With the arrival of my thirty-ninth year swept some
serious introspection and longing for greater professional achievement, while
still grounded in the reality that temping remains a necessary, albeit
sometimes deeply dissatisfying part of my economic diet. Petty frustrations
have been eroding my resolve and self-indulgent as this sounds, the prospect of
having to attend an organisation awash with consultants and managerial
competence broadly on terms with the long defunct British Leyland certainly
isn’t helping.
This is tempered by economic pragmatism and softened with
the steady stream of very fetching kit gracing my doorstep in recent weeks.
Leather saddles and accessories such as this Derwent from Harrogate based SPA
cycles; commuter plus lighting from Blackburn, Cat-Eye, Electron, Knog and
Lezyne have all been keeping the Univega and I churning through the lonesome
lanes. Some divine force must’ve been looking upon me favourably the other
evening since I’d left said tubby tourer outside all night (!) but thankfully
found it still resting by the garage door come the morning…Things could’ve been
so different and I can’t think how I’d forgotten to tuck my two wheeled friend
safely away.
Commuter plus rechargeable lighting designed for suburban
saunters by day and faster paced road outings come the evening have been a
notable growth market in recent years, with ever more lumens and sleeker
styling to boot. Tipping the scales at 183g (including li-on battery) this
Swedish Silva Pave’ lamp belts out 550 lumens in top for back road scratching,
yet has a standard and flashing settings ideally suited to sub/urban contexts.
Intelligent light is another term that’s been banded about for a few seasons
too.
We’ve commonly understood this to mean a system that automatically
kicks down to conserve power, thus greatly reducing incidents of unexpected
failure. However, in this context, it refers to the deployment of both flood
and spot beams simultaneously. Despite some initial scepticism, it’s pretty
close to being best of both worlds and works particularly well atop a lid.
Slightly underpowered as a main lamp for singletrack duties, it’s bang on for
the sticks and offers decent economy between five-hour mains charging. Continued, positive feedback in relation to
my interviews and similar magazine development is another positive facet that
bolsters my mood.
Joshua is presently contributing to this earlier sense of
anxiety, having disengaged from the school curriculum and seemingly entering a
parallel, Lego derived universe (similar in nature to my legendary teenage two
wheeled classroom escapes). Prolonged but generally constructive discourse with
his class and head teachers confirms they too are acutely aware of his academic
potential but cannot fathom this particular set of behaviours either.
Mathematics seems to be a major mental block and in my
view, the catalyst but I’m at a loss how to help him overcome his sense of
panic aside from encouraging him to talk to me on the one hand, while
incorporating very small components of applied numerecy in everyday and
sometimes cycling contexts. Having indulged in some new camera equipment, I’ve
passed an old Fuji to him-there’s plenty of creative scope and he’s certainly
engaging with it for sustained periods-mostly in semi automatic P setting.
This leads me nicely to these Mac Wet sports gloves, not
cycling specific but highly suited to the great outdoors, they’re increasingly
developing a strong following amongst the photographic community thanks to
their wind and water repellent fabrics. The latter, known as Aquatec also
ensures leach like grip when conditions turn distinctly soggy but mercifully
also breathes; thus avoiding clammy digits. Padding is virtually non-existent
so not ideal for long outings over inclement road surfaces, although double as
neat liners for breathable winter gloves. Right I’m off to chase the blues
away, put some more miles on the Nidd and lights through their paces.
