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    <title>Looking Out To Sea</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/atom.xml" rel="self" />
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/atom.xml</id>
    <author>
        <name>Dougal Stanton</name>
        <email>blog@dougalstanton.net</email>
    </author>
    <updated>2017-02-19T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <entry>
    <title>Recovering from an armbar (elbow hyperextension)</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2017-02-19-recovering-from-an-armbar.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2017-02-19-recovering-from-an-armbar.html</id>
    <published>2017-02-19T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2017-02-19T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>On the 23rd of January of the Year of our Lord 2017 I was laid low by… a large man bending my elbow the wrong way. The details are not exciting: we were practising back mount escapes and he landed on my arm as it was posted with my body weight through it. He landed on the outside of my upper arm, sliding down the arm and causing it to bend the wrong way. It went *pop* and hurt a lot.</p>
<p>After an evening sitting at the A&amp;E department in Little France they told me it was not broken. But the injury doesn’t stop there. I still had very little use of my left arm. I was staring into the abyss of inactivity — stopping all cycling and grappling. Thoughts of returning to capoeira were discarded.</p>
<p>My forearm and hand was swollen and later turned green around the elbow. Anything requiring forearm strength, be it pushing, pulling, carrying or twisting, was not possible. I had about ninety degrees of range of movement — neither fully extended nor flexed. Just a permanently crooked elbow. It was two weeks before I could hold a cup close enough to my mouth to drink from it.</p>
<p>The swelling didn’t disappear for the first week and I was taking painkillers regularly. Icing the inside of the elbow still felt good for the first few days so I continued to do that while the swelling was clearly visible. At that point I started on <a href="https://www.nhsinform.scot/injuries/muscle-bone-and-joint-injuries/exercises/exercises-for-elbow-problems" title="NHS Inform exercises for elbow problems">a gentle physiotherapy regime</a> adapted from the NHS Inform pages.</p>
<p>The routine I have ended up with, with particular focus on the flexion of the elbow joint, is short but apparently effective. Repeat this cycle for two minutes. Do this every hour.</p>
<ul>
<li>10 seconds with the arm extended towards the ground</li>
<li>10 seconds with the elbow flexed</li>
</ul>
<p>The significant difference between the NHS recommendation and what I’ve been doing is the focus on the extremes of the motion. Rather than slowly moving through the motion I spend the majority of the time at the limit of the extension/flexion, where I need to improve. In the next step I will revert to the recommended routine to build up strength in the arm. Doing those pint glass bicep curls!</p>
<p>Two weeks ago my thoughts about recovery were quite bleak. Since I’ve settled on what seems to be the right routine and sticking to it I have seen a massive improvement. I am feeling positive about recovery now.</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Taking time away from capoeira</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2017-01-02-taking-time-away-from-capoeira.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2017-01-02-taking-time-away-from-capoeira.html</id>
    <published>2017-01-02T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2017-01-02T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Over two months ago I decided that I couldn’t continue training capoeira while not enjoying it and I was definitely not enjoying it. But two months into this break I have to ask myself some awkward questions about restarting. It’s still something I want to do.</p>
<p>Initially I had “March” in my head as a return date. I don’t know why. That would be a break of four months — I’m at the halfway mark now. What will have changed by March? That’s what I need to answer.</p>
<p>I want to feel like I’m making tangible progress in my skills — so that I can have fun in the roda and enjoy myself in class too. Classes had become frustrating and a waste of time. In the roda I felt more uncertain and incapable than ever, while nothing was ever enjoyable. I’ve been treading water for some time and it seems like the accepted answer is to keep treading long enough for the tide to slowly move me to where I want to be. This is not a sensible approach to learning.</p>
<p>I started this post as a way to clarify my goals. I have written and deleted many hundreds of words but not decided anything.</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Sprinting faster than a speeding bullet journal</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-12-22-sprinting-faster-than-a-speeding-bullet.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-12-22-sprinting-faster-than-a-speeding-bullet.html</id>
    <published>2016-12-22T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2016-12-22T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I stumbled across <a href="http://bulletjournal.com" title="Bullet Journal explained">bullet journalling</a> recently, and became quickly fascinated with the system as I understood it. I have not used it for anything, and I suspect that I might never use it in its fullest sense. But some of the core ideas hidden in there are really great. But I’ve not seen them written about explicitly and separately from the Bullet Journal Method (Tee Em) so I wonder if other people care, or find this fascinating?</p>
<p>When I have played with notebooks I have always had a terrible fear about <strong>not leaving enough space for things</strong>. This is the first thing which bullet journal solves. It encourages you to number pages as you use them, then put entries in an index. If one entry is split across two page runs, you just put them both in the index. Or you can just put a mark at the bottom of the page to indicate that this entry continues on page X.</p>
<p>All those notebooks I have with chunks of blank space between useful items and the answer was so obvious.</p>
<p>This system of indexing and cross-referencing of page numbers is the start of the real underlying power of bullet journalling. It allows you to use the capacity of the book to the fullest and discourages wasted pages. It is reminiscent of the way computers allocate data, which leads me into my next thought.</p>
<p>In order to minimise wastage in bullet journalling it encourages a just-in-time system. You allocate each day’s entry-space as you get to it, instead of drawing boxes for each day a week in advance. You may never use those boxes.</p>
<p>Each day you can score off completed items or move unfinished ones to the following day or “later”. Each month you can do the same. These stages of stopping and copying are also reminiscent of computer memory management, by creating a new day, week or month out of the half-relevant remnants of the previous one.</p>
<p>Between pointers, memory pools and garbage collection there’s a lot in a Bullet Journal that should be familiar to the computer scientist. I wonder if there’s anything else that’s been invented for data management inside our machines that’s similarly valuable with pen and paper.</p>
<hr />
<p>The title comes from the transfer of tasks from one day to the next, or pushing them to a log to be examined later. In bullet journaling it’s called the “future log”… but if you imagine each day as a Sprint the same thing is called a Backlog under the Agile system.</p>
<p>Is Bullet Journal an application of Agile management applied to your own life, using the machinery of garbage-collected memory management on the underlying notebook? Would it help anyone if I told them it seemed like it. I have not examined these thoughts in the closest of detail but the notions entertained me greatly.</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>New bike day: Genesis Croix de Fer custom build</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-09-07-new-bike-day-genesis-croix-de-fer.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-09-07-new-bike-day-genesis-croix-de-fer.html</id>
    <published>2016-09-07T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2016-09-07T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>The inevitable happened and I finally sold my Ridgeback Flight after several years of good service. It went with fresh brake pads, mudguards and a rear pannier rack — all kitted out for the urban commute. I also foolishly left my Restrap toe straps on the pedals when I should have moved them to the Fuji track bike. Oh well, I got a good price for it all.</p>
<p>And the replacement! What a marvel. A custom build light touring bike built around the 2016 Croix de Fer frameset in “Colonel Mustard” metallic golden-yellow colour. The same frame as Harrison Ford, doncha know. Built by <a href="http://www.bikecraftedinburgh.co.uk/" title="Bike Craft of Edinburgh">Bike Craft</a> with Shimano 105 group and TRP Spyre disc brakes. Other goodies include the Alfine dynamo hub in the front and the solid wheelset.</p>
<p>I’ve now got a Busch &amp; Muller Cyo headlamp wired to the dynamo and it’s totally amazing. Being able to just flick a switch and ride without thinking about batteries is totally amazing. The light has two modes, which is one more than I really need but I’ve been using the second “daylight running lights” mode anyway because it’s there. The lamp runs “dipped” and there’s some LEDs instead to appear visible to traffic in rear-view mirrors and such. And it’s “free” energy so why not use it?</p>
<p>My most recent purchase was a QuadLock mount to put my phone on the bike stem, which is really good for riding in the unknown — something I haven’t actually had a chance to do since getting the mount. We’ve only been one long ride (to Dunbar via Garvald) since receiving the bike.</p>
<p>What is left? A rear light to join with the front one will complete the utility of seeing and being seen without charging batteries. A rack so I can use my panniers again when carrying loads too large for a shoulder bag. And maybe some pedals? A brave move…</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Basics and Fundamentals of Capoeira</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-03-18-basics-and-fundamentals-of-capoeira.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-03-18-basics-and-fundamentals-of-capoeira.html</id>
    <published>2016-03-18T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2016-03-18T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>In <a href="http://www.omnimovement.com/blog-2/" title="Fundamentals vs Basics: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter?">this article on fundamentals and basics</a> the author defines the two exactly for his own purposes and I think that has value so I’ll use those definitions here.</p>
<ul>
<li>Fundamental: Distance, Timing, Position</li>
<li>Basics: Simple moves that everything else is built on</li>
</ul>
<p>Moves we covered in Mestre Marrom’s recent workshop:</p>
<ul>
<li>Negativa</li>
<li>Role</li>
<li>Queda de quattro</li>
<li>Raba de arraia</li>
<li>Escalomente (?)</li>
<li>Cabecada</li>
<li>Rasteira</li>
<li>Mole (?)</li>
<li>Chapa</li>
</ul>
<p>Of these the basic steps would be the <em>queda de quatro</em>, the <em>role</em> and the <em>negativa</em>, all escapes in some way. There’s probably some others that we did not cover at the weekend but that make sense as basics. There’s nothing inverted on that list, for example.</p>
<p>Marrom was repeatedly emphasising the dynamic of attack and defend, enter and exit, which does link closely with the fundamental of Distance. Moving in and moving out again whenever there is a threat of an attack instead of getting into a ungraceful game of strike-counterstrike where nothing is effective and the game disintegrates.</p>
<p>Timing is primary controlled by the rhythm of the bateria. The pace matches that rhythm in some way, though not necessarily one to one. Off-beat attacks are defined by the existence of the rhythm of the bateria.</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Operant conditioning in martial arts training</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-03-15-operant-conditioning-in-martial-arts-training.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-03-15-operant-conditioning-in-martial-arts-training.html</id>
    <published>2016-03-15T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2016-03-15T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>This article, <a href="http://ymaa.com/articles/2015/1/the-practical-problem-of-teaching-self-defense">The Practical Problem of Teaching Self Defense</a> by Rory Miller, was recently posted on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/martialarts/comments/4ajbis/rory_miller_article_on_practical_problems_when/">the /r/martialarts subreddit</a>.</p>
<p>Amongst the many interesting things it had to say was one key section that jumped right out at me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Operant conditioning is using a stimulus-response-reward/punish pattern to bypass cognitive processing. In other words, if you want someone to do something fast, you have to condition it, not train it. It bypasses the cognitive processing and gets responses very close to reflex speed. It is also faster than training. It may have taken you a thousand reps before you can block a punch at speed, but it only took one rep to learn not to touch a hot stove.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think this is the guiding principal behind the teaching at Cross Combat that I’ve been missing when trying to analyse it. And when trying to redirect the ideas towards ways of teaching capoeira. It immediately set my hair on fire, anyway!</p>
<p>This next section too seemed very relevant:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is easy to mess up operant conditioning. Correcting the student, micromanaging, can turn conditioning into training. And training, despite what you may have been told, rarely comes out under stress. Conditioning does.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If there’s one thing that can be levelled accurately at Cross Combat’s training style it’s that there’s very little in the way of hands-on correction and micromanaging. There are broad broad brushstrokes and lots of “games”.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading and re-reading the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning#Concepts_and_procedures">concepts and procedures</a> section of the Operant Conditioning wikipedia article. Thinking about training movements and how they fall into the reinforcement/punishment spectrum.</p>
<p>It seems the four basic points are:</p>
<ul>
<li>positive reinforcement — reward for doing something good</li>
<li>negative reinforcement — remove discomforts for doing something good</li>
<li>positive punishment — penalty for doing something bad</li>
<li>negative punishment — remove comfort for doing something bad</li>
</ul>
<p>but I doubt it’s possible to cover all four with one exercise. However as long as one exercise has essentially a “win” condition for each player and that the behaviours that lead to that condition are what is intended, the rest shouldn’t matter.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A partner that has been swept to the ground is the reward for the successful rasteira — and the timing and placement of the successful rasteira are reinforced by the feelings of achievement in sweeping the feet of the partner.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>All the while the partner’s ginga is reinforced where they manage to control their weight distribution and balance against the rasteiras. The failures are punished accordingly by the sweeps, since even an unsuccessful sweep has an unsettling effect as the balance momentarily disappears…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m going to have to think about this a lot more.</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Life's a Biche and then you Diot</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-02-25-lifes-a-biche-then-you-diot.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-02-25-lifes-a-biche-then-you-diot.html</id>
    <published>2016-02-25T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2016-02-25T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>A week skiing in Les 3 Vallees, based in La Tania. My second skiing holiday, after about two years of absence. We visited <a href="https://www.snowfactor.com/" title="Indoor ski centre in Glasgow">Xcape</a> at Braehead for an afternoon’s refreshing the mind and the limbs. I slowly worked my way out of snowplough turns and got a bit more confidence to say “let’s go”.</p>
<p>The holiday was a last-minute decision. We piggy-backed on the airport transfer that Helen’s parents were using though we weren’t staying with them. We stayed in a catered chalet with two other parties: the hillwalking parents of the chalet cook; and a family of snowboarders with friends in tow. So between skiing, snowboarding and hillwalking there was a variety of activities under discussion at the end of the day. The younger members of the snowboarding party were keen on action cam recordings so there was a lot of reviewing the day’s spills every evening.</p>
<p>On my first day I felt pretty nervous about the Blue runs and was keen to have someone to give me the tools and confidence to navigate them. The next day I got a private lesson from Alessandro at <a href="http://www.magicfr.com/ski-school-la-tania-2/">Magic in Motion Ski School</a>. Two short hours made all the difference and I came away feeling that, instead of being given the ability to ski better, I was given the ability to feel safe in troubling conditions. Situations that were previously tricky were still tricky, but I only had to recall the simple instructions I was given and it would magically work out anyway. It was like a shortcut to skiing!</p>
<p>He watched me ski some simple turns and told me what my overall problem was, mechanically, and how that relates to my fears. He told me how skiing should be done, in terms of balance distribution (the legs do the skiing, the body does the compensation) and the physics of it all. But this was just background: the important part was he gave me simple actions to try in order to fix my problems:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ride with my shoulders square to the downhill, always looking down. If you start facing in the direction of the skis across the hill you “spin” uphill and fall. Which is what I was experiencing.</li>
<li>Compensate for the angle of the legs on each turn by moving the body “outside”. If you lean “inside” the turn you can only maintain balance if you continue the turn in a full circle, back uphill. So again, leaning inside makes you fall uphill.</li>
</ul>
<p>For the rest of the week I went out often with Helen and her parents and their party, slowly getting better using the simple ideas that Alessandro gave me. Every day there were trials. Getting hot and tired makes it harder. The snow changes over the course of the day. Hunger and fatigue lead to anger and frustration. But I also started to enjoy the runs too. Sometimes going fast was fun! One piste in particular, called Biche, we did many times a day. I should have had an action cam for that!</p>
<p>It’s not all fast skis and loose bindings, of course. Mountain diots, pot au feu, genepi, creme de violette — all there for the taking. And a day of skiing really gives you an appetite. The evenings in the chalet were nice and the others staying there were all friendly and chatty, with interesting experiences. I think we all got on really well.</p>
<p>In one short week my skiing came on a huge leap and I had a great time. I’m now eager to go skiing again, the addiction is forming!</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Reflections on teaching a capoeira class</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-01-28-reflections-on-teaching-capoeira-lesson.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2016-01-28-reflections-on-teaching-capoeira-lesson.html</id>
    <published>2016-01-28T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2016-01-28T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I did it, I taught a class from beginning to (almost<a href="#fn1" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref1"><sup>1</sup></a>) end. And it went pretty well in my humble opinion.</p>
<h3 id="beginning">Beginning</h3>
<p>I was a bit nervous at first. People started filing in and since Sandy was there everyone probably assumed that he was taking the class. But I just loudly shouted “warm up time!” and “follow me!” and everyone just fell into line. It was a bit quiet so I tried to get some high-fives going as we jogged in columns up and down the hall. Just <em>anything</em> to get people into an active and giving mood.</p>
<p>I need to plan this bit better still and maybe work on some mental warmup exercises to bring people into the right mindset for the lesson.</p>
<p>After some athletic stuff to get the blood flowing I did some stretching in a circle and got the two moves we’d be working on (<em>au</em> and <em>cabeçada</em>) into the stretching routine. This was a spur-of-the-moment thing but it worked well: I would definitely recreate this in future, bringing in whatever moves were relevant to the lesson plan.</p>
<h3 id="middle">Middle</h3>
<p>I used Kojak as a first demo partner but I didn’t do it very well. I expected him to get into the right position, the one that I wanted. What I should have just done is demonstrate the position and what I wanted him to concentrate on. This would have been clearer for everyone, less confusing for him and easier for me. I need to get out of the habit of explaining: talking gets in the way of showing which gets in the way of doing. (I was also rude to Kojak because he didn’t do what I expected of him, which wasn’t good at all. I made the mistake of getting feedback from him about what he did wrong. But of course he didn’t know what I wanted so he couldn’t say how what he did was different. I could have bypassed that unpleasantness of putting him on the spot if I’d just done everything physically and let him copy.)</p>
<p>At another point I tried explaining what I wanted in words without running through it. This was confusing but at least I was asked for a demonstration also (I should not have needed asking). When I got a chance to try the move properly in training I realised a more natural way of demonstrating it, as one would in a real game. If I had tried more demonstration and less explanation this might have come sooner — soon enough that I could integrate it into the exercise.</p>
<p>The class focused on <em>au</em> which is quickly tiring. People were definitely flagging by the end. I don’t know if that was partly because they were initially going too hard or out of shape. I also felt that I could go longer because I was demonstrating and leading rather than trying to follow along. Whatever the case it might be worth pulling back on the amount of stuff I try to cover in one session if it’s as strenuous as this. Some mid-point breather seems sensible but I don’t want to lose the pace of the class entirely.</p>
<p>Trying to get people to follow instructions given is very difficult, there is no way around that. The temptation to ginga, add resistance or otherwise make it difficult for training partners to train seems overwhelming. People want to do things you didn’t ask them to do and that can negate the learning value of the exercise. Malicia may be great in a roda but it’s terrible in training.</p>
<p>There was one exercise which didn’t work well — I had not trained it and would have liked a chance to workshop it a bit before asking others to do it. Going in with something uncertain like that can pull the energy out of the class. If the idea is <em>not</em> to discuss and work through ideas then the momentum takes a nosedive when people start fiddling. This is nobody’s fault but the instructor: an experimentation session is a different beast and letting the class turn into one is a teaching problem.</p>
<h3 id="end">End</h3>
<p>At the end of the session things kind of petered out a little which was disappointing. I made two mistakes here. I wasn’t clear about how the class was to end — I started giving people latitude about what to do when I knew what I wanted them to do. But I guess I was trying to show some sympathy for people being tired. The problem was that I had about 25 minutes left and everyone was close to mutiny from being asked to do too much. I had nothing to fill the last 15–20 minutes that would wind things down but still provide value and focus on the teaching.</p>
<p>This reiterates the point from earlier: if it’s an intense class — which it should be — there needs to be some built-in reset activities or down time that I can use when everyone is too fatigued to learn. This may take the form of an “interval” or it may just be an extended “warm down” with several activities which get increasingly less energetic or difficult. The trick of course is finding something that (a) isn’t too much a change of direction technically and (b) keeps the momentum/enthusiasm going if there is still plenty of time on the clock.</p>
<p>I didn’t have a warm-down or stretching routine in mind but everybody mostly managed to pull one together collectively. Again the lack of definite “now we’re doing this” and “now we’re doing that” meant it wasn’t clear what was happening. It was more organic and so ambiguous even when we were obviously all standing or sitting in a circle to stretch. Having a clear end point is valuable.</p>
<h3 id="summary">Summary</h3>
<ul>
<li>Social interaction is important to get people working together.</li>
<li>Always show instead of tell. A small number of simple verbal instructions can be used as reminders.</li>
<li>A definite beginning and a definite ending are good.</li>
<li>Emphasise the importance of working together.</li>
</ul>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1"><p>I failed when it came to a successful closure or cool-down/stretching session.<a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>
</div>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Cycling in the heart of Venetia</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2015-07-04-cycling-in-venetia.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2015-07-04-cycling-in-venetia.html</id>
    <published>2015-07-04T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2015-07-04T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>A last-minute booking of a single-centre Headwater ‘activity’ holiday, in this case cycling in north-east Italy. Table for two please.</p>
<h3 id="antipasto">Antipasto</h3>
<p>Early morning travel to Edinburgh airport, in that middle zone between the night buses finishing and the trams starting. The N22 goes straight from front door to check-in desk but only works if you’re flying at stupid-o’clock.</p>
<p>Arrived at Venice Marco Polo and got the bus to Venice Mestre train station for the ride to Vicenza. We hid in the shade and I worried about the possibility of sunburn from reflected light. The scrolling temperature indicator on the street corner said 37 degrees C. At what temperature do people melt?</p>
<p>Picked up by the rep at Vicenza station. Waited for another couple who had got the wrong train then drove us all to the agriturismo L’Albara. On arrival we were introduced to the route maps for the area and our bikes. I had taken my own saddle which I fitted but didn’t spend enough time adjusting the rest of the bike. This was my downfall because the tools were taken away by the rep after this. It wasn’t until we had done a full day’s riding that we knew where the problems lay.</p>
<h3 id="primo">Primo</h3>
<p>The weather was scorching and we were never great at getting out onto the road early. Most days it was 11am before we started cycling — by which point the coolness has gone out of the day.</p>
<p>The landscape was flat and the routes were along quiet country roads or segregated cycle paths. Drivers were fantastic about giving space or holding back where appropriate.</p>
<p>We followed routes to a lake, to churches and to villas. There wasn’t a great deal of “visiting” though. We mostly sat in cafes and bars away from the heat, eating and drinking. To tell you the truth most of the holiday was secretly devoted to finding proper Italian ice cream.</p>
<h3 id="secondo">Secondo</h3>
<p>We returned most days between 4 and 5pm to sit round the pool reading and taking the occasional dip. At first there was no hot water for the shower which was frustrating though manageable because the weather was so hot. Doing a few lengths of the unheated pool was still very comfortable after six o’clock at night.</p>
<p>Dinner was at eight on communal tables with the other guests, two older couples from Manchester and Wrexham. Nearly everything we ate and drank was produced on site: the wine and grappa, the vegetables, the quails. There were cherries everywhere and many cherry-based things for dessert: ice cream, pie, jelly…</p>
<h3 id="dolce">Dolce</h3>
<p>We left Italy in the same heat as we arrived in. The last two days promised a storm but not much became of it. We had some rain but the sun returned and the wet roads started to steam. We rode home through pockets of hot sticky air.</p>
<p>There were no missed trains and no missed flights. It was raining when we arrived in Edinburgh.</p>]]></summary>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Body painting for fun and (educational) profit</title>
    <link href="http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2015-06-21-body-painting-for-fun-and-educational-profit.html" />
    <id>http://dougalstanton.net/posts/2015-06-21-body-painting-for-fun-and-educational-profit.html</id>
    <published>2015-06-21T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2015-06-21T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/universityofedinburgh/17797386523" title="Art and anatomy event illustrates the wonders of the human body by The University of Edinburgh, on Flickr"><img src="https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7737/17797386523_e1b8559b3f.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Art and anatomy event illustrates the wonders of the human body"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/artandanatomyedinburgh" title="Art and Anatomy Facebook page">Art and Anatomy</a> is a group which aims to teach anatomy to medical students at Edinburgh university through artistic methods: body painting and sculpture being the two obvious approaches. As a promotional thing they ran an evening session for the public, letting people have a go at sculpting clay hearts and painting the structures of the hand onto each other.</p>
<p>At the same time American artist <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Danny-Quirk-Artwork/283073600976" title="Danny Quirk&#39;s Facebook page">Danny Quirk</a> was nearby (well, London) for a seminar so agreed to come to Edinburgh and demonstrate his own body painting techniques. He has done a lot of anatomical painting on bodies. His images use acrylic paint and marker pen rather than “face paint” which is water based, so his body paintings are so much more vivid and powerful.</p>
<p>Helen had agreed to help out with some of the anatomical teaching side of the day and as soon as I saw photos of Danny Quirk’s work I knew I wanted to volunteer. As luck would have it the model that had been arranged (another medic) had a latex allergy — and the acrylic/marker pen is painted onto a transparent latex layer which is directly on the skin. Clearly she was not the best candidate so I stepped up to the mark.</p>
<p>We started early — I stripped off my shirt and painting began before 8 AM. We took a brief few minutes out for lunch and a few toilet breaks but basically the work continued until about four o’clock in the afternoon. Walking through the halls of the medical school building topless to visit the toilet was quite amusing. I’m unsure how many people who saw me knew what was happening; it wasn’t obvious I was painted until I was walking away.</p>
<p>The evening lecture was the point at which Danny unveiled his new work (ie me). Then the audience went off to their chosen workshops and to look round the medical artifacts museum and the “artist’s studio” where medical illustrators in the past would work from the results from the dissection table.</p>
<p>The day received a lot of press and there were photographers in from the university and a bunch of high profile papers/press agencies. My photo appeared in the Metro and the BMJ while others got into the Herald etc. You can see the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/universityofedinburgh/sets/72157653536069500" title="Edinburgh University photos from Art &amp; Anatomy event">university press’s official photographs here</a>.</p>
<p>The latex sheet was removed in one piece the following day and you can see the video of the process. The whole thing took nearly an hour but it’s been edited so you don’t lose all interest. I don’t have a hairy back but removing a full sheet of latex wasn’t a pleasant experience. The tiny hairs near the spine seemed to be a consistent source of pain. I would recommend anyone who did this in future to just shave regardless of how unhairy you are.</p>
<iframe class="show" width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xvsgNR7aR9I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<p>We’ve still got the piece at the moment, weighted down on a piece of mounting board under plastic sheet and heavy (anatomy) textbooks. The plan is to get some kind of boxes to display it like items in a specimen case. Meanwhile Danny’s promised to send a cleaned up photograph of me and my back to keep on the wall.</p>
<p>Totally great, really glad I signed up for the day.</p>]]></summary>
</entry>

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