Ghost Rider by Neil Peart

Just finished Neil Peart's book Ghostrider.

Peart is the drummer and lyricist with Rush and in the mid 90's his life was pretty much perfect, international rock star, great house by a lake, place in the Caribean, nice family etc. Then suddenly, it all went to shit and he lost is daughter in a car crash and then, 9 months later, his wife to cancer.

So, to deal with the pain he got on to his trusty GS1150 and rode and then rode some more. And he just kept riding, all around North America, from Canada, up to Alaska, down the west coast, through the Rockies down into Baja and across to the rest of Mexico. This book deals with his travels and the healing process he went through.

As a motorcycle travelog it is pretty good, although he comes across as a bit of a wimp at times he covers some long miles and is a good observer of the countryside he passes through. He fell in love with some of my favorite places in the western US, Moab, Canyonlands etc and his writing on Baja is pretty inspiring.

But the book is not just a a story about a bloke on a BM and much of the story is written as letters and extracts from letters to friends, especially his pal Brutus who has just been busted with a lorry load of dope - opps! To be honest I found these pretty tedious to read and actually quite repetitive, I caught myself sighing and having to force myself on when I turned a page and saw another "dear Brutus" sub heading.

The other place at which the book failed for me was at the end. He basically just stops riding and then in an epilog we are told that he feel in love again, got married, started back with the band and basically got himself sorted. It would have been great to follow that journey through, that is the real uplift to the story and it felt, at least to me like he just got bored of writing and did the last 2 years in 5 pages.

So I am really split on this one. Part of my enjoyed the book and would say it was essential reading if you love western North America, bikes and have any interest in Rush, other part of me feels its drawn out, indulgent and only half a story.

I guess you need to make up your own mind, I am just about to embark on Long Way Down, which if it is anything like its predessor will involve huge vats of self indulgant whinning and self pity from a couple of thespian tossers who only have a 5 million quid budget and 20 person support crew to ease the sufferring they endure when they miss their families while completing another once in life time, epic, trip.

Why do I feel compelled to ride books about people on bikes. I blame it on Jupiters Travels - the orginal and by far and away still the best.

Ten things I love about living in Norway...

Just in case anyone thinks that all I do is moan all the time, in no particular order...

1. Relaxed pace of life, fantastic work life balance
2. Wide open space and a sparse population. The scenery is absolutely stunning and there are not that many people cluttering it up.
3. Great opportunities for out door activities – climbing, kayaking, boarding, walking, etc.
4. There are very low crime rates
5. There is a good welfare state and everyone is taken care of irrespective of whether they are unfortunate or just lazy.
6. The people are genuinely open and have a complete lack of cynicism.
7. There is a total lack of “scallies” i.e. people who want to rip you off, fight with you, stab you, trash your stuff etc.
8. You can get by in English
9. There are very few poor people and very few super rich, everyone has a high standard of living
10.Norway is a lesson to the world on how a nation should deal with its oil wealth

Great news at a bad time

Today we announced that we had farmed-in to 10% of a 1.6 Billion barrel prospect, offshore India. To non-oil industry people this means that we have acquired 10% of somebody else’s prospect in exchange for technical services and knowledge. This has taken over a year of work and some difficult negotiations. There are only 3 or 4 companies who have ever managed to do a deal like this in India before and they are all very large (eg Shell and Statoil). The Indians are “interesting” to negotiate with and the deal has been 1 week away from getting signed for about 9 months. One friend commented that it was akin to “swimming in treacle” and if it had been left to me would never have happened at all. But now it is signed and it is a massive credit to all the guys that have worked on it, especially those that have been so patient. Success in this block will make us the second biggest Norwegian oil company after Statoilhydro - which would be nice!

The only problem was that we announced the deal on the day that the World stock market went to hell in a handcart! Shares were tumbling as fast as the analysts and investment bankers who were throwing themselves off the roofs of down town Oslo and London. Bummer, so while our share price should have gone up 50% and more it only went up 2%.

So much for early retirement!

Sharkwaters

Last night we watched a DVD called sharkwaters which is an awesome documentary addressing the threat poised to the global shark population by shark finning. 100 million sharks are killed every year so that stupid, shallow people can eat shark fin soup. In the last 50 years the global population of sharks has declined by 90% (yes ninety!)

Very few people seem to care because sharks are always portrayed as being evil and dangerous. The reality is that sharks kill about 5 people per year. Elephants, tigers and even coke machines kill over a 100 people per year... But everyone hates sharks.

Sharks have been around since the Ordovician (450 million years). They are the top predator in the ocean and as such control the entire ecosystem. The oceans in turn control the global levels of O2 and CO2, and therefore climate. We are a few bowls of soup away from trashing all that!

It's an amazing documentary, really well made, beautiful cinematography and very emotive.
Buy it, watch it and get informed.

20 tell-tale signs that you have lived in Norway for too long...

1. You only buy your own drink at the bar even when you are with a group of friends.
2. You always prepare to catch the closing door if following closely behind somebody.
3. You start believe that if it wasn't for Norway's efforts the world would collapse.
4. You think 90km/h on an open highway in summer is too fast
5. You use "Mmmm" as conversation filler.
6. You actually believe that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
7. You know the difference between Blue and Red ski wax... and you own both
8. You never pass through an airport without buying your full duty free allowance
9. It's acceptable to eat lunch at 11.00 and dinner at 15.00.
10. It's no longer seems excessive to spend £100 on drinks one night.
11. You find yourself more interested in the alcohol content than in the grape of the wine.
12. You can't remember when to say "please" and "excuse me".
13. You wear sandals with socks.
14. It feels natural to wear sport clothes and backpack in the cinema (as well as everywhere else.)
15. You own two sets of wheels for your car (summer and winter)
16. Your front door step is beginning to resemble a shoe shop
17. You think brown cheese, jam and a pancake is a great combination
18. You wear jeans and a t-shirt to work and a suit and tie to go out in the evening
19. You eat rice pudding as a main course
20. The first thing you do on entering a bank/post office/pharmacy etc. is look for the queue number machine.

and 21. - you are reading this list, nodding and smiling...

Whale meat again, don’t know where, don’t know when…

I love living in Norway and I respect virtually all aspects of the culture, even though some of them are a bit odd. However there is one thing which really gets my goat! That is the belief that it is ok to massacre and eat whales. Despite global opinion and scientific evidence, the most rational and reasonable people will often argue the issue very aggressively with you, it’s just so sad and tedious when such outdated cultures and traditions are so ingrained.

Arguments normally follows one or several of the following lines

1. It's part of the culture.
So fuckin what? It was part of white American culture to keep slaves in the 1800’s – that doesn’t make it ok; it's part of certain modern cultures to genitally mutilate and circumcise women – it doesn’t make it acceptable. Culture is a bullshit excuse for brutality.

2. Certain whales, such as Minkes are not endangered.
This statement puts the people who make it at odds with the entire scientific community. That includes CITES, (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the IUCN ( the International Union for Conservation of Nature) who place Minkes on their red list. Furthermore the wankers who go out hunting have repeatedly failed to catch their self imposed quotes – maybe there are not as many whales out there as they would have us believe.

3. If you eat cows then why shouldn’t you eat whales, it's just another animal ?
Well first up, I don’t eat cows, or any form of meat, but secondly there is a significant difference between eating a cow that was bred to be eaten and an endangered, intelligent, communal mammal that is fully aware of it's circumstance.

4. It tastes good.
How totally pathetic is that? Lots of things taste good but that doesn’t make it ok to eat them. Maybe people taste good but that isn’t a justification for cannibalism!

5. It’s an essential part of the economy for certain communities.
Bullshit – this is Norway, the richest country in the world. These communities are heavily subsidised by the extremely wealthy government whether they massacre marine mammals or not. In fact there is far more money to be made from tourism than whaling. Intelligent, perceptive and aware people from all over the World pay lots of money to go whale watching. That is a far more effective and humane revenue stream than some pathetic tosser with a grenade tipped harpoon trying to make up for his own very small penis by killing things. These arseholes were stupid enough to slaughter whales in front of a boat load of whale watching tourists last year.

6. It's humane.
How exactly is firing a grenade tipped harpoon into an intelligent mammal and then hauling it through the sea with a crane humane?

7. It’s brave and heroic.
Err no. A group of Eskimos in seal skin kayaks hearding a whale into an ice pool then killing it with hand thrown spears so their family can survive the winter, that could be described as heroic, its certainly very brave. Some fat, mustached, high-school drop-out, standing on the bridge of a huge steel ship with a harpoon cannon is not brave. It's just pathetic. Get a proper job and make a proper contribution to society.

8. The global moratorium on whaling is wrong, so we’ll just ignore it.
Yes and various other leaders have made their own minds up about what is acceptable and ignored global opinion (Hitler, Stalin, Pol-Pot, Milosovich etc). Were they right?

Basically these people are sad, pathetic dinosaurs, who can’t come to terms with a changing World. They want the advantages that a rich industrialised society brings but can’t face up to the responsibility.

There is no excuse,

There is no justification,

Its just wrong

http://www.seashepherd.org/

This week I shall mainly be in places starting with S...

Headed from Spain to the frozen north and Svalbard, stopping briefly in Bergen for a curry with Katharine and her mum. Was up in the arctic for a final exam for Lotta, one of my PhD students. Lotta was based in Svalbard and worked on the Tertiary coals using outcrop and coal company data. I was fairly peripheral to her project but its great work and very interesting rocks. Arrived sunday afternoon and meet up with my old friends Sarah and her husband David. Sarah was one of the examiners for the thesis and they had used the exam as a chance to visit the far north. As it was a desert they took their own rain with them (just in case) and by the time I arrived it was 4 degrees and drizzling. So we sat in the bar and had a drink, then Lotta and a few others arrived so we stayed in the bar and had food and then drank some more. We were also joined for the meal by Lotta's other supervisor, from London Gary and his wife Davina.

It was so good to catch up with Lotta, Sarah and David that we had a good evening regardless... Next day (monday) was the exam which went extremely well. Lotta did a great job of presenting her thesis and defending her work. Then we had a meal and then a party at which we drank some more. UNIS is a great place and has a really nice atmosphere. Then it was back to Sotra Anyway well done to Lotta!