Go east, young women

If there are two things I love, they're biking and Charlie, right? So, now that Charlie's off doing learning in The East, what better way to feed those two loves than to cycle there. To Cambridge, from Bath. Right?

So I did.

The facts:

170 miles (272 km)

Two days (with absurdly short daylight hours. Oh! This Northern Land! Sunrise: 7.18am. Sunset: 4.26pm)

One friend (Sue! Violinist in Stringbeans/partner in bike crime with whom I did John O' Groats to Land's End)

It seemed like the perfect formula. The prevailing winds here are always from the West, and we'd be headed East. And everyone knows it gets flatter and flatter the farther east you go. And, there's nothing I like more than just going and going and going and going for hours and hours on the bike. Really. There's a kind of smooth perpetual motion of life that overcomes you and it feels so very right. Also, all you can eat candy and protein bars. YES.

The big issue was 1) not reeeeally knowing where we were going, apart from East and a bit North, having just guessed at highlighting some "smaller-looking roads" on a old AA map. The result of this was twofold, both: Happy surprise! We passed through some really gorgeous towns and villages that I'd never heard of before and, amazingly, managed to avoid any real big hills both days. Even in the Cotswolds! Whoop! And, also, sometimes finding ourselves faced with a road too scary-with-traffic for me (not for Sue, she's made of steel. Like the robot in that safety advert we had as kids, "I can put my arm back on, you can't, [bike] safe.") which meant some extra mileage as we'd detour to smaller, prettier, safer, and loooonger roads... .

2) The dark. Man! There really is nothing but dark nowadays, here. And for another month.5! This meant our rides both started and ended in blackness. Which meant, for super biking safety me, turning myself into a Christmas tree. Three blinking (not in time) red lights on the back, three blinking white lights on the front, a high-vis vest, anklet, and reflective everything. I also brought twenty glow-sticks for emergencies, but didn't need them. This time.

Tiny issues, really, all things considered. And, all things considered it was awesome. I can't wait to do it again. In the spring. In the daylight. Everyone is invited!

Stop-Motion

Hi everyone! Hi!

Sorry it's been a little while. I've been busy doing stuff like... a little stop-motion video for Diplodocus by the ol' solo project Waitress for the Bees. It's my first ever crack at animation so, um, blah blah disclaimer etc.

Fun though! I just kind of wish the dance routine bit went on longer. Longer and longer. Maybe I'll make another one for another song...? (Full-screen for Full-fun.)

Rage, rage against the

So, I'm doing a recording session gig this weekend, for The Heavy . (Who are _great_ and one of my favourite groups to work for of all time. But that's a topic for another post.) And one of the songs we're working on has a line that goes "Cause if you're going to fight, find something worth fighting for." (Or something like that. I was busy playing my viola and adjusting my headphones, so, that's probably not word-perfect.

But close enough.

Which is related to:

Last night I had some lovely friends over to get beaten at Settlers of Catan (Cs & Ks edition) and after the game, we got into talking, talking about these THINGS that, as we get older, creep over us more and more. These _causes_. For my friend last night it was parenting education. For me it is Empowerment of Women. Maybe yours is Urban Cycling, or Preservation of Wild Space etc etc. These causes inflame us, the very mention of them makes us passionate and full-of-fire-and-opinion-and-hope, for, we're sure, they can change the world.

If only we knew how to let them.

And that's the thing. We all have them, these things. And Want To Do Something About Them. But. How? I know. Look for small things you can do within your own community, blah, blah. But I don't want to. I want to save the world. Right now. You too? So how do we do that?

(I guess, for my part, to start, there's this: )

good taste

So, everybody knows that France* has good food. Like, really good. And that they take that seriously. But, who knew that the driving force behind this culture de gastronomie** was... truck drivers?

Truck drivers?

Truck drivers.

See, the truck drivers all take their two hour lunch breaks and go for long, leisurely, high quality meals. And, given the nature of their business, they know all the best, far-flung, secretly amazing places to go. They have very high standards. And rumours of the place-to-be (and eat) flow fast and free within this community.

"Everybody here knows," say the proprietors of our Gite, "if you want to find the best places to eat, you follow the truck drivers."

"And," they add, "should the truck drivers decide the quality of your restaurant has slipped, good luck finding anyone willing to eat there..."

That this intrinsic cultural irony is not irony at all in France, is just a given, says something quite nice about that culture, no? Of course truck drivers can and do have the highest tastes and standards. Why not?

Yea, why not?


*Where Charlie and I just were, for a week, a wonderful amazing biking and eating and drinking in and around the Loire Valley who, for the record, are _incredibly_ bike friendly (placemats in restaurants of bike route maps? At several restaurants? Good restaurants?).

**France is the only country where restaurant reviews refer to whether a given spot is good for "amateurs"...

Videoformation

Here is a very well put together, interesting and fun video about...viola physics! Yeah! So informative.

What is up with Noises?