More tales from the (bike) saddle

I've now managed to get out on the mountain bike 4 times this year already. All 4 rides have been modest 12 - 15 milers but enjoyable nevertheless. This weekend's trip took me up through Penwood towards Bughclere, Old Burghclere, up on to the Whitway and home via Highclere. This picture was taken on a bridleway just outside Old Burghclere, and there's a deceptively steep hill just out of view.

Bridleway near Old Burghclere, Hampshire

I have finally finished David Byrne's excellent Bicycle Diaries and thought it was quite appropriate that soon after I had a good pedestrian vs. bad cyclist incident in London last week, that I read the chapter about the rules of the road. My incident involved me crossing a pedestrian crossing at which the green man was displaying, i.e. my right of way. I was just about to cross when someone on a fold up bike came speeding through what, for him, would have been a red light. My cry was half chastising him for his error, and half surprise that he nearly ran me down. Instead of an acknowledgement of error on his part I was greeted with a gruff "f*** off". I wasn't particularly shaken by the event, but very angry regarding this man's ignorance and arrogance. It's these sort of people who give other law abiding cyclists a bad name.

Fortunately I was en route to Notting Hill Gate where I rewarded myself with some CD retail therapy, picking up a couple Thing of the Past and Errant Charm bu Vetiver, Exile by Charalambides, along with CDs by Espers, Roedelius and Brian Eno

Anyway, having finished the David Byrne book, I am about to move on to a book I bought just before Christmas On the Slow Train. I've got a few trips to London this week so will hopefully manage to make some good progress during the train journeys.

    

Bicycles, books and music

My Christmas man-flu is unbelievably still lingering but at least it's nowhere near as bad as it was. Going back to work on Tuesday was a huge shock to the system, but fortunately I worked the first 2 days from home, before working in London for 2 days at the end of the week. Whilst in London I had intended to go CD shopping one evening after work but alas I ended up working late and by the time I got back to my hotel I needed food, and after that I had more work to do. However, I'm up in London again next week so hopefully will have another opportunity. I've also got a list of other places to visit this year but need to wait until the evenings are lighter for most of them.

I managed another modest 12 mile bike ride today, but this time on my own. I followed pretty much the same route as the one I did last week with my daughter, but added on a small loop around Highclere Church before heading home.

Decision point

I wasn't in the mood for the uphill trek to Ashmansworth so opted for the route to East End instead, where I was rewarded with my first sighting of a fox this year. Interesting over the last year I think I have seen more foxes in London that I have out in the country where I live. I guess the dustbins of the rich and famous are the star attraction.

Last night we watched the Inspector Morse prequel, Endeavour, which I though was well written and superbly acted. I'm hoping there will be a series based on the success of this. I also caught an hour or so of the Old Grey Whistle Test last night, featuring some brilliant 70's music from the quirkiness of Captain Beefheart to the pre-punk sounds of Patti Smith playing a track from here 1975 debut album Horses, and Dr Feelgood, and through to the post-punk/new wave era with The Talking Heads performing their seminal Psycho Killer, The Jam, Blondie and The Specials.

My reading is, as always, very slow and I'm still working my way through David Byrne's excellent Bicycle Diaries. In the book, he's now in San Francisco which, fingers-crossed, will be this year's summer holiday destination.

    

Stop Making Sense

As the Talking Heads soundtrack plays in my head as I read my way through David Byrne's excellent Bicycle Diaries, I am inspired to listen to some of his solo material that I've probably not played for several years. The first challenge was that much of it is on vinyl, and some has unfortunately been lost, so I've embarked on a rediscovery fest and downloaded a much extended version of the first solo album I heard, Knee Plays. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard this - in a second hand record shop in the market in Swansea. I don't remember the name of the shop and I have no idea if the shop is still there (I hope so) but as a student it provided me with some great music that the normal chain stores of the day simply didn't stock.

I also seem to have some holes in my David Byrne back catalogue where releases came out which completely passed me by. Having been a massive fan of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, I was aware of his recent collaboration with Brian Eno but was somewhat nervous in that I didn't believe it could ever better their first one. I finally took the plunge yesterday and downloaded Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Very pleased to say that my fears were not realised, and although it's nothing at all like Bush of Ghosts, it is still nevertheless a fantastic album ... and it also made me realise that I had in fact already heard some of these tracks when I saw him play live in Oxford a few years ago ... think I'll have to put that one down to old age.

So what next? Probably time to reacquaint myself with Songs From the Catherine Wheel.

    

Ooh, look what Santa brought me

Well, I'm going to give this particular blog one more chance and see if I can keep the postings a bit more frequent that every 6 months. I have loads of things I'd like to share here, but work and my other blogs seem to take up most of my time. So, I'll start my pre-New Year's resolution with a short post about one of my Christmas Presents, Bicycle Dairies by David Byrne. Being a cyclist and a huge Talking Heads fan, my wife quite rightly felt she'd scored two points in one go here. I've only read the America chapter so far, where we are entertained with short diary entries of bike rides through lesser known parts of well known US cities. The images of their abandonment, dereliction and rebirth come flooding in to my mind as I read each new entry. Also, in my mind I have subconsciously mixed a Talking Heads soundtrack to accompany my reading. Every time the book says "river", "highway", or "restaurants and bars" I find myself reading the words as they are sung in one of the songs.

The descriptions in the book also bring back some childhood memories of growing up on the very outskirts of London and are inspiring me to pay another return visit to some of these places to see what has become of them. Watch this space for a blog post on that subject in (hopefully) the not too distant future.