Snow Dome in Wycombe

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Just found out today that there is a Snow Dome planned to replace (or augment) the dry ski slope in Wycombe. Its brilliant news and apparently should take a year. Some sketchy information on this Wycombe Summit website. Might go look soon and report back if anything is happening.
It seems that there are several of these snow domes going up in the area though. Perhaps buoyed by the success of the three big ones (Milton Keynes being one of them). I just hope that they really take spiralling energy costs into consideration and build in some decent insulation to cut down their costs. Otherwise I can see it becoming prohibitively expensive to run pretty quickly.
It shouldn't be that hard to build smart, but of course the material and design costs would be higher. Considering that humans were building ice houses long long along, it should be possible.

Making Clothes Cycle-Useful

This is a step in the quest for stylish cycle clothes that veer away from the Hi-vis jacket school of fashion (although we got some free from the London Freewheel).

Here is a Maharishi top I altered by just opening the seams (which are barely visible in this version of the top) and putting in some reflective piping from Point North so that it is more visible at night. I'm thinking of wearing it as an overtop (so its not a summer-only top).


(above) the top with one piece of piping in it. Maharishi clothes are extraordinarily well made.


(above) the top complete with the piping (the pattern is on the back too for great visibility)

(above) This is another Maharishi top in the same series. One of my ideas was to make a new version of this in Dashing Tweeds (British tweed with 3M reflective tape woven into it) and possibly include the same sort of piping, or even flat reflective panels where the pattern is.

The Maharishi designers clearly like reflectives. Most of the trousers and tops have a little tag on the side including black or white reflective material, and often the eyes of the embroidered dragons are sewn with reflective thread, which can be quite startling. I wonder if they would consider going a bit more reflective mad.

Wipeout HD

It's finally here. Long awaited, long delayed.

First impressions - its quite visually overwhelming. I haven't even got around to looking at the HUD yet, because I am too busy watching the track and trying to stop scraping off the walls (the paddle like airbrakes are taking some getting used to, seem to require a lighter touch).
Even the courses seem visually full. I just noticed that when one is racing, there are pulses racing along the track, which can actually be very useful to follow and give a clue as to the the way the course is going to twist. Nice touch.

Really nice feeling of continuity with Fusion which has to be one of the best games ever. They have preserved the gameplay too, it feels like. We were suitably struggling with Feisar.
Even the weapons seem to be along the same lines.

The graphics are lovely. Not yet up to photorealism (I keep hoping..). You really notice the sophistication when things get blown up. Great smoke and fire etc. And glints of reflectivity off the track.

I'll post some screenshots.. if I can work out how. Most of the ones you see don't look like the game itself. this looks pretty close, but when its going past at 100 miles an hour... its a lot madder...

nice review here

now... coming up to a weekend where I try and get better before attempting the online play. I can't lay myself open to that embarrassment! Will have to thrash my brother when he gets here Monday...

some screenshots. Excuse the ranking, but its hard to keep pressing the 'photo' button and keep any kind of position.

London Dancewear shops

Just a note up in case anyone is looking for Julienne & Porselli. Its now closed down. However if you do end up around there, its a short walk to Drury Lane (down Long Acre) where you can find Blochworld (nice looking shop, bit useless in the clothes department) or the Very Pink but Extremely Helpful Dancia (seriously, don't let the colour put you off) where I have ordered some Grishko vegan ballet slippers. The place with the biggest range of leotards I have found so far is Sansha which is tiny and crammed.

All three of these shops are within a stone's throw of each other and seem to be open later on Thursdays.

Sevillanas World Record

Picture of Regent Street and the dancers from above. An intermittently showery day but we did it and broke the record! (Just wait for the next Feria in Seville).