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Idle blogger

2009-06-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not using this blog at all of late, and I guess should do more. especially as we've just been cycling round Northern Ireland and this would the the ideal place to post a write up of the experience... I'll see if I can get round to that.

Lots of concerts around, and this weekend Rach and I are off to london to see Bruce Springsteen at the Hyde Park Calling weekender 'festival'. (Also featured are The Killers on Friday and Neil Young Saturday.) It's also Glastonbury this weekend and Springsteen is gracing them with his presence. At least this means he'll be in the telly as BBC will be covering that festival. Am also seeing Dave Matthews Band on Thursday at Brixton Academy which to be honest is even more of an exciting prospect than seeing The Boss in a park. The only other time I have visited Brixton Academy was with the Uni crew when we did a jolly over there from Cardiff to see the Spin Doctors. This involved driving across and leaving the car with RB's mates "The Jesus Army" and stopping at Jane Thorning's house in Streatham. The Spin Doctors were fantastic, and I rememeber the venue as being great too.

Also on the agenda for this weekend's London visit is Derren Brown in the West End. Another 'must see' artist for me, and one of my heroes to be honest. So, all in all an exciting weekend in prospect.

To download or not?

2009-03-23T02:51:00.000-07:00

So the new Tragically Hip album has leaked to the t'internet, a couple of weeks before it's official release date. Having pre-ordered the album from Maple Music I do feel it's within my rights to fire up uTorrent and download the songs. For my own private use, right, and as long as I don't upload it further then my conscience is clear... Hmm. Well, to be honest it's just good to be able to hear the new stuff and leaked albums is I guess the curse of the internet.
The new material? The polished alt-country sound of the already released lead-off track Morning Moon was a big clue. I can already hear the old school fans whining that Bob Rock has watered down the Hip and that they are not as 'clean' and 'vital' as they once were, and that they need to find a producer who will compliment them. Now this is a band who have been making great albums for over 20 years and you'd think that fans would credit them with knowing what they are doing. It makes me laugh that there are fans who are against a band progressing or evolving in any way. I reckon half the fun of a new Hip album is getting over the changes and strangeness and knowing that repeated listens will always reap rewards.

The price of a toasted tea cake

2009-03-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so one single swimming session with the new regime is the sum total so far. I've kept out of the pool because I am realy ill. Well... not quite. Rach has been coughing all week and I had the dreaded sore throat Tuesday, which usually is the sign of the onset of something for me. So far so good though, but being careful.

The weekend was spent with friends in a rather lovely converted mill in the village of West Burton, Swaledale. A more picture postcard Yorkshire Dales village you could not find I reckon, and in a beautiful location. Great company too (John, Caron, Catherine and Bill) and some of us did a fun walk over to Castle Bolton on Saturday - Catherine and Bill opted for shopping in Richmond. I'd promised the intrepid walkers a tea shop at the castle but there was no sign, and we had to wander across to the adjacent village to find one. Shockingly, at the lone tea shop. toasted tea cakes were £2.20 each. That is absolutely out of order. Annoyingly the adjacent village pub stopped doing food at 2pm, and when we got there it was ten past, and enquiries revealed that no way could we expect to be served with any food at such a late hour - oh no. So, as these were the only two options open to us the tea shop it was. To be honest I was all prepared to neck another breakfast bar and walk back to Aysgarth rather than frequent an establishment charging such extortionate rates for it's toasted snacks. However, I was talked into it by John who was obviously desperate as he offered to get a round of tea cakes in. We did all snub the tea cakes in the end and went for sandwiches which, whilst still a tad pricey, seemed a more sensible bet. And after half an hour or so they arrived. I mean, how bloody long does it take to cook a bit of chicken, warm some beef and dollop out a bit of coleslaw? The couple on an adjacent table had the same wait for tea cakes, only to be told on delivery of their food that there was only one tea cake left and 'here's a scone instead'. Blimey. How we laughed. We did indeed laugh a great deal all weekend all in all.

The meal on Saturday night was a multi chef special - Rach did starters, Catherine the main and John the pudding. Bit of an aubergine nightmare for me as the main ingredient of both the starter and main courses was, coincidentally, said vegetable on which I am not that keen. Then the afters was bread and butter pudding which I don't really like at all. Now, I must stress that I am not that fussy an eater so to find fault all three courses was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. Still, the custard was nice!

The weekend was ended a tad abruptly by a phone call late Sunday evening from John's daughter who it seemed had suffered some kind of assault at home after having been out drinking all day. Not great news. John and Caron quickly packed up and left, and to be honest all did not turn out well for said daughter, but that particular story would be left for someone else to tell.

Meanwhile, plenty of tickets on sale this week: Michael Jackson doing 50 nights at the 02 arena in London. That's 50 lots of 20,000 people at between £50 and £75 a ticket. He must be broke or something? Going to give these shows a miss, but they are selling like crazy and eBay prices are through the roof already.

Cornbury on sale also, and I think we'll do this 2 day festival in July. Gonna have to bin the Ripon triathlon top go but hey, who really wantd to swin in a river eh? Pretenders and Dodgy are amongst the acts on the bill. And finally The Hold Steady have announced some small dates in England in may around the support slots they are doing for Counting Crows in the arenas. And they are to play Leeds Cockpit. Life's not complete unless I have a Hold Steady ticket! We also have Brakes coming up in the Cockpit which should be fun.

Total Immersion lesson 1

2009-03-05T06:05:00.000-08:00

My copy of “Total Immersion” – ‘The revolutionary way to swim better, faster and easier’ arrived from Amazon yesterday and I tried out the first two drills in the pool this lunch time.
There’s a lot of different drills and lessons and whatnot I’m going to need to perfect should I actually stay the course of this book and whether I have the patience to go through with it we shall see. But, having read through the opening chapters explaining the TI philosophy I can see where it’s going, and it looks rather good - so am going to try to stick with it.

Drills 1 and 2 are about finding balance.
My physique (lean, long legs, muscular) had already been classed as “a sinker” by the book which was not good news. However, it turns out I can float. I think I did ‘hide my head’ and ‘pressed my buoy’ and did indeed feel really rather relaxed just gently kicking my way up and down on my back with my hands at the sides, and them doing the change onto each side in turn to find the ‘sweet spot’. Flat on my back my legs do drop and I do have to kick a little to keep them up (and, err, yes I did go backwards at first) but it was actually all rather pleasant, as promised by my main man Terry Laughlin.

Bit dull though just floating along for the whole session so I have decided to combine the basics with doing slow lengths going for an improved stroke system (taking tips from the TI book). Stretching out and gliding, and also concentrating on lifting my hips up. My SPL (Strokes per length) of a 25m pool has always been around 30, but concentrating just on these two things it immediately drops to 24, and that’s going slow. It’s hard work to adjust though and I am taking a few breaths rest at the end of each length.

One thing that will keep me going, and always has with front crawl is the absolute technicality of it, which means I’m never bored swimming. Maybe there's enough to keep me amused with these TI drills and I can break myself out of bad, self-taught habits and get to be a super-efficient swimmer?

Diary 4th March

2009-03-04T07:17:00.000-08:00

Monday 2nd March

Weekend with the kids was fun. We didn’t go far and didn’t do much, but everyone still had a good couple of days. Visited the kitchen place on Saturday and finalized the choices we had to make: door shapes, colours and worktop. Should look great. We have to choose tiles and flooring still though. Ended up wandering in Roundhay Park, feeding birds etc. Saturday night Rach and I finished off season 5 of The Wire. This season perhaps hadn’t been quite as good as previous ones, although it was still great. The last two episodes however were amazing, and they brought it all back full circle: same as it ever was. Nice that Bubbles got a happy ending, and McNulty… sort of. Omar had been shockingly killed off a couple of episodes previous.

Sunday we’d promised Holly we’d go to the Guiseley Play Barn so we did that. The Play Barn has had a bit of a change round which is an improvement and it was v.busy. We got evangelicised by some lady asking if we’d like to take/send Holly on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. She was completely out of order in that she presumed that H needed help and that she and her pilgrimage should be the method to provide said assistance. On questioning she stated that it was definitley not a miracle cure kind of trip, but was a bit vague as to what it was other than this. (It's Lourdes, right - what else do they hope for there?) She was also annoyingly persistent and I suprised myself by remaining polite, even when she handed me her phone number and web site address after numerous 'no thanks'. Ho hum. It was interesting that Holly obviously didn’t like her at all: she can spot a wierdo a mile off! Holly actually proved quite an attraction: a few people came and spoke to us/her while we were there. It's interesting to see how the folk who have disabled kids are just comfortable and address her directly. Others need to say something for some reason and then either talk to her like she's retarded or don't address her at all and just speak to me. Kids will just stare at her - we had a couple in the sand pit who were almost nose to nose, gawping. H ignores them, and in the end I have to say something. F*ck off would be a bit harsh to a 5 year old, admittedly.

We finished off again in the park and Jamie had a whiz up and down the grass banks on his bike: he’s getting pretty brave on that thing now – next we’ll need to get home one with gears. I had to do the same grass banks pushing Holly in her chair which was hard work. Decent sunny weather so the park was very busy.

Got a contact from Nikki Eastwood (now Nicky something un pronounceable as she’s married to a Dutch guy) via Facebook over the weekend which was nice. She’s still doing vet thing – training animal nurses – and lives in Lincoln.

U2’s new CD comes out today and they are all over the media: BBC seemed to get them all weekend with a couple of live performances of new songs, including one from the roof of BBC broadcasting house. Have had the new stuff for a couple of weeks now (it was leaked) and it’s very, very good. A grower though.

Wednesday 4th March

Rich Eatough emailed yesterday and proposed that he and I do a cycle tour this year. Hurrah. Ireland seems to be the popular choice, so we will work towards sorting something out for June maybe. There’s some decent looking Sustrans routes over there so we should find some nice stuff. I like the look of the “North West Trail” myself.

Looking forward to this weekend as we are off staying in the Dales with John, Karen, Bill and Katherine in a cottage we’ve booked. Up in the North East Dales, quite near Reeth, Richmond etc. Was thinking of taking the mountain bike but the weather forecast is looking pretty lousy at the moment so we shall see.

Jamie started kick boxing classes Monday night in Horsforth. I hope he manages to stick it out longer than he did the tennis as Liz seems to have signed him up and paid for 6 months as well as a load of kit. He does seem very enthusiastic and I guess that learning a ‘martial art’ can only do him good. First punch on the nose he gets he'll be out the door though...

2009-02-25T01:25:00.000-08:00

I stopped doing this blogging this as, really, I have nothing THAT interesting to say. I always thought how cool it would be to blog away on the internet with witty comments and controversial views about the arts, the state of the planet; the shape we are in or whatever. All in all it would be rather good to sound in any way informative or amusing. However, it seems that I am not really that amusing or controversial, and even if I was I don’t think I am a good enough writer to get all my clever thoughts and funny insights across. Reading a couple of Danny Wallace’s books has made me realise that my future does not lie in creative writing.

Having said all that – here’s what’s going on, late Feb 2009.

Life consists of work, Rachel and the kids, and then the other stuff I can fit in round all those basic commitments.

Work: boring. Enough said. Working for Arcadia at the moment (contracted to them). Actually today there’s been an announcement that Arcadia will merge with BHS so this may throw up something interesting in the coming months.

The kids: Two wonderful little people who’s company I enjoy immensely. I love their weekends with us and I miss them when there’s a few days not being with them. Like now: I’ve not seen them since last Thursday as it was my weekend ‘off’. I am round at theirs tonight though. (Holly is going to Brownies this evening for the first time and is apparently very excited about this prospect.) Jamie at the moment is discovering the delights of computers and computer games (via a Wii). It’s amazing (frightening!) how quick he picks things up. They are at ours this weekend. Nothing planned as yet, but we always think of something.

Rachel: We live together now and it, well, just seems right. Few issues of disagreement; no arguments and a lot of general peace and harmony. It was a rather fortuitous thing my bumping into her and I am a lucky guy.

Other stuff: Lots of it. I am pleased that I do manage to pack quite a lot of ‘other stuff’ into my existence: The headings of outdoors; concerts; fitness; friends; music; reading and films would I think cover it. The events calendar is looking pleasingly full for the next few months and summer holidays (with kids) have been booked in and plans are afoot. The “every other weekend” system with the kids does mean that things can be booked up well in advance, and this year is working out well with several events falling on weekends when Liz has the kids. We’ve just booked tickets for Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews Band in Hyde Park at the end of June for instance.

We were in London this weekend just gone visiting Rach Bishop (RB). RV was seeing mate Hilary on Friday who was directing a play, so we’d booked to go down and stop at RB’s. It’s always lovely to hook up with her and we had a great day Saturday including a fabulous morning run (RB and me) along the banks of the Thames (before the pesky tourists came out and clogged the place up). After meeting up with RV and Hills for eats and a drink the remainder of the day was spent wandering along the South Bank. Marvellous. RB was off skiing early Sunday morning. RV and I met Scottie who’d come in on the train from Hertford, and spent the afternoon doing more Thames banks wandering; more eating and drinking before getting the train home in the evening. All in all a fine weekend.

And that’s how it goes. Not such a bad life I guess all in all. Hope this was interesting.

Spring forward.

2008-03-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Saw Hayseed Dixie live last night at Leeds Rio's. I have been meaning to catch these guys for a while now and was very pleased I did so. This is a genuine US bluegrass band who caught on a few years back after doing an album of ac/dc covers (hence Hayseed Dixie... geddit?). They have expanded their repertiore to include many other heavy rock songs, all sort of other mad cover versions and some decent songs of their own, and so imagine if you will ... a banjo, fiddle and mandolin wielding foursome belting out the likes of Ace of Spades, War Pigs and Highway to Hell. At wharp speed. Funny and yet respectful: top musicianship, and the raw bluegrass style is somehow just right for those big rock songs. They reckon they are the only outfit ever to play both Download and The Cambridge folk festival, so this is a band who have seriously crossed over ... something. They drink a lot, and boy they are loud.

Holly fell over in the van today - in her wheelchair. I forgot to push the button which secures her 'seat belt' down at the front, so we pulled out of their school after I'd picked her and Jamie up and bang, she goes over backwards . Scared the life out of the both of us, but fortunately no harm done and she forgave me - eventually. Liz went to their parents' evening tonight and they are both doing really well. I always knew Holly was bright as a button but it seems Jamie is too, so that's great.

Three non Premiership teams in the FA Cup semis eh? Great stuff. Except that one of them is fecking Cardiff City.

Budget today. Only 20p or something on a packet of cigarettes? What's wrong with this government? They should have doubled the price of that shit if you ask me.

Two gigs in a week: am off to see The Feeling tomorrow in Manchester. Rich Eatough has consigned them to the pap bin, but I still reckon there's a lot of room for such tuneful lightweight stuff. Not everything has to be lo-fi and edgy. In my humble opinion.

Thought for the day: Creationism. If you believe in it in any way, please please think again as it really is utter nonsense.

Long time no blogging

2008-02-29T13:51:00.001-08:00

Well, I've been too busy. Terry told me to keep her up to date so here goes.

Best event of this week was most definitely The Hold Steady at Manchester Academy. Rich Eatough alerted me to this band a while back and they are great. Go find them on YouTube and then go buy their Boys and Girls in America CD as it's killer. Seriously good. They are my favourite band of all time at the moment. Great that RB could get there too as she was working near Manchester, and we had a bit of adventure in Halifax trying to find her hotel after the gig, just for added fun.

What else has been happening? Oh, yes - LMC (Leeds Mountaineering Club) annual dinner in Conniston last weekend. Got out on the mountain bike for the first time in what feels like forever - round the Grizedale forest trails. Top stuff it was too and we had the best of what was a ropey weekend for weather - out of the wind, and their was no rain to speak of. Sunday was sunny, even. Rach is coming on so well on the bike and she did her first trails back in Grizedale on the Sunday. I think she suprised herself by enjoying it so much on the firetrail descents - and once she'd been shown where granny ring was she got up all the climbs too. Top girl. She's hooked. Hurrah. She got the part in the play she was after and is now rehearsing 3 evenings a week for the next 2 months. What a wierd hobby... :-)

Saw Scottie for the first time in ages the other weekend which was great. He seems on good form. Hopefully going to organise a Liverpool Saturday night out meet up very soon. Met mum and dad in Liverpool yesterday actually for lunch (was working over there) which was most pleasant.

Kids are on good form. Jamie is 5 now and got a Sony PSP game thingy for his birthday which he loves to death. I probably got a spacehopper for my 5th birthday. The kids of today, eh? Holly is fine as ever - she's seven soon and also growing fast.

Plans:
Week biking in Les Gets/Morzine mid June with the Reading crew.
Trowbridge folk festival, possibly.
Week with kids 'down south'.
Windermere marathon (I will be asking for sponsorship).
London at RB's posh new flat beginning of April.
Scotland at Easter (Glencoe/Fort William area).
Forthcoming gigs: The Feeling, Hayseed Dixie, Joe Satriani, Bruce Springsteen.

Happy 2008

2008-01-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are all safe and sound in a shiny new year. 2007 and was a good one, so this one has a lot to live up to. All the best to anyone reading this and maybe see you soon?

Decemberist

2007-12-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Crikey - it's nearly Christmas already. Wot fun. Actully have done some Christmas shopping pretty early for once, but as i only have to buy stuff for Rach and the kids it's not too much of a problem. We've never really gone for buying each other pressies at christmas within my family, whichis a fine policy if you ask me. Rachel's birthday is 29th December which complicates matters somewhat, but I think I will cope. Jamie's easy to buy for (anything Transformers, Spider Man or Dr Who) but Holly is very difficult to get suitable stuff for. She's having a new bedroom installed at Liz's at the moment though (literally as half the upstairs of the house is being adapted for H with a new bathroom and a bigger bedroom on a two room first floor extension) so I can get her things for that. I think Liz is sending a list round - phew.

Not posted here for ages, but that's mainly because I now have one of them Facebook accounts and have been putting stuff on there. So if you have one of them facebook accounts then go look me up.

Seem to have been on a band-watching fest of late which has been excellent. Porcupine Tree coming up in Leeds this Sunday and I am still not cnvinced I like this outfit, as they are a bit to 'prog' for me. Still, I am sure they will be good live. Was a toss up between that and seeing Ian McNabb play Icicle Works stuff in the Cockpit - which would be great to be honest. Never mind. Mate Terry is coming up Sunday to see PT and stopping here so I guess I should go to the same gig as her!

Then next weekend is Bruce Springsteen in Belfast. His new album really is excellent and it should be a great weekend.

That's about as exciting as it gets to be honest.

The nights are drawing in...

2007-10-12T12:35:00.001-07:00

Mid October already. Can you believe it? Time does, as they are heard to say, fly. The conkers have been and gone from the tree in the garden and it's almost time for lights on the bike on the way home - and on the way in if I get going quick enough.

So, what's been going on? Did the trio of Hip shows a couple of weeks ago which were all fantastic. The London one was preceeded the night before by Prince, and that should get a mention too. The little fella is amazing: never have I seen anyone look just so at home on a stage. In total control of the 20,000 of us in the (very impressive) O2 Arena; played loads of the hits and we all generally had a great time for a couple of hours. The aftershow was fun too, even if the purple maestro himself didn't show (half his band did). A 4am finish... how very rock and roll. Next night the Hip were playing the Astoria on Oxford Street and what a dump that place is. Awful sound too, but, hey - it was the Tragically Hip and we rocked for the whole gig from the froont of the balcony. Fabulous. I rocked so much that I'd lost my voice the next day.

A couple of days off and the it was over to Amsterdam for their two shows at the Paradiso Theatre. All I can say apout that place is that if you see a good band is playing there then just go. It's an old church and is such a cool little music venue with a great atmosphere. Right down by the museums at the south canals area of Amsterdam. The Hip gigs were just fantastic, and I am so glad I made the effort to see the in Amsterdam. The city itself is just a wonderful place to go and mooch about for a few days. Loads of art, culture, great food and good general wandering about to be had. The worst problem is avoiding getting run over by cyclists! We didn't bother with the Red Light area or 'brown' cafes. After wandering through that neck of the woods all that stag party stuff just seemed completely at odds with the rest of the things we'd been experiencing in the city so we gave it a miss, and returned to the quiet of the canal-side cafe culture.

I've had the kids at mine all this week, working (almost) full time and doing the school runs with them (round the ring road in the commuter traffic - yuck). It's been fine to be honest, but it's Friday now and I am wasted, as I just don't sleep as well when the kids are here. I've just got to amuse them for the weekend now! The finale of this weekend for me is seeing Rush in Manchester on Sunday night. Shouldn't have much issue staying awake for that one.

Next weekend Rach and I are off to the Lakes -Wasdale in particular, which I reckon is the best Lakes valley. It's just stunning. Stopping in the excellent Fell & Rock hut by the lake and there's loads of good hills and stuff round so fingers crossed for the weather. The reason we are going there in particular is to get to see the very wonderful Francis Dunnery on the Saturday in his home town of Workington (in the town hall!). Should be fun. Oh, and then I am off to Spain cycling for a week. Hurrah.

A weather post

2007-08-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

September tomorrow, and therefore 'officially' it's autumn. The was the rainiest summer ever apparently. Ho hum. July was indeed, let's face it, shit. But it's been pretty Ok otherwise. It's not rained here for 3 weeks now which isn't too bad. Bike trails are all nice and dry anyhow - which is what counts.

Got to the Lakes at the weekend and did find some decent weather there. It's always great to get onto the top of mountains and get those views and Great Gable on Sunday was fabulous. Amazing spot from which to gawp at pretty much the whole of the rest of the Lakes. Been watching the "Mountain" series with Gryf Rhys Jones? Excellent stuff, and to see the Lakes in conditions as portrayed on these beautifully filmed TV programmes is always a treat.

Off up to Fort William next weekend. Mainly to see the Mountain Bike World Cup, but hopefully will get some hills in too. Target would be a decent mountain route up Ben Nevis, but as ever it's weather dependent. We did get up 'The Cobbler' (bottom end of Loch Lomond) the other week in half decent conditions, but Scottish expeditions this year have not been altogether too successful.

Adding to the concert list we have the wonderful Francis Dunnery in October. Can only make the show he's playing in his home town of Workington (west lakes), but it will be fun to see him there. Maybe we'll stop in Wasdale too. Again - always a treat. A Springsteen jolly in December may be on if I can tickets for Belfast. Tickets are a big ask, but it's easy (and cheap) to get over there from Liverpool on Easyjet, and the show is handily on a Saturday. We shall see. Prince is coming up soon too. Am going to his penultimate O2 arena show, in 3 weeks. Seems like he's been playing there for months. And, err, he has! Rush and the Hip too. And a trip to Spain cycling, all in the next couple of months. Bring it on.

Shouldn't complain

2007-07-25T05:28:00.001-07:00

Time does not often drag but for some reason this week seems to be gong at a snail’s pace and I find myself wishing for the weekend to arrive. Probably a combination of the continuing bloody awful ‘summer’ weather or the fact I have a cough and a cold.

Still, shouldn’t complain as there’s always folk worse off than yourself, and this week’s main candidates for the worst off I feel are the residents of the flooded areas down south. Rivers are overflowing all over the place and in worst hit is Tewkesbury which is usually on, but is at present is in the River Severn. It has turned into an island community, accessible only by boat as it’s surrounded by 6 feet of water.
With fresh water supplies cut off and only heroic efforts by the authorities preventing electricty supplies going as well, they seem to have a real drama going on down there. Oxford and other towns nearby are due to have some serious problems today as the Severn looks like it’s going to overload. But, it’s amazing how us Brits do just ‘get on with it’ and I guess you would have to in such circumstances. It’s rained an awful lot and consequently there’s floods. Never mind - just crack on with it.

Shock news (not): there’s been doping in the Tour de France. One of the pre race favourites Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping after winning Saturday's time-trial stage. I am surprised that I am surprised at this news. After all the desperate efforts to try to clean this sport of the drug cheats prior to this year’s event here we go with the wrong type of headlines, yet again. The real shame is that le Tour is still such a great public sporting spectacle (witness 3 million people on the roads of London and Southern England for this year’s opening 2 stages) and once again it’s been horribly tainted. Makes me wonder just how the hell they are ever going to clean it up, if at all?

I now have an account on Facebook, a ‘social’ website. You make ‘friends’ and write notes on Walls; send fish to each other; join networks and generally join in with the fun of it all. It kind of smacks of being a short lived fad for the desperate to seem trendy, if you ask me. It is a tad pointless as there’s a million other ways of talking to your mates already on and (shock horror) off line (he says posting this on a Blog site!). As my friend Bryan stated in a Facebook message: he now comminucates online in the evening with the people he works with all day. Now that's progress for you eh?

Shiny and new....

2007-07-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

The great advantage of not buying full suspension is that you get better value: seriously good kit on a great frame for your hard earned. This (a Specialised Stumpjumper HT Expert) is a seriously great bike. Plus, everyone knows that full suspension is for wimps.

Things booking up

2007-06-15T05:05:00.001-07:00

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.

The God Delusion

2007-06-04T06:07:00.001-07:00

It's now out in paperback and it's an important book.
Richard Dawkins simply tells it how it is.
Buy, it, borrow it, blag it... read it.

Bloody weather

2007-06-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

Global warming? Global cooling more like. It was effing freezing last weekend: almost liderally, mates. And now it's warm and sunny again. What's going on? I liked it back when it was predictable: when it was nice and cold in the winter with snow and stuff, and you had your parka on a lot; and then hot all summer when the plastic sandals came out and we went and swam in the Mersey off Harrison Drive.
Plastic sandals cannot have been good for your feet though. I'm surprised there's not a complete generation of folk these daus suffering from with paediatric deformities and chronic walking problems. I do notice however that there's now a new generation of 'plastic' footware which are considered trendy by grown ups which I find myself hankering after for no apparent reason and against all logic. This is a legacy of being a child of the seventies.
The swims in the Mersey I guess would have been even more dangerous to one's health back then than the endemic footware. Nowadays Liverpool's famous waterway is really rather clean and the area is noted for its beautiful sandy beaches. No - honest, it is.
Looking over the promenade wall at Wallasey these days you are no longer faced with a vista of endless (and stinking) mud flats at low tide. Now it's just miles and miles of clean sand. The council chalets have gone (see below), as has the Derby Pool. Due to the huge popularity of that area (in particular New Brighton) from the 50s onwards there there were two art deco open air swimming pools in Wallasey within a couple of miles of each other. The New Brighton baths was the biggest and had some seriously high diving boards into a 15 feet deep end. I loved them both, but with the decline of the area in the 80s they shut down, and it was a quite a shocker to go back there one year and find them demolished. The new promenade and sea defences which have gone up over the past 20 years or so do look great, and obviously work a treat holding all that sand. New Brighton these days, while not quite being the resort it once was, is looking pretty good now after an almost total facelift, and has emerged as a rather smart residential area with the obvious attraction of it's views of the Liverpool sea front across the river.
The water itself has changed colour too. Well, it must have. To be honest I cannot remember what colour it was, or maybe I've just blanked it out. Families, relatives and half our street (or so it seemed) would hire a beach chalet on Harrison Drive for what felt like all the summer holidays. Inside there was enough room for some deck chair and wind break storage, plus a gas cooker and grill which always produced stripey toast. Us kids would spend the summer on the beach. At low tide it was a case of making huge competition 'dams' against the prom steps to 'stop' the incoming tide. Then come high tide we'd be leaping from the promenade wall into the waves and end up splashing about in a mix of whatever was being pumped out into the river all along the Manchester Ship Canal. Oil, sewage, dead marine life, other floating, err, phenomena, and christ knows what else we would gulp down while attempting to regain a hold on the Harrison drive slipway wall to get back on for another jump. I can still remember gulping down water while fighting in the swell against the sea wall where there were bits of rope to climb back up. It's a real wonder we never went down with any stomach issues, not to mention tetanus from the endless scratches you'd end up with on your knees doing this.
Then there was the wandering off out to the sea, which was a long way off shore at low tide, and the race to get back and not to get cut off when it started coming in. Where were my parents when all this was going on? Sunbathing and drinking no doubt. It was bordering on neglect if you ask me.
Anyway, where was I? The weather's a bit changeable isn't it. Maybe t'was ever thus...

Dave Matthews Band

2007-05-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated on here for ages. Well, I have been busy! But another gig calls for some more words of relative wisdom so here goes:

Dave Matthews Band , Wembley Arena 30th May 2007

First, a word about the Arena itself. God I used to hate this place as it was always a horrible old concrete bunker with lousy acoustics. But, it's neighbour the footy stadium has had a recent face lift so the kind people of Wembley have given little brother a facelift too, and by golly it's really rather good in there now. Modern, non-concrete and everythng inside which was a really pleasant surprise. It actually looks like the NEC Arena used to when that was new, but without the horrible colour scheme. The outside has had a switch round meaning that the main entrance and box office is now facing the stadium and there's a good sized new landcaped area between them with a bunch of water fountains to play in - if that's your bag.

The new Stadium looks stunning from the outside with that enormous roof arch. I am so glad they waited for that place until it was done properly, and just plain old got it right. I doubt I will ever go in there, but, hey, it's nice to look at.

We got tickets via DMB's "Warehouse", which is a sort of fan club: an internet subscription thing where you get advanced tickets warning and hopefully priority tickets. My mate Nick is a member and when saw Dave's acoustic show in Manchester the other month we had 3rd row from the front seats, so it works. Trouble is in the States I should imagine that half the crowd in a given DMB show will be Warehouse members so everyone will get priority. Anyhow, for this Wembley show we had standing seats, were told to get to the box office early and we'd be let in first and this proved to be exactly the case. Those of us who had been given blue wrist bands got let onto the floor area and we wandered down to the front to sit down and claim our patch about 10 feet from the barrier, front and centre. Marvellous. Of course I was aware that I was positioned right at the front of a crowd of maybe 5000 standing people and was therefore rather vulnerable to crushing and drunk idiots barging their way through at some point. But amazingly this never happened. Maybe the average DMB watcher has more sense than to go barging 'down the front' as soon as the band come on, maybe they just cannot be bothered. The result that was once we were stood up we retained our space and were pretty comfortable throughout the evening's procedings. So, well done Warehouse and congrats to a very well behaved crowd.

Support was from Ex Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello who was a bit crap really. Think Bruce Springsteen in full on blue collar acoustic mode but nowhere near as good In fact don't think about The Boss at all coz Tom isn't in his league. Still, he passed another 30 minutes before the main event, and he was that bloke from Rage and Audioslave so he deserved a bit of respect.

And then, quarter of an hour early, on to the huge stage casually sauntered the Dave Matthews Band. It was pinch myself time as after 10 years of waiting here I was , stood about 20 feet from them. Maybe the reason why Britain doesn't 'get' DMB (well, there are meany reasons, but here's one…) is that while most bands would pile in guns blazing for their opening number of their fist UK gig in a decade DMB start very quietly almost like an orchestra tuning up. Dave strums his acoustic a bit and hums something a bit melodic while the others join in gradually… nontiantly. The audience goes bonkers at first when they amble on stage but are soon quiet , watching and wondering what's going to happen. Not much really, and we are treated to a 5 minute piece of what would best be described as atmosphere before Carter Beauford gets his proper drumsticks out, counts them in and the band thunder into their opening number proper - the mighty Don't Drink the Water. And that is the escence of the Dave Matthews Band. They easily could play a whole evening of crowd pleasing up tempo showstoppers from their extensive back catalogue, but they choose not to. They do pepper the set with a few choice foot stompers: Louisiana Bayou, Stay, So Much to Say, Too Much all got an airing as well as the inevitable and fantastic Ants Marching. But just as much they will head off into a 15 minute jammed out Jimi Thing where everyone may get a solo. Noodling nonsense this may be to many but to actually watch them do this live is a treat - to see the interaction between them: the nods, glances, smiles and their cues to each other to head off on one, or bring the band back in together is great. I don't know of any other band who would get away with this in gigs of such a large scale, but this is what these guys do. And lets not forget that they do this on an even bigger scale in the States where they will fill the big (20 - 25,000 seater) ampitheatres effortlessly all summer. They are utterly unique, and I feel pretty privileged to have seen them actually.
They did nearly 3 hours for us and finally encored with a belting Two Step during which drummer Carter went paticularly bonkers, cutting loose round his enormous kit. It was a bloody fantastic gig and now I really see why these guys have the live reputation they do. Hopefully it won't be 10 years before they are back over here again.

But, gigs in London mean a road trip and it was half past 3 when I got home this morning. It was actually getting light by that time. Nick and I shared the driving and, fuelled by Red Bull and chewy mints, we did the long drag back up the M1 without nodding off which was an achievement.

So, that was it. Roll on the next gig, which is a big one: Peter Gabriel and Crowded House in Hyde Park in 3 weeks. I hope the weather improves as it was bloody awful this weekend….

First listens

2007-04-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

Snakes and Arrows, Rush's 157th (approx.) studio album and their second original release in, err, 11 years, comes out next week. Having heard some snippets it does sound like they've gone for it again and we'll be pleasantly suprised that this trio of 50-odd year olds, 30 odd years on (is there another band who has been together for so long with the same line up?) can pull another gem of a cd out of their collective hat. Mind you, the last one (Vapour Trails in 2002) was a big suprise in that it was actually made at all, and then subsequently that it rocked like a bastard. Unfortunately VT has not 'matured' in the way many of their previous albums have. This is mainly to do with it's ProTools recording approach and the 'everything louder than everything else' mastering resulting, in it all just being way too loud and a bit harsh to listen to all the way through. Some great songs on it though. This new one sounds a belter so I am very much looking forward to my package from Play.com arriving Monday. Open CD; insert in stereo; play LOUD and sit back and enjoy whilst taking in meaningful artwork and intelligent lyrics. The first listen to a new Rush album is a rare and precious thing.

In other news it's been all go of late. 3 weekends on the trot with the kids, including a 6 day stint over Easter meant I didn't surface for the best part of a month, but I got a 'me' weekend the one just gone. Spent the Saturday being a tourist in Liverpool with Rach and Rich Eatough, who was up from Reading for the weekend. (He is currently hobbling boy having pranged his ankle at Easter coming off his bike.) It was a top day out going round the old town and Liverpool city is currently being massively transformed - almost beyond recognition. There's so much construction going on it's ridiclous. 2007: City of cranes.... 2008: City of European Culture. Still, the old pub haunts are still there, hidden round the corners from shiny office blocks and funky inner city living or huddled between enormous new retail opportunities and/or wine/coffee bars . It makes for great fun seeking out the old stuff in amongst all the new. It's all still there - if you know where to look and I do think that the old and the new are sitting alongside each other in the city really rather well to be honest, and it's all looking very, very good over there. Anyhow, we did both catherdrals and finished off with a trip on the ferry to make it a proper Liverpool day out.

Holly was 6 this week. SIX! Christ, time flies a bit like a mad whizzy flying thing, eh? I have been Rush 'fan' now for 28 years. Now THAT is scary.

Barenaked Ladies, Leeds University

2007-03-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

I saw these guys live again this week - at Leeds University - and as ever they delivered a fantastic show. They remind me of Crowded House circa early 90's as they effortlessly deliver a set full of Steve Page and Ed Robinson's wonderful songs brilliantly played, and yet they don't take themselves very seriously at all. Much laughing on stage (mainly at each other) and some inspired comedy, including a delirious choreographed dance sequence by the whole band which cumulated in a 'fight' in the style of West Side Story.
On stage chat for the evening was mainly based round the twin burning subjects of the outrageous visibility of British plumbing and the seemingly endless variety of our crisp packet flavours.
Opening with One Week and The Old Apartment they hit the stage running and played a good mix of old and new material, with several choice offerings from their excellent latest album, Barenaked Ladies are Me (available in all reputable audio retailers now, folks). There was also a great little acoustic section where the banjo and mandolin were dusted off, also featuring drummer Tyler as lead bongo-lier. $100,000 made it's usual appearance as an encore and the evenings closer was the always incredibly poignant Call and Answer. It's easy to forget that these guys have been together for 15 years now and have a lot of songs to choose from.
Mention should also be made of their excellent (and now it seems regular) support act: comedian with guitar, Boothby Graffoe.
'Ladies newbie Rachel was highly impressed by the band, the show and the songs, and and I feel this was a good start to her Canadian musical education. Next up for her it's The Hip!

Dave Matthews

2007-03-14T02:22:00.000-07:00

Dave Matthews. Who is he? Just know that he is an American and usually seen fronting the Dave Matthews Band. Never heard of them either? Good. Lets keep it that way.
I saw him and his mate Tim Reynolds play a two and a half hour acoustic show in Manchester last week which was one of the best live gigs I have ever seen. Whether it was the amazing songs, the wonderful delivery or the tangible air of nervous expectation from the sell out crowd (this man is a genuine American icon) I don’t know. But the combination of factors made this (for me anyhow) a quite extraordinary event to witness.
And I get to see the whole Dave Matthews band in London in May – the first time they’ve played the UK for over 10 years – and that will be a real treat.

House move looms

2007-02-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

Apparently a house move is a very stressful event. I have to agree. I am only going next door and the whole thing seems to be weighing on my mind rather alarmingly.

Next door? Well, No.16 was being gutted and refurbished so I got first refusal on it a while back. Only renting still but a bit of a move up in the world from No.14 now it's all spangly and new. I'll still be able to deafen Jo at the back with my music (and vice versa) so no change at all really. IKEA here I come for furniture (is there anywhere else which sells house stuff?).

Only moving about 20 feet or so and yet I still I have to pack and box all my posessions to be carried round and dumped in the new place to be ritually unpacked again. I kind of thought that I didn't have that much, but think again monkey boy - looks like there's fucking tons of it. You can never have too many CDs. Ho hum. A busy week then.

The new place has a bike cellar. Hurrah. Just like the original Pudsey place we had there's a large cellar completely perfect for the storage and maintenance of bicycles. I'll also have a dishwasher AND tumble dryer which is dead posh, but neither of which will get that much use due to their extortionate running costs (he says).

In other news it seems to be the season for elderly parents (not mine I should add) to be in hospital with serious conditions. Some of these people deserve to get better more than others do, and we shall leave it at that.

Spring is sprunging with the daffs almost out in the parks, and I can just about get in and out of work now without the aid of lights. Can that be blamed on global warming? probably.

2007: year of music...

2007-01-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

Bands touring for whom I already have a ticket:
Barenaked Ladies (Leeds, March)
Dave Matthews (solo) (Manchester, March)
Dave Matthews Band (Wembley, May)
Toto (Manchester, March)

Bands rumoured to be touring for whom I will get tickets (note the total Canadian bias of this section):
Rush ('autumn'... 'early 2008' ) New album due May. Produced by guy who has been doing the Foo fighters, so it should ROCK.
The Tragically Hip ('summer').

Bands reforming for whom I will get a ticket:
Crowded House. New album imminent. Ok, it won't quite be the same without Paul Hester, but those SONGS...

Bands reforming who I won't get a ticket for as I won't go to a football stadium/stand in a field:
Genesis. Shame - would like to see them again.

Bands probably/possibly reforming for whom I would give my right arm to see - in a football stadium or wherever:
Van Halen with Dave Lee Roth. Now definitely on: doing 40 dates in the States. I doubt they'll get over here though :-( .
Edit: This was definitely on (for about a week) but then postponed as EVH has gone into rehab. Phew: rock and roll.

The Police (looking likely now).
Edit: At £85 a ticket they can stick it.

Band for whom there are no rumours/announcements but who should just get over here and play anyway as they are (he is) overdue a visit:
Prince

Looks like we may get ZZ Top this summer. Excellent.

New Year

2007-01-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

I saw out the end of 2006 in the fair city of Edinburgh, and it turned out to be a(nother) right good do. When I say that Edinburgh was "fair" this in no way refers to the weather, which was just appalling. So bad in fact that all the Hogmannay events in the city were called off. And, dammit, I so wanted to do a ceilidh.

... and I was going to write a whole thing on the weekend but can't be arsed as I am knackered. I'll just highlight a few salient points:
Rach, Dave and John.
Drive.
Katy.
Cats.
Brie toasties and whole garlic clove stuffed olives.
Air bed.
Bus.
Wind. Rain. Rain. Wind.
Coffee.
Castle.
Wind. rain.
Haggis, neaps and tatties.
Did I mention wind and rain?
Other people.
Deep fried Mars bar.
Rain.
Bus.
Bus.
Hurricane.
Pub.
Countdown.
Texting.
Fireworks (in London).
Streets full of people.
Wind and rain. Dammit.
Bus.
Air bed (properly blown up).
Goodbyes.
Drive. Drive. Drive.

So, you get the picture?

Thanks to Rachael, Katy, John and Dave.

Roll on 2007.

Move Along

2006-12-28T07:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all my readers (that’s about 5 of you then!)

Well, 2006 has been a bit of a strange one. However, I guess in many ways it was more straightforward than previous years as decisions were made and actions completed this time last year. Consequently I’ve been ‘on my own’ for the whole of the past 12 months. A Year! It was not exactly the long term battle plan to be marooned in a cheap rental place whilst forking out hand over fist for the other house, and also trying to do my best by the kids… But, hey ho, life is nothing if not unpredictable, eh?

Still, it’s been OK. Even if my Leeds social life has not taken off in the slightest I’m so glad of the opportunity to hook up again with the likes of Rachael (who has been a great friend), Rich Eatough and Sam. And I even got to see Bryan again! Scottie is next on the “catch up” list and hopefully we’ll remedy that in January. You never know I may even see Stef one of these days too... :-)

Other plusses from 2006:
- The kids seem to be dealing with the situation very well, and in many respects I’m dealing with them a lot better. The deal I made with myself was that when they are with me I am theirs and I am not allowed to be distracted. They come first, I concentrate on them 100%, and I’ve hopefully managed to stick to that particular rule. We’ve had some excellent weekends and hopefully next year I can organise some time ‘away’ with them: down south at least.
- The two cycle trips really were fabulous and there’s been some good weekends away for me. The 'free' time has been used wisely I reckon and I've not had many thumb twiddling bored weekend days.
- I’ve seen a few great concerts.
- My fitness seems to be at an all time high (as I have nothing else better to concentrate on!).
Minuses:
- It’s been rather lonely at times. But I have never been ‘down’ so to speak and still remain eternally optimistc.
- Money. Don’t speak to me about money.

2007. The plan:
As the All American Rejects so succinctly put it on their fine second album: “Move along“. I have events to do; bands to see; people to meet; places to go; finances to sort out.
I have to move house come February as (landlady) Fiona is selling up so that’s the first hurdle, and hopefully I can stay near where I am. Next door (it’s being done out to rent) would be ideal!
I want to enter a half Iron Man triathlon and see how that goes.
I’d like to do another bike trip and Spain is being discussed for May/June.
I should re-join the Leeds Mountaineering club and get out on their weekenders away.
Pack in drinking completely. (This may not happen - I'll likely just continue to drink minimally as I have been this year.)
See more live music.
Oh, and get some proper swim coaching from the tri club.

So, there you go. I supposed that is a New Year resolution or two. Good to get them down in black and white. Good to have aims. Move along.

Starting as I mean to go on as I am off to Edinburgh with Rachael and her mates for the Hogmanay at the weekend. It looks like a great (big) event. The weather forecast looks atrocious though so fingers crossed. I’ve never actually been to Edinburgh (as a grown up – see below) so it will be good to have a look around that city, as well as meet some new people and do the New Year in style.

I have been to Edinburgh. Once. On a train trip for the day from Liverpool with my dad, Uncle George and cousin Tim. I must have been in my teens I suppose. The only thing I can remember about the city is the castle being closed as the military tattoo was on, so we took a bus out to the Forth road bridge and walked across it to the middle. So my one great memory of my one and only previous Edinburgh trip is just how long it takes spit to get down to the river from the middle of the Forth road bridge. Who says us Liverpudlians aren’t cultured ...

Status Quo freebie

2006-12-14T12:27:00.000-08:00

I won tickets to see Quo in Nottingham. Not a band that I would say I would have ever bought tickets to see these days, but on a freebie they were quite an exciting prospect. I had seen them before, once, supporting Queen on that huge day in 1986 at Knebworth which sadly turned out to be Queen’s last show ever. Quo were just great and they are one of those bands which I think need to be seen live at least once in a music fan’s lifetime. The band seem to be getting some long overdue respect lately. It’s amazing what an appearance on Coronation Street will do for your career…

To win I had emailed into Planet Rock radio a flippant answer to a quiz question and amazingly I won a pair of tickets. For Nottingham Arena though – not exactly close to home, but never mind - it's a freebie.

So Tuesday night I (and mate Rich from work) chose to do some alleged technical support at the Sheffield office and drive down from there to make things a bit easier on the travel front. Once off the M1 we discovered that Nottingham is a rather big city centre with a nightmare onme way system and impossible to find car parks littered all over the place at the wrong end of one way streets. But we got in one eventually and fortunately found ourselves parked not too far from the arena.

Now, normally when there’s a concert on in a venue, come doors opening time there’s people milling about all over the place. I had expected to see an army of denim clad folk lining up to get in to the arena. But when we got there the place looked deserted which was most odd. We had a beer in a good but not too full pub next door and then walked to the arena entrance. And there were some people there, and amazingly the place looked like it was getting pretty full, but it was really quite strange the lack of people outside.

Once inside we found that our seats were great. Having previously checked the seating plan of the arena we were sure we’d be at the front of a block near the back of the arena floor. But we were at the front of the second block back from the stage i.e. good and close. Excellent.

We missed one of the support bands but the second one really were bloody awful. "The 27s" they were called and they were all the way from Australia. Why they’d actually bothered to come all this way I really don’t know. The Aussies may be good at cricket but they can keep their awful support bands. I’m not generally one for slagging off bands as most do have some redeeming qualities but this trio: no. A poor pub blues outfit is about the best I could decribe them as. Avoid at all costs - if you are ever in Australia. Luckily they weren’t on for long and the mighty Quo appeared at 9 pm.

The denim clad army of Quo fans of old has, inevitably, turned into a bunch of bearded, balding (some with pony tails...) middle aged blokes. People have grown old with this band, and that is quite an amazing thing. Just as I was part of the 'old' Rush followers at their shows in 2004 and felt such a part of the gigs because of my long history with the band, these folks were the same and I really felt the ... yes.. love ... from the audience when the band took to he stage. The front row were obviously the crowd who were following the tour and they got a good deal of recongnition from the band once they came on. There were lots of youngsters about too: kids of the old rockers. Dads and their favourite band showing junior just how it should be done.

Status Quo deliver exactly what you’d expect: great 12 bar Status Quo rock. Actually, it’s to their great credit that they’ve never become a caricature of themselves. They play loudly and look like they are having a lot of fun doing so. And (why should this suprise me?) it turns out that Francis Rossi is a very very good guitarist. This is the band don’t forget who can casually knock off the stunning trio of Down Down, Whatever You Want and Rockin’ All Over the World: amazing rock songs that you just KNOW (everyone knows) and cannot help but sing along to with a cheesy grin on your face. "Look - that's Status Quo up there...."

They played 2 hours of the boogie rock that they have made their own, with Rossi continuously mugging to the crowd whilst knocking off fabulous bluesy solos, or seriously noisy rhythm work while wandering all over the stage. And Rick Parfitt is his perfect stage foil, keeping out of the limelight and providing great rhythm work, and not to mention some of the most famous guitar intros ever.

All in all fabulous to see them in action, and best my ticket win of all time. I think to be honest it’s my second only ticket win of all time. The other I can remember was to see Bjork’s old band the Sugarcubes in Liverpool a long time a go.

A top night all round and it was about 90 mins back home up a for once deserted M1. Post gig ears ringing factor: 1 day.

So that's The Who and Status Quo both seen live in 2006. Look out: "old rocker" alert... I just need to grow that pony tail.

Volleyball, bikes and Brakes

2006-12-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

Visitors this weekend. My old friend Rich from Reading. "Old friend" sounds like we go back many, many years. Well, I guess we do go back a few as we met whilst in the Cardiff Uni mountain bike club which was circa 1990. So that's 16 years ago, and I would think that qualifies us as being "old friends", although Rich would no doubt complain at the “old” label as he’s a mere slip of a lad. One important bond we have is that we are both graduates of not only Cardiff University but also of the "Ian Jeremiah Cardiff bike 'til you drop hard knock school of off road cycle training". Ian’s philosophy was a 30 miles of hills on a Saturday (and Sunday if you could make it to the museum steps for the meet up on a hangover) style of leadership with “everyone does everything” (ie no chickening on the downhills allowed) and absolutely no quarter was given for blowing up the other side of Caerphilly mountain. And blowing up the other side of Caerphilly was something that I personally did pretty much every Saturday for about 6 months until my legs got used to the, err, punishment. However, this experience I think gave us a really rather fabulous grounding in the high art of off road cyling, and we will always find ourselves grateful for Ian for his encouragement, leadership and, well, teaching.

Rich's girlfriend is the lovely Silvia who was playing volleyball with her team up north - one game in Manchester Saturday and the other at Leeds Uni today. They play at a high level and won both matches which was a great effort as they were the underdogs for each one. After the game Saturday I had a bit of a volleyball knock around with Rich (who also plays - the pair of them met up at their volleyball club) and I've not done any volleyball since I was at school - a LONG time ago! The result of this little knock about was a nice pair of bruised wrists and thumbs for yours truly, as digging a volleyball round with no proper technique proved to be a rather painful experience. One of those sports which looks so easy but ... it's not.

Rich and I had a look round Salford Quays down the road while the volleyball was going on in nearby Eccles. Now - on the subjest of LS Lowry. Personally I cannot really see what all the fuss is about with this guy and his silly matchstalk drawings. All very nice but not quite worthy of having a state of the art gallery (and not to mention a major retail outlet centre) built round them? But then again this is Manchester where there's not really all that much else to celebrate is there? So, only in Manchester would a bunch of any-child-could-do-better quality artwork end up being so extravagantly lauded.

Saturday night saw us back over the correct side of the Pennines in Leeds and out in town. Now Rich and I, when it comes to music, have a similar outlook in that we both like a diverse amount of stuff, but the overlap of our tastes could best be described as 'minimal'. Rich really likes his indie bands and I found out that one of these, indeed his current favourite, Brakes were playing at the Leeds Cockpit Saturday night. They did sound a bit weedy indie cack on CD but I have to say that live they were very very good, and post-gig their 2 cds 'make sense'. One of those facts of life is that bands only really come into full view after you’ve seen them live.

While Silvia was volleyballing again today Rich and I got on on the mountain bikes for a spin in the mud and wind. Yep – conditions were a bit harsh out on the trails it has to be said but Team Klein battled on manfully for a couple of hours round the Pudsey circuit and came back via the jetwash. Consequently Teams Klein’s bikes are now both spangly clean you’ll all be glad to hear.

So, now it’s Sunday evening and I was going to settle down and watch V is for Vendetta from the NTL “On Demand” service. However, it seems that I am short of a PIN number for such a service so, so much for that cunning plan. Best get on with the washing and ironing then….

Holly Art

2006-11-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

It might not look much but I know just how much thought and effort went into this on Holly's part. This is one she prepared earlier: when she was in her 'many colours' phase!

Holly: Art Explained

2006-11-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I reckon Holly is a very good artist. She loves drawing and seems to really put a great deal of thought into the pictures she does. Her disability may limit her freedom of movement but it doesn't seem to stop her (at five years old) really wanting to express herself in this way. She's always really pleased with the results of these drawing sessions.

How we do it is I sit with her and give her choice of all the crayons (I bought some plastic coated ones which are perfect for her and she cannot snap them - she's a bit heavy handed) for the colour. Then I hold her hand and assist while she does the actual drawing – basically keeping her from losing her grip on the crayon. I also ask her which bit of the paper she wants to aim for – or she tells me if I’m doing something wrong.

She obviously has a limited range of ability but she can do sqiggles, lines, small circles or long sweeps and she tends to do just one of these things per drawing. She finishes each colour quickly, often not having done much at all with it, and moves on to the next choice. She’ll use 3 or 4 colours maximum per drawing and does not just scrawl randomly – she tries for instance not to overlap the colours and obvioulsy has a specific pattern in mind for each new piece of paper. She was all purple and oranges on the last session, with the odd splash of red, brown or black. That was all she used out of 15 coloured crayons. She is very decisive about when each one is finished too and never goes back to it. Given a sheet of A4 she only ever does enough to fit the frame size we've been using which has been 5 x 7 inches, and this goes for painting too: When she has the opportunity to splash paint round a large sheet of paper she always keeps her efforts neatly confined to a relatively small area.

Though there are many things which make me think “what if …” with Holly, this activity is one where I know she gets a lot of satisfaction from, especially when she sees the pictures in the frames. It’s a “look what I can do” thing I reckon.

I've quite a few of her efforts framed now and they are really good bits of work. I love them.

Life in the old dog

2006-11-07T04:55:00.000-08:00

I did a mountain bike race at the weekend. This is the first time I have entered an official race for years and I've only done two before now. The first one was when I was Cardiff Uni in what must have been about 1992 and was at a course near Port Talbot. Seemed like a good idea at the time (as everyone else was entered for it) but it was just grim. It was a horrible rainy day and involved three laps of a hard course - something for which I just was not a) prepared and b) fit enough. I did finish, but was completely blown and practically hypothermic by the end and vowed never to race again.

The next one was not long after we moved to Leeds (1997 I think), near Pudsey at Tong Hall. Some of the guys we'd met biking locally were entering so I had a go. That one was pretty good actually and I did OK, but I was fitter by then.

This weekend's jaunt at Lightwater near Ripon looked like a decent event, the weather has been great, so I thought what the hell, turned up and entered on the day. There were a few others from the North Leeds group also signed up so it was a bit of a team atmosphere.

The course was 17 miles (3 laps) round the park grounds, undulating more than hilly. Lots of hardpack; a bit of tarmac; some great bits of quick singletrack; into and out of a quarry, and some grassy fields to cross. One or two cheeky technicalities and some short sharp drops and climbs gave it all some interest. 17 miles is maybe 90 minutes so therefore basically a continuous burn - an exercise in who's legs can last the longest?!

I was really pleased that I paced it well. I thought I'd gone off too hard on the first lap but settled in comfortably, stuck at my pace and just about managed to hold it until the end. I clocked 1:24:30 which put me 13th in the 80 strong Vets category, so I was pretty pleased with that.

Not bad at all. There's life in this old dog yet!

Pet Sounds

2006-10-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

Current musical favourites chez (and voiture and iPod) Andy

The Feeling: Twelve Stops and Home. I bought this in HMV after hearing them play one track from it over the PA, and what a good decision it’s proved to be as it’s a very fine album indeed. I do like a band who can write good songs, and this is a whole CD full of great quality. It's very contemporary sounding, but there’s lots of old school references too: 10cc in particular, but definitely shades of Supertramp and I can almost hear Paul McCartney singing a couple of the tracks. Great stuff, and I am most pleased with my impulse buy.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Stadium Arcadium. Two Cds; 28 songs, which to be honest is a bit too much to take in so I’ve only really played disk one in the couple of weeks since I bought it. I’ve always enjoyed their stuff and with their last couple of albums they’ve settled down into writing great, catchy, loud, funky rock music and Stadium Arcadium is just that. More than anything these guys are a great BAND. Four musicians who gel as a unit in a unique fashion (rather like U2 in that way). Guitarist John Frusciante I think is a genius, both technically and as a song writer. To think that not so long ago this bloke had done so much drug taking that, amongst other things, all his teeth fell out it’s quite astonishing that he’s come back into the band and remained focused for them to produce their most successful string of albums to date. The Chilli Peppers are a band who are right on top of their game and who are an absolute pleasure to listen to.

The Tragically Hip: World Container. The Hip have been at this business 20 years now and still remain a wondrous Canadian secret. Canada’s most beloved band. I got to see them again in London in July and they as ever produced an electrifying performance, led by the verging on insane stage persona of singer Gord Downie. They have always been guaranteed live dynamite whilst I think some of their studio output I think has been a bit patchy of late. With World Container, however, they’ve produced their most accessible, straightforward (commercial?)album for a long time. It is absolutely bloody fantastic. Top marks to them then for choosing Bob Rock as producer on this one. Rock’s name was openly cursed by the Hip’s internet fanbase when they heard he had got the chair for the new CD as it seems he’s “ruined” other bands he’s got hold of in the studio (eg Metallica). But he’s obviously gelled big time with The Hip as they’ve produced a storming, heads down belter of a CD. Rock has said in interviews that he’s always wanted to do the “classic” Canadian album (he’s a Cannuck himself) and perhaps this is it. I just wish they’d release it outside North America, but there are ways and means of getting hold of such things… Best song title ever as well on this one too: Luv (sic). Genius. It’s a real thrill when one of your favourite bands releases a new album, and when it turns out to be as good as this one is then it really is a treat.

Barenaked Ladies: Barenaked Ladies are Me. More from Canada, but the other side of the Canadian musical coin perhaps as BNL made the transition from ‘just known in Canada’ to huge world success with their excellent Stunt album and ‘One Week’ single a few years back. That was 3 albums ago though now, and they’ve continued on since then with a lesser degree of platinum sales perhaps but with a consistent ability to write whole albums full of great songs. And also with a massive, hugely loyal fanbase. I really rated their last one “Everything to Everybody” but with BLAM they’ve surpassed themselves once again on the writing front. Having fulfilled their big label recording contract they’ve now gone independent and this enables them to do pretty much what they like, so this is another double CD fest (if you go for the full download version) release. 27 songs of ridiculously high standard: no filler apparent at all. Great stuff. As with the Hip BNL seem to love playing over here so we get to see them live on a regular basis in the UK. Get your tickets for their British dates next March as they are a live outfit not to be missed. A band who have a supreme ability to not take themselves seriously in any way (they mess about quite a bit on stage, often improvising whole songs), but at the same time produce some of the most spine tinglingly great live renditions of their ever growing catalogue. I’ll never forget being sat front and centre of the balcony in the Manchester Apollo while they rattled off a string of four or five album tracks and I just could not believe how ‘perfect’ they were at that moment: the band, the performance, the sound, the songs, everything. Stunning, in a word. One of those times when your spine just tingles with the experience and you feel forever indebted to the band for doing such a thing for you.
Anyway: Barenaked Ladies are Me: a top album from a great band.

Ramble On

2006-10-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

I have an annoying cold. It's not quite enough of a cold to be properly (miserably) ill, but just enough to keep me waking up with a sore throat and then being sneezy and snotty for half the day, every day. It's also enough to prevent swimming. Ever tried swimming with a snotty nose? Not good - drowning is a distinct possibility - so I haven't been for 2 weeks. Must pick it up again next week, if this fucking cold disappears.

Anyway - still doing the running and have been commuting on the bike as ever. Snot dispersal is easy when running and cycling. Especially cycling as that's what cycle mitts are for.

Hey, what's with the weather anyhow? It's mid October and still no sign of the bike leggings going on as yet. Indeed it's still pretty much shorts and a single top on the way home. It's been a mixed bag of showers and sun all week, and when it's sunny it's proper warm. I noticed there's new nettles out on the running trails - even the plants are getting confused.

Hey - my new bike light is excellent. This week has been the first where lights are needed on the roads of a morning so it is being used in earnest as dawn is now between half 7 and 8 o'clock. OK, so I paid £13o for a bike light but it's a great bike light and makes me feel safe on the road, even in the twilight hours. Well, when I say 'safe' I mean 'more visible'. 'Safe' is not a state of mind which can be in any way connected with cycle commuting. I caught myself daydreaming whilst cycling the other night. Not a wise thing to do as when you daydream the eyes in the back of your head go asleep, and you lose your periferal vison. As everyone knows eyes in the back of your head are essential whilst bike commuting. Just like a £13o light.

Watching "Clerks" on DVD. A true classic and a steal at £6 in the current HMV sale. I never as a rule buy films on DVD as they generally get watched once and then shelved, but cold not resist this one... and the 3 disk edition of Memento for an utterly bargainesque £7. Hours of triple disk directors' commentaries, alternative endings; hilarious outtakes; original screen tests, actors' biographies; 'making of' documentaries; exclusive stills libraries and special web link DVD extras fun. So, I'll likely watch each one once and then shelve them.

Right - must prepare for the weekend.... Ok. That's that done.

It's one of those rare occasions where I can actually have a lie in tomorrow. Of course I won't have a lie in because I'll be wide awake at half 7. Do you grow out of lie ins I wonder? Or maybe we just grow through lie in phases in life. Mind you some people (you ladies in particular) seem to be able to muster a monster lie in at any opportunity. Lie ins are a gender thing? Discuss.

Holly

2006-10-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

Holly - she smiles a lot.

Jamie

2006-10-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

Jamie and his dad. Jamie avoiding the camera, which is unusual for him!

Holly

2006-10-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

My beautiful little girl.

Book it and they will come...

2006-10-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

A weekend away mountain biking is often easier said than done when it comes to getting a big group of people together. Best thing is to just pick a weekend, book the accomodation and then invite all and sundry along. And so it was for the Coed y Brenin mountain biking trip this weekend.

Coed y Brenin is near Dolgellau which is south North Wales or north Mid Wales. One of the two. Probably both. North Wales we all know about with Snowdonia and all that but I personally think that the Mid Wales area is criminally overlooked as a tourist area in Britain given that it is uniformly stunning. A couple of years ago I did a work thing at Aberystwyth which is two towns further on down into Wales and the drive was just amazing. Mountain bikers tend to know the secrets of Mid Wales as Rhayader for instance is a well trodden biking area with it’s proximity to the wonderful Elan Valley. Follow the A470: just down from Dolgellau there’s Machynlleth, sat in a quite beautiful valley and its Dyfi Forest is full of mountain biking. Onto lovely Llanidloes,(or nip over the top between these two via Staylittle and the inmpressive Clwedog reservoir); through Rhayader to Builth Wells and head down to Brecon and it’s mighty Beacons. Absolutely glorious, the lot of it. Oh, and then there’s the coastline of Cardigan Bay: Barmouth, Aberystwyth etc and points in between. Take a walk to the top of Cader Idris and you can see most of it. Actually – on second thoughts don’t go: stay away and leave the place to us mountain bikers and climbers.

I digress, back to Coed y Brenin. This place was the first ‘made’ mountain bike venue I think in the UK and I’ve visited it maybe 5 or 6 times now over the last 10 years. The absolute joy/madness of it’s flagship short and sweet “Red Bull” trail has never failed to reduce me to an endorphin fuelled, giggling wreck by the time I was racing round it’s bermed conclusion. Then there’s an afternoon out on the sprawling Karrimor trail round 40k of scenic, single tracked or fire roaded forestry, plus the more recent, more technical MBR route. A weekend at CyB involved doing all of them with the Red Bull at least twice.

The visitor centre/café was also top drawer with Sian (ex Wales champion MTB girlie) and her partner Dafydd serving up wondrous big snacks such as cheese or beans on toast (or indeed both), accompanied by huge mugs of tea. Exactly the thing hungry mountain bikers crave. There was also an excellent bike shop at the site. So, when news filtered through early this year that Sian and Dafydd had given up the center and that the place was undergoing a serious make over with new trails and shifting the visitor centre to the other side of the A470, it was difficult to know whether to be pleased or worried. Best thing really was to go a try the place out again, so that’s what we did last weekend.

Our booked accomodation was an excellent 10 berth bungalow at Ferndale (www.coedybrenin.com) within the forest iteslf, which meant we could ride from the house straight onto the trails (the visitor centre was about 10 minutes away round the easy ‘blue’ route). The house had tons of room, an Aga in the kitchen, wood burning stove in the lounge, "pet" mice on the loose, kayaking quailty river flowing next to it – all very ‘countryside’. Everyone turned up late Friday evening after their long drives – the others were the Reading bike crew, most of whom I’d met before. Rich had bought about 4 tons of food so we would certainly not go hungry and Saturday morning we tucked into eggs, bacon and beans done on the Aga. I think we were out by half 10 which is not bad considering there was 9 bikes worth of faffing to be done. Two inexperienced girls in the group sensibly opted for the easy routes so there were seven of us out on the serious trails for the day. We launched into “The Beast” and the old Red Bull now renamed “Tarw” (which is ’Bull’ in Welsh – see what they did there?). About 50k of great riding, and more for some (Rich C, Dean and Annie) as they finished off The Beast – in the dark at about 7pm.

The new and improved visitors' centre …Well, even though it's a lovely wood building and LOOKS great the old one was so good at catering for us cyclists with basic, big food that this one has a lot to live up to. They now seem to be catering for everyone (walkers and families on days out included – ciabatas anyone?) with waitress service. We ordered and then waitied nearly an hour for our food early afternoon, and they messed up the order when we did get it. Rather than complain we (well, Annie) offered some constructive criticism to the owner who was good about it actually. They were just mobbed - busier than August Bank Holiday apparently. 8 weeks it's been open and they are still struggling. But, they are going to have a re-think over the winter and hopefully get it right for next year. Fair enough. They'll get a lot of bad bress in the biking magazines and web sites for sure which is a pity. The bike shop there is actually smaller than the old one which is madness.

My fears about the trail improvments however proved to be unfounded as the new and improved routes really are amazing. Lots of technicalities though and a place only for the experienced. I think everyone came off over the bars on Saturday with some fairing better than others. Rich E (knee/ankle) and Paul (seriously onto his head and knee) were the worst injured with Warwick also putting a good effort in resulting in a neat hole in his elbow.

Saturday night after a marvellous pasta bolognaise cooked by Sue and Sylivia there was much wine and beer drunk in front of the cozy fire in the lounge. Party games materialised, such as the wicked card game “spoons” and the now legendary “team butts”, which was eventually ‘won’ by team jaundice. I think.

Sunday those intrepid souls who could still ride (Rich E and Paul retired due to their injuries) did the MBR route which for me was the best one as it was just pretty much continuous technicalities. We finished off with a flourish round the bits we’d missed out and the finale was part of the ‘blue’ route back down to our house which was an amazing rollercoaster downhill of a singletrack, blasting through the forest at stupid speeds: possibly the best bit of the whole two days. The weather by the way was excellent. One shower Sarturday and other than that lovely with little of the forecast winds in evidence. Sunday was especially good.

Then it was bikes washed; showers; the remains of the bolognaise to finish off; a quick tidy up; pack the cars; scavenge the left over food and then, sadly, it was time to break up the group and go home.

One of those perfect weekends really and hopefully we’ll do it again sometime. Ah, the joy of mountain biking: book somewhere to stay, all turn up and just get out there and ride.

Driving

2006-09-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

I was listening to Radio 4 this morning in the car (as you do) and there was a feature on the proposed new driving laws which are currently being researched. During this feature a lady read out a "victim statement" which she had written to read to the court just before the judge passed sentence on a 19 year old driver who had killed her daughter. Said daughter was 26; had just graduated from Oxford; seemed like one of life's beautiful people and was brutally slain by some unrepentant young fucking scumbag driver. If they want a deterrent for young people and a real warning of the damage they can do in their cars then perhaps a tape of this desperately sad message should be played to them a few times over the course of their lessons.

Of course it's likely that nothing can be done about the hardcore unrepentant delinquents who use the public roads as racetracks with scant regard for their own or anyone else's safety. Except maybe when one of them is caught in the act - such a the fat former boxer Nasseem whatsisname - they should be made an example of. Letting them out after serving half a short sentence is no deterrent.

Anyway - I hope this investigation does come up with some good new measures for lowering the body count of young drivers and the innocent victims of their ineptitude/recklessness on the roads.

Steve Irwin

2006-09-04T01:51:00.000-07:00

RIP fella.

"What kind of man was Steve Irwin? He stopped Australian Government plans to allow rich tourists into the Northern Territory to kill crocodiles for sport. He brought the beauty of nature back to millions through his documentaries. And he showed that if you love doing something, then you should put all your passion into doing it. Nothing less. He was a nice man. He was a kind man. Perhaps, the last real man... gone."
Alan, Brisbane, Australia

Jane Tomlinson

2006-09-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

Go visit here and be humbled. This lady is a national hero. She will be dead soon and to use what little time you have left for the benefit of others in such a way... words fail me. The phrase "We are not worthy" comes to mind.

All quiet

2006-08-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

Nowt much happening at the moment. Not much at all this week as Liz has taken the kids on holiday (to Blackpool) . Due to having to fork out on car tax, MOT and servicing I am a bit broke this month until pay day so am having a real quiet week stopping in. Actually, it's quite disturbing that I can just disappear for a week and no one really notices. Ho hum - the joys of being single. At least I know that if I did make the effort there are things I could arrange quite easily, so it's not a doom and gloom week. In fact it's rather pleasant.

Me old mate Scottie is due up for a visit this weekend. I briefly saw him at the Tragically Hip show in London the other month. We had a quick "hello" before disappearing into the thick of the crowd, and promised to do a weekend together soon.

Also on the near horizon is a trip to the Coed y Brenin mountain bike centre at lovely Dolgellau- somewhere I've not been to for ages and somewhere I have great memories of from previous visits. Recently upgraded this place is the original (and arguably best?) "made" set of bike trails in the UK. It was amazing before the recent overhaul so we are hoping it will be just as good now. I have arranged to meet Rich from Reading and his crowd there at the beginning of next month. The northerners were invited but so far none have taken up the gauntlet - and I thought it was the southerners who were meant to be the softies...

Exercise -wise I'm still commuting on the bike each day (about 70 miles a week), runnning (three to four approx 10ks a week) and swimming (two or three times a week). So, you know - I'm just keeping me hand in... The swimming is going particularly well as the stroke improvement program seems to be getting me progress, but the leg work is really knackering, and it's tempting to just revert back to the 'old' stroke and bang out easy lengths for the whole session. The aim is to get the all important stroke count (per length) down and therefore in theory use less energy. (Or to just go faster and use more!) My stroke count was originally around 30 in a 25m pool and I got it to 28 before the Triathlon with the stretching out thing. Kicking from the hips I can do 25 - for about two lengths so far. It's amazing when it works as I feel literally turbo charged and it really would be incredible to be able to swim at that speed for a distance. It's hard work but a good challenge and I live in hope of making this serious leg power swimming thing a permanent arrangement.

With this here broadband I have discovered bit torrenting too. What a joy to get whole series of West Wing and 24 that I missed on the TV. When I'll watch them I don't actually know but it's good to know that I can get hold of this stuff, and for free. TheTragically Hip also have an unbelievably brilliant fan run live show download site - the Hip Tracker. From here I've taken a load of great old live shows, and have been able to seed them back as well so I can get more in the future. Marvellous.

The footy season has started again - it's amazng how quickly it comes round. Oh, the 'joy' of supporting Liverpool ... ho hum. And it's 9 pm and dark outside. Winter's coming!

New email

2006-07-31T23:15:00.000-07:00

I have now signed up for NTL broadband at home. My email address is
andygolborne(at)ntlworld.com

Julia - if you are still reading this from NZ then please get in touch again!

My MS Messenger ID is
andygolborne(at)hotmail.co.uk

The Salford Triathlon

2006-07-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

So, I did it. And it was ace.
Here's my result

Position: 235 Category position: 53
No 367 Golborne Andrew, Male M40-49
Swim: 0:35:55
Transition 1 : 0:00:32
Bike: 1:13:10
Transition 2: 02:54
Run: 0:51:11
Total 2:43:41

Under 2:45 is ace. I think so anyhow as before the start I would have been pleased to get under 3 hours.

At best I was thinking 40 minutes for the swim, 1hr 15mins for the cycle and anything up to an hour for the run, plus the transitions - say 5 minutes each. Going into the run and the end of all this was unknown territory. In fact most of it was unknown territory! So looking at the split times I think I did everything about as good as I thought I could do. Still only 53rd though which I am amazed to find myself a bit annoyed about! Seeing as I did so well by my own standards it seems that all of a sudden I have become rather competitive about my position. I’ll aim for 2hrs 30 next time!

Anyhow, there were lots of nice folk in the transition around me before the start and the guy next to me was offering sound advice and helped me zip up the wet suit etc. Top chap. I’d also had a good look around the day before, including a ride round most of the bike course. Consequently I did actually feel pretty relaxed by the time we were called to the dockside for the swim.The swim: Tell you what - I was right about not doing that the second practice trip to the lake as I was fine in the end. No real nerves amazingly. We all got in, jumping off the low pontoon and it was good to get a feel of being in there for a few minutes before the off. The water was warm enough so you didn't actually notice it - the elite groups didn't bother with wet suits. And it was very clean too. Lots of chatting while we were floating about and nice that everyone wished everyone around them 'good 'luck' as we were about to go. Well, they did where I was floating at least.

Here we go then … They got us behind the 'line', did a countdown and away we went. I didn't get into the same state as I had done in the lake at all and managed to keep my breathing under control. It was all a bit frantic and I did faff for about quarter of a lap, getting my head together and finding some open water of my own where I wasn't being swam on, or swimming on top of anyone else. It was incredibly difficult to see where I was going and I had one float on my back and get calmed session not long after the start but quickly got going again. After the first turn I settled down properly and actually enjoyed it, just plodding along trying to concentrate on my stroke. The second of the two laps was easier as I'd picked out landmarks along the dock side and so roughly knew where I was. There was a large bridge right across about two thirds of the was down which was a good marker to get set for the turn at the end, and at the other there was the Lowry buildings. There were also huge inflatable buoys right round the inside of the turns so navigation was Ok there, even if it did get a bit crowded, but the straight bits were easy and pretty soon I was on the last straight towards the transition. At the end I was a bit all over the place looking up to find the exit, but there were friendly marshalls guiding us in and offering advice about when to stop swimming and start staggering out of the water.

I was wobbly as hell coming out of the water, and weaved my way to the transition, but did manage to get my wet suit off down to my waist as I ran no problem which was satisfying. It seemed a long way to my bike though.Once there it was do that alternate foot stamp down on the wet suit thing to get it off your legs and feet ... a big drink and a squeeze a gel bar down. Get socks, shoes and hat on, unrack bike and then leg it to the mounting point ... All pretty smooth and once on the bike I found I was really giving it plenty, mainly as I was happy to have done the swim!

The bike time I was chuffed about as I averaged 20+ mph for 25 miles and there were a lot of sharp bends on the 8 lap course. It felt good and I enjoyed it. There was one big long drag of a hill which was into what breeze there was which was killing off people - I did lots of passing on that bit. I indulged in target orientated cycling: seeing people ahead and estimating how long it would take to get past them. This kept me amused for an hour anyhow, as I have to admit did the fit girls in swimsuits who were now with us, having started half an hour earlier. The mountain bike corners noticeably better than the tri bikes that most of the others were using so I was just lashing round the bends and slingshotting it past people in doing so. Great fun. There was one particular corner on the fastest bit of the course with furniture positioned awkwardly but I found after lap two that if I took a really wide line into it I could just get round at full tilt whereas loads of people were braking hard and losing all their hard earned momentum. As I said – there were a few things which kept me amused around my eight laps.

Transition 2: It again seemed a long way to the back of the transition area running with my bike after the dismount. Rack the bike and just the shoe change this time, and I knocked back another gel feed thing and some fluid, just as I'd done in the first transition. The start for the run timing was a good few hundred metres away by the Lowry, hence T2 being seemingly a lot longer than T1.

The run: Christ my legs felt like jelly coming out of transition, so I plodded - as I had no choice. The up and over the Lowry bridge at the start was just plain painful and I was a bit worried, but soon settled down into a decent rhythm. I was just not sure though how much I had left in the tank and didn't want to do too much and cramp up. Plus I had indigestion from that stupid gel bar thing as it would not go down. It felt like hard work, seemed to drag on and I didn't really manage to relax until the fourth and final lap - knowing that the end was in site. I could see my time too at the end of each lap by the finish line. I seemed to be doing OK which was a boost. The last bit on the last lap eventually came round and that was the up and over the footbridge and down to the front of the Lowry, only to go straight through the finish this time. The reception was tea and medals. Well, just medals. Alasdair Campbell finished just after me by the way. There were a few celebs out on the running course including several of the Emmerdale cast and by the time I finished the sprint and the relay races were on the course. Consequently there were loads of people round the finish arena which was good – I did feel I got a reception at least, even if there was no one there shouting for me in particular… maybe next time. Then it was a wander down to the transition through the crowds, absolutely made up that I'd actually done the thing. Had a chat again with the guys who were near me, we said our goodbuys, packed up and I walked, stiff legged, back to the car to pack up for the drive home. Job done. Now, when's the next one...?

Second open water swim

2006-07-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

Err, yes, so I chickened out. I get a Tuesday evening free and all of a sudden there's the opportunity to go biking with the North Leeds Tuesday nighters around Ilkley Moor in utterly glorious weather. It's either that or a swim in a dank lake, full of weeds and stuff.

I managed to convince myself that another horrible lake experience would do more harm than good, and make me more nervous about the race swim. Hmmm. We shall see eh?

The biking was great by the way. LOADS of great singletrack round the moor on footpaths. There's apparently a Bradford council ruling which gives bikers permissive rights to all the Ilkley moor trails, which is handy. As long as we don't 'cause damage' ie churn it up in the mud. And there's no sign of any mud up there at the moment as we continue to bake in the heat. A brilliant ride. Nice pub up there too to finish off in - The Cow and Calf.

Test link to Flickr

2006-07-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

Testing ...

Rich and me in Scotland

First open water swim

2006-07-19T05:49:00.000-07:00

“How hard can it be swimming in a lake (and) in a wet suit?” I thought. I’ve spent the best part of 18 months getting to the point where I can front crawl the requisite 1500m comfortably, and am pleased to say that this is now the case – in a swimming pool. So, with less than 2 weeks to go before the event I made use of the local (Leeds/Bradford) triathlon club’s open water swim sessions at a sailing club lake in Otley.
My borrowed wet suit I’d already tried on a couple of times and it had seemed to fit fine. But donning it at the sailing club all of a sudden it felt small and uncomfortable. Too tight. Everyone else seemed to look the part in theirs – they all looked like triathletes – while I just felt awkward in mine. Mind you it was about 30 degrees in the shade and I was too warm stood about in it waiting for the off. My new goggles though would do the trick – ‘proper’ Tri goggles. Cool. The guy in the shop assured me they would be the best thing for open water swimming. I’d tested these in the pool a few times and they gave me much more vision than the old smaller ones.
I got chatting to a bloke who’s first time had been the week before and his one comment was that he’d had trouble breathing. Eh? As I said – how hard can this be?
A couple of safety announcements – us newbies were wearing white hats so we could be spotted – and we walked down to the water. OK then so here we go…
And… I can’t see. Anything. How do you look up to see where you are going? I try this and my breathing is all over the place. And I can’t breathe. And my suit’s too tight. And I’m getting a bit of a panic on here. Ok, on my back and calm down a bit. It’s only swimming. There’s the safety bloke in his kayak – I’ll flag him down and seek advice. “Calm down.” He says. Yeah? Cheers. Try again. Same thing – no vision at all and a real issue trying to re-organise stroke and breathing to try to be able to get my bearings. Breathing all over once again and I’m on my back .. calming down. “Get some water into your suit to take the pressure from round your chest.” He suggests. Good idea, and this does work. Amazing how warm the water is by the way. Goddammit now my fancy new goggles are leaking. Bloody things. On my back to sort these out. Breathing to both sides is no good as the sun is low and on the clubhouse side I cannot see a thing. The other side points of reference are trees and an island so I am all over the place and also not balancing right for some reason. Breathe to one side and count strokes to take my mind off everything else. Better. Ok, one (450m) lap done in a really useless stop and start fashion. Take a break. Get my shit together. Deep breaths. Right, back in and try again. Relax. Better. Breathe to the one side only and doggy paddle a couple of strokes to look up if needs be. Follow someone? No good as they disappear once they get about a foot away from you in the water. Is that a marker buoy ahead or someone’s hat? No idea. Whatever – head for it. Yuck – weeds and stuff in the water when it gets shallow – not too keen on that. It was a buoy. More water in goggles – I could fucking strangle that guy in the shop. More faffing. More disorientation. Some actual swimming. Is that another buoy ahead? I think so. The last one. Ok, two laps done and the second was better. Another? Err, no thanks - I’m out of here. And then there's getting the wet suit off - I can see that's going to be fun under competition conditions...
At least the other guys are really good to chat to and very understanding – I seem to pretty typical for a first timer, if a bit more useless than most. Lots of good advice, and I’ll be back next week for my what will be my last practice before the race. Gulp. A dock has to be better than a lake right?

Descent into Swaledale

2006-07-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Another great descent, down into Swaledale. Always nice to be back in Yorkshire.

Grasmere from Loughrigg Terrace

2006-07-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

A late afternoon traverse of Loughrigg Terrace gave us this stunning view over Grasmere and the prospect of yet more spanking downhilling along this amazingly elevated bridleway.

Coast to Coast (Part 1)

2006-07-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

DAY ONE
Saturday 10th June
St Bees Head, Cumbria

Well, here I am on tour #2. The lads (and girl) have arrived at the starting gate, are under orders and are raring to go.

Actually Ben S is fast asleep. He’s no doubt in recovery from the sad loss of his BRAND NEW sunglasses during our swim in the sea. Yes folks, the weather is boiling hot. It’s about 80F and the sun really is burning, so much so that we did have a proper swim in the sea.

The B&B we are at (Stonehouse Farm) is lovely and the temptation is most definitely to stop here for a week and make the whole trip up in posts to the North Leeds thread on BikeMagic.

No chance. We have seven days of off road mayhem ahead of us – err, how fab is that?!
We arrived here at St Bees almost exactly to the minute that Christian’s Tom Tom had forecast we would when we left Leeds. Spooky, Or clever.

There’s been some sort of football match today. England apparently are playing in the finals of some tournament, and this was their first game. They won 1-0 against the mighty Paraguay. We watched it at one of the three local pubs within about 50 yards of the B&B. We are, ts has to be said, a tad spoilt for choice.

After the footy we changed into swimming gear, walked the mile or so down to the beach and had a swim in the lovely Irish Sea. The sea, OK, was quite cold but it honestly was fine once you were in.

It was at this juncture that the aforementioned sunglasses loss occurred when Ben dived under a wave whilst still wearing them.

Jo didn’t quite “swim” and to be honest was heard to girlie scream quite a bit whilst avoiding getting properly wet. More an advanced paddle I would call it, but she is a girl.

We returned from swimming (and a round of ice creams at a conveniently positioned beach-side ice cream van) to get the G&Ts in on the veranda. This amounted to a half bottle of G from the local shop; 2 bottles of T; plus a lemon and a lime. Actually, two limes as Christian stole a second one the pikey twat.

So now it’s showers all round and then I think we are off to the pub for more food. So far today we’ve polished off (in the car) Jo’s fine selection of fruit (pineapple and apples) and a large packet of crisps. Then there was serious sandwiches for lunch at the pub and then the round of ice creams.

We are all HUNGRY now, again. Ben S and John are in room 1 here. Chris, Ben F and myself are in room 2, while Jo is upstairs in room 4.

DAY TWO
Sunday. Pennyhill Farm B&B Eskdale, Lakes

The day started from St Bees with the compulsory “dip” in the sea. Except we didn’t quite dip as the tide was out – we just rode onto the pebbles and then got our picture taken on the prom by some “old ladies” (as John called them – they were likely in their 50s) who were doing half of the walking coast to coast.

The Serious Six then started out on their trek with great gusto and enthusiasm for the mighty task ahead and were all knackered after the first (road) climb out of St Bees.

Stonehouse Farm did a marvellous breakfast it has to be said. There is an ongoing debate as to whether it scores a 7 or 8 out of 10. We need some more full English offerings down us so we can compare, and then maybe recalibrate the scoring system. [In the end no breakfasts were deemed better than this one. And it ended up rating an 8. Or was it a 7?]

The Ride: 34 miles or so was the task set today (23 off road). At least half of that total distance was done on the easy trails of the Sustrans C2C route from the coast, and then on the long fire trail down the lakeside and into the end of the valley.

The weather was warm, humid and mainly cloudy all day but when the sun did come out it was roasting hot.

[Mention should be made here of the lake-side bench under the trees lunch sandwich stop, which was wonderful for about 5 minutes until clouds of midges found us and got a serious biting thing going on. We quickly moved off and sat just out of the trees, amusing ourselves by throwing stones into the lake. Just then a disabled guy on an electric scooter and his partner rolled slowly passed us on the lakeside track. They too spotted the inviting looking bench in the trees and the bloke totally went for the off road option, banging his in no way off road equipped scooter over roots and stuff to get to the bench. Perhaps, yes, we should have intervened at this point and warned them about the marauding insect life, but no – his off roading antics were too fascinating to interrupt. Unfortunately for him his escape from the subsequent midge mauling was impeded by the fact that he couldn’t walk unaided and his heavy scooter was now grounded. His missus was no use as he was a big bloke so Ben S and I went to his rescue, dragging this guy and the equally weighty scooter out back onto the path. I dread to think what kind of state those two would have been in if we’d not intervened as they were pretty much stuck there. Bloody disabled day trippers eh?]

Fortunately we were not baked in the sun on the monster carry up Black Sail Pass. It was extremely hard work but to be honest the severe gradient at least meant it didn’t last too long.

Once at the top we waited while Jo walked for miles to find a suitable toilet spot which was out of the view of the walkers coming down from Kirk Fell. Then we were able to set off on the steep descent into Mosedale. This was mainly a further carry/push at the top as the surface was either a very steep rocky path or loose chossy shale, and rather risky to ride, this only being the first day of the tour. Ben F however rode it until he came off over the bars, and we thought he’d miraculously managed to get away without body or bike damage. The bottom half of the descent however was great – rideable, technical, fast and excellent fun all the way down into the valley.

As we rolled into the Wasdale Head Inn the sun was shining so we were able to sink pints of shandy etc sunning ourselves just outside the toilets. Nice. A sheep dog type dog added to the beer garden fun with it’s endless stick chasing enthusiasm. By this time we’d covered the best part of 30 miles including a big (1000ft) carry and we were knackered. However, onwards and upwards and we reluctantly rolled out into Wasdale past the camp site (and completely dry river bed) and up onto the tops again towards Burnmoor Tarn. Another [600ft] big pull and this time in the sunshine and it was hot. Once at the top we knew we had a load of descent to look forward to, right down to our destination: Eskdale. However, just before we got to the tarn, Ben F pulled up with a major technical – his rear mech hanger snapped off. This was likely a result of the Black Sail off he had. No amount of technical expertise from Ben S could salvage the situation properly so that was pretty much the end of Ben F’s riding for the day (and for tomorrow as he’ll have to bike shop it to get it fixed).

There was more to come as just past the tarn Christian had an off which resulted in him seriously twisting his ankle to the point where he could not put any weight on it. Serious stuff by the looks of things

We limped on (down a brilliant descent for those who could manage it )and eventually stopped at a pub at Boot where we were able to simutaneously ice Chris’s damaged foot and have a beer. We then pushed Chris on his bike the couple of miles up the road to the B&B here. The lady owner kindly drove Chris back to the pub so we could get some food (the pub in Boot I should add, as the one right near the B&B was insisting we eat “now” as they were busy) and also drove him back. John and I cycled both ways.

Decent food at the pub although there was some debate as to whether Ben S’s steak was in any way rare as he’d ordered it.

A beautiful clear evening – gorgeous weather really. Forecast is for some rain tomorrow though. Ben F and Chris are going to try and get a lift from the Packhorse baggage man to Ambleside (with their bikes). Chris needs to rest his foot and Ben needs to get his bike fixed.

So, that’s day one over and we have a 33% casualty rate so far!

[Cute lambs at the B&B by the way. It was a working farm and our bikes were locked up in the sheep shed.]

DAY THREE
Monday. High Close Youth Hostel, just outside Windermere.

The Ride:
Farm. Bridleway to Boot (for a shop stop) and a wade in the river. Hardknott Pass start. Harter Fell climb/carry. (Clouds lift after slightly drizzly start). Woods, boggy. Forestry descent (past crazy tree chopping monster machine); added bridleway fun; descended through Wallowbarrow; beautiful cheeky footpath option (bridge and river – Jo’s dad’s painting). Road at Seathwaite. Walna Scar Road ascent (bastard. “c” word). Met girlie walkers and dog. Descent of a lifetime into Coniston. Lunch (curly chips). Sunny. Tilberthwaite road climb out of valley and never ending descent into Little Langdale. Elterwater. Crossed Great Langdale and climbed road to (eventually) Loughrigg Terrace: stunning view & shit. More foul words. Amazing descent to Ambleside: everyone getting giddy. Jo giggling (this was possibly earlier). Climbed (via several wrong turns) to Jenkin Crag. Beautiful views of Windermere in the sun. Lots more ups and downs and finally arrived at Hostel at 6:45pm.

What a fucking fabulous day, frankly.

Christian was then picked up from hostel by his mate who’d driven out to get him, so now we are five.
Ben F had a bit of a nightmare in the shop with his bike: real arsey staff.
John has serious bum chafing issues: he needs arse lard and lycra.
Pubs ALL stopped food at 8:30: just before we arrived at them.
Nice taxi driver man eventually got us to a pub in Windermere where they played drum and bass but did excellent meals.
The boys are now playing giant Connect 4 here in the hostel lounge.
A strange woman is interrupting our conversations. Jo has to sleep with her. Oh dear.
Now we are posting on BikeMagic.
BIKE, EAT, SLEEP. C to C 2006.

Ben F:
Back to first thing… (Ben & Christian)
My day began with witnessing Christian once more crawl over the hall to the toilet. Then, having got ready the ritual breakfast grading began.
Once this was over it was time to watch the helmets pass the window as Christian and I settled down to watch “Homes Under the Hammer”. (Ahem, enough said.)
But then, our saviour Simon the Packhorse driver arrived and our 4 hour guided tour of The Lakes began. We toured much, including the infamous midgey patch at … [?]
My trip ended with a drop off at Biketrax in Ambleside. Having obtained the necessary replacement parts off a rather unhelpful bunch of later coined cock weasels (by Ben S aka Tin Tin) and Christian who continued to the YHA.
I journeyed (walking) riding my now single speed for 2 hours before meeting Christian at the hostel. Finally the rest of the guys rolled up at around 7, and I’m sure their day has been well documented.

Ben S (Tin Tin!) :
Some of the best riding I’ve ever had the pleasure of ascending and descending. Awesome views, big country! Today’s trip well described. Longest day to come tomorrow though. Walna Scar ascent will be ridden in 1 next year!

(We are now in the kitchen.)
BREAKFAST RATING (Penny Hill Farm):
V.Good sausage, poor bacon; v.poor fried bread. No beans. Good eggs.
General consensus = 6. Possibly 5.5. (Much arguments about sausages. Much arguments about eggs. Much argument about mushrooms.)

Oh, yes. Got tuna sarny with curly chips for lunch in Coniston but it was expensive. There was egg and chips consumed as well. Everything is expensive – it’s an expensive trip!

This hostel, although a bit piss poor in facilities, is in a fabulous spot overlooking Windermere.

BREAKFAST RATING (Windermere):
NOTE: Full English only visited by Jo and Ben.
Poor. Jo’s verdict: scrapes a 3. Ben’s verdict: 4. Ben got Porridge. Though, which has perhaps skewed his verdict. Ben F & John had “cracking” continental option with a croissant. Softies.

Coast to Coast (Part 2)

2006-07-17T04:10:00.000-07:00

DAY FOUR
Tuesday. Kirby Stephen Youth Hostel.

We are at the very excellent Kirby Stephen youth hostel. It’s “mint” as Ben F stated. Why? Firstly it’s an old church and I am now sat in the chapel with pews for seats for eating, and the area under the balcony is a kitchen. It’s quite wonderful. The landlady Clare is lovely too. What a pity this place is one of those closing in October.

We are also in the middle of the town, and right opposite a Co-op, so we’ve been able to get over there to buy food (and beer) for dinner.

Ben S is being team cook and we are having spag bog with extras. Marvellous.

Our journey here:
Town End to Kirby Stephen (36 miles: 19 off road).
Passes: Garburn, 1475 feet. Verdict: excellent. Good climb – mostly rideable and (yet)another rocky horror high excitement descent. Stile End: Short and sweet, nice descent again, and thus took us into Longsleddale which looked stunning but the track turned into a real monster ascent. Ben S amused himself by nailing parts of it, but mostly it was a ‘too steep to think about riding’ job. Stunning situation, mind.

This took us up to Brownhowe Bottom and a traverse across some boggy moorland towards Mosedale. This was extremely hard work and despite best efforts we all ended up with wet feet. Ben F managed to go over his bars again but this time landed safely in a bog.
[We did see a large bird of prey disappear into some trees in front of us at one point along here and I’m convinced it was a red kite.]
Eventually we arrived at the supremely isolated Mosedale cottage where luncheon was taken (we had bought packed lunches from Windermere hostel which were great).

Then we had a seemingly endless undulating yomp across another fucking great moor…. did a bit of road and at some point landed at Shap – all absolutely knackered.

We found a top newsagent which provided excellent take away teas which we were able to down whilst lounging in the grass in a park just opposite. We were all, as one, wishing that we’d finished for the day, but we still had 18 miles to go! Jo was begging for drugs: EPO in particular, but had to make do with Nurofen for her knackered knees (body in general). 2:30 we arrived there and 3:15 we left.

Fortunately the remaining mileage was mainly on minor roads and we were able to crack it off in a couple of hours, with some undulation once again. One real off road drag up a big field up to Bank Moor, some seriously fast road descents and a lot of tired legs.

A complete change of scenery as we went though – from the rocks and crag of the Lakes to the fields and meadows of the Vale of Eden once we’d crossed the M6. But, we rode triumphantly into K.Stephen at about 5:30pm.

Jo’s “mad woman” slept with her suitcase apparently. The lads mucked about loudly in their dorm – much more loudly than the 40 school kids it has to be said. It was too hot and no one slept well at all.

Jo states that the Windermere hostel is extremely poor: v.small rooms for instance; expensive for what you got (especially when you are paying extra for breakfast) and generally not very good.

Mention should be made of just how HARD this C2C route is. Technically very demanding and physically it’s just plain bloody hard work with long days in the saddle. Great stuff though.

This Youth Hostel, would you believe, has a full Park bike tool kit for our use – and most of it brand new: still in it’s packets. There is also a Park bike stand in the shed: hundreds of quid’s worth of premium quality tech kit – not being used. Except by us. The bikes are all stabled after having had a much needed thorough clean and Park tooled maintenance session.

Suntans and white bits are being compared. Looks like everyone will end up with the standard cyclist’s tan which starts just above the sock line and ends half way up one’s thigh where the lycra starts.

Jon:
Jon’s arse trouble got slightly better today with the use of Andy’s lycra shorts and minty arse lard – which required Jon to drop his pants mid-ride and re-apply. Managed to find some new cream in the Coop over the road. [Note a £2.50 tub of kids’ Sudocream does the job just as well as a £12 tube of specialist cyclists’ stuff.]

There’s a chap staying here who’s WALKING Land’s End to John O’Groats. How come, when you are doing these things which you reckon are personal epics there’s always some twat who’s doing so much more and manages to put your efforts in the shade. Git.

Yesterday in the Lakes was an utterly fabulous day out biking. The trouble is we do SO much each day that it’s impossible to remember it all. The climbs [in the Lakes] are long and hard (often carries/pushes – “grunts”) and the downhills are rock strewn, chossy, steep, fast, dangerous and wildly fun. And there’s just loads of them. Yesterday seemed like a mountain bike perfection day. A ‘best of’ the Lakes and all done in fantastic weather with no technicals – not even a puncture. I guess we (bikers) aim for those big ‘moments’ where it’s just sheer joy/lunacy - a mountain biking high - “endorphin city”. There’s been a lot of that on this trip already. There’s also the team element where the experience is multiplied by the knowledge that everyone else is going through exactly the same thing and you are all in this madness together. Difficult to put into words to be honest but whatever it is it’s incredible and a day like yesterday really is what makes us all do this thing.

Oh, by the way, Christian’s ankle isn’t broken – just badly sprained and will take a mere 2 weeks to heal up. He’s been on the phone and texted a few times. He must be absolutely gutted, the poor sod.

DAY FIVE
Wednesday. Springfield House B&B Reeth, Swaledale

Another monster day on the bikes, but I guess that goes without saying really. The welcome here at the B&B – tea and scones with home made jam – was brilliant. Jo is just down the road in a different place and without tea and scones.

There’s a double and a twin so we drew straws for the beds – or rather (in fine mountain biker stylee) we drew sunglasses lenses out of a waste paper bin. Ben S and I got the clear ones so we get the twin room, leaving the other guys the double bed.

We are just off to see if Jo is ready to come out to play – we are off to the pub.

Black Bull Pub
No one has had the “Grunt & Granny” sandwich (hot pork and apple sauce). This obviously would have been the entirely appropriate option, but we’ve gone en masse instead for the more filling looking giant Yorkshire pud with beef casserole and chips. Yum.

The Ride:
Cheeky footpath out of KS and then 6 miles v.quick on road. Then some bridleway, followed by “The Field of Doom” or “Bog of Tufty Doom” on a none existent bridleway over tall grassy, shitey, hugely uneven moorland. As usual for that type of terrain it was very hard work, but at least it was dry.

Next up was a road grunt up to the famous (“Highest Pub in Britain”) and remarkable Tan Hill Inn where there was a St George’s Cross painted pet sheep called “Tan” who lounged by the fire and let people stroke him. Honest. Tan is usually a scrounging pest by all accounts, but he was on good behaviour today and therefore allowed to stay indoors. Great pub: ridiculous location.

Met a couple of roadie tourers doing a coast to coast from Barrow to Sunderland and swapped a few tales over a cup of tea, shandies, soup etc. Most pleasant.

Next up was the Pennine Way with a distinct lack of downhill and two punctures. Eventually we got some excellent downhill and a fabulous track into Swaledale (Gunnerside) along the valley where we passed some walkers in fine speedy style, and then had the indignity of them walking past us while we fixed a puncture. “Hair and tortoise” comments were heard from them as they smugly sauntered past. All manner of threats were then heard from us by way of nasty physical and verbal revenge after they’d got out of ear shot – but we didn’t lower ourselves in the end.

Beautiful Swaledale bridleway by the river and then… a bastard long climb of 1000ft or so up to Apedale. We were all utterly wasted, especially our Jo, but heroics won through and she got top the top. Then there was an exiting downhill … another big climb. Ben F and Jo were right out at their limit by this point, but Kendal Mint Cake this time was our saviour – that and some Eccles cakes.

We arrived in lovely Reeth about 6 pm, almost minus Ben S who was So close to hitting a BMW on the final narrow road descent into the village – down which we were all really motoring it has to be said.

Oh, the food... Lovely but done and dusted in about 15 minutes. Extra potatoes demanded by all. It should be noted that for the morning John has ordered a half arsed breakfast. While the rest of the boys go for the full English J opts for an, ahem, bacon fucking sandwich. Mr B&B, it should be said, was not impressed by this – insulted, even.

Technical report: Ben F’s rear hub fixed by myself: bearings replaced. His rear brake is still rubbing a bit though.

Maps of next couple of days being scrutinised. Tomorrow looks like a relative rest day – handy as we just HAVE to get to Osmotherly for a 4pm kick off for some England game or other. The day after in the N.Yorks Moors however looks like an utter twat.

9:50 Black Bull Pub. Still.
The darts in the pub are broken but we have showed Swaledale how to play pool. Sort of. Germany have just dumped Poland out of the World Cup. Pool table and juke box to ourselves and “Perfect Day” plays on the jukey.

DAY 6
Thursday Osmotherley. Pub 4:30 PM.

England’s second World Cup finals match is due to start in half an hour.

Bit of a rest day today as it was mainly roadie-ing across the flat bit between the Pennines and the North Yorks Moors. Osmotherley is not far from the A19, nestled just under the west side of the latter set of hills.

We arrived about an hour ago and almost made it here without much incident. But, there’s a very shallow (and mossy) ford on the road about half a mile from the village and Ben S managed to off going across it and hit the road in the water very hard indeed. No real harm done luckily – just a few bruises and a hold in the back of his shorts. But it was a painful one.

Oh, and we also had a puncture-fest a few miles back after having done a bit of ‘extra’ bridle path across the edge of a field, which resulted in everyone bar John getting at least one puncture. The annoying thing was we’d done the field and all sat down in the sun for a break and discovered a couple of flats when we went to get back on the bikes. Then everyone checked their tyres to find all manner of enormous thorns in them. So, team puncture fixing ensued and we almost got run down by a miserable post van driver. Twice.

We did do some off roading this morning, out of Swaledale and round the side of a valley down into Richmond. A rare pit stop in civilisation enabled the use of cash points, Greggs and a grocers. It should be noted the Jo is done in after the excesses of yesterday’s gradients – she missed out the off road bit this morning and took the road option into Richmond, heading straight for a tea shop. She was most pleased that it was an easy day, but is threatening to dip out again tomorrow over some of the tops. We hope she manages to keep to The Route [She did].

Our mantra: The Route is the Way, and the Way is the Route.

We have an influx of intruders on the tour this evening: Jenny and Ed are coming up from Leeds for the evening, and these two it seems are seeing Ben and Jo respectively. Which is nice.

Osmotherley is another lovely village. Reeth was beautiful too – real picture postcard locations. We have seen a lot of these lovely little places on this trip.

Weather today: Very hot: a lot of sun. Good job we weren’t in the hills really.

6:55 and England have just won 2-0. They were not entirely convincing it has to be said.

Coast to Coast (Part 3)

2006-07-17T04:08:00.000-07:00

DAY SEVEN
Friday. Greenhow B&B Glasedale, North Yorks (and later in the Glasedale pub).

A BIG day for the tour in the hills today, and all of it in the North Yorkshire Moors. This is not a place that we were really familiar with – until today. Personally I really, really enjoyed it out there today. There were loads of fabulous trails: some very hard ups, but all rideable, and the downhills were just amazing on the tracks across the tops (riggs) of the moors. Miles and miles and miles of it. Brilliant stuff. I managed to nail the toughest climb of the day, which I was chuffed about, but then fell off over the bars on a fairly technical descent. No real harm done (cuts and scrapes) but I do have a worryingly sore wrist.

Then I also became “Cock of the Day” with a comedy (show) off after a kids’ skid stop right near the end. I got stuck in my spds and tipped off sideways right in front of everyone. Cock.

Breakfast marks for Osmotherly B&B: Points lost for hard bacon and crap sausage. But, decent eggs and fried potatoes. All in all a six. Maybe 5.5.

[Trailspeak: During the duration of the trip a group vocabulary evolved out of the expletives uttered at the top of the brutal climbs. We amused each other by seeing who could come out with the most outrageously foul description to go with the outrageous effort we had put into getting up these monster hills. All this was done extremely loudly, in the great wide open, way out of earshot of anyone, for a whole week. So, you can imagine the level things dropped to towards the end. It had been pretty low at the start mind…]

The use of the ‘c’ word has become standard practice (after Ben S’s wonderful story relayed to us on Loughrigg Terrace of a friend of his who would publicly complain about he lack of “c**ting bacon” etc in ASDA) and is now commonly used in it’s adjective form before some of the more usual four letter words. For instance: “c**ting walkers”.
“Cockweasle” was another Ben S classic – initially used to decribe the bike shop people in Ambleside and their attitude towards Ben F.

Jo (the Queen of foul language) today came out with “c**ting knob cheese” at the top of one particularly difficult ascent, and there was even discussion of a “c**ting scale” (up to 10) for things which just went way over the top.
The trail language is choice. But very funny.

Jo is going to produce and market MINGE cloths. The name came first and we were then tasked with coming up with the acronym and so the Multi Integrated Natural Grease Elimination System was born. Squares of cotton for wiping things, basically.Genius idea and a great name. She’ll make millions.

A big day for punctures. We started at he B&B with three. John had a couple; the Bens both had two and I finished with one. Consequently there was a seriously high faff quotient to the day’s events.

We started at 10:20 and finished at 6:30. 35 miles with a lot of that off road. It was a hard one. Great though.

Jo (we have decided) needs some non-creamy honorary balls. The lady is a star, and was upset about not being able to be part of the arse larding ritual which occurs each day, often more than once. But she has taken a picture of us all in arse larding action. For her, err, collection.

The swapping of bike shoes so Ben S, John and myself could ride each others bikes for trial purposes has been described as “very gay”. Bollocks. How else do we try each others bikes. Bib shorts are admittedly very gay. The swapping of bike shoes is not.

Glasedale is a strangely shaped village. It’s set on a very steep hill and our B&B is right at the top (which was handy, as that’s the way we came in and we spotted the place almost straight away), and this pub is about 2 miles down the road. We don’t want to walk 2 miles back up the bloody great hill so the B&B people are coming down to pick us up at 10, “for a small contribution” – whatever that may be. 50p we reckon.

We have just been served up THE most excellent meals of the tour so far. Hands down the best food we’ve had all week. Really great home cooked stuff: my steak pie was just delicious and there was tons of it – and a pile of chips as well. And veg. The menu is unreal – what a place to eat. The food has been officially quoted by the tour as being “good shit”.

However, Ben STILL has not found a pub which serves any lamb. Lamb shank was actually offered up last night (and most of us ordered it!) but it turned out to be off the menu and we just had to settle for less. His torture is magnified by the fact that there are lambs everywhere in the fields and Ben may go and catch one to eat raw at some point soon.

Weather today: Cloudy and warm. No sun which was perfect. Also perfect was the fact that there was absolutely no wind at all on the tops of the moors which was a bit unreal to be honest. It did try to rain for half an hour or so late afternoon but it never quite got in precipitation gear – just a few drops - and we remained rain-free.

We passed by “Great Fryup” today. A place which in any other travelling situation has to be worthy of a detour to go visit.

DAY EIGHT
Saturday. Boggle Hole Youth Hostel, Robin Hoods Bay

Another pretty big day out for our last one. Lots of great trails again over more, err, moors. We started off with a monster of a road climb out of Grosmont – where there is a steam railway and it all looks very quaintly Yorkshire touristy.

Just previous to this village we’d bumped into this quite odd bloke who actually swore more than we did. He also had a real plumb in his mouth. His accent was still there but somewhat watered down and we deduced he was a proper upper class type who’d moved to the sticks (and probably bought the sticks).

Anyway, he was cycling along with two young lads when we initially passed him and they then caught us up as we were doing a map check. He was maybe in his mid thirties and nattered on about his road cycling and stuff, and then invited us to cross the road and check out the local BMX track, which just happened to be there. Pretty cool it was too and there was a lap or two completed by the tour members. Our bloke’s two mates were young lads (about 10 years old at a guess) and it looked like the kind of situation where this bloke would call round at these kids’ houses and see if they wanted to come out and play on their bikes.

We left him effing and blinding merrily away while we cracked on, and up a 1 in 3 real monster fucker (and many further expletives) rated road climb out of said railway town. But, this was a cheap way to gain serious height and get back up onto the moors. Then, funnily enough, there was a series of continual ups and downs to do – for most of the day. No change there then. I kept expecting the view to suddenly open up and reveal the coast, but there always seemed to be another moor between us and our destination.

[Ben S offed twice in the closing stages. The first one was when his front wheel was grasped by a pool of the stickiest mud ever, and he went straight over his bars. No major harm done there really. He saved his second and most serious off of the day until the absolute last bit of technical downhill. We’d had a long desecnt on an excellent chalky track which was full of deeply rutted but now dried up water channels. Mostly there was a line but sometimes drop offs were encountered and jumps were in order to get over some obstacle or other. That kind of thing. It was technical, fast, fun and dusty. Ben was at the front, unfortunately missed the very last jump and hit the dirt hard. Luckily he was protected from serious damage by his hip… Ouch.]

Eventually we were found to be climbing the very last ascent up to a mast and and to our well deserved viewpoint over Robin Hood’s Bay. And there it was – the other coast. Our destination. And after a sit and gawp at the scenery (and some shit) we were able to roll triumphantly down the old railway track right into town…. Except we missed a turning and ended up traipsing through some bloke’s field of a back garden carrying the bikes back up a steep hill, then following a footpath for a while until we found the correct track.

And THEN we were indeed able to roll triumphantly through the village past the hordes of tourists; straight out onto the beach, out across the sand (the tide was ouit) and dip wheels in the water. The Bens and John valiantly stripped off, donned swim shorts and dipped themselves into the cold North Sea. I waded a bit and Jo bravely dipped her toes in.

Pebbles from St Bees were duly dispatched in time honoured coast to coast fashion into said sea by those who had carried them across (Jo and myself that would be) .. and that was it. Job done. We had completed the Coast to Coast by mountain bike. The trek was over.

Err, not quite. There was the getting to the Boggle Hole Youth Hostel to do, but that could wait until after a couple of pints at the Wainwright’s pub on the harbour and some marvellous fish and chips. [Note should be made here that we have no end of trip team photo as the only chap to whom we gave a camera to get it, outside the pub- beers in hand, fucked it up and failed to take our picture. Twice. The twat.] We then had a rather fun traverse of the beach for a mile or so in the sand and through the odd stream to get to the youth hostel.

Boggle Hole Youth Hostel. Lovely position almost on the beach, in a beautiful part of the world. It’s an oasis of comfort. Or, it should be… they’ve put us in some side shack with an internal temperature today of about 50 degrees. There was much consternation within the team but at least Jo managed to get herself out of the boys’ dorm and into a girls’ one. Likely a lot less smelly and let’s hope the weirdo woman from Windermere with the suitcase is not in there with her. We are not really happy with this place.

Now we get ready to go out, back to the village, for some beers and hopefully some more food. Hungry again.

[That was it for the diary. That night was spent in three pubs amongst the it has to be said rather odd mix of folk who frequent Robin Hood’s Bay of a Saturday evening. Lots of walkers having finished their own coast to coast , but then there were the gypsy types for instance in one place who had two small yappy crap dogs which were encouraged to lick beer out of .. actually ‘share’ would be a better term for this… yes, the dogs shared beer glasses with their owners. Gross.

Ben rolled some serious fat ones on the balcony overlooking the sea outside one pub and we generally drank the evening away. We did manage to get some food in before they stopped serving it.

There was a mix of paths of return to the Youth Hostel with some of us braving the pitch dark and the path along the top (and dropping our phones under the wooden steps) whilst others braved the pitch dark and the water and returned along the beach. It should be noted that there was some shameful fridge raiding done by certain members of the team after we returned from the pub. How many packets of mini Jaffa cakes did those boys eat?

Christian’s car had been delivered to the youth hostel no problem and the keys left for us. Trouble is with that place though is that the car park is half a mile up the single track road which connects the hostel to civilisation, Our bags were dropped at said car park the evening before and we had to go up and wait for them..They are delivered by Packhorse to a local taxi firm who then charge for this service and then also charge to drop the bags off. Nice work if you can get it. We had to haul the bags down to the hostel and of course back up the fucking hill again the next morning, along with the bikes and full on hangovers, and no breakfast.

All this hauling of stuff, along with the awful accommodation (although it has to be said I did sleep well that night) did not endear Boggle Hole to the tour at all. Next time it’s a B&B in the village…

We eventually set off for home mid morning, stopping only for a final team meal on the A64: McDonalds. And guess what – it rained most of the way back. Ha-ha - could not have been more perfect timing.]

Another right good do

2006-07-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

Ok so none of you have ever heard of The Tragically Hip. Well, in a way that's great as when they do come over and play I get to see them in a small venue and witness a fantastic band play live at very close quarters.

The gig last Friday was amazing. It's the fourth time I've seen them in the Shepherd's Bush Empire as it's generally the only English venue they play when they come over to Europe.

These occasions happen about every three years so manage to really create a tangible fervour of expectation in the crowd. The Hip's stellar live reputation goes before them and they seem to be a band who really mean a great deal to their fans - one of these outfits who have a real die hard following and a massive amount of respect from people who have in many cases been fans for 15 years or more. And fortunately the respect goes both ways as the band do have a very real relationship with their fans, and I guess this is why they make the effort to get over here and play live every couple of years - something which is very unusual for a band who really do not sell many records outside of Canada.

My now 'usual' fellow Hip watchers Sam and Scottie were there; Rachael came over from Bristol and also ex workmate and recent Hip convert Nick, who drove us down the M1 for the show. We all got stuck in with the crowd downstairs and it was especially good to spend about half an hour front and centre singing (shouting!) along with Scottie.

The band really were on form and we got the best part of two hours' worth of Hipness. Lots of old, new and brand new including 3 tracks from their forthcoming album which is due out in October. Singer Gord Downie was his usual manic self. Whether he's singing, dancing, fighting with his microphone, ranting or just generally making faces and throwing shapes he is the absolute focus of the live show while the rest of the band just get on with the business of playing the songs. Downie was just soaked in sweat and exhausted by the end - much like his audience.

Great to see video cameras up by the sound desk, and it turns out that there's group of Canadian fans following these European dates and filming them all for unofficial distribution, sanctioned by the band. So we'll get some great live bootleg DVDs at some point: something I REALLY like to see :-)

So, all in all another fabulous evening's entertainment from our Canadian friends, and I spent the following day in Bristol with Rachael, which is a whole other story...

A right good do

2006-07-04T03:54:00.000-07:00

I had a last minute ticket offer (from Rachael - thanks SO much ) to see The Who in Hyde Park on Sunday. Always one of those bands who I felt I should see at least once: legendary stuff and all that, so I lashed it down on the train Sunday morning to London.
It's great to see that over the last few years Pete Towshend and Roger Daltrey seem to have made friends again, revived their band and found a love of playing those songs once more.
And what songs! Spine tingling stuff to hear stuff like Can't Explain, Who Are You, Baba O'Reilly, Behind Blue Eyes and Won't Get Fooled Again. The newer material was excellent too and Townshend's solo acoustic rendition of Drowned was, for me, stunning.
A great band with Zak Starkey giving it loads of Keith Moon behind the drums and Pino Palladino ably filling the equally giant shoes of John Entwhistle.
Lots of video on screens behind them throughout with the band paying their own resepcts to their long history and deceased colleagues.
Daltrey's kept himself and his voice in great shape and Pete Townshend obviously still enjoys being a very noisy arm windmilling guitar monster, although his days of wanton equipment trashing are thankfully behind him.
They may no longer be the angry young men of the 60s and 70s but I reckon they are a better live spectacle as content, energetic 'old' men simply enjoying what they do; respecting themselves, their history and their amazing catalogue of material, thus making The Who live an absolute joy to behold as a spectator.
Fantastic.
Great weather too: a beautiful hot summer's day and lovely warm evening. And great to be part of such a huge, well behaved crowd.
All in all right good do.

Holly and Jamie

2006-06-27T05:38:00.000-07:00

The kids. June 2006.

Scotland Part 3

2006-06-22T01:40:00.000-07:00

DAY EIGHT
12:05 PM Thurs 25th
AROS visitor centre, Portree, Skye.

Andy
Just a note to say that outside the windows here right now it’s hailstoning - big ones. We’ve ridden 25 miles or so in a mixed bag of sunshine and heavy rain showers – the frequency and fieceness of which have gradually increased as we have ridden along the coast road from staffin. We opted for the north (east?) coast road as it’s quieter and the views over to torridon etc plus those of the Trotternish (Storr etc) here on Skye itself are most impressive. The Black Cuillin themselves have not long come into proper view and loom menacingly now in the near distance. The big tops of it’s north end: Gillean, Bastier etc tower above the rest of the island over there and there’s a fair amount of snow still on them. They do live up to their BLACK title very much from here.

Anyway – I digress - it’s not been a bad day so far. Indeed the early traverse of the Trotternish from Uig to get over to Staffin really was wonderful, and we were pushed along uphill by a stiff tail wind. The drop down to Staffin was steep (1:7) and exhilarating, and the road along the coast has been undulatiing and pleasant, spoilt only by rain showers as we eventually approached Portree.

Rich has ordered food and is now off in the shop looking for souvenirs - in particular one of those little things you turn over in your hand and it goes “moo”.

Last night was quite good fun in the (3 Star) Uig Youth Hostel with it’s hippy lady warden. First order of the evening was that I raced on my bike to the shop which was a bastard 2 miles down the hill at the ferry pier…

Rich
.. in search of provision, and we ate a hearty meal made up of bangers, mash and beans which andy then went and spoiled by putting cheese on and coleslaw with (he should never open a restaurant).
We spent yesterday evening in the YHA chatting with folks: 2 cyclists from of all places, Calverley; an Aussie couple and two young midwives from Croyden. The latter two pairings were on road trips and came out to Skye on a bit of a whim. Fair enough.

The riding today has been most scenic… except when the hail came down of course. We are now lounging replete and slightly steamy: not an unpleasant experience for us, but I can’t speak for our fellow diners. But they all came here by car so they don’t count.

Andy
Cheese on baked beans is genius. And coleslaw is a nutritious addition to any meal.

I’ve just bought a couple more of the long postcards – good ‘arty’ ones to put in frames at home. Trouble is they are too big to go in the bar bag so I am going to have to diamantle one of my panniers to get them to where they are safe from getting folded and/or wet.

5:10 Youth Hostel, Broadford. Skye
Well, after the Portree stop the weather was fine and sunny all the way here so we made good time with the wind behind us virtually all the way.

Personally I was most distressed to find myself racing past the Sligachan Hotel without at least stopping to pay my respects! Just goes to underline that a biking holiday is a biking holiday and the whole point of it is to be on the road. But still, to pass by such an iconic place with only a swift gaze about at the ridiculous mountain scenery and a quiet salute is a bit off!

I did notice a bot of a wobble in Rich’s back wheel today and thought nothing much of it as I presumed that he would have noticed anything awry when he was braking. But he didn’t – and we spotted the reason for the wobble when we were unloading the bikes in the shed here – he had about 6 very loose spokes! Sorted now though, and just in time by the looks of things.

We had considered going on to the next Hostel at Kyleakin – another 10 miles down to the Kyle of Lochalsh – but we took one look at this place and opted to stop here. It’s very nice. Great spot on the side of the loch looking over at Applecross etc, and anyway apparently the Hostel at Kyleakin is a noisy backpackers hangout with a non-existent curfew. AND there’s pub quiz in one of the local pubs here tonight organised by one of the wardens at theis hostel. Cool.

DAY NINE
Glencarron Hotel 1:35 PM
En route back to Torridon

Andy
It’s Drowned Rats day today – a LOT of rain so far and we are about half way on a big day with a fair few climbs still to do. A sense of humour failure (our first one) was not far away from both of us earlier on in the rain. We are cold and wet.

On the plus side the scenery is as ever wondrous and this café is very good. Top drawer lentil soup and warming sweet hot chocolate. Yum.

Oh, and we won the quiz night last night accompanied by two lady Scottish coppers!

Torridon Youth Hostel
Later that day

Rich
Yeah, that was weird. Andy had stopped on the way to the pub quiz to throw “skimmers” into the sea (quite amusing if you are 12, that is) and these two ladies from the hostel were going our way, one swinging a wine bottle… They were a good laugh: Kirtsie and Leslie (a 2nd Dan black belt at karate) and did not take and shit from anyone, including the locals which was pretty useful when we won the quiz! We then proceeded to spend the (£20!) prize money at the bar…

We woke up with hangovers and rain, neither of which looked set to go away in a hurry so we set off anyhow. After an easy start [up until just after we got across the Skye bridge] we hit some bad weather. Things were not helped when I was temporarily blinded by road salt pouring off my head and into my eyes. Although I was in serious danger of looking like a middle-aged crisis ridden Harley Davidson fanatic I nevertheless accepted Andy’s kind offer of his bandana (next stop – an inappropriate tattoo…?).

After our tea and soup stop the weather cleared and it all became a lot more pleasant, although some big hills inexplicably sprang up in front of us. I got my ice-cream (eventually) in Lochcarron, and we greedily munched our Cornettos in the mizzle while the midges, in turn, greedily munched us.

Andy
I must just say one thing here – skimming stones is much more than “quite amusing” when you are 12 – it’s an art. One which should be practiced and honed at any given opportunity, and which Rich will never appreciate as, lets be honest, he throws like a girl.

Quite amusing that Rich also ended up wearing the bandana after he’d been taking the piss out of me all week for the Buff wearing. Still, it kept the salt out of his eyes which was most excellent.
Today has been hard graft - a LOT of hills on every stage, and in particular two or three nasty little climbs as we felt were were on the very last home stretch bit. Some glorious scenery though, as ever. Loch Carron I would wager is amazing in half decent conditions and the run down (some excellent new black top) into Glen Torridon really was beautiful. And we even had the sun out for a while there.

We prepared a “skyscraper of food” each on the tiny little hostel plates. You’d think they’d realise that people who come here have big appetites…

One thing I have noticed in this hostel is the prevelance of the wearing of socks with sandals and this is most distressing.
We bought some cornflakes: excellent. The omellete, bacon and beans routine will finally be broken!

We were pondering the fate of the “Old Lady” we met in Ullapool while we were cycling along in the shit weather today – how would she be coping in such adverse conditions? Rich reckons she’ll she’ll be on Orkney fuelled by a Finger of Fudge and a cherry
tomato.

The two Calverley guys are here – the did the Applecross circuit today on top of coming back from Skye and it half killed them. There’s cycling and enjoying it (which I reckon is what Rich and I have been doing) – knowing your limits and not doing stuff just because it’s there – and then there’s being plain stupid.

Rich
Agreed again. I don’t do this just to tell tall stories in the hostels in the evenings to try to impress total strangers. Jeez – get a life.

[And that was about it. Plans to go and do the Applecroft circuit by bike (or by car) were shelved as the weather was lousy and there wasn’t really much point withiout the views. So, we left a day early. Actually due to the shortened Outer Hebrides episode we were two days earlier than planned as our original intention was to drive back down on the Bank Holiday Monday. But it would be good to be back home with a day to spare and not having to go straight to work the next day etc. We had a bit of a lie in the next (Saturday) morning, eventually packed the car, said goodbye to the top warden chappie and set off on the long drive home. We did a pit stop in the Cairngorms at the ski place who’s name escapes me now as we were going that way and neither of had been there before. Looks a top town and we dined in a café above a climbing shop which did the most excellent food. We got talking to a couple of blokes, University lecturers, who were heading up to Assynt on a geology field trip, which was most pleasant.

It was here that we had our one and only technical of the trip – and it involved Rich’s car. It had been smelling of diesel a bit and when we returned to it in the climbing shop car park to find it sat in it’s own colourful pool of fuel. The leak was soon found - it was pissing diesel from a split rubber seal thingy. We fixed it using the glue from a puncture repair kit and sealed it good and proper with a zip tie. A truly marvellous bodge job.

Once diesel stench free we drove south, and we drove south some more. And some more until we reached England. Then some more south; east a bit and eventually arrived in Calverley on Saturday evening. Rich stopped over and he headed back to Reading on the Sunday.]

[A side story of note from the final day: On arrival at the hostel we encountered an example of the phenomenon that is the strange lone male cyclist. This particular one was called John and we initially met him just as we rolled down the valley towards the hostel. (We had seen him as he left Broadford that morning while we were faffing with the bikes in the shed.) Immediate conversation revealed that his 60+ miles that day was ‘disappointing’ for him as he usually averages about 90, or 100 preferably. This did look initially most implausable as this guy was riding an ancient Raleigh Randonneur tourer with trainers, jogging pants, no helmet and a seat adjusted to what looked to be exactly the wrong height for optimum pedalling power. The only thing that marked him out as an any way serious tourer was a pair of smart Ortlieb panniers. We noticed he was in our dorm that night too and it seemed only polite to offer him a seat with us while we were eating. Hmmm. He had a LOT of cycling tales to tell – tours in Africa and North West USA plus him owning a house in Africa somewhere and offering it up as accommodation for cycle tourists… etc etc. All very interesting, and to fair he seemed a nice bloke, but Christ he didn’t half go on. I think Rich at some point escaped to do the dishes and I ran away to the quiet room and read a book or something. By the time he found us again we’d been chatting to the Calverley lads for a while so we were able to bid our goodnights to them all just as John was starting his round of tales again!

We did our late start and caught up with John on the road as he’s headed for Inverness as well that day. Christ he’d really coverered a lot of miles by the time we saw him, and he’s probably still out there, cycling round somewhere – same as “Old lady”. There’s a lot of them out there folks so treat them with care should you pass them on the roads.]

TOUR STATS
430 odd miles in car each way (Calverley to Torridon); 315 of which is in Scotland.
294 recorded on bike computer (it cut out in heavy rain) + 25 (Harris) + 60 (last day)
Approx 375 miles cycled in total. Max single day: 93 miles.
Recorded average = 13.1 mph.
Recorded max speed = 42.3 mph (I think this was descending into Ullapool)
Touring satisfaction quotient: 100%

Scotland Part 2

2006-06-22T01:35:00.000-07:00

DAY FOUR
Monday 12th June 3:30PM
Ullapool – The Return – Sat outside Youth Hostel.

Andy
Firstly, mention must be made of a lady we have just encountered. She was the first cycle tourist we have chatted to (except actually for the grumpy Belgians here the other night – but they don’t count). First impression was her bike – REALLY laden up – and we both thought “How is that little old lady managing to get round here on that thing?” Well, in conversation it turns out that she’s cycled here from fucking Carlisle and is “on her way round”, as in right round the bloody coast! AND she’s camping. Christ. Then she’s off to Norway on the ferry (from Newcastle) and plans to “do a bit” over there before heading down through Scandanavia. All on her bike. Fair play – that is THE thing to do on your retirement, but fucking hell lady we now feel a bit inadequate on our mere ten day tour.

Rich
Not ‘arf mate. We feel dead wimpy. But we told her of our 40 mph downhills, which she was a bit scared of, so perhaps she wasn’t that hard after all.

Up this morning and made what we hoped would be a monster protein – calorific breakfast: fried corned beef. Unfortunately it really wasn’t too pleasant (and Andy couldn’t quite stomach all of his) [it was foul] but it did the job as fuel.

Said goodbye to Dave and Caroline, and the students (who, given that they were up until 2am with their fire on the beach, were up promptly) and headed for the more main route, easterly, past Loch Assynt, to pick up the A road going south (A837). Good progress, fantsatic views of Suilven and the other not-quite-Munros and a couple of stops for a castle (Andy just LOVES castles) and a tea-shop where we camped out until the hail had gone past.

Andy
(The castle was pants.)
We are now being buzzed by the RAF and their pesky jet fighters. This somehow spoils the seaside ambience if you ask me.

Considering how ‘cold’ the weather is, once again I am being burned by the sun here. Just had a text from Jo saying that the weather is cack in Leeds. Good. It’s top up here.

Yep – the cycle today was pretty hard one again. The return down the main road to Ullapool made us realise just how much graft we put in yesterday before we set off on the single track road to nowhere down the loch side. It was 10 miles and on it today we had at least three 40 mph descents, long ones, up which we’d toiled yesterday on the way north. No wonder we were knackered after a mere 30 miles to Achmelvic.

We toyed briefly with the idea of moving our YH booking over to Stornoway tonight and getting the 5:30 ferry across. But our boy here tells us that there’s no SYHA place in Stornoway (we’d have to find an independent one) so we have opted to stop and chill in Ullapool. After all this is a holiday!

Rich
And it’s sunny, so I am gonna need an ice cream.

6:10 PM
Thoroughly cleaned and showered in the Youth Hostel the intrepid duo march off to the touristy shops and indulge in a postcard buying frenzy. Oh, yes. We are so hard. We had a rescheduling meeting and have reduced our last stop at Torridon down to a single night (Sunday) as this will give us another day on the outer islands – we were a bit oushed for time otherwise. Also we are now booked into Uig and Broadford on Skye, so we are pretty much fully planned. The Gatliff ‘simple’ hostels on Lewis, Harris and Uist don’t take bookings.

The weather forecast it has to be said is lousy, but it has been thus all the way so far, and (touch wood) we seem to have been OK. At least the wind is Westerly which is fine for us as we will be blown back across Skye!

Rich has just been on the t’internet at 50p for 10 minutes which is a tad costly. I’ve written a few postcards.

The plan is to go for some more award winning fish and chips tonight. Yum. And a beer. Or two. In the meantime we will retire once again to the comfy chairs.

Rich has just informed me that our gorgeous Scandanavia girls have arrived. About time too.

DAY FIVE
Monday 10:25 AM
Ferry Ullapool to Stornaway

Andy
On board SS… ferry, which is just about to disembark from Ullapool. Now, this DOES feel like a proper advanture all of a sudden.
Yesterday evening we hit the chippy once again. It is actually properly award winning. Oh yes. Radio 4 voted it ‘Britains Best Take Away’ in 2005. And to be fair the (cooked to order) fish and chips are very, very good.

Having taken said fish and chips back to the hostel we dined with two German girls to whom we’d been chatting earlier. Rich picked a fine Merlot from CostCutter to go with the food. Deserts were Muller Fruit Corners – we eat in style!

[A note here on the German girls. Two youngsters, one 19 and one 25, just off on a jolly on buses around Scotland staying at hostels. We met a lot of folk doing this – just out for an adventure in a ‘far way’ place. Pairs of girls in particular, having a great, easy, safe holiday. This goes to show the excellence of the SYHA system.]

After dinner we roamed round all the pubs looking for one which served proper beer. After rejecting three (The Arch - dead), The Seaforth and The Ceilidh Pub (full of old people) we arrived back at the FBI next to the hostel and had one there. [This pub it should be noted had a bunch of Yorkshire men and women serving behind the bar.] Again, the smoking ban in pubs should be loudly applauded here. I cannot wait for this rule to be law in England.

OK, we are off. 2hrs 45 mins to Stornoway and the forecast is for a ‘comfortable’ crossing. The weather is, as ever for a morning, dull and drizzly, but hopefully will sort itself out in the afternoon like it’s been doing each day so far.

In Scotland you continuously feel as if you are exisiting inside a postcard view. For instance last night the sunset in the harbour produced some really beautiful light conditions, and there was also an amazingly bright little rainbow which appeared in the middle of the harbour at one point.

Back from our beer we DID end up chatting to a pair of blonde Swedish girls. See – I told you there would be some.

We both slept well once again.

This morning we have been to the aid of a fellow biker chap who was in our dorm and who was having a wheel/tyre type issue. Turns out he’d been sold an unsuitable rim and then on top of that a crap tyre (his original tyre was fine). No tyres would fit on the rim unless he managed to get about 80 psi into it, which he couldn’t with his rubbish pump. Rich’s excellent mini track pump did the job no problem. The guy is still stuck though as he needs a new pump or preferably another, more suitable, rim. Ho hum.

Omlette, bacon and toast for breakfast once again and the boat tickets were obtained (£30 for an island “Hopper” package thing which was a bargain for our 3 boats). Bags packed, and here we are on the ferry heading out of port and into The Minch [the channel between the mainland and the Outer Hebrides]. There’s lots of pretty islands dotted all around [the Summer Isles] and the weather ahead looks like it consists mostly of blue sky.

DAY SIX
Tuesday 7:05pm
Kershader Community Hostel, South Lochs, Lewis.

Rich
We are in a strange place – not what we thought it would be and this is not where we were meant to stop...

For some reason we were the absolute last to leave the ferry (priority not given to cycles, then) and I noticed only one foreign vehicle on the car deck. Straight after hitting the off ramp it absolutely pelted with rain – NOT a nice welcome!! Just as we were getting lost in Stornaway and Land Rover pulled up alongside us and it was Andy’s mate Kev, who’s wife is from Lewis and they have a house on the (rather remote) west coast.

We went for shelter and lunch in a café and when it didn’t look like the weather was going to break, decided to head off regardless. The plan was to do Callanish. Unfortunately, when we missed a turn just out of town (I thought I saw it but it wasn’t signposted anyway). As we were down the road and the weather was still dismal the thought of going west and then having an almighty headwind later on the return was a bit too much to take, so we pressed on south.

There were breaks in the weather but it ws slow going and the open moorland offered little relief. The oddest thing has to be the ‘villages’. Sometimes you’ll get an impressive array of build up: “40” speed limit signs; countdown markers; names in English and Gaelic and for what? One house if you are lucky. It sums up one of Andy’s favourite phrases about some of the places we have passed through: “Is that it?”.

Andy
This area is deslolate. Not in the impressive fashion though – more in the crap kind. Just endless featurless open moorland – a whole lot of fuck all. Why the hell anyone would choose to live here I really do not know. I guess in nice weather – some sunshine and a little less of the cross-winds and freezing rain – the cycle south may have been quite pleasant through this alien landscape, but as it was it was just grim. I found myself really wanting to be cycling through the familiarity of mountain scenery once again: big hills and everything. The exposure and unfamiliarity of it all was rather unsettling.

Anyhow we eventually found our turning off the main road (the only road!) south to find this odd little place about 5 miles down a single track road. We’d been thinking traditional Black house with a thatched roof… and we are in an old school building. Well, not that old – something from the 60’s with classic Scottish white rendering etc. No bloody heating either: we cannot get it to work. At least the tumble dryer seems to be going for free (Rich: Hu-fucking-rah).

Out two fellow guests (note: only two as no one else is daft enough to want to seek this place out) are Nicole: a German nurse who speaks really wonderful English and who is bussing it round the islands; and Mike, a felllow bike tourer from Darlington. He is the most loaded up biker we have yet met: 4 panniers, back pack and a bum bag. Tent, walking gear and everything on board, and he’s on his own. Crikey. Both these guys seem decent people to be sharing with.

Ooh look – it’s peeing down again outside and five minutes ago it was blazing sunshine. Welcome to Lewis indeed.

Tomorrow we will head further south and see how far we can get. Bernaray would be the target but we can bail out once again (to another YH) a bit further north if needs be.

The happening night life of this place consists of the four of us sitting round eating polo mints and Rich’s packet of dried fruit. Rock and roll.

Rich
Another “funny” moment on the road was when we were pounding along against the sideways rain and looked up to see two roofers hard at work on a chimney. We thought they were nutters .. but consider this: at least they weren’t on holiday.

We also had a minor (but nevertheless significant) mechanical: my horn broke. So at the moment I cannot scare the sheep whitless or signal the arrival at our destination in the traditional Eatough/Golborne tour fashion.

[The horn was fixed a little later that evening with the aid of Mike and his handy roll of electrical insulating tape. We were saved – thanks mate. But further on the DIY front we never did manage to get the heating going.]

Andy
Damn – I have just realised the we deliberately resheduled our YHs on Skye and Torridon so we could spend more time on these lovely islands. That means we have two more nights out here before we can head back to the ralative sanctuary (sanity?) of Skye.

Actually, I’m sure we’ll get to like these islands – at some point. The other two guys here have been singing the praises of Harris and Uist so we shall see.

9.00 PM
We’ve all been sat here for a couple of hours reading and stuff and ONE car has gone past. Ooh – the traffic!

DAY SEVEN
Weds, lunchtime.
Tarbet, Harris, Outer Hebrides. In the Fruit Tree tea house, early afternoon.

Andy
“Fuck the Stones.”
We have decided to bail off these bloody islands as it’s just too harsh to be biking out here.

This morning saw us head southwards from Kershader with our man Mike for the 5 mile return to the main road. He headed north...

2:45 PM
... at that point two blokes sat down with us at our table (the place was busy) and we chatted with them over a pleasant lunch (including gallons of tea). They were David and his dad Fred. Fred had cycle toured round Scotland in the early 60s. David lives on south Uist and is doing Christian charity work with alcoholic folk on the island. Most interesting to chat to a ‘local’. He and his wife also lived in Cardiff at the same time we did – in Cathays just around the corner from the Crwys Road Co-op!

Back to our bike day…
We are bailing as the biking is just… unpleasant. The wind is pretty ferocious and it’s just really hard work cycling. This may sound a tad wimpy but we have both decided that cycling for the sake of it is not what we are here for, especially in ridiculous conditions. We could have plodded on down to Bernaray but that’s on the exposed west and by all accounts things are even more grim down there. [It should be noted that the wind had changed from easterly the day before to an equally gale force westerly.] The forecast is better for tomorrow (Thursday) but David reckoned the weekend was not looking good at all. So, we will nip over to Uig this afternoon (the ferry from here is at 4pm) to the YH there, and then across Skye tomorrow, hopefully in decent conditions, with a tail wind. And, I should add, with “God’s speed” (cheers, David) - whatever that is in miles and hour.

Meanwhile we have ‘done’ Tarbet. Boy is it a happening place. I did buy a Harris tweed pouch thing as a souvernir in a craft/toy shop. (Note that Harris tweed is pound for pound more expensive than diamonds.) We also visited the one newsagents/grocer in town and the bustling tourist information center where Rich picked up a most interesting leaflet: “Cycle The Hebrides”. He is deeply engrossed in this right now so perhaps he can enlighten us as to exactly where it was we went wrong?

Rich
Yeah, well ‘Cycling the Hebrides’ is done carefully… there seem to be a few basic rules of thumb:
1. NEVER, EVER cycle from North to South (as we were doing).
2. NEVER cycle on the A859 (as we were doing).
3. Put your bike on a bus the instant the terrain looks lousy.
4. Take ‘picnics’ everywhere (or you will starve).
It’s quite telling that the “Cycle the Hebrides” leaflet only has one picture of anyone doing any actual cycling, and the people involved appear to be smiling somewhat ruefully though gritted teeth.

So, I’m with Andy – let’s get back towards the mainland which, for cycling, is much more pleasant as it is shielded from the North Atlantic by … The Outer Hebrides.

Andy
4:15
Over the sea to Skye. On the ferry HMS… whatever. Rich says that we now have the perfect view of the Outer Hebrides ie. from behind some double glazing. Of course now it all does look rather ruggedly inviting, but we know the truth so he has a point. Looking out in front of this tub there’s the very impressive view across the top of Skye with the Trotternish hills looming majestically, and also our first glimpse of the Cuillin way off in the distance. All look reasonably cloud-free from here, and let’s hope they stay that way.
Actually looking off the starboard side there does still seem to be some big black clouds over Harris.

Scotland Part 1

2006-06-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

DAY ONE
Friday 19th June 2006 10:20 PM
Youth Hostel, Torridon

Andy
Here we are in the Torridon YH having spent the day driving. It’s been a long one – we set off about 10AM and didn’t even get to Fort William until 5:30. Delays in the traffic at Glasgow and then an odd one in Glencoe when the traffic lights at the ongoing bridge rebuild got out of synch and the two sets of vehicles both arrived in the middle of a one lane road. Ho hum.

[One thing was proved at that incident and that was that drivers of large BMW cars cannot reverse to save their lives – I’ve never seen such a piss poor display of going backwards – how many cones did he hit – on both sides?!]

We pit stopped at Mike's place in Fort William and and having introduced me to his lovely family Mike made us a rather fine mince and tatties before directing us to Torridon via entirely the longest route possible: Inverness on the East coast. Err ... [Turns out this is the best way to go, so thanks Mike.] One thing we did discover was that the weather over there really is shite while over here in the lovely West it’s rather splendid.

The scenery is obviously jaw dropping with a ‘duvet’ of clouds apparently draped over the huge tops above Glen Torridon when we arrived.

The midges are out in full force already – just getting out of the car resulted in a rash of bites from the little fuckers.

The hostel seems very good, but there’s a large school party here so it remains to be seen how they behave.

[All the ‘proper’ Scottish Youth Hostels really were excellent – beautiful locations, well looked after; clean, tidy and they all had great staff. We mucked them about with moving bookings on several occasions as we changed our plans but without fail they sorted us out thanks to their web based booking system.]

One slight error on our behalf on the forward planning front – it’s self catering here and we have no food. Oops. (Free tea and coffee though which is great.) Luckily we have some bars and Rich’s bread to see us to the first spot of civilisation on tomorrows route which is Kinlochlewe: 10 miles back up Glen Torridon on the single track road.

Nice to see single track A roads with passing places – I miss that kind of Scottish Highland thing.

Deer all over the place round here. It’s hard to imagine that we are still on the same piece of land which contains Leeds and London etc. Scotland really is beautiful.

Rich is Studying the guide book looking for stone circles.

Rich
… and he’s blinking well found some and we are going to see them all!!!

This is a funny hostel – bit like a 1970s secondary school (possibly the feeling is helped by yelping pre-pubescents running amok (bless them)).

Andy has seen something else in my ‘Footprint’ guide: the bit about Applecross and the 2000ft (from sea level) climb up some “dramatic and torturous switchbacks”! But that’s next weekend – so that’s OK then?

(I’m a bit worried about Andy’s legs .. they are too big and strong and he’s going to leave me by the side of the road with the deer)

So, tomorrow should be fun: 90 miles, apparently- that’s a long way, but we’ve got to make coz our hostel bed is booked and there’s no backing out.

Andy

There’s a wooden cloud shaped pice of ‘art’ hanging on the wall in this seating area, and some rather bad taste curtains and tiles – they look like IKEA seconds from the 1980s. Still it’s all rather quaint in a dodgy wood panneled kind of fashion.

OK, yes, I hadn’t noticed the 2000ft climb on Applecross until just before, but that’s a week away and we will be dead fit by then…

We are now fully paid up members of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association (SYHA) by the way. And we are in room 10 where we’ve all but filled the floor with bags and panniers.

DAY TWO
Saturday 10th June 7:45 PM
Ullapool Youth Hostel

Andy
Neither of us slept very well last night for no apparent reason. Then I nicked my breakfast (bananas and toast) from the aformentioned children. Not a good start to the day but then again they should have been up earlier, the lazy gits (and they had tons of food). So, it was with shameful hearts but full bellies that we rolled out of Torridon. Sort of.

The weather looked ropey when we got up (at 7am I should add) – dull, drizzly and breezy. Yuck.

We did faff for an amazingly long time for the first load up of the bikes but were on the road for 8:30 which was excellent.

The weather wasn’t too bad in the end as we trundled back up Glen Torridon (dull but no rain or wind). The only thing concerning us was the deer and whether they were “frollicking” or “prancing” as they dashed across the road in front of us. Luckily they were of little threat and Rich didn’t need to resort to The Horn.

Rich
Ten miles after leaving Torridon we stopped for brekky at Kinlochlewe. The establishment was a shop-cum-café, and as we were settling in and large troup of rough hewn, loud folk wandered in, laughing and jeering each other and generally swamping the place. Turns out they were the stuntmen & horse handlers crew up here on laocation for some fantasy film or other (“Stardust”) starring Robert de Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. Anyway, they were a friendly bunch and eventually insisted on buying our breakfast. And we had both thought they were Pikeys…

Andy

So, £5 of the budget of Stardust (what a shit name for a film) went on our tea an bacon & egg butties.

We rolled on. And it was all very pretty. And not long after the sun came out, and remarkably stayed that way for the rest of the day. There was a cool breeze at times but it’s genarally been hot, and we got our legs out at some point to celebrate.

Once at the coast the scenery really was amazing. Many “Wow” moments were experienced where we rounded a headland or topped out on a rise to reveal a new beautiful bay/island/beach(“bitch”)/mountain – or any combination of all of the above. One inlet in particular, Gruinard Bay, with it’s huge beach and dramatic backdrop of the Fisherfield hills was just stunning (an "inlet of distinction"). Beautiful colours too – the sea in particular.

But it’s above all been a LONG day, and to say that the coast road is rather hilly would be a slight understament. Our lunch stop was about 2pm at a B&B at a place called Laide. Delicious salmon and cream cheese sandwiches (the lady was happy to do Rich’s on his own bread) and LOTS of tea. At that point we’d done about 50 miles, so we were over half way, but with lots still to come. Including as it turned out two big climbs into and out of Little Loch Broom. The latter really was enormous and took forever.

Rich

…and ever, and ever. In short, it killed me. Or more specifically my knees, which brought our speed right down and necessitated several choccy stops.

We rolled into Ullapool at about 6:15 PM – later that we’d anticipated, but seeing as Andy’s computer was by then reading 92.45 miles (much of it the uppy-downy-flippin’-uppy-again variety) not ‘arf respectable mate.

The hostel is very sweet, right on the sea front and the view across the loch is rather impressive.

We threw on some clean chuddies and headed directly for what were were reliably informed were “award winning” fish and chips. Rather difficult to tell to be honest as we wolfed then down so quick!

Andy
Now we are sat in the comfy chairs, and to be honest I’m unlikely to ever get out of this one. Rich is reading “Land Rover World” (August 2005 edition) and, sadly, looks engrossed.

The view out of the window from this seat is of a beautiful sea loch, fishing boats and a backdrop of enormo hills. That’s Scotland out there then.

We are booked back in here on Monday night and plan to head up to the YH at Achmelvic, just north of Lochinver which I reckon is a mere 40k (25 miles). Piece of piss after the 90+ (and almost exactly 7 hours in the saddle) of today. Bit of a rest really!

10:20PM
Andy
On a pub crawl. OK, we’ve been to two. This one is the Ferry Boat Inn (FBI) about 2 doors down from the Youth Hostel. The other one was next to the award winning chippy.

It should be noted that all Scottish pubs are non-smoking which I have to say is a truly excellent rule, especially when you are on tour and have only one set of ‘going out’ clothes.

We did forget to mention that the film crew (remember them, from Kinlochlewe earlier on? Keep up.) sent two of the girls who were with them into the kitchen to help feed their own café invasion. This was the source of much sexist merriment as the girls (joining in the joke) delivered everyone’s (including our) food, tea etc. Most amusing.

DAY THREE
Sunday 11th June 4:15 PM
Achmelvic Beach Youth Hostel, Wester Ross.

Andy
A reasonably early start after a solid touring breakfast of a whole packet of bacon and a 6 egg omelette between us. The hostel had a party of 40 students from university in Edinburgh staying so things were a tad busy in the kitchen for a while.

We eventually got on the road at about 11 into pretty much the same dull and drizzly conditions as yesterday.

The first part of it was on the A road (A835) straight out north, and after 10 miles or so we turned off onto a real “road to nowhere” across west [round the north of Loch Lurgainn] to the coast. This single track road passes between sonme of the really big sandstone tops which rise dramatically from seemingly nothing in Inverpoly Forest. It was amazing stuff.

At one point (after a sandwich stop outside a particulary isolated house) we climbed up from the loch to a view point which finally revealed the mighty Suilven and it’s equally statuesque companions all stretched out around us to the north and east, plus view right down to the coast (the seaside!) over to our left. Another real “Wow” point.

We are sunbathing here by the way. The weather turns very chilly though when the sun disappears, and doubly so in the stiff breeze blowing from the north. At present we are sat on some rocks with our toes in the sand, out of the wind; with waves gently rolling over the white sands from the remarkably blue sea to our right. And it is red hot.

Once we’d turned out of the hills (where we’d been rained on a couple of times – just showers – and it was rather chilly so we’d put all our warm gear on) all of a sudden we were in the sun so we stopped just after the Inverpoly Lodge and stripped back down to shorts for the rest of the day’s biking. This was a beautiful section of single track road (much of it nicely resurfaced) in and out of sea inlets, and it undulated in that way that only Scottish coast roads do – up and over headlands – so it was hard work. Lovely though.

Uh – oh. A big cloud. Best get a shirt on. And perhaps my fleece.
[I should add here that everyone else (which makes it sould like there were crowds there - "the few other folk we saw" would perhaps be a better term) were generally decked out in fleece/GoreTex and hats for their visit to the sands.]

Rich

You have to be very hard to be a sunbather in Scotland. We haven’t seen many others so far. OK: none. A well as the cold you occasionally get sand blasted which just makes it all the more interesting.

We are here on the beach nursing our injuries from yesterday – the tendons in the back of the knees ache. We cannot get into the hostel for a healing warm shower, because it’s not open until 5 o’clock….

Andy
7:15 PM
Tonight we are shariing this cute little Hostel with a party of recently finished their finals students from Edinburgh. Actually, there’s only 10 of them this time and they seem most pleasant. We have been offered beers from them which is most kind.

Our genial hosts – Dave and Caroline - are great. Lots of chat and a great welcome from the. It’s a small place so it looks like they just join in with the guests.

Just bought some postcards of the beach so best write them.

[Also stopping at this hostel that night were 3 older women who were travelling round by car and doing some wallking. We chatted to them a while and they were very nce. There was another young couple as well who didn’t have much to say for themselves.]

Dave and Caroline had been in Canada for several years with a business until visa issues basically forced them out so they were doing the Youth Hostel warden thing for this summer before likely travelling off again. (They’d also lived for a while in New Zealand.)

[Achmelvic was the most basic Youth Hostel we visted with an outside loo (just the one for everyone) and shower building (same again – just one). It is a large beach hut, basically and closed in the winter. It is in such a wonderful place though. The second beach, just over to the left of the main cove was even more isolated and had pretty large waves rolling into it. Utterly beautiful, and the kind of special place which made touring up there so unique.]

Seven days of biking

2006-06-19T05:34:00.000-07:00

"Coast to Coast". Three words which do little to convey the sheer EFFORT we had to put into our week long jolly across the country by mountain bike. Beforehand I had thought "how hard can a few days of mountain biking be?" I mean, days in the hills is something I am used to so this should be an easy, fun week with some mates, right? Ok, Fun it was - but the route ("The Way is The Route and The Route is The Way...") was a monster and was probably the least direct piece of cross country navigation I have ever seen!
But I guess we got intimately acquainted with all the best bits of the areas we visited, and there is some amazing biking to be found around the following:
The South Lakes (Ennerdale, (Black Sail Pass) Wasdale, Eskdale, Langdales, Windermere, Dunnerdale, Walna Scar, Conniston, Mosedale and a few more I've missed out; The Pennines (via Tan Hill); The Dales (round Swaledale) and seemingly all of the North Yorkshire Moors.

The weather was just about perfect. A little drizzle twice and too hot at times, but ridiculously good really. We managed a proper swim in the sea at St Bees head before setting off and a 'dip' in the North Sea at the end it was that good.

We had one serious accident on day one resulting in a badly sprained ankle and an early lift home for one of the guys, plus a serious bike mechanical which needed a day out at a bike shop for someone else. There were a few minor 'offs' along the way and several of the more painful variety in the last couple of days. Not too bad considering how technical some of the terrain was.

It's odd to travel like that in your own 'bubble' across country and not see many people at all all day. For instance I'll have to watch my language though as we developed a quite extraordinary array of new expletives which were generally coined at the top of the huge climbs we seemed to do each day. Each brutal effort forced us into yet unchartered swearing territory and had us in fits of laughter as someone came out with a phrase even more appalling than we had previously thought possible to describe the effort they had put into it. But you had to be there, and we really had to watch our mouths when we got to 'civilisation'.

We stopped mainly at B&Bs with a few youth Hostels chucked in. It has to be said that the English Youth Hostels are not a patch on their Scottish counterparts. Windermere and Boggle Hole are partcularly horrible, but top marks to the amazing one at Kirby Stephen (a converted church with a lovely warden - Clare) which sadly is due to close later this year. We devoured lots of fried breakfasts, lots of pub meals, and of course lots of flapjack.

I have 'earned' a rather patchy biker sun tan now with the shorts, socks and glove lines and this, along with a startling collection of cuts bruises and scabs, is not the ideal summer look! Still, I have plenty of time to patch it up, and it's a small price to pay for an extraordinary week of adventure.

So, it's now back to what passes for normality these days. Ho hum.

The joy of front crawl

2006-06-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I feel I've finally cracked front crawl. I started up the swimming about 18 months ago, not being able to do a length of it without a breather, and although I've been able to do the (triathlon) required 1500m (60 lengths) for a while now it's never really... flowed. It's never seemed quite right, and has nearly always been really hard work. However, in the last couple of weeks it's all just clicked - the rotation; the stretching out; the pointy thumb first hand insertion thing above your head; the pull down in the right line; the push back; the breathing to both sides; the kicking from the hips... and all the rest of it.
I really never used to enjoy swimming but I have to say that getting to grips with the sheer technicality of front crawl has seen me go from initial frustration (and exhaustion) to fascination (as I got fitter) and more recently real satisfaction as it's all come together.
I actually like swimming now. I never thought I'd hear myself say that.

The Cuillin

2006-06-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recognise this view. It was a real wrench to just bike past Sligachan as it's such an iconic place and usually the end of a long journey. Not this time though.

Assynt

2006-06-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

Approaching Loch Assynt on our grand tour of Suiliven day.

Wester Ross

2006-06-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

Ooh - the traffic! Rich toils in the heat, again in Wester Ross with Skye in the backgound.

Gruinard Bay

2006-06-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

Me on me bike approaching the lovely Griunard bay in Wester Ross. Suilven in the backgound on the left.

North West Coast escapades

2006-06-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

Back to reality after the tour of Scotland. It really was excellent and we covered about 400 miles in 7 days of biking. There (as ever) was a tour diary kept by the pair of us, and it's being typed up as we speak so I'll likely publish it in installments on here.
Suffice to say that North West Scotland is stunningly beautiful and markedly hilly! The weather in the main was remarkably good - even better when we were getting reports of it being wet and miserable in Yorkshire :-)
Our only real conditions problem was on the Outer Hebrides with two days of biking down to Harris from Stornoway, through vicious cross winds and freezing rain. Needless to say we bailed off onto lovely Skye, and all was well once again.
We stopped in a string of Scottish Youth Hostels are these are highly recommended.

... and so onto the next tour starting very soon :-)

The Mary Townley Loop. And stuff.

2006-05-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

So this lady Mary Townley was a horse riding type who decided it was a good thing to create the Pennine Bridleway. What a top idea me girl. The first part to open was subsequently named after her and is a 47 mile circular off road extravaganza running through West Yorkshire (Hebden Bridge area) and over into Lancashire (down through Rossendale and Waterfoot). So, you get to look down onto Calderdale, Burnley, Rawtenstall, Manchester, Halifax and a hell of a lot of stunning open moorland while riding on excellent tracks.
Of course it's perfect for mountain biking and it is a marvellous day out if you have the legs to go up and down a great deal on yer bike for 8 hours or so.

The forecast for yesterday was grim it had to be said but we went for it anyhow and amazingly it stayed dry pretty much all round - I think we had a 20 minute spell of rain, but not a real soaking. No wind, and the cloud cover kept the temperature down to pleasantly cool. Perfect really.

The Blue Klein days may well be numbered: I think my bike is past it's best as I had more technicals: two stops for a broken chain this time, leaving me in the end, after chucking two sets of broken links away, with it too short to get into big ring. At least it got me round though. I could just buy a new chain of course but then the route talk was of which bike I should be buying next... A Scott Scale 30 (yes, a hardtail - none of this poncy rear suspension for me) is looking good it has to be said and I think I'll need to get it before the Coast to Coast week long off road extravaganza next month. Hehe - "Need to". In as much as I WANT a new bike now - the seed of a shiny new machine has been firmly planted. I can't afford one of course but, what the hell, life's too short.

Hey - I have two serious bike tours coming up in the next six weeks. How cool is that? The Scotland road one with Rich kicks off from Torridon a week on Friday, and the CtoC effort starts from St Bees Head in Cumbria on June 11th. This is the day after England's first World Cup game and we'll all be up there watching that the previous afternoon, so will no doubt start as we mean to go on - with hangovers.

Training is still going well for the Tri (end of July). The running is ticking over at about 20 mile a week and the swimming is Ok, but now needs kicking up a gear or two so I can do the necessary 1500m in really good order. I've now joined the Leeds Bradford Triathlon club and will be able to make use of their swim coaching (Friday nights) and also do some open water training which will be interesting - wet suit and all.

This looks interesting: www.wensleydaletriathlon.co.uk
Why is it that Yorkshire events have to be harder and further than those everywhere else?

The ten to two club

2006-04-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

That was that then. A weekend mountain biking in the Peak District followed by a week being Dad - looking after the kids while Liz was off on a jolly.

The Peak District is great for cycling and yet shamefully ignored by myself. It's only 90 minutes by car and there's some great routes, all of which are very hilly and contain much technical stuff: marvellous.

Rich Eatough came up to meet me and Jo J from the North Leeds biking crew 'gatecrashed' in on the Saturday night for the Sunday ride. The drinking was all her fault I'm sure.

It was the first camping of the year as well which was fun, and the weekend also included my first hangover for what I've calulated as 6 years. On white blinking wine too - something we thought was 'safe' to drink at will. Mind you given that three of us downed a 3 litre box plus another bottle at the tents and then more in the pub afterwards - what did we expect? Duh.

But (as we are so dedicated) we got out as promised on Sunday albeit on a foreshortened excursion after having spent most of the morning asleep and then in a cafe trying to get ride of the nausea. Yep - we all suffering from Richter scale hangovers and we eventually made a start on the bikes "at the crack of ten to two". We valiantly managed some cruel climbs at the start and kept going. Our pay off was the wondrous complete traverse of Rushup Edge, in glorious sunshine and with the wind behind us. Fabulous. Mountain biking rocks.

The kids were as ever brilliant for the week. It's an odd place inside the bubble of being a full time parent. Just concentrating wholly on keeping the kids entertained and nothing else being a priority. Good fun really. We all enjoyed ourselves anyway. It was a week of parks and more parks; plane and train museums in York and the Play Barn (inevitably). Also we did an excellent visit to Five Locks Rise near Bingley and the kids were fascinated by the locks on the canal watching boats go through.

So, back to it. The summer's here though, eh?

Permanent dickhead

2006-04-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so there's me whining about a bit of hearing loss when I have a daughter who is permanently damaged in a way that most people can't even imagine. Way to go Andy.

It's strange though with Holly, as she's "just Holly" to me. I'm used to her disability, and we all just get on with it. But if I think what it must be like for her to just not be able to do things - not to be able to make her limbs work and her hands open and close properly. Imagine not being able to scratch an itch - any itch... and to not be able to speak and tell people what you want, what you think, or just tell them anything. It's frightening. But, she deals with it -heroically is probably the best word I can think of.

Anyway - I got to take her swimming at the weekend for the first time in ages (with help from friend Jo, who looked after Jamie in the baths). There are many things which just make Holly very happy and swimming is one of them - she's just off kicking and generally giving it some stick with a huge grin on her face. No doubt if she could she'd be jumping in the deep end of the big pool by now - probably off the diving boards. Jamie on the other hand is a wimp and even with armbands on clings to whoever is with him like a limpet. Jo did manage to get him to do a little bit of floating on his own though which was impressive all round.

I have the kids for 6 days after Easter while Liz is off biking round the Lakes or something. What am I going to do with the pair of them for 6 days? I'm sure I'll think of something ...

Permanent Damage

2006-04-08T03:30:00.000-07:00

Have been having some problems with my left ear of late - it feels like it's got water in it. You know that annoying thing when you have to jump up and down a bit after you've been swimming? Yes, well it's like that all the time.
The GP (a couple of months ago) had said it was likely water in my middle ear from an infection after a bug and would go away. Well it didn't do so I engaged my private healthcare option and saw a specialist this week (at a most plush BUPA hospital in Roundhay).
Bad news. Could be that I just have a knackered ear - it may be an inner ear issue which they cannot do much about. My hearing test showed my ears were far from perfect (loss a certain frequencies) and when I mentioned a history of playing the drums there was a knowing look from the doctor fella.
The upshot is that I can likely blame a combination of those noisy cymbals for frequency destruction, and my dad for my inheritance of crap hearing. I will be having an MRI scan on the really duff one this week just to make sure.
It's a bit alarming though to find out that a bit of me may be permanently damaged.
Eh?

"Do you live in a region?"

2006-02-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hey, I don't. I live in a proper village, me. Calverley really is a proper old Yorkshire village, full of stone terraced 'back-to-back' houses, and it still has a real village atmosphere - it's lovely. It's expanded a bit from when it was mentioned in the Doomsday book, apparently but the old "stone" area where I am currently renting really does seem to have a life of it's own. The more I find out about the place and the more neighbours I meet - the better it gets. If I could muster up a couple of hundred grand I'd buy a little house in Calverley tomorrow. Actually, make that £300k - quaint village life is expensive ...

No smoking

2006-02-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

So, we are to get a complete smoking ban in all public bars, pubs and other such places. About f*cking time, but hurrah for parliament and their open vote on this subject.
Goes to show what a blot on the social landscape this pathetic drug addiction has now become.

Dales biking

2006-02-08T05:12:00.000-08:00

The bike trip out in the Dales on Saturday proved to be one of those "best ever" days out. Wonderful weather, glorious scenery and a great bunch of folk. I'd forgotten what it's like to go out in a big group, and also how much I'd missed it.
We did 26 miles of very hilly but almost totally gloop-free riding from lovely Clapham - round and through Horton (top cafe!); up and over Cam End; past the Ribblehead viaduct and finally the descent down Long Lane back into the village through the tunnels.
Our man from down south, Rich, enjoyed it immensely as well, and we proved to him once and for all that it's in no way grim up north.
We did come across one of the most badly injured people I have ever seen along the way - a biker who had face planted into the Cam End limestone path at speed - but fortunately the cave rescue guys were on the scene and he was eventually choppered out with spinal injuries. Poor fella.
If I can figure out how to get pictures in these posts I'll get a couple up of the trip....

Highlands and islands

2006-02-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

I've just booked in to the youth hostel in Torridon round Spring Bank Holiday weekend in May. The plan is to drive up there and stop one night before heading off on a week long cycling trip north and then west, and then back to Torridon for Whit weekend before heading home. Sounds great - I've never been to Torridon and most of the places I intend to see, and these will be:
Ullapool and north of that - the circuit round round Suilven. Ferry across to Stornaway and then roll on down through Harris and maybe over to North Uist. Ferry over to Skye, across the island and then back up to Torridon via the Kyle. Hopefully I'll fit in the Applecross circuit at the end too.
I'm doing this all via youth hostels and it's mostly sensible mileage (only one long stint Torridon to Ullapool = 90 miles). It should still be too cold for the midges, and fingers crossed for the weather in general. But late May is a good time to go.
To be honest any time is a good time for being in the Scottish Highlands as it's wonderful.

EDIT: My good mate Rich is now on board for this trip, which is excellent news. He does seem a little over-interested in seeing stone circles, burial grounds and all that kind of funny old stuff en route. There's a lot of it about up there, mind.

Hip in London

2006-02-02T04:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, Canada's second best ever band are doing one British show show in London this summer : Friday July 7th at their usual haunt -the Shepherd's Bush Empire.
On sale tomorrow (Fri 3rd) but I got my tickets today through a pre-order. Marvellous.
Hmm- how about the show in Amsterdam the following Tuesday? :-)

6 weekends long

2006-02-02T04:22:00.000-08:00

It's nice to get paid early before Christmas, admittedly, but what a bastard this year when the January pay month then turns out to be 6 weekends long. Oh, well - hurrah for overdraft facilities.

Having been paid the new house is at least now equipped with spare bedding although the spare bed is a blow up mattress... Also on board is some shelving in the spare room, which tidies things up a great deal.

Liz opted for the snow (or lack of it) in the Highlands at the weekend and I had the kids. Great fun it was too, and a good time was had by all. They had perfect weather up there.

Rich Eatough is up from Reading this weekend and we will be off le biking in the Dales (Clapham) with the folk from bikemagic.com on Saturday. This cold dry weather is perfect mountain biking weather it has to be said, but several layers of socks will be in order.

"Adventure race"

2006-01-27T04:22:00.000-08:00

Never mind this poncey triathlon malarky - I reckon the way forward with multi sports is adventure racing.
Reasoning: It's mountain biking and not roadie racing; it's in the hills and dales and not round towns, and best of all there's no 1500m swim so I can bin the training for that (Jeez, swimming is boring and I also won't need to fork out £200 for a wet suit). Really, who wants to swim round a dock anyway?

Sunday's 5 hour race was great fun. My partner, Will, I'd met once the week before at an LMC meet and he was a fine choice in that he is a Polaris veteran and therefore extremely well versed in the efficient use of time and resources on these things. And he's a fine navigator.
With neither of us that fussed on running we planned a one descent, one ascent trot to bag as many points as we could in about an hour and then get back for the bikes at the transition. And then I found the running desperately hard for no real reason so was very pleased to set off on the bikes after about 90 minutes. The Hebden Bridge area is VERY hilly and riddled with bridleways and therefore makes for excellent mountain biking territory. The great weather helped as well, but there were the inevitable mud and water obstacles along the way. We went hard but not stupidly balls out and got back to base just before the 5 hours were up, so we incurred no time penalties. A quick change and then free tea and coffee and some mingling with our fellow racers preceeded the prize giving. We'd come about half way in the male pairs competition which wasn't too bad I thought. The next one in the series in at Hamsterley Forest in March.
Any takers for the 24 hour effort at the end of July then? :-)
(See the Open Adventure link).

Jamie's birthday

2006-01-19T09:42:00.000-08:00

Jamie is 3 today and we had his birthday party last Saturday in the form of an outing with his friends and family on his very favourite 'ride' of all time - The Keighley Worth Valley railway, preceeded by a Pizza Hut dinner. What more can a boy want?
The KVR is excellent it has to be said: proper full sized steam engines and some wonderful authentic stations, running through "Bronte Country" from Keighley to Oxenhope via Haworth. It's always really busy at the weekends and the whole thing with a couple of stops makes a great day out for kids and adults alike.
(This is the line which is probably most famous for being used in the film The Railway Children. THAT station and THAT bridge are still there along the way.)
Today the lad's been at nursery where there's cake and a party laid on. Kids' birthdays are just ace. I wish my birthdays were that good. :-/

Progression

2006-01-19T08:58:00.000-08:00

It's an odd thing suddenly becoming 'single' again, and I all of a sudden realised that it's very easy to just disappear, in the sense that you can easily hole up at home all week and do naff all apart from watch TV and surf the t'internet.

The former I admit I could happily do. There's little or no TV signal though in sunny Calverley but I've managed to connect up the NTL box that I found in the house. I guess NTL are meant to come and pick these things up once agreements run out but if not then one can access a decent package of free channels ie. most of the ones on Freeview. And in cable qualty digital quality. Handy. Best bit though is all the radio stations on it. Whacked through the hi-fi amp Radio 6, Q Radio and Kerrang all sound great.

As for the t'internet I have made the decision not to bother as it's too temptin a thing to just stop in and write crap on blogs and trade on the (admittedly excellent) Rush web group (www.t-n-m-s.com) etc etc. Single bloke at home trawling the internet - I think not.

So, what else is there? A social life in general means 'down the pub' or so it seems. Everything seems to start with drinking. Not that I am specifically against drinking or pubs but that's what we all seem to do - a lot. A mate comes to stay and we go - to the pub. Jo next door comes round and we go - to the pub. I got and meet some people from Leeds mountaineering club (LMC) and it's - in a pub. Seems that I'd just gotten of of the habit of going to the pub and it's one habit that I am not that keen to get back into to be honest. Having said that I look forward to my Friday nights out locally with Jo in the local(s)!

Away from the pubs I have re-joined the LMC and that sets me up for their hut meet weekends away which are excellent. There's a string of privately owned climbing club huts all over the UK in wonderful locations and the clubs all book them up for weekends the year. The LMC's next meet is at the K Shoes hut in Duddon valley in the Lakes (nearish to Conniston), and their half term meet is 4 days in the fabulous Lagangarbh hut at the foot of Buchaille Etive Mor in Glencoe. Can't do the K Shoes as Liz is away but may do Glencoe for some Scottish winter stuff.

This Sunday coming I'm doing an "Adventure Race". This 5 hours of mountain biking and/or running orienteering starting from neaby Hebden Bridge. A chap from the LMC is partnering. Should be great fun. With a bit of luck we'll be able to do as little running as possble and lots of biking! What with this kind of stuff; the mountain bikers regular jaunts out; staring to go to the Leeds (climbing) Wall again and the Pudsey Pacers runners (who I still actually haven't met properly yet) there's plenty of scope for a decent social life. And it'll all keep me fit.

Nite riding

2006-01-04T09:04:00.000-08:00

That'll be mountain biking in the dark. In my quest to find new people in life I hooked up with a local crew of mountain bikers last night and they go out each week at least once round the trails in the dark. I actually led them round my familar Pudsey trails and it was excellent fun, if a bit muddy in parts.
I've not done nite biking for AGES, and I'm thinking back to probably the Cardiff Uni for my last memory of lashing round the trails in the pitch black. Back then of course we made to with 1.5w Ever Ready torches, with a halogen bulb if you were very lucky. So, of course you could see jack shit, and less when your rechargeables ran out (which they always did). Also, the Cardiff nite riding experience was not complete without a pint or two at the excellent pub near Rudry hill who's name escapes me now. Hehe - that lovely feeling of getting inside into the warm round the fire and literally steaming until dry. And then, fortified by two pints of XB, reluctantly stepping out through the door again into a frosty Welsh night knowing it would be ages before you warmed up, and there was that infamous Whips drop down the narrow steep steps to come. Actually, having done that bit on sheer adrenaline the crashes tended to come on the narrow lanes dropping down towards town ...

Things have changed and these days of course we are all equipped with the current choice of 10 zillion candle power LED spotlights which run for about 3 weeks non stop. This does make things a little easier but a little less fun? Mind you when it comes to the alarmingly fast downhilling round Pudsey, sliding round in the mud at the same time I was somehow glad to have some vision at least.

But my bike when I got back - HOW muddy? Not having an outside tap with a hose is not good when your main hobby is mountain biking I can tell you. (I should have though of this when I was looking for accommodation...) I checked at the local garage which is about half a mile from the house and they have a jet wash. Excellent! Except then I found I had no money. Arse. And the miserable git at the till wouldn't stand me a £1.50 token on the promise I'd come back in the car and buy petrol later. Wot a twat.

So, the trusty hand pump garden spray thingy had to suffice and actually I got most of the gloop off. Then there's leggings, bum bag, overshoes etc etc which are caked in it. Never again. Except I see they are out again tomorrow ...

There goes 2005 ...

2005-12-30T04:17:00.000-08:00

OK, it's not quite the end of the year but I feel it's time to give it a comprehensive review:
There was some good stuff and some bad stuff all round.

So that's that all dealt with. Next up is 2006 apparently. Let's see what that one brings.

A very happy New Year to all readers and I really do hope to see you soon.

Richard Pryor, John Spencer RIP

2005-12-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

Ever seen Richard Pryor's stand up DVD where he does the "Pryor on Fire" thing? Relating the story of an aborted suicide attempt high on crack cocaine when he first set himself alight and then jumped out of his hotel window and ran along the road before being put out. Incredible. Incredible to have done this in the first place (30% body burns he gained for his troubles) and then to be able to relate it to an audience in such a fashion that I was crying with laughter just watching the film of it. This man LIVED (raised in his grandmother's brothel, abused as a kid, etc) and he became a peerless, groundbreaking, breathtaking comedy genius as well as a huge Hollywood star. And he endured 20 years of MS to top it all off. Read his autobiography and be humbled.

John Spencer died last Friday of a heart attack. He played Leo in The West Wing, and was one of the best things in this fabulous TV programme. I have only ever seen him in TWW but I believe he was also in LA Law and several other US TV shows. Apparently he was a great man in person and had, like his West Wing character, lived through alcoholism. He stated that he used acting as his therapy - his 'other drug'.

(Hmmm - two post about deaths, and one about a marriage split - maybe I should lighten things up a bit soon eh :-).

It was 25 years ago today

2005-12-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I remember the morning he was shot being woken up to the news on Liverpool’s Radio City. It was very sad that he was murdered so tragically but as for the outpouring of grief after he had gone... it seemed to me that the Americans idolised him to a far greater extent than we did, and to be honest I can’t say I ever liked the bloke's music or his attitude. With the Beatles, although they were a fabulous band, I’ve always thought McCartney’s songs were better and even George Harrison outshone him musically after their split. As for Lennon being a “Working Class Hero” ? Loud mouthed, aggressive drug addicted yob more like it. The fact that the Gallagher brothers pratically worship the guy says it all.

What it takes...

2005-12-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

The anatomy of the end of a relationship... Nothing to it really - you have trouble, you stop communicating and you, somewhere along the way, reach the point of no return. And there you have it. Blame may well be apportioned somewhere along the way. Anger? I guess so. Guilt? Not really. Sadness? Much.
The result - the split. Her as a single mum with the kids and the nice new house and me with my rented little house to move into very soon, a car of my own and the kids every so often, and a life to put back together again.
See you on the other side once again folks.

Liverpool

2005-12-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

Got to go out in Liverpool for the first time in AGES on Saturday. It used to be a great city to go drinking in during my yoof in the 80's but now it's miles better! There's an incredible amount of bars and clubs open and the area we were in around Hardman Street and Wood Street 'up' town is just jumping. Even though the weather was appalling (it hailstoned at one point) there were masses of people out and about. The Concert Square area looks fantastic, but it was not really the weather to be outside with your beer.
Oddly enough though the pubs I used frequent back then are still exactly the same. The Swan in Wood Street pleasingly refuses to change from being a dingy bikers rock pub even though all around it is now plush offices, bars and a there's even a cinema next door but one. The Philharmonic will I hope never change and it's still a stunning place (we saw CraigCharles in there and boy were he and his mates pissed!). The same high nostagia value goes for Ye Cracke and the Pilgrim, when I managed to remember where they were. Shame to see that Kirklands has changed hands, but being the trendiest place on town cannot last for 20 years I guess...
Excellent stuff, and the mad thing was that as we were heading back over the water at 11-ish there were people getting of the trains just gong to start their night out, so I guess that's down to the new extended drinking hours.
'Tis a great city. Hopefully I'll be back out there in January if the planned trip to the Spurs game at Anfield comes off.

In the Buff

2005-12-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

Many pieces of 'technical' kit in my view deserve 5 out of 5 for being simply perfect at doing what they are designed for such as Rab down jackets; Gore cycling wear; Ron Hill Tracksters, Merrel approach shoes etc etc. However, my current favourite bit of kit is the marvellous Buff. A simple tube of elasticated cotton which is fabulously useful for all manner of situations: as a head warmer (esp. under a bike helmet); as a sweat band; as an ear warmer; as a neck warmer. It then can be put round your wrist when not needed (where it of course becomes an excellent nose wiper!). Available from all reputable outdoor shops...

New books

2005-11-28T04:44:00.000-08:00

Waterstones had a 20% off everything sale on this weekend so the 3 for 2 offer was impossible to resist. I got 3 which I have been eyeing up for a while:
"We need to talk about Kevin" which is an award (Orange book prize - whatever that is!) winning novel and looks interesting, if a bit intense.

Buy number two is the story of the Indpendent film industry, Sundance etc, in Hollywood in the 80s (I forget the title just now) and I must get it's predecessor which is the tales of the young gun film makers in the 70's (Scorcese etc). I love good books on the film industry.

And the final one (free one!) I got is the new Dawkins (The Ancestor's Tale) which looks like it takes in the whole of evolution in one go. Maybe going to be a tough one to get through in one sitting ...

Am at present lumbering through the Mr Strange and Mr... (have even forgotten the title) magicians in the 19th century thing. It's dragging and I may have to skip and speed read to finish it, which is a shame as it started really well.

I have got two climbing books to read as well which were given to me as gifts, including the one by the guy who hacked his own arm with a penknife off to escape after being trapped by a falling boulder for 3 days in a Utah canyon. He even took pictures of it as well. Nutter. The other book is the one about the two Jamies trapped in a storm at the notch at the top of Les Droites for 3 nights. Only one escaped with his life and he lost his hands and feet to frostbite. How come all big selling climbing books are about disasters? Doesn't paint the sport in a very, hmmm, sane light does it? I guess 'normal' climbing days out never warrant a book eh?

And finally ... I'm going to have to find to good sci fi to get back into one of these days.

Abbey-dashery

2005-11-28T04:25:00.000-08:00

Did the "Abbey Dash" 10k road run yesterday which was interesting. I've never been in a timed road 'race' before and so with 4000 runners involved it was quite an experience. It ran on a 'there and back' course out to Kirkstall Abbey down the A65 from Leeds centre, finishing on the Headrow in front of the town hall. All pretty flat which was quite a novelty for me.
I decided to keep a steady lunch time run stylee pace and see how it went, so setting myself a benchmark 10k time for future reference. I finished maybe in 44 minutes (edit: actually 44:41) but it was difficult to be exact as we were electronically timed and it took me a while to get to the actual starting line in the crowds. I'll find out today when the results go up on the web site.
The weather had been threatening rain/snow and it was very cold so I'd brought hats, gloves and a waterproof just in case. Fortunately the precipitation held off and I was able to shed all me wollies for the run.
I guess I'd been expecting it to be really hard work but in hindsight I don't know why as 10k or 45 minutes running is something we'll regularly do 3 times a week of a lunchtime. Getting to the halfway mark turn in 20 minutes or thereabouts and feeling like I'd only just warmed up was a suprise.
I am thinking of doing an organised 10k/half marathon each month next year building up for the Salford, and I've just sent in my entry for the Baildon Boundary Way which is a local cross country half marathon taking place at the beginning of April. I did it this year for the first time and it proved to be a painful experience, me not being used to the rough terrain. Pretty fun though - a great route on familiar ground. Just over 2 hours wasn't too bad a time in the end. It wil be interesting to see what time I could do on a road half marathon.
Such things will keep me occupied in 2006 :-)

Bradford shooting

2005-11-18T13:45:00.000-08:00

Christ - a lady copper killed and another seriously injured by armed robbers in town this afternoon. What's the world coming to? Luckily such events are extremely rare in England, but this fact makes them all the more shocking when they do happen. Especially when they are about half a mile from where you work, and right outside your favourite curry restaurant...

Me laddo.

2005-11-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

Best even things up with a pic of Jamie! Posing with his own camera in a fine pair of yellow wellies. This was taken the other week in the excellent tropical house at Roundhay Park in Leeds.

The Full Heaton

2005-11-17T05:20:00.000-08:00

Just done this today - the longest lunchtime run we do. Across Bradford; down Canal Road; through Lister Park; around Heaton Woods (hilly bit) and all the way back. Did it in a pleasing 60 mins today and it's estimated at about 7.5 miles. The other approved lunchtime runs are Bowling Park (4.5 miles) and Peel Park (5.5-ish). We have been lazing round Bowling a lot of late but the Full Heaton is now back on the menu once a week! I try to run three lunch times a week (more often than not it's twice, giving me a rest day) and I swim at the Uni pool the other two. This is on top of the nearly 20 miles a day bike commute. This lot should get me through that Salford Tri I reckon. I hope.

Being Holly

2005-11-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

This is our girl Holly. She is beautiful and intelligent, and she is physically disabled. Which of these qualities will mark her out the most through her life I wonder? People who don't know her see only her disablility, and then they look again and see her smile, and then they look again and see her properly. Holly's Cerebral Palsy means she cannot use her body very well at all, but this does not mean she cannot see, feel or think. She cannot speak either, but this does not mean she cannot communicate or laugh or cry. I'd love to be able to write wise words about what it means for her, and us, for Holly to have CP and for us all to deal with it, but it's very hard to describe. To us she's just Holly and we all love her. Perhaps she deals with it best of all as as she just gets on with the business of being herself - same as we all do.

Salford Tri

2005-11-14T04:21:00.000-08:00

Doing anything next July 31st?
I'm doing this : www.trisalford.info
It was the big event I was aiming for this year, and I had a place but had to drop out due to the house move. So, I geta credit to enter the 2006 event. I am nervous already. 9 months to get fit!

The enemies of the commuter cyclist.

2005-11-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

Cycling is great. That’s a well known fact.
I took a long weekend in Scotland not so long ago with my mate Rich Eatough and, amongst many other excellent adventures, we rode a couple of the excellent “7 Stanes” mountain bike routes up there: Glentress and the Forest of Ae (pronounced as in "Eh?", or "Aieee!" - we were never quite sure) . Riding round Ae amongst the outstanding Dumfiries scenery in fabulous warm sunny weather really was one of those “it doesn’t get any better than this” experiences. There was a long, steady climb to the top and I remember being stuck in on Rich’s back wheel as we tanked it round the singletrack through the trees – fast. Weaving, jumping, braking, gear changes for sudden switchback climbs; out of the saddle pushing hard; back down cruising; twisting, turning and moving ever on up; heart pounding; pushing hard, breathing hard, sweating hard and knowing everythings right: body and machine working perfectly, plus there’s a huge downhill coming up very very soon. It was (and always is) just an absolutely exhilarating experience - being out there, fit and able to do this so easily. Magical.

Objective dangers on a mountain bike: not much (in dry conditions): tree roots; going too fast over one of the (now ever so trendy on these courses) ‘table tops’; going too fast in general. Nothing really if you ride within your limits.

Commuter cycling is great. Also a well known fact.
I now cycle about 10 miles each way to work and back (we moved another 5 miles away from
Bradford in July).
The smug joy of whizzing past queued traffic never quite wears off. It keeps me fit and, other than when it’s really peeing down or very windy, I enjoy it a lot.
However there are a lot more objective dangers and nearly all of them are your fellow road users. The Leeds/Bradford traffic situation is pretty is grim and on the odd I drive my commute I get there a good deal slower than I do when I bike it. Commuter cycling in heavy traffic is dangerous, regardless of how careful you are.

My main enemies on the road are (in no particular order)…

Asians: There, I said it. I am sure they are very nice people but put them behind the wheel of a car and many of them are just lethal. OK, along Leeds Road into Bradford there are a lot of Asians so most of the drivers and therefore the idiots, will be them, but some if the tricks they pull are just unbelievable. If I am to be run off the road, squeezed past, cut up, or completely ignored I almost 100% guarantee it will be an Asian driver. Their absolute favourite idiot territory is side roads – whether it’s pulling out of them last minute in front of you or careering round past and in front of you to cut you up and turn left. Asians will see you on a bike, take note and then run you off the road. I’ve driven in the far East and there is a “Might is Right” attitude wherein the bigger the vehicle the more respect it gets and the more aggressive it’s driver can be. Obviously bicycles don’t fare well in such a system. Maybe this is where they get their ‘skills’ from?
Asian women, IMHO, should not be allowed to drive cars. Nuff said.

White van drivers: I have a choice of several routes coming down in Bradford. One is Leeds Road which is Asian territory and really can be very scary, and the alternative is along a back road which is full of white vans and therefore white van drivers (WVDs). WVDs are the possibly the most aggressive kind of driver. They do tricks like overtake late, on corners, on chevrons, when there is NO room; on your left turning right round a roundabout (absolutely deadly).In general they will do anything to overtake you, even if it means they gain nothing as they are in slow moving traffic. The desperate need to overtake seems to be ingrained deeply into the tiny mind of all WVDs.

BMWs: Do people just have all sense removed when they step into a BMW or is it that this make of car is sinister? Really, I know it’s a cliché but all normal rules of the road do not seemingly apply to BMW drivers. Particularly when it comes to indicators. One positive thing is that they are dangerous in a predictable kind of fashion: I see a BMW and I know it's driver will do something stupid very soon.

The school run: Women driving Range Rovers and Shoguns. Why for God’s sake can they not drop their kids off in a more practical vehicle? My guess is they need such a monster car to feel in some way safe on the roads to make up for their complete lack of driving skills. I think they should all be made to cycle the school run for a couple of weeks abd see how it feels.

Kids in customised ‘sports’ cars: The Vauxhall Nova: why was this particular model chosen to be the recipient of useless spoilers, tasteless alloys, garish paint jobs and pointless large exhausts? Not to mention sound systems with enough bass wattage to crack buried water pipes. No wonder Yorkshire water are having to do so much work around the Bradford area at the moment. And the music they play is always crap.

And then there’s buses and large lorries who to be fair just run you into the gutter/wall/other vehicles with their back end by accident, as they are apparently not taught that if they take that corner sharply they will squash anything they are overtaking at the time.

Non – driver issues:
Twilight: You can be ready for winter and lit up like a Christmas tree with all manner of fancy and expensive halogen lamps, fluorescent stripes and reflecty stuff, but in that dusky time between when it’s light and when it’s dark you are in fact invisible.

Diesel spills: Absolutely lethal and frighteningly common. What’s this all about? I drive a diesel car and I’ve never pissed fuel all over the road from the tank.

Wet leaves. It’s nice to nip down some side roads to avoid the traffic but this time of year nature provides it’s own ice-rink equivalent, usually on sharp bends. Cheers.

So, as you can see, it’s a jungle out there. But then again I’ve bike commuted for more than 10 years on and off and (touch wood) never had a serious accident. A few near misses and some excellent shouting matches occur most weeks over my 100 miles I’d say, but these only serve to keep things interesting... :-)

EDIT: 5th Nov. Last night on the way home I pulled up at some lights on Leeds Road, trunding up the inside of the standing traffic, as I am entitled to do. At the front of the queue was a sporty Subaru filled with four young Asian lads. The window came down and the guy in the passenger seat said that they were going left and was making sure I didn't nip ahead and get in their way. This was unexpected so full marks for politeness, chaps. This made up for the other car full of Asian lads who had been leaning out of the windows and giving me abuse as we passed each other in the traffic all the way up the same road.

The joy of library

2005-11-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

Channel 4's new More4 channel is currently showing new West Wing - the greatest TV programme ever. However, the new stuff is season 6 and they managed to miss a whole series out before this. At the end of season 4 we were left on a knife edge with Bartlett's daughter having been kidnapped and John Goodman installed as president. Not wanting to spend 40 quid on a DVD box set which, lets face it, will be watched once and then stuck on a shelf I approached Bradford lending library. For £1 they went off in search of Season 5 and said it could be 'a while'. 10 days later I am in possesion of a brand new 6 DVD box set which I have on loan for a week for ... £2. OK, I'll have to tape most of it as 26 episodes in a week is a bit of a stretch, but how's that for service eh?

Forthcoming rants

2005-11-03T04:01:00.000-08:00

I remember someone telling me that everyone has a book in them, and to "Write what you know". So, I guess everyone's life is interesting in some way.
I certainly haven't got a book's worth of material but, reader, you will no doubt come across ramblings here on such topics as cycling (and various other sports), books, music, film, office life, family, disabled children and trying to hold a marriage together under pressure. You know - the usual stuff.