On Boxing day I ordered a souvenir gift set from the Tour De France official store. It arrived today and so begins my official countdown to the 2012 tour. I've actually started writing a blog about how I became hooked on road race cycling this year, which I need to finish sometime. This blog is to kick start a series (hopefully) of scribblings on my first year following the cycling road race season. The season runs from January to October so there should be plenty of opportunity to share my views on my new found passion.
Now would be a good time to declare my interest in the Europcar cycling team. I will be closely following the exploits of this French team, and in particular their star rider Thomas Voeckler. Also it will be interesting to see how Pierre Rolland matures after his fantastic White Jersey win in the Tour De France. Rolland rode tirelessly in support of Voeckler during the tour and managed to finish 11th overall as well. His win on Alpe-d'Huez was a brilliant achievement and hopefully will give Rolland the confidence to challenge in the GC in stage races.
In 2012, Looking forward to:
1. Watching the Spring classics. As I only got into cycling in July 2011 I missed an incredible early season. Will Gilbert dominate again?
2. The Giro. The one Grand Tour I missed in the 2011 season. The route for 2012 is more rider friendly and Contador is not likely to go, so it could be a really open tour. Team Sky may even send Chris Froome to have a crack at GC. That would be great for the British cycling fans to watch.
3. Mark Cavendish vs. the Rest
The split up of HTC and the emergence of Marcel Kittel as the next big thing will provide fresh tests for Cav. The Manx Missile will now be facing tough competition from former HTC team mates Mark Renshaw and Matt Goss. If anyone knows how to beat Cav surely it's those two. Most interestingly for me is the match-up with Kittel. This German wunderkid is by all accounts the real deal. I'm really looking forward to a true rivalry developing between these two.
4. Going to the Tour de France.
Hotel is booked and I'm off to see stage 3, the first stage in France, which finishes in Boulogne. The precise details of the route won't be released till closer to July, but I don't think I want to be at the finish. Somewhere in the last third of the route would be ideal. It will be my first trip to the Tour.
5. Tour de France
Watching as much as I can live on tv. This years tour was my tv highlight of the year. Beating even Wales' super win against Ireland in the Rugby World Cup.
The Tour is great sporting drama and because it's played out over 20 odd stages in 3 weeks, the tension & excitement just builds. I was very lucky this year to watch a vintage tour as my first one. I'm optimistic that the 2012 route will serve up some great racing. Impossible for Voeckler to repeat his heroics again, but I can see him getting some podiums. It would be good to see Andy Schleck win the Yellow Jersey, purely to reward his climbing talent. My gut instinct at the moment is to go with Contador. He's skipping the Giro to be fresh for the tour and I think he'll be back to best.
6. Olympic road race
Cav could win GB's first gold medal of the London Olympics. Would be a nice symmetry to it as Nicole Cooke won Team GB's first gold in Beijing.
The above points were just a few specifics but in the truth I'm looking forward to the whole season; all the UCI World Tour events and any other live cycling that finds it's way onto tv.
Roll on 2012.
Thursday, 29 December 2011
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Memories of a casual gamer - Part 1
It all started in 1986 when I was 10. My Dad bought me my first computer, an Amstrad CPC 464. Games were loaded via cassette and some games could take nearly 30 minutes to load. Imagine that. The computer also came with a monitor, the legendary green screen monitor. Everything was displayed in different shades of green. Lovely.
Games such as Harrier Attack, Oh Mummy and Roland in the Caves soon became favourites. Jet Set Willy was also played alot. What a strange little game. It had the advantage of being a very quick game to load. And then there was The Bard’s Tale. A classic RPG of it’s day. The number of enemies I killed with a fire horn - unbelievable. (you had to be there) I can still remember some of the music from that game. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Amiga
In 1990 I got an Amiga computer. This was a big step-up from my Amstrad and was capable of real good graphics and sound. The Amiga turned out to be a real high point for gamers in the early 1990s and produced a long line of classic games, many of which still survive in some format today. Some of my favourites included Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Bloodwych, Double Dragon, Sensible Soccer, Sim City, James Pond, Railroad Tycoon, Hired Guns, Secret of Monkey Island and Dune 2.
The game that probably took up the most time was a turn-based strategy affair called Warlords. It was simple to learn with modest game rules but required real commitment and planning to master. I enjoyed the challenge of starting off from a small base and expanding your armies and influences through strategic play. It was a cleverly designed game and allowed the player to adopt a variety of tactics. The game had plenty of re-play value for me and will always be regarded as one of my all-time favourites.
1990 to 1995 were the Amiga years and it would be remiss of me not to mention the excellent Amiga Power. This was a magazine published by Future Publishing that became the number 1 gaming magazine for the Amiga. Reading AP every month was a pure joy. Check out the AP wikipedia site to understand why it was so great.
Games such as Harrier Attack, Oh Mummy and Roland in the Caves soon became favourites. Jet Set Willy was also played alot. What a strange little game. It had the advantage of being a very quick game to load. And then there was The Bard’s Tale. A classic RPG of it’s day. The number of enemies I killed with a fire horn - unbelievable. (you had to be there) I can still remember some of the music from that game. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Amiga
In 1990 I got an Amiga computer. This was a big step-up from my Amstrad and was capable of real good graphics and sound. The Amiga turned out to be a real high point for gamers in the early 1990s and produced a long line of classic games, many of which still survive in some format today. Some of my favourites included Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Bloodwych, Double Dragon, Sensible Soccer, Sim City, James Pond, Railroad Tycoon, Hired Guns, Secret of Monkey Island and Dune 2.
The game that probably took up the most time was a turn-based strategy affair called Warlords. It was simple to learn with modest game rules but required real commitment and planning to master. I enjoyed the challenge of starting off from a small base and expanding your armies and influences through strategic play. It was a cleverly designed game and allowed the player to adopt a variety of tactics. The game had plenty of re-play value for me and will always be regarded as one of my all-time favourites.
1990 to 1995 were the Amiga years and it would be remiss of me not to mention the excellent Amiga Power. This was a magazine published by Future Publishing that became the number 1 gaming magazine for the Amiga. Reading AP every month was a pure joy. Check out the AP wikipedia site to understand why it was so great.
Monday, 3 January 2011
John Dickson Carr
Reading the books of John Dickson Carr has become a passion of mine in recent years. So far I have read 21 of his books. Not a bad start, though considering he wrote about 70 books I’ve still got a way to go. He’s probably an author you’ve never heard. A writer from the Golden Age of Detective fiction (Agatha Christie’s era), he is known for his impossible crime stories and locked-room murder mysteries. I first became aware of him whilst reading a list of essential crime fiction published in the Guardian newspaper a few years ago. They recommended his book “The Hollow Man”. Thankfully this was of his books still in print. I read it and loved every bit of it. It was fantastic story telling and a masterful plot. Since that point I’ve been hooked on Carr books.
Half the fun of reading his books is collecting them in the first place. There are less than half a dozen of his books still in print. It will be a real challenge to gather together all his books and read them. And hopefully an enjoyable challenge. In my first year of reading Carr I went to the famous book town Hay-on-Wye to hunt down some books. I found one Carr and left with a fresh appreciation of how difficult it could be to build my collection. Websites like ebay and amazon market place have plenty of Carr books available but I know as my collection grows it will become increasing difficult to find those rarer books. And to make it even more fun there are the different versions of his books to collect, namely the English and American editions. As a sign of my passion for Carr I was in France in summer last year and bought three second hand copies of his books in French. Needless to say I can’t read French, but it’s pretty cool to have them in my Carr collection.
So 2011. A simple aim. To read 9 more Carr books to take the total upto 30. I already have five unread books to get on with. Actually six come to think of it. Though the sixth is a non-fiction work, a biography on the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I now present a list of my Top 10 John Dickson Carr books. It will be interesting to see if there is much change to this list by the end of this year.
1. The Hollow Man
2. The Judas Window
3. Papa La-Bas
4. The Emperor’s Snuff Box
5. It Walks by Night
6. The Seat of the Scornful
7. The Crooked Hinge
8. Fire, Burn
9. Captain Cuthroat
10. He Who Whispers
Half the fun of reading his books is collecting them in the first place. There are less than half a dozen of his books still in print. It will be a real challenge to gather together all his books and read them. And hopefully an enjoyable challenge. In my first year of reading Carr I went to the famous book town Hay-on-Wye to hunt down some books. I found one Carr and left with a fresh appreciation of how difficult it could be to build my collection. Websites like ebay and amazon market place have plenty of Carr books available but I know as my collection grows it will become increasing difficult to find those rarer books. And to make it even more fun there are the different versions of his books to collect, namely the English and American editions. As a sign of my passion for Carr I was in France in summer last year and bought three second hand copies of his books in French. Needless to say I can’t read French, but it’s pretty cool to have them in my Carr collection.
So 2011. A simple aim. To read 9 more Carr books to take the total upto 30. I already have five unread books to get on with. Actually six come to think of it. Though the sixth is a non-fiction work, a biography on the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I now present a list of my Top 10 John Dickson Carr books. It will be interesting to see if there is much change to this list by the end of this year.
1. The Hollow Man
2. The Judas Window
3. Papa La-Bas
4. The Emperor’s Snuff Box
5. It Walks by Night
6. The Seat of the Scornful
7. The Crooked Hinge
8. Fire, Burn
9. Captain Cuthroat
10. He Who Whispers
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