arup’s blog

Last Thursday my class at uni wasn’t running in the evening but I went there anyway during the day to use the computers and get some study done. But the room wasn’t as quiet as usual and lots of the people were talking. I put headphones on and listened to a bit of bassdrive but couldn’t really concentrate. So I decided to leave.

Just as I left the building it was pouring with rain but I didn’t want to hang around any longer. I also wanted to travel while it was still light rather than ride in the dark. But just before I got to Ealing, around about Ealing Common I hit a pothole and dented my front wheel. It was still spinning but hitting the brake pad on each revolution. Only a couple of miles further. Should be ok I thought. I slowed down a bit but kept it at a steady pace.

So why do you describe this as something that went well? Because the best is yet to come. Just hold on a second.

Only a few days prior to that I had replaced the brake pads because my rims or braking surfaces I should say had started to go a bit concave. That worried me. I had only replaced the rim last summer after I had neglected to keep an eye on rim wear and it had split. So I wasn’t going to ride this wheel any more even though a bit of simple truing would have fixed it.

I thought about where I could obtain a new rim in a couple of days and whether I should take public transport into town to buy a new rim. Online would be cheaper but wouldn’t be delivered in time. Then I set about working on one of my wheel orders and suddenly I remembered the two brand new wheelsets that I had under the bed.

These were wheels for my wheel shop on my wheel site but since I havent’ had any inquiries about them I decided to use one of the front wheels. But in the meantime order a new rim online.

This was on Saturday morning and not today but still worth a mention. I went to a housewarming party on Friday evening and it all started off in a very civilized manner with only a handful of guests sitting around a large coffee table sipping wine and munching on pretzels. But once the music started and more guests arrived things really kicked off. At one point I remember some people leaving to catch the last tube. At the time I remember thinking that it was quite early to worry about the last tube. The next thing I knew was that a lot of the guests had left and I was amongst a different handful that remained at the end, still dancing and nibbling on whatever food they could find. The total number finally dropped to four, including the host and pizzas went into the oven. At four in the morning we were eating pizza and making sleeping arrangements. Now that was a good party.

On the way home on Saturday which was about 10.00 am, so not long after going to sleep I found that I wasn’t really hung over at all and even managed to shop for dinner that night. I got a lot of client work completed but did need to put my head down in the late afternoon. Over forty years old, gets blind drunk and then suffers no hangover – how cool is that!

It happens every now and again that no-one shows up to my yoga class. I much prefer this to only one person turning up, especially when they haven’t done any yoga before and the class happens to be one for experienced people. According to my contract I have to wait 10 minutes before I can officially leave. That ten minutes is a difficult time. When the room is empty and there’s on-one on the horizon. Will it be a no show or will someone turn up at the last minute. Should I plan to stay or should I plan to leave? Well, I always plan to stay as more often than not in those situations someone usually does turn up. But not today. I think it might be because it’s half term. I still get paid and it feels like a holiday. It’s a rare treat. It happens maybe twice a year.