Oh the lunacy of my past cycling;

Losing control of my PO bicycle, downhill from a church, with the 8:15 bus watching my every motion, I halted abruptly within a hawthorn bush, bloodied bloody silly.

Cycling through wild and very vigourous stinging nettles, barefoot; and soon dancing to their tune!

Cycling down a tiny, steep semi-suburban lane during a powercut, at night and turning off my own cycle lamps while accelerating for 'fun'...fortunately Norfolk's grass banks are very sandy!

Taking just one extra parcel on the front of another bike during 'black ice day', January 1988, and finding that going downhill can actually be performed twice simultaneously without peddling, or even handling a bike! NOT recommended.

Cycling over what looked like a rotten bit of moss-covered wood, soon discovering that it was but a healthy trunk days before, sending me flying head over bike, cracking chin on yet more black ice and sliding for a full 15 seconds to rest beside the milk float...milkman napping.

Racing my dear departed dog to the old railway line, we were neck and neck, downhill, until he decided to cut inside, sending me well and truly over my finishing line aged 9. Scars remain, the memory is warm though!

Pushing my own body to it's furthest distance ever, I managed 42 miles, and stopped, deciding on one field-view photo, a drink and then head-back...only to feel the ground below me become rather 'firm'...and in Stanley fashion pull out a wicked thorn from a deflated tire. The long pre-cellphone walk home beckoned.

Cycling over a rare right-of-way in a sunken surburban development, and pushing uphill on the other side finding the whole frame of my bike sheer in half, breaking in two, and in affect, shattering my spine to it's present state.

"I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like. It's got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good. I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it." -- Pink Floyd, 'Bike'

"Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world." - Grant Peterson

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." - H.G. Wells

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.
-Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"

The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the more likely it is you'll crash.
-Julie Furtado

Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things.
-William Golding

"A bicycle ride is a flight from sadness."--James E. Starrs, The Literary Cyclist [This I would say is a great truth...as the first thing I did upon hearing or receiving bad news, was cycle...and how! -lauren6]

What would you do if you caught a computer virus which meant that you had to go without the internet- both at home and work- for a week?

Only 20 years ago, most of us would have gone for weeks on end without using a computer or some wouldn't have used a computer at all. But today no matter what your profession is, what section of society you are in, you're very much in the minority if you can't get onto the net either at home or at work.

So just how dependent have we become on logging on?

The reality is that the internet has completely changed our lives. Some would argue for the better, some would argue for the worse.

With no internet at work or home for a week, would you call your friends rather than email? Visit a travel agent in person or call them up for advice? Do your grocery shopping in person and visit colleagues at their desks to get work done?

Or would you be down at the local library or internet cafe paying £1 an hour to check your emails and hassling IT at work and anyone else you know at home to come and sort out the problem as quickly as possible?

How long could you go without logging on?

Link

An insect expert has warned that more people will die from wasp stings because the population is becoming more allergic to them.

The alert comes after two men died from anaphylactic shock caused by wasps stings in the Winchester area of Hampshire in the space of a few weeks.

Father-of-three Ron Allan was working in his garden in Itchen Abbas, near the city, when he was stung by a swarm of wasps after disturbing a nest on July 21.

Mr Allan had never previously suffered an allergic reaction to a wasp sting.

Farm labourer Andy Conduct, 53, from Alresford, near Winchester, was also stung five times by wasps in his garden. He died in hospital two days later, on August 7.

He had been stung in the weeks before his death and had been given antihistamine tablets.

Inquests have been opened and adjourned into both deaths.

Matt Shardlow from the insect charity Buglife said this year the wasp population was at normal levels after several years of low populations.

He said wasps would now become more of a problem as their natural food disappears in late summer and the insects become attracted to human products, like ice cream and beer.

Research from the NHS and the House of Commons Health Select Committee has shown that anaphylactic shock rates have soared in recent years, he said.

"There has been a dramatic shift on how people react to wasp stings and the number of anaphylactic shock deaths has risen massively," he explained.

"I think, based on the trend in allergic reactions, we would expect to see a long term increase in the number of wasp (sting) deaths."

Is this shockalism or should we take heed of such warnings?

I watched this, and enjoyed, with great curiosity...

Me: Girl takes pic of herself every day for three years

People's fears at losing our natural and cultural heritage have been highlighted in survey out today.

Vanishing Britain looks at concerns for people and places and is urging everyone to take action by volunteering to help with everything from turning wastelands into community gardens and starting campaigns to support community shops.

The report, which was commissioned by Community Services Volunteers Make a Difference Day, shows that more than half of the people in the area were concerned about losing countryside and green spaces and more than a third fear the loss of village stores and post offices. One in 10 people are also concerned about losing historic buildings.

Younger people were most concerned about losing countryside and green spaces, with more than half of 25 to 44-year-olds expressing concern while just of a third of over-65s said that they were worried.

Rupert Read, Norwich city councillor with the Green Party, said: “I completely empathise and agree with the survey. Economic pressures to pave over countryside in East Anglia is great and we work hard to maintain our green spaces for us and our children to enjoy.

“We're worried about proposals put forward for the Norwich Northern Distributor Road where huge additional retail and business development will take place.

“The countryside between the road and Norwich will be filled with new homes, engulfing the small villages outside the city. The character of Norwich will be destroyed, so we must think very carefully about expansion in this area to preserve our green spaces, which really enrich the quality of our lives.”

Older people showed the most concern for the closure of amenities with more than half of people over 55 saying they were anxious about losing community shops and post offices.

Tara Murphy, a sub-postmistress at Spixworth post office, said: “We are losing our post offices big time. When the Card Account scheme finishes in 2010 a lot more are going to close, including my own.

“Now that people do not have to come to the post offices to pay for their TV licences, we have had increased competition and that's made a huge difference to the amount of money that's going through us.

“It's so hard for the elderly who can't visit a post office miles away when their local post office closes.”

North Norfolk Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb has been campaigning to keep open rural post offices open. He said: “Post offices are a vital element of our communities, and it's tragic what's happening to them.

“Until 2008, the Government has promised to subsidise rural post offices, but there is no guarantee that this will continue afterwards. It's a real concern.”

Young people under 24 seem to treasure our national heritage the most, with nearly one in five concerned about losing historical buildings, while one in 10 over-65s expressed concern.

Brenda Ferris, Norwich City Council spokesman for culture, tourism and leisure, said: “I can understand that with a growing population people fear they will lose their building heritage. However, in Norwich we have a wonderful heritage and we protect it fiercely. We're currently talking about ways to protect the city walls - they're going nowhere.”

Vanishing Britain:

Concern over the demise of family life and support for the young and old have been highlighted by the Vanishing Britain survey.

Nearly half of people in the region said they worried about the dwindling support and guidance for young people growing up.

About one third said they were concerned about not spending enough quality time with their family and about a quarter said they were concerned about older people losing their dignity.

Brenda Arthur, chief executive for Age Concern in Norwich, said it was encouraging Community Service Volunteers was highlighting people's fears for elderly people so that we could help overcome them.

Ms Arthur said: “Once people are over a certain age people tend to ignore them and assume that their opinions are not worth anything and they are a burden.

“People should understand that a large number of older people neither need nor want care. They just want respect and for people to realise that they still have a lot to give.”

-EMMA KNIGHTS
16 August 2006

EEN

You don't need to be able to swim to survive stormy waters.

Whatever we may lose, there's always something to gain, somewhere.

Say something nice to someone, once today, and tomorrow you'll (hopefully) feel twice as nice. (It works if we ALL do it!!)

Oh, only for so short a while you have loaned us to each other.
Because we take form in your act of drawing us,
And we take life in your painting us,
And we breathe in your singing us.
But only for so short a while have you loaned us to each other."
~ Aztec Prayer ~

I needed a lift these past three hellish days, and England certainly gave just that, for 45 minutes we watched a team capable of winning the World Cup...all over again!!!!
Well, put it all in perspective, it was a fine performance, and a wonderful start for two men in particular; the boss and captain.
I'm sure Beckham was watching the game, and right behind 'the lads', his heart should never be questioned, even if his international career has stalled and ends here. As for Owen Hargreves, what a revelation...he may be playing for a transfer, but I would credit him more highly than that, as his passion in an England shirt is beyond doubt, and it is one legacy of Sven's that deserves applause, though all the team look 'free' now, let's hope the team play with the spirit shown in the last third of that WCQF and last night.

Congratulations to both Steve McClaren and John Terry...and though I am an ardent Red, how has Peter Crouch managed 8 goals in 12 internationals? He is developing well...long may it continue...and nice to hear Old Trafford cheering his every move...thank you Manchester, you are a great host for internationals, better than the capital's Feebly Stadium.

Also a belated shout for Norwich City's brilliant comeback last weekend, from two down to win 3-2 is tremendous.

So, now that England are back on the footballing map, I would like to hear Prescott's thoughts?

As an artist myself, this caught my eye...

Lionel Shriver
Wednesday August 2, 2006
The Guardian

Maybe 13 really is unlucky - since that's the number of cover designs for my new novel that my publisher has already run through, and not one of them works. Few companies would lavish such care on finding just the right image for a single book, and I admire their perfectionism. Yet these hard-working and skilful designers have consistently turned a deaf ear to the author's entreaties that someone, please, sit down and draft some original art. You would think I was suggesting that they hop aboard the next Nasa shuttle and go collect moon rocks. I fear that, like so many recent art school graduates, most of these technologically nimble professionals do not know how to draw.

Over the course of the 20 years I've been publishing fiction, a none too subtle transformation has taken place in the design of book covers. My first novel used Henri Rousseau's The Dream, into which the heads of my characters were carefully hand-painted, in the same style, peeking through the foliage. (These days, they would probably just bung in photographs.) The cover of my second novel is a piece of original art (aka, a moon rock), with two crossed drumsticks and a joyful spatter of paint, capturing the exuberance and abandon of the main character, a rock'n'roll drummer.
Yet my latter covers have all capitulated to the computer. By the 1990s, designers were glued to their screens. If you scan Waterstone's today, you will be hard pressed to find any covers employing original art. (One delightful exception is Allegra Goodman's Intuition - congratulations to Dial Press - whose watercolour cover is every bit as exquisite as the text inside. You would never believe that a mere filing cabinet could look so beguiling.) For the most part, designers now just drag photos off the web, and play with backgrounds and fonts at the keyboard. That's why a strange drabness, coldness, and sameness is plaguing the aesthetics of book publishing - and at a time when the pleasures of physical books, as opposed to electronic media, are vital to defend.

This is not a problem exclusive to book covers. Across the board, the designers of everyday objects now work in pixels. They don't get chalk dust on their shirts; they don't get paint under their nails. This translates into a curious, ineffable loss of warmth in the look of things. I'm thinking also of the chilly, computer-generated design of CD covers (in my day, album covers - remember Joni Mitchell drawing her own?), and even of commercial packaging. Yet many enduring classics of packaging involved someone sitting down to draw or paint a picture: that inviting blue-and-white striped milk jug on the old Horlicks jar, the striking red-and-green parrot on a bottle of Pickapeppa Sauce.

Surely one of the appeals of the "retro" look is that designers of yore created their own funky folk art. Tolstoy once observed that a real beauty has something wrong with her; a face that's too perfect, too symmetrical, tends to look vapid and lacks mystery. In kind, the appeal of the hand-drafted and hand-crafted lies in their tiny mistakes - the line that's not quite straight, the perspective that's slightly skewed. Aesthetically, we respond to the tender, human feel of error.

I'm not one to complain about the advent of the computer overall, which has made writing so much more convenient. But over-reliance on this clinical technology is estranging in the decorative arts. That's why, at my wit's end this last weekend, I took my cue from Mitchell and hauled out my coloured pencils. I drew my own damn book cover - luminous, one-of-a-kind, and, like one of Tolstoy's real beauties, not quite perfect. We'll see if my publisher bites. Call me a Luddite if you will - at least I tried.

Incarnadine noon
a heebie day
so much I like
so little enjoyed
with time came the link
a place where I can think
by meliorism's vale
I did well
reaching hope's limotrophe
such mendacity survived
a melancholic log-out
for hallow evening now devout.

written by lauren6

In deepest darkest times
a musical drive
hugs and tugs at these emotions
for feelings I strive
now I'm away from it all
a oneness with the river
cleansing a damaged stance
for which time may yet deliver
a flow asking no questions
it's pure touch at water's edge
truer than anything human
so with nature, I now pledge-
my heart and soul, my Godgiven rôle
beside the comforting view
with befallen human expectation
my hurts, my love...is nature in situ.

written by lauren6