image004.jpg

image004.jpg
Originally uploaded by OrangeCamperVan.

Regards

Martin

Martin Banham ASI, Senior Business Analyst FISCAL, 3i Infotech - Western
Europe and Rhyme Systems

Tel. Direct: + 44 (0)20 7071 3092 | Email:
martin.banham@3i-infotech.eu | www.3i-infotech.com or
www.rhymesystems.com

3i Infotech has been awarded Oracle's UK Technology Partner of the Year.

For more information on 3i Infotech and Rhyme Systems, and for a copy of
our European event schedule simply email marketing.we@3i-infotech.eu
<

This email message is intended for the named recipient only and may be
privileged and/or confidential. If you are not the intended or named
recipient or have received this email in error then you should not copy,
forward or disclose it to any other person. The views and opinions
expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and may not represent
the views and opinions of 3i Infotech and/or Rhyme Systems Ltd. If you
have received this email in error you should destroy it or contact
postmaster@rhymesystems.com
<blocked::blocked::
take appropriate action.

image003.png

image003.png
Originally uploaded by OrangeCamperVan.

Regards

Martin

Martin Banham ASI, Senior Business Analyst FISCAL, 3i Infotech - Western
Europe and Rhyme Systems

Tel. Direct: + 44 (0)20 7071 3092 | Email:
martin.banham@3i-infotech.eu | www.3i-infotech.com or
www.rhymesystems.com

3i Infotech has been awarded Oracle's UK Technology Partner of the Year.

For more information on 3i Infotech and Rhyme Systems, and for a copy of
our European event schedule simply email marketing.we@3i-infotech.eu
<

This email message is intended for the named recipient only and may be
privileged and/or confidential. If you are not the intended or named
recipient or have received this email in error then you should not copy,
forward or disclose it to any other person. The views and opinions
expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and may not represent
the views and opinions of 3i Infotech and/or Rhyme Systems Ltd. If you
have received this email in error you should destroy it or contact
postmaster@rhymesystems.com
<blocked::blocked::
take appropriate action.

image002.png

image002.png
Originally uploaded by OrangeCamperVan.

Regards

Martin

Martin Banham ASI, Senior Business Analyst FISCAL, 3i Infotech - Western
Europe and Rhyme Systems

Tel. Direct: + 44 (0)20 7071 3092 | Email:
martin.banham@3i-infotech.eu | www.3i-infotech.com or
www.rhymesystems.com

3i Infotech has been awarded Oracle's UK Technology Partner of the Year.

For more information on 3i Infotech and Rhyme Systems, and for a copy of
our European event schedule simply email marketing.we@3i-infotech.eu
<

This email message is intended for the named recipient only and may be
privileged and/or confidential. If you are not the intended or named
recipient or have received this email in error then you should not copy,
forward or disclose it to any other person. The views and opinions
expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and may not represent
the views and opinions of 3i Infotech and/or Rhyme Systems Ltd. If you
have received this email in error you should destroy it or contact
postmaster@rhymesystems.com
<blocked::blocked::
take appropriate action.

image001.jpg

image001.jpg
Originally uploaded by OrangeCamperVan.

Regards

Martin

Martin Banham ASI, Senior Business Analyst FISCAL, 3i Infotech - Western
Europe and Rhyme Systems

Tel. Direct: + 44 (0)20 7071 3092 | Email:
martin.banham@3i-infotech.eu | www.3i-infotech.com or
www.rhymesystems.com

3i Infotech has been awarded Oracle's UK Technology Partner of the Year.

For more information on 3i Infotech and Rhyme Systems, and for a copy of
our European event schedule simply email marketing.we@3i-infotech.eu
<

This email message is intended for the named recipient only and may be
privileged and/or confidential. If you are not the intended or named
recipient or have received this email in error then you should not copy,
forward or disclose it to any other person. The views and opinions
expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and may not represent
the views and opinions of 3i Infotech and/or Rhyme Systems Ltd. If you
have received this email in error you should destroy it or contact
postmaster@rhymesystems.com
<blocked::blocked::
take appropriate action.

And so the rain comes down

It has been raining for around 24 hours here non stop. Rubbish. I'm off camping tomorrow - I should have stayed at work for the week testing but I really didn't care about going away. Even if I get soaked for 4 days it will be better than writing dull test scripts.

On my return I promise to blog my cycling trip in one long entry. Then I will finish this blog and open another.

All by next weekend...after my return of course.

Adieu.

Job Done!

Three days of riding, a day in France and the Eurostar home.

All in all the ride was fantastic, a great experience and I would recommend it. My worrying was a bit excessive and the worst thing was the early starts (4am on the Saturday, 6am on the Sunday - chuck in some late nights as well).

I will relate some more stories soon but now I must get ready to cycle to work - not cos of some ridiculous urge to carry on the cycling bug but because there are no trains into town from SE London today...

t-2....

.....arrgh! such dreadful terminology to describe the 2nd day before an event.

Today I bought a bell, a real old fashioned one with a ting-a-ling-a-ling sound. Initially I got it for Clive but then I thought I'd keep it for myself instead as I liked the look of it. Sadly it doesn't fit my handlebars so it will have to go back tomorrow. Also I got some clever spray stuff which inflates a tyre with foam if you get a puncture - last Sunday I got two punctures and I only had one inner tube so had to call for a lift.

Some packing done tonight - there isn't too much to take but I tend to overpack so will have to be ruthless tomorrow.

Again, strangely calm...

3 days to go

and I am strangely calm. Is this what it feel likes pre-marathon run? Only time will tell.

I intend to stuff as much pasta down my throat over these three days to get the carbs up. I then hope to start eating as many bananas and nut bars as possible come Friday morning. I hope to have a few beers on Thursday lunch pre-nerves stuff, medicinal of course.

Work is far too busy - I had hoped to have a day off beforehand but no such luck - curse you meeting obssessed project persons!

Countdown to Paris really has begun!

Not cycling related

P3302015
Originally uploaded by OrangeCamperVan.

Former East German pedestrian "go" sign - still in use in Berlin today. Check out that hat and the position of the arms and hands - superb!

Less than two weeks to go

The start of our ride is now in less than two weeks. In fact at this very moment in two days we should be making our way across the Channel from Newhaven on the 6am ferry to Dieppe. We will have to be up at 4.30 which seems a bit harsh as it will be unlikely that we will be to bed early the previous night. I'm not sure if the 4.30 start could hav been avoided but it's too late now. We will still have two full days cycling to go at this point but it will be managable. I'm chomping at the bit to do this ride now. The bike goes in for a service on Tuesday and my new outfit has been ordered and I think we can do no more preparation.

Me and C did a few hours yesterday, 34 miles on a slight hangover due to excess of Guinness on Friday night after work. I felt a bit rubbish after the ride for the rest of the day but it was self inflicted I guess. I will attempt a further ride tomorrow as we have a Bank Holiday to celebrate the worker's uprising or, to dance around the maypole if you wish to b a bit more cosy about it.

I have worked out how to send photos back to my Flickr website so check out special invites to view photos as they happen during the ride - exciting! We it is to me.

Summer rolls on

And so we cycled on Saturday instead this weekend. The weather still glorious and sunny and the breeze was good to us in keeping out the heat. 40 miles with N and R who joined us for the day. We did some evil hills and R told us that we had all improved since we last cycled together about three months ago.

Praise indeed from R.

Not cycling yesterday brought on a huge sense of guilt even though I'd been out the day before. I spent the day washing old orange and reading the paper. I intend to cycle after work a couple of days this week.

Just over two weeks to go. We are ready.

I have installed Shozu on my phone and have been experimenting, loading photos to my Flickr website and this blog. Hence the entries in this blog below. I hope to send back photos to the blog from the ride if I can find a cheap GPRS plan to use in la France.

Old Sandwich power station

disused but what a beauty!

Same green camper

Green camper looking good

Green camper

Lovely green camper near grays inn road

Green camper

Lovely green camper near grays inn road

Country Life and Bank Cards

So we do 40 odd miles on Sunday and it's a boiling hot day in the Kent countryside. We feel we deserve at pint and so we stop off at Farningham at a local pub called The Chequers. I order 3 pints and 3 packets of crisps and present my bank card to pay...

But do they take cards? Do they hell as like. So I volunteer to go to the local garage to try and negotiate some sort of cash back but to no avail. A kind motorist and his son take pity and offer to run me to another garage 2 miles away (which I could have cycled in theory). I take him up on his offer and collect some cash from the Link till - I even forgot about the £1.75 fee to collect my own cash and headed back to the other garage and then cycle back to the pub. C and N had already downed the first pint and were waiting for me to furnish them with more funds for a second (the cheeky scamps).

Why did they not take cards? Even though Farningham is sort of in the country (though probably less than 20 miles from Piccadilly) it must be connected to a phone line. And the pub was full of moaning old gits who clearly objected to anyone in cycling gear or anyone without a beer belly.

Anyway I did 60 miles in the end which given the heat was not a bad result.

In other news I have finally decided to leave work in July. My boss took it well but I feel as if a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I will be free in 3 months time and have an idea about travelling round Europe for a while in the old van. We'll see how these plans come to fruition. I've got to get this ride out the way and then there's Glastonbury. And also there is the fact that I still have to spend 12 weeks at work.

The normal stuff

My reasons to post these days in relation to cycling are limited. Yes I did 40 miles this weekend with the team around Maidstone, stopping in a lovely pub for a shandy at lunch, and yes I'm feeling confident about the ride, 4 weeks to go now. And the weather yesterday was scorching for April, unnaturally warm for the time of year, and a sure sign of some sort of global warming catastrophe (although the Independent on Saturday now says 20 minutes a day of sunshine carries sufficinet vitamin D to ward off winter colds and flu, who do you trust these days?).

No my postings are limited cos I want to blog about other things and a couple of weeks ago I said I would set up a new blog. I am going to do just that (although I have just spent the last half an hour on the very rewarding pasttime of changing my theme in Control Panel/Display to Windows Classic Grey and fishing out an old photo of Ursula Andress as my desktop. Lovely. Now the eldest has been in asking to use the laptop but I have sent him away telling him I am busy. He is not happy - I will relinquish the laptop after this post.

The new blog will be here soon. And as for the big trek I have decided to blog my journey from London to Paris as well using my clapped out P990i (which I am stuck with for at least another year after foolishly signing up to an 18 month contract - what a rubbish phone, I want a Blackbery Pearl instead).

I have uploaded a pic of Ursula so you can see how lovely she is despite the picture being taken in 1964 - what a dish!

Four days

FBT is back and all is right with the world.

Four days of easter break heaven. Away from London town. Some cycling planned for the weekend (hopefully two days worth, Friday and Sunday.

More updates on Monday.

A very profitable weekend indeed

Work is rubbish, let's get that out of the way for a start. But this weekend has gone so well that I would be happy to go in tomorrow and tell them to poke it. I don't think that will happen but it's a nce thought.

Friday I watched "Spinal Tap" - one of my top ten and then me and the eldest played "Guitar Hero" on PS2. There is a song from the film on the game and I play it quite well, even if I do say so myself.

Saturday I put together a shed with the expert help of N1. It looks the nuts and there is something very satisfying about putting up a shed - perhaps it's one of the few projects I have undertaken recently which I've seen through to completion unlike much of my work (on the subject of work again - I keep getting layered with "Tasks" which I neither have time nor inclination to caryy out and management choose to ignore my protestations - until they realise the work hasn't been done then they complain. And all everyone ever does is chase me up - no one else appears to do anything of worth. I really do hate my job, does anyone actually do anything these days? And they want to change my contract saying I should be paid by the day rather than the hour, well they can eff off with that one - I'd rather leave straight away than agree to that outrageous proposal!)

Sunday I tried to get tickets for Glastonbury spending two hours without success - it all sold out by 11 but I noticed on the website that extra tickets were available by phone. After half an hour on the phone I got through and was able to book 6 tickets in a tippee. I am unsure as to what this involves but the main thing is we are going and I think the tippee option will be very interesting. Shame that the camper van can't come but it will get some other use this summer I'm sure. I am very pleased about getting tickets. I'm looking forward to seeing Shirley Bassey! She might come and visit the tippee.

This afternoon I completed 43 miles cycling with N1 around Biggin Hill and Westerham. We got cut up by some kn0b in a red ferrari but generally the traffic was kind to us. I shall attempt some more next weekend as we are getting closer and closer to the big day. Sunny but very windy...

So all in all a very profitable weekend.

Untitled

I am counting down the weeks and still feel confident about completing the ride. I rode 40 miles on Sunday and the weather was mild and sunny. All in all we are all feeling good about the final ride.

So I'm not really sure if I can keep this blog up until then writing the same old business each week and I think I may need to start another one to allow me to write about something else. I'll still maintain it until the ride in 7 weeks...

And to top it all my laptop got some sort of virus on it and I had to reload all of Windows xp causing me to lose everything. However it's got a lot quicker.

Hmm now to get the new blog ready...