the italy experience

start with cold pizza in the park... then walk along a big old river



to a reaaallly famous old building (or is it a reaaallly old famous building?)



but make sure u watch out for the italian traffic...

shiny things

aah i nice shiny apple laptop sure keeps you warm at night... nope its not mine, although i should have mine in a day or three, im just house sitting for a friend and in return for taking care of the kittens i get to play with her laptop, and wireless internet, and that has taken up just about all of my time! well, apart from it being 2 degrees outside, actually that has something to do with it, it might snow... i was going to say that apart from that, things are looking pretty peachy up here in north western europe, the sycip is on its way back home, all shiny and new, they even fixed the dents, those nice men at the bike factory are quite something huh..? pictures to follow

is it too late to say 'happy new year'?

so we're back from italy feeling over pizza-ed and a little broke, what a cool experience tho! new years eve was spent with a bottle of champagne (and thousand or so other people also with bottles of champagne) on a hill overlooking rome watching the fireworks, then we were prevented from going to a party a long way away by the diabolical taxi system in rome, we just couldnt get one... but all ended well cos i got to eat a donut that was to big to hold with one hand! well anyway, its a new year and i wish you all well! i got an appointment with a coach at the university of amsterdam sport centre, its time to get back into shape!

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?