Tears from Heaven
Aug. 6th, 2010 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3No, I didn't cycle from Ardrishaig to Glasgow via Arran today.
That's because when I woke up at 5 this morning, it had started to rain. It was still raining at 7 when my alarm went off, and, pertinently, at 8.30 when I'd had my breafast and was ready to leave. I don't mind cycling THROUGH rain, but I have a hearty dislike of starting off in the rain.
I thought I'd wait till lunchtime, and see how things were going. That would mean getting the last ferry off Arran, but at least I'd be back home tonight.
No dice, still raining at 12.00. Still raining, in fact, until 1.30, when it went off, but the clouds are hanging around anyway (the cloud ceiling is effectively sea-level at the moment).
Tomorrow's forecast is for more rain, but slightly warmer rain. Sunday's forecast is for sun. So I put my feet up and read book number two.
Book number one was Brookmyre's "All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses an Eye", which is tremendous fun - James Bond/Mission Impossible style capers, and great dialogue. And a bit of a fairy tale. There's a spot which always makes me cry, and embarrassingly enough I hit it on the bus yesterday. I'm a complete sucker for heroism against the odds, and this scene has it in spades.
Book number two has at least half a dozen such spots, but luckily I hit them all in the privacy of my own armchair. David Gemmell's "Stormrider" is, I think, the last of his Rigante books. The Rigante are based on alternate world Scottish Highlanders, and Gemmell is good enough for that to actually appeal to me, not make me running off to burn any scrap of tartan in the house. It's one of his later fantasies, and takes combat up till English Civil War stages. There are muskets and pistols, as well as sabres and short swords. There's even a bit of trench warfare. I loved it, again, for the characterisation (there are several "morally grey" characters who become heroes, in the eyes of others, at least) the combat, and some very soppy family stuff. It also ends on a nice touch, on the other side of the Atlantic.
I've looked out another Brookmyre, "Be My Enemy", to start this afternoon, but if the rain stays off I'll cycle in to Lochgilphead first, to stretch my legs and try to borrow a pump from the bike shop there. I've no worries about punctures, since the kevlar tyres are, ahem, bullet proof, but I do need to top them up with air, and I don't have a pump here with the right type of valve.
Weather permitting I'll be off tomorrow, which will mean that the A83 will be a little quieter, which should make it a lot more pleasant.
That's because when I woke up at 5 this morning, it had started to rain. It was still raining at 7 when my alarm went off, and, pertinently, at 8.30 when I'd had my breafast and was ready to leave. I don't mind cycling THROUGH rain, but I have a hearty dislike of starting off in the rain.
I thought I'd wait till lunchtime, and see how things were going. That would mean getting the last ferry off Arran, but at least I'd be back home tonight.
No dice, still raining at 12.00. Still raining, in fact, until 1.30, when it went off, but the clouds are hanging around anyway (the cloud ceiling is effectively sea-level at the moment).
Tomorrow's forecast is for more rain, but slightly warmer rain. Sunday's forecast is for sun. So I put my feet up and read book number two.
Book number one was Brookmyre's "All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses an Eye", which is tremendous fun - James Bond/Mission Impossible style capers, and great dialogue. And a bit of a fairy tale. There's a spot which always makes me cry, and embarrassingly enough I hit it on the bus yesterday. I'm a complete sucker for heroism against the odds, and this scene has it in spades.
Book number two has at least half a dozen such spots, but luckily I hit them all in the privacy of my own armchair. David Gemmell's "Stormrider" is, I think, the last of his Rigante books. The Rigante are based on alternate world Scottish Highlanders, and Gemmell is good enough for that to actually appeal to me, not make me running off to burn any scrap of tartan in the house. It's one of his later fantasies, and takes combat up till English Civil War stages. There are muskets and pistols, as well as sabres and short swords. There's even a bit of trench warfare. I loved it, again, for the characterisation (there are several "morally grey" characters who become heroes, in the eyes of others, at least) the combat, and some very soppy family stuff. It also ends on a nice touch, on the other side of the Atlantic.
I've looked out another Brookmyre, "Be My Enemy", to start this afternoon, but if the rain stays off I'll cycle in to Lochgilphead first, to stretch my legs and try to borrow a pump from the bike shop there. I've no worries about punctures, since the kevlar tyres are, ahem, bullet proof, but I do need to top them up with air, and I don't have a pump here with the right type of valve.
Weather permitting I'll be off tomorrow, which will mean that the A83 will be a little quieter, which should make it a lot more pleasant.
