A couple of years ago, my wife's friends encouraged us to join a badminton club. Since I've been thinking of getting serious with the sport, we joined without much hesitation. Just like any club, we met and played with several folks, some became very good friends. Aside from that, we were able to hone our skills thanks to training sessions and tips from member-coaches. Last Saturday, I was one of the players from our group who participated in the annual inter-club tournament. Players from their respective mini-groups called pocket e.b.'s (eye balls) were matched with other pocket e.b.'s from the club's ever-growing roster. The whole idea of the event was meant to foster camaraderie among fellow members and not so much on whose team had the most wins. Alas, somehow the whole event reminded me of an inter- barangay basketball league gone bad. Well, at least no such things as fisticuffs and the dreaded patayan ng ilaw (setting up a free-for-all by turning the light...
Allow me to share a shallow yet very frustrating thing... I went to work in decent work clothes with the idea that I would get to do some real work like discussions with the staff, catching up on our projects and meeting some document requirements. I psyched myself up and prepared for what could be a real day IN the office. But alas and alack, Big Boss had something else in mind. I was tasked, no, ordered to take the car we're building out on test drives. Yup, test drives - more than one test drive which practically took up the rest of the day! Our mechanic and I would take the car out, test drive it, search for any kinks, repair it and test drive it again for 4 times. Sigh. What made it really bad was that I really wasn't wearing something comfortable. The sun was out and the A/C was non-existent. Not exactly a jeans, (new) T-shirt and leather shoes activity. Big Boss breathing down my neck did not help. I really hope we get everything sorted. Being some kinda Jack-of-all-trad...
Last April, I was lucky enough to get hold of a Bridgestone Anchor UC-9 touring bicycle. It was equipped with a decent, but rather worn out Shimano Sora 3400 3x9 groupset, mismatched Tektro cantilever brakes and 700c x 32 hybrid tires. With some tinkering done by the sages at John Wilkie, I was able to resurrect the bike and have it running decently. However, I had this nagging voice in my head telling me to bring the bike up another notch. Something in the area of… gravel. Say whaaa? Yep, a hybrid-touring/gravel bike, or something in that configuration. I had the basic foundations – a chromoly frame with a relaxed geometry, bosses for cantilever brake bosses, and tire clearance that can accommodate 35+mm tires. So maybe, just maybe this little experiment might work. Keep you guys posted.
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