Best wishes for Christmas and a fantastic New Year from all of us.
Category: Words
Bike Blog
MCR Bike Polo
Rode the bike for a first time in a week today. It felt good to get some power down and the ‘cross bike is very capable in these wintery conditions. Still I had two near misses with numpties in cars on the way home that were completely pointless and achieved nothing other than a) getting the drivers two cars ahead in a stationary queue of traffic and in the second case, b) immediately hooted at by about half on Manchester for then trying to do a right turn across the oncoming traffic at a junction where right turns are prohibited. Nice one, losers.
On the way home from the hospital tonight I bumped into some of the guys from Manchester Bike Polo. They play down the road and no special bikes are required to have a go. Something for the New Year I think!
New Clan Member
Our son Marc arrived into the world on Thursday evening. The cheeky chap is doing well and we’re so pleased that he’s with us. Early Christmas presents don’t get any better than this!
Two for One
Tonight would have been a fairly normal ride home on a freezing cold night and not worth writing about but then two numpties in cars tried to kill me. The first was a taxi driver who cut across two lanes of traffic and then over took me to then slam on his brakes and turn left. Thanks. I’ve got your number Alpha Cars.
Next up was only about 5 seconds later as I approached the junction a people carrier pulled in alongside me and tried to squeeze me into the gutter. I swung my knee out and made contact with the door! The driver was indicating left and fortunately the lights were red so I didn’t get cut up again and made it into the green box at the front of the junction before setting off again ahead of the traffic.
Note
Michelin Cyclo Cross Mud 2’s rock in the snow. That is all.
Brrr!
Crikey it’s cold at the moment. Ended up with a proper ice cream headache riding into work on Friday and with the temperatures still low today I knew it was time to layer up. Today it was time to dig out and don the Buffalo jacket. Mine is a Big Face smock which I bought in about ’94 and it’s still going strong and keeping me toasty, perhaps fortunately I went for the indigo blue colour rather than purple so it seems to have aged well, here it is in action in early 2006.
Snow is forecast over night so it might be a case of taking a mountain bike out tomorrow as I still haven’t switched to cross tyres on the commuter. Winter is definitely here and making it’s mark. My pal Stuart has had 18″ of snow up near Perth!
Charge Me
The keyboard batteries finally reached 2% life remaining and I was getting sick of the mouse consuming AAs like they were made of fromage so I took the plunge and went for the rather lovely Apple battery charger. Small, compact and does the job of refreshing the power in a matter of hours.
I am very tempted by an iPhone4 and have been looking into options. I’ve been weighing up getting one for a long time, but having had a personal mobile contract for about the last 6 years it’s a case of shopping around for a deal.
Cheeky Peak
A great weekend riding in the Peaks with friends. Weather was cold and grey, but the company was great and kept spirits high throughout. Big thanks to Jenn, Robb and Raoul for the invite.
Stelvio’s Perished
Played the trump card tonight. Managed to leave my wallet, mobile and swipecard and keys in the office. I was kicking myself on the way home for forgetting to pick up a letter from my desk and post it, but didn’t realise the extent of the forgotten stuff until I’d been home for an hour and of course everyone had gone home. Fortunately a colleague was passing by the office and my place tonight and dropped them off. Cheers Steve!
Cleaned the ‘cross bike tonight. It needed the TLC. Will get the tyres swapped at some point soon. The Schwalbe Stelvio’s that are on it are starting to perish and there are small splits like these in several places. In fairness they have driven me mad because the green is so unevenly painted on the make the wheels look buckled left to right and up and down whilts you’re riding along. That annoyance aside, they are tough as old boots – this didn’t even cause a puncture…
First Ice
First ice of the year yesterday morning. It was pretty sketchy on race slicks so I will have to start thinking about putting some cross tyres back on the bike. In all fairness it needs some love as it is looking rather dirty and unkempt. Still, I am getting to ride a beautiful Somerville-built bike that fits me perfectly to work everyday. I also managed to forget my front light yesterday. I’d taken it off as I didn’t need it on Friday and just forgot to refit it. Good excuse to nip home early and work from home instead. Only two people tried to kill me, so pretty much normal commuting.
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