13°C, grey, warm and dry.
Those numerous symptoms are largely gone. Fizzy legs are back, mouth ulcers gone as has the malaise.
Which bike today?
Laurie Anderson, USA live.
Meanwhile, an LP plays in the background. Here is one I have not given a whirl for many years.
Ride:
Continue reading
10°C, bright sun. Dry too.
I tire easily, the thought of cycle ride today does not make the fizzy feeling like it normally does. At least my weight has stabilised at 13st. 13
Tricky: Angels with Dirty Faces.
A warm sound slowly fills my room.
10°C, stormy rain.
In a hotel in Wilmslow.
Drawing makes your mind run at double-speed, you get hot and will have to take a layer off.
No inconvenience imposed on a sitter there. No reference either.
Too many espresso coffees though. Up to a point, it helps, but go over and your dexterity struggles. Quivers in your hands can speed you along, but accuracy falters too.
That thumb, left, is different now. It doesn’t look as awkward now. You can’t draw without a rubber.
10°C, calm grey and dry.
As she walks in the room
Scented and tall
Hesitating once more
And as I take on myself
And the bitterness I felt
I realise that love flows
…(Portishead- The Rip).
~~~
Today, I meet my car. We will go for a drive and I will closely inspect what I am soon to hand over thousands for.
I rode Fixed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 19.66mi, time: 01:12:08, pace: 3:40min/mi, speed: 16.35mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1215746635
Two weeks off, and I return. Fresh and like a coil, to unspring.
11°C, white cloud add calm. Earl early.
New lodger, talking about music, Portishead played out from the IPod dock at the time. His favourite track is ‘Sure’. Blimey, don’t know that one.
Well, I should have. It’s there is my collection.
It turned up on this LP, of the same name.
It’s too easy to buy things and not listen to them sufficiently closely.
11°C, grey cloud and fairly still.
The Diamond Challenge: is a 60th year event run by DofE. We’re invited to submit a challenge, made to ourselves, and raise £60. An appealing idea, it’s just a question of choosing which one.
1. End to end. Cycle from Land’s End to John O’ Groats. 900 miles, roughly.
2. Inaccessible Pinnacle, on Skye, a stack climb that needs ropes.
3. Three Peaks. Again?
4. The five Sisters of Kintail, actually seven Munros including a wild-camp.
Or…do more than one from this list?
The Diamond Challenge site suggests ‘pushing yourself out of your loosen zone’. A cliché, I know but I thought this over. If I pick one of the above, I would be right there, in the dead middle of my comfort zone. That’s where I feel the best. Does that mean I can’t do one from that list?
Well, I might anyway.
10°C, bright with light NE breeze.
…a spider walk on their face in the night. Well, some do. No, not me, I get an Oak Bush Cricket.
Here she is, still in my bedroom looking healthy enough. I put her outside so she can get on with hunting nocturnal insects, which is her normal occupation.
later; I only noticed later, on looking at the photos that she only has five legs.
Maybe there is a leg in my room somewhere.
12°C, grey but dry.
Two months ago, I weighed 14St 12lbs. That’s too much, clothes were getting tighter, and my BMI was at the top of the range (25).
Most of it was lost on the Scotland hiking trip: 8lbs lost, 2lbs in Corsica and the rest since the return to work.
All I want to do is keep it just below 14St.
13°C, sunny with easterly breeze.
Drawing: put something, anything between work and bed in the evening.
Tiny A6 sketchbook with a cheap propelling pencil. The paper isn’t really this sallow.
Heavy rain showers, S breeze. 16°C.
No cycling. I have a cold, so did some drawing tonight.
A6 sketchbook with HB pencil. It took about half an hour. Played Max Richter for about 2 sides.
It came out alright didn’t it?
Spirit of Turpentine 