I’ve finally got round to getting to post photos directly to my Flickr account from my mobile in one very easy click. There’s something of a compromise here though. Shiny, feature-packed and lovely though my Nokia E71 may be, its piccies are clearly those of a phone, not a camera. It’s still worth it though. I love the feeling of live reportage when I can post on the spot, even though the subject matter to date has been mainly family snaps.

Lily and I went to Marshall at the Science in Sport criteriums in Preston this evening - a nice chance to help out by putting a tiny back into this great race series that I try and get to most weeks.

Given that the cyclists came past roughly every 2 mins 20 seconds, it gave Lily plenty of time for a good load of hand-standing, as well as practising her own riding and running about.

Some 30 years on, history repeated itself yesterday as we decided to make the most of some gorgeous summer conditions and spend an afternoon by the river Wharfe in Hubberhome. Going to exactly the same spot that I went to as a young boy, Lily and I frolicked in the cool water with the inflatable dhingy, Elvis dug all day for always-just-too-large stones, and Katie and Elsie managed to sneak in a tiny bit of chilling time. Just a bit.

I rode home on the bike in the boiling heat and got a few miles in, which was a lovely thing to sneak in.

We made video with incredible similarity to the family cine films of 30 years ago, including me looking scarily like my dad when I swim.

It’s been seven years since we saw my old and lovely school mate John Bigland, and we finally got together on Sunday for a BBQ in Helmshore’s finest July weather. Or the finest it could muster up, which means just freezing northerly wind.

It was so great to catch up and it’s nice to have these reminders from time to time about how simple it is to get on straight away with people you grew up with. Good mates, a shade of reminiscing but not too much. No need… life’s still fun for all of us without any need to recall the past. Still nice to have a quick chat about whether he still has Tears for Fears posters up on his wall. Sadly, he doesn’t and neither do I. I prefer to think of it as a phase, and I’ll put some up again soon.

We took a family risk last night - hard for us middle class types - and let Lily stay up on a week night so we could all go and watch the Colne Grand Prix. Having the seven week old Elsie ’stay up’ until 9:30 is a bit of a habit for said small person - so not an issue.

I’ve had such fun at this race in the past (2007 | 2006 | 2005) and it always seems to have been in great weather - but true to form, last night’s event was held in pretty rubbish conditions. We stayed dry - just - but it was cold and the rain before the event had kept away the hoards of locals who normally turn out to watch the event. See the pics here on Flickr.

My Team Wheelbase team mates Lewis and Stuart were riding, and it was great to go and lend a bit of support. In the end, it didn’t work out for either of them (though Stuart’s 25th was very respectable)… tough Elite field, valiant efforts and all that. Lily’s turning into a bit of a partisan, cheering for all the Wheelbase riders, including Rob Jebb at one point, who wasn’t even there!