Sierra at Tahoe : Aching but wonderful

My legs still aching, my shoulder still stiff but I did enjoy rounding around hills in South Lake Tahoe again. Last year we went to Heavenly but his time we went to Sierra at Tahoe, did most of my training with private instructor, free of charge. Thanks to Mr C for his 'patient' and grueling lessons.

Day 1 (Saturday 29th 9am to 4pm) was mostly sunshine, no windy at all. Ski surfaces was perfect, bit sludgy caused by heat from the sun. I did easy rider for few runs and decided to go to Grand View with mellow yellow line - an easy long stretch skiing. Took me nearly 45 minutes to finish, most of it try to lift up confidence. Mr instructor quite happy with that and persuaded me to take more challenge on the next day.

Day 2 (Sunday 30th-9am to 2pm) was lot cooler than yesterday. Wind was pretty strong on top of the hills. Snow rain in the morning, continued until late afternoon. Ski surfaces mixed between solid ice and nice powdery fresh snow. The conditions were great for practicing in difficult situation. We did Grand View again but wandering in the back of the hill. I should say that was really challenging. Big slopes, sometime quite narrow. Controlling is more difficult with icy and marked from snow grooming machine.

More picture in here

Last year stories :
Belajar Turun Gunung : Skiing atau Snowboarding?
Belajar Turun Gunung 2 : Ngglundung...Mabur...nDlosor...Ngesot

Doctors in Death Zone (1)

Apa jadinya kalau sekelompok dokter di Inggris dan Irlandia memilih menjadi kelinci percobaan eksperimen untuk menjawab misteri pengaruh minimya oksigen terhadap manusia? Para dokter ini yang tergabung dalam tim Caudwell Extreme Everest pada tahun 2007 membuat laboratorium di ketinggian 8,000m, naik sepeda untuk diuji kecepatan jantung, diambil contoh darah dan juga contoh biopsy.

Tahun lalu sebelum menuju Nepal saya sempat kontak dengan Project Manager Kay Mitchel. Mereka sendiri sudah mempersiapkan tim sejak lima tahun dan meminta siapapun yang berencana trekking/climbing di Everest sebagai sukarelawan untuk diperiksa kondisi kesehatannya. Walaupun gagal ketemu saya gaprukan dengan tim Horizon BBC ketika mereka mengambil gambar di desa kecil Periche (4,250m).

Periche memang pantas untuk ditampilkan karena disinilah posisi medis paling awal kalau terjadi kecelakaan di Everest. Di Periche pula tersedia fasilitas penanganan penyakit ketinggian, HAPE (High Altitute Pulmonary Oedema) and HACE (High Altitute Cerebral Oedema) juga komunikasi per radio untuk mendapatkan rescue helicopter. Walau ternyata enggak nongol sama sekali di Dokumenter ini, saya sudah cukup hepi. He he he yah mayan deh dishooting ketika saya dan Nanung ikutan pengarahan di ruangan Rumahsakit Periche, tempat dua dokter dari New Zealand and Inggris menjalani dua bulan penempatan.

Akhirnya kesempatan nonton dokumenter ini kesampaian juga secara utuh dalam dua seri. Tim Extreme Everest ini terdiri dari 15 dokter yang dipimpin oleh Dr Mike Grocott. Dari semua pendaki merangkap para dokter ini hanya satu orang yang pernah menaklukan Everest sebelumnya. Ia adalah Dr Sundip Dillon yang menjadi climbing leader. Prestasinya sebagai pendaki termuda menjajal 7 summits ketika ia menyelesaikan akhir serial di Everest tahun 1998.

Film diawali dengan situasi keseharian para dokter ini yang terbiasa menangani pasien di ruang gawat darurat. Sebagian besar dari mereka mengalami ‘hyphoxia’ yakni kondisi ketika oksigen sangat tipis diserap tubuh. Ada pasien yang mampu bertahan, namun ada yang tidak. Misteri seberapa manusia mampu bertahan pada tingkat oksigen inilah yang akhirnya mengantar para dokter untuk berekperimen di Everest.

Mereka membuat 40 macam riset untuk melihat berbagai aspek dari tingkatan oksigen yang rendah. Dimulai dari naik turun tangga hingga pengambilan sel tubuh dengan biopsy. Mereka berencana mendapatkan 17,000 samples dari bagian tubuh dimulai dari ketinggian Base camp (5,300m) hingga contoh darah dari pendaki ketika mereka mencapai puncak Everest (8,848m).

I am committed Facebook suicide

Today at 19:20 PST I was committed suicide of my Facebook account. I did intentiously killed myself in these social networking for many reasons. One of them is I can not cope with spammers sending emails that I don't want to. It was fun first, and you'll drag into hours and hours spending more time. ( I should say Multiply as well but since I made this site as mirror Cerita Ambar I can not delete it straight away).

Some may know that you can not delete account in Facebook permanently. Yes, there is no facility to delete the account. Facebook only allow you to 'deactivate' which did not erase anything from their server. People still can see your page and read your chit-chat.

The more I involved with Facebook the more demand I have to dedicate myself on it. If you think that everybody have to have Facebook just like a fashion, ok forget me. I am not. Remember Friendster, Friends Reunited ?

In UK itself Facebook declined 5% in the last year which shows sign of user's fatique. I am probably not using as many people do, that's was because my friend refered me to open account so we still 'connected'. Apparently I'm bit piss with spammers (or called himself internet marketing) who bombarded me with 'fun walls' or 'pokes'. Yes I can ignore those but if you've got one or two a day it would be OK, but how about tons in same time?

Others is Facebook attitude's not 'fun' for me anymore. It's getting flooding with applications which glued you to the computer. Another controversial is Beacon, the adverts system that can track people's activities. All right Facebook just try to get revenue on this massive market, but I will not surrender my personal activities. I was seriously thinking about being watched. Oh don't forget about CIA as well. Hmm...do I become paranoid here?

If you decide to 'deactivate' account, Facebook came up with check boxes try to find out why you want to close it. And if you fill one of the box, there is another box assured you that you've not have to deactivate the account. Such hard life isn't? To kill myself permanently, I followed the instructions from Wiki How.

Yes, I am deliberately say goodbye to friends in Facebook. If you want to know me just pop in email, messages or have a lunch together. Send me real "pokes" this time.

Hampir Setahun Yang Lalu

Tiba kembali di Santa Clara saya inget setahun lalu. Bulan yang sama. Saya berlatih keras sebelum trekking ke Everest. Sejak Desember hingga Maret 2007, total tiga bulan hampir tiap weekend saya habiskan genjot stamina. Lari, renang, sepedaan atau bawa ransel isi penuh hanya untuk ngetest barang baru.

Mr C hanya supervisor. Maksudnya sih tukang perintah. Kok ya saya manut saja yah. Dia memang lebih pengalaman di ketinggian ketimbang saya. Pernah climbing di Annapurna di Nepal ia membekali saya kemungkinan2 terburuk. Ketakutan saya yang terbesar adalah nafas. Saya ini ternyata pemilik paru2 kecil.

Mengorganisir independen trekking sebenarnya mudah. Yang susah adalah seimbang antara kebutuhan badan (latihan fisik) dan kebutuhan pikiran (manajerial). Kadang saya digeret-geret untuk jogging padahal lagi sibuk berat. Ngedumel ngga abis. He he he ...bos kok dilawan. Saya baru ngerasa kalau Mr C bilang, kegiatan apapaun yang berkaitan dengan ketinggian adalah urusan hidup dan mati. Emang lo mo mati disana? *nyes rasanya*

Saya pengen sekali menulis tentang Trekking di Nepal dengan tetek bengek persiapannya tapi kok ya malas. Ditunda-tunda terus. Mau upload photo kapasitas dibatasi. Satu2nya yang sempat saya garap hanya di Flickr. Itupun terbatas. Hingga ngga terasa saya tersadarkan, ah sudah hampir setahun. Begitu cepat waktu berlalu.

Beberapa hari ini nglembur bikin photobooks. Semata-mata sebagai pengingat untuk saya dan untuk Mr C atas kerja kerasnya membantai dengan cinta. Juga untuk kawan2 sesama trekker yang berbagi penderitaan di jalanan berdebu menuju Everest.

Nung, Jeannie. Nuwun atas pengalaman tak berharga hampir setahun lalu.

ps : meriang karena nglembur...

Never Lost : U-eS – One – Zero – One

I’ve got new friend called Bernie. She’s black, tiny about few inches square with robotic sounds. She will telling you what you’ve should do. Her craggy American accent says “Keep – left - on - U-eS - one – zero – one - then - exit - at - San - Thomas Expressway.” Few minutes later broke her silence order me to, “continue – onto - next - one – point – one - mile”

It took few minutes toddle her buttons. Tell her where I need to go, sometimes that I don’t know exactly. I hate her really. This is the very first time I had her. As you see I don’t like people give me order, specially a machine. Mr C pressed me to stick with the old paper based map, but since America is lots bigger than UK or Singapore then yes I need something more sophisticated. I hate her but need her badly.

I am used to go online maps such as streetdirectory, theAA, multimap, yahoomap, or googlemap. They are quite reliable. You’ve only input the destination and whoa…they’ve created path to you or such step-by-step directions. But Bernie, she is just different. She is the only buddy when I am driving albeit being my static navigator. I began familiar with her voice. Sometimes it reminded me to learn English, probably it will give TOEFL test result better.

I wonder if the reason to have Bernie totally unfashionable. First, it looks cool to have SatNav as everybody having on their car. But I have got free anyway. Reason two, because I am too lazy to open pages of map book. Indeed has some fancy contour etc but who cares? All you need just how far and how long it should be to do the journey.

Reason number three, I have got funny snare when study the route. What? A girl read the map? I started to believe that girl cannot read the map. They are hopeless. It just like doing pararel parking. We discussed about why man have a very good space conscious than women. Is that related with brain? How they working in distances? Is it related with genetics, some funny protein produce better DNA? or because kids plays motor car since they were not stand on their own feet?

When Google producing Street View make you like walking on the street in California (not all Silicon Valley covered yet), it 's create furore about security and privacy. Pentagon seemed not happy with 360degree view of it’s based in Texas, meanwhile people in Europe thought it can be violate personal privacy, but in USA American might found this amusing. You might check 10 bizarre sights on Street View. Some of them need great imaginations.

Bernie or Street View is just one of our obsessions to looks things in details. We are living in the edge of Big Brother society. You actually create a robot. It's you.

Merem Melek Merem Melek

Saya paling ngga bisa tidur kalau dalam perjalanan. Di bis, kereta, pesawat apalagi. Kalaupun molor juga selayak tidur ayam. Ngiri kalau liat orang bisa nyenyak di kursi penumpang. Kok bisa ya?

Terbang melintasi Atlantik 11 jam arah barat ke San Francisco siap-siap uji stamina. Bangun pukul 4 pagi, diantar sampai Bournemouth pukul 6, naik bis NatExp sampai bandara Heathrow. Naruh tas (check in online jadi tinggal drop bag) lantas duduk manis menunggu. Pukul 11 lepas landas dan terbang mengikuti sinar matahari (soalnya kecepatan putar bumi sama dengan kecepatan pesawat yang saya tumpangi). Sampailah di US pukul 14 siang. Mata masih melek-lek.

Agar ngga jetlag mata ini harus dipaksa terbuka hingga malam untuk 'menipu' sistem jam tubuh. Kalau langsung tidur tengah malam bisa2 saya bangun dan tetep seger sampai pagi. Irama tubuh jadi kaco balo. Pukul 9 malam baru merebahkan diri setelah tidak tahan lagi.

Total 23 jam baru saya tewas.

Jet lag sebenarnya bisa dikurangi dengan minum banyak air (dehidrasi karena tekanan di kabin yang rendah), mengikuti jam lokal, makan tidak berlebihan, jalan2 cari udara segar atau ...menikmati the Simpsons Movie he he he..

Empat belas bulan saya lalui, entah ratusan jam terbang dilakoni. Tetep merem melek.. merem... Sing penting slamet.

Relocation! Relocation!

Few month preparation, endless calling and email then the decision came in. Finally they sent Mr C to Silicon Valley (again!) to do some projects work for three years. I too am got to go, alas for being his personal assistant. I have been twice visiting Bay Area last year, say hello to Yahoo Office, Google Inc or driving passed the infinity loop at Apple HQ.

Facing the reality that we will live and work in that area just mind-boggling. We were actually in schedule to move there last year but instead we spent 14 month wandering around the world. Back forward in Asia, US then UK. It was tiring, specially traveling across time zones. We were practically living from one luggage to another.

USA is not new for us, apparently quite friendly. I did enjoy staying nearly 5 month there apart from someone stole Mr C’s bicycle (reported to Santa Clara police but yeah.. it was gone). It’s also interesting to understand cultures and different value from this melting pot.

Also reminded us three years ago when set off to move to Singapore. We’ve got different feeling though. On that day we were exciting to start new life in different part of the world. Nothing to prepare for these, Mr C had to admit that the experience living out of his own country need extra guts and will. Patients and understanding. Also willing to adopt new way of life, probably completely different than previous episode.

We learn lots how to survive in new place and new country. Basically we stop being worry about things. How to find the place, is it nice living there, is that enough money to cover all, do people nice to you etc etc. I took lesson from old folk that to learn to swim you have to jump to the water.

Off course we try to gather information about Silicon Valley. We’ve got friends there who always give opinions about things. But yes, the decision ups to us. Which one the best, which one fit to our life style. But actual things is DO IT and get the experiences.

As the container been packed last weekend, we also packed our heart to move on. Is it going better or worse? We will never know until we’ve done it.

Tea Time!

Pembaca buku Enid Blyton pasti teringat seri Sapta Siaga (Secret Seven) atau Lima Sekawan (The Famous Five). Ngga tau kenapa kayaknya Dorset ini mewakili landscape seperti di cerita ibu Blyton itu. Ada pantai, ada farm, ada pulau tersembunyi, ada pelabuhan, pokoknya kalau jalan2 sekitar sini weh rasanya seperti Georgina lagi kejar2an sama Timmy he he he....

Saya jadi inget ginger beer atau tea time yang disebut-sebut ibu Blyton. Ternyata memang di tradisi minum teh masih terasa disini, terlebih daerah Devon, Somerset, dan Corwall (pantai selatan Inggris). Biasanya acara minum teh itu sekitar pukul 3-5 sore disuguhkan seperti hidangan snack. Yang unik adalah disebut Cream Tea atau teh yang disambi dengan makan kue scones yang ada selai strawberry dan cream yang kental.

Warung yang menjual cream tea ini disebut Teashop. Suasananya yah seperti cafe tapi penuh pernak-pernik victorian. Dimana nemuin Teashop ini? nah ini biasanya ya di ndesonya inggris. Kok di kampung? iyah soalnya makin segar bahannya makin okeh jadinya. Juga makin otentik (home made) makin dicari. Ini loh yang disajikan untuk Cream Tea :

English Tea
Biarpun namanya english tea tapi aslinya sih teh berasal dari India (Assam, Darjeeling). Tehnya kental (black tea) dengan susu skim segar sebagai campuran. Enggak pake gula. Disajikan dengan poci plus satu wadah untuk air panas sebagai rendaman selanjutnya.



Scones
Scone ini terbuat dari tepung dengan mentega kemudian dipanggang. Rasanya plain atau polosan. Untuk kualitas scones yang bagus adalah fresh from the oven. Jadi masih anget2 gitu. Bentuknya juga ngga musti indah. Yang penting bisa dibelah dan tidak terlalu 'crumbly' atau gampang ambyar.

Selai Strwaberry
Secara tradisional selai yang dipakai adalah starwberry karena manis. Jenis yang lain misalnya raspberry (sama2 merah tapi lebih kecut) juga boleh. Selai yang top kualitas adalah bikinan sendiri tanpa bahan pengawet buatan. Pokoknya kerasa manis di lidah dengan tekstur buah strawberry yang lembut.

Clotted Cream (cream padat)
Cream yang dimaksud adalah cream yang sudah dihilangkan kandungan airnya. Hasil terbagus adalah cream dari susu dibiarkan dalam oven suhu rendah minimum 2 jam dengan memakai Oven dari Aga. Jadi cream itu betul2 konsentrasi lemak hingga mencapai 60%.

Cara minum dan makan :
1.Membuat teh adalah dengan memberi susu di cangkir lantas dituang teh hitam. Kalau mau lebih kental tunggu dulu sekitar 3-4 menit baru dicampur susu. Aduk.

2. Belah scones dengan pisau. Kemudian diberi margarine atau mentega (ini khusus daerah Cornwall saja). Nah lantas scones diberi selai kemudian diusap atasnya dengan cream. Lantas ditangkupkan kembali.

3. Nikmati dengan teh sambil ngobrol sana sini.

Untuk seporsi hidangan cream tea di teashop ini berkisar antara £3.50 hingga £4.75 tergantung lokasi. Nah yang saya nikmati ini di Upwey Wishing Well setelah jalan kaki 10 miles (16km) melintasi pedesaan Dorset diterpa angin dan suhu dingin. Secangkir teh dan scones lumayan bikin tenaga pulih lagi !

ps : untuk resepnya diklik aja yah.