A very wee bike ride in advance of the big huge one...

Well, the ride begins officially next Wednesday, the 19th, and tonight I managed 12 miles in calm conditions round the Ronas Voe/Gluss Water circuit. I've abandoned the toeclips and returned to clipless SPD pedals, and what a difference. How I ever thought I could manage without them I don't know.
The biggest worry is the weather, and that will only be a major issue in Shetland, where a headwind on Wednesday morning would be a disaster. I have to cover 36 miles into Lerwick and then do a radio show before catching the ferry south, and so far 12 miles is the most I've cycled. I am nervous about this first leg of the journey, and so at the moment I'm planning to take the van into Lerwick on Monday, leave it there and catch the bus home, then cycle into Lerwick either on Tuesday morning, if the weather's good, or Tuesday night. Then I could drive the van home with the bike, and drive into Lerwick on Wednesday. Or just wait until Wednesday. That way I get the chance of three possible weather windows.
One way or another, it's on. The hardest bits are the first, err... four days - Hillswick to Lerwick (36 miles) Aberdeen to Montrose (anything between 40 and 55 miles depending on the route), Montrose to Strathmiglo (60-odd) and a whopping 70 to Glasgow, though that's a Saturday and I've got the whole day and evening if necessary. Whose idea was this anyway?

Experimenting...

...with blogging-by-email. If it works, this will be visible. Which
means I can blog from my mobile phone - something I need to do daily
while on Tom's Big Bike ride. It's a pity Blogger won't support
pictures from mobiles. That only works in the USA, for some reason. I
have however, begun a blog on Moblog UK which can handle pictures, and
the first tentative attempts, thanks to my eBay-bought Nokia 9500
Communicator, can be found at
http://moblog.co.uk/blog/tommy

DR FEELGOOD

There's so much on youtube to wallow in...but all I can say is that I saw this lot at the Apollo in, oh, was it 1976? And was knocked sideways. As for Wilko Johnson's haircut and suit...remind you of anyone, Alex?

On yer bike!

Yes, it's really happening! Check out Tom's Big Bike Ride for more. No, it's not Lycra. It's not even Gore-tex. It's just yellow.

Auld claes an' parritch

...or back to the afternoons, to be precise, after a fortnight of the 10.30 - 12.30 slot. Has to be said the late nights take a bit of getting used to. I mean, even if you're going to bed normally at 1.00 am, the amount of adrenalin left after two hours on air does not make for immediate and easy slumber. Still, I really enjoyed broadcasting at that time of night - there's a whole different, much calmer atmosphere to it, a sense of intimacy. Whatever.
Having said that, the afternoon show is like being back among old friends, and I'm touched and grateful by all the 'welcome back' messages. I'll be off for even longer - four weeks - in August, touring the nightclubs and fleshpots of England and Scotland with Joe West from Texas and my son James while John Beattie and James MacPherson take on the show.
Anyway, to more pressing matters: peat. Our friend Lornie has cut three peat banks for us this year, and we're very, very late in tackling the crucial drying processes (raising, turning, stacking, bagging). It was a beautiful night, so I headed off on the bike for a couple of hours' backbreaking toil. Traditionally women's work, I can see why men didn;t fancy it. I'm aching, and I didn't even get one peat bank raised.
It's quite important, as we're thinking of moving much more to a solid fuel heating regime this winter. Oil has become catastrophically expensive, and looks like getting worse. So we're pondering some kind of basic windpower heating system, topped up with solid fuel (peat) or maybe retaining the oil for emergencies. At any rate, the sheer brutal tedium and physical work in peat production is essential to the plan. So it's off to the hill every night, if the weather's reasonable. Shouldn;pt have any trouble sleeping after that!