Somebody Needs More Attention

All Hallow's Eve - theme days can be stressful - despite not being in North America i found myself being dragged into feeling slightly guilty about not getting into the pagan spirit - a last ditch effort to find something at K-Mart failed to provide something suitable scary to fit the bill but a trusty old mesh shirt meant I had something that was at least really not corporate nor slothful and was better than nowt and also a bit braver than a two dollar Scream mask that some settled for.  Still, some people take this stuff far too seriously.  Far too seriously.  Unfortunately bugs are in the air and they're making some people ill which is definitely not boding well for week's end developments.  Trying to decide whether Leopard is the Vista that Mac had to have.   Illness seems to be causing a bit of stress around my world but can be fixed I'm sure ... staying up far too late these days, have decided that I don't really like the tone of Mr Hamilton's Scorcher ... i don't like two button suits but i do like trousers without pleats and cuffs ... the Orchard still has no soul but at least it's got decent food these days ... Alleycats are great but I think I've been out of the business too long - three checkpoints and I blanked on all of them ... nobody can trackstand like the Pretty Boy and very few people can hop kerbs like Dottie ... well, the house is officially warm now - almost midnight visit to the grocery store where we battled the security guard for access to kosher foods and a morning run around town to get meats which I'm hoping wasn't canine (although truth be told, I wouldn't be too disappointed if it was, i am trying to increase my animal range) and various forms of alcoholic beverages and a barbecue on which to cook said meats and to drink said beverages around.  Standard waiting around for people to turn up - came in a torrent (more like a bit torrent actually, a few people here and there then a gush as we hooked up with seeds and peers then a gradual let off as we came to the end of the download) - Robespiere regaled me with his tales of Bangkok (im glad he took my advice), lots of babies with far too much energy, others had less energy ... most gone by 9 which was good for me as i had riding to do the next day.  Thunderstorm did not bode well for me and i was beginning to have second thoughts about the suitability of Chevette to take me down to the Gong, the fact that the two messengers who'd shown interest both piked out on the evening before made it even worse.  Upon dawn awakening I was slightly heartened by the fact that the lightning had stopped but still had to roll through the rain to the start where i ensured the team was bedecked in team jerseys and spoke cards and we took off through the downpour - a little bit of sliding initially but as luck would have it, the clouds parted and it wasn't long before we found ourselves in pretty fantastic sunshine - a few bottlenecks made the ride a little less smooth than it could have been but the two descents that had me worried were very manageable on my trusty steed - as far as i could tell there were only four identified fixie riders (two in our group, one spotted by me and one by another) which is a pretty select group considering that there were up to 10,000 people doing the ride.  Compared to Wales it was pretty easy but despite the hare overtaking the tortoise many many times throughout the day he was soundly beaten - don't fight the fate of fairy tales I say.