11th of October

Today was mundane, up until it got to the complete opposite.  It started with a very bad nights sleep due to a stuffy cold, people leaving the house at unearthly hours, and a tiny bladder.  I decided, for two reasons, to stay at home today.  The first was that I had a stuffy cold and couldn't face having to engage my brain in anything, and second, I had a bike on deliver!  So I had to wait around for the delivery man.

This led to me reading notes, watching videos and generally being a bum.  Some may say no change there then...  I eventually did go into uni for a course induction, almost two weeks after the course started, to listen to a Chinese guy waffle on about stuff that I was pretty much already aware of.

Upon arrival back home, much to my disdain, my bike STILL hadn't arrived, and it was pushing half five.  When at pretty much bang on half five there was a loud banging on the door, and my bike, all in many boxes, sitting, waiting for me!  My excitement was almost tangible.  I rushed to the living room and started to unbox and piece together my new piece of kit.  It was a slow process, and was just opening the boxes, whoever packed them must have use at least five rolls of gaffa tape, on each box.

Once everything was unpacked, assembly began.  This is where my day really started.  This is where I became really frustrated.  This is where I almost broke the bike.  Somehow, the chain had formed a double loop.  I knew I must be able to fix it, because it got into that position, it surely must be able to be undone.  But it had me stumped.  Literally.  I was sat for nearly three hours trying to figure this out.  I looked at all the forums I could find, all the blogs, journals, vlogs, anything I could find that mentioned it.  There was very little, and what I could find wasn't all that helpful.  Most of them told the reader to talk a chill pill, or failing that, a really stiff drink, so taking their advice, I got a glass of water and made a pizza.

The pizza was a bit of a disaster, but that's another story.  After my pizza, I stumbled across a gem; it was hidden deep in a forum, a tiny man calling out amongst giants throwing their weight around, all of whom were saying it "couldn't be fixed", or "you need to break the loop".  This wizard said, "this happened to me, I made a website for it, and here it is http://baltimorefivefinger.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/un-knotting-or-unlooping-bike-chain.html".  I am not even joking when I say this guy saved my life, well, the life of my bike.  It still had me confounded, but his reassuring manner allowed me to be cool calm and collected, and figure it.  Like a boss.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Everything else went on/in without fuss or bother, and I now have a fully functional road bike!

Yippy-Ky-Yay.

Joe out

8th of October

As it is probably aware, I am quite a fan of swimming, I swim, when I can, up to five times a week!  This of course means that unless I want to end up with a heavenly pair of swim shorts (by that I mean holey), then you must, and I mean must, ensure that you purchase a new pair of swim shorts every now and again!

So, being a good boy, I bought myself two pairs, one for five pounds, the other for about fifteen.  I then also bought a new pair of goggles because I became fed up with my old ones fogging up all the time!  Anyway, long story short, they are all great!  

However, I have a few concerns, first up is the more expensive pair of jammers I bought.  They are fantastic, made by some Asian company, top notch design and material, couldn't ask for anything better, except perhaps a larger crotch area.  I just about manage to squeeze into them, but I do notice that they ride very low around my hips, and I often find myself having to readjust...

On to the second pair, which of course aren't as high tech in design or material, in fact, I'd say they were fairly bog standard.  So nothing wrong there.  Except when you want to try and get out of them!  Like most people, I assume, I tie up the strings to prevent them slipping off, however, when it came to getting out, I found myself very worried that I might have to stay in them for the rest of the day, because I could not untie the strings.  There was nothing wrong with my knot, it was simply a bow, but the company have somehow managed to thread it in a way that makes getting out a very difficult task indeed.  Thankfully though, I did manage!

Joe out