Author Archives: Roads

144. East of Eden – evolution and enlightenment

Posted on 18 April, 2007 | 16 comments

east-of-eden.jpgThe wonder of geology, to me, is that it’s so much more than a study of inanimate rocks and stones. It’s a history of our planet, of life on Earth, and even of time itself.

The landscapes and seas around us, our climate, the plants and animals we depend upon to live, the resources we use whenever we go anywhere or make anything – geology is a route towards the understanding of all those things.

Every historian and foreign correspondent knows that in order truly to know the present and to predict the future, we have to understand the past.

dinosaur-footprints.jpgAnd that is what geology gives us. Geology is a unifying discipline, which borrows so much from other science, and puts it all together to reveal the history of our planet and of life both past and present.

It’s so much of what we know about our world, and about ourselves as well.

But there’s a debate going on, right now, in the most developed country in the world, about whether any of it is true.
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Posted in 2007, divided by an ocean, environment, evolution, geology, science

143. Shame about the Boat Race … Oxford vs Cambrige 1829-2007

Posted on 12 April, 2007 | 11 comments

oxford-dark-blue-heroes-2007.jpgThe oldest regularly-held sporting event in the world reached its 153rd edition in London last Saturday, and I was lucky enough to watch the coverage along with millions all around the globe.

The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, from Putney to Mortlake.

Rowing – it’s a sport I know so little, which taught me so much of what I know.

Now I could tell you that sport is all about fitness. I could tell you that it’s about improvement, and dedication and companionship. I could relate the heightened mental acuity felt by the long distance runner, show you the slow-motion symmetry of a perfect iron shot towards the flag on a silent summer’s evening, or try to describe the sound of a mountainside half-shrouded in cloud.

Sport might really be about all of those things. But I know that’s not true.

It was rowing which taught me that lesson. It was the summer I spent doing this. The summer when I learnt that sport is all about fear.

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Posted in 2007, heroes, history, life and times, London, racing, rowing

142. South Bank spring – Tate Modern, London

Posted on 28 March, 2007 | 13 comments

london-south-bank-and-st-pauls-cathedral.jpgIt’s spring. The sun is out. The clocks have changed. And so have I.

I left my old job three weeks ago. It was time for change, and so for a few weeks my time’s my own. My days are brighter now, and I feel refreshed, revitalised and renewed.

The sun shone all the way into London. I stepped out of the train into an unfamiliar crystal haze as a cool spring day stretched all along the South Bank. The river walk was empty in the early morning, and yet through the silence I could hear the echo of running shoes on tarmac, all around me. I was only walking, but I could feel that exhilaration.

It took me just a quarter of an hour from Waterloo Station to reach my meeting at Tate Modern. Fifteen minutes to gaze across the Thames, at the city shining back at me across the water. Pale blue pastel sky above the distant dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, a vision of glinting white limestone pillars growing ever nearer.
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Posted in 2007, history, life and times, London, summer

141. A winter sky and green and blue – Hyde Park, London

Posted on 20 March, 2007 | 11 comments

hyde-park-london-serpentine-bridge.jpgAll winter long, I walked across the park.

I was working on a deal, and it seemed that every week I’d be in London for a meeting, somewhere. In busy winter weeks at work, it’s hard to run, and so I try to walk instead.

And where better to walk than across Hyde Park ? At 350 acres, it’s one of the largest central urban parks in the world, and perhaps the most famous. Nearly every park, in nearly every other city, owes something to Hyde Park.
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Posted in 2007, history, life and times, London, winter

140. The Great Global Warming Swindle

Posted on 6 March, 2007 | 15 comments

A Channel 4 documentary to be broadcast in the UK this Thursday evening and entitled The Great Global Warming Swindle argues that global warming is real, but that it is caused by entirely natural cyclicity in solar insolation.

Predictably this sensationalist claim has already been seized upon by the media. It will doubtless be interpreted by many as proof of the hoary old chestnut that ‘the scientists are divided’ on global warming. Those same people will find easy and equally inaccurate confirmation that there is no need to muzzle their gas-guzzling SUVs or to take the slightest care of our energy resources.
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Posted in 2007, environment, global warming, science

139. Snow patrol – Holmenkollen, Oslo

Posted on 20 February, 2007 | 20 comments

oslo-winter-morning-2.jpgShut your eyes and think of somewhere
Somewhere cold and caked in snow
Snow Patrol – May 2006

All of winter, and all in one day.

It’s mid-morning on a snowy Thursday, but as troublesome journeys to work might go, I really can’t complain.

Guildford’s white and black night is far behind me, and just a few hours later the snow is screaming past the train as we speed towards Oslo at 200 km/h. No Norwegian dogsled ever made such progress.

oslo-theatre-2.jpgArriving early at my meeting, I’ve a moment to survey the scene.

From the office window, the muffled view stretches out silently into the distance, Oslo peering shyly back at me through the white mist of intermittent wintry showers.

The view down to the railway tracks offers a camera angle perfect for any latterday remake of Anna Karenina, the architecture of this place even more impressive for the white curtain draping all around it.
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Posted in 2007, A1 - the best of roads of stone, heroes, music, Scandinavia, winter