Therapy

I've been trying too get back to a state of mind that once was so easily taken for granted. Where you can just close down and let the thoughts slip and your mind wander. The stuff we do to allow us to live becomes the purpose for living, and most times that's a betrayal.
So. Music. The stuff you can lose yourself in, that reminds you of the reasons and the genuine anchors and tethers. The ones we would fight and die for.








It's late, I'm emotional.

cat deeley, my new hate object

a few things really annoy me. Musicals and soap operas are top of the list. Along with show tunes and contemporary dance. But that Cat Deeley hair advert... Makes me despair, really. How thick would you have to be to record yourself tossing you hair about and posting it online? Maybe i'm not getting in the mood but these people should be rounded up and fired into space.

Tasty Napalm Chicken

Recently SB and myself went along to the big chinese super market at The Point in Glasgow. I have to confess there ere many thing that I had no idea what they were. Still, we managed to spend some money and picked up some lovely weird stuff. Among this was the sauce mix for "Spicy Chicken" as pictured below.
This was added to chicken, mange tout, baby corn, and a courgette.
OMG
for spicy read 90% chilli flakes and oil. It was very nice but was sooo spicy the back of my head was sweating. Motor function gave out by the third mouthful and I stopped trying to use chopsticks. This was after I tried to tame it with quarter of a litre of natural yoghurt.
Buy it, it's nice. but only use one tenth and approach with caution.

Touch of cat...

I'm not sure if it's the cat allergy or the sulphite allergy.
no cat + wine = breathing issues
cat + no wine = breathing issues
cat + wine = breathing issues
no cat + no wine = no breathing issues
have cat, maybe had last bottle of Superbock last night...

This made running for the train, all 50 metres of it, something of a long term recovery programme.
Trying to kick my compulsive bike bit shopping disorder. I'm finding it difficult to come up with any reasons not to buy the “upgrade” for my forks. Who wouldn't want a lockout facility?
Save save save....

Carron Valley MTB

A few weeks ago, in the pouring rain, a friend and I headed up to Carron Valley for a little night cycling. I liked this route rather a lot but it did highlight the requirement for a helemt light. Some corners are quite sharp and on the runway it's nice to be able to glance to where you are inevitably heading. Apparently there are owls lurking around and they have been known to swoop down or at least be flying across your path. Didn't have that issue, cause it was so wet they were all at home watching a remastered DVD of Hitchcock's "The Birds". Would suggest spare trousers just in case. As I imagine it might be a bit "startling".
Gates close around 7 in winter but there is space for a few cars to each side of the gate.

Pollok Park, Glasgow

Finally geting around to using the features on my Garmin GPS.
There are still have a few things I don't get. Below is the screen shot of Pollok Park Mountain Bike Circuit.
The first section, turn sharp right on going through the entrance, is rated green and is a reasonable warm up area. The transition point goes on to a bshort climb and the track has lots of nice slippy roots.
The transition to teh red route finds you crossing a park road and there are some rolling humps drop offs berms and logs etc. All handy for practice. There is a moderately steep climb after a log feature, which I always find way too slippery.
Getting back up to the blue/ed transition will take you downhill to a left sweeping curve. The main feature on the return are the steps that take you down to the final straight.
Pollok Park is a reasonably quick short woodlandtrack minutes from Glasgow City Centre. Good for perfecting some skills, but watch out for the occasional dog walker, some of whom think walking the dog on a formal mountain bike path with the whole family in tow is an entirely valid passtime.

fork

I recently read that forks require servicing on a level which sounds almost like coddling(?).
Armed with a downloaded service manual and referring to a slightly revised/reworded version from Singletracks website, I took them off and stripped them down. A weird almost globulous red gloop wept from the left leg as I removed bolts and seals. This caused slight concern as nothing I was putting back looked similar. If any of the following sounds wrong, leave a comment. Oil level on the right leg was measured from the base of the inner leg. I did this using a glass tube marked at the 105 mm level and just inserted and observed where the level sat. This needed about 85 mL of fork oil. Anyway, all reassembled and hopefully will work and not leak.





How much shit can you possibly need?

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The forks, all ready to eat the cat's dinner then get back on the bike. Left these over night to see if they leak oil or air.

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The Gloop