The Electric

Yesterday we change hotels to stay downtown at the Hyatt in Birmingham.  This is quite a nice hotel, very fancy with bell hops and floor to ceiling windows in every room.  I got my own personal sweet on the 20th floor looking out of the canals of Bermingham and it is quite a pretty site to see both when the sun is setting and in the middle of the night with the twinkle of city lights.

Last night while looking for interesting things to do in Bermingham I stumbled upon a fun fact that the oldest Cinema in the UK is located in Bermingham, infact it turned out to be a movie theater located less than a mile away call "The Electric".  This was the first cinema built in the UK, built in 1909 it is a very small theater with a cult classic theater feel and a full bar.  It seemed like something that would be fun to see and lucky for me there was a moving playing at 11:00 PM, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc.  After a speed walk of about 15 min we pulled up in front of a non discript section of city street just next to the Bermingham train station with the only distinguishing feature a large unlit building sign that read "The Electric".  We purchased tickets and assended the tight stairway to the second floor and entered theater 2 (of 2 theaters) which consisted of about 25 seats and 3 couches.  It was a wonderful place to be watching an old Indiana film, I felt like I was there at the premier seeing it for the first time and it was great to re-witness the cutting edge (for its time) cinimatography on the big screen.

Work in the UK!

Here I am, sitting on the 20th floor of the down town Bermingham England Hyatt hotel.  When I look out my window I can watch the sun setting and the people partying on the canals, its crazy to think that I am getting to see all of this for work. :)

Boeing sent me to the UK on very short notice, a week ago, to help a supplier here near Bermingham England, and I am so thrilled to be here.  It has been a lot of work, but quite the adventure as well.  I have eatting some great English, and Indian food so far while I have been here along with a nice dark Guennise or two ;).  The weather has also been very accomodating with beautiful blue skys every morning, if only we got done a little earlyer so I could enjoy them for more than an hour, but I guess thats the way a work trip is and I should just be excited that they have sent me here!!

We have also had some time to explore, in between work and sleep.  A few of us toured out into the British country side a few days ago and took a hike down one of the many canals in central England.  Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice and a large portion of them were manually dug in the late 1700s by thousands of Scottish workers.  The stretch of canal that we walked next to had some 56 locks in it that allowed narrow hulled boats to travel up and down the canals.  These locks were originally installed with the original digging, but have been replaced many times over the years and are still in use today.  While the locks and canals may have originally gone in as a way for transporting goods around Birmingham and the surrounding area, today they are used almost exclusively by tourist or a few eccentrics who live in narrowboats on the water.  The narrowboats are crazy house boats that contain about as much as a average motor home but are less than 7ft wide.  They are required to be that narrow so that they can navigate under the bridges and up and down the locks of the canals, and have a top speed of about 4 MPH when they aren't waiting in a que for the locks.  The designs you see on some of the boats is reminiscent of the circus while others are very modest, it all depends on the owner.

Peace and Flowers!!

This last weekend I had my first Hippie adventure with some friends from work!

Seattle

It has been forever since I've posted on this blog, but I would like to get back into it so I'm going to start out with this nice little post about my first week here living in Seattle. :)

Seattle from the Columbia Tower, Seattle

Instagram photo of cherry blossom tree

Tortuguero

On the Caribbean Ocean there lies a town surrounded by both salt and fresh water.   The town is called Tortuguero and it makes it way in the world by selling Eco-Tourism.  They sell the experience of learning about both the salt water and the fresh water eco systems that surround them.  The town can be found just a few hundred km from the Nicaraguan boarder on a small strip of land no wider than some international airport runways. The land is situated between the salt water of the Caribbean Ocean and the fresh water of the estuaries and mangrove swamps of the Rio de Tortuguero.  We spent three days in Tortuguero learning and adventuring with the people of this very secluded town.

Traveling to Costa Rica

Some times it’s hard to get yourself to write, even when you really want to.  Even when you set aside time to write. 

Building Barns

For the last two weeks Mitch and I have been working on restoring the roof to a barn near Genesee Idaho.  For both of us it has been a learning project, especially since neither of us have much experience with construction.  The barn was originally built in the early 1900's as a Timber Frame Barn, and over the years has had various improvements to keep it up and running.  Last November, however, during a large wind storm the front doors and one whole side of the roof were blown away,  some of it traveling over 500 yards before crashing down in the fields.  I imagine it must have looked and felt a lot like the movie the Wizard of Oz when those doors crashed in and caused the roof to lift off.

U of I Arboretum

I went to the U of I arboretum on Wednesday in the hopes of taking some nice pictures of spring.  Unfortunately due to the lack of good weather here in Moscow there were very few trees with leaves on them and even fewer flowers in bloom.  I was able to find a spot with some nice budding pine trees which I snapped some shots of.  Hopefully I can go back in a week or so and find a little more blossoming atmosphere.

Route Setting at the U of I

I've been back in Moscow for about a month  now and unfortunately haven't found a job to occupy my time.  I have been working at the U of I climbing wall setting routs in the mourning and this at least has kept me from going crazy.

Kirkwood Backpacking

I just got back from my backpacking trip to Kirkwood ranch on the Snake river.  It was nice to get out of town and hike back into the Hells Canyon river gorge where there were no cell phones, computers or day planners, only free time and good weather.

Red Rocks Climbing

36 hours of driving, 5 days of continuous climbing, one night in Las Vegas and a huge setting full moon (apparently it was the closest its been to the earth in a long time right when we were driving home) and I'm finally ready to take a little break from adventuring.

Back in the USA

Well the adventures of Australia are over and I've finally made it back to home sweet home.  Its quite a trek getting back to Moscow what with the three flights, customs, immigration and airport security up the wazu.

Photoshop

Nice 3D box that I was playing around with in Photoshop

Back to Sydney

My time down in Victoria has come to an end.  I've just returned to Sydney to spend my last nine days enjoying the sand and the surf with Leighton.  I sure did leave Victoria on a high note though, after sampling some of Melbourne's amazing food and enjoying the recreated mining town of Sovereign Hill.

Black and White update

A drop in the wood

I've added pictures to my black and white album on picasa.  Take a look to see them all Here.

Epic Climbing

The Wheel of Life V16

Grampions hiking

This last week was spent concurring the Grampions with Tim and Eric who are from France.  We started out our conquest on Monday with an assault on Mt. Stapylton which is a small mountain north of the olive grove.

The French Conection

I have been living and working with two really awesome French guys this past week.  Tim and Eric Gosset are from Lille France which is just North of Paris.  They WWOOFed on the Laharum Grove this last week and together we conquered much of the northern Grampions on our time off.

Laharum Grove

I've now been WWOOFing for Deirdre and Richard Baum on the Laharum grove for a week now and I have really come to love this place.  It has breathtaking views of the Grampions, Arapalies and the open planes to the west.  I like the view the best in the evenings when the sun slants in to light up the Grampions and bring out the beautiful red of the sand stone cliffs.