Monthly Archives: Nov 2005

-4 and still cycling

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-4 to 6°C +
Very cold, compared to what we’ve got used to. The temperature has dropped 20° in the last month. However there is no ice about because it’s so dry, there’s no water to freeze. I decided to cycle the 10 miles to work as usual, with a little trepidation, today. Tomorrow may be worse- the fog will be freezing, leaving a glassy layer of invisible ice on the road. On two wheels that is a bad thing, sometimes the wheels decide to try going in different directions. When they do that- I get dumped onto the road.
So, therefore, I will drive tomorrow. I don’t want to be dropping on the road in front of some driver who’s on their mobile, or like I saw this morning- peering through frosted windows unable to see. Mobile phone drivers are the biggest killers on the road today, worse than drunk drivers, maybe worse than teenage boy-racers even. They don’t seem to value their own lives.
 
It’s been a beautiful day though.
Important stuff in the news: Uzbekistan and; Andijon. It’s that forgotten massacre I talked of some time back. a worryingly underreported story.

revenge on a sparrow

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8°C, clear & cold, big frost tonight

Associated Press in Amsterdam
Wednesday November 16, 2005
The Guardian

A sparrow that knocked over 23,000 dominoes set up for a world record attempt was shot dead. The Dutch animal protection agency began investigating the claim yesterday.

The bird flew into an exhibition centre on Monday and, after disturbing the event, was chased into a corner and shot dead. It was a common house sparrow, an endangered species. The agency plans to submit the case to prosecutors.

Endemol, the TV firm which organised the event, defended the killing, saying more than 100 people had worked for more than a month setting up the dominoes.

It’s a true story apparently, just check ths link. Revenge is such an ugly thing, if the dominos were down, isn’t it a bit late? What further danger was the poor little bird posing? A sad story.

 

 

November

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November

No shadow
No stars
No moon
No care
November
It only believes
In a pile of dead leaves
And a moon
That’s the color of bone

No prayers for November
To linger longer
Stick your spoon in the wall
We’ll slaughter them all

November has tied me
To an old dead tree
Get word to April
To rescue me
November’s cold chain

Made of wet boots and rain
And shiny black ravens
On chimney smoke lanes
November seems odd
You’re my firing squad
November

With my hair slicked back
With carrion shellac
With the blood from a pheasant
And the bone from a hare

Tied to the branches
Of a roebuck stag
Left to wave in the timber
Like a buck shot flag

Go away you rainsnout
Go away, blow your brains out
November

Tom Waits

thanks for reminding me!

Watched

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9°C, clear & dry
"observed" by one of the bosses yesterday in an IT lesson. Finally rated as "Good" in Ofstead terminology. that’s the second highest rating so here’s greatly relieved. the group were great- Y10 GCSE, so thanks guys!
 
Lots of online shopping recently. Many shiney things, lights for the bike to prevent a violent death on the way home. Gears for the racing bike which look very shiney indeed in the advert. Look!- Just look how shiney it is.

The racing frame has the thread of the bolt left in the hangar, I expect it’s going to be a devil of a job getting that out. the bike shop explained that it should work with 8-speed gears with no problem, not even a narrow chain is necessary- *waits to see*.

It’s slightly unethical though, getting advice from a shop then buying online.. I promise not to do it again santa. Can you tell that I’m a bit stuck on what to write today. November is a dull month. Not even my birthday can save it.

 

Oily hands

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9°C:; light N.
56 miles. Clear fresh and bright. Was there was a rally on, I was crossed by numbered 1970s sports cars, Alphas, Triumphs, Volvos and even a Mk1 Cortina. All of them muddy, and souped up the way they did back in the ’70s.
A spectator warned me of the risks in cycling, he’d broken his back when hit by a minibus.
Pauses to think and eat another jaffa cake.
It took another 2 hours to finally finish fixing that bike. BrakesbearingstyreschaincleangreaseAndSoOn…
 
Ice due tonight @ -1°C

Spokes and truth

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10°C + all day…
Are people who true bicycle wheels just failed piano tuners?
It only takes a slight variation in tension on the spokes to cause an evantual breakage, especially with my 93Kg mass on the bike. My solution? Tap the spokes with a spanner and listen to changes in pitch, a higher pitch means a tighter spoke, lower= looser. If a spoke needs adjusting to make the wheel true, then make sure the ones either side are turned slightly as well to spread the stress. that way Wheels stay true, and breakages happen less often.
Looser spokes can be surprisingly troublesome, it’s as if the movement leads to metal fatigue, then failure. It’s the ones that are beyond the norm that are risky, either tight or loose.
Is this a metaphor for life?
 
 
 
 
er…no.
 
~

Yamantaka

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13°C, wind & rain
Yamantaka Eye certainly is "cool", but not in the traditional sense of the word. I like it more on each playing.
 
As for earlier references to Peter Howson, I remembered the album cover that used his artwork, see here. I’ve not heard this record, there were posters everywhere on it’s release date; in bus-stops, billboards record bags. Just goes to show doesn’t it- how effective advertising is. That was 1998.
 

LATEST UPDATE: I just listenend to some samples of that record, now I remember why I didn’t buy it.
Including pictures in your blog,use this code:
<IMG  src="http:// put URL here.jpg", it doesn’t need a </img> tag, but should be outside an <DIV> tag. Remember the quotation marks 
 

Split rim

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16°C, windy & warm

The rear wheel is split on the rim – along the braking surface. That made for a nervous ride home. It could conceivably, burst open so that the rear tyre would explode. It’s not unsafe unless it happens in front of a big lorry or something. Oh well.

Now I’m home all safe.

…that Yamantaka Eye record is fantastic! I need ot hear it a few more times before I can say anything meaningful about it, but it makes you listen.

Brecht

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14°C, leaves on the ground
Birmingham Hippodrome, performance of Bertold Brecht’s The Life Of Galileo ( translated in to English).
I felt no sense of being in an Avant Guarde play. There are three versions of the play itself, & who knows how many of the translation.
 It was all a bit tame thought I.
oh well,
MSN spaces have been blocked at work now…