The full circle

Day thirty, and it's the last one, the song that was my favourite this time last year.
And a complete opposite from the opening track, but hell, that's just the way it is.

Now this blog will return to it's normal, slightly shambolic self, and you, you lucky souls will have less to suffer through.

Not given prongs

With Spring arriving yesterday in an entirely appropriate manner, I could see no reason not to ride and that I did. Even though it is spring I still haven't had a ride since Autumn, except of the garage variety, that have been sans longs or knee warmers. Unfortunately even yesterday was still not going to buck that trend, but it was a beautiful day.

Somehow, as I headed out, a slightly odd idea formed in my mind. That idea was to go and tackle Mountain Road. For those of you unfamiliar with Mountain Road, just think greater than 11% average, some steep sections, some even steeper sections and no relief. It's a narrow winding wall.

It is sufficiently tough that it requires a bit of forethought and some testicular fortitude. Where the trap of it comes is that the first kilometre isn't too bad, gets up to about 10% and lulls you into a false sense of confidence. Then it steepens and gets narrow and windy. Soon it is just a bush-lined hell. It's relentless, and if you've been foolish enough to have gone too deep early, there's a terrible price to pay further up.

I decided I would ride it, and would take it as easy as I could, being unsure of form, and not having really done any climbing training recently. What transpired was some relative joy. The climb was not as painful as I remember, I didn't resort to my usual postman's weave and I judged the top correctly.

I emerged around the top corner relieved and happy, I still couldn't answer the question from the chap working on his verge, without fear of inhaling him. Actually I was surprised he even asked me, as I'd wager my head looked like a giant beetroot with dribble, sweat and snot, but then it is Mountain Road.

I'm aiming to go back in a fortnight, it was that good!

Here's some brilliant noise!

Thin White Rope

People are strange. I'm living proof of that, but frequently I get affirmation of this immutable fact when I look at the search engine data for this august Blog.

Terms that have led people here include the following:-
Naked Boys Riding Bikes (Okay, there must be a site devoted to that, but I haven't gone looking)
Naked Women Wearing Rubber Gloves (That was interesting to follow, although how they got here after some of the better places to go is beyond me)
Fizik Antares Deepest Point (Complete mystery to me, but if it's anything like Jorge it will involve the inappropriate use of not just the saddle, but the seatpost as well)
Pumpkin Hill Artefact ( At first I thought this might have been a commentary on my K2 performance, but no, they seemed to be looking for something really crusty)
Naturist (Maybe I can capitalise on this one...)
Miss Junior Naturist (A trifle weird)
Flowery Rubber Gloves (There's a market segment I'm missing)
My Doctor Rubber Glove (This rubber glove thing is starting to weird me out a little, but maybe it's a new blog I could start. Only rubber gloves, and naked women, and fixie hipsters getting beaten by women in rubber gloves)
Defy by Doris (There's a fashion designer in Hong Hong who has that label. Well, I never! I wonder what the real Doris here will think about that when she finds out).

This week I have suffered from a little temporal dislocation, my weekday morning rides are confusing me. I had gotten used to the long darkness of the early morning rides. Now that K2 has been, gone and broken me, I've eased the pre-work mileage back a little, but still getting out early. I just find it strange to be riding in glorious sunlight before the commuting traffic starts to build. In a week or two I'll get used to it, but this week, it's been a strangely pleasurable discomfort.

Bands cover songs, some well, some better than the original, and some so badly that you wonder just what they were thinking.
Here are a few covers that I'd recommend pursuing vigorously.
Ministry - Under my thumb (taking that staid Rolling Stones drone and making it something nasty. Opens with synth that wouldn't be astray in a gay nightclub, then just builds and gets hard and heavy with it. Pure angry pleasure)
Ryan Adams - Wonderwall (Inspired cover of the Oasis anthem, takes something truly banal and turns it into a heartwrenching piece of humility)
The Revolting Cocks - Do you think I'm sexy? (This is how Rod should have done it, funny with plenty of bump and grind)
Johnny Cash -Hurt (Trent Rezner of Nine Inch Nails has openly stated that the Man in Black's version of his song is just brilliant)
Wilco - One Hundred Years from Now (just a riot of The Byrds song from Sweetheart of the Rodeo)
The Byrds - Hey Joe (Pure nerves and edginess, a creditible counterpoint to Jimi Hendrix and his definitive version. Jack White has built an entire career copying the style of this song)
1000 Homo Djs - Supernaut (Industrial stomping on the Black Sabbath classic)

And in that little line up there's something for everyone, even my Chief of Staff.