Friday, October 31, 2008
Winter Plans/old year resolutions.
I have joined 24 Hour Fitness. These are huge clubs open 24/7 and very reasonable - $29 per month and there are 400 of them all over the US which I can use when I travel.
They have lots of every fitness machine imaginable as well as classes in all sorts of fitness and yoga.
I need to do something as well as the morning mile in the pool.
Some company over the long winter months is good too!
First Spinning Class
NO NO not THAT kind of spinning!
5.30 am and there I was sweating for 50 minutes and definitely the oldest in the room!I managed to keep going to the end of the class to my amazement.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The Best Thing in Geneva
Cruising the shores of the lake on the fully restored 1914 Paddle Steamer Savoie
Savoie
Original bronze step nosing
each one a different bronze casting - notice the changing length and curvature.
Marquetry panels
Inside the dining room
Best Of All
A wonderful silent steam engine - the smell of warm all and the shine of brass oil pots attached to the flying bearings. Steam pressure 10 Bar - (about 150psi) turning at about 50rpm with the crank shaft connected directly to the paddles.
When I am reincarnated, if I come back human! I will commit more time to live steam contraptions like this. No need for any gears - the engine will stop and reverse by pulling a lever.
I have photos of said lever but maybe you have all seen and heard enough!
Home
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Patek Phillippe Museum
seen on wrists because they live in safes.
The cheapest ones cost around $20,000. The museum covers 500 years of
watchmaking from all over the world. Most fascinating to me was an ALL
wooden watch - before anyone asks I don't know about the springs but
it did have wooden wheels and a wooden cylinder escapement. All I
could see was wood. It even had a wooden chain with jointless links
carved from one solid piece. Different colors of woods were used for
contrast between hands and dial.
The watches that attracted me were the "first quarz watches" from
Patek. Photography was forbidden but I stole these snaps of the only
quarz models in the place. These were from the 70s and unusual
looking. Most Pateks look conventional.
I had to buy ONE!
plastic crystals - at half price. This one reminded me of the previous
Patek Phillippe.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Dejeuner
crepe made with buckwheat flour containing ham and egg. FYI buckwheat
is not wheat at all but some other grain. Only commonly found in
France. Well France is very close to here and they speak French too.
They make great wine in Switzerland but they don't export any. So I am
drinking Dole at lunchtime just because I am here.
English Bike
had one of these but the BSA which g and littlewilliam have mentioned
was a big rival of the Triumph "bonnie" of it's time in the 50's.
Of course I didn't foeget it! I have the pic ready to show you. I am
trying to retain readership by holding some things back for a while.
The brm brm HOT! bip bip (words of littlewilliam) bike was the BSA
Bantam several blogs back. Littlewilliam aged about 4 was waiting for
me to ride it home and the first thing he did was put his finger on
the brass nut in the middle of the exhaust. Which made him cry and was
not a good introduction to bikes for him.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Geneva room with a view!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Crucifixion comes to town
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I used to be undecided ---
Seen in Little Italy NYC
Serious Luggage
Another Honda
Having exploited the potential of the 250 cc twin the lust for power and sophistication led me to this Vee Twin - an across the frame engine like the famed Moto Guzzi, driven by a shaft instead of a chain. Further sophistication involved water cooling, a petrol gauge, pressed stainless wheels without spokes and four valves per cylinder.
This baby was capable of well over the "ton" a 60s term for 100 mph
Waldorf Astoria
I remember when my work in England demanded that I spend a week at the Waldorf in London being very exited about it. When I went to my room, far away from the glitzy lobbies and ballrooms and marbled halls it was a dingy depressing little cupboard.This is just the same. Downstairs, two nights ago, McCain and Obama and all the TV crews were prancing around in their evening dress, for some charity event, as I rolled around in my little old bed.
This morning there wasn't even any hot water.
The building in the foreground, by the way, is a church - The Waldorf Astoria is the tall building behind it.
It just happens to be the venue for this particular Cancer meeting.
Off to Geneva tomorrow for a little European charm I hope.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Next Motorcycle
I rescued one just like this from a garage in stechford and rode it back to Knowle.g could barely keep up with me riding home.
250 cc twin - electric start my first, hydraulic disc brake my first and pretty fast by my standards of the time!
I made my first long motorcycle ride on this one - to Manchester for a one week electronics for teachers course. I also had my first spill on it! - sliding off on a diesel-covered roundabout in Salford. I slid along the road in my Wranglers. The jeans were undamaged once I got them clean but I had a big friction burn on my bum. The bike was OK apart from a scraped brake pedal.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that from the BSA to the Honda meant swapping feet because the gears were on the right and the brake on the left on old British bikes and the opposite on Japanese and other bikes. This will become relevant again in a later post.
Starting on the West Coast
To The East Coast
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Unusual rental car!
Silent
none of the reassuring sounds cars make to make you feel at home!
This display shows you whether the battery is charging from the engine or from the wheels as you roll along with your foot off the gas or from braking.
You never hear the engine start or stop.
Synergy?
A free upgrade from Hertz - a very different car - nothing obvious about how to drive it!
A different energy situation
For reversing
A camera shines out of the back beeping like a construction vehicle.
Just what I need - more nagging beeps in my life!
Emergency addendum!
g is quite correct and I had forgotten this baby. It came out of the hedge in Doreen's back garden in Whitacre - ours was a nasty pale green color. The front was capable of tilting for corners but the usual effect of fast cornering was that the two wheels at the back with the engine between them tipped over. We never took it on the road but I remember Doreen going to work on it at Hams Hall. It was a great shame that a motorcycle marque such as Ariel should be associated with such a thing as this as the last machine bearing the name. It wasn't even made in England most of it.
Yes the boys rode this one and later, I believe, the Suzuki but more about what they rode in future installments.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sardine Crudo
fresh raw sardines with thin slices of highly decorative radish. The best sardines I ever had.
Interesting that most of the best fish I eat these days is raw. Another reason for my dad to turn in his grave!
With watermelon radishFor my friend Bent
went in Napa - This is the signature dish at Ame in San Francisco. Still excellent!
Scowling at the sunshine
wide and hungry.
First Fall Fall
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Twins
Then the lifelong lust turned to Twin Cylinders -
This was the first - a Honda CD 175 four stroke overhead camshaft twin. Smooth running and high revving. Mine was exactly this color. Full mudguards were good for keeping the endless English rain off the lower body but one rarely ventured out without a waterproof coat.
Not long after buying this one my eyes had turned to more goodies like electric starters (the CD 175 only had 6 volt electrics and a kick starter to save weight) and disc brakes.Note the "number plate" on the front mudguard - these became illegal shortly after this time - collisions with pedestrians demonstrated what an effective machete it made.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
It's Here!
Logs just outside the door make it easy and I no longer fear I bought
too many!
Somebody said "snow Sunday"
Friday, October 10, 2008
OOPS I forgot this one
I had a brief flirtation with one of these between the Honda SS50 and the BSA Bantam. It was really a Honda 50 in different clothes. All I can remember is standing at a traffic light with both feet on the ground. I revved it up and of course the automatic clutch bit and pulled it from under me while I was still holding the bars - it reared up like a cobra. I did not fall over but I sure did feel stupid.Meanwhile
My wife bore me two fine sons (littlewilliam on the front B on the back) and this 120 cc Suzuki served for both children and g to learn to ride motorcycles round the garden. g also rode it on the road - note the L plate on the front fork!Interestingly none of them rides any more - B had a brief flirtation with two wheels but grew up and left them behind him.
This was a two stroke like the Bantam but it has an oil tank and injected the oil in with the petrol. The Bantam was just like the old Auto Cycle - when you bought petrol you had to buy oil too and put it in the same tank.
Continuing Saga
Encouraged by the overwhelming number of comments my motorcycling life story continues.After moving from York to my native Midlands of England I finally decided to take my motorcycle test and a BSA Bantam 175 cc was ideal especially since the B in BSA stands for Birmingham. (Birmingham Small Arms! - the company started by making guns and from boring gun barrels they moved on to boring cylinder barrels for engines)
Yes that's me in the top photo by Gill's greenhouse.
At 21 I passed my motorcycle test by riding for half an hour round the streets of Shirley, Solihull while somebody walked to various vantage points to watch me. I almost failed for going too slowly!
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Next
My first motorcycle without pedals! - there was a 50cc limit on engine size if you wanted to ride without a motorcycle license. I bought one of these babies in York - it had a four stroke engine, four gears and proper motorcycle controls. Although it was a basic Honda 50 engine it had a real clutch, operated by your left hand, instead of the centrifugal type. It also had telescopic forks and swinging arm rear suspension, flashing turn signals and a dual seat.
Mine was cute and shiny just like this one - on a bit of a downhill it could do 50mph. It ran as smooth and quiet as a sewing machine.
Thereby opening the door for me to learn to ride, take my motorcycle test, get bigger and bigger bikes. In this way I could completely avoid growing up!
Monday, October 06, 2008
The Aforementioned
the aforementioned (except it comes afterwards) NSU Quickly - a German bestseller in the 60's. I bought one for 15 pounds in York but, after pedaling it up and down Bell View Terrace and getting yelled at by a neighbour with a poker, it was clear the engine was no good. So I went with a friend to buy a smashed up one with a good engine but it wouldn't fit in his car. We had foreseen this and took a hacksaw with us and cut the bike in half below the petrol tank.Then I had a working bike - but it still had pedals.
During the six months I rode this bike - helmets became mandatory in England. I had to wear one, when riding, until I moved to Colorado in 2006 - 34 years later.
When the bug bit!
When I was about 15 - again thanks to Jim Fellows - I rode one of these Auto Cycles - I think it was like this one - a James - I remember the conical tank and when you took the cap off it became a measure for the amount of oil for a tank full of petrol - it was a two stroke - for engineering challenged readers!As you can see it has pedals like a bicycle to get you going with an exhaust lifter on the handlebar again like the Velocette. In this case you just pedaled like mad and dumped the exhaust lifter and off you went.
My father - dead now for 38 years - is probably turning in his grave because I wasn't even allowed to ride a bicycle at that age!
I seem to remember at least two of us on it and maybe three - it has a 98cc Villiers engine - to me it went like a rocket and sowed the seeds of a lifelong series of affairs with motorcycles.
I think I have owned 15 Hondas - both in the US and UK, two Suzukis, two BMWs two BSA's (contrary to what littlewilliam says) The first one I rode legally on the road was an NSU Quickly in York - which was a moped with TWO gears - a big deal for a moped in 1972.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Nostalgia
I just read Peter Egan's page in my latest copy of "Cycle World" and although it was headed "Imperial Gallons" and compared fuel economy and cost in 1960 England with present day US the first few paragraphs, which I quote here, took me back to one or two summer evenings in England when I was privileged to ride one of these beauties. I thank Mr Jim Fellows, who taught me a great deal about engines and engineering and motorycycle, for letting me ride his Velocette Venom after he restored it from a virtually scrap bike."What with the perfect summer evenings we've been having recently, I've been going for a lot of after-dinner rides with the endless twilight we get here in the Wisconsin north country.
The only place I've ever seen with an even longer dusk is England, where being at 50-55 degrees north latitude allows you to walk home from the pub in perfectly good navigating light until about 11.00 p.m. If you can.
Here on the 43rd parallel, things are only slightly dimmer and those summer evenings go a long way toward making up for winter, when it gets dark just after lunch (these are Egan's sentiments certainly not mine!)
The bike I nearly always pick for thees twilight rides is my surprisingly trusty 1961 Velocette Venom which seems to have been built for meandering down narrow country lanes. It chatters smoothly along at perfect landscape-observation speed, and the valve clatter seems to confuse and immobilize the deer."
Starting such a bike was the greatest challenge - a big 500cc single cylinder engine can not just be "kicked over" with the starter pedal - you have to open the exhaust valve using a control on the handlebar to allow you to turn the engine just past the compression stroke - this after you have opened the petrol tap and tickled the carb until you see petrol squirting from a small hole - then you heave on the pedal so that you store enough energy in the heavy flywheel to push the piston through the next compression stroke. If the engine fires and starts you are ready to go otherwise it is back to square one.
Velocettes were made in Hall Green Birmingham - near where my parents grew up.
I will dry my eyes now and make Butternut Squash Soup! Its not much of a day for motorcycling here.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Season of Mists, mellow fruitfulness
Their growth cycles might be related to Lunar cycles. Little
aboutishrooms is understood or documented.
Don't ask me if it's poisonous. For more information read Michael
Pollan's excellent book "The Omnivore's Dilemma"
The Bonesetter's Daughter
Is it me or is there a feint smell of neglect and decay about this blog?The problem is that blogs often involve stories about other people and not everybody wants all there business blazoned all over the Internet. So we without-boundaries-bloggers have to respect their wishes and this results in periods of quietness.
I know you understand.
To get to the point - a few blogs on - as you see it - or back as it is in reality - I went to the opera as I told/showed you.
This was a unique opera with Cirque du Soleil type special effects. Ghosts hovering around over the stage (people on strings) and moving pictures projected onto clever backgrounds which could change from cave to tree to fish tank to rural china.
The music sounded very Oriental despite the Anglo Saxon sounding name of the composer.
The voices and orchestration were haunting yet very full sounds.
The cast was mostly female and Oriental.
There was only one significant male character - a coffin maker called Chang who rises out of the stage dressed in bright yellow in one of his coffins which is completely transparent.
He was a perfect Devil type character who opens with a commercial for his coffins as he stands up in it.
He then gesticulates, with his back to the audience, urinating in the coffin and admiring his fragrance as he wipes it from the insides of the coffin onto the people around him. Pretty weird stuff but he succeeds quickly in making the audience hate him and marrying the youngest prettiest girls.
If your appetite is "wetted" you can find excerpts on the Internet.
There were no tunes you went home singing to yourself, which is normally a requirement of mine for a good musical or opera, but the music was excellent and very enjoyable.
Almost the end of the season
for the Farmer's market - with many extra-terrestrial-looking fruits and vegetables.
More fall spirits
