Ever decreasing circles.

Here we are. Days blurring into one, or days blurring into 'any' is probably a more appropriate way to put it. Back to the grindstone with January illnesses and flu 'epidemics'. Same old same old. Daisy continues to grow at the frightening rate that only a very young baby can - every day is different! First this, first that. It really is an amazing time. It is also an exhausting time. She seems to have her dad's ability to gulp down food WITH air and that can only mean one thing: screams.

On a related note, Telly Savalas Player and car and nose mechanic Russell persuaded his better half Caroline to produce a baby boy, Noa, on hogmanay. Way to go!....

And in also-related news, good friend and IMBA honcho Frank sent me the most important book i may read this year, and perhaps lifetime, The Three Martini Playdate. Frank is a gem, and i'm all the better for having kept his company.



(moostache and beardette are probably not the models own, nips, though obscured, most definitely are)

What else? the last time i went out for a ride i decided to go somewhere other than the local trails. I just needed some isolation, headspace and a change of scenery. Mistake: ice prevented me entering the forrest and as i slid disgracefully down the forrest road - with the trusty VW at a jaunty angle - on my third attempt, i knew it was probably the case the forrest roads were impassable by bike as well.

From there i headed deeper into the hills, but the road being closed was a bad sign. Retreating to the local trails brought a truth to light. The more you are forced to ride in a small area, the more you *do* with it. I guess thats why the 'local' hotspots of our childhood and youth ended up criss crossed with trails - we were there often enough, and were captivated enough - to put the time into to reroute, go different ways and rake the odd bit of trail out.

The end-point of this realisation was my finding a good way to close not one, but 2 singletrack loops that had kind of been bugging me recently. Options are always good and with a little work on one, and perhaps a little more work on the other, i should have a better way to connect up different trails.

I also entered my first race of 2011: the 12 and 24 hrs of Exposure at Newcastleton. I'm shooting for 12 hrs because i like riding for that amount of time - even if the courses are quite short loops. Give me big back country loops first and foremost, race or no, but 10 and 12 hr races are ok as well. 24 hours of small loops is insanely dull. There you go.

In closing, Neil Fallon is one of my favourite musicians. Clutch, The Bakerton Group, sometime Mastodon vocalist and The Company Band.

Here is some of the latter.