Nice try...

I thought this shot had enormous potential but I fear it falls a bit short. I was about 15 miles into a long training ride this morning when I spotted this view of the Seven Sisters park from a hill above Alfriston. It looked rather lovely - considerably more so than it does in this rather lacklustre shot. Then I saw the mirror and thought I might be able to position myself in the shot, together with the rather lovely farmhouse behind me, to create something quite interesting. But I don't think it works really.

Ah well, you'll just have to take my word for it - it was lovely out there today.

Vegan dog?!

I spotted Heather Mills doing a cookery demonstration outside the Churchill Centre in Brighton yesterday. I've never really had a very strong opinion either way on her but I confess I was taken aback when she told the crowd about her vegan dog. This seemed so far outside the realms of the reasonable that I was looking for any signs that she might be joking but trust me when I tell you there was not the tiniest hint of humour anywhere near her.

A vegan dog...it boggles the mind so completely that I really don't know what else to say on the subject.

A shadow of my current self

I took this shot doing about 17mph on the A281, which on reflection was a very silly idea. There was quite a bit of traffic about and I wasn't paying much attention to the stuff you really ought to pay attention to as a cyclist. But I need lots of generic cycling pictures to go with my road.cc blog so needs must and all that - and I do quite like the outcome.

Family portrait

Here we all are, strolling towards the King Alfred Leisure Centre for some Sunday morning family leisure - specifically a swim, followed by a walk home again, then a bargain lunch of some description.

I know this is going off the point a bit in relation to a shadow family portrait, but I remember when we used to go for two or three Sunday pub lunches a month and not worry too much about the finances. We were able to buy little treats here and there - we even went for the occasional foreign holiday!

But not any more, oh no. The freelance lifestyle has put paid to that. It seems we can't be happy and comfortably off. This is almost certainly not the case at all, of course, but it certainly feels like it at the moment. So maybe the photo isn't off the point at all - maybe we're a shadow of our former selves. Or something.

Anyway, we had a splendid time in the swimming pool and whatever the lunch was it was jolly tasty, so all's well really.

Extreme reading

Schools these days! What are they like? Marni was asked to come into school tomorrow with photographic evidence that she had practised 'extreme reading' over the weekend. So of course I parked her in the middle of a usually-busy road and snapped furiously for a second or two before yanking her out of harm's way. I shudder to think what less responsible parents might have encouraged their children to do. Reading on the railway? On that death-defying up 'n' over ride at the end of the pier? In the sea? Outside some dodgy nightclub at chucking out time?

I wonder if we've misunderstood the brief...

Maisie, Cecil & Jazz

Maisie, Cecil and Jazz...there are three names to conjure with. There's a trend to embrace some of the names that were popular in the first half of the twentieth century - I know of kids called Mabel, Alfie, Esme and Hardy - but I bet it'll be a while before Cecil hits the top ten again.

A big part of me hopes Jazz was Cecil and Maisie's avant garde offspring, who left Hove as soon as he was able to for the bright lights of Paris or Berlin and became a drug-addled artist of ill repute.

I suspect the truth is more likely to be that Jazz was a Yorkshire terrier whose dreams rarely extended beyond catching squirrels in St Anne's Well Gardens, where you'll find this plaque.

Gloves

I've been struggling to find the perfect pair of winter cycling gloves. I realise this isn't everyone's idea of a fascinating topic for discussion on a blog or anywhere else, but you'd be surprised! I addressed this important issue on my road.cc blog and it attracted more comments than anything else I've posted. And before you say anything rude about no one taking any notice of my blog, let me add that it was today's most discussed item on the whole site (which quite surprised me as it goes but there we are). So perhaps you're the boring one for not thinking it's interesting. Bet you hadn't considered that had you?