One of my fave sites, the FGE — which, for those of you unaware of such matters, consists of photos of fixed or SS riding guys in either nothing at all or just their undies — appears no longer to be working.

What’s going on? A girl needs to lech sometimes!

The Forth Bridge is closed today owing to high winds. So that means yesterday’s abortive cycle ride really was into the teeth of a very nasty wind. I’ts about Force 9 out there now and the forecast is that it will get worse before it gets better.

I have to go over to the airport later to pick up someone (No! Not like that you filthy perverts!), which could get tricky if the bridge is closed. I’ll just have to keep an eye on the weather. I was considering taking the car over to the Ingliston Park & Ride and cycling into town beforehand, but that ain’t gonna happen if I can’t get across the bridge.

Here’s some more memeage for you while I’m at it. Snaffled from Pupgrrl. Of course I got the snowboarding joke…

I’ve just put up a page about why I ride fixed. As popular as fixed gear bikes have become of late, it would seem that a girl on a fixed gear is still a cause for comment. Anyway. It gives me an excuse to wax lyrical about Shackleton. Again.

Snaffled from Ythry.

You scored as Postmodernist. Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis. Postmodernist 100% Cultural Creative 88% Materialist 75% Existentialist 69% Modernist 44% Idealist 31% Fundamentalist 25% Romanticist 19%

What is Your World View?
created with QuizFarm.com

Painfully aware that I have four weeks before this bloody triathlon, I just took Fingal out. A nice, short ride was my plan, down to Burntisland via Kinghorn Loch and then back up the coast through Kinghorn itself. Not far, just a nice short circuit to get some miles in my legs. Especially with the weather.

Aye. Right. For the first time in years I had to give up. So the first mile was into the teeth of what felt like a force 8, right along the Esplanade, and then there were another 2 miles into the same teeth of the same wind. Only uphill. By this point I had stomach cramps and was feeling nauseous as well as somewhat angry, it was getting dark and the rain was cold.

I decided that I’d rather have something left for training the rest of the week rather than risking really knackering myself doing the full (exceedingly paltry) 11 miles. My body wasn’t happy with the idea before I left and it certainly wasn’t happy with the idea by the time I’d got as far as the top of the climb after the Kinghorn junction out the westend of Kirkcaldy.

That’s… appalling. I’m telling myself that anyone can have a bad day and the weather out there is atrocious. I’ve had about 6 weeks off the bike with various problems and I managed about 25 miles okay last weekend, although not with my usual splendidness.

Don’t tell me it’s going to be the bike leg that lets me down. Three months ago I was doing consistent evens over a route that wasn’t exactly flat. Dammit.

Should’ve taken the fixie.

Snaffled from… well. Almost everyone, really.

Not long now until the Embra Tri. Ohmilord. There really is no getting away from it. My name is up on the competitors list.

The swimming is coming along nicely. I estimated 11 minutes for the swim leg and I’m a comfortable 10 right now. I’m counting on my generic bike fitness to help me bring me up to speed over the next four weeks, and that just leaves the run section to panic about.

Still. Competition is an excuse to buy kit, and I have employed my talent of tracking down Borgtastic outfits to come up with this. Better than that nasty Cannondale/Ironman thing I was looking at.

Don’t panic. Don’t panic. It’s supposed to be fun!

Munky just sent me a link to a news story about another baby seal found in an impossible location.

Nick Green, animal collection officer for the RSPCA, said: “Wild seals don’t like being around humans at all, but this one seemed really quite tame, which suggests he could have been a pet.

“We can’t understand how he got there.

“He was found in the middle of a farming community, nowhere near the sea.

“It’s bizarre. The sea and the nearest river are a long way from the spot where he was found.”

What’s going on, folks? Have we got some form of Marvelised mutant whose superpower is the fantastically useless ability to put baby seals in stupid places? Is this some grand practical joke on the part of the Grey Seal Community?

This is getting a little too weird.

I made another new avatar.

I think this one is fab and groovy.

This year’s best birthday card poem goes to S’leste and Mark with The “MADNESS” hamsters: