Oh the Barenaked Ladies, what a fabulously humourous and talented bunch of Canadians they are, and how much am I looking forward to seeing them at Hard Rock Calling in a couple of weeks...
This is another one that gets me bike dancing, head bobbing, shoulders going as I zoom home on my new Schwalbe Marathon tyres courtesy of the Bike Park in Leicester!
If you haven't heard this song before - check out the video and while you'll there check out this random song, which was supposed to be 'Yoko' until the YouTube poilce hunted them down - captions are rather funny...
(By the way, this song is worth a listen for the mad yodelling part alone).
Back to cycling, and as I arrived home this evening I saw two lads in shirts and ties chaining their bikes together on the corner. Hold on, young, smartly dressed men on bikes....this can only mean...MORMONS! The Yoko song has a line that's: 'To have you hanging off my ankle like some kind of ball and chain' and frankly it reminds me of these lads. I have lost count of the times these two have chained their little* bikes up at the end of the road and gone a knockin' on people's doors. I wonder, do they knock on the same doors every week? Do people give them shit? How does it feel to have a door slammed in your face? Do they feel like Yoko Ono did?
Still, this is Leicester, a city of religious tolerance of course. And by my own defintion of religious tolerance I mean an inward roll of the eyes detectable only to those who know me closey, and not answering the door to mormons etc, cos it's better to ignore than offend. And by etc I also mean those dirty looking gentlemen selling unecessary plastic items too...
*for 'little' read normal sized mountain bikes actually.
Follow @leicesterlizzie
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Monday, 6 June 2011
Super Furry Cyclists
It's almost like when 'Baby ate my Eightball' came on then all these people doing crazy things on bikes come out the woodwork.
First up on my way home I see a group of four lads cycling and sharing a joint, passing it from person to person like they are just sat in someone's living room rather than cycling along at 6 O'clock kids and families all about, then I see an old guy, suited up like he's just finished work at Legal and General, cycling along no handed, with his hands folded behind his back pretty much the length of Forest Way. When I get home my (insert name of female relative here) calls and tells me that she's just seen a couple of lads on bikes nick some massive statues out of the neighbours garden and ride off with them. Mad.
Anyway, this last weekend Leicester played host to the Building Cycling Cultures conference. I didn't go, due to various obligations to partner's various obligations to other festivals going on in Leics at the time, but by all accounts it was a good show, attracting folk from all over, including cycling bods from New York.
Anyway, over the weekend (I am told) one of the points of discussion was an article in the Guardian helpfully entitled: On your bike? Not likely...cycling is for children, study finds. (For some reason the online version has a different title, like the Guardian know that online stuff is around for a lot longer so they need to tread more carefully).
The jist of the article (if you can't be bothered to follow the link) is that the majority of the population view bikes as 'children's toys or for lycra clad hobbyists' (these by the way are the Guardian's words, not the study's. There are a few things I find annoying about the way this story is covered in the Guardian:
1. The negative way in which the story is presented - most people won't get past the headline or the first para, so just read the bad bits.
2. The Guardian are normally the biggest cycling advocates - they promote cycling as a means of transport, whereas other papers never mention cycling, or in the Times' case it's a nice thing to do for a Sunday afternoon jolly. I know they have to give a balanced view, but lets face it, they don't normally.
3. The final line is a plug for the Guardian's new book 'Cyclebabble'. They now that only cyclists will be interested beyond paragraph three, becuase by then non-cyclists will be laughing at the lycra clad bit and sniggering. So they get their book in!!!!!! The bloody cheek of it.
I do sincerely hope they are wrong. Studies aside, when I am out and about in Leicester I see the difference - it's visible, there are tons of cyclists on the roads and paths and they are not all wearing lycra. At the weekend we were out and about in Bradgate Park area - we saw people cycling to the pub in Cropston, to the Open Gardens event and to Stonehurst Family Farm in Mountsorrel.
People are cycling in Leicester, and they are loving it!
First up on my way home I see a group of four lads cycling and sharing a joint, passing it from person to person like they are just sat in someone's living room rather than cycling along at 6 O'clock kids and families all about, then I see an old guy, suited up like he's just finished work at Legal and General, cycling along no handed, with his hands folded behind his back pretty much the length of Forest Way. When I get home my (insert name of female relative here) calls and tells me that she's just seen a couple of lads on bikes nick some massive statues out of the neighbours garden and ride off with them. Mad.
Anyway, this last weekend Leicester played host to the Building Cycling Cultures conference. I didn't go, due to various obligations to partner's various obligations to other festivals going on in Leics at the time, but by all accounts it was a good show, attracting folk from all over, including cycling bods from New York.
Anyway, over the weekend (I am told) one of the points of discussion was an article in the Guardian helpfully entitled: On your bike? Not likely...cycling is for children, study finds. (For some reason the online version has a different title, like the Guardian know that online stuff is around for a lot longer so they need to tread more carefully).
The jist of the article (if you can't be bothered to follow the link) is that the majority of the population view bikes as 'children's toys or for lycra clad hobbyists' (these by the way are the Guardian's words, not the study's. There are a few things I find annoying about the way this story is covered in the Guardian:
1. The negative way in which the story is presented - most people won't get past the headline or the first para, so just read the bad bits.
2. The Guardian are normally the biggest cycling advocates - they promote cycling as a means of transport, whereas other papers never mention cycling, or in the Times' case it's a nice thing to do for a Sunday afternoon jolly. I know they have to give a balanced view, but lets face it, they don't normally.
3. The final line is a plug for the Guardian's new book 'Cyclebabble'. They now that only cyclists will be interested beyond paragraph three, becuase by then non-cyclists will be laughing at the lycra clad bit and sniggering. So they get their book in!!!!!! The bloody cheek of it.
I do sincerely hope they are wrong. Studies aside, when I am out and about in Leicester I see the difference - it's visible, there are tons of cyclists on the roads and paths and they are not all wearing lycra. At the weekend we were out and about in Bradgate Park area - we saw people cycling to the pub in Cropston, to the Open Gardens event and to Stonehurst Family Farm in Mountsorrel.
People are cycling in Leicester, and they are loving it!
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Magic day...
Somtimes you just have one of those days but in a good way, and Friday 27th May was no exception.
It was the day of the annual Phoenix Bike Ride, where staff from schools bring 400 kids into the city centre on their bikes to watch bike films at the Phoenix. I rode in with a school from Thurmaston, and I have to say it was awesome (to use an american phrase which I usually hate!). I set off on my first leg at 0745, and 6.5 miles later (along the fab Riverside/Abbey Park/Space Centre route out to Watermead Park and beyond to Thurmaston. Then back into Leicester with the kids, watch some films, have some photos with councillors etc, then back out to the school. One of the big points of this is to show the kids (and adult helpers!) how easy it is to cycle into the city centre (Leicester).
Anyway, kids safely back at school, my work here is done and it's off to the Western>. I love this pub, it's kind of been our surrogate Pump and Tap, since the Pump was famously knocked down to build a swimming pool for De Montfort University. By the time I get to the pub and ctach up with various colleagues I've done 27 miles on my trusty Merida Glide.
A pint of beer later and I am persuaded to join various colleguey types on Leicester's Critical Mass (monthly bike ride around Leicester, attracted over 170 cyclists last month. I'd never heard the term Critical Mass until a couple of months ago - you'll have to check out the facebook page to read about its philosophy...
The ride attracted at least a couple of hundred people anyway, and took us on a route round the ring road, past the Space Centre (for only the 5th time that day!!!!) and ended up with several circles round the clock tower, which was akin to being at the eye of a storm - virtually imposible to escape once in the middle of it! There's some fab photos on the facebook page.
Ended up at the Criterion. I asked the bar man what bottled lagers they had, as they didn't serve Sol (which I'd ask for). He grumpily told me they had over 300 bottled lagers, so I replied that something light would do. Anyway he plonked an opened bottle of Desperado (a tequila laced mexican beer) in front of me. Not sure I needed a tequila laced beer at that particular point in time but went with it. Cycled home after just the one (only being a good girl because Twickenham looming the next day). Magic by Ladyhawke was the first song that came on, and yes - it had been a magic day...
Cyclometer showed 35 miles when I got in. Slept like a baby - flat on back, woke up in exact same posiition ready for the rugby.
It was the day of the annual Phoenix Bike Ride, where staff from schools bring 400 kids into the city centre on their bikes to watch bike films at the Phoenix. I rode in with a school from Thurmaston, and I have to say it was awesome (to use an american phrase which I usually hate!). I set off on my first leg at 0745, and 6.5 miles later (along the fab Riverside/Abbey Park/Space Centre route out to Watermead Park and beyond to Thurmaston. Then back into Leicester with the kids, watch some films, have some photos with councillors etc, then back out to the school. One of the big points of this is to show the kids (and adult helpers!) how easy it is to cycle into the city centre (Leicester).
Anyway, kids safely back at school, my work here is done and it's off to the Western>. I love this pub, it's kind of been our surrogate Pump and Tap, since the Pump was famously knocked down to build a swimming pool for De Montfort University. By the time I get to the pub and ctach up with various colleagues I've done 27 miles on my trusty Merida Glide.
A pint of beer later and I am persuaded to join various colleguey types on Leicester's Critical Mass (monthly bike ride around Leicester, attracted over 170 cyclists last month. I'd never heard the term Critical Mass until a couple of months ago - you'll have to check out the facebook page to read about its philosophy...
The ride attracted at least a couple of hundred people anyway, and took us on a route round the ring road, past the Space Centre (for only the 5th time that day!!!!) and ended up with several circles round the clock tower, which was akin to being at the eye of a storm - virtually imposible to escape once in the middle of it! There's some fab photos on the facebook page.
Ended up at the Criterion. I asked the bar man what bottled lagers they had, as they didn't serve Sol (which I'd ask for). He grumpily told me they had over 300 bottled lagers, so I replied that something light would do. Anyway he plonked an opened bottle of Desperado (a tequila laced mexican beer) in front of me. Not sure I needed a tequila laced beer at that particular point in time but went with it. Cycled home after just the one (only being a good girl because Twickenham looming the next day). Magic by Ladyhawke was the first song that came on, and yes - it had been a magic day...
Cyclometer showed 35 miles when I got in. Slept like a baby - flat on back, woke up in exact same posiition ready for the rugby.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Cycling through the Seasons of Love
WARNING - IF YOU'RE EASILY OFFENDED THEN LOOK AWAY (Later in this blog I'll be quoting from Team America World Police)...
My friend S is doing a Bike Ride from Leicester to East Coast vacation hotspot Skegness in a couple of weeks for Help the Heroes and asked me if I'd go on a ride last Saturday for 'practice'. On the way to Glenfield, I was cycling up Letchworth Rd when 'Seasons of Love' from Rent came on. It is the only song from a musical that's on my Blackberry (honest) and there's many places I cycle that I would be a touch embarrassed to have a song from Rent blaring out - but not the middle class haven that is Letchworth Road, it's a Letchworth Road kind of song.
The thing is - I can't hear any song from Rent without thinking of the Team America World police spoof of it 'Lease' with the world's most unpolitically correct song 'AIDS'. The words are in fact almost unprintable, so on second thoughts I'm reluctant to post them on this blog. The spoof of Rent is not big or funny(weeeellll....) or clever (actually, it's quite clever in a purile way) but if you want to check it out on YouTube then I won't tell anyone...
Anyway, S and I managed 18 miles (me a further 4 to Glenfield and back) despite the fact my neck was a bit dodgy and I couldn't look left. S had to constantly ride on my right, and look left at junctions.
For the record, my neck has now completely seized up which is a bit shit. Ironically I have just spent the last half an hour on the phone to Ticketmaster complaining that they have booked me a disabled space for Stevie Nicks at Hard Rock Calling when I said general admission. Maybe they knew something I didn't.
My friend S is doing a Bike Ride from Leicester to East Coast vacation hotspot Skegness in a couple of weeks for Help the Heroes and asked me if I'd go on a ride last Saturday for 'practice'. On the way to Glenfield, I was cycling up Letchworth Rd when 'Seasons of Love' from Rent came on. It is the only song from a musical that's on my Blackberry (honest) and there's many places I cycle that I would be a touch embarrassed to have a song from Rent blaring out - but not the middle class haven that is Letchworth Road, it's a Letchworth Road kind of song.
The thing is - I can't hear any song from Rent without thinking of the Team America World police spoof of it 'Lease' with the world's most unpolitically correct song 'AIDS'. The words are in fact almost unprintable, so on second thoughts I'm reluctant to post them on this blog. The spoof of Rent is not big or funny(weeeellll....) or clever (actually, it's quite clever in a purile way) but if you want to check it out on YouTube then I won't tell anyone...
Anyway, S and I managed 18 miles (me a further 4 to Glenfield and back) despite the fact my neck was a bit dodgy and I couldn't look left. S had to constantly ride on my right, and look left at junctions.
For the record, my neck has now completely seized up which is a bit shit. Ironically I have just spent the last half an hour on the phone to Ticketmaster complaining that they have booked me a disabled space for Stevie Nicks at Hard Rock Calling when I said general admission. Maybe they knew something I didn't.
Friday, 13 May 2011
No one said it would be easy...
I am currently trying to clock up some miles on the Leicester Shire Cycle Challenge as well as promoting the challenge to hundreds of people, and remaining ultra enthusiastic about two wheels. I am, of course, loving this challenge but I am also cream crackered. So today (FRIDAY!), after a 50 something hour week I cycled home and it was with great delight that I nodded my head to the opening bars of 'Easy' by Groove Armada (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqnzehVRQWA).
What a tune! Love it. I would say it took me back to clubbing in the North West at Hacienda/ Feel/ Cream etc (which it sort of did) but it wasn't released until 2003, and I haven't clubbed in those parts since 1998.
Anyway, it's one of those songs that gets me dancing - even on a bike. I start doing this wiggly swerve of the handlbars and shoulder wiggles in time to the beat. I must like a right nutter going down New Parks Boulevard, but with a tune like Easy playing it's hard to care...
STOP PRESS: Had a go on an Electra bike yesterday. How cool. Thanks to Cyclemagic for that...
What a tune! Love it. I would say it took me back to clubbing in the North West at Hacienda/ Feel/ Cream etc (which it sort of did) but it wasn't released until 2003, and I haven't clubbed in those parts since 1998.
Anyway, it's one of those songs that gets me dancing - even on a bike. I start doing this wiggly swerve of the handlbars and shoulder wiggles in time to the beat. I must like a right nutter going down New Parks Boulevard, but with a tune like Easy playing it's hard to care...
STOP PRESS: Had a go on an Electra bike yesterday. How cool. Thanks to Cyclemagic for that...
Monday, 18 April 2011
Don't keep me waiting!
Sometimes you leave work and it's a sunny day and you're very happy to be on the way home and you need a really uplifting song to start the journey. Anyway that is where the cod Motown (can you even say cod Motown?)of Sharleen Spiteri's album 'Melody' comes in. If I am honest with you I don't actually own the album anymore, but I am still in posession of the standout track - Don't Keep Me Waiting. I first heard DKMW on one of the latter (for latter read shitter) series of the L-Word in a club scene. It's a bloody good song, and I sing along unashamedly as I ride down the hill into Leicester.
In fact, the carefreeness of the song has even paid musical tribute to the caution to the wind action that was - gasp - me leaving my helmet at home. Jesus girl what next, bicycle clips off a cliff top? One handed along Glenfield Road?
Anyway, so there I am, Spiteri-ing my way into town (in fact I wasn't even going home thinking about it, I was just cycling from one job to another, that's how good this song makes you feel kids!) and then I see someone I know and I have to stop and talk to them (Cue that noise where the needle scratches right across the record causing jollity to come to a shuddering halt).
Small talk ensues, and that's when I notice - SHE IS MY BIKE HELMET TWIN. Bike helmets are bad enough, without having the same one as someone else, and thus drawing even more attention to it. This isn't like Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow both turning up at the Oscars with the same dress on, it's like Jen and Gwyn both tripping up the red carpet and sporting matching chin grazes for a week or two. Maybe the bike helmet twin thing wouldn't annoy me too much if I hadn't recently acquired a BIKE TWIN (yes that's someone who bought exactly the same bike as me). I was a bit gutted about that as I love my bike - that's a bit moe like the dress at the Oscars thing!
So anyway, I cycle off, Spiteri has been skipped for something far more appropriate like Jack Johnson and I invent reasons I need to buy a new bike helmet...
In fact, the carefreeness of the song has even paid musical tribute to the caution to the wind action that was - gasp - me leaving my helmet at home. Jesus girl what next, bicycle clips off a cliff top? One handed along Glenfield Road?
Anyway, so there I am, Spiteri-ing my way into town (in fact I wasn't even going home thinking about it, I was just cycling from one job to another, that's how good this song makes you feel kids!) and then I see someone I know and I have to stop and talk to them (Cue that noise where the needle scratches right across the record causing jollity to come to a shuddering halt).
Small talk ensues, and that's when I notice - SHE IS MY BIKE HELMET TWIN. Bike helmets are bad enough, without having the same one as someone else, and thus drawing even more attention to it. This isn't like Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow both turning up at the Oscars with the same dress on, it's like Jen and Gwyn both tripping up the red carpet and sporting matching chin grazes for a week or two. Maybe the bike helmet twin thing wouldn't annoy me too much if I hadn't recently acquired a BIKE TWIN (yes that's someone who bought exactly the same bike as me). I was a bit gutted about that as I love my bike - that's a bit moe like the dress at the Oscars thing!
So anyway, I cycle off, Spiteri has been skipped for something far more appropriate like Jack Johnson and I invent reasons I need to buy a new bike helmet...
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
You could be my Silver Springs
Cycling down Nevanthon Road to Minehead Street, a part of my journey from work (and my journey through life, 'cos it's where I used to live, to where I live now) was today my 'Silver Springs' (the town in Maryland after which this rather gorgeous Fleetwood Mac song was named.
Just when the opening keyboard notes come on, I relax even more - it's that kind of song. And yet bizarrely, Silver Springs is one of the most intense songs I've ever heard. It's essentially about a woman (let's call her Stevie Nicks) screaming at a man (Lindsey Buckingham might be a good name for him) about how she's going to follow him and the sound of her voice will haunt him, and he'll never get away from her. But somehow, combine this song with a downhill bike ride after a day full of meetings and you've got an MP3 version of yoga.
Writing about Stevie Nicks today is a bit jumping on the bandwagon, because it seems that in the US she was on Oprah with Joan Jett and Pat Benatar. Stevie even 'trended' on twitter this evening which is rather fabulous, but I've liked Stevie far longer than Oprah viewers and tweeters. One thing I like about Stevie is that she doesn't drive, which in America is a bit like not knowing the national anthem. She hasn't driven since 1978 simply because she never went anywhere alone which, when you stop and think about it is a fairly mind blowing idea.
As I am sailing home on my Merida Glide, Silver Springing my way along - the concept of never being alone doesn't compute, sometimes when you are cycling it's the being alone that makes it so chilled out.
And so maybe I am not only recommending cycling to the masses I'm recommmending it to Stevie Nicks, because if she's lived without a car all this time she ought to get herself on a bike - if only so she can be on her own for a bit. I did try and google Stevie Nicks and bikes (you never do know) but it's seems that to Ms Nicks, a bike is a Harley Davidson (Stevie in Radio Interview:"I mean what is more fun, really than being on the back of a Harley Davidson, driving down the freeway to a Bob Dylan concert?").
I really can't imagine, but she's kind of pissed on my 'cycling is great' thing from a great height.
Just when the opening keyboard notes come on, I relax even more - it's that kind of song. And yet bizarrely, Silver Springs is one of the most intense songs I've ever heard. It's essentially about a woman (let's call her Stevie Nicks) screaming at a man (Lindsey Buckingham might be a good name for him) about how she's going to follow him and the sound of her voice will haunt him, and he'll never get away from her. But somehow, combine this song with a downhill bike ride after a day full of meetings and you've got an MP3 version of yoga.
Writing about Stevie Nicks today is a bit jumping on the bandwagon, because it seems that in the US she was on Oprah with Joan Jett and Pat Benatar. Stevie even 'trended' on twitter this evening which is rather fabulous, but I've liked Stevie far longer than Oprah viewers and tweeters. One thing I like about Stevie is that she doesn't drive, which in America is a bit like not knowing the national anthem. She hasn't driven since 1978 simply because she never went anywhere alone which, when you stop and think about it is a fairly mind blowing idea.
As I am sailing home on my Merida Glide, Silver Springing my way along - the concept of never being alone doesn't compute, sometimes when you are cycling it's the being alone that makes it so chilled out.
And so maybe I am not only recommending cycling to the masses I'm recommmending it to Stevie Nicks, because if she's lived without a car all this time she ought to get herself on a bike - if only so she can be on her own for a bit. I did try and google Stevie Nicks and bikes (you never do know) but it's seems that to Ms Nicks, a bike is a Harley Davidson (Stevie in Radio Interview:"I mean what is more fun, really than being on the back of a Harley Davidson, driving down the freeway to a Bob Dylan concert?").
I really can't imagine, but she's kind of pissed on my 'cycling is great' thing from a great height.
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