#347 Books & Films & TV

Amazon UK have just reported improved profits for the last quarter as a consequence of my order for another six book.

Len Deighton's Action Cook Book might have been the very first cook book to grace our shelves and I bought this reprint just for the good vibes. Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing is a rip-off, the whole book could be printed on one page, boo. The Paris Review (vol 4) I bought this for a reason which I can't remember at the mo. The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sissons, hope it will convince me to carry on living la vida low-carb. Zadie Smith, I really liked her first novel but I don't think I'm going to like this; what can I say - pretentious, perhaps. Jamie Does 'cos he has some recipes from Madame Valette's restaurant in Bach that we visited (#344)












I'm enjoying a Shane Meadows (Brit film director) retrospective. This is England is a film about the 1980 punk scene. IMDB says: A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends even like family. (It's not all that nice in places).

Now there is a four episode TV series in the UK, This is England '86 which carries on with the story, but some years later. I've seen the first - It's Proper.

So then I searched out Somers Town of which IMDB says: A black-and-white study of a social environment in London, concentrating on a pair of unlikely new friends and the girl they both fancy. It's good.

#346 Vuelta de España

La Vuelta (or tour of Spain bike race) passed by our house on Sunday. 185 riders plus 185 cars, vans and motorbikes to look after them. Then they sped over to Ondara for a sprint and then up the Col de Rates on their way to the finish in Alcoy.

Just by chance we had been up the Col de Rates the day before. There is an ingenious time trial system installed at the foot of the climb. You take a card, date and time stamp it then race to the top to a second machine where you stamp your arrival time. You can leave the card in their post box and eventually your climb time is posted at www.stoppomat.com

We weren't that fast going up but I calculated we were five time quicker coming down :-)

#345 Barcelona

We left France by train, stopped overnight in Perpignan, took two more trains heading south and ended up in Barcelona for a paella with Carrie & Tom.

It used to be that buying stuff in the market was cheaper than shopping in stores but that seems to have changed with low price supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi - except today.

I ran into Barcelona's famous Boqueria market and selected a kilo of fresh tuna for 15€, some green beans for 3€, a pair of ace kitchen scissors for 12€, a tin of new improved Ghana Fresh Palm Nut Cream Concentrate for another few euros and finally got a right short haircut for 4€ (plus a 1€ tip). Bargains the lot :-)

My barber was so pleased with the tip that he agreed to come out and be photographed in front of his shop.

#344 Cahors

We are in Cahors . . I think . . ?

On thursday we went with our friends Brian & Maureen to a village fête in nearby Aujols and a night of eating duck & chips and drinking glasses and glasses of wine.

We sat outside on benches with a few hundred locals and were serenaded by a three piece band; piano, base and accordion - why is it that the accordion is so popular in France? and, possibly, Argentina . . . ?

Anyway, I digress because the next day we went out eating again, this time for lunch at the Auberge Lou Bordié in the village of Bach. Actually, it's not the first time we've been here (#179) and I'm assuming the renown clebrity chef Jamie Oliver must have read my blog and so decided to come to film a piece for one of his Chanel 4 tv shows in the restaurant (the one about about the pyrénées part of France).

The boss lady, Madame Valette has plenty of photos of Jamie taking over her kitchen, so we took one as well.

I tried to take a pic of our serveuse Mélodie bringing our éntrée but she was too quick and I missed the plate - sorry.

#343 440km from Chateau Gontier to Montmoreau St Cybard.

Sunday:

A long day's drive. Our poor old Winnebago is 22 years old and creaks and groans a bit if I try to exert it. Taking the direct route, with all the stopping and starting for junctions and roundabouts, has the 7400cc engine really guzzling the gas. So I drove at a stately pace and kept to motorways to save fuel.

In its (and my) youth, I would select cruise control and be flying down the autoroutes at 70mph, a Bob Marley cassette cranked up to full volume. Now an average of 50mph still gets us there (eventually). But, sad to say, seemed to have mislaid all the reggae tapes - and who's got new cassette tapes these days?

We are on an almost empty municipal campsite with not much going for it except, right next door - a swimming pool :-)

#342 A Bit Fishy

I like to think I'm a bit of a gourmand, I follow one rule when perusing menus in expensive restaurants - ignore any dish costing more than 10€ ;-)

However the other day was (apparently) our wedding anniversary so when we went out to eat I ignored my costing rule and also my "wtf is that?" criteria and ordered something I didn't know called Sandre. This turned out to be a very nice piece of fresh water fish much esteemed locally.

I checked with wikipedia and found its alternate spelling Zander, this picture and a little story to go with it:

In July 2009 in Switzerland, a zander attacked tourists in a Lake near Italy, sending two to the Emergency Room with the worst cut being about 10 centimeters long. The zander was later caught by the local police who cooked it and offered it to the tourists for the trouble it caused. It is very unusual for zanders to attack humans.

#341 The Big Cheese ++

Fermanville - Flers - Chateau Gontier

We are moving down through France. Spent two night in Flers and now we are another 120k further south in a v nice campsite by the Mayenne river in Chateau Gontier. You can just about see the river, through the trees from our camping-car's breakfast room.

But sometimes it rains which is alright for us but a bit miserable for those in their wet tents :-(

I have a free pass to the local swimming pool (excellent!) and Thursday being market day we went shopping. I asked the girl on the Fromagerie de Livet stall to give me a big smile and say "cheeeese" and this is what she did:-)

Just before we left Chateau Gontier we took a pleasant *triangular 70k bike ride. West from CG on little roads through Marigné-Peuton and Denazé to La Chapelle-Craonnaise. There we caught the old railway line Anciennes Voies Ferrées northward for 10k. Back onto tarmac and over to the river Mayenne where we turned south and followed the towpath for 25k back to base. Stopped 10k from home for cheese & ham crepes with a bottle of dry cider :-)

*Actually not a triangle, more of a parallelogram.

#340 I'm on a See Food Diet (see food and eat it ;-)

Fortunately my diet does include sea food of which there is plenty in this part of France. Moules (mussels) from just down the road in Barfleur and even nearer, huitres (oysters) from the bay behind our campsite. These oysters are, apparently, the only ones in Europe that live all their lives in deep water and are not subjected to the rise and fall of the tide. This makes them, apparently again, taste strongly of iodine and a bit more oystery.

In St Piere l'Eglise, a village near us, Monsieur Lamache runs a Boucherie, Charcuterie et Rotiserrie au Feu de Bois - a butcher's shop and every Sunday he fires up a wood burning rotisserie and sells roasted chickens and various cuts of lamb. Last week I went in on the Friday and orderd a chicken for Sunday.
~ "Oui. Monsieur", he said and didn't ask my name as he wrote down the order. When I went to collect the chicken that Sunday the serving girl asked my name and I said I don't know what he wrote, probably "ancient cycliste".
~ "Is it John?" she asked - he had remembered my name from when we where here last year!

For our last Sunday in Fermanville we ordered some leg of lamb and a couple of cutlets for our Sunday lunch. It was delicious and we would never have cooked it at home so it was a treat to have something different.

French people take a great interest in their food and where it comes from. In the bar where I go to wifi the govenor makes his own rabbit stew in either wine or beer and sells it in his little shop. We tried the beer variety - lapinalicious!

To complete our gourmet extravaganza I found a 90% coco-solids bar of chocolate in the local Carfour supermarket. Some time ago I started buying 72% chocolate, then moved to 85%, now it's 90% - "Prodigiously Black" as it says on the label.

#339 Translating Bizarreness

What? In a hardware store in France I came upon a set of floor cleaning equipment marked God Trailer. What God is supposed to be trailing and why I couldn't at first see but on closer examination it became clear. The description on the box clearly explains:

Doing Family Affairs Happily and Drag Ground is not the Bitter Work Any More.

Yes indeed.

#338 In France

We are in France, in the same place (Fermanville) on the same camp site (Camping de la Plage) on the same pitch and in exactly the same position as last year. And it's nearly as cold :-(

Went out with our mates to a night of Moules et Frites and accordion music (very French)

#337 In London

Day of culture visiting The Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery. I liked the fluorescent painting of boats. Next day we went to Kenwood House in Highgate, beautiful countryside in the middle of north London.

#336 Going South

This is my report of a 7 day bike ride from Edinburgh to London. Starting in southern Scotland, then into The Lake District, across the Pennines, round the Peak District, into Shropshire and Gloucestershire. A day's rest in Wiltshire and then down the Thames Valley to London.

Stage 1 Edinburgh to Langholm 120 headwind kilometres in 6:48

It's a busy road out of Edinburgh but after a right turn on to the very minor B709 there is very little traffic for the rest of the day. This narrow road goes down through The Boarders and into Dumfrieshire, the scenery is spectacular in a wild uncultivated sort of way. Three big long climbs to get over and a tedious head wind, which lasted all day, made this first stage harder than expected. Bizarre sight of the day, right out in the wilds near Eskdalemuir, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery - I managed to chant a long Ooooommmm as I freewheeled by.

Just as I pitched up at The Crown pub for a meal and bed & breakfast it started to rain. That evening I chanced on another cyclist riding the other way. He told me he was an ex-pro and spent the evening name dropping, recounting his best time trial times and even his (v low) resting heart rate. Didn't get much sleep as the pubs noisy cold store fridge motor kept stopping and starting and a constant trickle of what I thought was rain (It turned out to be a "water feature" which had not been turned off, grrr).

Stage 2 Langholm to Kendal 122km in 6:16

After a "Full English Breakfast", although I'm still in Scotland I was out on to the A7 to Carlisle. Then minor roads to the Lake District. Rounding a corner on a fast descent I came on a spectacular view of Ullswater Lake, couldn’t brake in time to take a snap and I wasn’t about to turn round and go back up, so will look for a google image later on. A nice ride beside the lake and then – Kirkestone Pass. It’s a long and steep climb, goes up to 454 metres pretty quickly, even the cars struggle. At the bottom it’s marked as 20%, then 16%, then back to 20%. I made it up most of the way in my bottom gear of 29 x 29 but gave in and walked the last bit, which wasn’t easy either, leaning forward and straining to keep the bike upright and going in a forward direction. However, a nice whoosh down the other side, a shortcut to avoid Windermere and into Kendal to find a nice b&b (bed and breakfast) for the night.

Dined very well in a little restaurant called the Half Moon, highly recommended if you are in Kendal. The Lake District was nice, plenty of lakes and trees arranged in such a pleasing way that any famous poet worth his ink would be driven to rhyme and stanza to his heart’s content.























Stage 3 Kendal to Hebden Bridge 112km in 7:20

Another big breakfast then I took a back road out of Kendal and was rewarded with no traffic but a few thousand very steep hills all the way to Kirkby Lonsdale – I wonder if the main road might have been flatter . . . ? Then suitably softened-up across the Forest of Bowland, which despite its name doesn’t seem to have any trees but is a huge expanse of wild moorland full of sheep going about their business. The little road that I had chosen was walled in by ancient looking dry stone walls but this didn’t stop the sheep wandering onto the asphalt, perhaps it’s tastier than the grass in this part of the world. Legs were now running on empty and I lost count of the times I had to walk, it was like riding a Big Dipper but without the screaming.

I’ve been trying to follow muddy lanes, tracks and trails on this seven day ride. The cycling organisation Sustrans has a set of routes that can take you all over the British Isles and lately I have been following Route 68 – until I got lost. I should have gone through Colne but ended up in Burnley and the last few miles to Hebden Bridge were rather crowded with traffic but not at all hilly (this is a good thing).

Hebden Bridge is a bit of a hippy enclave and is marketed as the Fourth Funkiest Town in England, Your answers on a post card, please, as to the first three. Found a remarkably cheap Turkish restaurant that offered two courses for a tenner so made up the rest of my budget with glass(es) of red wine. Another nice b&b, I was given the last room available, a “family” room made up of two connecting rooms. In the middle of the night the connecting door decided to open on its own (I hope). Anyway, it woke me up and gave me a bit of a fright.

Hills don't look so steep in a photo!

Stage 4 Hebden Bridge to Ashbourne 128km in 8:51

Curse the Sustrans Route 68, it took my out of Hebden and up (when I don’t think I needed to). Some interesting bits though, at one point I went through a little tunnel underneath the M6 and along a grassy path by a reservoir and through some woods, good job I’m riding a cyclo cross bike with big balloon tyres, a road bike wouldn’t have liked it. I didn't realise it until the summit, but I rode and walked over Holme Moss which is quite a famous hill in the cycling world. More navigation round minor roads and passing through the little town of Gosnall I espied a coffee shop and found myself ordering an Americano. I don’t usually stop for refreshment, only once a day to top up water bottles and maybe leisurely eat a banana. Going round Buxton it rained for two minutes, I can now say I took the waters at Buxton (a famous spa town). More map reading got me to the piece de resistance for the day, The Tissington Trail. This trail is 20k along an old railway line very much like the Vias Verdes in Spain. I was whooshing once again as I sped on the gradual decline to Ashbourne. Very, very long day in the saddle – but worth it.

Stopped up at the Rose & Crown pub for b&b and the very best evening meal of the trip in splendid traditional English pub (link).

Stage 5 Ashbourne to Bewdley 110km in 6:22

Slow but sure, muddy lanes and one puncture.

Stage 6 Bewdley to Wootton Bassett 128km in 6:40

Nice ride beside the river Severn. Climb du Jour was Birdlip Hill just outside Gloucester. Arrived in time for tea at Kevin & Lorraine's. Ahhh :-)

Stage 7 Wootton Bassett to London 152km in 6:28

Yesterday I fitted in a rest day but managed to get to the pool and swim a bit with Cirencester Tri Club, more water massage than serious swimming. Today I whoosh down the A4 with a big tail wind pushing me along. In fact this was the longest day in kilometres but the shortest in hours! Nothing else much happened except I went through Hungerford, Newbury, Reading, Maidenhead, Slough, Heathrow, Chiswick, Shepherds Bush, Notting Hill Gate, Swiss Cottage, Hampstead Heath and finally arrived in Muswell Hill.

Job Done.

#335 giraffes in edinburgo

#334 Big bag

Ready for Edinburgh ride, everything packed in this new bright yellow Arkel Big Bag. It's a bit odd having so much weight (3kg in total) on the handle bars but you soon get accustomed to it.

#333 Med - No Snake

Due to popular demand I have replaced the rather boring picture of the Mediterranean with this Snake Scene, taken during a recent ride.

#332 Alan Mecurial Pro - another bike.

I liked my cyclo-cross bike (#314) so much that I went to my spare parts bin and dragged everything out; stems and bars and wheels and cranksets and saddles and pins - nearly enough to make another bike. I only lacked a frame and some odd bits, so I searched the interweb and came across this Alan Mecurial Pro Cross frame, bought it from the man in Italy and built it up for Sally to ride.

Cyclo cross bikes are good for touring because you can fit great big fat tyres and go off-road down tracks and trails that would shred a road bike's wheels to bits.

Now we both can go zooming up and down the Vias Verdes in Spain or the Voies Vertes in France to our hearts content :-)

#331 Money grows on trees in North london.

I couple of weeks ago I was walking through Highgate in N London when I saw a woman standing at a Barclays cash machine (rather strangely, it has to be said, she was leaning forward on the machine with her legs crossed) this reminded me that I too needed some cash. As I arrived at the ATM and was about to put my card in, I saw that she had left her money behind. I took it out and quickly zipped up and down the road looking for her - but to no avail.

I then took the money into the Barclays (100 pounds) and handed it in, thinking that she would be straight back once realising her loss. I suppose I could have kept it, but having actually seen the woman and also wanting to maintain my good karma I did the right thing.

A week later I rang the bank to ask if it had been collected. No, the manager told me, and it seems that they were not about to make any effort to find her, even though they had her card details. It seems it is up to her to claim it back.

I felt a bit miffed that I had taken the trouble to return the money but Barclays couldn't be bothered to do their bit.

Next day I was in Sainsburys supermarket at a self check-out till. The electronic voice wouldn't let me start but kept telling me to take my change. What do you know? The previous customer had left a fiver in the slot.

********Update************
The local newspaper The Hampstead & Highgate Express printed this piece, almost word for word :-)

#330 Shoes - Take 2

Back at #325 I got a new pair of shoes - but - they came out a bit too small :-(

I was disappointed and my cobbler man was mortified, to such an extent that he made me a new pair. Not having any more of the original leather I chose this reddish leather and my man took it on himself to spend three hours punching a few million holes in the top section, because in Spain you need a bit of aeration in the hot summer months.

Now I have the most beautiful pair of hand made, made to measure, not expensive shoes in Denia - if not the whole of the Iberian Peninsula :-)

#329 Come the Revolution!

. . . . and in other news; As I'm still in London I went to the Tate Modern, saw a load off stuff but liked a set of photos taken by Simryn Gill of Malasian house interiors (oddly hypnotic in their sameness) and even more, a display of Russian Revolutionary Graphic Art, mostly posters, some seemed to have been printed on brown wrapping paper with bold red and back inks, poverty and power all on one piece of paper. I liked the display so much I went back for a second look.























Then to the very best curry restaurant in London the Mirch Masala in Tooting. Even as you come out of the tube station at Tooting Bec you can smell the curry sauces wafting from the dozens and dozens of restaurants in Upper Tooting Road.

Went with Jay and Marcel & Karen (pic ©Karen) It's difficult to describe how wonderful the Mirch is, busy, noisy, friendly, excellent food. We shared Ginger Chicken, Saag Paneer, Masala Karella Daal Burji, Lentil Daal, Nans and BYO beer. If you are in London - go there!


















And finally, another thanks for my birthday gifts, some of which included; a bell, a book, v nice jacket and some portable scales.