First ride to work on the bike without an engine.

I cycled to and from work on Wednesday and got absolutely drenched, it's a 52 mile round trip and so is a solid training session. The morning ride took 1 hour 45 minutes, giving an average speed of 14.8 mph - not bad for the first of the year. The return journey was only a few minutes longer but I was absolutely dead beat by the time I got home. Having worked late I had to ride home in the dark, and despite having powerful lights and reflective gear a muppet in a little Fiat still managed to clip me.

Ride

Cycling to work for the first time this year and it's raining. Sweet!

Gimp

Ann-Marie insisted on taking a photo of me in my gimp outfit this morning before I went out on my training ride. I ran straight off the bike and because I was wearing quite a few layers I left the 'tights' on to avoid the inconvenience of changing. This resulted in a torrent of abuse from a gang of kids and a few drivers hooting their horns. Won't being doing that again in a hurry.

Froggy.

Tonight when Ann-Marie let out the cat she found this little fella and his friend on the door step.
While I was downloading the frog photos from my phone I found this picture of my morning tea mug. I was so tired that I managed to pour my cereal into the mug instead of the bowl.
And this is a view of an area close to where the River Maun and the River Meden meet.

It was hit pretty badly during the floods last summer and was under a couple of feet of water for several months (I know this because I tried to run through it!). Many of the trees seem to be dead and most have their root systems exposed. Hopefully we won't have a repeat performance this summer.

Big Bike.

Last weekend I had a go on a Suzuki GS500, it was much like my GS125 except it was bigger, heavier and more powerful. It went well and I've placed a deposit with the riding school to pay for a test at some point in April. Learning to ride a motorcycle is much different to learning to drive a car. With a car you tend to rely on a single weekly lesson possibly backed up with time on the road with a friend or relative. I was not a confident driver when a took my test. With the motorcycle I've been logging substantial mileage on my 125 since October and therefore most of the technical aspects of my riding are there. I've ridden in wind, rain and hail, and in heavy city traffic and busy arterial roads. So generally I'm a confident rider. When I go for the training course prior to the test I'll be learning to make observations and how to apply the correct procedures as well as learning to execute the required manouvers, such as the U-turn and emergency stop. As the instructor told me when I visited, 'he wouldn't be teaching me how to ride a bike'.

Ann-Marie was away last week and so I spent most evenings decorating. Because I wasn't getting home particularly early and I wasn't finishing decorating until late I ended up very tired. This made me less than thorough at work and I managed to make a mistake on Thursday which took two of us a day and a half to undo. That's an expensive mistake! This is a really good reason to ensure that I get 7 or 8 hours of sleep every night.

500cc

Last weekend I passed my motorcycle theory test, it felt quite strange in the waiting room with lots of 17 year olds about to take their car theory tests. On Sunday I'm going to visit an instructor for a 30 minute taster to see how I do on a 500cc bike, this is to decide if I need a 2 or 3 day training course before taking the practical test.

I finished my antibiotics yesterday and to celebrate(?!?) I ran 3 miles. This is the longest I've run in over a week because the antibiotics/infection made me feel rough.

Aches.

Having just got over an infection caused by an impacting wisdom tooth, I managed to strain my neck when I tried to perform a sharp over the shoulder check on my motorbike. The weight of the helmet gave me a bit too much momentum. Unfortunately, I was still on painkillers for the toothache and didn't realise that I'd done any damage. Now I can't look to the right much further than a couple of degrees.

Stuff that I should have written weeks ago.

The weekend before last Ann-Marie and I went to Robin Hood's Bay for a break. The picture below is the view from our room as I got up to go running.
This is someone's very excited dog on the beach.
On the Sunday we walked from Robin Hood's Bay to Whitby along a coastal path. It was only 6 miles but because of the undulating nature of the path it took us 3 hours.
When we got back home we started decorating the living room. The wallpapering around the chimney breast was a bloody nightmare with external and internal corners.

Once the papering was done I had just enough time to do an oil change and fit a new chain to my motorbike before heading to my mum's for Mother's day dinner.

Rubbish.

After consistently posting throughout January I managed to mess it all up about two thirds of the way into February. I've got excuses but they're all rubbish.