2013 Season within reach

Ahhh, nice steady club run on the bike today, but 2013 starts with a bang on the 6th with the West Kent Reliabiltiy Trial. 50 or 60 lumpy horrible miles and what will probably be lousy road, fighting to stay in the bunch because knowing that getting dropped not only means failure, it also means probably being absolutely lost in the middle of nowhere.

These are wonderful old school events. Cheap and cheerful, a throw back to an era before gps and chip timings. There are four of these local to me over the next month of so, West Kent, followed by the Bexley CC, my own dearest OPCC on 3rd of Feb, followed by Sydenham Wheelers.  That then moves seamlessly into the start of the Time Trial season on what are laughingly called 'sporting' courses. Normally hilly, dreadful roads played out in weather that is either wet, freezing or both. All of this should deliver me fit and raring to go by the end of March. That is the plan anyway.

There is part of me that likes the deardful weather and the crap roads. The pleasure of getting back soaked and filthy to a hot drink and bacon roll in a warm village hall, and talking old bollocks with you mates. Fantastic.

I love the early part of the cycling season, not just as a rider but as a fan. Milan San Remo, the Cobbled classics and the race to the sun. All before the Giro is even a twinkling in the cycling fans eye.

Bring it on.

Be careful what you wish for -Deporting Piers

In the wake of the recent slaughter of the innocents I did reflect that however heartfelt our feelings in Britain, the Americans probably don't give hoot what we think about their right to bear arms. Yes, it seems incredible that the 2nd Ammendment (I will not get into the debate about what this actually says or means) should be seen as worth the lives of one let alone 20 children. Even more bonkers that somebody can suggest the solution is more guns. However my feeling was, they don't care what we British think, so being outraged is empty emotion. There is enough wrong in our own back yard for us to focus on.

Then, an ex  pat Brit manages to make (some) Americans care a great deal about what he says on gun control. Unfortunately that man is Piers Morgan ffs. The net result is a part of what needs to be a serious and considered debate becomes a pantomime about them trying to send him back.

Liberal discomfort

http://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/283806585753595906/photo/

'Stone the Rapist to Death in Public.'
Having a delicious Liberal discomfort moment. Can cheerfully stand four square behind Women in Pakistan standing up in support of rape victims. But noooo please don't get all medieval on how justice should be done.

Wiggins Vs Froome 2

So with the wisdom of Solomon Team Sky have said that the leadership of the team at the Tour will be decided on who has the best form.

Ok, so Brad has a few seconds in the timetrial then starts to crack on a climb. Does Froome stay with his leader or go? If Froome goes then does Brad accept he is now Chris' super domestique?

Oh it is going to be so much fun.

Pop Up Stores, Just for Christmas

Read about Pickles Plaza, a Pop up store serving staff from the DCLG. The aim is to promote pop up stores, a trend it is hoped will be the cavalry coming over the hill for our highstreets. They will at least make a change from chicken shops, betting emporia and those nice Marie Curie people.

Lets be blunt, we have had pop up stores going back to the medieval market. They are called stalls. And for the consumer pop up stores have exactly the same problem. Getting a refund.

Its Christmas, we are buying stuff our relatives don't want. That is fine if the jumper comes from Marks, it is nearly as good has hard currency. But if I treat my nearest and dearest to a nice scarf from the pop up shop in the Whitgift (£5 each or 3 for £12!!!) if these little scamps have popped off in two weeks time how will they get their money.

Paying The Piper

It was great to hear that cycling in Britain has been awarded another £30 odd million in funding to build on its success. But I was interested in the comments of the writer Nick Bull, picking up something that the Sprinter Theo Bos was saying.

Because we now have so much resource going into track cycling, is it becoming like the Football Premier League. It is a game only the richest nations could compete against us in? We have become the Man U of the track. We can be challenged, but only by a handful of nations with mega bucks to spend. It is a testament to Team GB that we have got to the stage where this question could be asked. But Theo Bos' point if I understand it is this, if the track is basically owned by a handful of wealthy nations is this good for the sport worldwide? Will nations with more limited resource abandon the sport?

I am not sure if there is any evidence to back this up, but it would be sad if this were the case.

A Middle Aged State of Mind

I have recently read Jennifer Egan's 'Visit from the Goon Squad' and 'One Day' by David Nicholls. They are radically different books but both had large parts written about times and to an extent place that were part of my growing up.

One Day, with the two central protagonists making their way in early 90's London felt familiar. The pre mobile world, full of inter railing and The Word type TV shows, but still very much pre New Labour. Egan's chapter focused on the San Francisco punk scene had a resonance, but a different one. California punk in the mid 80's was something I admired from a far, entirely build on the records and interviews with the likes of Jello Biafra and Black Flag. I felt connected with it even in my South London home.

What struck me was that both stories felt written by and for somebody of my generation, the 40 something looking back. The middle aged analysis framing the narrative. Both seemed to miss the genuine innocent excitement that we felt. When we bunged off our crappy demo tapes, and got gigs at rubbish pubs and sent John Peel an post card so he would know that we were there, we did not know how the narrative finished.

I am not sure what point I am making, maybe that it would be good to read something written about that time without the middle aged state of mind.

Wiggins Vs Froome?!

So Brad, having said he would target the Giro, and talked about helping Chris Froome for the Tour has decided that all the team stuff is well and good. But hey he wants to defend his crown after all.

In this years tour when Brad was the sole leader, probably the biggest threat came from the man pacing him up the climbs. Brad's talk now of maybe having joint leaders seems a recipe for unhappiness but not necessarily disaster. The track record of teams with joint leaders or two top dogs is interesting. Cunaego and Simioni, Ullrich and Riise had Oedipal moments. Of course the LeMonde Vs Badger stuff is legend. However in these cases at least somebody from that team won.


But are their any good examples of where two top guys on a team fought each other and by doing so let another team take the prize? Based on the Vuelta if Contador and one or two others come into the tour in top form the Sky boys would be well advised to have a clear plan otherwise who is leader could become pretty academic as the gradient ramps up.

Nurses and other public servants

Reading Ann Clwyd's description of her husband's death, or more accurately the time leading up to his death is undeniably painful. Her wish for him to be as comfortable as possible when he could no longer help himself strikes a chord with me. My mother died around the same time as Ann Clwyd lost her husband, and so I have a pretty clear understanding of the emotions she must have felt. Being an MP her natural way to address what she feels is to launch a campaign for greater compassion in nursing.

However, our experiences diverge. Are nurses more or less compassionate than they were? It is impossible to know. While I can empathise with Ann's anger and her wish to do something, I cannot say I come the the same conclusions. The treatment Ann describes does sound at be neglectful, but that does not mean it is a universal problem within nursing. During the final year of my Mums life she, my bother and I encountered many nurses, doctors and other NHS staff, together with others who showed wonderful care and compassion. My Mum particularly valued the support of a team of oncology nurses at StHelier Hospital.

Whether one can teach compassion is questionable. What can be done is set clear standards for patient care that can be measured. What can also be done is ensure hospitals are properly resourced and are not chasing empty targets. What can be done is to ensure decent line management supervision of staff so that standards can be set, and maintained without the need for a vast supporting beaurocracy.

My own largely bicycle related encounters with the NHS have never suggested a lack of compassion. A lack of organisation, yes. Some poor interdepartmental relations, yes. The hospital where Ann Clwyd's husband died have serious questions to answer and issues to resolve, but I think to suggest there is a general lack of caring in nursing is wide of the mark.

Gosh- The Price of Fame

Winning the Turner Prize has got to be the biggest and coolest endorsement an artist can get from the critics. I think Elizabeth Price's work makes her a brilliant winner. But that she was a member back in the mists of time of possibly the most critically derided band in British history, Talulah Gosh makes me even happier.

Others have said it already, but Talulah Gosh's no macho, melodic pop made them easy meat for the music press back in the mid 80's. This was all pretty unfair. Listen to their signature song, Talulah Gosh and is is far from shoddy. It was an era when their were precious few woman being taken seriously in the likes of NME and Melody Maker, when they were desperate for the next boysy bunch to come along and help them shift papers.

I kind of feel is a kind of circuitous validation that Price now is the critical toast of the town.

Scum Villages (and other bad ideas that sound not bad)

Maybe it is because it is the Dutch or it is about Amsterdam that has mean a proposal to house anti social behaviours in 'scum flats' or 'scum villages' has attracted attention in the UK. I hope the idea does not try and swim the north sea. It is a classic notion that makes sense until one engages a brain.

Yep, that the horrible, anti social, racist, homophobic households and house them in converted shipping containers. Yes, if I had a horrible violent man next door I would want him taken away, I might even be that fussy where.

I will not get into the problems of defining who the scum households are, and the legal efforts needed to move them. My main gripe is it is the wrong cure. These people are not James Bond villains, stroking white cats. Nor are they really super tough gangsters. They are mostly going to be vulnerable, poorly educated losers. Sending them to some form of punishment housing will do little. The solution, is sadly a very liberal sounding one. Family intervention, to build the households chances of staying in education and holding down jobs is they most effective long term solution. Even if the plan were to move these people to a penal colony far away the truth remains, they have to live somewhere and we have to deal.

This idea has history for the Dutch, and has been tried before. However they found last time that concentrating all the nasty people in one place made for a bigger problem.

Please guys, forget your prison hulks for nasty people. Cure the disease not the symptoms.

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

So Movember has come to a close. In my office the women in the finance department all came in sporting fake tashes in support of the their male colleague. At a recent club run the array for facial hair made us look like refugees from the Boer War.

Movember is a fun way to raise money for a good cause. But is was another event that really caught my eye this week. In I think Toronto there was an event 'Walk a mile in her shoes.' It was an event where men, by walking a mile in womens shoes demonstrated their support for victims of domestic and gender violence. I was taken by this funny playful idea. The sight of big blokes in business suits and red stilletos was great. Gender and domestic violence is a topic we dodge, often marginalised as a 'womens issue.'

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes was a brilliant way for men  to show some solidarity and raise awareness.

A cynical friend suggested the event probably attracted the kind of man that enjoys wearing womens shoes. Well if it does thats cool. For me it would be pure martyrdom.

Follow the link and take a look.

http://www.walkamileinhershoes.org/