Blameless Drivers

I had a bit of a run in with a driver recently.  Fortunately, I got the incident on helmet cam to share.  Have a look at the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCVY06peNLg

Looking at the video, you might think that there was nothing wrong with this.  However, the problem that the driver had involved the corner that they were overtaking on.  You can not see what is coming until you are parallel with the corner itself.  So you have to treat this as a give way section if turning right.  So I believe that a word was in order.

I have posted her reaction.  Watch the video of the incident and her reasoning.  Make up your own mind on this.  However, not that with fisheye lenses she is a lot closer to me than the video indicates.

The point of this though is not if I am right or wrong.  But the attitude.  Is it me or was she a little condacending?  Unfortunately this is all too common of road users.  It is not just that they do not show respect or concern for their actions in relation to cyclists.  My problem is that they show no respect or concern for any other road user or pedestrian.

The superior attitude is common to motorists dealing with cyclists though.  The "I pay tax and have passed a test" mentality seems to quite common.  So if I didn't pay tax and hadn't passed a test, that is a death centence is it?

However, it is this attituted that breeds accidents and road rage, as one group feels disafected or challenged by another.  Apparently, I have an attitude.  Funny, it only shows when people try to kill me.

But ultimately, this is not just about cycling safety.  It is about general consideration and road awareness.  It is understanding that we are all mortal and do not like being reminded of it just because somebody is impatient or can not see the problem with opperating a one ton machine and texting at the same time, or rushing to overtake, just so that you can slam the anchors on and left hook for a junction.

So I suppose what I am saying is that this is not just about cars.  It is that we live in an impatient and intollerant society.  We expect our pizza to be delivered within half an hour.  We expect to have over 100 cable TV channels.  We expect information instantly via the computer, our phones and our TV.  And we drive accordingly.  We do not allow for traffic.  We do not allow for road works.  We only know that we should be able to do as we please and that all of our actions are perfect and justifiable.

Thoughts?

Luck

Lance Armstrong Movie

OK, is it me, or is there something fundamentally wrong with this?  At the moment it appears that several actors are clamoring over each other in order to play the discraced cyclist. 

Call me provincial, but I just don't get it.  The man is a cheat, a fraud and has managed to tell the biggest porkies since the British Rail timetable was last published.  And we are making movies about him because?

Please tell me that he is not getting a percentage of the takings on this one?

Grrrrrr.

2012 Olympics

Yesterday was a big day as far as the local olympic celebrations went.  The olypic torch came through Kettering.  My daughter took the day off of school to go and watch.  One of the torch bearers was Dean Barnett, a local sportsman.  He is ranked about 5th in the UK for cyclocross and does a lot for the local cycling community, including organising regular Go-Ride sessions for kids (Which is where my daughter recognised him from) and he does a mean Tuesday night skills session for the adults. 

This, as far as I am concerned, is what the olympics are about.  Bringing the sport to the people throughout the country.  So as far as the Torch goes, I think that the organisers have really got it right.

Now for the moan.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Olympics is not so national.  It is called London 2012 for a reason.  The rest of the UK is not included.  It is purely for London and Essex.  If I were running the games I would have planned events throughout the country.  Take the mountain biking for example.  The UK hoasts some really nice, world class mountain biking countryside.  Lots of epic terrain or interesting singletrack.  They did not even need to use an existing track, but could have picked from any number of locations to stick their course.  Wales has a lot of great terain, as does the North, where you have the Lake District, the Peaks, etc.  So where do the organisers decide to put the world class mountain biking venue.  Yep, you guessed it.  Near London. 

The Terrain for the MTB event is flat.  So they have had to build little hills.  The usual gnarly roots and natural obstacles that make this such an interesting and challenging sport have been replaced by rock gardens and man made obstacles, along with nicely paved track to ride on.  I think they missed the point, especially since the UK is a really muddy country.  Something that, if exploited, can give a really nice advantage to local riders or people used to UK conditions.  However, as it stands there are no snake like muddy bits, with roots.  No epic ascents or descents.  Just a moderate track of uninspiring, but camera friendly, proportions.  Ideal for 29ers, but....

Now I can understand the need to have the track events centralised.  After all, competitors will be competing in several events and it would be very stupid to have them wizzing all over the country for different events.  However, there are some events that are mutually exclusive.  Cycling competitors probably won't be long jumping.  Boxers will not be pole volting etc.  So the opportunity to stage different events around the country has been lost.  The Welsh call this the English games.  It is not even that.  The rest of us do not get a look in.

True, trains etc run to London and it has an airport etc.  But so does Birmingham.  Leicester is not badly served by support networks either.  Milton Keynes has a nice ice rink.  You get the idea.  The thing I find bites is that the whole country is paying for these events, about 12 billion.  And only London and the South are gaining benefit.

Nothing like undermining the North/South devide, especially where North is considered anything above the Watford Gap.

There you are.  Moan over. 

By the way.  Well done Dean.  You deserved to hold the torch.

Driver Reactions


I have been having a laugh at some of Magnatoms helmetcam videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/magnatom

For the uninitiated, Magnatom rides his bike to work everyday and records his route with a helmet video.  He gets a bit heated with his fellow road users since he posts any particularly nasty motorists on his web site.  He gets the police involved.  He has received verbal abuse, death threats, etc.  So what is he doing that makes people hate him so much?  Simple, he criticizes their driving.

Now some of his videos I agree with and some I don't.  He can be a bit mouthy at times, but he is from Glasgow.  The most interesting thing about his Youtube videos is the comments left underneath:

I hope you die.

I hope that somebody kicks the ***** out of you.

However, lots of the motorists are really peeved off that he:

A.  Slows them down.

B.  Doesn't pay road tax.

There seems to be a lot of motorists out there who feel that they have more rights on the road, just because they display a tax disc.  They were defending one van driver for tailgaiting the cyclist for just this reason.  Following that logical conclusion it follows that I am OK to stick my bumper 3 inches from theirs, just because I pay more road tax or drive a faster car than theirs.  Dumb.

The question of who is right or wrong seems to be lost on many drivers.  If you point out the errors of one driver, they take it personally, as though you have insulted theirs.  I watch one video from another helmet cam where some thug and his mates got out of their car and smacked a cyclist, before getting back into their car and driving off.  And motorists were defending this blatant act assault as somehow justifiable.

Another thing that I find interesting is the complete ignorance of the highway code that most of these idiots display.  The sort of motorists who offer death threats seem t assume that because you ride a bike you have never passed your driving test and that, by definition, they know the law and safe driving practice.  Hah.

So they don't understand the tax system.  Think they are the only ones who have a right to be on the road and are obnoxious when their errors are pointed out to them.

Einstein once said that he had hope for the future of humanity whenever he sees someone riding a bike.   I, on the other hand, despair for our future whenever I see anybody behind the wheel.

Luck

Adoption

OK so we are looking at adoption.  What a palava.  Interested in adopting a sibling group.  But it is not an easy process.  The want to know everywhere I have ever lived and same with partner.  They also want to interview relatives and have no qualms about getting my 80 year old parents over here, from Mid Wales, to be interviewed (Social workers don't skype).

The thing is, we already have a child.  This actually seems to penalise you.  They want a nice clean blank slate where they can get you to go on courses.  Looking at the course list that you have to go on.  What a load of bunkum.  The reason that you have to go on all of these courses is that adopted children are harder to deal with than other children.

OK, I agree to some extent.  However, reading the list of all the things that adopted children do, I can relate these things to my child and her friends.  All of the stuff that an adopted child will do and be blamed on their trauma, will also happen with children who are not adopted. 

It is sort of like the definitions of ADHD.  Reading down the list of things that could be attributed to adhd and, low and behold it is the same things that ordinary kids do.  Hmmm.

Also, aparently in order to avoid the, by the way your adopted thing when child is 18, it is recommended that you tell them sooner.  Fair enough.  But the guidance is to keep telling them and discussing it with them.  In short, you have to point out that they are adopted and different and not mine and that we expect you to be more trouble.  Talk about alienation and picking at a scab.

So back to the courses.  Some might be useful.  However, a lot of them are going to be a case of the social workers covering their butts.  Looking at the list of courses, they are trying to turn us into defacto social workers and not parents.  All of the literature talks about the problems but doesn't actually give any good advice about parenting.  What a load of tosh.  I am a parent and my child is happy, well adjusted and enjoys life in our family.  We don't keep telling her she is different or making excuses for her.  We are her parents.

There is an old army maxim that there are no wrong decisions as long as you make a decision and stick with it.  In short, you need to lead, not dither.  It is the same with parenting.  You need structure and consistancy.

I understand that it won't be easy, but a lot of the support and help I feel is the Social services ticking boxes and covering their butts.  Also, as well as spending months and months going through the selection process, you then can go from meeting the child to moving them into your home in as little as two weeks.  And, funny enough lots of families suffer difficulties.  Perhaps, and this is just me, you should cut down on the paperwork and courses and put more time into the handover process, so that you have a chance to get to know each other and address any concerns while still working in partnership with the foster carer.

I don't know, I just find the whole process unecessary in some areas, and weak in others.

Luck

Another Pot

This is my Fish Pot.  Fresh out of the kiln.

I am sort of getting into Japanese style, so this is in keeping.  White earthenware body, with underglaze.  Transparent overglaze and sprayed with cobalt.  Looks rather good, even if I do say so myself.

My Pots

Not a lot of you may know that, as well as a keen cyclsit I am also a potter.  So I thought that I would share some of my most recent work with you.  Oringinally, I have worked with stoneware (1250 C), but have recently started working at a local studio where earthenware is predominately used (Around 1100 C).  So I am going to post a couple of the Images here.

This first pot is an earthenware.  You can just see a tape measure in the bottom of the picutre.  This uses a black inner glaze and white outer.  I have poured thicker glaze over to give the run lines.

I am quite pleased with the next one.  Again an earthenware.  The brown is the natural clay body with a clear glaze over the top.  I then used Gloss White for the interior and poured some drips down the side.  I like this one and can see a range of small pots, casarole dishes etc in this style.



This uses a similar style to the first.  However, I have poured a medium blue with gloss white dipped over to give run lines and effects.

This is a stoneware jug.  It uses an ash glaze as the base, using a red/brown top.  This, when mixed with the ash becomes green, but still brown inside the pot.  I have also poured a light blue to give the run lines.

This is a simple stoneware jug using a medium brown over a matt finish base.  Poures well

This uses the same glazes as the the ash glazed jug.  You can see much more of the ash and blue body.

This final one is an earthenware.  White tin glaze base with brushed underglaze over the top.  Quite fun.

So there you are.  Some of my work.  Feel free to comment.

Luck