Dec 28
2009

The final of my Top Ten Winter Sports Tips will look at Safety. It may not be as sexy as saving money or the environment, but nevertheless it is important.  It is a controversial subject following the untimely death of the actress Natasha Richardson earlier in 2009. However, safety is little more than common sense. Don’t read these tips as a must do list. They are advice, you are free to disagree or ignore them, but if you do and get injured, then please don’t go claiming off your insurance and pushing up my Winter Sports Premiums!

  1. If you are a learner skier or snowboarder, then get lessons. Learn the FIS Code. You can get lessons at home on a dry ski slope or indoor ski slope. That way you will learn in your own language and be ready for action at the resort.

    Winter sports

  2. Get fit before you go. This will reduce your risk of accident by strengthening your muscles, You will also not tired so quickly on the pistes.

  3. Use correctly fitting skis and snowboards. Lots of accidents occur because people borrow equipment from friends. Skis and snowboards and boots need to be matched to the user.

  4. Wear the right clothing and and other safety gear depending upon your activity. The most obvious requirement is clothing suitable for the predicted weather conditions. Helmets, wrist protectors, impact shorts and back protectors can save some nasty injuries.

  5. Read up on the weather forecast and read the advice at the resort regarding avalanche risk.

  6. If you intend riding off piste, then get trained in avalanche awareness and the use of transceivers, probes and shovels to locate buried riders. Take a trained guide with you.

  7. Don’t forget sunscreen for your face. The thinner atmosphere and reflections off the snow mean that it is very easy to get sunburn to exposed skin.

  8. Take plenty of water / drinks and high energy food / snacks with you, when you go riding.

  9. Try to ride with friends so that you can look out for each other. Put the number of the Piste Rescue into your mobile phone along with the number of who they should contact In Case of Emergency (store as ICE).

  10. Make sure you have adequate insurance. If you are the wrong side of the marker poles you may not be covered. A helicopter rescue can cost 20,000 Euros so check beforehand and carry a copy of the cover with you.

There are a lot more points that I could add, but above all have fun!

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Dec 13
2009

Following on from my Ten Tips to save money on a Winter Sports break. Here are my Top Ten Tips for protecting the environment when taking to the slopes

Avoriaz Shuttle

Avoriaz Shuttle

on skis or snowboards. Winter Sports are one form of travel most under threat from Climate Change. Lets take responsibility for our travel:

  1. Choose a resort that makes the environment a priority. Mountain Riders publish a guide that rates each resort on a number of environmental criteria. You can consult it online when making your plans.

  2. Try to avoid flying to the resort. You can go by rail, or even bus to most resorts in Europe. If you go by car, then it is best to take a fuel efficient one with 3 or more passengers.

  3. Use public transport instead of your own car at the resort. Many resorts have free shuttle buses. Make use of them.

  4. Don’t leave the heating on full when you are not in your apartment, chalet or hotel. Rooms are fast to heat up, once you return.

  5. Short showers use less hot water and therefore energy than long baths.

  6. Buy local produce when shopping for food. The energy expended getting exotic food to a ski resort can be huge.

  7. Don’t litter use the bins provided. Get a portable ash can for cigarettes – one cigarettes stub can pollute a cubic metre of water.

  8. In many of the French Ski resorts the supermarket chain Sherpa offers to take back unused tinned and boxed food. Preventing waste and saving money.

    Recycling binswaste and saving you money.

  9. Try to purchase environmentally friendly, ski and snowboard equipment and clothes. Also use environmentally friendly waxes. Don’t throw away your gear at the end of the season. Sell it on ebay or give to others to help cut down the waste.

  10. Segregate your rubbish and use the recycling facilities provided at most resorts.

I could add some more, like; share a shower with someone sexy, but this list is a Top Ten!

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Trackback  •  Posted in Responsible travel, Strange world, Sustainable travel  


Dec 4
2009

Winter sports vacations can be expensive, so I thought I’d post ten of my favourite money saving tips.

  1. Book in advance, you can often get a good discount. If staying more than 3 weeks in a ski area it can sometimes work out cheaper to buy a season pass with a substantial pre season discount.

  2. If you don’t want to book in advance, then why not leave it until the last minute and get some late booking offers.
    Snowtrex     , Holiday homes Interhome and others sell off their unsold accommodation with up to 30% discount in the last 2 weeks. Be flexible and if you are wanting to travel at school holidays don’t even bother trying this method.

  3. Book your transport well in advance. You will get the cheapest rail, bus, ferry and air fares.

    Winter Sports

    Winter Sports

  4. Do a big shop away from the resort at a supermarket or better still a Farmers market. The price of food and goods at Winter Resorts has a massive mark up.

  5. Take sandwiches and a stainless steel flask for food / drink while out on the piste. You can even save time by eating on the long telecabin rides. That way you save by not eating in expensive restaurants in the resort and have more time to ride.

  6. Look at buying second hand skis or snowboards on ebay, SCUK or the SkiClub web sites. It will be cheaper than hiring at the resort.

  7. You can buy last seasons Ski Snowboard clothes cheaply at TK Maxx or sometimes ebay.

  8. Have a look at Annual Travel Insurance including Winter Sports, it can often work out cheaper. However whichever insurance you plan on buying, check the small print to ensure it covers the activities you intend carrying out.

  9. In many French resorts the Supermarket chain Sherpa has a number of schemes to help you save money. Firstly they will buy back unused, undamaged boxed, tinned food at the end of your week. Secondly they offer free hire of fondu and raclette equipment, all they need is a deposit.

  10. If you are travelling by car, you will find that snow chains are cheaper at the large supermarkets near the Alps than back home.

Coming next. 10 ways to spend a more sustainable Winter Sports break.

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Dec 2
2009

To travel to Chamonix, from Brussels, I booked a seat on a Eurolines coach, boarding by Gare du Nord. One of the main advantages of travelling by bus, is the low carbon footprint. Buses are generally light and do not use much fuel per person. They can also be quite cheap. I noted that the tickets from Brussels to Chamonix start at 9 Euros one way, shame mine wasn’t quite that cheap, I actually paid 90 Euros return, but had no extra fees for baggage etc.

Eurolines coach

Eurolines coach

I departed the Euro lines bus station at 18h00 on Sunday,after checking in a good sized bag and a snowboard in a bag. From what I read on the website for Eurolines Belgium, they don’t accept skis and snowboards, but the crew stowed mine in the baggage locker. Just don’t go turning up expecting them to accept your winter sports equipment in Belgium. If you are travelling from the UK then it is no problem. It all boils down to the fact that each country has a different coach operator badged as Eurolines operating their part of Europe. The journey was uneventful. We drove out of Brussels and on to Lille in France, a DVD was shown as we left Brussels, then another DVD on the leg from Lille to Paris.
Most of the passengers alighted at Paris and new passengers boarded, some with skis in carry bags. It was now about 11h00,so now more DVD’s were played. The coach then travelled down the Autoroutes headed for Geneva, but stopping for a break every 2 hours or so. Fortunately the coach was half empty so everyone had two seats each to try top get comfortable on for the night. I did manage to sleep in a number of unusual positions before waking after about half an hour each time.
As we went through the Jura, I noticed that the scenery looked very white, I was having difficulty making out why as I had removed my contact lenses for the night. It soon became apparent that it was snowing heavily. The bus stopped at the border at Switzerland and all passports were checked. There was a short stop at Geneva and then we headed back for France and Chamonix.

Chamonix, my destination

Chamonix, my destination

It was just getting light as we entered the Chamonix valley. It looked magnificent with its new covering of fresh snow. The coach had difficulty with the build up of snow on the streets of Chamonix, but managed to get to the bus stop outside the railway station.

I was tired most of Monday and slept really well on Monday night. Would I travel by coach again? Yes, in fact I have to on my return leg. It would be good to find some of those 9 euro seats and may well look out for them.

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Trackback  •  Posted in Sustainable travel, Twitter  


Nov 2
2009

I wrote an earlier post to voice the things that annoyed me most on Twitter.  The new Lists function allows me to create my own targeted streams. If find that a member of that list is publishing spam, being offensive, or just tweeting multiple Tweets that are not of interest tome, then all I need do is simply drop them from my list.  The list I read the most is a Private List.

Twiiter Team List

Twitter Team List

As it is new, it has thrown many of those into SEO, and marketing into a spin. My view is that lists are there for the Twitter members, not for the marketers. At this moment many of us have produced lists. I find them refreshing, as they enable me to find many new Tweeple. I foresee that many lists will be created and followed. However, being listed on a large number of Public Lists may not be an accurate measure of popularity. If my favourite lists are my private ones, then how many other Twitter members will also have private lists as their most used. There will be no statistics for being on someone’s Private List.

I feel that the follower count as a measure of credibility is dead, but the number of listings is also likely to be unreliable as the most important listings could well be on Private Lists. It is also obvious to me that, there is absolutely no point in following anyone who will not follow you back.  Following and being Followed allows the members to exchange DM’s, it is not needed to read someone’s Tweets.

I suspect that many will follow Public Lists and in doing so find Tweeple we like to follow and perhaps  include them in our own private lists. We might then stop following that Public  List. An exception to this would be Lists that are revised constantly through interaction by the Curator of that list or by feedback from followers.

Improving Lists

The Twitter Application, Twibes provides the means to read Tweets from a group of Twitter Members on a specific theme or subject. Only Tweets containing one of three keywords gets posted in the Twibe stream. Currently the negative feature of Twibes is that there is no list function therefore you have to take read every Twibe members Tweets as long as they contain  a keyword. Twibes will be integrating with lists, so this likely to be addressed. So, what does this mean for Twitter? In my own case I Tweet on at least three different topics but followers of my Tweets may only be interested in one of the topics. It would be great if there was a way of filtering a List Stream by keywords. I am not sure how practical that would be. Perhaps someone could comment and let me know?

Twitter - the Future

These are my current views. I’m sure they will evolve with Twitter. Where do you see the future, especially with Google Wave being rolled out?

PS Matt here is your Pingback

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Aug 11
2009

Pembrokeshire Coast path

Pembrokeshire Coast path

Last week in Wales, while walking parts of the Pembrokeshire Coast , I took along a 2008 edition “coast to coast” a free newspaper published by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It has the bus timetables and other very useful information for anyone walking parts or the whole of the coastal trail. Reading it one evening, I came across an article  discussimg how agriculture on the path had changed over the time the Park has been in existence. It made some disturbing reading.

Twenty five years ago the path went through 33 dairy farms and 31 potato farms. Today the figure is 4 of each. Other statistical information presented included the fact that on average, in 1950 the sale of one fat lamb would provide a week’s wages. Now it takes the sale of six fat lambs to provide the same income in real terms.

I would not be at all surprised if this picture was repeated throughout the UK and Europe. Farming practices have always been subject to change and another statistic highlights this - in 1980 just 0.3% of the farms were organic, while today some 7% are.

Why do you feel farming has changed in Pembrokeshire? Do you feel that it has changed for the better?

The article suggests that we as consumers or visitors top the area can help support small family farms by:

  • buying locally grown produce
  • buying from farmers’ markets
  • returning to stay in Pembrokeshire
  • Supporting local farm enterprise

Do you have any tips to add to the above list?

Reference “coast to coast” published by the Pembrokeshire National Park Authority. Copies of the 2009 edition can be found in most Tourist Offices in Pembrokeshire.

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Aug 8
2009

While waiting to be served at a Cardiff Restaurant last week, I couldn’t help overhearing the large party on the adjacent table, discussing the merits of European cities they had visited. They were talking loudly, probably because they wanted the rest of the group to hear. One woman said “I did Prague”. The expression grated with me.

Charles Bridge, Prague

Charles Bridge, Prague

Prague is a wonderful city. It deserves more than to be “done”. Hearing this made me ponder why I travelled there in 2003.

It was a period of my life when everything seemed to be going wrong. I went because it had all but beckoned me through books, films and even pop videos. The experience was truly therapeutic.

I stayed in a cheap hostel with Soviet Era plumbing in the communal wash room. I walked, took the metro and trams all over the city. I ate with locals at cafés in the suburbs avoiding the tourist restaurants in the Old Town and city centre. I had many conversations with Czech locals and Russian Ex pats living in Prague. I even went to the Opera twice.

But did I do Prague?

My week in the city gave me a very small idea of what life was about in the city. The Museum of Communism gave another another insight. Inside in a display case were little lumps of lead and other heavy metals. The explanatory caption explained that the quantities shown were the average mounts breathed in over a year by a Czech inhabitant.

Shocking!

But is it any more shocking than flying out to Prague for a drunken Hen / Stag Party or flying there just to be able to say; “I did Prague”?

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Jun 30
2009

Currently, I am spending a lot of time in Brussels. You could say I am on permanent vacation here. You do not need to travel far to gain a rewarding travel experience. To illustrate my point, this last weekend, there was two Street parties within 200 metres of my apartment in Brussels.

The first was the Czech Street Party held in the street by the Czech Embassy. This took place on Friday night. The street was closed off and a stage erected, along with a number of tents highlighting what the Czech Republic has to offer. There were samples of Czech beers, wines, cheeses, sweets, and goodies given away at the stands representing the various regions. Of course there were brochures and help available for potential visitors to the Czech Republic.  I really enjoyed the Czech Music although the young Mandrage and Clou were more to my taste than Mig 21 and the headline act Kristophe. Czech nationals made up the largest contingent of the crowd which completely filled the street up to the front of the stage by the time the headline group was playing.

This is a video clip of Clou, a band from Prague in action.

Matongé en CouleursThe second Street Party was Matongé en Couluer. This took place on Saturday and Sunday on Chausée de Wavre and parts of rue de la Paix and even the junction of Chausée de Wavre and Chausée d’Ixelles. Like the czech Party, this is an annual event with stands selling African Foods and goods, filling the streets. Again a music stage showcased African music and dance from across the African continent as well as from Brussels. In addition small bands were playing at other locations on the streets as well as a few DJ sets providing music for street dancing. In common with the Czech Party there was no entry fee for any of the events. An excellent opportunity to immerse myself in the sounds, colours, smells and tastes of different cultures without going more than 800 metres from my front door.

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Trackback  •  Posted in Sustainable travel  


May 4
2009

Twitter is an excellent tool if used responsibly. I am fairly new to the Twittersphere, but already I am finding some activities very annoying. Here is my Top 10 Terrible Tweets on Twitter.

Spoof Twitter profile

Spoof Twitter profile

10. I am not going to start with Tweets but Profiles. How many times do you read; “I am an expert at SEO, Web2.0, blah, blah, blah. My site is rated No1 on blah , blah , blah”?

Come on who are you trying to kid? If you were that good, you would not be posting tweets with links to your site. If you are that good, then go and spend time with your family and let someone else Tweet for your company!

9.”I am listening to “Your song” on Blah.FM”.

To be honest I don’t care. All you are doing is Tweeting a plug for the online radio station. Now if you were to Tweet  “Listening to: “I fought the Law, by the Clash”; I am reliving that failed bank raid, I carried out”. Then it might well catch my attention!

8. “Good morning, Thank you and welcome to all my new followers who joined over night”.

I really don’t like this. It comes across only a little better than the auto DM’s sent to new followers. This is just the thing that those operating pyramid follow schemes post everyday.

7. “RT @twitrant New web page: How Twitter can change the world. http;//www.twitrant.com/change_the_world.htm”

ReTweeting masses of Tweets to inflate your number of updates. Unless your followers are likely to be interested in a Tweet, don’t do it. If you can,  say why you liked that the Tweet you are ReTweeting.

6. “ @twitrant New web page: How Twitter can change the world. http;//www.twitrant.com/change_the_world.htm Please Retweet this”.

Asking followers for ReTweets, MrTweets, followfridays, Stumbles. etc. I’m sure I don’t need to explain this. If the Tweets are good, then they will get Re Tweeted and if we think Tweeple or their web sites are worthy of recommendations, we will give them. Its a sure sign of a commercial outfit, when they ask for this.

5. “New web page: How Twitter can change the world. http;//www.twitrant.com/change_the_world.htm”

Twitter streams that are nothing more than an RSS feed of their owners web site. So you joined Twitter, but can’t actually be bothered to Tweet about anything, so instead you add a widget to your site to automatically Tweet your web pages. Sorry, you will have to try harder.

4. “Pandemic of copied news headlines”

Looking up the news sites and posting the latest news headline. There are a few Tweeple that do this every single day. They just get a news headline, make a  TinyURL , then Tweet it. No thinking required.
My browser already has a BBC News Headlines button so I don’t need your Tweeted copy.  Now if you were to give your reaction or feelings to that news maybe I would be interested.

3. “Look how wonderful I am, I have 2000 followers”.

Don’t you realise that all you need to do to get followers is to find out those who will most likely follow you back and follow them? Of course its also bad form to brag.

2. “A quotation on Twitter only needs Control C and Control V - John Williams 2009″.

Excessive use of quotations annoys me and I believe Twitter, as they have suspended accounts for excessive use. Looking up quotations is real easy on the Internet. Unless your quotation describes how you feel at a particular moment or reinforces a point, then don’t Tweet them. A long list of your favourite quotations just wastes bandwidth. Furthermore, as internet servers have quite substantial carbon footprints, they are hastening climate chaos.

1. “Click on the link and you’ll get thousands of followers”.

There are lots of pyramid follow schemes available for Twitter. As I said before all you need to do to get followers is to follow people, who will follow you back. Then you could have thousands are even hundreds of thousands following you. However you could also be following thousands of Tweeple as well. What good is that?

That’s my rant over. Actually, Twitter can be very useful and will only improve as stream filtering produces more relevant Tweets to your likes. Twibes seems like a good start in this direction, with Tweets grouped by like minded people and including up to three keywords. I am hopeful that Twitter will be an even better experience in the future. Which Tweets annoy you on Twitter? Where do you see the future of Twitter?

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Trackback  •  Posted in Campaigns, Twitter, Uncategorized, credit crunch  


Apr 22
2009

Thirty nine years ago a number of organisations with diverse goals, yet all concerned with a sustainable future on this planet got together. The first Earth Day was held in in 1970. The event has become mainstream.  It has been interesting reading surfing the net today as some of the news items have varied from positively helpful ways to secure a sustainable future on the Earth to pure Greenwash.

Using Earth Day to sell airline tickets

One company selling cheap airline tickets even tried to get some Earth Day Green points, by focusing on eco hotels, spas and even some green travel tips. Instead of being honest and saying that you shouldn’t take the flight unless there is no sustainable alternative. They simply say green issues shouldn’t stop you flying. Of course they say you can offset. Offsetting though, is the last resort, as the flight will still produce carbon dioxide, as well as burn up a portion of irreplaceable fossil fuel.Of course the answer is to travel to the destination slowly using buses, trains, cycling or walking. This takes time and that is not compatible with the life we live. There is hope though, I will try to provide some inspirational examples in future posts.

Eco villas

Another company was promoting its eco villas. Some of the ones advertised were huge with their own swimming pool. Of course they had rainwater harvesting but usually for watering the plants not for flushing toilets. Solar panels, ground source heat pumps were on offer. I am not negative about the efforts made, but surely there is still lots of room for improvement. A private swimming pool maybe a luxury, but it consumes lots of resources in their construction, upkeep and that’s without all the fresh water they consume in areas that are often water stressed. Its better for the environment to use the sea or failing that communal pools.

Frivolous Earth Day Posts

Another site had a video post of Celebrities approach to Earth Day. I found it fairly shallow. OK, so the presenter pointed out that to be a green celebrity, you need to do more than drive a Toyota Prius (actually there are less polluting cars available), use reusable shopping bags and the like. I suppose the only test is to look at someones complete ecological footprint this is impossible without being intrusive, although one Hollywood film star who produced a green quote for Earth Day has a fleet of private jets, so I agree that we can’t take him too seriously. I certainly am far from green, but I am taking action that reduces my footprint month by month.

Why does Luxury Travel claim the Green credentials?

I find it just a little disconcerting to note that it is luxury travel that is claiming to be eco friendly. Often often long haul flights are required to access the location, the facilities occupy large amounts of land compared to indigenous homes. Whereas budget travel staying in small easily heated rooms with showers instead of Jacuzzis do not use anywhere near as much in the way of resources. Combine this with small family run hotels with locally sourced produce and your impact is going to be a lot less. Or perhaps you don’t agree?

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