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Showing posts from July, 2010

In the works!

mt cloud bookshop (click here! click here!) Dream construction ongoing. Soon to come true! (Photos by Marta Lovina. Website construction by Jason Herbolario .)

Even my widgets are tuned in to my movements

It's no coincidence this turned up on my AnthroDaily widget . Obviously, the spirit of Margaret Mead is with me and knows where I'm headed. (Image from the Asian Ethnographic Collection, Division of Anthropology , at the American Museum of Natural History)

What not biking feels like

Every month for about a week or ten days I'm prevented from biking by my female biological... erhm, functions . I used to subscribe to the point of view that having your period shouldn't stop you from doing whatever it is you want but as I've added years to my as yet relatively short life, I've found that it gets harder and harder to push my physical limits when my body's already working overtime dealing with hormones and blood and guts and all that naturally inevitable stuff. Given that pre-menstrual stress and post-menstrual stress are bad enough for us girls and the people around us, can you imagine what it's like for me and the people who must bear with me, not being able to bike only because I have my period? And to have the deprivation compounded by hormonal mood swings? It makes me grumpier than I already am. Oscar the effing Grouch has nothing on me when I'm ride-deprived. It's like the third day after you've quit smoking, when the initi

Star Cafe's Litson Rice

Stellar , to say the least.

Bicycle Myth-breaker: Women don't know what bicycle-love is.

 (Photo by Baguio Biker Girl Liza Maraan, Thanks, Liza!) At long last, we got  an all-girls' bike ride going in Baguio! Wheee! This has been my dream for YEARS! We started out in a group of four and struck out for Shilan, which is one of my most-favorite riding routes for its variety of terrain and because it's one of the easiest, least threatening places to hone one's off-road riding skills. Soon there will be more and more women with knobby wheels playing dirty on our mountain roads and trails. Mwahahahaaa! Go grrrls! No doubt the biker boys will be pleased to see more girls out there, but if these strong women were to be any more fond of their bicycles than they already are, I think some men might be worried.

Downhill Race Virgin No More

I don't consider myself a biker that races. If I remember correctly I've only ever joined 2 mountain bike races in this life, and my third mtb race was also my first downhill race, thanks to the needling and precise coaching of my brothers Behind Bars (at Aky's bikeshop). It all began with an 'innocent' visit to the tracks skillfully built by Team ULAW in Cruz, La Trinidad. For the boys this was going to be the first of a series of practice visits prior to The Flow DH Party on July 3, 2010 . For me, it was just going to be play... "FLOW" is the purrfect word to describe the tracks at Cruz... (If you see these, "...", it means words have failed me and I've floated off into a biking reverie...). Lovely smooth berms, big jumps (which I skipped of course), tight switchbacks... enough roots to shake you up a bit, no rocky threats, one tricky off-camber slope that was as slippery as a wet bar of soap, and a wonderful wonderful wonderful 2-fo