Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Bicycle Bounces Back into Belgium


21,542 km from Shanghai, or 42,000 km from Exeter, my bicycle carries me back to Belgium, 29 years and a month or two after having been born there. It's a long way round to getting nowhere.

It has rained a lot in Europe recently, as you have probably noticed.

18 comments:

  1. Amazing!

    Was it Eddy Merckx who invited you for a beer in Belgium or was it someone else pretending to be him?
    (And no it wasn`t any of me.)

    Not to alarm you in any way, but you may get a slight problem to fit in after a bicycle expedition like this.
    Within a year or so you will know.

    Now how am I supposed to publish this? Is it an intelligentstest or have you finally gotten yourself a sensorship possibility? Judging by your experience anyone with a dangerously daring bikeride should have a sensorship so they can weed out unwanted comments.

    Mackerel season has started and in a weeks time I`ll be working 24/7 again. Last time I did that was in February and I still don`t know where I found the time and energy to write all that I wrote in your blog at that time. When you read it all again preparing for your book I hope you don`t find it all to be bad.

    pinkglovesforever!

    Asmund.

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  2. bloody brilliant but beautifully bizarre betimes beatifically better

    bryan

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  3. Probably a bit late now but er did you remember to pack your paper weights? I'd hate to think you'll have to go all the way back to get them...

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  4. Ed!

    Have you sensored away all the comments or are you unaware of your new chore?

    Good to see that you finally have replaced foul tasting bike bottles with odor and taste free PET.

    pinkglovesforever!

    Asmund.

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  5. Dear Ed,
    New security measures in place - very impressive (though surely adds to your reading load? And maybe accounts for why there are no comments yet on the blog?). In any case - congratulations, you are nearly there! My guess is that you ought to swing by the RGS on your way home, you'll be feted.
    If you plan to allow sightseeing or wellwishers then please let us know.
    TFXE

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  6. I get first comment in again! Does that make me officially more idle workshy and feckless than the rest of you?

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  7. blimey, it's got posh round here. Maybe I'm not first. Maybe there's a queue of the feckless and idle waiting for edward to approve them. It's going to get very quiet round here if we have to wait for him to bother logging in once a month.
    Hang on, Belgium? That's quite near home. No pedal, no blog, no excuse not to work. Turn round! Go back! For the love of all that's idle, turn round!

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  8. Edward

    Welcome back to God's own country.

    Kind regards

    Eddy Merckx

    PS you'll have to slow down if we're to meet at the Hop Duvel in November. Have you been on the go faster tablets?!!!

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  9. What's all this approval malarky?

    Big brother has really taken over!

    Regards

    George Orwell

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  10. Again I leave the room and everything starts to happen. Nice to see a picture we've missed them here in Surrey.

    Hope you've been eating plenty of cake and gernally kept out of trouble?

    all the best from darkest surrey

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  11. Therfield has been watching you.

    Welcome back to England.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2341471.html

    Who paid for the champers?

    And I thought the end of the journey was Devon, not London Bridge!!

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  12. Ed!

    I just looked at thisisexeter.co.uk.

    In the exiting and shocking story you admitted to have been arrested six times.
    SIX times!
    We all know the police can screw things up and arrest the wrong guy once and maybe even twice.
    But not SIX times!

    How did all this start? Was it pride that kept you from asking us for a loan when you needed money?

    Anyway this makes for very interesting possibilities when it comes to your book. While travel books do sell, crime books sells so much more.If you can combine the two - travel and crime(s) - then you have a possible bestseller on your hands!

    I know a good investment when I see one and this makes me shake with exitement. If I had money I would have invested some so you could publish your book in return for a small persentage of your profit.
    But as you can tell I don`t even have money to buy a much needed E-N, N-E dictionary.

    This fishingvillage is supposed to be full of mackerel and work this time of year, but those stupid fishermen are demanding too much money for the fish so that they can support their ever more extravagant lifestyle. So we have prized us out of the market and everything came to a grinding halt a few days ago. Much of the fish we exported used to go to Russia and Ukraine, countries you know well Ed.

    So now much time is spendt idle in front of the computer or at the local bookshop looking for new and exiting books about fish and fishing. Sometimes fights starts when people wants the same last copy of a particulary thrilling and mind blowing fishing book. All fights are quie similar, we slap each others with fishes until one wins. At the most it will cause temporarily blindness and a rash. You may have seen something similar in the fish slapping dance with Monty Phyton.
    They got the idea from us.
    But yesterday things got nasty and bloody. People were fighting over the last copy of "How To Drill For Oil In Your Own Backyard". But this time they were slapping each other with spanners.

    Well I got to go back to the bookshop to look for some action!

    You still have a few more days to cycle before you are safe and sound home in Exeter.
    Try not to get arrested - again.

    pinkglovesforever!

    Asmund.

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  13. Oh and Ed, dawl, I think you've got yer distances muxed ip, non?

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  14. Fine looking beard Ed, little Emily says you should plait it to make it look more like a pirates beard.

    When that beard comes off you wno't recognise yourself!

    all the best from darkest surrey

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  15. Congratulations Ed!

    Are you back in Exeter now?
    That was an amazing and amazingly long bikeride!
    Inspired by you I will try to take far less planerides in the future.
    And never ever buy a car.
    Good luck with your book!
    I am looking forward to read it.
    And good luck with everything else too!

    pinkglovesforever!

    Asmund.

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  16. Is this the last word?

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  17. Apparently you were sighted in Somerset yesterday (Sunday),so must nearly be back in Exeter.

    Sadly the sighting must be deemed suspect. Your beard (which in the early days made you look like a relative of the Csar) now makes you look more like Rasputin.

    This puts you in the same grouping as the bloke who always comes and sits by me on the underground. Or is seen shouting at people in the street.

    Therefore the sighting may have been of any old tramp on a bike!!

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  18. blimey - so is it time yet to shred paper for the homecoming parade?

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