Kooky and cool

First off an interesting Drysdale 2WD from a show in Australia

Then a new Yamaha XTW250 from EICMA 2011

And let's have a ROKON because it fits right in!

Style!

As you can observe from the pictures in the previous post things are getting bushy about the chops. I decided to have a play with some moustache wax and happened across Foad Wax
A product that ticks boxes for me in being British made and with natural ingredients including British beeswax. Also having received it, it smells nice.
The package came all the way from Brixton in very short time, and was suitably chirpy.
I shall have a play and report back.

That time again

Why is it I seem to be ill properly once a year?
I've just been discharged from hospital after what started as feeling a bit crummy last Tuesday lead swiftly to aching like hell, running a fever and lots and lots of diarrhea. An emergency GP appointment Thursday saw me being ambulanced off to the nearest hospital's Emergency Assessment Unit (EAU) for many tests.
Here I am not feeling great-
Come Friday evening though I was feeling a lot better and was up and about and although I still had the squits they were getting less. I was being told to drink fluids and rest and the part of me that dislikes hospitals was getting twitchy. I decided to discharge myself as I was taking up valuable space. Cue tutting from Docs and me signing my life away.
Home, bath and to bed.
Cue early hours of Saturday morning me being very concerned about my guts.
As Saturday progressed things were getting worse. I was feeling really bad and there was starting to be a lot of blood in my poop. There are many things a man shouldn't see when he surveys his bow of produce, blood (and a sizeable amount of it) is one of them. After phone calls to NHS Direct and then out of hours GP I was once again back in the EAU. This time I was plumbed into an IV pump and had 2 litres of Potassium Chloride and Sodium Chloride fired into me, as well as painkillers, some antibiotics and anti-coagulant injections to my belly (ouch!)
I was also told I was contagious and had to be room bound. This meant using a commode and bedpan. There are things a gentleman's appendages should never come into contact with. The contents of a bedpan are one of them. I devised a method for appendage distribution whereby liquids could flow forward into a urinal, and what should be solids would flow into the bedpan, and that method worked very well for me.
Come Monday there were some results back from my samples and it was confirmed I had Campylobacter. By now I was becoming a little stir crazy and feeling a bit better again.
I was cleared of my IV lines, given a new course of antibiotics and transferred to a different solitary ward. After a day or so in there I was discharged, with instructions to stay indoors for at least 48hours with no public contact.
It has been a horrid illness and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'm still not sure what I could have eaten to get it, as my girlfriend has thankfully been fine. She has been very good looking after me although she hasn't appreciated the talking of poo.

New Boots!

I'm not one for posts about fashion, just as well given my general lack of taste, but well, after about 16 months of searching, weighing up options, speaking to manufacturers, trying boots on, then 2 months of waiting for the chosen pair to arrive I finally have some new boots, and I'm bloody chuffed.
(drum roll)
A pair of Cheaney Tweed C's. Lovely large-punch brogue design with intricate embellishment on the toe. Commando sole (as denoted by the 'C') and calfskin lined. Most importantly, all made in England (Northampton to be precise). These shall be a pair to cherish.

More race?

Popped my cyclocross cherry on the weekend by entering the Bourne Wheelers race at Bourne Woods. I was over the flat side of the country for a good friend's stag do on the Saturday (howdy Jon!) and so drove up in the new wagon with the bike in the back to have a crack at the racing on Sunday.
Probably perfect conditions; cool but dry. With nerves going we set off.
I thought I was going to puke myself stupid by about the second lap of the 2.7 mile course which threaded it's way through the woods making use of the fire roads and singletrack. It was a great course and thankfully my stomach contents stayed inside.
With no real grasp of how the racing worked I just kept pedaling and swapped places with the chap in the blue above several times. I had a brief excursion into the scenery when I slid out on a corner in the woods and couldn't get my feet unclipped from the pedals in time to dab. Aside from that it was a pretty smooth race. I got 5 laps in, but not sure where I came. Still waiting for the results to come online. There were about 7-8 people come in behind me in the 5 lap group, and my mates got 4 laps in.
Cheers Aidan
Cheers JT
and cheers JB
I had a great time. Thank you Sarah for the photos.

Race?

Well, despite pulling my back and tethering my sciatic nerve 2 weeks ago, I, and the other 3 members of Team Stoned Fish competed in the 6th Forest of Dean MTB Enduro. Big thanks to my physio for the exercises and pummeling, and to the organisers for putting the event on.
L-R me, JT, JB and Jake
The weather was somewhat inclement, meaning plenty of mud and slarr. The start was a bit frantic as 90odd of us in class set off up the half mile fire road climb, the first part of the 10 mile course designed to spread people out before the forest singletrack.
The large bunch of people meant that the singletrack sections through the forest were slower than I would have liked, and passing chances were limited. Still, passes were made even on some of the climbs where I found grip whilst others were slipping. Also I did some cheeky passes whilst pushing the bike uphill faster than others...
Not far from the end was a nice fast downhill section, the ground was a lot softer than it had been and a root jump nearly had me off into the scenery when the landing slid out form under my tyres. Still it was a good chance to make some ground. Tight left at the bottom and then get the hammer down for the final fire road slog to the finish.
Once through the finish gantry I was met by JT who had finished in fifth. I didn't know my placing, but did know I was hungry. Girlfriends met us and I got some much on and warmed up.
Anyway, after checking times and placings, I had come in 15th, in 1hr 7min 59secs. Properly chuffed. JT came in 5th as mentioned in 1hr 3min 4secs, JB came in 61st in 1hr 26min 32secs after three chain breakages and having to run with the bike the last half mile, Jake came in 76th in 1hr 42min 45secs, impressive considering he had been drafted in to replace someone who had pulled out on us last minute and hadn't been on a bike for 10years!
Good times.

Holiday

Five days, five mountain bike trail centres in Wales. I caught the train up to Wrexham to meet up with a couple of mates and their car. A little 306 diesel that coped admirably with the three of us, three bikes, camping kit and spares. First day was at Coed Llandegla. Then a drive to Dolgellau to a bunkhouse.




Bikes and kit unloaded we were into Dolgellau for a pint and a curry. Hard partiers that we were, bedtime was about half 9.
Coed y Brenin the next day. Great scenery, but the start was marred for me by having a small off which wedged the saddle into my groin, and then being stung twice by a wasp. A larger off followed about half an hour later when I wedged my front wheel into a rock drop.
There might have been some piss taking...
Next up was the Raven trail in Brechfa forest. No pics at all from this day as it was so wet and muddy the water was running out of our shoes whilst we cycled. Still, it can't all be sunshine and smiles. The trail was fun, and breakages amounted to only a puncture and snapped chain.
Glyncorrwg at Afan next up, and it was a bloody hard climb straight off. I managed to have a very impressive off at a standstill whilst trying to negotiate a gate. Thankfully no pictures but there were witnesses. The grub at the visitors center there was delicious, although my offer of marriage to the lady who made the tiffin was turned down. Great tiffin.

Driving back and someone wanted to get a little shuteye in the back, so my wheel got a wash courtesy of the drool from sleeping. Someone woke up just as I was trying to document this...
Cwmcarn on the final day, a nice easy finish to the set. Things that struck me were first of all everyone we met or dealt with were friendly, polite and helpful. The food at the visitor centres was not only good value, but really tasty too. The quality of the trails was better than I was expecting, and the parking was very reasonable; between £2-4 a day.
Thanks Wales.