Coffee for cyclists.

8°C, dry and sunny with a brisk W.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3348057034

Though dry, black peaty mud made it from the fields to the tarmac, those surfaces were not as slippery as they appeared.

It stopped at the Twin Lakes Velo for coffee. They make beautiful espresso, such depth and richness. Each sip is a series of flavours, after the bitter initial explosion, there are distinct phases to tollow in each tiny sip. Nuts, woody sweetness and a glissade towards the time that another sip is due. It’s ironic that such a small cup needs to be drunk over such a long time.

Virtual reality; a demo.

With time to kill and shopping to do, I needed a break after an hour. Remember how much I detest clothes shopping? Since it was early, the staff in PC World were happy to give a demo of virtual reality gaming.

Using a Sony PS4, and a sci-fi racing game and the headset (pictured) we went ahead. I know there is always a process of setting up and customising kit as there were problems to overcome. Here is a list with starting with the least significant:

• Sound: harsh and loud,
• The game, frantic and stressful,
• Blurring, and chromatic aberration,
• Vertigo, felt as dizziness.

I think the game was called Wipeout. What a ridiculous cartoon game for children. I had to stop before the round was over with my head spinning and stressed. The fault may lie with the game, a flight simulator usually has a clear horizon line. In Wipeout, the banked track as the bit that made me dizzy.

I’d better not be too dismissive until I’ve tried a proper flight simulator. From what the staff said, it sounds like the focus on this console is arcade games. That’s not encouraging for me.

More interesting would be a similar setup that enables players to explore virtual worlds. Surely, it must be possible with current technology to generate a procedural planet and populate it with user content. Better still, one that we players can create scenes, buildings, vehicles and objects.
There would be a way to get back into 3DS Max and build a world, maybe with the Unity engine. What fun to make a familiar building but with hidden secrets.

Oops, I did it again.

7°C, fog.

Following that experience in the early week, I have yet to return to cycling. I rode a meer 25 miles and felt dreadful by the end. The last few days, I cracked on with the decorating. The hall is half done and you can see where it’s going.

Once more, stripping off wallpaper revealed loose plaster; this time, right next to the front door.

The underlying bricks have a fault, there in a crack in the mortar which now needs attention from outside. I wonder whether this fault it caused by slamming the front door. The door is a tight fit in the frame this winter. Perhaps it does this every winter when it’s damp.

Another item for the to-do list; plane the door down to give clearance.

Later, I’ll ride. The legs are fizzing again.