Archive for the ‘general’ Category

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.

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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.

I’m Nice Today

Posted: May 31, 2012 in general, Travel
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Today, I know not why, I shall be nice. I shall smile to everybody, I shall smile on the telephone, I shall remember to says please and thank you.

I’m sitting on the comfortable 06:40 Grown-Up Train from Hungerford to Paddington, anticipating an on-time arrival of 07:53. Excellent, I shall sit back, enjoy my coffee from the on-board express cafe (another reason for not using the baby trains) and recount my joys on this page. And, while I’m at it, I’ll check the status of the underground rail system.

just looked out the window to see rain: boo, but a smiley boo 🙂

I don’t mind the rain: we never should, there are many place who have none, so yes, I’m happy it’s raining. It does after all ease the drought conditions which still prevail! I understand the hosepipe ban is still in effect. Fortunately, I have a borehole so the current ban does not affect me. Given all the rain we’ve had since the ban was imposed, I just don’t care 🙂 see, I’m still happy; still nice.

Uh oh, just looked at the underground status. Both Circle & District part suspended, due to signal faults at Mansion House. Such joy as this is a key station for me. But no worry, I’ll check the status again when I’m nearing London. Somehow I think my vast experience of the underground system (not) will help me conquer and stay happy and nice 🙂

Tee Hee, keep it quiet but I’ve fooled those pesky trains. I’ve taken the back to front route and came in from the other direction. Yeah, His Podgeness is truly mightier than mere machines. And as if to prove a point, I got into the office 5 minutes earlier than normal.

yep, I’m definitely feeling nice today.

As for my day in the office? Well, as office days go, it was pretty uneventful. I did what I set out to do plus a little bit more but nothing earth shattering or monumentous. Equally of course, nothing bad or irritating happened either so all in all, I’m a nice man today.

I went out for lunch, as is my want, and did a quick tour of St Katherine’s Dock. It was a nice walk on a nice day made even nicer by even more nice boats than there were yesterday. The dock is filling up nicely in readiness for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the flags and bunting do look ever so, ever so nice. Everything is just nice.

Still smiling, and enjoying a small glas of Rioja on the journey home in the grown up train that has been tamed. Every thing is good. Especially the wine, which is very, very nice. And as if to prove a point, the train reaches Reading just 1 minute late! Now given that virtually every train has been arriving around 10 minutes late, because of ‘congestion, this makes us around 9 minutes early. See, being nice works, I’ve even made the train nice. :-). 🙂

so, all in all, everything is still nice

Better still, I have just one more sleep to go before I have a whole 9-days free from rail travel. And after that, I have just 33 sleeps to before the Grand Event, the 175th birthday celebration with P&O when we sail away to the fiords on the Oceana with, hopefully, weather permitting, a fly past of the Red Arrows and knowing that the Princess Royal will be viewing us as we sail by.

yep, all in all, I’m very, very happy and very, very nice.

nice works, clearly

So that’s it for this update. I did smile at everybody, i smiled on the telephone, i think i even told a joke. All in all, I’m feeling very nice today. Byeee

Go Podge, Go.

The Red Arrows Shall Be My Escort

Posted: May 14, 2012 in general, Travel
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First of all, a big Well Done to Nick ‘The Mole Man’ for completing his first 10k run, and finishing with the first 10%. Brilliant job. Also, a big well done to Matt for finishing in the top 10 in his cycle race yesterday. Clearly, both boys have far too much energy 🙂
Anyway, at the end of last week we received an update on the planning and preparations for our forthcoming cruise on the Oceana, which is one of the seven P&O cruises departing on the 3rd of July. The day will a celebration of P&O’s 175 years in being: all 7 ships will depart Southampton on the 3rd an convoy. This in itself will be spectacular but now they (P&O) have raised the bar. By way of an escort (albeit briefly), the Red Arrows will be there as well. There are of course other things going on but for me, the Red Arrows, is just the biz.
Then of course, they raise the bar once more as The Princess Royal will also be present to view us all as we sail away. So, I’m reeeeeelly excited now. I just can’t wait so here’s my little ditty as part of the build up:

50 more sleeps to go,
50 more sleeps to Cruising,
50 more sleeps till the big fat fella
Gets on that boat,
With his bird and her boy,
50 more sleeps to Cruising
Woo Hoo

Norway, here we come.
Go Podge, Go.

A typical Bank Holiday Weekend

Posted: May 8, 2012 in general, Rant
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So that was it. The May Bank Holiday has been and gone. This was a Bank Holiday with so much promise, filled with good intentions on my part.
I was going to convert the Colnago Groupset and go for a couple of decent rides. Saturday was to be the day prepping the bike while Sunday was to be the ride days. And so it was that I eventually found myself finishing off some house admin and house chores which was to be followed by The Big Shop (this was delayed pending other errands) and before I knew it, Saturday was over. By the end of the day, all I had changed was one tyre. 😦
Saturday was also blooming cold: so cold in fact that we were driven to lighting the wood burner for the day and evening. I thought May was supposed to be nice!
Sunday came and delivered quite a nice day but promised rain later. I knew I had / wanted to do my bike but I kept looking at the lawns that hadn’t been touched for three weeks, knowing that rain was on its way. I took the honourable route and fired up the lawn mower and set about the grass. It’s only when you start cutting it that you realise just how long it is and how much of it there is. After I had finished, I had a well earned coffee break and recognised that I should give it an hour in what was now a glorious sunny day and give it another cut. So off to the garage to set about my lovely bike.

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If I’ve formatted this right, there should be an image of my bike above. It’s a Colnago Geo Dream with paint job representing a map of Europe.
The bike was previously shod with Spinergy Carbon Wheels but having seen a lovely pair withColnago decals on the rims, and the right colour scheme, I just had to buy them. They had campaign hubs while the bike was kitted with Shimano, hence the plan to change the Groupset. In the end however, I decided to just try to get the wheels running without changing anything else. With some tweaking I seemed to do just that. All I needed to do now was take her out on the road. But first things first, the lawn needed its second cut.
Lawn mower fired up, off I went, to give the lawn a second cut. I have to say, by the time I had finished, the lawn looked magnificent. So magnificent in fact that I took another well earned coffee break (I had previously had another coffee break while doing the bike by the way) sat down down by the river and gazed lovingly at the fruits of my labour.
As I sat there, a strong gust of wind rushed through the trees, blowing grass and leaves signalling a change in the weather so I quickly cleared up, put the bikes away and went back indoors to start preparing Sunday Dinner (it was my turn). And then, the rains came. So, day two of the three day weekend brought no bike ride. Maybe day three will be better.
Monday arrived with all the rain that was promised. How boring. What to do on a wet, rainy bank holiday Monday. Debbie decided to clear the ironing, I decide to make myself scarce and start to tidy the garage. I was well into clearing much rubbish when the rain stopped and clouds cleared and the sun shone. Woo Hoo, maybe I can get out on my bike, or maybe, I can help Debbie I the garden, and maybe, after an hour or two, I can cut the paddock, which is exactly what I did do.
So, by the end of the weekend, all i hade really done was change two wheels, put on a new saddle, tidy the garage (a bit) and cut grass. And, drank much coffee.
Still only three weeks to go and we’ve another bank holiday and then four weeks after that we’re off on our cruise with P&O on the Oceana to help them celebrate their 175th birthday. NICE. 🙂
Come back soon.
Go Podge, Go.

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