The Rock Stars

Mark & Ryan

Whistler is my Happy

Chris & Ryan

Whistler Video

We're riding too much to be bothered blogging but here's some video for now.

whistler update

Day 3 and every one has survived to varying degrees. The mountaint rocks and i've ridden the thing on my own bike. We're having a day of relaxing and taking some photos of the village trails. I'll get some posted tonight.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Park and Ride in Grangetown????

This new rail project is a great thing for the local community in the tees valley and should provide a boost for the economy.

However, who in their right mind came up with the idea of a park and ride in Grangetown or South Bank. Have they ever been there. I have some good friends who live in both places but there isn't a chance in hell I'd leave my car there all day while I went to work.

The Parmo goes national

The Teesside delicacy the Parmo is to go national and distributed through Asda more. A cousin of the Italian Parmesan Chicken/Pork we've been keeping this little delight to ourselves for years.

Next thing you know there will be one of them regional food wars going on where only true Parmos are made in Boro. Mind you in true boro fashion we won't protest to the EU for new legislation to say you can only call it a parmo if it's made in Boro. We'll just send a tranny van round full of lads and kick the shit out of the pretenders.

I think I've got the slogan "Made in Boro by daft lads"

Death of a great man

Henry Allingham one of the last remaining survivors of world war 1 has died this weekend. When asked how he wished to be remembered he said "I don't, I want to be forgotten. Remember the others". I for one think this is one wish we should not grant this great man as by remembering him we remember the others. He become the embodiment of all those that were locked in perpetual youth by the carnage that was world war one.

Finlay let your memories wash away and rest in peace!

More.

Middle Aged Maddness

Well just over a week to go to my summer holidays and I'm buzzing. British Columbia, Canada is our destination. Whistler bike park and Vancouvers north shore are the main destinations. 7 Great mates, 11 days and the best mountain biking in the world. Sounds like a killer trip for a bunch of young lads living that summer to remember.

Well something like that, apart from the fact that the kid of the group is 29 and the rest of us are from the mid 30's to early 50's in age. It's billed as my 40th birthday trip, but I'd of given any designation just so I could of pulled the trip off. Also, instead of sleeping 7 to one room in a hotel we have rented a luxury apartment. That wage slave thing pays off.

While I'm on the trip I'm going to try and post daily video and picture updates and some blogs from the lift cutesy of the iPhone. Additionally I'm going to try and get some of the lads to post on their thoughts as a kind of running diary. The last time I tried a running diary was in the mid 90's on a mountain biking trip to Amsterdam. Don't ask!

I've been planning this trip since I got off the plane coming back last time, 3 years ago.

Mid life crisis? I don't think so just a continuation of a life spent doing stupid things on a bike :)

Here's a sample of what's in store for us:

Check please!

No wonder China can do what they want to protesters. Check the article here.

The flow of wealth from the US to China at the end of it's reign as the leading empire is similar to the last great shift. That shift being the transfer of wealth from the British Empire to the US during and after the second world war.

It will be interesting to see how the US handles this shift. The UK struggled to readjust for years will the American ego allow it to adjust.

Ride at own risk Pansy

I've been riding mountain bikes for a long time and had quite a few of the injuries in this article pluss a few others.

These pansies whyning about it cause trails to be closed. You ride trails at your own risk. If you don't know the trail you check it out before you try anything. If you crash the first thing you should do is look at what you did wrong. Also, there are no official bike trails up there they are all bootleg but tolerated, and have been for all 40 years of my life. To say they need sighs would change that and have the effect of getting the trails closed to bikes rather than spend the money on signs.

I liked the land managements response of you ride at your own risk.

The reason I'm sensitive about this one is that Errington woods is where I started riding and where I started BMX and mountain biking over the years. I've been allover the world and ridden some of the best trails it has to offer but The Woods will always be the first.

Non locals whinging about our trails and getting them shut would piss me off.

Old birds don't breed

I've always doubted the mental capacity of anyone in their late 50's or more having kids. You will be to old to do stuff with your kids and may die of old age while they are kids.

Also what kind o state are you going to be in to control a teenager when your infirm ed.

I'm just coming up to 40 and it makes me think how I'm going to discipline a teenage boy when I'm nudging 60.

This article typifies why it's so wrong at old age to have kids.

No Shit!

It took a bunch of scientist to figure out that swearing helps with pain. I could of told them that when I was 6. I reaffirm my belief in that theory most weekend. The more the pain the nastier the swearing. Here's the article on the study.

Listening to a great man

I had the pleasure a couple of years ago to listen to Niel Armstrong speak about about project he worked on to install a mirror, on the moon. It blew me away and I was thankful to have the experience.

After reading the following article I realise how lucky I was.

Once an object of desire

I spotted this article on the Sony Walkman the other week and it amused me. The kid is evaluating it as an antique.

I can remember the Walkman being an object of my desire for a while. I never actually owned one as they were out of my price range at the time.

Mobile music in a form factor that's not the size of a laptop bag, Brilliant! I now carry all the entertainment I could need on my phone.

Zambikes

What a great idea and I want one. I've been following Craig Calffie's bamboo bike project for a few years now. They are expensive but have a lot of merit and cool factor. Anyway when I read this article that you were going to be able to by versions of these bike but produced locally in Africa with the profits going back to the makers I was in. Also the fact that they are going to be cheep helped as in: USA built $2600+; Africa built $475.

I have all the parts spare to build it up, it's pay day and it's for a good cause let's go for it. Well it's never that simple. I checked the Acifa bike web site and the buy a bike page is blank. Also, the Calffie site has no mention of it.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see when I can get my Bamboo Bike.

Nice one Liz

The Elizabeth Cross is now to be awarded to the families of soldiers killed in action. See the BBC Article here. It is also good to see that it is backdated to 1948 and covers those killed by terrorism so the Troubles will be covered.

I know this doesn't do shit to bring back the dead but it's a nice memento to be passed down through the generations to keep the memory of the fallen alive. The accompanying signed letter from the queen adds to the touch.

It's nice to see that now and again the establishment just do things that are right for no better reason than they should be done.