Bicycle Film Festival - London, October 17-21, 2007

This looks good, even though their website doesn't work properly on my safari.

B-)

Listening to Perry Haines (no, I didn't think you'd remember him) performing his one 'hit' (that's 'hit' as in 10 of us in Aberdeen liked it) and thinking any bike fans out there will want to know what kind of machine I just signed a credit agreement for. It's a ridgeback bullit

So far, very nimble - much more zippy than the Trek that was driven through on Wednesday and giving me a much more aerobic ride than I'm used to. Reminds me of what cycling used to be like before I got myself an inappropriate vehicle. Ideally, I'd have liked to get a proper road bike but I need something that will cope with the Parkland Walk, Trent Park and other occasional bits of off-road riding.

Had a nice cycle home on the new machine, ruined slightly by the fight between two girls I tried to stop on the way. They were somewhere around 12 or 13, I'd say, and one was being seriously violent to the other while her friend added the occasional kick. I was in between them telling them to stop but I had obviously managed my trick of becoming completely invisible. A grownup who knew them was there and doing absolutely nothing about it, but then a few others came along and tried to be slightly more effective than me.

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Blitz spirit? On your bike - Comment - Times Online

There've been a lot of conversations recently about rationality and the extent to which it does and doesn't affect our behaviour. This article points out that, statistically, cycling is infinitely more dangerous than using the tube even though sales of bikes have shot up in the past week in London.

B-)

The guy in the bike shop offered a new analogy instead of the one about the axe with the changing handle and blade, which was pop groups like The Cure who have had loads of changes of personnel but people constantly remaining fans. I'd have thought The Fall would be a better analogy, since they've had about a million members and even had their line-up change during a gig. I had the incredible experience once of seeing my brother appear as their lead singer at the start of their set at Dingwall's. The linguists I was with thought I was joking when I got excited and told them that was my brother. One of our au pairs was in a band in Sweden who had an open membership policy. Anyone who wanted to be was in the band whether or not they ever actually performed with them.

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PS I feel very positively about the shop who fixed my bike, so I think I won't mention to them that they put my tyre on back to front B-}

Three posts in a row! Or is it four? Anyway, I'm very much enjoying cycling home in the daylight these days and with less clothing. I've found recently that the only way I can be allowed to spend time vegging on the sofa watching things like supersize me (last night - great fun, and yes, we did accompany it with some junk food - interesting to see the themes shared with Jamie's School Dinners, the third time that he's provided our most must-see TV, we realised) with Ohna is if I stay fairly late at work, which has meant it's been dark on the way home rather a lot recently. So it's great that the clocks have changed and now I cycle home through the park in daylight listening to loads of birds. And today i saw a sparrow (a rare sight in London these days).

B-)

Just received this warning from a cyclists' email group:

Beware Mothers' Day

Sue has asked me to remind all Little Green Riders that the pubs will be full of mothers this Sunday. That means that it might be an idea to come armed with more food than you think you can eat.....just in case.

See y'all soon.

B-)

BBC - London - TV & Radio - Inside Out - Cycling

Not sure what I think about this. Without being particularly assertive, I've several times had motorists honking and being quite aggressive when I'm doing things like indicating right and then pulling over to turn or trying to keep more than a few inches away from the kerb.

B-)