Categories
- Australasian Leg: Prep (4)
- Australasian Leg: Ride (1)
- Europe Leg Ride (4)
- Europe Leg: Prep (8)
- Ghosts in the machine (3)
- Rides (6)
- Uncategorized (18)
Category Archive:
Uncategorized
Cyclists are rude and aggressive, potentially violent potty-mouths. Discuss
What’s wrong with this post dear reader?
A headline like the one above, is for me, akin to saying that I can’t stand bacon & cheese oatcakes, no I’d rather not head out to that beautiful country pub for drinks with good friends and yes, I think that the X-Factor is a valid and worthy creative focus for the youth of today.
The last 3 months have been extremely busy (at least some excuse for my woeful lack of blog posts); 2 times a day, 5 times a week, for the last 3 months straight, I have walked from Kings Cross St Pancras International to Soho and back as (a small) part of a painful 4hr round-trip commute in from Kent.
During the walk from Kings Cross to Soho, I cross two Zebra crossings en-route. One of these crossings crosses a cycle path running parallel to the road. As a result, there is always a high number of cylists crossing during the morning and evening rush-hours.
Continue reading
“Single to Stoke please, with a bike reservation if possible”, “Certainly sir, that’ll be £1,233.67 and 50p for the bike”
It’s looking like March will be one of the driest months on record (in the UK). Buoyed by the good cycling weather and with typical English optimism / hubris / stupidity, have recently planned to have my very own ‘micro-adventure’ starting next week, when I’ll attempt to cycle from Canterbury to Stoke-on-Trent.
Obviously, the wettest April since Noah decided to open a floating branch of Longleat is forecast…
I had originally promised myself that when the winter months were slowly receding into memory, that I would head out on a short but sweet tour of the famous breweries of Belgium. A few too many debauched nights on the ‘Leffe’ had convinced me of the neccessity to undertake such a trip.
However, I recently found out that my passport had expired -and so the booze cruise of Belgium will have to wait until my shiny new biometric, 1984, thought crime, tracking device/passport arrives.
Continue reading
“Don’t call me Junior!” – Indiana Jones
Photos of Tom & Dad’s biking expedition in Cambodia / Laos – including partial navigation of the mighty Mekong River:
Squinted eyes and a little imagination could see the pair passing for Dr Henry Jones and young Indiana – traipsing in and around the Angkor Wat Temples of Doom, dodging the blow-dart-blowing locals on the river banks and the tank-driving Nazis (OK – so that’s perhaps a little too much imagining)
Continue reading
“How like a winter hath my absence been. From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December’s bareness everywhere!” – William Shakespeare
I learned a couple of new things today:
Firstly; perfectly-slick 26″ tyres are not well suited to speeding down the lanes and roads of Kent – especially when aforementioned highways and byways are solidly covered with enough snow and ice to build a new continent with.
Secondly; getting off the bike and pushing isn’t much more fruitful. If you’ve ever rolled a giant snowball, you’ll know that you only need to get a small ball rolling; the adhesion of the snow and momentum will do the rest…
Continue reading
“One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can’t travel in space…you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions – what are you going to land on – one-quarter, three-eighths? That’s dialectic physics man.” – Photojournalist (Dennis Hopper), Apocalypse Now.
D’em jungle drums been playing; smoke signals and semaphore observed and interpreted:
We have had contact from our intrepid adventurers of the Mekong River!!
Message follows…
“Sorry for no contact in the last few days; there are some very rugged and wild places in Laos and Northern Cambodia where internet access is unavailable!! With some parts pretty much like the set of Apocalyse Now…
Continue reading