Wednesday 30 November 2005

à la flahute

Like wild geese.

The old-school guys were tough as hell. There were Flandrian diesels that rode 200km a day, every day on the cobbles, in the wind, to the sea and back, etc. Training was riding... a lot, or à la flahute. Like wild geese. This was the early 1920s, so the roads weren't stellar anyway and two gear selections (usually one fixed cog and one freewheel, sometimes both fixed cogs, always big-ass gears) via a flip-flop hub held fast with wingnuts was the technology of the time.


So writes 'flexiflyer' in this Dirt Rag article, à la flahute.

See also, Matt Chester's blog. He's stopping the blog (in about 5 weeks time) and instead writing in a paper zine, which I'll definately be ordering a copy of; more like the above article, hopefully.

I bought an old road bike (for £20) a week or so ago. I've got some new wheels for it, and am ordering some 'cross' tyres soon. I'm going to ride it for a while, see how it holds up, but it's likely to be the bike I choose to use for the looooong (for me) rides I plan to do over the summer, leading to my first 'century' in September. If I like it, I can see me getting a real cross bike.

Wednesday 16 November 2005

Back to the grind

First day back at work today. It was potentially a 13 hour day, with an open evening tonight, but I got permission to 'skive' off early, so it was a 6 hour day.

A conversation:

J: How are you feeling with the lack of sleep? Spaced out?
Me: Not too bad
Two minutes further into the conversation
Me: I am totally spaced out, aren't I?
J: Yep!


Later...

Wednesday 9 November 2005

Libby

Libby

Born at 3:58am, Wednesday 9th November, 2005. 7lb 14oz.

Mother and daughter (and dad) both doing well after a very quick (compared to last time) labour. First impressions: Libby looks more like her mam than Ellie did, but seems to get her temprement from me (which explains why she was 7 days overdue). She's fab.

[Updated: corrected Libby's date of birth, which no-one noticed until Sarah looked. Doh!]

Tuesday 8 November 2005

Baby, baby

It's on its way...

:D

Quick baby update

Still nothing. Now six days overdue...

Friday 4 November 2005

Quickie

A quick update.


  • Still no baby (2 days overdue now...)

  • Got soaked riding to work today; mainly because I aim for muddles though. Bikes are still ace. If I walked to work and deliberatly jumped in puddles, people would think I was mental, but on a bike they just think I'm mad (and most people would think I was mad for riding to work even if I wasn't aiming for the puddles).

  • Should I start podcasting? Blogs are soooo 2002 :)