Mexican John Blogspot: Sick as in Sick

The lack of camera in my life is the main reason for the lack of posts of late, my dire financial situation means I can't afford to buy one either! This is shit. My trusty phone does the job for some things but its no good for capturing fast bicycle maneuvers. Anyway I'm laid up with the flu at the moment so I may as well try and sling a post together.
We were all out partying a few weeks back at the Habit outdoor party at the Tyne and everyone was getting loose. Wally in particular was mortal and somehow managed to fall flat on his dish splitting his nose and head. Think his nose is broke too. In typical Wally fashion he refrained from going to A&E that night or even the next day, instead getting pissed up again at a BBQ. This left him with a lovely scab on his wonky nose.

Oh dear

If he's not cracking his face he's cracking the concrete!

Wally is moving to London this month to start a job with British Airways as an engineer. Congratulations mate! No doubt he will be tearing up the bars and clubs every weekend in the big smoke..

Here's a few things I've found interesting lately..

Keiichi Iwasaki

Keiichi Iwasaki is a Japanese man who went for a bike ride 7 years ago to the end of his town and enjoyed it so much he decided to carry on going with the equivalent of £1 in his pocket. Since then he has travelled halfway around the world with his only income coming from performing street magic to the people he meets. He has been robbed by pirates and arrested in India, almost died when he was attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet and nearly married in Nepal.
In total Mr Iwasaki has cycled over 45,000km (27,961 miles) on his favourite Raleigh shopper bike but two have been stolen and two have broken so he now rides his fifth. In May 2005, he became the first Japanese man to climb Mount Everest from sea level without using any transportation. He has also rowed from the source of the Ganges river in India to the sea, a journey of 1,300km which took him 35 days.

Here's the route that Keiichi has taken from his home in Japan. Amazing.

I really want to do some long distance cycle touring (on a road bike not BMX!) in the future but without possessing unreal magic skills I'll have to do it the hard way and save some cash- that may prove difficult!

Rowing down the Ganges River

London

Australia

India

Cambodia

This story along with Marc Beaumont's achievement of circumnavigating the world last year in a new world record time of 194 days has really inspired me to do something bigger than the Coast to Coast ride that I did earlier this year (which is like a trip to the shops in comparison). I am going to sign up for a 300km ride from London to Paris next year for the British Heart Foundation and I'm planning to cycle Edinburgh to Tynemouth in the spring.

Charlie Crumlish

This section is amazing. Nice to see someone original for once! From the FUTU DVD.