infection

Mum and Stuart paid us a flying visit over the last couple of days which was really nice, especially as the weather held. They even came in to my school to see the tiny tearaways I teach and read a couple of stories. They were impressed by their level of English if not their behaviour. Later we were shopping for food that Mum and Stuart could take on the train down to Alicante when I was hoking through halloween stuff that I could use for school. Mum said I'd been 'infected' by the teaching bug and couldn't wait to tell my sister, another teacher. Damn I hope she's wrong.

They were good enough to bring out a pile of stuff including coffee, comics for my private tuition and some bike bits. I got hold of a (ridiculously overpriced because the bcd is weird) chainring for the ferrous, partly because the one I have is wearing out (though not as much as I thought) and partly because I'm going to run a 5 speed cassette in the sierra (proper mountains) and a 34 tooth offers a better range of gears.

not too worn




work and play

fun bike stuff on the left and my pile of worksheets, lesson plans and comics for private tuition on the right. Currently got 7 students doing 8 hours of lessons a week, pays the bills...

what's it worth?

This painting could influence the entire art market when it goes on sale this week. The worry is that the economic crisis could now be extending to the unassailable uber rich. Scary thought.

not much to tell

Not too much to report since last week, got a 3 and half hour ride in on Sunday, safe to say we were pretty goosed afterwards. Started most of my lessons now and they're going ok, school has already descended into crowd control but it's still fun at the moment. Mum and Stuart are over for a couple days so looking forward to that. Got an intercontinental party (think WWF wrestling belts) coming up this week which should be fun, America, Scotland, England, Ireland, Greece and Spain all being represented which is cool. Hmmm that's bout it really, have a swatch at this vid though, brakeless FFS!

weasel and the meerkat

So today marks 4 years of me and the nobber* I think we can safely say we've given the relationship a proper workout, went to India for 8 weeks after going out for 6 months, moved in together 6 months after that and have been living in Spain for 8 months so far! I think she's done very well putting up with me and more than that encouraging me to take on challenges I would otherwise have neglected. She corrects me when I'm wrong (hardly ever happens mind you, ahem) straightens me out when I talk shit (happens more) and picks me up when I'm down. Best of all she never tries to change me (beyond getting me to clean the flat more) and, seems to at any rate, accept I'm a cynical, cycling forum addict with a reformist agenda and the time but not the inclination to act upon my instincts who will be unlikely to have a proper job before I'm thirty and even then probably work as something that demands more of her than me. It's a pretty sweet deal, besazos for the nov.

So I marked the anniversary with a special t shirt celebrating her meerkat fascination. I tested the process with an axis of weasel proto, I think it worked out rather well....







*nobber is derived from novia, Spanish for girlfriend (and worryingly, bride) and because in Spanish a v sounds like b I bastardised it to nobia, nob and nobber. It does cause some confusion when I shout 'nobber' across a shop and my girlfriend comes bouncing across (actually she sidles rather than bounces) to people's horror.

Spring in October

Watched Juno again tonight, such a wicked film. If you haven't seen it stop reading this and go watch it. Amongst the gems of one liners this has to stand out as a pretty great piece of advice:

In my opinion, the best thing you can do is to find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think that the sun shines out your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with.

matt in new job shocker

Turns out the spaz is now in more appropriate employment

monkey boy

biding my time

Started work, which is awesome.

Got private lessons sorted out which I need to write lesson plans for, not so awesome.

Waiting on a stem arriving so can actually ride my bike, definitely not awesome.

Anyways all is good, we were at a flat warming last night lots of fun, speaking, bad, Spanish and mixing my drinks. Queue for clubs were massive so headed home early. Ahem 'early' being half 4! While I tensely wait and see if my stem ever actually appears I've got a few runs in. After a slight miscalculation it turns out I ran 7.5 not 11 miles on Monday but did manage to hit 10 miles on Friday, though it seemed to take bloody forever. I'm hoping on a flatter route I'd be able to get round a bit quicker, I've got a bitch of a hill to end on.

Also went to a British council do during the week which was nice. I'm sure I've done more than that probably but thanks to the wonders of singletrack I've rediscovered Monkey Dust, brutal at times but always intelligent and funny as hell if you've got the stomach for it.


Can't imbed this one, Scottish guests


Painfully good