Good Rain!

Good rain is the type of rain that arrives when you've already reached your cosy B&B and been given tea and shortbread by the very hospitable host;

I don't think we will be having breakfast on the patio.  Good weather for ducks.

Talking of ducks, we were woken up this morning to a noise outside that sounded like a duck with a sore throat, that being the best description offered by several bird watchers staying at the hostel.  This is the sound a corncrake makes, which, judging from the hostel's corncrake book, looks a bit like a small pheasant.  The bird watchers were fairly excited; they had been out early and actually seen two corncrakes crossing the road.  I decided it was best not to ask the obvious question, it's a serious thing this bird watching business.  There are loads of bird watchers on the islands, and fortunately for them there are also loads of birds.

As Susie notes about today, another thing there is loads of on the islands is Wind.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, on the islands talks about the wind.  They obviously talk about how strong it is, but equally they talk about which direction it's coming from in a way the rest of us don't really bother so much about.  From the teenage bartender to the B&B proprietor, they will all comment on which direction the wind is blowing, and if you get your easterly confused with your westerly, there's a bit if a pause in the conversation until it becomes clear you don't really know so much about wind.  I expect it has such an effect on islands life that once the wind is over 20mph, and it often is, the next most important thing is which direction its coming from. Once you've figured this out you can plan your day around those daily activities that are still feasible.

Which brings me to windproof cycling kit.  The most successful piece of clothing so far must be the windproofs we treated ourselves to for this trip.  Firstly, they aren't completely waterproof, so they let out plenty of moisture, hence avoiding that 'boil in the bag' feeling inevitable with all so-called breathable waterproofs.  They therefore keep the breeze out without soaking you in your own sweat, and have worked very well.  They also double as gilets as the arms unzip, making them very flexible as the day warms up.  We haven't needed that feature very much so far, but there's time yet.

There's plenty of physics in this blog; weight, distance, weather etc so the last thing I'd like to mention in this post for those still reading is quantum computers.  I'd never heard of these until last night when a young German physicist also staying at the hostel told us about his work.  He's researching the topology of materials in different phases.  He tried to explain this to us, but I lost track soon after he explained why a donut and a teacup are basically the same thing.  Apparently this research could one day lead to development of quantum computers.  These things will be able to make almost unlimited numbers of calculations all at the same time, rather than one at a time as in conventional solid state computers.  It all sounded fairly amazing, and he reckons IBM say they will crack it within 15 yrs.  All change again, yet another technological revolution!

So, corncrakes, windy conversation, breathable bike wear and quantum computers.  The stuff you can think about when cycling along with almost nothing else to bother you. 

Great!