No riding due to showers of biblical proportions today, every time I thought about going out I was soon reminded that it'd be a mistake pretty quickly. After my soaking earlier in the week I decided that I didn't need to prove my capacity for self inflicted misery quite so quickly. Still Live and Let Die was on, you've got to love a bit of Bond Blacksploitation. Anyway surfing the internet I came across Flandrien a ook I should have purchased when I went to see the exhibition at the Host gallery years ago, but didn't for whatever reason, I still can't remember what the reason was for the life of me. It's since been out of print and I've continued to kick my self whenever I've thought about it. Today though I found appropriately enough a Belgian antiquarian book seller who had stock and has sent me one out, I'm proper happy!   Read the rest of the entry...

I have my share of the wretched things but this latest glut has now gone from tiresome to just tedious, in the past month I've had the following... Nail through tyre in Clapton on the way to work. Drawing pin through tyre in Hackney on the way to work two days after the first. Thorn in tyre on the Surrey Hills a day after the last. Mysteriously knackered leaky valve in tube on the Surrey hills, about a minute after the last one. Last Friday, huge thorn through rear tyre just by Caulke House. Mysterious small puncture at Caulke House five minutes after the last. Perished latex tube goes pope at Caulke House a bowl of soup and piece of cake later than the last. Second perished latex tube goes pop ten five minutes later. Yes still at Caulke House a patched tube goes pop, tea is ordered the rescue party is called... Three attempts to patch a tube and it finally holds after leaking from bizarre places but seemingly only having one hole.. Today front tyre goes down well the last half dozen or so issues have been with the rear, so I guess it's just gone out of solidarity... I've had enough now sense of humour has failed, if I ...  Read the rest of the entry...

Time away is good, especially when it's with good friends and it's lots of fun...   Read the rest of the entry...

I've not done as much as I should have done this summer which is slack of me really although it has been properly hot, I've had teeth out but mainly I've been enjoying my garden and drinking beer to be fair, still commuting though and getting the odd spin in. The more I think about riding the less I can be bothered to do it to be honest there's just so much faff and a long day out seems to need preparation that's both comprehensive and tedious, especially riding offroad. The process starts the night before chilling water down and assembling kit etc and on etc, so that I can have an extra half hour in bed rather so I can leave silly early rather than silly early. As a result my favourite riding now seems to be two to three hour jaunts on the cross bike into Epping Forest, I tapped out the best part of thirty miles yesterday with two bottles of water and pump and tube just faff free riding. This year I've also come to the conclusion that while I actually enjoy riding I enjoy being out in the countryside and reacting with stuff a whole lot more than ...  Read the rest of the entry...

Well my faithful old Toshiba laptop died last week, it's been hammered and generally neglected, and gradually bits of it have stopped working see the death of the audio line out a long time ago... After a little deliberation I thought I'd take advantage of my educational discount and treat myself to a Mac Book Pro. I have to say I'm delighted so far it just works, the switch from using a PC has been incredibly easy, it looks nice, feels nice, screen is fabulous, battery indicator fun, power supply magnetic clip sensible... Like Sidi shoes and Thomson bike parts just good. The whole episode has taught me a valuable lesson as well, paying off a credit card seems to signal a costly domestic failure, so I'll not be doing that again in a hurry...   Read the rest of the entry...

You never want to see a sylph like, exceedingly beautiful and really bright asian young lady is when she's going to have to extract your teeth! I really would have killed for a huge gorrilla of a man the first frontal tooth despite being rotten was pretty much holding firm, and was really good below the gumline, the dental chisel was a bit of a chore if I'm honest, a sort of deep head tapping feeling that wasn't great. A bit more anaesthetic and everyone pushing and holding in the right places and the first tooth went, the second one was really knackered and just plain fell out by comparison. Annoyingly the dentist and to some extent myself were a touch too traumatised by the degree of force needed to get the first two out decide to leave the last one, so I'm going to have to go back again for more of the same. On the plus side there was no need for any hacking with poiny things or the use of drills which made me happy. So I've not really eaten since yesterday lunchtime, but I can confirm that beer and brandy work as a really superb pain killing combination along ...  Read the rest of the entry...

The Don of the internet has fixed me up again so I'm back, recently I have been riding bikes, drinking beer and going to deep house nights!   Read the rest of the entry...

Well last weekend was busy with riding bikes and beer festivals, then the run up to Easter was mad busy at work, inevitably a pile of applications to process arrived at the last possible moment to actually be in a position to get the work done before the Easter break... As a result I've been pretty lazy although I have done some DIY bits, cleaned and loved some bikes and watched the Tour of Flanders, but mainly I've caught up on sleep. We went for curry last night round the corner at Rasa Mudra it was superb, not your usual bog standard Indian meal, rather perfectly cooked Keralan cuisine. The Dhal that I had was perfect a mixture of different lentils some toasted, and perfectly spiced with just lovely notes of subtle heat. I'll be riding bikes a lot later in the week so it'll be nice to go to it with fresh legs for the first time in ages. More laundry, tidying and chair building today I think with a dose of Radio 4, maybe a cold beer and some bacon sandwiches   Read the rest of the entry...

Woot back online again after a fortnights absence it's like being in the dark ages not having an internet connection these days, I'm so happy I might go and ride bikes in a bit to celebrate, new flat is now up and running!   Read the rest of the entry...

It's lovely I might take some pictures of it, or I might just taunt you with tellimng you all how ace it is. My new cross bike is ace, posting pictures is too much effort so I've decided on the latter option, it fits just right and goes like a dream! A huge thankyou to Rob for chauffering me about the East Midlands to collect it and suggesting a stunning real ale pub for lunch, days don't get much better. Oh go on then.... [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Hmmm lovely, looks nicer in the sun though!"][/caption]   Read the rest of the entry...