Simon profile picture

Simon

The man who never made a mistake...never made anything.

About Me

44 going on 18, alleged to be slightly mad though would admit to being eccentric if I was wealthier. Resolutely optimistic, stubborn, determined and too stupid to quit, even against almost overwhelming odds. Ultra competitive.Wow. If I were a potential employer and I read that...I'd go straight to the next candidate.So what can I say? I'm a bike journalist and photographer, former pilot and occasional business/IT/aviation consultant. The occasional stuff pays the bills better but is nowhere near as much fun. Until recetly I instructed on motorcycle track days, but a big and rather messy crash rather put the kybosh on that for a while. No, I'm not giving it up but a year off the track means I need to get properly back into it, both in my head and on the track...What else? Oh yes. I'm married, straight and the father of a delightful though somewhat strong willed and occasionally bloody annoying teenage daughter. She is the reason for any suspiciously young girls (or boys, actually)who may appear on my friends list :)That's it for now. If you want to know more then just ask...Oh, and if you're even remotely interested in bikes and want to read the best online bike mag in Europe then you could do worse than clicking on http://www.motorbikestoday.com

My Interests

Bikes, photography, squash, mountain biking, family, travelling, reading and so on. Pretty well everything, actually - if I don't know about it then how will I know if it's interesting or not?

I'd like to meet:

Christian Barnard. A man after my own heart... (Think about it)Erwin Rommel. Preferably when he was still alive. A brilliant leader, respected by friend and foe alike.Myself. To get an objective view of what I'm actually like.

Music:

Both types - rock and roll. Mainly rock but I'll listen to anything except (and I'm generalising here) rap, house, trance and that sort of thing. If I had to name bands I like then Green Day, Queen, the Rolling Stones, ELO, The Beatles, Elvis, The Police, Tom Petty, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, the London Philharmonic, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Staus Quo, Abba (!) and Maroon Five would all be in there.

Movies:

Ooh, another tricky one. I like films with a decent plot and dialogue. But I also like special effects and things blowing up. In fact, I'll even admit to enjoying the occasional chick-flick when I've been forced to see them (on cheap flights, usually). But favourites would include Snatch, The Italian Job (both versions, surprisingly), Kill Bill, A matter of life and death, Men in Black 1 and 2, Young Frankenstein, Ocean's Eleven, Robin and the Seven Hoods, both Addams Family films and so on. The Princess Bride is fabulous, as is Pirates of the Carribean. And not *just* for Keira Knightly either.

Television:

Nope. Not really got the time, though if I remember/get the chance I enjoy Supernatural and Desperate Housewives.I detest reality TV.

Books:

Anything and everything. I've only ever found 1 book I couldn't finish because it was such rubbish. Personally I thought the author deserved certainly a large proportion of the criticism he received (though probably not the Fatwah), not for what he wrote but for having the audacity to release such tripe.I think Terry Pratchett is a genius, though, as was Douglas Adams, but I'm pushed to think of anyone else I particularly like to read. I don't know about you, but I find it depends on what the circumstances are as to what I want to read. Heavyweights like Stephen Hawking don't work by the pool, for example, while long flights demand something more involving but mindless - Chris Ryan for example.

Heroes:

Gosh. I don't have real heroes as such, but there are people I greatly admire. At least one of them is on myspace and may well read this. So I think I'll leave it at that...

My Blog

Ungrateful Arachnid

Now I may be odd. There's no need to answer that, thank you. As I say, I may be odd, but I like spiders. I mean, I like everything alive, but spiders have a special fascination. I find the way they mo...
Posted by Simon on Tue, 27 May 2008 03:52:00 PST

I can only do this in one place at a time...

...and it's easier to do it somewhere else. So while I'll try to remember to post something witty and erudite here, it will probably be little more than a reminder that my blog, should you have the t...
Posted by Simon on Mon, 05 May 2008 03:14:00 PST

Vive la France!

I'm going to skip all the previous hilarity of the season and go straight to Magny Cours. Mainly because the impeccably crafted, witty prose that I have just done has vanished in a flash of "Internet ...
Posted by Simon on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:30:00 PST

Tagged

..> Here's how you play: Once you've been tagged, write a blog with 10 weird, random things, facts or habits about yourself. At the end, choose and list 10 people to be tagged. Don't forget to lea...
Posted by Simon on Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:55:00 PST

Yep, told you so...

So Monday morning was hoarse, tired and smelling of stale cigarette smoke. Well bugger me - there's something this shower of shit that calls itself a government is doing that I'm actually happy about....
Posted by Simon on Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:45:00 PST

Another day another Euro. Gosh, how contemporary.

Yes, I've done it! I have finally got the draft of my book off to the publisher. Hopefully (because I am the world's pickiest editor) there will be virtually nothing he needs to do before sending it o...
Posted by Simon on Thu, 24 May 2007 04:15:00 PST

Doesn't time fly...

So. It's been about, oh, six months since I last blogged. Hell, that sounds like a confession, doesn't it. Well it isn't. I've got this all under control - I blog when I want to and for any reason tha...
Posted by Simon on Sun, 22 Apr 2007 02:57:00 PST

Here we are again...

Well it's that time again. Yep, time for me to sit here and dump the contents of my skull. Eewwww. Anyhow. Quite a lot has happened since the last time I tried this. World Superbikes at Imola and Mag...
Posted by Simon on Thu, 26 Oct 2006 03:08:00 PST

Finally got round to doing this

After having a Myspace account for ages, it needed a crash on my normal PC halfway through writing a newsletter to get me to actually complete a profile. Why? Because I was too peed off to start the n...
Posted by Simon on Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:12:00 PST