Matito's photostream Pro User

Henry (left) and I at the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, taking our first accreditation session. One hour on the track, teaching twelve of us the basics. Another two sessions and we'll be able to — in theory at least — take part in track leagues and the like.

Exhilarating stuff. I'm still amazed I managed to cycle around the 45-degree banking.

A few snapshots from a ride around the Trossachs last weekend. Not that the pictures do it justice: it's a beautiful part of the world, tourist Scotland through-and-through.

By now you've probably worked out I'm a bit of of a fan of the London Review of Books. An issue a few months ago included a long essay by Hilary Mantel on — among other things — tabloid treatment of the current members of the British royal family. Naturally the Daily Mail, not liking to be attacked (even so gently as this) and knowing few would read the original article, lied about what she said and turned the attack on Mantel. Charlie Brooker gave a good summary of the Mail's shitty behaviour on Weekly Wipe.

I've been wanting to read Mantel's Wolf Hall for a while now but the paperback includes, on the spine, a quote from the Daily Mail. I didn't want to see their stinking filthy name each time I reached for the book, so I've been hunting out the hardback, the spine of which is quote-free. And I finally bagged myself a copy.

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, pp 653.
Started reading: 23rd April 2013
Finished reading: 13th May 2013

(This is part of a simple project for 2013: a picture of each printed publication I read during the year. This is the year's eighteenth.)

In 1984 Glasgow-born Robert Millar won the king of the mountains classification in the Tour de France. That means he was the hardest bastard amid a bunch of hard bastards, climbing mountains faster than anyone else. As is tradition, he was the only rider allowed to wear the famous red-and-white polka-dot jersey.

Never one for ceremony, he later dropped the jersey off at a small bike shop in the centre of Glasgow, Billy Bilsland Cycles, on Saltmarket. It's still there today, framed up on the wall, squeezed in between every bit of bike you can imagine. On Saturday I went into the shop to pick up a few things and stare in awe at the jersey itself.

If you're in Glasgow looking for a bike or any gear, go to Billy Bilsland Cycles. They're great. If you want to know more about Millar — probably Britain's most successful road cyclist until Bradley Wiggins — read Richard Moore's excellent biography In Search of Robert Millar, which includes a trip to the shop and an interview with Billy Bilsland himself.

This year's seventh London Review, including an essay on statistical analyses of the mortality rate in England's NHS and another on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Bliss.

London Review of Books volume 35 number 7, 44 pp.
Started reading: 10th April 2013
Finished reading: 20th April 2013

(This is part of a simple project for 2013: a picture of each printed publication I read during the year. This is the year's seventeenth.)