We were due a good ‘with cousins’ holiday… and this was a corker. Phil, Anne & family had had their arms twisted that a ski holiday could be affordable and achievable if we drove, and I told them we could. Katie and I had driven to the Alps before (in 2012-13 New Year) and we knew is was kind of no big deal. So we booked a chalet and off we went for February half term.
Continue reading “Stick to La Plagne – our 2016 family holiday”
With immense sadness but such intense happy memories, we have said goodbye to our lovely Elvis today. Dogs are special, close family members and their relationships are deeply family-centered, so I’ll keep this short and sweet, like the blondie himself. Continue reading “Elvis”
As days to remember go, I’ve trumped most of them yesterday.
All thanks to my lovely friend Richard Hannaford – someone who has been in my life since preschool days – I got to see The Wedding Present play live last night. Continue reading “Remember, remember – the fourth of November”
I don’t do reviews much. Especially not on this site, but I wanted to write a little bit about a gem of a place just across the valley from me that cyclists, runners, walkers, and general cake / coffee enjoyers will find a treat. Continue reading “Café Stop: Tune in, Drop Off.”
I’ve never read The Tale of Two Cities but that incredibly well-known opening line from a novel sums up my 2015 3 Peaks.
Okay – it wasn’t quite the worst of times – far from it – but when things are going really well, it seems to emphasise the problems when they come. And they came. But more on that later. I wanted to gather thoughts whilst fresh in my head as usual. The next few days will be absorbed with the 3 Peaks just like the previous few weeks have been, but it’s good to write these things down whilst they’re fresh on my mind. Continue reading “3 Peaks cyclocross 2015: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times””
The teens are here. Very weird how it all passes so fast – it never ceases to be weird. Lily… the little baby who slept for hours on end in a pram, got carted up mountains and on countless runs in a 3 wheeler jogger is now a huge giraffe-like girl who does the jogging herself. Continue reading “Teen in the house! Lily’s birthday”
I pick my events to blog about. I do quite a bit and blogging about them all like some training diary could get dull. But in my modern era (i.e. since I started blogging in 2004 and started collecting GPS data in 2007) the Golf Ball fell race has been covered with almost obsessive regularity. Continue reading “Files, Damn Lies and Statistics – 2015 Golf Ball Fell Race”
I often spend time thinking about my local treasures but so rarely spend the time to sit down and write anything. But today I went a ride with cycling friend Alan Dorrington over Rooley Moor Road and I found the route inspiring enough to speak out. Continue reading “Rooley Moor Road – an appreciation”
Since we got the caravan early last year we’ve been building up mentally to the big one. It’s very special for me to do a road trip like this with the children in the caravan because it bears an amazingly close resemblance to my own memories of the same in the mid 1970s. My dad would take us all down there over two days’ driving (on what was, presumably, less fast but less busy roads) and the days have lodged deeply in my memory. Continue reading “France Holiday 2015”
We had a relatively quiet one for Elsie’s 7th. A friend Lucy and one of Lily’s friends came over and we went to the Jump Nation trampoline place in Manchester. An hour was easily enough. Red-faced, whacked out and happy, the girls all came back and we had a mini party lunch at home.
https://youtu.be/MqyVgjI3Lkk
Sally, Simon and the boys came over in the afternoon along with Grandma and Alice and another treat tea was earned.
Photos here on flickr
No matter how I try, I can’t just let the 3 Peaks Cyclocross happen around me. Continue reading “Blue Monday – coming back down from the Three Peaks Cyclocross”
I’m coming back. The race that first sucked me in in 1995 has provided every emotion to me in the intervening years. Continue reading “2014 Peaks Prepped.”
