After my little gloat, the wheels fell off the hippy train..
I really did feel ill after that beer and it carried on through the night and the next day. I think I just pushed my poor(ly maintained, poorly treated) body too far..
Unfortunately, being an old-school hostel, they lockup during the day, so I had to vacate. This basically forced me ride to Ypres instead of lie in bed all day recovering. My physical collapse was well-timed – it was one of the coldest days I’ve had (10degC) and it pissed down all day!!
To give you an idea of how woeful I was feeling, my speed through the mountains (the natural enemy of a fat crunt) was just under 20kph at the end of a full day.. my speed from Kortrijk to Ieper, a 30k, relatively flat ride, was 14kph!!!! Two hours to ride 30k!!
It felt like I’d been hung from my wrists and repeatedly punched around my torso. Every bump rattled my insides, I cursed every freezing gust of wind and the chilling rain. I wanted to roll up into a ball in front of a heater and sleep.
I already knew the Ypres/Ieper hostel was booked out so, using the Kortrijk hostel guy’s advice, I went to the Museum in the Market Square where a nice lass helped me find a BnB. The singles were taken but a double was free for 45euro. I shook my head. There was some discussion in Flemish and the price became 30euro.
“Can I check in now?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll take it.”
I booked a spot on a Flanders Fields tour for Monday, bought some Frites and Belgian chocolates and laid in bed all day watching TV – with the heater on! 😀
Points to note: I saw a ProTour race in Dutch (Bettini won), a pro race of some sort in French, a cyclocross race, Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, an episode of Flying Doctors – with Bud Tingwell as a patient, no less!
The doco on London sewers was quite interesting – half in Dutch and half in English and it even had Holly (Norman Lovett) from Red Dwarf playing one of the ye olde characters!
Bike Content: Have you seen VELO-CAM? I’ve never seen it before, but in the ProTour race, one or more of the riders had a camera mounted on their bike! It must’ve been on the fork or down tube as it showed the front wheel and rider’s hands on the bars – awesome!
Did the Flanders Field tour this morning which was very interesting. The number of soldiers who’s bodies were never recovered is astounding! I think more than 50,000 on the Menin Gate and another 20,000 on the wall at Tyne Cot cemetary. That’s just Aussies. War is fscked!
Oh, met an Aussie staying here this morning and he told me some crunts bombed Bali again.. fark. Be great if all the bombers put their hands up and we could just find a nice corner of the planet for them to detonate themselves in. Arzeholes!
To end on a lighter note.. this BnB has free ‘net, I’m in Belgium surrounded by beers and in a drinking mood again, I should make Calais or Dover by tomorrow night, the weather is good today, did someone say Belgian beers? WTF am I sitting here for?!?! *runs*
Actually, I’ll wait for the other Aussie to get back – he was talking beers this morning.. 😉
Maybe a warmup brew? Or two.. or..
I think you need a little rest. Get to London (do they have local comps at this time of year?). Do some short bursts of racing, some sightseeing or whatever and take some time out in between – not just drinking beer, though, to give yourself a chance to recover.
Your Mum speaks sound advice, but dare I suggest…
Breatharianism!
Nope. OK. It’s worth trying. I’d just like to see what it does to someone.
The bomb thing – yes, fueharked. But I seriously checked out the price of return tickets to see if it was now cheap enough to fly there for a long weekend or something… 🙂
and…?
How much is a one-way, Melbourne to London?
It was about $2000 return when I bought my never-to-return ticket.
Rest is for normal humans. I am the $8.50 Man!!
My legs are fuxored again.. it’s gonna be fun through London tomorrow!
Good luck Londoning it! "Rest is for the wicked." The person who said that was an Alien being sent to Earth, and hence not a person. But their time/distance matter converter fucked up, and hence they arrive in 0537AD, instead of 1998, at the height of the word "Wicked". Hence, it really should say "Rest is for the Well-cool". So rest motherfucker, cause I’m sick of hearing your "Oh, my aching this." "Oh, my poor knee." I’d rather hear you say "I rested today. It was nice. I am happy."
but… I’m jealous… I want out of this work thing!
I am sitting here, probably for the REST of the day, replying to emails, blogging (ha! no thanks!) and maybe I’ll even get started on unpacking. As for cycling, well, temporarily, it can get fscked!
I need to replace my seat and probably pedals which I seem to have bent. Broke a spoke on the rear wheel (could have been when someone else moved the bike while it was locked) and I want to murder the fscked up rear mudguard..