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That is it for a few days, I am now officially on holiday and the weather forecast is………………………………..rain

Currently sat here trying to work out where to go tomorrow as a family where I don’t have to forfeit two arms and a leg as payment. I have 6 days off including the weekend & bank holiday Monday and tomorrow is the only day we can all go out as a family for the whole day, Thursday the daughter has to start work late afternoon, Friday the wife getting her hair done, Saturday and Sunday the daughter is working during the day, Monday you just don’t want to travel anywhere on a bank holiday. Now add in the rain factor, the wife can’t walk to far my bad back and the fun really starts. The kids have been to all the local attractions so were now looking further a field and drawing a blank, one suggestion was Legoland, £127.80 for 4 (3 adults and 1 child) for a day pass, they must be having a giraffe!! Beginning to think it is cheaper to go back to work…………………

Last night was a good night for weight loss as such, I lost the weight I put on last week, so I am not dis-pleased but then I am not over the moon either. I just do not seem to be able to get a handle on this weight loss thing at the moment, well to be honest for the past two years. I am losing, I have a good week then I put on what I lost, then I lose what I put on, then I put on again then lose that………………………….and on and on it goes.

At least I am staying positive and still going to Slimming World, to be honest it the only thing that keeps me motivated.

Never made it to the Air Show on Sunday as the weather was lousy, heavy rain showers, low cloud and strong gusty winds. We live a couple of miles from the local airport which is used as a staging post for the air show, I heard half a dozen planes take off, never saw one of them fly over head, the cloud was down to about 200ft. I did start cleaning the bike in the gazebo but the rain started to seep through the gazebo so had to pack up and head indoors.

My back is not to bad at the moment, feeling a bit better, still hoping to throw my leg over my bike on Friday (back and weather permitting).

Finally a message to Clive , STOP LAUGHING IT HURTS! and hello to Keiron at Welsh Cyclist

I can sit down as long as I don’t move about, I can stand up, but the transition between the two is bloody painful. I was riding in the Evans Cycles Ride It event at Liphook in Hampshire this morning and I fell backward off my bike and landed on the small of my back. Went down a slope with a slope up the other side, just got to the top of the up slope when I hit a bump which turned me towards the bank and a large bramble bush. I managed to apply the brakes and stop but it was at that moment that I realised that due to the uneven terrain my feet were about two feet above the ground and I fell backwards off the bike and down the slope. While I got back on my bike and continued to ride I was in pain and had to cut my ride short. I was intending to ride the medium route but decided I did not want to get caught out in the middle of the ride unable to continue so I ended up doing the short ride (17miles).

Unfortunately it was not the only fall of the day although the only thing hurt on this fall was my pride, a few miles earlier I narrowly avoided a full face plant in the mud, the front wheel went one way I went the other, ended up laying on the bike in the mud, the right hand side of the handle bars were buried up to the stem in the mud. Also managed to rip the seam on my cycling shorts from the crutch to the bottom of the leg, so I had plenty of ventilation on the ride!!

I had intended to take the GPS with me but it suddenly dawned on me at 10:30pm last night that the GPS did not have the map for the ride, I managed to download the map to the PC, but failed to get it onto the GPS. As we were leaving at 6:30am I gave up and went to bed, only to lay there for a couple of hours unable to fall a sleep. All in all I enjoyed the ride it would of been a much better day had been better prepared and the ride had been without the wind, rain and humidity……………..The joys of muddy bikes!

Short week next week as I am on holiday from Tuesday, had planned a couple of rides during the week but that is debatable. One day going will be a family day out, just not sure where yet, another day will be a local day out and the wife having a hair cut and doing the boys school cloths shopping (one of my ride days), then its the weekend.

I was supposed to be taking the family to the Bournemouth Air Festival tomorrow, but spending 8 hours sat on a rain soaked beach is not my idea of fun, apparently today’s flying events were called of due to low cloud cover. The Bournemouth weather forecast for tomorrow is much the same as today.

Trying to be a really good boy this week with the eating, last Monday was a dismal failure. I have had a good week up to today where I have eaten some flapjack for it riding nutrition it provides, just have to see what tomorrow and Monday brings.

….but you can’t come in

That is what my blog has been saying to me for the past 36 hours. Seem as though there was some file corruption in the section that controls the logins etc. After some help from the guys at WordPress Support I have been able to get access to my blog again. What I like most about this is that the WordPress software that this web site\blog is built on is free, the Theme I uploaded a couple of weeks ago is free and the support I have had over the past 36 hours has been free, that my friends is the joy of Open Source Software or OSS for short. The company I work for have just invested in a web site which has CMS (Content Management System, well technically it is WCM but I am not going into that here), which is what WordPress is, well suffice to say my solution is a hell of a lot cheaper than theirs is.

Apart from Monday night success (I lost another 3lb) there has not been a lot to write about this week which under the circumstances is just as well. No ride yesterday as it was raining and I had to get the shed cleared out so I could get all the bikes in the shed. Five hours later the shed had been cleared with enough space to park all the bikes in the shed and be able to get them out again without to much of a problem.

Went out for my customary Sunday morning Throop Loop, another two and three quarters ride time. Met Mr Grumpy on my way back along the river complaining about Mountain Bikes on the path, well I never heard him complain about the dogs that run around which are not under the owners control, causing havoc and a danger to walkers, runners and cyclists alike, leaving their deposits all over the path for other to enjoys……..NOT! Maybe Mr Grumpy should stop being a miserable old git and start enjoying the scenery.

Saw my first KingFisher today, it was only a common Kingfisher, a couple of weeks ago in the same area I saw a guy land a large 18lb-ish Pike. If had not taken up cycling I may never had seen any of this. I have seen a host of wildlife since I have started riding, ridden area that I never knew existed and I feel a lot better for all this.

Have a busy week coming up, my car is into the body shop tomorrow, I am all over the place on Tuesday, Thursday night we are going to the evening events for the Bournemouth Air Show, Saturday I am off to the wilds of Hampshire (better known as Liphook) for a cycle ride and then on Sunday were back to Bournemouth beach to see the Air Show. Better not forgets tomorrow nights weigh in and food tasting session at Slimming World , better make sure I get weighed first before I start the food tasting!!