22 October 2014

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Wednesday 22nd 42-52F, 6-11C, sunny, cool, misty, quiet start to a gorgeous day. A delightful 3 mile walk snapping away at the landscape while the mist hung about on low ground. [Actually I compose each picture carefully but do take rather a lot of pictures.] The forecast is dry with light winds so I really ought to have a longer ride today. The north westerly wind is moving the trees now but it shouldn't limit progress too much if I choose my direction carefully.

Lots of different birds around at the moment. Often foraging in mixed flocks. Redwings, Chaffinches, Yellowhammers, Blackbirds and Sparrows are all common sights. I saw a thrush yesterday which is a very rare sight indeed!

Rode down to Falsled on the south coast. I was heading for Fåborg but decided to avoid the traffic and enjoy the quiet rural lanes instead. Lots of nice hills going both ways by two different routes. I was using the small chainring quite a lot to keep my cadence high. Early sunshine gave way to rather a lot of grey cloud later. It started spitting on the way back but petered out again. I had taken overshoes and a change of jackets but never needed them.

The Crapeye 'Cadence' computer was having another off day. I tried polishing the contacts with my glove but it can never be relied on to make it work again.

The head has to be rocked to close a switch via a pin on the back to change between screens. So simply waggling the head in the shoe, to make better contact, is highly likely to cancel the day's mileage total. [It needs a long press to cancel any screen total]

They probably thought it was a bright idea but it was very badly executed. I have never had any other computer behave so erratically. Not even the £5 throwaway jobs at the supermarket.

The Crapeye contact pins seem to corrode too readily when the slightest bit damp. They go visibly chalky! Being on the bottom the pins naturally collect moisture even the lightest rain or mist. Which is just daft at the asking price. There is nothing worse than glancing down to check your speed and seeing the damned screen showing 00.00!

I hate the mileage digits too. Tiny, tall and thin so it impossible to differentiate between 0 and 8 except in a good light with a magnifying glass! The cadence reading has stopped working at all now. Probably another contact problem. More overpriced, over-hyped, cycle accessory crap! 40 miles. Which I could only check when I finally arrived home when I downloaded  the Ventus GPS USB dongle. The Crapeye had stopped showing readings at intervals all day. Just as it always has done from new. It's a damned good job I don't have to rely on it!

Thursday 23rd 53F, 12C, rather breezy, heavy overcast. 3 mile walk. Staying on the roads because I have no useful walking boots. Rode to the shops with a tail wind. Then fought a headwind for 10 miles before turning for home.

Atlantic Cod fillets "Packed in China"?? Does not compute. We care about what we eat and buy the organic options whenever possible. We eat lots of fiber, vegetables, fruit and fish products. Carefully avoiding crap is part of our dietary standard of behaviour.

If I wanted my dinner to be packed in a toxic atmosphere, by slave labour, under a toxic political mafia, in a toxic environment, using recycled, toxic water I'd probably go out and look for Chinese Cod fillets. I didn't. Or didn't think I had. I bought "Atlantic Cod fillets." Even if they were caught in the Atlantic, what about the Carbon Footprint of sending frozen fish half way around the world and doing it not once but twice?

Sadly there seems to be no trading standards or consumer protection in Denmark. Otherwise the supermarkets would be endlessly prosecuted for having no stock of the "special offers." Quite often they will actually take a normal stock item off the shelves during the offer period! Then return them to the shelves after the event!

Not to mention constantly ripping off customers with wrong prices at the tills compared with the shelves. And, not changing the shelf price labels or removing them altogether. So that no price is shown at all. So then you have to ask at the till whether the offer is still valid. There is obviously no point (at all) complaining aloud about highly misleading product descriptions and such doubtful commercial behaviour. Organic fruit and vegetables are often labelled incorrectly. So the the naive customer arrives at the till before they notice they have ordinary, [spray poisoned] produce. Danish fruit and veg often have red labels just like the registered organic products. Another crafty ploy to confuse the busy shopper!

Another example: Finding edible, cherry tomatoes is all but impossible in Denmark. Yet the packaging clearly say "Cherry Tomatoes". They don't [ever] taste anything like tomatoes. Not even remotely. Often they aren't even remotely red! I wonder whether the Red Cross still do food parcels?

Having scrubbed the contact pins with a clean cloth the Cateye Cadence computer is suddenly working again. Until the next time. 20 miles.

Friday 24th 52F, 11C, grey overcast, windy. There won't be much to report today. I have severe man 'flu. After several days of headaches [unusual for me] my right nostril exploded into chronic over-activity last night. NASA is already reporting unusual, glistening slime trails crisscrossing the lawn from its forestry depletion sensing platforms.

I'm trying to build up to a walk but have calculated that I will probably require two boxes of tissues per hour/mile covered. I am still struggling with the logistical problem of disposing of so many contaminated tissues. I'm planning on dragging a bin bag along for later disposal at a toxic waste dump. I pray I have enough strength to manage a fully loaded sack on the return journey. Reports of my symptoms may be exaggerated by the popular press. Hopefully, my rural isolation will offer some crumbs of comfort to those of a nervous disposition. I was too ill to go out and it rained. So another rest day.

Saturday 25th 50F, 10C, got up early. Still feeling awful after a sleepless night. Dark. Very, very dark. It was still dark after 9am CET! My nose stopped pouring but now my chest is rattling and I keep coughing. Rest day. Null points.

Sunday 26th 52F, 11C, overcast and windy. Much lighter than yesterday. Supposed to stay dry but cloudy with 30mph gusts all day. Cabin fever may force me to have a walk today. It might help to clear my chest. I made it to the woods and back. A mountain bike has left his trail on the track. The pheasants have finally dispersed. Despite feeling a bit better I wasn't remotely well enough for a ride. Rest day.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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