Cold.....

No, not the weather - it's unseasonably mild at the moment - nothing at all like this time last year when we were riding in temperatures around freezing point and sliding around on the ice. No, the cold I refer to is my first ailment of the new year. I think I became afflicted on new years eve - at least i started sneezing then. But now I've got full blown man-flu and that means no cycling for probably a week or so.

In the latest issue of Cycling plus there's a feature on winter gloves - I have been thinking of investing in a new pair of winter gloves recently so this article was useful. My hands are probably my weakest link at this time of year. The saying is that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing and I think there is an element of truth in that. In the main I am okay out in the cold or wet but it is certainly my hands that cause the most problems when it gets really cold. I have three or four different types of gloves - quite a few mitt type road gloves which are great in the summer but when the weather gets cooler I need protection. I have a pair of full finger lightweight gloves which are fine for slightly chilly days. They offer protection from the wind and are showerproof to a point. When the temperature gets below 5 degrees I have a thicker pair with a thermal lining - these are reasonable and keep me warm until it gets to between 3 and zero. Then I have an even thicker pair with a secondary pair of lining/base layer gloves - The problem with these is that because of the thickness I have restricted feeling in my fingers for operating the gears. And I still get cold with them. As I said, this area is my weak point and I need to get it sorted - but because the weather has been so mild, so far, I haven't felt the need to don my 'thickest' gloves - let alone splash out the 40 or so hard earned pounds needed to secure one of the recommended high performance pairs. We'll see how it goes - maybe we'll be lucky this year and get to spring with very few extended freeze periods.

On another note, here is a link to one of my other pastimes - namely playing and singing in a band. This dates back to the village I used to live in, there were a few of us who had played music in the past and we decided to get together for a bit of fun. We were going to be The Village People - but that name was taken, Then we thought about The Grateful Dads - except there is a girl in the band - we settled for Simply Crap - which sums us up nicely.
http://youtu.be/nB1xvsZ_SXU