Summer.

Everyone loves summer right? Balmy weather, sun, ice cream, the occasional thunderstorm. I for one am a big fan of summer. For me it's as good an excuse as any to just ride my bike for the hell of it.

When the sun appears properly, everyone knows it's summer and that is a fairly important thing (especially for cyclists), as for a lot of the year training and racing can be, well, a little testing weather wise. I call to reference slipping and sliding my way to Scorton café on a backroad that turned out to be covered in sheet ice last November...or the Calthwaite road race (technically in summer, but stick with it) run in The worst conditions I think I've ridden in. Of course, every cyclist has his day (as they say) and I also call to reference CDNW Old Hutton-a race back in the spring on the sort of balmy day and course that reminds you just why you still take the same joy now from riding a bike as you did whizzing round as a kid. Summer is the creator of memories, the salvation of school kids and the subject of winter dreams. Or something.

So naturally as a cyclist on a gap year I couldn't wait for summer. I had visions of café runs aplently, afternoon naps in the garden and the occasional ice cream after races. Sadly, as seems to be the case these days-summer did not deliver. Or at least not in the expected fashion. So far, since my Uni mates have come back on their 'summer' break, we've had rather a lot of rain and not a lot of sun. Not what we signed up for during that most testing of seasons, winter.

Looking back over the past few months however I see that in fact I've got everything I wanted out of 'summer'-just not during the commonly accepted season of 'summer'. Which leads me to believe that, for me at least, 'summer' is not just a season in the year, more a state of mind. A 'screw you winter, I can do what I want now' frame of mind if you will.

A bientôt :)

Why hello there.

Long time no speak :) 

At Long Last

Well it too me a while but I've finally seen Joe Satriani! Wahey! Did I metion I met him as well? No, suppose not seeing as this is only the second sentence. Anyway, I did. And I've got the pics to prove it :)

So this whole adventure (and to lend a sort of 'Boys' Own' feel to this I will call it such) started 10 hours before it finished with us setitng off for the Mecca of Greasy Chips, dodgy carparks and Ticket Touts that is the Manchester Apollo. As I had coughed up and undisclosed amount for the Hallowed Meet and Greet Upgrade Package we had to be there for 4pm (sharp it said in the email, PLEASE BE ON TIME) So naturally we got into Manchester at about 3pm...Anyway 15 mins chilly waiting around later and we were ushered in (well, not really 'ushered' but it sounds good) and given The Goody Bag. This simple bit of future Plastic Pollution contained not only a rather nice VIP laminate inscribed 'NO Backstage Access. NO Admission without a ticket'....yeah that was a bit of a disappointment as I missed the 'no' the first time. Yes, so not only did it contain that, but also contained a Very Very nice Limited Edition Poster (Mine's #38 of 300 btw :)), a JS Strap (which I nearly bought a while ago-potential D'oh Moment avoided) and a few JS Picks. Swish.

 So we could hear a muffled version of Pyrrhic Victoria from the Stage, which sure enough meant Soundcheck was in full swing. But for some reason we weren't allowed in to see/hear it. Boo. Instead we were taken to a rather posh bar area and told he wouldn't be too long and to sit (or rather stand) tight. 45 mins or so later The Man Himself arrived. I'd promised myself I wouldn't do a Wayne's World 'We Are Not Worthy' at his feet, but I couldn't help myself. Actually, that's a lie. I didn't, I just couldn't believe it was him! I couldn't believe The Man Himself was stood there right in front of me! I couldn't believe he was so short! No, that's unfair. I'm just rather tall. Compared to my 6 feet and 4 odd inches, most people seem small. So we had about an hour's Q and A with him. The usual 'So Joe, what's your take on using the E Minor Diminished 7th TrixyLodian Scale with a Harmoniser set to 4ths?' question were asked. And don't get me wrong, they were a fascinating insight into how his Brain works, but I do get bored of hearing the same things all the time so I started to consider my question. Do you have any pets? Where do you go on holiday? Etc. I decided to ask the old Desert Island question.

Me: 'So Joe, you're stuck on a desert island. You're allowed one Luxury Item, one book and 3 albums. What would they be?'
Joe: Well, the luxury item would be a Jet. And the book would be How To Fly a Jet. (that's cheating I thought, but I let him off). Albums, Electric Ladyland by Hendrix, Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones and I'll have to think about the 3rd one. I'll get back to you.'
Only, he didn't!!!! So if you want to spam him with tweets (@chickenfootjoe) or Facebook messages asking him 'John from Manchester Meet and Greet wants to know what you're 3rd album would be.' please, feel free :) I'll send you a cookie.

So after the Ubiquitous JoePhoto (which I was quite nervous before...mustn't have Zombie expression...is my hair ok? Does she know how to use the camera? How do I know he's not an imposter?) I think it turned out ok :)

Got a few album thingies signed....and the poster which now resides in the middle of my wall above my bed, next to the Hendrix one (in case you were planning on breaking into my house and snaffling it....I should warn you. I have a Guard Towel keeping watch....)

What next? Well, that was it with Joe. So about an hour after he walked in, he walked out again and off into the sunset. (well, not quite). We then tramped back down to the actual theatre to have a tour of Joe's Guitar World. (slightly smaller than expected if I'm honest. I was expecting at least a few GuardTigers or at least something more than a few guitars and a Dude changing some strings!

Oh, and I got a sneaky peak at his SuperSecret Pedalboard:

Then, the plan was for me to meet Dad and got to get some food before the gig. Only problem was we finished the Meet and Greet about half an hour before the start time...so we settled for just meeting up. One thing I was NOT prepared for was the size of the queue outside! It was at least 300 yards long about half an hour before the doors opened! 

Onto the show...well, what can I say. Apart from AWESOME. and EPIC...(get used to those words, they're going to be used a fair few times.) Words can't sum up just how good a performance it was. All I can say is, thank God for earplugs! 

I think these were all the songs he did...in no partiuclar order though-my memory's not that good! Really good to hear some of the old ones in there...two points: hearing Big Bad Moon was awesome (see) and taking part in Crowd Chant was something special!

✓ Premonition

✓ Dream Song

✓ Pyrrhic Victoria

✓ Light Years Away

✓ Littleworth Lane

✓ Wormhole Wizards

✓ Wind In The Trees

✓ God Is Crying

✓ Crystal Planet

✓ War

✓ Summer Song

✓ Why

✓ Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing

✓ Big Bad Moon

✓ War

✓ Memories

✓ Hordes Of Locusts

✓ Revelation

✓ Andalusia

✓ Ice 9

✓ Always With Me, Always With You

✓ Satch Boogie

✓ Crowd Chant

Oh, and before I forget. If you EVER go to the same gig as me and get up frequently to empty your bladder because you've drunk too much beer (which you also had to get up multiple times for) I will break your legs and strap you into your seat. Just a heads up :)

Off to see Jeff Beck tomorrow. Don't expect another blog post, this took frickin ages....

Fin

Revenge of the 4th Cats! (almost)

Well, I am recovering from a rather interesting evening's racing as I type. The setting, Round 8 of the CDNW Road Race League. The race, a 30mile handicap for all categories. Everyone expected the usual shortlived display of courage from the lower category riders followed by the inevitable annhialation of most riders not lucky enough to be and Elite or 1st/2nd Cat. It did not however turn out exactly as expected.


I should just point out that in a handicap race, the lower categories get a headstart on the 'stronger' riders. In this case, my group of 4th Cats (and a woman, hats off to her) was off first, followed 2 mins later by the 3rds, and 6 mins later by the Elites 1sts and 2nds. 


So I must say I was quite apprehensive about this bit, after having looked on the start sheet to find there were only 11 of us due to start in this first group compared to 20+ in the other two groups. But we pressed on regardless and it quite quickly became clear there were only a handful of us willing/able to work to drive the group along; and it quite quickly fractured leaving a leading group of 7. To cut a long story short, we kept the other groups pegged at about 1 min 20 and 2 mins 40 respectively. We achieved this through teamwork. Sounds simple, but we quite quickly realised that if we wanted to have any chance of staying away and any of us winning we'd have to keep this group together. And so it progressed until with about 3 laps to go they started eating into our lead; and by the last lap we only had about 40 secs to the big 'Scratch' group of everyone else (as the Elite group had caught the 3rds earlier on). No need to panic though as we kept assuring ourselves, they can't go that much quicker...can they? Well yes, they could, and did. And so it fell to the last corner to play the pivotal role in my race. 

The last corner was about 500m from the finish (500m uphill by the way), and just as we got to it someone shouted 'they're right behind us'. Now, one of our group had gone clear a few mins earlier, and I thought he was still clear ahead-so I decided to 'have a go' as they say and sprinted off round this corner and up towards the finish. I quite quickly realised that he had in fact been swallowed by our mini group just before the corner and that I was actually in with a chance of winning! If my sprint could hold of course....perhaps fortunately (or unfortunately depending on which way you look at it) I never found out, because about 200m from the line there was a 'whoosh' as most of the Scratch group sprinted past me. Bugger. I could NOT believe it...7 4th Cats had worked DAMN hard all the way through only to have collective victory snatched from them on the line.


But that, as they say, is bike racing. C'est la vie...:)

Training Camp....(a.k.a hols)

First post for a while...largely because nothing that interesting has been happening really...


Anyway, I've just got back from a short break away; first in the Forest of Bowland area and then further North near Penrith.


Here are a few pics:

This is at the top of Bowland Knotts....rather a big climb as the view shows.

This is Lamb Fell....it's big. Takes bloody ages to get up as well :S

Now moving onto Hartside, nearly 5 miles of climbing to get this view....

And this, the country's highest piece of land-abiding chocolate cake (in the country's highest cafe) at the time ;)

Here's something to consider:
It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.


Nope, not the musings of some whimsical philosopher or physicist; it's from a book....read it, you'll like it I'm sure :)

Eddie Soens-1, Me-0

Well, what can I say? I wasn't allowed finish, which is irritating until I consider how the race went.


My group (which unfortunately for me today included the 'Juniors') went off first; and instead of going at a brisk start-of-race pace like it should have done I was up to 30mph+ just to keep up! Long story short me and 3 other guys found ourselves just off the back but unable to put the extra speed in...Let me tell you, it was FAST. I mean really fast when you consider the group consisted of Juniors (under 18's) and 4th Category Seniors. We're supposed to be slow(er) apparently...yeah right, 34mph average speed until they caught the Elites!!! Junior my ARSE.

Anyhoo, we were swept up by the Biiig bunch a few laps later and everything was back to normal. Except this group had the Elites in....erk....No big problem really as it turned out, providing I was hidden in the middle. You don't know speed 'till you're sandwedged in the middle of a group of racing bikeys doing 30mph plus-trust me on that one. This nice state of calm hung around a few more laps and then. Well, how can I put this? A Team (not sure which, and I'm not going to point the finger at any in particular *cough* Raleigh *cough*) got on the front and decided to make us all suffer. I was rather alarmed to see myself travelling backwards when this happened, but didn't panic as there were more riders behind me that I could use to get back in the group. Or so I thought...


One problem with riding in a group (and this must apply to racing, although as a veteran of only 1 I'm no expert) is that once you lose the wheel of the guy in front you have to work 60% harder to maintain the same speed - and in a race situation that means you go backwards unless you've got the legs for it.


Today, I didn't have the legs to propel myself at a greater speed than the main bunch in order to catch them. Such is life. So there I was on my own for a few laps until the main field lapped me and I was told to retire by the Commisaire...annoying really as I wanted to finish and was quite prepared to do so alone. 


So in the end it was a Junior 1-2-3....and it's only the second time a Junior has won apparently. Good going really.


Well I learnt a LOT today....more of a Baptism of Fire and Brimstone than just fire....but make no mistake I will be racing again (soon hopefully)!


.....who knows, I might even finish ;)

T-1 Day....

ell, it's the day before my first race of the season (and first ever proper race) and everything is sorted. Well, if you ignore the bike, and clothing. And what to eat....and I could go on; but I won't as it'll probably make a me a little nervous...Anyway watch this space for a full report/moan tomorrow! 


(Disclaimer: I may be too knackered/dead to post tomorrow so 'tomorrow' may be any time in the future...)


Lets hope I don't fail as much as this guy: ;)