Dripping

It's like God (I do realise that precipitation is not a divine phenomenon, ta very much. Do you mind if we go with it?) is a repressed fucker standing at the urinal in the local after a couple of Fosters, praying (can He do that?) that the bloke next to Him will not have a bladder the size of Canada and will finish sometime soon so that he can have a little privacy. He could of course unleash a thunderbolt, or - if the Zeus thing is a bit crass for Him - just be omnipresent and move (simultaneously and instantaneously) to a time when He is pissing. Like a Horse. At the same time, He could be having sex with a virgin I suppose, which does throw up some interesting (if not already well explored - even hackneyed - via internet pr0n) ideas

But He doesn't. The dark clouds loom above and I left my bike in the underground garage at work for no good reason (apart from a nagging pain in the small of my back) in anticipation of a Noah-esque deluge. Then it was down the park with the kids for a kick about, and the odd spot made a pathetic attempt to douse the scorched earth, but never produced that Peter North moment. I settled down to watch a decent bit of 5 a side in the court, but didn't get anything there either. Blacks v whites and it was shite - largely because of some really annoying fans sitting close by me.

As I write, the sky is still lowering and the only dampness in the house (and even outside) is down to my sweat glands.

Wonderful

Outside the bins are stinking, uncollected; the bones and flesh and rice suppurating in the 90 degree heat. Dodgy geezers stand in the doorway of the bookies offering weed, and blue bras are visible under floral dresses.



Double astigmatism mean that the eyes are magnified to startling levels, yet I am conscious (however wrong I know it to be) of tight buttocks under the tight short red skirt. There is no 'fear not' or conciliatory words. Only honesty - meaning 'I don't know what the hell is going on!' I am not alone, this much I know.

As we were riding along

I had started a post on women - my take on them, and my views in general about the fairer sex - but it seems to have disappeared. I had chosen my words with extreme caution and kept the post in draft for 2 or 3 days, but yesterday, when I signed in to finish it and hit publish, only the title remained. I really didn't have the heart to try and re-create it, though it was a little disappointing that so much hard work had gone up in smoke. Perhaps it's all to the good, and maybe I'll have another bash at it sometime. Who knows?

Anyway, in an attempt to improve my fitness, and now that both of my daughters are at drama school for 3 hours, I have begun to strike out for a weekend cycle ride on a Saturday morning. Richmond Park has so far been favourite, and today the freakishly sustained spell of hot weather we've been enjoying made the ride a little more taxing. By the end of it, with my far more athletic and immeasurably better equipped companion barely breaking sweat, I was to say the least glad to get out of the saddle.



I will persevere, nonetheless, and it was truly wonderful in the park when we reached there, with parakeets flying around and a sense of peace rarely attained in this sprawling metropolis we call London. We were even engaged in conversation (country style) by a man and his wife about whether or not we had seen the deer. We hadn't and didn't.

Other prime locations I aim to ride to in the coming weeks:

Epping Forest
Windsor Great Park (will utilise trains)
Hampstead (need more leg and lung strengthening)
Berkshire, meaning Maidenhead, etc (will again use trains)

Right now I'm gently humming, from the face to the thighs and looking forward to a glass or two of Shiraz.

Flickr's probably better...

This evening, took a cycle ride with my daughters to a local park. Summer hasn't really happened yet, and the weather has been VERY wet, but this was a truly beautiful evening, and I got to feeling all arty.

The shots below are of a building near my house, all part of the property deal to develop the new Emirates Stadium, just around the corner.

It's a strange aluminium structure, but when the sun shines on it, it's quite striking. Easy to forget that it sits on top of a waste transfer station.





photos