Sunday 14 June 2009

All Quiet on the Western Front....

A little too quiet....


No, I'm not just so boring that I've had nothing at all what so ever to blog about. In fact, I've actually been too busy with a bazillion different things! Okay, maybe not THAT many things.

Truth be told, the weather has been very nice, so outside calls to me. A few weeks ago I made the decision to actually start a company of my own, so that too has taken up all my free time just trying to figure out how to go about it! I'm still working on my company website. I've made about 40 different layouts only to decide that I don't like it after hours of working on it. I think number 41 is the keeper though.


And what, you might ask, will the company do? Graphic Design! Yes, very original. It's not as if there are actually 40 other company's all within my zip code doing the same thing. But still, it's something I feel I am good at, so why not give it a try? They say you never know until you try, and wouldn't I just regret the hell out of it if I never did?

I'm not 100% set up yet and I already have a customer, so it can't be too bad! There is a lot to think about with regards to getting set up. Taxes is a big looming issue. I'd have to being filing a tax return and work out all my income, including the income from my real job and some other very scary sounding forms that would have to be filled out. I'd have to keep all records of anything I bought for the company and anything I made and on and on.

After talking with a friend of mine who has been self employed in the fitness arena for a few years now, the process of setting up properly really does sound like an insane thing to do. I realized that not being freaked out by all the legal stuff must mean it's something I really want/need to do.


So! Onward and upward. Though trying to fit something else into my already dwindling free time means I'll be even busier, hopefully in the long run means a lot more free time in the future, or at least being busy as hell doing stuff I love to do anyway.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Spinning....on the road.

Early last summer Gareth discovered a government scheme called " Ride 2 Work". Basically the government will help you pay for a road bike and all the paraphernalia needed to commute safely to and from work with your new toy. The amount that they pay depends on your income tax bracket. Gareth pays quite a lot of tax so he was getting a bike for %40 off. This is all to try and get those who live within a few miles of their jobs to leave their polar bear killing smog-mobiles in the drive way once in a while. Gareth saw this an an opportunity not for the environment, but for his fitness, so off he went to our local bike shop to purchase a bike and all the clothes and safety gear.

He started cycling to and from work on the nicer days. We currently live about 3 miles from his office, so he would sit with Google Map for quite a lot longer than anyone should, pondering a round-about route that would give him a decent length cycle. He started packing his weeks for of lunches and clothes to take to the office just in case he decided to cycle, it became quite the production and I'm sure we have lost many a sock in transit from the office stash to the house stash.

I then became jealous of his ability to throw on his ridiculous spandex and space goggles and cycle off into the sunset on those (rare) sunny warm days. Suddenly, as my longing to hit the open road grew, it seemed hundreds of people were on bikes at weekends. On our way to the supermarket you'd see teams of them zipping down the road in their brightly colored dork-gear laughing and smiling and..and....whatever else cyclists do when they're zipping past people.

The summer of watching everyone else cycle their way through each sunny weekend led to me signing up for my first spin class last September. Partly also, because I had managed to pack on the pudge during an very drizzly and disappointing summer and lots of chocolate and spin seemed like a fool proof fitness class that I had free access to with my gym membership...score.

My first class, I showed up, picked out a bike, and the instructor quietly helped me set up the bike to my height. I felt very conspicuous, most of the others seemed to know what they were doing, and some even had special shoes? Curious if not down right wacky I thought. I kept getting sympathetic looks from the others which led me to be nervous. Their sympathy was warranted about 15 minutes into this 45 minute ride when for the first time in all my gym going, I felt like I was going to be sick. I managed not to, thankfully. I even made it through the class. What possessed me to go back the following week, I have no idea. Surly no one in their right mind would actually pre-book a spot to make themselves sick? Despite the onset of almost uncontrollable nausea, I did have fun.

I went back week after week all winter, upped my classes to 4 times a week, and even got the wacky special shoes...I really really wanted to have a go on the road!!

6 months later and a road bike has finally been purchased. Gareth picked out the bike online and reserved it so I could go into the shop to try it out. I hadn't been on an actual bike in years. Once I had signed to waiver saying if I fell while trying the bike, it was my own damned fault, I set off for a little poodle around the parking lot. I was very taken aback by HOW unsteady I was.

We spent pretty much all of Saturday after that perusing the woman's cycle gear looking for what I'd need to get started. First, we looked at the shoes I'd need. While I have basic spin shoes with basic mountain bike cleats for my spin classes, these shoes needed to be harder with different cleats and a bit more suited to outdoors. Looking at the choice in shoes, I ended up with a bright white pair with a purple sheen to them in the light.


I can live with that, I thought...though Gareth's shoes are black and red and look pretty cool. Then I thought that sounded like something a 5 year old might say about his brothers new sneakers when presented with his choices of shoe, so we moved on.

Shorts. Padded shorts. They look insane. They feel insane when not perched atop a bicycle. When you walk, you feel like you're wearing an over sized diaper, combine that with the stiff cycle shoes with the cleats attached and you give yourself quite the awkward stride.

Nothing in the store that I actually wanted/needed was just there to be picked up and carried to the register. Everything had to be requested in my size, which took what seemed like days to arrive while we wandered trying to think of what I would need and what I could live without. Since Gareth got a discount on all his gear, he bought a lot of things that I simply could do without.

We moved onto the smaller items. Special padded gloves. The padding is in unexpected places, and I suppose if you get knocked off, I'd rather have gloved palms than exposed ones. Vivid memories of being a kid and flying off your mountain bike and spending the next few days carefully picking gravel our of your hands come to mind.

Special socks......yes....special socks. I have no idea what makes them special but apparently they're good to have. I ended up with mens socks. The socks for women were all neon pink or baby blue.

Glasses- Now these ARE important. As you can imagine, bugs and wind getting into your eyes while cycling is probably not a lot of fun. You never needed them as a child, but when did you ever reach 40mph on your BMX tootling around the front yard?

Shirt- Much less important than the shorts. Again, searching for something NOT neon pink. I was determined not to be the clash of color you usually see flying down the road, so I ended up with a nice black and grey top with a back pocked for various keys and power bars as needed. The shoes are so bright white, you'd see those coming far before anything else anyway. Won't those just look lovely as they start to get dirty!

Helmet- This took far longer to decide on than needed really, but I left it up to Gareth to pick out something that looked suited to protect my noggin in the even of a crash. At least it ended up the same blue as the bike.

I was ready to ride!



Sunday-

Gareth had a route planned out. We were going to ride up to that nice little pub we ate at last summer. The Running Horse it's called. That seemed like an awful long way for my first ride, but he seemed to think it was more than doable. 15 miles each way. We got our gear on and the bikes outside. Gareth helped me with getting my shoes clipped onto the pedals and showed me how to then un-clip myself while moving in anticipation of coming to lights or a roundabout where I would need to stop. That was one area I was very wary of. If you come to a stop with both feet attached to the bike, you just keel over and considering what your wearing and what you already look like, this would just take the cake to be seen doing. This will take some practice and all my forward thinking skills....

We set off down the road, Gareth looking annoyingly good at riding, and me wobbling along behind him. I eventually got steady and started getting comfortable with my hands so far down. I tested the breaks, and Gareth went through the gears with me. The gears are still a trouble spot for me, which gear and when, which side was it again that did what?? I kept forgetting as soon as I needed to remember and then haltingly fumbling through my different options. Once I had found what I needed, I couldn't remember how I got there.

We hit our first hill of the journey and Gareth stands up effortlessly, "wiggling" he called it. Great, I thought. I can do that. I do it all the time in class.

I go to stand, my legs strain under my body weight, sharp pains, shudder, and then they force me to sit back down before they make me fall off the bike and roll back down the hill. I had visions of someone seeing a lone cyclist rolling down the hill ass over tit, and then seeing a riderless bicycle rolling by shortly afterward. Eager to avoid such a fate, I dug in my heels and pushed forward....slowly. Half way up this hill that would not freaking end, my right thigh gets a sudden and very sharp hot pain like someone stabbing the muscle with a hot knife." I've broken something" I thought while also letting out an uncontrolled yelp. We walked up the rest of the hill. Gareth grinning since he was having fun, me limping...yet somehow also having fun, just not grinning about it.

I thought the worst was over. We made it up and cycled down. I very much enjoyed the feeling of speeding downhill on a bike for the first time since I was 10. As we continued to trundle along, I started hearing very heavy traffic. " THAT sounds like a busy road" I shouted up to Gareth. "Yeah!" he shouted back " We're taking the dual carriage way the rest of the way!"

The shock, horror and dismay on my face probably looked like...
















I was only getting used to the few cars we had encountered so far overtaking us, and even then, we had both nearly been taken out by some farm yokel in a Range Rover and his wildly unpredictable trailer. His sole desire in life was to over take the cyclists, never mind on coming traffic. Other than that, on back country roads on a Sunday afternoon, traffic was light.....on the highway, however...

Was he insane? I asked him! "ARE YOU F&£%ING CRAZY?!?!"

"You'll be fine! C'mon!"

"WHA? WHAT THE HELL...WAI..WHERE ARE YOU GOING?! COME BACK HERE?!"


Shit.....



I was going to have to join the highway and pedal after him. I managed it...just. He was still in the center division waiting for a break in traffic on the other side. My heart was pounding from the first crossing, let alone a second!

We managed to cycle down what felt like an impossibly busy road and I was becoming more and more jumpy at the cars giving very little room while passing me. We come to the thing I was dreading the most.

A roundabout.

Now, roundabouts, to me, have always seemed slightly mental. I grew up in Colorado...on a grid system. When I first started driving in England, roundabouts were my terror. It was chaos as far as I could see. Once I learned what the hell was supposed to be going on, it made slightly more sense.

Traffic from the right, has right of way. In some cases you can breeze through without stopping and it is a lot faster than a light system.

I panicked. We pulled over to fix my slipped chain and I refused to continue any further. This was just too much!

Gareth decided the only way was forward and once again pedaled off forcing me to follow. I decided to keep on eye on the traffic and one eye on what he was doing and carefully follow..but not too close in case a car came out of nowhere.

We came to a second, and then a third. I was feeling better about the whole thing, but still shaky. We cycled for what seemed like another forever to my poor legs and finally I could see the pub! Oh thank god. Food. Water. A seat!

No.

'Fraid not.

After handing Gareth a very unimpressive menu of food choices he was then informed when attempting to inquire about other choices, that they were closed to the public for a private Mothers Day Event. Gareth was somewhat irked by being handed a menu, and then told he couldn't order from it. Wouldn't it be easier and quicker to just tell him they were closed and save themselves the menu ? We would have to mount up and cycle on in search for food. We cycled on, stopping at pubs and finding them booked. Gareth decided we should start heading back before it got too dark and stop into the pubs we encounter. We had passed at least two I seemed to recall.

20 minutes into our return trip and we found one that wasn't booked! I plunked down onto the bench outside to stretch my poor hamstrings while he went to convince the chef to keep the kitchen open for just one more order..

We both tackled half a chicken with a giant pile of side veggies and a bowl of ice cream. Neither of us finished for fear of making ourselves feel sick, but I felt a lot better. After letting the food settle a bit, we were off again on the final stretch. My legs were protesting and threatening to just flat out quit. I could still feel the sharp pain in my thigh from earlier throbbing with every push. We managed to get up more hills, though I was climbing slower and slower. So slowly, in fact, my legs finally quit.

Half way up a hill. I could feel that I needed to stop, my legs were going to make me stop. I tried twisting my left foot out of the clip so I could put my foot down. I wasn't strong enough to un clip myself in time...I've stopped...oh crap..

I keeled over into a bush.

Trying to keep calm and trying to get my other foot free and the bike and myself off the road and walked up the rest of the way. When we finally arrived home, I collapsed onto the couch, gear and all unable to move another inch. I stayed horizontal for the rest of the evening.

I've learned that next time I need to take something other than plain water for that kind of journey, and I still have to master the art of un clipping my water bottle while riding to drink more, otherwise I end up with a doozy of a headache.

It's a lot of fun to ride, but it's a lot of work, and I can't wait for the next one!

Thursday 19 March 2009

Loki the Escape Artist



Spring is in the air, and the sun is shining. This will only mean one thing.




Loki will want to go outside. She will NEEED to go outside. She will run full speed toward any open door or window. She will formulate a plan while you are out at the gocery store and unleash her suprise attack when you come through the door with an arm load of bags. While I'm sure she is very proud of her plots and schemes, and it takes her hours of thinking and constructing little graphs;I can't help but notice, that they all seem to look like the same plan over and over. Her plan is mainly this:



RUN FOR THE DOOR AS FAST AS YOUR LITTLE LEGS WILL CARRY YOU AND AIM FOR BETWEEN THE HUMANS LEGS.



And as this fat little cat comes streaking toward me, ears flat to her head, eyes wild with the idea of making it out of the front door, we both like to imagine her screaming a battle cry of
"FREEEEDOMM"

She usually makes it out, though only 2- 3 feet away from the door before she is attracted to the plant life and decides to have a quick bite to eat. This is when she is usually cought, much to her dissapointment.



Plllllleeeeeeeeeeeeease?


I've never fully understood her desire, since she only seems to wander around looking bored nd eating grass once she gets out there. She seems to thrive on the excitment of talking me into letting her out more than the actual "being out".



Wednesday 18 March 2009

In the Beginning...

They say the first post is alway the hardest...

I'm not sure who " they " are, but I'm sure they know what they're talking about, because when faced with the horror of a blank screen, I suddenly forget all the words I worked so hard to learn in the 3rd grade.

So, what is this and why? Very good question indeed.

My name is Taylor. I'm 24 years old and currently live in England with my long term boyfriend of 5 years, Gareth. England of course being a considerable way away from my home town of Denver Colorado, which is what has sparked my sudden need to write and update. On a recent visit to see my parental units and my siblings(last week), I realised that we are absolutley awful at keeping one another updated on, well, pretty much anything at all.

Each visit is a week long melody of " I didn't know that" or " When did that happen?".
I am as guilty as they are to be fair. I get so wrapped up in daily life that I just don't seem to have the time to sit down, and compose an e-mail with a few photos of where I have chesen to set up shop and build a home.

Well, no more! This shall be the place where I can update on the funny little things that happen and photographic evidence that I do in fact, have a life. Not to mention it's a hell of a lot cheaper than international telephonic conversations...