Aldi Ninja

One thing that really helps cold weather cycling is making sure you have warm clothing. Kinda makes sense, so it does make me wonder why it took me so long to realise this and do something about it.

Today it was cold enough - but I only realised half way round my ride - to wear my "lobster" winter gloves. The gloves I was wearing are ok but just a little too thin, and my hands weren't comfortable.

Since realising that keeping warm is really handy I've invested in a few items of "base layer" clothing, plus a couple of snoods, but one problem I've had for a while is keeping the top of me bonce warm. Then the other day when I was in Aldi, I came across a basket of assorted cycling wear (including the lobster gloves) and found a wee hat that you wear under your helmet.

Here I am modelling my Aldi "ninja" look.

I felt rather tired when I set off so decided, bearing in mind the advice I've had to not overdo it, to take it easy. At then end I realised I was only 5 minutes slower than normal (1:25min vs 1:20min).

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Hat of the Day

National League franchise for Chicago, the Cubs. In 2002 for a belated 40th birthday present, we spent some of July in Chicago and Milwaukee as I'd bagged a ticket for the All Star game at Miller Park. The first part of the jaunt was spent in Chi town where we saw the Cubs beat the Reds thanks to a Sammy Sosa HR. The roar from the crowd woke Pheebs up who, up until that point, had been oblivious to the 'friendly confines' of Wrigley Field, and was comfortably asleep on my shoulder. It was very hot and we were all jet lagged, so I have some sympathy with her decision to have a wee snooze.

This was my second visit to Chicago and my second to Wrigley Field. The first time I actually spent some time wandering around the outfield after a stadium tour. It's a beautiful place (*for a sports arena).

When we went to Milwaukee I was mistaken for - recently retired Orioles SS - Cal Ripken Jnr. I suspect it's just that, like me, he was an a slightly overweight, grey haired, middle-aged man. I don't think it was the athletic figure I cut. With the All Star game in town, it wasn't unreasonable to expect Mr Ripken to be there too.

I don't know if Cal reads this blog, but if he does, I was quite flattered at the mistaken identity.

Barry Bonds hit a HR in the All Star game so I saw homers from two of the most famous, and notorious, hitters in the modern era in consecutive games.