Andy Yeates - Articles

Snoqualmie

Andy Yeates — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:38:19 GMT

After a week or so in Bellevue, I headed out with a couple of friends to Snoqualmie, a ski resort about 45 minutes outside of Bellevue. The resort is pretty big, with four main areas, each with its own selection of decent runs. We headed to Alpental first, which is…lets say…a bit ambitious for a ski noob like me. On the second day we headed to Central, the main site at Snoqualmie ($60 per day at each resort). This was a bit more lively with a better selection of blue runs and links to both the East and West areas. We did all the blues and the odd black at Central and I think if I was pushed for a favourite i’d go for “Outback”, a cruisy run through the trees.

Alpental Ski map – summary of all the runs at Alpental
Central Ski map – summary of all the runs at Central at Snoqualmie
Skiing at Alpental – here’s me busting a few moves

Bellevue

Andy Yeates — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:08:48 GMT

Fresh from the Christmas break, well sort of, I made the annual trip to the nGenera Sales Conference in Seattle. Our yearly get together is a pretty intense affair which includes plenty of evening entertainment (aka boozing) too. If you’re heading over there the Westin hotel is really nice, though a little on the expensive side. To offset that check out Chipotle round the corner, cheap tasty burrito chain – the guacamole is awesome . A few other highlights, Palamino for breakfast and Lucky Strike for a kind of all inclusive party venue – arcade games, bowling, nightclub and pool. The conference and evening entertainment prevented me from seeing much of Bellevue but the place seemed pretty nice and Bellevue Square shopping arcade was pretty well stocked with the usual stuff – Macys and all that jazz.

Snoqualmie- Having gone all that way I decided to hook up with some friends and head to Snoqualmie for a couple of days on the slopes.

In Print

Andy Yeates — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:53:31 GMT

Ok, well… sort of… although I didn’t write the Website Owners Manual , I do appear in it after I was asked to be a technical reviewer of the book. As is par for the course on these type of books there are some witty quotes (cough) needed for the back cover. To my surprise, after receiving my free copy, I spotted my quote on the back cover – Result. Although I no longer do the traditional web management role I did at the Environment Agency, the principles in the book apply to all sorts of Internet related roles. So is it any good, I’m a bit biased but yes :)

Website Owners Manual – “The perfect companion for todays multi-hat web manager”

#uksnow

Andy Yeates — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:06:21 GMT

It’s been quite a while since I saw so much snow fall in one day – especially in the UK. Although there was still a thin dusting from the previous few days, the snowfall yesterday was something else. Is it just me or is there something about snow that makes everyone be a little more friendly – its odd. People start to smile and greet you in the street and people seem to want to help each other a lot more than normal. If only it was like that all the time – though those stuck for 10 hours in their car might disagree.

#uksnow tweets – was pretty cool how twitter was used to see how areas were affected by the blizzard

Tallinn

Andy Yeates — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:35:57 GMT

For all the hassle work gives me it does present some nice opportunities to travel. For once rather than being stuck on a train to Birmingham, I jetted off to Tallinn in Estonia. Although it’s not that far away it’s a bit of a swine to get to, but it’s definately worth the effort. It’s surprisingly modern with impressive boutiques and some amazing restaurants and architecture that towers over the city. If you’re thinking of heading over there, the restaurant Troika was pretty cool with Russian dancing girls (no not that type :D) and vodka served 4 feet from the glass (odd). Bocca also had great food and an awesome wine list. If you head over at the end of November you’ll likely catch the christmas market in the town square and get plenty of snow. Mooching around the quaint lanes and buildings with heavy snow falling and covering the city was rather bloomin enjoyable.

Tallinn city map – Here is the official map of Tallinn from the Tourist Information Centre

Ibiza

Andy Yeates — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:57:54 GMT

Well….it was a bloomin good job i didn’t go when i was 18 as i’d of been paying the trip off till i was 23. Ibiza is one of those places where you just have to embrace it and worry about the damage later. Admittedly, with clubs as good as Space and Amnesia that’s not to hard. If you add amazing sunsets and the Blue Marlin Beach Club you’ve got the recipe for a great weekend. If you are heading down there, definitely head down to Blue Marlin for the day. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere but it’s an amazing setting and the foods pretty impressive too. Also worth checking out, particularly at sunset is Cafe del Mar & Cafe Mambo. In terms of beaches, Formentera’s a good bet if you don’t mind the ferry trip from Ibiza Town over there.

Bouges-le-Chateau

Andy Yeates — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:32:18 GMT

This is the moment we arrived in Bouges le Chateau – 72 miles in 35°c heat. We decided to go for it on day 6 leaving us 3 days chilling before flying home – 370 miles in 6 days. Ok, so what pearls of wisdom can we pass on…

Don’t worry about spending that extra £100 pound on a 30g lighter tent. A block of brie offsets that :)
The French really don’t seem to understand the touring cyclists plight. If you turn up at 3pm looking for food you’ll find bread and cakes unless you stumble across a supermarket.
Always check your nuts – no not those – vibrations from the road tend to loosen bolts.
Buy panniers with pockets (no faffing) and merino (no smell).

Camping in France

Andy Yeates — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:47:45 GMT

After a couple of days we all got pretty accustomed to the daily routine. Wake up, breakfast, quick wash, pack, cycle, lunch, cycle, relax & mug (or five) of wine – ‘simples ’. Waking up to views like this at a municipal campsite in Olivet sums up this hard life well. This actual site wasn’t in the campsite book we bought ahead of the trip, in fact the book was pretty useless. With a bit of dodgy French and a smile we always seem to find a good one. Saying that, the campsite we found in Igoville was a bit dodge but the bar we found in Pont de le Arche had the most amazing home-made fries I’ve ever tasted. We learnt all we know from our good friend Warb who provided these personalised tuition mp3s – superbe!

Pedalling in France

Andy Yeates — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:14:23 GMT

Once we arrived in Dieppe we quickly decided that whatever the route said we weren’t going up the ominous looking hill from the ferry port. Thankfully we quickly found signs for the ‘Avenue Vert’. This scenic flat 40km cycleway was perfect after the ‘we’ve made it to France’ celebratory beers on the ferry. After staying the night in Neufchatel-en-Bray, we headed for Rouen. The churches at Rouen and Chartres were pretty darn impressive as was the food at the lunchtime pit-stops. However, the pit-stops as he headed further south towards Orlean were a little less successful as half the villages we went through were deserted, closed or open at lunchtime for about 10 minutes (ok, an hour). More baguettes it is then…

Brighton

Andy Yeates — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:22:07 GMT

After two years thinking about it, I eventually cycled the 370 miles from my house in Reading to my parents house in Bouges-le -Chateau, France. Alongside two close friends, Rich and Jon, we headed out the front door with our tents, chamois cream (don’t ask) and a general route taking the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry crossing. We opted for a rather unscientific ‘join the dots in a roughly straight line’ approach to route planning that rather added to the sense of adventure. There were some amazing moments and views on this trip, most of them whizzed by, but we captured a few. Arriving in sunny Brighton, having a drink and then getting drenched was one of them.