The Cassini space mission

It was the last day of the Cassini space mission to Saturn a week or so ago. 

Years ago, Daughter and I used to attend the annual, three-day Astronomy weekend held at Oxford University, hosted by Robert Lambourne, and I can remember a speaker doing a talk about the Cassini mission there. 

There was a live broadcast from NASA of the final moments as the signal finally disappeared.  I have to say, it was actually very moving.  All those people who have worked years on the mission and then it ends with a final wink of the carrier signal as the spaceship plunges into the atmosphere of Saturn and begins to break apart. 

Current Fitness Regime

I have discovered the GCN organisation ("Global Cycling Network") who have published over 1,000 cycling related videos over the past few years.  These include about two dozen workout videos which are now forming the basis for my daily exercise routine.

Up at 7:00 a.m and out to the garage by 7:30, I am typically doing around 60 minutes, made up of a longer workout based on their indoor classes, followed by one of the short videos based on a climb - typically this has been the Passo Sella ramp session. 

So I can enjoy watching Lucy Martin indoors, followed by the hard push to really wipe myself out in the Italian Dolomites.  I am less than two weeks into my routine, and am constantly finding good training resources on the internet, so I hope to have a good winter training for next year.

The lovely Lucy in her rather snazzy GCN kit.  My all-time cycling hero remains Nicole Cooke though - her win in Beijing in the women's road race remains the greatest cycling win I have ever seen.

Current reading - The $12m shark

Once in a while it is important to be reminded of the bizarreness of the contemporary art market and I have recently acquired a book for precisely that purpose.

I actually quite like the Damon Hirst shark, though I was rather disappointed to discover that it was rotting away.  It was bought by the hedge fund manager, Steve Cohen, for the $12m quoted,  He is a multi-billionaire, so $12m is the equivalent of me paying about £6k for something.

Art is such a weird market - positional goods at their best, in which the object itself is relatively unimportant it always seems.  But if I could afford a large Rothko, I would definitely buy one!

Mark Rothko full-sized Reproductions

I read somewhere that it is possible to buy reproduction artwork that can be pretty close to exact copies and I have found a website that says it can do Mark Rothko reproductions in pretty much any size up to the original size.  They are painted in oils by highly skilled artists in Thailand as far as I can tell.

So I have in mind to purchase a huge reproduction of a Rothko, possibly this one.

I would like it to be about 80 inches high and it will go in the hallway near my office.  In fact, I think I can fit two or three in along this corridor.  That would look great I reckon.

Recent reading - The legacy of Mark Rothko

When I bought this book, I actually thought it was a book about Rothko's art but it turned out to be about a huge legal case arising after his death concerning the sale of most of the paintings in his estate to a single gallery at knock down prices.

It really is quite an incredible story and you can only come out of it feeling amazed at what Kate Rothko, his daughter, went through in her pursuit of justice.  If only the pictures had been better quality! 

The World Cycling Championships - Rochelle Gilmore

I haven't done much riding on my bike in the last couple of years but I am fired up and set to do loads from now on.  I went for a 20 mile ride on Saturday morning - my first for a couple of months - and felt a lot better than I had done back then.  All those turbo sessions are making a difference.

Then this morning I went out again and did just over 35 miles in 2 hrs 45.  For the first time in ages I actually felt really good on the bike - hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Back home and I was settled in for an afternoon watching the men's road race on BBC when a person I haven't heard about for perhaps 8 to 10 years appeared as part of the commentary team - Rochelle Gilmore.

When I cycled a lot back then, I used to buy cycling magazines regularly and she had rather stood out when they were covering women's cycling!  She is now the manager of a women's team and seems very active in the sport still.  Did a very good job of commentating on the cycle race too I thought.  Very knowledgeable.

Rochelle, marking that thin dividing line between admiring her for her sporting achievements and admiring her for other reasons

I also enjoyed her short youtube clip of her going up the Col du Tourmalet as well.

I have to say though, I did always admire Nicole Cooke too back then - especially her win in the Beijing Olympics which I can remember vividly today - in the wet uphill to the finish.

Tentative plans to cycle up Alpe d'Huez again

A couple of weeks ago, various family members gathered in Grenoble from where we drove down to Alpe d'Huez to mark the third anniversary of the cycle ride up the Alpe by Andrew and myself, and to scatter some of Andrew's ashes on the route. 

As a result of this, there are very tentative plans to return next year and for me and some other friends and family to go up it again.

I have decided that this is the impetus that I need to start getting myself into shape.  I have downloaded several films of people ascending Alpe d'Huez and various other famous climbs and have been watching these as I toil away on my turbo trainer in the garage.  I have also started running again round the fields near our house.

As at September 25, I am 14 days into my new regime and have run 5k on five occasions, have done 8 90-minute turbo sessions and have been out on my road bike twice, clocking up 55 miles in total.

Not a bad start I think.

The photo I bought from the shop in Bourg d'Oisen of my last ascent - 89 minutes.  My target for next time is 70 minutes!

Andrew and me at the top of Alpe d'Huez on Sept 10th 2014 - the inflatable man is still there doing excellent work

Another long gap between posts

Another long gap between posts - I may as well just start from current things and maybe backtrack into some more stuff from the past few months when I feel like it.

In the meantime, here are pictures of a burger I had in La Rochelle at some point over the summer, a moules-frites lunch in La Continiere on the Isle d'Oleron from May, and a Pluma Iberique dish that I had on my birthday at Le Scorlion restaurant in St Jean d'Angely in June,