Behind Bars!

I'll start at the end of the day first as I've not got a Blip for the beginning. I'd just had a pretty unsuccessful day with the new lens. It is awesome but I'm having to use it in manual and it requires so much precision to focus at low f numbers! I'll get there eventually. Piccies here

Anyway, after bumming about the Northern Quarter trying to get a decent blip, I headed off to NTP for a V60....I was quite excited that they had a new bean in and wanted to try it.

Customer service is such that Julia, the happy smiley Norwegian barista who is very cool, used a special Norwegian finger thumping technique to try and get the blood running again. It failed but it's the thought that counts. Maybe, a warm wet herring would do a better job!

In the hopper was Square Mile semi-washed (yippee) Colonia San Juan from Bolivia. I was glad because I found the previous V60, Capao, rather uninspiring. This one was much better....I got dairy milk chololate, you know...that sort of satisfying mouth feel you get with British milk chocolate, a bit of sweetness but balanced by a nice acidity. I'd got it...like the physalis fruit! Julia immediately got confused with syphilis, intentionally I believe... never the sort of thing I do. Anyway, the coffee was excellent even though Wayne was fishing for a compliment as he said it was a perfect extraction. Not bad at all bad, lad!

Rewind......I struggled to get up this morning and then procrastinated for ages. I needed shopping but couldn't be bothered cycling to Unicorn as it was a day for country roads, the bike was filthy and needed a wash, the light was awesome for the camera and my bed was cosy. Eventually, I got up and made porridge with date syrupised hot banana. Yum! I washed the bike, made a coffee....got it wrong...made another one...slightly better. Wired! I decided to do a shortish bike ride followed by a trip into Manchester to take piccies.

On with the music again.... amazing, a 1993 mix @ Pure from Derrick May and Ege Bam Yasi that I downloaded yesterday. So many memories with some pureanthemica tunes to get my up the hill. 6min 30sec to do it on my cross bike too! Rapid for a fat boy.

I was just gonna go round Torside but these guys were in the distance to chase. I went passed the junction I should have taken and followed them up the Holme Moss road... 4.3km @ 6.4% average but with much steeper bits. The last time I went up this climb I tried to race against another guy and died at the 3km mark. As a result, I thought it was the most difficult climb on earth. Rosemary did it a few weeks ago and said it wasn't too bad (hmmmmm) and indeed she got it right. Yeah, it was tough but no harder than Snake Pass. Once at the top, beating the guys I chased down by about a minute (they must have been rubbish) then went down again, and then home via Torside. I have sore legs and a dizzy head now!

Rewind again...did my first photo project last night.