A little help here please, with the Ryder Cup starting later this week Celtic Manor is obviously in the news a little, all are pronouncing it ‘Keltic’ (with a hard ‘K’), I later hear a football report from Scotland and the exact same word is pronounced ‘Seltic’ (with an ‘S’), why?
Did you know… Continue reading “Celtic, Keltic, Seltic ? ? ?”
It’s crunch time in the competition, our local lads have performed magnificently to qualify for today’s semi-final against the Aussie outfit from Adelaide up in Pretoria.
Guess what’s at stake?
Are we blessed or what? Just two months after the Football World Cup The Champions League T20 (effectively the club world championship) started in South Africa over the weekend and we’re a host city!
A 16 day non-stop jamboree of bright lights, fireworks, entertainment and cricket action as only those Indian billionaires know how.
Eastern Province (where I live) won the S.A. competition last year, I think our first trophy since the days of Kepler all those years ago and as holders are automatic entrants.
The competition comprises the top teams from around the world, India(3), Oz(2), W.indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and 2 from S.A. England appear to have thrown their toys out the cot and are not participating this year (they sent 2 sides last year)
So, we have 10 teams, 2 sections of five with the top 2 in each progressing to the semi-final stage.
Advertising down here is large, outdoor, press, radio and TV.
Our home side The Chevrolet Warriors (GM has a factory here) are playing their second game tonight against the Victorian Bushrangers, an Ozzie outfit who have won four of the last five Ozzie competitions that boasts the likes of Nannes, Siddle, Harwood, McGain, Hodge, Hussey (David) and the dangerous Andrew McDonald. Tickets are a reasonable 30 rand (£2.50) Continue reading “CLT20 – I like it !!!”
The dog training isn’t going very well.
The Terrible Two come running when I arrive home – but only when I call their names. They don’t seen to understand, or show any willingness to understand “off” and “down” and they will not be bribed with commercial treats.
They are siblings – a male and a female from the same litter. Continue reading “Dodgy dog training”
Ok, it may seem like I’m constantly blithering on about the bliss-out effects of cycling blah, blah, etc, etc ad infinitum but I also concede that it’s not without its occasional mishaps.
Mountainbiking is arguably more hazard-strewn than the routine road commute. There’s mud, rocks, exposed roots and twisty gnarly descents in them thar hills. Plenty to stop you in your tracks, in other words. Having said that, it’s probably a bit more comfy to be wiped outby a malevolent branch in the spokes than it is to be knocked sideways by a people-carrier driven by a reckless, stressed mother late for the school run. Continue reading “Hurrah for the helmet.”
For some members of the older generation, cycling is one of those things like Marmite and Lyle’s Golden Syrup, that hasn’t changed in a lifetime.
You can forget your garish lycra, your fancy Pinarellos and your Eddie Merckx racing bikes, your knobbly tyres and your crud-catchers and your twenty-one gears and £150 lights sets for scorching secret trails in the dark.
You can also forget your tricksy BMX bikes and your iconic Moultons and Pashleys.
Many of the older generation stoically make their way to work come rain or shine on a bog-standard, sit-up-and-beg bikes which are simply the means of getting from A to B cheaply. Continue reading “Argos and an east wind”
So are you a driver who hates cyclists?
Or a cyclist who hates drivers?
None of the above? Or a bit of both?
Reading some of the feedback on articles about road safety – how to cycle safer…how drivers can be more cycle aware, etc, you’d think it was open warfare out there on the highway. Continue reading “Safer roads”
The guy had been to Sharm el-Sheikh. Red Sea. World-renowed diving site. But he didn’t go diving. So I had to ask why.
“I did a bit of snorkelling that’s all. I don’t really like the sea. It’s such an alien environment. It’s best left to the creatures who are designed for it.”
Seemed a terrible waste of one of the world’s best diving locations but yup, the sea is an alien environment, which is precisely why it’s endlessly fascinating. I can’t go into space, I can rarely go into the sky, I can’t climb mountains but the sea is always there. In the sea, you can feel like an explorer in a largely unknown world. Continue reading “The rare Aegean sea pasty and curious creatures of the not-very-deep.”
You’ll no doubt feel completely indifferent to the news that my pedalo blister has almost gone.
Its arrival was unexpected and quite painful. I was just getting over another injury (thrown by wave against coral-covered rock of St Nicholas Island causing v painful weals on thigh) when it I got the foot pain. I binned a pair of sandals thinking they were responsible, then discovered the cause was actually a squash ball-sized blister on the ball of one foot.
When you think about it, I suppose it was inevitable, really; two cyclists on holiday without bikes. Continue reading “Pedal(o) power”
Well ok, true confessions time; I’m supposed to be packing to go on hols but I’m distracted by looking at puppy pics I’m supposed to be emailing to friends and investigating waterproof camera housings. Continue reading “Puppy pics”
Boadicea's Chariot 
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