The English Guide to...

A few days ago, at approximately half past five in the afternoon, I reached the finish line of the Outlaw Triathlon at the national watersports centre, Holme Pierrepont near Nottingham. For the uninitiated, this is a triathlon (swim, bike, run) consisting of a loop around the rowing lake (3.8km), a ride (180km) around Nottinghamshire's rolling green countryside and a marathon (42.2km) alongside the river Trent. Participants get given 17 hours to complete the race, but the winning man finished in under 9 hours and winning woman in under 10. I made it round in 11 hours 31 minutes, much to my own astonishment. I had been aiming to finish in twelve hours, but was honestly basing this on a small number of frankly optimistic assumptions. My wonderful, astonishingly determined wife, Fiona, who has only been swimming crawl since March, (and only found out her bike has more than ten gears eighteen months ago) made it round in under 14 hours. Over the past few years I've be...

I recently completed the Outlaw - an Ironman distance triathlon in the UK, and thought it would be worth listing all the kit I used for the day, what I found worthwhile and what I think is unnecessary for a first timer. This is by no means a definitive guide, and you could certainly complete the race with less than I used. For anyone who's even dabbled in triathlon, this won't be news: there is a lot of equipment involved in the sport. As the distances get longer, it becomes even more pronounced and the pressure to just buy stuff increases massively. It's really easy to waste hours pouring over reviews, reading magazines, browsing sport shops and being sucked in to buying all sorts of paraphernalia, partly out of fear that you're never going to make it. But... I don't believe that you need the latest, brand new gear to take on this epic challenge. Getting things from ebay, borrowing from friends and otherwise getting creative will certainly pay off. (I used the...

Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are well-known for their controversial use in modern warfare , but in recent years similar technology has been employed by humanitarian operations to assist in disaster situations. A crash-landed UN MONUSCO drone in the DRC. Image Source  The concept of re-purposing military-born technology for peaceful, civilian tasks has existed for thousands of years. In the ancient analogy, the ploughshare represents a productive tool that benefits humanity while the sword, although superficially similar, has a quite contrary purpose. Drone use in the humanitarian sector has been growing rapidly. In disaster situations, drones are used to assess damage to structures , find survivors in remote or dangerous locations , transport medical equipment and rapidly map disaster zones . Image source Drone creating GIS data in an earthquake zone.  Source Notable examples of future applications include the Ambulance D...

I don't think I was the only one in the auditorium not expecting a play about the last man to be hanged - (or is that hung?) in England to be as funny as this. Perhaps, you say, I should have looked it up beforehand- but who wants to risk accidentally reading something that skews their perspective or forces them to notice a tiny hole in the plot? In this case my strategy paid off - who wants to struggle through a couple of hours of a playwright's quiet contemplation on  a rainy Monday night ? We are introduced to Harry Wade (David Morrissey), England's second-best hangman and now pub landlord. He gives an interview to a London journalist visiting Oldham for the day (queue plenty of North/South jokes), adding to his local celebrity status and boasting in his talents as an executioner. When Harry's daughter goes missing he quickly suspects Peter Mooney ( Johnny Flynn),  a loud, charming yet rather creepy southerner who has recently turned up out of the blue.  Se...

An AC/DC riff jangles through my head as I leave the Cambridge junction following the penultimate performance of an 18 month UK tour of Grounded. It is an hour long journey in the hands of a reluctant UAV pilot from the US Air Force which leaves us with more than a few questions about the reality of modern warfare. Director Christopher Haydon brings us up close to The Pilot, played by Lucy Ellison, as she comes to terms with being a member of the "chair-force" - a phrase she repeats with plenty of sarcasm and distaste. As a fully-fledged female Top Gun, our hero is full of all the bravado you'd expect from a highly trained military asset. She regales us with stories of her time out in the wide open "blue" (sky) as a fighter pilot, clearly smart and skilled and without an ounce of humility. Following a break from the war, she finds herself pregnant and somewhat excited about the prospect despite the risk of having to let go of her plane and "the blu...

I read a review of John from the Daily Mail which called it a " National DISGRACE". Which mostly served to make me want to see it more. Hannes Langolf performing as John It's brought to us by the physical theatre group DV8 , whose name alone is probably enough to put off the average daily mail reader. It's a piece of verbatim theatre which means that the words are taken directly from real situations - in this case interviews with a number of people. The play begins by focussing on the title's John with the tragic, painful story of his upbringing. The script, taken directly from the words of real people is made into a visual display by the graceful yet powerful movement of the dancers (should that be actors? ).  One thing that works very well and feels incredibly fresh is how the dancers are not silent during their pieces. We are so used to dancers becoming mute the moment they enter the stage, that it is exciting (and pretty impressive) to hear them ...