I’m trying, I really am.

Okay, no I’m not really, but I will be, I promise. This year has been really good for the cycling tour business, but not the best for me and the way I fit into my jeans. I find comfort in the fact that I can’t afford to buy new, larger cycling kit, so I will get back on track before the first new vines poke up in the vineyards.

A couple of things happened in the last 24 hours to bring home to me how modern this world is getting. I’m not that old (compared to some of you, anyway), but I easily remember having only one TV station (CBC North) growing up and needing to go and buy a record if I wanted music.

I was introduced to two things last night (I knew they existed – I’m not that far out of it) that just sort of hit me how ‘on demand’ stuff is these days. I can pretty much find any album I want on Spotify, for example, and potentially listen to it for free, I believe. This is a far cry from even the 80s, when, as a teenager, I apparently ‘brought Heavy Metal to Gaspé’, according to my oldest and best friend, Mike. I guess someone had to do it, but the point is, today there is no need for a kid to bring an Iron Maiden album back to his old hometown in order for it to get around. It’s one or two clicks away now.

The second was Netflix, which I also knew about but never really understood. It’s the same principle as Spotify but with TV shows and movies, but not free (except for the trial month I’ve just signed up for). From what I can gather from a quick browse, Netflix has a ton of TV Shows I can live without and a selection of movies that you probably wouldn’t call ‘art house’.

Which brings me back to my lycra ‘overhang’. It gives me a great amount of pleasure to know that for now at least, there is no app I can download for losing weight and getting my sorry ass back into shape. It will take good old fashioned sweat, blood and VO2 Max intervals to accomplish this goal. And thanks to Spotify I can now do those intervals with an endless Metal playlist…