North West Velo Fest : Sunday Spinning

Hoorah, for at last I was able to attend at least one of the mini-bike-fest's events!

We went spinning around a feast of stunning Cheshire roads out into a whole new level of heat. My favourite head-water drenching technique had already come into effect before we'd strode our way out of Chorlton.

I love group rides like this; some people you know pretty good + can catch up from where you left off and others that seem familiar, but probably just from sightings at Critical Mass or smiling at whilst cycling past each other at various random points around the city- needless to say, it never takes long to form a real nice bond and before we've even gotten away from the busy streets everyone is nattering chirpily away, fully ready for an idyllic day on the saddle. We somehow managed to time the finale perfectly which enabled us to hook up with the paralleled 'not the tweed ride' at the blistering Jackson's Boat; a magnificent merge of The Sweaty Padded Pants Panting Team and the Ferociously Fashionably and Flamboyantly Fizzled Team formed, who'd enjoyed a pootle around town with plenty of stops for G+T's in pub gardens, dressed in their best.

Sunday evening brought about the highly anticipated jaunt to Elle Brotherhood's installation at The Mansion. It was to support Alastair De Plume's album launch, and the whole upstairs space had been dramatically converted into an enchanting haven of crazed creativity, with the hours of work it'd taken to construct screaming out with unbelievable modesty and sophistication. The hundreds of origami boats I'd been so privileged to witness in early construction, were suspended at different heights from the vast [falling down] limits of the roof within a field of white helium balloons. Dramatic lighting ensembles cast powerful projections of experimental shapes, whilst framing the cozy circular set up of the feast of musicians that played informally in the middle of the space throughout the evening. The night was close and atmospheric; with swarms of people clambering down the [falling apart] steps out into the courtyard, to smoke and swig on cans and converse excitedly. I was supposed to have only stayed for an hour, but the collection of knock-out beaming brunettes that I'm so lucky to know seemed to keep multiplying making it impossible to call it a night.