Bloody Bike woes again

Yes, rant on the bike again. But not on the helmet this time. Took time out from data entry to take some comics down to the post office and put my cheque into the bank at Pangbourne. Back tyre seemed exceedingly flat for just one night in the garage, but since it normally needs pumping up each time I take it out, didn't think anything of it and pumped it up from completely flat to bouncy again. Checked on the front tyre, pumped it up for good measure, then checked again on the back tyre, which seemed a little soft. Thought maybe I hadn't pumped it enough, so pumped it up again for good luck.

Went about 150 yards and the tyre'd gone down completely (as in you could feel the steel rims bumping along the ground). Bugger, bugger, bugger. Appears have a puncture, and I'd gone too far (and over too many crossings) to take it back, so wheeled it to post office in Purley, posted comics and wheeled it back. A trip that should've taken a total of seven minutes each way with ten minutes in Pangbourne took 45 to go less than a third of the way, because you go even slower if you're pushing a bike along a very bumpy pavement.

Am now completely fecking bikeless, and will have to figure out a way to get bike either into town or into Pangbourne to get a new inner tube, as I have no means whatsoever to dismantle bike and get tyre off. Of course, the fact that I'm completely cack-handed when it comes to bike repairs or anything more complex than screwing a bike pump/basket on/oiling the bike or putting the gear chain back on (something I've gotten used to over the years - at one point it was happening so often I had a rag tied onto the bike) doesn't help either....

Sentinel first impressions

Hrrm. Not bad cop show-wise, many giggles over the fact that it's a few years old - size of the mobile, dear god.... Not too much slash yet, but you can see potential. Blair's a seriously horny little bastard, and the Jim/ex-wife Carolyn has bugger all chemistry. And Blair, really, why are we seeing so many butt-shots when you're videoing stuff? Am annoyed at the bloody native bits of Peruvian/Mayan-style music that keep coming in during action scenes. Please cut it out, we get the whole tribal thing, enough already. Now step away from the pan pipes before Jim comes at you for killing his eardrums.

Though on the slashy side, Sci-Fi's "It began in the jungle. Where will it end?" had me snickering. Well, let's see, slashers, where do you think it'll end?

But Blair cuuuute! Also amusing when he's insisting on being in the thick of stuff, the way he bounces when he gets enthusiastic, and his 'owww!' when he hit the tour guide. Also Jim's already regarding him with fond exasperation, as I suspect all who have to deal with him would.

Mind you, it's definitely interesting watching a show when you know what's due to happen. They're trying to build up the Jim/ex-wife thing when anyone who reads the fic or knows much about the show knows she's going to leave the city soon enough, and intimating Blair becoming a cadet and cutting his hair? Pffft. Not until that boy's ready to give up his whole career for his man. We're talking over-enthusiastic boy hostage police observer here.

:shakes head:

megolas has heard all about this. Story coming through on one of the Wes lists, and one of the Ethan lists, and I curiously click on it. Only read one of the authors pieces before, and it's not great.

Dear God. It turns out to be one of those train wreck pieces, where you just have to keep reading each part because it's so bad. Spelling, missed words, grammar... Then comes the plot. Oh, the plot is something to be believed. Apparently Buffy is Ethan Rayne's daughter. And Wesley is her twin, kidnapped at the age of two by the Council as he's a slayer-twin and therefore good breeding fodder for future slayers. (Um, age difference? I hear you say... worry not. It gets better.)

Then we find out that Spike is in fact their ancestor. And knows about it, at least Buffy. He had a wife and kids pre-turning, who were hidden from the Council as he was a slayer-twin too. The interchangeable 'son', 'granddaughter' and 'however many greats' are fascinating. I actually went away and checked on when my great-granddad was born so I could estimate how many greats would be involved to get to Spike being a relation. (1896, so Spike would work out to be either my 2x great grandfather or 3x if he'd had kids when he was about twenty if you're curious...) Not to mention the fact that Spike's kind of obviously a virgin in 'Fool for Love'.

Oh, and then we get the fact later on that Ethan is Spike's actual son that he didn't know about, a dhampire of sorts, and then the Forever Knight lot come on it.

I wrote to the lovely author about it, pointing out all the salient points and the fact that I couldn't stop giggling at how bad it was. Got reply. Her response appears to be mostly 'oh, this will all be explained' and 'used a spell to make him age faster and a hard life ages someone prematurely' but I'm still loving the all time classic of 'I know canon and I hated canon.'

Dear god, I just shouldn't even have asked...

EDIT: She's just posted a new part, and all those things that she said would be explained? Have been explained. One in each paragraph while Wes is in a hospital bed with a bullet wound in the stomach. Considering how short the damn fic is as it is... oh, and Quentin Travers has just been arrested by the Sentinel police crew who've apparently had the missing persons thing out for Wes since the start.