Dolphin Hunting I

There are dolphins appearing around the streets of the city.  Wild Dolphins to be precise.  I spotted one last weekend and on Saturday took a picture of another and spotted three more.

This is no 14 - Phospho, also Callanish, left.

There's been quite a dolphin-related buzz around the office, so I'm up for a wee adventure every now and again (especially as we're going to fetch the tandem this week so there will be a new way to go on expeditions).  Perhaps we'll manage to visit all 50 dolphin visitors before the end of August.

Seen at work today

Found in a work toilet on a different floor:

Beautiful example of a sign that tries to be appropriate to the culture around it.

Not the new bicycle I was planning on

So, I posted about needing to start looking for a new bicycle.  And I have purchased a new bicycle.  But I didn't pay an awful lot of attention to my previous criteria, although it does have a nice relaxed riding posture and built in mudguards, so that's good.  And it's red.

It also has cupholders.  And two seats.  Whee!

Steed for two

Ladies and Gentlebubbles, I am now the proud owner, via the medium of excitable down-to-the-line ebaying, of half a Schwinn Tango Tandem!

I am thrilled at the prospect of whizzing about with a friend on this shiny machine.  And it has cupholders, so we can get coffee.  There will be adventures.  And cupholding.  Or perhaps the tiny squirrel will sit in the cupholders.  There may well be picnics.  There will have to be a basket or panniers or something.  Heads will turn.  I will wave at small children.  And drink beverages from my cupholders.  I may even learn not to cut through the traffic like a maniac.

This isn't a totally spur-of-the-moment rash decision.  I have had my eye on a tandem for a while as they are just such sociable things.  So when one so stylish and unusual (as far as I'm aware, Schwinn don't sell these outside the USA these days) came along I had to throw my hat in the ring for it.  Especially as red is one of my favourite colours.  And did I mention the cupholders?  One of these days I will offer to pick you up at the station and get even more funny looks riding to town with a missing stoker.  Just a back set of pedals going round and round all by themselves.

So... back to how I need to start looking for a new bicycle...

So I need a new bicycle

Last week my noble steed of a bicycle was condemned by a man in a bikeshop.  This ruined my day. Maybe even my week.


Back when the beloved bicycle was shiny and new

Apparently, there were things wrong with the headset, the gear shift (that one I knew about - the bike shop broke it a few years ago), the bottom bracket, the chain and cassette, front forks and all the cables.  So I'm not going to get it repaired, by the looks of things.  This lovely machine has seen me through a lot - in the 6 years I have owned it, it was my main transport for three years (and my only transport for one of those).  I cycled miles and miles, through wind and rain and snow.

One Tuesday it snowed and I was the only person who made it to my church housegroup, having cycled 3 miles to get there.  Several weeks I did my whole shopping trip and got back home with basket and panniers groaning, probably carrying more weight in groceries than the bicycle weighed itself.  I started a house move on this lovely machine and on one memorable occasion had a toaster strapped behind me as I made my way around the dual carriageway.  I also cycled along the Deeside Way most autumns to go brambling and once made it all the way to a dance practice (about 10 miles) as a built-in warm-up.

But living slightly outside and receiving very little maintenance (for I am nothing if not a lazy cyclist, and these beasts don't need MOTs so you don't get reminded) have taken their toll.  While my bicycle is still rideable just now, I am soon going to be in the market for a replacement.  So I've been thinking about the things that I like about my current bicycle and would look for in a future purchase.

Slack seat tube angle

Yes, I had to google around to find out what I meant, and it turns out that it's this.  Basically I like my feet to be quite far forward relative to the saddle.  A sport cyclist will tell you that this makes me less aerodynamic and thus less energy efficient, but I'm not that aerodynamic at the best of times and have no aspirations towards sport cycling so a slack seat tube angle suits me.  My Carmel (I mentioned that my current cycle is a Specialised Globe Carmel, right?  Named after the first place I ever went on holiday) introduced me to the wonder and comfort of a slack seat tube angle and I'm not going back if I can help it.

Upright riding posture

When I bought my Carmel I was looking for an upright ride and I still like it.  If anything, in future I would like an even more upright posture so there's no weight going through my wrists and hands at all.  I struggle sometimes with the Carmel's handlebars being a tiny bit too far from me.  Essentially I aspire to be, like Miss Hubbard, an upright lady on an upright bike.

Frame

The step-through on the Carmel is super low.  This makes it easy to get on and off, even when wearing skirts and heels.  I am nothing if not a stylish cyclist.  I expect that a slightly higher step-through would work for me too, but I don't think I'll ever be going back to the diamond frame of my childhood.  A higher step-through would also raise the centre of gravity, which is low on the Carmel and weird until you get used to it.

I have a Medium frame in the Carmel, but that's the biggest it came in (there's a rant for another time about vanity sizing and how it is assumed that women don't want to be 'big' or 'large') and I'm at pretty much the top of the seat post.  A slightly taller frame would probably be good, because adjustable things always work better further from the extremes of the range.

Front suspension

I don't need this.  With big hybrid tyres I don't think that front suspension really adds anything, especially as I frequently carry loads in a handlebar basket.  If even less of my weight is being transferred through my arms then suspension forks are just another thing that can get rusty and require maintenance.  So that's no for my next velocipede.

Gears

For about 4 years I had 21 gears, then the bike shop broke my front shift (a rant for another day, they only did anything about it when I was really sarky) and I had the top 14 for a year or so.  That wasn't any serious hardship as I hardly used the granny gears at the bottom.  And a year or so ago the front shift failed completely and I was left with the middle 7 of the original 21.  Now I coast down a lot of hills because I can't keep up with the spin of the pedals on the highest gear.  Next time I'm toying with the idea of hub gears rather than derailleur - similar gear range, ability to change gear while at a standstill, requiring less maintenance and allowing for an encased chain for cleanliness.

Cargo capacity

I added a front bicycle basket and a rear pannier rack to my Carmel.  This gives me a 30kg load capacity, which I might have exceeded on occasion.  Makes my bicycle a practical mode of transport.  Makes for wonderful picnics.  The only thing I would change about this would be to look for a bicycle that comes with an integral pannier rack that is a part of the frame.  Perhaps one day I will add a cargo cycle of some description to my bicycle stable, for getting really hardcore.

At some point I will get over my devastation and start to research my next bicycle purchase and these look like they will form the basis of my selection criteria.

Experimental Neep Cake

Last week it was my turn to provide cake at work.  Usually I make two recipes as previously we have had a chocoholic faction and an anti-chocolate faction, or nut allergies but this time there weren't going to be many of us and I was away at a conference for a long day on Tuesday (cake happens on Thursdays).  So I only had time to make one cake.  And it had been a busy weekend, so I didn't get to practice.

I made a neep cake.  The principle is that the carrot in a carrot cake recipe can be replaced weight-for-weight with neep.  I used this recipe, although I used lemon juice rather than orange and made it in a loaf tin.  And with trepidation I took it into the office to impose it on my workmates.

At the meeting I confessed immediately that I had brought Experimental Neep Cake and everyone agreed to give it a shot.  The general consensus was that even though it tasted a bit neepy at first, it was indeed cake and not untasty.

There was hardly any left at the end of the meeting, so I'll take that as a good sign:

The last piece was taken home, where it was declared a bit too neepy to be allowed.

Now I hear you can do the same with other root vegetables...

What I learned during Lent 2014

I don't think there's really much value in doing A Thing unless one evaluates the effects of The Thing, at the very least in terms of insights gained.  So I've been thinking a bit about what wearing the same 30 items of clothing for 46 days has revealed to me...

Once I hit on a combination that works, I tend to stick to it

A lot of the things I posted throughout Lent were definitely Outfits.  And the same Outfit cropped up a number of times.  Often these items that go together have been purchased at or around the same time.  In other areas of life I think I reflect this too - I have Ways of doing things.  Mostly I think they are the most efficient or effective or thorough ways, but mostly they are just the way I first learned to do them.  Sometimes with some post-hoc justification.

I wear things for years

That khaki skirt?  I think I've owned that for at least 8 years, possibly longer.  And while relatively recent purchases feature strongly on my Lent list, there are items in my wardrobe that go back to my school days.  Which is before we get onto the heirlooms that I have inherited from various friends and relations.

I have favourites and like to wear a uniform

That jersey blazer?  It was mere weeks old at the start of lent and it was worn 16 times.  Nothing else was worn more than 6 times.  And the items that were worn 6 times each were all worn to work several times.  So either that striped jersey blazer is just my ideal item of clothing (and it might be - it works with trousers, shirts and dresses, it can go to work but it casual enough for the weekend, the arms are ever so close to being long enough and it's very comfortable) or I could do with adding something to share the burden.

Lent is at an awkward time of year for this sort of experiment

My first few outfits feature a lambswool jumper, a heavily-knit tunic and thick opaque tights.  By the end I was in summery dresses with thin or no tights.  If the aim of the game was to cut down on clothes it would probably be most meaningful to carry it out twice a year in winter and summer, allow for layering and a few mid-weight things for transitional seasons and chuck the rest.

I am toying with the idea of putting some of my clothes away for the summer.  I live in the kind of climate where very few things are only worn in one season, but there are some things (woolen skirts, for example) that I'm not going to want out again until September or October.  And as my in-use storage space is limited, giving everything else a bit more freedom to move might result in it being easier to see and thus get into rotation.

I own a lot of clothes

This was revealed more by the Big Holy Saturday Spring Clean than by the 30-item exercise, but even though I was wearing the same 30 items for 46 days, I only scratched the surface of the clothes that I own.  And some of those clothes would get a lot more wear on other people.  Perhaps it's time to adjust to a sparser wardrobe containing only quality items that actually fit well and that will really last, where possible from independent or ethical suppliers.  It certainly might be time for a clearout.

I have weirdly good recollection of where I got my clothes

Only one item (that khaki skirt again) am I not sure whether I bought it on sale or at full price.  All of the others I know.  Many of them I could even give you a ballpark figure for what I paid.  Which brings me to my next insight...

I very rarely pay full price for my clothes

Only two of the items on my list were acquired at full price.  And one of those was bought at TK Maxx, so it wasn't the manufacturer's full price.  The only full price item in my list that was bought at its original outlet is the flare jeans.  And when you are the dimensions I are, jeans are pesky creatures that very rarely show up to fit in the sales or second hand.

It's a lot easier for me to take on projects that affect only me

We were better at using up all or most of our delivered veg during Lent, but sometimes that meant neeps for dinner every night and you've got to be a willing participant to put up with that.  We are also very used to having a meat component in our day-to-day diet.  I have spent time previously being nearly-vegetarian and eating very little meat while on a budget, but it is much harder to impose these things on someone else.  The veg delivery is changing now with the seasons, so the neeps should run out soon.  Perhaps we'll miss them.

It is possible for neeps to be a tasty part of the winter diet

And the answer is roasting them with salt and pepper in chunks with other root vegetables.  They were't bad parboiled and fried off before going into a risotto either.  If they're going to be mashed, my preference is for there to be carrots and either parsnips or potatoes in there too, but if they have to be alone then a generous helping of butter and back pepper helps them go down.  My next experiment will be to put them into a cake in place of carrots.

Taking on a specific project for a defined period of time is beneficial

I am so easily overawed by the enormity of a task that I never start it.  If I had decided to 'evaluate my wardrobe' I wouldn't have known what to do.  But I have wound up thinking a lot about the items I chose for my Lent project (even if very little thought went into putting them on the list) and about other items that I haven't been 'allowed' to wear for the past six weeks.  So I might just re-evaluate my clothes and perhaps I'll make some changes, but I might just continue on in my whimsical and individual way, dressing the ways that I like to dress.

I haven't been all that good at blogging my adventures, but I have built up a stash of articles and I feel good about that.  Perhaps my next few should avoid the topics of clothes.  There's probably some mileage in the veggies though.

And perhaps I will take on other projects.  More worthy projects even.  That could be good.

Lent 2014 - Days 42-46

Last few days of Lent 2014 all summarised in one handy spot.

The end of last week was busy at work, so blogness got neglected.  Sorry about that.  Hopefully this mad spray of posts will do something to make up for it.

Day 42 - This outfit became a bit of a staple over the course of Lent.  It's the classic 2-16-13 combination.  This time with a cheap pair of flat brogues that I picked up last year or the year before.  It is handy to have neutral shoes that just slip on in my life.

Day 43 - It's a classic red dress/red shoes combo and so item 12 gets another outing.  It was even warm enough that an additional layer wasn't required.

Day 44 - Unfortunately I cannot remember what I was wearing on Day 44.  It was definitely composed of items on the list, but what they were I have no idea.

Day 45 - a Friday outfit of linen shirt (25) and red cords (26) with which I attempted a double necklace arrangement.

Day 46 - this was the Great Day of Tidying as outlined in a full blogpost here.  I wore green cords (17) and a checked shirt (19) with the sleeves rolled up.  It seemed like an appropriate day for Spring cleaning during the Harrowing of Hell and I wore an outfit appropriate for a long day of housework.  Then a moosh of broderie anglais and tartan for an evening of dancing.