Well it looks like the global economy is finally going in to meltdown. It’s been a long time coming, but yesterday seems to be the final realisation that the house of cards is on shaky foundations. The Aussie sharemarket dropped 7% yesterday, along with significant drops around the world, and it’s now down 24% since its high of November.

I moved my superannuation out of shares and into diversified fixed-interest back in September, only to watch the share market go up by 10%, leaving me worrying that I’d made the wrong decision. Now however, with the market down 17% from when I got out of it, things are looking a bit more rosy. For once I’ve made a financial decision which hasn’t cost me money!

The Financial Times has an article on why the American recession will be hard to shift, explaining that reserve banks’ dropping of interest rates isn’t an instant fix to credit worries.

Interest rate cuts work their way through to the real economy by a number of transmission channels. During the 2001 recession in the US, the most important was housing credit. The rate cuts came at a time when the housing market was already booming. They turned the boom into a super-boom. Inflationary expectations were low. People expected interest rates to remain low. It was a great moment to take on extra debt, and this was precisely what Americans did.

The current US downturn could not be more different. House prices are falling, and have further to fall before reaching a more sustainable level (in terms of the price-to-rent ratios as well as several other measures). Core inflation has been above the Federal Reserve’s comfort zone for some years now. There is no way that either the Fed, the Bank of England or the European Central Bank could, at this stage, create another housing boom even if they wanted to. Housing downturns have a strong dynamism, which is not easy to break. This is not a great time to take on debts, but to pay them off.

What about the other channels?

The corporate credit channel works more slowly. A company faced with an acute downturn in demand for its products is not going to start investing immediately when interest rates fall. At the very least, it would only do so if it expects variable interest rates to remain low for some time.

For that to happen, inflationary pressures have to be well contained, which they clearly are not.

I’m halfway through my snowboarding season, and, in stark contrast to opening day, we’ve had tonnes of snow here. When I arrived back after Christmas the resort looked just as it had last year, with plenty of snow around, and it just kept on coming. Powder day after powder day, sometimes with up to 45cm of light, champagne powder which is a joy to ride. Even last week we got a metre of new snow.

The fun times had to end at some stage, and the last couple of days have been snow-less. A little bit fell today, but it seems that we’ll have to wait until next week for some proper snow.

My riding has slowly been getting better and I can now ride switch properly down steep semi-groomed runs. Next step is to start riding switch in powder and see how that goes. I’m jumping a bit more too, though nothing huge, and have managed a few more 180s, so I’ll have to find somewhere on the hill where I can try a 360 without ricking too much injury if I screw it up.

We’ve got a good crew riding around this year. Myself, Nathan and Floody are up most days, Tom, Dave & Rob are around as well, and Dave & Aaron, who did the course with me last year are also here for two weeks. There’s plenty of others who show up now and again, depending on what days they’re working etc. so there’s always someone to go riding with.

Update: that ‘little bit’ had turned in to 27cm by this morning. Happy days!

Captured while fighting for the Taliban in 2001, and held illegally in Guantanamo Bay ever since with the complicity of the Australian Government, David Hicks was finally freed from prison today

“Right now I am looking forward to some quiet time with my wonderful Dad, my family and friends,’’ Hicks said.

“I ask that you will respect my privacy as I will need time to readjust to society and obtain medical care for the consequences of five and a half years at Guantanamo Bay.

“I have been told that my readjustment will be a slow process and should involve a gentle transition away from the media spotlight.’’

It is widely believed that Hicks was tortured while at Guantanamo, and finally pleaded guilty to charges of ‘providing material support for terrorism’ in order to get out of the place, but since he’s under a gag order until the end of March, he won’t be speaking opening about his detention and trial until then at the earliest.
Hicks is under a gag order until the end of March,

I’ve just uploaded a couple of albums taken over the last month. First up is the World Cup Downhill Skiing from Lake Louise a few weeks ago. It was -20C outside, and these women were hurtling down the hill at 120km/h. We were freezing our asses off just watching them, so I hope they have heated race suits or something!

When myself and Jacqui got to Ireland, Dad took us to visit Newgrange, Ireland’s most important prehistoric site. It’s a burial mound, built over 5000 years ago and oriented to sunrise on the winter solstice.

Jacqui’s brother, Mark, arrived for his first visit to Dublin, so I took himself and Jacqui on a walking tour of Dublin, featuring such highlights as Temple Bar, O’Connell St., the LUAS and Dublin’s oldest pub, the Brazen Head.

Finally, I had Christmas with my parents, so there’s photos of the day’s festivities.

Despite all the travails in getting there, I had a great time in Dublin. It was great seeing friends and family again and showing Jacqui and Mark around Dublin. Mum did a great job cooking up a storm, including my requested dishes of Pork Roast, Beef Wellington and non-baked cheesecake, and Dad made multiple trips to and from the airport without complaint.

Christmas Day was great fun too. Mark had arrived a few days beforehand from the UK, Clíona & Dave came over, along with Dave’s family, so we had a good gang around for dinner.

As for presents, Mum & Dad got me a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens for my SLR which was a big surprise. It’s great for taking photos in low light without a flash, as evidenced by the photo of myself and Jacqui above, and I got quite a few good photos from the day’s festivities. I’ll get around to sticking them up on the site in the next few days.

My travel back to Dublin was a bit of a disaster. The Mountain Perks shuttle was great, getting me to the airport in Calgary a half an hour early, so I had checked in and got rid of my bags a full three hours before my flight. Anticipating airline food, I filled up at the marginally less crap airport food court, bought myself some books and settled into the waiting game.

My flight was due to depart at 1755, but nothing much seemed to be happening at the gate. I was engrossed in my book – Heat by George Monbiot, well worth a read – so I didn’t really hear the explanations… something about cleaning the plane I thought. An hour after we were due to take off we were informed that the plane needed to be taken out of service and they were flying in a replacement from Vancouver, so we’d have to wait another four hours for that to arrive. Great!

While waiting, I finished my book and then realised I hadn’t heard any new announcements about when the rescheduled flight was due to depart, so I had to go looking for someone to fill me in. We finally got going only six hours later than scheduled.

On arriving in Heathrow, the Air Canada representative gave me the details of my rebooked flight to Dublin, so I tried texting Dad the updated arrival time. My Canadian SIM wouldn’t work, and both my Australian and Irish ones didn’t have any credit, so I tried getting online via WiFi. Turns out Heathrow doesn’t have any free WiFi hotspots, or at least none where I was at the time. As luck would have it, I tried to make a reverse charge call – which didn’t work – and as I replaced the receiver a pound fell out of the coin return which I was able to use to place a quick call.

Once I’d made it to the required gate I found out that the flight to Dublin was delayed, so I enjoyed another few hours sitting on my arse. I finally got airborne and arrived in Dublin only 29 hours after leaving my house in Fernie, and only 7 hours later than scheduled! The annoying thing was I arrived after dark, so didn’t get to see Dublin from the air on approach, something which always makes me feel like I’m coming home.

So at this stage I’ve had about a week snowboarding, and it’s been a mixed bag. There’s not a lot of snow about, so most of the time I’ve been confined to green runs, both here in Fernie and at Lake Louise. There was one day in Lake Louise when they opened the back bowls and there was plenty of powder up high, but Fernie has yet to see snow like that. I’m off to Ireland today, so hopefully when I get back in two weeks it will all be covered.

Our place in Fernie is really nice. Warm and cosy, with our own hot-tub out the back. It’s great to climb into after a day on the slopes. I’ve only made use of it twice so far, though once the snow is good and we’re riding for longer each day it will be used a lot more.

Fernie hasn’t changed much. It’s still almost the same as last year, with not too many new buildings around the place. It’s nice being back for a second year and recognising faces around town or the slopes. I met Dave, who is one of the owners of NonStop, at the launch of the restaurant attached to their new lodge. They’ve 110 people arriving on Dec. 26th to start their various courses this season! Yesterday, after finishing on the hill, I bumped in to all my instructors from last year, who were preparing for the arrival of this year’s crop.

It’s hard to leave now that I can hear the avalanche bombing, and there’s 10cm of fresh on the ground!

We’ve been given a short, sharp welcome to winter since arriving in Banff, as the temperatures have fallen all week. Our rental car has an outside temperature readout on the dash, so one of the idle amusements of the drive from Vancouver was registering each new ‘all-time’ low. When we arrived in Banff we’d hit -7C… yesterday we awoke to -22C, and on the drive to Lake Louise the thermometer bottomed out at -29C!

Last night we went to the Banff Hot Springs to rest our weary muscles after a couple of days snowboarding. The water temperature was 39C which was a bit weird. The pool is outdoors, so we’re soaking in this toasty water, while icicles are forming in our wet hair. On the 300m walk back to the car park, I realised that my board shorts, which I was carrying in my hand, had frozen solid. The picture above is Nathan’s free-standing shorts. Anna & Nath are worries that the whole winter is like this, but I’ve assured them that these temperatures are infrequent in Fernie

Monday dawned, and with it our last day in Vancouver. Myself and Nath were up early to drop our boxes off at the warehouse for their journey home by sea, then it was back to the apartment to load up our rental 4×4 for the journey to Banff. A mild panic ensued when we realised we’d never get all our luggage in to the car, but Greyhound came to the rescue and we shipped a few bags direct to Fernie. Once that was done we waved farewell to Vancouver and set off on the Trans-Canada Highway – destination Banff.

The first part of the journey was uneventful, cruising through the suburbs and out through the fertile Fraser Valley. Beyond Hope (yes, that’s the town’s name) the Coquihalla Highway started to get icy and we got our first dose of snow. It didn’t last long, and we were soon back on dry roads, with Kamloops, our overnight stop, rapidly approaching. No sooner had we checked in to the hotel than it started snowing, and it kept going for most of the night, allowing us to have a brief snowball fight after dinner.

Tuesday morning saw us back on the road, in much worse conditions. The graders were still out clearing up the overnight snowfall so the going was slow. We stopped in Revelstoke for lunch, being greeted by a local, Carol, as we walked along the sidewalk, who insisted on showing us a nice place to eat. We also took the opportunity to check out a model of the new ski resort opening in December: 1800m of vertical and 12-18m of snowfall per year! Sounds promising.

The road from Revelstoke to Golden and then on to Lake Louise is one of the most spectacular I’ve driven on, lined with 3000m+ peaks with snow sheds protecting the road from the slide paths of regular avalanches. It’s also dangerous, with the stretch between Golden and Lake Louise dubbed the most dangerous road in British Columbia. Anna’s a very nervous back-seat driver, and the icy conditions only increased her stress levels, so I thought it prudent not to tell her in advance of the road’s status.

However, when we’d made it to Lake Louise I congratulated her on having survived B.C.‘s deadliest road, only for us to get held up in a traffic jam 20 minutes later. We were stuck for three quarters of an hour, before being allowed to continue. Moments later we passed an horrific accident which was still being cleaned up. A small car had had a head-on with an 18-wheeler, ending up with the front half under the truck’s cab, and the other 30m away at the side of the road. We’d heard that someone had died, presumably the car’s driver. That accident was the fifth since leaving Kamloops that morning, with three cars and an 18-wheeler having slid off the road at various stages, so we were pretty relieved to arrive safely in Banff that evening!

Bloody hell Cragislist is fast. I was selling my 22" LCD monitor as I didn’t want to ship it back to Oz, so I put the ad on Craigslist at 12:40 and within an hour a guy had come to check it out and bought it. Pretty impressive.

Well, the end of my time in Vancouver is almost here. Tomorrow week will be my last day in work and we hit the road three days later. First stop is Banff, for a week’s riding at Lake Louise then we drop Jacqui off in Calgary for her flight to Toronto on Dec. 5th, while we continue down to Fernie. Fernie opens on Dec. 8th, so I’ll get a couple of days riding in there before flying back to Ireland for Christmas.

Nathan has been diligently checking the weather forecasts for weeks now and was getting a bit worried that there wasn’t enough snowfall, but things are looking up this week. Ange, Marksy and Floody are out in Fernie already and have sorted a house for us, and Ange posted photos to Facebook today of the first major snowfall in town. It’s looking good, and is slowly starting to sink in that I’ll be back snowboarding in less than two weeks. The excitement is building!

The headphones which came with my iPod started giving up the ghost a while back, with the rubber earpieces starting to fray and a couple of weird noises showing up occasionally, so I started looking around for a replacement pair.

I listen to music almost all day, wearing my iPod to work and usually while in work too, so I wanted decent headphones. I liked the sound quality of the Apple ones, but they let way to much noise in from the surrounding environment, which meant the volume on the iPod had to increase to compensate, so I leant towards in-ear headphones which slot right into your ear canal.

Our local one-stop-shop, London Drugs, had a pair of Shure E2Cs on special back in August, so I bought a pair but didn’t like them. The sound wan’t bad, but I couldn’t get them to fit my ears and, as a result, they were really uncomfortable. Luckily, London Drugs took them back with no questions asked and refunded my cash. Then, when Tom headed back to Ireland, I noticed he had a pair of Shure E3Cs which he’d left behind, so I tried them out for a few days. They were a much better fit for my ears, but a good bit more expensive than what I was prepared to spend, so they were out too.

EarphoneSolutions.com in Florida have a good range of in-ear headphones, with decent comparisons of the different models available, and I’d been checking out their site to see what my options were. After failing with the E2Cs, I’d emailed them to ask for some advice, and they’d recommend both the E3Cs and the Westone UM1s as being suitable for smaller ears, while still maintaining great quality. Since the E3Cs were out on expense grounds, I ordered the UM1s.

They finally arrived last week and I love them. The cable is nice and light, and the earpieces themselves are extremely comfortable so it’s easy to forget you’re wearing them. Sound quality is fantastic and they block out almost all environmental noise. I can walk beside a busy road without having to turn up the volume and, sitting here at my desk in work, I’ve got the volume on my iPod at less than 10% of max. In short, wearing them is like having a personal soundtrack to your life.

The main reason I booked an appointment with Dr. Case was to get a biomechanical analysis done, while at the same time getting him to treat my shin splints. Being relatively new to running, and still in the process of making changes to my running style, I’d been thinking of getting this done for a while, to make sure I didn’t have any fundamental flaws which would lead to regular injuries. I’d been impressed by the injury prevention seminar he gave to our running clinic, and since he’s a pretty decent runner as well, I figured he’d know what he’s talking about.

The procedure is quite straightforward: he videos me running away from and towards the camera, then running past the camera in both directions, after which he analyses the footage at home, and we reconvene a few days later to discuss his findings. He also provides a DVD of the video he took and a worksheet of exercises specific to any flaws he encounters.

The good news for me is that I have a biomechanically sound gait, so continuing to run as I am will not lead to injury in the long term. I still have a couple of minor flaws to work on, along with increased flexibility around my hips, which will make my stride more efficient. I suppose I’ll have to stop being so lazy when it comes to stretching properly after a run in future!

Singapore has legalised oral and anal sex between consenting, heterosexual adults, but if you’re gay, tough shit. Apart from the absurdity of a government trying to legislate what happens in the bedroom, I found this bit quite interesting…

Other amendments included a ban on necrophilia…

So, let me get this right. Up until yesterday, it was OK to fuck dead people, but not OK to get a blow job from your wife?? That’s priceless!

Last Wednesday week saw me meet up with my running group for dinner and drinks to mark the end of our clinic. I ended up winning a prize. Not an award or anything, just a raffle prize, but the catch was that I had to come for a run this Wednesday to collect it.

Wednesday evening came around and it was pissing rain, but the lure of a freebie was too strong so I went along anyway. It turns out that the 10K clinic after us are at the stage where they have to do a 4km time trial, the same one I did about 10 weeks ago. This wasn’t what I wanted, as I think I have shin splints again, so didn’t want to run fast. However, while listening to the clinic’s pre-run seminar I decided I’d go for it and see if my shins held up.

We had a slow walk out to the start line – just enough time to realise that the rain was very heavy and it was pitch black. Just as well I’d done the route a few times before and knew there weren’t any serious obstacles to trip over. I took off and settled in to a reasonably quick pace. I didn’t have my HR monitor on, so I was going by feel. Once I got warmed up I realised that, between the rain, the dark, and my breath steaming them up, my glasses were useless, so I took them off and put them in my pocket. I was still worried that I was going to run into someone, or something, and take a nosedive but it never happened.

It was 2km out and back, and since I knew roughly where the 1km marker was as well, I decided to run steady until 3km and then build the pace (if I still could) to the finish. It worked out pretty well, and when I got past the rowing club it was a sprint for the line, which I crossed in 18:10. Ten weeks ago I did 20:29, and only 5 of those 10 weeks were decent quality training, so I was delighted to see that I’d dropped by pace by 35sec/km, or, to look at it another way, raised my speed by 1.5km/h!

I’m keen to continue running now until we leave Vancouver in five weeks, but I’ve got an appointment tomorrow morning with a doctor who specialises in running injuries, so I’ll wait to see what his verdict is on my self-diagnosed shin splints and take it from there.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Apple has submitted a planning application for an Apple Store on King St.

Apple’s secretive plans for an official retail store in Sydney – understood to be the first in the southern hemisphere – have been revealed in council documents, which suggest it’s unlikely the store will open for business before mid-2008.

How thoughtful. It’s just in time for me to get back from Canada and upgrade my laptop!

Yesterday was the day of reckoning at the end of my 10K Clinic, with those who completed the course taking part in the Turkey Trot 10K race. I’d managed to get injured half-way through, from doing too much too soon, and my effort had therefore tailed off towards the end of the course, so while I had originally looked like I’d go under 50mins, it was unlikely to happen yesterday.

I met up with the rest of my running group to hang out before the start, trying to stay warm in the early morning chill. After stripping down to my running gear I really noticed the cold, so once the race started I made the second of my two fatal mistakes by starting off too fast. The first mistake was to have All Bran for breakfast… I can hear you chuckling now as you think you know what I’m about to say next, but I can assure you there was no sharting! The All Bran took ages to digest, so it was still sitting in my stomach when the race started, leading to stitches within a couple of kms.

I realised before the halfway mark that my overly quick start, combined with the stitches, meant that there was no way I could sustain my current sub-50 pace, so I resolved to continue unabated through to the 5K mark and then try and walk it off. I passed 5K in 24:42 which was respectable as the first half contained the only hill on the course, then adopted a run/walk strategy for the rest of the race, trying to find a pace which didn’t give me a stitch. I crossed the finish line in 51:08, giving me 26:26 for the second half, which wasn’t too bad, and since it was my first, proper¹ stand alone 10K I was happy enough with that.

Overall it’s a good course and there was a great atmosphere for the race, with many smiling faces crossing the line with a visible sense of achievement. However, while I would like to have run a bit faster, I learned three important things:

• All Bran is not an ideal pre-race breakfast
• Don’t get injured 4 weeks before the race
• Stick to your intended starting pace

There’s another 10K, the Fall Classic, in about six weeks, so I may consider entering that. I’ll make the decision in a couple of weeks, depending on whether I’m still running in the rapidly deteriorating weather!

Myself, Nathan and Brett went up to Whistler on Saturday morning for our round at Nicklaus North, leaving Vancouver in the pouring rain. Thankfully it wasn’t actually raining when we arrived and it remained dry for the whole round, which was a relief as I didn’t want to get soaked.

Playing at a Jack Nicklaus signature course is a whole different ball game (pardon the pun) from what we’re used to. You pull of to the door and someone gets your clubs out of the boot, takes them out back and sets up a cart for you. If you want to hit a few warm-up balls, you’re driven down to the range, where there’s balls waiting for you, then picked up in time to start your round. At the first tee, two ladies hand you divot repairers, a yardage book and explain today’s pin placements, and when you’re finished your round, a guy takes your clubs off to be cleaned while you retire to the bar! I could get used to this ;-)

Seeing as how Brett can actually play golf, we made him play off the championship tees, whereas myself and Nath played off the whites as usual. I stepped up an fired my first shot out of bounds left, then my tee shot of the second went in to water, but I settled down a bit after that and turned at 50, which is about normal for me. Nath got off to a great start, parring the first three holes, and of course Brett was in a different league.

I fared a bit better on the back nine, hitting some nice shots, but I still managed to find any water available from the tee box! My chipping was pretty good, as was my putting, so that saved me. I came back in 49, to give me a total of 99, which is the first time I’ve beaten 100, though with 6 penalties there’s plenty of room for improvement. After turning in 44, Nath had a shocker on the back 9, finishing in 103, and Brett was on course for par before dropping a shot on the final hole, to record a two-over 73! In the end, he managed to beat us by almost 30 shots, despite playing almost 1000 extra yards. I guess that’s why he’s a PGA Pro and we’re weekend hackers.

The verdict? It’s a nice course, and the setting is spectacular, nestled below Whistler and Blackcomb, fringed by Green Lake. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The fairways are reasonably generous, but if you miss them by much your ball is gone and you’re a shot down. Also, the bunkers are deeper than I’m used to, and, with wet, heavy sand at this time of year, it was hard to get the ball out on occasion. Finally, one or two of the par 3s were long, particularly the 17th at 188yds, though I did hit a nice tee shot which landed in the greenside bunker. Had it landed about 3 yards right it would almost certainly have bounced on to the green and ended up with a decent chance at a birdie, so it was about 3 yards from being awesome.

At $165 for a round it’s a bit steep for regular play, but well worth a one off visit. Although Brett’s far too modest to claim that he’s anything special, for me, getting a chance to play with a pro and see up close how it’s supposed to be done was a treat too, so it was a good day all ’round.

Marion Jones has finally admitted what most people have suspected ever since the BALCO story was unearthed: she was on the juice.

Citing a letter Jones sent to close family and friends, which was “read to the Washington Post by a person who had been given a copy of it,” Jones plans to plead guilty on Friday in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter.

The Post reported that in the letter, Jones said she took the steroid produced by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) known as “the clear” for two years beginning in 1999. Jones, 31, won five medals, including three gold, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Both myself and Jacqui are using our frequent flyer points to get free¹ flights back to Australia, so after Jacqui went to book her flights and discovered she could only fly back via the U.S., I decided I should get organised and try booking mine.

Since I refuse to fly to, through² or over the U.S. due to their bullshit immigration requirements, I really wanted to fly via Asia. I had a three week window to work with, so I wasn’t too concerned when my preferred London – Sydney direct wasn’t available. Half an hour spent searching through Qantas’s Frequent Flyer booking site got me London – Tokyo with BA, an 8-hour stopover and then Tokyo – Sydney with Qantas.

The combined flight time is no longer than the traditional Bangkok/Singapore stopover route, the Qantas leg is on one of their new Airbus A330s which look flash, and I’ve never been to Japan. Jacqui seems to think that I’ll be able to wander around Tokyo for a few hours, which would be cool.

Anyway, the end result is that I return to Australia as a fully-fledged resident on the morning of Friday, February 22nd. See you then!

¹ ‘free’ as in you still pay almost $300 in taxes.

² You still have to go through immigration even if you’re just in transit.