Anyway, back to the ride. We wanted to take in the Manchester SkyRide on our route as it’s a great opportunity to cycle around the city centre safe from the cars, vans and trucks belting around the streets. It’s very well organised and a lot of people turned out this morning to enjoy it – great to see young kids zipping around on their little bikes as idiots like me try and get some speed up amongst the crowds.

It can be a bit frustrating going so slowly…this was mainly caused by the fact that not *all* the roads were closed. Some of the major roads were still open so it caused a good few tailbacks here and there. Dave and I thought about bailing and getting back up to speed on the road home…but boy am I glad that we didn’t.

On the way round to SportCity I spotted Bradley Wiggins, Olympic Gold Medallist and Tour De France rider, but we carried on thinking that on the way back we’d try and grab a pic. Which we duly did.

And then Victoria Pendleton appeared. Crikes, I was starstruck but just had to get a picture with her. She’s lovely. Mrs C won’t mind me saying that at all..because, well, she is! I’m sure that having been touched by the hand of Vicky Pendleton I was able to cycle home just that little bit quicker.

You might notice that I’m quite a bit closer to Victoria than Bradley. That was her fault though, she’s the one who put her arm around me – not the other way around!! Of course I had to reciprocate…I was slightly concerned that she might find me somewhat sweaty after cycling 40 miles.

One thing is for certain, Dave was fed up of listening to me going on about her by the time we got home. Oh and my brother Steve is gonna be super jealous.

That’s Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton that I have been fortunate enough to meet this year. One day maybe I’ll get a pic with the man himself, Lance Armstrong.

I could be wrong. The introduction of the electric sewing machine, I’m sure, was a revelation and a revolution. Maybe not on the scale of the technological advances we see now, but to him, I think it was seismic.

He was always a tailor and his youngest son, my Uncle Keith followed him into the trade. Two of his other children, my Mother and her sister, Pauline, are very skilled with a needle, thread and whizzy sewing machine. I, however, need thimbles on all my fingers.

On my Father’s side, Grandad was a master carpenter. When I was a kid I always thought that sounded incredibly grand – ‘master carpenter’ – and reckoned that he must have been incredibly skilled. And I guess he was – he did rebuild a cottage in Wrea Green, which is something that I wouldn’t have the first inclination of where to start.

In my childhood they were both always long since retired and I didn’t really understand what they had done in their careers. They were just Grandad…always there and idolised by their young grandson. Now they are long gone.

For some reason, I’ve recently started to think about their work and home life. Surely it was simpler than the plate spinning that I and, I’m sure, you have to do on and everyday basis. Is life more complicated now? Is it because there are just more stimuli and demands on our time? Have we become slaves to the machines of our time and defined by our jobs so much that we just find ourselves slipping into ‘work’ mode more?

I can’t help but think that my grandads just didn’t have to spin so many plates. Here I am, sat typing this blog post on my iPad at Piccadilly Station waiting for a train to London. The meeting I have today is for the web startup that I’ve been working on for two years – something that is a labour of love and one that I want to succeed.

The rest of the week I will be working for Journey9, a company I’ve recently joined and headed by my lovely friend Laura. I also love my work for J9 and it’s something I desperately want to make a huge success of. My title, Head of Digital Media Strategy, is as grand as ‘master carpenter’ and sees me getting involved with all kinds of interesting stuff.

On Friday we’ll have a meeting about our charity bike ride from Blackpool to Paris. In amongst all the work and projects is the small matter of training for a 600 mile jaunt on my bike next month. Then there’s the gig, fundraising and logistics for the ride as well.

Then, somewhere, I find time to squeeze in life for me and Jackie. I wonder sometimes hoe it would be if I had 5 kids like my Grandad…how would I cope? How do my friends who do have kids manage to squeeze in life in between the demands of work?

There are obvious pressure points and I’m no different. Sometimes I think I’m just a slave and that I should step out of this for a few years and do something entirely different. Perhaps that would be the way to get to the simpler life that was once enjoyed.

But I won’t.

There are undoubtedly more pressures on our time nowadays, probably too many and its likely detrimental to our wellbeing. Things were simpler back then, I’m sure they were. Too many stimuli and too many plates to spin.

Then again, perhaps the web startup is the cottage that my Grandad rebuilt? Perhaps my iPad is my Grandads sewing machine? Perhaps my roaming work place is the table that my Grandad sat on whilst tailoring?

Maybe it’s just the same but different. I do think that we are developing as a species in interesting ways because of the technology around us. More on that next time. I promise it’s not as daft as it sounds.

Probably looks like nothing and you’ll probably think it is nothing.

I’m in Starbucks – the one on St Marys Parsonage in Manchester. The barista has two of her friends propped up against the drinks bar so she can chit chat while she churns out latte’s, mocha chocachinos and deep fried mars bars. Trouble is it means that the humble paying customer can’t get to the bar without asking them to move to pick up their drink.

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s something and nothing, so why is it bugging me? Easy. She shouldn’t be doing it. It doesn’t appear to be affecting her doing her job, other than she’s not interacting at all with any of the paying customers (though I assume she has given them freebies, I’m not sure) and is providing one of the worst forms of customer service possible – customer ignorance. I fecking hate ignorant staff in shops…I’ve only ever worked in retail as a teenager (at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and in a newsagents in Lytham), but I would never stand and chat with mates whilst customers were there…in fact I didn’t do it at all.

It’s rude. Do your job properly Barista lady. The manager at this Starbuck’s should have told her friends to clear off. I would’ve.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who is irritated by this. It’s a sure sign that I’m once again honing my long forgotten Victor Meldrew tendencies…and I’m not entirely convinced that’s a bad thing.

Proper irritated me that.

Laters.

-vm. -pc.

That’s the short version of my brief dalliance with cycling at the velodrome in Manchester!

We’d bought Louis, our friends son, a taster session at the velodrome for Christmas and booked in last Friday. I’ve been to the track a few times, but never to cycle and I hadn’t really appreciated just how steep those banks are.

I’d also forgotten that the track bikes are fixed wheel…no brakes…strapped pedals. The result is that you can’t get your feet out (without smashing your shin), can’t stop pedaling (without breaking your leg), can’t freewheel and have to control your speed. Gulp.

So, when the nice chap, Geoff I think, greeted us with that information the trepidation levels went through the roof. Truth is I’m a bit of a wuss, but I can handle a bike and tend not to fall off. However, I’d never ridden fixed. The other truth is that Louis is only 9 and isn’t as confident on a bike as I expected.

A couple of laps around the inside of the track and Geoff pointed me onto the cote d’azur – the light blue ring just below the track itself – for a few laps, telling me to get my speed up. I was bricking it, as all you can think about is falling off, not being able to stop and having to just keep pedalling.

I just kept going round and round, waiting for Geoff to tell me what’s next. You have to be going a certain speed to get on (and more importantly, stay on) the track. Round and round.

As for Louis, he was wobbling and juddering all over the place. Grabbing the rail and generally not enjoying himself.

Eventually, Geoff boomed “Oi – get on the track!!” really loud. Seemed he wasn’t waiting to tell me, he’d just expected me to be less of a wuss and just get on it. So I did.

Those banks really are quite steep you know. My nerves went from thinking about falling off to thinking about not sliding down the track…considering I was only about 3 feet up it, the chances were unlikely, but still…ya know…I’m kind of a wuss.

But, in all that I’d done it. Ridden the bike on the track for a good few laps and felt what it was like.

To be honest, I didn’t like it…in case you hadn’t guessed and I don’t think I’ll go back.

Louis? After I’d stopped he came hurtling past me and threw himself off the bike, into the glass in the middle of the track dragging the bike behind him. It really was very funny. Poor sod.

He doesn’t want to do it again either.

This year, I think we’ll get him a crocheting course for Christmas. Wusses like me can cope with that. Just.

Photo courtesy of Rob Patrick on Flickr.

After all, Jackie had bought me a drum kit for Christmas…I’d batted around on it a little bit…but it was gathering dust and I didn’t want it to become another one of those things that had been bought and not used. You know, kinda wasted, like the guitar that I got a few years ago, or the guitar that I got in Houston, or the guitar that I got when I was 8. You get the idea?

This time it’d be different. This time I’d crack it. It’s not a guitar for a start, and I’d also made the decision that I needed professional help and finding a drum teacher would give me the motivation to get going.

The affectionately named ‘rat den’ is where I have my lessons. Quite an interetsing place really…an old mill in Ancoats, Manchester. Up on one of the floors are a bunch of rooms that bands rent out as rehearsal spaces. Very rock ‘n’ roll, I’m sure you’ll agree. Salubrious it ain’t and there are no groupies hanging around, so I guess that’s where the glamour ends.

Anyway…I’ve had a few lessons now and I’m really enjoying it. Great to get your teeth into something new and challenging…and to accept that something that looks and sounds easy really isn’t. I get so bloody frustrated sometimes that I’m sure Jack wonders what the hell he’s let himself in for. The rest of the time he probably laughs at my ineptitude and then shows me how easy it is by jumping on the kit and rattling off what I’m struggling to get to grips with.

Believe me, independently moving each limb, out of sequence with each other isn’t that easy. Yesterday we were looking at 6/4 time and Jack said (actually he didn’t say but he showed me…and this is something like how it looked):

“OK, it’s a count of 1 – 2 – 3 -4 – 5 -6, so high-hat (left foot) on each count, one the 1 – 2 I want 2 beats on the tom (both hands) plus a beat on the bass drum on the 1 (right foot), on the 3 and 4 I want one beat on the other tom (both hands), on the 5 I want a beat on the floor tom (right hand) and a bass drum (right foot) and on the 6 I want a flam (both hands).”

I could do all that bar the beat with my left foot on the high hats. My leg just wouldn’t move. So, I’m going to have to break it down into smaller parts that I can do and then build it up.

And I’m just at the beginning. Fitting in the paradiddles, double paradiddles and triplet-double paradiddles that I’ve got sorted will come with time.

In other drum related news, I sold my acoustic kit and went electronic with a set of Roland HD-1′s. Love ‘em – just plugin, stick the iPod in the input and play along. Well that’s what they say on the website…be a while until I’m playing like this:

Well, it survived and it’s running like Usain Bolt in his tip top best new trainers. ’tis fab once more. For the record, it had been about as fast as my neighbours cat, Tripod. He’s called Tripod because he only has three legs. Go figure.

Anyway, it’s fine. Slight fright when I realised that Snow Leopard doesn’t come with the iLife suite as standard…had to re-install that from Leopard. Phew. Oh and I’ve lost my Office CD. Meh.

Actually, a funny thing happened. I kept thinking that I had a new Mac…not a recycled, re-installed one. Weird…I’m excited about it, like I was when I first got it. So, from now on, I reckon I should try recycling a few things instead of buying new.

Hmmm, maybe that’s going a bit too far. Maybe I’ll just recycle the Mac when I feel like getting a new one. Maybe. But it is just like having a shiny new laptop.

Unless, of course, Apple come out with the much rumoured tablet sometime soon.

Go here – http://flavorit.informationmonster.net – and use my mate Mr Alan Holding’s cool Creative Commons Flickr search. It rocks. He’s a clever man, that Alan.

Oh and he’s a top drawer dude as well.

Not sure what Creative Commons is? Go here as well.

Trust me, it’s useful. When have I ever lied to you?

(See, I got that somewhat smashing picture of Miss Piggy by using Flavorit. Searched for muppet. first picture was of you, then Miss Piggy.)

I have no idea what I’m doing, but the thing is so damned slow I’m tempted to take a sledgehammer to it. So, I reckon I should give it a whirl. Back in the day, sorry the days, of my Windows usage I’d do it quite regularly. OS X has behaved itself pretty well, but I think I must’ve collected a few ghosts in the machine over the last few years, so it’s time to sort it out.

We’ll see how I get along. Right now I’m backing everything up manually to an external drive, then I’ll run SuperDuper overnight to do a ful backup and if I lose anything then I can always go back to Time Machine. Nothing like being covered.

In theory. Oh well, who care if I lose a few emails. There’s about 4548 in one mailbox that I’m damned sure I could live without. If I lose anything from iPhoto or iTunes, then I’m gonna be royally pissed off.

I’ll keep you posted.

Thumbnail courtesy of Mesq over on Flickr

Maybe. Maybe not. I think I just find myself with a lot on my mind and a widening mouth.

I’ll try to keep it up this time. Make of that what you will.

-pc.