curve. This is pretty much it, but it packs a lot of thrill into a short ride.
My thrill rating: 9/10

If you haven’t been to Alton Towers lately then you need to go! Think of it as fat camp for your adrenal glands.

Yes! My new book has arrived - Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near. It’s all about humans transcending biology, largely with the help of nanobots. We’re going to end up as robots made out of diamonds apparently, which is about as shiny as a robot can get, so it gets my vote. It’s going to be hard choosing between this one and Harry Potter Deathly Hallows over the next few days!

Right now school’s out! and I’ve got a nice long summer stretching out ahead. Already chilled myself out on holiday, although I’ve knackered up the tendons in my feet battling through horrific rip currents in the sea and can barely walk. Got stung by a jellyfish but no weever fish this year.

This summer I really want to finish one of my novels in progress, and finish making a puzzle/horror game based on the Dr Who episode Blink (with the weeping angels). Plus I’m in a new band doing electronics and am way into that.

Those daleks need turning into robots too. Ideas include hoovers, privatised law enforcement and robotic mock-ups making it look like they’re being powered by jellyfish, cockroaches or kittens. I was going to make one play its own theremin, but on second thoughts that would probably sound horrific. Would be good to film them though. They’ve been split into 4 shares now but maybe we’ll have a reunion lol. I really want to get a spy camera to put down the eye stalk of one of them. Save on the post processing!

I found that someone had uploaded my Google Earth Tibet machinima onto Youtube, which seems to have caused a bit of a stir lol.

Have uploaded some of my videos to Youtube as well. It’s all stuff I’ve done myself except for Fungi the wild dolphin, which I nicked off the BBC, as I didn’t have a camera when I swam with him. Ironically, the Google Earth one is really the only one I’m happy with. I need to get my head round doing some proper background music rather than always taking the lazy way out.

The technology for a virtual crow world does actually now exist! Maybe I’ll get round to building it sometime.