On reaching the mighty age of six my brother and I were given a small secondhand mono tape deck. It was my first exposure to music independence and, despite being extremely basic, was something I found completely marvellous. Along with it came a ‘ripped’ cassette with only a hand scrawled ‘various’ on the paper insert which turned out to mean ‘something of a mishmash of stuff’. The reason I mention it is that this post is probably something of a Various. Also a place to sling up some pictures that would not otherwise have a home.
As winter approaches I’m well aware that there could be some ‘wobbly’ days ahead for me so I’m finding it more important than ever to find ways to insert a little bit of adventure into my everyday activities.. taking the long way round to a work related meeting, staying out overnight on the way back and so on. I find it a bit depressing to see the degree to which something that is essentially free has been turned into a packaged product in the hyper-commercialised, social-media driven world we live in; a look around a beach car park here on a sunny day illustrates the degree to which it has been turned into a commodity, packaged up and sold in a way that requires the correct vehicle, the correct clothing brands, the correct brands of equipment, and to be seen to be travelling to the latest on-trend destination. I kind of feel that because of sheer volume of all that marketing noise now it’s more important than ever to push back against the bullshit and find ways to incorporate ‘adventure’ into everyday life on my own terms and in a way that doesn’t require frequent flying on a whim, putting ones-self into debt, or just buying a lot of shit that isn’t really needed. I’m finding it satisfying and it’s better for the planet too. It’s nothing new, lots of people are very good at doing that, and have been doing that for a long time, and it’s that which I often find as inspiring as the distant epics simply because it’s so accessible, and cheap. It just requires a bit of motivation and willingness to slow life down a bit. Living in a world dominated by pervasive marketing and a shit-storm of social media, and coming from a history of depression, finding small ways to incorporate a little bit of adventure into otherwise everyday tasks or events is proving immensely beneficial to my mental health.
My brain is also sludge this morning so rather than staring like a zombie at lines of code this post also perhaps acts as something of a functional exercise in easing my brain cells into some sort of operational state. Or not.
Just as an aside if you look at Instagram I highly recommend the Rough Stuff Fellowship Archive. 60+ years of folk exploring on bicycles without disc brakes, on-trend wheel sizes, press fit BBs, electronic shifting or the ‘correct gravel specific (ffs)’ clothing. It’s super. @rsfarchive.
wow that last image in particular is a beauty
hey Mark, cheers. That’s the descent from Boswinger to Hemmick beach. The climb the other side briefly reaches somewhere around 25% with a sand covered surface. It’s a lovely spot, used to spend a lot of time around there on bikes as a kid