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The BBC’s forecast for tomorrow looks interesting:

Come on, snow, you can do it.  Tell you what, I’ll go and take photos of you if you come?

When the news is of ‘Floods! Argh!’ getting wet up to the ankles isn’t much to claim. But then my ankles do start half a metre of the ground riding like this.

Minor Admission: I could only ride a couple of metres like this - it quickly becomes a case of wading at knee-depth with numb feet. But worth going back in to get a decent photo! :)

Luckily we do have plenty of drops to drink though. This photo was from 7.30 this morning, on the A44 at Lovesgrove near Aberystwyth. Usually that sign is standing in a field.

There are stories about the trains being cancelled and roads impassable into Aberystwyth. The Pont Dyfi bridge at Machynlleth often closes during floods, but that’s not the main route in from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth.

Still, it’s pretty, isn’t it!

Walnut halves look a bit like little dried brains, or is that just me?

I have just made a banana cake with them in (chopped) though, so I hope that they don’t think too much.

This should not shock those who know me and know that I like cycling.  But it may shock those who know that my usual number of wheels is one, and that to defect to a ‘normal’ bike is almost heresy.

Don’t panic, I still love unicycling, and have masses of it planned for the next few months.  But I do also have a basic bike which has not been in regular use since I came to Aberystwyth, and now that I have it here I am learning how nice it is to be able to shove a bunch of stuff on the back, to shift down to a granny-gear going up Penglais hill and still be able to breathe at the top, and to cruise down hills however fast you like.  You can’t do those things on one wheel.

Bikes are fun.  There, I said it.

I just saw on the BBC News an article about a road cyclist who has been killed on the A82 in Scotland, near Fort William.

This makes me rather sad. Different things affect people in different ways. Hearing about cyclists being killed in accidents on the road is something which makes me most sad by reading it in the news.

I had never heard of this man before now. He was apparently a very promising racer, having broken Graeme Obree’s 10 mile record time and the won the British time trial Circuit among other titles. He was 34 and had a wife and two young daughters.

There aren’t any details of the accident, beyond that it involved a van. Motor vehicles have their uses, but they do also make the roads they share with cyclists potentially dangerous for the latter (which, of course, is a reason to do more cycling on roads and less driving on them - not to stop cycling on roads). Terrible events like this make that so sad.

The photo above was from our Land’s End to John o’Groats cycle tour in 2005, showing me unicycling on the same A82, near Glencoe south of Fort William. In much of rural Scotland there is only one road going between places, so there is no choice but to cycle on some busy ones.

Edit: I realise that this photo doesn’t illustrate how busy it can be - it was a well-timed Jonathan Greenaway photograph to show pretty things like mountains more than cars.

The joy of english is that ‘read’ and ‘read’ mean both the present-continuous and past tense, and you can’t tell without either context or pronunciation. I meant the past-tense version, like the colour, not the riverside plant. I don’t often get a paper at the weekend, and don’t make a habit of reading the Women section (although, thinking about it, I secretly like reading ‘girl’ books or whatever, as a non-girl can often learn more about them by seeing what they want to say when it’s not supposed to be for guys than what makes it as far as the ‘advice about females’ in general or men-targeted stuff - it feels like a kind of back-stage thing), but there were Circumstances. Yes, they deserve that capital letter.

It involved a conspiring combination of my phone’s clock, Which (and indeed What?) Digital Camera magazine, McCoy’s crisps, Arriva Trains Wales, darts, dominoes, Jeremy Clarkson, John Humphries, gentle but persistent rain and a pint of Greene King in The Green Dragon pub.

So, for reasons you really shouldn’t expect me to expand upon, I was reading the glossy Women section which falls out of the Observer Sunday newspaper. Most of it didn’t interest me that much, but I did read an interesting article:

Is virginity the last taboo?

Yes, says a group of hip, savvy and successful Christians. Elizabeth Day meets today’s new radical twentysomethings

You don’t get the whole effect with the online version, as it doesn’t have the several photos of the girls being interviewed - very glamorous etc., and much like any other professional models on the other pages. Apart from the rather petty (given the context) comment I could make on how perhaps Christians shouldn’t revel in being able to glam-up and parade as ostentatiously as anyone else, I was impressed at how sympathetic and admiring the article was.

The Observer (and/or Guardian on weekdays), as a left of centre liberal publication (which is why I choose to read them), isn’t renound for giving religious types an easy ride. Often quite rightly. But what this article is at pains to convey is that these girls (is it patronising to use that word for unmarried females over 25? Maybe.) aren’t weird, judgemental or pushy. There’s no talk of doctrine or damnation throughout. The Silver Ring Thing is given pretty short shrift. They’re just worth comment because they seem different, for having found satisfaction in doing things with some restraint required… not for being needlessly un-cool or for annoying people.

“We all do stupid things, it’s how we cover them up that maketh the man” - Alun J. Evans 2008

Happy New Year everyone!

The fresh-faced year arrived whimpering and mumbling on Aberystwyth sea front, with revellers just about out-numbering the three pairs of police patrolling the promenade. I’m not complaining - I had a lovely time with some great friends - but it was something of a stark contrast to last year when I saw the fireworks of the London Eye, and the ensuing four hour journey between human tides moving in various directions to get back to Poppy’s house (usually more like a 45 minute journey).

I think I may have one or two resolutions which have not yet been broken, but they don’t quite include:

1. Cycling every day
2. Eating fruit and vegetables every day

Never mind. I still have those goals in mind. In other news I’ve managed to put on about 6kg (1 stone) since a couple of months ago. Not that I have any need to loose it again. But I want to get much fitter than I am, with the Ride The Lobster race in Canada in June and Unicon world championships Marathon in August to look forward to!

And another new thing for the new year: a puncture. I’ve never had a puncture in my big wheel while riding before, in over 6000 miles. I was having a nice pootle along to Machynlleth this afternoon when the gentle hum of my tyre against the smooth resurfaced road gradually got louder. It became a rather rasping grind - very odd. Then I started having trouble keeping the wheel going in a straight line, until rather like a single-wheeled Bucking Broncho, it forced a swift dismount onto the verge.

Luckily I’d made it about 14 of the 18.5 miles from Aberystwyth. I gave the tyre about a hundred quick blasts of my rather small capacity pump and tried riding again. After another half a mile the tyre was again doing a passable pancake impression.

Right. More pumping this time. I pumped and pumped until my arms wouldn’t take any more, and the tyre had got back to the ‘quite hard’ stage. Like this it lasted over one mile. More pumping. More pedalling. More riding in a less-than-straight line. Eventually it got me to within walking range of the glorious town of Mach, and I gave up with it.

But at least it has exciting new Wellgo MG1 Magnesium pedals (380g/pair - light considering they’re comfy platform pedals which are needed for unicycling) in pimp-tastic white to bling it up. You know what that means… faster, faster!