T E Lawrence and Brough motorcycle

I’ve just got hold of a lovely edition of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ who changed his name to Shaw in later years to shake off this identification. He was a motorcycle fanatic to the extent that he was killed while hurtling his Brough around the west country. I found this nice picture of what I presume is his motorbike (or one like it) at an unnamed museum. If you can read the poster behind the bike you won’t be surprised to learn that motorcycling was his demise.

Look at this website for someone’s reconstruction of some of the routes Lawrence took on his motorcycle rides.

lawrence brough

I hope the text is readable

Look no tables (if you find geekery offensive look away now)

Finally I worked out how to replace my tables within tables with css on my website.
Screen Shot 2013-02-02 at 15.22.11
My normal approach is: surround myself with library books with colourful screen shots, ignore them, proceed using trial and error and slight familiarity, feel frustrated at the unpredictability of results, spend daily train journeys on it, forget which file is the most up to date. But suddenly, everything comes together and the end result is a much neater clever layout that stays centred, where the content doesn’t splay sideways at the slightest opportunity…

Review BMW Sertão

The only chance I get to ride bikes other than my own is when I have a service and SBW Motorrad lend me one of their fleet of newer, nicer, shinier Beemers. Yesterday I was given an G 650 GS Sertao for most of the day. Probably because I don’t get out enough on bikes, this little beauty was disorientating to ride off from the showroom and I hope no one watched as I paddled off high revving and unsure what to do next. Its small and shorter than my 1200GS, of course (though the seat height is similar). It also has ‘normal’ indicators which seemed surprisingly natural – its what I learned on after all. Even with ‘ordinary’ rather than my usual huge enduro boots there is very little space between footrest and gear changer. Eventually I used the side of my boot to shift. But this added to the fact that first gear is very low (great for hill climbing I suppose) meant that starting off – from lights, roundabouts etc. is awkward. Once, however, you manage to get up into second things start to change and this little one cylinder motor puts on speed surprisingly quickly and with a satisfying thumping kind of tune. Talking of thumping, the bike also exhibits a number of different vibrations. There’s one through the handlebars and another via the seat which, if you happen to need a pee, adds a touch of urgency. Once you get up to speed (60 is comfortable – 80 is entirely possible and quite fun), you notice how good the wind and weather protection on the 1200gs Adventure with its huge screen is. Within a few minutes I was freezing on this bright November morning riding north on the A10 toward Cambridge. Then the fuel warning light comes on – there appears to be no fuel gauge – I stopped in a layby looking for one. What’s a welcome change from the bike’s beefy big brother (or sister) is that, once you are off it, it is so easy to push around – at the petrol station for example or nearly into my front garden but the gap in the wall is just not quite big enough.

On the way back to Hertford I took the twisty route through Fowlmere, crossing the A505 then headed for Braughing. Unfortunately it was already getting dark, but the Sertao was fun, great through corners and nice and bouncy even on tarmac.

What I liked: easy to handle, accelerates surprisingly well after you get used to the gearshift and looks absolutely beautiful.

What I didn’t like: useless wind protection, vibey, awkwardly placed gearshift (maybe this can be adjusted), very low first gear (probably fine for offf-roading which I didn’t do).

I couldn’t resist taking some pictures:

 BMW Sertao

BMW Sertao

BMW Sertao in exotic landscape

BMW Sertao

Rust and Bone

This strangely named French film is an adaptation of a number of short stories. Some details and trailers should be here: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Arts_Picturehouse_Cambridge/film/Rust_And_Bone/
I found it very mixed. In some ways it was impressive with imagery that gives structure to the film, blood and water both link the film together, as does sleep – the central male character is often deeply asleep, literally and, we are meant to understand, spiritually. Performances are good from both Marion Cotillard (whose legs are removed digitally above the knee) and the sleepy Matthias Schoenaerts, as well as the child actor who plays is increasingly bruised 5year old son.
On the other hand, the film does not achieve in many ways. It is ultimately a corny and completely unrealistic fantasy about disability while pretending to be realistic and hard-hitting. It has a fairy tale ending too in which our leading duo and the son become miraculously a happy and successful family. Ali turns, predictably, from pent up hard man whose only response to pain and confusion is to hit things and people to a man who has found his own vulnerability and channels his aggression into an apparently successful professional boxing career – while being a caring father and partner. It had some beautiful filming, of the whales in a tank for example and many underwater shots (of trauma often) but at the end of the day it was not successful. Probably worth seeing though.