Craig Gibbons' Lifeblog

Three and a half years ago, when shopping around for a bike to buy, two machines with very different pedigree’s, from very different stables, emerged as strong contenders; the BMW R1200GS and the Buell XB9SX. The decision was a difficult one. On the one hand, I had always owned BMW’s and knew the bike and the brand well, on the other; I had loved the Buell ever since I had first seen it (over 10 years ago) and it continued to impress and inspire. In the end, I went with the BMW, for mostly practical reasons.

Fast forward a couple of years and the BMW is reluctantly up for sale, to make way for a house purchase and 18 long months later I’m back at the same juncture; lusting after another bike while enduring the indignity of a crowded bus journey during the 2 days of (illegal) strikes called by the RMT which brought the City of London to a standstill.

That same Saturday I found myself at Warrs Harley Davidson in Chelsea looking at the 2009 Buell XB9SX, which is now even better looking thanks to a new all-black option which was lacking from the translucent blue and cherry line-up offered in previous years. Miraculously, the price had also come down by 10%. The deal was sealed, I called and placed the order that Monday and collected my shiny, brand new Buell that Friday after work, just in time for the weekend. All credit to Warrs for pulling it together on such short notice.

Having had the bike now for a few months and really having the chance to really know it, I can comprehensively say, I love it. It is a riding experience unlike any other.

Upon first starting the bike, the 984cc Thunderstorm engine rumbles into life almost the same instant the starter button is pressed. For the first few minutes, the engine feels a little rough and the rear view mirrors are ablur, but as it warms up, it becomes remarkably smooth for an engine of its type and size. Selecting first gear might feel a little strange for sports bike riders. There can be no doubt the gear has been selected, much like the 1200GS, the gear thunks into position like the closing of a luxury German car door and you’re ready to go. The power delivery is constant through the entire rev-range and at no time does the bike feel distressed. There is no ‘power band’ like you get on many other bikes, the engine spins up and pulls hard, all the way. The Buell is light and agile, it feels and handles like a scooter, but has all the brute-force of a superbike. This, along with the low-down torque, makes this bike ideal for city riding, but it’s also at home on winding roads or the motorway, as I recently discovered on a round-trip from London to Manchester, although the lack of a front fairing means you take a bit of a buffeting. Riding 2-up is the biggest surprise, and pleasantly so. Even on the mighty 1200GS, one can really feel a passenger, but on the Buell, it’s almost not noticeable. The front remains solid and deliberate, instead of light and twitchy. The back remains taught and responsive, instead of sunken and lethargic. Best of all, the engine just doesn’t care, it happily purrs along oblivious to the extra weight.

There are however a few negatives and it would be remiss to neglect to mention these. First, the controls and instrumentation are generally quite poor. The indicator switch looks like a throwback to the 80’s and the clocks yield little more information than speed and revs per minute. Attempts to operate with winter gloves yields butterfingeritis. Second, occasionally when pulling off from an idle, the engine will skip a beat and splutter. According to the guys at Warrs, it’s peculiar to this type of engine and in fairness, it happens infrequently and is easily controlled. Third, there is very little space for luggage. Perhaps this is not a legitimate complaint as the XB9SX is, after all, a streetfighter with an exceptionally short wheel base, but I like a bit of luggage for those days in the country (I know, I know… “cake and eat it”).

I look forward to many more days out with the Buell and future offerings from the Buell stable. Yup, this could very well be the start of something beautiful.

Lately I’ve been dabbling a bit in the markets. Following the deepest darkest stock market declines since the great depression, I figured if I bought some stock and just held onto it, sooner or later I’d come good and in the mean time I might even experience what it feels like to receive a dividend or two. As it turns out, I didn’t have to wait very long. By virtue of some expert picks (read: sheer luck) my selections took off almost immediately, with pretty much everything gaining somewhere between 5% and 60% over the past 2 months. The experience has been eye-opening. While I will in no way pretend any of this was anything other than, as I said, luck, I have nonetheless sought to increase my understanding of all things financial and now have a modicum of knowledge in the area, or just enough to be dangerous, as we say in the technology world.

Much of the commentary is seriously perplexing. For almost every viewpoint, it is possible to find a contradictory viewpoint as vigorously expounded. For every broker recommendation, others are lining up to discredit the research and cast confusion and doubt. What then is an amateur, or even a total beginner to do? In the past, I bought into some funds. These funds had been the top performers in categories for the past few years and seemed pretty safe. Clearly they were bought at the wrong time, but they tanked just as hard as anything else when all the people with million dollar houses on minimum wage across the pond stopped making their mortgage payments. Maybe, I thought, funds are not necessarily the way forward. What about gold? Well, after watching the gold price fluctuate between $800 and $1,000 an ounce, I decided there is not in fact “gold in them thar hills”. Oil? Smart play if you want to lose money quick. Those long on oil (betting on an upward movement) would have found themselves dead broke now as the oil price tanked (no pun intended) from a high of $147 last July (’08) to around a third of that now. Defensives I hear you cry! Sadly that way is danger too. Pharmaceuticals got high on their own supply, auto makers got a flat, miners dug themselves a hole and the banks, well, enough said about banks!

In the end, any (every) market participant needs to know something about what they’re actually buying and about the company, sector and economy, domestic and global, as a whole. Some investments are inherently safer than others and I’ve tried to diversify into those. Whatever happens from here, the learning experience has, at least, been well worth it.

I never figured myself for a green-thumb kinda guy and my early childhood spent watching South Africa's favourite gardener, Keith Kirsten, left me with an overall impression of gardeners toiling all day in the dirt and smelling not unlike a combination of formaldehyde, mulch and whatever growing thing they happened to brush up against last. Recently, Gemma and I purchased a house together. Through all of our adventures in house buying, the one thing which became the veritable holy grail of the first home, was a layout in which the kitchen led onto the garden via a gaping large sliding door at the back of the house, welcoming the fecund scents of spring into the expectant kitchen carpel. For me, the focus was always on the house and all the beautiful things it could be filled with, but lately, with the weather so very excellent in February, or indeed by any other month's standards, the focus has shifted, to the outside. Walking around the garden the past few days has revealed things I couldn't see upon moving into the house half way through September last year. Small buds have begun to appear, grass has begun to grow, barren shrubs have regenerated from nothing, grey has turned to green, indeed everywhere I now look, new life has sprung forth from the earth where only barren soil and dead branch resided only days ago. Eager to assist our new garden in its efforts to reclaim all that was lost to it during the winter, we have purchased Primroses and planted Lily of the Valley and all types of herbs, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Mint and even some Rocket. The garden is alive and to my eyes, presently only beginning to exhale after holding its breath for so many months. I Look forward to the spring and summer with unbridled anticipation... oh if Keith could see me now.

It's been a successful last couple of years in London. Since starting at Merrill Lynch and moving on from the days of £200 dinners for kicks, expensive cars for fun and designer suits for nothing, I've wised up at last and started trying to make more of my opportunities. To this end I have added a 3rd property to (what I am now calling) my portfolio.

I've been shopping around for about the last 6 months for a good investment. By now, everybody knows the party is over for the London property market (in fact it's more like the morning after when you come out the club and it's light and you can't get a cab, and it's raining) so I knew I needed to look further afield to invest in something with actual growth potential. At the moment there are several so-called property hotspots in the world, among them Eastern Europe, Brazil, Macau (and indeed China in general), several of the Caribbean Islands, Mongolia and Malaysia. One thing I have learned through the process of looking for a good investment is that if you can see the herd, you're already too late, but for a part-time amateur investor like me, I was never going to be intrepid enough to take the risk on a completely new market so it was all about finding a location which was booming, but still not overpriced. The investment also had to be 'hands-free' (i.e. No more to pay after deposit) and preferably cash-flow positive or at least neutral (i.e. actually returned cash or simply took care of its self). Lastly, there needed to be good let potential and exit strategy, which implied strong local market demand.

Finally, after so many hours reading about different locations, analysing local markets, tax laws, exchange rate trends and rental yields I have found what I believe to be the best investment possible within my budget, a new apartment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. KL is a booming metropolis and Malaysia is really on the up and up with 50% of the population under the age of 27, an urbanisation rate of 10% per annum and a booming IT services industry servicing neighbouring China, it looks set to achieve solid growth over the coming years. It should also be largely protected from the downturns in the current credit crunch given the economy is not dependant on the US consumer, like so much of the rest of the world is. The property is a two bedroom, 77sqm apartment in the heart of KL's Golden Triangle, about 5 minutes away from the Petronas Towers, the world's tallest buildings. Set for completion late 2010, this is definitely a long term investment and anything could happen during that time, but I figure what the hey, one can't be too overly cautious. It's a risk to be sure, but a risk I hope will pay off.

About two months ago, my parents came down to London for a visit. It so happened I was feeling a bit feverish that day, the start of what ended up being a good bout of flu, so I stayed home and it was well I did because at some point during the day, a skinny, lost and cold ginger cat with a sniffle followed my father back into the house after he went out to his car. Having grown up with cats, I immediately liked him but with Gemma being allergic to cats, I tried to discourage him from staying, so I gave him as much food as I had and a saucer of milk and after he had a two hour nap, I put him outside again with the promise, to myself, that if he came back, I would take him in right away and take care of him. An hour or two passed and then what I had secretly hoped for but didn't think would happen, happened, a little flash of ginger and white appeared on the window-sill outside the lounge and I leapt up from the sofa, almost knocking over my Lemsip, and let him in the house. Poor little thing, he went straight into the bedroom and fell asleep at once, for several hours. After Gemma came home that day, we decided (tentatively) to keep him. After much deliberation, we decided to name him Pantoufle, after the little girl's imaginary friend in the novel Chocolat by Anne Harris. I had always wanted a cat in London, but not having a garden and leading a fairly irregular life of late nights at the office and triathlon training schedules meant I didn't feel I could be a legitimate cat-minder. Now, with a garden in our lovely mid-terrace home, a cat has about forty other adjoined gardens to play in and in some ways, life has normalised to a certain extent. The point is in any case moot, the moment he jumped up on that window-sill, he was here to stay for better or worse and even when he wakes me up at 4am, for food and to be let out, he's still the best little ginger cat in the world.

It's official, I am now an Ironman, or well, half an Ironman anyway :) The 3rd Monaco Ironman 70.3 was held in the beautiful principality of Monaco on September 2nd 2007 and after 3 hard months of dedicated training, I was there to claim the title of 'Finisher'.

Ever since I decided shortly after the Berlin Marathon I would do an Ironman, I have been working in some way towards that goal. The acquisition of my first road racing bike in almost half as many years as I've been alive was an inspirational step and set me firmly upon the path. From there, cycling to work and signing up for the smaller Blenheim and London triathlons further reinforced the pursuit, but it wasn't until one day when I was browsing the Ironman site looking for an event that I actually decided to make a reality out of so many fantasies. I chose Monaco despite its reputation as one of the toughest courses on circuit because of simple timing. The season was running out, I needed at least 3 months to train and I needed an event reasonably close by. Monaco fit nicely into that gap.

Entering the race would change my life for a few months. With only 14 weeks to prepare, I was on a tight schedule and needed a professional training program, fast. I looked around online and found a few free ones, but nothing really worked with my lifestyle of randomly long work days and social events. I looked a little harder and happened upon MarkAllenOnline.com, the namesake of a 6-time Ironman champion. His training program offered flexibility and professional advice like nothing else out there. I signed up right away and training began 2 days later. The program was tough going, consisting of (count 'em) 8 sessions per week (2 swim, 2 bike, 2 run and 2 gym) totalling around 12 hours. It was hard going in the beginning, but after a couple of weeks, I settled into the routine and really began to enjoy the training. The Mark Allen program stresses heart rate zone training and my Garmin Forerunner 305 and I became good friends. The weeks and months rolled by and pretty soon it was approaching race day. I felt I was ready, but could have done more, as is probably always the case.

I took the week leading up to the race off work and relaxed, spending most of my time getting good sleep and preparing myself and my equipment for the race. Came August 31st, I was on a plane to Nice and a short time later registered, with my bike racked and transition bags packed. Sunday, race day, was only a few hours away.

After a night of light and much broken sleep, race day finally arrived. I woke with plenty of time (unlike Berlin) and made my way down to the start line. For a change, everything was going off without a hitch. There was massive excitement in the air with 800 fully charged triathletes lined up on the shores of Larvotto beach for the start. I'd been on a start line many times in the preceeding months and I know my heart rate always leaps 50 beats before the gun. This day was no different, I could already feel the adrenalin surging strongly when the hooter sounded and I plunged into the grinder of fists and elbows that is the start of a triathlon.

The swim was going well, I'd carved out a little patch of water and was making strong progress. About 5 minutes in, I turned to the side to take a breath and swallowed a full gulp of salty Mediterranean water. No more electrolytes required I thought. Then not far from the finish, another swimmer crossed in front of me and I caught a foot square to the side of the mouth, tasted blood and carried on, feeling a little tougher. Exiting the swim leg, I figured I was positioned about half way through the field, good enough for my first attempt I thought.

Transitioning as quickly as possible, I dowsed my arms and neck in factor 50 sun lotion and set off for the bike course, a gruelling 90km through the hinterland with 3 fearsome peaks to overcome, the first of which reaches 700m above sea level. For the first 20km, I fared surprisingly well and summited the peak feeling fresh and ready for more. The race director had briefed us all on the descents, advising caution on the tight-turn hairpin bends. It was good advice. My hands were acheing from pulling the brakes by the time I had reached the bottom and I'd lost my profile water bottle after hitting a massive bump in the road that launched the bike and I well into the air. No biggie, I pressed on and summited peaks 2 and 3, finally descending to T2 with still more ache in my shoulders and lower back, grateful for the opportunity to stand straight up for the run very shortly.

I always felt like running was my fallback event where I could do the distance no matter how rough I was feeling, but on the way out of T2 I was feeling great, positively euphoric even and spoiling for the run. 20Km later I was still cruising along, almost at the finish and delighted with the knowledge that by the time I got round the last lap, the clock would be ticking over well under my target time of 6 hours.

I finished the Monaco Ironman 70.3 in a time of 5:41:49.

A full equipment list used for this event can be found here.

Lastly, thanks to my lovely girlfriend Gemma, who put up with all the early mornings and exhausted evenings for those 14 weeks.

One of the guys at work sent around a mailer a few weeks ago, asking if anybody was interested in doing the London Pride 10k Run on August 18th. As with most of these events, it was for a good cause and in this case it was also sponsored by Merrill Lynch, so I figured why not and signed up right away. There's nothing like a 10k race to up your speed over the longer distances so the race doubled as some good speed training. One tends to slow down pretty quick as soon as you shift into long distance pace training. I'm really glad I went along that day. The weather was fine, Victoria Park was in good form and the runners were all well up for it, even the fairy godfather :)

As with all the races I do lately, I edged my way to the front of the pack for the start. I figure if somebody is going to pass me they can work for it, I'm not conversely going to fight my way through a pack of slower runners. This approach worked well at the Bananaman 10k, but a stronger type of runner turned out this day and eventhough I lead the race for the first 1k, a group of 3 faster runners come past and I didn't see them again. A 10k race is always a sprint and after some others passed me, I found my stride and maintained a solid pace for the rest of the race, seeing off a few challenges from those with my position in their sights, eventually finishing lucky 13th for a new personal best of 36:18.

Last night my good mate Frame and I went to go see Evita for President at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn.  The alter ego of Pieter Dirk Uys has been a household name, in South Africa anyway, for more than two decades and her (his) political satire is well known. This was my first live viewing of Uys in action and it was, for me, a most wonderful experience. Uys takes the stage in unassuming attire, a black undershirt and loose pants and commences his performance. Only 5 seconds in and the audience is already captivated, spellbound even, as Uys reels off line after line of well timed, current, relevant and down right funny material. He shifts effortlessly through a series of character sketches representative of South Africa old and new, punctuating each transition with a story about unfaltering optimism, joy and progress in the new South Africa. Uys is quite simply nothing short of a national treasure. Evita for President shows at the Tricycle Theatre through 1st September 2007. Highly recommended.

The Ironman training has really paid off over the last couple of months. I managed to put in 2 good run results, coming 3rd in the Bananaman 10k held in Regent’s Park on July 8th and 16th in the Milton Keynes Half Marathon on July 15th. This past weekend I did the London Triathlon Sprint event. In retrospect, I should have entered the Olympic distance event, but by the time I realised my error, it was too late to change. I put in a reasonably good result, coming 11th in my wave but it should have been so much better. Somehow I got turned around coming into T2 and lost my bike rack, it was several minutes before I found it and the delay really cost positions. Anyway, we live and learn. Mental note to self: mark your rack position well!

The next challenge is the Monaco Ironman 70.3 which takes place on September 2nd.

Last week I bought myself a new bicycle. This, in and of its self, is enough to excite me, but I am especially excited because of the nature of this purchase. Pictured below is the Specialized Langster 2008 London, number 26 of only 300 made. Specialized must have realised they were on to a good thing when they came up with the idea of designing a single speed bike customised for several of the world’s major cities. To my mind, the London is far and away the best of the lot, outshining the predictably yellow New York and decidedly dull Chicago Langster’s. The bike comes with a reversible back wheel so you can ride it in freewheel or fixed gear (no coasting) mode and sports several shamelessly cheesy cool retro features like shiny all-metal handlebars and a stylised tube map on the bottom bar, enough to make those city couriers positively cringe with envy. Mwhuahuahua.

The Specialized Langster '08 London is available from Sigma Sport, 15 High Street, Hampton Wick, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 4DA.

Every now and then I come across something so inspired, so cool and just so darn stylish that I can’t help but gaze blankly at it, pupils slightly dilated, sort of blushing, a bit shy… you know what I mean. Of course I have my old favourites like the Dualit Toaster, the SMEG fridge, Global knives, the Buell XB9SX and of course my egg cubes, but the following objects of desire have recently become known to me and I feel a responsibility to laud them shamelessly here as achievements of design and perfection of form. In no particular order…

Dedon Obelisk
This red dot design award winning company has created some impressively innovative pieces typical of the Scandinavian school of design, though Dedon is actually a German company. The Obelisk is a 5-part stackable table and chairs set which is a sort of Asterix and Obelix cumulative Lego-Jenga type design. I want one.

Confederate F131 Hellcat Combat
Not since the likes of Buell has a motorcycle manufacturer, heck any manufacturer, created designs so at once nostalgic and cutting edge. The Hellcat is a triumph even over it’s predecessor, the Wraith. For those able to stand it, see the website for images of their next concept, the Renovatio.

Anglepoise Giant 1227 Lamp
This is genius and simplicity in one. Take an everyday desk lamp (simple) and scale it up 3 times in size (genius, or simple, or err, nevermind). The result is an imposing lamp resembling what the PIXAR logo lamp would look like if the 3D designers were allowed to smoke pot at work. This is a must for the new house.

Eames Lounge Chair
This is really an old favourite, but a new love. The reputation of the Eames chair precedes its self. I can see myself reclined in its leathern embrace while a giant Anglepoise peers overhead.

Perfex Salt & Pepper Mills
Some things can’t be improved upon. I first came across the Perfex mill while browsing the shelves at Divertimenti, a cooking school and shop on Marylebone High Street. It was one of many, err, milling about on the shelf but for me it immediately stood out. Perfex, a family owned business, has been making this mill for over half a century in the town of Saint-Étienne, France and they've had it just right all along.

Last week I took another step on the road to Ironman, admittedly it was an easy one, even a pleasant one, but a step nonetheless! I have purchased for myself a Cannondale Sprint CAAD9 105 bicycle (push-bike for those in the UK).

Things sure have changed some since I had my last bicycle, almost 15 years ago as a determined teenage cyclist. I recall vividly my father shaking me vigorously at 5:00am, in the dead of winter, heck the birds weren't even tweeting yet, to get my sleepy head off the pillow and get ready for whatever race we were doing that fine Sunday morning. How I ever managed to find the motivation to cycle 80km before most of the world had even considered breakfast I'm not exactly sure, but I better find it again because as my training triathlons, Blenheim and London, draw nearer and Ironman with them, I'll need evey bit of motivation I can muster to achieve this most extreme of goals, covering 140.6 miles of water and land, an Ironman.

The Cannondale Sprint CAAD9 105 is available from On Your Bike:
52 - 54 Tooley St,
London Bridge
SE1 2SZ

Update: Yay! I collected my bike on April 17th... and she is a beauty.

Ever since I decided, shortly after the Chicago Marathon, to do triathlons I have been making slow but steady strides in that direction. Some have been easy (shopping for a new Cannondale racing bike), some not so easy (going swimming in a new Speedo... 1 size too small). With this sort of thing, I am not the kind of person who relishes the thought of a 6am gym session, or a bike ride on a Sunday morning after the night out so there's really only one way I can get motivated to do these things my head longs to do but my body is too lame to contemplate, that being, to just darn well book it!

So with that, I have entered myself into the Blenheim Triathlon, the London Triathlon and the London to Brighton bike ride. Like the Chicago Marathon, this will be an event organised by Merrill Lynch, so I get to wear a spiffy team vest, or more likely an all-in-one again. Yikes.

I have only ever done a duathlon once, and that was many years ago, so preparing for these two triathlons is going to be challenging at best. Fortunately global warming has made my task easier with back-to-back mild evenings just about the whole winter so far. I also did the Argus Cycle Tour, a major cycling event in South Africa, three times when I was younger, one year even managing to come 3^rd in my age group, but it sure has been a long time since then. I certainly have my work cut out for me.

As a thank you for all my hard efforts finding and procuring a house, my wonderful Gemma has purchased me us the finest of toasters and a long time thing of obsession, the Dualit 3 Slice Combi Polished Stainless Steel Toaster. My friend Brian purchased a toaster of the same a few years back. At the time, I couldn't quite understand why anybody would spend quite so much money to toast bread, a task which, afterall, can be accomplished by just about anything, including a candle stick lighter, but of course the Dualit toaster is iconic, I would go so far as to say important, in the way the SMEG fridge and Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair are iconic and important. It will make a perfect addition and a great start to the appliancing of our new house. Thanks Gem.