Blogger/Blogspot now defunct

"R.I.P. Rest In Peace" from beauteous on Flickr. (by-nc-nd)

OK, so I flagged it earlier in the year...and now I've actually gotten off my arse and done it.

Both thep3.blogspot.com and platform3.com.au now redirect to http://platform-3.com which is http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifa Wordpress.com powered site.

So head to the renewed Platform 3 site and check it out.

Aloha Blogger...I like a lot of Google services but you aren't quite up to scratch.

 Edit - The above domain is dead. Try this one instead: https://platform3.au  

Cross-country with Brian and Andrew

Inspired by Gerard's new blog, Oxford Cycling Routes, here is the bike ride I did today with Brian and Andrew:

"Guided" by Brian's 15 year old map, we tried to take a short cut across a farm between Wendlebury and Charlton-on-Otmoor (between about 42-45km)...I wouldn't advise replicating this...I got by OK on my 25mm tires but it wasn't the best! Luckily it was dry as it would have been miserable in muddy conditions.

Allez Cadel!!

Pic from Cadel Evans' Wikipedia entry.

I'm on the edge of my seat as I watch the final time trial of the Tour de France. You may know that my favourite cyclist is Cadel Evans who grew up not so far from where I grew up in Melbourne. I cheered him over the Col du Galibier in 2005 and was there 3 weeks ago to show my support in the Prologue in London

He needs to pick up 1 min 50 secs on current leader Alberto Contador to be the first Australian ever to win the race. Evans has to defend a 59 sec lead over 3rd place holder, Levi Leipheimer.

I'm wearing my Davitamon-Lotto jersey to right now to show my support.

Allez Cadel!!!

Not flooded

You may have heard that parts of Oxford are experiencing flooding right now after very heavy rainfall in the past week or so.

Just to let you know, I live on the second floor of an apartment block at least 5 or 6 metres above the ground and although the flats are right next to the canal, we've not been affected. The canal looks pretty normal actually, from what I can see. The bigger problem is the Thames River which runs to the west (the other side) of the canal to where my flat is.

There's a chance that an electrical substation that is potentially the one that supplies my flat and is in the flood zone could be knocked out overnight, which may affect me...however the risk is still pretty small.

I do have some friends who are on the ground floor in the flood zone and the water is lapping against their doors...so I hope they get through OK.

Déjà vu

Well, this is disappointing... Vinokourov positive for transfusion, Astana quits Tour

Déjà vu just under a year after this.

Christmas in July

Francisco Perez Sanchez of Caisse d'Epargne, speeding up Constitution Hill

Yesterday, I think I had the best time I've had while standing up that I can think of in recent memory. I make the trek to London to watch the Prologue stage of the Tour de France accompanied by Gerard, Lucas and Aileen.

It was a bit of a fraught bus journey in the morning as a lot of roads were closed in central London, so it took the bus a lot longer than usual to set us down in Victoria. From there, it was a short stroll along car free roads to take up a position on Constitution Hill, behind Buckingham Palace. We were mid-way between Hyde Park Corner and the Flamme Rouge, the red pennant that marks the 1km to go line. I thought this a good place to watch the 7.9km individual time trial, grand-stand kick-off of the Tour as the cyclists passed by once on the way out and once on the way back.

Despite the fact that an estimated 1 million plus spectators were around the course, we got there early enough to be close to the front of the barriers and after a time, I even managed to get a spot right at the front. This gave me a good view of Stuart O'Grady overcooking the bend at Hyde Park corner and going for a tumble. You can see Stuey on his arse in the photo below.

Stuart O'Grady crashed at Hyde Park Corner with 1.2km to go.

This was unfortunate as he had ridden well and had the fastest intermediate time of all the competitors until that point. Also, I picked him for my fantasy cycling team for that stage and of course, he's Australian.

Indeed, I cheered myself hoarse for all of the Australian cyclists including Robbie McEwen, Brett Lancaster and Michael Rogers. I cheered loudest for my home-town favourite, Cadel Evans and was quite chuffed when during the build-up to the race, he gave a wave in my general direction as he hopped over the central barrier to do another reconnaissance lap of the course. I like to think that it was prompted by me yelling "Cadel!!" at the top of my lungs!

I also lent my support to the British cyclists, Bradley Wiggins (who finished 4th), Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas and Charlie Wegelius. I clapped politely for David Millar but I'm not a big fan because of his chequered past.

Anyhow, no-one could match the power of Fabian Cancellara, the reigning World Time Trial Champion on the day, who took the Prologue in a time of 8min 50secs, covering the 7.9 km course at an average speed of 53.7 km/h!!!!

A fine beer capped the day off nicely, before hopping back on the Oxford Tube. Now, I'm typing this watching the peloton on TV as they speed their way through Kent on the first proper stage...still with a big smile on my face from a really enjoyable day out. For a cycling nut like me, it's like Christmas in July!!!! Equally as good as watching a mountain stage of the tour on the Col du Galibier with Damon in 2005!

:(

I went camping in Dorset on the weekend and got rained on. Now I realize why it's been raining so much...

Henry in Spain to complete move

My palmarès - Part 1

"Well that's my feat, I don't want to diminish it/Came in third that's a podium finish....Came in third, honourable mention/Booked my seat at the losers' convention."-The Fauves

Lines from "Podium Finish", from one of my old favourites from Melbourne, The Fauves. I recommended clicking the play button on the player that I've embedded below to use as a soundtrack for this post. This and other b-sides are freely downloadable from their website.



Anyhow, this post is to inform you that I've added to my cycling palmarès in the past couple of weeks. For those of you that don't know, a palmarès is the French term used in cycling that translates as "prize list"...so a list of wins, places and other notable results that you've had in past races.

I'm not that much of a cycle racer. Despite liking cycling a lot, I don't have the dedication to train enough to race seriously. However, once in a while I enter a (semi) competitive event and have had a couple of modest successes.

This is how my palmarès (I use that term in the loosest possible sense) looked as of 2 weeks ago.

2001
1st Montmorency Hillclimb. Montmorency, Victoria, Australia.

Not as impressive as it sounds. This was a short sprint held on the slightly uphill main drag of this outer suburb of Melbourne as part of a community festival.

Other results:

2004
23rd 4 July. Cycle Messenger World Championships. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

I was pleased at this result in the CMWC, held just up the road from my old stomping ground in Calgary. I know I always bang on about this but I think that cycling 8hrs+ in constant rain (about 10° C) to qualify and then 5 hours in intermittent rain during the final is an achievement. I even finished ahead of Kevin "Squid" Bolger. It was an improvement on not qualifying for the final of the European Cycle Messenger Championships in London the previous year. At the very least, it's a good war story to tell at the pub!

Over the past 2 weekends I've added a couple of distinctive results. The first of which is:

Other Results:

2007
5th 27 May. Gran Fondo Cymru (Sporting Route). Bala, Gwynedd, Wales.

Gran Fondo Cymru 2007

This event was held in Snowdonia National Park in Wales and last year, Gerard and I participated in the inaugural edition of this cyclosportive as detailed in the posts "A Hill too Far" and "To Ride or to Puke".

In 2006, we did the 180 km/110 mile Gran Fondo route, but this year a variety of factors (not least laziness) meant that we were both under-trained for that distance...not to mention the Welsh hills! Therefore, we decided that the 60 km/40 mile route was the go, seeing as we'd already shelled out £25 to enter and also paid for accommodation.

Although this felt like a bit of a cop out for a while, the nearer the date of the event, the more it seemed like this decision didn't seem such a bad thing when we saw the weather forecasts. The whole weekend was forecast to be one huge downpour with max. temperatures fluctuating between 1° C and 10° C, depending on when the Bala metcheck.com page was reloaded.

The profile you see above is downloaded from Gerard's GPS unit and you can see that even though the distance was only 60-70 odd kilometres, there were still some hills to be reckoned with.

The first half of the route was into a stiff wind...at its worst maybe 30mph. Also, the spikes in the second half of the ride were pretty draining, exacerbated by the incessant precipitation and the cold conditions...probably about 3° C before windchill on average. I recovered quickly enough to have a strong run in the last 10km back into Bala to clock a time of 2hr 42min 54sec, placing me just off the "podium" in 5th. The caveat here is that all the super strong cyclists were all busting their butts on the 110mile Gran Fondo route and the 125 mile Super Challenge but not bad nevertheless. 5th out of 68 finishers, according to the official results sheet (85-ish starters).

Doing a 3 hour ride instead of an 8+ hour one had other advantages apart from spending less time in the freezing Welsh weather. It also meant that I wasn't completely knackered like I was in 2006 and was able to enjoy my afternoon and evening more this year. The trip back to Oxford via Port Meirion was also quite pleasant...the sun came out!

However, I promise to train earlier and more frequently for next year's GFC!!

Stay tuned for my account of extending my palmarès further by getting on the "podium" of last Friday's Oxford Bingo Alleycat!

I'm about to defect to Wordpress

Exodus II from the photostream of _mpd_ . Reused under a Creative Commons licence

Sorry Blogger, even after you released "New Blogger" and I created a new version of Platform 3...the blog on there and played around with it, I am still going to jump ship.

As I mentioned in a previous post I've had my eye on Wordpress for a while...using one for work purposes. I have also set one up for another purpose and have found that I like it more than Blogger.

Here is what Platform3...the blog looks like after being exported onto Wordpress.com. I think it looks better and it also has functionality that in my opinion is more advanced in many ways than Blogger. What do you think???

Now if only I can get Bruce, my hosting provider to install Wordpress on the server at Squatbetty.org so I can have better customisation...I have grown to like Google Analytics. I will have to buttonhole him at his wedding this coming Thursday and get him to install it when the dust dies down.

Bicycles of Oxford - Ghost bike

Bicycles of Oxford - Memorial. Posted to Flickr by Platform 3. Originally posted by Brown Rice and reposted with permission.

Here is a photo of the "ghost bike" that is parked at the corner of Broad St and Parks Rd that is a memorial for Tsz Fok who was killed on this spot by a left turning garbage truck in April, as I mentioned here. RIP.

I think the bike was prepared by the Oxford Cycle Workshop, a very worthy bike shop. Their myspace page is here.

R.I.P The Zodiac

"Where it all happens apparently. Unless you're a Uni student straight out of public school in which case it's where all the scary drug pushers, muggers and lefty bohemians hang out. A myth we're more than happy to perpetuate to keep bastards out." Nightshift Magazine as quoted in Wikipedia

Even as I type, The Zodiac on Cowley Road, here in Oxford is in the throes of its final night. I've mentioned this band/club venue several times on this blog and I've spent many other nights there that have gone un-catalogued.

The venue is going to undergo a 4 month, £2 million (or 3 million depending on which website you read) refurbishment and will reopen as the Carling™ Academy Oxford. The Zodiac name will survive as the name of the middle-sized of the three new venues within the new Entertainment Palace.

Those of you unfamiliar with The Zodiac may experience a glimmer of recognition if I say that the video for Radiohead's song, Creep from their 1993 album Pablo Honey was shot on the stage of the Zodiac (although I'm informed that back then The Zodiac was called The Venue). In fact, it's the very stage that you can see in the vid I took last Friday of The Destroyers, as blogged in the post directly before this one. Anyhow, there's more history on Wikipedia, if you care.

Once again, the magic of YouTube means that you can see Radiohead's Zodiac video below...

I'm reasonably ambivalent about the Zodiac sell-out. The venue will benefit from a good refit, hopefully with an improved PA (although the current one isn't too bad) and facilities. There will be an extra space (bar) to add to the 2 existing performance spaces and there may well be a boost in the touring bands who play in Oxford.

On the other hand, I hope that this doesn't mean that smaller bands such as my friends Stornoway and acts such as Sol Samba now won't get a look-in. I also hope that the new management won't suddenly feel the need to introduce character killing "security" measures (such as bag searches for "contraband" water bottles) in order to accelerate the Return on their £2m Investment by "protecting" sales of Carling. Likewise, I hope the ticket prices don't go up too much either.

That may be wishful thinking but we will see. The next time I'm there is likely to be The Decemberists in October. I'll let you know what it's like.

Cubalkan Bateria Sound Clash

Samba Blue Galaxy uploaded to Flickr by Platform 3

Went to The Zodiac on Friday night to catch up with the latest Sol Samba grooves. Unfortunately arrived just after the opening act Puño de Dios had finished. By all accounts it was my loss as the people I spoke to were unanimous in their praise for their set.

A few years back, I attended a Sol Samba beginner's course which was educational. I also cut the rug a few times in the samba dance class. Also, Kate played in the band for some time, so it was high fives all round with several current Sol Samba members as well as a whole heap of erstwhile Sol sambistas who were in the audience.

I last saw them perform at the Cowley Road Carnival in July 2006 but I missed the last Sol Samba gig at the Zodiac last June. They usually get a good crowd at their Zodiac shows who never fail to bring their dancing shoes. I was impressed by the tunes that Sol Samba played which were new to me and had some neat additions such as some vocals and some new/different grooves.

Next up were the headliners, The Destroyers, a bonkers, 15 member, Eastern Europe inspired collective who put on an enjoyable show replete with many funny hats. They are playing near you (if you live in England, Wales or Nth Ireland anyway). I captured part of a number which featured a Lynch-esque fellow adding vocals which you can see in the embedded video below. Da-di-da-da-da...HEY!

Lights in the Dusk (Laitakaupungin valot)

I went and saw Aki Kaurismäki's latest film last night. Here's a few words about it:

droll, deadpan, Helsinki, loser, security guard, femme fatale, loneliness, jewel theft, framed, jail, despair, hope (a little bit of).

More info
Quicktime trailer. Here's a Windows Media version

That is all.

Fakenger/Posenger/Exenger

Hi I'm Ed the exenger — Photo by the inimitable Andy White @ fyxomatosis

"From short pants to cool hats and bags big enough to hold a filing cabinet, bike messengers everywhere have a unique style. Riding a bike through the crowded streets of any city requires a wardrobe of practicality and freshness that clearly distinguishes couriers from geared-up roadies." pedalpushersonline.com

My recent post about the recent Oxford HGV death that" linked to Moving Target "the world's most useless messenger zine" gained me a link in its sidebar (thanks Bill), making my pageviews spike upwards dramatically. This made me pretty happy as Moving Target is a site that I regularly read.

Now my post has fallen off the end of Moving Target's homepage linkroll and my millions of page views are now back down to the usual tens of thousands only. So, I thought I'd attempt some blatant traffic driving and discuss the rising popularity of the fixed gear bicycle and the concept of the fakenger/posenger/ex-enger...inspired by the fact that the fakenger article on MT is its most popular apparently, so I thought I'd sell out. I can't wait to see my Google Analytics stats go psycho!...or not.

Here is the Urban Dictionary's definition of fakenger and posenger.

I admit it, I am a posenger (exenger). I once worked as a courier and it was one of the best times of my life. However, I haven't delivered a package since 2001 but I'm dressing more like a "courier" now than I did when I was actually picking and dropping. Also, in 2003 almost two years after hanging up my pager, I obtained a fixed wheel/gear bike which is in direct contrast to the courier ghetto bike that I used when I was on the job.

I thought I'd attempt to coin my own term for it though, exenger... ex-Messenger...to try and differentiate myself from the hipster masses. Whaddaya reckon?

Associated with the fakenger/posenger meme is the rise of the fixed gear (or fixed wheel) bicycle AKA fixie. I've noticed quite a lot of internet talk about the fixed gear bike trend/craze/fad. I've also noticed that there are definitely quite a few more fixed gear riders on the streets of Oxford than in previous years, which I guess isn't surprising given the coverage in publications such as Cycling Plus and also the influx of students from the USA now that term has started and the weather has improved.

I did a search on Technorati the other day and discovered that there was a big spread in the New York times last Sunday about fixed gear/wheel bicycles. Does this mean, as Iconic's blog suggests that riding a bike with a fixed wheel has jumped the shark?

Couriers and the accoutrements of the profession have long percolated into popular culture viz. Crumpler (and other brand) courier bags becoming ubiquitous, Kevin Bacon's Quicksilver movie and numerous articles about "urban assault riders" with "kamikaze, counter-culture" lifestyles being examples.

So, couriers have long had cred and cachet but now it's become a damn sight easier to obtain the paraphernalia. Anyone can walk into their local Specialized dealer and buy a Langster fixie for £399/$600 or a Kona Paddy Wagon (£450) to get that special Zen, courier feeling...notwithstanding the fact that a lot of couriers don't even ride fixed bikes. There are also an abundance of courier (shoulder) bag makers on the Web that will ship their wares to any location to help you complete "the look"

My take (probably not surprisingly) on it is that I think it's fine to mimic the courier thing...one less car and all that. However, in a bid to big myself up...with only a little digging it's possible to discern the exengers (like me) from the fakengers who have never been a working courier. In your face fakengers...vive l'exengeur!!

Despite all that, the messenger "look" is a darn sight better than golf chic being the new punk, in my opinion...and as Iconic says:

"if, in a year, fixies are no longer hip...well, enjoy the great prices on cool bike gear."

I might have more to say on the matter later but that's all for now. Time to ski Mt Mattress.

The smallest fixie in Oxford

Every now and then I go down to one of the colleges in Oxford and help out a bit at the regular bike maintenance session. Students and staff can come down to get the advice and expertise of Gerard, Andrew, Lucas and sometimes me in exchange for a little bit of beer money.

Often, the "bicycles" we work on are terrible examples of the cycle maker's "craft". You know the type...ones with MountainForce 3000 and British Street Demon decals on the downtube which should actually read Shitbox 3000 and Non-British Road Muppet instead. It's kind of depressing that some of the brightest minds in the country can't even crack open a bottle of chain lube from time to time.

Next time I go, I'm thinking of sitting out the front like a bouncer and saying things like:

"That bike's too crap even for this poverty stricken bike workshop...you''re not coming in"

or

"I'll teach you how to fix the puncture yourself so you don't have to keep coming back but I'm not doing it for you"

Anyhow, the other night I tinkered with a little BMX style bike, a bit like the one pictured above. It belonged to the little boy one of the post-graduate students. When I arrived, Lucas and Andrew had just finished attending to it but when its owner came back and took it for a spin it turned out that the chain was a bit loose so I tightened it up for the young tyke and he happily pedaled off with his mum.

The thing that tickled me the most about the bike was that the vehicle was a fixie. It didn't have a kick-back brake (there was a front caliper) or a freewheel...it was a direct drive, fixie. I nearly tried teaching the lad to trackstand or skid but decided against it.

Little things please little minds

This morning's cycle to work was somewhat a "bummer". My arse got a bit soggy because I forgot to clip my butt spray protector onto the pushie before setting out.

On the way back from work, I saw a lady laying on the opposite site of the road who had come off her bike. She was being attended to by some passersby, so I hope she was OK. My guess is she lost it on the slightly damp road...although the bitumen wasn't that wet, so maybe there was some oil or the naughty bike lane white line paint tripped her up?

Anyhow, the early evening turned out to be quite nice. So after dropping Kate at the train station (she's in London to see her bro and for business), I saddled up on Theodore the Fixie and meandered through central Oxford.

The pic above shows the Radcliffe Camera, the reading room of the University's Bodleian Library. You can't see it in the photo but three sides of the Camera are paved with cobbles so I rode round it pretending I was Stuart O'Grady in the Paris-Roubiax.

I do like cycling through the old bits of town. The Radcliffe Camera was finished in 1749 and the vaults of the church where the photo was taken from is one of the first places where lectures were delivered as early as the 11th century!!

After visiting Radcliffe Square, I paid my respects at the corner of Broad St and Parks Road where Tsz Fok died last week before heading back towards home up the broad and lovely avenue, St Giles.

I grabbed a bite to eat at Manos, a Greek deli near my place and felt good about the world.

St Giles Street. Uploaded to Flickr by Sacred Destinations

Upcoming.org and the sectarian internet

I use and like upcoming.org, a social events calendar site. I logged in today to check out their new look n feel and hopefully improved usability because of the added "shiny bits" and features. More about that in a future post.

It seems that I have a knack of joining sites that end up getting acquired by Yahoo! It all started back in the day when I started an egroups.com group to catalogue my travels. This of course, morphed into Yahoo! Groups. More recently, I joined Flickr which then was gobbled up by the Yahoos...ditto with del.icio.us.

It happened once again with Upcoming. I joined the site in October 2005 having also experimented with EVDB (now Eventful) and Evite. Having started out as a few guys coding the site in their spare time, there was definitely a bare-bones, just enough feel about the site but there was something je ne sais quoi about the site that made me feel that they were on the right track.

Soon after I joined Upcoming, they became part of Yahoo! but it has taken until now for the full effect of this to become apparent. One of the main things that seems to strike a nerve with people is that you have to merge your Upcoming authentication details (i.e username and password) with a Yahoo! ID. A similar process kicked up a storm (in a teacup IMO) over at Flickr earlier this year. It seems some folk can't handle the fact that they are now less old skool or that they are now part of a faceless corporation.

Change is difficult. Some people actively embrace change but more often, people find change difficult, particularly when it is imposed upon them. Even if a site is free, they are attached (often emotionally) to such things as screen names. They care about the site which means they care about their identity on that site.

One thing that I have also noticed is an almost sectarian mentality that people have about websites. This sometimes manifests itself between adherents of Google and its many and varied services and the acolytes of Yahoo! Examples of such dichotomies abound through history and continue today...viz. Pepsi/Coke, Protestants/Catholics, Mods/Rockers, Shias/Sunnis, Campagnolo/Shimano, OS X/Windows....hmm maybe that's drawing a longbow!?

In a way its a good sign for the site's developers that people are passionate about the sites they use. My opinion? It doesn't have to be so dichotomous!!!

So, just because I like Upcoming and use Yahoo! Mail as my primary web mail doesn't mean that I don't like Google...I'm using Blogger, a Google "property" to write this blog post! I also regularly use Picasa and Picasa Web Albums, You Tube, maps and of course search. I am thinking of switching to Word Press at some point and I'm keeping a close eye on the open source media player/browser mash-up, Songbird too. I sometimes contemplate using one of my various gmail addresses as my primary address but have decided against it for now.

Congratulations on reaching the end of this rambling post!

Be careful my cycling friends!

Danger Lorries!, Uploaded to Flickr by hugovk under a Creative Commons Licence

News that a cyclist got killed by a truck today in Oxford made me want to remind you to be extremely careful when passing Lorries/Trucks/HGVs/buses on the left hand side. Be careful!!!

I don't know for sure but my feeling is he got squished by a left turning lorry which apparently causes 55% of cyclist deaths in London

Bill Chidley, London messenger "identity" (if that's the right word) fakenger and vociferous HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) safety agitator talks about the issues on the Moving Target 'zine blog.

Also, if anyone in Oxford wants to be put in touch with a qualified cycle instructor, let me know as one of my work colleagues is one.

My other cycling safety tip of the day...don't send text messages while cycling!

Cycling...still infinitely better than being a cager!

Keep the rubber side down!

Paris-Roubaix video

Via the wonders of Youtube...here is the glorious victory of Stuart O'Grady as described in Flemish:

Go Go O'Grady the Great!!!

"Stuart O'Grady", uploaded to Flickr by Coda under a Creative Commons Licence

I was inordinately happy to return from an enjoyable cycle around Otmoor this afternoon to find out that Stuart O'Grady has become the first Australian to win what is probably the most important one day professional cycling race, Paris-Roubaix.

Little Johnny Howard should be giving everyone a day off work tomorrow because this is as big as Australia II winning the America's Cup in 1983. I think that's unlikely to happen though.

If last weekend, Stuart Appleby hadn't lost his 2 stroke lead in the final day of the US Masters golf tournament and become the first Australian to win, it would have been comparable to Stuey's effort

The race was first held in 1896 and it starts in Compiègne, outside of Paris and ends in a velodrome in Roubaix 260km/160 miles later. The race doesn't go up any big hills but it does traverse 50km of hideous cobbled sections.

When I say cobbles, I don't mean a short stretch of nicely laid, cobbled driveway...I mean stretches of road that are basically just farm tracks, as can be seen in this pic. I think the race was dry today, but the slightest rain shower makes the course dangerous, muddy and slippery...leading to many crashes.

The most "feared" cobbled section, the Arenberg Forest stretches for 2.4km. The peloton flies over the cobbles at speeds in excess of 45km/h (say), which is about 30mph. Stuart O'Grady's average speed for the whole 260km was 42km/h.

Compare this to my ride today. It was only 40km and my average was probably about 28-30km/h...my cycle computer is broken so i can't say for sure! The longest I've ever cycled in one day was just over 200km and my average was about 25km/h!!

Read more about the victory in this article from cyclingnews.com.

Congratulations Stuey!!!

Update - Here are some photos of the auspicious occasion