Trooper74

(And I soon found i wasn’t “the fattest lad in the place” ...) As part of my “dealing with heart disease” strategy daily exercise has been highly recommended. I work full time so my usual exercise of cycling every day is off the menu but Doc mentioned that spinning and rowing in the gym each day would be ideal. So .. off to the gym i went ..... Health assessment with the manager was fun .... “Any illnesses or underlying conditions i should be aware of ?” ... That went down hill after discussion about whether i could be defibbed in the event of a heart attack. Implanted Cardiac Device ......... What to do if i have another TGA was probably a step too far ... Anywayup .... I’ve promised not to use the gym between 2200hrs and 0600hrs or otherwise die if there are no staff on the site. Their open 24 hours but only manned ( or is that “Personed” ) for 16 hours. Watt Bikes and Concept 3 rowing machines are good and i started off with 15 minute sessions on each for 4 sessions. Then off for a shower and off to work ... But ... no one interacts, no one chats, no eye contact ..... sterile ... However during the "great storm” I cycled and rowed without being hit by falling trees or roof tiles .... And all this is addition to my 30 miles riding my bicycle on the roads each week.. 5 days a week in the gym and 2 days on my bike .... Oh ... observation ... gym bunnies are real ....but why do they bother ?

morning all ... so my Fridays gone boobies up already ... turns out the eldest is on inset day today and off for half term next week but the girls are inset and off the following week !! aaagggghhhh 2 weeks of half term .... Oh well, best get making some plans to entertain the little wonders ...

Morning Chaps, another fine day in the Corps ... 15 minutes of peace then the school run party begins ... wake up children, feed them and kick 2 of them out of the door on their way to “Teenage Daycare” or Comprehensive school as some may know it, then drop nearly man off at college on the way to work ... .... And breath ... I am currently eating ... dark chocolate digestives..

I’m having Friday off. All the children are off as it’s a school inset day, so the plan is to take the girls to have a day with their mum, non supervised, and take the “nearly a man” ( 17 and 11 months ) off for ride out to the coast, .... and chips .... the 4 year old is with his 2 mummies and will be back to me on the Saturday ... Julie, my wife, is currently on a cruise ship around the Canaries ... with her mate Lesley ... The joy of life ....

The other one.....

Here at Whiteside’s Aero Works another control line Goodyear racer fuselage takes form .... this is the work bench .... known as the dining room table until just an hour ago when Julie, and her friend Lesley, set off on their 7 night cruise around the Canaries....

What ? The Tory Party ........

There's a great scene in the American version of The Office where the secretary picks up a pack of disposable cameras, opens the pack and drops them straight in the bin with a baffled look on her face ....

I’ve just been banned from the CycleChat on line forum for a week ! My heinous crime ? I posted a link from the DM ( i know ) that discussed British Cycling stating that any discussion of Trans Men taking part in Woman’s racing events was a hate crime !! And I’ve been banned .... I’ll take the ban as i’ve been using the site as a free host for all my cycle touring blogs ... But ... Anyone else been banned from a forum, especially for discussing content that matches the forum name eg CycleChat ??

So .. we’ve all seen the press ... invasion of the Ukraine by evil Russians .... However ... I have a friend in the Ukraine, Kyrov .... Andrey.. This a snatch of an email from the 27th of January from him .. "Thank you for your support, but I want to say that Ukrainians mostly love Russians and Russians love Ukrainians! Nobody WANTS war!!! These f****** politicians are doing meanness and lying on every corner!!! But who asks the opinion of the common people!? " He has built an engine for me and posted it .... Guess by which postal service .... Russian Federation Postal service ! "All that glisters is not gold" methinks .. The situation in the Ukraine is not as black and white as the Daily Mail and Telegraph would have us think ... His website ..... https://f2abcd-store.ru

Started working at the Crawfordsburn Inn at 15, washing the pots. Old chap there gave me a James trial bike that was mouldering away in his shed ..... Rode across the fields to work on it, rode across the fields to school on it ... Metal work teacher at school helped / taught me how to keep it running .... Mr Dixon gave me a working but incomplete 250 Norton for my 16th birthday ...... rode it across the fields everywhere .... At 17 ... joined the RAF, left home, passed my test, new Yamaha 250 from Damerells on the Goss Moor between Newquay and St. Austell ..... had motorbikes ever since ....

When i was a boy i went to swimming club all year round at Pickie Pool, Bangor, Northern Ireland. It was an outdoor un heated swimming pool. From October to March we where given large mugs of hot Marmite and sometimes Bovril after swim training .... Anything tasted good after an hour in the freezing water ... and sometimes snow ! We must have been mad ...!!!

Oxford Monster Hex Chain .... cut silently, like butter .... I have the links as they dropped it when Connor appeared on the scene like Conan the Tax Inspector ...

Big Bolt Croppers .....

Bye the front door as well ... what a stroke of luck ......

Only just to-day , 10 minutes past midnight I was woken to the sound of my grandson shouting abuse out of his bedroom window, followed by him running downstairs shouting ‘GRANDAD QUICK” at the top of his voice ... up and dressed, sort of, and after him..... 3 males had decided to steal my motorbike.... They had cut through the “Sold Secure” chain like butter and if not for Connors intervention would have had the bike away... although they had not addressed the D lock through the front wheel ... When Connor appeared at the front door armed with a pick axe handle they ran for it dropping the chain and lock down the road .. ‘Lets get after them Grandad” .... NO, Connor we’re not getting stabbed up for a motorbike .... Back home and we attached an audible alarm, refitted the chain of butter to the bike and back to bed ... Proud of him ......

I raced on “Tubs” for 20 years, the only roadside repair is a replacement tub .... and a careful ride home ...... Their glued on !!

Thats what i thought ... tubeless tyres ... but the quick fix for tubeless repairs is a tube ... bear in mind tubeless tyres have re-sealing compound in them.

Contact the hospital .. they’ll arrange a PCR for Dad and just do repeat LFT’s for mum ... If you can't get any LFT’s ask a family member at school tomorrow ... they’ll be coming home with boxes of them ... So Boris and his mates say ....Alledgley ..

2 tubes, tyre repair patch, chain link, full allen key set and chain rivet tool, pump, CO2 inflator, tyre levers, puncture repair kit and self adhesive patches. All in a small pod in the bottom of the pannier ....

I went cycling this weekend. Not very far, 13 miles one day and 22 the second. Just getting my recovery back in place ..... Yesterday i was cycling from Sheffield to Rotherham when ; I was passing Meadowhall on the way back when i came upon a young man pushing his top of the range ( £9000 ) super spaceship Colnago carbon cycle ... Super Record adorned.. He was dressed in the finest raiments of lycra, his shoes cost more than my bike ...... as for his Oakley glasses ... I dare not consider the cost... “Can i help you” ... I stopped to ask .... “Thanks, but i’ve punctured” .. the Prince of Cycling replied... “Do you not have a spare tube ?” says I. "Whats the point” .. replied the Prince ... "I’ve phoned Mum” . "I can fix it for you” ,, .. ,, " I’t’s ok, you can't fix punctures” ... replied the man child ... "Oh, is that right” ... I replied, smiled ... and cycled off .... I really hope there was a communication problem going on ... and not that he was just stupid .....

Less commuting this year but lots of long days out and using the bike for business meetings in Bristol, Exeter and Glasgow ... so company picked up the fuel , hotel and food bills ... which was nice. Moving to semi-retirement ( without a reduction in salary ) has given me the opportunity to pick the good days for 2-300 mile day rides out. Possibly need a bigger bike ... BMW F700 GS perhaps ... I’ll have to work out a way for Julie to suggest it ...

Stop pretending to be a Moto GP rider on your plastic fantastic spaceship ..... grow up ...