London - Just as non British as I remember

I remember when I first came to the US I thought a lot of people lacked manners in general day to day interactions. Now i'm in the UK it seems like the US has rubbed off on me and i'm the one lacking manners. Funny how that works.
I saw my sister over the last few days, I headed down to London (2.5hr train ride from Leeds) to check out some galleries and architecture. Ended up meeting my sister there as she lives pretty close to London in Brighton. Went to the Tate Modern which had a Mark Rothko and a Cildo Meireles exhibitions going on, the Meireles was really good, very spacial and interactive modern art with a social twist. Then we tooled around london for a while, checked out some well wicked buildings - The Lloyds building is pretty sweet looking when you are there in person. Ended up in South Kensington (very snobby mate) in the Conran shop, which is fulla designer furniture, nick nacks and what nots all costing a mint or two. Jumped on a train, went to Brighton, went to the Pub, had some bangers and mash then stayed at my sisters place before heading back to London the next day.
London to me is in the same standing as Manhatten, London's not really British, it's too much of many cultures in that the essence get's diluted into a more aptley put "London Experience", I sorta felt this way about Manhatten also, the "Manhatten Experience"

Off to Manchester Velodrome tomorrow, home of TeamGB!.

Kayaking? What no bikes, but wait...

Well busy week last week,
This maybe a 50% non cycling related post...so i'll try mix it up here :)
I headed out for Fast Twitch Friday event at the velodrome - won a race, lost two races, positioned 3rd at the end of the night. not too shabby., not too good either, but you know new to this game. This weekend, mixed it up and went Kayaking with a few friends alongside a nature preserve just outside of PDX, was a good time. Kayaking in the UK is called canoing. Then this Tuesday I did Pursuits at the velodrome, never done that before, but it was pretty boring compared to racing, Pursuits are solely about speed and efficiency - I don't think I will be doing them again, I would rather enter races, and rub shoulders with people and run the risk of crashing etc, all that adrenaline stuff.

Here's some Kayaking pictures, was an overcast day, which was good for not getting sunburnt!



Yeah I know , I have cycling gloves on - in the picture above. Gorra protect your soft handie pandies you know.
Also , just to make sure you know I am still talking about bikes, I'm just about to buy a mountain bike. It only has 1 gear though, it's the new thing that the kids are doing nowadays, and it makes the bike a lot cheaper and in some ways more reliable like.



Here's some Marmite my mum sent for me. The funny thing is , at the place where I work, they have all these whimsical names for their products.... big daddy, flipside etc, so to see this Marmite container show up called The Big Squeeze was fitting!


Here's a picture of me with a new shirt that my Mum sent, thanks Mum your the best! and it's quite smart - ain't it. This one is designed by Guide London UK - new shirt every month for skinny euro boys. Guide