Archive for the ‘general’ Category

Riding Through France

Posted: September 16, 2012 in Cycling, Festivals, general, training, Travel
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Ok, here it is. The event I’ve been wanting to kick off is to become a reality.

I moved into Hungerford some 9-years ago and have recently developed an almost uncontrollable urge to [do something for the community]. For those that know me, you’ll have already guessed that cycling was going to be central to such an urge. So, following on from the theme of another well know event annual event, I looked for a possible cycle challenge for anybody who wished to [prove that they can] complete the event.

What is the event?

Well, Hungerford is twinned with Liguiel in France, just south of the Loire Valley; so why not cycle there, and back. Better still, why not time the ride so as to coincide with the Hungerford Carnival? So that’s the event / challenge (the carnival bit is still to be confirmed). Hungerford to Liguiel and back. The ride will hopefully comprise of 30 – 40 riders (more if we can manage it) plus 2 – 3 support vehicles (to carry luggage and look after the riders)

The purpose of the ride is [in conjunction with the Hungerford Rotary] to raise as much money as we possibly can for two very worthy causes:

End Polio Now

&

Bruce Trust Barges

Two very worthy cause which will hopefully encourage lots of interest and support.

When is the event?

The ride will  depart Hungerford on the 7th July 2013 (Sunday) and return on Saturday 13th July, having cycled 550 miles: The proposed itinerary is thus:

Sunday 7th July

Depart Hungerford and cycle (60 miles) to Portsmouth ferry terminal for overnight crossing to Saint-Malo.

Monday 8th July

Depart Saint-Malo and cycle (55 miles) to Rennes.

Tuesday 9th July

Depart Rennes and cycle (86 miles) to Angers.

Wednesday 10th July

Depart angers and cycle (80 miles) to Ligueil.

Thursday 11th July

Depart Ligueil and cycle (80 miles) to Le Mans.

Friday 12th July

Depart Le Mans and cycle (110 miles) to Caen – regrouping at Pegasus Bridge before heading for overnight ferry to Portsmouth.

Saturday 13th July

Depart Portsmouth and cycle (60) miles back to Hungerford for end of ride celebration. If possible, we will try to coincide the home coming with the Hungerford Carnival.

If you feel that you might like to take part in this event, then please do let me know of your interest (this does not commit you) and I shall add you to the mailing list.

Ride Route 2013

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car, only a high will impress you, and you’ll have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

Ernest Hemingway.

Today’s Number is 7

Posted: June 26, 2012 in Cruising, general, P&O, Travel
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The number for today is 7, and just for today, the number is also 1.

For the Indians in the prairie and the “Pueblo” Indians, the number 7 represents the cosmic coordinate of the man.

The dice symbolises the 7: the dice itself, 1, having 6 faces.

For the Indians in the prairie and the “Pueblo” Indians, the number 7 represents the cosmic coordinate of the man.

The number 7 also means ‘Red 7’ of the Red Arrows

For His Podgeness, the number 7 means:

7 more sleeps to go;

7 more sleeps to cruising;

7 more sleeps till the big fella gets on that boat,

with his bird and her boy;

7 more sleeps to cruising.

As for Number 1!

Well just think, this time in 1 week, I will most likely have been up before even the cows got up (I don’t actually have any cows but you get my meaning), and certainly before the Oceana and the Adonia, Arcadia, Aurora, Azura, Oriana & Ventura arrives in Port: bags and satchels will be lined up ready for dispersal across two cars (yes, we really are taking two cars) and i’ll be starving. The plan is to brunch at M&S Hedge End before the final push to the Cruise Terminal.

Now, serious question: Do I need open toed sandals without socks or close toed sandals with socks for Norway? Will I need a Parka?

Oooooh, I’m sooooo Excited.

Possibly, I’m too excited as for the last 72 hours I’ve been suffering with Pharyngitis and am now floating in a cloud of analgesics (Paracetamol, Codeine and Ibuprofen) 🙂 Hopefully I’ll be back on all cylinders tomorrow.

Was I pushed, or did I simply fall?

Posted: June 23, 2012 in Cruising, Gardening, general, P&O, Travel
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I know, where have I been? It’s been a long time since I promised to reveal all about how I fell in the river. Truth is, I’ve been distracted on other things.

My original intention was to give a blow by account of the jubilee weekend and the remainder of that week but on reflection, that might be just a little bit too boring. So, the short version is:

Monday arrived with a fairly bright start and knowing that we had the jubilee concert coming up in the evening this was to be the day when the garden was to be attacked. First up was the bed by the river, a spot both Debbie and I are growing to love as it develops.

The Raging Torrents

The Raging Torrents

anyway, there I was, tugging at some particularly truculent weed (a stinging nettle) when the next thing I know, rather than looking down at the ground, I’m looking across the bed, then I’m looking at the top of the gazebo then I’m looking at the treetops, as I fell / tumbled into the raging torrents of The Shalbourne Brook (see above).
Fortunately, Debbie was there to ‘save’ me from drowning. “Kevin, Kevin” she said, “grab my hand” she said, “you could have drowned’ she said as she pulled me out of the 18 inches of water and probably just as much mud.  Quickly, she makes me sit down on the patio and makes me take off my shoes and socks. Then she has the temerity to suggest I take off my trousers (while her Mum is standing there). I think not. I did roll up my trouser leg however to reveal some nasty bashes where my leg and had caught the edge of bank. As it happened, so did my side as well. Both were very painful. “Ouch” said I (loose translation), ‘That hurt” said I (loose translation). “I think I’ve probably chipped a bone and cracked a rib or two” said I. “Oh stop being a drama queen” said Debbie, “Man up and deal with it” said Debbie (may not have been her exact words: i’m just employing literary license ;-)).

Anyway, I get cleaned up and rested for the remainder of the day (had an early night), ‘manned up’ and got on with things. The trouble is, while the legs eased up, the pain in my side worsened and my breathing got quite bad until in the end I had to go and see the vet. She examined me and told me to start taking steroids and antibiotics and I should go for an x-ray to check for broken ribs (I tried telling her [the Vet] that I’d probably punctured my spleen but she was having none of that :-)).

Another 7-days on and I still have a pain my side but my breathing is easier but now my throat feels like there a dozen rose thorns stuck in it. But right now, I just don’t care, cos in 10 sleeps time, I’m sailing off into the sunset on P&O’s Oceana as part of their 175th Birthday Grand Event.

In the meantime, the weeds continue to grow :-(.

That Was The Summer That Was…..

Posted: June 9, 2012 in Cycling, general, training
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Back in April, and full of hope, I posted that I had decommissioned the Tacx iMagic Turbo and put back Colnago Bling Machine back on the road. Well, unfortunately, this was never going to work out, and in truth I should have known.

With the long awaited arrival of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Weekend, I (His Podgeness) decided to make a week of it and took the rest of the week off, which by the way is why there have been no joy of travel updates :-). The intention, as I’m sure you will have guessed was not just to enjoy the Jubilee Celebrations (which I did) but also to get in lots of carefree cycling miles. How naive could I have been. Having basked in glorious sunshine the week before, most of which I either spent on the train [of which i wrote plenty] or in the office, I was greeted with a week of blithering wind and rain and then more rain and wind and then some more.

So, I’m sad to report that His Podgeness did NOT get out in the road at all :-(. So, there I was feeling very picked on and generally in a sulk I decided that I was going to play bikes one way or another and looked to tinker, but this achieved little. In the end, I bit the bullet and dismantled my old Ribble Stealth and built my new De Rosa Tango Stealth [check it out here]. That done, and looking at the weather forecast going forward, I gave in and brought out the iMagic and reinstated the Colnago back to the role of chief turbo bike while retaining the De Rosa for general road use.

Buoyed on by the  knowledge, and subsequent envy and pride of course, that Swifty Matt Conner has just spent the same week in the Alps and thought they while there, he’d just pop out and complete ‘La Marmotte‘ route as part of his training. Given that the route takes in the  Col du Glandon, Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier and finishes on the Alpe d’Huez this is no mean feat, so cracking job Matt: well done and yes, I really do envy you. But, you have spurred me on. I have the Ventoux route on the iMagic, and yes, I will do it, maybe not this week but it will be this summer. So now, I’m off to the turbo.

Look out for my next post on how I ended up in the raging torrents of the Shalbourne Brook. 🙂

Go Podge, Go.

Cow’s On The Line

Posted: June 1, 2012 in general, Rant, Travel
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So, today is the last push before the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Weekend, and so it was that I arose from slumber feeling good and positive: just the morning and evening commute to go then it’s party time. Yeah. And of course, I was buoyed by the ‘nice day’ [see previous post] that I had yesterday.

So it was, that I arrived at Hungerford station and waited for the 06:40 grown up train. Then it started, that faceless voice came over the speaker: ‘We are sorry to announce that the 06:40 will be delayed by 6-minutes.’; then it was 8 minutes; then it was 11 minutes. Then, the announcement said 4 minutes. Blimey, I thought, the train must be flying to make up that time so quickly, but I quickly realised that it was another grown up train, the 06:54 that was delayed, presumably by the 06:40.

Eventually the 06:40 arrived and everybody got on quick so that we could be away before any of the 06:54 passengers turned and tried to sneak on our train (we don’t like sharing) :-).

Under intense interrogation (actually it was one lady asking him one question), the Train Manager gave up the information we required, ‘Why was the train late?’. Well, the announcement “because of issues on the line between Westbury and Pewsey’ but we have now established that the issue actually meant Cows On The Line although we couldn’t quite tease out what we then wanted to hear, ‘The Wrong Sort Of Cows On The Line’. Never mind though, at least we found the reason and with such success, surely today would be a good day. I certainly hope so. Even the Underground looks as though it’s behaving itself :-).

Yes, the underground was as good as gold. I went straight from the grown up train to the train of the deep almost without stopping and so go to work dead on time. The omens are good: the day shall be good. All bodes well for the weekend of celebrations.

As for work, well, I spent the morning writing up my findings for a post incident report following a major power outage last Friday. All finished by lunch time, I decided to head off to St Katherine’s Dock to get a bite to eat and check out the boats. Well, There were many boats, virtually all of which were decked out with flags and bunting, presumably (stating the bleeding obvious) for the Jubilee.

20120601-222043.jpg

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So, having viewed the boats and given my approval, I headed back, via Tower Bridge, to the office in time for my 13:30 meeting, followed by a 14:00 workshop before getting an early start (15:00) back home, to beat the inevitable crowds at Paddington. Then it happened: the naffing power went; all systems; all services down. Bother, we all thought, just when we thought the week was going to end well. I won’t go into the details: let’s face it, unless you were part of it, such events aren’t exactly high interest topics. All I will say is I didn’t get away until close on 16:00 and will have to finish what I was going to do, sometime over the weekend.

The underground behaved impeccably and I just caught the 16:36 from Paddington. This has to be a record. But, I made it, and I got a seat (don’t tell her indoors, but I upgraded to 1st class just to be sure of a seat. Looking at all the standing passengers, it was a good move). Better still, we left on time. I’m guessing that all the berating over the last few days has taught these beastly trains that they must start to behave :-). We were only 7 minutes late from Reading, which, as I’ve inferred previously, is 3 minutes early. So all in all, a good job jobbed by rail travel. Lets just hope that there are no more cows on the line :-).

Good Trains: Nice Trains.

Now, bring on that Diamond Jubilee. Yeah. Woo Hoo.

Go Podge, Go.

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