Riding Marple on a Sunny Day.

Last Saturday I went out on a mountain bike ride with Dave around Marple, which is located just south of Stockport. We were really lucky with the weather given the summer so far, as it was quite sunny but a good breeze kept temperatures down.

Here's Dave making really important decisions like which sunglasses to wear on the ride.

The route started off with a very steep and rocky climb. We didn't really get very far up the climb before we had to get off and start walking. I tried to ride as much of it as I could but had to stop for a hundred yards or so when I started to lose momentum and traction on the rocks.

In fact the ride started off with a few of good ascents. Here's Dave cycling up a hill past some parked cars.

I felt really good all day throughout the ride and managed to ride up all the ascents bar the first one. There was the usual fantastic scenery on the ride and at one point it did get quite muddy and the smell of cowpats was all over the place, yuk!

One of the muddier sections of the ride.

We eventually climbed up to a height of 1250m to the top of a hill along the Pennine Bridleway in the Peak District.

There were some even better descents, one had rocky trail with a small stream running down it which made it more exciting as it was quite slippery with the water on the rocks. I really enjoyed the descent as I made quite a good pace rolling over the rocks.

Here's a good view over a village along the Pennine Bridleway.

Me with a cheezy thumbs up.

We did see a few other riders and plenty of walkers along the same route. All of them were quite friendly and ready to offer us directions if needed.

An example of the tarmacked hills and some of the stunning scenery on the ride.

About three quarters along the ride just after ascending a good hill Dave started to suffer from cramp. I think his legs had finally had enough of the climbing. At this point we both decided to cut the ride short and took a quicker path along the roads back to the car.

Fortunately Dave had his lucky heather on his bike to avoid any injuries. :-)

We stopped at a local pub on the way back for a quick drink and a light lunch. I think it was one of the best ham and cheese toasted sandwiches that I've ever eaten, mainly because I was very hungry at the time.

I was really happy with this ride, not only because no one was injured, but because my fitness levels were finally back to what they were before my big accident and swollen ankle. Can't wait for our Canadian canoe trip and mountain bike ride around Ross on Wye in a couple of weeks. First I have to survive turning 38 next week.

Dave was quite tired after the ride and flaked out once we got back to the car.

On Sunday we went out for Wagamamas lunch in Manchester centre. We met up with my friends Claire, Bethany and Jeff from Preston.

It was really good to catch up with everyone for lunch. For some reason though Bethany only started to cry when I had hold of her. I guess she must have been unhappy that she couldn't see my handsome face when I had hold of her. :-)

From left to right Claire, Debbie, Anne, Dave, Jennifer, Bethany and Me.

Body Worlds to Wii Fit.

Last weekend I went to the Body Worlds exhibition in Manchester. It's an exhibit of Gunther von Hagen's work of plastination of the human body.

The exhibition is rather surreal especially when you think that you're actually looking at human cadavers in various poses. It was fascinating to see the cadavers and what the human body looks like under the skin.

One of the exhibits in a glass case. The body is put into a pose where they are looking though a telescsope.

Some of the cadavers were behind glass cases but others were in the open. You couldn't actually touch any of the exhibits, but you could get really close to them. I was expecting the process to show the bodies with a plastic sheen on them but in fact they looked very matted.


They were in various poses so you could see how the muscles contract in the body. There were also plenty of exhibits of the organs of the human body as well. The only bits that I found a little disturbing were the exhibits of the human foetus's and one picture of an exhibit of a woman who committed suicide while being heavily pregnant.

Some of the exhibits had the human body split up, for example one had the spine and connected brain pulled away from the front of the body while the back of the body was further pulled backwards.

I quite enjoyed the exhibition, but it isn't for the faint hearted as some of the body parts aren't exactly pretty.


On Sunday I was around Dave and Anne's place to play on their Wii Fit. It was quite funny to watch other people play on it and even funnier when Dave and I had a go at the hula hooping game.

I can see the appeal of the add on for the Wii but as an exercise device I don't think it's any good. Lots of fun when friends are around or for watching your relatives make a fool of themselves.

Here's Dave having a go at hula hooping.

Here I am trying the same game! What a great hip action.

A Pause for Breath - Pt 2.

I found a racing pigeon in the neighbour's house extension the other day. It looked like it was quite badly wounded because it was flapping around on the floor but not getting anywhere. I picked it up and took a closer look at it. It appeared as if its next was bend badly because it wasn’t moving its head at all.

After chatting with the neighbour he said that he saw the pigeon on Sunday but was too busy to do anything about it, it was Tuesday when I saw it! The builders of the extension also must have seen it but done nothing about it as well.

I noticed that it had some pigeon racing tags on its feet so I looked up the details online to find a number to call. Unfortunately it was late in the day and I only got an answering machine. By the time I got back to the pigeon it had stopped flapping its wings and barely moved. I noticed that it was still breathing and figured that the only thing I could do was to break its neck to put it out of its misery.

After having to kill the pigeon I buried it in my back garden. Fortunately Lola hasn’t dug up the pigeon to this day. Quite sad really but there wasn’t anything else I could have done for it.

The work allotment is looking very healthy recently. We’re even getting a lot of produce from it as well.

Last Thursday I went out for a welcome brief cycle ride with Susan and John from work. I really wanted to get Susan back on a bike as soon as she was able to ride and get her on a beginners ride to get her confidence back. John had always hinted that he wanted to come along on one of our after work excursions, so this was the ideal time for him to tag along.

Susan back on a bike! Yipee. ☺

We did a short one-hour route that I had done before. There was a really heavy rain shower just before we were about to set off. We decided to wait in Susan’s car till the heavy shower had passed, as we would really have been soaked through if we ventured outside.

Here’s John just after the good short downhill section.

The shower passed quite quickly. And we stared off on our ride. The start of the ride consisted off roads and a couple of minor hills. About half way round the ride we went off road on some single track-trails.

I must admit that I really enjoyed the ride even though it only lasted for an hour and was on gentle terrain. The downhill section was quite muddy and as a result quite enjoyable too. It was ideal for Susan to get back on her bike and for John to have a go at some off roading.

Me, a little muddy after coming back from the ride.

On the same day as the bike ride there must have been some air show near work, or a practice session from RAF Benson. Earlier on in the day we heard some low flying planes overhead but didn’t take much notice of it. Then later on in the afternoon the Red Arrows overflew the office!

It was a spectacular site to see them flying around the manor house in formation, with smoke trails as well.

I guess that the manor house where I work must have been the centre of their display as they flew all around us.

Just before we set off for our ride we saw a Eurofighter doing a vertical climb above us. It was so loud we could barely hear each other. It must have gone almost vertically straight up into the clouds which was very spectacular.

Deirdre and Allen have been visiting the UK for the past couple of weeks. I’d been out with them a couple of times around Oxford. We finally went out in Oxford along with Kate and Mike, for some food and beers last Friday.

On the way into the town centre by bus we had an incident on it. The bus had stopped to pick up some passengers when all of a sudden the bus had to turn off it’s engine and not move as there were two young girls standing on the doorway stopping the bus from closing its doors.

There had been an angry exchange of words between the bus driver and one of the girls. Then one of the girls called out to the rest of the bus that she was sorry that she had to stop the bus but the racist bus driver wouldn’t let her and her friends on the bus. I just shouted out that I didn’t care and to get off the bus!

As it turned out what had happened was that the girls had jumped the queue to get on the bus. The bus driver told them to go to the back of the queue and they replied with plenty of attitude, to this the bus driver told the girls to get off the bus as he wouldn’t let them on. So then the girls decided to stand in the doorway and not get off. The bus driver then called for help to deal with the situation.

We had to wait around half an hour before some help arrived, a police officer even walked pass the bus and wasn’t called for help. The other bus company officials quickly sorted out the situation by giving the girls a lift to their stop by car and we went along our way. I guess this is a case of Oxford’s finest teenagers in action!

My bed partner Colin, for one evening at Kate and Mike’s place in Oxford.

We eventually all had a good time out on the town in Oxford. We even went to one of my favourite pubs The Star Royal where I used to often go as a student in Oxford.

I was very sad to have to say goodbye to Deirdre and Allen as we parted ways on Saturday. I’ll have to visit them in Sydney sometime next year! ☺

A Pause for Breath - Pt 1.

Apologies for the lack of updates on my blog recently. I've been very busy and haven't been able to make the time. Still here we go...

I had to change all four of my car tyres a few weeks back. It almost cost me an arm and a leg. I was surprised to find out that a new tyre on my Alfa was considerably more expensive than each one on the S2000!

Unsurprisingly the tracking was out on the Alfa as well, despite it only being two years old. There has also been a bit of the centre roof console that came away from the ceiling. Fortunately it was easy to push back into place, even if it does pop out again occasionally.

Here's the underside of my car while the wheels were being aligned. I was surprised how smooth it was under the car.

I managed to get stung by a wasp while doing some pruning in my back garden. I was cutting back my rather large grass plant when I felt a very painful bite on my right ankle. I looked down to see a wasp on my ankle. I quickly brushed it off and looked up to see several more wasps ahead of me. After quickly backing off I decided to stop pruning the grass and move on to other parts of my garden. I guess there must be a wasps nest in the grass plant which I'll have to deal with eventually.

As it turned out I managed to do everything that I shouldn't do with my wasp sting. I didn't put any vinegar on the sting, which would help neutralise the poison. I also went to the gym the following morning, which I shouldn't have done as doing exercise with the sting only spreads the poison.

The ankle swelled up again and I initially had a few problems running on it as well. It felt like three weeks ago all over again! To this day I still have a lump on my ankle and it does still itch a bit too!

One weekend while up in Manchester, we went out for a walk around a reservoir in the Peak District. There were some great views but I did wish I had my mountain bike with me as well.