Alleycat!!!

18 February - Spent the first part of the morning at St Pauls Hospital, trying to get a prescription for some Voltarin (the gel, not the pills, which I was prescribed about a month ago but after reading the side effects i'd decided to avoid - nausea, headaches, heart problems, stomach bleeding). Two hours of waiting in the emergency ward was really pushing my patience levels and the doctor who finally saw me had never heard of Voltarin gel and wouldn't prescribe it for me. Still, I have an appointment at the 'hand clinic' on Friday so they may have some other ideas. My wrist is fine most of the time but still have limited range of motion and a bit of an ache at times. Next time I fall off my bike i'll make sure I try to cushion my fall with my head rather than my wrist. Whilst I was trying to get a tuneup for my hand I'd left my bike at Simon's for a servicing of its own (What's wrong with it this time? The same thing that goes wrong every time!!!) and when I got it back I was warned that the drive train is wearing low which will mean eighty bucks some time over the next month. This has been the cause of most of the problems I have with it so its replacement could well be a good thing.
The afternoon proved to be slightly more entertaining. I went in my first Alleycat, a courier scavenger hunt race through Vancouver. Initially we were supposed to start outside the art gallery but the local Muslims had organised their little anti-Danish cartoon protest rally (and i'm not even going to start on what I think about that particular issue) so we moved down to Stanley Park where about fifty bikers (mostly couriers but not all) lined up and then all belted up the hill to the other side of town for the first checkpoint. The first leg of the ride was one of the most exhilirating rides i've ever done. Some uphill but mostly flat and the bikes completely took over the road. We split up a bit as some couriers tried to take shortcuts but for the most part there were clumps of about ten or so bikes speeding through the streets - when one bike goes too close to a car he might ignore it, when there are two, the driver might slow down but when there are ten bikes bearing down the traffic just stops and they wait for us to just pass them by. Even the police seemed to ignore us as we made illegal turns and broke a fair number of Vancouver's precious bylaws as we raced to our destination. The first checkpoint was at the top of a very tall multi level carpark and we were given a list of things to collect before headingto the final destination at Commercial Drive (just near where I live). The list was pretty mundane (somethingfrom a Tim Hortons coffee shop, a perfume sample card, a flower, a Courier newspaper, beer coaster, a polaroid taken by one of the officials at a certain address (Remember! The polaroid never lies!!!)) but a few of the couriers collected up all the newspapers from the first three pubs which showed how seriously they took the competition. I missed out on a place, not by being slow but by not riding SMART (i was so high on adrenalin that i wasn't really thinking and I did a bit of backtracing) but I still came in at a respectable time. A lot of the couriers where on fixed gear bikes with no brakes and they were going fast. I still can't comprehend how those guys ever have the nerve to put on speed downtown when the only way to stop is to either slow their cadence or, if they need to stop suddenly, jump out of the peddles and then stamp down on them to skid. Not very safe. Headed to the pub after this where prizes were allocated (a very egalitarian system where the entire collection of entry fees was divided amongst the top ten and also a few sponsors had donated some rather nice things - if i'd known the prizes were going to be worth so much I might have been a bit more competitive). Planned on going to a party afterwards but I was given the wrong address so I didn't and I ate a hamburger and watched some videos with the household. The population of 1949 East 1st has been increasing steadily over the past few days with one of mark's friends from Ontario having been crashing on the couch for the past two nights (despite the fact that we have a spare room) and about five Newfoundlers have trickled in over the weekend (presumaby friends of Chads). All of the Newfies seem to look the same - thick black glasses, beards, completely rugged up despite being inside - they're like a band of roaming beatnicks and I keep on expectingthem to start into an impromtpu jazz jamming session. They haven't done this yet but i'm expecting one soon.