Introductions - tell us about yourself

[morris dancer]

hi my names Cathy , new to forums but not too new to cycling....been pedalling (on and off for 23 years)...but now the kids can join me...yippee. eldest 8 now on own bike and 4 year old just on a trailer bike(thanks to John whos lent it to me) and they love it. every night they want to go for a ride....bliss! i'll make the most of it whilst the sun shines!
i also morris dance, but havent yet converted them.(perhaps it's the strange clothing!?)
i got into cycling through racing, but now really enjoy the views and the banter on the CTC rides
gardening is another favourite passtime...my kids are officially fed up of new potatoes.
oh yes..nearly forgot .. i do work
the music i listen to most at the moment are The Cure, The Levellers, Kate Rusby and The Beautiful South
hope this has been Ok but been looking at this forum for a while now so thought i'd join in

[workhard]

the music i listen to most at the moment are The Cure, The Levellers, Kate Rusby and The Beautiful South

Great taste in music I must say

[workhard]

Oh yes me... I'm 47, male, called Greg, live in Sussex, and have too many bikes in the shed. An ex-rugby player I've just finished my second season as a Rugby Union referee. In my teens I used to ride with the Crawley Wheelers and was an enthusuastic but not very good junior TT'er until Rugby won my heart.

Discovered MTB'ing in the early nineties and that got me back onto two wheels and I did a combined train/cycle commute in London from '02/'05 before changing jobs. Now have a 11- 13 mile cross country rural commute from home to work which I do at least twice a week on the bike having started recently after way too much prevarication. Very occassionally I ride with Horsham and Crawley DA - like once a year or so as I'm busy most Sunday mornings.

Have just persuaded employers to introduce Bike 2 Work scheme and am itching to place order for a tourer/commuter so am thinning the bike collection; the singlespeed and the brompton have already gone, the 26" wheel city bike went on eBay today, and someone is coming to see the road racer tonight so with luck by the end of the week it will be the MTB and the new bike on order.

Married to the lovely Helen who occassionally gets her bike out, we've two children, aged 20 and 19, neither of whom would be seen dead on one. Am a Christian and a Socialist and work in IT management for an international charity that does eyecare and fights avoidable blindness. Trying to recuce our carbon footprints and make ourselves a one car family with the aim of weaning ourselves off completely little-by-little over time.

Love beer and wine and cheese and listening to music and chewing the fat with friends. Fav bands are The Cure, Gillian Welch, and I play electric bass a bit.

[gaz]

Oh yes me... have too many bikes in the shed.

I suspect you actually have too few sheds.

Welcome to the madhouse.

[workhard]

Oh yes me... have too many bikes in the shed.

I suspect you actually have too few sheds.

Welcome to the madhouse.

but I've already got two sheds!

[hubgearfreak]

sheds are like bikes, you need the number you have plus 1

[morris dancer]

i have too few bedrooms.....sleeping on the settee whilst my bikes relax in their own private room, the garage. is that dedication to the cause or am i ?
still my choice

[Dee Jay]

Oooh! I didn't realise I was in the company of so many other fans of The Cure on here! Excellent!

[Nerazzurri]

Hi all,

after being here a week I've finally got round to an intro post! I've had so much to find out and buy for my new bike this is really the first chance I've had. I've been away from bikes for so long that it's all quite new to me. My last bike went about 13 years ago.

So now I've got a GT Avalanche - I'm not knowledgable about bikes but it seems fine to me (comfortable, well-built, etc., etc.). I don't know how I'm going to get on with it because I suffer from M.E. but I hope to manage a small ride every day, even if it's just to the supermarket. I have a large park on my doorstep and I've been driving round it for years to go shopping! It'll be nicer, and just as quick, to cycle through it.

I live on my lonesome but have a lovely girlfriend who I'd buy a bike for but at the moment she's not too fussed and there's no point forcing something onto someone. So far I've been loving the short cycles I've had, so maybe some of my enthusiasm will convince her to give it a go.

Other than cycling I like a good book - history, fiction, biographies, travel. At the moment it's a biography of Brian Clough written by a journalist, I'm really enjoying it. I like films too, some documentaries and I've started getting into music again. Sometimes I like going into the city for a walk or movie or the theatre. A couple of weeks ago my girlfriend got press passes for a show which I really enjoyed, unusual because it was a musical which I don't normally like. So yeah, I try to go to the theatre now and again.

Well, that's just a little about me. So far I've had some help from the people here and I'm sure I'll need more in the future too. In return I'll pass on anything I think you all might find useful.

Kind regards, G.

[JQ666]

At the moment it's a biography of Brian Clough written by a journalist, I'm really enjoying it.

Is it 'Provided you don't kiss me' by Duncan Hamilton?

I've got that ready as my next read when i've finished my current read: 'The Hurricane' by Bill Borrows (an unofficial biography about Alex Higgins). This book is amazing - shocking really!

But I'm itching to read the Clough biography.

[Nerazzurri]

Is it 'Provided you don't kiss me' by Duncan Hamilton?

That's the one. Quite an interesting character; sometimes I think 'what a nice thing to do' and other times I think 'what a maniac!' LOL. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[workhard]

Oooh! I didn't realise I was in the company of so many other fans of The Cure on here! Excellent!

So what is your take on the multiple covers of "Just like Heaven" that seem to jump out of every Radio 2 and Radio 6 programme I listen to?

[Dee Jay]

Oooh! I didn't realise I was in the company of so many other fans of The Cure on here! Excellent!

So what is your take on the multiple covers of "Just like Heaven" that seem to jump out of every Radio 2 and Radio 6 programme I listen to?

Hi, Workhard!

Well, I'm assuming that Radio 2 is playing the Katie Melua version and that Radio 6 is playing the Dinosaur Jr version and that there aren't any others I've missed.

I first heard Katie's version several months ago, when my gym instructor played it for the 'cool-down' ... and I thought: blimey; not heard that version before! Not really a fan of KM, although she does have very pretty voice. For me, her cover - although a still very obviously a lovesong - does not go anywhere near capturing the dark, vampyric, lovelorn romantiscism of the original.

I've heard Dinosaur Jr's cover a couple of times - allegedly this version is Robert Smith's favourite cover of this song - and although it's fun, it's rock 'n' roll ... I also think that it's pastiche. (Which is probably why RS likes it?) Dinosaur Jr: are they American? For me, they've removed all that English whimsy, which, of course, defines The Cure, and they've just left the song. But, of course, this is the only way to cover any song: don't sound anything like the original. If you can't bring a freshness to a song, walk away from it.

Fortunately it is an excellent song and this is why it is difficult to do a bad cover: the material just does it all.

You're sorry you asked now, aren't you?

We should take this to a Cure appreciation thread!

[workhard]

See if you can track down Laura Courtese's version - so much better than KM's but as you say NOTHING compares to the original except maybe the MTV unplugged version they did a couple of years back.

But they aren't to everyone's taste.....

[Dee Jay]

Workhard, hi:

I have taken this here:

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=14256