The first one is Chilli.

Over the past month I’ve noticed that Back to my Mac hasn’t been available for me to access my home computer remotely. If I go into Preferences and MobileMe I can see that Back to my Mac has an orange light and complains at something amiss with NAT mappings or uPNP.

I found that if I log-on to my O2 Wireless Box II and toggle uPNP off and on than it gives me a green healthy status a few moments later.

Typography | Cave Johnson Lemons from Ignis. Greed on Vimeo.

San Nicasio potato chips are made with extra virgin olive oil from the Almazaras de la Subbética (Olive Oil Mills), a cooperative that has Priego de Córdoba’s Guarantee of Origin and Quality (Denomination de Origen – the national accreditation system which regulates high-quality olive oil), cold pressed oil that is the natural juice of the region’s olives. The oil from the Almazaras de la Subbética have won prestigious international awards.

Tasty

That is all..

Always willing to oblige I have made the said change and this post is by way of testing that it works correctly. If all goes well James should be seeing this post in all its glory via his choice of RSS reader.

If not, I’ll be back.

Have I typed enough?

Yes?

How about a picture of a cat?

You might have caught a glimpse of the logo above adorned on a green can sat on the red Ferrari of Felipe Massa as he sits on the grid. The drink is Guaraná Antarctica and if you haven’t had the opportunity to try it your should track it down. Its massively popular in Brazil and its also available across the world in places such as Portugal and Japan but its now starting to pop up in the UK. You can find it in Harvey Nichols food court (where I bought it) and I think that its available in Waitrose.

Its made from Guaraná from Brazil and it has a slightly fruity, lychee type taste but its really refreshing. Guaraná is also a stimulant like caffeine so think Red Bull but without the awful chemical taste. I’ve not tried it with alcohol but I bet it would be great with a splash of Rum.

It helps that I’m a sucker for most things Brazilian so I can’t think of anything better than a bit of Bebel Gilberto on the stereo and a cool Guaraná Antarctica… and did I mention Rum?

They have a Twitter and Facebook account so if you can’t find it that would be a good place to start.

Guaraná Antarctica on Twitter
Guaraná Antarctica on Facebook

Of course you should know that tomorrow (September 19th) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day and I’m setting about my preparations for a Pirate Party tonight on old Reds galleon.

Ok, so I know that tonight isn’t strictly TLAPD but this old sea dog ain’t what he used to be and has a full day of plundering to do on Monday morn.

My B-Twin Sport 3 bike from Decathlon came with Wellgo road pedals and if you have followed my journey on The Great Tour you’d know I needed new cleats. I naturally started looking in the Internet for Wellgo cleats and the only hits I got were of the Taiwanese manufacturer with little information. There was a suggestion that the Look Delta cleats were compatible but no more than a suggestion. I could have gone to Decathlon but I had perviously looked in store where they have their cleats and saw nothing similar and since I was passing Evans Cycles I felt they would surely be able to answer my queries and sell me some cleats.

I asked the assistant at Evans if he had the appropriate cleats and handed him the Wellgo pedal that I had taken with me. He went away and into the back room before returning and saying that he didn’t have anything and that I should try Halfords (which I thought was a bit of a random suggestion). Since I was getting a bit fed up with what had been a week long search I asked about other options and ended walking out of the shop with a pair of Shimano SPD SL pedals.

I still had a nagging doubt and did some further digging. I finally found the pedal on the Decathlon site (through a Google search not the on site search) which stated Compatible with “Delta” type cleats. If I had seen this before I would have been much more confident to correct the sales assistant in Evans. However if you search for Delta Cleats on the Decathlon site you only get the result of the Wellgo pedal and Look Delta Cleats in red (9º angular float) or black (fixed). The page then states “Compatible with Look Delta pedals”. No mention of any other pedal of some kind of standard compatibility. So if you looked at that cleat, much as I have done on other sites, you wouldn’t have the confidence to buy them even though they do look similar. However I can say that they are the ones to buy.

Its all academic for me as I now have Shimano SPD SL cleats on my shoes but if I can help others.

I’m sure that this is the feeling when you’ve run a marathon in a Pink Panther costume but its one of the most rewarding feelings. Its good that it should feel that way because it bloody hurts while you are doing it!

On the 49th day of the tour I woke to torrential rain and thunder. Perfect conditions for a bike ride. We met at the start in Porthmadog and after registration we set of on a gentle warm up pace for around 20 minutes. It was quite enjoyable and much of my initial nerves were dispelled. That was until we stopped on a small bridge to allow the group to catch up. We set off round a bend and the road set off skyward! Looking back at the stats I can see that we climbed an ascent that took us up a 33% gradient from 100ft to 1041ft. There was no way that anyone but hardcore riders were tackling that and pretty much all of us got off and pushed. That is not before I got my feet stuck in the cleats and took my first tumble leaving my knee on the road. I also had the further complication of wearing racing cleats. For every few steps I slid back as if I was walking on ice! But, after a Herculean struggle, I made it to the top only to find that I’d worn out my cleats and couldn’t get my feet in the pedals. Luckily the support car was behind us so the bike went on the rack and I hopped in to be taken for repairs. At the lunch stop my pedals were swapped replacing the clippy ones with the pedals from my old Diamondback.

The second half of day 49 was one of the more rewarding. They were supposed to be taking up up another ridiculous track so I revolted and said I’d go solo around the coast A road. A number of people liked the sound of that so with a number of supporters we officially split into two groups. The ride still had a number of long runs up hill but it was what I had trained for and what my bike was made for. We finally arrived in Machynlleth to a fantastic reception.

On day 50 we set off from Machynlleth and I was joined by John Talbot. A number of our riders had gone home after day 499 and John had boosted our ranks keeping the Collier’s team to a respectable level of four riders. The morning run was nice in the sunshine and we reached Borth for morning break. After the break things started to get ugly. Not only did the rain return but there were a few climbs that while I attempted them were beyond my ability and I had to have four wheeled assistance to the top. We made Aberystwyth for lunch and then the afternoon continued much the same. I tried my best but in the end after dropping way back I opted for a bit of assistance to catch up with the group and then cycled the final section into New Quay. I was happy that over the two days I had put in a shift. Not bad for a guy my size after only three weeks training.

Thanks to everyone who supported me. I will leave you with The Great Tour videos and my stats.

I have a 26 mile trip planned on Sunday with a colleague and then its back to my training circuit on Monday and Tuesday with gym on the Wednesday followed by a rest on Thursday to built up some energy for Friday and Saturdays ride.

Don’t forget to sponsor me if you haven’t already. The money goes to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

This is another view of yesterdays training route

If all goes according to plan I will have completed the two stages of The Great Tour that I’m committed to.

I’ll be keeping up the training but for the first time I know I can do it (as opposed to believing its possible). I’m just back from a ride just short of 18 miles that took me 1.2 hours. The ride also included an epic climb out of Prestbury. At that pace with hills involved I don’t envisage any difficulty.

Also of note is my acceptance by other cyclists. My adoption of the lycra ‘uniform’ means that all of the other cyclists on the road this morning have greeted me with a nod or a shout of “Morning”. Come to think of it they did all seem to be going the other direction also. Did they know something I didn’t. Perhaps it was that climb out of Prestbury!

Finally.. Please, pretty please. If you haven’t already sponsored my please consider giving something. Its for the children in the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. I’ve seen first hand that it really does make a difference to them and their families.

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Started: 8 Aug 2010 10:16:49
Ride Time: 1:20:36
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 17.90 miles
Average: 13.32 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 31.00 miles/h
Climb: 730 feet
Calories: 1525

I decided to fully commit to the ride and buy a new bike. I’m going to be taking the old Diamondback as a backup but I thought that there’s no need to make it any harder than it needs to be. I’m hoping that the new bike will be here by the weekend at which point I’ll need to pick up new shoes, a helmet, some shades, etc. In fact everything to look the part in my usual Mr Benn fashion.

Now to get down to business. While the official charities of The Great Tour are Caravan and The Prostate Charity (feel free to give to them if you want) I have elected to raise money for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. When Emily fell ill last year and was taken to Stepping Hill Hospital I recall various posters explaining the importance of keeping the children occupied to take their mind off their illness and whatever treatments they may be undertaking. When we were transferred to the brand new and very impressive Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital it was noticeable that there was less to keep the children occupied. There were old 14″ portable TV’s on trolleys (if you were lucky enough to get one) but beyond the old consoles and DVD players there was no TV to watch as the portable aerials were of no use and couldn’t pick up a signal.

I hope that the money I raise can go towards providing some entertainment facilities worthy of the other excellent facilities they otherwise provide.

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Started: 5 Aug 2010 19:03:02
Ride Time: 34:09
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 7.16 miles
Average: 12.58 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 16.91 miles/h

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