The Fridays London Ride - Windows and Death - 29th December

[dellzeqq]

Ian - I'm decoding a 'lost' novel by Ilf and Petrov. It would appear that this very linoleum was used to conceal the Zinoviev Shopping List. Which is not the same thing as the Zinoviev Letter, being, as you will have guessed, a shopping list.

 

[clarion]

I emailed, with fingers crossed, but I don't know if I can uncross them yet.

 

[dellzeqq]

A friend of Tim H
Abbe M
Adam B
Adrian C
Alice L
Andrew Br
Andrij B
Anne H
Brian L
Cate R
Charlie B
Charlotte B
Chris B
Chris By
Clive B
Dan P
David M
Davy S
Diana
Eddie C
Els V
Gail G
Geraldine M
Grace W
Grahame D
Helen S
Iain C
Ian McS
Ian S
Jenny M
Joan A
Jocelyn C S
John B
John G
Julia B
Julia R
Julian N
Julie G
Katharina S
Kim T
Liz Bt with John B
Louise M
Marc C
Marilyn B
Mark G
Mark P
Martin B
Martin S
Martin T
Martin W
Mick D
Miki Y
Miranda S
Moses A
Mrs D who may have a first name
Olaf S
Pamela W
Paul R
Paul Rb
Peter L
Peter M
Philip K
Rebecca O-B
Rebecca T
Ronald R
Ross C
Ruth L
Sandra S
Sig E
Sonia W
Stephen O
Stephen T
Steve W
Stuart A
Stuart G
Susie F
Tacey L
Tilman B (+1?)
Tim H
Titus H
TJ A
Tom B
Veronique F
Xi C

 

[clarion]

I emailed, with fingers crossed, but I don't know if I can uncross them yet.

I know now. Thank you.

 

[mmmmartin]

ah good. I can talk to you about that Galaxy you were thinking of selling.

 

[ceepeebee]

It looks like there have been some oh so minor tweaks from last year. I only notice as instead of going near the GLW's place of work, we're actually going past their front door (and up my favourite little bit of London pave soon after I think - that little ramp of cobbles that goes up onto Clerkenwell Road - something really pleasing about that 50 yard stretch)

 

[tiswas-steve]

Am I too late for this little jolly ? I won't be able to commit for definitely until a few days before the 28th so that will give me time to swot up on this Leninist linoleum marlarky .....

 

[mmmmartin]

Unworry about Leninist linoleum malarky. Ride near IanMac and hope he answers the hard questions. Remember also that whereas last years ride was on a weekday so the "can't bring that bike into the station after 4pm mate" rule applied, this year it is on a Saturday so more refreshment may be taken knowing that a later departure can still involve a train ride home. Although last year some people decided to wait until the 7pm deadline had passed and bikes were once again allowed on trains so they decided to sit tight. And, perhaps, become a bit tight.........

 

[tiswas-steve]

Unworry about Leninist linoleum malarky. Ride near IanMac and hope he answers the hard questions. Remember also that whereas last years ride was on a weekday so the "can't bring that bike into the station after 4pm mate" rule applied, this year it is on a Saturday so more refreshment may be taken knowing that a later departure can still involve a train ride home. Although last year some people decided to wait until the 7pm deadline had passed and bikes were once again allowed on trains so they decided to sit tight. And, perhaps, become a bit tight.........

That could be a plan then, I'll look over IanMac,s shoulder,copy his answers and hope that sir doesn't catch me.

 

[ianmac62]

I'll look over IanMac's shoulder,copy his answers and hope that sir doesn't catch me.

There will be a Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist hand-out at the appropriate point; and a test.

I only regret we don't have a Mao Tse-tung Thought halt!

 

[ceepeebee]

I'll bring me tank....

 

[ceepeebee]

actually my old mtb

 

[Tim Hall]

"Get your Colnago off my lawn"

 

[ianmac62]

Marxist-Leninist-Stalinists may pause for hand-outs from the state, but Trotskyists will just cycle off in a state of permanent revolution.

There is good evidence that Lenin, rather than Trotsky, was for many years a cycling enthusiast. According to Robert Service in "Lenin: A Biography" (2000):

- Lenin learned to ride a bike through being taught by his younger brother, Dmitri, when he visited his family in their summerhouse at Lyublino near a railway station south of Moscow (p100).

- In 1904, while cycling in Geneva, Lenin ran into the back of a tramcar, badly gashing his face. He wore bandages for weeks (p163).

- In 1907, back in Geneva again, Lenin frequently took Nadezhda (his wife) and Maria (his sister) on rides into the mountains at weekends. He was physically fit at this period and, when the women flagged, he would ride in turn alongside each of them and cajole them to keep going. Cycling in the Alps was a growing pastime for tourists and Lenin noted that the Germans and French took things easy when the gradient became steep and often hired horses, tethered their bicycles behind them and rode gently uphill by means of equine power. The British had nothing to do with this namby-pamby method and Lenin, so often a Germanophile, admired the British on this point. Holidays were not holidays unless he could push himself hard (p188).

- When he lived in Paris, Lenin cycled daily to the Bibliothèque Nationale. One day his beloved bike was stolen. When he remonstrated with the concierge, she boldly retorted that his ten centimes fee only covered permission to park and did not constitute a guarantee of security. For once he had met his match and did not get his money (or his bike) back (p188).

- Lenin bought a new bike but, in December 1909, returning from an aeroplane show a dozen miles from central Paris at Juvisy-sur-Orge, he was knocked from the saddle by a motor-car and badly bruised. The bike lay in a tangled mess at the roadside. Fortunately there were witnesses and Lenin (a typical bourgeois in this respect) successfully went to law for financial compensation. Service notes that his Marxist zeal was aroused when he found out the motorist was a viscount and so Lenin, himself a hereditary nobleman, showed no sense of class solidarity (pp188-9).

 

[dellzeqq]

Lenin, a bicycle and Henri Labrouste! Can it get any better?