Monday 4th June 2007
Walking round in a Monday morning daze, I clamber in the shower, before realising that I don't get showered until I get to work. Well, now I'm here I may as well freshen up.
Been raining heavily yesterday evening and overnight. I'm cycling through a steam bath / stream bed. Few dead frogs on the road. Can't see a thing around me for the frog, I mean fog.
Suddenly another cyclist looms out of the mist. "Mornin'" "awright" and he's gone in t'other direction.
Paranoid about Punctures
Now that I have enjoyed over 1000 puncture-free miles on the Lead Balloon, I'm beginning to think a puncture can't be far off. It's only a matter of time. In fact paranoia is starting to creep in. So much so that last night I dreamed I got a puncture.
At work another fire alarm, just after I finish my second shower of the morning.
This old building appears to be resisting attempts at modernisation / gentrification, like a patient’s body rejecting a transplant. Beneath a thin veneer of 21st century civilisation lurks a primordial force. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some low-level paranomal activity going on.
Chipboard tables in meeting rooms have been known to crack spontaneously.
New soap dispensers voiding their contents onto the floor. Air-conditioning units going faulty. Temperamental security card-swipes. Inexplicable areas of intense cold in certain areas of the room.
I suspect what we have here is ECTOPLASM! (Who ya gonna call?
Finally got my eyes tested last Friday;
hope a new pair of glasses will help with the identification of some of these birds. The lady optician looked deeply into my eyes and said "ooh, these are big floaters!" What a chat-up line.
I have now got a fetish for titanium. Have been buying various titanium bolts for the bikes on e-bay. No surprise then that I should opt for titanium frame for my glasses. Zapristi! You could buy a whole bike for the price of those frames!
Choon for today "Finchley Central" by the New Vaudeville Band. This mutated into "Jim'll Fix It" theme tune. Brain-dead or what?
Time out 0:58
In the evening, Dave and Karen called round with the GPS unit they said we could borrow for the trip. It's a Garmin Etrex Legend. Comes with basic A roads pre-loaded. Think we may need some more detail for parts of the route, unless we...
(a) are going for the record
(b) get an adrenalin rush from mixing it with the heavies
(c) can rapidly evolve to breathe Carbon Monoxide
(d) enjoy hospital food
(delete as applicable).
Return 0:56 (estimated - forgot to start watch and fit cycle computer until about a mile. Doh!)
Tuesday 5th June 2007
Aggregate lorries x 3 coming over the Big Hill, had to pull off the road to avoid becoming part of the road surface. With 3 more on top waiting to be filled and a big Tonka toy shovel doing the filling from some piles of aggregate that have been - er- aggregating up here over the past few weeks.
Yes the highways people also use this moor road as a dumping ground for their materials. At least they clear up when they're finished.
Further on, I get a clear sighting of some of those grazing birds. They ARE starlings. (Not small, just far away). Probably up here for the June Bugfest. "Two pints of Larvae and a packet of thrips, please!"
"Davy's on the Road Again" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Almost appropriate.
Time out 0:57
Office move today. The whole building is 2 inches further away from Rejkyavik.
Return 1:02 (clinkered fire-bars)
Wednesday 6th June 2007.
Steel grey sky, and Wind from the North-East (again). Quite cold on tops. But nice to cool off after the climb.
Startled a small pipit as I passed by. Nice dark tail markings as it flew away. Must look that one up.
The road resurfacers are busy putting a surface dressing on Pellon Lane (presumably from the aggregate mountain on the moor road). What's the point of that? It's still lumpy underneath.
Song this morning "The Witch of the Westmoreland" as sung by Gracenotes - you know the sort of finger in the ear stuff (to which I'm very partial) "and it's Course well, my brindled hound, and fetch me the jet black mare " etc. Sounds traditional, but it was written by Stan Rogers. Well it plays games with the hairs on the back of the neck, that one.
Why are there no folk-songs about bikes and cycling? I am going to compose one now. Watch this space. Check out http://bicycleuniverse.info/stuff/music.html for pop songs about bikes. There seems to be precious little in that genre as well.
Time out 0:56 (that's more like it)
Coming home, I fancied a change to my normal route, but thought I’d avoid Pellon Lane because the tarmac guys are surface dressing for the next three days. So I went round Straight Lane and Narrow Lane, and when I got to the top of the bank, was annoyed to find the tarmac guys were here. Cycling along on freshly laid stuff, the tyre soon picked up loads of chippings. It reminded my of one of the earliest stories I read as a child, where Noddy puts glue on the wheels of his little yellow car, and is able to drive up the vertical side of a building. Somehow, at the age of four, or whatever, I suspected that wasn’t possible, but what a cool idea. Left a lasting impression: I watched Tomorrow’s World avidly for 30 years waiting for technology to catch up with Enid Blyton.
Anyway, I can’t say this tar on the tyres helped with any hill-climbing.
As I'm descending towards the Dog and Gun, at 35 mph on the lead balloon, a car which I suspect is going to pull out from the Leeming Wells Hotel does just that, causing me to brake. I take a split second decision not to flash past him, which turns out to be a good call, as he immediately turns right into Trough Lane, which again causes a bit of annoyance on my part, but I'm glad he's out of the way. I feel he’s oblivious to all this drama that he has stirred up, like a butterfly up the Amazon.
return 0:58 (despite sticky tyres)
This week the winds ‘ave mostly bin from the Nor'East. Cool.
Walking round in a Monday morning daze, I clamber in the shower, before realising that I don't get showered until I get to work. Well, now I'm here I may as well freshen up.
Been raining heavily yesterday evening and overnight. I'm cycling through a steam bath / stream bed. Few dead frogs on the road. Can't see a thing around me for the frog, I mean fog.
Suddenly another cyclist looms out of the mist. "Mornin'" "awright" and he's gone in t'other direction.
Paranoid about Punctures
Now that I have enjoyed over 1000 puncture-free miles on the Lead Balloon, I'm beginning to think a puncture can't be far off. It's only a matter of time. In fact paranoia is starting to creep in. So much so that last night I dreamed I got a puncture.
At work another fire alarm, just after I finish my second shower of the morning.
This old building appears to be resisting attempts at modernisation / gentrification, like a patient’s body rejecting a transplant. Beneath a thin veneer of 21st century civilisation lurks a primordial force. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some low-level paranomal activity going on.
Chipboard tables in meeting rooms have been known to crack spontaneously.
New soap dispensers voiding their contents onto the floor. Air-conditioning units going faulty. Temperamental security card-swipes. Inexplicable areas of intense cold in certain areas of the room.
I suspect what we have here is ECTOPLASM! (Who ya gonna call?
Finally got my eyes tested last Friday;
hope a new pair of glasses will help with the identification of some of these birds. The lady optician looked deeply into my eyes and said "ooh, these are big floaters!" What a chat-up line.
I have now got a fetish for titanium. Have been buying various titanium bolts for the bikes on e-bay. No surprise then that I should opt for titanium frame for my glasses. Zapristi! You could buy a whole bike for the price of those frames!
Choon for today "Finchley Central" by the New Vaudeville Band. This mutated into "Jim'll Fix It" theme tune. Brain-dead or what?
Time out 0:58
In the evening, Dave and Karen called round with the GPS unit they said we could borrow for the trip. It's a Garmin Etrex Legend. Comes with basic A roads pre-loaded. Think we may need some more detail for parts of the route, unless we...
(a) are going for the record
(b) get an adrenalin rush from mixing it with the heavies
(c) can rapidly evolve to breathe Carbon Monoxide
(d) enjoy hospital food
(delete as applicable).
Return 0:56 (estimated - forgot to start watch and fit cycle computer until about a mile. Doh!)
Tuesday 5th June 2007
Aggregate lorries x 3 coming over the Big Hill, had to pull off the road to avoid becoming part of the road surface. With 3 more on top waiting to be filled and a big Tonka toy shovel doing the filling from some piles of aggregate that have been - er- aggregating up here over the past few weeks.
Yes the highways people also use this moor road as a dumping ground for their materials. At least they clear up when they're finished.
Further on, I get a clear sighting of some of those grazing birds. They ARE starlings. (Not small, just far away). Probably up here for the June Bugfest. "Two pints of Larvae and a packet of thrips, please!"
"Davy's on the Road Again" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Almost appropriate.
Time out 0:57
Office move today. The whole building is 2 inches further away from Rejkyavik.
Return 1:02 (clinkered fire-bars)
Wednesday 6th June 2007.
Steel grey sky, and Wind from the North-East (again). Quite cold on tops. But nice to cool off after the climb.
Startled a small pipit as I passed by. Nice dark tail markings as it flew away. Must look that one up.
The road resurfacers are busy putting a surface dressing on Pellon Lane (presumably from the aggregate mountain on the moor road). What's the point of that? It's still lumpy underneath.
Song this morning "The Witch of the Westmoreland" as sung by Gracenotes - you know the sort of finger in the ear stuff (to which I'm very partial) "and it's Course well, my brindled hound, and fetch me the jet black mare " etc. Sounds traditional, but it was written by Stan Rogers. Well it plays games with the hairs on the back of the neck, that one.
Why are there no folk-songs about bikes and cycling? I am going to compose one now. Watch this space. Check out http://bicycleuniverse.info/stuff/music.html for pop songs about bikes. There seems to be precious little in that genre as well.
Time out 0:56 (that's more like it)
Coming home, I fancied a change to my normal route, but thought I’d avoid Pellon Lane because the tarmac guys are surface dressing for the next three days. So I went round Straight Lane and Narrow Lane, and when I got to the top of the bank, was annoyed to find the tarmac guys were here. Cycling along on freshly laid stuff, the tyre soon picked up loads of chippings. It reminded my of one of the earliest stories I read as a child, where Noddy puts glue on the wheels of his little yellow car, and is able to drive up the vertical side of a building. Somehow, at the age of four, or whatever, I suspected that wasn’t possible, but what a cool idea. Left a lasting impression: I watched Tomorrow’s World avidly for 30 years waiting for technology to catch up with Enid Blyton.
Anyway, I can’t say this tar on the tyres helped with any hill-climbing.
As I'm descending towards the Dog and Gun, at 35 mph on the lead balloon, a car which I suspect is going to pull out from the Leeming Wells Hotel does just that, causing me to brake. I take a split second decision not to flash past him, which turns out to be a good call, as he immediately turns right into Trough Lane, which again causes a bit of annoyance on my part, but I'm glad he's out of the way. I feel he’s oblivious to all this drama that he has stirred up, like a butterfly up the Amazon.
return 0:58 (despite sticky tyres)
This week the winds ‘ave mostly bin from the Nor'East. Cool.
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