Lulling....

I think we're in a lull at the moment.  The bit before Christmas with not much happening.  In saying that I did go white water rafting, which wasn't half as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I don't like boats really. I have this weird thing with my brother where we absorb the others fears.  I got 'bitten' by a wasp, he gets the fear when their buzzing about him, he joins the navy, I develop a fear of boats.  I get a weird sort of horrendous vertigo, which disappears as soon as I hit the water.

I ended up in the water about 3 times and it was bloody cold. In your Offshore Survival Training they talk about that if you do hit the water in the north sea (which is four degrees in the summer), the body the registers the cold when it surrounds you as it would register fire, and will close your airways to protect the lungs. It was that cold.  I ended up going in by accident the first time.  It was really the fault of the guide.  We were playing this game where we had to cross the T section of the paddles with each others then hang over the side of the boat.  I was later told the intention was to put the Gids in with his hi-teck six mm wetsuit and hood, instead of me with the hole in the knees three mm.  Apparently his face was a state when I went in, though not as bad as my 'OH-MY-GOD-IT'S-SOO-COLD-I-CAN'T-BREATHE' face.  

On the cycling front, the Gids actually left on his bike this morning, as did I but not together.  I've only recorded once from where we live and back.  I'm intending to do Mysore Practise at the yoga studio, with my attention of doing 4 classes a week. Then drop one of them when the cycling starts.  I have real problems with my arms. I thought it was my chest and possibly my shoulders but they feel fine now to be honest.  I can't close my hands behind my back, and it's really tight - not on the cap muscle but underneath.  But I'll be glad when the Etape signage opens again.  It'll give me a goal to work to.

Jx

I'm a bad Yogi....

I hang my head in shame (without hunching my shoulders up to my ears - just in case my teacher's reading this).  It came after we had savasana and I was all chuffed because someone started to snore and I didn't laugh, or snigger when the girls behind me did.  Then when we did the 'Omn' at the end someone was completely out of tune and I lost it.  I mean I really lost it, and then people behind me stated laughing, and then the teacher noticed.  Then on Wednesday we were halfway through savasana at the end and I had my eyes shut and it sounded like someone had jumped on asthmatic bag pipes.  And then we were sang to in Sanskrit.  I didn't laugh.  I would like to say however that my musical tastes exclude that particular kind of organ used.  

We also have colds.  Well, to clarify, I have a cold, the Gids has The Man Flu.  We're both a tiny bit shaky and snottery and wheezy.  His symptoms are always a little bid worse than mine because he is a man.  And the bigger the man the more severe the symptoms so he doesn't complain, he just looks extremely sorry for himself.

But anyway.  I can't remember when but the Etape Caledonia sign up should be rolling out shortly.  Feels like waiting to be hung.  In terms of what we've done this year, there hasn't been that many big cycling trips. We've not made Ullapool yet and time is running out for that and besides from cycling to and fro' on the Brommie for work, nothing else has been done.

At least I've done more than the Giddy Blonde.  So far for the past two months he's ironed his shirt the night before, packed his bag for the morning, set the alarm early all with every intention of cycling in just to hit the snooze button before hitting a leisurely shower and getting the car in to work.  I understand it's not a competition but I'm all in the chuffing smugness at the moment with my superior commitment to the velocipeding.

I'm going to start recording how long it takes to get me to work and back now.  Just to see if there's any difference, if I'm improving on the Brompton.  I'll be slower than on one of the bigger bikes, and having had a couple of windy days I'm finding the Brompton heavy on the road, so fun that will not be.  I can't tell a difference in my fitness as such but I am finding by legs have got thicker - to the point they keep pulling my thighs keep pulling my trousers down - and I'm thinking that I'm going to start the turbo trainer again.


Jx

I've just given the Brompton it's first 'service'...

...the word 'service' is 'quotation marks' because I'm fairly sure a service entails more than having a go a pumping up the tires, twisting the inny gear thing to see if it stops the two other gears clicking as you ride, then twisting it back because you don't really know what you're doing.  Needless to say I've aggravated the knuckle I previously bruised (I was gawking at prostitutes in Berlin and walked into a metal post) and have a oil stain on the back of my hand swarfega won't remove.

What else... well, we've (me and the Gids) have been to Berlin!  They like their bikes and their dogs and their beer - so I'm pretty much taken by them.  The roads are wide and there wasn't a lot of hurry where we were.  We did a Fat-Tyre-Bicycle Tour (with a girl called Kate) who was very good.  My oddly favourite part was going to see where Hitler committed suicide - it's really quite unsettling how something so important can happen in a space that is now utterly mundane.

I'm also lamenting the fact that as a person who hates dusting I have a lot of white gloss in my house. I don't like white gloss, and I'm wondering if there a way to get it off without poisoning myself with chemical paint stripper, or making an even bigger mess and the only option I can come up with is getting someone else to do it. Another option is leaving the house completely and getting on the bike.  It's windy outside but I think right now I prefer the wind to white gloss.

Jx