Tuesday 1 February 2011

Andy: "Just pop this in the post for me, would you? "
Hermann: "Ere, wot it is - you're not writing to that Cougar Girl again, are you?"
Andy: "Shhhhh - I'll give you a fiver."
Hermann "OK, hand it over, nuff said."






Andy (thumbs up sign) "Yay! Coug is back, and making jokes about me again!"
Frank (thinking: Where did I leave my sunglasses?) 

Photo: Roland Miny



Right, enough of that, hey look troops, this is the lovely new Team Schlux bus!

Do we think that the small writing by the door and the surprised 0! logo are the names of the team?

That could be embarrassing if any of them leave....get the penknife out....





On seeing this style of coach with the big hovering mirrors at the front, I always think of some sort of giant insect with feelers or antenna at the front....

...or is that just me?

All it needs is a nice bright red stripe, there we go, to match the new (er hem) kit:


See what a big improvement that makes? And so much easier to find in the crowd...

...talking of which, I was looking at the Team Sky bus the other day - no, not in person, on the internet - and it has an extending pole at the back with a red flashing light on top - so that the boys can find it more easily! What a lovely idea.

Well, I haven't seen the bus "in person" yet, but while on  holiday last week, Lovely Lovely Boyfriend and I drove up to the Cat and Fiddle. "Really?" I hear you say in a bored tone of voice. "What's the Cat and Fiddle when it's at home?"  It's a pub on the A537.


"And what is so exciting about the, er A whatever-it was?" you ask.

Well, it's been named as Britain’s most dangerous road, according to a survey carried out by the Road Safety Foundation.

Here's what they say:

The A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton, a popular haunt of thrill-seeking motorcyclists, has seen fatal collisions rise by 127 per cent in three years.

Between 2006 and 2008, there were 34 deaths on the stretch of road.

The Road Safety Foundation described the road as ‘A 50mph single carriageway, running through the Peak District National Park, the route has severe bends, steep falls from the carriageway and is edged by dry-stone walls or rock face for almost all of its length.’

And having been up it recently, I can assure you that it's moderately terrifying in a NCAP 5 car, on a dry (if slightly frosty) day.

And is there a cycling connection?  Yes!  Geraint Thomas, Sky Rider, was up there a couple of weeks ago! The road was closed due to the snow (it's one of the highest places in the area) and he and teammate Ian Stannard rode their bikes up there as a challenge.

Aaargh!

Presumably they slid back down again on their backsides......

20 comments:

  1. Yes, Coug, it's the names (and you're right, pretty inconvenient if someone left). I saw a close-up picture of it somewhere and there was something that I spend too much time thinking about. I'll see if I can find it...
    ... OK, can't find it. Anyway, what made me wonder was the single name just above the O! - it's Martin Mortensen (or Martin Pedersen, I'm afraid I don't remember :P). Am I the only one who finds that strange? All the other names are in roughly the same order as on the website - that is, arrange after nationality. Shouldn't it be, I don't know, Andy maybe? Or for example Stefan Denifl, who's the only one from Austria? Because Martin (whichever Martin it is) looks sad and lonely to me without his fellow Danes.

    Anyway! The bus looks great in the new design. Now we only need the kit to match.

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  2. Hey Susanne, thanks for that - so it IS names, huh? Oh dear, poor Martin M/P, how awful to be the one all by himself.

    It makes it look as though he'd be the one to be thrown to the wolves first, in hard times...

    I don't think it would be right to have Andy's name above the logo though: it wouldn't be fair on Frank - or Fabian - or Jensi - no, I don't think they should have had any one name left over like that.

    Perhaps no-one measured the bus before they ordered the lettering?

    Still, at least we know now that if we take a black felt pen along to events, we can put eyes and eyebrows on the coach....

    Coug

    Hey, do you think they play games on each other, by altering the names? I would....

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  3. I actually imagine that removing the name is an easy one-step process (like with a giant roll of white-out tape or something). Poof! You never existed!

    That one Martin over the O is a very odd choice. Maybe he had it written into his contract. (Not really.)

    Coug, I'm sure you're absolutely spot on (hope an American using this British-ism is OK) with your imagined dialogue up top. However, when I saw that pic (while scrolling through the THOUSANDS of pics on that website), I noticed that Andy was handing the card to the hand of an older male while distinctly looking toward the younger, feminine figure in a cool, grey striped outfit. Guess he was just being efficient and moving the line along. Good man.

    PeeDee

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  4. Hey PeeDee, hah, you spotted me in my cool, grey striped outfit then? I wish....

    Yes, I know really that the names are removeable, it just seemed like a funny idea, to suggest that they would have to respray the whole bus if someone left. What would happen if we took along plastic letters and added our names to the list, do you think they'd let us on the bus?

    Coug

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  5. The Martin above the O on the bus is Mortensen :)

    I like Geraint Thomas - he's funny!

    That is all.

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  6. Obviously they shouldn't put a name there at all but since there are 25 of them I guess they had to. It just looks a lot like they forgot Martin (Mortensen, thanks, Leela ^.^) and then had to put him there alone.

    We should try putting our names on the bus. And even if they won't let us in, our names would be on it :P

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  7. Nice vacation you must have had. Did you also do some more relaxing things? ;)

    I'm really glad with your new blog, but I still think that it's a pity that some of your former posts will gradually glide into obscurity. Some of them were so good and extremely funny, that when I think of them they still make me smile.

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  8. Eli, hi! Ah, that's why you're Eli not Ellie, then! I did wonder.... say, how do you pronounce it? I've been saying it as Eeeee-lie. But now I think I ought to be saying short "eh" followed by an upwardly inflected "li!"

    Yeah, I love you too, love you all, guys! (*big virtual hugs all round*)

    @Barbara (incidentally, have you noticed, you bad Schlecklanders, that you've trained me to use the @ sign when replying to people in these comments? You'll have me tweeting next NOT! NEVER!) thank you, glad to have made you smile. I will try to make you smile again. Old rules still apply: no F-word, no swearing, no mentioning Scary Stalker (*shudders with disgust*) and no txt spk. Thank you.

    Our holiday was fab, thank you all for asking: the Peak District, for everyone who didn't have a clue, is about a third of the way up the country, above Nottingham and below Manchester.

    I'll add a picture in the next post...

    If I thought that a Schleckland post was particularly popular, I could maybe try to recreate it... (cries of "hold baby, throw bouquet!") or maybe we'll just make some new classics between us, now. All suggestions welcomed!

    Coug

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  9. Hah - Yes It's short for Elizabeth- Although I'm from Manchester I work In Liverpool so you have to say it with a scouse inflection *shudders* for it to be authentic. But I'm Tizzy to my family derives from Dizzy Lizzy, cos I'm a bit dizzy. I pronounce it "Ehli" In my northern twang (don't laugh)
    In short I'm ok thanks. In your absence I started my own blog. x Now you're back I have something to read at work..
    Eli x

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  10. Dearest Coug, I just found out that your best girlfriend from Italy was/is planning to move to a certain appartment block in Lux. It looks like she knows the owner. She's probably planning to take over our arrangement over the choires we so honestly and truthfully divided (you and Peedee got one night and me the rest, you remember?) Help, how can we save those innocent boys. They don't deserve this, don't you think?

    Because of certain implications I sign this as a ano..

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  11. Barbara, stop it. We know it's you. (The word is "chores" by the way, and I have never said it out loud, not once, in my entire life, because I still don't know if it should be pronounced korrz or chorrz (ch like in cheese), I have always used the word "jobs" instead!) (And I have A levels in English!!)

    My "best girlfriend from Italy" is apparently well known for changing her mind, for being out of her mind, and for living in her own tiny little world, which bears no relation to reality. We will not discuss her further.

    (*wags finger sternly*)

    But I love the idea that Jakob has moved so close to Unndy, think what fun they can have! And so convenient, for training together.

    Did you read that Chris Anker Sorenson has moved away from Lux, now that he and Unndy are no longer on the same team? He made light of it, saying that he was moving to Italy as the weather was better for training - too much rain in Lux - but it seems a little bit sad that someone else leaving your team means that you have to move to another country, and start all over again learning your way round, new language, new apartment etc.

    Perhaps when his contract with SaxoBlank comes up for renewal, he'll jump ship to Team Schlux? Or perhaps he'll really enjoy living in Italy (despite the scary stalkers who live there) with the replacement SaxoBlankers.

    Eli, your blog is great! I was a bit thrown by reading drooling conversations between two blokes, then I worked out that you both had pictures of blokes as your avatars... that confused me a bit. Well, it is only 7am. And I loved having to confirm that I was over 14 - presumably they are not talking mental age, ha ha - before being allowed to look at it.

    Ho hum, time for work, have a nice day one and all,

    CG

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  12. LMAO (seriously I have tears of laughter running down my face!) I swear these comments are just as funny as your posts, Coug!! The thing that got me was the "Barbara, stop it. We know it's you." Simple things... simple minds... :D

    @Coug *evil laugh* we'll have you on twitter in no time! You would build up such a cult following!! ;) And are you serious? You've never said chores? Pronounced ch-orz (like ch-eez) (can't believe you need an Aussie to teach you the mother-tongue!) ;P

    @Susanne no probs - a friend of mine (well actually, quite a few of them) went to the LT presentation, so she got a photo of the names on the bus :)

    Leelu

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  13. Hey Leelu,

    Yup, I have never said that word. Not ever. I will now, though.

    Tip-top!

    Coug

    And no, you will NEVER get me on Twitter. Just look at the average length of my posts, and the average length of my comments: how on earth could I express myself in, what, 30 words or less?

    Unless Unndy himself asked me to do it....

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  14. PS you're on your iPhone, aren't you?

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  15. Heh, that's why I have so many tweets! Can't keep to 140 characters!

    Nope, wasn't on iphone (why?), I just seem to have issues with google/blogger at times so it's sometimes easier to just post as an anon. :)

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  16. Oh, there was someone from Canberra on an iphone, that's all. But of course, you moved! (to avoid publicity, wasn't it? Something about a cardboard cut-out of Contador and a paint gun?)

    Am now using the word "chores" (out loud) at every opportunity, LLB thinks I've gone bonkers. Well, he already knew that.

    Talking of which, I made LLB listen to your voice post (he also thinks you sound lovely) and he laughed hysterically at the last one, Graham Brown. To us in the UK, Graham Brown is about as common a name as there can be, and he thought the way you pronounced it so seriously, was very sweet, and very funny.

    Tiptop!

    Coug

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  17. well, could have still been me... I mean I can't remember, maybe I did post a comment from my iphone. I do check this blog from it sometimes. LOL yes I did say his name quite serious I suppose!!

    PS every time you say Tiptop it reminds me of bread! There's a type of bread over here called Tiptop Hifi!!

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  18. LOL! Do you still use Durex to make scrapbooks over there? (hmm, or was that NZ?)

    Tiptop! (munch munch munch)

    Coug
    Off to do some more CHORES this morning....

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  19. While we were *ahem* 'off air' I had my own close encounter with Geraint, Ian & others AND the Sky bus. They didn't demonstrate the red light for me though, I'm most miffed about that!

    LEOPARD TREK should nick that idea and have a flashing blue one... oh wait, blue flashing light, that's probably not allowed.

    Ah PeeDee you're here! I was just asking about you while I work my way through all these blog posts I missed. Looking forward to furthering our education!

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