Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

... Which is by way of saying that I have created myself an account thereupon. Come back soon when I've worked out [a] what its URL is and [b] have put some photos on it. My ID is - wait for it - ``lproven''!

EDIT: aha! I am now http://www.flickr.com/photos/lproven/

Ailing in Market Harboro'

This was the weekend of Sproutlore's Large in Derby, and jolly good fun it was, too.We arrived Fri night, but alas missed the rock club, 'cos we had to get back to Beeston & our crash space at tregenza's. I'm told it was a bit pants, though.

There was silliness and foamy pints of dark ale - none of which I partook, but I did buy a few bottles for Messrs Ulicsak and suaveswede. There were viking costumes in abundance. There was the_major in a shiny black PVC corset and PVC jeans, which I personally feel she fills very well, but judge for yourself... Try images #34 & 35 here, for example. (About half-way down the page.)

After that, the trauma of being taken to a little tiny person's first birthday party, featuring Mater, Pater and Grandfather, who adjudged, "well, he'll do. At least he doesn't have long hair hanging down to *here*." Ahem. Yes, well. Not any more.

However, the stress of this and the cold climes of the frozen Midlands North have caused a recurrence of my Ailment, and I am abed, chez Taylor, with a rather unpleasant hæmolytic Streptococcus infection.

So in lieu of any real content, here are my notes on snowboarding from a couple of months back. Do please feel free to rip them to shreds; I could do with the feedback!

(no subject)

The key skills of snowboarding

Before you can move, the preliminaries:
1. standing up
2. balancing

These aren't as simple as they look, sadly. For example, there's
1. standing up – facing upslope
2. standing up – facing downslope

and
1. balancing on the flat
2. balancing on the toe edge
3. balancing on the heel edge
4. balancing on a slope
5. balancing at speed

There's no secret to balance. You just have to learn it, and the only way is to do it, repeatedly. You are going to fall over a lot. Wear padding, wrist braces and a helmet. Be prepared to hurt. You will. If you can be bothered, train up your leg muscles, especially calves and quadriceps, and do some sit-ups, because you're going to be picking yourself up off the ground a lot.

As for standing up, different ways work for different folks, but for most, especially the less-than-super-fit, the easiest is to hoik your legs in the air, flip the board and then yourself over onto your face, and then stand up facing uphill with your back to the drop. This way you can stand on tip-toe, keeping the uphill edge dug into the snow, and you won't slip. If you're clever or fit enough to flip from lying on your back on the floor onto your feet, then you can jump upright from lying on the ground, landing on your feet on the board. Some people can do this. I can't. Yet.
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