Faceplant.

I went up to Preston and Manchester last weekend to catch up with some friends.

In Preston I saw Jeff and Claire and had a good night out in Preston, well as good as you can probably get in Preston anyhow. Some of the women there are very, very rough!

On Saturday I was invited to Anne and Dave's place for their daughter Jennifer's second birthday party. We partied the night away, well the day away at least. I also managed to catch up with a few other friends that I don't see often enough these days which was good.

Dave and I had an original plan to go mountain biking in Delamere forest on Sunday morning and then head up to the Lake District on Monday as we both had a couple of days off work.

The mountain biking in the forest was fantastic. It was very muddy in places and we both had a great time cycling around the trails and off the trails as well. On one path which had lots of deep mud puddles we both managed to flip over our handle bars in separate incidents! I was cycling along as fast as I could and saw the puddles of water and noticed that they were getting a little deep, but figured if I kept on cycling fast through them I should be ok. Unfortunately I went though a very deep one and my front wheel dug into the mud and I was sent flying over my handlebars into the next mud puddle.

There was no real damage but I was totally caked in mud on one side and I had to pull out the front of my bike from the mud. It really was everywhere, I couldn't even see my bike trip computer. Dave managed to do the same thing a few seconds later as he took the lead. It looked quite funny to see him fly over the handle bars as he had seen me do earlier on.

We also cycled up the big hill in the area and I was particularly pleased as I managed to cycle all the way to the top with only one stop along the way. At the top I was really gasping for air but I was so happy that I managed to get to the top and only stopped once. Next time I'll have to have a go at getting to the top without stopping at all.

There's a small downhill course in the forest with some small jumps and sloped bends that you can pick up quite a bit of speed on. I was leading the way on this course when I got a bit of speed on a bend and then went over a bump only to come across another bump straight away. I remember the last time we were here I stopped at this point to negotiate the second bump. Unfortunately this time I went much faster and my front wheel went into, rather than over the second bump and then I went over my bike handlebars. Because I was going so fast and landed on the second bump, I ended up first landing on the front of my helmet and then the bottom half of my face!

I was quite lucky to have a visor on the front of my bike helmet as that saved most of my face. It dug into the earth and broke, but then my mouth and chin were next. My bike then came crashing down onto me as my SPDs (peddles) didn't disconnect straight away. At first I sat there and screamed out in pain, thinking that I had broken my nose. Dave came along a few seconds later to see how I was. He first said he thought I had broken my nose because of the blood. I pushed onto the bridge of my nose but didn't feel as much pain as I expected. There was a bit of blood and I think I'm still finding bits of grit in my mouth. At the time it was difficult to see where I had cut myself as I was covered in so much mud and sand.

Here's a list of my aches and pains, I had grazed my top lip and bruised my bottom lip with a few bruises over my face, my left hand is quite swollen and I can't make a fist, both my knees are bruised and grazed as are my forearms and I have a case of whiplash on my neck. I also have some grazes on my chest where it followed my face into the earth. Oddly enough my throat is also really sore as my bike helmet strap must have pulled on my adam's apple when I helmet hit the earth. Ouch! It looks like Dave had just taken me out to the forest and beaten me up a bit. Two days after the accident I think my joints ache the most, maybe my body is trying to tell me something? At least I have a good excuse for not visiting the gym this morning and I don’t feel guilty at not going. Maybe I’ll take a few days off from exercise for now.

It did hurt quite a bit but I'm still really happy to have had the fun that I did on the day, even up to and after the big crash. I think that the thing that cursed me was just before we set off on the small downhill course I was saying to Dave that I was really having a good time and really enjoyed the thrill we got from mountain biking. Doh!

On Monday we had to cancel our trip to the Lake District because I really couldn't move my left hand very well so couldn't brake or change the gears on my bike, otherwise I would have really liked to go again.

I was really lucky not to have broken any bones or lost any teeth, even so I would definitely do it all again because it was so much fun and I've never felt so alive than that morning. I can't wait to get back on my bike again and get to the Lakes another time.

At least my bike made it without anything breaking, but it's time for a new helmet, now what colour should I go for this time and should it have a full face guard or not?

Big City Adventures of Me and My Bike.

I was in London with my mountain bike last weekend. My bike and I were visiting my mate Steve for some good food, beer and possibly some cycling.

We met up with Allen and Deirdre on Friday after work as Deirdre now works for the same company that Steve does. Steve gave us a quick tour of some of the BBC Television centre before going for beers. Unfortunately I had to leave my trusty bike in the BBC bike shed, as it wasn't allowed past security into the building.

This is the BBC News 24 set in the background and they were actually on air while we were watching. It was almost exciting to see the actual set and the news being read out while we were only a few yards away. One thing that was strange was how open the set was and how close the office desks were to the sets. Just to the right of this picture was where the news was collected from various sources for the program.

Any of us could have just run onto the set and for a few seconds been on live TV across Great Britain. Fortunately for Steve we all were well behaved.

We also saw the Blue Peter Gardens just outside of the infamous BBC canteen. It's a lot smaller in real life and just to the right of this photo is the not so pretty side of the BBC building.

Allen really wanted to eat at the BBC canteen so we had Friday dinner there. We were all unanimous that the canteen deserved its reputation for poor quality food. I had some beef chilli and chips, while the chilli wasn't too bad the chips had obviously been out for most of the day under a hot lamp. Poor Deirdre's cheese and onion pastie was just as dry and too hard for her to eat all of it. Allen had a burger that looked like it had had all the moisture removed from it before cooking!

I think that Steve had the safest choice of a baked potato and salad. Here you can see Deirdre and Allen after their sumptuous BBC meal in the canteen. I think Allen's smile is a little forced or maybe he was just happy to have survived the food. Well I think we all deserve Blue Peter badges for being so brave and eating the food.

After all this excitement we went to the BBC bar for some well deserved beers. There was some sort of birthday party on in the bar as there was a group of the BBC news crew getting quite drunk and raucous. They were mostly women and for some reason they had a giant six foot tall inflatable dick which was passed around the dance improvised dance floor! Unfortunately I didn't recognise any of them as actual TV news readers so didn't get a decent shot of anyone who's been on TV with a six foot willy.

We also got to see the Tardis, well one set version of it anyhow. To be honest it's not as big as you might think on the inside.

My poor bike ended up spending the rest of the weekend in the BBC bike shed. It told me that it didn't mind too much and had a good time chatting to all the local bikes. I kept it well chained up so it couldn't run off with any of them.

The rest of the weekend was either spend in a pub or a restaurant or both. It rained for just about all weekend so we didn't do that much except for eat and drink. So much for the great British summer!

My bike and I eventually came back home on Sunday evening, and even if I didn't get to use it, it was fun to get out and about in London with it. :)