WTF 2nd puncture this week!

Worcester Music Festival Competition

kab-Howard_Kenny-Firefly, originally uploaded by Worcester Music Festival 2010.

kab-V2A-Marrs-Bar, originally uploaded by Worcester Music Festival 2010.

kab-lewisspeltbackwards-Air, originally uploaded by Worcester Music Festival 2010.

Well none of my entries have been shortlisted into the final, Pah!!
I see the usual names are there, mmmmmmm apparently one of the judges Lauren Rogers boasts an A level in photography "yeh" ....... Most of the finalists are technically great, yes but shame there isn't any thing original in the mix. Oh well maybe next year I should try harder, not that the iphone doesn't take a good photo, its just not competition standard.
Come on the Hoy!


worcester music festival photo competition 2010

Boxfresh socks

You can't beat that fresh sock feeling, so much so i'm tempted to order just one last pair.

Addicted to sock!

Lack of preparation

Keen to make the most of possibly the last sunny day for a while a trip to the Wyre forest was called for. As we were getting the bikes out the car, John said 'you want to take this inner tube?",I replied "Nah, I don't want to carry it, plus I never get a puncture" well keep your f'in mouth shut next time!

A great ride was rudely interrupted by lack of preparation! Innertube was in reach just a stroll back to the car, but stupidly no allen keys so no way to remove the rear wheel.
I WILL be more prepared in future!
Bike and I had a nice walk round the forest though.

Alfine hub

Can't bring myself to sell my redundant on-one frame, so I have started a little side project using a hummingbird fork I brought from Sam at Singular cycles a while ago.
I don't really want to build a singlespeed or put gears on it, but quite fancy a internal geared hub for touring duties. BUT do I spend the extra cash on a 11 speed hub or bag a bargain 8 speed hub?
After thinking carefully about how much use this bike might get I have deceided on the 2nd hand 8 speed option. Realistically will probably only get winter commuting duties and hopefully a sea to sea touring trip, with maybe the odd Sunday ride in the Wyre.
So the feelers have been put out on singletrack and with riders looking to upgrade their current hubs to the anticipated 11 speeds hubs hopefully it shouldn't be too long before a pick up a bargain.

EDIT:
Found a complete wheel and shifter on singletrack classified arrived yesterday, now to fit!

Tunnocks jersey

Mmmmmmmm teacakes, that reminds me, must buy some more.

Rockin the new socks

Ordered from CRC cycles Wednesday afternoon and collected from the post office Thursday morning! Amazing! Can't really complain about that, our postal service only really gets bad press, time to big up the postmen and women.

Littlewhitehead

Really like this work, takes the piss but in a not being too arty up my own arse way (if that make sense?)

littlewhitehead linky

Saatchi gallery - Newspeak: British Art Now

No visit to London is complete without seeing an exhibition, hamster wanking the iphone searching for current exhibitions but not really inspired by any of the offerings, we opted for the Saatchi Gallery. 

This was the first time we had visited the new site, and I was as keen to see the building as much as the art. The building didn't disappoint, inside it has amazing beautifully sanded wooden flooring with huge rectangular down lighting, that casts a clean, crisp natural light into each room. 

The gallery attendants did not abject to photo's being taken so I snapped a couple of the works that I found interesting.

Scott King, Pink Cher

artist unknown

I liked the manipulation of paper, they reminded me of my university self portraits.

artist unknown

Playful images, well painted.

John Wynne Untitled

300 speakers, Pianola, vacuum cleaner, audio amplifiers, hard disc recorder, speaker wire, suction hose, piano roll 

Littlewhitehead - It happened in the corner

Very spooky piece, also maybe the strongest work in the exhibition, reminiscent of the blair witch project, still is very eery looking at the photograph now. John and Christian are extra in this photo, they remained lifeless on the perimeter of the art work until a couple entered the gallery, as they approached the art work they moved and scared the shit of them.

Artist unknown

Having watched a program about recently graduated art students working toward an exhibition, I familiar with this work, and unsure if I would of taken as much interest in the piece if I hadn't known the background.

Richard Wilson 20:50

Used sump oil, steel

I have seen this piece many times and it just seems to get better. Unfortunately we were unable to enter the room completely as I have been able to do before, but that didn't seem to take any of the impact away. A truly beautiful work of art. 

Many of the pieces in this show, I just didn't seem to get, but when I see this work i remember the excitement I used to feel about art, maybe one day that felling will return?

Visit to London

Ten Bells Pub - Bricklane (also know as The Jack the Ripper between 1976 - 1988)

This pub has become famous for its association with two victims of Jack the Ripper, Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly. During this visit, it appeared very run down and in-between renovation, with toilets straight out of hell, but the ten bells has a strange atmosphere and seems to attracts many drinkers including many tourists who stop as part as a walking tour.
The decorative tiles are entitled 'Spitalfields in ye Olden Time" and date back to the late 19th Century designed by the firm of Wmb B Simpson and sons.

  

Invader Artist - Spitalfields (taken from Rootmasters window, while enjoying some healthy scran)

 

D*face, Truman Brewery, Brick Lane

Drone Dog, D*face's signature character on top of a battered car.

Rootmaster veggi - london's first vegan Bustaurant also reasonably priced too.

This part of London has a real vibe about it, a great place to spend a saturday afternoon. I was amazed how many Londoners ride fixie's now and how they all congregate around Spitalfields, maybe the newly opened Missionworkshop has a lot to do with the steady flux of riders cruising through bricklane, or maybe this is just where the 'cool' folk hang out? What ever it was I felt right at home surrounded by fellow riders and the good graffiti and artistic images that decorated the outsides of buildings rather than shitty tags you normally see strewn around the city.

Art crank - London

IMG_9385, originally uploaded by ARTCRANK.


Great idea and a great show, hopefully Art Crank will continue to put on more shows in different venues all over the UK.
I came away with a great print by Matt Oxborrow, (left hand in the above photo) my mission today is to find a suitable frame to do the print justice. 

MTB van design

Isn't she pretty! :)

Last weekend we visited Vanfest hoping to get some ideas for our MTB van conversion, but Malvern's vanfest proved immensely disappointing, there was plenty of the run of the mill conversions on display but unfortunately Amdro conversions (the top contender for our bespoke conversion) wasn't there, the only other company that may be suitable was dirty weekenders. It appears there is a gap in the market for mountain bike conversions.

Hopefully we will be able to get down to Bristol soon to be able to see one of the Amdro conversions in the flesh, they do look good, and they appear to have enough room to store two bikes in the rear. The only con against is the cost.

http://www.amdro.co.uk

Dirty Weekender's design is slightly different, positioning the bed on high legs about 2 to 3 foot from the roof of the van, I can see the advantage of this if you transport long sports equipment like surf boards but not practical for our MTB van. They are willing to design a conversion bespoke to our needs though, and are very local, but we are yet to get a proper quote for the conversion so its hard to make an informed comparison of the two companies.

http://www.dirty-weekender.com

Awnings seem like a practical way to solve the issues of cooking/hanging out when the weather is pants, but some of the designs are truly awful, the reimo davos 2 seems to be the best on the market but after a search on t'erweb they don't appear to be readily available. Shame!

http://www.reimo.com/en/900120-van_awning_davos_2/

Art Crank

Looking forward to going to ArtCrank this weekend, been a while since we last visited the capital city and my old uni mate Sam.

Cyclemeter Cycle 17 Sep 2010 07:37:38

First Commute into work for a while, took it easy and just enjoyed the ride, first noticeably fresh one too!

Shortened Google Maps URL: http://j.mp/bnPf56

Started: 17 Sep 2010 07:37:38
Ride Time: 44:59
Stopped Time: 2:57
Distance: 9.89 miles
Average: 13.19 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 27.85 miles/h
Climb: 289 feet
Calories: 368

http://www.cyclemeter.com

Blackberry wine stage 2

Second Stage now complete, filtered out fruit and added more sugary water solution, now I've got to leave it 10 days till the next stage.

Fixed in progress

Cool things on a mac

"Move the mouse over a word and press Command-Control-D to show the dictionary/thesaurus entry. If you don't release "Command-Control" you can move the mouse to other words"

Just discovered the dictionary on the mac! Having owned a mac since the year 2000, how slow am I?

Other cool things on the mac are:

Screengrabs 

Shift-Apple-3 will do the entire screen.
Shift-Apple-4 will take a screen shot of the area you select

and Shift-Apple-Ctrl-4 will copy the selected area to your clipboard.
and Shift-Apple-4 followed by the space bar will grab a single window.
To Show Clipboard - Finder -> Edit menu -> Show Clipboard.

Another function that not too many Mac users know is “Invert screen”. Just press Ctrl-Option-Cmd-8 on your keyboard and see your Mac invert its colours.

Now my appetite has been wetted, I'm on the hunt ;-)

Sushi

Second attempt at sushi, still seem to be over packing my rolls, a couple required an extra sheet to bridge the gap! Lots more practice needed here. Must visit our local japenese restaurant again soon to see how the experts do it.

New jethro tule tool

On recommendation from @evilgordon I purchased a new tool, surly jethro tule, what a great name! Hopefully next time my chain comes off I will be more than prepared :)

Blackberry wine making Stage 1

Stage 1 - now complete

Blackberries crushed, sugary water and yeast added now all I have to do is wait 7 days for Stage 2.

Blackberry wine

My first attempt of making Blackberry wine using the recipe below:

http://www.familyherbalremedies.com/blackberry_wine_recipe.html

Mighty Fine Homemade Blackberry Wine Recipe

The recipe I am giving you is to make ONE GALLON of wine. 
What you’ll need:

• 4 1⁄2 pounds of blackberries. That takes about an hour or less to pick.

• 2 1⁄2 lbs. of regular old sugar, the white kind.

• 7 pints of water

• a red wine yeast (regular yeast will work too, but not as good)

Equipment:

• Polyurethane pale from a home brewing store (OR A CLEAN BUCKET)

• A glass carboy from a brewing store (Or a gallon glass jug that apple juice is often packaged in. The organic juice form my co-op is anyways)

• An airlock from a brewing store (or a balloon or some cotton wool.)

• A siphon from a brewing store (or five feet of clear plastic tubing from a hardware store)

Later: wine bottles, corks, a hand corker

Optional: Campden tablets and Star San Sanitizer

So, the stuff from the home brew store is ideal, and doesn’t cost that much. BUT if you have no brew supply store, then just use the alternatives I gave.

I would at least try to order a red wine yeast by Red Star if you can. Just Google “homebrew supplies’ and you can come up with lots of options should you want to get stuff from a brew supply store and have none near you.

PART 1 of the blackberry wine recipe: Here’s what to do: (Read these directions all the way through first)

1. Gather your blackberries

2. Crush the berries by hand in your bucket or pale and then pour on one quart of boiled water that has cooled. Mix it well.

3. Campden tablets kill any unwanted yeast. I made this wine for years successfully without them. Other wines I have had problems not using them. So, it’s your call. If you want them, crush one tablet and dissolve the powder in a little bit of warm water. Mix this with the fruit.

A note on cleaning equipment… For years I just poured boiling water in my equipment to clean it off. It worked just fine. I did have a batch of elderberry wine go bad two years ago on me on the early stage. Was it a wild yeast? Well, whatever it was, it was unwanted.

The wine store guy said it might have been because I did not use campden tablets? Did I not properly sterilize my equipment? Well, I don’t know. And it’s up to you. Clean things out with boiling water or use the Star San Sanitizer that you can get from that Homebrew shop I mentioned.

You can certainly do fine with out it. However, in the future, if you make a bad batch, you might want to consider it.

4. Leave the mixture alone for a couple hours. No worries if bleaching takes place.

5. WHILE you are waiting for those 2 hours to pass… take one third of the sugar and boil it for one minute in 3 pints of water (that’s 48 ounces). Allow this to cool to room temperature.

6. WHEN IT HAS COOLED… take a packet of the yeast and empty it into 4 ounces of warm water. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

7. Pour the syrup (sugar water) into the pulp.

8. Pour in the yeast. If you do not wait for the syrup to cool first, you will KILL the yeast. It is ALIVE.

9. Cover this with a clean cloth.

10. Let it sit for 7 days in a warm place.


Part 2 of how to make blackberry wine: AFTER SEVEN DAYS…

1. Strain the pulp though a fine muslin or other material and wring it out dry.

2. Compost the pulp.

3. Put the strained wine into your gallon jug.

4. Boil another 1/3 of the sugar in ONE PINT (16 oz.) of water. LET IT COOL.

5. When it cools, add it to the rest. If you do not wait for it to cool, then you’ll KILL your yeast.

6. Plug the top of the jug with an airlock or some cotton wool. I like the airlocks. They are cheap and clean. Just put a bit of water in it so the bobber thingie can go up an down. You can also put a balloon in it. It will trap all the CO2 in the balloon. The airlock lets it out. If you use an airlock, you should see the wine bubble, bubble, bubble!

7. Let this sit for 10 days…


Part 3 of the balckberrry wine recipe: AFTER TEN DAYS

I will post photos for this section later. When you get to this stage, check back.

1. Siphon out your wine into a spare jar or pot. Make sure you are keeping your equipment clean. To siphon, put you spare jar LOWER than your wine. Put the siphon on the wine and direct the bottom to the jar. With your head lower than the wine, suck hard on the tube making sure you do not drink the wine. The wine will flow into the tube and into your jar. Let the wine flow and leave the sediment in your jug. It should be obvious what to do.

2. Clean out your jug you used. Sterilize it, then return your wine to the jug you used before.

3. Boil the remaining one third of the sugar in the remaining pint of water. LET IT COOL.

4. Add it to the wine, plug the jug back up like you did before.

5. Leave it in a warm place until FERMENTATION STOPS! You’ll know cuz it will stop bubbling.

Part 4 of the blackberry wine recipe: AFTER IT’S DONE BUBBLING…

1. Siphon into another spare jar leaving sediment behind.

2. Get your bottles, clean them and sanitize them. Wine can still go bad if put in tainted bottles.

3. Put a funnel in the bottle, and fill each bottle to the neck.

4. Cork each bottle.

5. DRINK!


CONCLUSION of how to make blackberry wine…

The wine will get better with age, but I hear berry wine only is good for a couple to few years. I have no idea. I drink all mine within the year.

New personal best

Timed trip 35.17
Max speed 30 mph
Avg speed 17.6 mph
ODO 1159 miles
Total timed 83.58.05

Fixie mechanical

First mechanical on the fixie my chain came off WTF?!? Didn't think that was possible. Luckily I carry a tool.

September

Wow it's September already! August always goes past too quick :(
But September has started beautifully hopefully it will continue.

Aims for September
1. Finish reading my book and start another.
2. Understand and work on training schedule.
3. Produce some art work.
4. Finish current painting I'm working on.
5. One wild swim.