Saturday, October 05, 2002

I put the pc in to Scan to get the screen problem looked at - the video card was knackered. And got an extra 30 Gig of hard drive and 256K of memory. Got home all excited & ran Return to Wolfenstien on it, very impressive. Dialled up, got an error. The internal modem seems to be broke. This is so annoying, if I take it back, I don't want to hear 'leave it with us, we'll look at it' meaning another week in dock. I want them to look right away, it worked before I took it in, now it don't. A new internal modem is �10.00.
I might take it to Evesham, they are quite close.

Friday, October 04, 2002

Oh and 'The League of Gentlemen' were on last night. Funny, funnier than the first series ! This is even weirder than the first time I watched Monty Python back in the early seventies. Very surreal, and funny. I keep coming back to funny, because it is, funny. Tee hee.
Oh god, drinking until 01.30 this morning yet again. I didn't really enjoy it, I'm drinking too much and its just become a habit to go to the bar. The Japanese guys were whisky mad ! Glad the week is ending, and tomorrow I must do some stuff around the house. And look at building up my winter training bike.

Thursday, October 03, 2002

No, yesterday Irish Mick had to go to Birmingham, so I was spared the horror of watching Bury beat Bolton by 1-0. So, instead, I bought some crisps, eat 'em, read Viz, then went to the bar. Again. Ended up finishing off a bottle of Baileys and a bottle of Tia Maria. Didn't feel too drunk, I made myself sick earlier on because I scoofed half a bottle of wine, crisps, cheese, and 5/6 pints of bitter. Which was all too much. Then followed by 1/2 a bottle of liqueur.
Tonight I suppose I will end up doing the same thing. Oh dear oh dear. The car Irish Mick bought is a Dutton.
What I should do next year is aim at starting racing later, and finishing later. The big problem is the weekend training runs tail off in March, so keeping my fitness building up is difficult. Thats if the weather was as horrible as this March, April and early May, with cold, wet, cold and wet combined weekend after weekend. And I got plenty of mid-week soakings too.

Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Aiee Wednesday. So fucking what I hear you say, well of course that is correct.
Yesterday I escaped a group telephone call between Ireland and America at 17.15 and off to get changed then off to Matchmoor. Parked and walked up road, yes that selfsame road I have slogged up so often doing hill sprints. Took a footpath over the hills and ended up on the road to Winter Hill 'summit'. By now (18.45) the sun was getting pretty low. Walked up to the tv transmitter and looked up in awe, 1100' high, with great long anchor cables. Now the sun was setting, and a strange hazy view over the surrounding low Lancashire countryside. Walked to Two Lads and climbed up the cairn, back onto the road & car. Arriving at the hotel I let a sports car in, and it was Irish Mick, just bought this home-made thing. John came out to look. The engine died so we messed around, and gave it a push to start it. I got in & John drove it round to a house he lets out & stuck it in the garage. I was going for a dry night, but not now. So watched the end of 'Two men in a trench' and off to the bar with predictable results.
This evening I find I am going to watch Bolton Wanderers, then taking part in a conker match ! How did that happen ?

Monday, September 30, 2002

Is this all there is ? Day afer day after week of grinding nothingness ? No ! There is week after week of this humdrumness, enlivened by weekends cycling, evenings of over-indulgence in sundry hotels (I must stay a couple of evenings in Manchester) and I should really get a proper coach before long. So Mark B. at �17.50 a month, thats for Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apl, 6 months thats �105. I know how to train (I think) but this year, I did once a week through Oct to early Jan on the turbo. On the club runs in Jan and Feb I really flew. The turbo did me good, especially the hard rides I was doing. Then the racing started late March, it was cold and there was always a cutting East wind. I rode rubbish. I never felt good, I don't know if this was psychological, physiological or what, but something was wrong. So it will hopefully be worth �105 to see if Mark can set me right.
Monday. Strange, it seems just a week ago since I last typed in 'Moday....'.
But no, yes, ooh-er missus. The weekend - Friday I drove down the A49 & A 41 & through Shifnal rather than sit in one long sodding traffic jam on the M6. Lefy Horwich at 15.30 and home 18.30, so the usual 3 hours but without the M6. Imagine my joy upon arriving home and finding no bread, so out again to the supermarket. Saturday spent a while digging some plants out of the front and back gardens, Then a steady ride round the usualish route, Gambolds, up Cobley Hill, back along Watery (dry today) Lane. Sunny and mild ! Sunday last race ! Rode around, the whee, up the hill. Last year I nearly keeled over in pain and oxygen debt after the first steep bit, so I eased off, and went down too low a gear for the final steep stretch. I went 6 seconds quicker than last year, 8 seconds slower than the winner, but Pete Varian beat me by 0.8 of a second ! I shouldn't have dropped to such a low gear, instead I should have hammered round a larger gear. I have thoughts of riding a few open HCs and entering the National Champs next year. Then I took David to get some conkers from the trees near Alvechurch. From just one tree we got over a hundred ! Nice and big too ! Then in the evening I went to Pete Varians to buy his old cross frame for a winter training bike. David came along to see Petes bike room ! Its off the living room and I lost count of how many bikes were in it ! At least 10 I think. The frame is a decent chunky alu, complete with bb, brakes, front changer, stem & seat-pin. Pretty good for �70. Felt tired this evening. Drank a couple of tims of London Pride bitter before bed. Eurgh, alarm went off at 05.00. Was going to snazz it up in best suit, new black shirt & purple tie, but decided to drive up in more casual gear and save the good stuff for later in the week. Had to take a concious decision not to take my bike, I was tempted but no, I am going to pig out and do little in the way of exercise, maybe a walk over the hills. I should have taken my rock boots & gone climbing. I should really work on my upper body & core strength by doing press-ups and sit-ups.