Hi – I have completed it. A couple of points of feedback.

For the pleasure it gives me to know more about the sport that i practice.

1) I had to read this a few times and I am still not too sure I understood the sentence even then.

2) Surveys are usually generated after having done focus groups with your target audience. You then create questions using their vocabulary, and their ideas that they generate. This survey feels that you generated these questions with no reference to other bikers. Is that right?

Good luck but you may want to rethink this as for me there was nothing about stying fit, having fun with friends, getting a bit of a buzz, or just being out in the countryside etc…

There are no embarrassing photos of me, I have always been the height cool.

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Scanned In026[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Ah right – cheers, will do!

Hopefully it will sell as I think I have offered a good price for what you get. I’ll be putting an ad in the papers as well.

Simon

Vauxhall Meriva Active, 29,700 miles, 12 months MOT, 06 plate, full Vauxhall dealer service history, pretty darn good condition! Priced to sell as I am emigrating in May 🙂 Not exactly anything that would get Top Gear fans excited but the rear seats fold flat and it is extremely practical and quite large on space for the size.

Ah right thanks folks, I don’t like to take the p or anything.

Si

I’m selling this right now for £3.5K if it’s of interest? You can get a bike in the back with both wheels on no problem. Reluctant sale!

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IMG_1059[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Basically the BBC ran a documentary some time ago telling us to be scared witless about one terrorist bloke and a suitcase nuclear weapon going off in Croydon or somewhere. However, multiple nuclear meltdowns with some of the worst forms of radioactive material produced near a metropolitan area of around 30million, and the BBC and everyone else are saying no problem! Everything is fine! Carry on with your consumption and borrowing like good little cattle 🙂

So take your pick.

but Simonralli, everyone is a self publiscist now, can put there stuff out there. Where is the quality control

* cough *

Praise for The Shaman and Snow White

“Describes a unique odyssey through the many worlds of shamanism, filled with telling and important details of their healing paths. The author has had a wealth of personal experience, and, even more importantly, he has thought deeply about what those experiences mean, both for him and for us.”

Stephan V. Beyer, author of Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon

“This book takes us on a journey into the very heart and soul of nature – to a vivid realm where the powerful creative intelligences of the universe conjure up the powerful concoctions known to us as ‘matter’, ‘consciousness’ and ‘nature’. Read this book and discover possibilities for re-ensouling nature that are so urgently needed in this time of global crisis.”
 
Dr Stephan Harding, Head of Holistic Science at Schumacher College, author of Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia

By the way, I take it you LIKE the book? 🙂

It’s not just for personal use and telling the world what you had on your toast this morning. I am using it to promote my soon to be published book, and as a communications tool it is excellent in that way. Also I feel that it is great for when you are living abroad and just seeing photos of what your friends have been up to. Its a flexible thing and there are some good uses for it I feel.

For the last six months I suppose I would have to say writer, but hopefully I will have a ‘proper’ job soon 🙂

Crazy. Next thing you’ll be telling me that there is an Olympic sport where you lie down head first on your nan’s tea tray, which is on a downhill ice track, and that a British lass will take up the sport and the next minute she’s got a gold and she’s a national heroine who all can aspire to!

Oh hang on……

Well it was lovely day too and I posted some pics of my ride and no one seemed to be interested 🙁

As it was a monster ride, I didn’t have the legs, so just went here this morning:

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March 25th[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

I am not too sure if I have fully understood your plans, but you can ride the XC route as far as the first half of the Omega Man, and then head up to the shredder, and then once you come down off the shredder you rejoin the red, so no need to go to the end of the red and then head back up to do the Shredder.

If you take a look at the map, you will see a fire road at the bottom of the Shredder which takes you to the top. Pretty easy really.

Very nice animation.

For me the most fundamental flaw is that there is always more debt than there is money. The reason is that money is debt, and debt is debt plus interest, so there is never enough money (debt) to pay off that debt (debt plus interest).

Capitalism therefore by its very nature can only survive by unlimited and exponential growth, but our poor planet only has finite resources, and we are at a very sad and dangerous point in time whereby many natural systems are about to give way.

But hey ho, the ipod and iphone fanboys have their nice shiny things ay! 😀

Jaws harp is not an instrument

I know some people who would beg to differ 🙂

buffalo drum[/url]
shacapa
jews harp
guitar (a few chords)[/url]
Rowland Groovekeyboard

My CD comes out in a few weeks. I’ll let you guess which instruments I’ll be playing 🙂 And as a hint it wont have my legendary cover version of Wonderwall on it 😯

And it was a long time ago when I played sax!

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img038[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Me being a writer right now means I can choose when to ride and try and fit in with what little sun there is, but spring is definitely coming I can feel it 🙂

Actually, that young elk’s nickname is “Elks” so ah ha!

Pigface

What kind of riding do you like and how far would you need to travel to get there?

Glentress has a red and blue grade downhill orientated xc circuits which are huge fun. The black is black more because of the distance rather than obstacles. I would say Kirroughtree red and black combo is better fun, BUT you can ride the black and then mix in the red and blue at Glentress to your heart’s delight.

It is a great facility, and you also have the very excellent Innerleithen which is much more DH orientated, including the mad XC route which combines with the DH towards the end.

In all, some fantastic fun rides to be had. I would always recommend people go there the once as the fun factor is huge.

Your neither greedy

not compared prices to CRC, wiggle or merlin etc

The more I read this the less it makes sense!

Looks a tad sunnier and warmer than Scotland – very nice.

Craig – yep – am still around – where were you thinking of riding?

Yep – lots of fun but my legs wern’t half tired on the return leg. It was only the thought of the cake that kept me going!

Will it be more a case of how many times Scott laps us then Davy?

Iain – I am riding Drum probably Tuesday – I am off to Wigtownshire on Sunday.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t slow down and look around, you might miss it”

8)

its how hard you ride it that makes it what you want it to be

Ahh now that’s where the riding gods of STW are going wrong in life I feel. You actually spend too much mental time thinking about bikes, and all their combinations and permutations, and you have this competitive sporting mentality that requires fitness, guts, determination, ability and bike handling skills.

I for one on the other hand feel that pootling and cake appreciation are more like high art, and you lot fail to appreciate the general fabness of just mucking about on a bike and being happy to get back in one piece 🙂

Maybe what is needed is for locals to show people the old red route. I’ve been over the handlebars in that really steep gulley, there is that banked grassy section, some bits of northshore which are nice, that slaloming soily downhill section in between trees, that long downhill on the homeward stretch. But then I like riding red routes as they are about my level and I often find parts of them challenging.

On the new red route you have some lovely downhill sections, some pretty steep. There is a lot of flowing singletrack too which I just love as well.

Oh well, I guess it’s horses for courses. Other people don’t like my local Mabie but I love that too.

A hopefully sunny Ae.

What’s the book?

The Shaman and Snow White: Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Shamanic States of Consciousness and Certificate 18 Healing

A phenomenological study of Peruvian natural plant hallucinogens, as compared to shamanic trance techniques, and placed in the context of the quantum physical framework of wholeness of David Bohm 🙂

I’ve written the index with themes as well for a number of entries, so yeah, it’s a bit weird I agree in an e book context. I am sure they will make the table of contents clickable though.

Well this is not a huge ride, I think there are going to be around 5 of us, but then that’s more of Davy-g’s carrot cake for each of us at the end 🙂

Trekster and I were thinking about Drumlanrig, but I have remembered I am off to a recording studio so may ride solo at Drum on Tuesday.

A Kit that’s terrible news. get well very very soon!

continual pedaling

Shocking! Peddling? On a bicycle route? No way! 🙂

I love Dalby and it also has of course all the old red still be to be played on, especially in the summer when it isn’t so gloopy. People forget just how much singletrack there must be there now.

It’s not that difficult to put together with the official map. Do the black all the way around to Redemption, but at post 87 there is an official short cut onto the blue. Take this and then cut round to the red. Do the red including Spooky Woods, down to the blue again, but then loop back to do Betty Blue and the fab blue downhill to the cafe.

No – from my behind – I assume you approve 🙂

Luckily the photo of me on the cover of my book is from a far more flattering angle, although I am also wearing the same bandana in the pic 🙂

Personally I actually quite like the top one. It’s interesting as I had someone volunteer to photograph me for her exhibition this week, and I was thinking her shots may provide me with some useful PR pics.

But yeah, the second and third don’t quite work for me, but the top one is a good one for certain PR I reckon.

Tony – hi – even on a weekend Ae does not get too busy, and I would be surprised if there was more than one group of XC types waiting to rock and roll at 10.30 : )

I will of course be fully padded up after quite an off on one of the descents after saying that 🙂

I know we are hardly able to compete with all you super sexy southerners for the award of largest STW group riding this coming weekend, but I do feel that a wee bump is justified for the evening brigade 🙂

Weather looks ok too!

Just a little hello to Rocketman and welcome

What I like about the forum is the group rides – try and get out on one or two of these to meet people off here in real life, as there are many many top people on these boards.

Si

Thanks to Trekster, we now have Mabie – The Video!