Fat Bloke on a Bike

We're in Scarbados for a couple of days.  Weather will be OK today so I'm going to ride to Whitby along Sustrans route 1, the 'cinder track'.  The next 3 days looks crap so need to make the best of it.  Today's sunrise was also shared by Kathryn with the Beeb and shows a haar rising above the castle.  We might make it onto the telly. Ok so I jest and giggle a little about MAMILS and other such lycra clad creatures that whizz about North Yorkshire.  There definitely out in force now that the weather is improving.  I note that there are 3 types: There's the skinny Black Manba  that's incapable of making its own tracks so only ever travels on tarmac surfaces.  Kinda leggy, thin and angular in appearance, shiny black with luminous stripes on their end bits they make a snap crackle and popping noise like a bowl of Rice Krispies if ever accidentally trod upon. Then there's the Knobbly  that leap out at you from dense undergrowth.  No...

Perhaps like me, some of you are in that 50 something age bracket and might still recall your favourite TV cartoons from the 70's? If you are, you may remember the Banana Splits TV show and the Arabian Nights cartoon? Ah yes, one of the characters was the little donkey, Zazuum.  Pull his tail and with wild kicking, braying and eeyoring he spun up into a miniature tornado generally doing bad things to the baddies. Another character was Bez The Beast, a man with a turban and green clothing who could shape-shift into any animal or bird just by holding his hands aloft and calling out 'Size of a...!' then whatever he wanted to become. So there I was today in the Evans Cycles shop at Monks Cross, York, trying on yet another XXXL waterproof cycling jacket hoping that, according to its web site and so finally and at last, this one would fit. I've already sent back tent bags full of tent sized jackets and other things to Wiggle and Rose Bikes (Germany) and a good few oth...