.. my blog update that is, not my sex life!
Well I suppose 2 weeks isn't really that long in the grand scheme, but apparently people have been waiting for my update. Well my wife has, and now I have mentioned sex in the first line, I'll be in trouble when I get home.
Where have I been I hear you ask? I'd like to say exploring new climes, venturing into the unknown, rocking the bmx, but nothing so exciting. In fact I have been stuck in a conference room for 2 weeks straight working with our partner on $130m and $6.6bn project. Yep, $6.6bn. I can't imagine what that would like in quarters (25c pieces mum), but I bet it would take some patience to stack it in nice little piles. We are coming to the end of the draft sections so I am back in the office and catching up on stuff. I have had time to update at home, but truth is the last few weeks have been pretty intense, and even though I have been working regular hours I have been blown away mentally by the time I get home. TV, dinner and bed has been the limit.
Random things to update on then.
First off, shout to my buddy John Paul Pfeiffer for his results at the South Carolina national a couple of weeks ago. JP took 4 from 4 in 26-34x and 30-34cr, not bad for an old fella.. :) John and I hit the 35-40 class after Christmas, damn I'm getting old.
I raced the VA state champs and came away with State No.1. Kind of cool. Sadly the guys in my class didn't show, well only 2 others, and it was pretty lame on a shite track. Sorry Richmond. The weather didn't help, but it really is piss poor. Still I hear Tom Ritz is coming in to rebuild and the people at Richmond are really committed to developing the place and facilities so that's super cool. Behind the track is a set of trails that would have DC Blog Icon wetting his pants. It's such a contradiction - poop track, unreal trails. I hit some of them, but the main line was feckin' ridiculous.
I started running again, and then stopped. I was totally into it but on my third night out, I got cramped up real bad, stopped, slipped on wet leaves and pulled my hamstring. Took me an hour to walk home. Fook that. Either I am buying a treadmill or I'll start the running again when I finally knock bmxing on the head when I'm 50 or something. So I've been tentatively trying to stretch it out as this weekend looks good for riding. I've chucked the road bike on the turbo trainer and am doing 45 mins a night on that, some spinning, some sprints, some high resistance just so my legs keep moving.
Here's a thought I had the other day. No matter what I'd like to believe, I don't really train, and when I do, very rarely do I kill myself. I do ride a lot however, almost daily when its warm. So the question is how can I still snap and stay with somebody that can squat 500lb for fun and guys that train their arses off? How is that physically possible? If I don't have the same strength as them, how can I ride with them? I can't figure this out, it shouldn't be possible should it? of course sprinting on a track is not the same as pumping out squats, although uses the same muscles but I don't understand the mechanics of it all the same.
Warlock had his Kuwaraha nicked. Bastards. String them up by the knackers I say.
The ABA and NBL schedules are out, and what a load of shite they are. Not sure how much racing I'll be doing over the next yr. Nothing at all local, except Christmas Classic and Woodbridge, after that I have to saddle the horse and trek into the wilderness to ride my bike. Pissed off about that, and one more nail in my coffin of motivation. If I had the skills I'd just ride trails, wear tight jeans and change my name to Daisy.
Got some great photos of Charlie, from my bro last night. He's a great looking little kid, hate missing him growing up. I don't know him at all and he doesn't know me. Also some cute pics of Bobbin Eames too. Thankfully she looks like her mum so will be fine. I hope we have a little girl too. 2010 is the yr according to the wife. I'm already giving my 'boys' a pep talk..
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
little bleeder
Nope, we haven't got one on the way, I just managed to pump what felt like half a gallon of blood from a 1 inch wide gash on my leg yesterday! Over shot the big doubles to flat bottom, foot blew off the pedal and spun round in to my shin. I had a dirty set of Shimano DX's buried in my leg and when I pulled it out, blood went every where, including up my arm! How it got up there I don't know. Freaky thing is, no pain whatsoever, just lots of bleeding. A bit of gaffer tape and I carried on riding for another 30mins but I must have done something to my hamstring too as that went very tight and is extremely sore this morning.
So, what a beautiful weekend, temps in the high 70's and low 80's all weekend. Gorgeous. Saturday we headed to Rockville to help Ma and Pa Laurence move into their new abode, about 500yrds away. Cheaper rent I guess. We had a fun day actually, although I am glad it wasn't done in the middle of summer as I was getting a bit of a sweat on. I am a sweaty bugger for sure. Hormones or something!! It was good to catch up with them after their latest European odyssey. We also took the couches for an outing, well they needed the fresh air. We borrowed Ben's awesome Lincoln Mark LT pick-up and took our old sofa to be sent up to Hannover on the moving truck, but when we had done that, we realised there was no way we were going to be able to get the new sofa into our house. It was just to big to get through the back door or down the stairs. So our old sofa is back in the basement again.
Saturday night we went to a restaurant called Crisfield in downtown Silver Spring. Been open since 1945. The decor looked like it was from an old battleship circa 1945 as well. It's a fish restaurant, that is supposedly famous with the locals. We thought it would be cheap and fun. Apparently not cheap, and not all that good either. I'm in rush to go back soon. Still it delayed C having to go to Outback with me for another week. I've been here over 2 yrs now and still not been there, it will happen. NMKY has a plan to cross the USA in a camper for his 40th, mine will be to go to Outback and wallow in kitsch and tackiness to my hearts content. I had a bad case of the farts on the way home too.
Sunday I headed to Southern Maryland track. I've not been there before. In a lovely part of MD and in a great, well managed park, with houses dating back to the 1660's, kind of cool. Also it was next door to Budds Creak Motocross track, home of the 2007 or 08 Moto des Nations I think.
The track was great fun, first two straights were so long. I would say probably longer than P'boro's first two straights, you were blowing by the time you got to the second corner. The second straight was awesome fun. Three progressively longer doubles, with a long triple into the corner. Sadly the only way to get the speed to jump the triples was manual and tap through the first three doubles, jumping them was not giving me any momentum all, backsides were too shallow. But for an ABA track this was pretty aggresive, nothing like Preston back home, but really good fun. Apparently I am only the second person to jump the triples too. Had a great day out with Bruce, Jason and their kids. Cody and Little Jason are fun, they spend more time ragging each other than riding which is great to watch. I got the win in a rather broad age range of 14x to 35x! good for the legs if nothing else. Will be heading back for sure.
Dropped some new black S&M Race Forks and Chrome S&M Slam XLTS's on my bike over the weekend. It looks awesome, really stoked with it. I am thinking maybe a chrome .38 Special for next yr?
On the subject of Chromo, NMKY go or it, either one rocks..
Yesterday was Columbus day, after Sir Christopher of course. Not sur what he, founded America, who knows? But I had a semi day off. Our building was closed, so I did some adminny stuff at home in the moring, some jobs for C around the house and yard, and met my mate Chris in the evening to ride and promptly spurted blood on Severn BMX track. Sweet.
So, what a beautiful weekend, temps in the high 70's and low 80's all weekend. Gorgeous. Saturday we headed to Rockville to help Ma and Pa Laurence move into their new abode, about 500yrds away. Cheaper rent I guess. We had a fun day actually, although I am glad it wasn't done in the middle of summer as I was getting a bit of a sweat on. I am a sweaty bugger for sure. Hormones or something!! It was good to catch up with them after their latest European odyssey. We also took the couches for an outing, well they needed the fresh air. We borrowed Ben's awesome Lincoln Mark LT pick-up and took our old sofa to be sent up to Hannover on the moving truck, but when we had done that, we realised there was no way we were going to be able to get the new sofa into our house. It was just to big to get through the back door or down the stairs. So our old sofa is back in the basement again.
Saturday night we went to a restaurant called Crisfield in downtown Silver Spring. Been open since 1945. The decor looked like it was from an old battleship circa 1945 as well. It's a fish restaurant, that is supposedly famous with the locals. We thought it would be cheap and fun. Apparently not cheap, and not all that good either. I'm in rush to go back soon. Still it delayed C having to go to Outback with me for another week. I've been here over 2 yrs now and still not been there, it will happen. NMKY has a plan to cross the USA in a camper for his 40th, mine will be to go to Outback and wallow in kitsch and tackiness to my hearts content. I had a bad case of the farts on the way home too.
Sunday I headed to Southern Maryland track. I've not been there before. In a lovely part of MD and in a great, well managed park, with houses dating back to the 1660's, kind of cool. Also it was next door to Budds Creak Motocross track, home of the 2007 or 08 Moto des Nations I think.
The track was great fun, first two straights were so long. I would say probably longer than P'boro's first two straights, you were blowing by the time you got to the second corner. The second straight was awesome fun. Three progressively longer doubles, with a long triple into the corner. Sadly the only way to get the speed to jump the triples was manual and tap through the first three doubles, jumping them was not giving me any momentum all, backsides were too shallow. But for an ABA track this was pretty aggresive, nothing like Preston back home, but really good fun. Apparently I am only the second person to jump the triples too. Had a great day out with Bruce, Jason and their kids. Cody and Little Jason are fun, they spend more time ragging each other than riding which is great to watch. I got the win in a rather broad age range of 14x to 35x! good for the legs if nothing else. Will be heading back for sure.
Dropped some new black S&M Race Forks and Chrome S&M Slam XLTS's on my bike over the weekend. It looks awesome, really stoked with it. I am thinking maybe a chrome .38 Special for next yr?
On the subject of Chromo, NMKY go or it, either one rocks..
Yesterday was Columbus day, after Sir Christopher of course. Not sur what he, founded America, who knows? But I had a semi day off. Our building was closed, so I did some adminny stuff at home in the moring, some jobs for C around the house and yard, and met my mate Chris in the evening to ride and promptly spurted blood on Severn BMX track. Sweet.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
It could be all my fault..
..since I left England, the weather has been poop, no summers and since I have lived in America the economy has fallen apart! Coincidence? Makes you wonder doesn't it. I am in touch with some pretty important spiritual vibes, so who knows?
This week has been good, not so hectic as the last few weeks and I am getting stuff done in preparation for a couple of large projects we are going to be competing for. Fingers crossed we are successful with them.
I see a French man won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Why? All the French do is strike, shut the whole country down when they go on holiday and their boss is married to some ex-model who has lost the plot and wants to be a pop star. That aside, I actually like Sarkozy, seems to be on point with most things. Anyway, they say French is supposed to be the language of romance - so 'tres bon' to Le Clezio. Personally I'm quite happy reading Beano or BMXWorld but there you go.
Went to gate practice last night. Not too bad an evening, it's getting dark and we have no floodlights at Woodbridge, so only got about 90mins in. I am feeling very unfit though. I haven't really trained since Woodward last month and it showed last night. I still had some good first straight pull, staying with the youngsters and A pro's comfortably, but I wasn't able to hit all the gates hard. Sucked. I need to pick it up again. I think it's about time I started running and got some lung capacity back.
The wife has not been well this week. She has had a lousy cold and actually took Wednesday off work, which is a miracle. I think the boys enjoyed her being home all day too. She is much better today though. On another train of thought, the wife stepped up her modelling career. Anything Sarkozy and Carla Bruni can do, so can the Hopkinson's. Today she was 'a hand stealing a wallet' in a campaign picture for her company. Awesome. It's not quite the front cover of Glamour magazine, or even soft porn, but we'll take the royalty checks. We do get royalty checks don't we pooper?
Got some new S&M forks and bars coming this week from my sponsor. I actually prefer the Odyssey stuff I run now, but S&M are helping the bike shop team out so that's cool. I'm thinking of putting on the new Alienation rims too. They are about 8oz lighter than Rhyno lites overall, big difference on my heavy-ish chromoly bike and they look awesome too.
ta' ra chuck..
This week has been good, not so hectic as the last few weeks and I am getting stuff done in preparation for a couple of large projects we are going to be competing for. Fingers crossed we are successful with them.
I see a French man won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Why? All the French do is strike, shut the whole country down when they go on holiday and their boss is married to some ex-model who has lost the plot and wants to be a pop star. That aside, I actually like Sarkozy, seems to be on point with most things. Anyway, they say French is supposed to be the language of romance - so 'tres bon' to Le Clezio. Personally I'm quite happy reading Beano or BMXWorld but there you go.
Went to gate practice last night. Not too bad an evening, it's getting dark and we have no floodlights at Woodbridge, so only got about 90mins in. I am feeling very unfit though. I haven't really trained since Woodward last month and it showed last night. I still had some good first straight pull, staying with the youngsters and A pro's comfortably, but I wasn't able to hit all the gates hard. Sucked. I need to pick it up again. I think it's about time I started running and got some lung capacity back.
The wife has not been well this week. She has had a lousy cold and actually took Wednesday off work, which is a miracle. I think the boys enjoyed her being home all day too. She is much better today though. On another train of thought, the wife stepped up her modelling career. Anything Sarkozy and Carla Bruni can do, so can the Hopkinson's. Today she was 'a hand stealing a wallet' in a campaign picture for her company. Awesome. It's not quite the front cover of Glamour magazine, or even soft porn, but we'll take the royalty checks. We do get royalty checks don't we pooper?
Got some new S&M forks and bars coming this week from my sponsor. I actually prefer the Odyssey stuff I run now, but S&M are helping the bike shop team out so that's cool. I'm thinking of putting on the new Alienation rims too. They are about 8oz lighter than Rhyno lites overall, big difference on my heavy-ish chromoly bike and they look awesome too.
ta' ra chuck..
Monday, October 6, 2008
can't think of a title
Nope, no brain power today at all. Not that I am overly endowed with brain power at the best of times, but today I am running on fumes.. no gas in the tank at all.
Bean is not feeling to chipper, not sure what's up with her. She said she felt post natal or something earlier. I am quite sure we don't have a child so it must be something else! Sum ting wong! Still makes me laugh.
Anyway, I didn't get to spend a whole of time with my good lady this weekend. She worked Saturday and I was out all day yesterday. I really don't like weekends like that, even if I'm just around her to annoy the crap out of her, that's enough for me.
My weekend started a little early. I buggered off early Friday afternoon, grabbed the S&M and went to Severn to ride. I had hoped the race would be one, but the club is going through some turmoil with "he said" "she said" BS, which is sad. Hopefully it will be resolved as low and behold some of the people there have actually started to speak to me. I know I'm an arse, but I'm not an unpleasant arse am I? I had plenty of fun trying to do a bubba scrub over the big doubles. Whatever possessed me to try this I don't know, but once I bonked my front wheel on the lip of the landing whilst I still had the bike lying down I quickly stopped. That could have been very messy for sure. My gates are rapidly improving on the ABA start sequence, so much so that I was pulling and staying with my buddy Chris Agard from the lights, quite an achievement believe me. Chris squats 500lb for fun. I squat 200lb in sheer protest. I've put my Shimano DX platforms back on and with the Vans it feels like I am clipped, my feet don't budge at all. My first straights were on point so I was happy. I guess several cans of Abbot Ale can do that for you.
Saturday the wife worked, whilst I toured DC on foot. It has been a long time since I have been down town, in fact when NMKY was here in April. I enjoyed the walk. Went to the White House, had a nose around and was highly amused by some 60+ dude, slightly overweight pretending he was CIA and scouting around the lawns. Absolute pratt. For a start he had a hat on logo'd CIA. So that meant he wasn't. Then he was trying to do Thai Chee ( is that how you spell it?) and worse he was getting in people's business. What is it with Americans? I don't understand their level of patriotism at all, it's like an obsessional football fan. It's great on the one hand, and I do wish the English took more pride in their country for sure, but it's so over top here. It strikes me as faux patriotism in a lot of instances. Why is there a need to shout about it? If you are civic minded and want to contribute, well done my friend, but don't go on about it, do it and move on. And the whole thing of being a Veteran. Now that is tosh. Sorry, you are not a vet until some dip shit with an agenda has shot at you. Pushing paper around an airbase in Arizona does not put you in the same category as fighter pilot who has had missiles up his chuff, or some poor squaddie stuck in a cave on the side of a hill in Afghanistan whilst Taliban Tom takes pot shots at him. Can't agree with that all. You might be contributing to the war effort but are you putting your life on the line? I wonder if it was like this pre 9/11? Maybe it's just the culture here and one more thing for me to adjust to. Maybe it's just because England is so different and we lived through the 'troubles' and the fall out of the IRA that I don't grasp it. English cynicism, American optimism I guess. I'm guessing optimism is the right approach, but hard to change your ways.
Saturday night we went to Maneqin Pis, a Belgian restaurant up the road with Rachel, C's good friend, and her parents. We had a great evening. They are awesome people, really warm and friendly, and C was really happy to catch up with Rachel too. They also remembered Matt Allen from our wedding, I think he made an impression there. Now, if he was loaded he might be in with a shout! Everybody has mussels, supposedly a fav, but I went with the trout. Now I do enjoy a good trout on a saturday night after a few beers. :)
After that we went back to Rachels to watch the Wisconsin somethings take on the Ohio Brewsters, whatever, I have no idea, but college football is more fun to watch than NFL for sure. Still a bunch of girls in leggings and a helmet though. haha
Sunday I spent the day in Hagerstown. It was the MD state champs and I was doing a clinic. The race was a small affair, with only 17 motos, but somehow managed to take 3 hours to run. Good fun, except for the mountainbiker who ate sh1t over the triples. he walked away but will be sore today. My clinic started at 4.15 and we ran for about 3 hours. It was great, really good turn out, 31 kids in the end I think and I think they all enjoyed it. Certainly the parents were happy and we made $300 for the club which is great. I also had more people than the Stileman clinic. Maybe I can go into business. I love doing it though and the Hagertown BMX crew are a real cool family. Totally dedicated to the kids and keeping them out of trouble. Hats off to Brian, Diane, Chad and everybody else there. Nice to see something positive and genuine. Well after a bloody long day, I got home about 8.30 and passed out on the sofa. Bean had been gardening, and we now have pansies all over the place and fresh dirt for the squirrels to forage in. lovely
Bean is not feeling to chipper, not sure what's up with her. She said she felt post natal or something earlier. I am quite sure we don't have a child so it must be something else! Sum ting wong! Still makes me laugh.
Anyway, I didn't get to spend a whole of time with my good lady this weekend. She worked Saturday and I was out all day yesterday. I really don't like weekends like that, even if I'm just around her to annoy the crap out of her, that's enough for me.
My weekend started a little early. I buggered off early Friday afternoon, grabbed the S&M and went to Severn to ride. I had hoped the race would be one, but the club is going through some turmoil with "he said" "she said" BS, which is sad. Hopefully it will be resolved as low and behold some of the people there have actually started to speak to me. I know I'm an arse, but I'm not an unpleasant arse am I? I had plenty of fun trying to do a bubba scrub over the big doubles. Whatever possessed me to try this I don't know, but once I bonked my front wheel on the lip of the landing whilst I still had the bike lying down I quickly stopped. That could have been very messy for sure. My gates are rapidly improving on the ABA start sequence, so much so that I was pulling and staying with my buddy Chris Agard from the lights, quite an achievement believe me. Chris squats 500lb for fun. I squat 200lb in sheer protest. I've put my Shimano DX platforms back on and with the Vans it feels like I am clipped, my feet don't budge at all. My first straights were on point so I was happy. I guess several cans of Abbot Ale can do that for you.
Saturday the wife worked, whilst I toured DC on foot. It has been a long time since I have been down town, in fact when NMKY was here in April. I enjoyed the walk. Went to the White House, had a nose around and was highly amused by some 60+ dude, slightly overweight pretending he was CIA and scouting around the lawns. Absolute pratt. For a start he had a hat on logo'd CIA. So that meant he wasn't. Then he was trying to do Thai Chee ( is that how you spell it?) and worse he was getting in people's business. What is it with Americans? I don't understand their level of patriotism at all, it's like an obsessional football fan. It's great on the one hand, and I do wish the English took more pride in their country for sure, but it's so over top here. It strikes me as faux patriotism in a lot of instances. Why is there a need to shout about it? If you are civic minded and want to contribute, well done my friend, but don't go on about it, do it and move on. And the whole thing of being a Veteran. Now that is tosh. Sorry, you are not a vet until some dip shit with an agenda has shot at you. Pushing paper around an airbase in Arizona does not put you in the same category as fighter pilot who has had missiles up his chuff, or some poor squaddie stuck in a cave on the side of a hill in Afghanistan whilst Taliban Tom takes pot shots at him. Can't agree with that all. You might be contributing to the war effort but are you putting your life on the line? I wonder if it was like this pre 9/11? Maybe it's just the culture here and one more thing for me to adjust to. Maybe it's just because England is so different and we lived through the 'troubles' and the fall out of the IRA that I don't grasp it. English cynicism, American optimism I guess. I'm guessing optimism is the right approach, but hard to change your ways.
Saturday night we went to Maneqin Pis, a Belgian restaurant up the road with Rachel, C's good friend, and her parents. We had a great evening. They are awesome people, really warm and friendly, and C was really happy to catch up with Rachel too. They also remembered Matt Allen from our wedding, I think he made an impression there. Now, if he was loaded he might be in with a shout! Everybody has mussels, supposedly a fav, but I went with the trout. Now I do enjoy a good trout on a saturday night after a few beers. :)
After that we went back to Rachels to watch the Wisconsin somethings take on the Ohio Brewsters, whatever, I have no idea, but college football is more fun to watch than NFL for sure. Still a bunch of girls in leggings and a helmet though. haha
Sunday I spent the day in Hagerstown. It was the MD state champs and I was doing a clinic. The race was a small affair, with only 17 motos, but somehow managed to take 3 hours to run. Good fun, except for the mountainbiker who ate sh1t over the triples. he walked away but will be sore today. My clinic started at 4.15 and we ran for about 3 hours. It was great, really good turn out, 31 kids in the end I think and I think they all enjoyed it. Certainly the parents were happy and we made $300 for the club which is great. I also had more people than the Stileman clinic. Maybe I can go into business. I love doing it though and the Hagertown BMX crew are a real cool family. Totally dedicated to the kids and keeping them out of trouble. Hats off to Brian, Diane, Chad and everybody else there. Nice to see something positive and genuine. Well after a bloody long day, I got home about 8.30 and passed out on the sofa. Bean had been gardening, and we now have pansies all over the place and fresh dirt for the squirrels to forage in. lovely
Friday, October 3, 2008
Happy Birthday Mum
only a day late! Hope you had a nice day, miss you.
Check out sponsor www.groovemerchants.net yours truly being a tit, but I love Jamies coaching advice for the upcoming clinic we are running on sunday. Made me chuckle.
Check out sponsor www.groovemerchants.net yours truly being a tit, but I love Jamies coaching advice for the upcoming clinic we are running on sunday. Made me chuckle.
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