Stuff Archives

No, this isn't the title of my autobiography, but it could be about someone. The other day, William was cooking soup for lunch and I asked him what was burning as I could smell something. Nothing, it's just something on the hob was the reply I got back as he stared at his phone. He managed to literally stand next to a pan of soup while it was melting the spoon that he was supposed to be stirring it with, but he didn't notice because he was texting someone on his phone.

The thing that's really daft is that he didn't tell me about it, he just put the spoon in the dishwasher as he didn't think I'd notice anything was wrong with it. I don't claim to be the most observant person in the world, but the pictures below show how difficult it would have been to not have noticed.

Nothing really special here as the gopro wasn't working, but I've just spent the last few hours messing around with the conversion for the trail so I'm going to keep it and post it. The only thing slightly noteworthy is the bloody big hill William got me to go up. It's a good job that bike's got good brakes as I had to stop several times and then restart. If the brakes had given way I'd have ended up at the bottom of the hill in a heap rather quickly. Now, that would probably be something worth seeing.

I love it when someone sets out to do something and they achieve it. I've been watching Itzu for the past month as he's pushed to get the #1 spot on the Clash of Clans leaderboard. There's still two hours to go, but he's got it, so I'm going to officially congratulate him. Like a German taking penalties, he's executed flawlessly this season. I know a lot of it came down to his base building versus the attacks, but still, you've got to maintain that consistency. I think Stars will still remain the person to beat given how dominant he usually is, but it's good to see that someone else can do it too!

This article caught my attention: Armed robbers' car stolen during Colorado heist, police say. I don't want to laugh at armed robbery, but somehow this seems to have some poetic justice. The armed robbers were apparently arrested while fleeing the scene on foot after their getaway car was stolen.

Well, since the east span of the Bay Bridge opened, I've wondered what it would be like to walk across it. I'd resigned myself to the fact that I'd never find out, but today I did it on a handcycle. It was quite a slog getting up and over, but not as hard as I thought it was going to be. It was easier than going over the freeway bridge or the incline behind Golden Gate Fields, but it lasted a lot longer. I seemed to manage to find a happy cadence that I could just plod along at and eventually made it over. Coming back! Coming back was a huge amount of fun. I really wish I could have got into a higher gear, but the bike I'm using is old and I can only get onto the two smaller sprockets and not onto the third larger one. It just meant that I was coasting and couldn't really do anything to affect my speed.

The other memorable moment was that I got confused with the road layout and stopped. William didn't. He went into the back of me and flew over his handlebars and ended up in the road. Unfortunately I turned to see him bounce along the road, but my eyes looking back see further than the camera. You can hear him clatter into me, you just don't get to see the carnage.

Video of the bike ride Long and boring video. The route is in the map below.

Had to laugh this week when I read an article on the BBC's website about a pop group, STAYC, that were playing in Texas and decided to wear tops to support the local Texas Rangers baseball team. Somehow there was a complete mix up and they ended up with tops for Rangers Football Club. I think the thing that I find really funny is that US team shirts don't have sponsorship on them and these two had tops with McEwan's lager on the front which would have totally confused everyone at the concert. I don't even know if you can get McEwan's in the US or if anyone would know what it is.



Link to BBC article

I'm getting more and more used to this handcycling malarky. Now getting a reasonable distance and today cycled from the BORP center to Marina Bay Park which is a round trip of just over 12.5 miles. It's a pretty easy ride, but there are two big uphills. The first is immediately to cross the freeway (which then also means it's the last thing on the way back) and then another to go around the back of Golden Gate Fields (the horse racing track). I decided to plop a GoPro on my head this time out. You need to be really bored to watch this given it's an hour and a half long as well as the fact that most of the video is just me grunting. The middle bit of the video is more interesting when you get away from the freeway and have views of San Francisco, but still, it's an hour and a half video of a bike ride. Possibly the most amusing thing is the acknowledgement of seeing a Womble. I would recommend that you download the video rather than playing it direct as I'm sure it's just going to constantly buffer if you try to stream.

Video of the bike ride if you're really sad. The route is in the map below.

Nothing really to this story, just some pictures and a video from the summer trip back to England. There was supposed to be two other videos, but William really didn't put any effort into taking them and, not surprisingly, they turned out terrible, so I haven't bothered keeping them.

A quick picture of Foxton Locks from a day trip. I believe it's still the most consecutive locks in the world. Unlikely to get beaten really as I don't think they're building that many canals and locks these days.

Quite pleased with this image as it was taken from a distance and through a window on my phone. None of which are recipes for a good photo. This is a green woodpecker that's very skittish. It's really hard to get close to this bird before it flies away and I managed to capture it. I did get one a few years ago, but only as it flew off.

The last is video of a shunt at Stibbington. I'd stopped by to look at the river Nene where I used to fish and they were moving some carriages about. The only amusing thing about the video is when the train driver sounded his horn, William jumped and I thought we were going to be one iPhone less than we started the trip with. Thankfully he held onto it and it didn't plunge into the murky depths of the river.

I decided to have a cup of coffee when I got home. All was good until I got up to put the cup back on the side and I kind of expected more resistance when I put the cup down and the handle came off in my hand. I think it's probably time I got a new set of cups, but I really like these as they've big.

I'll give Owen credit for the best response which is - good job you didn't have a wank instead of a cup of coffee. Sound advice!

Alright, so I've decided I'm too fat and it doesn't seem to be going away so I need to do something about it. I've been looking at handcycles as I want to do something outside so I can get some fresh air at the same time. I'm going to get one, but in the meantime, I found an amazing organization, the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP), that has a lot of bicycles, handcycles and many other contraptions that you can use. I took William along with me to film this amazing shot. I wanted him to use one of the recumbent cycles, but he wasn't allowed to try one as he doesn't have a disability. I wanted him to try a regular pedaling one versus the handcycle I was using. Anyway, this is going to take some getting used to. My arms might be strong, but I'm completely knackered after a relatively short ride of a couple of miles.

Track and short video are below. I did have to swap handcycles mid way through as the first one got a puncture and I didn't want to finish the journey on the rim.