The activity is known as flash mobbing, and has some following in Europe as well as the States. For example some folks in Prague decided to set up a first class set on an underground train - bringing in a rug, chair, table and coatstand one by one before a business man boarded and sat down at the next station. In Manchester a large pillow fight was held. I've picked out some of the best videos to link here - others can be found on the Improve Everywhere website or general searching on video sites.

The first is a large number of people gathered in the windows of a department store in New York.

The second is a small baseball game in America that the Improv guys decided to give the big league treatment - including commentators and a blimp!

This one is the first class tube train from those crazy guys in Prague.

Finally one from the folks back in Manchester - a huge pillow fight in St. Peter's square!

I'd definitely be up for something like this - maybe starting on a smaller scale with more focus, but it seems like amazing fun. I'll keep you posted!

That build up (and something I've intended to put to copy for a while now) serves nicely as a backdrop to last night's activities, which featured a planned pub visit which led onto a late night supermarket visit which neatly led to a 1am barbecue, via a ride on a very bumpy track and a misty journey across some moors. Little more needs to be said, simply because it was all just random.

Download the Lake District Peaks KML file.

Incidentally if you are browsing round the Lake District in Google Earth, make sure to check out the amazing Gigapan layer, which contains brilliant 3d panoramas that can be zoomed in to very high resolutions.

Shining on the Water

Originally uploaded by Inferno.M1ke

I plan to begin my journals of the holiday once I'm settled in at home (at the moment its been rather topsy-turvy moving about everywhere), but I felt I had to share this photo, from the sunrise that Tim and I went to watch on Friday morning. It was a truly magnificent event, watching the burning orb slide over the Mediterranean horizon, with a few clouds to give added effect to the stunning light show. ]]> http://blog.1log.co.uk/495/venturing-beyond/ http://blog.1log.co.uk/495/venturing-beyond/#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:01:17 +0100 M1ke http://blog.1log.co.uk/495/venturing-beyond/ Early morning posts are clearly in at the moment. I'm up late because tomorrow morning I take my first venture beyond these British Isles, a venture which consists of a week in l'Escala, on the coast near Girona in the north east of Spain (or Catalan, depending on your view of break-away states). It will be the first week in recent years when I can honestly say I have nothing that needs doing - other than liberally applying the factor 200 sun cream to prevent my inevitable dry roasting. If I can find a computer I may blog from there, and if I can work out the tariff I may drop the odd mobile Twitter. Failing that I've got a note pad and will write about the week, in a week! Buenos noches! [Continued] Early morning posts are clearly in at the moment. I'm up late because tomorrow morning I take my first venture beyond these British Isles, a venture which consists of a week in l'Escala, on the coast near Girona in the north east of Spain (or Catalan, depending on your view of break-away states). It will be the first week in recent years when I can honestly say I have nothing that needs doing - other than liberally applying the factor 200 sun cream to prevent my inevitable dry roasting. If I can find a computer I may blog from there, and if I can work out the tariff I may drop the odd mobile Twitter. Failing that I've got a note pad and will write about the week, in a week! Buenos noches!

I've had a year now of living in a house, away from the parents and away from the more regimented and looked-after confines of college. Thinking back to the relatively uncaring mindset I had when choosing a house I realise how lucky I've been to have been in such a wonderful place for nearly a year. Also looking back I realise what a good decision I made living with my current housemates - if any of you happen to be reading this, you're brilliant. Of course that on its own would do a disservice to my other friends, all of whom have been excellent throughout the year. I've gained plenty as well, through getting to better know those in my year, and meeting people in the year below. Naturally one large area for meeting people has been skydiving.

Anyone who actually reads my blog will doubtless be finding this old news, but my entering into the crazy world of skydiving has to rank as one of the largest changes. This time last year the thought of skydiving was merely one of those things I'd heard about once (something that Stuart from Blue Peter did once, for those in my year who remember). Now its a major hobby of mine, taking up much random thought time previously dedicated to random amusing animals. At that point I must mention that despite the llamas from last year seemingly vanishing, the two new llamas are also great.

With making friends and finding new activities comes loss. Today I've said goodbye to two amazing friends who are leaving for their year's abroad, and in just over a week I will have said goodbye to four more. I am acutely aware that for none of them is it truly goodbye as all will be back in a year's time, but to think that I've got to know all of them so well over less than two years since meeting them, it is saddening to loose them for more than half that time again. Lest the fractions overwhelm, in the past year I've also lost a relationship of way over two years. I've written about this before and don't wish to do so again, but I must be honest when considering changes in this year. Still, as I loose I may also gain, as a few days ago I received the news that the hard work and stress of exams and assignments this year paid off, and I am once again pursuing a Master of Engineering degree here, rather than the Bachelor's which I've been assigned too the past three terms as a result of my poor efforts (read, enjoying myself too much) in the first year.

So overall I'd consider this year a success - I'm still alive, I'm still me, I've explored some amazing new areas and continued to tend some fantastic friendships. In a day's time I will be departing for my first ever holiday outside of the British isles, and I'll be bringing a notepad and a camera to record what I can. Time to continue, in true Doctor Who style, that journey through time and space.

Many thanks to Lee for taking the video and for getting it online.

I also used VirtualDub to take stills from the video and put them on Flickr, along with some explanation as to what I was doing at certain points.

Unlike the very warm Monday (when the plane ascended as if through treacle) we made good progress, dropping a static line student before heading up to 6,000 feet for Ben to do his fifteen second freefall. Deserving of mention is Ben's comical attempts to get into position before his jump - he was sat behind me and had to turn round onto his knees in the same small space, which was difficult because he's quite tall. Lee had to restrain himself from laughing and I didn't really know what was going on behind me. The tomfoolery ended and Ben did his jump with Dave the pilot banking the plane incredibly steeply (I swear the wings almost went vertical) to allow Lee to watch the whole delay and set us up for the climb to the top.

As this was my Cat 8 dive I needed all the time in freefall I could, so we were aiming to go higher than the usual 10,000 feet. I was sat next to the door (well the hole in the side, as the Cesna is once again without a proper door) and at points really felt the need to hold on as we were climbing as steeply as we could without stalling. By the time we circled to run in we were over 10,000, and as we went over the village we passed 11,000. When Lee eventually started spotting and called the cut we were at 11,200 feet, so that's a new record for me. I got my feet onto the step, let go of the strut and dived towards the rear of the plane, arching hard to bring myself belly-to-earth. The first move once I was stable was the backloop, bringing my legs in and waving my arms like a crazy man to send me tumbling over. The point is to prove that I can go unstable and regain stability, so after one spin and stable I counted that as done. Next were two 360 degree turns in either direction - these also served as a good time to find where Lee was in relation to me. Having done them, and seen Lee, I tracked towards him, turning off to the left slightly but holding it. At this point my altimeter read 7,000 so I decided to do the turns and track again. This time I held the track for longer and straighter, and knew I must have it by now. I looked around for a bit to find Lee (I had planned to give him the thumbs up once I'd finished) and eventually spotted him hovering above and behind me. With the geeking done I waved and pulled, watching Lee plummet below me as my canopy opened.

The ride down would have been pleasant, but for the fact that my mum was correct when she warned against jumping with a cold, as it felt like my sinuses had exploded. Admittedly they had just been cleared at 120mph and I felt better for it after the pain subsided and my hearing returned fully a few hours later, but it was somewhat distracting during my canopy flight. There was no wind and I ended up landing near the runway again, but it was a good landing even if I didn't stand it up. Roy had driven the quad bike up to collect the plane, so when it landed I hopped back in and rode it back to the hangar. I waited around for a bit before Lee finished packing and came over to congratulate me - Cat 8 at last! We did the usual paperwork and I completed the ridiculously easy CH1 written test and that's it - I'm now an A certificate skydiver, able to jump anywhere in the country with BPA membership, and able to jump at any drop zone in the world with temporary membership to their organisations. Aside from that I no longer have to be retrained every time I go down, don't need an instructor to dispatch me any more and can jump in higher winds (a relief considering the weather at Peterlee). RAPS has been a long adventure but I've enjoyed every jump, got to know lots about the sport and made a lot of friends too. Here's to wherever skydiving takes me next!