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Cataduanes

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Blog Entries posted by Cataduanes

  1. Cataduanes
    So I am sitting here having consumed a modest yet adequate amount of Guinness and a couple of cheeky shots of Bourbon and feel the urge to post in my blog, namely that I feel the need to discuss cycling again
    Cycling has been a passion of mine since i was a child and along with my kid it is the one thing I enjoy dearly in life. So as per my last blog post about bikes I talked about how my last rig was stolen. It was not the first bike I have had nicked (That is english slang for stolen for those of you not familiar with the rich tapestry that is the British variations of the English tongue) but I had grown to love that bike, my son experienced his first bike rides on that rig from the safety of a suspension equipped kid seat and he was as upset as I was that some thief had taken it.
    But life goes on and I purchased a new bike, and this rig was a real departure from my previous rides in the fact that it lacked gears. Yep I surrendered to the Hipster trend and opted for a fixed-gear bike...well it has a flip flop hub but I thought whats the point in going single=speed (all or nothing right!). Anyway I have not cruised on a fixed-gear since I was a kid (yep I am old enough that geared-bikes where not really available for kids back then) and it was quite a shock, getting use to not be being able to coast (freewheel) was terrifying at first, but after the first week communting I began to feel alot more confident.
    Now with a number of months under my belt I am hooked, the whole direct transfer of power thing and sheer connection with the bike is awesome. For me living in a city like London, which is for the most part flat, the speed and control I can execute without the aid of gears is infectious and I cannot help but feel wtf I was doing riding geared rigs for so long. Mind you it is physically tougher but that makes it all the more enjoyable . Any other Fixie riders in CN who want to share their feelings on riding fixed and the thrill of the wind in your face?
  2. Cataduanes
    So as I elucidated on a past blog entry (link) I am a wee bit crazy about cycling, fanatical would probably be a good way of putting it. Back then I was riding a Kona Dew Deluxe (2010 model), and it got used a hell of a lot…doing a 12km commute during the weekdays and probably notching up a further 5 Km’s over the weekends, in short she got rode hard (no innuendo intended). But last month some piece of !@#$ decided to steal my rig…and not off the street but from the ‘secure’ underground car/bike parking area underneath my apartment block. With full CCTV coverage we got the guys face in glorious Technicolor (no mask…not even a baseball cap, is that !@#$@#$ brazen or what!).
    But despite this evidence looking for one guy and a bike in London (estimated population of just under 8 million people) is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Hell according to the British home office around 533,000 bikes were stolen from 2009 to 2010!! It is a burgeoning problem and rightly or wrongly it is not considered a priority by the police (who admittedly have their hands full in our great city with rising violent crime among the youth among other things). Of course such numbers of theft are in due part to a demand for decent bikes at a cheap price purchased with no questions ask (to use a popular British expression ‘off the back of a lorry’), such people looking for a deal fuel the rampant theft of bikes in London and this seems unlikely to change, because lets face it most people are unprincipled and care little for the wider community. But it is obviously big business as the losses show, based on police crime statistics from 2010, a report released in June 2010 suggested that bicycle theft costs British cyclists around £80m a year! No small amount by anyone’s standards.
    A bike lock manufacturer actually made a short film based on a experiment to gauge how the average man in the street reacts to bike theft, setting up 10 bikes they staged 10 thefts and each one not a single member of the public intervened in what was clearly a crime: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/feb/06/protect-bikes-theft
    Oh well life goes on and I have purchased a new rig, a stunning Kona Band Wagon (2011 model) with a chrome/white scheme. I have been riding Kona’s for years now and I am very loyal to the brand, besides lets face it Canada has some of the best Bicycle manufacturers in the world.



    I will take out fresh insurance and buy the most heavy duty locks known to man (not to mention that it is locked up securely in my 'secure’ underground car park)…but even then it will not stop the possibility of it being stolen in the future, because if a thief wants something he will go for it, all you can do is make it as difficult as possible for the $%&@ers. But the bottom line is that I will not let some ‘tea leaf’ (British slang for a thief) stop me riding, enjoying the thrill of filtering through traffic at speed and generally pissing off Taxi Drivers (one of a London’s cyclists common enemies on the road) …NEVER GIVE IN & RIDE ON BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!
  3. Cataduanes
    So its 2012 and my year began on a sad note as my father passed away on the 29th December 2011, it was an event that overshadowed everything. Having spent Christmas with him I have endearing memories of both my father and 2 year old son interacting, it gave me great pleasure to see that...something made even more poignant by his passing days later. The grief is not overwhelming tbh but it is ever present, in the back of my mind at all times is this sadness I know I cannot shake off.
    I am not sure what the point is I am trying to make, maybe there is no point and I am just rambling in some bid to get things off my chest. My father knew he was loved but I wish I got the chance to tell him that one more time. So do take the time to let your respective parents know how much you care for them, do not leave things unsaid because you never know what is around the corner.
    That said life for me goes on and the rigours and demands of work and parenthood are unrelenting, my father was a pragmatic man and he would expect me to carry on...hell I can hear him in my head with his heavily accented English (He was a German) telling me to do exactly that. Besides when I look at my sons face (as corny as it sounds) I gain the strength to push on, there is so much of my father in him whether in terms of his physical similarity or in terms of his character. My father and I are/were not men of faith but I hope if there is indeed something beyond death that he will be there watching over us.
  4. Cataduanes
    Living in London most of my life there has always been a measure of exposure to American Football, mainly from the game being televised here in the late 80's/early 90's (some of you older Brits might remember it being on Channel 4 back in the day). That said I could never claim to be a bonafide aficionado of the game, but by the same token I am not exactly hostile to it. The Superbowl has always been a big draw, mainly for the sheer spectacle of the event (Lets face it the Yanks know how to put on a big show!) but again I have never been particularly drawn to any one team (Except for a brief flirtation with the San Diego Chargers back on the late 80's).
    So with the Superbowl on the horizon the British press has been talking about it here and there, and on one of the national papers an article on the Packers caught my eye:
    http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/american-football-a-smallcity-clubs-unique-affair-with-its-fans-2203619.html
    I had no idea that the Packers were a team that was owned largely by the fans (in a manner reminiscent of the system employed by German Football clubs or the odd team in Spain like Barcelona or Bilbao for example). A small town team that bucks the big money trend that seems to dominate the other NFL teams (Again I am no genius when it comes to US football, so if there other 'Fan-owned' teams just point them out, don;t bite my head off). This really struck a cord in me, especially being a Football (Soccer) fan, a game which has become largely corrupted by big money and commercialism in a way I always thought was the case in the NFL (If I am wrong just tell me, don't bite)...to find out that the Packers go against the grain in this respect impressed me.
    SO rightly or wrongly I am going to be hoping for the Packers to win it in style, yep for one night only the Cata is going to be a Cheesehead
  5. Cataduanes
    So its the 26th and if your household is anything like mine you have a ton of turkey and so other meat to be nibbled on, so the question is what to do with this mound of meat taking space in your fridge, oven, etc. Here is a recipe I do which takes its influence from Turkish and Indian cuisine.
    Ingredients
    1.5 tsp cumin
    1.5 tsp Coriander
    1.5 tsp turmeric
    1.5 tsp Ground ginger
    salt
    pepper
    300ml plain yoghurt (preferably Greek yoghurt)
    30 ml lemon juice
    turkey meat
    olive oil
    2 onions
    dessicated coconut
    2 tablespoon of flour
    1/4 pint chicken stock
    Fresh parsley

    Mix the spices and salt with yoghurt and lemon. stir until evenly mixed, then fold in the cubed turkey meat.
    Leave to marinate for at least 3 hours in the fridge.
    When the marinade is ready fry the chopped onions till light brown, then add the flour and dessicated coconut.
    Then remove from heat, add the turkey/marinade and then add stock/water mix.
    Bring back to the heat and stir constantly until piping hot.
    Pour the mix into an oven dish and cook at gas mark 3/160C/325F for no more than an hour.
    Serve with rice and garnished with chopped parsley, also a decent bottle of white wine does not go amiss.

    SO what do you do with your Christmas meat pile? do you prepare a meal out of it or just stuff into sandwiches or something?
  6. Cataduanes
    For as long as I can remember I have been nutz about cycling. Being a city boy I was naturally crazy about BMX's but once I hit my teens I got the mountain bike vibe pretty strong. My first decent off road rig was a Gary Fisher 1991 Super Calibre, which at the time was awesome...in hindsight the design has not aged well but hey when I was riding that rig I did not have a care in the world.
    I pretty much rode the Gary Fisher for nigh on 8 years before cracking the frame, Not being particularly flushed with funds at the time i had to wait and save up before getting a new rig. My next choice was a Kona Cinder Cone 2000, a truly awesome hardtail bike that cemented my appreciation for one of the greatest Bike manufacturers out there (thank you Canada ).

    ^ An example of a Cinder Cone 2000 (mine was Orange).


    That bike served me well allowing me to rip up trials just outside of London, i got into dirt jumping on that rig which was awesome. But the Kona paid the price and I cracked the frame good and proper while jumping in late 2002...fracturing an ankle in the process . Having spent over a decade maintaining and riding the Kona I mourned its passing.
    So off to the shop I went again and this opted for a Cannondale Chase 2. A purpose built jump bike that tore up the dirt and flew like an eagle. This rig gave me hours upon hours of biking fun alternating between trail riding, jumping and every monday it was refit for a week of commuting across the city (Thinner rims and tires).

    ^ Modern version of the Chase 2.


    But as I got older my working hours got longer, and opportunities to hit the woodlands, hills and other rural settings at the weekends got fewer and fewer. To the point that riding a heavy mountain bike for across the city to commute to work became the mainstay of my time on the bike, which kind of shot down the benefits of using the mountain bike regularly (they are not after all designed for speedy journeys on tarmac). So I decided to buy a second rig, this time a hybrid design which combines Mtn Bike relative toughness and durability with less weight and increased speed.


    ^ Dew Deluxe in Brown..I got it in Black.


    For this I went back to Canada's finest Kona Bikes, purchasing their Dew Deluxe Hybrid design earlier this week. It is a total city bike and zips around so much quicker than my Cannondale but still has that inherent Mtn Bike feel. I love this bike! and my journey time to and from work has had a good 15 minutes or so shaved off the total time .
    So anyone else nutz about bikes?
  7. Cataduanes
    I have not really utilized this blog as much as i would like, and with RL eating up my time in recent months my CN presence in general has taken a battering (largely due to the arrival of my son but also to a larger workload that my employers have dumped on me). But hopefully now i can contemplate getting back into the swing of things and begin reacquinting myself with Planet Bob
    So whats on my mind atm? well as usual its my beloved ODN, being a patriot can be a heavy burden and serving ODN has at times since late 2008 been a thankless and sometimes grim task. We have as a community had to work damn hard at all levels to restore some self respect and i do feel that the current war and our role in it has seen that hard work pay off somewhat.
    Of course it remains clear that in some quarters we remain a vile entity not worthy to breathe the sweet air of planet bob but i do feel we are clearly on our way on the road to redemption. Hopefully we will have more chances to win round even our most fierce detractors...well some of them at least
    anyway enough for my blah blah blah, i promise to try make my next entry more interesting
  8. Cataduanes
    My nation got past the 1000 day mark a few days ago, it was an event i shared with my fellow ODNistas but not with CN at large, but i feel almost embarrassed for some reason to post this in the OWF so i thought i would post it here in my blog...
    So there you have it, this is my nations story so far, so thank you Admin for providing some of the best of times and some of the worst; its been awesome , I look forward to another 1000 days and can only wonder what I shall see in the months ahead.
  9. Cataduanes
    Well i am not sure what kind of crap i am going to fill this blog up with but for starters i think a Tea reference is in order....
    Earl Grey Tea
    Just the other day a work colleague made himself a cup of Earl Grey , nothing out of the ordinary in that i hear you say however he proceeded to add milk to it! i could not believe what i was seeing?!? Earl Grey should always be served black! :jihad:

    and my Bill Hicks quote of the week
    Ciao,
    C.
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