Smells of inner-city cycling (or cycling for masochists).

The sights, the sounds, the stink… You know Cycling is a great sport, you get out into the sunshine and work up a frenzy of cardio activity. But sometimes things conspire against you; and nothing does this better than an odour with all the stopping power of a reinforced concrete wall. One minute you’re happily riding along, and then the next minute its ‘holy shit where’d that come from?’ You thought you had no more energy to give to your ride, but sometimes there’s nothing like a hint of vomit mixed up with this mornings leak against a wall to really tease that little bit extra out of those tired muscles. Love em or hate em, theres a smell to suit all noses, you can even make a game out of it!

Who dung it?

What could have made that one? What crawled in here and died last night? And my all-time favourite… ‘I’ll never eat a curry again.’ It could become entertainment for the entire family! Reality TV only in your face and more importantly up your nose! Think of the book rights potential, you could even do a scratch and whiff series.

The Splat Award.

So I figure that I’ll have a splat award for memorable smells encountered on my cycling trips.One of the most memorable odours has to be one I encountered in Belfast, Northern Ireland. One minute you’re happily riding along gorgeous river banks and protected conservation land, until you reach the outskirts of Belfast.

 

With subtle hints of rotten banana skins and used Huggies (diapers), rising above the low level murk of algae plumes in the river Lagan, nothing presents that warm Irish welcome into Belfast quite like the city dump that greets you 100 meters to the left of the main roadway into the city.

Freshened up on a daily basis the Belfast city dump warms the heart and the nostrils at a distance of up to 2km away from the source, and on a warm day the sky is the limit.

 

Many days I’ve been presented with a particularly harsh conundrum, how do I cycle past this, quickly while holding my breath?  The eternal struggle continues….

 

Google Earth Co-ordinates for this Big Stink

Lat: 54°38′27.61″N  Long:   5°54′50.66″W

A belated happy new year.

I’m lazy. I’ll happily admit it, one day I couldn’t remember my password for my Blog, and thought sod it I’ll play a computer game. Unfortunately for me my game choice was Guild Wars, and I have spent so much time playing it that I really believe that divorce papers could be filed at any point now!

Anyway, after a few months of neglect, I have decided to brush off the cobwebs, air out the attic, and get my blog going again. And there is so much going on it’s hard to know where to begin!

The Democrats took back congress, North  Korea test detonated a nuclear device, Iraq has descended into civil war, Australia is enduring its worst drought on record, the big three motor car companies are peering into the abyss of bankruptcy and Microsoft Windows Vista is due for launch in a matter of days.

Where do you begin with all that? No-where, thats where! While all this was happening, some people struggle with a horrible condition called EDS, (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) a terrible debillitating condition that induces chronic neuropathic pain in every muscle and fibrous tissue in your body. Welcome to the harsh reality that is life for my wife.

How do you face another day knowing that when you wake-up it will be in agony, and thats when the pain is manageable. When its not manageable the only thing you can do is curl up in bed and wish it away knowing that wishes don’t always come true. In those circumstances I try to be around to fetch water/food, cold packs, hot packs, drugs, whatever my wife needs to reduce the discomfort and help with the pain. Even if its something as simple as reading a bed time story (Terry Pratchett is good) to distract her from the pain or putting on some soothing music.

The New Year heralds for us a year filled with agony and many nights that will be filled with the quiet whimpering of my wife in agony while asleep. It’s an odd sensation being an able bodied person looking at someone you love suffer in such a terrible way, but there is no cure because there is no money to be made in the cure. There is only pain and morphine, and the happy moments in-between that make everything worth a whole lot more than the sum of all the pieces put together.

So I wish you all a belated Happy New Year, may it be peaceful.

Today I’m Listening To

Nothing Else Matters by Metallica