22 October 2005

Heading home.

I’m almost back to where I started, sitting in an airport waiting to leave. I’ve had a few days in London, catching up with one of my sisters and her boy, and my liver has been catching up on a little bit of abuse as well. I flew from sunny skies in Italy to torrential rain when I landed in London, I was not looking forward to spending a few days on the bike in the rain, but I was heading home and may as well get used to it. My bike had survived another flight, which is always surprising, but for the super packing and protection around it, I kind of knew that it would be safe. I unpacked my raincoat for the first time since I had left home and hit the busy London streets for a bit of a ride. My Achilles was still giving me hell, but in good cyclists fashion I was going to ride through the pain, and hope to hell that it would sort it self out.

The traffic was not too bad, think with all the extra charges they have for cars in the centre keeps most of the scum off the streets. Well once again, I could not believe how courteous the traffic was, hey they weren’t moving too fast, but still, they were certainly aware of me, stoping and giving way. Once again riding in a city with a shit load of cars I felt safe, seen, and respected instead of being scared of my skin and run off the road.. My dodgy knee was getting better, but the Achilles was still causing me a few problems. It’s such a good way to sightsee around a new town, sitting on a bike, trying to get in shape, seeing all the good stuff without sitting in traffic or on a tube. The rain came and went throughout the ride, but most of the time is was pretty sweet. Some of the streets were pretty empty and it was such a good feeling to be spinning my legs with out too much pain, and those double deckers buses, an icon of London were the sweetest things I have ever drafted behind.

Nice to see a few couriers around town, all with their fixed singlespeed roadies, ah now I’m starting to thing about all my machines at home just waiting for me to thrash them again. They have been sitting waiting, tyres flat ready for some loving. I can’t wait to get on to the forest, get some dirt on my bike and not have to clean it right afterwards. I’m hanging out to head screaming down a good hill on the fixie, and see people on the road that I actually know for a change. Can’t wait to go and get lost in the bush for a few hours in the middle of nowhere, get some peace and quiet after the hustle and bustle of Europe

I am sitting on the plane half way into the flight, dead awake and trying not to sleep as I get of this 12hr flight and head right into another 10 hr flight, which I want to sleep on. Last time I took this flight we were supposed have a stopover of 4 hours but the plane was late and I was running for the connection. This time I have 45 mins, probably just enough time for a quick sprint as well, good for the legs, and got to keep that tendon moving. The cool thing is that I am about to upload this article while we are in the air. I think this rocks, it’s a trail for Boeing so they saw me writing on my laptop before the flight and gave me a couple of free hours surfing. If this is the future of flying, surfing the web while sailing in the sky, I’m all ready for it. Just got onto the Skype.com thing, it rocks, free phone calls, laptop to laptop, can’t wait until all the little screaming kids fall off to sleep then I might ring a few people up, and give them a bit of fun. If they don’t sleep soon I might go and have a little word in their ears seen their loving parents can’t seem to do it.

I’m looking forward to all the new bikes for the season, at this stage I know anything about it them so will have a lot of learning to do when I get back to work. Should take a day or two to run my hands over them, admiring their new shapes and all the new shiny bits hanging off them. I saw a few new models of specialized roadies in London, they looked pretty cool, but I’ll wait until I get home.

I’m having cravings of some of my favourite meals, something with a little bit of taste to it and something that I’m familiar with. Spicy fried chicken wings from my favourite Thai lady, oh and the rice, so fresh. Sushi, with nice fresh fish, and Yakitori from Ken’s around the corner, their squid is wicked. Wandering through the supermarket and being able to read the labels, for a change. I’ll stop with the food, I’m starting to get hungry.

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