It's Not All Chess

There are times when you can get so caught up in something that it seems to completely take over your life. That has been the case with me and chess over the past 6 months. My work has cranked up to more intense levels, and helping to set up and run a chess club has taken a lot of time. I also follow chess news and still try to analyse a bit myself, though not as much as I'd like. This blog will soon be taken over by chess as I play in the Australian Masters starting this Saturday and report about it here. So I thought it time to look at some non chess things, just to prove that there are other things to me than chess.

Combining a love of reading with a love history, I recently read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I'm not usually a big fan of historical fiction, but when a book is written as well as this, about as interesting a subject as the rise of Anne Boleyn in Tudor England, it is a sure winner. I can't really say I've deeply studied Tudor history though I did quite a bit of deep study into the Stuart period and that necessitated some background into Tudor times (there's always Blackadder if all else fails).

Now I can't say I'm much of a TV or film watcher, but the new TV adaptation of Wolf Hall is certainly something I'd be interested in seeing. I also get the urge to read more history. The only trouble is that whenever I get some spare time, non fiction is not really what I want to explore. I guess that is a consequence of examining so much non fiction in the form of chess literature. The program is due to air on BBC 2 in the UK early in 2015, and hopefully it won't be long in coming to Australia. I'll probably have read the sequel, Bringing Up The Bodies by then.

Are you a dog or a cat person? This question always amuses my wife Caroline, as I have claimed to be a dog person. We currently have 2 cats which I've become pretty soppy over and Caroline likes to remind me of my claims of being a dog person. She rightly wonders why we can't just all be animal lovers. And, of course, Caroline is absolutely right. The pets that we have had have come from animal shelters and I admire those who work at shelters, or advocate for them. With Christmas coming up, the usual problem with unwanted pets will no doubt come about, something which really angers me. Not all people are capable of looking after an animal, for one reason or another. Some of those do the right thing and don't try to keep a pet, while some carry on regardless, start to build a bond with an animal which then gets broken when the animal is sent away.

Proving I'm a not just a dog person

Gratuitous cute cat picture!

Last year Caroline and I decided on a gift at Christmas of animal adoption, and bought our good friends Nick and Zoe a gorilla sponsorship. This is the sort of gift that I'll be giving again, making a donation to an animal charity/sanctuary on behalf of someone else. A little bit of research is needed to make sure the organisation is worthwhile, and local organisations are always better to support to my mind.

While chess certainly promotes mind fitness, I also like to run for general fitness. Don't get me wrong, I'm no racer, but I do keep fit by stepping out the front door and running between 5 km and 12 km. I want to extend this to 20 km, but it is a long and slow process. I try to run 3 times a week, with one of these being a long run, usually at the weekend. I've been hampered by a time consuming work schedule, and a bout of some gastro type illness in the past couple of weeks, but I've still managed to get out a bit. The plan when I started this around early October was to get up to a distance of about 20 km by Christmas. Well, I'm a bit behind schedule, and I think 15 km is a more reasonable target. I'll just have to wait until the summer hits full temperature before I go for the big 20 km run!

This post has taken me a week to write, I've just had such a heavy workload, and awful time management and energy levels. Today was a good day where I was bale to spend much of it with Caroline. We spent a nostalgic few minutes at one point today having coffee and thinking about places where we've visited and where we want to go. The upshot of that is that we're going to try to read novels set in places where we've been. This should help us remember those places. Our holidays over the years have taken us to diverse places, including New York, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Salzburg, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur, New Zealand and the Canary Islands. We've been to many other places in the UK and Australia, and individually, we've covered much of Europe, but the idea is to read novels which take us back to those places we travelled to together. I'll keep this blog updated about this little project next year. Now I'd better get some Christmas cards written.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a must see. It has everything. Whatever you have on your bucket list, make room for Yellowstone. Established back in 1872, it is America, and (probably) the World's oldest National Park, an area of natural conservation. And natural conservation was needed, and even after the establishment of the park, poaching of species that were becoming endangered continued. National Park status has enabled scientific and environmental research to define issues that were previously unknown. Our understanding of the lives of bears is a case in point where research has established that hibernation is not undertaken by bears and a number of behavioural patterns have been recognised.

We only had one day to drive around the park, where one month would probably be just enough to satisfactorily scratch the surface. So we started early and finished late and drove a loop around the southern part of Yellowstone only. However, in that time we drove through the spectacular Grand Teton Mountain Range, saw Geysers erupt, smelled and observed boiling mud springs, followed beautiful river valleys and came close to some amazing wildlife. All told, we were out for about 14 hours, and what follows is a photo blog of the day.

Mt Albright lookout, Grand Teton National Park

Caroline at the entrance to America's first National Park

Lewis River, Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful Geyser eruption can be as big as an 18 storey building

Excelsior Geyser

Animals roam free like this Pronghorn Antelope

The wierd and immensely smelly, mud volcanoes

They may roam free, but do not approach! Buffalo are protected in the National Park and can be dangerous

Lake Yellowstone at sunset

"World Peace Table" at Jackson Lake Lodge used by Baker and Shevardnadze to sign deals in 1989. Yellowstone lodges are used for summits. We were pleased to see a "Great Ape Summit" happening while we were there

Wolves at Gizzly and Wolf Discovery Centre, West Yellowstone

Grizzly Bear at Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Centre

The Land of the Giants

It was day 1 of our roadtrip today and the plan was to leave the small town of Three Rivers, drive through the Sequoia National Park and end up in Fresno ready to head north. The motel we stopped in was basic but fine, though it had a shower that suited children better than adults and it was a minor contortion to wash one's hair. That really is a minor quibble, though. We had a bagel for breakfast, stocked up on trail mix and water, and drove to the park.

The Kaweah River

Historic Stone Bridge over Kaweah River at Pumpkin Hollow

Both Caroline and I were suffering a little bit of jet lag (Caroline was worse than me) so we were both glad of a relatively short drive today. In total we were driving a bit under 4 hours but with the sightseeing, our day took lasted from maybe 10.30 am to 6.30 pm. So breakfast was had at Antoinette's Coffee and Goodies. The bagel was great, and the coffee was pretty good too. I really liked the place, it had a local buzz to it, and it wasn't hard to start talking to people there. Next door there's petrol and a shop rolled into one, so we stocked up on trail mix and water and fed the car too. Three Rivers is a gateway town by the southern end of the Sequoia National Park, and it was 5 miles to the park entrance. Entry to the park for a car was $20, but we bought a pass for all parks costing $80 seeing we hope to take in quite a few more yet.

Entrance to the National Park

Rocky scenery dominated the drive into the mountains

We weren't sure really what to expect, except maybe for some big trees. However, the drive along the General's Highway has to be one of the most amazing little drives I've ever been on. It twists across rivers, around mountains, through forests and takes you the heights in excess of 7000ft (2100+ metres). First we followed the Kaweah River along a valley, and then the road started to climb. The climb takes in some breathtaking rocky scenery, before hitting the forests. Sequoia only grow at certain altitudes, not generally below 1400 metres and not generally above 2100 metres, so the road was pretty high before we saw any. However, once they appeared there was no missing them.

The scale of the Sequoia is huge, wider than a car

And they can grow taller than the Statue of Liberty

Biggest Tree in the World, The General Sherman

The biggest of them all is the General Sherman which is just absolutely monstrous in size. This tree is situated about 20 minutes walk from a parking spot, and if you're quiet, and there aren't too many other people around it is great for spotting birds and small animals. For instance, we saw a mule deer on our travels today, as well as a Western Scrub Jay (no bears yet, though). To be honest, it's the feeling of being in the forest which will remain with me and which I can't describe very well in words. It is impossible to convey the pine fragrance, and the freshness of the mountain air. There was a stillness in the forest today, and sound didn't carry making it a place of great peace as well.. And walking around trees of such enormity, living things which are up to 3,000 years old (The General Sherman is big, but nowhere near the oldest tree, only being about 2200 years old) was really quite humbling.

After the forests, we drove to Fresno which is a city of about 500,000 people. We are only stopping off here, and will not explore the city. It is our base for a night before the longest drive of the trip tomorrow.