It’s world book day today and they’re all dressing up as a charachter from a book at Lily’s school. My tough, toothless bike racing little girl is dressed as Tinkerbell. Continue reading “Lily as Tinkerbell”
Cadair Idris and the Rhinogydd – another lovely weekend of gentlemanly leisure
A fine weekend of walking in Wales just gone. My cousin Adrian brings together ten or so of us each year at this time for a trip to the hills. Continue reading “Cadair Idris and the Rhinogydd – another lovely weekend of gentlemanly leisure”
Elsie the quadruped
On the eve of being nine months old, our little girl Elsie has crawled across the floor today. A full three months ahead of Lily, she seems very eager to get moving. Mild panic as we realised we needed to get hold of a stair gate, Now on order. Doors shut in the mean time.
Good Sense of Humus
Just had a few random tracks playing in the background when I was working yesterday and heard one of my old tracks pop up – GSOH. I really enjoyed listening to it again after a long layoff.
High point for me is still the lovely sample I nabbed from recording a play on radio 4 – Alan Bennet saying “Go you hear that? That’s the bass – giving the beat”.
It was one of the first tracks that I made when i moved away from using big loop samples and sequencing my own synths and drums..
From the album ‘Living With the Pond Life‘.
Refrigerated convert
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.
