Life in the Bus Lane

Bat-tastic.

Well not so much “in space”, as “hanging from a tree”.

There’s also the less well known “pig in bondage”.

Last night we started an attempt at working our way through the top movies as listed on IMDB yesterday evening. I’m not sure we’ll make it through those we already own out of the top 250, so we’ll probably aim for just the top 100 to start with.

To kick things off we watched Full Metal Jacket. I’d forgotten quite how many quotes from the film have made their way into popular culture.

It’s just gone past 30^oC in the office. Even with the tiny windows open, and two fans blowing air at me, it’s just too hot to concentrate on anything properly. It’s one of the downsides of being stuck in what is probably the worst office in the building.

15:30: it’s up to 33^oC now, but it’s just started raining which might help a bit.

Scully is 1 today (probably).

The Dead Kennedys were right.

US man charged for shooting mower

Some clown in Sacramento was dragged into court
He shot his lawnmower
It disobeyed, it wouldn’t start
Might makes right, it’s the American way
They fined him $60 and sent him on his way

You know, some people don’t take no shit
Maybe if they did they’d have half a brain left

It’s L’Alpe d’Huez day today in the tour, so on the spur of the moment I’ve booked the afternoon off work so I can sit in front of the TV and watch all the action. Should be fun.

It certainly looks like it, and I hope it’s here to stay for a while.

I headed out on the 69er tonight for a spin round the Uni with Al. It’s nice to be riding dusty¹ trails in glorious sunshine for a change. A quick 11 miles, then home for a pizza washed down with ice cold lager.

[1] Well, mostly dusty.

Marc delivered this last weekend, and I finally got around to taking a couple of the worlds dullest test shots to check it worked happily with my 30D.

Looks OK to me.

However, given that my goal was “do nothing”, it wasn’t really that difficult.

After heading out for beer and a curry last night as the first of two leaving-dos for a colleague, I’ve spent the day doing very little at all. Other than spending 30 minutes cleaning the leather seats in the X-Trail, I’ve lounged in front of the TV watching the Tour de France coverage, and catching up on stuff I’d recorded but not watched.

Tomorrow will no doubt be spent in a similar manner, although there’s probably not much point in cleaning the car seats again.

It looks like all the pro cycling teams have thrown their toys out of the pram, and professional cycling into disarray, by quitting the ProTour en-mass. No doubt the UCI will now throw their toys around a bit, everyone will blame everyone else, and professional cycling will be the one that loses out.

Whilst I was never convinced that the UCI’s ProTour was a good idea, I have far more respect for the UCI that I do for ASO who look set to pick up the reins.

I did manage 45 minutes of the fixed Tricross earlier in the sunshine despite a dodgy back and shoulder, however my Garmin Edge doesn’t work very well under tree coverage when it’s stuffed in a back pocket. Time to order some more handlebar mounts for it.

Nothing any more.

I’d been noticing an odd knocking noise from the front of the X-Trail recently, so sent it round the corner to visit my local friendly mechanic. After initially assuming it’d be a five minute job to fix, he ended up chasing it round the car for a couple of hours, before eventually fixing it by tightening the top gearbox mount. On his way round he also found a broken earth lead and replaced that as well. It’s amazing how much smoother and quieter the car is now.

I think he did rule out the X-Trail as a replacement for his Terrano II though. The rear drive shafts aren’t beefy enough.

ITV4 have just had a trailer for their Tour de France coverage stating that the coverage “continues tonight at 7″. In case they haven’t noticed, it’s already somewhere past 8.

Thanks to a visit from Marc and Sian this morning, I now have a 300mm f/4 L IS lens sat on the front of my 30D. It’s my first foray into the world of L lenses, hopefully it won’t become an expensive habit.

A slightly odd venue for a gig tonight, it’s the dingy club I played skittles in for 14 years. However when I got there just after 8 it was pretty much full already, so I was forced to lurk at the bar all evening. After a few floor spots and Jim Gallager as the support act, Spiers and Boden finally took the stage. With mainly just a melodeon, fiddle, and stomp-box they entertained us for getting on for two hours.

The setlist was something like this (I’ve probably got the order wrong)

Tom Padget
Cheshire Waltz
Oswestry Wake / Morgan Rattler
The Birth of Robin Hood
Captain Ward
Three Tunes
The Rain it Rains

Bold Sir Rylas
Beggar Boy
Earl Richard
Rambling Robin
Jiggery Pokerwork / Haul Away / Seven Stars
Princess Royal / Cuckoo’s Nest

Old Maui

Innocent When You Dream

Prickle Eye Bush

I’m sat here trying to force myself to ride to work in the pouring rain. It’s one of those things that you know has got to be done, but it’s not going to be pleasant. Now where’s my Goretex jacket?

Thanks to a ride out via North Stoke, I now have my first proper case of nettle rash of the year. I’d not ridden that route for a couple of years, but the decent from North Stoke to Swineford was as good as ever, although possibly a bit tamer than usual. Either that, or the 69er is smoothing things out nicely.

The downside of the ride was that the footpath between Swineford and the cycle track was very overgrown with loads of nettles down one side and round the gates. Thanks to that I now have annoyingly itchy legs which will no doubt persist for the next few days.

Mulder is 1 today (possibly).

Donna Noble is gone!!!!!!!

The NHS is 60 years old today, and give or take a week or so, I’ve worked there for 25% of it’s life.

Despite the weather forecast promising yet another wet evening for the annual Sulian Approach Golf tournament, we had a dry windy evening. Six intrepid players headed out, making up a two threes, one of “old” players, and one of the youngsters (I still count as a youngster).

I peaked early, and by the third hole was reduced to 4s and 5s, with Ian on 3s and 4s. After retiring to the 19th hole where Alex had to buy the drinks thanks to his 9 on one hole, the winners were announced. I’d managed to come 3rd, and Ian came 1st after two years of 2nd place.

Pics courtesy of Alex.