Volleyball, bikes and Brakes

Visitors this weekend. My old friend Rich from Reading. "Old friend" sounds like we go back many, many years. Well, I guess we do go back a few as we met whilst in the Cardiff Uni mountain bike club which was circa 1990. So that's 16 years ago, and I would think that qualifies us as being "old friends", although Rich would no doubt complain at the “old” label as he’s a mere slip of a lad. One important bond we have is that we are both graduates of not only Cardiff University but also of the "Ian Jeremiah Cardiff bike 'til you drop hard knock school of off road cycle training". Ian’s philosophy was a 30 miles of hills on a Saturday (and Sunday if you could make it to the museum steps for the meet up on a hangover) style of leadership with “everyone does everything” (ie no chickening on the downhills allowed) and absolutely no quarter was given for blowing up the other side of Caerphilly mountain. And blowing up the other side of Caerphilly was something that I personally did pretty much every Saturday for about 6 months until my legs got used to the, err, punishment. However, this experience I think gave us a really rather fabulous grounding in the high art of off road cyling, and we will always find ourselves grateful for Ian for his encouragement, leadership and, well, teaching.

Rich's girlfriend is the lovely Silvia who was playing volleyball with her team up north - one game in Manchester Saturday and the other at Leeds Uni today. They play at a high level and won both matches which was a great effort as they were the underdogs for each one. After the game Saturday I had a bit of a volleyball knock around with Rich (who also plays - the pair of them met up at their volleyball club) and I've not done any volleyball since I was at school - a LONG time ago! The result of this little knock about was a nice pair of bruised wrists and thumbs for yours truly, as digging a volleyball round with no proper technique proved to be a rather painful experience. One of those sports which looks so easy but ... it's not.

Rich and I had a look round Salford Quays down the road while the volleyball was going on in nearby Eccles. Now - on the subjest of LS Lowry. Personally I cannot really see what all the fuss is about with this guy and his silly matchstalk drawings. All very nice but not quite worthy of having a state of the art gallery (and not to mention a major retail outlet centre) built round them? But then again this is Manchester where there's not really all that much else to celebrate is there? So, only in Manchester would a bunch of any-child-could-do-better quality artwork end up being so extravagantly lauded.

Saturday night saw us back over the correct side of the Pennines in Leeds and out in town. Now Rich and I, when it comes to music, have a similar outlook in that we both like a diverse amount of stuff, but the overlap of our tastes could best be described as 'minimal'. Rich really likes his indie bands and I found out that one of these, indeed his current favourite, Brakes were playing at the Leeds Cockpit Saturday night. They did sound a bit weedy indie cack on CD but I have to say that live they were very very good, and post-gig their 2 cds 'make sense'. One of those facts of life is that bands only really come into full view after you’ve seen them live.

While Silvia was volleyballing again today Rich and I got on on the mountain bikes for a spin in the mud and wind. Yep – conditions were a bit harsh out on the trails it has to be said but Team Klein battled on manfully for a couple of hours round the Pudsey circuit and came back via the jetwash. Consequently Teams Klein’s bikes are now both spangly clean you’ll all be glad to hear.

So, now it’s Sunday evening and I was going to settle down and watch V is for Vendetta from the NTL “On Demand” service. However, it seems that I am short of a PIN number for such a service so, so much for that cunning plan. Best get on with the washing and ironing then….