Things booking up

Getting my leave requests in now for various events in the second half of the year. Lots of excellent things are on the cards...
Have got a day off to get down for the Hyde Park concert next weekend (a Rach Bishop Bristolian bbq event and then on to London) which should be great if it stops raining by then...
And then that's it for jollies until August as I have the kids every weekend in July. Hopefully I'll be able to get away with them too - maybe to my sister's in Guernsey. Otherwise it's a month of weekend day tripping events. We shall see.
In August so far there's one outing up to Scotland with 'my' Rach booked in for which the plan is to do some hills and a day at the Edinburgh festival. Rach is stopping up there for the whole second festival week. Maybe we'll hook up with Katy or Rich Eatough who will both be up there. Katy, obviously coz she lives there, and Rich is up for the festival.
September sees the mountain bike World Cup come to Fort William. I did that a couple of years ago when it was just the downhill and it was a fabulous weekend. This time they have the XC event too: the whole World Cup, so it is a really big event. It's around my birthday again too, so it will be great to get away for that one and we can hopefully get some of the Nevis range hills done while we are there when Rach gets bored of whatching cycling...
Also in September The Tragically Hip have announced some more Euro dates. London again (The Astoria for a change) and this time I am making the trip to Amsterdam for the two shows at the Paradiso (have been meaning to do this for a while now). Cheap midweek flights from Leeds/Bradford (99p flights tots up to about £150 for both of us return) means a 4 day city break and two Hip shows is quite affordable. Not quite sure how Rach will manage two Hip shows on the bounce, but hopefully she will cope.
I am actually feeling guilty about flying though what with the shit that these jets cough out into our fragile atmos. But I don't do it often, and maybe I can plant a tree to offset it.
Err, Jet2 are doing good business out of me this year as there's the other flights - to Spain in October. Off to somewhere near Malaga for a week of mountain biking in the Sierra Nevada with the FreerideSpain people, and the Reading bike crew (RichE, RichC and Annie). Have had rave reports of these trips so looking forward to and it will be a good late getaway as the winter sets in again. Of course I will need a new bike for that... and therein lies a story for another time.