Vegas

We've been climbing for two days at Red Rocks, just west of Las Vegas. We went to the Gallery at the second pullout, and tried out some of the warmups,Yaak Crack (just left of this guy on the Gift)

and then on to Fear and loathing

but got a little shut down, and found the moderates short and uninspiring (sacrilege!), compared even to the modest local crags near Grenoble. The natural beauty of the surroundings makes it all worthwhile though:



and we were happy to hang out and watch the throngs climb, get spastic about onsighting .10c's, and watch the sun come down


The next day, we went to the much better Sunny and Steep crag, which has a beautiful canyon flanked by polka dotted and striped sandstone



and longer routes with fewer people.

Two days later we are firmly ensconsed in the breakfast-buffet, climb at red rocks, play slot machines trying to win BMW Z4(worlds better than the Z3 IMO), look at craps table, eat overpriced and bland meal cycle. Tonight we were taken by surprise by the statuary that comes to life in the Caesars Palace fountains, and stepped off the excalator to the Bellagio walkway just as the final triumphant water jet ended... impeccable timing as always! As we walked sadly away from the Z4 after our final try, I overheard two guys talking about Pretzels: "You've never had an Italian Pretzel, man? See, an Italian pretzel is like... a dual layer pretzel".

Tomorrow we leave for bishop.

back in the usa

On friday we were on a very uncomfortable flight from frankfurt to SFO. I'm not sure where we were flying over, but the only redeeming part of the experience was the view: ice fields and floes as far as the eye could see, we the occasional cluster of lights in the middle of it all.



As soon as we got in, we began ticking off the restaurants that we've missed. So far, this has consisted of Ch'Am (thai) and In-N-out. We spent saturday getting ready for our road trip, and drove down to Vegas on sunday. It took a really long time, due to our somewhat euro-minded missing of the fact that sunday was the end of thanksgiving weekend. There were huge traffic jams on I-5

We continued on SR58, past the ominous looking Rocket Propulsion Laboratory and a big complex at the interseciton of 58 and 395 that we couldnt figure out the purpose or name of. The traffic continued, but thankfully in the opposite direction and at one point we even saw some people get fed up and drive their SUVs offroad on a dirt track than ran parallel to the road


(it was probably the first and only off road experience for most of them). I didn't think it was possible to improve upon the ridiculousness of the situation until I actually saw one of them try to pass a slower car on the dirt road!

565 miles driven

Oxford

I went to Oxford on monday to give a job talk at the Wellcome Center. Actually its a little outside of Oxford itself, but part of the university. It was kind of a hectic two days, and I am writing this in the airport right now: my first chance to de-stress. I still get pretty agitated before talks, particularly when presenting new material (as I was this time), but things were heightened by the fact that this was Oxford, and I would be talking to a group that just published back to back Nature papers.

I got into Heathrow at 7:30 PM, and experienced the wonderously welcoming immigration area, where you are required to have a card filled in with various information, but there are no pens or pencils to enter the information (exactly like in the US, only with less hysteria). One amusing difference from the US is that there are dozens of signs stating that physically or mentally abusing the immigrations officers is a crime. Signs like this are unnnecessary in the US, because if you even think about stepping out of line, you will wake up in Guantanamo the next morning, naked except for duct tape underpants and Kiss music playing at 105 db

After almost getting run over because I was looking the wrong way for the cars, I found the X70 bus to oxford and walked to the Cladagh guest house in Heddington. It was late and I hadn't eaten, so I found a kebab joint and avoided the english hooligans who asked me "Wheres your lunch, mate?" while weaving in and out of the middle of the road on their bikes.

The next morning I escaped horribly Dull and bleak Heddington, and went to the Center of Oxford. Along the way, I managed to get another taste of the whole "wrong side of the road thing" when I missed my bus because I was waiting on the wrong side of the road.

I got off the bus in the center, and after several more exciting street crossings (although I would start looking in the right direction, force of habit usually made me look the wrong way by the time I was across the street), I found myself at the Bodleian library



A few steps away is the St. Mary the Virgin Church, which you can climb the tower of. The views are nice, and the light was beautiful.

All Soul's College:


Back down in the chapel itself, I was a bit surprised to see that people were buried ounder the church floor. Maybe they do that elsewhere, but I certainly hadnt noticed it before!

The highlight of Oxford for me was Christ Church College, which I stumbled upon by accident when I walked down King Edwards St. and found the exit of the tour. I walked out to the meadow,


in through the official entrance (4 pounds), and up to the Dining hall


which has a strong (almost tacky?) affiliation with Lewis Carroll and his weird obsession with the deans daughter. I found it silly that they made a stained glass window of Alice in Wonderland, but thats just me. The famous fireplace-thingy was cool, though

The really wonderful thing about the hall is the sense of continuity and tradition that it evokes; it is still very much in use, almost five centuries after its construction. Of course, there are some modern additions, like ye olde coffee maker

and ye olde Heinz ketchup

YEAH BRITISH PIGDOGS, LOOK AT WHATS IN YOUR ELITE POLITICIAN FACTORY: AMERICAN KETCHUP! HAHAHA
or wait, maybe Heinz is owned by Unilever? I smirked at the sign warning the young imperialists to "dress smartly", that "shorts are inappropriate for both men and women", and if they should wish to dine less formally, they should go somewhere else. I was so impressed by the dining hall that I left, hesitated and then walked back in again for another round of photos. Incidentally, this is where they filmed the dining hall scenes from the Harry Potter movies.

I followed the signs to Tom quad,

and into the cathedral. The cathedral has some beautiful stained glass windows,

but is otherwise unremarkable. Then again, I'm not really a conoisseur of churches: after a while they all start to blend together for me.

The last thing to see was the Peckwater quad


Which, like the dining hall, is still in use by the cigarette smoking, sometimes barefoot future leaders of the British Empire. I'm very jealous that they live and work in such a beautiful place. I dont think Ive every worked someplace where people had to pay $7 to take a self guided tour of. Then again, Williams was pretty picturesque as well, as was the Salk. I ended up at a map store on High St. to look for something for chloe. The woman who worked there was American, so we commiserated over the election for a bit, and then I started rooting through their selection of French maps. To my amazement, they had a very good selection of the first Atlas Nationale after the creation of the Departments, which are not that easy to find in France. Also, the prices were very reasonable. I guess there's not much demand for French maps in downtown Oxford! The lady gave me a good deal on a 1751 map of the Dauphine in beautiful condition


Another funny thing was that she saw my middle name on my credit card, and turned and asked "You're not related to THE Harunobu, are you?". Of course I'm not, but thats where the name comes from, and it was actually the first time in my life that anyone has known the significance of it. Kudos to mom and dad for coming up with the most obscure middle name on the planet.

After finding a place to buy chocolate and 1.5 kilos (almost $30) of wonderful English Cheddar, I headed back to the bed and breakfast to obsess over my talk a few more times.

I arrived at the Wellcome Center a bit early, and got a WEP key for the WiFi network, sent some stress filled emails to chloe, met the interviewers, and setup the projector. I was put much more at ease when I saw this on the bookshelf in the seminar room.


These were my kind of people.

After some rounding up of people by martin and bob, I gave the talk, which went well, and I think the interview did as well, but you never know. Afterwards, I got taken on a tour of their new protein production facility, and got to see their impressive crystallization tray imaging and storage machine.

They also have a tabletop mass spec for QA etc in one of their back rooms. Swanky. We ended up at a pub, where I of course ordered the fish and chips.

When I got to the airport this morning I wandered around, looking at the overpriced single malts and nice looking food that Harrods sells, when something in my brain woke up. Here is my unedited stream of consiousness: mmmm... caviar... mmmm shortbread.. hmmm.. foood? I have food. I have 1.5 kilos of three of my favorite english cheddars........ WHICH ARE IN THE REFRIGERATOR AT THE B&B. My only consolation is that I'll be going home to berkeley at the end of the week, where I will be able to get some more Neals Yard. I'm sure it wont go to waste, but damn. It made me want to cry.

stress

off to Oxford tomorrow for an interview for a job (which is not in oxford by the way). During a procrastination session I found this amazing video.

Beaujolais Nouveau

Every year, in a testament to both the power of clever marketing and the latent drunken slob in all of us, the nouveau Beaujolais is a big hit. Signs on the sidewalk announce its arrival days in advance. Workplaces are all atwitter with plans being made for the night. SMS messages race through the air with the names of bars. A newcomer to this event can be forgiven for thinking, if even for an instant, that this is a celebration of wine. A quick sip cures you of any such idea, but it really doesnt lessen the experience.

Chloe and I met up with some friends at "Le Bagatel", a low rent bar on place de la Tribunale:



Apparently we only drank 5 bottles of wine, but it seemed like a lot more; especially when I stood up to go home. Heres chloe graciously declining another glass of liquid gold:

and the requisite closing drunken photo (charming, I know.)

rob whaa?

I periodically check out apples trailers site to see all the movies that I wont get to see here in Grenoble. Today I saw this, which looks very disturbing, and not something I'm interested in seeing. Despite the pandering gorefest that this movie is certain to be, I found myself laughing at the end, because its credited to Rob Zombie, of White Zombie fame. I always laugh when I see that guys name; I mean, if youre going to get yourself a really kickass ominous last name, DONT leave your first name the way it is for convenience.

Convincing                         Unconvincing

-----------                         -----------

Devil Vampire                     Robert Zombie

Vlad Lucifer                      Clarence de Mort

Hell Styx                         Ira Armageddon

Death                             Timmy Massacre

Annot

Last thursday was a national holiday. Never ones to miss an opportunity to slack off, we went to Annot with friends from the lab. Earlier in the week, Meteo France had predicted rain every day, but as usual, the forecast was wrong. Despite a little bit of snow frosting the mountains near the Col de la Croix Haut, we had 4 beautiful and sunny fall days:
(photo by mark).

On thursday, we sprinted out to the lower sector to get some exercise after a full day in the car, and gave sandy, dave, amy and mark an introduction to Annot bouldering. Unfortunately, on the way down, I felt somthing strange in the steering, and mark generously offered to drive us up the next day. It turned out to have been a wise choice, as the mechanic told us that some part of the assembly that links the wheel to the suspension (CV joint? I couldnt really figure out what it was) was mostly destroyed, which meant that it could have become decoupled. Add that to a mountain road with a precipice on one side... or an autoroute at high speed, and you have a dangerous situation! Needless to say, we had him fix it, despite the need to get parts by train the next morning. When the mechanic (also named max!) told us that our wheel could have come off, chloe let out a frightened little squeek, since wheel-ejection was apparently one of her car-phobias.

We stayed at the hotel/restaurant La Cigale, and enjoyed a different and excellent meal after every day of bouldering. The first day she served us a terrine, followed by lamb and some unexceptional desserts. We took a gamble on the Vin du Pays, but it wasnt particularly good either. The second day we had small somosa (??? de Champsaur) as appetizers, and then baked Perch on a bed of leeks, with a local A.O.C. white. On the last night, she served us quiche followed by rabbit in a provencale sauce. Still gunshy from the first wine, we ordered the failsafe cote du Rhone. I had the generic "Carte d'or" fig ice cream for dessert.


Here are some of the bouldering photos.. taken with mark and amys EOS 300D:

Mark on a problem in "La Crete"

Amy on the same problem, evidently enjoying it a bit more!




Me on "Le toit du cul du loup"
(photo by mark).

Dave on "Le toit du cul du loup"
(photo by mark).


On the last day, we were soaking the rays and serenity of the blocs in the Crete sector, when a troop of hunters came by. It was a little surreal watching them walk by with a deer tied to a stick!:




strangely, they weren't chanting, "lord of the flies" style.

here are Chloe and I giving "Le toit du cul du loup" roof a few last tries
(photo by mark).
(photo by mark).

It was a great weekend, and I think everyone had fun. Amazingly, three nights at the hotel+three meals+breakfast+wine for two people cost only 200 euro.