[corcoran]

I haven't been around too much lately because I've taken to practising al fresco as it were....

When it's been good weather (and it has been lately!!!) I've been jumping on the bike, heading up into the forest and going through my routines by one of the lakes, there's usually a few sunbathers/swimmers around, but I go far enough away to avoid those horrible people with screaming kids, etc...

This has been my favourite spot:-

(sorry for the shit mobilephone picture.....)




Friday (yesterday) I took the temporary fretless....

You can almost see the nut extender and still see the frets underneath the glass....

Shame i can't play out in winter

[jahloon]

Hey, you got frozen nuts?

[rob]

Beautiful spot. That's within cycling distance for a practice? Nice place to live!

We tried to make it up into the mountains today. But, the roads were so crowded with fat bastards in SUV's that we couldn't make it.

[corcoran]

jahloon, on Aug 2 2008, 08:20 PM, said:

Hey, you got frozen nuts?

I will have in a couple of months if I play outside!

rob, on Aug 3 2008, 06:52 AM, said:

Beautiful spot. That's within cycling distance for a practice? Nice place to live!

We tried to make it up into the mountains today. But, the roads were so crowded with fat bastards in SUV's that we couldn't make it.

It's basically in walking distance! Or about 3m from my house,

In fact the whole of Norway is basically a wilderness, and Oslo is encircled by one huge rugged forest....

Civilisation ends at the bottom of my street and there's basically nothing but lakes, forest and moose shit if you head north.... (I'm on the village map I recall)

I thought where you were Rob, would be the same kind of wilderness! Being right next to the rockies and all that (I not so clever with Us geog)?

[rob]

corcoran, on Aug 3 2008, 06:23 AM, said:

[...]
It's basically in walking distance! Or about 3m from my house,

In fact the whole of Norway is basically a wilderness, and Oslo is encircled by one huge rugged forest....

Civilisation ends at the bottom of my street and there's basically nothing but lakes, forest and moose shit if you head north.... (I'm on the village map I recall)

I thought where you were Rob, would be the same kind of wilderness! Being right next to the rockies and all that (I not so clever with Us geog)?

Your geography is perfect. You're just off by a couple of decades. I spent my childhood growing up on the edge of the wilderness that was the Colorado Rockies. We hunted, fished, and camped nearly every weekend of my life. It didn't take much for us to be able to imagine, back then, that we were someplace that no one else had ever been. That area is now pretty much covered in overly large summer houses.

The problem is deeper than that though. Much of Colorado is still pretty wild and inaccessible. (Where inaccessible means you need to walk a bit to get there.) The real issue is that, as with all else in America, to get within striking distance of your objective you must use a car. And, so must everyone else who wants to get to the places that you don't even want to get near (the screaming kids on their screaming four wheelers and their dads in motorboats equipped with sound systems that would do a two thousand seat concert.) All of the cars have got to be on the same roads. The chances of being able to work, and thus live, near enough to avoid the car are pretty slim.

I remember seeing a BBC program about the Lake District Fells cat Alfred Wainwright. Mixed in amongst all the eccentricities of the man himself, the thing that struck me as the most interesting was the idea that he could take a public bus to get out to a bus stop that was in the middle of the Fells to start his walks. Amazing!

[jahloon]

Perhaps we could have the antithesis of Gary's paradise and find the worst shithole closest to your abode?

I was going to kick off but then I find my camera's battery is dead beyond Lazarus.

The missus has dropped her camera and the display is broke.

So I don't have access to a camera!

And no, my phone doesn't have a camera.

My notepad notionally has a camera, but no software to run it.

Well if we get enough pics of the good spot / bad spot variety, we could have a web page.

Cameralessjah

[corcoran]

I kind of hear you on that one Brother Rob, my home area, was pretty much a quiet, wilderness (though not a very big one) yeah sure, it would get busy in the summer, but only in the obvious places....

When i was a kid, we could camp on the beach, we would go up to the old airfield (that used to be some serious mining land) and throw rocks down the disused shafts - but nowadays everythings cordoned off with signs everywhere that start with the word "NO......"

Besides being choked with traffic and significantly further developed....

I look at where I live now, where all of the roads into the forest (when I say forest I basically mean the whole vast country) are private and closed to traffic so you have to walk or bike - but i still think that if it was in the UK, all of the lakes would be closed to bathers on grounds of danger (of council being sued) and large areas would be managed with an iron fist....

...and the paths and walkways would become heavily littered, dangerous and covered in dogshit in no time...

jahloon, on Aug 3 2008, 10:54 PM, said:

Perhaps we could have the antithesis of Gary's paradise and find the worst shithole closest to your abode?

I mention litter...

I have the antithesis just a little way in the other direction...

Fly tipping seems to be in vogue around these parts, as is tagging...

and the litter in my area is WORSE than anything I've ever seen anywhere else and I worked in South Tottenham, (briefly...)

TBH it's a fucking disgrace - I was planning to do a video and put it out on the net of my local area (Grorud) showing what a fucking tip it's become - and no-one gives a shit 'cause it keeps on piling up. I'd planned to video it in the spring after the snow melts and before the greenery grows back to hide it - but I couldn't find the time. Maybe in the autumn.

The forest roads are thankfully blocked off to traffic, so the main paths out there are spattered with dogshit and fagbutts (a little giggle for our US readers?) but again thankfully, the people that cause litter are usually too lazy to go too far into the forest and expand their selfish, festering shit-dom....

Hope you sort the camera soon J - be nice to see how northerners look after their own habitat (after seeing what they do when on holiday)

This is turning into quite a rant

[rob]

So, are you near here?

[corcoran]

rob, on Aug 4 2008, 04:10 PM, said:

So, are you near here?

Yeah,

If you click and drag on the map head a little west, you'll see a lake called "Alnsjöen" - I'm in amonst that clump of houses just to the east of that....

and if you head directly north of where the pin is on the map, (picture urskogen#2) you'll see a lake called "steinbruvannet" and carry on further north of that you see another lake, called "romstjern" - the photo in my first post was taken on the north end of that lake - romstjern......

around steinbruvannet is part of my daily bike ride....

[jahloon]

Glasgow in the heart of Norway!

And I'm currently seconded in Bolton for two weeks.

[rob]

Never been to Bolton. Doesn't look too bad from the air (or space as it were). Other than not being home, what's the trouble with Bolton?

[rob]

corcoran, on Aug 4 2008, 02:41 PM, said:

rob, on Aug 4 2008, 04:10 PM, said:

So, are you near here?

Yeah,

If you click and drag on the map head a little west, you'll see a lake called "Alnsjöen" - I'm in amonst that clump of houses just to the east of that....

and if you head directly north of where the pin is on the map, (picture urskogen#2) you'll see a lake called "steinbruvannet" and carry on further north of that you see another lake, called "romstjern" - the photo in my first post was taken on the north end of that lake - romstjern......

around steinbruvannet is part of my daily bike ride....

Looks like a good place to live. One of the things I like about Europe is the lack of urban sprawl. The edge of a city or village is an edge. You've got nature right next to you in a major international city.

On the subject of practice, I got great news today. I'm supposed to practice guitar as part of my physical therapy!

[jahloon]

rob, on Aug 5 2008, 03:54 AM, said:

On the subject of practice, I got great news today. I'm supposed to practice guitar as part of my physical therapy!

Doctors orders

Matron!

[corcoran]

Bolt-on?

Bloody hell!

At least you'll get a good curry </blatantly evil racist remark>



Good news on the orders to practice!

But notice that when you have to practice - you never really want to

(btw which is it over this side? Practise or practice?)


Yessss....

Lots of very ugly concrete makes up oslo....

I live just behind the smaller block up the hill a bit:-