I picked my new laptop up tonight, compared with the old one it’s blindingly fast which is nice. I had a minor issue or two getting it to join my wireless network properly, but now I’m just installing all the required file and software on to it which looks like it will take an age, particularly as it’s currently copying 16GB of photographs across the network.
If Richard Hell had been writing "Blank Generation" today, it would probably have been called "iPod Generation" to reflect current trends. Yesterday I caught up with the rest of the world and bought an iPod Shuffle to use when out riding, a job it fulfills admirably. It got it’s first bike related use as I headed out to Timsbury to meet Ian and Janine for the usual Chew Valley ride. I took the short route home this time and only did a shade over 36 miles.
The afternoon was partly spent half-asleep in front of the TV watching Tom Boonen come from nowhere to become World Champion for 2005 with a stunning finish.
Victoria Park, Bath. August 2005.
Unwittingly, my riding mileage seems to have become something of a target to aim for. Matt is aiming to do double my mileage, and Simon is trying to match me.
It’s only fair to point out that I am completely open to bribes to reduce my riding in order to give a more easily attainable target. Just send pizza and beer to the usual address.
Most of today was spent faffing around with an external network upgrade. A job that was supposed to take an hour at most ended up taking nearly three hours during which time I had the misfortune of dealing with quite possibly the most obnoxious technician ever. A useful hint for technicians, when you are on a conference call with another supplier and the shared client, don’t start hurling abuse at the other supplier, it just makes you look like a tosser and gives a very bad impression of your company. Fortunately he worked for Cable and Wireless who are now our ex-supplier, and so I’ll never have to deal with him again.
This evening was spent trying to sort out the slipping seatpost problem on the Lemond. I stuck the Thomson post from the Trek on there which seemed to solve the problem, but didn’t look quite right, so the Bontrager carbon post is back on for aesthetic and comfort reasons and I’ll try to stop the slippage some other way.
I’ve been referred for surgery to remove the lipoma on my back. It’ll probably be a 6-12 month wait though so I’m not going to hold my breath, but it’ll be good to get it sorted.
The Lemond is now wearing it’s winter boots again, plain black Rubinos instead of green/black Open Paves. The bike looks much nicer now, looks like I’ll have to get some nice all-black tyres for next summer. It’ll probably be retired completely for the winter soon in favour of the crosser, it’s too nice to ride in wet wintery conditions.
After a quiet day yesterday I headed out to Ians house at 9. I took the long route out which adds nearly 4 miles and 15 minutes to the ride, but it’s a lot nicer than the main road. We then headed out on the usual Chew Valley ride but didn’t stop for tea and cakes. As my legs were still feeling good I rode back to Timsbury with Ian intending to take the usual route home. However the lure of adding a few extra miles on and making it 50 miles was too hard to resist, so I took the scenic route round Bath to add the extra 8 miles needed. Quite a pleasent ride in the end, but my legs ache now.
None. It’s been removed.
Another cracking ride tonight, I rode out along the cycle track with the John’s Bikes boys, then rode out to Timsbury with Ian, and then back into Bath chasing, and beating, buses down the main road into town. A pretty good workout in the end.
Unfortunately I’ve got to go back to work tomorrow, I was quite enjoying a few days off just pottering around not doing much.
Another crap night. We were soon losing 0-4, but managed to make something of a comeback, and dragged the game back to 3-4. However our luck didn’t last and a disastrous 8th leg saw us lose 3-5.
Housing took 3 points, Odd Bods took the full 8.
I’ve just spent two hours in the garden painting the fences, they now look infinitely better than they did this morning. The garden is now pretty much finished for the moment which is a minor miracle.
This weekend involved lots of driving, and lots of drinking. I made a fleeting visit to Kettering for my cousins housewarming party, the only slight downside is that it’s a three hour drive each way in what turned out to be crap weather. It was a good party though.
Blue.
I’m currently sat on the downs overlooking Bath with a hipflask of whiskey, looking forward to four days off work. I even resurrected the stiffee for the ride tonight. Bliss.
Hobbes seems to have learnt when his vets appointments are, he’s been avoiding me since last night, and I eventually found him hiding in the garden a few houses down. Unfortunately for him I popped round and got let into their backgarden where I pounced and stuck him in the cat basket. We’re off to the vets in a few minutes for his weekly checkup, hopefully there won’t be many more of them.
Apple released iTunes 5 yesterday along with a selection of new hardware. Because I’ve been having trouble with iTunes 4.9 locking up or losing sight of shared music I eagerly upgraded. Initially the downstairs PC refused to see the shared music from the main machine, and the only way to fix the problem was to downgrade to 4.9 again. After more faffing around it appears that on that machine at least, shared music only appears if iTunes is set to show “radio”. You can set this through View - Preferences, then tick “Radio” on the general tab, this bizzarely enables viewing of shared music.
Only time will tell if it fixes the earlier problems.
A fairly poor night on our part. We eventually lost 5-3 which wasn’t a particularly bad result, but then it wasn’t a particularly good one either. At least we get to play them on our home alley next week, not that that will make much difference given that we share an alley with them…
Widcombe Odd Bods took 8 points, Housing took 3. I blame it on the captain being away.
We won that one by 3. Now I’ve proved this mobile thingy works I’ll shut up for the rest me the evening and concentrate on the beer.
We lost by 4
As has been alluded to else where, the garden is now finished[1]. All the rubbish has been taken to the tip, the old patio has been fettled a bit, and a few more plants were planted. All that really remains is to paint the fence and rearrange the random pile of stones in one corner of the garden.
Hopefully I fixed the horrendous creaking on the Kaboom today, the BB was quite loose which I suspect was the cause of the problem, I’ll find out if that’s cured it when I next get around to taking it for a spin which looking at the weather might not be for a good few days.
Update: Just for Matt, here is a quick pic
[1]For the moment anyway.
Hobbes now has permission from the vet to venture outside the house again. He seemed somewhat reluctant at first, but once I pushed him out of the door he set off on a tour of his favourite sleeping spots. I suspect he won’t come home until breakfast time tomorrow.
On a more manly note, I bought myself a new pressure washer today to replace the one that died a few weeks ago, and proceeded to annihilate the moss on the garden path. Tomorrow should hopefully see the garden finally finished, only 9.5 years after I moved into the house.