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lprovenThe roads of London are wonderfully clear at 4-5am. As clear as they used to be, 10-11y ago, when I used to occasionally make my way home to Balham from Dennis Publishing on the sidecar at 1am or so. Now, that means congestion.
I've done 60 miles in London on the trike this evening. Down to Mitcham Common to collect a free electric juicer (from Freecycle), up to Golder's Green to collect a free Mac DVD-ROM drive (from Freecycle), down to see my mate Camilla in Hampstead, get the correct phone number for the chap in Golder's Green, back up there, get DVD, back to Belsize Park, take Camilla on back of trike to Barbara Grahame & Markus Thierstein's (WANOLJ) party in Leytonstone - 'Milla's a good navigator! - then drop her off home then [cough] Make Good Progress on my way home via some very silly routes that afforded me fast bits of road. I bet I disturbed the sleep of a lot of people. [Grin]
The party was good fun. I think about the only LJers I saw were![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cuboid_ursinoid, random_fan and twistedanimator, but of course, as ever, I got there rather late... Think I missed pmcmurray and the former munquie to name but 2. But then, asking 'Milla if she wanted to come was a last-minute idea. Initially she wasn't keen but she changed her mind when I was about to leave without her, which then of course meant she had to get ready... Plus, I set out much later than planned because I waited out yesterday afternoon's mini-monsoon. I am a confirmed, unashamed fair-weather biker these days.
Interesting to note the mother of all speed traps on the road from Hyde Park Corner down to Victoria. A good half dozen police cars, 3 or 4 vans, dozens of cops. They were lecturing or breathalysing or doing 4 or 5 people and pulled the car directly in front of me. Good job I was taking it easy, following a sluggish white van, at that point...
London in the wee small hours is still exhilarating. That's the first time I've taken the trike out since I got back from the IoM and it was a hoot. It's a pain in traffic (7pm - 11pm wasn't too good) but on empty roads it's a laugh. Especially in the wet, when it will outbrake and outcorner a solo. At least it will if the solo rider is a cautious type.
In other news, I have sea monkeys! I've been trying to get some decade-old Artemia salina eggs to hatch in a couple of litres of brine on my bedroom windowsill for a month or more, but with no joy. They're really old eggs and they've been in the airing cupboard; not the ideal place. All I got was a carboy of murky water. So I gave in and bought fresh eggs from Merton Aquatic. (£6!) But after a week or so, I've got loads of hatchlings, swimming jerkily around in the saltwater. Still at the nauplius stage at the moment but there are plenty of them and they're active so I think they should thrive. When I got back from my couple of weeks away, I topped up the water with some lovely gloopy green stuff from the old fishtank in the back garden. Naturally most of the freshwater algae have died in saline but I think some have lived - maybe some airborne diatoms or something. Plenty of food for larval seamonkeys. When they get bigger, I'll try yeast or something for the adults. I'm hoping that they'll clear the water a good bit by eating the algae - live or dead - and the hundreds of thousands of dead unhatched eggs...
My first seamonkey colony in a couple of decades, though. I did get a couple to hatch in Du Cane Court, back intamaranth's place. She was a bit underwhelmed, as I recall. But I only got 2 adults or so in several litres of seawater in a goldfish bowl - not enough to breed a colony, even parthenogenetically. I had vaguely planned to put a small goldfish in this big old pickle jar one day, but I think it's too small for a vertebrate, really. However, for Artemia, it's spacious. Not terribly well-aerated, but the larvae are a pretty pink, indicating that they're adjusting to low dissolved oxygen content by making haemoglobin. I think they should be OK. If not, well, I'll filter the water, evaporate it, redissolve the salts in fresh water and try again...
Bikes, party, seamonkeys, free gadgets and having a gorgeous woman wrap her legs around you for an hour or two. What more could one ask? :¬)
P.S. Actually, what I could ask is for it to be a few hours earlier. I had to movepilot_moondog's GPX750 out of the way both on my way out and back in. But in about - err - oh dear, 5 hours, he's coming to meet the bloke who bought it on eBay and we will both be rid of it. Leaving me only with the problem of getting the sidecar fixed or sold...
I've done 60 miles in London on the trike this evening. Down to Mitcham Common to collect a free electric juicer (from Freecycle), up to Golder's Green to collect a free Mac DVD-ROM drive (from Freecycle), down to see my mate Camilla in Hampstead, get the correct phone number for the chap in Golder's Green, back up there, get DVD, back to Belsize Park, take Camilla on back of trike to Barbara Grahame & Markus Thierstein's (WANOLJ) party in Leytonstone - 'Milla's a good navigator! - then drop her off home then [cough] Make Good Progress on my way home via some very silly routes that afforded me fast bits of road. I bet I disturbed the sleep of a lot of people. [Grin]
The party was good fun. I think about the only LJers I saw were
cuboid_ursinoid, random_fan and twistedanimator, but of course, as ever, I got there rather late... Think I missed pmcmurray and the former munquie to name but 2. But then, asking 'Milla if she wanted to come was a last-minute idea. Initially she wasn't keen but she changed her mind when I was about to leave without her, which then of course meant she had to get ready... Plus, I set out much later than planned because I waited out yesterday afternoon's mini-monsoon. I am a confirmed, unashamed fair-weather biker these days.Interesting to note the mother of all speed traps on the road from Hyde Park Corner down to Victoria. A good half dozen police cars, 3 or 4 vans, dozens of cops. They were lecturing or breathalysing or doing 4 or 5 people and pulled the car directly in front of me. Good job I was taking it easy, following a sluggish white van, at that point...
London in the wee small hours is still exhilarating. That's the first time I've taken the trike out since I got back from the IoM and it was a hoot. It's a pain in traffic (7pm - 11pm wasn't too good) but on empty roads it's a laugh. Especially in the wet, when it will outbrake and outcorner a solo. At least it will if the solo rider is a cautious type.
In other news, I have sea monkeys! I've been trying to get some decade-old Artemia salina eggs to hatch in a couple of litres of brine on my bedroom windowsill for a month or more, but with no joy. They're really old eggs and they've been in the airing cupboard; not the ideal place. All I got was a carboy of murky water. So I gave in and bought fresh eggs from Merton Aquatic. (£6!) But after a week or so, I've got loads of hatchlings, swimming jerkily around in the saltwater. Still at the nauplius stage at the moment but there are plenty of them and they're active so I think they should thrive. When I got back from my couple of weeks away, I topped up the water with some lovely gloopy green stuff from the old fishtank in the back garden. Naturally most of the freshwater algae have died in saline but I think some have lived - maybe some airborne diatoms or something. Plenty of food for larval seamonkeys. When they get bigger, I'll try yeast or something for the adults. I'm hoping that they'll clear the water a good bit by eating the algae - live or dead - and the hundreds of thousands of dead unhatched eggs...
My first seamonkey colony in a couple of decades, though. I did get a couple to hatch in Du Cane Court, back in
tamaranth's place. She was a bit underwhelmed, as I recall. But I only got 2 adults or so in several litres of seawater in a goldfish bowl - not enough to breed a colony, even parthenogenetically. I had vaguely planned to put a small goldfish in this big old pickle jar one day, but I think it's too small for a vertebrate, really. However, for Artemia, it's spacious. Not terribly well-aerated, but the larvae are a pretty pink, indicating that they're adjusting to low dissolved oxygen content by making haemoglobin. I think they should be OK. If not, well, I'll filter the water, evaporate it, redissolve the salts in fresh water and try again...Bikes, party, seamonkeys, free gadgets and having a gorgeous woman wrap her legs around you for an hour or two. What more could one ask? :¬)
P.S. Actually, what I could ask is for it to be a few hours earlier. I had to move
pilot_moondog's GPX750 out of the way both on my way out and back in. But in about - err - oh dear, 5 hours, he's coming to meet the bloke who bought it on eBay and we will both be rid of it. Leaving me only with the problem of getting the sidecar fixed or sold...
