Cemetery ride

This Monday was supposedly the most depressing day of the year in the UK. Wheee! Don't ask me why, because I didn't finishing watching the end of Declan's BBC morning news bit. But I would guess it's because it's winter, it's dark, and you haven't been paid for five weeks because of the Christmas break. Anyway, I didn't think it was that bad.

After reading a fair chunk of 1984 over the weekend, I submitted an extended version of my Big Brother blog for posting on the Company's intranet. On the one hand it was current with respect to the racism debate, but on the other hand it had bugger all to do with Future. However, I could work in references to previous company blog postings, e.g. "1984 and all that", and "Brave New World". But my editor thought it would go over most people's heads anyway, so it's going in the 'couldabeen' bucket.

What I will do is put a label on our floor's vending machine that says "Victory Coffee". I'll have to do that at the end of the week, because we're moving into the south wing and will have a different vending machine. Coffee quality remains the same.

The graveyard shift

I tagged along with the Chippenham cemetery ride on Saturday, just for something different. There were perhaps 30 of us, split into two groups, and we "chain ganged" it for about 60 km on back roads north east of Chippenham. It was windy - not insane, but still 40-50 km/h - so it was hard to keep a position in the group. It was nice to average around 30, too. That's harder than it sounds around here, and it's probably difficult to go more than a few km/h faster than that on these roads.

There was a Colombian guy with us in shorts(!) who attacked a few times, coincidentally when I was on the front. The last time he went into a block headwind on a false flat, and things split up a bit. I rolled through for a turn or two with a couple of others, but then he turned off home! Anyway, we regrouped and cruised back to Corsham, then home.

On the way home, three of us took the back way through Neston, which is normally dead quiet. But there was a full on hunt on, with horses, men and women in red jackets and hunting caps, and about a hundred following Landrovers. They were all over the road, without regard for us, so we just had to squeeze past and try not to get kicked by a horse.

Ben and Pete, the other two guys with me, expressed their annoyance at 'hunting' in no uncertain terms. Apparently it's banned, so what they do is drag a carcass around so that the horses and dogs can follow a scent. That would be OK if they stayed out of your way, let alone all the wannabe idiots who follow at 10km/h in their silly cars. Grr.

On Sunday, I went out with a smaller, harder core of Chippenham people and did another 100 km in the wind. I have been asked to join their club, so I probably will, as it's nearly 300 members strong and needs more able bodies. Their first pissup social gathering is on the 7th of Feb, so I'm there baby. They have TTs on Wednesday evenings in what passes for summer here, as well as circuit racing on Thursdays and you can always find a road race on Sunday. I wouldn't mind doing a bit of proper road racing with hills and stuff.

Saving the best for last, here is the weather update. It's theoretically sunny at the moment, which explains why it was raining when I stepped out the door this morning. I saw several lunatics riding in shorts, so they obviously took the met office at its word and have no concept of cold. But it should remain dry this week, as the wind has turned around to the north. Of course that means the temp has dropped to freezing and there's supposedly snow predicted for tomorrow morning.

Whee!!