My passport has run out, yes I knew about it last year but was a bit lazy. I did have a few trips to do and didn’t want to run the risk of not going because the passport was not ready yet.
You can’t call the Embassy to book an appointment, you have to go there in person to get the appointment. Because of the number of Danes in this country, I was told, so there is a massive waiting list to get that appointment. So all in all you have to make three trips to the Embassy if you want a new shiny Danish passport.
As soon as you set your feet inside the Embassy you are greeted by posters and magazines telling you that you should have a cycling holiday in Denmark, trust me it is a great place to cycle so do go if you have the chance.
Imagine my disappointment when I saw that the Danish Embassy had put up some massive flower pots outside, well let’s just call them what they are: concrete bollards. Yes, I know there were some issues with some drawings a few years back, but there is a better way to tell …

Thursday I had to got out to Greenford in west London to pick up my new toy, more about that in another post. Since I was in NW6 and therefore not far from the Grand Union Canal, which runs from near the Docklands in east London all the way through north/central London to the west. You can even go as far as Bath and Milton Keynes and beyond if you are that keen.
I jumped on the canal in NW6 and started to ride on what I really hoped would be a pleasant ride across London. Away from the cold north westerly wind and traffic, the sun even came out to play a few times on my journey. This part of London is generally very nice and at bit of nature in the city especially in the spring and summer. Spring hasn’t arrived yet in London. A wee bit late because it’s been cold for a loooong time and we even had snow that lasted more than a few hours. The canal does cut through a few parks and next to other green areas like a golf course, so plenty of green to look at. Even the odd wildlife like ducks, …

A few years back when I decided to go clip less, I search for something that was easy to clip into and easy to learn to use. I don’t like the “proper cycling” shoes as you can’t just jump off your bicycle and have a walk as you please, so I was looking for MTB style cycling shoes. Out of them all stood the Crank Brothers’ eggbeater, since they are four sided and also looked cool and simple.
Four sided : The four sided design made them extremely easy to learn to use. Simple to clip in, no flipping the pedal around to be able to clip in, e.g. just put your foot down and you are clipped in. The four sided design also meant that if you walk around in your cycling shoes or get mud on the pedals, the mud will just fall right off and you still can clip in.
Look : the eggbeaters just looks way cool, great design and the feel of them is like something that will last long and can handle a beating.
Simple : Being new to the game of cycling clip less and cycling shoes, back then, they looked well simple compared …

When Peli came home today she heard the sound of running water. We soon narrowed it down to the pipes behind the shower and it was clearly coming from above.
I’m kinda sad that I didn’t use this blog to list our last problems with running water that wasn’t inside the pipes. Some of you might recall the great flood of 2007/2008 and the resulting lack of kitchen for a year and the bath room for around 3-4 months in 2008. Just because of the “wonderful” tenants upstairs who among other things decided to take the washing machine with them even though it belonged to the owner. They were kind enough to not turn of the water to said machine, which resulted in 2-3 inches of water in the kitchen, hallway and living room upstairs, which of course ended up in our flat. I will not bore you with the other details such as calling out for plumbers, councils, housing trusts and the “brilliant” builders from ROC who had to come back three times to get the kitchen somewhat right. See I’m already going off on one and will leave it at this just for all of us sake.
Anywhoo, we …

… well at least make it so that your users can cross link to each others right away.
Google have just launched their own thing called buzz.google.com, some say it is the twitter/facebook killer, we will see. I do like the fact that it is integrated into my gmail, though I’m still waiting for it on the desktop but my iPhone can buzz already. I also like that I can “tag” my Buzz to a location and add pictures and from what I understand there is no 140 characters limit like on twitter. It is only users of gmail that get the best out of Buzz even if you mark the Buzz public and google picks it up on the map/latitude and live search.
So I still have to cross post onto facebook and twitter to make sure that all my friends will get to read what I have Buzzed. That is why I like wordpress since I can with a plugin get wordpress to post on twitter and facebook for me. But for some reason it is not a official feature or official plugin that does it, I have to test out a few to find one that works with …

The last few miles of a wonderful first ride of the year got ruined by a plonker. And now, after some hours thinking about what happened yesterday, I know that we should maybe have acted differently, since now it is too late. And I honestly can’t be arsed since the work from our side will be a lot and with some banging our heads against the wall for little effect towards the plonker. Such is the system today.
Here is a little background on why I did what I did last night. I ride in a zen-like way and don’t let others egg me on, because when I’ve arrived at my destination I really don’t want to spend time calming down again. Because my work and my friends do not want to hear me ranting along about the bad behaviour of some stupid plonker of a driver, pedestrian or cyclist.
So yesterday we had a day out with great friends and a beautiful ride and were on our way over to some good friends for a cup of tea and cake. This great day I was not in mood to be ruined because of some plonker with no road sense. So therefore …

It is simple, why can’t we get on with it and do it ?
1/ If the global warming, running out of oil etc is wrong and we do have plenty and there is nothing worry about.
2/ It is real and we are running out of oil etc and world as we know it will die in the next 100 years.
No matter which one it is, it isn’t that hard to do anyway, why the heck aren’t we doing it. Because it will be good for us.
- Getting on our bicycle is good for us, makes us smile.
- Better air quality, is good for us to cycle in.
- Cleaner water is good for us, for the thirsty cyclist.
- More work for us, more bicycle mechanics.
- More money (because it will create more jobs), the more bicycles we will buy.
- Happier and healthier humans, will cycle more.
And so I could go on and on.
So why the heck are we stalling and can’t pull out our fingers ? It is a win win for us, ain’t it ?

Last night we went to the O2 Arena in London out on the Greenwich peninsula. It was the first time out there so arriving on bicycle was a bit of a test.
No clear signs for a cyclist from Greenwich town centre and the closer we got we only got a dual carriage way and signs for the dome erm the O2′s parking lots, for cars that is. After been told at one car par that we couldn’t get in there, we doubled back and found a cycle path. This cycle path were not clearly marked as road marking had worn of and there was plenty of grit, gravel and glass on it.
We then by asking found our way to the bicycle parking, quite a few unused Sheffield stands, only used by 10 or so motorbikes and only our bicycles. That told us that the O2 is not a cycling destination :)
We then walked over to the O2 under a marquee which would be a great cover for our bicycles. Walking in it looked like mini Vegas (though I have never been there) with all that light and big screens. The escalators up to the different levels was in full use …

Sorry this is showing my age. I’m from the old school of LEGO, back when the most fancy piece we had was a roof tile.
The joy of play with LEGO is to search for that bit you just saw two minutes ago but can’t for the life of you find again. And then because you could not find what you were looking for, you either built something else or swapped with your fellow Lego builder for the day.
Now this Kiwi company, Box4Blox, have come up with a Lego sorter, NO! It is wrong and should put into the sin bin. As this is totally against the Lego spirit, wrong I say WRONG !
Oh, by the way, Peter and Moira Botherway it is not LEGOS, it is pieces of LEGO !!! And that is said by a Dane who ain’t great with gramma, just read this blog, but I know my LEGO.

I found this one in my daily crawl on the internet. This is many ways correct, though you don’t have to be on your bicycle to make you feel alive a good walk in the local park will do the same. Do you really need to jump into your car to go to the shop for a pint of milk ?
I’m all for cars if we just use when thoughtfully and plan our journey ahead. Ask yourself can this journey be done on foot or on your bicycle before you grab the keys for you car.

Go on, get on your bike it will make you smile :)