Tifosi completed

Well, I finally finished my winter/commuter bike. It looks (hmmmm) ... sensible. Reliable. Not the most exciting bike ever to be honest. It is fully ready for commuting and dark evening riding - plenty of lights attached, full length mudguards and my old OpenPro wheels - a real trooper of a bike! I'm going to ride it for the first time tomorrow on my commute, so I'm hoping that all the gear indexing, headset adjustment and brake setting I did in the comfort of the home doesn't go wrong on the road. I've put a pair of latex gloves in my rucksack in case I get oily hands from adjusting the chain because - WHAT WAS I THINKING - I've put white bar tape on a winter bike. Actually I messed up the first tape (Fizik black tape) and found out that you can't readjust it without tearing the edges, so the spare Fizik white I had lying around came onto the scene!


Just as I was finishing the bike (and the rest of the family were finishing breakfast) I looked up to see a pigeon fly at speed at our house. It must have been confused by the reflections of the trees in the window. So we were all treated to the sight of a bird dying (luckily quite quickly) from sudden impact in the garden whilst finishing breakfast. The kids were surprisingly sanguine about the whole thing and insisted on accompanying me outside for the burial in a shallow grave in the back garden. My wife and I asked if they wanted to say anything and my daughter suggested that we sing either Happy Birthday or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Hmmm, strange! I got a really horrified look from my wife when I suggested that we could have eaten the pigeon. I don't know why - it looked pretty healthy, and pan-fried with some black pudding and a red wine jus - delicious. But a little insensitive maybe, bearing in mind I would have had to dig it up again! RIP, Mr Pigeon