Weapon Of Choice – Fatboy Slim

I was just listening to the radio, humming away to myself for a few minutes whilst the phone stopped ringing for the first time today (!) and this tune came on… which reminded me to look at what I feel is the finest pop video in many, many years.

Four year old drummer to Sammy Davis Jr in about ten minutes

Lily and I do things a bit differently every Friday… we have a break from ‘story’ before bedtime, and it quite often involves surfing things on Youtube. To have all those amazing things from my childhood (and since) at my fingertips never ceases to amaze me; it won’t amaze Lily and her generation. For that, she’ll never be grateful – she never should be – this is what so much of the media should be – on demand entertainment, not pipe-fed scheduled programming, but a parent-supervised themed trip round amazing things.

We searched for a “drummer” – Lily’s quite set on getting some drums for Christmas …

First, we watched Igor, a four year old from Poland

… and from him, I was prompted to search for Buddy Rich’s epic battle with Animal fromt he Muppets

A natural progression, was to seek out another televised Buddy Rich drum battle, one that I’d heard talked about, but never seen (until Youtube!) – he and Gene Krupa going at it together on the Sammy Davis Jr show.

To calm down from the drums a bit, we finished off with a bit of Sammy Davis Jr himself, this time tap dancing to Singin in the Rain with some remarkable collars….

Friday night… a good night in.

Cyclocross National Trophy Round 4, Peel Park, Bradford

Peel Park, BradfordA great feeling to have a race live up to everything I anticipated it to be – my favourite course of the National Trophy series at Peel Park in Bradford. The autumn rain’s always going to have made this one muddy – but the course design this year also contributed towards an excellent challenge. My team Wheelbase mates Rob and Lewis did the business with 3rd and 6th respectively, and I got my best ever finish in a national trophy race, in 20th.

The sharp but painful climbs were frequent enough to make this the hardest circuit so far this year, when combined with the sticky mud – meaning bike changes every lap were a necessity. I again managed to stay upright whilst all around me tumbled. My weight helps on the thicker mud courses. The bikes were ultra reliable once again, and the pit crew were just awesome – all done so professionally when we really needed it. The training’s gone brilliantly in recent weeks, but more than that, the race day preparation is sown to a tee now… I’m lucky to be part of this set up and I’m really enjoying it… I love it when a plan works out.

Full results and report here.
Photos here.

The jagged teeth of hill reps

It may feel like utter death on toast when you’re doing it, and you swear you’l never do it again through the blood you’re coughing up each time you do it, but having a GPS with a heart rate monitor makes hill reps something interesting to look at…

1900 feet of climbing and descending compressed into a zip ride.

Hell / Hill Reps

Hammer Time

What amazes me about this film is how the man seems to have no bruises apparent from practising his art…