February 18
Ghost Bikes
I suspect people have observed so called "Ghost Bikes" and here is an interesting column on the subject which makes me realise that this phenomenon is perhaps not "something for me" in quite the way I had imagined it could be and leads me to realise how useful I see these "momento mori" of the highways First let me get off my chest that, contrary to [[Christina Patterson]]'s views, I am not taking enormous risks in cycling about London, although I cannot avoid remaining vulnerable I take every opportunity to maximize my safety - most definitely from mortal danger. It is possible a broken limb would make me revise my thoughts, but having survived without one so far that remains to be seen. I do believe the ghost bikes, properly deployed, have a secondary function which has been totally missed in this invective (is that too strong a word?). I am always struck, riding, driving, or walking past a ghost bike, by the need to be "super safe", to be vigilant. Surely she can see that these Ghost Bikes are a highly effective way to indicate an accident black spot for cyclists, who face special hazards on the roads? I must say I have to add a rubric to that which is that this only works if the bikes continue to be painted white. I would also be upset by a rusting ghost bike, or one without it's wheels, but these are things I have yet to see (not that I am calling her a liar!). If I were a journalist I would publish to this effect in a column, but as it is I shall settle for a blog post! 03:42 AM | 1 CommentA wrong turned right!
Behold! The fabulous Aero wins out and proves her point! Self-belief and persistence are rewarded with the refund of a parking fine and a token of restitution! Thank heavens for the existence of an [[ombudsman]] and an example to all! I shall add the full story soon 03:26 AM | 0 CommentsFebruary 14
Terms of engagement
It seems a date has been set. Marriage may or may not suit me, it is fairly certain engagement has not made a gentleman of me, and therapy is unlikely to achieve that within a lifetime (given that I started after the half way point and, unlike Aero, do not believe in miracles), so I am pessimistic about the prospects for Aero's happiness right now about the prospects for any reconciliation with my family about any progress with analysis heck - just about everything - anyone would think I was depressed, and maybe the onset of a manic spell recently has indeed made my feel apprehension - the switch was thrown last Thursday. 01:25 AM | 0 CommentsFebruary 10
Let it snow!
I had so much to say, but just want to record that the plan is to get away to the New Forest for a break. This is a great treat from the marvelous Aero, but regrettably we cannot invite Derek, due to the inclement weather. However I am hopeful of stretching the legs of the inestimable Quaker and the beloved Aero in at least one ambulatory excursion, which may even extend to cycling proportions, retracing our first ever ride on a hired bicycle. What a pompous paragraph the above is! Just wanted to make it plain I was self aware, may come back and edit this with some poesy, but have other things to busy myself with right now.... 02:54 AM | 0 CommentsDecember 24
My daughter can't wait until Christmas!
If there is one phrase that has become the signature or catch phrase for this year it is "I can't wait until Christmas!". Fortunately it is spoken with such charm and variation in inflection and with a certain sense of timing that it has not become TOO wearing (yet!). I seem to have managed five hundred miles on Voyager before Christmas, which feels about right, though I have not worked out the daily average, which no doubt would disappoint me.... (Goes to check with a calculator - HMmmm eighteen and a half, not bad, but twenty would be better!). What did not disappoint was a classic ride across London yesterday to enjoy a pre-dawn descent from Haverstock Hill. I had forgotten that as I reached the end of this descent of course I re-entered my childhood, passing the roundhouse and Marine Ices at the top of Camden High Street! It was a real trip down memory lane, I was amazed at how prosperous the ice cream restaurant appeared. I had the rare privilege of checking out all of the Christmas lights from my bicycle earlier too, and enjoyed passing through the Belgravia gallery area and feasting my eyes on the art displayed in the windows too. I hope I shall be proven right, but this year is shaping up to be one of the really great Christmases for me to remember. Watch this space.... 07:55 AM | 2 Comments | Tags: Camden, Marine Ices, Roundhouse, Christmas, cycling, Isabel, VoyagerDecember 13
Porno torture with techno overtures
OMG baby,,,, I seem to have been able to spend so much more on a digital device that I shall be waiting many moons and more to ever see such a device from Comm-Tech and then there is the official secrets act and then there is the fact that I can no longer watch pornography and then there is (far too late of course) my relationship with someone else apart from family damn famile I want to be asleep I want to not care I want you to not care I need to ride my bicycle I am riding my bicycle I shall be in France before anyone else gets this bye bye Annie PS now edited to be legible, but some of the spelling correction suggestions for my mangling of the English for "Velo" were hilarious, among them "bacillary" and "celibacy"! PPS (I am extremely ashamed of writing the last two lines and have left them in in the spirit of honety, hoping they are not hurtful, since they were so far from truthful....) 02:48 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: stupid, bedtime, private, birthday, partnership, family, Annie, bicycle, cyclingDecember 10
Christmas
How to offset the cycling obsession? Icy weather is likely to make a natural intervention sooner or later at this time of year. It is a time to look towards making things special for the ones I love. For the first time I can remember I seem to have actually bought all the presents for Christmas before my birthday! I do need to think of a better present for my partner than a rear wheel with drum brake for the tandem though, to give that could result in murder at Christmas! Oddly I have ended up with an "orphan present", a volume of poetry called "the Bees" by Carol Ann Duffy. It was such a beautiful book I could not resist it and although I could give it to my daughter's mother it does not seem appropriate. Perhaps I shall keep it as an indulgence to myself, or perhaps someone will present themselves as suitable to be the recipient. This is a far less thoughtful or creative or eccentric post than I should like, it feels mundane. I shall set myself the task of writing something poetic next time about parents who "give too much" at this time of year and the dangers inherent (I'm very conscious of this after braking the bank to get my daughter a laptop far superior to anything any of the grown-ups can afford!) 07:52 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: Christmas, kids, tandem, Annie, poetry, family, parenting, cyclingNovember 27
Just read the shiny specs next to the picture here and you get some idea why it may be a dark and murky pre-dawn morning, but I have no time to write here, I need to go ride again!
05:50 AM
|
0 Comments
|
Tags: cycling, bicycle, Voyager, Ridgeback
November 26
MY new bike! His name is "Voyager", one week old - no time to write, got to ride now!!
07:48 AM
|
0 Comments
|
Tags: Voyager, cycling, bicycle
October 31
doh
I find myself comparing myself to a dog and a beta to Annie Alpha - even a theta (or epsilon) test if Greek is on the cards from Anne - ask Annie to comment in any dream fragments from our Chichester sojourn also there is something in discussing he making coffee remarks of Annis and other suchlike sensations I get - need to be able to write someone right into them - then we can get to the root of it to put this in a coy way, are you familiar with the opus of Iggy Pop? (I wanna be your dawg") 05:22 AM | 0 CommentsOctober 30
I'll be the death of him!
DO DOGS HAVE SOULS ================== Be careful son, my father would say I tell a lie If I died he would not cry When his dog dies I watch him cry When his dog dies I hate myself for crying ###### -------- But the dog, what of him? He just sees two lost souls and, for pities sake, when the dog dies I see three. What about you? ###### -------- PAW ALL SOUL's EVE 2011 ###### -------- Poetry, doggerel, or therapy, you decide.... All comments welcome and, if I know you, I'll take it up with you in the appropriate manner. Yes, father I am perfectly serious - you are old enough to die of shock now. Over and out 01:28 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: poetry, poem, God, dog, father, deathj, dogerelOctober 28
New York, Miller, and bicycles
Basically I need to find a book by [[Henry Miller]] or [[Arthur Miller]] which was mainly biographical but heavily about his years in New York and his relationship with bicycles as much as women.... I am going to use these wikilinks and then (eventually) update the post with the didactic, if you chance upon it before then and what I have said so far interests you then you may want to
see [here]( http://didactic.me/2011/10/28/new-york-miller-and-bicycles/ "a cross link to my other blog...") alsodon't even mention Oxford commas! and what is weird now and surely cannot be is I am wondering was it Arthur Miller?
Came across [this intriguing blog](http://www.bellaonline.com/site/cycling "Bella looks like she knows bikes!") in wikipedia diversions; for blogroll?
[ ooh err, rather!](http://www.examiner.com/women-s-cycling-in-national/brooke-miller-champion-cyclist-slug-activist-thigh-muscle-goddess "Thigh Godess indeed, a gutsy American piece of journalism, or bike porn for sexist cyclists, you decide!")
But no sign of my book and I KNOW I did not imagine what I read! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I REGRET GIVING AWAY A BOOK! Or did it just stay on my ex-wife's bookshelf? If so is the only way for me to resolve this to track her down and ask what she did with my books?!!! Surely not *gasp*
07:10 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: Miller, ex-wife, New York, Oxford comma, cycling, writing, biographyOctober 27
"Two Tumbles" and "Home Within an Hour of Sunset - NOT!"
We still managed to take a break with our trusty tandem and the fabulous Aero has hit upon the idea we should give our rides "titles" to make them personally memorable after all if riders "en masse" can enjoy the "[[Dunwich Dynamo]]", say, then why not have "The Sydenham Slam" or something for a great ride we enjoy? I think you get the idea.... so coming to the title of tis post... We managed to fit in a couple of rides and covered 90 miles over the first two days of our break (the third was pent shopping!) to be continued 07:12 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: tandem, Annie, cycling, Dunwich DynamoSeptember 30
Derek's plans thwarted!
Well... not content with cycling the byways of Northern Normandy, Derek returns and has ambitions to cycle as far back as he can without recourse to a passport. In fact within sight of the very cliff tops visited by Rory, to the island of Guernsey. The hopeful plan was to get as far as Poole and then unload Derek and be riding for the rest of a short break holiday, over on the ferry and then having our tandem to hand on the island as transport. This would have the benefit of placing us as foot passengers with a cycle on the ferry - which usually means quite a saving I believe. Well the bast laid plans, as they say. It seem this is not possible, at least not this time. Derek must be a creature of habit though, since he is now considering returning to the venue for the Easter tandem rally, in Arundel. It will be interesting seeing how the area is when it is NOT bluebell season! We seem to have notched up close on one and a half thousand miles in our first year of tandem riding. Not bad, and a thousand of those on Derek in a fairly short time - though I was slightly distressed to see signs of wear beyond the chain on the transmission - I do hope we get at least another couple of years wear out of those cogs! Going to take Derek for a service soon at Brixton Bikes - so watch this space! 06:07 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: tandem, cycling, holidaySeptember 06
Derek en vacance en France!
======================================
Not only that but pictured at the crossroads of a "[voie verte](http://www.wikimanche.fr/V%C3%A9loroutes "nearest I could find to describing them....")" with identifying signing and the typical architecture replete with mandatory geraniums. What is it that makes France quite so much enjoy geraniums and marigolds? It's as though this were the compulsory "national flower", but then again perhaps they might see the hollyhock in a similar light for us in our country villages I suppose.
My oh my what a time we had! Despite her injuries and a tooth that was troublesome the mighty Aero managed to power on for almost 150 miles of French roads, tracks, and even the odd tidal path and hillside! What really put the icing on the cake though was that I had also taken a solo ride (my Raleigh Aero, AKA Rory) and this meant I could be up at dawn and making reconnaissance rides in the surrounding areas before we were out there in the full sun with places to go and food to meet!
It was some time before I discovered what I felt turned out to be the best ride though, although I had been into [Carteret](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneville-Carteret "yes, I have seen the view pictured on Wikipedia too!") early in the holiday and discovered the "Ruse de Cap" which was an extremely good training climb to the lighthouse I had not been back. On returning I headed across the busy D900 (I think) which traversed the backs of the cliff-tops, my destination being Paix. I was not disappointed in finding some decent climbs, but the road was horribly busy and slightly brutal (though discovering the "Maison des Biscuits" was a lighter moment!). But I did notice many side roads seemed to join up and had signing that indicated some sites of tourist interest, so made a decent to Rozelle. The descent was t blast! Made slightly dangerous by the garbage truck that insisted on overtaking me, only to be able to keep to about my own speed for the rest of the way.... Not complaining though, it was his brake lights that told me when the decent had to end (rather that than a challenging T junction!).
The next day I was back to explore the "tour des caps" road which had the brown tourist signs. Turns out this is a fabulous winding roadway through all the coastal towns, ascending and descending for eack and taking in a few beachsides along the way, along with towns that I could not help smiling at the names of, notably "Certainville" and "Ferme de Paul".
I never did get to show Aero the hair raising climbs or descents to be found there, but that did not stop us setting a new speed record on our way to the biggest climb Derek made. This was up to the restored and fully working windmill in the heights of the [[Cotentine]] region. We bought the flour to prove it and there was nothing to compare with the arrival from the rear of the car park to round the corner and be confronted with a fully working windmill in full sail on a lovely sunny cloudless and windless day! Yes, you heard right, it was windless and they were using an electric motor to power the sails and demonstrate the windmill for the tourists!
With nary a drop of rain, fabulous food accompanied by decent wine at a bargain price, and roads that were to die for in terms of their quality and scenery and most of all the lack of car traffic (and what there was extremely respectful, unlike England) I would unhesitatingly recommend this part of Normandy for a cycling holiday.
04:54 PM
|
0 Comments
|
Tags: tandem, bicycle, cycling, France, holiday
August 26
One Day - a tale of DRM gone mad
It is with some satisfaction that I can honestly say I feel not the least little bit of remorse or concern at having just made an illegal download of a ripped copy on .pdf of the book "One Day" by David Nicholls. If you know how I feel about authors working hard and deserving to be rewarded and recognized for that then this could come as a surprise, so let me explain the background Last Christmas the fabulous Aero bought me a marvelous BeBook Neo to replace or complement my aging Sony E-reader. This was a "Kindle beater" in my opinion, since it not only had wi-fi built in, but a touch screen also! Since then a quick search or look at the tag for E-readers will reveal that the purchase of E-books has been anything BUT straightforwards, in the first instance involving an "all-nighter" as I learned what was involved (everything from a predicated Microshaft framework to a requirement to run Adobe Digital Editions. So in the run up to the holiday I had bought a copy of the Big Issue and read about "One Day" as a possible favourite book for the nation, at which point Aero tells me she has read it, told me about it, and that the female lead rides a bicycle! Immediately I want this tear jerker for some holiday reading and set about buying an E-book copy (since that way it only costs a fiver). Two or three hours later I collapse exhausted, no E-book bought through no fault of mine own.... later that night I search with E-mule and find a seed to start a download. This morning the book is downloaded and I can transfer it to my Sony, BeBook, or anywhere else I choose to read it from. There is no way I am suffering further waste of my time and anguish for the sake of a fiver of which Mr Nicholls sees a good deal less than that! I may as well send him a few bob or buy him a drink when/if I see him! A pretty compelling case for the removal of DRM - that way I should have been able to complete the transaction and pay far more readily than this! 08:20 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: David Nicholls, DRM, E-reader, BeBook, publication, disillusion, angry, copyrightAugust 25
Airborne Aero!
With the departure for France only days away and Derrick in tip-top condition disaster has struck; believe it or not in the form of "the cuddly toy"! It almost reminds me of the Monty Python sketch with the comfy chair ("Always expect the unexpected"!).... Perhaps I should explain though; Aero has a guide dog, Q. Q likes to have his "puppies" in the form of cuddly toys (with and without squeaks in all shapes and sizes). Q is untidy with his puppies and has never been trained to "put them away" in their basket. About a week ago Q managed to drop on at the top of the stairs and, whilst I was out walking Q, Aero managed to find this and before you know it she was more aero than one might hope, flying down the stairs! The result? A series of collisions on the descent, the main impact born at the base of the spine on the tail bone. And the outfall of that is that it is very painful for my stoker to ride the bike - and likely may remain so to some extent whilst we are in France. Perhaps then it is lucky that I have also bought a bike rack for a solo in order for daughter and us to do the London Sky Ride on our return from France, and can use this to take Rory (my Raleigh aero 100 road bike) abroad for a few reconnaissance rides and maybe some solo fun if the tandem is out of action. 08:06 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: tandemAugust 15
Henceforth let him be known as.... Derrick!
I really am not entirely sure how it came to pass.... but since the matter has been the subject of at least two blog posts I feel it bears mention to relate that our tandem bicycle got christened recently. We were riding and talking casually touring local parks and I observed that there was still no name for our mount, but we both agreed this Cannondale seems to have the characteristics of male rather than female gender (something to do with the stiff ride and chunky frame no doubt?). I remarked that it seemed likely if nothing came up we might revert to lazily calling "him" Dale. In no small part this is because Cannondale bikes are often referred to as 'dales on forums and suchlike. Well _Aero_ was very quick to retort that she would never call him that! So I quickly rejoined with, "Well, what are we going to call him then? It might as well be something like..... **Derrick**..." and there was a moment's silence. Then we both realised the name had "stuck"! Funny how this sort of thing can happen with names. Later the next day I was getting the last of the water on Derrick's knees out, so to speak, and checked his credentials from the serial number - it turns out his birthday is in May and he's a sixteen year old teen! 05:17 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: tandemAugust 09
Tempting fate with tandem naming!
Over at didactic.me a little while ago I made this post where I said;
`And furthermore I have an idea for a possible name for our tandem - which is: "TANTALUS"`
OH HOW I REGRET THAT NOW! You may perhaps realize what befell [[Tantalus]] (I did not exactly know the full horror of it though!) and it would seem our poor tandem was destined to suffer too! I lifted him off the rack of our car recently on returning from the Cuckoo Trail ride and there was a "swooshing" sound that foretold a significant amount of water INSIDE the frame, just about the last thing you want. Luckily I am not sure I am so superstitious as to thinking the two events are connected, well not beyond my subconscious which I cannot deny may have played a part!
05:06 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: tandemAugust 04
Honour Killing
What my mother did for me
Gave birth
Laughed and left
Died a death of shame
What my step-mother did for me
Took my father to task for calling me a pigs arse
Stopped my father stealing my leather jacket
Called herself my mother
What my father did for me
Gave me responsibility
Showed me the way to hate
An introduction to misogyny
with a seasoning of fate
"Poetry" aside...he did buy me one bicycle once, doubt his addled rotten brain can remember it - I had it for about a day - then I went to the park and let someone else ride it, and it never came back. I remember he took me to the park to look for them, but they were gone, and that was that.
He never did buy me another bicycle....
And now that I have finally become a father myself ans am hitting those years I simply find it beggars belief and I cannot understand at all.... The sickness of the man and all the opportunities missed.... Christ on a bike he is pathetic and the worst of it is to waste myself having the slightest feelings for him.
He deserves nothing.
10:50 PM | 1 Comment