Watford to London on the Towpath

Takes about seven hours in the saddle Watford to E3 - took towpath out to Baker Street, look at TFLS 'bikes on the tube' section for where you can take a bike (basically platforms without escalators mostly), tootle to watford, through a huge park which is only populated by 340 women with prams, a bit spooky, then down the towpath. Usual deaf old towpath people - they are moved around the country in a minibus and positioned in my path, obstruction. 'havent you got a bell?' 'well I thought the thing I was ringing for the last 20 minutes was, apparently it is two miniature interconnected woks' then you're in some lovely countryside as the canal winds its way South - then you get to somewhere in Middx and smell the samosas - time to tootle through lovely Southall. It makes for a fascinating day out. No punctures, had a delicious picnic lunch, all in all about 55 miles of cycling. So not a really long distance one, but being offroad and bumpy did take from 8.30 - 5. Arriving in Little Venice was ace. First pic - three of my favorite forms of transport. Last but one - ladbrooke Grove where the Clash come from. Seemed rather nice actually. Still, not a proper punk band like The Council. 4th pic - a miniature canal sysem! last pic - a nice canal bridge over nth circular. If you can ride one and havent got one then you're not properly alive. Bikes are wonderful. Yes!

Lea valley cycling

A very nice day off cycling up the Lea Valley, the biggest hedge in the known world, went out almost to Harlow on the Lea valley track, which was ace, involving tootling through a willow forest of all things, in the middle of which sounded as though there was a cuckoo of a size I'd not want to meet on a dark night. Possibly a giant manga cuckoo of gargantuan dimensions. Met some nice interesting people on the way. Reckon Enfield is the new Laurel Canyon. last photo but two - I'm excited by these 'factory roads' where no traffic goes, and weeds start to grow up through the roads, buildings crumble, decay and nature taking over again - it's exilirating. This one also went through the middle of pylons, which has a sort of chartm to it.

olympic site

model Watford, model Mannheim, and a model Sheffield

Travelling again, back in a while

This one still makes perect sense

Woke up singling this today

Who else remembers Ride?  Woke up singing Ox4, especially the bit 'I'm going home'.

Couldn't find any Ride to post up here with decent sound, so heres My Bloody Valentine instead. Psychadelic days at college - this was part of the soundtrack. (And LSD by Northside).  Nowadays it still sounds great, if a bit confusing.

Newsflash: Halfords are still awful

Of course you knew that already, right?  The first lad in a Halfords uniform I ask says 'I can't help you. I don't work in the store, I'm the bike mechanic'.  Fifteen minutes of farting about waiting for the bike dept manager. He doesn't have a clue about bike parts. So he goes out the back and gets, guess who, the bike mechanic. Aha! The parts I wanted were under the counter. In front of the poxy bike mechanic when I came in.  Destroy Halfords!

Maybe that's a bit harsh.   

Becenscott Model Village (and Grommit)

It later had 75% deep circumferential cracks, which were welded back together

This photo dates from the 1960s and it shows a boiler after it has failed a hyrdostatic pressure test. As you can see, the failure is what one might call "catastrophic". After the test, the boiler was cut in half and the half without the hole was welded to another half. The boiler was then used in the nuclear power station, Sizewell A.