Schumacher ‘out of his mind’ and ‘no hope’ of F1 title

Those words coming from Eddie Jordan on a recent interview when asked what he thought about Michael Schumacher return to F1?

Let’s leave it at that and comment again when Schumacher wins a race or beats the 100 race win mark or god forbid, wins another world championship.

I bet you Eddie “idiot” Jordan will backtrack soon or later.

Here are some awesome features:

You can browse all the available categories direct from the N900wallpaper.com website and it shows you exactly how many wallpapers exist in each category.

When you select a category it shows a scrollable grid of thumbnails. Notice some of the thumbnails have four squares in the bottom left hand corner. This shows you that the wallpaper can be spread over the four desktops that the N900 has.  The thumbnails without these squares are single images. You still have the choice as explained below to push the wallpaper to individual desktops or all four.

Lets say I select one of those multiple screen wallpapers. The 4 images appear and there are a couple of options at the bottom. The first icon allows you to save the wallpapers to your device without saving it as a wallpaper (for later use).

The second icon asks you to choose the wallpaper to apply to a desktop, meaning you don’t necessarily have to have all four wallpapers on your four desktops. (clever because you might like only one of the four wallpapers, or two of the four wallpapers).

The third icon allows you to apply all the wallpapers to all your desktops. It puts them in the right order as well. (very clever).

The fourth icon tells you who created the wallpaper. (nice, give credit where due).

Finally the fifth icon allows you to rate the wallpaper and this is extremely useful especially if one is looking for the Top 100 highest rated wallpapers.

Only once you select the image and how you want it displayed on your device, does it downloads.

There are so many awesome wallpapers to use that one is extremely spoilt for choice.

Highly recommended –

I won’t lie when I say I don’t like hip hop or rap music. I could probably count the number of songs on my one hand that I like. But this particular song one is really catchy and funny and the lyrics are quite clever.(I couldn’t find the lyrics anywhere on the web).

UK Hip Hop give it a good review.

Here is a clever music video for the song by Barmie over at MySpace.

We woke to another cold and cloudly morning, well that’s what it looked like from our balcony. It had snowed overnight and everything had a thick layer of snow on it. It must have snowed quite a lot as our balcony was piled up with snow.

We planned a couple of blue runs that would take us down to Courchevel 1550, ones we had not done yet and decided to get to the slopes an hour earlier than we had been, to get as much skiing in as possible.

It was as if the weather wanted to give us one last day of perfect clear blue skies, because as we were walking up to the starting area, the clouds lifted and we saw the awesome mountain slopes in all their splendid glory. The slopes glistened in the sun like sparkling diamonds. I will insert a few photos when we get back home.

The weather was deceiving though! The second we started to ski down the mountain, it soon became apparent that the air temperature / wind chill factor was not ideal. We later heard it was a chilly -10C at 1850 and above 2000m around -15C. It was miserable on the open chair lifts. The cold bit into any visible skin, which was the face. In hind sight a balaclava would have been the perfect solution.

We did some super fast blue runs and used our Panasonic FT1 all weather camera to take some stunning HD video and photos. It even managed to capture one of us wiping out (no names mentioned…too much pride at stake). Talking cameras, one cannot fault this camera. It worked brilliantly in the snow, and was in a couple of big crashes and its durable body survived all the knocks we have thrown it. Not to mention it was fully submerged in the Orange river in South Africa less than three months ago and survived the desert heat in Namibia. I also carried our gorilla-pod camera stand and we able to attach it to a few chosen locations allowing us some ‘together’ photos.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Courchevel 1850 has an airport. Well just above the landing strip is a gorgeous restaurant / meeting area with tables and chairs, and even deck chairs. So it was here we stopped for a mid morning hot cup of chocolate and customary beer. If it wasn’t for the ice cold wind and snow everywhere, you could almost believe you were sitting on a beach somewhere. Fantastic scenery.

This particular restaurant / meeting point must have been special because they had their very own DJ (not in da house, but ON da house).

He had his decks and everything set up on the roof and he was belting out tracks. I was thinking he could have caused a mini avalanche just above his head, but he didn’t seem too bothered.

At around 2pm we had enough. Our feet and legs were tired and we had done most, if not all of the green and blue runs through the course of the week. Quite an achievement we thought, considering this was our first week of skiing. We handed in our rented skis and went to have lunch at one of the many brilliant restaurants. Courchevel 1850 is not cheap, but we managed to find affordable places to eat.

Our final bit of fun was hiring a helmet and ’snow bob’ or plastic sledge for €5. Courchevel has its very own luge course running from 1850 down to 1550. It winds down a 2km mountain pass with loads of hairpin bends and sheer cliff drops and ice barriers. The entire course has huge fir trees lining the road. The sledge is plastic, has a seat, a foot holder, two pull brakes on either side of the chair, which are used for breaking and steering. The course is steep and icy in parts with bumps that cause one to fly through the air. The second you start its impossible not to laugh. If you are following close behind someone the ice sprays up from their sledge, so its imperrative that one wears snow goggles. There appears to be no limit on how many people can be on the course at any one time and this adds to the fun and laughter as people are passing you or sliding into the hairpin bends at breakneck speeds or crashing in front of you and it is just the funniest thing ever. Everyone becomes everyones friend for that moment regardless of nationality or language. We did five or six runs. After a while it became quite painful on the coxis and knees, arms, hands, head, back etc if one is accident prone…(ha ha ha). The helmet is a must have item. I came off on a straight after going airborne and crashed and rolled a few times, hitting my head in the process into the ground. Having a helmet definitely saved a severe bruising or concussion.

So it is all over until next year. We will definitely be going back to Courchevel 1850. It has so much character and choice, and it is hard to fault. Perhaps if we win the lottery between now and next year, we can afford to stay at the €35000 per week Chevel Blanc hotel.

The above photos were taken on my Nokia N900, resized and cropped on the N900.

Visibility was about 10m and it made skiiing very difficult. Nevermind that we were tackling blue slopes, it was the ‘not knowing what was ahead of us’ that caused concern at times, especially when the slopes dip off or drop steeply. Added to the fog/mist it began to snow. We got lost a few times and even got split up once, which was a little scary. Thankfully we had walkie talkies at hand.

Today (Thursday) was much like yesterday, we were determined to do as many blue runs as possible, so plotted out our route beforehand. We started at 1850 and took the Jardin Alpin lift up to a blue run called Biollay. A short run down to a six seater chair lift at Pralong. Then up the top of Pralong and down past the Altiport (airport). Believe it or not they have a tared runway where light aircraft and helicopters take off. Quite popular as aeroplanes are taking off and landing all day in rain or snow.

Once past the airport there was a lovely long blue run through the forest to Prameruel. We took the Roc Mugnier chair lift up to the Grande Bosses blue run. By now it was snowing quite heavily and it made skiiing a pleasure.

We skied all the blue routes and eventually ended back at Bel Air, this magnificent meeting point / restaurant on top of the mountain. It was cold and we hoped to sit indoors but the place was packed with people, so ended up sitting outside on the deck in the snow. It was then we noticed the snowflakes. They say all snowflakes are unique. Well, we filmed loads (we shall insert some macro shots of some snowflakes at a later date). The snowflakes were impressive. We had a lovely hot meal and then headed back towards the altiport, where it was really foggy. Even the lifts had been stopped. We took a few wrong turns and ended up having to take lifts back to the top. Frustrating when one is only trying to go down.

We never got to sled down to Courchevel 1550. That is now planned for Friday night.

As the weather was so bad we headed back a little earlier and decided to go and watch a film at the cinema. There was only one film showing and it was Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Junior as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Dr Watson, what a brilliant film?

There were parts in the film that had not been researched that well for example; there is one scene that Holmes and Watson are under the Houses of Parliament in the sewer and Sherlick Holmes is running after someone and suddenly they end up on a construction site, that is Tower Bridge. Not exactly close to each other. But we enjoyed the film and the cinema was awesome, with lovely large chairs and beautiful, clear, surround sound.

We met a very passionate rugby loving Welsh man (aren’t they all) named Daniel at our hotel on Tuesday night. Actually he was the chef. While we watched him eat a delicious looking Italian dish (we had not eaten dinner at this stage so thought it was mighty rude of him for not offering), he told us about “a simple blue / green run” that goes down to La Tania, and he said if want to ease into blue run, this would be the one to try.

So bright and early on Day 4 after “Deep Heating” out all the aches and pains and after a nice full breakfast of ham, salami, croissont, pain au chocolat, bread, cereal, coffee and orange juice, we skied down to Plantery and rode a chair lift up to Loze. At the top we took the blue run named Crete. Once you drop down the hill there is no turning back.

I won’t lie when I say, “I was pooping myself going down that first blue run”. It felt steep and icy and one wrong move would have meant a fall, but it never happened. Jo was tackling the slope in her usual zigzag manner and winning. We eventually came across the green run that took us all the way to La Tania. We even started to brag that it was too easy and that there were too many beginners blocking up the green run (ha ha). A clear sign that we had progressed.

At La Tania we rode a ski lift up to Praz-Juget and then rode an open chair lift to Col De La Loze. At 2305m it would have looked spectacular had it not been for the pretty chilly cloudy weather with snow flakes falling everywhere. From this starting point there was only a blue or black run to choose from and since we don’t have a death wish yet, blue it was to be!

This run took us down to Chenus. It was fairly steep but thankfully straight and allowed us to do some speed skiing. By now we were becoming accustomed to what lay ahead in terms of the blue runs.

From Chenus we dropped down to Verdons and then down to Courchevel 1850. It is a great feeling skiing into 1850. The welcome area is large and there are hundreds of people unclipping and walking up to the three large lifts. All the restaurants face the slopes and it is just a bustle of people and activities. There is also a tunnel that takes one under the road and down further slopes and runs.

I tell you once the bug has bitten one doesn’t want to stop. Now we looked for longer blue runs. Even the pains and sore feet and blood clotting feeling that had slowed us down the days before had gone. Wednesday, was by far our best day of skiing.

Tomorrow we are tackling the sledge run that runs from Courchevel 1850 to Courchevel 1650. A 200m drop over a 2km winding pass.

We picked up our skis from the underground locker and walked up to the slope. It felt hot as there were no clouds so we quickly remove any extra clothing. We have these brilliant little backpacks that are light and they have a water bag in them. The bag holds about 1.5 litres in them and are ideal for drinking on the slopes. We did a nice long green run starting at the top of Jardin Alpin running down to Courchevel 1850. At 12pm we met up with a new ski instructor called Jean Ives, with 40 years of experience.

He followed on where Stefane left off yesterday. We did a few more snow plow turns, then a few curve turns, left and right turn jumps, which were tricky to say the least. Then we learnt how to turn keeping the skis parallel. Jean Ives was again very friendly, patient and helpful. We would definitely recommend private lessons for beginners alike.

After the lesson we took a timeout at the Courchevel centre, where they have free WIFI, so extremely useful for catching up on email and blogging.

We then took the Verdons lift up to Verdons and left our skis and poles against a fence. We then hopped onto one of those great big square ski lifts that holds about 50 people and rode up to the top of Saulire. At 2738m the view are pretty spectacular or incredible or awesome! Of course there are people dropping off the edge to ski or snowboard down it. We call them insane. Ha ha.

We had a very late lunch in the restaurant on top of the mountain. A self service joint where everything was ridiculously over priced. We have discovered that beer or coke, regardless of the size of the bottle or can is exactly the same price. At this place it was €5 each. On top of that we had spaghetti bolognaise and two beef hatches with chips. It cost a wopping €40.

After been robbed we headed back down to Verdons and opted for another green run called Renard where we put everything we learned from Jean Ives to the test. It was great fun carving through the snow. Neither of us managed to fall once. We headed back to the hotel satisfied of great days skiing. The hot shower back at the hotel was a welcome feeling to our aching legs and feet.

Afterwards we went back to meeting points at Courchevel 1850 and watched a fantastic show on the snow to music, lights and fire. They had skiers flying in on paragliders, hang gliders with flashing lights and all the ski instructors coming down the mountain holding fire lights. Quite spectacular. The show ended with a great big fireworks display.

Finally we ended the evening at a pizza restaurant. It was reasonably priced and the ambience was very romantic. Walking back to the hotel an evening wouldn’t be rememberable if there wasn’t some sort of accident or drama. Ha ha! Jo was telling me she had not hurt herself yet when suddenly she slipped on the ice and in the process of falling on her arse she managed to punch me on the nose. We are still trying to figure out how that happened?

Two hours seem to pass really quickly but we managed without falling to go down three fairly long green runs with little problems and in the process learnt all about turning, the pressures involved on the inner and outer leg, how to stand on your ski’s and how to ski with some confidence. Actually both of us did really well, if I have to say so myself.

After we said farewell to Stefane, we had lunch at a restaurant that specialized in crepes. You definitely can not visit France and not eat at least one off their 101 custom crepes.

Lunch gave us a chance to relax the feet and legs as they get quite sore compressed in the ski boots.

After lunch we braved Vedons, which was another green run, but a little to icy and a bit too steep. There were a lot of skiers and snowboarders on this run, but after the initial concerns and one or two tumbles, we grew in confidence.

Our last run entailed using a drag lift, which is basically a pole that has a small mini wheel at the base. One slides the pole between your legs, using the mini wheel as a seat. The pole is connected to a big pulley and it pulls or toes you up the hill. All very easy until you reach the summit, which is particularly steep for some reason. Sadly this part caught Jo out and she let go too early, which resulted in Jo eating the snow and her skis nearly taking me out as I passed her lying sprawled on the ground. (ha ha).

The day turned out to be a great learning experience and we look forward to the week ahead. Our goal is to tackle a blue route with confidence.

Finally our evening was rounded off with a 3-0 thrashing at tenpin bowling, with the victor being Mike.

Will definitely sleep well tonight.

Today i chatted to my Mom on my Nokia N900 for over 2 hours and it cost nothing. My Mom was at her computer in Windhoek, Namibia and I was logged into Skype on my N900. Skype is built into the N900, which makes it all the more amazing.

The call came through just like an ordinary phone call. When I am home my N900 is automatically connected to my Sky Broadband via wireless, so the entire call was using my broadband, as if I was at my PC.

Now imagine what a call of this magnitude would have cost had we used good old fashion Telekom or BT?

The fact is, we most certainly would not have spoken for so long. Modern technology is amazing and we should embrace it at every opportunity.

Stroke 9 formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. The band has since recorded five albums and toured extensively in the United States, Canada and Europe. Fueled by the commercial success of the hit song “Little Black Backpack,” their third album, “Nasty Little Thoughts,” went gold in 2000. The single “Kick Some Ass” from their fourth album “Rip It Off” was featured in the movie “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

I’ve been listening to the album “Rip it off”… bloody awesome!