22°C, like yesterday with more wind

---

Screech: The front brake cable broke on pulling up at traffic lights this afternoon. I over-ran the line by about 10 feet & pulled over cursing. Quick decision- go to Brownhills, a slight detour and find somewhere to get a new cable. What an odd place- it’s all shut and run-down looking. It was probably like that when I was little, but it didn’t seem that way then. Anyway, there was nowhere to buy any cycling stuff, not even something as basic as a brake cable. No choice then but to return to my route and carefully make it home.

 

Reports: I have found all sorts of distractions while trying to write school reports. Internet sites, games, and other rubbish that I wouldn’t normally give a second to. Teachers writing reports have very clean houses, the lawn is cut and the cupboards are tidy- all jobs that normally get put off, but now seem worthwhile. I have discovered webcams

 

TOTP: is getting dropped by the BBC. You may be expecting someone of my age to be whistful with nostalgia about the news, but no. It’s been a waste of electricity/airtime & in all the forty years it has been onair. It claimed to be a showcase for British popular music when all it does is reflect the buying habits of the singles age-group. that is, apparaently mostly 13 year old girls- hardly a comprehensive cross-section of Britain in the 20th Century. Good-bye Top of the Pops and don’t come back

28+°C, light SW.

---

Cosford: cycled to RAF Cosford via quite a long route and took lunch at "The Spider’s web". 45 miles to get there, buy hey- it was the nice route. Just as I finished the food the jets took off. The row they made…

Anyway, I teamed up with some old guys from another cycle club who knew a good place to spectate. I sat myself in the heat, the grass and nettles as long as my water supply lasted out. It was so hot that 2 litres was good for only 2½ hours. In that time I watched the spitfires, some noisy jets and the police move and book the cars parked illegally. As soon as the police went, more cars arrived. Then helicopters arrived to do a funny dance in the air; it wasn’t a courtship dance, helicopters are machines and they don’t do that.

 

Once the water ran out, I rode home, calling at the cafe again to top up the bottles then set off north-east, downwind. It’s amazing how far away from the airbase were there people who filled the lanes, laybys and gardens to watch the planes. Four or more miles passed before the last ones were seen, standing there with binoculars. The whole of the east of Shopshire had a jubilee atmosphere.

 

As it rode away, the obligatory Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane flight was standing off over Boscobel house waiting their turn.

The wind saved today- it prevented too much heat-building up, the diust was keep away and I haven’t noticed any of that ozone-cough. On days like this I can sink into bed, even if it’s a hard bed like a futon and not be seen from above- I’m that tired (74 miles). Such a nice feeling.

15°C, rain then

---

Cycling: 61 miles. rain on & off but light. Finches, a buzzard and maybe a kestrel today. Spring is very very late this year.

Otherwise a web-designing day for school.

13°C, +

---

Ouch: my hamstrings hurt. They have toghtened up and gone all achey. It’ll be Ok if I do lots of toe touching (mine that is). It’s Sunday, so as any past visitors will know, it’s cycling-day. Only did 56 miles today but that’s on top of quite a cumilative distance last week. Holidays are good aren’t they? Good times are upon us: I have a new camera- which I’m still excited about. It’s now got enough internal memory to store 6,375 pictures if they are really tiny ones.

thanks to PicStop.

---

Walrus: Opened up an old model to add a few finisheing ddetails to the 3D. It’s about ready for mapping and texturing. As I’ve said before, this plane was designed by Mitchell – the same bloke who did the Spitfire for Supermarine. It’s a more recent design that the Spit’. but has a canopy that looks like it’s from a holiday caravan.

10°C, strong wind & heavy showers

---

Cycling: those cables did the job. Nice clean gearshifts at last.

66 miles.

---

Linseed: Wasn’t going to post a picture today, but having put in another hour, it’s clearer where this picture is going. The blue veins will be pulled right back, the colour needs to be quite strong for now so it’s ready for the next frotte. Also, I plan to change the profile around the chin.

I’ve noticed that pictures at this stage don’t show changes as obviously in photos posted online. Perhaps tomorrow a close-up then?

15°C +heavy showers

---

Bike: A day of fixing and tuning bicycles. Bad gearchanges have been irritating for months, even after adding new cables, rear-derraileur mechanism, new cassette & chain- still no luck. Today I added cable sheaths, they can make a huge difference. The amout of cable-pull for one gear change is very small, as well as return springs being light these days. They are therefore very sensitive, much more than they used to be.

Tomorrow will reveal the effect..

 

Fingers crossed.

 

 

3°C;FOG.

---

The Car is all shiney and clean. Is the rumour that washing your car on a Sunday is a cause of baldness untrue? I’ve always assumed it must be right, walking the dogs in the Boley-Park estate on Sundays confirms it (anecdotally).

Don’t like the way cars consume loads of money and time to get back to square one though. It’s nice spending money to make life better- but to make life the same??

The Bike: 44 miles, got c-cold hands and feet. Otherwise ’twas all well. The sun showed up later.

Turpentine: I took that picture off this blog – it was too grim, it can come back when its changed enough to be bearable.

5°C, still, frosty start.

---

Drivers of white vans lived down to their reputation today. At Muckley Corner roundabout, there was a white transit behind who was threatening to push me out into the ceasless traffic. I know th wait was long, the longest I can recall, but there were just no gaps in the traffic to allow us to cross. There are no traffic lights on that roundabout. He revved and lunged the van at me, then swore & gestitulated. I decided to play it safe and pulled aside & let the psycho pass. There is a lamp-post out there with his name on it.

 

3°C, murky.

---

36½ miles or cycling. It’s just about dry now. The chain nearly broke- or so it appeared when I arrived home. .

 

It’s also a day of recovering from a late night:  Bed at 2am. We went to a party for a couple celebrating their civil ceremony ( if that’s the right name). On of whom works importing Italian shoes. She got this amazing drink that’s the Italian equivalent of Champaigne. The difference is- this stuff is nice. I just can’t seem to remember it’s name.

 

Maybe I should categorise this under "mundane". We did eat lychees!