I’ve not posted recently because there’s been almost nothing to say: I’ve spent most of this week horizontal due to pain and lack of energy. But here’s some bits to prove I’m still alive. Continue reading
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Category Archives: out and about
Psychokiller?
Don’t read this unless you enjoy adolescent burblings. Continue reading
Time’s arrow?
I’ve hardly moved from my ‘nest’ for the past few days: the furthest I’ve gone is our back yard. Meanwhile Elly has been busy trying out a cargo bike.
Re-recyled
Click to enlarge
A slightly more ambitious jaunt yesterday – 6 miles in 46 minutes of saddle-time. We had a break for tea at Marks & Spencer in Craigleith, and I hobbled across the carpark to look for networking gear in Curry’s. (I think our main ethernet switch may be getting old, and it might be worthwhile replacing it with a managed device with more ports.)
This ‘effort’ flattened me again: I slept for 2 hours when we got home. I don’t want to cycle today, but I will go out for another jaunt tomorrow if at all possible.
Recycled?
I’ve just been in a saddle for the first time in over two weeks. We finished our spinathon on April 2nd – since then I’ve been more or less prostrate. That was caused in part by preparations for my colonography. I’ll not go into details here but suffice it to say I had to ensure my colon was empty by following a very restricted diet and taking some powerful medications. The abdominal pain continues, varying in location but most often in my ascending colon. Continue reading
Au revoir
Well it’s time to leave Napier for 6 months to pursue other personal interests. I’ll be back in October to work on the IL-DEM project with Peter Cruickshank and Hazel Hall.
For now a huge thank-you to friends and colleagues in the School of Computing/IIDI, principally in the Centre for Social Informatics.
Unhappy trails, ninjwaz!
First, some trivia with photos. It appears my beard sticks out of the breathing holes in my balaclava.
beardy-wierdy?
Happy trails, ninj-waz!
Purchases
Ageing ninja or spawny-eyed wazzock?
A few more ouches this weekend. The first was another Trespass top, so that I’ll have a spare for if I wash any clothes en route. Trespass also sell fleece thermals. I’m not yet convinced my sleeping bag and its fleece outer will be warm enough, so I couldn’t resist. The only question is whether I look like a ninja or a wazzock – your call!
I’m also thinking seriously about abandoning my road shoes for a pair of Shimano mountain-bike boots I bought a year or so ago. I didn’t get on with them at the time but now they feel comfortable, and they’re much easier to walk in than road shoes, so I think I won’t need to take different footwear just for walking. Continue reading
Shaking it down – again
Another attempt to get my legs used to pedalling a laden bike. Snow and ice prevented cycling in Holyrood Park, so I cycled to Musselburgh and back. I felt that I was still abominably slow. However, using Elly’s panniers, which do not protrude above the pannier rack, meant that my sleeping mat was better positioned and so Lev did not feel top-heavy and ready to fall over.
 Elly’s pannier’s don’t protrude |
 Mine do |
Here’s the inevitable cyclemeter map.
Shaking it down
It’s about 3 months until we set of for our Iron Curtain Trail cycle. We’ve done a number of long-ish cycles (about 500 miles) but have always stayed in hotels and hostels. The ICT will be much harder – over 4000 miles and camping most nights – so there’s a lot of preparation to do. So today I did my first shakedown-cycle (2 laps of Holyrood Park), to try to learn more about cycling a fully-laden bike, what and how to pack, etc.
Here’s the cyclometer-map, and here’s the GoPro video:
Digital evidence that Bruce might have a life 
