New Richmond, VA track and sun, and the new HBR jersey too. I think this might have been the final but not sure where everybody else went!!

The new .38Special in limited edition Chrome.. sweet!

And the car we want to buy, depending on time of day, latest forecasts from the doom and gloom merchants controlling the economy and the sphincter muscle in my bottom that might well let go at any moment if I don't stop worrying about things that I can't control.. :)

NMKY bloggin no more

He's quit, the slacker. Now I have no idea what goes on in the land of the Wigan Big Mac, wrestling mums in Tesco's (not that NMKY wrestled mums, it's just that the women oop north are a bit tough) and how many times he'll tell me he's going to order a new bike.. which by the way he finally did, a Dialled at that too - though he doesn't have a blog anymore to post about the purchase.. When did he start talking about the new bike, longer than me wanting a Standard? I think it must be last year some time, still if he has the bug to race again and leave the mic alone that'll be a good thing.. Come on the NMKY, top 10 in 30-39cr I think this year.

Quicky

Think that's the second time I've used that title.

The weekend has been and gone, in the 70's for the most part, was lovely. Saturday we managed to achieve very little, although I did my first Sushi meal on Friday night and my stomach was not feeling too chipper. In theory I love the idea of Sushi. I love fish, I love all the things that go into the ingredients, but I just could not get rid of the fish smell 24hours later, so that's kind of put me off. Still, I did it, and although we had a little 'earnest discussion' on where to park going to Silver Spring we had a nice evening. Saturday was all but done by lunch time, as we accomplished little, other than play with the cats and enjoy the warm air in the house for a change. The afternoon we headed over to Mo and James, and I promptly fell asleep on the couch, guess I must have been tired. I am not sure what happened Saturday night, we tried to watch Schindlers List, but that's a tough movie so I think we caved in and read in bed! Life of a rock star I lead.

Sunday was funday, all about the bmx in the nice weather. I spent pretty much the whole day down at Severn. Track was in great condition, a bit soft on the first straight, which was tough going on flats, but the rhythm section and third straight were flowing nice, so after a lot of gates I spent some time working combinations on that. I was planning on riding the new Richmond track, photos look great, but heard all sorts of conflicting stories about how good it is. NBL have employed a new track builder and I am not convinced by him, his tracks appear to be very very tame. Riders need pushing, not multiple rollers and 10ft wide doubles. I heard the Morristown indoor track was easy too, soo glad I didn't waste my money there. I read what people write on Vintagebmx about awesome the track was but all the riders that post are 30 something novs and cruiser riders. It's not about our age groups anymore, it should be about the young kids and giving them the opportunity to aim for Olympics etc, a dumb indoor track isn't going to create the next Mikey Day, they just get bored and quit. Ah well.

Work is good, busy, but manageable, hence the update this morning.

Nothing new on the car front. If something pops up I like then maybe I'll swap, truth is I can't decide what I want. Well, actually I can. I want a Ford Explorer to get my bikes in, just one that does 25mpg and no stupid door handles! Ford have taken to putting the door release on the end of the door armrest, but no handle to hold on to, it's below and in an awkward position. It's dumb, really dumb, and not at all natural. Christine nearly let the door swing into the wall when we tried one for 24hrs as she didn't know! I suspect Ford have had a lot of complaints.

Ok, back to my North Carolina proposal, ta-ta for now..

Camp Woodward, PA.

This thing was huge, and in the mist too, couldn't see the landing on the first few laps. On my way to first national win on cruiser back in Sept 08.

Just got back from Vegas with the Mrs and brother in-law and his wife. Great weekend, although we all got ill with the squits and farts. It was like a pig pen in our room after 24 hours.

Got snowed in on Monday, as our connecting flight was through Boston back to DC, so we had to drive to LA and then get a flight home on tuesday. We did see Martin Sheen though, and some other actor dude, who was senile and giving his little dog a hard time! If I ever find his pic I'll name and shame, but I can't recall his name right now.

Richmond BMX has a new track rebuild, looks great, with a pro section too, can't wait for that. Also a new track is being built the other side of Richmond at a MX park, so that should be awesome. Although I've heard rumours the guy is playing politics already by not letting vendors in to trade! Don't know what thats all about but last time I looked a 520 Renthal chain for a Honda CRF doesn't fit a 44-16t on a bmx! Muppet. Hope it's all hearsay and BS, but it's good to have another track to ride and another track for the state series.

Loads of snow right now, but should be in the 70s by the weekend, hopefully I may get out on the BMX. If not will dust off the road bike for a couple of hours.

Work is super busy, really have gone to the other extreme compared to this time last year, so it's great considering how tough the economy is.

I am still looking for a new car, but with the previous comment in mind, slightly scared of dumping my money into anything in case things go pete tong. No job is safe and after watching a report this morning on tv about high salaried professionals resorting to janitorial work just to have money coming in, it might not be a risk worth taking. We are trying to re-mortgage though at a better rate, but with house prices dropping they are looking for people to have 20% equity in the house, we are almost there, but it's proving tough. My thought is, if they want our business and the $100,000's in interest they will make from us over 30yrs they can bloody well flex the $8000 we need to meet that 20% mark. It makes sense to me, everything is negotiable right now, especially with the money lenders I think. They are up sh@t creek like the rest of us, so for the sake of $8000, I would have thought they would be happy to help. Maybe our broker has no balls, we'll see.

DC, get in touch mate, let me know what your plans are, if you want a weekend to explore Washington DC come down. We can ride, you can borrow my S&M, and we can hit a few tracks. Glad all is going well for you up in NY buddy.

Just want to send my love to my Grandma, its my blog so I can. She lost her younger brother and sister last week. I'm glad she lives round the corner from mum and dad now. love you Nan.

Finally, an Australian I like..

..other than Dame Edna Everage of course.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

- Australian Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.. Separately, Rudd angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques. Quote: 'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians. ' 'This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom' 'We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society . Learn the language!' 'Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.' 'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'

'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.''If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.'

Now if only 10 Downing Street and the White House had the bollox to be that brave eh?

Genius..

BEST LAWYER/INSURANCE STORY OF THE YEAR, DECADE, AND POSSIBLY THE CENTURY.
This took place in Charlotte North Carolina. A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, fire.
Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company.
In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost 'in a series of small fires.'
The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.
The lawyer sued and WON! (Stay with me.)
Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company, in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable 'fire' and was obligated to pay the claim.
Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the cigars that perished in the 'fires'.
NOW FOR THE BEST PART...
After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him
arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!! With his own insurance claim and
testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.
This true story won First Place in last year's Criminal Lawyers Award contest.
ONLY IN AMERICA .......... NO WONDER THE REST OF THE WORLD THINKS WE'RE NUTS!

Pic is of sunnier days, with my mates Joel (far left) and Jason in light blue. Good times, good mates.

Quick update, we have a new President, yay! I am very excited about this and totally support him. Hopefully good things will come. The wife and I spent the day in our jamas with laptops, coffee and the big screen watching the inauguration. It was pretty fantastic, lots of pageantry. Felt sad for Bush, not because he was leaving, but because he never commanded this sort of attention and interest.

Anyway, to more pressing matters. Apparently a behavioural psychologist has concluded that more English, as a percentage, died on the Titanic because, wait for this... we like to bloody queue! Seriously. Our politeness and "after you sir" killed more of us than our dear American, Swedish and Irish cousins on the Titanic because we were too busy keeping up appearances and it would not be British to jump the queue. I would like to say it's all BS, but somehow I really can imagine it and I can totally imagine me doing it too. Well, once I get my Visa and citizenship I shall become loud, rude and belligerent, drop the accent and wear bad clothes. I'm not going down with a sinking ship.

Hit the weights yesterday. Got a pic of Shawn DePrete as my motivation in the basement. You're not going to bet your dollars on me against him, but I need a target and he's it. Last it was win nationals, this year to see if I can get on his back wheel at some point.. that or get C to distract him as she has a little crush on him and his tattoos! 5x10 on the deadlifts, getting closer to my 300lb goal to. I'll get there before April I hope.

Bloody freezing here, I could etch glass with my nips this morning..

Please sign and help stop the morons!

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/BMXCPSC/

Please sign the petition.

Some brainless moron has lumped BMX Racing in with kids toys. This means that all new products entering the country will have to be scrutinized for lead and other chemicals in the paints, in the same way toys do. Reason being kids chew toys and it's dangerous. Now, I've not seen to many kids eat a bike, eat dirt occasionally when you crash, but not chew a frame. Anyway, this is already having serious repercussions on manufacturers, so please sign the petition and put pressure on a waiver being included in the proposal to make bikes exempt.

thanks, Nigel

30 second update

Ok, it's been an age, kind of lost interest a little in blogging. I did say I would at some point, but I've also been super busy at work and with Chrimbo got out of the habit.

So what has changed in my world - not too much to be honest.

Christmas came and went. We had a nice time with the in-laws, no UK trip this yr, not enough money, but we had a nice break nonetheless.

New Year fun and frolics were at Jacey and Amit's and we had a good time. I now want a Wii thing. C is a genius on Rock Guitar or whatever it's called. I have no sense of rhythm or timing so sucked horrendously at it. I can't even tap my fingers in time to a simple beat I make up in my own head, so I have no idea how to play a guitar game.

Raced the Christmas Classic in Lexington, VA. Only raced the Sunday as I had to work. The track was awesome, fast, some big jumps, great rhythm, every thing you want on a track. Chad Powers did a great job. I grabbed second place on the new Cruiser, and on flats too. Maybe I could have won, but getting over from gate 8 was tough, I got the snap and hole shot, but could only get half a bike in front of Ezell who did enough to push me up the berm and I had to fight me way through the pack a little to get on him, just ran out of track.

Good news is I picked up a new sponsor. I am riding for HBR now, and they pay my race fees and kit, which is great, all helps. I have to give a huge thanks to Jamie at Groove Merchants though for hooking me up with everything all yr. I am still running Jamie's stuff and support him 100%, he's a great guy to ride for and totally understands me accepting a ride with HBR. Kids get your parts from www.groovemerchants.net
HBR have offered me an SE, but I think I'd rather walk, so I am sticking with the S&M and Clayborn which so far have both served me well. Speaking of the S&M I've just put on a set of DXR's feels very good, def stiffer for sure. Looks a little different, cromo frame and big beefy ali cranks, but I like it.

Saturday just gone, Joel Clark and I hit up Hampton for the day. It was 60f, so nice to be able to get out and ride, gave the bike a good thrashing until the wind took me out in the rhythm and that was kind of the end of my day. Hopefully Joel and I are hitting up the Georgia National in a few weeks. Looking forward to that, as the track looks good. First race in 35x too. I think it's going to be super tough for sure with Thompson, Meaker, Cross, Deprete, Gomez. In fact it might even be tougher than 26-34x. Just got to be smooth, that's my only hope, cos I ain't going to pull any of those guys from the gate that's for sure.

I am back on the weights again. Had some real trouble with squats, my knee was swelling up and making it unbearable, so I have dropped them for now and am doing dead lifts instead. Not heavy weight, just more sets. I'd like to hit 300lb though and I think I can do it, so that's my target before the warm weather arrives and I switch back to daily sprints.

Job is going well, tough, but we are hanging in there. I am always slightly on edge about my role, as often a Proposal Manager is a luxury to small companies, but we are starting to make some headway and I hope the last few months efforts reveal some fruit for us.

Car is in for a service today. CV boots needed replacing. I didn't know my car wore boots, but there you go. I still want a pick up truck though. Should a miraculous windfall endow me with many coins, I shall be off to the garage to buy a pick-up truck.

We went to the DC motorcycle show on Sunday, starting to get an itch for a bike. Save money and miles on the Envoy, which is rapidly approaching 100,000 miles, and cheaper to run and buy than a new car too. So the Envoy can have a semi retirement and become the bmx wagon, well it is anyway. I'd like the new Yamaha FZ6r street bike, but something second hand will do just fine. And, if it's something I can rebuild and work on all the better.

I'll get some pics up shortly. Rich, we should be around this weekend if you want to call. Sorry we keep missing you and thanks for the card too. I do in fact have matching socks...

she's a beaut mate

Taken me a couple of months to squirrel away the pennies and build her up, but at last the new Clayborn is ready to ride... well apart from some DMR Chain Tugs that are in the post I hope..

At home right now with a lousy cold and sore throat. Tomorrow is a fun day of Red Team Proposal reviews.. what a joy and how much am I going to concentrate knowing my new bike is in the basement wanting to be ridden??

Long time no speak

Well, it appears to have been an age since I last updated. My parents have come and gone, I've still not built the new bike, it's bloody freezing, and I have been up my own arse writing two proposals, although today they come to a stop for a short while which is nice.

So Mum and Dad came. It was a fantastic couple of weeks, but over too soon. Still, I did get some time off to spend with them. We hit up Mount Vernon, in VA, George Washington's home. Well worth a visit, very interesting and in a beautiful setting. We had a great day, but it was probably below 0c outside, so it was a bit nipply.

The good thing about having Dad here is he can't sit still, which means odd jobs get done round the house. This time round he; painted the kitchen, put new skirting board around the kitchen to stop cats climbing into the walls and cupboards, raked the garden, installed new taps in the bathroom, fixed my leaking sunroof on green gerty (the envoy) and a host of other things as well. Lovely.

Thanksgiving was fun. It was the first time for Mum and Dad, and 27 Laurences, McNevins, Deux's, Miles and other families certainly made an entertaining day. It was good, the weather was nice and we finished the evening off with a bonfire outside which ended a great day. Of course there is always a 'but' with the Thanksgiving, and in my case it's another 10lb! Well, not just Thanksgiving, but I am 205lb, well I was last Friday anyway. Feel free to call me 'fat knacker' or 'fat bastard' when you see me. I have deliberately cut back on usual fare this week to lose a few pounds, its helped, but 205lb!!

So my training has to start in earnest now. I have been procrastinating and have not been motivated, mostly cos of hours working, but it has to start otherwise I'll throw the good results from Woodward in Sept. This week I've taken it light on the squats, although having now not done them for so long, light probably also meant maximum too! oh dear. I had a good 45 mins on the road bike on the turbo trainer to get a sweat up and my legs spinning again, and then squats last night. I need a routine, like I had last yr and early this yr, once I have that going again I'll be fine. Still, my legs feel weak, and I have no lung capacity whatsoever. If I race at the Christmas Classic I may well puke in THE helmet. I might sit in the stands and watch the pro's I think..

Some good news, Matt 'Bo' Allen is coming over to stay in March hopefully. He is hitting up the ABA/UCI race in DeSoto, TX, also the USAC Cycling Champs weekend (like our British Champs) and then is driving across country and will hopefully stop with us. Looking forward to that already. Aaron Shrosbree is coming too, so should be fun. I might well fly out and race with them.

If you happen to be in Florida at all check out the new St Pete Bmx track, (www.stpetebmx.com) looks fooking awesome, and I plan on racing there in Jan, if I don't go to Vegas with the family.

C is in LA this weekend visiting friends. I had a weekend of riding planned, but the weather may make a mess of that. Still, if no BMX, I should get out on the road bike for an hour or two each day, better than nothing. I do hate her not being here, I am not very good at being apart from her I've learned. I thought having the house and time to myself might be fun, but in fact it's an empty box, well except for the cats, so I guess I just love my wife very much.. a good thing then! :)

nothin' new

Quiet weekend for the Hopkinson household. We, well by we I mean 'I', did very little. Saturday I cleaned the house in preparation for mum and dad coming tonight, whilst C was throwing a 'baby shower' for Mo. That went well and everybody had a good time by all accounts. Of course C was stressing about it all, what's new?, but it went off without a hitch. Saturday evening we headed over to Mo and James for a few beers with a bunch of their friends from NY and out of towners. We head a great evening, Kimi was thoroughly pissed and was funnier than ever, and as soon as the Champagne bottle opened my wife's louder, more belligerent, alter ego joined the party too. Thanks James! One sip of Champagne and it's like Jekyll and Hyde, still she did fall asleep in an instant when we got home.

Sunday we headed to the Irish pub for breakfast. In theory it was a great idea - a full Irish with all the trimmings - black and white pudding, tomatoes etc - but they let me down. The bacon was tasteless, only one banger and about 7 baked beans. We won't be going there again.

Sunday afternoon consisted of quality napping, watching the movie Sin City - great movie, I love the visual affects, and the fact that some incredibly hot women wear very little for about 2hours. Truly marvellous. Bean slept all afternoon with all 3 cats so she was perfectly happy. I could have made a purr-fect joke there but I restrained myself.

I hit the weights in the evening and got a bit carried away on the squats. I normally to 1 light warm up set, and then three heavy (for me) sets. I ended up doing 6 sets. I'm surprised my knees even move today. I've changed my squats a little, I put my bench behind my arse now, as my knees can't go past about 90 degrees with any significant weight on the bar. Good thing, is my leg curls are increasing in weight on my bad hamstring, but I still can't curl very much. Once they feel good again, I'll start doing dead-lifts once more. I ought to consider doing up body. I don't want to be fast and fat!!! Got to look buff for the wife.. or bmx moms! I only said consider, so I'll procrastinate for a few more months..

The new Clayborn cruiser frame should be here this afternoon, looking forward to that. Put the One up for sale, almost complete bike for about $300. It'll pay for the Clayborn and then some I guess.

My team idea is starting to take shape. I have made some good contacts and got some people interested in supporting me. I'd like to do something to help other kids out, get them to races, help with fees or kit or something. I love riding for Groove Merchants, Jamie is awesome, but I think so much more could be done, and I'd love to be able to get enough support that I can do something for those less fortunate than myself. We'll see, it may work out, it may not, but no harm in trying right..

Mum and dad here soon, very excited. Sod work this week.

$300. Tires also to go with wheels. Get in touch if interested.

new forks and bars..

Sex is on Fire

not my sex, but if you're a King from Leon (somewhere in France?) apparently your sex is! Still, bloody good record and I have purchased their new album from iTunes, as well as The Music's Strength in Numbers, their first album in 4 yrs. A great band. However, being new to KoL, I also realize how far behind my music collection is, and also my taste. There's me looking at Dire Straits and Genesis, and there are all these new bands to check out. Sutty, help me out here, recommend me some sounds please?

This past weekend, we were Boston bound for Crappo and Dave's wedding. It was an excellent time and I got to meet some of Beans friends from Uni as well including Megan Glaser, who had me in stitches the entire weekend! She was awesome. Also got to hang out with Jamie Nugget too which is always a treat. The wedding was great, went off without a hitch, although Crappo's younger brother decided to go for dinner with friends rather than attend her rehearsal dinner. Tosser. He also didn't want to come to the wedding cos she voted democrat. Complete tosser, and dumb ass wife too. I think he had to write L and R on her shoes so she could put them on properly. Sorry, Crappo. However, other than that, both Megan (Crappo) and Dave have a great family, although it's definitely a mine field trying to negotiate who has been married to who. However, Dave has a great brother, Josh - a teacher in Japan, who gave a great speech. He was a great guy and rides a Yamaha V-Max. You need big nuts to ride one of those. Also, Dave's dad owned several Vincents, and other classic English motorcycles. For the uneducated, a Vincent is about the equivalent of an E-Type Jag or Aston Martin DB5. Art on two wheels. My wonderful wife also gave an excellent speech. She never fails to amaze. I know I piss her off a good deal by being a muppet, but I am very lucky. She bought a tear to my eye and certainly had Crappo and Dave in tears. One other thing must mention Jenna's boobs. holy shite. how they stayed in her dress all night I'll never know. I think they were in a different State to the rest of her body. awesome.

Sunday we hooked up with Ross and Biz, had lunch and did a little walking and sight seeing, then headed home. A great weekend for sure.

Note to self. Don't try and use Jamie as an ally to buy a new car. She knows too much about cars and said the one I wanted was boring. I wasn't really onto a winner, but that blew my argument completely. damn.

Monday was work and more time at ManTech, I think they should be paying my salary at the moment. Tuesday was Veterans Day, so we unofficially had the day off. I did some work stuff in the morning, and seeing nobody was responding to emails, I headed to Severn and rode with the guys. Finally got a nice, consistent, line in the rhythm section. Pick up over the roller, jump little step, jump off backside roller to next roller, jump table, double, then manual onto the step up and bump jump the little double. Sweet.

Also got a nice pic of me in BMXToday, NBL's magazine, from Woodward National last month.

Got to hit the weights tonight, everybody seems to be stepping up and I seem to be doing nothing... again! Still last week, I hit 240lb (110kg) for 10 on the squats, after 3 sets of 20 at 190lb, so not too bad. I have been trying to avoid killing my knees and also working my weak hamstring too. As soon as the weather gets cold, my legs start to hurt. I need to move to Florida.

Mum and Dad are here on Monday, I can't wait. However, I have just been hit with several major proposals. Bollox.

Nice one my son, nice one

So we have an African-American President elect, bout fooking time too.

Am so happy he won. I really hope this will make a difference, that he won't just be a figurehead, but will be as important as Kennedy, Washington and the other great American presidents. And thank goodness we have got rid of Chief MonkeyBollox and Muppet 'Dubbya' Bush.. I can't find another way to describe the man.

I spent election night with C's company down in DC. It was wild. People were going mad, the streets were full of people running around, cars honking horns, people hugging, it was darn cool and I am very glad I was there thanks to the wife.

It will be interesting to see how the next 4 yrs plays out, it certainly can't be any worse for sure, and I think Obama is strong enough to be his own man and make the difference. I really am quite excited.

Now, if we can get him to endorse a bmx track in every major conurbation, built by Hudu, then it will be a right result..

Off to Boston tomorrow for a wedding. Should be fun. Am expecting at least one drunken fight or argument, and I am sharing a room with my wife and two other chicks. Boobs everywhere. Lovely jubbly.. :)

Call Norris, I've just set a world record!

According to my trip computer on my road bike during my 15m loop I hit a top speed of 79.2mph on Friday night! I'd like to believe that I am fast but that's pushing it. However, one point to note, the computer was spot on for my averages and for distance, so maybe I did really hit 79.2mph and maybe I am just fast as fook, so I am going to give Norris McWhirter a call and get my self on Record Breakers with Roy Castle and his trumpet..

Other things, hit ABA Severn after its rebuild. It's gone from being a fun play track, to "oops I've just left a nugget in my pants" crazy scary track. The first two straights are the same, but after the second corner a steep double, an even steeper and short table (like a spine almost) into a step, followed by a rhythm section that would be at home on most euro tracks, steep and deep! Scaring the poop out of people, which is perfect cos all the locals don't have a clue how to ride anything else. It consists of a steep roller, step up with roller on backside, roller, table, 3 three rollers, step up/step down. The last jump is shady, just not finished properly, but I guess it will settle in. It is mad. I've crashed in it a couple of times and I love it. This is the first time I have ridden a track since living here that made me really think and really pushed my ability. Needless to say local rippers had it dialled, Troy Farmer and Josh Grimes made it look easy. I am not so keen on the third straight, I can't hit it fast. The take off on the double was really shady and after a 'moment' I decided to play it easy and just float over it. Once it has wintered thought it will be awesome. At last Severn has stepped it up big time. I'd say tougher than most NBL tracks I've been to now. Great fun.

So as you can guess all I did was ride this weekend. Bean hit her bosses party on Saturday night. I didn't go which caused a minor war, but I wasn't feeling it. Sunday her allergies were really bad again and she spent most of the day in bed. Not sure what is causing this, but I think its being inside with the cats more on the weekend. It rarely happens during the week because she is not around them enough. We are going to have to start vacuuming the cats for their dander.

It's election day tomorrow if you didn't know. And if you had been trying to hide under a rock to avoid it all, don't worry McCain had a plan to get under that rock with you. He's a feckin geriatric and should be in a home under supervision, not running for presidency. Which leads me nicely to my conspiracy theory about the US anyway. How can a country so powerful allow people like George Dubbya and now potentially McCain run the country?? I want Obama to win desperately, but he's too much of his own man, how will 'they' control him. Call me Fox Mulder if you like..

a little cruiser action from Woodward..

long time coming..

.. 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..

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.

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..

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