Blackburn Grand Prix – Back in Black(burn)

I spent a strange but ace year of my education at Blackburn College in 1990/91 and it’ll always hold some great memories for me. This evening I rode in the town centre race there and had a good ride. I’m glad I did – I was starting to get concerned.

When you have bad days and little dips in form now and then, you generally deal with it and wait for it to pass.

When you have a bad day then another then another and you’re 39 (and a half), you start to think that maybe the bubble’s burst… your time’s come, and you’re not going to regain any semblance of form. Ever. (more…)

Manchester International Festival – ‘The Great Indoors’

Ace day on Saturday – we took Lily and Elsie into ‘The Great Indoors‘ a wonderful collection of children’s creative activities and performances all over the insides of Manchester’s Town Hall, as part of the Manchester International Festival.

We met up with Sally, Sim and Olly, had a romp, got home early and relaxed – job’s a good un.  Some nice photo moments too here.

Grizedale North Face loop – a mad evening dash

I grabbed at a small window of opportunity this evening when mum had invited Lily to go to the theatre in Lancaster – to see The Jungle Book. I thought I’d throw the MTB in the car and belt up to Grizedale for a quick dash round the North Face Loop there. With an off-road triathlon coming up at Coniston on Sunday that includes a lap of the loop, I was keep to suss out just how much technical stuff there was to decide how to set up the bike. (more…)

A Lancashire Heat Wave? Well – it’s not been bad.

It’s amazing how a bit of warm weather makes life so pleasurable.  Home life for the past week seems to have been a perpetual cycle of playing in the garden, going to the park, sitting outside, eating outside, riding bikes and generally not being indoors to do much other than work and sleep.  I even heard talk of a heat wave earlier today ont he radio – the very prospect thrills me, I must say. (more…)

An overnight visit to Kirkby Lonsdale

We had our first overnight stopover at mum’s house in ages this weekend. It’s been an odd year with the sleep patterns of a baby and going to someone’s house has generally represented hassle for me since Elsie came along, but she’s been sleeping so well for the last few weeks and Katie & I wanted to get oursleves out for a meal without children – so going to see mum was a really ace opportunity to kill a whole flock of birds with a very small stone.

On top of it all, the sun shone despite a dreadful forecast.

I had two ace bike rides – one on the way up; the ‘usual’ way over Gisburn Forest I ride – and the next morning I opted for a (mildly hungover) hilly and gobsmackingly scenic ride from Kirkby Lonsdale to Barbon, Dent, Deepdale and Kingsdale – on my way to Katie’s family’s house in Ingleton. (more…)