GALFROMDOWNUNDER UPOVER

UPDATE: Sold, 6/28/11, to Janine who says: I love riding road so needed a more speeding type of tikit it's 24 miles to work and I work around 13 hrs a day so take the bus and train both besides the bus as I live rurally. +++ Alan Scholz, CEO of Bike Friday zips along on Cycle Oregon 2003 - on an Air Friday with me trying to chase!  I have a new Bike Friday Speeding tikit. Thank you to Rob ,   Alan , Hanna and the Production team at Bike Friday for speccing out such a spiffy machine, and especially  Merle and Bethany for the cute note on the box when it arrived at bfold ! My princess pink Model T Speeding tikit is for sale. Hence, my previous one, about 18 months old, is spruced up and for sale to someone smallish with a penchant for pink (dusty rose, my friend Cheryl calls it) and a fast commuter folder. New, this bike retails for around $2300. David Lam at  bfold.com  is selling it - completely overhauled - for $1600. Me wit...

Laurie Anderson with her Explorer's Club certificate of appreciation, while hubby Lou Reed looks windswept and interesting.   The Explorer's Club  is officially busting out of its extreme snowshoe and crampon mold: Last night's event - a surprising detour from summit-talk and diving bell banter - was a discourse between famous avante-garde composer Laurie Anderson and experimental muso and "philosopher-naturalist"  David Rothenburg . And what's this ... DJ Snoopy slated for an upcoming talk on the calendar? Edmund Hillary eat your stuff sack out! But even more surprisingly, Lou Reed was in attendance. More about that in a moment. For the uninitiated, the Explorer's Club is an oak-clad clubhouse hung with the stuff of "distinguished" hardcore adventure - dug out canoes, sleds and snowshoes worn by someone with Wikipedia creds. It's where scholarly thrillseekers rub ice picks under the watchful eye of a giant, gnashing, taxidermied pol...

NOTE: This post, and future posts relating to the Yoga/Pilates for Cyclists project in collaboration with Karin Fantus will now be continued on this blog: http://yogapilatesnyc.blogspot.com Following our sold-out  Yoga/Pilates for Cyclists Sampler  class in Jan 2011, Karin and I have found a cozy space to continue the series. Judging by the feedback  the New York Cycle Clubbers found our class very interesting and beneficial. (OK, we did hand out 85% dark chocolate with the anonymous feedback sheets). Here's a movie tour of the space: Tour around the space above - and apologies - I couldn't help but tickle the ivories a little, despite a traumatic childhood involving piano lessons and a book of mindless  Czerny Etudes  that resulted in teethmarks on the piano ... A musical space indeed: a 72nd St location - with cushy new carpet - for around 8-10 participants (when we stack the chairs) "What a tangled web we weave ... " It's called the Otello ro...

THE MOVIE (15 mins):   http://www.galfromdownunder.com/movies/handmadebikes On Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=491446521589 Shot with  Galfromdownunder CrayolaCam (8 mp point & shoot camera, iMovie, no really) THE STORY in MOMENTUM MAGAZINE (Jan/Feb 2011, begins page 29): http://momentumplanet.com/magazine  specifically:    http://momentum-digitalmag.com/JanFeb2011 Thanks to Babbling Brook Productions for this very nice comment on YouTube:  This is a great video that really captures the experience of appreciating handmade bicycles. From describing the artistic details of handmade bikes such as the head tube badge, lug work and paint, to the experience of having a bike built for a specific riding purpose, this tells the story. The time spent with the builders in their shop really lets you in to the work of hand building bike frames. If you're interested in hand built bikes, this video nails it!!! TO...

Continuing my "tales of the uneggspected" in CountyKerry: having been dismissed from my first ever waitressing gig, I now prepare to talk my way into a serious stint on the steamy side of the swinging door...  r ead "Doing the Dishes in County Kerry" Part 1 Head chef Bruce co-assembles the Taster Plate,  a personal smorgasboard of all the sugary offerings al dia . "You need to turn it around in under 2 minutes," said sous chef Tommy.  My life as a trainee chef Mulcahy's Restaurant and Bar, Ireland 1998 After my three-week waitressing career sank like a lead meringue I found myself out in the drizzling rain looking for a new job, and more pressingly, a new place to sleep. Kenmare suddenly took on a grey, miserable pallor, a trick of the brain when life takes an awkward turn. Bummer. I was still frazzled by being fired, though it wasn't the first time in my life. I argued that really, I never wanted to be a waitress; it was just a wa...