As the tiny yellow blossoms slowly starting to open on the wattle trees in our garden are showing, spring is gradually inching closer to realization, but it can never happen fast enough. Cold seems to linger for an inordinately long time at the end of every winter, especially as I advance further into old age and the chill’s effects deepen. But that’s usually because I expect too much of March, having the false impression of it being a month where things warm up despite decades of experience proving that to be the contrary. One highlight of March for me, though,…
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For me, riding a Brompton bike is about more than mere cycling. I didn’t realize it when I first picked up one of the prestigious folding bikes a bit over a decade ago. At the time, I just wanted a fold-up bike that wouldn’t break after a few rides as other collapsable cycles I had purchased seemed prone to doing. What I didn’t know was that bikes need care and maintenance. I know, dumb, but that was what I thought. Having spent most of my time until then on ultra-durable mama-chari that are virtually unbreakable, I believed all bicycles were…
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Despite a short work week, life was busy and the cycling gods dealt another blow that made it hard to stay on the bike. After riding more than 30,000 kilometers in 2021, the fates have combined to drastically curtail my riding as I’ve been affected by work, play, family, health, commitments and theft have intervened. This week, I worked on site every day and left my PC in the office, which enabled me to commute by bicycle two days in a row. By the time I went to a colleague’s band play on Friday night at the Ruby Room in…
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Someone stole my Astuto bike and I’m feeling pretty lousy about it. The bike was special because a lot of people showed me kindness and generousity so I could build it up from scratch. I should have kept her inside the house, but we simply don’t have the room. I thought she was covered by insurance, too, but it turns out not to be the case because the bike was not taken from inside the home. Apart from the benevolence I received, the bike also promised to help me rejoin the cycling community. I was once an avid and highly…
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Blessed with a shared day off for the Emperor’s Birthday, the Kangaeroos decided to spend it dealing with Monet matters. We traveled to Tokorozawa Sakura Town to take in the Monet: I Can See the Lights – An Immersive Journey exhibition. It was a decent show featuring a series of French Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s works projected against a massive hall to the accompaniment of soothing music. A series of prints by Impressionist artists and an informative, bilingual explanation of the art form and changes that were occurring as it developed, including the influence of Japonisme, completed the event held…
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Life is good now, and that’s not something I’ve been able to say easily, nor come to terms with, and the feeling is strangely and surprisingly spectacular! At the core of my contentment are the people in my life. I’ve always been surrounded by good people. Unfortunately, I rarely recognized it. My current colleagues are backed by a corporate culture that is clearly aimed at maximizing the abilities of every employee. One upside is that one of my greatest workplace motivators now is the thought of what actions I can take that enable my colleagues to excel and achieve a…
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I’d love to say I’ve done something exciting on my bicycle, but I mainly thought of a snappy word that should go down in posterity as a snappy blog title. I’ve been cycling, but not nearly as much as I would like to have done, but then again, perhaps too much. We have had a really cold snap the past week or so, and getting out and about on a bike while riding into the icy winds is not the greatest fun. But I have been rewarded finely for some of the efforts, with delightful skies and some wonderful photo…
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I’m loving life enormously at the moment, and a workplace in Marunouchi is helping in that. Marunouchi is the literal heart of Tokyo, being the closest district to the Imperial Palace, which is the reason why the city is Japan’s capital. It’s a delight rolling up to the office and feeling the centuries-long history of the area and adjacent Nihonbashi seeping in. My first day in Tokyo involved sitting down outside Tokyo Station, located in Marunochi, people watching while I waited to be collected. I love being able to look down from my workplace and see that spot, now a…
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Dragged out of lethargic sloth, I joined Mrs. Kangaeroo in watching the Tachikawa Twinkle Garden projection mapping event on a bleak Sunday, with only dextrous digits saving the show from putting the “little” into Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. After being bombarded by Facebook ads for weeks, I was pretty keen on going to the event. But when Sunday dawned, it was cold, bleak and wet. Mrs. Kangaeroo had put in a nightshift, and I was happy enough to idle the day away, basically being a pig. But the erstwhile warrior that she is, my spouse dragged me out of my…
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Wasn’t going to write anything today, but a delightfully sunny winter morning got me fawning over Kangaeroo Corner and feeling absolutely thrilled to have this little garden, especially when it’s attracting the local birds to our Fountain of Strewth. With a later than usual start to riding planned, I got to spend the early morning chatting with our dinosaur, devising more ideas to interfere with the garden’s process and gas-bagging with my sister. Our discussion was a deep one, and I appreciate her care and concern over so many decades. Today, though, we focused on my difficulties in dealing with…