early bicycle winterisation

I know its early to be thinking of such things but with holly in the shops and Santa sighted on television, it's time to adapt the hybrid bike for the less clement seasons.

It is easier to do things with screwdrivers when it is still light and not horribly cold and wet (although I did manage to jag a hole in my hand which I didn't notice until I wondered what was sticky).

The bike has now got a front mudguard and a rear rack added (which also acts as a rear mudguard).

I also changed the handlebar grips to ones which are a bit more tactile. The bag has enough space for clothes and gloves and could even flip into pannier mode if needed. I'm thinking I should also add a rear mudguard, but I'm trying to use up spare parts and haven't found anything suitable yet.

The lights need sorting out, but that's the next stage.

mince pies 2010 calorie counts

The pub on Wednesday already had "New Year 2011" streamers and those little poppers strewn around and I asked the barman whether he thought it was a little unusual.

"It is really," he replied, "..and the owners will change it two or three more times before the new year in any case."

This year we have Christmas merchandise jostling next to a surprisingly green-themed Halloween (what happened to orange?) and security cabinets full of explosives ready for November 5th. There's also a few hot crossed buns around so I guess anything goes.

I decided to test reactions by buying some mince pies (99p standard version) but no-one is at all phased and I've been reliably informed that another store is selling star shaped Christmas cakes as fast as they can stock them.

Instead, I'll be preoccupied with the individual payload of a single 'shop' mince pie.

My first selection are an already respectable 245 kcalories and as they are the ''basic edition" I'm sure there will be others with higher counts. A single pack of these would blow out almost a whole day's worth of recommended daily allowances, according to the packaging.

The quest continues. Tip-offs welcome.

more fitting for cyclemeter daily

I seem to have had a recent blog post featured in the new "Cyclemeter Daily" which appears to be an aggregator based blog using paper.li.

As the Cyclemeter blog is (mainly) about cycling and my posted entry seems to be about music, I thought I'd post a gratuitous cycling entry today as a sort of means of support for Steven Healey's endeavour.

So the bike in the picture is a 'before' shot of a bike which I use but will shortly adapt for some of the harder weather. The main differences will be mudguards and a rear rack and maybe a clip on pannier. And then perhaps I'll put some shorter and more comfortable sticky-out bars on the front. Oh, and better lights.

Not the most earth-shattering items, but I'm sure there's plenty of people with similar ideas at this time of year.

I'll post another picture when its been converted into something more - er - practical for the upcoming season.

iTunes tidying with TuneUp

A pub interlude during the evening, time to catch up on some musical endeavours, and when I get a chance I'll cross post a link to another ambient tone creator.

Meantime, I set my iTunes to do one of those big tidy ups of all the tracks and although its been burbling away for about 24 hours tidying up album cover art and correcting spellings, the end result seems to be generally good, with a few of those unexpected errors built in that make it interesting.

Along the way a few 'Track 1' type entries have been rediscovered, such as a few missing PJ Harvey tracks that I must have accidentally renamed at some point in the past. Its all good though, and I've only accidentally posted one '#listeningto' across to twitter.

discarded plotlines

With Nanowrimo approaching, as in previous years, here's a few quick plotlines I won't be using...

THE RIP
Johnny uncovers a dystopian parallel universe on his way to the dry cleaners. His partner Sue doesn't believe him and considers that Johnny is progressively going mad. Then a couple of characters from the otherworld seep back into Johnny and Sue's world and realise that it's actually a lot better then the place they've come from.

One of them eventually seduces Sue as a ploy to stay on her side of the universe. To begin with Johnny is unaware but later discovers the affair via the second person who has has moved across. Johnny becomes so angry that he mistakenly chases the manipulator back to the other side. Sue realises that she has been led along and follows Johnny, finally conceding that the otherworld exists. The twist is that the manipulators know the only way they can move across is to find substitutes - who of course are Johnny and Sue.

WEAPONS OF MISS DEE STRUCTO
This one goes straight to video.

A hard-boiled ex-policeman has lost his nerve after a shootout in an abattoir, where his buddy met his end. He now lives alone by a lake outside of Chicago. One day a black helicopter arrives to ask him to come back for a special mission. They have found the Russian mafia gang that he was chasing and want to use him as part of a set-up to catch them and end their weapon traffic-ing.

The cop refuses but is then lured into the plot anyway by a stylish female detective who arrives at his doorstep one wet and windy night, ostensibly because her car has run out of gas.

Of course, this is the generic build up to the madcap actions of the hero and heroine as they get caught in ever more improbable situations culminating in a shipyard filled with oil tankers that needs to be attacked by the US Air Force.

LA FILLE GUY
Isabel lives in Paris, where she make a living as a waitress and occasional painter. One day, an American tourist is lost in the city and come into the cafe to ask for directions. He asks the maitre'd for help but can't understand anything until Isabella intervenes. Too embarrassed to do more than say thank you, he then leaves the cafe to find his destination.

Two days later, Isabella is in another cafe with a couple of friends. They are laughing artistically when she spots the same tourist across the street. This time he is walking erratically and appears to be holding his side. She notices a red stain on his coat. Could it be blood?

triangle

The room squeaked like that scene close to the end of Kubrick's 2001 movie.

I was here to hand over the keys from The Car That had Gone Too Far.

Still only 123,000 miles and looking good, but a tad expensive over the last year with various springs, computers, exhausts and other incomprehensible pieces creating the situation for substitution.

I signed paperwork and was shown a set of manuals weighing a kilo before being offered a run through of how the replacement worked. I decided it might be easiest to drive it and figure out the buttonage later.

One of my first passengers noticed the occasional little orange triangles in the mirrors. Could it be a reference to a novel?

audible intake of breath

woodpecker - I know where you live

Jack Frost had done the rounds this morning and I decided that long fingered gloves would be best for cycling. There was a sharpness in the air and I could see the steam from my breath even before I'd started any pedalling.

A combination of sunshine and the icing sugar frost sprinkled across the landscape will probably guarantee the hasty departure of leaves now, although my route was still through more green than orange, rust or yellow.

Part way along, I spotted the swooping flight of a woodpecker and for the next kilometre or so it darted along the trees by the side of me flashing a red head and green body as it clung high up to the sides of trees.

I'm back indoors now, with its noticeable temperature change from outside. Next on the list is some report writing before I get myself organised for my flying visit to Dublin.

maybe not

We were chatting today about a possible car trip to Paris, in the near future.

I was a little reluctant on the idea because of the recent troubles, what with the petrol supplies being cut off and the various protests in major cities about the latest actions from the Sarkozy government.

I'm probably just unlucky in that the last two trips have both been at times when there's been some sort of major industrial protest and the tunnel and/or sea ports have been blockaded, so I've had to weave around 'Operation Stack' on the M2, just to get into France in the first place.

Come to think of it, one of the trips was also the day after my own car's front springs decided to snap, so we had to make a last minute swapover.

If we go ahead it will either be the 'rule of three' where I'm due another anxiety based visit or else everything will go completely fine.

Maybe I'll tune into TV5monde or koreus.com for a check on what they are saying about it all.

glow in my eyes

Outside, the hookahs were being passed around as we headed into this evening's venue to enjoy meze and hummus.

Inside, the dance tracks pulsated with arabic influence as the room quickly filled as more people were sucked in from the busy street.

I've spent the most time in Saudi Arabia where there's no alcohol in such places and segregated eating, so the wine list displayed prominently and the western attired Lebanese at the next table ordering champagne aperitif took a moment to register.

Otherwise the spices and flavours were a familiar flashback, as, later, was the cardamon spiced murrah coffee in the tiny cup, whisking me to middle eastern memories of clattering trains, desert picnics and mysterious meetings.

replacement

The car service department is becoming a little too familiar over the last few months.

It has pleasant seating, coffee, Wi-Fi, television, lifestyle magazines and various exhibits around the edges to view.

I've reviewed whole documents whilst sitting at the little round tables and had telephone conference calls with different parts of Europe.

They've loaned me cars whilst mine is under repair and in idle moments I've even looked at their shiny shiny cars on display in the adjacent showroom.

I suppose that's the subtle ploy to get me to realise that my current vehicle has reached the end of its fully dependable life-span. It's in until Saturday this time, to have the pipey bits re-twoggulated or something.

a late lunch and an old friend

Back on the road this week, although on Sunday we were on the way to a Jamie Oliver late lunch via an unexpected cushion shop.

The latter gave me the opportunity to slip away to an adjacent bookstore. I

t was only a few minutes before my disappearance was registered, but enough time for me to spot the little George Orwell title which I've had with me this week.

It was quite a surprise, because I thought I'd read all the readily available Orwell titles, so this was similar at a personal level to those discoveries that we read about where a new Ted Hughes manuscript or Vaughan Williams choral work is discovered.

To me, the essays in this Orwell selection come across a bit like a letter or conversation with a comfortable friend after quite a long gap. You don't have to agree with everything, but its great to hear from a strong point of view.

Actually, as I was handing over the cash, the shop assistant was equally animated about it - "Ooh - you've found that - I just read it a few days ago - its really fascinating..." etc. I'm also sure it wasn't mere salescraft but that she had already found it to be an interesting extension.

So I'm rationing my reads of it, in amongst the commercial stuff that I'm working on this week.