updates

So its been a long while since I 've posted some stuff up here.
Ah well :-) I'm sure you missed me. (all two readers if even that...)

Anyways... some news:

Work:

I've left singularity (excellent company) to work for Instil i.e. my friend Tara Simpson.
http://instilsoft.com
If you've any development, consultancy, design etc etc that needs doing... feel free to give us a shout :-)

So I'm currently working at Aepona on a contract to do some Portal development which is really good stuff. Its nice to be back working with a small group of local developers who are excellent. I feel that I have the chance to learn a lot here, so all good.

I also got a spanky new apple macbook as a work computer... ooooh.... shiny.

Bikes:

Bleurgh to winter/autumn. Its cold and the hands of ice and feet of coldness have made a re-appearance for me.
I dunno... took warm when its warm and too cold when its cold. I can't seem to win really!
I must admit though that there have been a few nice days and its been good to get out on them.

Best session I managed was the time inbetween jobs when I had a few days off... got a nice mini training camp (yes, I know its winter and I should be taking it easy.) Three days in a row of good riding. Excellent.

Also as its winter/autumn, I've managed to put a few pounds on. Which I'm not overly happy about... work shall have to be done to remove those... but the main issue is that when its cold I really enjoy a glass or three of red wine in the evenings and its not helping the weightloss movement.

No new bikes to speak of... had another blowout on schwalbe ultremo - i.e. pieces of crap. Will not be buying those again. Replaced them with continental force tyres 24mm ones, so we shall see how they work out... well, we'll see next year as they're going on a set of planet x carbon wheels, which i'm unlikely to be riding in the winter.

Its also time to setup the turbo permanently in the living room... yes its an eyesore... but there's nowhere else to put it and it means I'm more likely to use the bloody thing.

Garden:

The veggie garden is a bit of a mess. Doh.
After the fruits of summer (as such) I've left it to go to seed a bit... so I need to spend a bit of time digging it out and getting it ready for next year... this will involve building the beds up a lot higher to get better yield on the things and not planting stupid things... like purple non-sprouting broccolli.

Basically anything thats left needs dugs out and ate, or binned as appropriate and it all cleared up a bit. Should only take a full day doing it I think!

I also hear rumours that friends in NZ (you know who you are) have acquired chooks. (hens/chickens for those un-austrailian) and are/will be getting eggs from them. I am most jealous indeed and say 'hurrah' on your behalf.

Over and out.

/marty

le tour

France.

US owned and occupied since 1999?

its good to see the man back.

veggies

ok, so the growing season is nearly over in Northern Ireland... some might question if it ever really started?  Anyways...

Things that worked this year:

• beetroot (normal)
  
• beetroot (spicy - cylinder shaped stuff that has a kick)
  
• cabbages (eventually)
  
• peas (yum)
  
• runner beans (climbing up the fence and everywhere)
  
• shallots (small but mighty!)
  
• spuds (in containers so they didn't leech everything out of the soil)
• parsely & thyme (nice big bush of these things now)

Things that half worked:

• carrots (interesting as I had lots of colours - purple, yellow, orange)
  
• onions (didn't get very big)
  
• strawberries (still green! not enough sun)
• thai basil (basil doesn't seem to like growing outdoors)

Things that didn't work:

• purple sprouting broccolli
  
• parsnips
  
• sunshine (just not enough of it this year)

I think one of the major issues was that I didn't make the beds deep enough for some of the root veg and they suffered as they soil deeper down is quite clayish, so they kind of expanded out... rather than down... I had few curiously shaped carrots.  

The parsnips just didn't take at all and the broccolli, while taking up tons of space and growing like mad... decided not to sprout at all... so I think it affected the growing of some of the beetroot, as it was quite small.   The very wet weather over here this summer didn't help either... plenty of rain, but just not enough sun to make the things grow.

We also got some curious mushrooms that were never planted... my dad maintains they were 'magic' but we have no evidence to support this as eating random mushrooms is typically not a good idea.

And the leafy veg did get heavily attacked at one point by crawly buggers that decided they would prefer the stuff for their dinner.  Hmm... spray spray... die crawly bugger.

Anyways... worth doing!  The stuff that we did get was excellent anyways and I enjoyed it!  

Plan for next year:

• deeper beds, probably at least a foot high.
  
• better soil
  
• veg: carrots, parsnips, beetroot, potatoes in containers
  
• fruit: strawberries in baskets, tomatoes in baskets
• berbs: basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary

Now I just need to pull the finger out and get to building the beds up higher!

the fun stuff

Oh how I laughed...  http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/765370039.html

Bike for sale

What kind of bike? I don’t know, I’m not a bike scientist. What I am though is a manly guy looking to sell his bike. This bike is made out of metal and kick ass spokes. The back reflector was taken off, but if you think that deters me from riding at night, you’re way wrong. I practiced ninja training in Japan’s mount Fuji for 5 years and the first rule they teach about ninja biking is that back reflectors let the enemy know where you are. Not having a rear reflector is like saying “FUCK YOU CAR, JUST TRY AND FIND ME”.

The bike says Giant on the side because it’s referring to my junk, but rest assured even if you have tiny junk that Giant advertisement is going to remain right where it is. I bought this bike for 300 dollars from a retired mercenary that fought in both World War 1 and World War 2 and had his right arm bitten off by a shark in the Phillipines while stationed there as a shark handler. When he sold it to me I had to arm wrestle him for the honor to buy it. I broke his arm in 7 places when I did. He was so impressed with me he offered me to be his son but I thought that was sissy shit so I said no way.

The bike has some rusted screws, but that just shows how much of a bad ass you are. Everyone knows rusted screws on a bike means that you probably drove it underwater and that’s bad ass in itself. Those screws can be replaced with shiny new ones, but if you’re going to go to that trouble why not just punch yourself in the balls since you’re probably a dickless lizard who doesn’t like to look intimidating.

The bike is for men because the seat is flat or some shit and not shaped like a dildo. If you like flat seated bikes you’re going to love this thing because it doesn’t try to penetrate your ass or anything.

I’ve topped out at 75 miles per hour on this uphill but if you’re just a regular man you’ll probably top it out at 10 miles per hour. This thing is listed as a street bike which is man-code for bike tank. 

The bike has 7 speeds in total:

Gear 1 - Sissy Gear

Gear 2 - Less Sissy Gear

Gear 3 - Least Sissy Gear

Gear 4 - Boy Gear

Gear 5 - Pre-teen Boy Gear

Gear 6 - Manly Gear

Gear 7 - Big Muscles Gear

I only like gear 6 and 7 to be honest.

Additionally, this tool of all immense men comes with a gigantic lock to keep it secure. The lock is the size of a bull’s testicles and tells people you don’t fuck around with locking up your bike tank. It tells would-be-thieves “Hey asshole, touch this bike and I’ll appear from the bushes ready to club you with a two-by-four”.

Bike is for 150 OBO (and don’t give me no panzy prices)

I love this bike.

in a non-penetrative sort of way of course.  But generally speaking, it climbs like a greased weasel up a tree, descends like a greased weasel stapled to a breezeblock thrown out of a tree, corners like a greased weasel stuck to a train going round a corner and generally goes fast.  Damn bike is better than me I reckon.

meccano

Just a quick post to show what my shoulder looks like now in an x-ray. Its pretty much totally healed now and I can near sleep on it for a full night. But on the bikes its all good. Can run, swim jump do whatever now.

on the topic of food...

... and the quality of the stuff in this country.

It just seems to vary from place to place and from good to blatantly crap. For example.... Cathy and me were in Buncrana there for the weekend for her birthday... first food we got was in the hotel, I got a baked salmon thing and she got a roast dinner thing.... mine wasn't actually too bad... but the veg Cathy got with here food were a hark back to the days where 'I'll just cook it for another 15 mins to be sure'. Three different types of veg in a bowl and all had the same texture and near enough the same colour. Not good.

Roll on saturday... had a nice walk on the beach... pretended to catch a skate (fish).

Then we went and got coffee and a wrap.... wrap was mouldy. Nice. That'll teach us not to order the fry.. of which the coffee shop appeared to be doing hundreds.

Time rolls on... burger for dinner... not good quality at all, with a hundred thinly sliced deep fried onions that actually twanged when plucked. Cathy's food was overcooked pasta with dried / lazy garlic and probably a mushroom soup sauce.

I dunno. Am I weird in thinking that cooking is just not that hard? And if you're paying for it, it should be damn good? Obviously there's scales of it... but there's no excuse for dodgy food.