A journey to the dark side...

Since a while we are involved with an 'action group' called HOOL, or Hans Off Our Links in long, to fight the destructive development of the Musselburgh racecourse.

One idea was to sell stuff on car boots sales to add to the raised funds, and off we went, one Sunday just Rick and I, the Sunday after, Irene, our neighbour, joined us in East Fortune !

Irene wins the award for fastest sale, an exercise stepper (sold to a 400 yr old man who couldn't get out of his car...go figure..) within 45 seconds of her arrival. Ker-ching! £15. Closely followed by my bread maker to the same person within 1.5 mins... double ker-ching @£15..... Stalls paid for plus £10 profit at 09:30 am.

The rest of the day was a non-stop roller coaster of hedonistic 50p sales..... or the bargain of the century of 60, yes....SIXTY.... Babylon5 video's for £10....

We also ate some unidentified food substances (no animals were harmed in the production of these burgers/sausages/lorne/ etc etc)...

It is a bit of a laugh and you wouldn't believe folk buy your stuff till you see it! And the kind of folk..... there was the Russian girl with the peroxide blond hair, red fake leather blazer, same colour cords and white spikey stiletto boots... haggling half an hour over a ring for £1... you had to be there...especially when her Sergei had to make sure first it is really silver before she was allowed to buy it.

Anyway, we will go again one more time before Christmas, Sunday the 11th. This time we have Santa hats and plan to make Mulled Wine to give away for free with every purchase of £2 and over! Watch this space....

Mount Keen Tour - 15th October

This tour is one Rick and I did before, on a sunny, warm day last summer (the picture proves it...). Kenny, SLAC Cycle Club chairman, had walked the most easterly munro in Scotland a few weeks back and wondered if it was do-able with a bike. We told him it was and, together with fellow biker Alan, off we went to do it again. As it is a long time ago, I take the liberty of copying Kenny's report of the day from the SLAC bike club forum. Photos courtesy of Mr. Morton....

"Saturday was an epic day out. We (Alan, Andrea, Rick and myself) met in the car park at Tarfside at 8.30 (yes Ewan, we were in a car park in the Cairngorms by 08.30.....I know you think meeting at the Pentlands by 10.00 is an early start!!), and after the usual faffing about, were under way by 9.15. The route took us straight on to a rough Landrover track, undulating for the first miles or so, through a startled looking herd of cows, and then uphill. And uphill. And uphill. And then uphill a bit more. Yes, it was a long way, however we managed to ride around 98% of it, with just a steep, loose section near the top making us push.


By the time we were on the flattish section at the top the weather had closed in completely, with visibility down to less than 100 yards. It's here that the track splits with the Fungle Road going one way and the Firmounth Road the other. We took the Firmounth Road, which rapidly became no more than a rough, narrow track. After a couple of checks of the GPS (and how useful did that bit of equipment prove to be in those conditions), we found the track that would take us down into Glen Tanar. It was about now the real fun started. It's not a hugely steep descent, but does have enough rocks, ruts, bogs, puddles, streams, drops, scree and everything else to keep your mind totally focussed. It was about halfway down here we had our only big crash of the day when Rick nosedived over the bars and surfaced with blood coming out his forehead.


After some medical attention we were off again, with a short, slightly uphill section followed by another long descent, this one a good bit faster on wider tracks, down into Glen Tanar, and a well earned lunch by a pretty little bridge over the river.

Sandwiches scoffed, we were off again up a fairly smooth track which lead to the foot of Mount Keen. After a slightly awkward river crossing it was time to get out an assortment of slings and hooks and attach the bikes to our rucksacks for the walk up the hill, the track at this point being unrideable.

It would have been a hard enough walk normally, but in miserable weather, with tired legs and with 30 lbs of mountain bike attached to our already laden rucksacks, it became a major undertaking.

After about an hour of hiking we finally hit the point where the track divides and we were able to re-mount. What a relief it was too; suddenly our rucksacks felt so light! It was while we were unhooking the bikes we met three hikers coming up the hill. I think four folk with mountain bikes was just about the last thing they expected to see up there, if the looks on their faces was anything to go by!.

The track (the Mounth Road) at this point is a narrow singletrack which contours round the summit, before meeting up with the path coming down from the top for the big descent. The next few miles flew by as we zipped down the track to the cottage by the Queen's Well. Other than loose rocks and some big drainage ditches, there's nothing to stop you really flying down this hill, and by the time we got to the cottage the sore legs from the hiking were well and truly forgotten and replaced with huge grins, helped with the very welcome nip of whisky Rick produced to celebrate surving what was a very tough day out.
From the cottage we had another mile or so of track, plus a few miles along the road back to Tarfside and the cars. As far as luxury goes, Champagne, caviar and the rest are nothing compared to the feel of clean, dry socks at the end of a long day on the hills!!

Big thanks to the other three for a classic day's mountain biking, and to those of you not there, you missed a great day out............although there are a number of other tracks up there that I'm sure we'll be back to explore."

Well, one thing Kenny missed is, that Rick actually produced a medal for each of us together with the whisky, and boy, did we deserve one!

7Stanes weekend with the SLAC Cycle Club 23rd-25th September

Happened to stumble over the above bunch announcing that they would hold their yearly weekend outing at a bunk house in Mabie Forest for a weekend to try some of the 7Stanes tracks.
Thought it’ll be a good idea to meet up as I was talking on the forum to some of them but never met.
Said, done and I also stupidly volunteered Rick and me to do the cooking as an ‘Einstand’.
(German culture thing...yes, we Germans do have culture other than putting towels out on sunbeds at the crack of dawn...).
I wasn’t quite sure if I was more nervous about matching people’s cycle skills on the tracks or about messing up the meal!

Saturday we went to Kirroughtree. Quickly it emerged that it was better that Dave G., Alan, Rick and I split from the group as our speed was a notch faster than the rest. Unfortunately half an hour after that Rick had an accident due to new tyres/bad brakes which finished his day, and as it later turned out, the weekend as the front wheel was bent.
Never mind the cut in the leg!
I was tempted for a moment to bail out and do the 'I accompany him home' trick, as I was a bit worried riding 30kms+ with two guys I've never cycled with before. Visions of Chamonix returned.
I only noticed later, that in fact I had never cycled without Rick at all (not counting the daily commute...). So, it felt a bit to me like a 'coming of age' in the mountain bike world. And man, did we have fun!
Riding McMoab at Kirroughtree:
Alan doing the same:

Sunday we went to Dalbeattie as everybody was keen to see (and some to ride) The Slab :
I remembered when Rick had done it 2 years ago, it didn't look that steep looking up from the bottom. I had never seen it from the top as then I used the escape route which starts before the thing comes into view, to also avoid The Qualifier, a bit of a rock heap which just preceeds The Slab.
So, after some discussion, if and how The Qualifier would be rideable at all (and deciding it wouldn't), on we went to The Slab. Gulp. Somebody made that steeper since I was here the last time or what ?? After lengthy discussions (again!) we decided that we would try the lower half of it:


And it wasn't bad at all, once you were over the edge..... The full Slab next time then.
More exhilarating riding from there on and back.

A fantastic weekend overall (minus Ricks accident of course) and looking forward on doing it again soon !

PS: The meal went fine. Tom Yum soup, Green chicken curry with rice (a bit too sticky), and Luca's ice cream as afters.....One thing I learned: 2 kilos of rice for 15 people is too much. Waaayyy too much.

Some photos...

... finally - of the holiday here.

Lake Garda and the rain.....

Yep, again, we've been rained upon. Not that I take it personal, but twice is enough. At xmas left San Diego 5 days early as it was raining non-stop.
Anyway, the holiday pretty much split into 'before the rain' and 'after the rain'. And the middle bit was 'Bavaria'. Well, not entirely true actually, we went to Bavaria on day 8 or so when it rained the 3rd day in Torbole, and, when checking the internet we learned that it will keep raining for a while in the whole of Continental Europe.
Tuff, we thought, go and see my brother Bernd and wife Rosi, who were holidaying in Bavaria, at least we would have somebody to play cards and drink with. Not that anybody had cards but we needed another excuse...
But on the 3rd day again it still rained (and I mean rain, not some Scotland-esque dreich, no, real heavy, unforgiving, to the bones, continuous rain) and when my dad told us that the sun is back out in the Black Forest, off back there we went. Even 5 days with my mother couldn't be as bad as the never ending rain...
And luckily, the weather gods had really calmed down again, and we had nice weather for the rest of the holidays.

Cycling:
4 tours in and around/above Torbole:
Very very hard. Lots of loose scree and man are these hills steep. But you get the most beautiful views. And I mean 'most'. Here an example:



2 days of waiting to cycle in Bavaria looking at something like this (and this was when the weather was good!):


And the redemption in Black Forest... hard cycling with chief mountain goat Rosi and deputy mountain goat Bernd:


More photos will be uploaded but it's and arse and it might take a while (sorry Lillithenecosse!!)

How beautiful....

....is this ?! Rick had the genius idea last night to have a barbie

at the lagoon.
And it is all in danger of being impacted by the fecking racecourse extension plans. Incredible. It must not happen. See here what's planned.

Fun Lovin' Criminals .....

....last night....
Superb. The coolest guys on the planet.
Ever. Noticed later with horror we have not got a single album of them. Had to immediately order one.
So, all of you who weren't there, you missed a great night out. Superb venue, great support bands (though the singer of Echo and the Bunnymen is a big tosser). The first band, The Beauty Shop was the best support band I ever heard I think, very much Ocean Colour Scence, just better...
We much deserved a good concert night after the U2 disaster. Oh of which we got money back of the travel agent, full ticket price £60 each, as the promoters had finally admitted that the seats where rubbish !! Result.

No Tour de Mont Blanc this year then.....

....we must have looked up about every bicycle tour company on the planet and it was not to be. We found two tours available, one for a ridiculous price, but for the honour of paying double you had to carry your own luggage, and the other one, a transalp tour, was just not quite what we wanted.... ahhhh all this training for nothing. Well of course, not for nothing, as Rick already said, I can keep up with him now !! Not to mention that I fit in my leather motor bike trousers again...
Looking forward now loads to the ferry trip and then some good biking, and camping ! 13 days from now, can't wait.

How difficult can it be...

To get on a bike trip. If its not the dates, place or times.... The trips are full or cancelled, the ground has opened up and all the haddock has fallen in. A pain.. There is a light at the end of the tunnel that doesn't seem to be the oncoming train.. Andrea's brother Bernd and wife Rosie will be in Bechtesgaden so we can see them.

Its an interesting place as Hitlers Eagle's Nest is there. Facinating place. A gold lift to the top, memories of Eva Braun, an exquisite Italian marble fireplace damaged by the Allied troops.... History indeed.

We did a tour around Perth and it was easy. Andreas training is going very well indeed. She is on my wheel all the time now. We should be strong for the Alpine Trip, ferry is booked so we are all going and everything. Thank goodness...

Mt Keen this weekend. Not the Fungle Road cos its pants...

Live 8 Edinburgh - The Final Push

When you have grown up in a small village you are used to that nothing ever happens of any significance in aforementioned place. All the 'real' stuff happens in the big cities, e.g. Live Aid gigs.

So naturally I was very excited when we got the tickets for the Edinburgh concert. When the gig list first came out though I was really disappointed with the line-up, no really big names like they had in London, like Pink Floyd or Madonna. Thought I'd go anyway now I have tickets and also thought of Sod's Law that if I don't go everybody who was there will tell me next day how good it was.
And am I glad I went !
Nicely warmed up by my G+T in a Strathmore plastic bottle and a tad stoned inhaling (involuntarily!) somebody else's hash smoke (that must have been one hell of a joint or maybe I am just more sensitive nowadays !) Lise (Rick preferred to work in France...) and I watched the likes of Texas, Travis, Youssou N'Dour, Annie Lennox and the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown ! The Africans 'One Giant Leap' made me dig out the DVD of the same name out again, listening to it right now !!!

There were lot's of others I wasn't tooo bothered about, and also a string of hosts, Eddi Izzard was great, Lenny Hendrie too...
Annie Lennox sang a very moving 'Redemption Song' and read out a statement which had me fighting the tears. Respect.
Before the James-Brown-fix, the Geldof/Bono speeches. I liked Geldof's words especially , here an excerpt:

"...Tonight is the ceremony of life, tonight is the denial of the carnival of death that we see paraded across our TV screens. Tonight is the denial of the pornography of poverty that's played out nightly in our living rooms.. If tonight was full of noise then on Friday there will be a great silence across the world while we await the verdict of eight men." .... "If we are going to be denied then let us tell them this - having engaged in the political process, should you fail we will not be cynical, we will bide our time and when you come to us and ask for your approval at the ballot box, fuck off!"

Not that I believe that last nights gig has changed much if anything on a big scale, but the more often these events happen the better, slowly slowly it will burn an awarenesse in all our heads that the African situation is intolerable and needs doing something about. Call me a dreamer?


Some photos here.

A class re-union after 24 years - very surreal....

Class of 1981

It was really quite incredible, on the 25/6/2005, the 13a got together for their first (proper) class reunion (there was one before very shortly after the Abitur, but hardly anyone attended, we were probably glad not to have to see each other again....).
If you like to see/read more (in German), have a look
here.
This blog is in creation, so bare with me.... more pictures will be added and also hopefully my old classmates write a few bits....
(Andrea)

U2 and the discovery of a new European Metric Measurement

Well off we went to Glasgow in a bit of a rush. I had the joy of dental root treatment half an hour before traveling. Straight to the Weeej to meet the rest of the people that were joining in the "Corporate Fun". Suitably wined and dined, campaigned and bussed we arrived at Hampden Park. (The support acts had been and gone by this time). It was quite exciting in amongst all the other folk, searching for the entrance to the stadium, the jostle for the toilets, women sprinting through the gents, climbing the stairs to see the hallowed ground. And the awful realisation that the seats we had been allocated were hopeless. Well they were worse, fecking hopeless! 90 degrees to the stage, level with one of the large panels that formed the end with no view of the centre piece video wall in any way. Completely pants. I haven't started on the quality of the sound yet either....

Abandoning our seats next to the smiling man with the Labrador and stick, we wandered off to find a standing spot. We managed this getting a three quarter view only to be moved on by security with a hearty "take your seats please". I was ready to leave, but we stuck it out.

We paid a sh*tload (thats the new Euro metric measurement, ten times bigger than a "Lot" ), of cash for this. Twice £229 for the whole package inc dinner. Hopelessly ripped off....Drop the debit! Too right with these ticket prices!

U2" were allegedly great as I would expect. I was quite upset that Andrea had spend this amount of cash on this event. Even more so as it never really kicked off for us.

Great atmosphere with awesome tunes. Video wall went down well. Especially for those who could see it, we never really got beyond the Video Wall Concept phase. The usual show from the worlds greatest supergroup. I will have to buy the DVD to see what I have missed.

Been an awesome month though:

Chamonix Mountain Biking
U2 at Hampdump
British Superbikes at Knockhill
F-1 GP Magny Cours
Tickets to Live8
Still to come, Fun Lovin Crims...

Bring it on! More later.. Rick

Glen Tilt tour

Yesterday saw us tackling the beautiful Glen Tilt for a third time. The wounds from last weekend had healed somewhat and the weather looked promising.
We set off from the Blair Atholl car park at 12 noon, and ached up the immediate steep hill, and a long one it is too....
A clever shortcut Rick had worked out saved us the way down to the cottage at Shinagag and back up the hill, but required a river crossing...as he knows how much I hate to get my feet wet, he offered to carry me across....I accepted. If I had known tho' how many streams, puddles and generally boggy surface were to cross still, I hadn't bothered....

Nobody but sheep
Great rocky descent to Daldhu Lodge for a well earned lunch. Then up the long steep track up to the pink house (the ones who've done this tour know what I mean). And I was chuffed to bits to manage this for the first time without having to get off and push. I even had a few gears left and enough air to keep talking, to Rick's dismay !!
Anyway, at Fealar Lodge as it's called, we filled up water, played with the dogs (or better we made silly faces and they barked for Scotland), had a muesli bar and, with the knowledge that it is mostly downhill from here set off with a smile on our faces.
Dog thing
Which was wiped off a minute later as on the steep ten meters up the meadows behind the Lodge, the shit hit the fan.
Ricks chain broke, got caught in the rear mech, and as this all happened on full power application uphill, wrapped the mech about 180 degress round backwards and subsequently bent the hanger. My immediate thoughts where to find somebody in the Lodge who would hopefully help us to get back down to the car park. But no, my man is sooooo clever and he had all the right tools and knowledge to fix the mess at least good enough to make it down (well, almost....). So, 40 minutes later we set off again.

Fixer
Over the meadow, finally descending into the gully to the river, where both of us got off at the bits with the murderous drop-offs to the left. I still have to talk to somebody who actually cycled this...
And then, the view of the Glen always blows me away, Scotland at it's best !! Over the iron bridge at the falls, great track all the way down the glen, and apart from the worry if Rick's bike will hold, all was well.
Of course the chain had to break one more time, about 3 miles before the end. A quick fix and then an easy roll back into Blair Atholl.
35 miles, 7 hours ellapse (would have been about 50 minutes less without the breakdowns). Hard, but superb, one of my all time favourites....
Bikes packed up quickly and then the big reward, a stovie and beer stop in Dougie McLean's Taybank Bar in Dunkeld. All is well with the world.....
(Andrea)

Chamonix "training camp" 9 - 13 June

View from the chalet
Day 1

Relativity

Everything is relative. Relative fit. Relative fast. Relative steep. The question is, relative to what. Today I had to compare myself to some seasoned bikers.
Off for our first ride at 10.30am, cracking up at 11am already, wondering why ever I decided to do something like this. The hill up to the Argentiere GLacier was super steep and I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs as I was trying to keep up with the others. 2 guides with awesome skills (Ben Fogle lookalike Ed and Chris), 3 Geordies, "Positive Pressure" Kev, Paul and Mark, and 2 scousers, "Kamikazee" Neil and Paul, all with calf strength that makes Arnie blush.
Once I followed Rick’s advice to go my own pace things settled down. Great biking, open flowing forest trails on the Northern Valley side. Awesome scenery and weather for sun factor 20. Biere du Mont Blanc blanche on Chamonix's main square in the Bar Nationale afterwards. All well again.

Well earned beers in Bar Nationale

Day 2

“The weather will be like this till Monday!”

Says Piff (short for Epiphany, what a name…she works in the chalet). Scorgio.

Busies in the morning

Great start to the day, windy downhills down to the valley of Servoz, then up a mountain, 700 meters altitude in under 1 hour (I think....). I slowly ground my way up, at the back of the pack but not trying to keep up with them and I made it without too much pain or getting seriously out of breath. Hm, progress to yesterday then !
Lunch break with a view

After lunch and expensive coffees it was all downhill to Chedde, mostly singletrack, over lots of roots and rocky stuff, great fun. And best of all, I was not limping behind. Nice.
Back to Les Bossons on the train. Well, some went on to Bar Nationale for beers. Yes, Rick and I.

Waiting to be fed

Day 3

Downhill day widda boss


Positve or negative pressure - that's the question

Cable cars and a wee mountain train, no uphills. Says company boss Phil in the morning. Well, they always have to put one of those ups in, which make your eyes bulge out, ‘just those 4 serpentines’ but oh was it worth it !
We started off down to Les Houches, took the 'frique up to La Chalette. First downhill off the day, technical and steep but brilliant.

Ed in action

On the 'frique again back up and over to the other route, Chemin de Rocher – part of which was 3 miles exhilarating singletrack downhill in one go. The smell of boiling break pads and the burning sensation in your forearms on a windy, rocky, rooty trail thru the woods….awesome, everbody was buzzing with excitement! Some more downhill with tricky switchbacks, Kamikazee Neil's end was nigh ….back up with the wee tramway and on the trail from the morning again. Home, beers, happy.

Some wounds to compare today then, one over the handle bars each between me and Rick and on the 3rd run I tangoed with the bike just having stopped avoiding a fall only to loose balance towards the valley side….

Injuries

Ah well, not as bad as Neil who shot straight out off the path missing the switchback, downwards vertically, bashed his leg big time but what really hacked him off was that he bent his frame. Day finished for him unfortunately.

Kamikazee Neil and his broken bike


Day 4

Piff was wrong

The weather didn't hold, big storms, so we packed the bikes (well, Rick packed and I helped...) and went up the Aguillere du Midi as the storms subsided...what a place !
Aguillere du Midi
(Andrea)

Whistles....

If you own a MTB and go regularly on trails in all weathers, you will often hear a whistling noise. At first it will not be clear as to what this is but it soon becomes obvious. Its your wallet in freefall.... Just getting ready for this trip and getting the bikes up to scratch is costing a fekking fortune. Stuff just wears out at an alarming rate. Rear disc brake, £120, pads £45 (three sets), replaced bent disc, £50, cushion for wallet to land on, priceless!

But at the end of the day its going to be great. Checking the weather in Chamonix gives us 21 degrees and clear skies.

This is me up at 06:00 in the morning to clear some of my work for the day leaving me with a less soiled conscience about The Devils Staircase to Fort William via the West Highland Way, today. On a flier to Glencoe and back. Just hope the weather holds. Then Thursday the final maintainance of two new chains and a set of cables. Hurrah. Off to book the parking at Newcastle airport......(Rick)

Gearing up for Chamonix !

Off Thursday afternoon from Newcastle directly to Geneva, biking Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and potentially Monday morning in Chamonix.... back in the UK late Monday night. And that's just for training.
The big one shall happen at some point in August, a circumnavigation of the Mont Blanc on the mountain bike (hopefully mostly on it rather than falling off or worse, pushing it !!!). 5 days, 3 countries, 4 passes, 200 km making 8000 mtrs ascent... Why some might ask ??? I think I might have a midlife crisis. Hmm...
Well, what I've go for sure is PANIC (yes, in big letters). Am fighting panic with mantras, Must get Stronger, Must get Faster, Must get Skillfullerererer....(Andrea)