Toms View of the World

As you may have noticed (If I remembered to log on this morning and change it anyway) the site has taken on a very pink hue.

This is because, as I did last year, I’m joining in with the annual “pink for October” breast-cancer awareness campaign.  For those of you who read on the RSS feed, feel free to don a pair of sunglasses and click through to the main site!

One of the advantages of using a simple and non-graphical wordpress theme is that changing the CSS and header images is only a few minutes work really - but it doesn’t half make a point!

As I posted earlier in the week - I’ve had to buy a new bike.

Unfortunately, my original choice of bike was not available, and as I need the bike after the weekend for commuting to work on (well, until they delayed the parking changes again) I had to get an alternative sorted out.

Thanks to my local bike shop (Don Skene Cycles) having stock of the Specialized Globe range, they were able to prepare the bike while I waited, and I was able to take it home with me.  Now that’s service!

So here it is. (more…)

Following a fairly problematic ride home from work yesterday - which started off OK, but about half a mile from home there was a little “ping” noise, followed within a few seconds by the rear wheel starting to vibrate and wobble alarmingly.

I stopped (well, it was that or have a potentially nasty crash)

It appears that the wheel had a failure of at least one spoke, resulting in the rim quickly distorting.  The wheel is no longer round, or straight (altough that’s not clear in the photo, the obviously broken spoke is visible)

Due to the expense of getting this fixed (I don’t have the tools or knowledge to rebuild a wheel myself), I’ve decided instead to bring forward my plans to replace the bike - rather than spend a lot of money on this one, I’ve decided to spend even more money on a shiny new Dawes Discovery 401 from those nice folks at Tredz (who although mainly an internet retailer, have a “brick and mortar” store here in Cardiff)

I’m hoping to be able to salvage a number of the accessories from my old bike - lights, computer, carrier rack and so on, rather than spending even more money replacing these - and will likely end up spending my weekend getting the bike ready to run.

To the motorists of Cardiff (and elsewhere).  Please remember these points…

• Cyclists cannot stop instantly.
• WE ARE NOT TELEPATHIC - use your indicators!

When you’ve done something stupid (like a 180 at a mini-roundabout, outside a school, without signalling), and a cyclist has had to take evasive action to avoid a crash, don’t look at the cyclist with an expression that seems to say “what are you doing?”

Remember, you’re nice and safe in a steel shell.  Cyclists aren’t.  If we collide, the chances are that you’ll barely feel it, and I’ll be dead.

As the UK authorities like to say to drivers “THINK!”

New research has revealed that most takeaway food is high in fat, salt and sugar.

Well, duh…

I know I’ve not written much recently - just been a bit too busy…

However, the latest thing to try for trying to lose weight - I’m trying to go swimming a couple of times a week.   Hopefully I can keep this up (with the help of a couple of folks at work who are also going) and it’ll make a difference to that graph over in the sidebar…

If you found this article anywhere except tvotw.co.uk, or your feed-reader, please find their Google adsense entry, click “ads by Google” and report them for stealing content.

Splog: A website that steals content (partial or full posts) from other sites (normally via RSS feed) and then replublishes it, surrounded by adverts.

Depression: the feeling that the fight against these splog sites is a waste of time.

Posting a short article for the benefit of those sploggers who will now rip it and make it their own - Priceless