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Free Wheeling – A celebration of cycling

Great post – think about it, then think again…

Y Brumro's avatarybrumro

ImageI got my first bike (as opposed to trike) when I was 7 or 8.  Like many I found it a daunting experience to learn how to ride it and initially I have to admit I couldn’t much see the point.  But I did learn and for most of my life cycling has provided a great source of pleasure.

I come from cycling stock.  My maternal grandfather was an inveterate cyclist into his 70s and my father used to regale us as kids with youthful cycling feats including a trip round the coast of Wales, something I still have a strong ambition to do myself.

I really got the bug myself as a teenager when I used to go out cycling in the country lanes of leafy Warwickshire, with occasional day trips to places like Warwick and Stratford.  Oxford leant itself to cycling and as a student I migrated to…

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Which story do you prefer?

Film or Book? Book or Film? Film…? Book?  Which story do you prefer?  There’s only one way to find out!

As you are probably aware, the excellent book Life of Pi by Yann Martel, has been made into an excellent film.

Two different animals!? …what’s the best experience?

One experienced over a matter of days, the reading experience is different for many, some jump in with both feet (emotion and reason) and “live the read”, some play with a book like an amusing toy, some flash through it with the need for speed.

One intensely experienced over an hour or so, focused, immersive and super-sensory…

Here are links to two reviewers that I follow: one of the book, and one of the film

Which story do you prefer?

LOP

book review:

…in between the pages of books: book review

http://inbetweenthepagesofbooks.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/life-of-pi-by-yann-martel

Life-of-Pi-3D-poster

film review:

…I am not left handed either:

http://notlefthandedfilmguide.co.uk/2013/01/25/life-of-pi/

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’tis Trevithick Day today me ansom!

’tis Trevithick Day today and these songs sprang to mind after a good few years in my little black book:

I am no musician but the sentiment’s there I hope.

“Shining down on Sennen” Song written by Mike O’Connor

“Cornish lads” Song written by Roger Bryant

#alwayscornish

 

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Global Harmony & the Rutland Ospreys

Time flies! …as do ospreys! A few weeks ago now we (Global Harmony) had a fantastic evening with the Rutland Osprey Team at the concert A Musical Migration and here’s 2 clips from the evening. #keepsinging

A song from France (The ospreys fly over France) an arrangement of a French song “Tourdion”

And if you’re on facebook here’s another clip:  “Calon Lan” (from Wales of course)

https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=449477201796707

Form more info on the Rutland Water ospreys (now with eggs!!) check out their website: http://www.ospreys.org.uk/category/osprey-team-blog/

Also here’s some recent clips from “Close Harmony” –  a small group from the main Global Harmony choir.

GHOspreyA5x

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Potato Snack Art

We’re not great crisp eaters but the kids have been collecting them for a few months and the time had come to create:

Crunch crunch!

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Give, spend, share, receive…

All these things I will give to you… Matt 4:9
What good is it to gain the whole world yet lose the soul… Mark 8:36

Where is our “life, spirit, consciousness”… ?
Have we compacted it, condensed it… digitised it… ?

We virtually “share” traditional and new riches(?), abundant, imagery, dazzles and excites…
Promises of more, immediacy, gratuitous digital networks of intrigue and wonder…
Still, amusing ourselves to death…

We virtually communicate (almost entirely? we simulate?)

Books, magazines, music, radio, tv, internet… when are they distracting us from the real and when can they augment the real?

We ‘spend’ more time distracted by habitual TV, music, stuff and…
We no longer consume it, it consumes our time, our consciousness, life, spirit…

We can “have” all these things, but what do we really have to share?
What good is it to have the world but lose consciousness the spirit of life… ?

20130411-232643.jpg

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She lives…

…alas after a winter’s commute through snow ice and things not nice, it was time to give her a thorough going over.
The team at LBS City Cycles Thurmo, City Cycles Leicester have done a good job. She lives:
BikeX

May 2011 – Purchased Specialized Crosstrail Sport Disc 2011 Hybrid Bike (from a shop near a big lake).

7 months – Dec 2011 – New CHAIN and CASSETTE, from the shop that I bought the bike from – poor after-sales service from a bike store near a big lake! Lack of attention, explanation and interest.

14 months – July 2012 – TYRES:
replaced Specialized Borough Xc Sport Tyre 700×45 with 700x32mm Schwalbe Durano Plus.

15 months – August 2012 – CHAINSET:
LBS City Cycles Thurmo, replaced the considerably worn SunTour/SRAM chain set (ring, chain and cassette); with a Shimano megarange CS HG41.

1 year 7 mths – Dec 2012 – REAR WHEEL:
LBS City Cycles Thurmo, New back wheel, as stock one rim cracked and freewheel worn. Mavic A119 rim and .

1 year 11mths – April 2012 SPRING CLEAN:
Full service from LBS City Cycles Thurmo – It get’s quite a pelting from 15 miles around daily commute through all weathers, and very poor road surface. It picks up a lot of crud off the road, especially in winter. Despite this, last August’s chainset etc is still up for another 6 months+ hopefully.

Onward!

(Note to self: Shorts worn throughout this winter – Gold star for me)

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Shrimpy’s shed his skin again!

Our  Cameroon Armoured (African Filter) Shrimp  has shed his skin again.

P1060929 P1060928

Here’s som film of the other wigglers that he lives with: Our Fish Tank

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Digital distractions…

20130403-214846.jpgPrompted by Em’s drastic ‘deactivation’ of her Fa(r)cebook account;

I again wonder what are we doing… “Amusing ourselves to death” (as Neil Postman wrote).

When I asked, where have our souls gone? a friend recently commented that “we’ve concreted over them”…

The word/idea “soul” is probably an adaptation of an early translation of Greek ψυχή psychē “life, spirit, consciousness”.
Arguably, our essential life, our essential spirit, is not found in the digital sphere.
The digital sphere is a fabulous but insubstantial temporal window onto a rich vibrant world “out there”.

The word concrete comes from the Latin word “concretus” meaning compact or condensed. This is to a certain extent what our digital postings do.
They condense our thoughts and feelings in to compact forms. The conglomerations of these forms build strong and often overwhelming but gratuitous structures of intrigue and wonder.

The usage of concrete, world wide, is twice as much as steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined. Concrete’s use in the modern world is only exceeded by the usage of naturally occurring water.

Ah… Off for a glass of water!

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Crafty eggs in eggs – How do you like yours?!

Nifty little idea what i did see – it’s not my idea.

eggs in egg
stuff
heat choc eeek!
eggs in eggs
  • Wool
  • Balloons
  • PVA glue/water
  • mini choc eggs in foil

Put eggs in balloons. Blow up balloons to large egg-size.
Put wool in PVA/water mixture.
Wrap balloons in wool. Wrap from all angles.
Leave to set overnight – (ooops – not on the radiator cos there choc in them there eggs!)

Tricky bit: gently push majority of balloon away from wool before popping balloon. If you don’t then the deflating balloon pulls the wool in. Then most of balloon’s pushed away from wool, with a blade and tweezers, pop balloon and pull it away and out of the delicate wool egg lattice. It will come out in bits and needs patience and a steady hand

Voila – mini choc eggs in woollen egg lattice.

Incidentally I like real eggs!

i – scrambled, ii – poached, ii – boiled. But not with a hard yolk.

How do you like yours!?

These figures are for a medium egg of approximately 58gm fresh weight.
Source Royal Society of Chemistry/MAFF 1991, The Composition of foods (5th Edition). 

Nutritional analysis without shell

Weight     51.6g
Water     38.8g
Energy     316/76 kjoules/k cal
Protein     6.5g
Carbohydrate     trace
Fat     5.6g
Inc Sat Fatty acids     1.6g
Monounsaturated F.a.     2.4g
Dietary Fibre     none

Minerals and Trace Elements

Sodium     72mg
Potassium     67mg
Calcium     29mg
Phosphorus     103mg
Magnesium     6.2mg
Iron     1mg
Zinc     0.7mg
Copper     0.04mg
Iodine     27mg
Chlorine     83mg
Sulphur     93mg
Selenium     6mg

Vitamins

Vitamin A     98mg
Vitamin D     0.9mg
Vitamin E     0.57mg
Vitamin C     none
Thiamine B1     0.05mg
Riboflavin B2     0.24mg
Niacin     1.94mg
Vitamin B6     0.06mg
Folate     26mg
Vitamin B12     1.3mg
Biotin     10mg
Pantothenic Acid     0.91mg