Author Archives: essiep

This time last year…

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10°C, rain

This time last year I camped in the Rhinogydd range. This year it’s unlikely that I will camp during this Easter break. A week of rain, sun and heavy showers is forecast. This morning I took Rosie to the local woods for a run and it was gorgeous, the rain didn’t matter. In practice, the rain brought out all those smells that subliminally speak of spring. The problem arises when you are cooking on a stove outside your tent. Rain gets through to your skin and it becomes very difficult to keep warm. Campsites that offer log burners are best at these times. I can but dream of Llyn Gwynant.

Plans aren’t working out. The original idea included a visit to Betwys-y-Coed to get some new hiking gear. My hiking coat is, strictly speaking, a size too small (but then most of my clothes are a bit too small). I knew it at the time but it was in a sale and I had no idea how much I would come to use it. If I knew, I would have paid the extra and got something that fitted well and was probably a better, more breathable fabric. Goretex is the one to look for. Last week I tried on a few coats in Cotswold, the outdoor shop. Berghaus is still the best one, only because the cut is long and so fits my proportions better.

Stiff link

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Bike chain and chain tool on the ground

Bike chain and chain tool on the ground (Photo credit: londoncyclist)

12°C, grey with some drizzle CR:46 miles.

It’s never simple is it? Spend the morning finishing the bike service and it runs sweetly while hanging from a rope in the shed. Have lunch then set off on a ride to dodge the rain clouds. Next comes the bit I still don’t understand- the chain develops a stiff link. How can that happen, unprovoked after 6 miles? I stopped a few times to try to free it, but only to give up and turn back for home. The return ride was rather crunchy as the chain skipped across the adjacent gears. By the time I got home, my knees hurt.

I decided to thoroughly defeat this one and removed the links either side and insert a fresh piece of chain. I have, remember, only put this chain on yesterday. Okay, done, the bike ran reasonably smoothly for the rest of the day. I still can’t adequately explain how a link can stiffen up after only a few miles on a new chain.

Bike servicing: Indexing

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8°C, grey. CR:34 miles

Ordered spares for the winter bike last week. Yesterday was the promised delivery day. No phone call, so I went in this morning. The parts have not arrived. “They’re made in Japan and haven’t arrived on the ship yet”. That’s such an old excuse, I’ve heard it so many times over the years. Presumably there are still open orders from the days I lived in Bristol. The ship will never come in.

Spent all afternoon servicing the race bike. It’s had an on-going problem for years- indexing the gears has been poor. I was very close to a per-d’oing moment- on opening the rear bearings it looked as if the whole thing would spring apart and be impossible to re-assemble. It seems to be okay now after fiddling with sticky grease and poking about with old spokes used like a chop-sticks. It still doesn’t index perfectly even now. Tomorrow, I shall probably try replacing some of the outer sheaths.

Finally, I got my thousand miles done, only just, I might add. It’s a standard that I have hit each year for the last 25 years. Actually, the figure is somewhere around 1,150 this time. 2011 had a very late Easter, so I clocked up 1400 miles that time. Check the cycle-computers again in the morning.

Goodnight.

Lime green

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8°C, grey after a blue start.

I have painted the top landing in this house. It’s a complicated shape on that landing with lime green on the sides and a paler green on the end and ceiling. It looks great from below (which is painted a wheat-cream colour). But if you go up there, the colour bleed from surface to surface makes the whole space a Stygian abyss. You feel as if you are drowning in the deep & briny.

I may change my mind tomorrow, or maybe have the urge to over-paint some of it. There are some good ranges of classic paints to choose from. These are more like the Farrow & Ball ranges- more chalky flat matts with gentle colours that give a more contemplative mood to a room. Crown do a “period flat” which has attractive colours, but the surface is not washable  so can’t be used in some places.

I hope I wake to the feeling that it works anyway. Even so, it’s a good problem to have.

Panic on the streets

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8°C, grey with a little rain.

I went for a bit of panic petrol buying yesterday. When I got to the Panic Station, there was only one car before me. Perhaps I have missed a window of opportunity all the drivers who have already panic bought a tank of petrol will have run it near dry just in time for the coming tankers’ strike. Now, why would they do that?

Charming stop-frame video:


We tried to do this at work with year 7s. They didn’t really get the idea, but at least they made a video of some sort.

To be doing?

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-2C~? Clear

I know language is an organic thing that evolves over the decades. But there is a trend that doesn’t rest easily with me, the prevalence of the passive present continuous voice. It’s everywhere and sounds so weak and excessively wordy. One day, not too far in the future you’ll hear this:

Will you be taking this man, to be having and to be holding…?

Yuk! Sometimes this form is necessary but more often it’s clumsy , wordy and just glaringly ugly.

Worried

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18°C, drive dammit.

I can’t see the frog’s spawn, I shone a torch tonight into the water. They’re supposed to float, but no sign. I expected them to gather at one corner. I hope I’m wrong.

Introverts: timely articles from The Guardian and BBC. A significant part of my current troubles?

Frog’s Porn

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19°C, endless blue

I have a bucket of Frog Spawn from a colleague who brought it into work. You have to admire my ability to drive home with a bucket of water+ this spawn jelly stuff without spilling any. My pond will have fulfilled its destiny if they thrive into adulthood. There has been no algal bloom this year, good for the tadpoles. Perhaps a sign of good health in that little body of water.

This is a time of year that your aesthetic sensibility breaks out as if to desperately demand time in your mind. There is much work overload to block it out. I drove home listening to an Aria by Handel. The shapes made by that pure voice were delicious. Traffic was bad enough for some time watching a magpie hopping along a roofline in a manner like a weightless astronaut.

I need a holiday from work. the last one was demolished by the influenza. I felt cheated. Continue reading →

Gay marriage- where to draw the line

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17°C, no clouds. CR:68miles.

I’ve heard this challenge to Same Sex marriage a few times. Most recently from a colleague with some maturity & standing, though he does wear his Christianity as a badge (literally). The argument goes like this: If you allow same sex marriage, then what’s to stop someone marrying a donkey*, where will it end, where’d you draw the line (etc.).

*the animal suggested varies with each time the argument is used. Curiously, they never seem to choose an animal that mates for life. Perhaps they can’t think of one, or maybe that would weaken the strength of their case. Who knows?

It’s a surprisingly persistent argument for one so easy to dismiss.

The line is an easy one to draw- we use the same line that prevents forced marriage or underage marriage. The limit is defined by consent of the parties involved, plus societal norms. Marriage is a consenting union between adults. Neither donkeys nor children can give convincing consent to a marriage so they can’t, therefore, be married. So what problem can there be with a gay couple joining in a marriage with mutual consent?
The next argument that is trotted out sometimes is that it somehow, weakens the institution of marriage. No it doesn’t, traditional marriage remains unaffected. Straight marriage remains untouched and continues to exist as before.

Christianity plays some role in all of this, but don’t they have some idea about all men are created equal in the eyes of God? Clearly they’re not all equal in the eyes of the Church.

My remaining, unanswered question is – why would a gay couple want anything to do with a bigoted, homophobic institution like the Christian church anyway? After the way they have been treated in this debate and many before, I’d want to keep well away if I was in a position like theirs.

Bread

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4°C, very dense fog. Hot later.

Made bread. Okay, so I was given the bread machine over a year ago, but finally decided to use it. You can buy small packets of bread flour with yeast included. This solves the problem that put me off for that time- I have no kitchen scales.
Now the house smells gorgeous.

Today promises to be very warm, for now fog is so dense that visibility is less than 60 yards.