Life in the Bus Lane

Just for a change it wasn’t raining today, so I decided to drag myself out for a ride to see if I could still ride a bicycle properly. The climb out of town was a bit of a shock to the system, but other than that it was excellent fun.

Parts of the ride were very muddy in places thanks to our summer of liquid sunshine, yet some parts were bone dry and dusty, so I came homesplattered in mud and with a light coating of dust.

It’s forecast to rain again tomorrow for a change.

One of the delights of the local pub is the pile of old games in the corner of the bar. After we moved back inside about 11pm ‘cos it was getting chilly we settled down with our pints for a game of Frustration, followed by a session on Screwball Scramble. It certainly makes for an amusing way to spend an evening with friends, even if Al did get a bit wound up by his inability to “roll” a 6 while playing Frustration.

I’m sat here looking at a copy of M*A*S*H Season 1 on DVD, and the character taking pride of place on the top of DVD 2 is B. J. Hunnicutt played by Mike Farrell.

The problem is that B.J. Hunnicutt doesn’t appear in M*A*S*H for another 3 years.

An early start means we had time for this lengthy masterpiece tonight.

I believe Schindler’s List was about 14^o

Back to work today after an extended weekend off. Minor excitement was provided by someone breaking into the old school that forms part of our offices, leaving us a sausage roll and a pasty, and nicking the worst monitor in the building. Other than that it was dead quiet as a lot of people are on holiday at the moment.

It’s “Beer and DVD” night later, we’ll have to come up with something good to watch.

“It’s OK, we’ll just go for a quick pint with the girls”.

That’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” for the uncultured amongst you. A classic movie which I’ve not seen for years. However this special edition version seems to suffer from some slightly bizzare audio mixing where it’s been “upgraded” from mono to 5.1, it’s quite disconcerting at times.

The Brooks bar tape I fitted a year or so back is in the process of being retired from the Lemond. Whilst it’s very nice to look at, I just find it too slippery to be comfortable with the majority of gloves I wear. It’s being replaced by the faithful Bontrager Gel tape.

Fifteen years ago today I walked into an office and  became a paid employee of the NHS, working for the now defunct Bath District Health Authority.

Billed as “An intimate night with Justin Sullivan” it couldn’t have been more intimate. We were sat at a table about 4 feet away from Justin in a venue which held about 120 people or so.

Better than Them
Changing of the Light
One Bullet
Heroes
Love Songs
Turn Away
Dawn
Tales of the Road
Ocean Rising
No Pain
Stranger
You Weren’t There
Snelsmore Wood

Aimless Desire
Lights Go Out
Ghost of your Father
Stoned, Fired, and Full of Grace

Definately the best gig of the year, and certainly a contender for the best ever.

A few photos.

Schindler’s List took a backseat this week as Dan ended up working late, so the much shorter The Usual Suspects took it’s place. One of my favourite films, but one I’d not watched for a while due to over-exposure a few years ago.

I may not get to see all of New Model Army peform together as a band this year, but there will be a new live album titled “Fuck Texas, Sing For Us” out at the end of October, which will go some way to make up for it.

In addition we’re off to see Justin Sullivan and Dean White do an acoustic set in Stoke on Thursday which should be very good if the reports of their outing in Portsmouth are to be believed.

I think I bought mine at the right time, I don’t really like the look of the 2009 version.

2009 Trek 69er Singlespeed

It’s wet and windy out. I should have stayed in bed really.

The X-Trail did 39mpg on the trip to and from Cropredy last weekend. Not too bad for 1.5 tons of Chelsea tractor loaded down with people and camping kit.

The second of our “top films” season, this time aided by a curry from the local takeaway.

I’d not seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for quite a while, and didn’t realise how many big names were in it. It was one of the first films for Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd, and Danny DeVito (who none of us actually recognised).

Coming next: probably Schindler’s List.

Fairport Convention with Robert Plant and Kristina Donahue, Cropredy 2008

We only went for two of the three days so missed seeing Supergrass on Thursday. The weather for days we were there couldn’t have been any more different. Friday I needed sun cream, then at one point on Saturday I was wearing three coats at the same time in an attempt to keep dry and warm.

Various highlights:

• The Family Mahone introducing every song as “this is a drinking song”.
• Robert Plant turning up to sing The Battle of Evermore with Fairport Convention.
• Midge Ure with just an acoustic guitar singing Vienna.
• Matty Groves re-enacted with Mr Potato Head

Time to wash off three days worth of mud and grime.

More Photos.

The only real casualty of the weekend was my tent, consigned to a bin bag and left with the rubbish.

P51-D Mustang, Old Warden, August 2008

Today was probably my first trip to an airshow for a good 20 years or so. Thanks to a free space in the car I headed up to Shuttleworth with the old fogies for the Military Pageant Air Display. The weather wasn’t too bad in the end, we drove through heavy rain on the way up, it was mostly dry while we were there, then we drove home in heavy rain again.

The day gave me a good chance to play with the new 300/f4 L IS, and realise that my sensor needs a good clean again.

More photos.

Is it really 31 days until the 1st August?

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Update: And after all that, it’s possibly the worst “sale” ever.