Irrigation irritation ...
It appears that the hosepipe ban which has been in place during the preceding "wettest six months on record" has finally been lifted. I must get the canoe out tonight and check the sprinklers, should be able to get a week or so of irrigation in before the 2007 drought order kicks in.
See previous thoughts on our utility providers... Rain Rain
Sufferin' Saturday
I've been threatening the early morning bike boys that I'd capture their efforts on camera for some while and last week my new helmet camera arrived from the USofA (it's a lovely thing, self contained and capturing over an hour of video to an SD card). With little ado I strapped the beastie to my lid on Saturday morning and captured an hour or so of 'all macho, man and machine in perfect harmony, action video', on editing the resultant masterwork I dicovered :-
- That I spend a hell of a lot of time looking at the road and my front wheel,
- That the camera was set a little far forward on my helmet resulting in lots of film of feet, legs and back tyres.
- That it will be more fun when it's sunny and dry rather than dark and wet
- That the audio was unusable, (and quite scary) due to my painfully laboured panting
- That the language captured on audio (where lungs permitted speech) was, frankly, too profane for a family audience
So I cobbled the few usable bits together with some good tunes, there's a low resolution version on Youtube, click on the helmet to view it...
Enjoy, or not, as it suits you...
Latte Art
If, like me you're a committed coffee addict and see the arrival of many purveyors of caffeine based goodness as a civilising thing (Starbucks excluded) you'll be pleased to hear of anything which enhances your coffee experience.
If you've any creativity in you you'll be hard to drag away from your local Costa once you've seen this little lot...
click on the picture for the link =>
Thoughts from the treadmill
As a regular (albeit reluctant) user of the gym facilities, (I know it's hard to tell looking at me but 'tis true), I'm always heartened by the post Christmas rush of the the guilt-ridden, r
ed faced, short lived resolutioners. I spent a little time this morning identifying a few suggestions that, if adopted could make visits to PE Purgatory a little more pleasant for all of us, the seasoned sweaters and the overindulgent occasionals, feel free to add your own suggestions...
Ladies, if it says 'FOXY' in bold lettering across the seat of your jogging pants, and if you observe that people have to take a few steps backwards to read the text,it might be wise to keep them in the wardrobe. This applies many times over if there's room for 'Abercrombie and Fitch'
You, the bloke in the bandana, you're not Johnny Depp, you're closer to Johnny Morris, you are a balding, greying, paunchy middle-aged bloke like the rest of us and no-one is going to invite you to go snowboarding or surfing, and it's not keeping the sweat out of your eyes either, you're not sweating you lazy git.
It's 7.05 and that's the third time you've checked your Blackberry, you still have no mail, why? because you're not important, you can be out of contact for an hour and the bedrock of western commerce won't crumble (and you've no personal messages because no-one likes you, ...... except Vodafone).
As a general rule, if the amount of equipment you're carrying around (ipod, blackberry, phone, paperback, Heart rate monitor, checklist, biro, spare biro just in case, water bottle, towel, special gloves for lifting things), is greater than the weights you are taking off the racks, your approach to building muscle may be flawed.
No amount of standing around huffing and twitching is going to make me get off this piece of equipment any faster, (quite the contrary in fact), so here are your options,
change your routine, it's a recommended schedule not a sacred ritual
try a different machine, go on, live a little
or keep standing there, watch me exercise, that'll cause your kilos to drop off...
Tattoos, a small, attractive, almost hidden ideogram on a svelte lithe young figure can be intriguing and appealing, a Celtic dagger with accompanying intertwined snakes pointing directly down the spine can all too often say 'look at the size of my hideous arse!'
Gentlemen, the maori scrollwork around your pasty upper arms does not mean you will be mistaken for a pop star, special forces operative or mysterious surfer dude. You're a tattooed Independent Financial Adviser. Sorry to shatter the illusion.
Sorry about this ladies but, honestly, if I've a choice I'll probably spend more time looking at your pert lycra-clad buttocks than the corpulent actuary on the next treadmill, Let's be real, I'm a chap and you're a gently perspiring woman in a relatively small amount of tight clothing. Sad maybe but true, definitely!
On the subject of perspiration, another thought for the ladies, if you've put your make-up on before you exercise (you know who you are), if you've done your work-out and the cosmetic mask is still intact, you possibly didn't do the 'work' part of work-out.
If the gym is busy and there are many folk frantically feeling their individual burns and there is no-one within 6 feet of you, why don't you try washing that malodorous off-cream t-shirt you always wear, Yes, you, I'm talking to you! in the personal exclusion zone! blow your nose, take a deep breath, horrible isn't it? well that's you that is.... weekly exercise and an annual wash make a very unattractive combination.
still it's only for a couple more weeks...
