40kms of rolling terrain....

Arranged with our neighbour a while ago to go cycling together, and have been threatening for a while to arrange something. Finally yesterday we went out - and we're a good match for one another. He's pretty strong on the flats and downhills compared to me, and definitely much much fitter (windsurfs a *lot*, cycles on avg 10000km per year although this year has been slow, etc..). Being 20kg lighter (and 20 years younger), I'm quite a bit faster on the hills - but he kept his heart rate below 150 the whole time [I should mention at this point that he has a triple chainwheel], whereas mine was - as usual - hovering around the 170-180 mark on the hills (granted, I was going about 50% faster than him on the uphills). I really need to work on my fitness.

So, thanks to my trusty Polar Heart Rate Monitor which is also my cycling computer, I have nice stats about altitude, speed, cadence (pedal rpm), etc...

Our route took us from home (Binz is *just* above Zumikon on the top-left of the map linked here) through Zumikon, and parallel to the highway heading east towards Egg. Just after Egg we turned southwards, and over the Zollikerberg down towards the Zurich lake, joining it somewhere between Obermeilen and Männedorf. Then head north-west along the lake to Meilen, and back up the hill to Egg, and track back to home. 40km in all, with around 600m of climbing (I started my clock a little way into the ride because I was fiddling with my wireless chest strap for heart rate pickup).

Here's a PDF ouput of the ride, all nicely graphed

As you can see, I'm not the fittest cat on the block, but I can "comfortably" maintain 180bpm for quite a while going uphill so I suspect my lactate threshhold is at least at a decent level compared to my heartrate. A couple of these rides a week and I'd have no trouble with it at all, and could probably increase my pace considerably.

As Greg LeMond said: "(It) doesn't get easier. You just get faster".
True words.

10 days left in Zürich

10 days left in Zurich ... 8 working days... then we're off to USA.

It's looking reasonably positive workwise, in that I'll get all my major projects completed before I leave (the reason I stayed on until the end of June rather than leaving mid-May as per notice period).

Going out for dinner with colleagues on Tuesday night - I know it's going to be a sentimental time for me [as will Friday next week, my last working day].

Weather here is a bit dodgy - really hot recently, rain and thunder last night, and probably again tonight ... I'm supposed to be cycling with my neighbour this evening, so it'll be interesting whether that transpires or not. Either way, if it's not raining I need to get out and do a lap of my local loop ... I haven't cycled since Thursday!

We're in the process of packing up some of our stuff, and will have to make a concerted effort this weekend to purge our drawers, cupboards and shelves of things we need to pack away before we leave (either to take with us, or to leave in the cellar until we get back, as we're renting out our apartment during our absence). Still need to organise with a neighbour or a friend to mow our lawn while we're away... And send out details to companies that we'll be away... I plan to prepay all bills (health insurance, mobile phone, Cable TV/Internet, and so on...), but if I miss something glaring it would be nice that they're preinformed and can just drop me an email as necessary.

Google Puzzle Solver (1-14 in shape of a G)

Wei-Hwa's latest puzzle follows, along with - once again - a solver written in Perl.
The puzzle is as follows:


The image on the right shows 18 available positions for placement of the numbers from 1 to 14. Of course, 4 positions will remain unused. The trick is to place the numbers incrementally such that the distance between each successive increasing pair is larger than its predecessor.

ie, the distance between 1 and 2 must be smaller than the distance between 2 and 3, which must be smaller than the distance between 3 and 4, and so on, until you've used up all the numbers.

I won't give the solution out here (unless you ask for it), but I will attach a piece of code I wrote in Perl (as always? :) ) that solves the puzzle through recursive brute-force attempts. A puzzle like this is perfectly suited for using recursion, and lets face it - these days so few people even remember recursive programming (LISP / Scheme, anyone? :) ).

Download my code here

Have fun!!!

Cycling

Considering the great weather we've been having, I had to get out in the saddle a few times this week again.
Monday I commuted to/from work by bike - it was quite enjoyable, and definitely a much more pleasant way to get to work than sitting in traffic on the highway.
Thursday, with the pending rain forecast for Friday, I went on my standard loop around the Greifensee - anticlockwise (I seem to alternate directions each successive ride).

Here's the output from my Polar heart rate monitor:

As you can see, I'm not the fittest cat around (my heartrate is an indication of the exertion, and I'm in my top zones a little too often), but my speed is reasonable and I'll improve as time goes by.


One thing I do notice, quite markedly, is how much more comfortable I feel going up our local (roughly 7% gradient) hill. It's 3km of man-vs-machine, and after a very long time off the bike I certainly feel its effects.. but ride a few times within a couple of weeks, and it's no longer such a meanie. Yay progress! Yay me!

Now I just need to force motivate myself to get out there more often and spend time in the saddle, where it counts.

Population + 1, Tour de Suisse cycle tour, baby carseat

Last week my sister-in-law (brother's wife) gave birth to a girl -- Zahava Ariella.
I'm now an uncle three-times over.

I'm slowly managing to get back in the saddle - went for a ride on Thursday night and Saturday morning, around the Greifensee, and cycled to work today... The weather being what it is, it's too-good an opportunity to pass up. I'm still looking for a commuter to use in California - not wanting to pay more than a few hundred dollars, but I don't want a rust-bucket either. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll be riding something with far less lustre than what I have now - which is fine ... but I definitely want to get something that I'll still enjoy taking out for the extra hour a few times a week, if for no other reason than to burn off the calories I'll be consuming in extra food while we're there (staff canteen, eating out, etc). That, and a bicycle is such a brilliant way of discovering an area.

snip snip

Yesterday we went to the Bris - a Jewish circumcision - of the son of our Rabbi. We're finding more and more that the community here is a good one, and people are inclusive and quite friendly... moreover, everyone speaks English (pretty well, if not natively) .
The weather played along nicely, and it was warm and sunny. We had to park about 700m away though, and were running late on arrival (I missed the turnoff to the right road), so we were a little warm on arrival ... soon remedied though.


Today marks 16 working days left at Monzoon :-o
I will complete the last pieces of code in my software development upgrade, and over the next couple of days I need to migrate a server or two... Then I'll have reached my target before I leave.


Remembered recently that another school friend now lives in San Francisco. I dropped him an email, and we'll meet up when we're over there ... Seems we may have ourselves a mini reunion of sorts ... or at least, I'll catch up with lost friends if nothing else.

Chicken, Meat Pie and Donuts ...

Time for some food pics ...

A couple of weeks ago, I made a meat, potato and veggie pie that turned out to be delicious. It was wholesome and filling and truly delicious.

Here's the recipe:

Coarsely chop two large onions, and fry in non-stick pan without oil
Add beef (just to seal the meat, not to cook through)
Transfer into pressure cooker (meat comes out *SO* tender)
Add peas, mixed ratatouille veggies, large cubes of potato and mushroom, and large slices of carrots

Always ensure that there's a small amount of water in the base of the pressure cooker, as it's the steam that generates the pressure

Cook in the pressure cooker for ~25-30 minutes

Line base of casserole dish with a thin layer of peach chutney and tomato sauce
Add stew mix
Cover with puff pastry, and brush with egg
Bake for 30 minutes

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Chicken, vegetables and cous-cous from last week:

Once again, I made use of the pressure cooker, where meat is cooked healthily and comes out *SO* tender and soft.

I simply covered the bottom of the pot with a thin layer of water (the chicken was frozen, so it will release quite a bit of moisture itself). Add a large onion cut into halves, green beans (I used frozen - you can use fresh vegetables too), and top with assorted mixed vegetables with spice/sauce.
The pressure cooker takes care of the rest.


Prior to this, I had peeled potatoes and sliced them into halves, and cooked them in the pressure cooker to save some time. I then placed them in a grilling pan in some oil, and into the oven to crisp and brown.

While all the above was taking place, I boiled up some hot water with a dash of olive oil, and cooked the cous-cous accompaniment.

The results are visible on the right.

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Finally - I just made a batch of donuts. Recipe is as follows (note - I used a QUARTER of the recipe, as the full recipe makes far too many donuts for two people to eat comfortably):

1kg flour
1teaspoon salt
60g live yeast (Instead, I use 14g of dry active yeast from a sachet)
120g sugar
50g oil
4 eggs
50g Vodka (3-4 tablespoons)
350g warm water (1½ cups)
1 tablespoon lemon juice


Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, and let froth. This should take no more than a few minutes.

Mix all the ingredients (including the yeast) in the mixer (it kneads far better than doing it by hand). The result is pictured on the left.


Leave the dough to rise (I preheat the oven to 50°c, switch it off, and place the bowl inside the oven ...this provides a warm cosy place for the yeast to do its thing. On the left you can see how the dough mixture has increased substantially in volume.





Roll the dough onto a floured surface to no less than 1½cm thick, and using a cup punch out circles. Repeat with the remaining dough until it's all used up. Set aside for a further 15 minutes to rise a little more.




Warm oil in a deep pot - temperature between medium and high (but not too hot or the donuts will burn). Lower the donuts into the oil, and turn when the underside is a honey colour. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain the oil.
I rolled mine in sugar, as you can see, but if you prefer you can let them cool and fill with jam or custard, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

All that sparkles ...

A few days ago, Dvora found a small diamond lodged in a hole in the grouting of our tiles... Turns out a friend was over a few days before, and it fell out of her ring. Lucky find. They were over for lunch yesterday, and we returned the sparkly..

We were all supposed to go cycling, but weather put a damper [hehe] on that idea. Made lunch - garlic bread, fried fish, baked fish, grilled rösti croquettes, spinach, and mixed veggies; cornet ice creams (chocolate in a wafer cone) for dessert, along with freshly baked apple strudel.

We also watched Ice Age 2 - pretty funny, but preferred the first one.