The Great Inverurie Bike Ride 2010

Sunday 18th July 2010

Hot on the heels of our Pirates of the Caribbean day, we cycled 25 miles around Garioch on the Great Inverurie Bike Ride!

The route was 25 miles, leaving Inverurie Kellands park, heading round Chapel of Garioch, past Bennachie towards Monymusk, before returning to Inverurie (see map below, long dark blue line, in an anticlockwise direction).

There were some fairly hard-going hill in the first part of the route, I don't think I had to resort to the Granny ring at any point, but Abi had to stop a few times on them. However, Abi was carrying the pannier on her bike with all our stuff in, whereas I had nothing. It was good that there was a juice and biscuits point at the top of the first really nasty hill!

Just before Monymusk, after the third and last nasty hill, we were rewarded with a downhill, but into a vicious headwind. Turning left, the wind dropped and we were really able to find a good rhythm and fly into Monymusk, where there was more juice, strawberrys & cream and cake to be had!

We had thought that Monymusk was the half-way point, but it didn't seem very long until we were told that Inverurie was only 2 more miles away! After Monymusk it had been possible to keep a good cadence going and chew up the miles quickly. So our official finish times were 2h 35min 58s for Abi, and 2h 36min 3s for me, and it was just left to pick up or complimentary T-shirts!

See, we don't look that knackered!

Pirates of the Caribbean

17th July 2010

We finally had a house-warming party!

Though we moved in on 31st October last year, we have finally had a house-warming bash. In keeping with the tradition of previous themed days (LOTR, Star Wars and Indiana Jones), we got dressed up as pirates and watched all three Pirates of the Caribbean films.

I was very pleased to see Phil and Kenny make a very good show with there costumes, and Kenny, Dave and I all sported excellent tattoos on our arms courtesy of Phil and a biro!

Of course it wasn't just dressing up and watching films. There were aged Caribbean maps on the walls, lyrics to all our favourite piratey songs such as Hoist the Colours, Dead Man's Chest, and A Pirates life for me! We had many bottles of Blackbeard's Bilgewater Grog, Rum (White and Dark; the white wasn't touched!), Jamaican ginger cake, and Abi even made some Hard Tack: a pirate staple food which is basically baked flour and water!

Watching all three films was no problem (after LOTR extended versions all in one day anything else pales into insignificance!), though I'd forgotten how long they were; At World's End is about 2.5 hours long. I still think that Dead Man's Chest is probably the weakest of the three, the slapstick is a bit silly but doesn't bother me that much. I think the big miss of the second film is Barbossa, as I think Geoffrey Rush is the hidden star of the films.

And what Piratey day would be complete without some dancing to videos on YouTube?! Highlights including Phil and Dave dancing to Shakira, Phil to Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, and me to Vogue (You had me at Vogue, as Jess said!). All in all we had a great day.

Now who's turn is it next?

Cycled home

That was the first time I have cycled the whole way from work to home. It was a lovely day, I had finished all that I planned to do, so I decided it was time to try.

Once before I had taken the bike on the train from Inverurie to Dyce and then cycled back home, just to see if it would ever be possible to bike home. That really did kill me! I think I was so tired that I was hallucinating on the way up the last road to home! I then collapsed on the bed for 30 min, and couldn't move. The one amusing outcome of that day was being surreptitiously photographed at Inverurie station. Of course I had no idea at the time, but then was very surprised when I appeared in the GetAbout guide of train stations for the North East of Scotland!

Today, however, I was really up for it, the whole 20 miles.

It started badly. Straight up Foresterhill road from work, a thigh-burning hill climb. Then Anderson Drive (the Aberdeen ring road) was absolutely chock-a-block with traffic. 16:00 on a Tuesday, where was everyone going? Probably skiving off early like me because it was such a lovely day. So I cycled down the pavement until I was over the worst of it. This just meant that having to go up and down a few kerbs, the pannier jumped loose a couple of times.

By the time I had gone up Mugiemoss road though, the traffic was less, and I could concentrate more on the cycling. The thing that really broke me last time was the head wind. Yes, there are some steep hills, but it is possible to deal with this as long as there isn't a demoralising wind in your face the whole way. Last time I had to pedal hard going downhill just to go faster than slow-bicycle-race speed, and that really was energy-sapping. Not so this time! There still was some wind, most noticeably after Kintore and the golf club there, but nowhere near as bad as last time.

So I rolled into our drive 1 hour and 27 minutes after I left work! I didn't feel exhuasted; tired, but really pysched up. We even managed to go to Morisson's to do some shopping afterwards.

And of course this is all good practise for the Great Inverurie Bike Ride on Sunday!

Crazy things you can carry on your bike. Part 2

Part two - The 16" pizza!

Where there's a will there's a way. OK, so the pizza was a bit squished by the time we got home, but it still tasted great; even the next day. What a godsend three-way bungees are!

Crazy things you can carry on your bike. Part 1

Part one - The watering can

Not having a car can sometimes be a bit awkward, but generally it suits us fine. We don't have to pay for fuel, don't have to pay VED or insurance or MOTs, and no inflated prices for repairs to tyres etc (and there is a bit of a smug feeling of being in the minority of non-car owners!). Don't get me wrong, there are times when it would be very convenient to have a car, but at least we have access to a car if we need it. But after all, one of the reasons we chose to live in Inverurie is because it is on a train line so we could put off having to get a car as long as possible.

So, we are a three-bike family, instead of a three-car family. Of course this has its own problems, most notably carrying stuff around. But with the purchase of a rack, Christmas present of two panniers, and some inventive use of bungee cords, it's surprising how much can be carried.

As well as the usual clothes, book etc I carry to work each day, I've carried a lot of beer, fish and chips, 10 litres of washing machine Ecover (5 litres either side!), and of course the usual shopping. The Chinese takeaway I had to carry in my hand and just cycle one-handed.

The latest triumph is the watering can!

Yes, we went to the garden centre on Sunday, for want of a watering can (as well as some other bits and bobs), and was perfectly able to strap down the watering can onto my rack and jam it below my saddle. Please excuse the long socks, and the just got out of bed hair look!

Happily the watering can stayed on the rack all the way home, and is now in regular use helping along the courgettes and French beans.

Hopefully this will be the first in a series of posts as we carry increasingly diverse items on our bikes!

Better Late than Never?

I know it's February, but one of my new year's resolutions should be to try and blog more often.

Really quite knackered

We moved house last weekend, that is we moved to our first ever house last weekend. Picked up the keys on Friday. Hired a van on Saturday, and several friends helped us move all of the large furniture that require the van. Promised to pay them in beer and pizza, except that they all left, and Abi and I didn't have our pizza until about midnight!

Sunday, more moving, smaller boxes this time that could fit into a car. Abi's Mum and Dad helped, celebrated with some bubbly that evening.

Monday, more boxes, helped by Abi's Dad.

Tuesday, I went back to work, but Abi and her Dad kept moving stuff, including all of our Froesch boxes from the garage in Dyce. Went to Spice of Life for a curry in the evening.

Wednesday, both of us at work, moved the last of the little bits out of the flat in the evening, again with the help of Abi's Mum and Dad.  The amount of stuff we have is beyond a joke, I've no idea how it all fitted in that tiny flat.

Thursday, cleaned the flat. Out there until 22:00. 3 Mince pies (of the small Christmas variety) for tea! In bed by about 23:30

Friday, up at 06:00 again. Finishing work early to do a last check of the flat before we hand the keys back. Then we will only live in Inverurie. Yeay!

No  unpacking or anything tonight, I'm knackered!