Happy Summer Solstice to Everyone!

Happy Summer Solstice to everyone out there!  All of us on the top side of the world are basking in heaps of sun.

And a Happy Winter Solstice to all those on the bottom side.

Two more days and we are all free of those annoying Xmas carols and the hard hit advertising everywhere. Even another big earthquake in Christchurch didn’t stop the politicians and business leaders from warning people that this should not stop them doing their duty and filling the new malls with their gay jingling pockets.

I'll Get Through Xmas by Breaking into the Liquor.

I’ve decided that I like summer so much that I will chase it on my treadle Eastwards across South America and then with the help of a bit of high octane jet fuel  arrive in Morocco just in time for spring on the bottom side of the world, just as it emerges from the Southern Hemispheres’  shadow.

I continue to tune in to some of the other past contestants in the Global bike Race. It never fails to amuse me as to how two months from the start of our individual challenges they can still be going on about finding sponsorship or lack of finding it.

I really would like to know what it is with the younger generation and sponsorship? Firstly I’d like to know something about how much of the sponsorship money is going to the charity and how much is going into their pockets towards their trip? Because it sounds to me like they themselves have little cash to cover their expenses while they are away on the adventure. I mean it’s a wickedly good plan if you can pull off a free trip in the name of a charity. And on top of that big business can get a tax break by sponsoring you. The charity won’t complain since they’ll be happy to get the crumbs once it’s all settled. But I can’t help getting that ‘this isn’t right is it’ feeling.

If it smells a little off I think it probably is. It’s the same feeling I get when I hear of Adventurers and Racers going past people on the route who need assistance and who then  don’t stop to render it because it will cost them either time or position.  And for that matter people who will not wait for slower members on a group training ride.

It’s the “You got any free stuff for me?” generation.

Bang!

I filled up my Optimus primus last week with petrol, stood back and lit it. Imagine my relief as it roared away happily. The implications of this are immense. With auto fuel being the most ubiquitous liquid on the planet outside water I should be able to fire up for a hot coffee or one pot meal anywhere. I just have to smuggle the old cooker past the customs officers at the airport and I’m set. Rest assured that Optimus are not sponsoring me on my adventures so I won’t be making up any crap about how my cooker lights with a single match and will happily burn for 6mths without a recharge. In fact I recall last time I used my cooker it nearly took my eyebrows off when I prewarmed it with too much white spirits! That’s when I made the startling discovery that I could prewarm it with antiseptic hand wash. It was during the bird flu scare and there were free hand wash dispensers everywhere. Who would have thought you could use the stuff as a fuel. (Niel the Wheel’s previous life as a microbiology student, and tight arse nature helped there).

The Gift Wrap for an Overseas Adventure.

O it’s so exciting! It’s the night before much of the Western World swaps big screen TVs or beach balls or whatever other toys take their fancy and the tooth fairy, (probably Diane), has dropped off a few Visa applications for me. That will give me something concrete to do tomorrow between berry hunting and paddling at the beach. Actually may flag the paddling at the beach as it’s all polluted with sewage after last week’s heavy rain. What and you non New Zealanders thought we were clean and green? Unfortunately where there are people there’s poo. I might just leave the swimming for a week or two.

Filling in Visa applications before heading off on my last training session down South sound’s much more appealing.