The Milk Snatcher is no more...

No I am not a fan of this lady. I never celebrate whenever anybody dies (nope not even Ben Laden, not that the two are compareable) its distasteful and disgraces ideals of free speech and rule of law. Personally and in a historical context I have a hard time accepting the whole Ronnie, Pope and Maggie bringing down the USSR story. Highlighting these leaders that may have done something in the whole process, belittles the brave and numerous anonymous many who inside and outside the system fought to bring down the oppressive force that was the USSR. A lady who called Nelson Mandela a terrorist and dejected the ANC during apartheid, seems like a person who talks about freedom and liberty, while understanding very little. When it comes to the mark she left in Britain, may view is that she contributed the North South divide and that when Scotland gains its independence the Tories that sing her praises today can thank her for beginning the division of the British Isles. When I lived in the UK it was obvious that the social division that she started and that Blair government didn't fix, is very much the reason that the UK economy, infrastructure and educational system is in such bad shape. A champion of women she was not, having all of 2 female cabinet ministers during her longest reign as PM. I expect Thatcherisme will become another word such as Reganisme that will be a buzzword for misunderstood free-market economies uttered by people who have no ideas of the economical devastation that these two leaders left. The fans of these ideologies seem as blind to history as modern day Lenisists, Stalinists and Maoists. So although I respect anybody that uses their life to better their country it is hard for me to point to much that this Iron Lady got right. May she rest in peace, as I think the memory of her legacy will not.

If you want another view on this please read Germaine Greers excellent article in the Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/11/germaine-greer-margaret-thatcher-anniversary

A four month break…

I can’t stand on my foot. Every time I do, pain shoots up from my ankle. Its September 2010 and I have decided to go for my first Wednesday evo run session. Something that I have been putting off for a couple of months. The reason, as much as I love cycling…well let’s just say that running has never been my thing.

But here I am ready for the run, yawning as I always do when I am nervous about doing sports. I have decided to start with the beginners, although one of the ladies in that group looks at me and ask me that I surely must be in the wrong group.

We start I stick to the back don’t want to be showing off. (I know I can’t keep it up). So there I am trotting along, thinking this is a bit slow, I guess I am all right… and whack my foot goes into a hole and all my weight on the ankle. I blow out, it hurts. I am cursing myself for being stupid and not focusing on what I am doing.

It hurts but I try running on. I catch up with the group, we start running up the hill towards the castle, the pain is still there but maybe I can run it off.

We do sprints and run around the block a couple of times. And then we stop and start stretching. After the stretching we wait I while till everybody finishes. And then we set off…and that’s when I stop, I can’t run, I can’t even stand on my foot.

I come home, do RICE which I know from my first help courses. The next day I go to the GP. She tells me to rest it. I do for 2 weeks at which point I do the palace to palace ride. I do the 70 km off biking. My ankle still hurts and a week after the ride, my knee starts hurting when I bike. Its back to the GP who tells me that I have probably over compensated on the ride and my knee has taken the brunt. She tells me to rest further. After a month with no change I go back and tell her what now. I tell her I have private healthcare. She lights up and says, “Why didn’t you tell me straight away”.

So in short I have been dragging my foot along for a month, to the detriment of my knee . And NOW she tells me I should go see an expert? Hurra for the NHS.

I see the expert, he sends me off to Windsor Physiotherapists and Jiallil becomes my new best friend, task master and healer. We work hard, I follow his advice. I run on the grass, I do the home training. I get the wonderful ultrasound.

When we hit February I am back to training again.

First taste of the TT

It’s a Friday afternoon and I have done my commute back and forth to work. I didn't go too fast, let the legs spinning around. Why?

I've decided to join the Friday TT. I turn up at the meeting point, nervous anxious. Am I going to make a fool of myself, are they friendly? Will I run out of energy?

I am greeting by a guy I recognise as Hank. Luckily I recognise him from the Facebook page. It's a big friendly smiling hello. Are you new? Great that you showed up. Welcome to the club. Big handshake.

I relax; the shoulders come down feeling welcomed. Kevin, the guy I recognise from the club website as the founder, bestows upon me two nick names, the man in black and the milk tray man.

Now the man in black, that one I understand, seeing that apart from my red helmet and shoes, I am riding a bike and wearing a shirt short combination that a mortician would be proud of. But not being from the UK I have no idea who the milk tray man is? Have I just been insulted? I smile and laugh...best defence really.

Not knowing the route of the TT and not being able to do a conversion of kilometres and hour speed into miles, I'm too nervous; I get paired with an older gentleman. He too is very friendly.

We set off. I ride behind him, enjoying being out of the wind and following the pace quite nicely. After the initial 10 km we hit a road that I ride every day to work. I feel confident. I know where I am going. And in a moment of beginner’s cockiness I first ask the older gentleman if it is ok that I ride on ahead of him. He smiles and I set off, charging forward.

I hit the first hill, I'm into it, breathing is heavy but I am enjoying that speed.

I'm so focused that I get a shock when that dump thumping noise comes up again. One of the other EVO rides flies by, flat disc wheel and everything. I mutter cheater to myself, and try to keep up. He dumps me in the next km. I hit a hill that at this moment feels like the Galibier. Ok not really, but I can feel I haven't dosed my ride right and I am running out of energy. I see a slower rider ahead and aim for her. I pass her just as we hit the crest. But it feels like my left lunge is coming out. I take a sip of the bottle and nearly choke on the water. Rooky mistake I think and laugh at myself.

But hey that was the last real hill. The rest is downhill in towards Windsor. My speed picks up and I go faster and faster. It’s like flying. I hit the 55 km an hour coming down the hill and start getting nervous, but push on, enjoying the momentum from the hill.

I almost fall off my bike when another biker comes by me, thumping sound again. We hit Windsor and I try to hang on to him. He is just too fast. But hey there is the finish line.

I stop, sweat pouring down and catch my breath. A short time after the old gentleman that I started off with comes in. He asks for my time. I tell him. He then looks at me and says;"Naaahhh don't worry If I hadn't kept you up in the beginning you would have gone faster". I am not sure, but the endorphins are almost making my head spin.

This is definitely not my last TT.

Oh yeah...milk tray man...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM4DMe25CvQ&feature=related....not too bad ehhh....

Black and Red

Pedals going round, tarmac flying bye…well, flying is being generous. Rolling would be more apt.

I want to go faster, I should be going faster. Legs are getting tired, but I want the wind to whistle past my ear. I’m running out of breath. This has been my way to work for over 2 years. But I’m not progressing, I realise, I’ve hit a plateau.

I bury my head below my shoulders trying to get more aero, emulating the pro’s, my idols on the bike. But I’m going as fast as I can.

Red and black flash bye, three or four riders, I hear the wizz of the the cycle chains, the dump repeated thumping from the aero wheel. I manage to sprint after them. I catch up as they have to turn on to a main road. I stick to the tail of the pack of four, now speeding along at 40 km an hour. I hang on to the train, hiding from the wall of wind behind the four riders ahead of me. I last for 3 km and then I turn off on a side road, with a big smile on my lips.

I have just met 4 from the EVO crew.

The best danish article ever

Hey

Well for those of you who do not read danish. Bad news...this article is in danish. I would wish however that it was translated as the interview of Carsten Jensen is a gem.

For those of you that can read it, please stop reading this and switch to the article...

I agree completely with mr. Jensen and his analysis of Denmark. It is sharp and holistic...so again stop reading this and go to http://politiken.dk/kultur/boger/interview_boger/article901594.ece

The Reign of Terror

Ahhh the bankers of the City, London. Like the English aristocrats of their forefathers they watch in bewilderment, when the French propose to change the status qou. They shiver in fear and ask themselves what the frogs are up to now.
If it comes from the country of Robespierre it must be gory, barbaric and headless...

Sarkozy stated on Monday "That the appointment of the Frenchman Michel Barnier as the EU's new internal markets commissioner would rein in the "free-wheeling Anglo-Saxon model" of banking. Tuesday morning the bankers were livid. How could he say such a thing? London was regulating. The EU had overstepped its mandate.
It has gotten so bad that Gordon Brown has forced Sarkozy to cancel a visit to the city as Brown refused to meet him.
The reign of terror has truly begun...The French are taking over. The conservatives are pointing to the statement as a testament of Gordons week position in Europe.

One banker on Radio 4 BBC stated that the City of London was no business of Europe as financial markets were shaped by their local culture and should therefore be protected from a super national state. Its the first time that I hear an English banker fight for the sanctity of his culture, normally only too happy to sell to the highest bidder, be they Saudi, Russian or heaven help us French...In the words of Russell Crowe in Master and Commander do you want to see the Guillotine in Piccadilly square! NO!
Then on Thursday Royal Bank of Scotland bosses said they would quit if they were not allowed to pay bonuses to their bankers… No one has yet to make the connection…

Yes we have to be carefull about the EU, but are they joking. Local culture, maybe, global recession yes please… Why would you want to regulate, I mean look at the UK its going great…oh we have the worst deficit of the G20…hmmm I wonder why that might be?
I don’t agree with P. Sarko that the French are the guardians of economic policy, but rethinking how things are done in the City is something that I can certainly subscribe to.
Have we forgotten where we were a year ago or are we going to do something to prevent it happening again (yeah right).

On Maximilien the brits were right, but I am not so sure that they have gotten it right on P. Sarko

The Fall of the English Empire

On the same weekend that we have had the celebrations for the 65th anniversary for the D Day landing and the European parliamentary elections.
Approaching this weekend the English media has been reporting about the events leading to D Day and the army campaign that followed until the final capitulation of the Nazi forces in Berlin. Parallel to this BBC had a short report about the rise of the extreme right, especially in eastern Europe and Germany. There was however no reports about the rise of extreme right views in the UK. It seems that the media and the established political parties have judged the silent treatment as the best prevention against among others the British National Party.
This treatment seems to failed dramatically with the resent election of 2 BNP representatives to the European Parliament. The BNP is a party that does not allow other ethnicities then Caucasian whites as members and that regards mixed ethnic relationships reason for exclusion of their party.
I can’t help but think that we are missing the historical perspective. Which is sad, especially on the anniversary of “the beginning to end” of a regime that was built on the book Mein Kampf. A book that the founder of the BNP John Tyndall referred to as “his bible”.
The UK today has many things in common with 1930’s Germany.
We have a population that has lost all belief in its parliamentary system. The recent Expenses Scandal was in my view the straw (a log is maybe more appropriate) that broke the back. The voters in the UK a disenfranchised with their politicians. The first past the post system in the UK causes the smaller parties in the UK not to be represented in the parliament and the only three voices we hear are Labour, The Tories and the Liberal democrats. The people elected seem to be from an upper class an very much out of touch with the general population.
Secondly there is a Labour government who had promised so much and delivered so little. I think its safe to say that when Tony Blair was elected people expected that things would change. That this was new Labour and new politics. That the NHS should become one of the best in the world and that the education system was going to recover from years of Tory government. This was hoped would raise the living standards of the average UK resident. In this the labour government seems to have failed. And with the credit crunch this has only become only more evident.
The voters that wanted change and expected it from Labour have been disappointed and their disappointment has turned them against Europe and worse turned some of them to vote for parties that are un-repentantly racists. As in Germany the hardest hit by the crisis start looking elsewhere for their solutions.
So how does Gordon get out of this?
As I wrote the now former minister for Europe Caroline Flint, as I see it there is only one solution.
Gordon needs to make reforming the English electoral system a priority. In this way he will be taking the first steps in creating a clear and visible change, one that a large part of the population has been wanting for a while and that would give a voice to those who haven’t been heard for a long time.
But wont this give BNP the same kind of speaking space that Hitler got from the Reichstag? Probably yes. But facisme and bigotry is not silenced by silence. Facisme and bigotry are conquered by the very fundamentals of our democracy, namely dialogue and well formed arguments.
I fear that a failure to address these issues will cause that a country that once prided itself of its freedoms to be known in the future for being represented by the BNP.