God – what a great day out. I normally sit at my desk in a fairly uniform day at work. Not that it’s unenjoyable – I love my job – but once in a while you get to do something that’s a bit more fun. Today, I went through what would have been my childhood equivelant of playschool’s Round Window… today I went on a factory tour to see how Refrigerated Panel Vans and Refrigerated Rigid truck conversions are done. Not your normal day out for a web person.
Continue reading “Refrigerated convert”
Abigail’s Legacy – a haunting coincidence
Sometimes some coincidences are a bit too wierd. Katie and I lost a lovely friend just before Chtistmas in 2001 – Abigail. Abi was only just 30 and died of cancer, and as always seems the case in these dreadful losses, the last few months were horrible for everyone involved. Abi was dignified and humerous to an extent that still sends shivers down our spines. But a strange anecdotal coincidence occurred the very last time we saw Abigail. Continue reading “Abigail’s Legacy – a haunting coincidence”
Omnipresent
Teatime in the Haygarth house, and Elsie’s at the end of her third hour of eating, Lily, who has an allergy to sitting at the table, has arisen and decides to make herself omnipresent
Happy Birthday to Royksopp… and me
Today, I am 39. To celebrate, Röysopp have released a fantastic new tune for me. (Well. For their tenth birthday actually)
Happy Birthday to us. Have a listen… it grows. I thought it was a cover of the fab Altered Images tune at first.
Lily’s first bike race
My annual payback day came on Saturday – the day when I organise a bike race of my own, and as usual it was one intense combination of utter stress and deep satisfaction. It’s not just me doing things – obviously – and this year just like all the others made me feel such a glow at all the really ace people who mucked in and made things happen. It was also a special year because Lily rode her first event. I say ‘rode’ – the harsh conditions of snow and hills made the Under 12s race – like all the others – a real genuine slog. I knew I’d be called on to push and help out all the way round the course, but for so many of the children there was more running than riding. That said, the sense of urgency in Lily’s running – like that of the other children – was so utterly heart warming. This was a race – not a walk in the park – and there was no moment in those 15 or so minutes that Lily had her mind on nything other than getting round as fast as she could. She shouted to me in the middle of the race something that sounds of no consequence to many people: “Dad – I’m really happy”. I knew exactly what she meant. She was competing – giving her best, and getting something directly back from it. Sometimes if we don’t compete we forget that simple feeling. Having had this snow stick around made the day quite arduous for me and the team around me. The course needed to be drasticlly re-routed as the tarmac paths were packed solid inch-deep ice. This meant that the riders had no relief from the mud that sat under the crust of snow. A tough course in tough conditions… hats off to all competitors, young and old. 73 photos here My report on the North West Cyclocross Assoc website here. British cycling’s report here with loads more photos.
Jenny, 16, going on 17
It’s my eldest niece’s 17th birthday on 26th November and it really, honestly feels like a couple of years since she looked like the photo below rather than like this.
Anyway… talking like that just makes me sound old, something I’m happy to keep on pretending to fight. Lily really was fascinated by the fact that Jenny was going on seventeen and was really keen for us to send this video to her… Happy Birthday Jenny from us all and welcome to adulthood. It’s fun – enjoy it!.
Me, Bobby and Hamish…. 20 years on
Had the ENORMOUS pleasure of catching up with two friends who I last saw in 1988 last weekend. Yep – read it – more than 20 whole flippin year have gone by since I last saw Hamish and Bobby and I can honestly say that it felt like yesterday.
This is the way things are when you’ve spent so much quality and intense times together (at school in this case). I felt like we could have just been sitting out A Levels the next day.
Reminder to self (and to each other I hope) to not leave it 20 years next time. Get together planned next May… must get it in the calendar.
Cyclocross National Trophy round 4, Mallory Park
Things seem to be going along fine for me in the big cyclocrosses this year; nothing stunning happening but I feel that little bit stronger than last year and my training’s a bit more focused and targeted.
The Mallory Park venue has mixed memories for me; in 2006, I had just about my worst ever cyclocross race and started to question what I was doing it all for. In the 2007 race there I revelled in the filthy and freezing conditions to finish 24th and really chuffed not to be lapped by the flying foreigners at the race.
This year’s was a great new course with a series of really awkward adverse cambers and a sticky, wet grass course that became much more adhesive as the day wore on. I had a slightly dicky start, with someone hooking up their bike to my spokes, and as a result had a bit of a battle trying to pass a few people on the first lap. This in turn sent me into a bit of strength debt and I only settled in about ten mins into the race.
I stayed upright and rode well. The Cannondale CX9 was just a dream once again and I decided not to change bikes, as the mud was keeping out of my gears, etc.
The only down side was that I was lapped on the final lap by the French race winner who was on a bit of a flyer. Finishing @1 lap is never a nice feeling. I’m looking forward to being the one who’s doing the lapping next year again when i start to ride the NW trophy races again.
Results and British Cycling report here.
In praise of the rockafeller skank.
This doesn’t come easy. I’m not a mainstream person. Well, I am, really – that’s what all this is about, but I don’t occupy the middle ground that easily still. I’m 38 and it’s getting so much easier. My love of the Carpenters and Doris Day will be confessed openly soon (and if you think I’m joking, Stop, wait a minute Mr Postman and Move Over Darling).
I was sorting out the overcrowded and badly tagged iPod this evening for the first time … ever. The pleasure that a clean brak has given me is possibly a bit anal but I’m happy to admit that a tidy home is a happy home.
One thing that’s never been on there is FGat Boy Slim’s “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby” album from 1998. I never got round to burning it as Katie and I (and th near neighbours of our house in Gloucester Road, Cheltenham) had played it seemingly to death in 1998.
However, a bit of an audio audit has rekindled the flame that played it to death in the first place. Despite being a mainstream radio staple, The Rockafeller Skank is just a plain old killer and summarises the era. Chapeau, Quentin.
Remember, remember – the 5th of November
Something about the rather significant things going on on the other side of the big pond that makes me feel like we’ve reached a pretty momentous turning point in world history. Much in the same way that in 1997 I felt a massive relief when Labour ended a very long Tory rule in the UK, the democratic win in the US is more than a democratic win or a fantastic historical moment when a black person enters the White House; it’s the end of Bush. Hoo – bloody – ray.
When I was thinking back earlier to the great feeling in 97 that took me over (as it turned out, for good reason), today’s feeling of “I was there when…” makes me feel more slightly pensive. History, whatever happens henceforth, has been made. I really should buy a newspaper and keep it carefully in the attic, like I did do for the millennium (you’ve no idea how hard that word is to type for me), but these days it seems more apporpriate to mark history by showing what’s going on in my online world.
The Guardian online daily emails have been a part of my online world for about four years, I think, but what I hope will happen is that the attached screen grab will show history in so much more ways that are not interesting now. I hope that in future years, we’ll love to look at the number of spam messages i had in my spam box, how my gmail offered me only 7.2 mb of space, and other thiongs we accept today and will be a quirky oddment in the future.
Just the same as if I bought a newspaper today on the occasion of Obama’s historic victory, the really interesting things would turn out to be the adverts on the side of the real news items on the paper.
Half term break in Suffolk… the first real chill of winter
With the national trophy cyclocross coming up in Ipswich, I wasn’t relishing the thought of another long day out and night away from the family. Enjoyable though the sporty bonding trips are, I find it an uneasy comprimise to spend time away enjoying myself and leaving Katie with two young people to look after.
The Ipswich race was luckily on the first Sunday of the half term break, so we booked four nights away to coincide, meaning a great chance for a rest plus an ‘easy’ journey to the cyclocross.
As things turned out, it was absolutely perfect. Better than perfect really, if that’s possible. When you bookk things online you can never be sure what it’s really going to be like, but Low Farm near to Brampton in Suffolk was a bull’s eye in terms of holiday accommodation. There was a fully fledges soft play area called Moo Play Barn and an indoor pool, alledgedly heated (well – it was pretty cold outside too), and a collection of farm animals specifically penned up for children to interract with them. (The Alpacas and their fluttering eyelashes were my personal fave.) A perfect place to be really if the weather turned bad. Except, strangely, it never did. Let’s face it, this was late October. But on three of the four days, we enjoyed pretty much uninterrupted sunshine. I find this type of cold, almost frosty sunny weather the very best time to be on a UK beach. I know they’re ace in hot weather, but there’s something about the quality of the air and the light that is so untainted.
The three days were spent well. Day trips to Great Yarmouth (ace model village), Southwold (Pretty, Posh and very very English) and Aldeburgh (quaint, full of corduroy and blazer wearing bafoons for some reason on the day we were there, but somehow real-feeling, and fisherman-like gritty).
A very chilled out time.
Enjoy the photos of the whole trip – browse them here or click here for a slideshow.
Waiting til Holidays
Lily sometimes goes off into a corner and likes to get on with writing things, without the need to ask how things are spelt. We’re off on our hols to Norfolk next saturday and Lily decided to make a chart so she could tick off the days. Katie and I just love the spelling and the whole concept.