tipsy and blogging

there is something to be said about waking up from a nap to the sound of surf in the city. the problem is i am about 2 kilometers away from manila bay. floods can be good or bad depending on one's state of mind.

i don't like to wake up early tomorrow. but then again most people don't want to.

after "chedeng" there's "dodong" (names of tropical storms in the philippine area of responsibility). we prayed from rain. and someone said, "sure." we got plenty. but its all for the good, i think.

all this while cruel summer of bananarama is wafting in the background.

goodnight. and have a nice life.

flooded in

well, for today, we are flooded in. i can't complain though. its not hot and we have been praying for rain. robin's happy though because classes has been suspended.

new old house

it always surprises and amazes me how moving to another house can alter the day to day rhythm of life. we recently moved to another house although i did live here several years ago when i was lonely and single. but this time around i have a family.

these days, i wake up a bit earlier than usual but i still try to sleep by 10:30. there is more to do because we don't have any help. there's more to clean. ugh. there's lesser plants around but we have started greening up the place -- a couple of young palm trees; several white angel plants - potted by us and placed along the window lines; a handful of celias (hanging plants) in the windows; a garlic vine; a red leafy, grassy 'thing' -- well, its growing like crazy; along the stairs there's a trio of potted san franciscos with strange colors, certainly not the usual colors; a dama de noche in a really large pot and i just planted a handful of climbing ivy along the base of the walls behind the house.

its a bit tough on the finances and more hard work than usual but all in all, we are, i am, happy.

pictures later.

netless part 2

i'll be netless (without direct access to the internet for the nits) for the next few days.

we're moving house and i just applied for a new tel/dsl line.

let's see if bayantel can install it within the week — they did say "in 3 to 5 days".

i hope the next entry will be posted from the new old house.

two rides

last thursday, lito and i went out for a ride in his area. i had to stay the night before so that we can ride out early enough. robin tagged along since there are no more classes and he could play with his friends while lito and i were riding.

we headed off to tiendesitas and lito showed me his usual loop. all asphalt so the ride was pretty smooth. it rained a little so the temps were really nice and cool. the rain did make the roads a bit slippery. i don't mind. i was racking in the kilos.

good friday, cherry wanted to exercise so we headed off to the mall of asia early morning. she walked and i rode. again. i actually tried to catch a paceline but my speed and endurance wasn't there yet and i got dropped quickly.

but i was cycling. and that's good. i decided to just practice my spin until i got tired.

march 2007 updates

aye, i've been remiss. march was too busy for me. this is a record, of sorts, so i can keep track of what's left of my sanity.

the 12th to the 14th should have been robin's finals but he was a participant in a school play so he was excused so he can attend rehersals the whole week with the show on the 16th. the thing was the schedule for fetching him was a bit topsy turvy.

the finals for the particpants was reset to the 19th to 21st and then there's more activities on the 22nd and 23rd. the 23rd was particularly weird because he received certificates on stage for participating in the school play and for him being enthusiastic about learning basketball. and robin and i didn't know about it until we got to school. we had to go back and get dressed properly — robin was in his pe uniform and i was in shorts! ugh.

the 24th is his birthday and we spent in the mall with his friends and cousins — all in all, cherry and i were taking care of eight kids. its not exactly what i want to do but it turned out really fun! and most importantly, robin enjoyed it!

on the 25th, we had to meet with my parents, my brother and his wife in makati. its a celebration of sorts because on the 28th was my dad's 70th. 70 years on earth. wow!

i can't remember much of what happened for the rest of march though... see? leaking sanity.

been riding

i know. no new stuff again.

well, there is. actually.

i've been out. riding. on my bicycle. meeting new people. having coffeee with friends. its been great so far. i'll write the stories down in a bit. its holy week and the summer vacation is here so i should have more time to write.

the craving

before when i tried to stop smoking, the craving was really bad. i caved in then. recently, i was going through this thread on bike forums on stopping smoking and what genericbikedude posted:

what worked for me was just a little awareness trick. try focusing all of your awareness on your feeling of the craving. look at it and pay attention to it, rather than looking at its effect on you (making you feel bad, anxious, etc).

if you can relly focus your attention on the craving, you'll find that there is really nothing there. and by the time you've relaxed your mind enough to make this work, the craving tends to pass anyway.

the same trick works for physical pain (but to a lesser degree!) and anything that causes anxiety.

makes sense to me than anything i've tried before.

notes and shoutouts

lito: dude, christy was asking when you'd drop by at the bike shop and get that chain replaced

jay: good to meet you bro and the best of luck tomorrow on getting in a team for the tour

eboy: nice sweet opera dude. opera — carbon/titanium road bike dressed in carbon records. caramba. glad to meet you.

kikay notes: jun mentioned that rey ranada was the one who brazed my bike and ave was the one who filed the lugs. even i get confused with the tidbits i get.

just a ride

yesterday, i went out to on the bike a bit. bad ride. i was concentrating too much on the spin, the pedal stroke, the frigging traffic, forgot my water, breathing too little. ugh.

today's ride was a lot better. i just rode. no agenda. no targets. to time constraints.

i just went out for a slow ride. i had time to look around the city, stop for a drink and observe the traffic and the people.

i also got to visit one of the cbike shops i frequent — christy's — and i got a second bottle cage and some story swapping with new friends.

traffic was bad going back home that i had to weave in traffic. it was fun but i didn't want to do it all the way home so on to the wide sidewalk of roxas. surprisingly there was very little people traffic.

got home tired but satisfied with my ride.

riding the bulls

last sunday's ride was my first real test on using the bullhorns. there was a little pain again on the palms near the thumbs at the start of the ride but it went away on the third of the ride. i am assuming its my hand position on the new bars.

i was used to holding on to the brake hoods when i had the drop bars and, compared to the width of the handles, the brake hoods were thicker and therefore more comfortable. so now i'm toying with the idea of thickening that part of the bullhorns which i use more often with bar tape to make it more comfy.

i also adjusted the horns a tiny bit more to point up and this made things a little more comfortable while i'm on the "wings". i still have to get used to that sloping part of the bars nearest the stem but they are, more or less, the same when i was using the drop bars.

one advantage i found out was that i have a better and stronger grip on the brake levers. this is good especially in those moments when you need to suddenly use the brakes

and, somehow, i find it easier to climb with the horns. i don't know why.

i have to ride some more...

tidbit 2007.02.26

never underestimate the determination of stupidity

sunday ride

this sunday was my first "long" ride in manila in a long while. the route was from mendiola - left to legarda - onto ayala bridge - ayala boulevard - across taft towards manila hotel - along roxas boulevard - passing the cultural center then right to world trade center and then left to macapagal then finally to the mall of asia. that's around five to six kilometers i think. i was riding with a friend of mine — lito.

when we got to the mall grounds there were already a large number of cyclists there. there was even a group that numbered around 200+ all gathered in one big bunch. must be a big ride. there's lots of bike traffic. wow. we went around a bit and i decided to rest. we still have to go back. lito went on to ride some more with a group that went around the mall.

the ride back was uneventful and we arrived home safely.

good ride for me. i had real good fun just riding — smiling while pedaling. rides seem to be easier when you ride with friends.

to cyclists who know the area, this would be considered a short ride but to a person going back to cycling from a long lay off, its a long ride. my target was just to get to the cultural center, have some coffee, ride back and i'd be happy. i went beyond that target.

and i want to ride some more.

50% off on utilities ?

i just read this tidbit from the 24 february 2007 edition of the philippine star:

senior citizens also enjoy ... 50 percent discount on bills and utilities such as water, electricity and telephone, and other services.

is this friggin' true? i know several families will benefit greatly from this. i will have to make calls next week.

50% off on utilities is a large amount of money.

kikay the bull

i got time a couple of days ago to switch from the drop handlebars to bullhorns. i didn't want to spend for new bar tape so i just used the old one. the only glitch in the switch was that i had to replace the rear brake cable because it was too short.

so far she looks awesome (to me at least). remember beauty and the beholder.


i tried her out on a short ride and it was fun! i don't know if its because there's something new on my bike or the ride itself or the new position. i went from mediola to the national museum and back. my palms near the thumbs developed some slight pain but it was gone on my ride going back. just to be on the safe side, i tilted the horns up just a little.

oh, and half of ayala bridge was closed for repairs so traffic sucked bigtime.

suzue hubs

one of the bikes shops that i visit gave me this pair. sweet. they're oldies but unused. i think it even predates the suzue juniors or the basic. there was some binding when i turn the axles so i have to disassemble the thing and check the insides.

the pic was taken after i cleaned out the hubs of the old grease and repacked with new lithium grease. the bearings and the races were still intact. it just needed a bit of re-adjustment to take the binding out.

i did some measurements and it seems these things are pretty old. the over locknut distance of the front is 96 mm, the rear is 125 mm (114 without the axle spacer).

they're not really fixed gear hubs but i got them free so i can't really complain. i'm not sure i'm comfortable about putting a fixed gear sprocket there. let's see.

strike one off the list, i think.

baby ruth

my bro just mailed me that our dog — baby ruth — just died. she was around 9 years old which is really up there in dog years. the last time i saw her she looked really tired already.

she's half (or was it a fourth) japanese spitz and local dog; furry crazy; could jump/climb over a five-foot fence; barks loud; playful and malambing.

i'll try to find pictures and post them somewhere.

makes me sad.

bullhorns

i got these profile horns over the weekend from christy's. its cheap at 300 pesos (around us$ 6). i'm not even sure if its 2nd hand because there's no nicks or dings or scratches. i think its a good buy.

and since i was there already i had my wheelset double checked by jun — the bike mech i've known for about 10 years already. he's pretty good at it too.

so scratch one off the list. and i'm a happy cat. i'm even thinking of swapping my drops for this thing. but not yet.

more hunting then...

btw, i dropped by one of the nearby lbs and i saw a pair of suzue hubs for 350 pesos. they're high flanged and they looked used because there's no shine in them. i'll investigate further when i get some extra cash.

bullhorn measurements: 26.0 / 400. i'm not sure how much the drop is.

privacy

yesterday while robin and i were heading home from school, we were called by a couple of his classmates — lawrence and janet — to hitch with them. after a few seconds of goading, we agreed. it was a short trip since we only live a few minutes from school.

this morning robin said, "dad, don't pick me up today okay?".

i gave my fatherly perplexed look and robin said, "i want to ride home with lawrence and janet today."

me, not really sure if he made arrangements already, said, "okay, you can hitch a ride with la (lawrence) but i will have to be there."

and robin indignantly said, "dad, i want my privacy."

and he's just eight.

the pick-up

i don't really know if this would make sense to the non-pinoys who are reading this but i'll put translations in parenthesis...

i was fetching robin from school a couple of weeks ago and i noticed that they have new guards. the guards were not suppose to let any grade schoolers out of the premises without a fetcher or someone to pick them up — be it a school service, a yaya or maid, parent or grandparent. so here comes robin going out through the gate and the guard doing his job:

guard: "boy, boy. teka. nasaan sundo mo?"
(boy, boy. where is your fetcher?)

robin keeps on walking, not noticing the guard.

guard's supervisor: " 'pre, inglisin mo yan. hindi yan nakakaintindi ng tagalog."
(partner, talk to him in english. he doesn't understand tagalog.)

guard: "boy, boy. where is your pick-up?"

dang! i just had to laugh.