The Hare and Tortise

Add another winner to the list! Since we walk most everywhere, and usually aren't specifically heading out for food, we have been systematically making lists of places we that look good and where we want to try someday. We had probably walked past this place 20 times, its on the way from our flat to High Street Kensington, but I had forgotten all about it. So when we started stratching our heads about where to eat tonight Kristen pulled this one out of the way-back file.


Good thing for sure because it was outstanding. (oh and my favorite part....awesome heating!! Nothing worse than having to wear a coat and hat to eat your dinner) While we were waiting for a table we got to watch the juicer mix up some foamy carrot drink that perked my attention, but didn't end up going that route, maybe the more adverturous of you can give it a whirl. From my perspective I would say it was like a mix between pei wei, a sushi place, and the cheap family chinese resturant where you order by number. (I'll take a R3 and an F11, you know the one) Food was excellent, and from a London perspective cheap. Don't think that means cheap, just less than everywhere else.


I guess we have never mentioned this, but food in resturants is outrageous here. Its strange because at the grocery store, I always feel like things are for the most part cheaper than the US, and there are always crazy deals for like half off or 3 for 2 or something. On top of that the fruit and vegatables are awesome! We don't eat as much as we should but in general they taste way better than the in the U.S. Not sure where they are grown, but its probably better I don't know anyway. If you can get over the prospects of buying from what may appear to be a less reputible establishment, i.e. randon convenience store or street market, the deals are even better. Sorry a little bit of a rant there!


Anyway, so we are getting ready to eat and Kristen says, I want to order everything, of course just jokingly. Shortly there after these 3 asian women sit down next to us, and I swear they did order everything on the menu. Let me try to recap from memory, remember 3 women:


Edemame
Eel Sushi Role
Potstickers
Giant bowl of Ramen
Eel and rice bowl
Shrimp Tempura
Noodle bowl (same as mine)
Tea and saki


Not sure where they were putting it all, but had put in a big dent by the time we left. I can only imagine that they finished it all off after we left.

Roads

Woke up this morning to another cloudy and cold day and can't say I was excited at all about the prospect of riding my bike in the cold again. I was looking for any reason not to, and even considered a ride on the trainer as a more attractive option. Sad I know. As the morning wore on, the sun started to break through and by noon, it was a bright sunny day. And not British sunny, where you catch a peek every 10 minutes, but full on American sunny. I was fully persuaded and headed out to see what I could discover.



My plan was to ride for an hour in one direction and see where I ended up. Turned out, a tremendous success, as I ended up in West Byfleet. It didn't mean anything to me so I am sure it won't to anyone else, but nonetheless. Going out was fine, since I didn't have a destination in mind, I couldn't be lost, but the ride home was a tad more deliberate. Only made two wrong turns, so I would call it a success.

It seems funny to me how spread out things are as soon you get out of London. Its almost as if, people had been so constrained that as soon as they got a chance at freedom and space they went crazy. Golf courses, rugby, football, and cricket fields everywhere, even a horse track. Oh and did I mention huge estates, left and right?

The biggest impression of the day was made by the roads. Huge disparity in the quality of roads which all seemed to be equally well traveled. Even from one mile to the next on the same road was quite different. From what I could only imagine was the latest in German engineered super smooth asphalt, to the super rough chip seal. Think Tulsa's worst and then think about it being resurfaced for the last 100 years. Yeah that bad! I was praying for a Tulsa style pot hole just to break the monotony of the vibrations. (bad day for El G) The majority of the day was spent on what I would call 'normal' roads. Pavement is just ok but I can't count the number of road grates, and manholes. Way too many to count.



Saw my first pay on the honor system golf course today. Just a little box on the first tee to drop off your £10. Not sure if you would be getting your money's worth even that cheap. The clubhouse had been completely boarded up, so I hope nobody needed to 'take care of business'.
Even saw two Mustangs and two Cameros, they stuck out like sore thumbs. American cars have to be close to twice as wide as British cars, they barely fit in the lanes

It may not have been 70 degrees, but how often do you see one of these on your bike ride?

Race Repot 1/29/11

Unfortunately the same story as you have heard before as far as results, but overall I am happy. Went to Hillingdon today even though I had written it off two weeks ago, I needed to talk to a guy about riding on a new team. Weather Channel mobile told me that it was going to be 40 even though I left the house at 34. I wore alot of clothes on the ride out, and it was downwind so I was pretty warm when I got there. (This wouldn't be the case 1 hour later) Since it was supposed to warm up and I was already warm I decided to race with just leg warmers and two undershirts.

The race was as per usual, still can't understand how so many people seem to be able to follow wheels with absolute ease, but nobody in the race can make it split. After last Saturday's debacle I decided to take the week off so I actually felt really good today. I did a number of attacks that nobody wanted to follow, and since I didn't want to try to go solo for any length of time I kept pulling the plug on them. One held promise though, I had attacked and a Junior racing for Ralpha Condor Sharp (they are kinda like the Jelly Belly of the UK) came across, and we went about sharing the work for the next couple of laps. Unfortunately for me, the wind was blowing from the opposite direction as previously, which made the back of the course too fast for the Junior I was away with. He was spun out of his restricted gearing so he couldn't really help, and then he would hammer away as the wind changed, wasn't the smoothest working escape in the history of cycling, that is for sure. It was all together with two to go and my last ditch attack was quickly put down by another the Junior who had won two weeks ago. The sprint to the line went as expected, and I coasted in mid pack. 24.9m in 1h:01m:20s. Average speed 24.4mph. I would be really interested to see my HR data from the race but I inadvertantly loosened the strap on my monitor instead of tightening it. Ended up wearing it around my stomach for the entire race. Stangely enough it doesn't quite work there.

A lap or two to cool down and I started to realize that I was completely frozen. I guess the race kept me focused on other things than how I was feeling but as soon as the Adrenalin was gone, the pain set in. Could barely take off my gloves, and even after I got all my clothes on and had a cup of tea, was still shivering. One of the promoters even came over and offered me a blanket, which I promptly declined, as that would have been admitting I was to stupid to dress myself. I must have looked really awful as she came back and asked if I wanted to go sit in the first aid room by the heater. I scoffed that I was fine and forced back the shivers until she left. Stupid Weather Channel Mobile said it was 36 with a wind chill of 25 after the race was over. Hope everyone in Tulsa enjoyed wearing shorts today! Its been 10 hours now and 9 of 10 of my fingers have feeling back so that is a good sign. I am headed to bed. Good Night.

Furry Friday

Bob got some new sunglasses and Hampton wanted to check them out.

Bread Sauce

I know what you are thinking... what the hell is it, and what does it taste like? Well wonder no more. I was the good little foreigner today and stepped out of my comfort zone and tried something new. Big mistake. I thought 'I love bread this sounds great' wrong. It appeared to be little more than bread and water all mixed up to a consistency of oatmeal. Tasted like warm feet. Consider yourself warned.

On a brighter note I sat next to this girl Laura White on the train home tonight. She was a finalist on the X Factor (its like American Idol for the UK) in 2008, ended up 8th. Not that I had ever heard of her before or anything but other people kept coming up to her. She said Simon Cowell was really nice but kinda made a face at the same time, so I don't know what that really means. I guess things like that happen in a city like this. Sad to say somebody I don't even know was my first celebrity sighting, but hell the closest I ever got in Tulsa was Julie Chin.

Adventure home

Ended up having quite an adventure on the way home tonight. Usually when I tell Kristen that it means that my journey went all to shit and ended up taking an hour too long or something, but this time it was an positive experience. As a side note, I just rewrote the sentence above as the first draft I said 'amazingly positive'. Who am I kidding there is no chance a trip to Reading will be amazingly positive unless I end up getting there on a flying carpet or that dragon thing from 'the Neverending Story'. Anyway one of our tax guys lives in Uxbridge and drives in everyday. So since he was leaving I talked him into giving me a ride half way so Slough. Now Slough in and of itself isn't too exciting, but bear in mind my usual day is train work train eat sleep I was pretty pumped. Looked a lot like outskirts of London except for the British Burger King headquarters, "Home of the Whopper". Best of all I got to ride in a car. I can count the times I have been in a car since I have been here on one hand so it was a rare treat. Driving on the wrong side of the road I only had two or three code brown moments so that was good. The guy driving thought I was a huge dork every time I spazzed out thinking we were going to hit something.

From Slough we jumped on the first train back to London, but I say train loosely. Was more of a glorified subway, or maybe even an airport tram. Not sure how those are differentiated but anyway. Since we were stopping at every town anyway I decided to take a chance a catch the tube in the first town I could. Turned out an awesome move on my part. Had never been to the end of the line before. It was so sad, like a underground ghost town. There were probably only five or so people on the entire tube, and nobody at all in the car I was in. Kept waiting for a tumbleweed to blow by. But like I said great move, ended up from Ealing Broadway to Baron's Court in like 15 minutes and finished it off as the shortest journey home ever. Sadly though still an hour fifteen. Back to normal tomorrow but a break from the monotony for at least one night was nice.

Tate Modern

We have been planning on going to the Tat Modern since just about our first day here, but for whatever reason kept putting it off, till now. I think part of it was we had been to so many museums already and had gotten a little burnt out. I wish we had gone earlier, as it turned out that I enjoy modern art far more than 'old' art. Not sure if any of the stories or information about some of the exhibits have made it over to the US, or not but the main reason for going as been to see Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds. (more later) It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, and as a 'artistic design' they retained the original shape while renovating it to an art gallery.

The entrance to the Tate Modern is through the old Turbine Hall, you can see how this could have been a power station.
Sunflower Seed is made up of over one hundred million seeds, all hand painted ceramic seeds. The say it is to make us question things. 'What does it mean to be an individual in today's society? Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together? What do our increasing desires, materialism and number mean for society, the environment and the future?' But I just thought it was cool to look at, and the only thing it made me think was 'wow, thats a lot of seeds'. I guess I am not too philosophical.

The grey area is the seeds
Close up
Picasso

I will let you guess who's exhibit this is.
Monet

Jackson Pollock

Not sure who this was, but I just thought it looked cool.

Millennium Foot Bridge, leading to St. Paul's Cathedral. I miss driving a car, but hard to take your own picture while driving, so I guess the tube has its perks.

Race Report 1/22/10 - Debacle!!

I knew I had had enough of Hillindon, so had plans to go to the other side of London to Redbridge to race a similar series at Hog Hill. Another purpose built cycle center, similar to Hillingdon in just about every way except for a pretty significant incline coming up to the line. All in all the course was 2 km, and I would say it reminded me alot of racing at Fire Hill in Edmond. I am sure you are wondering 'what about the debacles?' don't worry they come fast and furious.

Kristen decided to come with me, a decision I am sure she regrets now, so we left about 10:30 for a 12:30 race. There was about a 100% chance that I got lost if I tried to ride there, so we took the tube, to where I thought was next door to the circuit. First problem occurred when there was a signal failure and we got stuck between stations for about 30 minutes, only to have to exit before our stop and move on by foot. I had about 15 minutes to make it to the start at this point, and in my mind had already given up hope. Good thing, because what I thought was going to be a couple of blocks from the station to the circuit turned into more than a miles walk. Kristen must have been hating life at this point, but I was relieved as I was able to ride the 2/3 race at 1:45. A good warm up and I was ready to go, but my bike obviously wasn't. On the second lap I started thinking to myself, man this is hard! Half a lap latter, I knew why. Almost sliding out in a corner knew that I had a rear wheel going down. Of course, couldn't be any further away from the pit, so I had a good 5 minute jog back to the pit. Changed the rear and was ready to go only to find out that the front wheel was flat too. Another wheel and another lap and I was finally back in.

Things didn't seem too fast, and I was hoping the worst was over at this point. The first time we hit the hill after the wheel change I realized the worst was yet to come. I couldn't seem to find a gear until I got all the way to the largest cog in the back, and that wasn't enough to keep to with the group. Turned out that while the organizers were willing to provide wheels for flats, they weren't willing to provide 10 speed cassettes. In case you didn't know, 10 speed mech and 9 speed cassette not a good combination. And so it went from there on. Chase, chain skips all over the place, get dropped, chase......... I really had no idea what was going on in the rest of the race, or how hard or easy it was for everyone else. Crazy hard for me, and pretty sure I finished dead last. Unless one of the other 10 or so punctures didn't get back into the race. Once the race was over there was nothing I wanted to do more than go home. But of course, had to walk the long way back to the tube, pushing a bike with two flat tires the whole way.

My Saturday races usually take 3 hours door to door, we were gone today for almost 7. Complete debacle. I hope Kristen got all the pictures she wanted to today, because I don't think she will be returning any time soon. Will see when I go again. I am sure things will be good tomorrow but for now pretty depressed about the whole situation. First things first, gotta go buy some tubes now.

Hands down hardest part of the race. I and cycling shoes not made for running
First...rear wheel. Notice how muddy shoe covers are? Ground was super muddy, and wet, feet were soaked for the rest of the race.

And then the front!

Furry Friday

My dogs don't know they are dogs. I took them to the park and they sit on the bench.

Turbo hopped onto the bench.

Hampton wanted a little help.





They like to peek over the walls when we go on walks.



Belgian Waffles!!

Seriously, have you tried one of these? No not like the Belgian waffle from IHOP, but a real Belgian waffle. (I guess since we are not actually in Belgium, I am still guessing that these are what the are like, but I feel pretty confident.) It was amazing. I have a huge sweet tooth, and even though I planned on passing on dessert the two for one deal was too good to pass by. I think I am still smiling from it. Super dense and super sweet, almost like it was soaked in syrup, and then cooked again. Wow!! On top of that mine was a chocolate waffle, did I mention amazing? Add two scoops of Gelato, and you got yourself heaven.


P.S. I don't quite think it was diet friendly.


Also P.S. if you don't know what marscapone gelato is take note..........It is not marzipan, and it is not sweet like icing. Turns out it is a little cheesy, learned that one the hard way.

Race Report 1/16/11

Another race today, but really not much to report. Super windy again so I thought things might end up split up, but for the most part it was business as usual, alot of hiding from the front, and a big sprint at the end. The one highlight, which strangely enough was the lowlight of the race my ill-fated attack, sounds like a broken record huh? This time I blame its failure, on the officials. Let me set the scene...they ran our race simultaneously with the women's 123 race, so we were lapping them throughout the race, but they were scheduled to go 10 minutes less than us. So with 7 to go I attack up the rise to the finish, and only 1 other is able to follow, as we roll through the finish line, with a good 50 meters already, all the officials yell 'race is neutralized don't catch the women'. I couldn't believe it, how bad of timing could you get! We sit for 2 laps while the women clear the course, and then get going again. And wouldn't you know it, two guys go up the road. The fear of the wind was like the plague, and they held 15 to 20 seconds till 1 to go. One of the guys got dropped leaving a lone rider out front. I came through with half a lap to go to see if anyone else wanted to give it a go, but no response. Soon the sprinters came by and ended up within 50 or so meters of the winner. Who turns out to be some 16 year old who races for the national team. Looks like someone missed their mark on that one. Super unlucky for me, but not that bad. Legs were heavy and tired from the wind and the constant attacks up the hill to the finish. 1 hr 23.5 mph. Going to Hog Hill next week for sure.

Busy day

Lots going on today, not much for using the weekend to sit back, relax, and recover from a long week, but would rather see everything and pass out at the end of the day rather than sit on the couch all day. Up and out early this morning for the Saturday morning ride around Richmond park. Must be back in shape now, dominated that guy with the fenders. Back home and on the road again for the real activities for the day.

First on the agenda was a trip to Canary Wharf to see the London Ice Sculpture Championship. Not knowing what to expect I guess I was a little disappointed as I had set my expectations too high. Just people carving ice. Yeah cool to see but was a pretty small competition. Looking back I guess it makes sense, there probably just aren't that many people out there that do this sort of thing. It was interesting none the less, but don't think I will be searching out another show. I am sure they weren't counting on 54 degrees today which couldn't have been helping things much.

Turned out that there was a Mexican restaurant, Wahaca,right next to the ice sculpting so we of course were obliged to try it out. Could this be the answer to my prayers? Um yeah no! Good food but just not quite what I am looking for. There seems to be a trend here for that the Mexican restaurants try to do some kind of Mexican/Spanish fusion. Instead of what we are used to they keep trying to turn it into tapas. After we had ate a waiter walked past with a giant burrito, that looked so good, I almost cried. So that makes it 0-5, but I am not giving up hope.

We then headed out to the London bike show. They have been advertising this for like 3 months so I thought it had to be good. It was held in connection with the Outdoor show, and the London Boat Show. Turns out that the bike part was the least impressive (size-wise) but still super cool. I was kinda like a kid in a toy store, and Kristen seemed less than impressed so I guess it was good that she had tea planned with some of her sorority sisters. Once she left I spent the next couple of hours just wandering around taking it all in. They had it all, and I could have spent days just staring at bikes. But wait there is more! The whole production was just a bit more than we are used to in Tulsa. Turns out that to boats, are super popular here, understandably so, since we are on an island.

They had constructed a huge pool and had wakeboarding, kayak, and canoe exhibitions, which were a good rest before the 'MAIN ATTRACTION'. The boat show was well more of a yacht show. No pontoons or bass boats, we are talking super yachts, and huge sail boats. Earlier in the week I couldn't help but wonder why the show ran for an entire week. I soon knew why. There were literally 1,000s of boats every shape and size. With 100 ft. plus yachts on hand I wasn't much for spending my time looking at anything under 75ft. Unfortunately you had to be an invited guest to tour the biggest, and visit the VIP lounges. Still I saw enough to conclude that I need to win the lottery.

Cervelo R5 CA Limited Edition. 12lbs, $24,000 Worth it?

85ft, $4,000,000 Worth it?

Banking district at night, coming home from the Bike Show

Sh!t

Just got shit on by a bird walking home. People say its good luck, those people don't have bird shit in their hair. Busy day today...stay tuned!

Flying Furry Friday

So Hampton has a signature move. You never see her get in it, but you will always find her when she is. Kinda like superman, ducking into a phone booth or something, Hampton just magically appears as 'The Flying Hambone'!! I don't get to see it very often because it seems associated with her mid day naps, but Kristen will send me a picture every once in awhile to show me what I am missing. As best as we can figure out she falls asleep and has some kind of dream that she is Underdog and flying like Superman. Definitely some sort of super hero dog saving the world from evil cats and stopping all the bone robbers. Not sure why she cricks her neck back the way she does, looks super painful. Anyway, here she is making her move.

Turbo tires hard to earn sidekick status but I don't think she has quite mastered it yet