Posts tagged with “holiday”

September 30

Derek's plans thwarted!

Well... not content with cycling the byways of Northern Normandy, Derek returns and has ambitions to cycle as far back as he can without recourse to a passport. In fact within sight of the very cliff tops visited by Rory, to the island of Guernsey. The hopeful plan was to get as far as Poole and then unload Derek and be riding for the rest of a short break holiday, over on the ferry and then having our tandem to hand on the island as transport. This would have the benefit of placing us as foot passengers with a cycle on the ferry - which usually means quite a saving I believe. Well the bast laid plans, as they say. It seem this is not possible, at least not this time. Derek must be a creature of habit though, since he is now considering returning to the venue for the Easter tandem rally, in Arundel. It will be interesting seeing how the area is when it is NOT bluebell season! We seem to have notched up close on one and a half thousand miles in our first year of tandem riding. Not bad, and a thousand of those on Derek in a fairly short time - though I was slightly distressed to see signs of wear beyond the chain on the transmission - I do hope we get at least another couple of years wear out of those cogs! Going to take Derek for a service soon at Brixton Bikes - so watch this space!
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September 06
Derek.jpg
Derek en vacance en France! ====================================== Not only that but pictured at the crossroads of a "[voie verte](http://www.wikimanche.fr/V%C3%A9loroutes "nearest I could find to describing them....")" with identifying signing and the typical architecture replete with mandatory geraniums. What is it that makes France quite so much enjoy geraniums and marigolds? It's as though this were the compulsory "national flower", but then again perhaps they might see the hollyhock in a similar light for us in our country villages I suppose. My oh my what a time we had! Despite her injuries and a tooth that was troublesome the mighty Aero managed to power on for almost 150 miles of French roads, tracks, and even the odd tidal path and hillside! What really put the icing on the cake though was that I had also taken a solo ride (my Raleigh Aero, AKA Rory) and this meant I could be up at dawn and making reconnaissance rides in the surrounding areas before we were out there in the full sun with places to go and food to meet! It was some time before I discovered what I felt turned out to be the best ride though, although I had been into [Carteret](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneville-Carteret "yes, I have seen the view pictured on Wikipedia too!") early in the holiday and discovered the "Ruse de Cap" which was an extremely good training climb to the lighthouse I had not been back. On returning I headed across the busy D900 (I think) which traversed the backs of the cliff-tops, my destination being Paix. I was not disappointed in finding some decent climbs, but the road was horribly busy and slightly brutal (though discovering the "Maison des Biscuits" was a lighter moment!). But I did notice many side roads seemed to join up and had signing that indicated some sites of tourist interest, so made a decent to Rozelle. The descent was t blast! Made slightly dangerous by the garbage truck that insisted on overtaking me, only to be able to keep to about my own speed for the rest of the way.... Not complaining though, it was his brake lights that told me when the decent had to end (rather that than a challenging T junction!). The next day I was back to explore the "tour des caps" road which had the brown tourist signs. Turns out this is a fabulous winding roadway through all the coastal towns, ascending and descending for eack and taking in a few beachsides along the way, along with towns that I could not help smiling at the names of, notably "Certainville" and "Ferme de Paul". I never did get to show Aero the hair raising climbs or descents to be found there, but that did not stop us setting a new speed record on our way to the biggest climb Derek made. This was up to the restored and fully working windmill in the heights of the [[Cotentine]] region. We bought the flour to prove it and there was nothing to compare with the arrival from the rear of the car park to round the corner and be confronted with a fully working windmill in full sail on a lovely sunny cloudless and windless day! Yes, you heard right, it was windless and they were using an electric motor to power the sails and demonstrate the windmill for the tourists! With nary a drop of rain, fabulous food accompanied by decent wine at a bargain price, and roads that were to die for in terms of their quality and scenery and most of all the lack of car traffic (and what there was extremely respectful, unlike England) I would unhesitatingly recommend this part of Normandy for a cycling holiday.
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April 12

An open letter, and a challenge!

Dear friends

We have pledged to complete a 100 kilometer charity night ride
through London taking place on the night of Saturday June 11th..
Starting from Crystal palace at or soon after midnight and finishing
there at “breakfast time” (“kitchen” closes at nine!) on the Sunday
morning. We cycle a route around London, including Alexandra Palace
to the North and crossing the Thames no less than five times along the
way.

Our chosen charity is Mind, the organization supports and campaigns
for the rights of people with mental illness. As someone who has
personal experience of the issues involved thi is close to my heart.
Organizations like MIND are crucial in supporting, informing and
campaigning for those who can be politically ignored all too easily.

Please consider sponsoring us!

We really want to make a difference and have pledged to raise at least
£500 for MIND and you can see how we are doing via the link below.
You can use a form, post money, or donate at our page here

Although I have begun enjoying the practice for the event it has also
shown me that 100k demands a little respect and I am not the young
man who could zip off to Brighton on his bike for a night out with
friends and ride back the next day none the worse for it!

So your sponsorship and support would really help me and even more
so encourage us both to know we are making a difference. You can
choose by the kilometer or every ten, or just to finish, whatever you
feel work best. Do feel free to come and cheer us on, perhaps even
bring some liquid refreshments or a picnic to the finish at Crystal
Palace if it's a nice day?

We leave Crystal Palace around midnight (riders being batched into
“mini-peletons” of fifty cycles) but leaving Mount Ash Road of course a
little earlier. All your encouragement is much appreciated.

Thanks for your support.

 

NOTE:  This post is "pinned" to the front of the blog until the 11th June (when I shall "unpin" it) so that any visitors may see it first and foremost.  If you scroll to the end of the entry there may be more recent ones below this.

 

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January 19

Christ On A Bike - the blog is dead, long live the blog.

Well, I am making this post to the blog using PHPMyAdmin, which is far from ideal - some while back I discovered my login stopped working and then more recently the database got borked by hosting updates....

Anyway, then I find Chyrp WAS dead in the water, but hopefully it might show signs of a revival or I may get to spend enough time to just fix the problem here. Meanwhile I have had a birthday and my best beloved brought me a domain, which you can see over here....

Though we shall have to see how it goes with making use of it.... This has ended up being a slightly geeky entry, but I wanted to post something to explain why it is possible the blog seems to have "ended" when in fact I am simply disempowered from updating due to borked software.

Life is seeming a bit muddled lately, though happily there was time for me to read "A Pregnant Widow" over Christmas and finish a number of other books I had left unfinished from reading group. Hard to describe "A Pregnant Widow" to anyone who is not familiar with Martin Amis and his work. I would hesitate to suggest it is, quite simply, a return to "The Rachael Papers" from an adult perspective... With a little bit of "London Fields" thrown in...

Anyway, if you have a taste for Amis's writing then you'll find it a "hoot" and if not then I rather doubt it is an introduction that would leave you feeling like reading another of his works.

On the cycling front, watch this space (or eclectic.me depending on whether I ever fix the blog here!) for developments with Daisy, who may be retired a lot sooner than we expected, or maybe upgraded with a Rohloff hub... at this stage the jury is out although I should dearly love to find an outlet retaining tandems that could allow a thorough set of trial runs on various configurations. More likely there would need to be a special holiday with the express purpose of buying a tandem at the end of it.... Exciting as it may be that totally changes the amount it is going to cost and therefore means likely another year to "rub along" with Daisy....

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March 30

Under Milk Wood

Ah well - it was a nice break but I never did get to visit New Quay and only saw a little of Llanggrog let alone immerse myself in "Under Milk Wood".  It seems like this is a work of literature which is destined to take it's place alongside Ulysses, The Wasteland, and Proust as one which I admore and always intend to get around to fully enjoying but am "saving up" as a treat rather like a child who will not eat the favoured item on the plate until the rest has been consumed.

On occassion I worry that this means I shall never enjoy these, but hopefully that is not the case, because it would be a shame if it were.  Perhaps at least in blogging I have a gentle reminder to myself to get around to it one day (I am sure in making the initial post I was trying to give myself an incentive and motivation for this one.  Perhaps part of the problem is that I "save them up" for a holiday and the fact is that they are more serious works of literature and not "holiday reading" as such?

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