One planet

Respect what you love and you need... (please click on the Bold Blue external links)

no take-away!

OK, a different culture, a different country, where coffee/caffeine is recognised as a drug. People go in to a bar on a lunch break, down the espresso, and can continue their day.

I know that i am definitely not alone, by suggesting that primarily Starbucks are to blame. They have continued a true American style, exporting their king-size portions, worldwide. The culture of greed, has taken-over. There are rival ‘high-street-chain-stores’ who compete identically for a portion of the market. These companies all serve a piping-hot espresso, to hold a customer inside the shop whilst they sell them further sugary sweets. No matter how English people think, we don’t have a ‘coffee-culture’, we have a ‘fast-food greed’. Most people no-longer need a cup and saucer, for their coffee.

Do you need a ‘Friggin’ knife and fork?!

OK, enough rambling and complaining about others. Sorry!

I am in a wheelchair at the moment, but i still regard myself as ‘a cyclist’, in many ways. My love of the professional sport peaked in the very same period that the sport was suffering perhaps it’s toughest test. My visit to the Alps in the summer of 2006  showed me a Tour that was imploding, but remained to fight strong.

My sport!… Le Tour 2006

Le Tour 2006

Friends have always recognised my fascination with cheating in sport. Cheating still exists, if you can be bothered looking. If no-one looks, there is never a problem! 

A brief explanation of 'the absurd' that we all face...

The above quote is from my current read 'The Meursault Investigation', by Kamel Dauod. Meursault being the main character of Albert Camus' 'The Outsider'.

Further apologies. The next paragraph may be so boring for you. I include it for myself. I review my own performance, near the start of this year. I will follow up throughout the year.

I have started a lot earlier this year, on my Gym-bike, as i have a ‘Gym-bike goal’ that I believe i could reach by the end of this year, or next. Having known how my strength/power on the pedals, increased last year, I want to continue the improvement.

Monday, not happy with my ‘Gym performance on Gym-bike’.

But, it is January!

50metres short of last week’s ‘5min sprint’ (same gear/resistance)

Ok, not important, but disappointing and frustrating!

Tuesday, disappointing home-based performance :(

Wednesday - ‘Rest Day’ , hospital physiotherapy session

Thursday - 50/50

A 10minute test. A similar distance achieved to PB, but subconsciously balanced leg power output, exactly! :)

Friday ?

I haven’t ridden yet!...

Saturday or Sunday.  One day ride, one day rest.

The latest newsletter for the Kingston Green Party is currently being printed. I have changed the layout of the classic 'political party newsletter'. The Green Party is different, and will not remain stuck in an old fashion. I will provide some photos of a printed version, when ready.

Please click this link for more.

Global Inequality

This is sickening.

We all live in a period, in which our home is suffering. We must all realise that we need our home. We will all be capable of keeping our home, if we all work together. Such diverse extremes of wealth will not allow us to share our vast quantities of knowledge. We must pool our knowledge, to attempt the battle that we face. Everyone is missing out through nationalism. We must unite. Our home is just one planet, Earth.

Ride Green

I found the beginning element of this post, last week, but I was scared of ‘eco-friendly overkill’! I didn't want to turn you away. An interesting tool, waking everyone up...

How polluted is the air in your street?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42566393

Most readers here will have worked out my 'PG logo'. However, I am scared that I may need to spell it out clearly for some!...

Football 

Aaaaah, memories of classic Premiership title confrontations between Arsenal and Manchester United. A few key players stand out in my memory, however there is one legend that stands above all!

KEEEEEOWN!!

Martin Keown reveals how he used to intimidate Sir Alex Ferguson

This machine will, will not communicate

These thoughts and the strain I am under

I sit in my local bar/cafe, which is a comfortable, relaxed experience during the week. Then the weekend comes, everyone lives with friends or family. No-one knows. Rows of houses, all bearing down on me. I am greatly comforted by the radio presenting Radiohead, and Mr Yorke’s vocals faaaading out agaaaaaaaaaaain.

I finish my cappuccino and leave at the end of the song, rapidly. I can’t stay here.

I'm not posting the song. You should know which one... no?

Inspired by the tragic loss of the great David Bowie. Super music, by Lost Horizons

http://www.backseatmafia.com/track-lost-horizons-on-the-day-you-died/

My life is different to everyone else’s. No matter how hard that I continue to try, I live a different life to most people in ‘the normal’ world.

As soon as I start feeling negative, I get angry with myself, and immediately consider all the positives!

I am constantly ‘stuck in the middle’. I may never feel ‘100% happy’’ again, but I can never allow myself to feel down, as i know how far I have progressed.

Rosa, Azzura, Ciclamino e Bianca

Overall, Mountains, Points, Young age

The four colours leading different competitions in the first Grand Tour of the year, the 101st Giro D’Italia. 

It has been recognised for many years that these three-week long national tours have such a damaging impact upon the environment. Finally, this problem is taken seriously, and although impact may only be reduced a small amount, it is a start. There is no 'Maglia Verdi' this year, but the entire Giro is to ride Green!

http://www.giroditalia.it/eng/ridegreen/

The race is again, starting in a foreign country. The 101st edition starts in Jerusalem and finishes in Rome.

May 4th in Jerusalem

May 28th in Rome 

A shorter post this week, so i include some music that i rediscovered. Released when I was a university student, in 2003. I loved this music, but I cannot believe that I had missed the CD out, when copying my entire collection onto iPod!

The Cooper Temple Clause were a personal favourite, although i never saw them live. I listen now and compare to Mogwai (Mogwai much more instrumental, but similar).I understand my attraction. I still love the contrast in styles between electronic rhythms and hard-rock, both used in a single song.

My final note, this week, is to advertise ‘the way forward’.

One shop can embrace steps into the future, but we must encourage others to follow. General public awareness, has grown over recent years, but our problem is the requirement of a culture-shift by the entire Globe. 

Please act correctly, and sign this petition.

https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/plastic-free-supermarkets

If Iceland can do it, what stops others?

'alternative'

My espresso cup

today...

I have now selected my Espresso Cup that I carry about me, in my bag. I go into coffee shops, asking for it to be used. I only have Espressos during the weekdays. Longer drinks are had at home, in the evening. Many of you may be puzzled, why I do this, and truthfully, effect may be minimal. I aim just to raise a vague awareness of a ‘potential-culture-shift’, that i would love and embrace...

new charge

Stay in the shop. Drink an espresso quickly!

• Independent Coffee Shops need customers to use their shop correctly.
• Caffeine must be recognised as a drug, duly respected by everyone. People need coffee ‘hits’. Do not consume what is not necessary. Just drink shots of Espresso.
• Plastic, ‘throw-away’ cups turn into non-biodegradable litter in under 30mins after being bought in a shop.
• Respect. Show respect to the shop that you have bought your drink from. If you like coffee, pay it attention. 
• Few humans can sufficiently multi-task whilst pedestrians and coffee drinkers, simultaneously.
• Primarily, the issue is ‘the fight against littering the planet, for eternity’
• We need to preserve our planet. Why use more plastic?

‘On-the-go culture’ is destroying us!

I have found this news item, and I welcome this concept...

Introduce a 5p Charge on Disposable Coffee Cups

news

I noted this recognition, earlier in the week. I had previously rejected these very initial thoughts, as i really didn’t want to recollect how i felt. Very truthful, very honest. Straight after this, I felt shame for my girlfriend, but initially 

Some of my first thoughts, after ‘waking’...

• where am I?
• ‘Hospital? I am going to have lost so much fitness.’
• ‘I will be so slow, on my bike...’
• ‘Shit! This is a serious tragedy that I cannot even ride my bike...’
• ‘What will I do?’
• ‘Oh, I can’t even walk! I’ll just have to re-learn’
• ‘It may take time, but hey, s*** happens!’
• I regret nothing. Keep your mind. Be proud of keeping your mind.

Halfway through a tasty lunch on Monday, after morning Gym, I enjoy a plate of scrambled egg on toast. I pause. 

These clear moments of reality hurt me. I have no choice but to try and twist things. 

I am halted, as a girl wearing a dangerously short skirt has walked past me to join her friends. My head gets twisted around as I observe (I am male).

I continue eating. Knife and fork, but ‘incorrectly’. I am quite proud of this however, as I know how far I have progressed. 

Unfortunately I know I must ‘stick out like a sore thumb’, because of my disabled individuality. Everyone who doesn’t know me, must be looking down on me. This is a shattering fact. I feel forced ‘to play my wildcard’. 

I am a lucky man.

Professional cycling is now a global event.

Although my focus usually begins with ‘Paris-Nice’ (early March), I welcome my passion to start sooner, this year… 

TDU

January 14-21, Wakefield Road, Adelaide,

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-down-under-2018/

Some photos make me laugh...

Some fools deserve to feel disrespected...how do we shake hands?

****! (There are 'alternative' descriptions)

A hero, that is a regular appearance on this blog!..

Diane Birch @ Stageit 01/31/2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtihCYFUWcg

Opens with a super cover of George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’

so lucky

It felt weird, but good, going to bed on New Year’s Eve, sober!

New year’s eve was spent with parents in the afternoon, and i had decided to spend the night by myself. I went to bed at about half past midnight. I realised that I was feeling strange, I was not living ‘in-care’, or ‘drunk with friends’. I was allowed some clear thought. Very content. Chemical Brothers brought in my 2018, with some old tunes!

A new year. I have a strong enough mentality to know that I do not make a New Year resolution for myself. If one has a suggestion and i want to adopt it, I will. However, if one thinks of a ‘new year resolution’, I doubt that there is any reason to wait until new year for change.

You cannot wait for change. If you do, it will never happen. If you want change, you must attempt to create it yourself. Then you will know that either fate welcomes the change, or by failure, it is proved impossible.  As long as you maintain the idea yourself, and keep the flame burning inside, eventually fate will provide more chances. Failure only exists when both the idea and the flame, has died. 

We are all so lucky

I am sure that you are all fed-up with my deep philosophical ramblings, but you’re here reading my words, so good luck! It is Thursday, and fortunately I began today, feeling in a state of disbelief. Nothing but utter astonishment, when i considered how lucky we all are (both past and present). We all owe our life to our parents, obviously, but entire humanity is such a special concept. The overwhelming scale of ‘Entire Humanity’ is too large for any of us to consider, so can only be a concept. This is why we all must do what we can to prolong it. Humans live only on Earth. We must respect what we need. Now we can sense harm, it hurts. Fact. This is not FAKE NEWS!

St John’s Road

I visited a brilliant coffee shop, near Clapham Junction yesterday. ‘2 Love Tea and Coffee’.

http://independentcoffeeshops.blogspot.co.uk/p/2good.html

Not only is it a super coffee shop, but my journey down St John’s Road, is special for me. There is a lack of curbs on this street. It may sound strange to able-bodies, but it was extremely liberating for myself in a wheelchair. I could cross the road whenever the road was empty!

I am used to always searching for traffic lights and road crossings. A slight, shallow gutter could not trap me!

Fun, fun, fun. I realise that I could be seen as very, very weird. I still find great joy in viewing professional team kits of elite cycling.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rate-the-2018-worldtour-team-jerseys-poll/

2018...

My excuse, is that I have forever been like this. Since watching the electric green and orange colours of Gianni Bugno’s Gatorade team, or the suspect Denim/Lycra of Claudio Chiapucci’s Carrera, at the Tour de France of the early 90s, I have been hooked. My pinnacle was the book that i created in 2006.

A mini-sample...

https://patrickgoodacre.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/shrunk-colours1.pdf

My football teams’ levels of successes, switches my focus to ‘professional-cycling’. 

Ten very useful transfers, ahead of this season...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/top-10-rider-transfers-to-watch-in-2018/