Ok, maybe I jumped the gun a little bit.  I went for a burn on my cycle tonight along ‘Ocean Drive’, one of my normal routes, in fact it is probably my only route here in Newport.  There was plenty of debris still strewn over the roads and it was clear to see that someone had spent a lot of time cleaning up, snow ploughing the sand off the road from the beaches, pulling boulders out of the way etc.  So maybe I have to admit the storm was a little tougher than I first thought.

Let that be said but tonight I blasted Purgatory Hill at 20mph!! Check me out.  I also double checked that with my GPS plotter and that told me I had in fact hit a respectable 22.5 mph momentarily before plunging off the other side to a very mediocre 36mph (still, quite scary in the dark). I am impressed, and of course, moving the goal posts once more – upward to 22mph.

I shall be in Antigua in December and it is here that I fully expect to smash my current downhill record of 44.6mph – the drop down from Shirley Heights is long and steep.  I know this morbid curiosity with speed and my mountain bike will inevitably end in tears but I just can’t help it.  Be thankful though.  Less than a decade ago I would have been trying to crack the double ton on a very very fast motorbike but either way I guess broken bones are broken bones.

So what stimulates you first thing in the morning? My alarm woke me at 05:30.  By 05:45 I was sitting on the rowing machine in the gym having pre programmed  my 40 minute schedule and was looking for some ‘uplifting’ tunes to see me through. I poo poo’d the workout euro pop that I normally opt for that I stole from Nic and Steve and instead went for a bit of Keith and Liam – I got the poison, I got the remedy and of course thoroughly thrashed about trying hard to improve my overall average time for 500 metres.  I was about 5 minutes from the finish when ‘breathe’ came up for its random turn – breathe the pressure, come play my game I’ll test yah, inhale inhale – you are the victim – and by christ was I panting hard by that point – the lyrics amused me.  I started to think about the youth of today and the shite music they have to endure, I feel sad for them, they missed out on greats like the Prodigy, the whole grunge era of Sound Garden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana.

By the time my thoughts had control of me, my pace had slipped – Oh bugger!

I would like to share with you though, a little video by The Prodigy – one of the best vids out there in my humble opinion, and this one, for me, is a tad better than Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice or  Feeder’s Just a Day – but don’t take my word for it, have a look and listen

Smack my Bitch Up

I also had my second busiest day ever on the site yesterday, 320 hits in one day, not too shabby for my little old on line diary.  I credit that to my recent posts about the storm Sandy

Weird dreams?  I dreamt two nights ago that I was in a field with hundreds of other people while an assassin was preparing to take pot shots at us.  Suddenly I was whisked into a palacial mansion and the assassin was Oprah Winfrey and she wanted to get jiggy with it instead of shooting me. Now the worst thing about dreams is that I usually wake up at the most interesting point, the point where you really want to see the story continue and find out where it leads, but once you are awake, you are done for. I was just about to get my hands down the front of Oprah’s pants when the harp started playing.  The harp is my alarm tone on the phone – I was gutted – always wondered what Oprah’s muff was like.

Talking of dodgy looking women, I added more photos to the America 2012 section from the birthday party the other week, you know the one, where I was dressed as a bearded lady?

Pop on over and take a look