Cycling as therapy.

The strip of LED lighting that was yesterday installed under the canopy is too harsh. So, I constructed a red acetate filter to cover it and the effect is pleasing.

The LED strip in question

The acetate filter

The filter fits over the LED strip

Voila

Canopy in position

Voila, encore

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Currently listening to:

"Through the Night" on BBC Radio 3 iPlayer

Verdi's Quartet in E minor arr. for string orchestra [orig. for string quartet]

Performed by the Varazdin Chamber Orchestra from Croatia.

This was a new piece to me - superb.

Varazdin

Varazdin

Varazdin, Croatia

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Last night's dinner:

Scallops, black pudding, cabbage and 3 little potatoes

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Began reading two books:

With this one in reserve:

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Miscellany:

Last night, listened to a radio interview with Gerald Ratner who in the 1980s ran the largest jewellery company in the world. Famously the company went down the tubes in the early 90s and it's only in the last 10 years that he has built up a replacement business.

But, during his 10 years in the wilderness, he took up road cycling and 22 years on he is still a cycling addict; cycling was the one good thing which emerged from his commercial and personal disaster.

I found this short article about him online.

Gerald Ratner, famous for the backfiring “total crap” joke in 1989, is a roadie nut. He told the Daily Telegraph at the weekend that ridicule from newspapers and his removal from the family jewellery firm – the biggest in the UK at the time – could have sent him over the edge: “If it wasn’t for my bike, I’d have gone to the funny farm.”

Ratner now runs a online jewellery firm – geraldonline.com – and places cycling first in his list of hobbies.

Every day he rides his Trek Madone – the Lance Armstrong bike – on the same 32-mile route, leaving from his house in Bray, Berkshire. He tries to average at least 18mph, revealed the Daily Telegraph.

Profiling Ratner, the newspaper accused the entrepreneur of being “borderline compulsive-obessive” because he rides a bike in racing kit.

“I love the feeling,” said Ratner.

“It’s the highlight of my life. I love getting all the clothes that go with it, the shoes that click into the pedals, the windproof jacket, the Lycra, the tights.”

The Telegraph report clearly thought Ratner needed therapy but the 56-year old retailer said riding his bike was cathartic. Cycling had been “a great deal cheaper than a shrink," he said. 

Anyway, for a change, I took out the Peugeot this afternoon - now using the drop handlebars as they are meant to be used pretty well at all times.

Dusk over the Clyde

St Andrew's RC Cathedral in Clyde Street

The Armadillo

The Hydro