Bad Luck

If I believed in bad luck (which I don't, but "Lots of bad things happening coincidentally in a relatively short time period" just doesn't sound right) then I would think I was having a run of it at the moment. It seems every time I try to make my bike run better by cleaning it lovingly, or replacing worn parts with shiny new bits, something goes wrong.

I'm doing a 100mile bike ride for charity in (eep!!) just over 3 weeks. Ideally I would be riding my bike lots and generally training for a long ride. Unfortunately, my bike is now in pieces. First my chain went, this was soon replaced and all was well for a little while. Then I realised there was a scary patch of corrosion under the crown of the forks. I took it to the bike shop, one guy said it was probably because I was a student (I'm not a student, even if I was a student, are students particularly corrosive?), another one said "It'll probably be fine, just keep an eye on it". Gee thanks, actually I like my smile the way it is, my teeth might not be perfect but I'd rather they stay where they are rather than get scattered across the road due to fork-fail.

So, I thought well, if I'm replacing my forks I might as well replace my brakes too and brake and gear cables since they're all getting a bit corroded and old from 2winters of commuting on salted roads. Local bike shops didn't stock what I needed but handily there are a plethora of online shops happy to help. I ordered the bits I needed and waited in anticipation. The parcel arrived and looked suspiciously long... That would be because they had included some MTB bars I hadn't ordered. One piece of cable outer was missing, and so were the brakes. Bother.

Interestingly, on the invoice, underneath where it said "7 items", the packer had put "5items". Well yes, that's how many you packed. Unfortunately I did actually want 7items. Otherwise I wouldn't have ordered them.

I read through the online FAQ and wasn't entirely sure what to do (they have instructions for when you've ordered the wrong thing, ordered the wrong size, or if the thing you've ordered is broken - unfortunately they don't have instructions for what to do when they've sent you completely the wrong component) so I phoned the helpline. I was told that as the cable outer was missing, he could just send me some, but that as I wanted to swap the bars for brakes I would have to return the bars before they could send out the brakes. I thought this was a little odd but given how many times I'd had to give him the order number and explain what I was missing I was losing the will to complain.

I've sent back the bars (that I didn't order) and am now waiting on the brakes (that I have ordered and paid for). I should have got these a week ago but now it's looking like it'll be next week before they arrive, and then I'll have to find time to fix my bike up. By which time it will be less than 3weeks to the charity audax. Bugger.

In future I'd be very tempted to say nothing about the bars and just point out they hadn't sent me some of the things on the order. It looks like the whole thing would have been sorted much quicker and easier this way. And I wouldn't have had to pay postage to send their bars back!

Doctors

I went to the doctors yesterday to get a prescription. My appointment was booked for 5.40pm but I actually got seen at 6pm. This is not overly surprising, I once had an appointment at 9am and they were already running more than 20minutes late! Anyway, I got out of the appointment just after 6 to find that there was one more person waiting to be seen, and no receptionists... So anyway, I unlocked my bike and tried to walk out the big, automatic front doors. Except they were locked... Tried ringing the bell at reception... No answer, obviously receptionists don't care if they lock patients in as long as they get to go home promptly.

Eventually a cleaner appeared and let me out a back door. This involved going through a door marked "Staff members only" down a corridor not really wide enough for me and a bike, and out a fire exit.

It's the doctor I felt most sorry for, surely it's not appropriate to be locked in a surgery with a steadily reducing number of patients?

Emergency Pastries

Don't you just hate it when you've got a meeting starting at 9am. Except you've arranged it (for your boss) so have to be there early. And it's somewhere, far, far away from where you normally work. Well fine, that's work for you. Until....your boss decides that the catering provided by the conference centre might not be of a suitable quality so there must be pastries just in case.

This is why I had to get a taxi at 7.45am to purchase emergency pastries. Of course the catering was even better than expected with a gorgeous array of dainty mini-pastries. It's a good job I have a bag full of cinnamon swirls and pecan plaits to make up for the frustration and lack of sleep!

Accidental Cycling

I'm going for a 100mile bicycle ride in just under 2months. My partner in crime is actually training so I thought I should too. I'd written up a cunning training plan (admittedly on a post-it note but I maintain it's still valid) starting with 30mile rides and gradually working up to 60mile rides.

Of course I didn't take into account that other people might be willing to go on rides with me. One of my friends said "Ooh there's a route I've been meaning to do!" Yeah, a route I've also been thinking about, but not expecting to see any time soon as it's 60miles through some fairly hilly terrain. Noone but me seemed to think this was a silly thing to do so I thought I might as well give it a go. I could always turn back if I was struggling...

It was surprisingly enjoyable. I forgotten how fun it is zooming along in the rain:) Admittedly usually I'm on a mountainbike so there aren't lorries thundering past at about 60mph but still! To begin with we had an hour of reasonable weather, then an hour of fairly heavy rain (not quite torrential but the sort of rain that gets you very wet). We got to Peebles and the sun came out, after that we had a pleasant couple of hours of quiet, gorgeous country roads up into the hills. The final hour was the hardest, we were getting back into Edinburgh but weren't entirely sure which part we'd end up in (following cycling routes can do this as you have to pay to see a map but can follow the signs for free!) We finally started seeing place names we recognised and a few miles later I was home.

The route was almost exactly 60miles and took about 5hours 20minutes including a couple of brief stops. Not bad since I thought I was totally unfit at the moment! Now I just need to do another 8 or so long, fastish rides and I'll be sorted:)

Modern Women

So it seems I'm an old-fashioned shape.

There are occasionally articles bemoaning about how different women are now to the 50s (they only seem to concentrate on the shape, not jobs, status, salary etc. but ignore that for the moment).

Average British woman in 1951:

Height: 5'2

Bust: 37inches

Waist: 28inches

Hips: 39inches

Weight: 62kg

Modern British woman:

Height: 5'4

Bust: 38.5inches

Waist: 34inches

Hips: 40.5inches

Weight: 65kg

I am 5'2.5 35, 28, 38.5 and currently about 60kg (having put on about half a stone since starting a new job a year ago:/ ) so am pretty much and average 50s bodyshape. Sadly clothes no longer seem to be designed for people with a waist. I don't really care what "size" of clothes I wear, as long as they fit me and are comfortable then I'm happy. However I tend to have problems with trousers, and particularly jeans. If they're big enough to fit everywhere else, the waist gapes on all sides and just looks weird. 

So either I have to lose a couple of stone, and become a fashionable, un-curvy stick-type person. Or gain a couple of stone and try to ensure it all goes on my waist?

Maybe I should just wear more skirts and dresses, or only wear 50s clothes?

Cute knits

A couple of cute things I knitted. The wee mousey is for my beloved. The snail (now christened Mr. Cedric) is for my friend who is abandoning this land.

Music

I think music and the appreciation of music have changed a lot in the past few years. I like a lot of music and the only possible description of my tastes is "eclectic". When I was younger I would mostly listen to CDs or mixtapes. These days I mostly listen to music at my computer or on my ipod. Usually I listen on shuffle and just skip songs if they don't match my mood. The problem with this is that a lot of potentially awesome songs pass my by because I just don't give them time. If listening to an album repeatedly, it would probably be one of the less promoted songs that would stick with me. I miss that.

I don't really notice new music these days. I blame it on living places with bad radio reception. During my GCSEs and A Levels I revised listening to the radio (either Virgin or Classic FM, like I said, eclectic, one aimed at middle aged men, the other apparently aimed at retired people - based on the adverts). I enjoyed getting a musical education while working on my school education. When I went to university I was open to new music but, living in a concrete monstrosity for my first year, radios didn't work so well. I found out about lots of new music from friends (mostly punky stuff and guitary stuff I think - I'm not so good with genres).

Music advertising annoys me these days. It often seems the music industry is the deciding factor, rather than the actual musicians. Bands are plucked out of obscurity, made fashionable, teamed up with songwriters, image consultants etc. It just all seems so fake and prescribed. And then once they decide which song to make a hit, it is played everywhere pretty much constantly. This really puts me off.

These days I mostly buy older and older music - I'm going through a 70s punk phase at the moment - Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers etc. Older music just seems more valid somehow, back then it was about the music (and money, sex, drugs) rather than "Fame". The internet is good for this. Old albums are cheap and easy to get hold of most of the time.

The other side to the internet is the fact that individual songs can take hold and burrow their way into my brain. Sometimes a fairly simple song can become incredibly powerful with the addition of a video, or being able to look up the lyrics and background story. The internet is also good for people who create music because they love music for the sake of it. Talented people can share their skills for (effectively) free.

Some little things I like:


Mario Kart Love Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDBpQVhCMb8

Death Cab for Cutie, I will follow you into the dark http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53378088

Radiohead, Creep http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsHKoJM8uv8&feature=PlayList&p=029C5534608EA6B3&index=0

Nizlopi, JCB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIpKiSMkvpI

Ben Folds, The Luckiest (sadly without a pretty video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cwlL9tZo30


Actually looking for these links, it seems I only like songs with beautiful videos?