Rock 'n' Roll

It is now... really early on a Friday morning, 2010 World Cup morning in fact, and it has fallen (hehehe) to me to write this report.
Just shy of seven on the clock last night, about ten like minded insaniacs pitched up at the MooMall ready to brave the slightly... fresh, I believe the word was... conditions to do the famous Rock 'n' Roll Dark 'n' Dirty route. After the usual "social ride nobody gets left behind" speech by Hardy, we were off up the hill and onto Cruiser.
You can say what you want, but Cruiser at speed is still one of the more awesome tracks around :-)
After a quick pomp by Hardy - his rear tyre was squishy - onto Vetseun, taking it easy near the top with all the very loose rocks, and hen bombing it down to the stop street at Smuts Street. Then loop back onto Beeg-Dipper, with some nice technical rumbly climbs. It was somewhere up this where I earned the right to write this prose. I managed to almost endo. On an uphill. But I settled for an inelegant dismount. Unfortunately, my hands touched the ground, and someone was there to see it...
Oh well :-)
Then onto Mielie Muure DH Rush, which was awesome!!! We waited a while at the regrouping point for one guy (I believe it was Willem-without-the-helmet) lost his light. Reattaching required some innovative cable tie usage, and while it pointed somewhat sideway, it didn't come off again.
I took the first speed zone up the hill next th the tar, and then the other Leon took the second from the Shebeen.
Hardy took the third one to the Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Vision). Then down Mineshaft SZ, but just after Blair Witch, Hardy decided he was tired of pomping his rear tyre, and decided to replace the tube. He whipped out a coffee thermos, and some plastic cups, and we all cheered him on while he replaced his tube. Kudo's for taking LATEOTT SZ with a full, seemingly never emptying thermos of sweet milky coffee, by the way :-)
Next it was onto another awesome piece of singletrack, then back into Irene at the cemement factory and onto Python. After tour de Tar, where Mark came flying past me like I was looking for parking to take the tiebreak SZ, which stuffed up all the stats, prompting Hardy to call Quadbusta the tiebreak. This was taken by Leon Smith again, meaning that the Leon's took 3 of the 6 SZ's :-)
Almost home, we hooked onto a piece of dirt road which I have, in my capacity of Writer Of Report, have decided to call Chicanes, and onto the first half of Cruiser, only in reverse.
We were back at the MooMall at 22:30, after 3:14 and 30 km.

Here is the track recorded last night. It was a bit darker than the image though :-)

Thanks to all for a good good night...

First Ascent Domestique Shorts

So the other day (just before Magalies Monster) I decided I need a new pair of shorts, seeings how my current favourite pair of Capestorm shorts (which is probably about five years old) was starting to look a bit like something out of a porn movie.
NOT that I know anything about that.
Although, almost any new movie nowadays can be classified as such.
Anyway, what was I talking about again?
Oh yes.
The porn shorts.
While still very comfortable, they were starting to be a bit... transparent in certain places...
So off to Sportsman's warehouse I go. Hiho, hiho...
Now, I prefer a more minimalist padding, cos I don't like the feel of wearing a nappy, and it's hard to run with thickly padded shorts, and also bib shorts don't do it for me. Which is a good thing, cos shorts are cheaper than bibs.
Anyhoo, SW did not have any Capestorm shorts. Only First Ascent and Howzit. So after having a good feel at both's padding, I decided on the slightly more expensive First Ascent's. These had an subjectively better feel to them, and being 8 panel, the fit is better than the others. For me anyway. The padding is a bit thicker than I prefer, but also quite firm, unlike the Howzits. The paddin is multiple density, with thicker harder padding on the sit bone area and thinner in the front and on the sides. Also, it touts to have "Anti-microbial padding". I would take this with a pinch of salt, cos after a few rides and (hopefully...) washes, I don't see it making much difference anymore.
So I pays may moneys. All R450 of it, which is slightly more than the recommended R440 on the First Ascent website.
Next day I do the Magalies Mini Monster, and lo, I completely forget about the shorts. I don't notice them at all. Which, to my mind, is exactly what you want. These shorts just fit nicely, pad comfortably without being squishy. No movement, and no uncomfortable squeeze from the waistband, which, by the way, is about 3cm wide.
So, there you have it. Even at the price, I believe these shorts are worth it. In fact, I have since bought two more pairs, which should sort me out for the foreseeable future.

Great Adventure update

Karen (my wife) is still having some contractions but not as strong as they were. Doc just saw her and he reckons she must stay there another day. The steroids only have any marked effect on the baby's lungs after 48 hours.
So here hoping they'll come home tomorrow, all healthy like.

Great Adventure

So last night we're about to get into bed, when my wife says, "I've been having these really strong and quite painful contraction all day. I wonder if I shouldn't maybe call the hospital and check if I shouldn't maybe come in..."
Of course, given that this is our 4th kid, I reckon that she would know if something is happening.
So off we trundle to the hospital after the nurse told to be rather safe than sorry.
The contractions were coming at a rate of about one every ten minutes, and the doc did an examination and proclaimed that he was going to treat this as premature labour (my wife is almost 35 weeks) so if we could score two weeks everything would be much better.
Cortisone, Steroids, Adalat (an anti hypertensive which also seems to stop labour) and a sleeping tablet later, I left my wife to sleep in hospital.
I'll keep you all updated as and when stuff happens.