It's been a month where the corporate has crowded out much (but not all) of the personal - but like so much of life that one is tempted to wish away, out of anxiety (in my case), or other perceived challenges - loneliness on the road etc - it turned out to be pretty cool.
Learned some interesting stuff. Met some deeply fascinating folk. Saw a number of people I love and miss. During this time, if you'll forgive me for a quick grandpa George digression - May arrived with an absolute vengeance. Heat and beauty shimmering together. It's been exceptionally clear - better air quality than Cape Town and Charlottesville,Virginia - and exceptionally hot. On Wednesday just past, it was 36.7 degrees - which is the hottest day in May since records started here 130 years ago. Someone died hiking, and there is a (surprisingly ignored) water shortage (25% of normal rainfall this year so far, Kevin told me, though adding that the city could catch that up with one early typhoon. Fair point. Provided it happens). Either way, I've been out of the house early on my bike every day this week except today - the sabbath you know - and into the ocean for a long and lovely swim - before a massive sweat home up the hill from the Clearwater Bay 2 beach. Sadly the camera on my phone has died and I've failed to prioritize a new one, so I'm super-thin on photos. That's probably because I've been unusually OBSESSED with bicycles of late - should I be worried? Anyway, I have a US ride reasonably well on its way - couple of tiny challenges, but route and gear largely sorted (if you have time to wait, the internet is a freakishly fantastic thing for obscurity and price discovery - been buying teeny little bits and pieces from far-flung places and building the touring bike bit by bit - some of it super exotic (for example second hand cyclocross shifters built by a company called The Goats of Gevenalle - I kid you not ... how good is that pun?) I also decided that I've been working too much and not doing anything creative - never a good habit that, in my view - so I'm making some bicycle t-shirts using laser printed transfers. I think I should get into silk screening - looks relatively easy to do in monochrome - but messy, and space hungry. There are a wealth of fantastic images on the web to consider. Included here are two of the things I've constructed - the bike below is by a company called Horse - a thing of beauty.
I was also looking at some bicycle revolution posters, there are some that are immensely cool like this one below. Skid competition - used to love those back-pedal brake bikes - build up a massive speed, stomp that break, and sliiiiide:
The other thing I noticed was this teacher who created a course in social change, and the focus of the project was making a city bicycle friendly. Here is the article about it in Forbes . Makes me wonder wtf is wrong with South Africans - you could not get a better climate for cycling to work and back than Pretoria - for example - and yet there is no consciousness at all about it. Compare that to London or Melbourne where huge numbers of people rely on bikes. I don't get it. What I do get is that is why so many people are so angry half the time. Bikes sort that stuff out, chop chop. Make people laugh and smile and trust.
Learned some interesting stuff. Met some deeply fascinating folk. Saw a number of people I love and miss. During this time, if you'll forgive me for a quick grandpa George digression - May arrived with an absolute vengeance. Heat and beauty shimmering together. It's been exceptionally clear - better air quality than Cape Town and Charlottesville,Virginia - and exceptionally hot. On Wednesday just past, it was 36.7 degrees - which is the hottest day in May since records started here 130 years ago. Someone died hiking, and there is a (surprisingly ignored) water shortage (25% of normal rainfall this year so far, Kevin told me, though adding that the city could catch that up with one early typhoon. Fair point. Provided it happens). Either way, I've been out of the house early on my bike every day this week except today - the sabbath you know - and into the ocean for a long and lovely swim - before a massive sweat home up the hill from the Clearwater Bay 2 beach. Sadly the camera on my phone has died and I've failed to prioritize a new one, so I'm super-thin on photos. That's probably because I've been unusually OBSESSED with bicycles of late - should I be worried? Anyway, I have a US ride reasonably well on its way - couple of tiny challenges, but route and gear largely sorted (if you have time to wait, the internet is a freakishly fantastic thing for obscurity and price discovery - been buying teeny little bits and pieces from far-flung places and building the touring bike bit by bit - some of it super exotic (for example second hand cyclocross shifters built by a company called The Goats of Gevenalle - I kid you not ... how good is that pun?) I also decided that I've been working too much and not doing anything creative - never a good habit that, in my view - so I'm making some bicycle t-shirts using laser printed transfers. I think I should get into silk screening - looks relatively easy to do in monochrome - but messy, and space hungry. There are a wealth of fantastic images on the web to consider. Included here are two of the things I've constructed - the bike below is by a company called Horse - a thing of beauty.
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