I did my first road race (well, Crit, which is sort of a road race but not quite… it is on roads, put it that way) for four years on 23rd July and did a monster of a ride. Broke away half way through the race, won the prime, then was joined by two others, and the victory went to my team mate James. Great evening – big bunch of flowers and a few quid. (that’s me on the right!)

Photos found on peer-to-peer software – zillions of the things.

“The world seems like a smaller place after finding all these photos and posting the ones that are worthwhile. I can see so many of the same emotions and situations that i’ve experienced over the years, unique to each person but similar and instantly recognizable. I’ve filtered through 1000’s and 1000’s of photos of everyday life and not so everyday life to find the ones that make up the archives here. Hopefully the pictures as worthwhile to view as they have been to find“.

I’m not sure whether I should be advertising booze, especially vodka, but these made me giggle. The down under sense of humour makes me chuckle because they think we don’t get it. Laughed out loud at these ads…
Gay
Story of 42 below
Britain
(Needs latest version of Flash and turn the sound up).

God it’s so bloody exciting. It’s great that despite this being the toughest and crueltest annual sporting event, this piccie of Aussies Stuart O’Grady and Robbie McEwen having a little cuddle shoiws the softer side. click to view >>

Helen Something* Haygarth, my neice, was born at 10:45 yesterday, 4th July, in Exeter. That’s just so nice. I did this little card for her. *She will have a middle name, but it’s to be decided at time of going to press

Why do raindrops keep falling on my head? It’s (possibly) because that was no.1 in the US charts on the day I was born…. Rolf Harris had the UK no.1 on that special, nay, sacred day, with “Two Little Boys”. Must have been a bit ironic for my Mum and Dad, who had their second little boy. Check what was no. 1 on your birthday here.

I took part in the first ever Rossendale Triathlon on 4th June. It’s my local event and although I’ve only done one triathlon before, I was dead keen to do it.

The triathlon started with a 400m (16-length) swim, followed by a 20k cycle ride through Newchurch, Lumb and Water to Crown Point and back through Dunnockshaw and Crawshawbooth to Marl Pits. The final leg was a 5k run over a two-lap circuit combining roads and bridleways and finishing at the running track.

Very chuffed to get 4th place out of 73 finishers (80 starters). My goodness though I could do with being a better swimmer…. I was in 40th place after the swim and lost so much time there. 4th in the cycle and 5th in the run (chuffed with the run especially. Results here. Story here.

Snobsite.com, the online home of the music snob’s dictionary, is worth a look and a giggle. A bit too close to home for a music snob like me.

This rather dry excerpt about Kraftwerk is typical….

“Kraftwerk. Acutely German, acutely secretive inventors of “robot rock” (their preferred term), a highly mechanized dance-pop heavy on synthesizers, vocoders, and lyrics about robots, computers, trains, and bicycles. Founded in Düsseldorf in the late ’60s by the KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN-influenced art students Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, Kraftwerk effectively invented electronic pop music with their five albums released between 1974 and 1981, Autobahn, Radioactivity, Trans-Europe Express, The Man Machine, and Computerworld, all the while toying with Teutonic stereotypes by appearing in photographs as waxen, short-haired, emotionless mannequins. Hütter and Schneider have since become semi-recluses, infrequently releasing albums and playing live, though it’s said that they beaver away at their Düsseldorf studio, KlingKlang, on a daily basis.”

Been a bit of a chaotic week with minimal surfing (aaah) but I got sent this (click here), which made me laugh and play alot. Very very clever way of showing popularity of different names through the ages…. Having a bit of a shocking name like David, it always interests me to see what the world’s more exciting people get up to.

Flip Flop FlyinG, the blog from ther more famous FlipFlopFlyin (without a G) came up with a lovely link to food versions of iPod shuffles. Tasty, poor sound quality, but very clever.

Thought I’d better get populating this blog cause otherwise it’ll go stale and I’ll get out of the habit. I did the Three Peaks Fell Race on Sunday, my first attempt at the classic race (it’s been run 51 times now).

It’s 24 miles and 4,500 feet of ascent and descent…

I magaed 51st position (freaky?) out of over 400 starters, and was a bit chuffed with this. Results, with all the check point times are here: http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/ThreePeaks2005Detailed.html
I had a bad time of things from the top of Ingleborough (the last mountain) because of recurring cramp.