Prior to rididing the race yesterday, I 'worked' at home, then left early to get a little warm-up ride in. Parked just outside Hampton-in-arden, went up lane to Cornetts End, down to Meriden, then back up lane, stopped and rode in by the sand quarry for a pee, heard a squeak, and there was a massive hawk carrying off a little rabbit, it dropped it, then circled round and perched on top of a telegraph pole. How odd. How odd that we call the poles that carry telephone wires 'telegraph' poles, because they have'nt carried telegraphs since the end of the nineteenth century.

The Official EU flag:


Good news !
Some murderous nutjob in Iraq has been killed by a US attack.

Good news !
Heinz are talking to 'local leaders' (who they ?) about keeping production of HP Sauce in Birmingham.

Good news !
I actually got my arse in gear and rode a race yesterday evening. The Team Midland 10 mile TT.
I did the poor time of 28.04. On my road bike. Poor for me, but for an unfit boozer that wasn't too bad. Might even be motivated enough to start training properly. Might be.
It was horrible, very warm, still and muggy. I forgot just what riding hard does, and went through a few moments of suffering. Especially on the bits that were not flat or slightly downhill. Coming up to the turn around the island I felt like shit, my mouth had dried up, I had to have a swig of water which tasted foul as i had drunk some rum out of it and couldn't get rid of the taste. Ugh. I went into the finishing road off the dual carriageway, and expected the finish to be just round the corner. Nothing ! I saw someone going the other way, and wondered if the finish was straight on along the dual carriageway, but I plodded (I really plodded) along, the finish was almost a mile away. Ugh. covered in sweat, and started sneezing and coughing. Still sneezing when I arrived home. Ugh. Nose hurts inside now.
This morning started filling up with petrol, then realised I left wallet at home. What a spazz.
Petrol station was OK, went and got money from office to pay, went back for my wallet, went to Sainsburs for a supply of string, onions and sticks. Checkout girl asked if was having a barbeque.
But no, we have a team-bonding quiz here today, and we are Team France. Ugh. Cheese eating surrender monkeys.

My Scottishness.

I'm glad that when I was born, it was in England, and growing up in England has made me feel British first, then a Scot, then English. I never thought I would say that.
Looking at the figures, us hard-working English earn the money that pays the tax that is given to The Scots. The Land of The High Endeavour, Land of The Purple Heather that once provided the men and matierials to run An Empire has now shrunk to a bunch of mealy-mouthed whingers living on allowances. Allowances provided from south of the border.
Mealy-mouthed, what a lovely Scottish phrase.
What brought this rant on ? This;
"We need Crossrail to keep London's Economy ticking over so that we can continue to pay for the Scottish to live the lifestyle to which they are accustomed."
Attributed to Red Ken, or one of his minions.
How awfully true, but as my Uncle lived in Battersea and relied on state handouts to keep him going as his lungs were knackered after a beating he had from a German in Italy in 1943, then enduring 2 years of hell in prison camps, maybe we have a lot to be thankful to The Scots for. But that was when we were truly A United Kingdom, not a falling-apart collective of spongers.

Happy happy, joy joy !

Started reading 'The trouble with islam today' by Irshad Manji. To try and understand why what should be a good thing, i.e. a Religion, is such a bad thing. The moslems I know are nice people, surely this can't be a smokescreen to hide their true feelings ?
The islamic terrorism thing - I grew up with religious hatred then terrorist attacks.
So the use of terrorism by moslems seemed, to me, to be normal behaiviour for cut-throat loonies. The IRA, Bahder-Mienhoff, etc. etc. used terrorism to try and attain their ends, so why not Palestinians ? But it wasn't just Palestinians. It was Saudis inflamed that US troops were in the Middle East. C'mon guys, get a life, eh ? US troops are in many countries, but thats not an offence to a religion. Do Roman Catholics get pissed off that US troops are in Italy ?
Shit, I have no idea why it is a bad thing to moslems that US troops are in Saudi. Once I have read that book, I will start on the koran, the English version. I hear their are accusations that the English translation of the koran contain lies put in by the English translators, and that the only true way to understand the koran is to learn Arabic.
Eh ? I think that the bible should have the old testament written in some Bronze Age script, and the new testament written in Latin, only, and that all the translations into modern languages should be banned. Ha.

Shimano chainset.

When I first saw this design at the end of 2003 I really disliked it. It seemed lumpy and the chainrings seemed too flat and looked heavy.
But I was wrong, so, so wrong. On my bike it looks so cool, and fitting it, with its bearings that sit outside the frame and hollow axle that simply slides into the bearings, was a piece of cake.
Thank you Mr Shimano for making the best bit of cycling kit since Tullio Campagnolo invented the quick release.
Arrgh, Talk Like a Pirate Day approaches ! And today I arrived home and did 29 kilometers at 29 kph. Which is 18 mph in old money.
Then went to The Red Lion for a club committee meeting where we discussed race numbers, clothing delivery problems and who will do the catering at the race I'm organising in 4 weeks.
EEEK ! I have to get it all together for the race I'm putting on ! EEEK !
Hmm, ho hum. 18 mph for 1 hour. For someone with thoughts of getting a medal on the track that is sort of, well, pathetic. I should be looking at 30 mph for 1 hour for the sort of ride I want to do. Arrgh, I'm now drinking vodka and its 0045 .
At least the Anti-Christ didn't get me, yet.

A NEW BANK HOLIDAY.

In Britain we probably work the longest hours and have the least number of Public Holidays in the whole world, and probably the whole universe.
So we (when I say we, i mean the establishment, whoever the hell they are) are discussing adding another day to the measly eight we currently enjoy.
And what better day the Talk Like A Pirate Day ?
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
What a terrific reason for a holiday me hearties ?

sbbzjhqf is what I typed, avast there.
Parrots off the starboard bow, luff to leeward and bring me some duff.

6 6 6
So far, no sign of the Anti-Christ.
However, He may already be amongst us !

In the form of David Hasselhof !

Heres why;

http://www.esquilax.com/baywatch/

So, the horned one is here, in our very midst and no-one knew, until now.

Bollocks. I spent some time last week messing with the HTML and CSS in the template to prettify my blog, and suddenly, it looks crap. Why is that ? And a couple of other blogs I look at have suddenly gone all funny.

Oh, last night I ended up sitting in the garden, messing with my track bike. Well, I felt pretty bloated after tea. There always tonight, when I'm planning to ride the MC&AC '16 on the nice course.

Albania, the land of pillboxes.

Very education, is the internet. Wikkipedia states there are over half a million pillboxes in Albania. Wow.

TIN MAN:


What a dork ! Superhero ? No, a superzero ! (that was a joke).
Off now for a possible training ride.

ARRGH !

Tomorrow is 06 06 06 - The day of The Beast ! The coming of the Anti-Christ !

Help us !!

I used to think that Anti-Christ was Aunty Christ, as I never had an aunty called Christ, I was sore perplexed.

I must go out now and buy materials to make me an anti-Anti-Christ helmet, some silver foil will do the trick.
Remember the terrible happenings of 7 7 77, or 01 01 01, or 02 02 02, or 03 03 03 ? No, niether do I. No hold on, I think on 03 03 03 I was frightened by a large beetle.

Why am I posting ?
Done nothing except mow the lawns, drink some alcohol, and generally potter about in the garden. Which is not the way a bike racer should be spending his weekend. I did think seriously about doing some training yesterday afternoon, but what do know ? It rained ! Phew, that was a lucky escape. I'm thinking hard about doing a ride this evening, as I made stupid comments to various people in public at Halesowen last Friday about racing.

kkgwzx - are the letters I type in that I saw in the picture above (below).

Oh yes, some naughty people from Bangladesh were grabbed by the fuzz last Friday, for having suspected chemical vests. Oooh err missus.
The families, friends and nighbours describe them as good religious lads, wouldn't hurt a fly. And on the subject of fly, one of the parents of these peace-loving lads flew off for a holiday on Saturday. So he loves his son then.

enhdfk - what I typed in.