News Halted for the Olympics!

There's so much news out there at the moment - and it's all Olympics! I'm pretty interested in the games, but I have to say there are times when I find myself screaming when regular news bulletins turn out to be yet another Olympic round-up. Is nothing else happening in the world?
Well actually, yes! I did find one story on the Telegraph's site involving three bears stuck in a bin, a rather agitated mother bear, and an enterprising couple with a truck and a ladder:
The three bears
As much as I'm enjoying watching all the lesser-covered sports on TV, in many ways I'll be glad to see normal service resume!

And Here's Another Epic Journey

A Chinese farmer, moved by the Olympic Games of 2008, decided to travel to the next games, here in London by the only means available to him: his rickshaw. His journey has taken him through 16 countries, floods, heatwaves, snow, war, mountains, and roughly 60,000km.
Arriving in London on the 9th July, Chen Guanming was directed to Soho's China town, where despite receiving offers accommodation, he still sleeps in his rickshaw. His one wish is to take part in the opening ceremony.
Please, please, Locog, Seb Coe, Boris Johnson, thumb your noses at the wretched sponsors for once and find him a slot at the games - cycling all the way here has to be an Olympic achievement, surely? It would be fantastic to see him cycling his rickshaw into the stadium on the opening night.
Chen Guanming's Cycle Trip

Update: the beeb has now added a video

On the Positive Side ...

Gosh, it's a gloomy news day! Britain is now officially in the longest double dip recession for more than fifty years, a landslide at a holiday beach has ended in tragedy, London's traffic system has ground to a halt, a criminal gang in Australia has been sending out millions of death threat texts demanding money, and it's still costing dairy farmers more money to produce milk than they are paid.
Looking desperately for the positive, the sun's still shining, the Olympics are due to start, and the materials for our new shed have finally arrived, filling the garden with the wonderful smell of freshly sawn timber - I may attempt to bottle the smell for later use.
Oh, and our visiting hedgehog is still frequenting the garden, although waiting for him is a frustrating experience: he seems to eat a little, then nods off in the shrubbery for a while, then re-emerges to eat a little more, before nodding off in the shrubbery again, then he snuffles around a bit more, then squeezes through to our neighbour's garden via the slightly rotten fence in the corner. He's very sweet though and it's great to know our tiny garden has provided him with a safe place.
So George Osborne, do your worst (as if you haven't already), whatever cuts and additional taxes you throw at us, I'll keep looking for the positive side.

Epic Journeys

We used to own a motorhome. She (and she was a she, built on a Peugeot Boxer, whose engine moo-ed when it cooled down after a long journey) was part of the family. She carried us on many adventures, touring various parts of the UK, as well as the Netherlands and Germany. They were some of the happiest times of my life, and I rue the day we were tempted by a big flash new van, taking out a ridiculous loan that completely destroyed the magic. We sold it after a year and left the world of motorhoming. I hope one day to return to it, finding another motorhome to love, but it will be an old one, not some over-teched, over-engineered, palace on wheels. I want another one like our first old girl - one with soul!
She might have been a little bit tired, but she did have a comfy bed, a cooker, a shower. Not like the touring vehicle of choice for one German couple whose story is told on the BBC website today. They set out in 1989 on what was supposed to be an 18 month tour, but never went home. Gunther Holtorf is still touring the world in his dependable old Mercedes, having promised to continue his journey when his wife passed away.
The story is told in a five minute video, five minutes well worth setting aside in my opinion!
Gunther's Epic Journey
It certainly got me thinking: would I ever be brave enough to do even a fraction of that? how do you fund such a lifestyle? how could they manage without a proper bed for all those years? how would a Peugeot Boxer fare on some of those roads? how do you sort out visas? how many languages can I learn at the local evening college?
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it reinforces the idea that we have far more stuff than we need. The Holtorf's could fit their lives into one car!

Gremlins in the Works

I don't know how it happened, I obviously did something very foolish, but I have no idea what. I had been working on my story for the latest Café ThreeZero collection back in June. I posted it to the forum for my colleagues to read and assess, then set about making changes following their feedback. So far so good. With that in mind, when I pulled up the story today for one final check before submission, I was expecting to find little to do.
Ha! Some hope! I've lost all the revisions I made! I know I've brought up the right document, because I opened the 'last modified' version, but none of my changes were visible. Maybe I dreamed I had made the changes. I suppose there's a remote possibility that I forgot to save them. Or maybe I had a bizarre mental blockage and put it all back the way it was before.
Personally I think it's far more likely those pesky computer gremlins mischievously undid all my corrections when I wasn't looking - I swear they've done it before, whatever he who fixes the computer says!

The Latest Olympic Athlete

As a celebration of the Olympics and presumably all things 'London', Czech sculptor David Cerny has created a pretty special art installation with a uniquely London inspiration. He has taken a London bus (although apparently it's not actually a Routemaster, but we'll overlook that!) and by adding some well muscled arms, a rather curvaceous rear end and some serious hydraulics, has turned it into a bus that can do press-ups. It's probably the most athletic 'London' bus in existence:
Olympic Bus
Although thinking back, I have been on a couple of bus trips where the driver seemed to be trying to get his vehicle to do hurdles.

Wiggins Wins!

He did it! Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France! And Mark Cavendish got the final stage victory! And Chris Froome came second overall!
Wiggins had it all sewn up after Saturday's time trial, which he charged through with the unstoppability of an express train, showing any remaining doubters precisely why he was chosen to be Sky Team's leader.
Wiggins Wins
Congratulations Sideburns!