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.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, April 16, 2007
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!
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