Joy, respect and wonder - congratulations! Happy 30th birthday darling Josh

 

And then it was DONE!

(This a quick update - turns out the fiddling wasn't over, took the decals off)
On the 28th of Jan all the fiddling was over.  It's so utterly cool, and DELIGHTFUL to ride, BlueToo. Completely analogue, zero internal routing, zero hydraulics, zero electronics; all cable mechanical, a touring weapon that can be maintained and repaired anywhere with two Allen keys and a spare cable, but which can still hold its own on dirt roads with gravel bikes, and on tar with road bikes for a weekday run. Aside from the obvious, it is all carbon, titanium, and a smattering of stainless steel, running high volume tubeless.  It's completely bike-porn.  Stadium level cheering.

Ev helped me wrap the bars and then hopped on to check out his handiwork.

I'm hoping for a circumnavigation of Taiwan in September or October, and I'm hoping he'll come along.

2024 - woohooo - new year

More of the good stuff to kick the year off, morning walk with Ange in the hills...

My school-mate Brendon Gass came to visit - so wonderful to see him - the god of seeing the beauty and loving life... philosopher 

Brendon and Aiden walking through old Sai Kung, perfect evening

...and with Aiden and Mikey Schats on the sunsetting golf course

The cat got extra long, for extra pats

Ange and I went to the East Capital Christmas-in-January, courtesy of Michael Hanson-Lawson; you carry your clothes, walk 10kms in, and then a hot shower overlooking Shek O golf course (where the Japanese executed prisoners during the second world war - seems inconceivable)

Even the old housing estates looked proportionally more cheerful.

The cat stopped by for its morning tummy rub.  As Simon Oz says, it has no shame.

...and more struggles with the bike-build.  This time the wheel dishing not right for the 11speed cluster; running a good centimeter left of frame centre.  If you look at the top of the wheel relative to the frame stud you can see it immediately.  Out with the spoke spanners, not frequently traversed waters, and no wheel building stand...deep breath.

Wheel dishing sorted, but then issues with the steering tube expander bolt and over-long cable housing. Wait for a 4 inch expander bolt from Taiwan... order compressionless cable housing... wait more... next weekend.

 

We went out for dinner to celebrate Ange's birthday at her favourite Alto in Wan Chai.

Aiden and Ev together (though poor Ev had been calendar-punked by having to study for his mock exams over this whole delightful period; his first exam had been on the 8th of Jan :-/

Wonderful neighbour Paul got a new gravel bike, super-hightech and just ... well wonderful... check out the carbon leaf-spring suspension fork, lightweight and maintenance free.  Carbon really is the most wonderful stuff in the bicycle zone.  This one built by an Icelandic bike company called Lauf.

We got a dart-board from the Priors, made a dartboard bracket (I had no idea there were such things) by taking the angle-grinder to an old electric motor mount, and had weekend days of darts in the interstices.