take that, and that. and this

I went fencing this evening and tonights lesson was the first time we
all got dressed up in all the armour and faced off against another
person.

I was matched against 2 women, not at the same time obviously, it
wasn't like a fencing Ménage à trois.

Bearing in mind the target area is the torso, and we are standing
side on to make the target area as small as possible; it means that
there is one very obvious and large target on a women which I
couldn't but keep hitting *tries to look innocent*

Where else could I spend all night wacking a lady's nipple with a
stick and not get beaten up or arrested, or both?

All the moves are being performed slowly at the moment, but I can see
how it's all suppose to come together.

I do see one problem at the moment, the clothes and mask we wear are
really thick and everyone is sweating like crazy at the moment, I
hate to think what the inside of those masks are going to be like
once we start attacking each other at full speed and actually
starting working hard, forget buying my own sword - I want my own
mask so I don't have to share one with all the other fencers *yuck*

Small Fluffy Animals

I've noticed recently that all the small fluffy animals in my area have
disappeared. The 3 cats that live near me - gone, the birds - gone.
There are still some dogs around but that might be because dogs tend to
be kept in the house over night.

I've seen all the horror movies and I know that if the small fluffy
animals start disappearing it can only mean 1 thing, Werewolves!

Even more worrying, I know from the films, that the person who notices the
animals disappearing tends to be the next victim of the Werewolf, I
shall be stocking up on silver daggers and bullets as soon as possible.

Whats been happening!

Well, it's been a long time since I updated this blog so I thought I would say what I've been upto.

En Guard
I've started a fencing course in Cambridge, so far we have mainly run side ways up and down the hall, but towards the end of the last session we actually got to hold a sword and practiced some lunges facing into a mirror.

I'm glad I used to cycle so much because the stance you take really works the thigh muscles and although I'm feeling the pain in my legs during the course I haven't yet been felt it the next day unlike most of my course mates who apparently are all stif for a day after the course.

Easy Rider
I went out for a ride with some people on GB Bikers last Saturday, we started from Pure Truimph in Wellingborough and rode out to Victory Motorcycles in March before heading back via the Weld bikes near Peterborough.

I've been giving some serious thought to getting rid of my Deauville, Big Red is about to reach 60,000 miles and is starting to need maintance on bits which haven't needed maintenance before.

Oh No, I've gone blind
Actually I haven't, but has been really really foggy around here recently which has made getting to work interesting, this morning I passed a couple of shunts and traffic has been crawling along at 30mph :(

The Silver Screen
I've seen a couple of films at the cinema recently. Sweeny Todd was much better than I was expecting and will be going into my DVD collection when released. Cloverfield was a film I had been looking forward to for a long time but I didn't really enjoy it as much as I was expecting.

There were 2 problems with Cloverfield
1) the camera angles and that stupid camcorder view that was used the whole way through it. It's a lot like the Blair Witch Project which to this day is the only film I've ever fallen asleep in the cinema watching. Also, the camera shots became the defining attribute of the film,

2) I want to see the monster damn it, maybe I'm just too indifferent to people but I don't care about the characters in the film, I don't care if they live of die, I don't care how they die; its the monster I want to see, I want to understand what it is, what is it doing, why is it doing that - and you don't get to find any of that out and bearly see it for most of the film :(

The Darkness
I've tried to follow my Night Hike route in the dark but I only got about 2 miles before running out of path and spent the next hour trying to find it again, I never did. I went back the next day in the daylight and I've realised what I've done wrong so since I have next Tuesday booked off work I'll be heading back to Rutland Water Monday night to try it again.

What I did follow of the walk was great, it was a cloudless night and Rutland Water is a very dark sight so you could see loads of stars, it was cold and a heavy frost had formed on the grass which made it all crunchy and I saw an owl and a couple of foxes while trudging around in the dark.


-----

Well thats about all that I've been upto in the last couple of weeks.

that was silly

Yesterday morning I once again missed the early morning swimming session
at Impington because of the traffic alone the A428. The between St Neots
and Caxton Gibbets has become far more congested since the dual
carriageway from Caxton Gibbets to Cambridge was opened >:(

Anyway, I decided to give the general swimming session after work a try
instead. The drive is about 3 miles from work to the swimming pool and
after a particularly heavy impact with a pot hole I noticed cars behind
me flashing although I thought it was just cars bouncing up and down bumps.

When I got to work the people in the car park were staring at me,
strange I thought, Big Red isn't the prettiest bike in the world but she
doesn't normally get all this attention.

Park up, get off and find my side pannier box open and trailing my
swimming stuff behind it. Luckily I hadn't tried to filter through any
traffic and even actually lost anything and only the tip of the towel
had actually touched the ground so that was the only really wet bit.

I guess I hadn't shut the lid properly

Definitely fits into my "silly" category.

The swim wasn't great either, too many people not doing lengths which
meant I couldn't get any speed up.

Still this mornings ride into work was great, despite the howling wind
and rain the ride was smooth and precide and I really wanted to just
carry on riding into the fens instead of turning towards Cambridge and
going to work. Thats what I love about biking, those rides where
everything comes together at the same time.

Dog Racing

Last night I was meant to be going to the Greyhound track in Peterborough but Matt backed out so we all went to J's Restuarant in Cambridge instead. I love that restuarant, I haven't had a bad meal yet.

We are still planning on going to the Dog Track at some point where I will win the money I need to go to New Zealand for a holiday next Christmas.

Muppet

I'm feeling a bit foolish this morning, confused by the holidays creating a shorter week than normal I turned up for the early morning swim, paid for a 12 swim card and walked into the changing rooms and started getting changed.

Only to have the receptionist come running over to me and saying that it wasn't a open swimming session that morning - oops. Early morning swims are on Mondays, wednesdays and Fridays but Thursday mornings were training for a Triathlon.

I tried to sweet talk my way in by pointing out that I like cycling and sometimes I have to run to catch the bus but she still didn't let me in :(

In other news, last night I went to see I Am Legend, the first horror film that I've geniuning enjoyed in a long time, although it helps that it was that survivor genre which I've always loved. There were some holes in the story line which I thought were a little stupid but I wont mention what they are because it would give away parts of the story line.

Beowulf 3D

After doing some Christmas shopping in Milton Keynes yesterday I went to see Beowulf in 3D.

The effect was pretty good although not without fault. I did find it distracting for the first 20 minutes when there were a lot of sequences which were really only there to show off the 3d effects. After the first 20 minutes either the heavy 3d scenes were less prominent or I started ignoring them a bit more and started in enjoying the film.

The glasses weren't uncomfortable and the colours on the screen weren't affected by wearing them, the only fault I could see with the 3d effect was on bright objects at the front and side of the screen which had a ghost effect pointing towards the center of the screen.

Honda Heated Grips

I've just heard back from the garage about my bike, the reason the heated grips aren't working is because the left grip has failed - again. I had these official Honda grips installed by a bike garage last November because the grips which had been on the bike when I brought it a year before that stopped working when the left grip failed in exactly the same way.

Honda are suppose to have a reputation for relibility but I'm really doubting that with these grips. How can 2 seperate sets of grips fail within a 13 months of each other with the same fault?

OK, so I'm not the average bike ride, average bike does 2000 miles per year and I'm doing 25000 miles per year, but I don't leave the grips on for all that time so it's not like the grips have been running for tens times as long as a normal biker because for most of the year the grips are turned on. I suppose it could be because I ride the bike at least twice every day, including during winter so maybe it's not the running time of the heated grips but the number of times it heats up and cools down but I still think that something with 1 moving part (the varible resister used to control the temperate) should be able to last more than a 13 months.

I must admit, I don't actually like the heated grips that much in terms of asthetics, and thats coming from someone who rides what it possibly the uglest honda bike in the range; and I don't really like the control, in theory it's nice having infinate range of temperatures but in practice that just makes it really difficult to set the temperature at the right level and I have felt that a simple switch of off/low/medium/high would be much better.

Since I can't trust the reliability of the Honda Heated Grips, buying another replacement just seems like throwing good money after bad, so I've decided to not get the grips heated, and when I have the time I will be removing all the cabling, the controller, the grips and replacing with the standard equipment. Instead, I'm going to try some more passive heating options, starting with thermal glove lines to see if they can keep my fingers from freezing.

Bloody Honda, a waste of money

Brrrr

It's been a bit chilly recently, made significantly worse by the fact that my heated grips have stopped working again. grrr. I only had those grips fitted last year, unfortunately they are just outside of it's warrenty.

I did think about booking the bike back into the shop which fitted it, but I'm so fed up with stuff they do having little niggling problems afterwards that I've decided to book it into a garage in cambridge and see if they can find the fault. It's probably just a short circuit somewhere but without a multimeter I don't stand a chance of finding it.

While looking for the fuse for the Heated Grips, I noticed that the exhaust has a small hole in it so I've brought some putty and I'm going to try fixing that at lunch time.

Chips away

Tonight was the last night of the sculpture class. For the last 2 classes i have been carving a number plate for my house. I couldn't finish it but you can see what i was aiming for.

Loafing about

I've tried my handing at baking again. This time it actually looks like a loaf me bread but i haven't tried it yet so dont know what it tastes like yet

Seal fur boots

Today i went to donna nock to see the seals. Here is a cub which was in a photogenic mood

Like. Chill out man

Went to the sculpture class last night and we were working with wire. I modelled a leaf but for some reason i now have a desire to listen to some reggae.

End of the holiday

On my way home now. The weather this morning was warm and sunny but by the time we left it had turned cold and there was a little snow in the air so i think we had the best of the weather

Beddgelert

Katie and Wendy above the village where we are staying

Snowdon

Today we climbed snowdon. Very cold and windy with freezing pain and no view :(

Arriving in Wales

Mountains stir the soul, this place is 5 minutes from our cottage.

Mobile blogging setup

This post should setup blogging from my phone

Stuff In General

I've got my new phone working with Vodafone but unfortunately Vodafone don't seem to be able provide the right settings for MMS or WAP. I've phoned them, visited their store and emailed their technical support (who haven't yet replied).

I'm going to give them until Monday to get my settings sorted out before I move to another company.

My bike is in the garage getting serviced today but the new front tyre hasnt turned up so I've left the bike with then end I'm current getting the bus home. I'll pick the bike up tomorrow at lunch time.

Thursday and Friday I'm on holiday. I'm heading to Snowdonia for a long wedrerd with Katie, Wendy and Katie's boyfriend Nick (I think that's his name)