xendistar.co.uk

Well the new damaged cooker is still sat in the middle of the kitchen causing a blockage and we have been given a delivery and collection date of next Monday 5th. I’m not impressed but what can you do. I have what I think is a reasonably sized kitchen, but you stick a cooker in the middle of it and you can’t move anywhere around the kitchen. We can’t push it to one side otherwise we will block a cupboard or a door way (the joys of having three door leading out of our kitchen) and we need to make sure you don’t bump into it as we don’t want to damage it.

At least the central heating boiler service  went ok without any further problems being found, not bad seeing as it was last serviced many years ago when we moved in. Now just got to wait for the quote for the other heating repairs we knew needed doing and were confirmed needed doing by the engineer.

My gel filled seat cover has arrived for my bike which I hope will aid the bedding in process.  While talking of the bike that due back at the shop on Friday to have some adjustments to the front derailleurs as it won’t change properly. Hopefully will get out on the bike again this weekend and be able to last a bit longer in the saddle.

I had expected a few aches and pains after my first real bike ride in 16+ years, what I did not expect was painful butt syndrome! We picked the bikes up without two much of a problem (if you don’t include having to part with that much money). Once out the shop the next job was to get the bikes on the bike rack, the first problems was that bike would not sit on the bike rack properly (that was something I had not considered) secondly once I got the bike on the bike rack the pedal was fouling the back of the car. OK it was only a case of adjusting the bike rack but the bike rack was set high to carry the kite buggy and to get the pedals away from the car I had to set the rack to a low position (which moves it away from the car). I don’t want to have to keep changing the rack setup everytime I want to use it, will have to see how this goes in the future.

Once I got both bikes on the rack it was off to the local park, I had decided to do some flat land riding to get used to cycling again. After a couple of laps of the car park to get the feel of the bike and to adjust the seat height it was off onto the open road………………………………………………..to watch 300 Harley Davidson ride past complete with police escort. It certainly was a sight to see.  Before long we were riding along the cycle path like experienced riders dodging the family pack of bodies block our way.  We soon reached our first obstacle, the wife forgot to change down to go up a little slope and ground to a halt, once this was sorted out it was onto the public road again. We were soon in another part of the park and riding around the cycle track that surrounds the cricket pitch, only did half a lap before we were back on the public road again through the park.

Things went were going well until we cross the slip road to a flyover, the path on the other side takes a sharp little rise and guess who forgot to change down again. Once we got moving again we back towards the where we had parked the car.  By now my butt was aching and I felt that the seat was to far forward, having sussed out that I could adjust the seat backward we were going to make a pit stop to adjust the seat. The adjustment only took a couple of minutes and a quick ride around the car park seem to be a little more comfortable on my butt so off we went again.

We set off again only for me to realise that I had left my helmet on the cars bike rack (I had taken it off while I adjusted the seat.) so a quick detour back to the car and we were off again.  From  the cycle track I  followed a few back street till we came to the local high street where I must admit I was naughty and rode across the pedestrian precinct. Not sure what the wife did I think she got off and walked till she got to the service road and off we went until things came to an abrupt halt. It was another of those little sudden inclines that caught the wife out, unfortunately not only did she stop but she fell off ( well fell side ways) and end up in a heap of the floor. Thankfully the only damage was pride.

After composing ourselves and walking across the road towards a wedding (there was no point cycling they had the road blocked), we were invited to join in the wedding photographs, we declined and fought our way through the wedding crowds and remounted and rode off into the old residential area of town. Before long we were back on the quay front and heading back toward the park where we had parked the car. Now this is where my only incident happened (if you don’t include my butt) I came up to a mini round about and braked to allow a van to round the round about but I forgot that I would have to put my foot down on the floor, well I can’t do that sat in the saddle and nearly ended up going over side ways. By now my butt was tender and with the bumpy grass in the park playing havoc with my butt I decided to  stop for a sit down and rest me butt.

After a rest we decided to do another lap around the two parks, unfortunately for me this was bad move, as we rode off across the grass I could feel every blade of grass kicking me in the butt, I headed straight for the cycle path. On the cycle path it seemed that every group of public we met were stopped next to a seat which meant we had to take to the grass to get around them and again it felt like every blade of grass was kicking me in the butt.  By the time we had only gone a short distance my butt was killing me. The rest had not been good for the wife either as her knee was hurting. We decided enough was enough and turned round and headed for the car, which included going across the grass which I did stood up on the pedals.

I have since spent much of the time checking out padded shorts and gel filled seats………………………..

As mentioned previously we had a new cooker being delivered this week, well it arrived…………………………..and damaged!! Now as most of us know one of two things happen, the resolution goes perfectly or it becomes a pain butt, mine has started of as a pain the butt. Contacted the shop we bought it from and they could not have been more helpful, they had to contact the manufacturer and that where it all fell over. To keep it short the manufacturer representative I spoke with was an arrogant jobs worth, in the end I gave up talking to her and phoned the shop back and complained. They have now arranged for a new unit to be delivered and the damaged unit collected at the same time, now I am just waiting for the date when the delivery\collection will take place. I also had a phone call from the a manager at the manufacturers apologising for the action (or lack of) from their representative I spoke to.

Today was the day I met with my sons teacher, deputy head and special education needs coordinator. In short I was not happy the other week with a couple of thing my son was saying was going on at school. So I went up the school and had a quick meeting the special needs person where a large meeting involving everybody was arranged. In the mean time the same thing happen again with my son at school, being a couple of day before the meeting and not be able to get to the school due to work commitments I sent the school a letter (read riot act). Well they quickly phoned back saying it was sorted and will be discussed at the meeting the next day. Well today was the meeting and things have been sorted and agreed, only time will tell.

In approximately 12 hours I will be climbing onto a push bike, the first time for a very long time. I am looking forward to it and also concerned as I am not sure how this old body will handle it, I am expecting to ache a bit afterwards, hopefully only a bit.