So many people cycle with the full cycling kit on, when it is not really necissary. I noticed this yesterday while riding my own bicycle, dressed as a buisnessman in my suit. Every person on the bicycle track i rode along was wearing the full kit, which is disturbingly revealing on some older slovaks, who are riding along at a walking pace. It is just not necissary. Sure wear the shorts, but not a tight revealing top that doesnt attach to the bottoms, i dont think they realise how much gravel rash they will get when they fall off their bike. not that falling off your bike doesnt hurt at any time, it just hurts a lot less when the rider is wearing adequate clothing..
Then again all this is coming from a man who while noticing all this was on his oen bike in a full buisness suit. I had jsut finished the day at school and had been called back to help with some extra work. Deciding that the quickest way to get back to school and cover the couple of kilometers between me and the school was to ride my bike, i jumped on it and rode back without a second thought...on my way i realised that i was wearing my suit. With no time to get back home and change i was forced to help at school then ride the few kilometers to a friends house were i had promised to meet them for a movie night. It was while riding along the bike track, receiving lots of stares off passer by's (who i am sure were confused as to why i was wearing a full suit on a racing bicycle) that i made this discovery.
Im not at the height of fitness (i havent ridden properly training in a long while) but i was going around these people like they were foals and i a full grown stallion, it was unbelievable. what was also amazing was that no one on that path could ride in a straight line. So here all these cyclists were in their full kit being made to look silly by a buisness suit tornado.
On any other day i would have felt like a right twat but on that day the effect was lessond due to the riding "style" of all these people...
that was, of course, until i got away from all the other riders, and was alone on the roads through town.........
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Le tour de France, just a sour spot on sporting men’s tongues?
I know Le tour de France is over, and has been for a long time. But I for one would just like to voice my absolute disgust at the riders this year that have been found using drugs. Or other riders who mysteriously left the tour without proving their innocence, I honestly feel that these riders who left without being tested should never be allowed into the tour again. The other riders who were caught should get another chance, but if they are ever caught with any drugs again, completely expelled from cycling. I also feel that these same bans should be passed onto the managers of the teams. And the sponsers should also be band from sponsoring a team for a period of years, yet have to pay a damages fee to the international cycling union. I feel this will eradicate drugs out of the wonderful sport of cycling. Think about it, if the cyclist, manager and sponsers are all hit hard, they will make sure that no-one on their team is taking drugs as look at all the things that could happen to them if they do.
This is the only way that drugs will be eradicated from the sport. If we continue to have the greatest test of man on earth tarnished by people on drugs this sport will become the sour spot on all mens tongues. The children currently in the sport with dreams of being a tour rider will believe that they need drugs in order to win and parents with children who are currently interested in starting the sport will not allow them to, and honestly I love riding but even I am starting to lose faith in the future of it due to these cheats.
The only other option to these harsh penalties is to introduce another tour, one that starts a couple of days earlier, and runs over the same course. This tour can be open to anyone who wants to take as much drugs as they want, then once the tour has finished for the year we will have two winners, one who looks like he hasn’t ridden around a country, still has supremely well shaped muscles and is able to smile without looking tired on top of the podium. To this man we will supply a small medallion with “winner” written across it. Then on the next podium we will have the cyclist who is thinner than when he started, looking like he is about to fall asleep as he smiles weakly and tries to wave to the crowd, to him we will give a trophy as big as himself that he wont be able to lift up until he has had a weeks rest.
I know which rider I would prefer to go and watch, and which if I had the money I would sponsor.
This is the only way that drugs will be eradicated from the sport. If we continue to have the greatest test of man on earth tarnished by people on drugs this sport will become the sour spot on all mens tongues. The children currently in the sport with dreams of being a tour rider will believe that they need drugs in order to win and parents with children who are currently interested in starting the sport will not allow them to, and honestly I love riding but even I am starting to lose faith in the future of it due to these cheats.
The only other option to these harsh penalties is to introduce another tour, one that starts a couple of days earlier, and runs over the same course. This tour can be open to anyone who wants to take as much drugs as they want, then once the tour has finished for the year we will have two winners, one who looks like he hasn’t ridden around a country, still has supremely well shaped muscles and is able to smile without looking tired on top of the podium. To this man we will supply a small medallion with “winner” written across it. Then on the next podium we will have the cyclist who is thinner than when he started, looking like he is about to fall asleep as he smiles weakly and tries to wave to the crowd, to him we will give a trophy as big as himself that he wont be able to lift up until he has had a weeks rest.
I know which rider I would prefer to go and watch, and which if I had the money I would sponsor.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Queuing is the remnants of an age long past
For the last month I have been having a great time traveling around England with my sister and best friend tye. We had a brilliant time and got to do many great things, like see all the old architecture that we just don’t get exposed to in Australia or even the southern hemisphere come to think of it. So really it was amazing to see all these places, and somehow we even missed out on the typical English weather until London where it rained on us three days out of five. I guess you cannot get everything though.
Standing at the gate waiting paitently to board my plane, i had nothing better to do than to note how people queued for their flights. One thing I immediately realised is that every country has a different reason for queuing and therefore a different style of doing it. In England for example, (the country I had gotten used to over the past month) queuing is something people do because well, it is right and proper to queue. A country that is hung up on being gentlemen and women, que because you must. The line must always be straight, unless there is something in the way then you are allowed to moved to the side slightly, the line can only be a single person at a time, or if you are in a group then you are allowed to queue together but you must only take up the room of one person once you get to the ticket desk or whatever it is you are queuing for. These are the rules that the British follow.
Australians (which as we all know draw heritage from those Brits) queue in much the same way. Except, we don’t mind if the line is curvy as you should be able to find the end of it anyway, and if you cant well you obviously don’t deserve to be in the line. For Australians queuing is also a social event, a place where you get to meet and get to know people. Thinking about it, I met my best friend at school waiting to go into the teachers staff room, met people I know socialize with in queues for all sorts of things, busses, trains, to go into the principals office, queues at the shops everywhere. We seem to draw our queuing ability from the British, as we do after all come from them anyway.
Looking around the airport you can see this, all the flights for England and Australia, if you notice when the gate is opened, sure there will be a rush to get the front of the line, but then everyone somehow falls into two nice straight steadily moving lines so that everyone gets onto the plane comfortable and happy.
New Zealanders, (a country that like Australia is owned by the British) seem to have done away with a lot of this. They have changed their language for a start, so that the only way you are understood by other New Zealanders is if you call the Bro or Cus. So when there gates open I tend to notice they all sit back, I can just here them saying “relax Bro/Cus (use whichever one you feel appropriate for the time) we have our tickets eh”
Meanwhile the Greeks have sort of understood the queuing thing, a country with thousands of years of civilization behind it, and they still struggle with this little act. Many of them like to stand in clusters comparing such thing as who’s grandson is better and polishing their faces with little cloths dampened with most tongues.
But the people who take the cake for worst queers would have to be the Slovaks. A nice people and race, but they are still quite young as a nation and not yet trained in the ways of the world. Standing at the gates, it was a peaceful as can be, but as soon as those gates opened it was like being caught in a mob at a g8 summit. I just got picked up and carried along with the crowed, desperately I thrust my ticket at the man standing at the gate, who seemed bewildered that 400 people (all who had booked seats) could possibly think that they could all fit through a gap designed for two at a time. We must remember at this point that he was British and therefore couldn’t possibly understand these Slovaks charging at him.
By not queuing the Slovaks have successfully eliminated the need to get to any one place early. You just arrive at the time, and push your way to the front of the line, and the less people that push back the better. No more cold mornings waiting for such things as tickets to the Olympics, just get there when the ticket box opens and push your way to the front.
To me this is an example of the modern day world. Take a look, all the old jobs such as stonemasonry are dying out, and being replaced by such high paced jobs as IT, a area that has grown legs and is running at almost the speed of light, the moment you buy a computer or tv anymore it is instantly out of date and you will need to upgrade in a few weeks if you want the new channel, or better sound quality. The modern world is advancing at an alarming rate, being driven forwards by the consumerism of the people of the world. The time for standing in line and waiting for what you want is long gone, now you need to go get it, before it either slips away or someone else gets it first.
So if we find ourselves queuing for a bus with some Slovaks, sure we may feel better if we queue properly and don’t push, we may feel like gentlemen or women who are of much better social standing and intelligence. But remember when you finally get on that bus (if you manage to) you will be the one who is standing.
And I for one, blame the romans.
Standing at the gate waiting paitently to board my plane, i had nothing better to do than to note how people queued for their flights. One thing I immediately realised is that every country has a different reason for queuing and therefore a different style of doing it. In England for example, (the country I had gotten used to over the past month) queuing is something people do because well, it is right and proper to queue. A country that is hung up on being gentlemen and women, que because you must. The line must always be straight, unless there is something in the way then you are allowed to moved to the side slightly, the line can only be a single person at a time, or if you are in a group then you are allowed to queue together but you must only take up the room of one person once you get to the ticket desk or whatever it is you are queuing for. These are the rules that the British follow.
Australians (which as we all know draw heritage from those Brits) queue in much the same way. Except, we don’t mind if the line is curvy as you should be able to find the end of it anyway, and if you cant well you obviously don’t deserve to be in the line. For Australians queuing is also a social event, a place where you get to meet and get to know people. Thinking about it, I met my best friend at school waiting to go into the teachers staff room, met people I know socialize with in queues for all sorts of things, busses, trains, to go into the principals office, queues at the shops everywhere. We seem to draw our queuing ability from the British, as we do after all come from them anyway.
Looking around the airport you can see this, all the flights for England and Australia, if you notice when the gate is opened, sure there will be a rush to get the front of the line, but then everyone somehow falls into two nice straight steadily moving lines so that everyone gets onto the plane comfortable and happy.
New Zealanders, (a country that like Australia is owned by the British) seem to have done away with a lot of this. They have changed their language for a start, so that the only way you are understood by other New Zealanders is if you call the Bro or Cus. So when there gates open I tend to notice they all sit back, I can just here them saying “relax Bro/Cus (use whichever one you feel appropriate for the time) we have our tickets eh”
Meanwhile the Greeks have sort of understood the queuing thing, a country with thousands of years of civilization behind it, and they still struggle with this little act. Many of them like to stand in clusters comparing such thing as who’s grandson is better and polishing their faces with little cloths dampened with most tongues.
But the people who take the cake for worst queers would have to be the Slovaks. A nice people and race, but they are still quite young as a nation and not yet trained in the ways of the world. Standing at the gates, it was a peaceful as can be, but as soon as those gates opened it was like being caught in a mob at a g8 summit. I just got picked up and carried along with the crowed, desperately I thrust my ticket at the man standing at the gate, who seemed bewildered that 400 people (all who had booked seats) could possibly think that they could all fit through a gap designed for two at a time. We must remember at this point that he was British and therefore couldn’t possibly understand these Slovaks charging at him.
By not queuing the Slovaks have successfully eliminated the need to get to any one place early. You just arrive at the time, and push your way to the front of the line, and the less people that push back the better. No more cold mornings waiting for such things as tickets to the Olympics, just get there when the ticket box opens and push your way to the front.
To me this is an example of the modern day world. Take a look, all the old jobs such as stonemasonry are dying out, and being replaced by such high paced jobs as IT, a area that has grown legs and is running at almost the speed of light, the moment you buy a computer or tv anymore it is instantly out of date and you will need to upgrade in a few weeks if you want the new channel, or better sound quality. The modern world is advancing at an alarming rate, being driven forwards by the consumerism of the people of the world. The time for standing in line and waiting for what you want is long gone, now you need to go get it, before it either slips away or someone else gets it first.
So if we find ourselves queuing for a bus with some Slovaks, sure we may feel better if we queue properly and don’t push, we may feel like gentlemen or women who are of much better social standing and intelligence. But remember when you finally get on that bus (if you manage to) you will be the one who is standing.
And I for one, blame the romans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)