end week

What did I do this weekend? Do you really care? Why is what people do on Sat. & Sun. so much more important than others days? Doesn't matter much to me, because I don't have a regular job. I guess it's nice to have less traffic.

I got the C-1 back on Friday, and although I drove it home from Chiswick on the motorway, I was scared to ride it again till today. Sometimes I just freak myself out for no real reason. Once I was back riding again it felt fine. People give me weird looks when I'm riding it through town. When I'm stopped at lights they say stuff to me I can't hear through my helmet, I hope its good. This one boy was yelling at me from the curb, and all I heard was "___ ___ ____ motorcycle!" The light was long enough for me to yell "what?" to which he replied "Can I hava go?" hee hee! Not everyone thinks I look like a dork, I can impress 12 year old boys! So I looked at him and yelled "no!" as I revved the throttle and pulled away when the light changed. Boy, sure feels cool making my bike go vrooooooom!

Yesterday there was a little dog show in the park, so I took Misha and hung around for a while. It was miserably hot and sunny, no shade to take comfort in. I bought the dog some treats, watched the parade of canines of all shapes and sizes pass by in the sun. Misha had her picture taken a few times, which is all she's really good at, as she failed miserably at the little dog run they had set up. (Fastest time of the day wins!) She was great at jumping the hurdles, she just couldn’t be bothered to run through the tube at the end. Don't blame her though. It looked a bit demeaning.

The deputy major was on hand to judge the first two rounds of the Scruffs competitions (a takeoff on Crufts, the kennel club that has huge dog shows), of which Misha couldn't enter because it's for mixed breed dogs (whereas all dog shows, like Crufts, are for pure breeds, of which Misha also can't be entered, because she has no official papers to prove her blue bloodedness. Not like she cares, nor do I). After he was done judging, he stepped out of the roped off area, and as he passed us he stopped and asked if he could stroke her (I still can't get used to that, 'stroke' for 'pet'). Of course, I replied. He was taken with her (of course), and said she was a most beautiful dog! He asked if I entered her in any of the competitions, to which I answered no. Not really giving much more of an explanation than that, I didn't want to have to explain that she was a pure breed, and had hundreds of years of genetic engineering behind her. It's so easy for her to be fabulous.

I tried taking some pictures, but I didn't get anything good because it was too hot to concentrate. So I will give you yet another picture of Misha, trying to escape the heat by finding a bit of shade behind a chair:

On Saturday I also found a new running trail, which put a bit of zest back into my routine. I rode my bike to Putney bridge, then ran along the river to a bit beyond Hammersmith bridge and back. Ran past lots of boathouses with tanned people putting row boats away for the night. (Are they called row boats? They are the long sort that people race in.) The trail was mostly off-road, which was great (although still paved, or remnants of pavement lied beneath much of the dirt and pebbles). I am killing myself for not finding this earlier.

Tomorrow I have to ride into central London to get some more coffee beans at this awesome coffee place I was tipped off on last week. I am running low on coffee, not good.