I’ve been meaning to write about this for weeks, so here we go.
Six weeks ago I got an email from Friends of the Earth inviting me to do a sponsored ride from London to Edinburgh next May. I thought that would be a cool thing to do but didn’t much think of it as something I’d do. I had my weekly 27 mile round trip to go to Hen Heaven (which my friends were all quite impressed by), and that was the furthest I’d ever ridden in a day, so 480 miles in six days seemed pretty silly. A couple of days later it still seemed daunting, but I remembered that these things are meant to be achievable for normal people and I thought I’d probably sign up. About a week later I did, and now I’m trying to get my endurance up while the weather’s nice! I haven’t been training as much as I’d hoped, but I’m doing longer, nicer routes to Henfield so it’s now 34-36 miles on Tuesday. Brighton-Wimbledon (and then back) is still the furthest I’ve been so far (55 miles), and took hours and hours what with navigation and snack stops. Tomorrow I’m doing my first metric century (and a bit); 66.5 miles, with Ditchling Beacon, nemesis of the London to Brighton Bike Ride, at the end. I’ve been up there four times now and the first was on the way back from a party(!), but I hope my legs can still handle it after 60-odd miles. Think of me at about 5pm!
(This is also a very early heads up to Northern people that I’ll be in Edinburgh in the third week of May. It definitely won’t be a tour, but I should be up for a couple of bookings while I’m there. I’ll mention it again so you don’t have to pit it in your diary now.)
© Anika Mae 2006
Yeah, I vintage-ised it. How cheesy.
Woah sorry, questioners! Formspring stopped sending me new question notifications and I thought you’d run out of ideas. I just logged in for something else and saw 10 in my inbox.
I’ve only ever had one solo female client; it’s not much of a thing and I do say on the rare occasions that women ask about booking that I don’t have a lot of experience there. I’ve had sex with women in my personal life but I was a bit shy doing it professionally.
Couples (mf) are a normal but not that common part of my work and I like them partly because it’s something different, though threesomes take more physical and mental energy than most one-to-one bookings. Cool, communicative couples (this is most of them) are great. It’s fun to get involved in their sex lives when they treat themselves, and often they’re really enjoying trying something for the first time. I find the female half is often the centre of attention and very demanding!
I’m still waiting for the man-on-man action.
I did this was when I was 19, twice. I’d wanted to skydive since before I even knew it was something people did, but really I would have preferred parachuting when I was 16 and fearless. At 19 I was beginning to turn into a massive wimp (I think the jumps might have even catalysed it a bit) who doesn’t like rollercoasters. Glad I did it of course, but I never plan to sit with one bum-cheek out of a plane hatch again.
I’m making a cushion cover at the moment. Not really the sort of thing I’m into, but proper big cushions seem to be out of fashion, so I’ve had to buy pads from eBay and make the covers myself. It’s taking ages.
Anyway, iTunes random play just gave me some metal I was into as a teenager, and it’s almost always great when that happens. First, Novembers Doom (who are too metal for apostrophes). They may have been the first death metal band I listened to, because I got one of their albums free when I ordered some girlier metal from their record label. Then I suppose I downloaded some stuff, because I have Not The Strong from a later album. It’s a song where a man growls about how he’s sad because his mother wouldn’t be proud of him. Brilliant. I don’t think emo was a thing then, but they took it anyway and put it in death metal. Right after that I got Vampyre Erotica. She’s going to be super-mean to you because she’s a sexy vampire! Yeah! Being a teenager with sadomasochistic tendencies can get really silly. Now that I’m older with a better sense of humour I enjoy this stuff almost as much as when I was 17.
Oh and speaking of being a teenager AND spookiness, I walked through Shoreham port on my own the other night, which was quite nice and reminded me of when I thought I was invincible and used to go for night-time walks with spooky music on my MiniDisc player. I have to admit I was a bit relieved to get out unmurdered though. I’d only been in there for about ten minutes when I saw a man pointing a small camera at a skip, which was a little odd, but when I got closer I realised there was a hand hanging limply out of the skip, holding a sparkler, and he was filming it. Ok. Almost certainly a couple of people making some kind of low-budget video. Just possibly a serial killer’s ritual. Looking forward and moving on, then!
I went back that way in the morning and there were no bodies or police tape.
I made it to London by bike on Friday, then back on Monday. It took all day, both ways, because I’m lazy and like snack breaks and navigate through towns pretty badly. I’m going to have to get a handlebar mounted GPS navigator or I’ll never get anywhere. I used some of the time on way back to pick plums and watch bee sex though, which is time well-spent.
I did another 32 miles going to Hen Heaven and back yesterday, so I feel like I’ve earned my rest day today! Sorry for not updating for so long, and to everyone who I still owe emails.
Hi. I’m still here. I had a technical problem that stopped me posting a picture last week, and that triggered a bout of laziness. Right now I’m preparing for tomorrow, when I’ll cycle 55 miles for the first time, to get to my sister’s house before we head up north (on the train!). My longest ride so far has been 40 miles, which I did on Sunday and finished off by landing on my crossbar (still sore). I’m getting the miles in because I’ve signed up to cycle from London to Edinburgh next May so I need a lot of practice. I’ve been meaning to tell you about that for at least two weeks… so I suppose the laziness isn’t new. Anyway, things to do.
