2025 was an enjoyable year on the bike. I decided last year that mountain biking wasn’t for me (after an unfortunate spill near the summit of Whernside) so this year I stuck to roads and paths which suited me more. I don’t like getting muddy and my shoes and clothing aren’t appropriate for MTB use […]
December 14th – 17th 2025 Sunday 14th December Two friends had come over from California to a cottage in the Cotswolds for the Christmas period and had very generously invited us to stay a few days with them along with another couple who’d travelled from Chichester. We’d planned to drive down on Sunday morning, but […]
Saturday 13th December 2025 When I check the definition of a professional cyclist, I get something along the lines of “A professional cyclist is a highly trained athlete who earns a living by competing in bicycle races…” So what’s the difference between a professional and an amateur? Surely it’s just the act of getting paid. By […]
If you’re reading this, you’ll realise that my Christmas letter has gone digital this year. It’s still the same 2,000 words of self-referential drivel, but now it’s illustrated with photographs and most importantly, it’s saved me a lot of printing. As I write, our house could be described as being in a state of accidental […]
Friday 21st November 2025 I have found myself once again cat-sitting for Felix (Emily’s cat) so I’ve planned a few things to do while I’m here. Cycling, gardening and writing Christmas cards are on the agenda. It was very cold overnight in Sheffield so I really didn’t want to venture out too soon. When I […]
I’d booked to see a number of artists between September and November this year, the first one being on the 4th September when I had tickets to see Tommy Arch, the former drummer with Holy Moly and the Crackers. I’ve seen him once before when he was acting as support, but this was his first […]
Sunday 12th October 2025 We drove Tilly to the cattery at 10am this morning before heading down the M6 to Rutland Water where we’d booked a couple of nights in a posh hotel courtesy of Secret Escapes. The weather forecast was for the early morning mist to clear, but it didn’t, and we so arrived […]
Wednesday 1st October 2025 Veloviewer fans will know that there’s far more than just hunting explorer tiles. In fact there’s so much data now that even I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed so I’m just sticking to collecting tiles and increasing my cluster (a cluster being a group of contiguous tiles) My main cluster currently extends […]
Sunday 21st September 2025 I had thoroughly planned this ride with everything thought through beforehand until I received a text from my Sunday night Airbnb host in which he happened to mention that this weekend was the Kop Hill Climb, a large gathering of classic cars racing up Kop Hill (unsurprisingly). That was very useful […]
This chapter might be rather jumbled. It is neither a cycle tour, nor even a single trip away, but it simply records a few days in September when I decided to increase my Veloviewer Explorer tile cluster and in so doing, several events have conjoined, so I’m unsure how it will read. Tuesday 2nd September […]