Richard Whiteley has died: Obituary: Richard Whiteley. No more will we get that classic mix of dubious sartorial elegance and dodgy puns every weekday afternoon. Channel 4 will no doubt be a worse place.
Tonight a group of us headed up the hill to Bath Cats and Dogs Home to see The Wurzels play a fundraising gig. Great fun to watch as always, all the old classics came out of the woodwork, and the bar was drunk dry of Cider, or should that be Zider?
Pics in the usual place: The Wurzels.
Garrigill, Cumbria. March 2005
It must be Glastonbury Festival weekend again.
Go and vote for my picture: Sunset over Bath.
There is another slightly less orange one now as well now, Sunset over Bath v2.
I eventually went out around 8pm for pretty much the same ride as last night. All went well for the first 8 miles or so, then I managed to pinch-flat just after riding through a load of mud and cow shit. I managed to change the tube and only half cover myself in the foul smelling gloop and start riding again. A couple of hundred yards later I looked down and thought "I’m sure I put more air in than that", the spare was punctured as well.
I half-walked and half-rode the next half mile or so until I reached some steps where I sat and patched the original tube and put it back again hoping it would last the 5 miles home, which luckily it did. Not the best of rides really, but the sunset was quite nice which partly made up for it.
Pictures over here: longestday2005.
Went for a spin on the crossbike tonight, it’s been a bit neglected of late. Luckily the day had cooled somewhat and it was almost perfect riding conditions.
I did the usual Unibike route, but was thwarted at one point by a closure of the footpath.
What’s wrong with a bit of danger?
More pics here: spoilsports.
Let’s see if this works.
I wonder if this will work?
Lovely and hot today. My day at work finished nice and early due to a dodgy UPS, but at least we now have a proper plan to do everything properly and quickly. For some reason I kept getting called Chris today, despite wearing my work ID badge which gives my full name in large letters.
After an hour or so back at home I went for a quick spin on the Lemond round my old 12 mile training loop. It used to take me about 42 minutes on a good day when I last timed myself, today it took 43 minutes, but due to the quantity of idiots on the cycle path I didn’t exactly push myself.
Tonight I’m off to the evening do for the wedding of one of my skittles team, hopefully it’ll be a good night out.
Despite the fact that it’s theoretically summer I had three consecutive wet journeys to work this week. The Thursday evening ride was also a casualty of the bad weather. It’s meant to be nice this weekend but I’m working all day tomorrow so won’t actually get to enjoy it. Tomorrow night I’m going to a wedding party which means I’ll spend most of Sunday hiding with a hangover and missing the good weather again.
I’m officially slightly more blind than I was two years ago. After an eye test today the prescription for my contact lenses has been changed which is slightly annoying as I’ve got five months worth of unused lenses at the moment. They will probably replace the three month supply that arrived last week though which is a start. I suppose I ought to replace at least one of my two pairs of glasses as well, this could get expensive particularly as I need to replace my sunglasses after scratching the lens at cub camp last weekend (update: I’ve just ordered some replacements).
…as it was pouring with rain this morning meaning I had to walk in. I seem to recall that it’s "bike to work day" at work tomorrow, so tradition dictates that I walk to work just to be different.
In theory we should be out for a proper ride after work tomorrow, something that we’ve not managed for a few weeks. Ian cried off on Tuesday which suited me fine as my back was aching and I didn’t want to stress it too much. I’m itching to get out for a longer ride though but inertia generally leaves me sat in my armchair. Can you buy motivation in tablet form?
After a couple of months, I finally have fully working hot water and central heating again. I’ll be able to wash in proper hot water every day again. What a luxury.
I spent last weekend at cub camp. The weather was almost perfect, the cubs were fairly well behaved, and everything ran reasonably smoothly. I was acting as service crew which meant I spent most of my time cleaning toilets, attacking the nettles with a strimmer, directing traffic, and drinking copious quantities of tea. The only downside was that I twinged my back putting all my kit back into the cellar this afternoon which ruined any chance of riding today. Hopefully I’ll get a decent ride in tomorrow night, and theoretically I’ll also have fully working heating and hot water by then as well.
The new camera I ordered last week finally arrived on Thursday. The driver left it in a crate outside my house probably assuming it was a book or two rather than £300 worth of camera. Given that it saved me staying in the house all day Friday, or driving to the far side of Bristol to collect it, I’m actually quite glad he left it. I’m very impressed with the camera so far, I carried it with me all weekend without really noticing it which is precisely the sort of thing I bought it for.
My latest order has been stuck in "Item dispatching soon" limbo for 36 hours now. Why not just rename it to "Item dispatching in a few days or so if you’re lucky. It’ll eventually get done when we can be arsed to go and find one and stick it in a box. Don’t bank on getting it before the weekend." which would seem to be more accurate.
I went out on my first proper fixed offroad ride tonight. I did the easier version of the Unibike route which is a mix of road climbs, cheeky footpaths across the top, then a semi-legitimate descent followed by canal and road back home. It was quite good fun actually, the only tricky bits were the offroad descents where I could have done with slightly better brakes really. A higher gear would have helped, but would have made the road climb somewhat more difficult.
The only downside of the ride was that my left leg cramped badly when I stopped to rejoin the road just before the Uni. It still hurts now a couple of hours later.
I’ve been looking for a replacement for my aging Sony DSC-P1 camera for a while. The 300D is a fantastic camera, but too large to carry around day-to-day, and it’s performance has spoilt me, after using the 300D the Sony is just too slow and too clumsy.
I quite like the Canon way of working so decided to look at getting another. The problem is which one do I get?
The Ixus is the most portable, but I suspect I’d find it too basic. The S70 is the largest of the lot, and also the most expensive. The A95 looks ideal, but I’d probably wish I’d bought the S70 every time I used it.
What I actually want it something the size of the Ixus, but with the features of the S70, and it should only cost £100. It’s not going to happen for a while, but I can dream can’t I?
It’s meant to be June at the moment, yet it’s been raining all day today, and yesterday was dry but very windy. The lack of suitable riding weather is getting a bit irritating, the closest I got to a bike today was tidying up the bar tape on the crosser.
The car survived it’s MOT last week so lives to drive another year. I’d replace it with something newer but that seems somewhat silly when I only use the car once a week to go to the supermarket.
Beer of the weekend: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
Tonight was presentation night for our skittles league. We left with the Nomination Cup, second prize in the team draw, joint first prize in the disco quiz, and nearly took a clean sweep in the raffle by taking eight prizes. Unfortunately there wasn’t a prize for the team having a player most recently sent to prison or we’d have won that as well.
The rest of the week was quite busy. Tuesday was a SSAGO BBQ, Wednesday was a trip to the cinema to see Star Wars III, and I actually got a night off on Thursday.
Given the amount of alcohol quaffed tonight I suspect that tomorrow will mostly be spent trying to hide from a hangover. The rain will probably spoil the rest of the weekend.