It is my birthday today. I am another year older. Well, I’m actually only a day older than I was when I was 33, but never mind that small, pedantic detail.
What I have noticed today is a good feature of Facebook. I can honestly say I have never had so many people sending birthday wishes my way. So thank you to everyone who has sent me wishes. And thank you, Facebook, for reminding everyone that today is my birthday.
Facebook FTW!
I like this one
After owning my current helmet for five years it is definitely time for me to get a new one. I actually started looking for a new helmet this time last year but never got around to actually making a purchase. This year I have no choice.
A problem I am having is I like the colour and design of my current helmet so don’t want to change it too much. Unfortunately I also have this feeling that I should change the colour and design just because I am buying a new helmet. Kind of a way to make buying a new helmet worth while.
Another thing which is mildly annoying is reviews of helmets rarely, if ever, mention the noise levels when wearing a given helmet. Couple that to the fact a road test of a helmet is impossible then it can be a bit of a lottery when buying a helmet whether or not you also need to buy a thicker set of ear-plugs.
I have always bought my helmets from a proper, walk-in shop. This time I am considering buying online as most other things I buy online. The main concern with purchasing a helmet online is you don’t really know how the helmet has been treated in the post. But then I guess when I bought my previous helmets from a shop I didn’t check how they were treated getting delivered from the manufacturer, or whether they ever fell from the shop shelf.
Maybe I should just email an online helmet shop and see what they say about courier treatment of helmets.
I randomly stumbled across this challenge being run by WordPress today. Actually there are two closely related challenges: PostADay and PostAWeek 2011. As I’ve been very poor at actually posting things here I figured I might as well give it a go.
Last year I made 12 posts. On the face of it that might look like a post every month, but most of those were in January. As such I think aiming for a post every day would be setting myself up to fail. I plan on taking part in the PostAWeek challenge – wish me luck and encourage me with comments and ‘likes’.
This Lock is Broken
More accurately I should say “Locked Off” as the lock which is troubling me is the brake-disk lock on my motorbike. It is, of course, my own fault as you shall see.
When I got out of bed yesterday morning I was feeling full of energy after a week away from work and relaxing over Christmas and New Year. Waking up to Zane Lowe playing Foo Fighters on the Radio 1 breakfast show helped as well.
With almost all the snow melted I decided it would be a good idea to take my bike. That failed at the first hurdle when I went to remove the lock. As soon as I turned the key to remove it, the key snapped like a stick of butter. Bugger.
No amount of poking and prodding with tweezers and screwdrivers would convince the remaining part of the key to either turn or come out. As a result I had to take Jill’s car, denying Jill a chance to go shopping.
This Lock is Fixed
Today I called a locksmith out – Reuben Withers from Forth Locks. It took him 10 minutes, and me 50 quid, to free my bike from its captor.
All-in-all the cheap £10 disk lock actually cost me £60. This time I think I’ll start with a more expensive disk lock and try and avoid the locksmith charges. I don’t suppose there really is any guarantees that will make any difference though.
Of course, now the bike is free again traffic reports suggest the roads may be too icy. Bugger!
Snow looks lovely in the trees
For the last week and a half I have found myself unable to get to the office to work. This is due to the severe wintery conditions we are currently having in Scotland. I can honestly say that I can only think of two other times in my life where I have seen snow this bad when at home.
Last Monday the snow meant I was unable to get to work and this was a good thing. I like working from home as I find I can get more work done due to lack of distractions and interruptions. As the week progressed the novelty of working from home diminished but was still a good thing. In addition to the lack of distractions from colleagues I also got to see more of my wife and son.
We are currently halfway through the second week of severe wintery conditions and the novelty is wearing off massively. Tonight I went for a walk to the shops just so I could leave the house for a while. Not to get away from Jill and Leon though, just to escape these four walls.
Right now I really hope the M8 gets restored to being a proper motorway and not the glorified farm track it has been reduced to by these recent snow showers. Maybe then I can leave my house and get back into the office.
R1200GS Adventure not filtering
Coming home from work yesterday I was filtering through the traffic to join the motorway. Very quickly I caught up with a BMW GS1200 Adventure also trying to filter. Of course, being an Adventure, it was fitted with the super-wide aluminium panniers – essential for the daily commute. Of course having these massive panniers meant this BMW wasn’t really able to filter at any speed – hence why I caught up with it so quickly.
Sitting behind watching the BMW trying to filter made it perfectly obvious to me that this rider shouldn’t be trying to filter at all. Regularly they came to a complete stop rather than squeeze through a space they would fit through. I guess they throught their bike was wider that it actually was. How this could be true I don’t know as any wider and their bike would have needed two more wheels.
The other problem was the rider kept his feet off the pegs! Due to the height of the bike neither foot actually reached the ground either so I have no idea what they though they were gaining by dangling their legs in midair. And this, of course, did nothing to aid their balance as they filtered between the cars.
All-in-all I got to witness a masterclass on how not to filter:
Anyway, finally the rider gave up filtering and let me past. I last saw them in my mirrors disappearing rapidly backwards as I took off down the motorway.
I really should write more stuff in here. The problem is I always think of things to write when I am not anywhere near a computer. Often it is when I am riding my bike so my laptop/phone/notepad wouldn’t really help.
Mind you, that is just an excuse. If I really wanted to write stuff I would, but would you read? Who knows…
