It seems like the little details that stress us the most.

It does not seem to matter whats going on in ones life, or business. Little things seem to take the longest time to sort out and create the most stress. It all falls into perspective when something really serious happens. when for example the doctor says you have cancer but until then.. its awful hard to keep perspective.

Did not get much riding in this week... let me share one amusing incident.. I have a friend.. lets call her SS (for Squeeza sibling.. doubtless some readers will recognize from that description) Anyway she is an enthusiastic cyclist, improving and strong. SS has Aspergers Syndrome and doubtless as a result she learns differently from the rest of us. Generally slower, although not always... generally she seems to learn very specifically, and the multitasking is a bit poor as she learns the new thing. Teaching her skills has involved me patiently (people who know me feel free to fall over and laugh at this point.. but I do try) explain how it works.. and watch it slowly come.

WRONG!!!! Very Very Wrong!!!

Fairly fastish ride with hills on the monday (a public holiday here in OZ for most.. it being Lizzies birthday. And SS was off the back up every hill. Not such a big deal... but SS did not actually appear to be killing herself trying. I trailed along with her trying to figure out what she was doing wrong. As did Ms J9. A former army drill sergeant. (in a former life) Ms J9 took over. "Push... Push... PUSH.... you will not change gear until I tells ya..... wait.. WAIT... change one gear up NOW " Push.. PUSH, GETOUTOFTHESADDLE NOW!!!!!!" And much much more in a similar style. I was waiting for her to say "YOU HORRIBLE LITTLE GIRL" I hurt a rib laughing. And the result. SS panting for breath. And pouring with sweat. A speed increase of at least 25%. Sustained. Up serious hills.

Way interesting. What SS needs is to be told in absolutely unambiguous terms what to do and when to do it. Eventually doubtless she will include all this in her database of learning experience and will do in her own way what we all do in new situations.. this hill is like that hill.. and so I handle it like I handled that one. May take her more time to do that, and may be applied more rigorously than most of us would. Most of us have a whole bunch of tricks for handling new situations.. and a bunch of techniques for climbing hills and are pretty good at improvisation. I think SS is always going to be a bit rigid at such things, but at least if she knows how it should be done some of the time its bound to help. And the improvement was so dramatic. Shows that the army approach has its place.

I am sure it will apply to other situations other than cycling. I am also sure that SS has an abundance of independent will. Way too much for this to go down well. Yet some of the time this technique obviously needs to apply. Tricky. I hasten to add that SS is also as tough as a thing that is very very tough indeed. And has the scars to prove it. And she is very smart.

Another little amusement. Did the MRR recovery ride on Thursday.. Sorta. I rolled out the drive.. flashed past Karen's driveway at 50 kph.. just in time to see her riding down it.. turned onto Whitehorse just in time to meet two other MRR riders. Tagged along with WAK and Mrs WAK who were trialing Mrs WAK's new headlights. Lets just say the rest of the MRR never looked like catching us. Lian kept us moving right along.. average of 27. Some people do much better when they can see where they are going. Whereas others will wheel suck without once looking up all the way till they hit the side of the bus. :D Another bit of philosophy I have picked up from cycling that applies so well to the rest of life.

The John Marsden Book.."Tomorrow when the war began" which is an absolutely brilliant book, supposedly for teenagers about the effect on teenagers on finding themselves in the middle of a war, set in an Australian bush town in the middle of a massive invasion of Australia by some unnamed country is being made into a major film to be released in September If the film remains true to the book it will be great. It will be everything that the film Red Dawn was not. Hell in the book John Marsden does not even name the invading power. Its going to be great. Marsden wrote a series of books set during and after the mythical war, all written in the first person.. his protagonist Ellie There could be sequels

This book is pretty solid. The bullets have no friends. It was on some of the schools reading lists and rightly so. The series of books has only one flaw. As if New Zealand would come to our aid. And as if they could. Treaty obligations with NZ are a totally one way obligation... NZ has decided to rely upon isolation as its only defense. Not a policy I particularly agree with (to put it mildly) Looking forward to the movie. Hopefully it lives up to the books




But to bring me back to my original point, the link to the description of the book Tomorrow when the war began was by a bloke called Richard Simpson who I don't know. But he did the book report because his late friend Jessica was a fan. And to get back a little perspective after being annoyed by little things all week you might like to read about Jessica on his website. I warn you.. its pretty sad.

Another good thing happened this week. Friends of mine.. in fact rather a lot of friends of mine, raced in the three day tour held over the long weekend. I shall not expand on all the events, you can read some really well written race reports here. Me and Jenny did go and watch the racing in freezing conditions on the Sunday. I will just mention that after his appalling crash last year David Rafferton of Vidman Designs got 4th in D overall.. well done you. The gorgeous Lisa was apparently the fastest of the girls who could be considered amateurs. Tho she certainly looks pro to me. NGN is tough as nails to finish after that crash. the unlucky Kitten and many others all put in the ride of their lives.


Kitten, Rich and unnamed rider breakaway in Sundays stage race

David Rafferton on the right.. in the sprint for the line

The always pro looking Lisa Coutts

Thanks to Richard for permission to link to the pics

As you may guess my week has itself been full of trivial yet annoying (and mostly not chargeable for) irritations that have screwed my perspective somewhat. However in retrospect I will save writing about my week of tribulations for another post