andy jennings

The story in a sense is well known. The question this movie asks is: "what does it take to hunt down someone like Osama Bin Laden?" Most reviews compare and contrast with "Hurt Locker", but I haven't seen this. There is no broad focus, no real insight into the workings of the CIA.  We don't learn a lot about Pakistan. It follows Maya, who becomes obsessed with Osama Bin Laden. I don't want to give away details, but at one point the hunt has gone very cold, and it is looking very very unlikely that it will be successful. Maya is upset, and a colleague asks her "what are you going to do?" and she replies that she is going to hunt him down, and kill him.  The statement hangs in the air, and at the same time looks ridiculous, and brave. Portrayal of torture? To me it showed the toll it takes on the interrogator as well as the interrogated. It strongly hints at the truth that most people will most likely say anything that will stop the interrog...

It’s the little things, in the end, isn’t it ? The little things become big things. It all started so smoothly. I bought my Avanti Blade, and I loved it. So I persuaded people to buy more. It was all so light and easy. It was a virtuous loop. I took the bike in for a service, and told them that I was different. “I live on this bike”. So please don’t hesitate to fix any small thing that is wrong. And they did. It was all good. How many expeditions, how many rides with them servicing the bike? I’ve lost count. Yes, they made mistakes. Who would forget when they left that badly worn chain on. I got halfway up the hill and it broke. But I just smiled and took the bike straight back, and they fixed it on the spot. When I spent any time at the store it was like going home. We’ve known each other so long. Chatting away in the store. No need really to buy anything, just hang around. Talked about the Tour de France. Talked about riding around locally. Even talked about the family a bit. Ah, ...

You’ve got a bucket of money to promote cycling. How would you spend it? Recreational events, encouraging school children to ride to school, and so on. All well and good. But in my city, Melbourne, which is mistakenly promoted as a cycling city, a recent audit(2) showed that this is not effective. More people are not substituting their car trips with bicycle trips, despite the fact that they buy bicycles in increasing numbers. How can this be? Well let’s consider this from the viewpoint of competition for road space, and dominant cultures. In Melbourne you can’t commute on bicycle paths exclusively. So sooner or later you are going to have to interact with cars, and car drivers. The road rules here are fairly good, in that they clearly state that bicycles are equivalent to cars on the road. So in theory all is fine. So how far do our new cyclists get on their new bicycles? Probably as far as the first roundabout. Here they will attempt to get cars to give way to them, and fail. As...

MSR dromedary bag Even today I see them. Long distance, or even round the world cyclists. At the back of the bike, held on by an elastic strap is the ubiquitous plastic water bottle. These pictures bring back bad memories for me. When I was riding through Queensland, about ten years ago, I was pretty much a beginner at bicycle touring. I had a two litre bottle of water tied on at the back. I had about 30km to go for the day, and I stopped to fill up my water bottles at the front of the bike. Only one problem. The plastic water bottle wasn’t there any more. Somewhere in the last 15km of riding the bottle was sitting at the side of the road. So I was left with only about a litre of water to get me through those last kilometres. Luckily it wasn’t a hot day, and I made it ok. There were no shops or places with water. In those days I didn’t carry a water purification kit, so I couldn’t just grab some from a river. So for that day I got a bit dehydrated, and it took me a few days to ...

This blog is prompted by a recent tweet by @bikeaboutuk. They are part of the way across the Gobi desert. It’s tough, and they were openly describing how they felt. How they were struggling. That there had been “one too many days in the desert”. I liked their post, because it shows we all struggle at some stage. We have all had those days where the headwind just seems relentless. That the energy tank is just totally empty. At 11 o’clock in the morning, having only been on the road for 3 hours, you stop. Pitch the tent and lie in it, and go to sleep. I’ve done it. There is a school of writing about adventure that is of the “macho” variety for want of a better name. It’s not exclusively written by men. But it emphasises achievement, and is in the vein of overcoming any obstacle. I don't want to single anyone out as being unworthy - it's a style of writing. But I wonder how it leaves most of the population thinking about adventure? Every time I pull up to a caravan park I get ...

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world .... as in being able to remake ourselves.” Mohandas Gandhi All proceeds from the sale of 2023 go to charities promoting renewable energy. You can buy it here In the novel 2023, Australia is isolated in the world. It is threatened by the new, clean, green economies. They have lost tolerance with Australia’s continuing persistence in both burning fossil fuels and exporting them to those parts of the world that continue to burn them. India and China, and Europe have transformed their energy systems to almost completely renewable. The rest of the world, lead by Australia, lags behind. Just this week, in Australia, we have had news of climate change scientists being moved to a secure location as a result of death threats. Sectors of the media have created a whole atmosphere of “hate speech” surrounding climate change.  Still, it is a long way from the scenarios of 2023. Even with the space of ...

I  like the opening sequences in the movie “110 hours”. The mad rush to exit the city, to get away, to get to the start of your real trip. It’s a characteristic of a weekend escape. Limited time. You have a destination that you have to be at by a certain time. To get back to work. It sets the tone for the weekend: go, go. On my latest tour, I consciously decided to slow it down. Yes, at a stretch I can do 90km plus. But I aimed for 70km per day. This time I went from Ballarat to Mt Buangor State Park to Maryborough and back to Ballarat. Yes, a circular tour. Why are circular tours good? Well if the wind is strong, it’s unlikely to turn around in a circle and follow you each day. But how to slow down? The challenge of slow anything is to get the mindset changed. I find that having a definite place to stop at the end of the day helps. Google Maps, and Google StreetView is your friend. Many times I’ve picked out a camp at the side of the road using StreetView. Havin...