blingle bells

who else wants some pink chris king parts for christmas? well im busy negotiating some as we speak... with myself that is! so its been a busy few weeks with school and work, but its all going to pay of because its holiday time! first stop is a farm in a place called... um waldrighem? ok i know the spelling is completely wrong, so anyway its a friends parents farm somewhere in the netherlands. christmas is going to be spent there, then its off to somewhere else for first christmas day (the dutch have 3 christmas days, the less important the person the later they get visited... jees no pressure) and then its off to rome!!! woohoo bring on the pasta pizza and icecream... see you all in the new year!

almost christmas

and all i want since i have some front teeth is a flight to somewhere warm... and a macbook pro... and a nice tasty snack right now... actually what i want is not to want... does that make sense to anyone else? it seems im affected by the christmas spirit... although i would like to complement the dutch on the fact that it is already december and im not completely sick of the christmas spirit, i do think the fact that they have a whole seemingly separate tradition of Sinterklaas on the 5th of december has a large influence here tho... look it up on wikipedia, get to know a dutch person today! i think im going to go get that tasty sinterklaas inspired snack right now!

cheaper bike parts

i wish they would start genetically engineering these

cheaper food

has anyone seen the movie 'we feed the world'? well i watched it yesterday in dutch (achievment of the week) and found it quite unpleasant... no not the dutch part... its not that i learnt a lot of new things about globalisation, genetic modification and general human cruelty, its more that i had been hiding my conscience quite successfully up until now, shopping at supermarkets etc and that movie blew its cover! one of the things brought to our attention is that the amount of bread thrown away each day without being sold in the largest city of one european country is enough to feed the second largest city of that country... will someone explain to me why we need to genetically modify our food? www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/index.htm check it out!

a photo story

only a short story tho but plenty of space for imagination...



thats a nice bike isnt it? but how am i going to get it?



i reckon ill try hustling all the indoor trainer competitions



or maybe ill make candy!

much respect on the world champs effort Gav! read his story

a pic from the imana wild ride

they needed a helicopter to keep up... damn that was a cool race

bike candy

what is a better way to describe how i felt yesterday while walking, with the dutchie in tow, around the huge bike exhibition in utrecht yesterday? happy as a pig in shit, or a little boy in a candy shop - well i suppose that depends on who you talk to... that was a brief escape from the exam week i am currently in the middle of which entails writing writing writing, it seems its all about essays in this course... the outing also coincided with the arrival of my free transport card, thanks dutch government, i can travel anywhere in the netherlands for free! (week days or weekends, i chose weekends as there is no chance i can get away during the week) well try as i might i am not going to be able to write this without mentioning the wpmba provincial probably taking place right now, hope it goes well for the people i like, and just a touch less well for everyone else (is that fair?), heard it was a kuk course anyway, anyone want to give a race report? hey gavin, how was world champs?

ok, who am i fooling?

so i dont have much to say about cycling... i managed to ride twice last week, a grand total of just under 4 hrs of cycling... but there definately is something to be said for the training advantages of a completely flat course (i spose that depends on whether ur a climber or not), maybe im just getting unfit, but 2 hrs on the flat really takes it out of your legs... ok so i spose still do have a bit to say about cycling... how was road world champs? maximum respect to paulo bettini for doing his gold helmet justice and dominating, what a machine! but actually i was going to write about what has been distracting me recently... if ur wandering what im studying, well i had to read an article for our class today about the different space station designs that NASA has come up with and how they have been shaped by the political system of the time (as well obviously as the technology available, but in a way the technological advancement was paid for by the government so really, its all political... hmm interesting!) oh what colour should i have my red bike repainted (im considering getting disc brake tabs welded on...)?

(junk)food for thoughts

just to prove to you that the netherlands is not just about cheese and baked goods (i mean seriously good high fat baked goods, which as market forces would dictate it seems now all have lower fat equivalents, c'mon guys margarine causes high cholesterol, wait, or is it the other way round..?) here is a party photo (from left to right, its floris, me, wietse, cynt, marijn and jof)... and a photo of some baked goods the south africans amongst us may be familiar with (dont we have like international rights to marie biscuits or something?) this big pack only cost 60 euro cents! oh, and this is the masters course im doing: www.studeren.uva.nl/msc_science_and_technology_studies/

life in between cycling

hi, my name is james and im a cycle-a-holic, its been a week since my last ride tho and it feels a bit strange... it hasnt only been the weather that has prevented me from riding, id have to admit there is an element of laziness, a general lack of motivation to train (ive realised that one really needs this in the absence of mountains and beautiful trails) and a thousand other things to do! Lets start with the thousand other things to do: I am studying a Masters at the University of Amsterdam! Signed up yesterday, start lectures on Monday! Feels like a bit of a crazy last minute decision, well not that crazy actually im pretty stoked that i can start straight away... So im going to be here for a year at least, which brings me to the general lack of motivation to train: Theres not much mountain biking here, but there is cyclocross! Now all i need is a cyclocross bike and a schedule of the races and bingo, motivation! But as with starting up in every new city there are a tonne of forms to fill out and queues to stand in, and jobs to find... ahem... jobs please..?!? Well after approaching anyone that looked like they would have me i now have two potential job opportunities, dont want to jinx either of them so post more about that later!