On Flats and Other Things

I know, I have not posted much lately, sorry. Things have been crazy.

Obviously the whole move nonsense is far from finished. It turns out the imbecile I bought the house from lied in the listing of the house, the driveway is not legal and I got a parking ticket for using it. (I've had to get an on street permit, thank goodness it's a quiet street that people don't generally park on.)

I got a new job, its not a problem with the old job but the new role, is, I think, a step in a better direction. I can take the subway to work, it's only 10km away - so I can ride even on the beater Coppi to work. And the role is itself a promotion, even if the pay is slightly lower. (I save so much on the commute, I'll suck up the slight loss of income.)

Of course all of this means that I have not had much time to write lately. Well actually, part of it is also a case of, hmmm, weather's starting to turn, I could stay home and write blog posts or...!

So I had a flat on a Wednesday evening joy ride. I was on Queens Quay on the way home, east bound, when not for the first time I noticed the ride quality was suddenly pretty lousy. Queens Quay as a westbound road is bad, but usable, for the eastbound cyclist, take another road! Maybe Bathurst to Front and across Front Street?

Thursday was hill climbing night with the club. It was very nice, I kept my pace down on the first climb and on the second climb I kept it steady, on the third climb a bunch of guys, not in the club came out and did their first climb, they passed me, but then just a few meters later, I passed them. On my fourth climb they managed to pass me again but I had to save up enough to do all the other 'tour of Scarbrough' stuff we had planned.

We rode over to Meadowcliffe Dr., there is a short hill, perhaps 30 or 40 meters long and maybe 18% at it's steepest. As the guys got to the hill, I was a little behind, having down-shifted to early, I yelled out, "anyone who climbs the hill in the saddle gets a cookie!" I did not part with any Fudgee-Ohs last night. Then again, I did not earn one either.

Still I did pretty well and had enough gas left in the tanks to really hammer it home.