I am on a 2 year secondment down near Roper too. I was surprised at how nice parts of Malaga can be, and of course there is an insanely good choice of riding within a 2 hour drive, plenty within half an hour to 1 hour too. I wish I was living there rather than Gibraltar.

Good luck and remember to pop down and we’ll show you some of the good stuff down here(*) that is probably the opposite of aggressive XC – we like it deeply chilled in this neck of Andalucia.

*Second time lucky as I am meant to be out with Roper this weekend on my secret trail that I failed to find a couple of months back. :D

Can’t believe someone hasnt already just put “women”

Started playing footie.

One of my best mates has asked me to record Avril Lavine’s “Skater Boy” and put it on youtube as it’s one of her favourite tunes. Do I sing the song word for word, or do I try and change the lyrics so it’s Skater Girl? The karaoke in Gibraltar is also the unofficial gay bar so I probably wouldn’t get grief for any trans-gender kareokying.

V happy with my Caldera, although it’s had quite a lot of kit upgraded. Right now it is sweet as.

Or for the very obsessed join our “One Photo Every Day” group :-)

http://www.flickr.com/groups/onephotoeveryday/

Oh, and as for any alternative shenanigans that other posters have speculated upon, there was an amazing full moon last week, words of which can not describe, the way the light was creating silver rings and rainbows around it.

BigDummy

Heh – who knows? I don’t.

What I can say is that I look at a lot of stuff and just try and look at the patterns. Agendas change. No one really knows what’s going on huh?

I just look at the patterns and base my life decisions around that, as I am in the process of doing right now.

Cheers. There are quite a few STWorlders in the photo group and their skills have inspired me to try and experiment with my little Canon IXUS.

It hasn’t snowed obviously, but has been pretty dire weather wise with little sun the last few weeks, and has been pretty chilly.

Nice to know someone missed me too Tails :-)

Still here, just doing more reading than posting for a while. Thought that best. Will no doubt be posting a little bit in a month or two biking wise – had some changes going on and stuff happening to deal with.

In the meantime, our photo a day group has grown to 24 members, and there are some absolutely tip top pics being posted there. My own set is more a photo diary than a source of quality photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonralli/sets/72157612015799085/

11th Feb

Are your wife and kids going to ride, or will they need other things to see and do? If the kids are riding, how old are they?

Second Rocketdog. I too like Ae but maybe not one for kids and it’s a bit of a Marmite trail.

Kirroughtree is a fabulous ride with a bit of everything XC.

Rocketdog – you are doing better than me. All I have done this year is less than one hour last weekend around Gib to see if I was ok to ride after the Christmas bug.

Must have picked another up as Friday night was dreadful, lost count of the number of times I had to get up to throw up. Was meant to be out with Roper this weekend but stuck at home and to cap the lot have just looked out of my window to find that my car has been towed – must be something to do with the roadworks in an adjacent road.

The big irony is that I joined a local gym, and I could well have picked something up from the gym maybe. So much for my fitness campaign 2009. I would have joined fatclub but cant find any weighing scales in Gibraltar to weigh myself.

So good on you – am sure it was a great ride.

Well no tails as I feel that so much of my performances, the nuances, the pathos, the uplifting choruses, so much gets lost with youtube’s less-than-adequate video compression algorithms.

I am a far better singer than most people realise. :D

Hora – you may want to compare with an 09 Lapierre X Control 310. It’s meant to be the dog’s according to Cross Trax in Leeds….

Yep – on the bike forum I can see a link to RSS feeds, although I have no idea what that is!

When I am in the bike forum I have a list of additional pages at the bottom to click on to get there. Maybe it’s your browser or something?

Would you prefer photos like these (also taken today?)

Or this one of the bar where you can have a pint and light up a fag right next to the check out tills in Morrisons?

Dez

I like photos with people in but dont have any friends down here. Just a few colleagues really oh and Roper doesnt like having his pic taken when out riding. You dont have to look at my ugly mug you know – there are many more beautiful people on flickr :D For the record, I do realise I am no Brad Pit, Keanau Reeves or Justin Timberlake. I don’t believe I have any misguided delusions of adequacy in that area.

Well it was green and someone’s surname was written on the army looking stuff bag.

I had the embarrassment of turning up to my grandfather’s funeral in Taunton last year having left my suit jacket in a hotel in Leeds. I ended up popping into Asda and buying an entire dark suit for £25. It may not last, and I wouldnt want to wear it week in week out, but was absolutely fine for a day and looked like any other suit really.

This is just me but I would wear a suit. They do not have to look stuffy in my mind.

Ah right – as it would be great for the social side of things and to meet people but the sound of DH scares me silly and I would probably have to take it slowly, never actually having had 2 wheels in the air as of yet, and the sound of trails is the sound of enormous amounts of dabbing. I’d obviously try my best but you know, wouldnt say I have much in the way of balance. Just my happy go lucky XC riding where occasionally I manage not to get lost

:-)

This sounds like good fun and could well co-incide with me, bike and camping equipment being back in the UK. Other competitors I hasten to add really have nothing to fear if I enter. I take it people can enter for fun, even if they are pretty rubbish compared to the standard level of biking ability?

Yeah will do – I bought what was billed as an ex army bivvy bag off Ebay, and although it does seem to be ex army, it seems more like a sleeping bag rather than anything that’s water proof. I was a bit cheesed off when I bought it so hopefully this protective layer will sort me out!

Footstomper – I know where you are coming from but most of my riding is solo. I bottle quite a bit as I think when you look at something you just think you’ll end up over the handlebars. I think if you see someone achieve a bit of trail, your brain tells you it is in fact possible and you have a go. And you also have people to instruct you as to how to approach the section too and learn.

The down side of course is if you actually clear the section then totally faceplant into soft dirt at the side of a trail, as i did at El Chorro when I cleared the slickrock but then lost control on the following bit of singletrack : D

I know when I’m riding a scary section all my attention is on that, not how it looks.

Heh – when I approach a scary section I am totally focussed on how it looks! (and not on my own good looks) :D

(Although more often than not I will just hop off the bike and walk down lol.)

That’s good to know as I am waiting on delivery of their £30 bivvy.

There are some top photos here.

I’ve not been out mountain biking this year yet so no photos, but hopefully will do this weekend. Lots of inspiration here.

Well I couldnt cope very well in 2003, but don’t want to go into details as a lot of things were getting me down. I sold my house and went travelling for a year. When I got back and started work again, I was in Yorkshire, not London, earning probably half what I was before, but a lot less work pressure.

So good luck with 2009 and I really hope things work out for you.

I am hoping to change from what I am doing now in the middle of the year and my job right now is just a means to an end.

Brrrrr! That looks so darn cold!

John – nice one – where abouts will you be based then? I hope you take plenty of photos for me to look at!

Well if we are going to post today’s photo, here’s mine outside one of the better shops in Gibraltar!

Just trying to be polite Jedi and not rude or anything.

Jedi

Hi – am I allowed to say I really like your photo but for some reason for me I can’t apply the word “moody” to it. Not too sure why and that isn’t a criticism of the photo which is great.

Well I have to say I have nothing to grumble about really.

I’d like to have a girlfriend of course, but apart from that people all’s well.

Yeah – I live here and last year it was between 30 and 33c in July. I hadnt seen a date on your first post.

So yeah, the guiding companies here tend to go for early starts, but then you have half a day of sun tanning and chilling afterwards.

To be honest based on experience September – November were absolutely banging last year. In April you still have the chance of rain although its not as bad as between Jan – March. But then if it is sunny and dry then yeah, winters here are amazing and t shirt weather.