Baby Blue Rides Again

27 January – Went to the Blue Mountains to kill a few birds – helped move a table, saw Evil Kath and ever growing family and finally managed to get some good use out of my trusty old steed (who really is quite a young steed but he’s been through a lot) - his brakes, which were completely shot, seemed to be irreplacable due to Vancouver Simon’s policy of using the cheapest parts he can find (which are of decent quality but are impossible to find outside of Vancouver) - managed to fix them up enough to do the Oaks Firetrail – fantastic riding, lots of downhill sections and nothing outside my comfort zone – however, realised when he finished the trail and were on the streets that his brake shoes were so gone I may as well not have had any – going down the steep hill to the causeway with several hairpins meant I had to use grind my own shoe right into the road and even then had to make a very awkward swerve to avoid throwing myself into the steel guard that hid the fifty foot cliff over the water.  I think I might wait until I’ve got the brake thing sorted before I try him again.  Long train ride home but was looking forward to it because I was laden with books, several of which I’d been seeking for many months, but got stuck chatting with an asanine golfer who had a nice road bike for the first chunk of the journey and was so wrecked by the day and the conversation that I slept through the rest of the journey, only to be woken by the ticket inspector (no doubt thinking me some freeloading bum).  Watched Dreamgirls at night, which despite being a diva’d up musical was relatively entertaining and even a little bit moving at time.  But not that much.