Thursday, 18 June 2009

Hell on Wheels is off for a pie and a pint. Back soon.



You can find me here in the meantime:
Twitter
Facebook
VC Moulin

Sunday, 31 May 2009

what's going on?

been a couple of weeks since my last update and it's been busy-busy-busy.

commissairing at laggan sxc
mr and mrs ross's wedding
last day at work
a pumping at the edinburgh nocturne

looking forward to a little bit of down time. the weather is set fairly fair, so plan is mainly drinking coffee in the back garden and bike riding this week, before heading down to bristol bike fest next weekend.

before i go, a little music.

Friday, 15 May 2009

more music



edit: was listening to this last night trying to remember what i'd seen it used for. settled on an advert or something. but it was better than that. much better.

http://gallery.me.com/snappergeoff#100555

Monday, 11 May 2009

bass in your face

Friday, 8 May 2009

the poor dears

Carron Valley Development Group
Forestry Commission Scotland
Carron Valley Development Group
Forestry Commission Scotland
Carron Valley Development Group
Forestry Commission Scotland

Well hello there friends. I'm glad you could join us. A particularly warm welcome to those reading at Silvan House (or is it Inverness)?

It would appear that some of the images linked from in this post caused a little upset to Forestry Commission Scotland. So much so that someone went crying to teacher (see point 32) and used it as an example of why Forestry Commission Scotland were correct in refusing CVDG access to information requested in the summer of 2007.

To fill you in on the background - a number of information requests were made following the Mysterious Case of the Project Initiation Document (which aimed to put the plans of the Carron Valley Partnership to Forestry Enterprise Scotland's board for approval). As CVDG was a group of volunteers with day jobs, the requests were split between members of the group to ensure that no individual member was lumbered [sorry] with all of the work.

All of these requests were knocked back by Forestry Commission Scotland as vexatious or persistent under section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act. Members of the group then set about the long process of appealing this decision to the relevant bodies. Additionally, a request that I made directly to the Scottish Government was apparently passed to Forestry Commission Scotland, although was then passed back to the Scottish Government for them to knock back.

Embarrassingly for Forestry Commission Scotland (and the Scottish Government), all of the cases that were referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner or the Information Commissioners Office found in favours of members of CVDG.

I like to think of Hell-on-Wheels as a friendly talking shop, so if anyone from Forestry Commission Scotland happens to be reading and would like to comment then feel free to use the facilities provided using the comment page . If you're shy and would like to raise a point / apologise in private then please get in touch by email*.

* although I'll post anything funny here...

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

atlantic IPA and pretty pictures

brew dog are rapidly becoming my favourite scottish brewers -their punk ipa is my current house beer

check johanna basford's amazing label design for their atlantic ipa!



braw!

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

rock hard

the eagles of death metal rocked glasgow. if you get the chance, go see 'em.

Posted by Picasa

stretching

Monday, 30 March 2009

FRBOTY

took a while to nail, after christopher and me failed to knock off a FBROTY in the comrie area, but a select VCM managed to score a proper FBROTY before the clocks changed with a circumnavigation of ben lomond.



dean, jac, chris, jon and me paid homage to the Ben with a grand loop featuring a shit load of forest road, a lot of singletrack and a wee beer. i knew it'd be a good day when i spotted the snow capped arrochar alps from the forth road bridge. quick pit stop at the services for a bacon and egg roll (remind me not to have one of those again) and it was on to Balmaha for the main course.

for a proper ride report see here.

afterwards - dragged my sorry ass home and inhaled a pizza, with an emergency chiproll delivery to boot. two glasses of pinot noir and i was off to slumberland.

great way to kick off the bigrideseason.

Sunday, 22 March 2009

i am my own gunnery sergeant hartman



missing out on mallorca has left a mallorca shaped hole in my riding plans for the spring and a mallorca sized extension to my tumbet tummy . just over 1100 miles for the year so far, but that should have been at least 1800. i need to get tough to get back on track.

it's not rocket science. more exercise, less food.

so, from tomorrow it's hurt time.

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

backtonormal(ish)

it's been a tough couple of weeks here at the hell-on-wheels mansion.

a weekend of r&r in aviemore has helped - 72 hours of mountain cafe-mountain spirit-royal tandoori-sleep-mountain cafe-loch an eilein-inshriach nursery-cairngorm brewery-fire-old bridge inn-sleep-snow-mountain cafe-snow-bothy bikes-snow-fire -snow-old bridge inn-snow-pizza-sleep-mountain cafe sure does help mend broken spirits.






Monday, 2 March 2009

brrr!boy is go!


shaggy is now underway in the iditarod trail invitational.

gie it laldy sunshine!




read/hear more here:
http://www.dazeoftundra.com/
http://www.alaskaultrasport.com/latest_news.html
http://mtbcast.com/wordpress/

Monday, 23 February 2009

helluvaweek

on the lighter side, have worked out where the hair is going.



moustache time again?

Sunday, 22 February 2009

more sad

Is there for honest Poverty
That hings his head, an' a' that;
The coward slave-we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that.
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The Man's the gowd for a' that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an' a that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man's a Man for a' that:
For a' that, and a' that,
Their tinsel show, an' a' that;
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that:
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that;
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.

Friday, 13 February 2009

sad

After a long battle with ilness, my Mum's dog Nina had to be put down today. A lovely, daft, lazy labrador and she'll be sorely missed.

age?

managed to leave the house this morning without my rucsac. first time in 13 years of bike commuting.
i don't allow for contingency in my morning routine.

0805 rise
0806 start reading on bog
0820 finish chapter, put down book
0821 switch on radio scotland
0822 start dressing and pack rucsac
0830 leave house
0837 board train

if anything goes wrong in this tight schedule there's trouble.

trouble arrived.

realised about 500m from the train station and 1000m from home. bag contains shirt, undercrackers, socks, keys, phone, wallet tools and train tickets. thank fuck we've got rid of the yale lock...

swear-sprint-grab-swear-sprint-swear-train-phew!

EDIT: yes, i know the worst that could have happened here was being an hour late for work, but you don't know how time bound i am...

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

revolver