Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Manx Grand Prix
The Manx Grand Prix will soon be held on the Isle of Man, it will bring a little bit of action on this quiet island.
The Grand Prix is held during 2 weeks, the first week dedicated for practice and the second week is for all the races. As the Isle of Man has no speedway, the races take place on the main roads. Those are closed from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. during the first week for practice sessions. If the drivers are lucky there will be no accident and it will not rain on any part of the track thus the practice will occur in its entirety. In most cases it will rain at one point and the practice will have to be cancelled. The roads are closed from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. during race week, the island inhabitants are used to moving around the island while avoiding the main roads used by the motorcycle race.
Click to enlarge
I have never been a fan of motorcycle race, I find formula one races much more interesting. I went to the practice because I had never seen racing bikes. To be fair I would say that I heard them much more than I saw them and my digital camera didn’t see much of them either. Most of the pictures I took had only the road as a subject. I had to enable the continuous shooting mode on the camera to be able to get pictures of the motorbikes but all the bikes were blurry (you can see that on the montage above). Lucky for me I passed one bike as I was walking back to my hotel, I can now say that I know what a racing bike looks like.
La suite!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
My Sound Of The Day
How to be very effective to get everyone on the dancefloor : SebastiAn - Embody. The video is in the complete post.
La suite!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Sun Is Shining
It happens just look at the picture below.
I went to visit Castletown Saturday and I took the steam train to make the trip more memorable, it goes from Douglas to the south of the island. The train is well preserved, the coaches are all made of wood and you get the feeling that you are back in the golden age of railway. The train will give you the opportunity to admire the great landscapes of the island, the fields with their stone walls form a green puzzle. You will see rabbits jumping around here and there, they roam freely because they are not hunted on the island. I find it funny that the locals prefer buying some rabbit meat in the shop instead of enjoying the great taste of those who have grown up outdoors. I wouldn’t even ask the question if I were to live on the island, I would enjoy a rabbit stew quite often.
Castletown is a nice little town where there is absolutely nothing to do outside of visiting the castle and going to the pub. There is a small market where one can find local products but there was only one person selling when I got there a 2 P.M. There is only one place where you can have lunch at such a time: the pub. I found out that the Premier League football games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I had lunch in a loud football atmosphere surrounded by fans sometimes happy and sometimes angry by what there team was doing. I love football so much that I was in heaven, next time I will have lunch earlier.
I tried the electric train on Sunday, it goes to the north of the island and at the top of the Snaefell the highest point on the island. I got to ride on that old train completely made of wood and I could hear the wood working as the train was moving. The ride up to the Snaefell offered quite a view it was a real pleasure. Once at the top the view was even more amazing but I didn’t stay too long, the wind was strong and I was quite cold. It is possible to hike all the way to the top or only for a part of it, it is not very difficult; I would I have probably tried it if the weather was not changing all the time.
Next week-end I will go spend a day in Liverpool.
La suite!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Shop A Moron
I don’t know if you are aware but riots are taking place on a daily basis in the United Kingdom. The spark is quite similar to what started the riots in France: a young boy was shot dead by the police. There of course none of that on the Isle of Man, I am following this through the local media and what my colleagues are saying about it.
The riot become a looting party every evening and each morning the police is releasing a statement detailing how many people have been arrested during the night. As there are a lot of surveillance cameras the pictures of the looters are broadcasted on TV and are found on almost every newspaper. The population is quite angered with the situation mostly because the looters are young and sometime very young so a lot of people are asking what the parents are doing. I just heard that a mother recognized her daughter on one of the pictures and handed her to the police. This morning an 11 year old girl was charged with attempted criminal damage and has been remanded in custody. I ask myself 2 questions about this. When do you start thinking about bashing a shopwindow when you are in the street to protest about the death of someone? What do you feel when you are a parent and the police comes early in the morning to get your daughter because she destroyed a bus stop the night before?
La suite!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
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