:KungFooSausage: a man, a bike, a life

New Website for KungFooSausage

2010-08-06T09:52:00.001+01:00

On and off over the past few days I have been sorting out another site for my blog, and as of now I will be moving all my new posts to

cyclingkungfoo.com

I think the site is about 90% of where I want it to be; maybe a few little bits to add or change around.

What would be really nice would be if you could register and leave any comments or suggestions - Ive made a post where you can do this.

Wargrave Loop

2010-08-05T22:54:00.003+01:00

Today I went out on my lonesome; missus at work, Ben at a friends house and Chris barely out of bed!

After dropping off the diva and the dummy I came back home and got the bike ready. I changed the mounting position (yes again!) of the Active 10 back to the top stem but this time reduced the angle of the stem from 25 degrees to 15 degrees so I could read the screen. A point of note here - remember to do it up, then give the handlebars a wiggle and if they're sloppy do it up properly as the teeth haven't engaged, rather than doing this half way down the road!

I had to get some stuff in town so I decided to cycle there, then carry onto Wargrave along the Thames towpath so I made sure I packed my padlock in my rucksack. I also made a packed lunch.

The pills are my Metformin for my diabetes, and the chockie biscuits are for just in case I need sugar - which I actually did and scoffed them down early in the ride.

The ride to town was as usual down the Kennet & Avon. I got 3 books to read and looked in a new cycle shop. From the outside it looked expensive, but when I went it I was amazed at the prices - sooo cheap! They have bikes in there, full Shimano quick shift, suspension, damned good looking from £180.00. Chinese imports, but damn! I wish they'd been open before I got my e-bay bike. I paid £30.00 for this new helmet:

Seriously apart from Aldi having a decent one on sale once in a blue moon, & Wilkinsons selling utterly crap ones I haven't seen anything as good and nice as this. They even had a tricked up modern penny farthing upstairs which actually looked like it would be cool to have a mess around on.

Unfortunately when I got to town I forgot to switch off the GPS and the batteries ran right down so I had to buy some more - not a problem, except I had to split my route stats in two.

I then carried on down the towpath to Sonning lock:

Then just past Sonning bridge is Uri Geller's house. You can hardly see it because of the tall fence and hedges so this is as good as I could capture:

After this point I began to suspect Id made a wrong turn at Sonning bridge and that I perhaps ought to be on the other river bank because the path got really crap. One side was barbed wire fence, the other was stingy nettles, thistles & brambles. A single track ran between with a raised right edge which if you went too far that way would catch your pedal. It was awful.

After 3 or 4 miles I came to a beautiful little bridge over a stream - ideal for Pooh Sticks - where I sat and had a late lunch.

I eventually made it to Wargrave and drooled over some highly expensive houses I passed. Rather than going back the way I came because the bumps nearly meant I needed a gynecologist to remove the seat from my ass, I went back via the A4 Bath Road, then to Morrisons for some food for dinner, and met my wife walking home from work.

Active 10 GPS Stats - Home to Town
Mileage: 3.32 miles
Total Time: 35 minsTotal Ascents: 226 ft

Total Descents: 160 ft

Max Altitude: 229 ft

Min Altitude: 104 ft

Route HERE

Active 10 GPS Stats - Town to Wargrave & Home

Mileage: 16.3 miles

Total Time: 2hrs 54 mins

Total Ascents: 971 ft

Total Descents: 958 ft

Max Altitude: 301 ft

Min Altitude: 85 ft

Route HERE

A round trip of roughly 20 miles, a good third of which was cross country type cycling, so not too shabby.

Garmin Forerunner 310XT Giveaway

2010-08-05T08:10:00.000+01:00

No not me fools - whaddya think I am? Made of money? It's someone else whose made of money and you can check out how simple it is to enter by going here DC Rainmaker and entering yourself.

Sonning Lock Loop

2010-08-03T21:57:00.001+01:00

Popped into town this morning with Ben. Came home, had a sandwich for lunch then repaired the puncture in Karen's rear tyre & relocated my GPS bike bracket to the handlebars.

The three of us then headed out for another ride. We did ask Chris if he wanted to go but he wasn't keen and I didn't have the heart to push it. It really would have been better for him to go, to get used to it, but ahh well.

We headed down the tow path along the Kennet & Avon canal but this time into the town centre and out the other side onto the River Thames and along to Sonning Lock where we sat in the garden of a little cafe and had a pot of tea. The only problem was the amount of wasps buzzing around; the little bastards wouldn't leave us alone. After quickly downing the tea we headed back roughly the way we came. A very nice ride, although a bit knobbly on the buttocks what with all of the uneven paths and fields we went through.

I'm not too chuffed at the location of the GPS now. Sure its great for looking at, its just that its so exposed if I take a tumble and it worries me. Gonna try the crossbar next and see if that's okay as its a bit more protected there.

A few photos were taken.

New mounting position for the GPS

One of Reading's old Gasometers

As we came back through the town they had this great thing set up. Looked like a laugh to me. At least the kids get to know what a hamster feels like lol

The other view along the canal as it goes through town

Sweaty haired Ben and Karen enjoying a break

Bike Computer Stats
Mileage: 14.32 miles
Time: 2 hrs 27 mins 40 secs
Average Speed: 5.8 mph
Maximum Speed: 16.6 mph

Active 10 GPS Stats
Mileage: 13.4 miles
Total Time: 2 hrs 24 mins
Average Speed: 4.7 mph
Average Moving: 5.7 mph
Maximum Speed: 15.7 mph

Total Ascents: 1,916 ft

Total Descents: 1,919 ft

Max Altitude: 469 ft

Min Altitude: 88 ft

Route HERE

The Cunning Man Loop

2010-08-03T10:49:00.002+01:00

We were due to go down to the New Forest for a few days this week but after (a) having a great deal of trouble finding any campsites with pitches available, and then (b) discovering that you can only cycle on certain designated paths with a penalty of £500 if you are caught on any other path, I decided not too. I had a look online at cycle paths in the forest and it just seemed that they were either short 4 or 5 mile ones or long 20 odd mile ones which I didn't think Karen or Ben would want to do.

So yesterday we decided to cycle along the Kennet and Avon canal towpath. My original intent was to go further than Ben and I normally go, hopefully as far as Aldermaston Wharf, but a couple of hitches occurred. I asked my eldest son Chris if he would like to come along too and after an initial "no thanks", he later on said that he would come, so I had to prep the MTB for him. Having only got 3 helmets I decided I was the least likely to get injured so gave each of them one and we set off.

It was immediately apparent that Chris had forgotten how to ride a bike. As strange as it may seem, riding a bike isn't like...umm...riding a bike! I couldn't believe he had forgotten how to do it but sure enough he kept flopping to the side. I guess its been 10 years since we have managed to convince him to ride one - I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but hes always refused & as hes an adult its his choice. So we walked the bikes down to the park at the end of the road and spent 20 minutes or so getting him familiar with the bike again. It didn't take him too long although he was a bit uncertain of himself and after leaving the park I stayed with him as we rode.

I made sure to stay off the main roads as much as possible and many of the paths initially were cycle designated, even so he became very agitated & a bit scared at even the slightest downward slope or bend after discovering the brakes didn't react as fast as he wanted them to. He even began to start putting his feet down first instead of using the brakes - a sure fire way to get your legs caught up in the pedals & lose balance. I think once we were away from any sign of cars or roads and onto the canal he was a bit better, but there were 2 occasions where he threw the bike down in frustration. It was becoming a nightmare, both for him and me!

I tried to advise him and offer support and confidence but he was set in his mind that something bad was going to happen and eventually told me to shut up because he couldn't listen to me and concentrate on keeping straight. I dropped back from the rest of the group then as I had had it and just wanted to ride by myself and enjoy it a little bit. By being way behind I could also keep my eye on him in case he needed me.

A few other things: I had to double back to home again at Speedy Gonzalez style after realising I had left the camera on the boot lid of the car! Thankfully it was still there. We stopped at the pub for a great drink (as usual). We did tag a bit of extra mileage onto the back of the pub which was really pleasant through fields. Chris came off and scraped his knee, I came off after being a show off on a grass bank, I scraped all the sides of my leg again on the metal pedals while walking beside it, and Karen got a puncture but it was slow enough we made it home okay.

That's pretty much all I want to say about the ride. It would have been great. Having Chris along didn't spoil it - hes my son and I love him - but having his totally negative & aggressive attitude with us as well was too much to bear.

Onto the Active 10 GPS - well I need to relocate the bike mount from the current location. Its mounted on the stem right now but because that's on the slope, the angle makes the screen hard to read.

I'll either move stuff about on the handlebars or mount it on the cross tube. Its a dilemma really as the cross tube affords the GPS more protection in case of falls, but the handlebars give better access and viewing. Unfortunately you cant adjust the angle of the mount at all. However, the GPS worked a treat on this ride pumping stats out and recording the route in exceptional detail, even the messing around in the park and my riding around the car park of The Cunning Man pub!

Here's some additional photos of the trip.

Bike Computer Stats
Mileage: 16.23 miles
Time: 2 hrs 34 mins 06 secs
Average Speed: 6.3 mph
Maximum Speed: 22.3 mph

Active 10 GPS Stats
Mileage: 14.6 miles
Total Time: 3 hrs 28 mins
Time Moving: 2 hrs 21 mins
Average Speed: 4.2 mph
Average Moving: 6.2 mph
Maximum Speed: 21.2 mph

Route HERE

I'm inclined to believe the GPS stats more than the bike computer as that takes a reading from satellites every second of travel.

Could You Get Rid Of Your Car?

2010-08-01T10:15:00.000+01:00

Something I've been wondering for some time is whether any of us could really get by without a car or other form of automated transportation in our day-to-day lives?

You may or may not have noticed the constant link in my "Blogs I Read" for LFoaB, or Large Fella on a Bike. The link's always at the bottom because Scott gave up blogging a year ago having completed his goal of losing weight and indeed massively changing his lifestyle. Anyway, he & his wife decided to sell the family car and commute everywhere they needed to go by bicycle.

I guess the question is encompassed by do you actually need to go massive distances to perform daily tasks like shopping, work, visiting friends, etc. If the answer is "no" then why take the car or bus? I think our need to use automotive travel is often a combination of habit, laziness & not wanting to be different to other people. For example if you lived in a community where motor vehicles are frowned on or banned then using a car would be as much of an anathema as it currently is using a bike continuously.

Places like this do actually exist, and we have something vaguely similar in Centre Parks holiday camps here in the UK. You deposit your car at the car park and from then on I believe all travel inside is either on foot or by bicycle. Expand this concept to enclosed modern housing estates or what the USA has as guarded estates and it doesn't really look too bad does it? Again the concept is only really valid if amenities are within a reasonable travel distance.

Once you factor employment into it things become a little more fuzzy, because other practicalities apply such as where you work, what you do for a living & there's always the "I need to get home ASAP to watch the footie" type scenario's. Scott got around this in a rather 'extreme' way by relocating the family a number of times and then he and his wife found new work locally. Personally I couldn't do that as the security of work & the families security created by constant employment overrides the need to cycle. Hey ho but that's just me!

The question I have asked myself then is "could I get rid of the car?". Its a fictitious question because within 5 seconds I have decided there are too many factors against the idea. The distance to work is the main factor though and maybe...just maybe, if I had an office job in the Reading area I would seriously consider it.

The weekly shopping could be carried out using an Xtracycle type bike, my wife works locally, her relatives are semi local - not outside cycling distance, the school is local, cinema, and when we need to travel longer distances like on holiday there is the main train station and the bus.

So not so far fetched eh? Of course my wife would probably divorce me, the kids would leave and they'd all consign me to a mental hospital.

End of the Week Round-up

2010-07-31T12:05:00.002+01:00

I was a little bit lax in updates on the back end of the week so here's a synopsis of what went on:

Thursday

I awoke early and borrowed xxx's Cannondale hybrid to do a few miles around the village. I used the Active 10 GPS but unfortunately as it was in my bum bag I must have accidentally pressed the "stop" button part way around. As I got to the end of the circuit around St Mawes castle I tried my hardest to make it up the hill but I had to get off 3/4 of the way up because I thought my heart & lungs were going to burst. Its only 3 miles and the Ride With GPS site or Google Maps are sorely mistaken in their calculation of the elevations. Route HERE

This was our last full day in Cornwall and we drove over to the beautiful coastal village of Polperro. Cars aren't allowed in the village proper as the streets are too narrow so you have to park at the head of it and either walk or take the Shire Horse drawn cart down the hill or take the milk float converted into bus. We chose to walk as its not long and there are some really nice houses you miss otherwise. We had lunch there. I finally got to have a chilli-con-carne, and I have to say it was the best I have ever tasted outside of home cooked ones. I was in heaven! While we were there Karen bought a nice silver charm bracelet of those Russian dolls that go inside each other, made by the woman in the shop. We also bought my sister and brother in law a present to say "thanks" for letting us stay the week.

We then drove down extremely narrow tracks between fields towards Fowey (pronounced "Foy" by the locals). We had to get a car ferry over the river and one of the houses near the bank is where Daphne Du Maurier used to live. Parking the car in the town NCP we had to walk down the side of Mount Etna to get into the town. In truth there wasn't a great deal to see there. Apparently the huge cruise ship "The World" is due to arrive there in a day or so and its a shame we missed such a behemoth. Its the worlds largest cruise ship. My wife refused to walk back up the hill to the car so we took the bus - what a wuss!

After that we drove to Pendower beach to meet up with sis & her hubby for a beach BBQ. Not all went to plan though. We arrived before them and the tide was on the turn making the beach seem very long, so we walked the length of it - probably 1/2 mile - without seeing them. We were half way back when my sister rang asking where we were. I said "we're in the middle of it", and she said she was as well but we couldn't see each other. Anyway it transpired that it wasn't one long beach when the tides in but when its out it looks like one long beach. Its in fact 2 beaches joined together. We eventually met up after a bit more walking and had a fabulous BBQ of salads, steak & sausages. An ideal way to round off the day...except there was more to come...

After packing up we all headed off to St Mawes marina to board their Nr3 boat - a Cornish Shrimper - which is a beautiful boat, and headed up stream. The wind wasn't really strong enough for sailing so intermittent use of the engine was needed, however when it was turned off it was so peaceful just floating along on the breeze. We saw many fish jumping above the surface catching flies. After going as far as we could without grounding we headed home for around about 10pm.

Friday

Dawn proved to be miserable with overcast skies preventing us from seeing the opposite headland. Could hear the lighthouse's fog horn going like the clappers though. Eventually it lifted but it was still overcast. We packed our things hand headed off around 10.30 hoping to stop at Cheddar Gorge for lunch but once on the A30 we got stuffed by a broken down vehicle a few miles ahead causing a huge tailback which was agonisingly slow. Instead, once past the queue we decided to stop in Jamaica Inn for one of their great roast dinners. Fully sated we made it home for around 5.30pm.

My bike mount and 1:50k map of the SE England had arrived from Amazon while we were away and I have to say this has to be the best fitting mount I have ever seen. I have no worries fitting the GPS device to it and considering the GPS was a good few hundred quid that's saying something. The only problem was I had to spend a couple of hours figuring out how to undo the strap which some assembly numptard had inserted wrong and jammed the ratchet up. Eventually I managed to strip it all down and redo it properly & it now sits firmly on my handlebars.

- oh and I weighed myself on our own scales this morning and corrected my weight on the chart. I knew it would go up but hopefully next weeks activities will bring that down to a new lowest ever weight.

Things to do

1. Upload all the rest of the photos. I want to do something a little different with the formatting so this will be tomorrow probably.

2. Do a review of the Active 10 bike mount.

Other things to do

1. Change from BT phone and broadband & Sky TV to all three being on Virgin cable.

2. Look into New Forest bike rides for next week.

3. Buy some bike lights.

4. Buy Karen a new saddle or see if an old one will suit her.

Cornwall - Wednesday

2010-07-28T21:36:00.000+01:00

Today we went to the Minack Theatre to see "On The Razzle". The morning started out looking a bit miserable with a light drizzle, breeze and overcast skies. I was going to pinch my brother in laws bike to go for a spin but the combination of the weather and sleeping in put the kybosh on that. I also somehow did my right ankle in yesterday; I think its when I was walking on cobbles in my flip flops, and it feels quite weak.

We wore long trousers for the first time this holiday. It felt funny on the legs to wear long trousers after so long. We packed cushions and coats and set off towards Penzance.

Our first stop was the fishing village of Mousehole just past Penzance. A lovely little village, where we had a walk around and bought lunch to take away to the theatre. Wifey also bought herself an obligatory wedge of caramel cake.

The theatre was a further 20 minute drive down single track roads and was packed when we got there. Fortunately I had pre-booked tickets a week ago so we found seats and had our lunch before the show started. Unfortunately for us, the sun came out with a vengeance and we along with most of the other guests baked for 2.5 hours. One (large) woman even passed out and had to be taken away after a dose of smelling salts and a bucket of water.

The theatre is a marvelous place to go to and just for the atmosphere is a 100% must see place. Sadly the show was not the best we've seen, perhaps a mix of the play itself and the fact that watching it during the day is not as good as going to a night time showing.

After that we headed to the car and home to St Mawes again. Ben is suffering badly from a cough and cold which he may have picked up during the boat race on Monday so was getting a bit tired, and in truth we were all glad to get back home again.

Somehow Karen managed to eat fish and chips from the take-away in town whereas Ben had a cuppa-soup and I had a couple of slices of toast and Marmite. Just watched the latest Top Gear on BBC i-player with Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise taking on the lap in a reasonably priced car. A very good show :)

Tomorrows our last full day here before heading back to Reading on Friday so here's hoping for good weather.

Cornwall - Tuesday

2010-07-27T20:31:00.001+01:00

Weather wasn't so good today. One thing about Cornwall though is that it can be crap on the south coast and great on the north coast, or vice versa, and as the two coasts are separated only by a few dozen miles of land (depending where you are) its easy to get to the good weather.

Today we went to St Michaels Mount, which is on the south coast just before Penzance. The island is the twin of Mont Saint-Michel in France. We've been to St Michaels Mount before on a few occasions and always enjoyed ourselves on the island and the long beach. The island is linked to the mainland when the tide is out by a stretch of sand and a cobbled causeway, both of which are submerged on the turn of the tide. If you get stuck on the island when the tide comes in then they have ferry boats to bring you back and forwards.

The island is part of the National Trust now but is still owned and lived in by the St Aubyn family who have lived there since 1647. Its seen its fair share of history though, even stormed by William Cromwell from the sea side of the cliffs.

As we walked along the beach to the causeway we came across one of those kite flying skateboard geezers. He was hairing it along.

As you can see from the photo below of the mounts own harbour, the tide was well and truly out, but we had got here early and it wasn't due to turn until later in the afternoon. I think this would be the first time we haven't had to take a ferry one way or the other.

One of the main reasons for going straight over to the island was because the other two were hungry and they have a couple of nice restaurants there. After my shock of the scales last night I was determined to have a light lunch. This was foiled by the bloody crap menu they had. The apparently obvious light meal was the ploughmans lunch but when I asked about it I was told it wasn't served with ham, but with 3 different cheeses! The next "best" thing was a baked potato with cheese and bacon which is what I went for. Ben had a tomato and basil pastie and Karen went for the ploughmans lunch (shes a cheese-a-holic). When her meal arrived I was aghast at the size of the slabs of cheese they gave her; they were HUGE. Then she had a big wedge of chocolate cake too! Photo below shows it half eaten (devoured more like) by the way.

Following that we decided to take a ferry ride around the island and saw some stunning sights you'd never usually see.

In the photo above, you can see a kind of grassy slide on the right of the castle all the way to the top. This is apparently the route Cromwell took to seize the fortress.

Photo above looks very "Hogwarts" doesn't it?

The ferryman. Chris De Burgh once said not to pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side, but we had no choice!

A bloodthirsty bunch of pirates if ever there was one! Aaaaar!!

Finally we had a walk around the rest of the open area of the island before heading back home. Unfortunately Ben got attacked by some Medusa plant while he had his back to it. Only my supreme bravery saved him!

Tomorrow we go to a play at the Minnack Theatre which is carved out of the rock face overlooking the sea.

Cornwall - Monday

2010-07-26T22:03:00.002+01:00

Today we went to St Ives, which is on the north coast of Cornwall. St Ives is a beautiful town full of small shops with all kinds of things you would rarely see anywhere else, certainly in such close quarters. The town is widely renowned for its artist community and this is seen in the amount of extraordinary galleries. The harbour hosts a nice sandy beach when the tides out, although at either side of the town there are other equally nice stretches of beach.

We took the short cut across the River Fal on the King Harry Ferry. Apparently its the most expensive car ferry in the world based on a cost per distance travelled. Very short about 400 yards costing £5.00 one way and £7.50 return.

When we got to St Ives we had a great meal in a pasta restaurant we've eaten in on previous holidays. Initially we all ordered the Tagliatelle with Pork Meatballs, however they'd just had a run on them and only had one serving left so we graciously said Ben could have that and we both ordered the Chilli Chicken & Tagliatelle, side salad and a warm garlic buttered Ciabatta to share.

Ben with a "mmmmm absolutely divine" look on his face

My meal

Mastering the Tagliatelle without getting it all over the face and clothes

Dish of the day?

St Ives harbour

"mine..mine..mine..mine"

After St Ives we returned home via the ferry. Just after crossing there is a little side road which takes you to The Smugglers Cottage. Along the road are the remains of the American troops facilities from when they left there to go to Omaha beach. Not a lot remains; an old latrine, some rusty corrugated sheds and that's about it. Unfortunately the previous owners of The Smugglers Cottage retired last year and it has been taken over by some other concern. The place was great for a Cornish Pastie and a drink outside sat by the river and they had a lot of memorabilia which is now gone,along with the Pasties, in favour of expensive food which I personally wouldn't want to eat let alone pay for. We settled for a packet of crisps.

The Smugglers Cottage

This area is a side stream off the River Fal & is used as a storage place for huge ships which are soon to be sold for scrap or to make razor blades from them. Its a great shame to see such huge behemoths laying there waiting their doom.

We then drove into St Mawes village and got some take away Cornish Pasties which we brought back to eat at home. We had a great view out of the kitchen / dining room as we ate:

I've added enough weight to make me stop eating for a month.

Previous weight: 215.2 lbs (15.37 stones)

Today's weight: 221.2 lbs (15.8 stones)

I haven't weighed that much since around January this year. I may as well say goodbye to the past 6 months. And I was going to be soooo good on holiday too!

Life On The Ocean Waves

2010-07-25T21:39:00.001+01:00

Family KFS are down in Cornwall...well minus one who decided they wanted to stay at home and be boring playing WoW and eating fattening microwave meals. We drove down Saturday afternoon, getting stuck in two traffic jams; one at Bristol and one near Launceston in Cornwall. Probably something to do with the radio reporting that a third of the country were also heading off on holiday this weekend!

Arrived at St Mawes on Cornwall's south coast around 5.30pm where my sister cooked us a wonderful meal of roast lamb and vegetables. They have a fabulous house and its like living in a scaled down palace.

This morning Ben got to go out on one of their three boats - a "shrimper" working boat with my brother in law - and they entered a race with other boats of the same type. It was a beautifully sunny day with a light wind but they got off to a bad start (i.e last) but by the time they reached the first buoy they had caught up with the rest of the racers. After two circuits, including a near miss coming about around a buoy with another "shrimper", they came home in third place. We watched the whole race from the balcony of the house and it was quite exciting.

After that we joined them on their lobster boat and motored around the headland to where they have some pots on the seabed. Unfortunately most of the crabs were under size and had to be thrown back, but we did get two large (quite aggressive) crabs plus a decent sized lobster. On the return journey we also caught a mackerel on a line towed behind the boat.

We then returned t o the house for a snack before our hosts went off to a BBQ and we went into the village for a meal. Ben and I were very healthy and had chicken goujon salad whereas my wife had a meal of ham, eggs and chips. Having said that, both meals were very well prepared and excellent.

Got a bit of a sunburn on my arms and neck today but its not painful at all. Must get some suntan lotion tomorrow. I think we're ff to St Ives or possibly St Michael's Mount.

Sorry no photo's today but will get some up on later posts this week.

Buying Bits

2010-07-23T09:33:00.000+01:00

In a quandry right now. I want to buy a couple of maps for my Satmap GPS. I went down to the bookshop yesterday to compare the details available on 1:50K and 1:25K resolution maps. Obviously the 1:25K gives twice the detail and would be the best option to go for.

However its twice the price to buy a 1:25K (about £50.00) map on SD than it is to buy a 1:50K (about £24.00) map. I guess what I'm asking is: Have any of you used maps (either paper or digital) for cycling tracks or across country, and is a 1:25K map really necessary?

Looks to me like the cheapest place to buy the map SD's is from Satmap direct. I ordered a bike mount for it this morning - Amazon were cheaper for this than Satmap - so it really does pay to shop around.

What I want to do is get a map of Berkshire (my local area) and one of Hampshire which is where we plan to do a little cycling the following week in The New Forest. Following that I'll get one of Oxfordshire and possibly Buckinghamshire so I will have all the surrounding counties we border on. My problem is that we live so close to the county border that one map won't do.

Prezzies - Wot I Got :)

2010-07-20T14:25:00.000+01:00

Well in case anyone wondered what I got:

Numero uno present from my wife and kids was a Satmap Active 10 GPS. This device is amazing. Apparently they had bought it before I even dropped a hint that I'd like one! The screen is a full colour 3.5 inches corner to corner display with an inbuilt map of the UK and major cities of the world. Extra maps which go down to 1:50000 and 1:25000 can be bought on SD cards - I'm going to get a 1:25000 map of the local area soon as I can.

It is primarily a handheld device of very rugged construction but they do two types of bike mounts as well - next on the list to buy also. So far I have walked up the end of the garden and back a few times and known exactly where I was on all occasions!

If you're interested in them this is their website HERE

I also got a pair of long trousers - the kind with the zip on/off legs to convert them to shorts, and a pair of 3/4 length shorts for cycling in, a fiction book and a £20.00 Waterstones gift card.

Quite sensibly my wife said she didn't buy me a cake because I probably wouldn't eat it. I love cake but she was correct and it would have been a battle of wills & conscience for me to stop from eating it.

The GPS is going to do down to Cornwall with us next week for a proper trial. Also the following week we are then hoping to go to the New Forest for a few rides and I will take it then too. I was hoping to camp there for a few days but after trying half a dozen campsites I have given up as they're all fully booked. Instead we will just drive back and forwards daily which isn't really that far.

The one hiccup to the holiday is that I will have to take my eldest son up to Wolverhampton University one day because of the stupid legal criteria the Law has for people who want to register to be in charge of children. Its not the fact that they need to do police checks on everyone to see if they're "bad people" - I totally agree with this, but its the fact that the University must see the person face to face to sign the form rather than posting/emailing/faxing it. Wolverhampton's a fair drive, especially for just a dumb signature from a clerk, then turn around and go home again. Even worse if the student was coming from abroad or Scotland I guess.

Much To Say

2010-07-18T19:47:00.001+01:00

In order of priority:

1. Weight:

Lost more weight over the past 7 days. Yippee! Now down to 215.2 lbs (15.37 stone or 97.61Kg). Amazing really seeing as I haven't ridden a bike in the past 7 days. Must be the healthy eating.

2. Birthday:

Tomorrow - July 19th is my Birthday. Looking forward to some goodies. I love Birthdays, whether they're my own or other peoples. The giving and receiving still makes me happy in equal amounts. Oh yeah - the "downer" is that I'll be 45. Cripes!

3. July 150 Challenge:

I really don't know why I entered this. I have no possible hope of completing it, and if anything its stopped me from cycling the short trips I normally wouldn't think twice about. Yesterday for example I had to pop to Lidl for some sandwich stuff for lunch. I considered getting on the bike and going but reasoned that I would have to mark the poxy mile or so it was onto the July 150 spreadsheet, then log the route as proof, and that it wasn't worth the effort. I took the car (it was too close to lunch time for the kids for me to walk it in time). Apart from that I have my own goals to complete before completing those that others set for me. Perhaps a July 50, or a July 75 would be more reasonable for my kind of stamina, but 100 or 150 miles is not something I have the time to devote to. Grand idea though, but not for me I'm afraid...not yet anyway.

Next week I expect to work late every night. I don't want to, but as we're going away for a week next weekend & I have two tenders to get submitted by Friday I have no hope of doing them in time if I only work 8.30am to 5.30pm. Its always the bloody same! In order to have a holiday I find that I have to work longer hours leading up to it and the same long hours when I come back. Somethings wrong with life when that has to happen. Its not just me either but its the same with the others in our department.

4. Sunday Ride:

Sunday dawned breezy and overcast. As the day wore on the sun came out making it quite warm but the wind kept its strength making for a slower cycle than normal for me. Also due to an astounding bit of laziness on my part I didn't set off until 3pm, leaving Ben to play Mario "Somethingorother" on the Wii.

I took the usual route up to Shinfield but deviated off when I got there to take a track between fields. I came out onto a main road looking for a couple of what had seemed to be footpaths across fields on Google Maps but had to double back twice because they weren't there.

I made the mistake of wearing my tracksuit trousers instead of shorts and it wasn't long before my meat & two veg were starting to steam cook, however I was thankful for the bottoms as I found what must be the narrowest public footpath in existence. Barbed wire fence one side, wooden fence the other and overgrown on both with nettles, brambles, thistles and those god damned plants with the little sticky balls which we used to throw at each other as kids that stick to you like Velcro.

came out of it with stuff stuck all over me looking like a swamp creature, not to mention the bike managed to drag a bucket load of the vegetation out with it. Oh yeah, and the bugs...bloody loads of them in the overgrown shady area of the path, and twice I had to whip my helmet off as they got stuck inside because of the vents. Photo below is of the start of the path before it got really narrow.

After emerging from "The Land Before Time" I hit a small road. Figuring turning left would take me back towards home, I headed right which ended up going over the motorway and coming out near Asda, then a long slow uphill bit.

I had a couple of "Joby Moments"; one where some twit decided he could make it between me and the central island road restriction - well credit to him he did actually "make" it through the gap with me in it too but damned if it wasn't close!

The second was quite funny really. As I was cycling along, a car full of "youf of today" louts screamed past, the guy in the rear hurling some abuse at me through the open rear window. It was totally intelligible though. Anyway, a little further on I saw their car by the Tesco mini supermarket and this guy standing by the car, I knew it was him as he looked like the blond one from Bill & Ted:

So I rode up to to him and said "You got something to say to me mate?" I could tell he was a bit shocked and all he could do was say "umm...no mate. Nothing". I asked if he was sure because it sure sounded like it back there & he mumbled something like "no not me" as he walked quite quickly into the shop. I laughed to myself and rode off. What a twat!

After that I was quite chipper and decided to make a round about route home as the wife would need picking up from work shortly. I ended up going down a nice long hill into Reading again.

Picked up a bit of speed finally but had to slam on the brakes when I saw a promising side path which in fact turned out to be crap. After that I decided to make tracks home.

Stats:
Distance: 9.20 miles
Time: 1 hour 0 minutes 42 seconds
Average Speed: 9.1 mph
Maximum Speed: 24.5 mph

Route HERE

Sunday Ride & A Goal Achieved

2010-07-11T19:56:00.000+01:00

Went out with Ben again this afternoon for a ride along the Kennet & Avon Canal. I left it to him to decide where to go but I suspect he likes the fact that this ride takes us up to a pub so he can have a nice pint of blackcurrant & lemonade. Truth be told I like the idea of a nice cold drink in the beer garden as well.

We took a slightly different route to get there this time, diverting off the path half way to take some "jungle trails" then following the path past the pub along the tow path before heading in a short circle back to it before ordering our drinks.

After quenching our thirst and adding to the chance of sunburn I asked if he wouldn't mind heading back along the quiet roads the way I had taken on one of my evening rides. This took us into the back of Green Park and in fact was a very pleasant ride all the way.

The tow path by the canal is great fun, but the surface is pretty bumpy on the hands and buttocks and even though we took minor roads home instead they were in very good condition.

Route HERE

Stats:
Distance: 9.21 miles
Time: 1 hour 13 minutes 45 seconds
Average Speed: 7.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 12.6 mph

On our return I realised it was "weigh day" so I got on the scales and discovered I have reached my lowest weight yet on this mission. I am 216.0 lbs - right on the noggin!

That's the same as 97.97kg or 15.43 stones.

To say I am ecstatic is putting it mildly. In fact 217.0 lbs is a barrier I have been trying to cross for some time now, and I got very close last week with 217.4 lbs and a few weeks before that 217.1 lbs but I couldn't in all honesty scratch that goal off as it needed to be 217.0 lbs. The fact that not only have I achieved that but also lost another additional 1 lb is soooperb.

Evening Ride - Shinfield & Ryeish Green

2010-07-05T21:14:00.000+01:00

Managed to do the trip I was going to do the other night which I had to cut short, although even in its entirety it was turning out to be a lot less mileage than I had thought, so I tagged a bit of extra distance by coming back home a slightly longer way.

On the way down Whitley Wood Road I managed to get the old bike up to 26.4 mph. I could have gone faster but in just cloth shorts and a tee shirt I felt more than a little bit worried that "something" would happen to make it a nightmare...plus there's a sharp corner at the bottom to negotiate.

I guess the trip is good if I'm after something quick, but it is a little short for my liking even if I go the longer way home.

Route HERE

Stats:
Distance: 6.54 miles
Time: 40 minutes 51 seconds
Average Speed: 9.6 mph
Maximum Speed: 26.4 mph

Afternoon Pub Ride

2010-07-04T18:59:00.001+01:00

The supposed rear puncture in my Hybrid failed to materialise. I checked it in the morning and although it seemed like it might be down a fraction, it wasn't enough to convince me it was a slow puncture and not my imagination. Either way, my tyre was definitely down the other night. Might be the valve so I'll get it into a bucket of water later.

Ben and I took a jaunt on our bikes along the Kennet & Avon Canal to Burghfield after lunch & stopped in The Cunning Man pub for a drink before heading back more or less the way we came. Ben had a pint of Blackcurrant & Lemonade & I had a bottle of Becks Blue. We sat outside in the garden and relaxed. It was very pleasant.

Wasn't as hot today and for some reason we had a head wind in both directions. Route HERE

Stats:
Distance: 7.99 miles
Time: 1hour 2 minutes 11 seconds
Average Speed: 7.7 mph
Maximum Speed: 15.2 mph

EDIT: Just saw this on Flicker. Ring Ring....Bananaman?

Evening Ride Cut Short

2010-07-03T20:54:00.001+01:00

Went out tonight for a ride after dinner (my homemade Mexican Soup). I didn't want to go far so decided to do a circuit of Shinfield & Ryeish Green - route HERE. The trip took me over the M4 which is via a footbridge. On the way up its steps so no chance of cycling up those, but the other side is just a ramp...with a sharp 90 degree at the bottom to be aware of.

Then its a slog up Brooker's Hill because for some reason the lowest gear I could select was 15th - in fact I seemed to only be able to go from 15th to 21st! Bloody crap bike shop work! Then cut onto Hollow Lane for a few yards and take a path through trees into the old Ministry of Agriculture site and then through a church graveyard, across a road into an estate and then across the fields to Ryeish Green.

However just as I got to the field I felt the back end was a little wobbly. I looked down to see the rear tyre almost flat. Couldn't see anything in it but hadn't got a pump with me (doh!) so I mulled over whether it was a "slowie" or a "quickie" and decided to risk it a bit further. I then saw a side path which I figured would be the right direction for a short cut back home and took that. Well all I can say is I wish I'd had some suspension because the baked ground was rough as an old woman's barnacles, especially the speed I was going.

Anyway I headed home from there. Just pumped up the wheel & will see in the morning if its gone down.

Stats:
Distance: 3.43 miles
Time: 23 minutes 49 seconds
Average Speed: 8.6 mph
Maximum Speed: 17.1 mph

The July 150

2010-07-01T22:23:00.000+01:00

In a fit of madness, I signed up for Phills July 150 LINK this afternoon. Why is it dumb for me to do this?

I have a bad back or more likely a trapped nerve making it painful to sit, walk, lay down, etc. Ive had it a week now and its not going anywhere.
I have never cycled anywhere close to 150 miles in a month.
I'm on holiday in Cornwall the last week of this month meaning I have a week less than every other entrant.

However I just got the "new" bike back from the shop today after having a shed load of expensive work done to it and I wanted to give it a shakedown tonight, so I fitted the new bike computer & off I went. I followed the national cycle route along the Kennet & Avon canal up to Burghfield and then the back roads to the rear of Green Park. I had to double back a few times when I got lost - or more correctly when the freaking sign saying there was a cycle path to Reading town centre turned out to be a dead end! Feeling sure Id missed the turning I went up and down the road 5 or 6 times before giving up. Its no clearer having looked at it on Google Maps as they are old and development has occurred since they were taken.

Here's the route July 01 2010 ride

Next time I must remember to take a Hannibal Lecter mask to stop the freaking bugs going in my eyes and mouth along the canal. I also need to get some lights fitted as it was a bit beyond daylight on the last leg.

Oh and for some reason RWGPS only shows the route as 8.6 miles, whereas my computer, which I know is set up right states its 9.16 miles.

Stats:
Distance: 9.16 miles
Time: 52 minutes 24 seconds
Average Speed: 10.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 24.2 mph

Dangerous Bus Driving

2010-07-01T06:38:00.000+01:00

Fellow blogger and cyclist Clive of The Massive MTBer posted this short video a little while ago

As You can see, the bus driver, which I believe was driving close to the school where it collects and drops off children, has a narrow miss from hitting Clive who was wearing his normal hi-viz cycling gear. The bus driver swore he never saw Clive, which is significant for two reasons

1. If he didn't see him then Clive is even luckier to still be around! What was the driver doing at the time then when he ought to have been driving with due care and attention?

2. If he didn't see Clive then why is he indicating when he pulls in and nearly wipes Clive off the road? Did his arm accidentally lean on the indicator stalk as he fell asleep or lit his fag?

Either way, Clive hasn't let this rest and has communicated with The Green Bus Company his concern and upset at the incident. Hes quite obviously being given the run around by the management who appear to have done little or nothing to investigate and report back.

You can read the original blog post here LINK

And his follow up with copies of communications here LINK

Clive needs our support in this. Things have to change with regards to how vulnerable we are as cyclists both on the road and being seen as sub-par road users not worth the recognition. Too many deaths and accidents occur and will continue as long as things like this are left to be ignored.

Gears n' Pasta

2010-06-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

Gears - Who needs 'em! I'm pissed off with frigging gears, specifically the ones I fitted today. If it wasn't for the England - Germany match Id have been messing about with those poxy things all afternoon, covered in oil and crap off the bike, chain, derailleurs, sweating under the sun and with one eye buried in the Zinn maintenance book trying to figure out why the hell they wont work properly.

The front one goes on the small or middle one depending on how tight I do up the cable. The rear one seems to skip gears and either wont get to the inner cogs or wont get to the outer. Slacken the cable, tighten the cable, adjust the high screw, adjust the low screw...I eventually gave up in frustration.

I will probably have to work late almost every night next week so I doubt I can get to do anything with a clear head in the evenings. I might just take it into the shop & beg.

The only good thing about today was I made this in the morning.

A nice chilled pasta salad for dinner, which went with a bowl of mixed lettuce I drizzled in rice wine vinegar & poached chicken breasts which I had been marinading in a chilli, lemon & dry white wine solution all day. Absolutely fantastic on a hot day like this. Plus theres a good 2/3rds of the pasta left over for meals during the week.

As for the England match, well I don't blame the referee - it was all the lines mans fault who should have had his eye on the ball like every other person in the world watching the match. As for FIFA and their stance on no goal line monitoring, they need a good kicking. Its not fine to say "well it wouldn't have made a difference in the end", because we don't know that! If England had equalised its possible this would have driven them mentally & given them the edge they didn't have being a goal down. Maybe it wouldn't, maybe it would. Of course our defense was non existent anyway. I mean the Germans had nearly the whole England half to themselves sometimes! Meh..football.

More "New Bike" Stuff

2010-06-26T08:59:00.000+01:00

Well the brake problem is solved, with great thanks to John, Clive and Welsh who provided astute back-up. Really great thanks guys!

Yesterday I popped into Halfords Metro in High Wycombe looking for brake spacers. The shop was dire. It's like a mechanics Primark where everything looks just cluttered up or strewn about and cheap. However, and I bet much to Halford's disgust, a few months ago a pucker bike shop opened up right next door to them Freewheelin' . While maybe not the cheapest shop around, they aren't wallet breaking and certainly have a great deal more interest and experience in bicycles of all types - and they have a beautiful racing bike in the window.

So I popped in there, had a chat with one of the great guys who was working on a bike at the time, and he agreed with John, Clive & Welshs' assessments and so I bought 2 pairs of brake blocks. He also informed me that I ought to toe them in to stop squeeling noises, which I didnt know as Bens bike does that, and how to adjust them. I hadnt realised they could swivel at all. If I hadnt gone in there I would have just resorted to washers as spacers. The brakes I removed were only a screw directly into the rubber. Very odd.

They work a treat now!

One other thing I mentioned to the guy was that the brake levers were not matching nad asked how much a new pair were. After some discussion about which ones I wanted & the merits of twist grip gears I bought these:

They're combined 21 speed quick shifters and brakes in one unit. I can't wait to fit them, although opening out the instructions gives you two double sided sheets of A1 paper which looks very daunting. Thats todays project.

I also noticed that the main outer gear on the front seems to have had 2 or 3 of the teeth partly ground with probably bottoming out on concrete (aka shitty care of the bike). The photo isnt too clear but I think you can see the ground teeth.

Its a bit of a concern, but hopefully wont cause any damage to the chain. One of the teeth is bent over which I can file / straighten and so maybe it will be okay.

So my list this weekend is:

replace the gear/brake levers with the new Shimano ones
sort the teeth out
properly clean the bike
fit my old trip computer
fit a water bottle holder
clean the car inside and out ready for its service and MOT next week
cut down some of the tree branches at the bottom of the garden

Its going to be quite a busy weekend for me.

P.S I got a reply from the ebay seller. He cant think why the missing parts arent in the box and says he will look for them and forward them in the post...yeah right! I'll not hold my breath for that.

Bike Assembly

2010-06-24T21:45:00.001+01:00

Got home, had dinner, got bike out of the car, got bike out of the box, assembled it in one fell swoop, which isn't bad considering that it isn't something Ive done before. Okay it was pretty simple. Not come across them but the wheels are quick release things with a long spindle through the hub. Very handy - for thieves!

First a question for you bike aficionado's:

I cant seem to adjust the brakes so they grip properly. This is the rear brake when its not squeezed in.

This is the rear brake when it is squeezed in

As you can see the nipple hits the nut which grips the cable.

Ive tried adjusting the cable adjuster at the point the cable enters the brake lever on the handlebars.

Ive tried bending the spring behind the brake blocks.

Ive tried undoing the nut and moving the cable you can see above.

The front brake grips the best, but when moving its almost useless, whereas the rear brake may as well be made of lard. I fiddled with them for a good hour before giving up. Can anyone offer any suggestions I haven't tried? Is there a trade secret method to this stuff?

Okay onto the rest of the bike. Well actually its not in as bad a condition as I first thought, and is certainly the most modern Ive owned...ever. Its also quite light; not as light as a racing bike but a good half the weight of my MTB, and as you can see the tyres will do just fine for bumpy tracks, fields, towpaths etc as well as having a Kevlar inner to prevent punctures.

More pictures (click them to enlarge):

This is how I assembled it all together and tested the brakes & gears (all 21 of the little beauties!)

It also has a spring loaded saddle post. I tried it out and damned if it works really well, plus its a very comfortable saddle.

The back end. As you can see he didn't bother to clean any of the bike before selling it. Personally I would have but maybe that's just me. That's a job for the weekend.

The front end, and you can see some of the scuffs and scratches. The paints even been partly removed from the bell. The bell FFS! I mean how the heck do you ride a bike so badly that the paint comes off the bell? I like the bell though - haven't had one since I was a kiddie :)

And finally yours truly, in my special protective cycling shoes, risking life and limb cycling around the garden.

Anyway any help with the brake thing would be really appreciated.

Has Bike - Will Travel

2010-06-24T16:04:00.000+01:00

3.30pm - got a phone call from our reception who I had warned to expect a large delivery for me. The bike has show up. On my way down to the ground floor I had 3 people ask me about it as they had seen it on their way past, and when I saw it I was a bit surprised to see it was in its original (I presume) box with "Carrera" on the sides!

I rarely keep boxes my purchases come in. Its not because I hate boxes, but solely because I just haven't the room for them even if I flat packed them. Also my wife would never let me keep any boxes even if I told her it was 'special' in some way.

I couldn't really get the bike out of the box while at work, but I had to open up the top and see my purchase and sure enough its scuffed alright...perhaps a tad more than you'd expect unless your trip to work was via a sandblasting machine or through Broadmoor Prison. Having said that, its not the paint that makes it a good ride, and if I was really really bothered I could strip the bike to bits and send the frame to our factory near Bath for re-powder coating.

Somehow during the night I did my back in - lower right hand side. Only noticed it on when I got to work & its been agony all day but at the very least I'm determined to assemble the bike tonight and give it a go. I'll get some pictures of it up then.

e-bay annoyance

2010-06-22T06:42:00.001+01:00

uhh! The sellers being painful. I accept some people want to protect their anonymity but they can stretch the bounds of it a bit far really! I deliberately source local sellers up to 30 miles away when I want to buy things, and this blokes only in Hook, a 15-20 minute drive away. I've just heard back from him (24 hours after the acution completed) & hes upset I dont have Paypal & suggests recorded delivery of my payment.

Well buddy thats going to cost me another £5.00 on top of your demand that the bike be delivered by courier at a £25.00 cost to me.....youre only 20 frigging minutes drive away!!

Jeezuuus I even offered to go 50/50 with you on the delivery cost if I collect it so for us both its win-win.

EDIT: Just set up a Paypal account and transferred the money. Have to admit its a lot easier than it used to be a few years ago when you had to do forms and forms and then a transfer of a penny to test it blah blah blah. None of that now!

A "New" Bike

2010-06-21T06:46:00.005+01:00

WooHoo...I won a bike on e-bay!!!

It's been nearly 2 months of searching for the right bike, bidding, losing, etc - I have had a vision of the type I wanted in my head so just any bike wouldn't do. With yesterdays fun on bikes experience under my belt, plus reading a couple of other blogs, I changed my mind as to exactly what I wanted. Rather than a racing bike I decided to go for a Hybrid bike (sometimes called a "City bike").

The reason? Well I wanted a racing bike because of its lightness and ability to get some distances cycled, however I also realised that with their thin wheels & tyres all these miles would have to be on roads. However, yesterday I went on what I would say was a racing bike in everything except the drop handlebars & thin tyres. It had the lightness of a racer, but straight handlebars & slightly thicker tyres. This was just what I wanted; a lighter bike than my MTB for speed plus the ability to cycle down unmade tracks / roads without such a great risk of a puncture.

Immediately on coming home I changed my search parameters and found a few to watch, and put a relatively small bid of £80.00 in on a used Carrera Subway finishing at 9pm last night. I expect that as the footie was on that may have distracted a number of other possible usual bidders because when I checked this morning I had won it. This bike normally sells for around £200 - £300 I think. Mixed reviews, but as they say, "you get what you pay for" and Bike Radar gave it a 4/5 here .

Sorry about the text beneath. For some reason Blogger has thrown a wobbly and wont change the text to any colour other than that dark blue! If you highlight it with the mouse its ledgible. Damned teknology!

GENTS 'CARRERA SUBWAY BIKE' SHIMANO SRAM 3.0 COMP URBAN SHIFTWHEELS XRATED WITH PUNCTURE PROTECTION
20 INCH FRAME

HAS ADJUSTABLE HEAD UNIT

THERE IS FOOT CUP/HOLDERS ON THE PEDDLE BUT CAN BE TAKEN OFF IF PREFERRED THIS HAS BEEN USED BUT LOOKED AFTER. THE BIKE IS IN STORAGE AND WILL POSTED FROM IT'S STORE.
HAS A FEW SCUFFS CONSISTENT WITH USE DAY TO DAY USE. THE TREAD ON THE TYRES IS GOOD & BOTH TYRES ARE PUMPED UP. THE TYRES ARE SLIM LINE FOR SPEED

IT IS MATT GRAY RATHER THAN GLOSSY!

IT HAS A SUSPENSION SADDLE POLE FOR COMFORT COMMUTING.THERE IS A FRONT MUD GUARD WHICH IS NOT SHOWN IN THE PICTURES BUT IS INCLUDED.

National Bike Week & A Present

2010-06-20T20:03:00.001+01:00

Long time - no post. Sorry about that but this past week has been truly one of inactivity and sloth what with the trials of the football on TV in the evenings and my lack of desire to get on the bike after work.

However yesterday was the start of National Bike Week here in the UK with many events and activities being organised up and down the country. Yesterday our local CTC body organised a ride from Reading to Newbury & back again - way to far for Ben to handle, but today there was a "thing" going on in Prospect Park which we went to. I have to confess I was expecting something more substantial than the 2 stalls with leaflets, but they had also taken over two double tennis courts.

One of them had a large selection of bikes of all sizes for people to have a go on, and another had trikes which are designed for people with ambulatory disabilities to get their strength back again. We had a go on all of them!

(Click on the images to make them larger)

Ben had a go on a modern day Chopper - they no longer do the centre gear shift and one piece saddle / back rest of the Choppers of my youth. He had trouble steering it and wasn't keen. I told him when I was young you weren't "hip" if you didn't have one of these.

We both had a go on these "recumbent" style trikes. Ben loved these, however with my wallet, phone, car keys etc threatening to fall out with every revolution of the pedals I had to stop after one circuit. Ben went miles on his one. Great fun but bloody death traps on the road though I expect.

Hes not unhappy in the above picture. I think that's determination...or maybe hes trying to let rip a stinker!

They also had a tandem which we both went on. We really enjoyed this and it was so easy to ride too.

A general view of some of the bikes on offer...all free to ride. There were a couple I really liked. Ben tried out a racing bike just his size and although he said it was fast he didn't get on with how light it felt.

These things were nightmares. The spongy ground made the wheels spin and the gearing was about 500:1. We had a go on a...well I'm not sure what its called...like a trike-tandem. I was pedaling like Road Runner and going 0.001mph and Ben couldn't get his feet to stay on the pedals they were turning so fast. After one circuit I was bushed and out of breath.

In other news

This weekend my boss and a few other guys and girls were cycling in a 24hr charity race around the Top Gear test track. His team (and others) must keep one of their 5 riders on the track at all times and last year they won the Veterans event. However this year word must have got around a bit as the number of competitors has increased dramatically, so they aren't expecting to do as well. Last I heard this morning was that there was even a Commonwealth Games cyclist in one of the opposing teams! Do I hear you saying "ringer"?

Anyhow on Friday my boss had some of the cycle tops on his desk which the company paid to get made up with our corporate logo and colours on. On seeing these I thought "wow I'd love one of those!" and so not expecting any to be spare, let alone in my size, I asked and he said I could take one...fantastic!

However I thought he was taking the piss when he said the largest size he had was 5XL - even I'm not that fat, but he explained that the sizing of cycle tops is odd and true enough it just fits me. Something to work towards eh? A looser fit. These tops are proper cycling tops with 3 rear pockets, one zipped, fully zipped up front and if I do say so myself, rather snazzy. I got Ben to model it for the blog below. I really can't wait to get on my bike with it next week.

what a poser!

Weekly Weigh In & National Bike Week (Coming Soon)

2010-06-13T20:02:00.000+01:00

Last week - 217.1 lbs (15.51st)
This week - 219.2 lbs (15.66st)

In fact I'm the same weight as I was 2 weeks ago! BUMMER!!

To be honest after the little scare with the blood sugars last week I havent been doing any exercise, and this weekend I spent two full days replacing the gate & extending the frame on the side of the house. I actually enjoyed doing it, however this is probably only because for one of the rare occasions in my DIY life everything went right...ish - well no major problems anyway.

Next weekend is the start of National Bike Week (19th - 27th June). There was a 4 page spread on it in the free local paper (thanks go to Mr Paperboy who for once in a blue moon actually delivered it to us), with activities in Reading all weekend and throughout the week. I'll post more on that during the course of this coming week.

For now if you are interested in whats going on Nationally, or just in your area, take a look here LINK

Thoughts For The Day

2010-06-11T16:34:00.000+01:00

Why the hell is it called a "push bike"? Over 90% of the time its ridden!

Oh and heres another one:

Why are they called "handle bars"? Shouldn't it be a "hands bar" if anything?

Overdoing the Exercise

2010-06-09T09:08:00.000+01:00

Last night I got home from work & was in two minds whether to fix my MTB & go out for a ride, or to just go on the exercise bike. I figured the better workout would be the exercise bike and duly got changed and did 8.5 miles at a fairly constant 20.5mph. A good sweat was built up but fortunately the weather has cooled down some since last week although it was still a punishing pedal for me. I thought at some point this was supposed to get easier?

On getting off the bike I found my knees both felt kind of wobbly and throbbed a bit which was unusual, but duly jumped...well walked...in the shower. On turning off the shower and getting dry I suddenly felt very weak, shakey, sweaty hot and kind of ill - exactly the kind of way I feel when my blood sugar levels get dangerously low. Its at these times you must get something sugary inside you ASAP and I called for my wife to see if she could get me something. My first thought was a chocolate biscuit, which isnt a good sugar suppliment because it actually releases into your blood stream very slowly (chocolate isn't a problem for diabetics to eat hence why so called Diabetic Chocolate is a total waste of money). However it was better than nothing and served to at least get me a little energy to get dry and dressed.

I have to say that I then wolfed down my plate of Chili Con Carne, side salad & pitta bread like an animal. It wasnt until nearly half way through the meal that I completely stopped shaking and felt better.

So a lesson has been learned there, or rather a lesson has been re-learned. Its happened a half dozen times before, although not for a long time, and even though its always in the back of my mind, I only carry something to eat if Im out & about for a long time. Quite possibly if I had only gone for a proper bike ride last night my sugar level wouldnt have got so low, but I wouldnt have had anything with me to eat if it had, and I wouldnt have been near a shop either. These things can come on so damned quick its like you're fine and then literally 10 seconds later its full on sweats, shakes & you feel like you're going to pass out - which eventually you would.

However, I managed to scratch off another one of my goals which was to do a cumulative total of 70 miles on the exercise bike. I'm really glad I made these exercise bike mileage goals in 10 mile spans because its an incentive to get on and scratch off another goal if its close.

Cycling Courtesy

2010-06-07T20:05:00.003+01:00

The past few times I've been out cycling its struck me that as a general rule other people are less 'friendly' than I am.

For instance, when I'm on a track or path and pass someone going the other way, whether they're on foot or on a bicycle I will always either say "good morning / afternoon" to them or nod at them. I'd say that less than 10% return the greeting, despite clearly having heard or seen me.

If someone moves out of the way for me I will always say "thank you" and yet if I move out of the way for them I rarely get a reply.

Is it something to do with the part of the country I live in? Perhaps its to do with age, although I get the same from equal ages it seems. Do I look like the Grim Reaper? Personally I think I have the face (& attitude) to make most feel at ease, even at a glance.

When I used to ride a motorbike in my youth, and later on when I drove my VW Beetle it was more uncommon for someone not to signal "hello" with a wave or a raised hand when passing another motorcyclist or Beetle owner. Its part of what made the driving/riding of those vehicles a real pleasure. So what is it about bicycles - surely the most eco friendly and open form of transport that seems to alienate passers by?

Don't get me wrong though; there are some cyclists such as those we were briefly passed by yesterday who will call over a few cheery words as they zoom past on their carbon fibre lunicycles. Not for them is there any 'class' barrier between us slow MTB'ers and their sleek racing bikes. To those guys & gals I salute you. We have never really met and yet I know you are people who I would willingly share a pint with.

Unfortunately Ben, who used to follow my lead and say "hello" to other cyclists & hikers has decided he doesn't want to bother any longer as they are 'too grumpy & not worth the effort'. Can't really say as I blame him.

3 Counties Cycle Ride (Completed) & Weekly Weigh In

2010-06-06T15:58:00.000+01:00

This morning was the dawn of the 3 Counties Cycle Ride. Last nights weather forecast had given for "occasional showers" however upon rising at the ungodly hour of 5.00am I was pleased to see it was promising to be a nice day with a kind breeze keeping the heat down to a decent temperature. After wolfing down breakfast I went to stick the bike rack & cycles on the car as my wife kicked Ben out of bed.

We were both ready and rolled out of the driveway about 6.55am although I misjudged the time it would take for us to get to Bracknell, resulting in us arriving at the designated car park at 7.15am, well before we needed to be there (they had asked us to be there 30 minutes before our 8.10am start). However the car park was locked and after us and half a dozen other cars queued up for half an hour we were told to go park somewhere else.

We parked up, unloaded bikes, cycled to the start area and saw a load of cyclists there. This is what group cycling's all about! There was even a stand with Heart FM - the "local" radio station there.

After registering we were there, we then had to cycle to the start line a short distance away, where we and about 30 others in our time slot were to wait for the "GO". There was a little grumpy fat bloke with a loud haler giving orders (whom we ignored) plus the Mayor & President of Bracknell Rotary Club with a large George Cross flag. The Mayor gave a short but inspirational speech before waving the flag and setting us loose. While we waited, Ben & I asked if we could have our photo taken with the dignitaries. Wish I'd had the time to shave this morning :(

This ride was all on roads, mostly back roads, & as it was also still relatively early on a Sunday morning we initially saw few cars. Those that did pass us were all kind enough to wait or pass widely by.

Having said that I'm not keen on seeing people cycling 3 abreast either from a cyclists or a drivers point of view. It's an accident waiting to happen in my opinion either from blocking traffic making cars use the other carriageway or from frustrated drivers.

(No idea where Ben's going in the above pic but he looks a bit squint). When we got to the 7.5 mile point there was a marshall at a turn off so we stopped and had a fruit bar each. He was a nice old geezer whom we chatted to for a while before setting off again. The route we were taking formed a kind of figure "8" circuit and there was some debate whether it was 12, 13, 14 or 15 miles long. I had an e-mail last week advising me it was 15 miles, all the signs said 12 miles, and the marshall said it was more like 13 miles but that they were told it was unlucky or something to do a 13 mile ride so they were now calling it 14 miles. Go figure!

As with our last ride, we were overtaken by a lot of people, however we did manage to overtake 3 or 4 on the back half. As well as managing to take pictures while riding one handed, I also got one of this pretty bloke. I think he's oriental lol.

We had a couple of issues on the ride. Firstly, a few miles from the end either someone had spun a 3CCR sign around or it had moved itself. It didn't really phase us as we knew the way, however after we'd finished and were driving home we could see some who must have taken the wrong turn as they were well off course, although fortunately heading in the right direction.

The second thing was my bike started making loud creaking noises. Now I know I've added a bit of weight, but I was afraid the whole thing was on its last legs (wheels?). It wasn't until loading up the bikes onto the car rack that I noticed the large nut around the bottom of the pedal crank where it goes into the bottom bracket was hanging off, flopping around the crank. Looks like I need to give it all a once-over before we go out next time.

Anyway despite that it all went very well. We arrived at the finish line to pick up medals and certificates, plus a bottle of water.

In total we have raised £171.00 for charity through generous sponsorship from Ben's teachers, family, friends and my work colleagues.

My bike computer data:

Distance: 15.6 miles
Duration: 1hr 59min 20sec
Average Speed: 7.5 mph
Maximum Speed: 22 mph

I had told Ben I was expecting about a 2 hour time so not a bad guess, especially considering we stopped whenever we drank, then had a fairly long chat with the marshall half way round. I have to say that cycling on a road for 15 miles is a darned sight easier than cycling off road for 15 miles. My bum still feels like its been kissed by an unshaven hippo, but the difference in effort and time is astounding. Ben also did really well, despite the early rising & we're both looking forward to whatever our next event is.

Finally, before you fall asleep from boredom, when we got home I decided it was an optimal time to weigh myself. Yeah I know its cheating, doing it before I scoffed a ham, cuecumber, lettuce & mayonaise sandwich down my gob, so sue me!

Weight on 6th June 2010 = 217.1 lbs

Previous weight on 29 May 2010 = 219.2 lbs

Hot & Wet

2010-06-04T10:44:00.000+01:00

Last night I got home from work and told Mrs Sausage that I would be going on the exercise bike before having my dinner. I kind of dislike doing this because its not a regular thing that I arrive home in time for me to sit down with the family to eat, often working late at the office coupled by a near hours drive home. And so it was last night that that despite being home on time I felt I had to get some exercise in before dinner as I wouldn't feel like it afterwards.

The sun lounge where my exercise bike is sat is on the rear of the house & faces south, which means that its in sun virtually all day. The heat build up in there is sometimes equal to that at which gold melts. We have in the past refused requests to use it by NASA to test their space shuttle shields, the government to test volcano resistant suits & Jordan to get a deeper tan. Its so hot a dog turd would go white and rumble in 10 seconds.

Into this blast furnace I nonchalantly walk in my shorts and t-shirt, a water bottle in one hand and a wholly inadequate single sheet of Bounty toweling in the other. By the time I've walked the 4 steps to the bike I need a drink to replace lost fluids. On lowering my buttocks onto the saddle I know what cattle branding feels like from the cows point of view. Oxygen levels aren't even worth measuring.

I rode 7 miles on that bugger last night & could do no more, even with the outside door open. By the time I'd finished the tile floor was speckled with small puddles of sweat, the driest part of my shirt was under the armpits, the sheet of Bounty towelling was in tatters & the water bottle had given all it had. Through all this I'd had to watch the rest of the family through the patio doors as they sat and ate dinner, Ben occasionally tapping on the window and asking "how many miles dad?" at which point I'd blink the sweat away and grimly look at the display.

The lines of the film 'Good Morning Vietnam' come to mind when Robin Williams asks "How hot is it today?" and gets the reply "Hot n' wet man. Its alright when you're with a woman, but it ain't no good in the jungle".

But you know what? After getting off I actually felt good. Not the good you feel when relaxed and sitting with a beer in one hand, but good in the knowledge that I had done something which my head and body didn't want to do, would have looked at any excuse to shy away from, but despite those feelings had been forced to do anyway and as a result I had overcome & won.

This is my Olympics - a supreme effort for me & every night I can accomplish a few miles like this is my gold medal. I might have to up the kit a bit to include an additional sheet of kitchen toweling though!

3 Counties Cycle Ride

2010-06-02T19:54:00.000+01:00

I just realised that this Sunday coming is the charity Three Counties Cycle Ride which Ben & I entered ourselves in for a while ago. For some reason I'd thought it was at the end of June!

Long range weather forecast is giving out for "effing hot man" so better pack extra water even though our start time is 8.10am.

As Corporal Jones would say "Don't panic Captain!"

June - An Epic Month?

2010-06-02T09:05:00.000+01:00

Completely forgot to weigh myself on Sunday night. However this is not a bad thing as I would not have liked to see the +++ weight gain on the scales caused my my week of debauchery & gluttony...well maybe not the debauchery bit...sadly.

Last month, (ignoring weight loss or gain) I cycled 36.8 'real' miles on the mountain bike & 54 'phantom' miles on the exercise bike. For a lot of people reading those figures, they may seem piddly and lets face it a fraction of what many of you do in a day, but for me its a major step from zero to at least something. Also a good 50 percent of those real miles were fairly heavy going off road terrain.

This month though is going to be E.P.I.C. I may not come close to or exceed the real miles, but I'm going to make those exercise bike miles crumble. Right now I feel that I can achieve my lowest weight yet by the end of the month & as long as I can maintain this state of mind I will feel better & stronger for it in 30 days time.

Stuff From This Week

2010-05-31T09:07:00.000+01:00

I kind of fell off the wagon this past week & up until yesterday have done no exercise at all.

Saturday - went for a nice bike ride with Ben (already posted about that)
Sunday - drove down to Cornwall & ate heartily
Monday - ate all freaking day and night
Tuesday - drove back to Reading with the worst back pain ever
Wednesday - back to work. worked late
Thursday - worked late again

Friday - managed to get the tender submission finished. Not a bad one either at £1.2m

Saturday - shopping in the morning & spent virtually all afternoon preparing the evening meal. It took so long as I was making it up as I went along, but turned out really great.

Sunday - Ben & I cycled down to the town via the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath; a really nice ride, and bought him a new mobile phone to replace the one 'someone' (yes I'm looking at you Mrs Sausage!) managed to put through the washing machine & tumble dryer. The insurance company wouldn't pay up even though we lied so sod paying that again. Bought stuff for dinner but my home made ratatouille wasn't as good as normal.

Today - overcast & breezy. May go for a ride later on but I could do with spending some time tidying & sorting things out here.

Oh and I've been scoping out e-bay listings for racing bicycles.

I bid on two over the course of this week, both Carrera Tour de France models which look quite nice. One finished yesterday which went for £225.00. The max I was prepared to bid was £160.00 - yes I am tight! The other one is this one but it doesn't look as nice & its a slightly larger frame at 52cm so I'm thinking it might be a little too big for me and I don't think I'll bother bidding any more on it. I may change my mind if it ultimately looks like its going cheap though.

This week I MUST get more exercise in as last week with no exercise and all that food must have really buggered up my weight.

Back from Cornwall

2010-05-26T13:49:00.000+01:00

Yes that's right, back home again, or rather at work again. Got back yesterday evening after a punishing drive preceded by 2 days of gluttony - and I mean we ate a helluva lot. Had a fantastic time though, and it was the best wedding ever.

I'm still trying to sort out the photo's and video, both of this and the ride we did at the weekend so I will post up further details in a while. For now its back to work.

Uploading Video & Weigh In

2010-05-22T20:39:00.001+01:00

Doing these video's is confuddling! I gather YouTube only allows a max 100mb file and a max 10 minutes video. That means our bike ride video would need to be cut into...umm...loads of smaller videos. That's crap (plus I'm not so sure how to do it anyway).

So I can't upload any video tonight as I'm going to have to read up on how to do these things with Windows Movie Maker. Sorry. I just watched it all through and the first bit isn't "great" as I had the camera pointed too far down really. Looks like a handlebar mount may be a better solution. Having said that, there are some good bits, but Id like to upload it all so family can also see it.

On another negative note, I put on weight this week. I knew it was going to happen as I haven't been on the exercise bike once and had some bad meals, but its still a blow. 219lbs. Tomorrow we go out with family for a meal, then we're staying in a hotel for 2 nights with complimentary full English breakfast, then theres the wedding on Monday with a large BBQ afterwards plus an evening thing afterwards....I am looking at some serious temptation.

Oh God just thinking of those full English breakfasts is making me drool. Its been sooo many years since I had one. Plus I found this article HERE which is quite good at explaining the calories.

I particularly like these lines: "This kind of breakfast is acceptable once in a while, if the rest of your diet is well balanced," and "Have your egg poached and choose wholemeal toast over fried bread. If you have reasonable portions of bacon, sausage and egg and load up on mushrooms, baked beans and tomatoes, a cooked breakfast can provide a really nutritious, well-balanced start to the day."

Woohoo I'll have 2 then!

Saturday Ride

2010-05-22T17:24:00.000+01:00

Ben & I have just come back from a lovely bike ride along the Kennet & Avon Canal which is part of National Cycle Route 4.

I had looked a possible circular route of about 6 miles up on Google Maps but we either missed the turning or (more likely) the map is old and the turn off is no longer there. Anyway we ended up at a road with a pub on the other side so we did what men do...went and had a drink in the beer garden. It was fantastic, both the ride and the drink :)

After we had quenched our thirst we headed back the way we came hoping to find the damned turn off again but without success. We did make a detour but it wasn't the way we thought we'd go and arrived back home having done a not too bad 8.37 miles. A very hot day today.

I'm downloading the video of it all to my HDD right now but it needs pruning etc as its quite large and probably pretty boring. I might get it uploaded today or it might take a few days as we are going away to Cornwall tomorrow until Tuesday.

Hope everyone has as good a weekend as we are having.

Alcohol Free Lager

2010-05-19T20:29:00.003+01:00

As some of you may know, I'm diabetic and as I only have a small part of my Pancreas left after the surgeons nicked it, I cannot drink alcohol. I never used to be a big drinker anyway, and even then it was only really lager shandy, however if there's one thing I miss its a cool lager during the summer.

A lot of pubs dont stock alcohol free beer, and I've tried a few makes from the supermarkets which were really crap. However I bought some bottles of Becks Blue alcohol free lager a year ago and today in the heat I thought I'd have one out of the fridge.

......sheer.....heavenly....nectar of the gods!

I tell you what guys; until you've done without lager for as long as I have, you have no idea what you're missing, and as soon as I popped the cap on that bottle today and took my first glug.....ahhhhh! It was just like proper lager. Even the smell. I swear you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

No Cycling & Being a Fat Boy

2010-05-19T20:28:00.000+01:00

Tuesday & Wednesday off, beautiful weather both days, but absolutely gutted I haven't cycled once.

We had the scaffolders round to stick up their stuff, then one gas bloke came around to strip out the old boiler (not the wife) & put a new on in, then another came and then for a short period another, then an electrician, and all the time I had to move stuff out of the way, relocate, relocate. That was Tuesday, culminating at about 6pm when they said there was a problem with the new boiler and it wouldn't work properly but there was no more they could do.

So this morning I got a call to tell me that the manufacturer (Bosch) was coming round to sort it out, but they cant come until tomorrow when I'm at work. I waited in for the scaffolders to come and take their stuff down but they still haven't come. On the plus side having it up gave me the opportunity to clear out the gutters and (hopefully) fix a couple of minor leaks that happen when it rains, then I built a new side garden gate & Cuprinol stained it. I was sweating buckets out there today.

Ben & I were planning to go out for a ride after he finished school, but I was feeling bushed and he'd just had double P.E so he was tired so we didn't go. Plus I had to finish painting / staining the gate. I've still got to fix it on and replace the gate post but that's for another weekend.

By the time we'd tidied up after the installers last night it was too late to cook dinner so I gave in to the rest of the family's wishes and went to Pizza Hut for some take aways. I was bad...very bad! I felt like a stuffed apricot afterwards and no way could I go on the exercise bike. Tonight we had Chili & what with that and today's antics I'm not in an exercise bike frame of mind at all. I dare not weigh myself.

Recipe: Best Stir Fry Sauce Ever

2010-05-18T08:00:00.004+01:00

Last Sunday I made a stir fry. I have a number of recipe's that I do but when you get down to the basics, they are all pretty much the same (noodles, meat & veg). So rather than posting the whole recipe, heres the fantastic sauce - well marinade really - I make, which in my opinion is critical to a good stir fry.

0.5 of a cup of BBQ sauce - I use Heinz BBQ sauce
2 tablespoons of Soy Sauce - I use the "Light" variety
2 teaspoons of crushed / powdered Ginger

Mix all of the above together in a bowl and thats it. I then usually chop up chicken breast and put it in the bowl, mix it all together, seal it and leave it in the fridge for at least half an hour. When you're ready, stir fry the lot in a pan. You can work out the vegetables and noodles yourself!

While I'm at it, another thing I find really great for stir fry's is my "Nicer Dicer" which is brilliant for chopping carrots into tiny batons the ideal size for stir fry's. If you haven't got one then for the cost of them they are well worth the few pounds they cost.

...but the sauce is pure win for all my family.

Monday Morning Cheer-up

2010-05-17T06:54:00.000+01:00

Its a Monday so we have a god given right to feel depressed. 5 days of slavery until we can have our own lives back again. On the other hand, we can cheer ourselves up, even for a little bit, which is what happened to me when I saw this on YouTube this morning.

Come on say that didn't make you smile!

Weekly Weigh In

2010-05-15T08:43:00.000+01:00

A day or so early with this, but I figured what with all of the exercise bike miles I've been doing this week (nearly 35.5 miles) and that this may be a busy weekend I'd not lose or gain much by doing the scales earlier.

Last week = 218.4lb (15.6st)
This week = 217.6lb (15.5st)

To say I'm disappointed is putting it mildly - I am totally gutted. I've slogged my balls off on that sodding exercise bike this week, eaten properly, no bad stuff, and admittedly generally felt better for it, but to only lose a poxy 0.8lb after all that is shattering.

I just cant think of what more I could do. Oh sure its still weight loss, despite the low number, and that's better than gain, and at the end of the day I am doing this to lose weight and you can't rush these things, but still I was positive that I would lose my highest number this week as its the most continued exercise Ive done since my teens, and for me it was quite exhausting work.

I won't give up, but I have to admit that the thought did cross my mind briefly as I got off the scales this morning. Not bloody happy though!

Muvi Camera Review

2010-05-13T21:51:00.005+01:00

Amazon UK came good today and I took delivery of all of the ordered items at once, even though they came from 3 different companies Amazon uses. I only chose normal delivery so wasn't expecting the camera to arrive until Friday at best, and Monday at worst.

Packages received:

1 x Muvi Mini DV camera

1 x Extreme Sports Kit

1 x 8Gb Micro SD card

Video Camera

The Muvi camera I purchased is a really quality piece of kit, well packaged & neatly presented. The camera itself has an aluminium case and feels good - not cheap tack, and measures about 2" tall x 3/4" wide x 1/2" deep. The Micro SD card slots in the side (you get a 2Gb card in the box but I ordered separately an 8Gb card which is the max it will take) & there is a mini USB port on the bottom for plugging into your PC for downloading the video and/or charging the camera. On the left side is an on/off slide switch and to the opposite side is the voice activation on/off switch.

To the top of the camera resides the pause/record push button, all of the switches have a very positive feel to them and don't give the impression of any slackness of ability to miss-press which could have lead to them breaking over time. Also on the top is a small recessed indicator LED which changes colour or state depending on what it needs to tell you about recording/pausing/battery life/etc. Next to this are 3 small holes which are probably for the voice activation and I suspect also house the microphone - at least I could see no other place for the mic input.

The top front of the camera simply holds the fixed focus lens and at the back is a small eyelet hole for attaching the supplied lanyard is you desire. The case itself is in the form of a "bathtub" rear with a plastic collar/seal around the rim and then the front cover. I can see 2 small screws through the plastic seal so I assume it is all held together via these and internal clips, so again a good impression of quality is given.

Inside the box you also get:

A clip-on attachment which holds the camera very tightly and allows you to clip it all to your pocket, belt, etc

A USB to mini USB cable of about 1.5m length

A USB to mini USB adaptor

A software utilities CD

Lanyard

Soft carry case

2Gb Micro SD card

Instruction booklet

Option accessories sheet

The camera arrived out of the box fully charged so I could play with it straight away which was nice. I took this short film of the floor at my office (I'm the one holding the camera so you can't see me really. I'll have to practice my film making skills!

Extreme Sports Pack

Amazon UK seem to sell exactly the same pack from 2 or 3 different sellers at different prices. Naturally I went with the cheapest vendor, however having seen what you get inside the box I'm not so sure it was really worth the trouble getting it. I'll evaluate it when I get to fixing the camera to the bike or helmet. I may have been better spending more and going for the "Pro Handlebar Mount" & be done with it.

Inside the box you get:

Weatherproof rubber case*

Cloth/velcro arm carry strap

Yet another soft carry case

Yet another clip-on attachment for your pocket, belt, etc

A wall mounting bracket on a ball joint

A hinged bracket mount - obviously for the helmet or handlebar mounting

Velcro fixing straps

Firstly there is no way the rubber case is weatherproof. It has an opening in it for every port, switch and the lens as well as the open ended top for the camera to slip inside it. The fit is well, but all it probably does is offer a degree of protection to the camera case. Veho do sell as an extra a 10m depth waterproof case if this is required. Oh and you cant use the brackets and clips if the camera is in the case!

If you are buying this to fit to your car dashboard, the hinged bracket mount looks like the one to use however what you don't get is any way to fix it to a flat surface, such as adhesive tabs or screws.

I'm not quite sure as to the practicality of the arm strap as unless you have terminal rigor-mortise you're either going to point it the wrong way or move your arm so much that the viewer will get sea sick before he catches a glimpse of the object of the film.

Micro SD Card

I chose the cheapest 8Mb card I could find on Amazon. Probably part of the saving they pass on is due to it coming loose without a case. On opening the envelope I got a receipt slip folded in 4 and inside that was the loose SD card. As these things are small enough to get lost when you sneeze without even considering accidental damage, I wasn't greatly impressed at the ethnic packaging, but it seems to work okay. Not a lot else to say about it.

Summary
I think this is going to be a brilliant addition to the blogging and to our enjoyment of cycling. Audio could be better but really what can you expect from a camera as small as this? I think the safest bet will be to strap it to my handlebars as I can then get at it to pause/play rather than attaching it to the crash helmet. It may get a bit more vibration, but that I can live with I think.

Oh and I did another 10 miles on the exercise bike tonight before dinner. Thats a total so far this month of 41.6 miles. I'm trying my hardest to get that goal of losing 2lb's in a week for this Sunday after just missing it last week.

Exercise Bike Miles II

2010-05-12T21:16:00.003+01:00

Mini update & more goals complete.

Once again I got home from work tonight and did 10 miles on the exercise bike before dinner

It was tougher tonight. By the five mile mark I was more tired than yesterday and was going to stop at 6 miles, then I carried on up to 8 miles somehow and finally stopped at 10 miles but more bushed & sweating harder. This is a good thing I guess as the more sweat, the more weight I'm losing.

I get through about a bottle of water while I'm cycling. Takes me roughly 30 minutes to do 10 exercise bike miles.

Just realised I cracked another one of my goals, which is to do 30 cumulative miles on the bike. If I can do another session on it tomorrow then I crack another goal - to do 3 nights on the trot on the bike.

Exercise Bike Miles

2010-05-11T20:57:00.003+01:00

Mini update

Got home from work tonight around 7.30pm and did 10 miles on the exercise bike before having dinner (chilli con carne...yummy)

I counted 23 revolutions per 0.1 mile & the digital display read a fairly constant 18.1 mph.

Ben sat next to me as I was cycling and told me about his day and various other things which really made the miles go a lot quicker. Thanks Ben :)

The Bike Tree

2010-05-11T13:38:00.000+01:00

This is sheer genius.

I was browsing the web looking for some plans for an extension to my garden shed as there's not enough room to swing a maggot in there & with the bikes its a nightmare, so a small bike shed would do me on the back really nicely. Anyway I came across the above link to an old Guardian video blog and watched it.

At the end they even show a small side bit to the stairs where you can put your bike on a travellator to help it up - another bit of well thought through engineering.

Now as a way off suggestion with the bike tree parking thing, how about strapping one of the little code chips to your annoying kid and slotting him inside for an hour or so while you have a nice coffee and cake lol.

Riders Collective Magazine

2010-05-10T20:22:00.003+01:00

My good friend Stout - catch his blog here - has found a new online cycling magazine called the Riders Collective

It aims to be a "cyclist's source for some of the best material on the Web....dozen stories—about cycling, by cyclists, and for cyclists—from New Zealand, Australia, Czech Republic, Tunisia, and all across America. They cover a wide range of riding styles—and a wide range of writing styles as well...."

Check it out.

EDIT: oops I almost forgot to mention that the latest issue of The Guardian Bike Podcast is available to download here

Additional Tab

2010-05-10T16:07:00.001+01:00

Added an "About Me" tab at the top to give a bit of a better profile and history of myself than the stuff in the right hand column.

Weekly Weigh In

2010-05-09T13:31:00.003+01:00

WOOHOOOO!!

Take a ganders at the weight chart (the tabs at the top of the page). Just weighed myself.

218.4lb (15.6st)

Funny really as I didn't think I'd really pressed myself yesterday, and I know from a sneek peek on the scales midway through the week that it was on the up again so this is amazing news for me.

If I can keep this trend going then I can print off the chart to show the diabetic doctors at the end of the month when I go for my next appointment. Trouble is theres my nieces wedding 2 days before that appointment!

Sister if you read this, I want vegetarian everything there ok? Even vegetarian wedding cake.

EDIT: Damn - realised I've just narrowly missed out on my goal of losing 2lb in a week.

Goring Ride It - Completed!

2010-05-09T13:22:00.000+01:00

Yesterday morning was the dawn of the Evans Cycles Ride It off road event near Goring. When I got up the sky was overcast and it was drizzling with rain, so I was in two minds whether we should go or not, then my willpower kicked in and I said "sod it lets go for it" and woke Ben up. It was a push to get everything ready for the start at 8.30am but as it turned out there were staged starts and we made the (approx) 9.30 group start. By then the rain had mostly stopped, although it was a little cold and windy.

The entrance to the event

The start tent with electronic tagging timer mat inside

There only seemed to be 2 young boys on the event; one who was obviously a few years older than Ben and was on a full size bike, and another younger than Ben who was on one of those mono-wheeled tow bar things behind his dads bike, so in essence Ben was the youngest solo rider there. Everyone seemed to have spanking pucker expensive mountain bikes except us - me with my old Toys-R-Us thing made of lead and Ben with a small 2nd hand one. Still, we might be the poor offspring, but we were game!

As soon as we started we fell behind our group - never saw them again lol - but we knew we wouldn't be able to keep their pace and we were content to just ride the route for the fun of it.

As you can see from the GPS route in my previous post on Friday I have managed to get the elevation data corrected. We were doing the short route of 15 miles but by no means was it the "easy" route I had thought it would be. In fact some of it was a bloody nightmare! After a few miles of riding on man made tracks, through beautiful woodland footpaths and winding in and out of trees on fantastic runs Ben started to feel the strain of pedaling a bit, especially on the long & short uphill gradients and eventually despite trying as hard as he could we would have to get off and walk up. This was often delayed by us being courteous & waiting for other cyclists to pass us by from behind. A lot of them would call out which side they were passing on which was good, but some idiots just barged by even with what looked like nowhere for us to pull over.

Ben walking up a steep incline through beautiful woods

There was one steep downhill bit where Ben had a really bad accident. He had only minutes ago asked me to ride in front for a change and I had my brakes on so he would know the safe speed to take the hill at (I would have gone faster but I know Ben is still inexperienced off roading) and had advised him to use the rear brake as much as possible with gentle dabs of the front if needed otherwise it would slide away from him.

So there I was tootling down the path when in a scene like Indiana Jones escaping from motorcycling Nazi's who should appear up on the bank next to me hurtling past like a bat out of hell? Yup you guessed it. No sooner was he beside & above me than his front wheel hit a rather large log and up and over he went. It wasn't just him going over the handlebars though, because he actually stayed on the bike as the whole thing cartwheeled upside down and landed, both him and bike, a full 180 degrees, then ground to a stop in the leaves.

Ben inspects his wounds

View downhill from Ben's "ride of death"

View uphill from Ben's "ride of death"

I stopped suddenly and rushed over. He was quite upset, but fortunately nothing was broken or sprained. He had a bruise on on leg and a small graze on the other, a muddy helmet (from where he had tried to bury it in the ground) and a face full of leaves. He'd also broken the front reflector off his bike, but no biggie as they are pennies to buy. The worry was that with his Addisons Disease any bad accident may need a Hydrocortisone injection (which I carry for him), but within a few seconds I could se he was shaken but otherwise fine.

One thing that did annoy me was some pleb who hurtled down the hill as I was tending to Ben shouted at me to move my bike from the path. Now my bike was right on the side by the bank, in no ones way, and there was plenty of room to go around as you can see in the photo above. He could see there was an accident, so I gave him a few curses, told him what I thought of him as he passed into the distance. I hoped we would meet at the end of the ride but I never saw the ***ker again.

After that Ben was very cautious of hills and was prone to getting off his bike to walk down even the smallest. It was a long trip after that, but I can understand his nerves took a knocking and on another weekends riding he'll be back to normal. Its knowing your limits. He explained to me that he was right behind me but that I was going too slow and he couldn't slow down enough to stop crashing into me so he took "the scenic route to Hell". We both laughed after too.

A while later we ended up riding along following the River Thames and came across a farm with hundreds of Alpaca's. Okay I thought they were Lama's until Ben "The Wise" said what they really were. I couldn't understand how he knew and then he pointed out the sign next to me that said "Alpaca's"....doh!

Shortly after that we stopped for a quick lunch of chicken & tomato sandwiches, then as we continued on for a quarter mile further we came to the 10 mile rest stop where drinks and biscuits were being handed out. We both drank some SIS energy drink which was quite sweet and made us both burp & fart for the rest of the journey. Right after the rest stop there were some really steep steps we weren't allowed to cycle down - for good reason - and then some equally steep steps up again the other side. We were both starting to flag a bit now and I had to take both bikes down and up again as Ben was tiring.

Ben about to start back up the opposite steps

Back up the way we had come (drinks station at the top)

By this time I was pretty certain we were last however there always seemed to be one or two riders coming up behind us. The guy at the drinks stop said he thought there were about 300 riders on the day. After following the Thames for a while longer we hit the dogleg at 11.8 miles, more uphill rambling and we were knackered. The cycling was okay but it was all of the hills that took it out of us so when we got to the 12.2 mile bend I figured we would take a short cut.

In my defence of this almighty cock-up, Id like to say its been many years since I had to read contours and the ones on the map they gave us were pretty crap...in fact the whole map was no use as a trail map to follow. If it wasn't for the signs we'd have got lost at the start. However it did look like we could cut off a lot of the hill by going around the side of it. Sure it would be uphill, but not as steep as the road on the proper route. Well I got that totally wrong and we walked those bloody bikes up the worst path on earth, nearly vertical over 250 ft. How we managed it I don't know, except the thought of going back was worse!

On reaching the top...eventually...we encountered proper road tarmac and could have a real well deserved rest. We came across a huge farm trailer near a field with a nice sized wheel to sit in.

Poor Ben trying to smile but not quite making it work

After a snack & about 20 minutes rest we carried on along the road which intercepted the proper route again at the crossroads near the start/finish. In all it had only knocked off less than a mile! Sorry Ben.

We finished around 1.00pm I think, but by the time we'd got packed up, strutted around being brave and manly in front of the other riders still coming in, cried quietly, sat for a while, etc we didn't get home until around 3pm. Then we had to go weekly food shopping...sigh!

Ben has never cycled anything like that distance before, over such heavy terrain. He did amazingly well and I'm really pleased with him. For myself, the last time I did a distance over 6 miles was over 11 years ago when I did the London to Brighton 54 mile ride.

We both had an early night. I'm okay today but Ben's still a bit knackered. Id like to try to do it faster and am sure I could knock off half the time we took if I was alone, but that wasn't the point. All in all we had a great time. A lot of the course was brilliant to ride and we could do those bits again, making a much shorter circuit of it sometime. Also well done to the team at Evans Cycles. It was very well run and organised with friendly and helpful people, and the course was well signposted so you never even needed a map - unless like me you wanted to take a "short cut".

Stats for the ride:

(I used my new bike computer and I'm not sure Ive figured it out totally, but this is what it tells me)

odometer: 15.4 miles (so much for a "short cut" eh?)

top speed: 14.4mph

ave speed: 4.5mph

ride time: 2:58:31

kcal: 1197

Goring Ride It Route

2010-05-07T19:42:00.001+01:00

I just got the GPX data for the Ride It route tomorrow. This is extremely useful because if the weather is crap we can do it another day. It'd be nice to do it tomorrow with lots of other cyclists, but if the gods say "no" then so be it.

Bikes Ready To Go

2010-05-07T18:21:00.003+01:00

I took this morning off because the salesnob from British Gas was coming round to quote for a new boiler, then worked from home this afternoon.

After Mr Salesnob left I had time to do some things to the bikes, such as fit Bens bottle cage properly to his bike, and I tried to fit the new under-saddle bag but his rear mudguard goes up too high and interferes with it. Oh well.

Next on the agenda was to take off the old one & fit my new bike computer. That was all simple and quickly done. The setting up of it was what too kthe time. Dont get me wrong, I can programme phones, DVD players, TV's, and even know the back end of MS Windows reasonably well, but this effing bike computer the size of a matchbox took bloody ages. I suppose if the instructions werent in Pidgin English I might have done it faster. As it stands, I think randomly pressing a combination of the 3 buttons in different menu's finally cracked it. Still unsure as to what everything does but after a couple of rides I ought to figure it out.

Weather looks a bit iffy for the Ride It event tomorrow though.

Aldi Haul

2010-05-06T20:59:00.003+01:00

Just got back from Aldi...well I had dinner too, but I was lucky as I didn't realise they shut at 7pm so I just made it in time. Got a decent collection of kit:

1 x cycle computer
2 x pairs of gloves - one red pair and one blue pair
1 x aluminium water bottle & cage for Ben
2 x pairs of cycling glasses with interchangeable lenses; dark, yellow and clear
1 x stirrup pump
1 x under saddle bag & tool kit

Its all really decent gear and Id have said worth every penny if not more. The cycle computer is fantastic with 30 functions - I probably need a degree in Science to use it. I think it does stuff others do for 20 times the cost.

Some of the features:
time, temperature, background light, stopwatch, speed, speed comparison, average speed, max speed, odometer, odometer memory, trip distance, riding time, calorie consumption, fatburn indicator.

The glasses are very cool. With the black lenses, Ben and I together look like the Blues Brothers lol. I wasn't going to get the tool bag but figured the tools were worth the cost and the bag can go under Ben's saddle for his bits and bobs. The only thing I wanted they didn't have were waterproof jackets for Ben and myself, but I'm happy with what I got.

A Little Weighty Maths

2010-05-05T21:08:00.003+01:00

I measured my height today and went to a Body Mass website to see what BMI I was and out of curiosity, what weight I would need to be in order to fall into the lower categories.

(I am assuming that there is no possibility that I will grow a few extra inches)

Current height = 68"
Current weight = 220.2lb
Current BMI = 33.4 (obese)

If I get my weight down to 196lb then I fall into the "overweight" category with a BMI of 29.8.
If I get my weight down to 164lb then I fall into the "normal" category with a BMI of 24.9.

I kind of wish I hadn't done this calculation as "normal" seems dauntingly far away. I can see "overweight" being achievable though.

Mini Update

2010-05-04T20:56:00.000+01:00

Just did 6.1 miles on the exercise bike...knackered like an old dog.

Bought Some Stuff

2010-05-04T19:57:00.002+01:00

Popped into Halfords today in High Wycombe and got Ben a new bone dome:

I figured it was a good one to get him as it offers more protection around his head than a normal style helmet. It cost more, but what value do you put on your childs life?

I also got a pair of special cable tie straps specially for attaching bottle cages to bikes without the lugs in the frame. It was a lucky find as I had been pondering how to secure the bottle rack to his bike properly. These things come with threads and screws, and seem to be a great solution.

I also bought a small bottle of light oil. Funny, when I was growing up, my late dad always had oil and grease on hand in the garage or his shed. I guess it was because of his time in the RAF as an aircraft mechanic and his later life working at Vandervell's/GKN so he always knew to have some on hand. As for me the closest I have is WD40 for the door hinges lol.

Weekend Cycling Fun

2010-05-03T21:00:00.002+01:00

Today Karen was off work so she, Ben & I decided to go for a cycle in Swinley Forest again, although this was the first real time Karen's been on a bike since...dunno! Anyway as Ben has the new "pocket rocket" that frees up his old adult size bike for her to ride. Despite my protestations, she insisted that the saddle was going to be okay as it was - it was set for Ben's height and was a kids size one. This later turned out to be an error on her part.

So we loaded Ben's bike into the boot and put the others on the bike rack and set off.

We decided that this time we wouldn't bother taking the map as there were barely any signposts at the forest. Karen was soon moaning about the unforgiving saddle and I gave her my gel cover to use which seemed to ease the pressure a bit, but I think the fact that the saddle was too low for her meant that more weight was on her butt than being taken by her legs, however she said she wasn't sure enough cycling yet to have it higher. I do need to change it over for a bigger one sometime though.

Over the weekend we've had a lot of rain and there were a substantial amount of puddles. Ben decided that he was going to go through every single one of them, and for the first hundred or so he did just that - at full speed, however as he approached a particularly large one I said to Karen that it looked quite deep, and sure enough it was what I would call a "Vicar of Dibley" sized one! The water in the middle must have been nearly to the bottom of his seat post. His front and rear mudguards couldn't handle the volume of water coursing up the wheels and about a gallon of water ended up all over his back and legs...classic!

After that he was a little more careful in choosing which ones to go through. We tried the side tracks but Karen wasn't so sure of herself on them so we stayed mostly to the wider man-made paths, but this didn't stop them being quite muddy in places. I tried to pick the best routes but sometimes they wouldn't follow me, and on one occasion Karen got stuck in a deep quagmire and Ben had to go back and help her pull the bike out.

It rained off and on during the morning, but nothing too hard & we stopped for lunch around 12.30 when we saw some nice sized logs begging for tired asses to sit on them.

Having a rest wasn't part of Ben's plans for the day and after eating his lunch decided to race up and down the path to get his miles up higher than mine.

Shortly after we reached an old hill fort called Caesar's Camp and realised we'd made a slight error in our route, however I found a dirt track we managed to negotiate which was quite fun & heading in roughly the right direction; lots of humps and twists and even Karen was managing to cope until we got to a long downhill bit with a path-spanning puddle at the bottom.

I tried to ride through but the wood buggered me up and by pure fluke I managed to put my foot down on a bit saving me from getting wet feet. A little way further on we hit a long steep uphill bit that none of us could cycle up and remain sane. Heck it was knackering just walking up and I stupidly offered to push Karen's bike up as well as mine! When we got to the top and turned around we saw this sign.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was unsuitable for cycles, though riding down the hill would have been preferable to going up the ba***rd. I also have to apologise for the photo Ben took of me at the top. I hadn't realised how ugly I really am!

After another mile and a half of uneventful cycling we reached the start again. Oh I suppose I ought to mention Ben getting chased by a big dog as he was riding and he didn't even know about it. The thing was a baby werewolf or something and was right up to his rear wheel, but Ben hadn't a clue it was there before the owner called it back.

We stopped off at the cafe for tea, Lucozade and a rest as well as photos and funny faces.

(I'm sure I must look better than this - must be a dodgy camera).

Total miles cycled = 6.66 miles.

So we got home and I really didn't feel like I'd been out cycling at all. There was no tension or tiredness in my legs so I decided to do 5 miles on the exercise bike. What can I say but holy crap that did me in! I did 5.5 miles at a constant 20.5 mph. The bikes in the sun lounge and it gets really hot in there too and I was sweating buckets at the end.

Sadly, my weight has increased by 0.59lb this week to 220.2lbs (15.73st). I can't understand how, and it's disappointing as I've not eaten anything over and above normal. Still its giving me determination to get it down for next weekend.

At least I managed to scratch off a couple of my goals this week. Shame about the weight though...damn!

My Best Thick Soup

2010-05-02T13:34:00.004+01:00

This is for Les

Makes around 7 servings

Ingredients:
1.5Kg Carrots (Morrisons usually have these on offer for around 80p for 1.5Kg)
1 x small head of Broccoli
1 x small Swede
6 x rashers of smoked streaky Bacon
4 x tsp Madras Curry Powder
1 x pinch of Chilli Flakes (optional)
1 x tsp Fennel seeds (optional)
1 x tsp Oregano (optional)
2 x Kallo organic Beef stock cubes - or chicken or vegetable stock if you like.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:
1. Break up the stock cubes and put them into your largest pan/soup tureen. Add about 1 litre of boiling water and stir until broken up/all mixed well.
2. Add the Oregano & Chilli flakes.
3. Chop up the carrots, swede and broccoli into small pieces. I usually use a mixer to do this as its quicker. Add the vegetables to the stock.
4. Top up with more water if necessary.
5. Place the saucepan onto the hob and bring to the boil. Once boiled allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the hob and allow to cool before using a hand blender to puree all of the vegetables. Alternatively you can spoon the veg into a mixer and do it that way except it will take longer as it wont all fit in one go.
7. Add the fennel seeds & stir in. If the soup has cooled too much return it to the hob and allow it to reheat to serving temperature.
N.B The soup should be nice and thick once blended.
8. In a frying pan add the bacon in batches with a little oil and sprinkle a small amount of curry powder over the rashers as they cook on both sides. Once cooked, put aside and add the rest of the bacon to the pan and repeat with the frying and the curry powder.
9. Once all the bacon is cooked, using scissors, chop up the rashers into medium sized pieces and divide them up into the soup bowls
10. Spoon the hot soup over the bacon.
11. Serve with crusty bread.

I got the basis of this recipe off my sister Madeleine. She used Italian bacon which goes nice and crispy but mine is the cheaper version, and I add the curry powder as the kids love the flavour.

Essentially you can use whatever herbs, bacon or veg you like, or none at all except the carrots and just make it a carrot soup - Its all good and does the 4 of us for a Saturday evening meal plus my eldest son for a few lunchtimes during the week.

Special Offers @ Aldi 6th May

2010-05-02T13:24:00.000+01:00

Just took a look at the Aldi website and they have some good offers on for this Thursday coming (6th May 2010) here Aldi Offers

I'm particularly interested in the gloves, the jacket, sunglasses, bike computer and stirrup pump as they're all extremely cheap. I've been looking around for some time for a calorie counter watch or computer and for £4.99 even if its crap & lasts a few months I won't be too bothered.

All I have to do now is remember to go there on Thursday after work.

....Newsflash....Its still raining cats and dogs outside so looks like another day off the bikes for us. I'll have to clear the 6" of dust from the exercise bike this afternoon I guess. Also popping up to Halfords for a new bone dome for Ben's bonce so he can break some more trees with his thick skull.

Old Frame & A Bike Book

2010-04-30T06:31:00.004+01:00

As promised, although a bit redundant now, here's a picture of the old frame I was doing up for Ben before we got the "hot rod" last night...which by the way is a beautiful bike and it has 6 more gears than mine!

Anyway that's it. I'm kind of disappointed in a way that I didn't get to finish the build, however that's countered by the practical side which tells me it was going to get too expensive. to have done it cheap would have meant ending up with a bike I was unsatisfied with.

Yesterday in Wycombe town I popped into Waterstones book shop and saw "The Man Who Cycled The World" by Mark Beaumont.

What caught my eye was the picture of him on the front cover as just a few weeks ago I caught an episode of a series on TV of him cycling down the American continent. It was fascinating watching and I deeply regret missing all of the other episodes. I hadn't realised that he'd cycled around the Earth too (sounds more impressive that way I think..."cycled round the Earth").

Anyhow, I bought the book. I can't tell you what it's like as I have only finished the first few pages.

South Chiltern's "Ride It"

2010-04-29T10:05:00.000+01:00

Evans Cycles does a monthly "Ride It" event at different places around the country where they organise routes to cycle around, from long road routes down to short off road courses. On May 8th they are doing a local one to us starting from Goring, which is only a half dozen miles away. I think Ben and I should do the short 15 mile course, which is described as 90% off road. Sounds brilliant!

It costs £11.00 for an adult entry - children are free, so its not cheap but it should be a lot of fun and if I can keep the map they hand out then we'll have an additional route to add to our choices. Kick off starts at 8.30 am so Ben will have to get up earlier than the usual slovenly time he decides to and for a change show more intellect than Neanderthal Man in the mornings. Now there's a challenge!

You get a free energy bar and drink, on site mechanical support, waymarked routes, a free Memory Map O.S map (whatever that is...hope its a pucker map I can read), plus their time in organisation. Probably quite a decent deal really if I think more about it. Not so hot for the missus and eldest son as they'll have to make their own way into work that day muhahahaaaaa!

Scrap Bike - New(ish) Bike

2010-04-29T07:18:00.000+01:00

It looks like I've been a bit of a plum with Ben's bike build. A couple of days ago I took the stem/quill/handlebar clampy thingy to a specialist cycle shop near work. They couldn't match it and the size is a U.S one or something so not readily available in the U.K. My only option was to either get this one sandblasted and painted or source one online. While in the shop I looked around at other parts I'd be needing, such as chain, derailleur, handlebars, grips, gear changer thingys, brakes, saddle, pedals and I know I could "go cheap" but I really wanted to do him a nice bike, so the decent looking stuff would have set me back nearly £100.00.

That's a lot of wonga! Especially when I could buy a new, and frankly better, bike for that money. I had to come to a decision, and tbh it was quite simple - ditch the build before I throw any more money away.

However this would leave Ben upset, and I couldn't do that to him so I looked online at new bikes and the cheapest I could find was about £80.00. Still a lot of money, so I checked out eBay and saw a couple of bikes which I knew were Ben's size and that were good looking. I bid on one yesterday, which fortunately only had a few hours left to run and guess what? By 2pm I had Ben a new bike...well nearly new. He's quite pleased, and hopefully I pick it up tonight.

Red Apollo 24 speed mountain bike, 12" frame good working order. A few wear marks, ridden a dozen times. Shimano gears, 24" wheels.

Weigh In & Eye Test

2010-04-26T09:08:00.003+01:00

Just come back from having my annual Diabetic eye test at the quacks. I hate those things! I'm totally anti anything being put into my eyes, and they put these drops in which make your pupils huge so they can photograph them to see if there are any problems.

Fortunately for me I only live 3 or 4 doors away from the docs so getting home isn't an issue but as soon as you go outside the daylight hurts. This is why they don't allow you to drive or operate machinery for 4 hours afterwards. A real PITA when I have a tender to get in for work tomorrow!

On the plus side, you may notice that there is an extra tab at the top of the page. I stumbled across Google Docs over the weekend and decided to chart my weight loss progress. This morning it had gone down to 219.6 lbs. I'm flabbergasted because as you can see I haven't weighed myself for 4 months and what with Christmas, a large birthday lunch for my brother in law a few weeks ago and generally not a lot of cycling I have still lost weight. In fact I'm pretty damned pleased as I was sure it would have gone up :) .

The chart explains it a load better than just seeing intermittent numbers every few blog posts and its a great impetus to carry on - or rather get started on it again. The only downside is next month is my niece's wedding and that's bound to be a blowout feast akin to a Viking orgy of gluttony and drink.

Okay off now to rest the old peepers as this screen burnsssss my eyesssss...

Bens Bike Build

2010-04-25T19:35:00.002+01:00

I got the painting of Bens bike frame finished yesterday and this afternoon we popped to Halfords and bought a tin of lacquer. A quick rub down with 1200 grit wet-and-dry paper before as a key and although I guessed about 2-3 coats of lacquer would be fine I decided to use up the whole tin so it got about 5 or 6 coats before the sky began to cloud over again. Next weekend I can begin to put it all together again - assuming I can remember how.

While in Halfords we looked at the bike bits. I need to get him another handlebar tube and a new quill stem / handlebar clamp. The reason I know these names now is that I bought a copy of "Zinn & The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance". I don't plan on reading it as its massive - just using it for reference for now. Anyway Halfords is okay for basic stuff, plus its cheap, but it only seems to stock the handlebar clamps that have a clampy thing at both ends and no quills.

Looks like I'll have to go to a specialist next week, but I was planning to do that anyway sometime as there are apparently two different derailleur makes I can have and the bike shop needs to see the frame to know which one I need. Seems like a load of nonsense to me; I just want him to have gears. Whats so complicated about that?

Anyhow the frame looks good. It could be a lot better but lets face it hes only going to drop it, fall off, etc so it wouldnt be in good nick for long and I (& Ben I think) was getting tired of the length of time its taking. Frankly by the time Ive finished spending I probably could have bought him a semi decent bike. Unfortunately no pics of the frame right now as its still a little too tacky to move around.

As for the gardening, we planted seeds for about 13 Little Gem lettuce, a pot of Spinach, Spring Onions, 15 seed Potatoes, 5 pots of dwarf Beans and 3 rows of Carrots....and we still havent finished.

Rain Stops Play

2010-04-25T08:44:00.000+01:00

Well today was supposed to be "the hottest day of the year so far" according to all the weather reports. Instead its overcast and belting it down with rain! Indeed even on the news this morning they were talking about todays London Marathon and still saying its going to be a bummer for the runners in the extreme heat. I'm thinking to myself that the commentators must have gone to work blindfolded in a packing crate or something!

We were going to go back to Swinley Forest again today to cycle some more trails but it looks like the rain has put a dampener on that - literally. Hopefully it will clear by midday (although I doubt it) and we can at least go out and do something.

e-mail from mybikelaw.com

2010-04-16T20:09:00.000+01:00

I checked my e-mails this morning, mainly to clear out the chuff that people send on the chance I want a time share or to win ten thousand pounds, and was surprised to find one from mybikelaw.com

The e-mail was really nice - I mean in that it was really nice of them to take the time to send it when they could have just ignored me. When I went to their site for the first time (see my post of a few days ago) I applied for some freebies they were giving away. Of course I pretty much knew that I hadn't got a hope in hell of receiving the items because (a) I don't live in the U.S.A so there isn't any reason to send the things to me, and (b) because of the shipping. However stranger things have happened so you never know!

Here's the main part of the mail. I've not put the nice ladies name in case she didn't want it given out.

Adrian,

Thanks so much for your interest in mybikelaw.com. Unfortunately,
sending our complimentary water bottles to England costs a great deal
more than the water bottle is actually worth. We apologize that we
will not be able to send you a water bottle.

If you ever have any cycling questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Happy cycling,

Isn't that great? Yeah okay I'm a big softy and I bet some would say "whats so nice about getting an e-mail turning you down?", but it's the thought she went to which makes it nice - at least to me anyway.

Of course the idea of a water bottle with their contact details on it is a very good one. If you're in an accident on your bike and need to contact them chances of having their details with you are slim, but you always have fluid in a bike bottle with you, and did I mention its free?

(Of course if the altercation is with an eighteen wheeler and the bottles smashed to a pulp then you're probably knackered. Actually you're probably also beyond their ability to assist too).

So if you live in the U.S.A then I reckon its a great idea to head over to their website and get one while they still have them. Then let me know how good they are because this poor Englander and his boy have to make do with cheap ones from the Pound Shop!

Swinley Forest Ride Part 1

2010-04-14T20:45:00.001+01:00

On Sunday Ben & I went for a ride in Swinley Forest in Bracknell. The weather, although not as hot as Saturday, was great. As we needed to drive to get to the forest it also gave me a chance to try my car bike rack for the first time since getting it for Christmas and I was quite nervous about its stability. No matter how tight I pulled the straps holding it onto the boot of the car, I still had one eye on the bikes and one eye on the road ahead as I drove, especially on roundabouts which gave me visions of it all twisting and throwing off to the side.

Nevertheless we made it all the way there without any issues, arriving just 15 minutes after the area opened to find the car park full to bursting and only one space left in the overflow car park! I was amazed at how busy it was.

We quickly unhitched the bikes, deciding that there were so many people around that it would be okay to leave the rack on the car, paid the pittance of £2.00 for a days cycle pass and hit the trails at 10.30am.

Swinley Forest is a huge area owned by The Crown Estates (hence the reason for the fee to ride there) and one corner is dedicated to mountain bikes with lots of narrow technical tracks winding through the trees, linked to moderately easy trails, and then the rest of the forest is covered by narrow cleared paths which are again linked with wide paths that are probably a car and a half wide.

The majority of it is reasonably flat with long gradual hills, except when you get to the "offroad" mountain bike trails which are very uppy-downy.

Ben managed most of the trails with ease once he had come to grips with the perils of tree roots causing the wheels to slip sideways and spongy and muddy ground which grips the tyres unless you have the power to get through. The randomness of the ground was a challenge and he initially found that he wasn't putting in enough power to get the bike up the hills.

We did attempt the more technical area but it was just too tough for Ben to manage all the very tight turns and we gave up when on a bend he lost it and fell. His forehead hit a 1 inch diameter branch laying on the ground and snapped it in two! Talk about thick skulled - it didn't even leave a mark! What upset him was another large branch that managed to get wedged in his shoe and grazed his ankle, so we Indiana Jonesed our way on foot out of the area by carrying the bikes through the woods. Not an easy thing.

Ben following the "I destroy trees with my forehead" incident

The scene of the crime - Exhibit A; broken branch

Looking back at the technical route

After that we stuck to mainly narrow paths which were a lot easier and we covered a lot of ground. Around midday we found a nice spot to sit and eat our lunch - and boy were we ready for it. I'd bought some mini baguette's the previous day and we had half each, which I'd stuffed with chicken, cucumber & lettuce, then a pinch of crushed pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, followed up with a packet of crisps and a chocolate biscuit.

One of the more open "easy" paths as we head towards lunchtime

Ben just as we stop for lunch - looks a bit knackered eh?

Im..nom..nom..nom..starving!

Swinley Forest Ride Part 2

2010-04-14T20:28:00.002+01:00

The reason for splitting this post into two parts was because for some reason Blogger doesn't seem to like me adding extra photo's. As soon as I tried to add another one, it not only removed it, but it also removed the previous one! After several attempts I gave up and decided to split the post. The Blogger software has other kinks in it too which can make it really annoying, such as mis-formatting fonts and sizes, removing all paragraphs. It's maddening! However, onward with the "finale"....

Our bikes taking a breather while we have lunch

Suitably rested and refreshed we continued on our ride and it was only at this time that we found a marker which we could relate to a point on our map - oh and if you ever go there, print off the map from their website rather than pay money for exactly the same one in their shop. Whichever you decide its not very practical anyway as there are so few markers to know where you are at any particular time. However now knowing where we were we headed back to the main entrance where ice lollies awaited these two brave adventurers.

Ben enjoying a 'Twister' despite my insistance that it looked like bogeys and cream

Me eating a much more 'manly' chocolate ice lolly as I consider downing it in one go.
Badly need a haircut too!

Following a bit of R&R we hitched the bikes back onto the car (phew! the rack was untouched) and headed home for around mid afternoon. To say that our asses felt like they'd been whipped by an ugly pagan war god, and that our legs felt like strawberry jelly would be putting it mildly. We had only cycled about 5 miles but it was a very hard 5 miles on heavy bikes - at least for us anyway.

Would we do it again? Too freaking right we would. The entrance fee is so cheap to not even be a consideration, and we both really enjoyed ourselves. We are talking about doing it again next weekend if the weathers nice.

mybikelaw.com

2010-04-13T17:35:00.007+01:00

I chanced upon this website today http://www.mybikelaw.com/

We need more people like this.

Go have a look at some of the cases they have dealt with and if you didn't already, you can get a handle on how thick some drivers actually are behind a wheel. Scares the heck out of me to think they are "in control" of a vehicle capable of going 100mph and killing you at 25% of that speed, which they only do on their driveways.

It's a damned shame they are only based in Carolina, although they can practice in other U.S states and its a no win, no fee basis. Not that I have a need of them seeing as I'm a complete ocean away, but it makes me feel good to know that there are people out there that will stand up for the cyclists rights with a passion because they are cyclists too.

The website also has some basic tips of things to do in an accident. Pretty obvious but its the simple things we tend to forget.

(Bet I dont get my free swag they were offering on their website though lol)

Love Cogs

2010-04-09T09:13:00.003+01:00

I do a lot of random link clicking in my spare time while browsing. Mostly cycling related, & you get to visit some very interesting sites that way.

One which I came across this morning over breakfast was http://envelovefixed.blogspot.com/ which is what passionate cyclists call a "fixie" related site i.e one which is based around the love of cycling without gears.

Whilst this is a very valiant and noble thing to do, you wouldn't catch me cycling up even the shallowest incline without using my gears!

Scrolling down the posts, I came across these two beautiful photos and it occurred to me that some people really put a lot of time into crafting special things.

Shame it's too late for Valentines Day, but they would make a great gift for the lady love of your life who is also a cycling fanatic.

£58.00 Roadrunner Folding Bicycle

2010-04-08T09:05:00.002+01:00

That's $88.03 U.S for the guys across the "pond"! The bike is a design by Wayne Hemingway http://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/ and thrown in with the price is a pump, pannier rack and some tools. Okay I'll admit that despite coming in a wide range of colours its not exactly the most beautiful thing to look at in the world, but few folding bikes really are. What is really innovative is the price...how the hell did he manage that?

Well for starters its a fixie - only single speed, and isn't technologically advanced; weighing in at just over 13kg. In order to keep costs down, they are made in China for about £20, in a factory where checks were made to ensure workers were treated well & didn't employ children, and then shipped over to the U.K. I'm still surprised at the cost though.

Unfortunately, Hemingway is only currently selling the Roadrunner to companies. The original concept in 2007 was for a housing estate construction company where they were building only one car parking space per home, and the bikes when bought in bulk were cheap enough to be thrown in free to the buyers as an incentive to accept this. Recently Portsmouth University has bought them to sell to their students as a cheap mode of local transport.

However there are a couple of reasons why all is not lost & to keep an eye on this.

Hemingway Design are unhappy with the cuts they had to make to the bike to get it to such a low price. They feel that they can develop a better, more attractive bike for only a small additional cost. Sadly Hemingway Design are busy on other projects for the next year and so it will be a little while before they can get around to developing the new version.

The second good thing is that if you or your company is interested in purchasing a minimum of 250 of these bikes, Hemingway will be more than happy to sell them to you.

Personally I think this is a fantastic idea. Just think how much you get as a bonus each year (okay I got sod all last year because of the recession, probably like you, unless you're a banker), but in theory they are well within a company's budget to offer employees or as a gift to clients. Just think of it as helping people get fit and generally help the environment.

Big cheer for Hemingway design is what I say!

Team Sprocket Does Charity Cycle Ride

2010-04-06T09:24:00.003+01:00

Yesterday as I was continuing the saga of building the utility room cupboards I was listening to the local radio station "Heart FM". I'm not a particular fan but the missus likes it and I cant be bothered to search for another channel. It annoys me in the car because it seems Heart has a national dominance of local stations and so virtually every channel I switch my car radio to is intercepted by freaking Heart FM.

Anyway I digress. While listening, I caught a bit of an advert for a charity cycle ride. When I had a coffee break I browsed their website and found that on Sunday 6th June there is a charity 3 counties cycle ride commencing and finishing in Bracknell (about 5 miles away).

They are doing three routes, one a 50 mile ride, a less demanding 33 mile route and an easy 13 mile one. I asked Ben if he was interested in entering and he was keen to do the 13 mile route so I am filling in the application for us. We decided that Team Sprocket was going to be the name which would lead us to glory.

The event is organised by the Rotary Club of Bracknell and is in support of 5 local charities; Have a Heart, McMillan Care, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, The Eyeless Trust and Thames Hospice Care.

The entry is only £7.00 if booked advance and you can be certain the Ben and myself will be harassing people with the sponsorship form for the next couple of months.

Really looking forward to it, although I will have to do some training with Ben on riding on roads beforehand as a lot of the route (which you can see on their website) seems to be down back roads without cycle paths. When I was a nipper schools used to do Cycling Proficiency Tests - kind of an exam/test of how well you could ride a bike and whether you were safe to do so, but I think these must have been stopped.

The ride website is here: http://www.3ccr.org/

Alone

2010-04-04T04:27:00.002+01:00

4.30 in the morning on Easter Sunday!

I think I was woken up by the fridge beeping. It does that. Very annoying, and if we could find the manual, or if the website even listed our model then perhaps we could sort it out, but we've tried fiddling with the three dials inside and it still beeps and the only thing that will stop it is a quick switch off and switch on again. Its probably developed an attention whore personality. WTF does it need three dials for anyway? Its a fridge!

Well I've had too much sleep this weekend already anyhow I guess. I fell asleep on the sofa again last night and no one woke me up. Probably due to the amount of food I ate yesterday. What a meal! Ben and I went around to my sister Madeleine's house for "lunch", and as you'd expect lunch to be a relatively light affair we were surprised - but joyously pleased - by the roast dinner that appeared on the dinner table. Madeleine is a brilliantly fabulous cook & baker and so even a "lunch" would normally be greeted by a rumbling of the stomach and drooling.

Roast Pork stuffed with Apricot & Sultanas that was cooked to perfection and almost fell apart in your mouth. Roasted Tomato & red Pepper pieces, boiled rice with Parsley, a medley of green vegetables such as Broccoli, French beans, Mangetout and Peas in the pod. It was wonderful. Then for desert she had made a large - bordering on huge - chocolate cake with cream inside. Its hard to find a word to describe it except "aaaahhhhhh!". Everyone had a massive piece except me as I asked for only half the bucketful the rest were eating & that was accompanied by Strawberry and Blood Orange pieces. To say we were bursting would be an understatement.

That was the great thing about yesterday. Unfortunately it transpires that Madeleine is moving to Africa to be with her husband Paul who is seconded over there for a work project. Well obviously this is a good thing for them as being apart must be terrible. I think I was the last to know about it though. I got wind of it in an email from Paul a few weeks ago but no one replied to my query about it and I asked again last week which was when I was told the basics. I know my brother must have known before I did as he'd had a chance to reply by snail mail letter and I suspect my other sister knew before me also. Sigh! Never mind though.

The thing that Ive been mulling over while laying on the sofa for the past hour is that every ones moving away from me. Hence the title of the post, as this is the word which keeps reoccurring in my head as the most apt description. Ever since my parents passed away things seem to have been breaking apart, mostly amicably, but still we are a family who appear to be splitting like a slow motion film of a star exploding.

Parents deceased and buried so far away as to make it difficult to visit them.
A brother who relocated to the north of Scotland who feels we all dislike him, who treats me like a child and who I cant be bothered to argue with any more.
A sister who relocated to Cornwall (and another amazing cook by the way).
Her daughter who emigrated to the US.
Her younger daughter who now lives in East Sussex.
Now Madeleine relocating to Africa.
In September Chris will move away to Wolverhampton to attend university.

hah! if I was being humorous I might think it was something I said! Do I smell?

Its hard to explain, but we've always been a close family and within a matter of a few years it just all fell away. I guess I'll get over it. Its just the middle of the night and my head was wandering with thoughts, and one depressing thing leads to another before you can stop it. No doubt when everyone wakes up it'll clear and then as days progress on other things will become more important.

I do miss everyone though. Despite living in this so called modern age of communication, people get on and do their own things and forget to talk. When everyone used to live within a few miles of me it was kind of the same, we wouldn't chat massively regularly, but it was a feeling of knowing they were there that was comforting. Now they aren't.

Sod it. Cheer up! Happy Easter!

The April Fool

2010-04-01T12:05:00.005+01:00

The April Fool

On April Fools Day every year,
I awake in the morning filled with fear.
What dirty tricks are in store for me on this day?
Will people be upset with the ones that I play?

So I get out of bed checking clothes and the floor,
For marbles, toy spiders and things I abhor.
I pour out my cereal and get a mug of hot tea,
Checking the box for Lego bits and the odour of wee.

My work shoes are often the things that I miss,
containing pine cones, tissues or pieces of crisp.
When I get in my car the heater's a worry,
In case when I turn it on it blows out confetti.

When I arrive at the office I relax with a sigh,
Now the worst that can happen has well passed me by.
Its time for me to plan on what I can do,
To my colleagues who will suffer on this April Fool's.

Nipper Wins Award

2010-03-26T14:51:00.005Z

Last night we all went to Ben's school for what we had been told was a "Red Carpet" event. A week ago we received a letter from Ben's school telling us that he had won an award. It didn't say what for or why, and Ben was none the wiser either, so of course our curiosity peaked and we had to go.

We dressed in semi respectable duds...well I wore my suit and Ben his uniform, my wife looked good and Christopher looked....well....casual. Way to go Chris! The event commenced at 7pm.

It transpired that the awards ceremony was to do with the schools Art's Week and was to celebrate achievements in the arts throughout all the years. Seeing as its Ben's first year there it was a surprise he was up for anything. The arts involved things like Music, Drama & Media.

Have to admit we were all clapped out by the end of the evening at 9pm as we hadn't realised there were going to be so many presentations, which were interspersed with films, short plays, music and a fair bit of talking. Ben was one of 12 others in his year awarded a certificate for being an "Arts Champion" and we were (are) all extremely proud of him. Naturally we suspect this has to do with him studying guitar classes after school has finished for the day, organising and being the lead guitarist in a band and its really great his dedication has been noticed at such an early stage.

Although the evening was quite long - or longer than we anticipated - it was also entertaining, mainly for the right reasons, but also for the wrong reasons too. They had "issues" with the projector (as in the operator couldn't work it right), "issues" with the sound (the mic' kept switching off or went up to full volume), and I felt that the students who were into Drama were...how to put it? drama queens. I mean they really really loved themselves and didn't mind the whole hall knowing it, some of it cringingly so. I could spot the ones who were going to be Blue Coats or whatever it is at Butlin's Holiday Camp a mile away. I guess some of the event just wasn't my "thing". I'm just an old fart sometimes lol.

Another thing which was funny was as we walked through the school both on the way in and when leaving, Chris kept saying stuff like "I really love this school" and "its great here. Much better than my old school". Well JMA is a great school. Its new, is well laid out and just always seems like its got the most modern equipment. Here's the layout below. The classes are arranged in what they call "Pods", with a covered walk through between them all and link bridges between the pods on the 1st floors.The blue you can see is a huge rubberised path and those little domes on the roofs light up and change colour at night. Its quite futuristic to see.

University

2010-03-17T09:43:00.004Z

I forgot to mention when it happened, but my eldest son Christopher has managed to get a place at university and starts later on this year. He applied to 4 or 5 but unfortunately due to the way UCAS work out the points you have based on exam results he was one point short of getting into all but one uni.

He applied for two teaching courses at Wolverhampton Uni and was accepted on both of them so he has decided on doing a combined degree on both of them. At the end of this - 3 years I think - he will get a Batchelor of Science degree (BSc) but still wont get his teachers accreditation and so will have to do a further years course there to get that.

Not sure on the course names, however they are to do with teaching primary age children and special needs in a school environment and will probably give him a more rounded education that a straight forward teaching degree course. At the end of last month we attended the open day at Wolverhampton Uni and I was very impressed with the lecturers there and how modern the place looked. They also have associations with many external faculties both in the UK and overseas which are used to provide the students with placements for "work experience" each year of the course.

Im pretty proud of him for taking this bold step in his life. Actually Im extremely proud with a large dollop of worried. The security & comfort of living at home must be a big magnet to pull against and to spend the next 4 years of your life learning must be a daunting one. Of course this probably all means that these next few months will be the last ones in which he will live with us at home, and thats very sad to think about, almost as if we're losing him. Who knows where he will decide to live when leaving uni, maybe not even in this country.

Still, he's going to be kept busy up until he leaves. He's trying to learn how to cook with us (we're still alive!), he needs to sort out accomodation - he seems adverse to using the Halls of Residence for some reason, and vitally, he needs to sort out funding. Sadly due to the way they work things he is going to need to sort this out himself as our savings are too paltry to assist him at all and he doesn't qualify for a grant.

It's going to be a sad day in a few months time. Okay hes only 2.5hrs drive away but its not like we'll see him that often. Still you have to let them grow up to be what they want and we always knew a day like this would come eventually. Won't stop it hurting though.

2010-03-16T15:45:00.000Z

The back end of last week and so far this week the weather has been brilliant. Sun is shining, hardly a cloud in the sky and the ones that there are seem to be while puffy ones. If it wasn't for the stiff breeze then it could almost be Summer. Time to dust my bike and bring it into work for my lunchtime rides again I think.

I have been letting myself go to rack and ruin these past months. Oh how I wish I had the inner strength to keep on cycling through the Winter like some I read about. On the plus side the clocks change in a few weeks which means lighter evenings too.

I have a Diabetic Clinic appointment sometime in May, which is a couple of days after my niece's wedding in Cornwall and I promised myself that I'd lose some weight for both those reasons. Despite my religious eating of salads instead of crisps, I don't dare weight myself now - it'd be too upsetting.

I wanted to get out on the bike for a ride last weekend, however the building of kitchen cupboards was demanded, and this weekend it looks like I will be fitting them onto the walls - not an easy job as the wall is a stud partition probably only made with one layer of 12.5mm wallboard so I need to support the base of the units with some hidden framework. Not quite figured it out yet but I'm sure I can build it. Nevertheless, its another nice weekend "lost".

The other thing I need to sort out is the new bike rack for the back of the car I got for x-mas. It fits well and good, and I'm sure its capable, but I worry that if I park the car somewhere all someone needs to do is cut the straps and then they have a nice hardly used bike rack which a trip to Halfords would help sort them out with new straps. I need to figure some way of locking it in place, probably to the eye under the rear bumper but I need a lug on the rack to secure it to.

Crisps & Soup

2010-02-21T09:19:00.003Z

Homemade Crisps / Potato Chips

Yesterday I decided to try to make crisps - or potato chips as the American's call them. I've been wanting to try for a while now and never got around to it, but looking in the cupboard in the morning I discovered half a dozen left over Baby New Potatoes from last weeks dinner so figured it was worth a try to use them up.

Because "simple" is my middle and last name I looked up on the web the best (i.e easiest) way to make them. The first result was to slice them, soak in vegetable oil, then put in the microwave. I was a little bit dubious that this would really work as to my knowledge a microwave oven never makes things crispy, and by their very nature, crisps need to be crispy! But I gave it a go....sure enough they came out soggy and remained so even after dabbing with kitchen toweling and leaving for a while. Into the bin they went.

The two remaining methods are to oven bake or to deep fry. I chose the latter method to try next, basically because anything I put into our oven tends to come out black. I swear the damned things got a nuclear core. Its not just "fan assisted" its got isotopes as well.

I deviated slightly from the YouTube video I watched first as they used a heck of a lot of vegetable oil. I just got my smallest saucepan, put about a cup or sunflower oil in it and heated it up until it bubbled. Having already thinly sliced the potatoes up - I left the skins on as thats where the fibre is - I added them a slice at a time to the pan. Be careful not to overload the pan as its better to do a few at a time.

I guess they took about 5 minutes to cook. Its very easy to tell because they become golden brown - just like crisps, and when you gently move them around with a slotted serving spoon they feel "crispy". Ensure that they are crisp though because the last thing you want is "soggy" ones. Leave any that arent light brown in the pan a little longer and remove the ones which are done onto kitchen towelling to dab them dry. Add another load of potato slices to the pan so this can be frying while youre doing something else.

Next I put the finished crisps into a bowl and seasoned. I did the three batches of crisps I made into three different flavours. The first I sprinkled Paprika over, put the lid on the bowl and shook them to get them all coated. The next batch I made I finished off with ground pepper, and the final ones I finished off with just salt.

And that was it. Extremely simple really.

Homemade Vegetable & Bacon Soup

This is something I've been making for a few months now and is an adaption of my sister Madeleine's recipe which was amazingly good. This is my cheapskate method, which the family love anyway.

Serves 6-7 people
The 4 of us eat this and theres enough left over for whoevers at home during the week to eat a bowl for lunch for a few days.

Ingredients:

1.5Kg Carrots
1 head of Broccoli
1/2 a Swede (optional)
2 Beef stock cubes (I use "Kallo" brand)
6 rashers of chopped smoked bacon (streaky is good but any type is ok)
1 tsp dried Ginger
1 pinch of dried Chilli flakes
1 tsp dried Garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tsp of Chicken Tikka Massala powder

You will need a hand blender for this recipe too.

1. Put the stock cubes in a large soup tureen. Add the dried Ginger, Garlic & Chilli.
2. Boil a kettle of water and pour this into the tureen, then stir until all of the stock cubes are completely disintegrated.
3. Peel the Carrots and then top and tail them. You can either slice them and put them into a blender or manually chop them into small pieces with a knife. The choice is yours. I opt for the blender myself a its a long job chopping up 1.5 kilos of the buggers by hand.
Either way, you want them small because you will need to blend them again later on and its easier to do then if they're small.
4. Once all the Carrots are chopped small add them to the pot and place onto the hot plate of the cooker on a high setting. If there isnt enough stock to cover the vegetables, add some more water, but be careful not to add too much.
5. While thats heating up chop up the head of Broccoli. Discard the large stem and add the chopped heads into the pan & stir.
6. Bring the whole lot to the boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes.
7. After this period remove the pan from the heat and hand blend the vegetables. You are after a thick finish to the soup, but the density of it is really up to you.

If you have to, add more water. If there is too much liquid, then either break up a couple of slices of bread into small cubes and blend it in with the soup, or add a couple of large peeled potatoes. They will eventually absorb some of the liquid and then remove and discard them. I usually use the bread solution as its cheap and easy if I have to.

8. Next heat a frying pan, add 1 tsp of oil and add the chopped bacon pieces. Sprinkle over 2 tsp of the curry powder, then stir them around and sprinkle over the remaining 2 tsp of powder. Fry the bacon until its golden brown.
9. Place the cooked bacon equally into 4 soup bowls and ladle the soup over the top.
10 Serve with slices of crusty, buttered bread.

A New Toy

2010-02-17T17:05:00.003Z

For Valentines Day I bought my wife a Samsung N130 Netbook. I had the idea of getting her one of these way before Christmas, but at the time I already had something else for her so I figured Valentines Day was as good an excuse to get her one than any, plus its ages until her birthday.

Initially I was after the Samsung NC10 which is quite old but all reviews claim is still one of the best for the money. Unfortunately I missed the boat by about 4 days as every shop I went to said things like "oh if only you'd come in last week we had stock then" and "its just been phased out, sorry".

I did manage to find two in PC World locally but they were both display models. In good condition but when I asked how much they'd give me off the retail price for buying one they refused to offer any discount. I actually said to the guy "look I'm here now prepared to buy this. You aren't getting any more in and its a superseded model. Surely its in your interests to sell it?" Still he wouldn't budge, so I walked out disgusted.

Giving up on the NC10 I went for the N130 which is one of the newer models and on the face of it just as good. Most of the online stores had it for the same price so I randomly bought it from Amazon UK.

My wife was delighted with it - much to my relief - and has used it every day since. Mostly she will use it to watch BBC iPlayer, check Ben's school website and generally browse the Internet so its ideal for the job and she can sit in the comfort of her lounge chair while doing so.

Added bonuses to the ownership of one of these is that Ben can do his homework on it from the table rather than at my desk plus maybe Chris will be interested in it or one like it when he gets into University later in the year.

The only issue I had with it was getting the wifi to interface with my router. Fortunately a call to BT Broadband Services sorted this out, although it took about half an hour to remedy and involved the engineer taking over the Netbook remotely. If I'm honest it may have all stemmed from a wrong address I put in there initially but which took her a long time to discover.

Anyway I highly recommend this little Netbook for anyone who just wants to surf and watch video's. You may say "Its not exactly a token of love", however I would reply that it certainly is. Okay its not flowers or chocolates, but those things are fleeting. This has use and shows how much I care about her, which is a heart achingly huge amount that I could never express sufficiently.

Of Holidays & Cupboards

2010-02-16T14:59:00.001Z

I had a day off work yesterday (Monday). The amazingly good thing about it was that it doesn't come out of my holiday entitlement for this year. Even better, it didn't come out of last years either.

Last week my boss said to me that as it was a little quiet I ought to take the two days holiday entitlement I have left over from last year (it was all supposed to used up by x-mas). I remember saying to him back then that as it was busy I may have to defer one or two days over to this year and he agreed that was okay. Now I'm pretty sure that despite being busy I eventually managed to use up all of my holiday in December, although I never told him this. So he has it in his head that I still have two days left over - well, one day now, I guess. Naturally I tried to come clean and inform him of his inaccuracy however something was sticking in my throat whenever I went to say the words.

Sadly the weather was cold and wet and yet again I decided that going out on a bike was the folly of fools and numpty's. However even that would have been better than what my wife had in store for me. If I had but known that she was plotting for us to go out to B&Q to look at kitchen wall units for the utility room. Bugger! That bike ride was beginning to look quite good now. In fact as the afternoon wore on a miserable ride in the cold and wet was looking decidedly superb.

I hadn't quite realised how expensive a wall carcass (sans doors) for a standard kitchen unit was going to be until I looked at some of the prices. Add that to the fact that we wanted More than one of them, plus doors and it was looking at being well over £100. Now I don't begrudge the fact that we need cupboards in the utility room, Ive thought the same myself before, but its not like they're going to be on display to landed gentry or anything. In fact after a week we wont even look at them in awe. Besides, all you see are the flipping doors, and they're probably the cheapest part! I hate spending money on stuff you never see or that performs a mundane task which when alls said and done, you can do without.

After making sure my wallet was even deeper in my pocket than usual, I was considering making a run for it when I spotted some bookcases on racking. There were singles or banks of 2, 3 or 4 units and they came with separate doors or drawers. The oak veneered bank of 3 were only £19 and at £4.99 a door leaf, if we bought three sets this would work out cheaper than kitchen cupboards and we'd have bigger shelves too. More bang for your buck! So we loaded these onto our trolley and paid for them. My wife kept cheerily saying to me "I've saved you some money dear" every five minutes. My reply to this was "Well no you haven't dear. We've spent money whichever way you look at it, so that's not saving anything, and besides I was the one who saved money if either of us could be construed to have done so because it was me who saw the bookcases, not you"

On opening a box to assemble one of the units it transpired that you have to fit the doors at the same time. Not a problem you may think! But you'd be wrong! You see the bookcase is sold on the assumption that you wont want doors on the fronts, so there are no holes for hinges, magnets, etc and all these needed to be drilled. Suffice to say that it took me almost all afternoon just to assemble one of them. Even then I didn't get around to hanging it on the wall, so it looks like I know what I'll be doing next weekend; building the other two units and hanging all three of them up - once Ive located where the studs are in the plasterboard drywall.

I guess the moral of the weekend is this; Don't put off something shitty because it's shitty, because something even shittier will in all probability come along that you'll have to do.

Let Us Spray

2010-02-03T06:46:00.003Z

So as promised here are a couple of photos of the bike in its two coat primed state. My plan was foiled this weekend by the constant interminably cold & breezy weather preventing me from doing any more spraying.

"Why are you spraying outside?" I hear you ask. Well the answer is that I wasn't when I did these two coats the other week. Instead I hung the frame from the rafters of the sun lounge at the rear of our house and sprayed it there. Everything was going great until at the end of the day when I went to get it down I asked Ben to assist me. As soon as he stepped into the room he said "Dad it's awfully dusty in here".

I was about to brush the comment aside with a jokey "yeah that's because your mother sits on her bum eating cakes all day" (a total lie of course), when I looked around properly for the first time and saw......"bloody hell!!!"

It was only then that something triggered in the back of my mind of spraying my VW Beetle over 20 years ago and the bright Apple Green bogeys and nasal hair I got, plus the green dust everywhere. Back then that was in my dads garage. This was a completely different kettle of fish and a bit of a bollock too. Mrs Kung Foo was going to go absolutely &%*$ing spare when she got home from work!

Quick as a flash we had the bike frame unhung and I got a bowl of water and some wipes. As soon as I started moving things about I could see the difference by the white rings under pots and the concrete floor was decidedly dirty looking. Well I did all of the main areas she was bound to notice; the skirting's, the cills, anything that was supposed to be white, and even did the floor - well mostly - and I am pleased (and relieved) to say that a week later on she still hasn't noticed. I have no doubt that one day she will spot the grey tint to something and investigate further and if I cant do a proper job by then I am doomed.

Especially because that night when standing in the sun lounge, she asked me where I had sprayed the frame & I said "tsk! outside of course. I'm not that stupid. It'd make a real mess in here".

Bits n Bobs

2010-01-28T18:14:00.002Z

Got some new bits for Bens bike under development today at Wilkinsons - a really cheap shop that seems to sell practically anything.

Drinks bottle cage £1.63

Front brake cable £0.00

Rear brake cable £1.04

Front mud guard £2.17

Rear mudguard £4.99

From the receipt it looks like they didnt charge me for one of the brake cables. The mudguards are the mountain bike type; rear fixes onto the seat post and the front clips around the bottom bar. I only went in there for the bottle cage as it suddenly occured to me that it would be a prudent idea to drill the holes for it before I finish the spraying in case of chips and scratches, but the other items were too good an opportunity to pass by.

I'll post some pics of the frame so far this weekend.

I also noticed they have front and rear lights, inner tubes and tyres in there also which may come in handy in the latter stages of the project. Miles cheaper than Halfords anyway because I bought a front and read mudguard pack from Halfords a few weeks ago at £14.00.

Free on-line Mountain Bike Magazine

2010-01-21T13:49:00.003Z

http://www.imbikemag.com/

Thats right. Issue 3 is out now and you can browse all 155 odd pages of it online, with movies and hotlinks inside it, plus you can also see the previous issues.

Enter your details to register if you like it and you can get the issue emailed to you free every 2 months.

There isnt much you get for free these days, but this looks like a good idea to me and from what Ive seen of issue 3 so far, its quality stuff. Good to watch on your lappy on the train, plane or even while you should be working :)

Bike Part Problem

2010-01-20T14:17:00.002Z

Throwing this out there in case anyone can assist me.

I'm about ready to respray Ben's new frame but before I do I wanted to get some cable "clips" for the frame. To explain; the frame itself has no eyes on it for routing the brake or gear cables from front to rear. It looks like it never had any either, which is unusual afaik.

Normally I'd expect to see one or two at each end of the crossbar, and a couple on the rear of the frame, as well as a "stop" one for when the cable ends at the gear/rear wheel hub. But nothings there and no signs of anything having been used.

I popped to the local specialist bike shop and they told me they'd never heard of them being retro fitted to a frame - always coming pre-welded on. Now I'm certain I've seen a blog by someone somewhere where they bought these to fit by drilling the frame and screwing them in, but damned if I can find it nor can I see anything in Google to fit their description.

Obviously being a complete cake-head, I dont actually know what they're called, and I guess I could use plastic cable ties but they just look a bit unsightly and wouldnt hold the cables away from the frame which could result in rattling noises.

So can anyone track them down or at least tell me what they're called?

Murder on My Cycle Route

2010-01-20T10:33:00.002Z

Before I get to the story, my apologies for generalising here, but I always have the feeling that life in the USA is fraught with gun battles, murder, muggings, and various other nefarious goings on. This is probably wholly untrue and simply my imagination from watching too much T.V. So I was going to start with an apology to any Americans reading if this story didn't seem to be an unusual event.

I wasn't really shocked to hear that someone had been killed in Reading this week, as it does happen occasionally. However this morning on local radio I heard it was an 18 year old woman, murdered, stabbed, and her body was found on a path next to the River Kennet in Whitley. On reading the local news site it transpires that it was on my favoured bike route where I do a circuit of Green Park (you can see my photos of this route in previous posts).

I cycle right under the above underpass which the main road passes over. Indeed I have even taken Ben on this route a couple of times also. Its stunning to think that something so ghastly has happened virtually on my doorstep.

The underpass has a rather steep path either side of the tunnel, and its always been a great place to get some speed up but despite it being only short is quite dark underneath even in daylight and there has always been a little bit of me which thought "nasty" people may be sheltering there. To be honest this helps somewhat in my need for speed through this bit.

Fortunately due to the inclement weather we've been having over the past month or so I haven't taken this route on any cycling rides. I would consider another route too from now on.

Apparently the police have arrested a 19 year old man in connection with the murder and if he's responsible I hope he gets life. My thoughts go out to Asha's family & friends. Its a terrible thing to happen - to end someones life for no reason whatsoever other than your own evil.

Here's the story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8469488.stm

Interesting Cycle Blogs

2010-01-11T09:16:00.002Z

In an attempt to while away the boredom brought on by the freezing temperatures, snow, ice and generally inclement weather for sensible people to cycle in, I have been trolling the internet for things to keep my mind "cycling orientated".

The Guardian Newspaper

I came across this interesting blog page http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/series/bike-blog from The Guardian newspaper devoted to cycling. Not only is it a blog, but it also hosts a podcast which you can listen to on-line or download to your iPod / media player. Its only updated monthly but seems to be well done so far.

Bicycle Tutor

Check out this site! http://bicycletutor.com/ Video tutorials on practically anything you need to know on assembling, maintaining, adjusting and cleaning your wheeled pride and joy. Definitely a bookmark "keeper" in any cyclists web browser.

Both of those sites have links to other cycling related sites, which in turn...you get my drift?

One of the sites which I really wanted to link here I cant find now. Ive no idea where it was or came from but it showed two fantastic video's of an event which takes place in Denmark every year where loads of people in what look like bikes with "bullet shaped" covering shells cycle a long route. As the country has a massive cycle path network this is all done in relative safety, but these futuristic looking bikes (trikes really I suppose) are amazing.

By the way, did you know that in Copenhagen a third of the people there cycle to work, school or University? There are about 217 miles of cycle route around the city, and cyclists have priority over cars and pedestrians at any major junction or traffic lights! They also apparently have a different kind of cycle on the Continent. The most common bike there uses enclosed gears and chain so reducing the need for maintenance caused by dirt. When you consider how grotty exposed deraileur's and chains get, just this somewhat minor difference must be quite a good thing to have.

Long Time - No Post

2010-01-03T16:29:00.002Z

Been a while since I last updated, pretty much because nothing has really been happening...well except for Christmas (belated merry x-mas all) and welcoming in the New Year (belated happy New Year all).

Today I finished rubbing down the old paint on Ben's bike frame and forks. All those finnicky little areas where the welds and joints are were a pain and rubbing out the surface rust took time. I'll probably give it a going over with some fine wet-and-dry paper before the first coat of primer though. Problem is it's so cold outside I can't spray it properly, and my wife would go ape if I did it indoors. Maybe I'll have a go on the forks and see how the cold affects the finish.

Ben's decided on a mix of red and white for the top coat so looking at some of the bikes in the local shop gave me an idea of a nice split between the two colours.

I bought a front and rear mudguard in the sales, the idea was to use them for my bike but I may keep them to use with his bike - another part I don't need to concern myself about and they look cool. For x-mas he got a trip computer so I will also fit that to his new handlebars when I get it all finished.

Talking of x-mas I got some neat cycling stuff. Firstly I got a 365 page book of cycling and walking circuits throughout the UK. Obviously a lot of them are way too far to travel to but theres some decent ones locally and a lot within driving distance which will be nice when the weather warms up, which brings me to the second - and probably best prezzie which was a bike carrier for the car.

Following Christmas day it rained for a few days and was freezing, but a couple of days ago I managed to try the carrier out on the back of the car and was pleased and a bit relieved that it fits perfectly and is as solid as a rock. I can see some great cycling adventures coming up for us with this present. No longer are we restricted to how far we can cycle from the front door, but we can go out for the day to far away places and ride with packed lunches and do what real men do in the woods and stuff - which I am reliably informed by Ben is to go for a poo and wipe with leaves!

As for my own cycling, well I havent been out on my bike all holiday. I'm gutted! Its been quite busy really and the days have flown by. I'm sure I have put on weight but have not weighed myself recently. Having said that, with the exception of x-mas dinner, I've managed to eat healthily and not overdo it.

So thats it for now - another update in a weeks time, hopefully with more interesting stuff to relate.

Last Man Out

2009-12-22T13:07:00.001Z

Heavy snow hit the south of the UK yesterday afternoon. We had heavy snow last week on Thursday too and although it was hard it didn't last very long - long enough to cause problems though and with a layer of snow and ice still on many back roads. However yesterdays conditions were exponentially worse.

I was at work in High Wycombe which is basically located in a valley in the Chiltern Hills. This means that to get to work I have to drive up a steep and long hill before going down the other side to get to Wycombe. I got an e-mail from someone passing by Reading whee I live that the snow was falling and that it was 2-3 inches deep. I tried calling home to validate this but could get no answer. Nothing from their mobile phones either, so I waited. 30 minutes later snow began to fall increasingly heavier at work and so I bailed out and headed for home. This was at 4.30pm.

I made it about half a mile, which was all up hill, before I got stuck with the wheels just spinning. People walking down the hill were saying it was like an ice rink at the top and so after trying a little more to make the car go up I gave in and eventually managed to turn around - although it was more like "slide around", and headed back down the hill. I was going to try the main hill out as I figured it would be in better condition but traffic was gridlocked where I was and I couldn't even get back to the office. After parking up I trudged back to work and reached it around 6pm. I found it locked up, no one there. Fortunately I have a key so I let myself in and called home to tell them of the problems. Apparently Reading was similarly gridlocked, all buses cancelled and abandoned in the roads and mobile phone lines jammed.

On a hunch I headed over the road to the local pub and found 4 colleagues in there who were in the same predicament. We sat and drank, chatted and looked out of the windows until around 10pm. The others said they were going to try getting out through the valley which obviated any hills, and I decided to get some food then try the main hill out. If I couldn't make it then Id be staying the night at the office! My main concern was my evening & morning medication, neither of which I had with me.

For speed I went to McDonald's - decidedly dry food even with a coffee to wash it down with. I got a call from one of the guys to tell me that the main hill was closed by the police so I walked back to the car and tried the other hill out that I had attempted previously. No joy; the police had closed that too. Apparently there was too much snow and drivers were leaving cars and lorries everywhere blocking off the escape routes and it was too icy.

On a hunch I tried the next road over the hill along but that was impassable too. Along the way I nearly rear ended another car. There was about 5 car lengths between us as he went to turn a corner at the bottom of a slope and slid, so I applied the brakes gently, lost all traction and slid on down towards him. I was only going about 5 mph but the car just kept sliding and after yanking the hand brake up, jamming the foot brake down, praying to Mustapha I stopped not even a foot away from him. I don't think he even noticed me.

Somehow I got onto a road - don't know its name or even where it was - and a pedestrian told me that it was closed ahead but that I could take some turns and get around the blockage, so I followed his directions and ended up going up a hill in the general direction I needed to get to. Well all I can say is a heartfelt thanks to the residents and pedestrians who were there as there is no way I could have made it without two people pushing the car and another with a shovel clearing the snow from under my front wheels when I got stuck. At about midnight I made it to the top of the hill and the M40 crossover. Snow was hellishly deep at the top. No roads had been gritted and the only possible path cleared was via previous vehicles, but even these tracks were filling up with snow.

I couldn't take it above 20mph maximum before control was lost so I slowly drove down the other side of the hill on a road virtually empty of traffic except for abandoned vehicles and the massive queues the other way. On eventually hitting the M4 motorway I joined it and was pleased to see it had been gritted - the only road I saw gritted that night - but that it was 3 lanes of gridlocked traffic and the hard shoulder crawling with stuck or broken down lorries, cars, etc I must have passed over 100 of them on my way home. I eventually walked in the door at 2am this morning...knackered but quite highly strung.

Needless to say I decided it was prudent to work from home today. We've got about 5 inches of snow on the ground, maybe more. Cars outside our house are stationary again. Kids are going out to build a snowman and have snowball fights in the garden. Happy Christmas :)

The love for your children

2009-12-18T12:23:00.002Z

Its hard being a dad. No I correct that; its hard being a GOOD dad. This doesn't mean that if you don't try your best you're going to be a bad father as its a little harder to explain than with statements like those.

Take me as an example - and lets be honest about it, this is really all about me! I have Chris who is 19yrs and Ben who is 12yrs. I know I made many mistakes as a father with Chris as he grew up and I deeply deeply regret that I cannot undo those wrongs or make up for them. Despite all of this I love him (and Ben) so much that I would sacrifice my life for them if it was necessary and I hope they love me to a similar - although not quite as reckless self sacrificial - degree.

I got angry with Chris a few times when he was young and I smacked his bottom with my hand. I made him cry, and even though I felt very very bad about it, at the time I felt the reason was justified. I rarely smacked his bottom - maybe only 4 or 5 times in over a dozen years. When I was brought up my mother used to put me over her knee and smack me repeatedly with a wooden spatula when I was naughty. That hurt like hell, but I think the hurt I did to Chris was more emotional than physical. He loved me so much that we would both be crying as we cuddled after it all calmed down, saying sorry to each other and apologising. It used to break my heart to see him so upset but my wife made it clear that I was the one who was supposed to do this discipline stuff in the household with a "wait until your father gets home" kind of attitude.

And yet I have always felt that just beneath the surface hes afraid of me, even today...a bit like layers. The top layer is nonchalance. Just beneath this is fear/concern/anxiety, and then the third layer is love. I see the top layer on a daily basis - heck hes still a teenager, they're all like that. I seldom see the second layer and I hardly ever see the bottom layer.

The other night he was making a cup of tea for us and there was something in his mums cup he was trying to get out - some speck or other - and the continuous "chink chink chink" noise of the spoon was getting on my nerves so I went into the kitchen and said to leave it and I would sort it out. I picked up the mug and threw the contents down the sink and proceeded to make her another cup of tea. I lost my rag with him. I didn't get angry or anything, just told him to leave it and that Id sort it out. He was confused and quite obviously hurt but I was blind to this. I guess I get frustrated and something takes over. It's nothing like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining", its more of a need to sort it out without caring for the other persons feelings. Again it only seems to happen with Chris, but its a failing in me and not him.

My wife took Ben to bed shortly after and came downstairs to tell me Chris was in his bedroom crying. I knew right then that I had hurt his feelings. I realised that I had been an arse and that I had had no right to take out my frustration on him & I went upstairs and we cried together in each others arms. I told him I was a poor father and that I was being nasty for no reason and I was very very sorry. It was nice to hug him as we haven't done that for many years and it was good to let it out. It doesn't make me a good father in any way, but its nice to try to explain to him that I know I am not to him and hopefully help him understand that I try and will in future attempt to try harder.

The reason for his upset turned out to be because his friends had all moved away to go to university, but I think that our tea incident was the impetus for his upset. I really hope that he can make new friends and I am trying to think of something he can do to broaden his social activities. I appreciate his problem and realise its harder than just saying "go out more" but I really want to help him. I love him, even though I may not show it on a daily basis. That part is a man to man thing and men don't really show these emotions well with other men.

As for Ben, well Ben is Ben. He's learned by having an older brother to look up to and I have learned a lot from my parenting with Chris, although I am still learning.

So is there really any such thing as a "good dad"? I'm sure I'm not the only father in the world to lose his temper, to smack a bottom, and is to do such a thing being a bad dad? Is being a good dad something which encompasses more than this? Something which is the whole experience of knowing your children from birth to long after they leave home and unto your death? I don't know the answer, but I know that I want to be better. I also know that no matter how good a dad I am I will always think I could be better, and most of all I want my children to know that I love them with all of my heart until my very last breath on this earth.

Weekly Weigh In & Bike Stripping

2009-12-13T18:26:00.003Z

Last week = 222.4lb
This week = 222.2lb

The irony of it is that I weighed myself on Wednesday prior to my Diabetic Clinic appointment and I was 220.6lbs.

Whichever way you slice the bread its a crappy weeks worth of weight loss. I didn't go riding at all this weekend which is probably the main reason, as Saturday was spent in town x-mas shopping and today was spent stripping down Ben's forthcoming bike.

So...must try harder! as the teachers would say.

As mentioned, I stripped the bike down. I didn't have a chain breaker tool and I had to split it because the derailleur and front changer thingy had to come off, plus the chain was somehow inside the chain stay. The chain was rusted to death anyway so after trying to use a drift and hammer to knock a pin out I gave in and resorted to chopping it in half with my Mole Grips.

The only thing I haven't managed to suss out is how to get the drive chain cog, crank arm & pedals off. I can undo the crank arm from where it enters the bottom bracket on the opposite side to the drive chain cog and the whole thing is loose and would pull out if the peddle wasn't on but for the life of me I cant get the bugger off. I feel its one of those inverse thread affairs but I've tried both ways. The problem is that now there's nothing really I can grip hold of to put enough leverage onto as the whole bike tries to spin away from me.

There's a guy at work who has stripped and rebuilt bikes before so I'm going to take it into work tomorrow and ask him if he has anything I can use - or better still see if he'll take it home with him to do. The crank arms are in fair condition and a bit of chrome cleaner will take off any of the minor spots of rust so I'd like to reuse them and just buy some blinging peddles.

Ben and I stopped off in Halfords (our local multi-national bike & car shop) on Saturday on the way back from town and we got a tin of spray on primer ready. I also showed him the huge range of finishing colours available and after looking at some of the bikes in the shop he seems to be interested in a blue colour now, although red is still his favoured finish.

I had an idea for a custom made badge for the frame too if I can get a piece of copper plate. I can make a nice design for it using printed circuit board etching fluid and Araldite epoxy it to the head tube.

Temperature today pretty much stuck at 4 degrees C (39.2F) without considering the breeze as well. Working outside on the bike was cold enough let alone going cycling in it. Still I need to do it. Must try harder!

Diabetic Clinic Appointment

2009-12-11T16:57:00.003Z

I took a trip to the Diabetic Clinic this week for my 6 monthly check up. I was a little concerned as I think I am close to being placed on Insulin instead of the current pill control. I can't think of much worse than having to stab myself with a needle instead of popping a tablet. It just seems like the final corner of a race I really don't want to win. There's no going back onto pills if Insulin injections are started and so it would feel like Id have lost some of my personal control - as much as it is. This is one of the reasons I have started cycling, and I hope turn myself around so I can carry on taking pills for some time to come.

However, getting back to the appointment, I was intending to cycle to the clinic but my crappy cold thwarted that plan and I resorted to driving. I was surprisingly gutted I had to take the easy transport option. It seems that every time I go there I see a different doctor, and this time was no different. After weighing me, measuring my stomach, asking the usual questions about lifestyle etc I was sat in front of a young lady doctor who was really only concerned about my blood pressure being high. Even though it is down on the last test that was done its still something high over something high and she prescribed me a pill to lower it.

I cant take them yet though as after 2 weeks of them I need to get a blood test done to check my kidneys are okay. It seems that in some people they can be harmful and with the forthcoming x-mas period she advised I don't start to take them until after hospital staffing is back to normal after the festive season.

So all is reasonably good. They didn't comment on my weight loss (bastards!) but I don't have my next appointment until May 2010 so I reckon I can lose some significant poundage by then. Recently I have been making mini salads to take to work to eat mid morning in lieu of crisps (potato chips) etc and a Mackerel & cucumber sandwich for lunchtime.

Sods Law

2009-12-09T06:39:00.003Z

Why is it that in the overwhelming majority of cases, when I book a holiday, that I get sick? Its fundamentally unfair.

I book time off work in order to do things. Plans are made. Destinations plotted and time's agreed. Then as if in the blink of an eye you're full of snot, headaches and its as if you've turned into a moaning hunchback with barely the strength to get up to piss.

On Monday I knew I was getting a cold because I had that raw feeling beginning that's located roughly where you expect the back of your throat meets the nasal branch off passage. I'm sure there's a medical term for it that I cant be bothered to look for. Anyway I expected a cold to occur and by the evening it had developed, but that was nothing compared to what I awoke to on Tuesday morning. It was like I'd aged 50 years. I could hardly breathe and was worn out just turning over in bed.

I spent the whole day - my day off - on the flipping sofa under a blanket. I've lost a layer of skin from my nose because of blowing into tissues. My head still feels like someones thumped it repeatedly and no matter how much I blow and cough I cant get rid of the glop.

In fact I don't think Ive had as bad a cough for some years. Last one I can remember that hurt as much was when the nurses had some kind of tube down my throat and when I coughed they'd whip it up and out to remove the mucus from inside me. It was very painful.

You'd think with 2 Flu jabs in recent months that my body would be at least a little bit immune. Sods Law!

Snack-a-holicking

2009-12-07T14:48:00.002Z

If I was to attend a meeting of S.A (Snack-a-holicks Anonymous) I'd have to stand up in front of everyone and confess in my humblest voice "I eat snacks".

Fortunately I don't attend S.A, nor do I go to any other dietry meetings such as Weight Watchers, Fat Busters, Lardy Arses or whatever they're called. However I do know I have a problem with snacking. Not at home mind you. If I was to take the day off work I'd not need to snack, and I do less work at home. However at work I nibble like a mouse.

Usually its crisps. For some reason as I sit at my desk, at around 10.00 or 11.00 I need to eat a packet of crisps.

Following on from the "meat free weekend" I have plenty of humous, salsa & carrot sticks left and instead of taking packets of crisps to work I took a selection of the above. Sure enough, come 10.30 I was in a nibbling mood and dug the pots out of the works fridge and started nibbling. Much more pleasant. Much less fattening.

All I need to do now is work my way around to not needing nibbles at all.

A Meat Free Weekend

2009-12-07T08:49:00.001Z

This weekend I decided that we would go meat free. Just for the weekend mind you!

For Saturday evenings meal I made a thick Leek & Potato soup which we ate sandwiches with.

Sunday was a little more extravagant, and took a darned sight longer to prepare for too. I made Falafel pitta's, stuffed with salad & tomato salsa, and also Hummus dip, salsa dip with carrot and celery sticks.

The pitta's were shop bought wholemeal ones. The carrot sticks were easy to make with my Nicer Dicer. The Tomato salsa was easy to make (also with the Nicer Dicer). I've never made Hummus before and cant remember what consistency its been whenever Ive seen it. It turned out quite thick...thicker than wood filler even, which I think is a little too thick tbh. I also found the taste of it a little bland despite chucking in some Paprika & 2 tsp of Marmite. chick Pea's are fine but have little actual flavour. I could taste the Tahini I added to it but there was something profoundly "absent" which I needed and cant put my finger on. The rest of the family said they liked it though.

The Falafel burgers are basically made from chick peas blended with some herbs. I added some curry paste to the mix for some added flavour and they weren't too bad. Unlike normal beef burgers they refused to solidify in the frying pan so I had to be gentle in putting them into the pitta bread when they were cooked. I then added some sliced Cucumber, Red Onion, Jalapenos, Red Pepper & shredded Lettuce.

In all it was "okay", but I don't think I could go totally meat free. I mean I just couldn't go without my Chili Con Carne...I'd die!

Weekly Weigh In

2009-12-06T19:34:00.002Z

Last Sunday 223.4lb (15st 13.4lb)

Tonight 222.4lb (15st 12.4 lb)

Another miniscule drop in weight, but its still on the right side i.e going down. I wish it was faster and more of a drop though. Also it seems which website I use to do the lb's to Stones conversion makes a difference to the weight! Theoretically if the difference in pounds is the same then so should the difference in Stones. So in theory if I go by the Stones figure I've lost more :)

Saturday ride & a bike project starts

2009-12-06T19:16:00.003Z

Saturday was a fine day so Ben and I went for a bike ride. We hadn't been for one for almost 3 weeks so it was great to get out (as Ben said "at last!"). Problems with Ben hurting his leg after a minor accident at school, then he had a bad cold had meant we were jonesing for a ride.

I chose a completely different ride this week, going for a bit of "off roading". We rode about half a mile to the village of Shinfield and then cut down a muddy footpath, around some ruined farming research buildings and came out into a churchyard, then through a small housing estate and across some fields which were really muddy and into the village of Ryeish Green then back across some other fields and muddy footpaths, encountering the largest puddle in Berkshire which we attacked at full speed.

As we came to the end of the second field we were next to some woods and I spotted a rusty old bike. I said to Ben that it might be a bit of work but that it could be a good bike for him if it was done up. The wheels are smaller than his current one - which is really a bit on the large side for him - and it looks a bit like a BMX type bike although I'm no expert on these things.

Anyway it turned out that the ride was shorter than we thought - only 4.97 miles round trip. although it took us an hour and a half. We felt fine until we got indoors, then we both felt like rubber legs had been swapped for our normal ones. We just made back it before it bucketed down too.

Today we took the car up there hoping to chuck it in the boot before anyone spotted us. Unfortunately an old couple walking their dogs came by but we chatted with them in between petting the lovely Golden Retriever and the other whateveritwascalled dog. They said that the bike had been there for some weeks and agreed that it was good that it was taken away and put to good use.

I was busy the rest of the day so didnt get a chance to strip it down but my thoughts are going along the lines of:
- strip it down
- sand down the frame
- spray prime, top coat and lacquer it
- new handlebars, grips, brakelevers, cables, callipers
- fit a handlebar lever action 5 speed (Its currently 10 speed but broken)
- new chain and any other little bits

The saddle actually looks half decent and well padded, plus the wheels and tyres look to be in fair condition. The only bit I will need to read up on is the gearing stuff as I've never had to bother with any of that in the past.

I have a couple of days off this week and so provided x-mas shopping can be done away with quickly I should get it stripped down and start on giving it a rub down with some wet and dry.

Outbid & Future Plans

2009-12-02T15:45:00.003Z

Well if you read a previous post of mine a week ago you'll remember I was bidding on a rather nice racing bike on e-bay. Bidding ended at 11.30 last night, and throughout yesterday it seemed to be down to myself and one other who were interested in getting it.

Bidder 2 got the bastard thing!

I was determined to only have a max bid of £50.00, and he/she won it at £53.00. People at work have said "ooh you could have got it with another bid" but they fail to see the long game, which would have seen it increase in price exponentially until it got to the other bidders maximum limit. Without knowing that figure, I could have gone on and on and I would have broken my promise to myself to not spend more than £50.00. So I am not really too unhappy, as there will be others I can bid on and perhaps win.

As a side effect of all of this, my wife said to me last night that the New Forest has cycle trails all over it and that it would be nice to do that in the Summer. For those that don't know, the New Forest isn't new at all, but was planted (I think) back in Henry VIII's time as a place for him to hunt. I guess it was new then and so the names just stuck.

The New Forest is just above Southampton & about 1.5 hours drive from us. The astonishing thing is that apart from 10 minutes around the park when we were teaching Ben to ride, she hasn't been on a cycle since she was a kid. She doesn't own a bike and in past years when I have suggested her riding the 10 minutes to work instead of taking the bus or me collecting her she's always poo-poo'd the idea.

Maybe I'm rubbing off on her.

So right away I looked for women's cycles on e-bay and pointed out to her a nice ladies mountain bike. She said "I don't want one off e-bay. I want to try it first". Jeez!! "But it's going for £30.00 dear" I said. "It's a bargain and looks in good condition" but she was adamant about it so I gave up...for now.

I would be reluctant to buy a new bike for her, considering her eagerness will probably fade in a few months. It also leaves me with the dilemma of storing them. 2 bikes in the shed is a tight squeeze. If I get a racing bike it wont fit, even with KY Jelly smeared all over it, and 4 bikes doesn't even come close. I have considered building an extension to the shed at the rear just to store the bikes, but the plans in my head are going to have to get a bit larger.

:KungFooSausage: a man, a bike, a life

New Website for KungFooSausage

Wargrave Loop

Garmin Forerunner 310XT Giveaway

Sonning Lock Loop

The Cunning Man Loop

Could You Get Rid Of Your Car?

End of the Week Round-up

Cornwall - Wednesday

Cornwall - Tuesday

Cornwall - Monday

Life On The Ocean Waves

Buying Bits

Prezzies - Wot I Got :)

Much To Say

Sunday Ride & A Goal Achieved

Evening Ride - Shinfield & Ryeish Green

Afternoon Pub Ride

Evening Ride Cut Short

The July 150

Dangerous Bus Driving

Gears n' Pasta

More "New Bike" Stuff

Bike Assembly

Has Bike - Will Travel

e-bay annoyance

A "New" Bike

National Bike Week & A Present

Weekly Weigh In & National Bike Week (Coming Soon)

Thoughts For The Day

Overdoing the Exercise

Cycling Courtesy

3 Counties Cycle Ride (Completed) & Weekly Weigh In

Hot & Wet

3 Counties Cycle Ride

June - An Epic Month?

Stuff From This Week

Back from Cornwall

Uploading Video & Weigh In

Saturday Ride

Alcohol Free Lager

No Cycling & Being a Fat Boy

Recipe: Best Stir Fry Sauce Ever

Monday Morning Cheer-up

More Video Testing & Weekend Antics

Weekly Weigh In

Muvi Camera Review

Exercise Bike Miles II

Exercise Bike Miles

The Bike Tree

Riders Collective Magazine

Additional Tab

Weekly Weigh In

Goring Ride It - Completed!

Goring Ride It Route

Bikes Ready To Go

Aldi Haul

A Little Weighty Maths

Mini Update

Bought Some Stuff

Weekend Cycling Fun

My Best Thick Soup

Special Offers @ Aldi 6th May

Old Frame & A Bike Book

South Chiltern's "Ride It"

Scrap Bike - New(ish) Bike

Weigh In & Eye Test

Bens Bike Build

Rain Stops Play

e-mail from mybikelaw.com

Swinley Forest Ride Part 1

Swinley Forest Ride Part 2

mybikelaw.com

Love Cogs

£58.00 Roadrunner Folding Bicycle

Team Sprocket Does Charity Cycle Ride

Alone

The April Fool

Nipper Wins Award

University