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Saturday, April 26

Heard on the Metro: Culinary Confusion

"They've got tacos with sausage and bacon"

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Wednesday, April 23

The Apprentice: Food, Glorious Food

What is with Alan Sugar? It must be his surname. He seems obsessed by food.

In week 1, he got the candidates to sell fish.
In week 3, he got the candidates to sell pub food.
In week 5, he got the candidates to sell ice-cream.

So, 60% of the tasks so far involve shifting food.

I wonder if going to get his soon to be new Apprentice planning a new style of gastro-pub where you can get fresh fish and home-made ice-cream on the menu.

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Friday, April 18

Barcelona 2: Las Ramblas & Flamenco

I went to the famous Las Ramblas. As the rain fell and the pedestrians hid under shop awnings, it looked pretty unimpressive. Walking north, I only saw stalls of florists.

As the rain stopped and the sun came out, so did the people. I came across more interesting vendors. They were selling birds at one stall, including a crowing cock. At another stall, there were rabbits and hamsters. A third had fish.

I went into the Boqueira market and came across food vendors including fish, fruit, vegetables, meat and cheese. Around the corners of the market building, there were tapas bars. At one recommended by Ryanair´s inflight magazine, there was a long queue. Even worse that the last place with a queue, there wasn´t a menu. So, I gave up and went to another tapas bar. I managed to order some food by speaking in French. After all, the French border is only 80 miles away.

In the afternoon, I followed the Modernist route, checking out wavy buildings by Gaudi and his contemporiries ^sic^

In the evening I went to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant. There was a choice of spaghetti with white or red sauce and stodgy pizza with various tastless colourings.

However, the paella was reasonable as were the salads. The 8 types of ice-cream and a free beer made the menu worthwhile.

On my way back, I went to a flamenco show at a restaurant. There was a singer, a guitarist and a female danceer. She was reasonable but the show came alive when the diners took to the stage. At one point there were 10 people doing their imitations of flamenco. There was a short interlude where a dozen people dance the macarena at ever-increasing speeds.

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Thursday, April 17

Barcelona 1 - Picasso and tapas

I caught the Ryanair redeye 0630 departure from Lord Foster´s flying monument, Stansted Airport.

I went there last night by bus and got there at 0125. There dozens of people sleeping on floors but the airport did not seem as busy as in the past. I found 2 chairs to sprawl out on and caught a few hours shut eye, with the aid of a can of K.

The airport awoke at 4am. I was woken by the hustle and bustle of movement.

I queued to checke in and waited behind a family. They realised that the max. luggage wait that Ryannair allowed was only 20kg. So they had flipped open on their suitcase lid and were desperately takling out clothes and putting them in other bags. They kept dragging their suitcase, flat side on the floor, towards the check in counter.

I strode through the chill morning breeze to get on the plane. Unlike most of the passengers, I walked to the back of the plane and climbed the steps. Hardly any seats were occupied so I grabbed a window seat. I was joined by 2 guys. The one who sat next to me said he had never flown before and apologised in advance for being sick.

The flight was uneventful. No projectile vomitting occurred.

Unlike the its sterotype, it was cool and raining in Barcelona. Of course, we didn´t arrive at the main Barcelona - too expensive for the passengers, who, according to Michael O´Leary, would "climb over broken glass", to pay 1p and 1c for their tickets, as I had.

We had arrived at Reus (Salou) which is 80 minutes drive away, according to the bus timetable. We arrived in 95 minutes. On the way, I helped some French women who had no map and no idea where the bus was going to arrive. So, I showed them my Time Out Barcelona map and gave them a route to their hotel on La Rambla.

As it was raining steadily, I took the Metro to Barceloneta. It´s in the Old Town between the beach and the Barri Gothic region, where my hotel was located.

I find my hotel, it was at the top of a 5 storey building. The terraced building had floors with offices of companies and homes on them. I walked up and got my key. As promised, I had blagged a double room for a single room price. The room was strictly no frills and no luxury no TV, toilet, shower or wardrobe!! There was a rail with hangars and a sink, though. It was clean, to boot.

I was hungry now, having only eaten some steak in pastry for breakfast. I went to a tapas bar. It was packed. I can´t read Catalan. So I pointed at some black morsels and asked for some. I got black pudding. I saw a ham roll and pointed at it. I got it. There was a menu and I recognised the Catalan speciality, Botifarra. I asked for it and got it in a roll. I saw Sardina on the menu. I asked for it and got sardines in a roll. To drink, I asked for beer but was told there was only cava or water. I had cava in a wide, flat, glass.

In the afternoon, it showered in bursts, I went to the Picasso museum. I liked his 44 interpreations of Velazquez´s Las Meninas. There was rotating display of sections of the original painting together with Picasso´s version of people with offset eyes and triangular heads.

In the evening, to escape another shower, I went into a restaurant and had rabbit with chocolate. The rabbit wasn´t very large, tasty or hot. The chocolate wasn´t very distinctive, either.

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Saturday, April 12

Heard at a Swimming Pool Changing Room: New moves

"Hello. I'd like 2 cucumber rolls and 2 avacado rolls"
....
"It'll be an hour. OK"
....
"My name is Theo."
....
"Bye"

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Wednesday, April 2

BIS lecture: NASA's Plans for the Future

I went to a British Interplanetary Society lecture on Human Space Exploration: NASA's Plans for the Future. It was given by Dr Bill Barry who tries to put a friendly face forward for NASA in Europe.

The key points are a return to the Moon in 2018 using uprated Apollo-style vehicles. Interestingly, the heavy lift launcher, Ares V will use uprated Saturn J-2 engines, as well as the Space Shuttle External Tank & Solid Rocket Boosters. After 7 day stays, there are plans for 6 month stays a few years later as a base is built up.

Here are my rough notes:

- Complete ISS assembly

6 person crew, Soyuz mission every 3 months instead of every 6 months

- Retire Shuttle (2010) – after HST repair & 11 more ISS support missions


Constellation – NASA’s new human spaceflight capability programme

-Orion – get crews to ISS (from 2015)

-COTS – commercial orbital transport system. Get cargo or crew to ISS. NASA matches private money


3 DRMs

- Travel to ISS and stay at ISS for 6 months

- Moon mission for 7 day stay (4 crew)

- Moon mission for 6 month stay (4 crew) -

using

Ares 1 – launches Orion crew vehicle

Ares V – cargo vehicle, launches Earth departure stage and lander

Crew , transfer vehicle and lander rendezvous in LEO.


Lunar Themes

Not a destination driven programme – ie just return to the Moon for the sake of it


Civilisation – extend human presence for eventual settlement

Global partnerships – unite nations with common objectives (China, Russia, ESA, Germany, Italy, S. Korea have plans for lunar orbiters / landers)

Science – about Earth, solar system, universe and human place in them

Economics – lunar activities to benefit Earth

Exploration – test technologies for Mars and future missions

Public – Encourage students and develop workforce


Timeline

Lunar outpost – 2018

Ares 1 – first test launch – April 2009

Orion – first launch escape system test – late 2008


Heritage

Shuttle Solid Rocket motor & external tank, Saturn V (J-2) engine (70 tonnes to Moon in future vs 45 tonnes for Apollo)

Lunar architecture

Use solar power, then nuclear power on Moon

Outpost ( 6 month stay) after sorties (7 day stay). Develop and mature ISRU

Locate at pole (eg S. Pole, rim of Shackleton carter – almost continuous sunlight) & maybe water ice at bottom of crater


Questions

Q) 1000 people on Moon by 2040?

A) Expect first lunar landings 2018-2020. Launch 1 mission every 6 months. Build outpost 2-4 years. Mike Griffin (NASA administrator) thinks a Mars landing is feasible by 2035. Not having a destination programme increases robustness of funding ie can’t scrap programme if goal is abolished ie do missions based on funding, to Moon, Lagrange point, NEO, Mars whilst building up vehicle capability & technology


Q) What factors could slow down or speed up programme?

A) National pride and competition could re-start space race. Budget cuts could slow down programme. Russian monopoly on human transport to ISS after end of Shuttle could be a factor if they charge too much

Q) Too much use of heritage technology, not encouraging new technology?

A) Save money and lower risk. Encourage private sector by matched funding via COTS programme. Once these vehicles are built, NASA can develop technology. Also, Orion & Ares vehicles could be used to go to Mars. Griffin believes our children will still be using them.

Q) How can UK be part of this programme?

A) Canada has contributed with robot arm. Hence, it has had several astronauts. Griffin would like UK to be involved and has invested personal time discussing this. UK could participate through ESA or bilaterally. Architecture set up so other countries can join in.

Q) What about assembling Mars mission at ISS?

A) Technical features such as high inclination for Russian launches might limit this option

Q) Does Moon mission lack wow factor?

A) It is a PR issue. Different interest groups eg scientists, public


Q) Will UK be too late in joining human spaceflight?

A) NASA said UK doesn’t have to buy a whole Orion flight. Canada got astronauts for a small investment in robot arm. Other European countries got astronauts from relatively small technical contributions.

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