I know by now, those of you who do drop by my blog may be pretty bored by viewing my posts of what appears to be my only bike and the only thing I do on it. Don't worry, I am sure I will be featuring a few more posts soon about other stuff, including Myrtle, my 65 classic Bug. Yes I still have her, however I haven't really done anything with her over the winter, it's too cold to work outside, plus of late I haven't really had the money to spend on her. Never mind, like I say she will be featured soon, when I figure out what is the next on the lengthy list of restoration and mods. Oh! And let's not forget Grandma, my GSR Beetle. I have been waiting ages for EBC Direct to get the rear R32 discs and pads in stock, as I have pretty much got all the other modified bigger brake components. I will go into more detail when I get all the gear and take some pics of the parts, then again once fitted.
Anyhoo at the moment, I still feel pants after having a variant of covid. Although I am now testing negative, I just feel all out of whack, with fatigue, a sore throat and a tight chest. This morning I awoke somewhere around 6 am, just couldn't sleep, so I got up, had a bite to eat, watched a bit of news, then flicked through YouTube. After a few hours, I decided to go back to bed and awoke again at 11:25 am, still feeling like crap. I made a couple of Turkey sandwiches, which I shared with wor Baxter and had a cuppa. I then went back to bed, not so much feeling sleepy, No more just couldn't be arsed.
After lying for an hour or so meditating, well more just thinking with my eyes closed of being a millionaire and buying my dream house in Scotland, Oh yes the dream is still alive, my little internal voice spoke to me saying "Aww just stay on your bed", you see I was lying on top with my hoodie pulled over my head, "No need to get up," "There is nowt to do anyway". At this point there was a reply in my head which came across as "Fuck off, I'm going for a spin on my bike".
In the past, I have let that little irritating internal voice get me down, it can suck the very life out of me, and make me question myself. Now it may sound like I am a bit cuckoo, but I answer it back, and pretty much tell it where to go. I guess I have developed this mindset. My way of thinking, and it can be incredibly difficult at times, is that no matter the negatives, ie: being on rock bottom, well once you are there the only way is up, and up has to be a positive.
I have really enjoyed riding this bike
Getting up, I then got changed into my bikey gear, grabbed my GoPro and chesty mount and headed downstairs to get my bike. I am getting really good at how quick I can manage to put my hands on things and in how long it now takes me to be up and out the house once my mind is made up. I think part of the reason I have not been going out as much on my bikes is that I get bored with riding the same roads and trails, that and my stoopid ill-fitting prosthetic of course.
Man, I have changed shape so much over the last 4 months. Four months is how long I have been off work. I am due to go back on the 25th April, and will have to try and get away with my old socket as the DSC has been unable to fit me for a new one. I guess it is partly my fault, as I have gone from my usual everyday socket being way too big, to it now feeling a bit too tight. I went for a walk yesterday and wow it was mega painful. My stump feeling like it is getting crushed and the worst lower back pain ever. Feels like my leg is proper out of alignment, as if my hips are getting pushed forward, causing me to arch my back and shoulders. I am still stiff today, and I didn't walk that far.
Anyhoo back to the mini adventure on my Orbea Gain. I am so pleased I invested in this bike. It feels mega quick where ever I go and so much fun, even if I do have to constantly ride it whilst sat in the saddle. It is pointless using my tendons on my Bartlett Tendon Knee with this bike, I would just expend too much energy fighting the resistance, and it's not like I am jumping or dropping off stuff.
I rode 8.35 miles today. It was a lot muddier than I expected, which had me sliding about in certain areas. As the bike is so quick, I find I have to be a bit more switched on. I just rode locally, making up a route as I thought about one of my friends brothers who had commented on one of my videos, saying it brought back memories of when he lived in the area.
Firstly I rode through "Glass Wood", I think I have mentioned this before, my dad and I just call it Glass wood as there are generally so many broken bottles strewn about from the local scumbag kids. I then visited the "Pines", these woods are a lot less dense than I remember in my day when we would climb the tress and play "Tally Ho". Next I rode through South Moor Park, when you are out and about you really get an idea of just how wild the weather had been a few weeks ago, so many fallen trees. Once at the end of the Park, at the drift, I made my way up and onto Chapman's Wells Nature reserve, heading towards the pond and looping around to come back down the Farmer's trail.
Back onto Chapman's Wells and I headed for "Quakies" and cut through a small section of woodland to get on a trail that took me back down to the drift. From there I headed up towards Langley View and turned right at the 3 stones to head down the Black Path. So many memories in this area for me. Funny, I always think of my mam when at the 3 stones, which are 3 concrete stones that have been there since the beginning of time. My mam and I used to walk this route regularly to get from South Moor to New Kyo, or "Kya" as we called it, where my Nana lived.
As I got to the bottom of the black path, so called because the coal slag heaps used to be there, hence making the path black, I cut across the green opposite Ivy Terrace. In years gone by this would have been impossible as there used to be a huge pond, complete with newts, tadpoles and frogs. I spent many a day in my wellies catching various critters as a little kid. The pond gradually got smaller and smaller over the years, as I can recall huge bonfires being held on the green around November, what with Guy Fawkes. One year I can remeber finding the perfect stick for roasting my tatties. It had a bit of plastic on it so I grasped the plastic and pulled, to try and remove it. The stick split and as I pulled one sharp edge drove right through my thumb. I can remeber running home with this huge bit of stick stuck through my thumb and my dad having to pull it out. Turns out the stick was from a kite and made from some sort of fibre glass. Funny what sticks in your mind and also in your thumb if you go pulling on things you shouldn't.
I can also recall the big cooling tower that used to be at the top of the path, where the brick flats were. It was always known as the "Charlie". Something else I may have mentioned in an old blog, when thinking of the brick flats. My dad used to take wor Blackie, who was a big black Labrador for a walk up the "Charlie". Each night Blackie would carry a brand new brick home. One day a bloke came knocking on our door, telling my mam that my dad had sent him. The fella was finishing off an extension and had run out of bricks, well we had a shed full of tbrand new bricks all neatly stacked to the roof.
Coming off the green I rode down the back lane of where I used to live from the age of 3, and 29 Mitchell Street, in South Moor. I see they have clad the houses, so they look like they have new brick work. From the age of 16 this is where I have fond memories of my first motorbikes.
It is strange riding down the street, a memory came to me from years and years ago. It was of a house near the bottom of my street. There used to be a man and woman, who had two dogs, and the dogs had chewed a great big hole in the gate, which had then been boarded up. I can recall having some terrible nightmares about those two dogs escaping and setting about wor "Blackie". Funny what sticks in your mind and how revisting places, sights or sounds can bring stuff flooding back.
Turning left at the bottom of Mitchell Street, I headed over towards the old people's cottages. Deciding to take the route I used to take to get to my first school, which was called Greenlands. The old street hasn't changed a bit, it is still like a pottery old lane, with a terrible road surface. Greenlands is now boarded up and in disrepair, I have some good memories of that school.
Riding onto South Moor front street, I cut over the pedestrian crossing, and headed for home, cutting down through Hustledown and Holyhill.
Once at home, I had to give my bike a thorough wash, as she was up the naffs.
And that is the end...LoL...Well not quite.
Yesterday, as it is now today, and I have been on absolutely ages trying to sort my video editing software. So yesterday I decided to try another time warp video, making sure my camera was adjusted a bit better and got more of a clear image of where I was going, not just looking at either the ground or sky.
As the weather had been slightly colder on my previous days out, both walking and riding, I decided to pop on a couple of base layers and my Endura Hoodie, thinking I would pop my GoPro chesty mount on under my jacket and just leave the zip down so that my camera poked out. Unfortunately, when I came to get off my bike to lift it over a gate I must have accidentally covered my camera, so basically got a shot of the inside of my jacket. Never mind, I was able to fudge some footage together, you live and learn.
As I started up my Wondershare Filmora editing software, which by the way is so easy to use. I got a message saying I could upgrade to a newer version. As I have paid for the software, it allows me more items for editing, so I downloaded and installed the software. Then, when I had finished popping my footage in, editing it with titles and music, I began the process of rendering my project. Now when I say it took ages I mean hours and hours and yep a few more hours, so much so that I left my computer running as I went to bed. I awoke early this morning to discover my pc must have got bored and decided to turn off sometime during the night... Bloody hell man.
I then had another go at completing my project, lowering the settings, it has now taken 6 hours to get the video rendered and uploaded LoL. So now I am investigating with more settings to try and get the best video quality I can, however maybe in a different file type. I think because I have downloaded a new version of Filmora something must have changed somewhere.
As I have a 4/5K GoPro, obviously I would like to be able to upload to the best quality. Ah well, something to keep me busy, and try to figure out I guess.
Further, update, it has taken all day to render and upload the 4k version, so now I have two of the same videos on YouTube, one in 1080 HD and the other should be 4K when it is processed.
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