heaven help the roses

when the bombs begin to fall

go andy

nice sunnies mate (circa 1988)

honestly

whats the problem? after a big night to say cheerio/bugger-off to our mate duncan who succumbed to the pull of joburgs gold, we decided to go jump off some high things into the hermanus reservoir. good times. the water level was pretty damn low, so i'll freely admit we didnt even attempt the big guy. we reckoned it was like.. too high. dunno how high that is in metres, but probably over 20. but there is still something special about hiking up into the bush on a (mid-summer) winters morning until u cant see any people or their houses and then jumping into a dark dark full-of-tanins dam. it was probably the same temperature in the water as the air. now it was raining right, so both my walking clothing and my cleverly brought along separate swimming clothing got wet. so my original plan to protect the old man's nice leather seats was foiled.



anyway, i still dont think there is anything wrong with driving home in your boxers. some hermanus grannies did tho and they voiced their disapproval quite clearly through their hooter. hence the photo. nice one deon.

back in black

deep dark africa huh? is it really all that dark? well negativity can make things seem pretty dark. the threat of no electricity dims things a little. zuma being on trial however may provide a little light at the end of the tunnel. its sure not boring to be back in cape town! i went to a super-insightful lecture by clem sunter and chantell illbury last night at UCT's graduate school of business, well, dawson fabrications had to sent a representative. i guess i was (naively) wondering why the zuma trial and eskom being morons was making such headlines before this lecture. i mean sure we need electricity but right now i'v got it and president shmeshident woe woe what is he good for anyway..? clem put it pretty succinctly when he said (and i dont quote him) that the economy wont grow until we have power, and if there is political violence related to the zuma trial we will become another kenya, plonkers... so im back to watching the news i guess. that is when im not riding with the boys, plum pudding, yeah welcome back!

almost somewhere

ive been instructed by his holiness the dalai lama up in mcleodganj, been a celebrity at the golden temple in amritsar, seen a food poisoned blur of the taj mahal in agra, some buildings from james bond in udaipur and somehow we have found ourselves on a sun-and-trance-soaked-beach in goa. kingfisher makes great beer, good aeroplanes and pretty average bottled water. ok i give up trying to describe my indian experience, hopefully these pics will help otherwise lets have a chat, ill be in cape town on the 6th of december! see you on a bike

red bridges

this is what we did on the last sunny sunday of amsterdam summer


2 more weeks till india baby

almost a fake-enger

its almost there, one gear, new colour scheme and it rides like a dream...



pity the streets of amsterdam have holes thicker than my tires and the tourists ride soooo damn slowly! haha jokes, we love them really... :-)



now i just have to stick to the origional plan of selling it before i go cos im kinda getting attached to it, aah 1 more bike wont hurt will it?

the bike project

wow, its been a while... i have been to and come back from south africa, pretty much finished a thesis and started a new bike project! in amsterdam there are far too many uncool bikes (yes yes thats my opinion) and i have owned a few of them, so now its time to make an uber-cool bike, as only those who ride bikes all day can do, its time for the messenger bike! or rather, cos i may never be hard/cool enough to be a messenger, its time for the fake-enger bike! only a few rules, low budget, low number of gears (preferably just one), low chance of injury (so it will have brakes)... after scouring the online marketplaces i found just the bike, it was a half hour train ride away, the right size and not very expensive... i bet you dont know what 1985 shimano 600 looks like, i give u a hint, 5 gears, i think ornate is the word



so its gonna be a 4 maybe 5 phase process, these photos are at the end of phase 1, ie i had pumped up the new tires and straightened the saddle etc... just wait for it, oooh its going to be shweet!

writing on the wall

any ideas what it means? saw it on a wall opposite from a great curry in cambridge




choc chip banana muffins anyone? mmm good...

racing again, at last

so i think i have a little theory about fitness... its got to do with there being a difference between being 'in shape' and being 'out of shape', ja ja i know thats pretty obvious, but especially obvious to me now that i have finally raced a bike again! i think being out of shape is like having an engine limiter, u got plenty of power but ur never gonna be able to use it all. well at least thats how i felt when i had to sit down and swallow half way up a few hills during the race... hmmm humbling! but fun! so i rocked up thinking i would be the only guy who knew which way to wear a helmet at the amateur section of the benelux (belgium netherlands luxembourg ie international) championships only to find 160 other guys on flash bikes with sponsored kit all looking really fast (and some of them werent only fast in the parking lot), amateur my ass... so i got thumped, but i still beat a good few of them so its all good, the best part about it was that my knee held out fine so... its time to get out of my 'out of shape' state, into an 'in shape' state so i can train properly and get fast, oh ja that was the rest of my theory.