Beer Weekend.

I got together with some of my Oxford University mates last weekend for some beer, gaming and reminiscing about how better things were when we were students.

Greg starts to fill my beer fridge in the garage on Friday afternoon.

Jason took the train down to Bristol from London and called us for a lift from the station. Unfortunately by the time Jason had arrived at 7pm we had all had too much to drink to drive! We still walked around to the station to meet him though.

Friday night was spent mostly catching up and playing four player games of Halo two on two connected XBoxes. I had to bring down my computer monitor to the living room for a second screen to play on.

Friday night food with Dave, Phil, Jason and Greg.

Unfortunately Dave's daughter Jennifer who was in Portishead with his in-laws, had to be rushed to hospital as she was having convulsions brought on by chicken pox. So Dave left us at 7am on Saturday morning. She later made a full recovery and Dave came back on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

I did have a game of squash booked for Saturday morning with Dave. After all it would be the only exercise that I would get over the weekend. Since I had already paid for the court I decided to go and have a knock around anyhow. As it turned out I quite enjoyed it and the time passed very quickly and I had a reasonable work out too.

XBox gaming on Friday night.

The rest of the weekend was spent drinking some more, playing card and computer games and eating much too much than we should have. A great if very different weekend from my recent activities.

Just don't ask! My dining room furniture is out in the garden.
A little higher Jason?

Be careful people canoeing is dangerous out there!

I went out last Thursday week for more paddling at Reading canoe club. This time I took out a narrower canoe which I found quite a bit more unstable and much more difficult to balance in.

Unfortunately while out on the water I was cut up by another canoeist and fell into the river. Fortunately didn't drink any of the Thames spring water but did find it very cold and lost my sunnies too. I managed to swim to the side of the bank and a couple of very helpful canoers who were passing helped me out to right my canoe and do a deep water rescue to get back into it.

What did annoy me was that the canoer that cut me up was from the same club and didn't even approach me afterwards to apologise or even see if I was ok. Wiki said that he's known for being rude and never giving way to other people. Other people in the club did come up to me afterwards to see if I was ok.

This Thursday I went back to try some more canoeing. I was a bit nervous of falling in again as I went out in the same narrower canoe. The weather conditions weren't perfect but not as bad as last week when it was quite gusty.

Fortunately it was all fine and I didn't fall in this time.

Some of the more expensive canoes at the club.

However, at one point as I turned the canoe around I was overflown by around half a dozen geese! They were just taking off and came within a couple of feet of my head! It was quite shocking but at the same time really exciting to see the large animals so closely. I really wished I had my camera with me at that exact moment.

I was also rammed from behind by a couple of rowers! I was innocently paddling along when all of a sudden the rower hit the back of my canoe and then hit my paddle. I dropped the paddle and then held onto their boat as they came beside me. Fortunately they apologised quite a bit and helped me retrieve my paddle. No harm done but I was determined not to get angry with them as I was only a beginner.

The problem is that the rowers can't see where they are going as they row backwards and the canoests can only see in front of them, so the two are bound to collide more often than not.

Later on in the evening I was paddling along beside the bank when I saw a large group of about eight beginner rowers in front of me. They had a cox that was shouting instructions to them. As I came up to them they started to veer toward the bank on the right so I overtook them on the left in the middle of the river. Then just as I passed them their cox shouted at me to stay beside the bank! I was quite annoyed at this as I would have stayed by the bank had they not blocked my way. Grrr!

Here are prime examples of the rowers on the river. In the background you can actually see the beginner rowers and the cox that shouted at me.

Still at least I didn't fall in this time and I feel I am improving at paddling, but only very slowly. It's not as easy as it appears to paddle along in a canoe while trying not to roll into the water too.

Two mile cycle, two mile walk.

This Saturday I went out with Steve to ride the Quantock hills near Taunton. I was going to take him around a beginner’s route that I had in my mountain biking guide book. We were only planning on doing a days cycling.

Here are the bikes as we're just about to set off on the route.

Unfortunately after a couple of miles of riding Steve came off his bike on a small muddy dip in the bridle path. He didn't quite go over his handlebars but did do a face plant into the ground!

I was riding ahead of him and I heard a crash an "ouch!" behind me. I shouted behind me to see if Steve was ok and he said no. I stopped immediately and ran back to see him. There was quite a bit of blood streaming down his mouth to the ground.

Some of the great views just before Steve's accident.

I immediately got to work and pulled out my restocked first aid kit (thanks Susan for the new supplies!). Steve sat down and I checked out his face. In the end there was a nasty cut on his upper mouth/cheek and it also looked like his front side tooth had been chipped as well.

After a few minutes and mopping up to stop the flow of blood we started to walk back to the car. We eventually managed to make it to A&E in Taunton and after an hour the doctors and nurses saw him.

It turns out that his tooth was fine, it normally looks like that! :-) They literally superglued, his cut together and sent him on his way.

Steve did say that he was quite angry that he went over as it wasn't a very difficult obstacle to ride over. He was quite unlucky though, as there was a tree branch 'hidden' under the mud in the dip, which he hit with his front wheel. He was also quite unlucky to land exactly onto his mouth. There wasn't any other damage to his arms or legs.

This is the muddy dip that caused Steve's accident.

Oh, well two rides in a week and two trips to A&E. I think I'm going to start to run out of friends to ride with soon!

Does anyone want to go mountain biking with me then?

Watch out for Sheep Farmers!

Susan, Wiki, Ben I met up last weekend to ride around the Peak District. We all met up at work in Wallingford and drove up to Ashbourne where Susan's friend had a holiday house there where we could stay for the weekend.

Despite trying to set off at 4.30 we eventually got away around 6. We stopped for a pub lunch along the way and finally got to Ashbourne at around eleven. We immediately went down to the pub to meet up with one of Susan's friend's Helen.

When we got back from the pub around 12.30am we should have been sensible like Wiki was and go straight to bed after unpacking the cars. Instead the three of us stayed up a bit later drinking till 2am.

Because we went to bed so late we had a slightly later start. James met us in Ashbourne because he decided to drive up in the morning. We finally got going around 12.30, due to a long drive to the start point near the Cat and Fiddle road on the A537.

Here we are at the start carpark.

We started with a great downhill section that was quite fast and also quite wet. We were all splashed with mud on the way down and grinning like Cheshire cats.

Susan, with what was a clean light blue top.

Ben with some freckles.

Wiki reading the map to decide where to go next, with James in the background.

After this we had some really great rides up and down the hills in the area. I really felt quite unfit on our first major climb. I had to even walk the last quarter of it. Wiki and Ben breezed up the hill and even Susan managed to make it up to the top without stopping. I guess not doing any demanding cycles in the past four weeks really showed.

There was one really rocky fast descent down a single track, which we all really enjoyed. James did struggle a bit on the descent, but the rest of us came down with massive smiles on our faces. I did take it a bit easy on my descent; I guess memories of coming off my bike five weeks ago still haunted me. I was to get much faster towards the end of the day and have much more fun though.

At the bottom of the long rocky descent we had to wait for James as he had a puncture. At this point Wiki and I were on the menu for the local midges. We both picked up plenty of bites on our arms and legs while waiting.

Here's Ben with a great shot of the terrain that we rode. You can get a good idea of the gradient in the picture.

We eventually decided to stop for lunch around 3pm. We were really fortunate with the weather today as heavy showers were predicted for the weekend but it hardly rained at all while we were riding. We did have a short shower when we stopped for lunch near the Cat and Fiddle road.

Wiki having our home made sandwiches overlooking The Peaks.

It doesn't look like it's raining but it is, hence the rain macs we were wearing. With his mud freckles and capped mac Ben did look like a school boy.

A video of our lunch surroundings.

After lunch we carried on our planned route. There was a short ascent on the Cat and Fiddle road, also known as Britain’s most dangerous road! I had particular fun driving along the road in my car later on in the day. If only I still had the S2000.

We had another steep climb later on and at this point my quads suddenly started to cramp up on me. I was quite annoyed because I was so unfit compared to what I can usually do. The cramp initially stopped me cycling, after a short break and thigh massage I continued to try to cycle along but then they started to hurt even more. I eventually had to walk up the hill and take a short break at the top for my legs to recover enough to carry on. I never did really fully recover from the cramp for the rest of the day.

A short video of James and Ben riding.

We came across a lovely ravine along the route.

Along the ravine there was a great very rocky single track that was slightly uphill. We had lots of fun trying to cycle along the rocks, as they were very big and small and made great obstacles to try to ride over. We did walk about half of it as well.

A nice view while riding the rocky single-track. Susan had a particular fun time trying to ride along the rocks.

Just after the rocky single track we started to descend again. We rode along a single-track bridleway, which was littered in some small and medium rocks.

I followed up on the rear and about half way down I saw Susan sat down on the side and Wiki and James around her. I immediately stopped and noticed that Susan's bike was upside down on the side.

She had had quite a bad accident when riding down. When I got there Wiki called to ask whether I had my first aid kit with me. I did and promptly went over to Susan and Wiki to apply some first aid. I saw Susan with quite a lot of blood on her front as her cheek had quite a deep cut on the right. Both her knees were grazed and her right elbow was very badly damaged as well.

I told her to stay sitting down and asked how she felt. She said she was fine but her right elbow was hurting quite a bit. She obviously didn't realise her cheek was so badly cut so I just looked her in the eyes and said you look great but need to sit down as you're in shock. It did cross my mind to take some photos but I figured it wasn't really appropriate and besides I was busy enough dealing with everyone around me.

Fortunately there was a group of young walkers coming up the hill at the same time. They had a couple of guides with walkie-talkies. They also had a much larger first aid kit and someone who was better qualified to help Susan out. Ben who's a paramedic had also cycled back up the hill by this point and he helped out too.

The teenage walkers all stopped around Susan and just watched on. At this point I looked at them and asked them to move on, as they weren't helping by staring at Susan and crowding her.

Susan's cut in the first hospital we visited.

Wiki and I decided to take our bikes back to the cars by the shortest route so we could take Susan to hospital.

We started to walk back up the hill to the nearest road. Once we got to the road we saw a local sheep farmer who pulled over. We then asked him for some help, either directions to our cars or even better a lift to them.

The farmer was a little odd, dressed in jeans and a loose open shirt revealing his very proud beer belly. Initially he wanted to drive Susan from the accident to the road while we went to get the cars. Then he gave me directions to the cars, I say me as when giving directions I noticed that he only spoke and looked at me despite Wiki having the map and asking for the directions.

Just as we were about to set off I asked the farmer again if he could give us a lift to the cars as that would be quickest way to get Susan to the hospital. He finally agreed and Wiki told me to get in the front of his 4x4 while she sat in the back. We just left the bikes on the side for now.

The journey was quite eventful as the farmer did drive very quickly along the single-track roads. I think if anything had been coming the other way we would have had a head on collision. Wiki was obviously quite alarmed at his driving and said so too! He then said that he was in control and was aware of any other cars. Then Wiki tried to make up for her comment by saying that he must know the local roads very well. I just sat there waiting for the farmer to chuck us out of his car. :-)

I tried to make pleasant conversation with the Farmer. After introducing myself and Wiki the farmer then just grunted and never did give me his name. We continued to talk about his sheep, he had several thousand and apparently could distinguish each and every one as if they were human! He also mentioned that he has never had a passport and a holiday for him would be going to the local sheep market further north.

We eventually got to the cars and followed the sheep farmer back to where we met him. By this time Susan and everyone else was at the same road junction with the walker's minibus. I was very grateful to the farmer for our lift as it saved plenty of time. I was about to shake his hand when I noticed that his right hand was down his crotch inside his jeans!!! Whether this was to keep warm or to deliberately avoid shaking my hand I don't know. Anyhow I promptly pulled away from a handshake and just thanked the farmer and we headed off to the nearest hospital.

With hindsight Wiki and I could quite easily have got into the car with the farmer and never been seen again. Getting into cars with strangers and all that!

We went to the nearest hospital in Buxton, which catered for minor injuries and after an hour or so we were then sent to a larger hospital in Macclesfield as Susan needed some x-rays. Susan ended up waiting at this hospital till midnight before she was discharged. She had made an appointment to see a specialist who could stitch up her face wound and not leave a scar. The appointment was at 7.30am the following day.

Day 2,

We had an even later start on Sunday. James volunteered to take Susan to the hospital as he said he would get up around 6.30 anyhow. While they were at the hospital Ben and I took her bike back to the bike hire shop and cleaned the blood off it too.

Unfortunately there was a mix up at the hospital and Susan's appointment was at a hospital in South Manchester, Wythenshawe. She was only told this after waiting around an hour so she missed her appointment at the new hospital. When she got to Wythenshawe she was told that she would have to wait till 4-5pm before she could be seen. Grr!

Susan was going to be at the hospital all day, fortunately her friend Helen went to see her as she lived locally. The rest of us went for another ride near Chesterfield, around the Linacre Reservoirs. We eventually started riding around 3pm.

We found a short very muddy route, which wasn't so bad, but the amount of excrement on the route made it quite unpleasant. There were loads of flies around as well. James appeared to quite enjoy the route though while the rest of us were just happy to be out of the mud.

An example of the mud route!

My bike trapped in the mud. At this point I had to stop and take a different route.

We were all caked in mud at the end of the day.

As were our bikes.

We then stopped to have our packed lunches at a pub. Because of the mud we decided it would be best to stay outdoors. It was very sunny when we stopped for lunch, our weather for the weekend couldn't have been much better considering the forecast of heavy showers.

For some reason the mud just didn't stick to Wiki, well either that or she just managed to avoid it. I compared her legs to mine.

I made very good use of my car over the weekend. At one point we managed to fit four bikes and three people in it. It did smell a bit ripe in the car with that much mud!

Poor Susan was eventually discharged from hospital on Sunday evening. Ben went to meet her and they stayed the night at Helen's place. Lucky for Susan Ben didn't have to go to work again till Thursday so could stay with her. She's generally fine now if very battered and bruised. I guess mountain biking is quite dangerous, but then again it would be as much fun if it wasn't.

I got back to Wiki’s place in Stoke Rowe near Wallingford at 11pm after a short stop at a motorway services for some dinner. I crashed at her place, as I needed to be in the work office the following morning. It would have been really pointless to drive back to Bristol by 12.30am go straight to bed to be up by 5.30am to drive all the way back to Wallingford again.

The following morning word had got around about Susan's accident. People at work were asking me what I had done to Susan in the morning!

Wiki and I agreed that there wasn't a boring moment over the entire weekend, except for waiting at the hospital, but that gave me a chance to catch up on some needed sleep.

Except for Susan's accident it was still a fantastically fun weekend! I eargerly look forward to the next trip, hopefully once Susan is much better.