StreetCowboy

I f you can't beat about the bush, you shouldn't beat at all. I recently went to the Bank in Hong Kong, and the Bank was an upstanding edifice of traditional, trustworthy reliability, and I could not fault them. I went for a drink, and times have changed, things are different, but people are doing their best. I did my best.

Better too soon than too late.

Even if you complain, no-one listens, so you might as well not bother

Young, or prematurely aged?

You can’t call it a mid life crisis until you’ve survived a good time past it

If it’s a monologue, it’s a waste of time - no-one - not even themselves - listens to someone ranting. If it’s an inner dialogue - that might be more constructive Aye ye sey that noo, but ye ne’er listne, dae ye? Back in the day, I walked amongst them, and I was surprised that Americans (specifically USAns) believed their own stories.

That’ll be a bummer if you don’t die first

Because so many people comment about on them. Thanks for doing your bit to keep GG No. 1

Some of the skinflints are not idiots. We might owe some impecunious posters who are worth more than $10 per month.

Normally I big up the highlight of the Sporting Calendar - the FIE World Snail Racing Grand Prix, but it coincided with The Calcutta Cup, so I didn’t want to distract anyone - we need all the support we can get! I’m not sure how much impact there is on the result, watching the replay, drinking Irn Bru and shouting at the TV, but I’ll give it my best shot tomorrow. As usual, the Snail Racing was end-end drama (strictly speaking, centre-circle to rim drama) as you can see for yourselves in the attached photos

I’d been meaning to go to the bank for some years now, to try and prove that I was me. They wouldn’t believe me over the phone, and I consistently failed their security questions, so I thought “If I turn up in person, they can see by the evidence of their own eyes that I am me”. And while I was about it, I thought I’d go for a bike ride with V, who has been a couple of years in Hong Kong now. We rented bikes from a shop in Tai Wai - the bike lanes in the New Territories are fantastic, snaking all over - Tai Wai - Tai Po - Sheung Shi and the way we took, our to Tai Mei Tuk and Plover Cove reservoir. All sorts of cyclists, from kiddies and young families to guys on Time Trial bikes. And the old-fashioned four-wheel two-abreast pedal cycles. So you can’t go too fast - strictly speaking, you can easily go too fast without exerting yourself. The bikes were fairly ordinary Giant hybrids - they had mountain bikes and road bikes available too - and mine had a squeaking front brake disc and pretty ineffectual rear brake, but ok for the flat paths involved. We stopped for Pad Thai at Tai Mei Tuk on the way home - those Thai restaurants were not new when I lived nearby twenty years ago, before the bike lanes.

Flatulence is more of a hobby than a fetish.

I read his posts because they are different, and thought-out. I regret reading the abuse that he receives. It’s interesting to read opinions that are different from your own, when they are clearly expressed; it is less interesting to read offensive and abusive opinions, even when they are widely held.

My buddy hopes he will have recovered sufficiently to ride tomorrow with his sister, who is visiting from The Old Country. I will plan a couple of short rides on the way down to the station tomorrow. These last couple of weeks have been quiet - mostly commuting to the office, the supermarket, pub and physio. Maybe the highlight was a commute down to Kuchai MRT, to watch a train waking up. It turned out we’d be catching our train from Sungai Besi, but Google Maps could not help me figure out a safe way there, so I left my bike at Kuchai station bike rack - a tourist attraction in its own right - and took a service train from there. I am getting good use out of the shopping bike - I think the slightly more upright position is easier on my back, although I clipped a bloke’s wing mirror filtering through traffic today. I washed it today, which I think is the cause of tonight’s rain while it’s outside OK Restoran .

Saturday will see Edinburgh Eagles take the long road South to West Hull for their first match on this years’ Road To Wembellee! Wembellee! Wembellee! unless it’s postponed again…

The back pain has eased substantially, and the Sciatica almost disappeared, but the doctor has me on preventive physio; I’m not planning any long rides, particularly not on the road bike. For last Sunday’s ride, I leant that to the Young Lad, to let him have a try of the Integrated Shifters. My buddy has been suffering from drink-related illness, and still had his arm in a sling, so The Lad and I rode into town on quiet roads, bar the LDP and Sprint highways, and took the train to bypass a possibly-tricky junction. It wasn’t the smoothest train in the fleet, but there were no grounds for complaint. I had to wait for the rain to ease off before I left from Physio this afternoon, and by the time I got home the rain had almost stopped.

I was crippled with sciatic nerve impairment on Wednesday 18th December. It more or less cleared within a few days. I occasionally had mild lower back pain after cycling on my road bike, never on the shopping bike, but I don’t go so far on that, and I do get sore shoulders after 50 or 60 km. The physio gives me twenty minutes on the TENS machine, which may or may not do some good.

I wouldn't lay a hand on JT's cudgel.

Is "Freindly" forum-speak for "f r i e n d l y"? The depths of stupidity that you can plumb are as deep as your piece of string is long.

I’ve been suffering occasional hip and back pain, and I’d been meaning to book a routine inspection. This week, it rose up on my agenda, to the extent that I could hardly walk from the hospital car park to A&E, and gratefully accepted a wheelchair back… “Let’s race that old fella there” ”Don’t be daft, please, sir” ”Alright- we’ll race the cleaner with her trolley” I don’t think the porter was very competitive. Anyway, a day of rest, and I felt well enough to cycle down to my local walking-stick merchant

I took my folding bike on my last trip to Bangkok, and taking up and down Sukhumvit Road was great. I took a lovely detour through Thong Lor which was as nice as I expected. But cycling doesn’t impact your drinking as much as drinking impacts your cycling.

Working for the benefit of others builds pride and self-worth. It is recommended as a diversion from addictive behaviours. Giving money is an easy way to do this, but it can easily get addictive in itself and get out of control. We support a local orphanage, where we can see where the money goes; for beggars in the street, I’ll support the visibly blind or maimed - the overheads as a beggar to gangsters are not much different than the overhead of employing the person in a factory, and you have to trust the gangsters to keep the person safe and their territory free from intruders. I generally don’t support foreign charities, least of all in response to canvassers on the street.

You’re kidding yourself. The first thing you lose with dementia is self-awareness. You can’t fix dementia, but you can avoid it by going early.

We were out on a lethargic daunder round KL, lacking in motivation. I thought we might take a pause on one of the quieter sections. “Drink stop?” I suggested; ”Aye” ”Drink Stop!” I called out, as there was a stranger passing us, and he stopped too. He was a young fella, and not very talkative. Anyway, he joined us as far as Bukit Tunku; “If you want to join us to TTDI we can lead you to the MRT station for the train back to Bukit Bintang” ”Should we take him to the station before or after the pub?” ”Lets burn that boat when we get to it; he doesn’t look like much of a drinker, but he might learn” I thought we’d lost him, but he’d pulled up with a broken rear derailleur, so I popped home, picked up my car and delivered him safely to the station, checking that he had a train pass. With his helmet off, he looked distinctly callow, and I think we were all lucky he didn’t join us in the pub. If his mother knew of his narrow escape, his bike would be in the Recycling Bin now.

He's got a fair point - what to do when we have more money than sense? Most of us are not bragging when we say that, and we may be quite impecunious. SC