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Riccardo, I'm so sorry for your loss. Every time I pass the spot where she died, I think about Emma and a little shadow falls over the day. Take good care of yourself.

I've run into the same person, in the same place, at the same time, two days in a row now. Lady with red frame, blonde hair and Grobag - you were on the 50 Women ride on Sunday too. And sorry - I don't remember your name! (I'll remember to ask if we carry on stalking each other tomorrow morning.)

I missed the brownies!

muffled sobs

We have to do another one.

Cheers, I can handle that, as long as I'm on a train to Gatwick at 6.30 I'll be happy. Just need to get my bike into the back of the van so I can shoot off early.

Probably worth making sure your bike's the last into (and therefore first out of) the van from Dunwich then. But I'm sure you'll have thought of that.

How about we do something silly and slightly obscure, like all rolling up the left leg of our trousers/shorts?

Or a big flag or something.

...wouldn't it be great to have a great big LFGSS flag to identify ourselves at the beginnings of rides and things? Or would that just be really naff?

Is there a vague plan to meet for drinks beforehand so that we all some of us recognize each other? There's no point just saying 'at the start' - there'll be hundreds of people with bikes, and someone who hasn't been to that many forum things isn't going to be able to tell one group from t'other.

(I'm still in favour of the pink tutu idea.)

And I wouldn't worry about being new - there'll be so many people there that most of them won't have met before, so it'll just be one big getting-to-know-each-other session. (Not that you implied you were worrying or anything. I'm probably projecting.)

Couple of fine gentlemen were driving down Kennington road in a blue toyota celica yesterday at around 6:20, beeping there horn at any cyclist that in any way tried to use more of the road than the gutter.

Weird when you find people on a mission. There was an irritating little adolescent riding up Portland Street this evening, saying "awright princess!" to every female cyclist he passed. God knows what was going on in his head.

Does anyone want to arrange to meet-up for the ride in? I'll be coming in from Herne Hill/Brixton, leaving around 09.30 I guess? I'll probably be on the geared bike since the layer of dust its sporting means its overdue for some use...

I was going to suggest a souths roll up to the start. I will be leaving the wood of Colliers around 9.15 going through clapham, battersea - over queenstown, then backstreet to Victoria and Buck House - quite a nice little route if anyone wants to join me be at the clapham common end of cedars road around by 9.30 and look for the red spok!

I'll be coming from Herne Hill/Brixton too (well, Tulse Hill, but will be going through either of the above). M a r i e - do you want to try and meet about about 9.15, and pounce on Clefty as she crosses the Common?

Even though I dont actually like Guinness, I may create another Guinness cake especially for this ride.

Is that the Nigella recipe? I've been looking for an opportunity to revisit it as well! (Made one for a birthday during Lent, and couldn't eat it because I was off sugar.)

Now here's a question - what is everyone planning to EAT? Surely this is the most important part of the ride, and merits serious preoccupation?

Mine recently went in exactly the same way. I think it was my third to go wrong in the last 9 months or so. I've swapped to Phil Wood now.

Spotted, just now, a mouse vanishing under my bed. But I don't think I have the energy to care right now.

**There and other way back: **

1. Wibble (road bike) - parents house then train the day after
   
2. Sam (fixed) - riding back to Ipswich to catch the train
   
3. C2 (fixed) - to Ipswich maybe :D
   
4. actualmatthew (fixed) - ride to Ipswich for the train back to Cambridge.
   
5. brett (fixed) - keep riding into sea to live in original ancient settlement.
   
6. EcoLoco (fixed) prob ride to Ipswich, may ride back
   
7. huge16 (ss) beach BBQ and beer then lift back. Hoping to put some beer n BBQ in the car for all you lot if possible!
   
8. The Seldom Killer - Fixed (46x18 or maybe 46x16 with an 18ss on the flip in case of fail). Getting a lift home with gf who is bringing the van and has assured me that she will bring some beer and stick it on ice.
   
9. Sasmon - Fixed or geared - haven't decided yet (staying with some friends in the country)
   
10. jonny. not sure if fixed or geared. riding back part of possibly all the way. like everything in life it will depend on the wind.
    
11. Clever Pun - Geared - cycling onto ipswich I think, train back to london
    
12. photoben (fixed) - Cycling to Ipswich, or maybe Colchester.
    
13. Emilia (fixed) - B&B and riding back the next day, or something
    
    
    

**There and coach back: **

1. broker (fixed)
   
2. clefty (road bike)
   
3. Soul (road bike)
   
4. Shazam (fixed)
   
5. mo_mo (fixed)
   
6. steves (fixed - probably)
   
7. mjs110 (road bike)
   
8. Crispin Glover (fixed and brakless)
   9, 10. Sparrow + friend Duncan (2x fixed)
   
9. Steff (road bike, probably)
   
10. CheBeef (roady)
    
11. Aroogah (Geared)
    
12. horatio (geared)
    
13. tika (i don't know yet)
    
14. tonythetiger (geared)
    
15. Cohen (sturmey-archer!)
    
16. Hoops (geared)
    
17. VeeVee (maybe and if maybe, definitely geared)
    
18. Jaygee (fixed)
    
19. middleofnowhere (fixed 46/16 with 46/17 ss on the flip for when the pain starts)
    
20. Polybikeuser (shiny new road bike - & probably embarrassingly slow as I haven't had time to do nearly as much preparation for this as I'd intended :?)
    
    

**There and back: **

1. hillbilly (road bike)
   
2. object (road bike)
   
3. Oliver Schick (road bike)
   
4. Scott not Scot (fixed)
   
5. Tricity bendix (fixed)
   
6. Greenbank (fixed)
   
7. Radius (road bike)
   
   
   

There and back at a 400 mile 24hr pace:

1. disrail (road bike with clip on Tri bars)
   
   
   

Not going there at all but lying back, cockateel in hand, on a beach in the south of france / croatia / Sheringham:

1. Slag (fixed!)
   
2. shoots
   
3. Skully (Audi A2 tdi)
   
4. Cornelius SouthofFranceBeachFestivalFoot
   
   

**Going up the aisle to get fixed **

1. murtle
   
   

**Drinking all murtle's beer while he gets all soppy: **

1. hippy
   
   

Sat at home wishing they were going:

1. stompy
   
2. pascalo
   
   
   

I'm still really jealous of all the people who're riding back. Do you reckon someone who looks a bit like me might be persuaded to take my place in the B&B, so I can join you? My gf will probably be so wrecked she won't actually notice...

EM !!!
Oxford St.
Y'day 5.15pm.
Rensho still looking lush.

Ha! I spotted her at almost exactly the same time (and in almost exactly the same place). And yes, it is, isn't it?

Someone who I think I recognise in East Dulwich Saisburys, possibly Emilia?
I can only assume that was your black Condor outside.
Might have said hi, but my reactions were a few seconds slow.

Ah, you must have been one of the several guys with courier bags that I glanced at in a speculative 'do-I-know-you?' kind of way. Do say hi next time. (East Dulwich Sainsbury's is kind of good for spotting - I've seen some very nice bikes locked up outside!)

The London Review of Books always has excellent essays on Israel/Palestine which I'd recommend to anyone.

They also sell the most amazing (chocolate and raspberry) brownies in their cafe. Seriously. Good enough to go to war over.

Ahhh, I'm a fellow LRB fan. Let's do an LRB ride sometime! (This is my response to pretty much anything, and need not be taken seriously.)

(In response to the original question.)

I'm probably not your average Briton (but I'd certainly qualify as part of a sample thereof). And for a long time I had only the vaguest idea of what was going on in Palestine. I'd watch the news without being very sure of the ins and outs of it, or remotely clear on who was in the right. I'm a quarter Jewish (by heritage only), and various comments during my schooling and upbringing had given me the vague impression that Israel was generally a good thing, and pretty much a dream come true for lots of people. I never had any reason to give it much more thought.

Then, when I was at SOAS (which is very pro-Palestinian), I decided to get to the bottom of things, and spent a week or so reading up on the history of it all, in all its different versions. And now my attitude is of permanent and implacable outrage on behalf of the Palestinians. I get very emotional about the unfairness of it all - because as I see it, there is now absolutely no way out of this mess that won't leave some parties seriously disadvantaged. I think the two state solution is pretty much the only one that has any mileage, but that still leaves the Palestinians with a lot less of a country than they had 60 years ago, and it seems outrageously unfair that they should have to settle for this. But then, so many people have now been born and spent all their lives in what they know as Israel that it would be similarly cruel to take that away. Where would they go? Of course, its easy to blame Balfour et al, and to bemoan the state of the world that lets decisions made by old white guys in drawing rooms ruin the lives of millions (I have similar rants about India/Pakistan), but blame is largely pointless in most cases. It won't undo the mistakes that have been made.

So my opinions are varied, depending on context. Sometimes I'll rail impotently about how much damage western imperialists have done to the world. Sometimes I'll argue that Palestine (and similar regions) are examples of how the nation-state is no longer viable and should be replaced (but with what?). Sometimes I'm a lot more practically disgusted by how badly Israel has behaved, and how indefensible their (and US, and UK) foreign policy is. (I try very hard not to dissolve into knee-jerk anti-Israel rhetoric, and to understand why some people still support Israel so stauchly, but I find it very difficult.) Sometimes I'm morose and tearful about how unspeakably hard life is for the Palestinians. (There was a little snippet about the Palestine Festival of Literature in the Guardian Review section last weekend that made me cry - as did an exhibition I saw a while back of lifesize photographic portraits of exiled Palestinians that have been displayed in their old villages.) Most of the time my reaction could be classed as impotent outrage.

As for your 'placement in our consciousness'? I'm not sure. Palestine currently has quite a large niche in my consciousness - as does any intrinsically unfair situation that I can't solve and can't imagine being solved by anyone else. I think it's less prominent for most people though. Certainly, my family don't really discuss it unless I batter them about the head with it. (I'm becoming known for bringing up awkward political discussions at mealtimes.) But then, people tend to be alienated by politics unless they have some direct bearing on their own lives. Certainly, none of us gave a toss about Kurdistan until my mother took a couple of Kurdish refugees under her wing. Perhaps the answer (or, an answer, however partial) is to carry on forging personal links between real people in places like Palestine and places like this. Send bankers and cab drivers and housewives to live with Palestinians and see what it's like. Give UK schoolchildren Palestinian penpals. Let in more Palestinian refugees and integrate them better into British communities, so that their concerns become everyone's concerns.

Fuck it. This is useless idealism. I don't know what to do. But this is what I think.

Nasty woman in a 4x4 (FD55 0EK), deliberately swerving into a traffic-light window cleaner and nearly knocking her over, top of Portland Place, yesterday lunchtime. I hope you're ashamed of yourself.

To the chap I nearly took out on Piccadilly this afternoon (changing lanes without looking properly) - I unreservedly apologize. I was riding like a twat. Sorry.

I'm in!

I've only met a couple of you before so this will be one beast of a name-learning sesh!

Shall we do name badges, or shall we just agree to address everyone as 'Bob'?

[code]

                  Swain's Lane     Ditchling

Length 0.6m 0.9m
Total climb 223ft 523ft
Avg gradient 7% 11%
Max gradient(ish) 15% 23%[/code]

Hey - you mean Swain's Lane is easier than Ditchling? I'll stop avoiding it then!

Oh god, I end up crying every time this happens. Can we please do something? What happened to that big bike ride protest people were talking about a few months ago? There's still plenty of time to organize something for late summer...

Of course, it'll take more than this, but it's a start.

To add to the chorus of clown-feet, I've got a pair of 43megas that I'm looking to shift. (They're a bit big, and have sagged slightly, so I've moved down to 43normal.) They're rather knackered (I have a genius for wearing out kit), but everything still works, and you'd probably get at least another six months out of them. Probably a year or more if your mileage is a bit more normal than mine.