Friday 17th May 2024 There have been a series of events this week which caused me to doubt whether this short break would ever take place, but yet, here I am, settled in York YHA for the next three nights. This morning, I loaded the road bike in the car and drove in drizzly/misty weather […]
Tuesday 23rd April 2024 I had planned a South West cycle tour late last year so that I could claim a few more English Counties that I’d cycled through. There are 48 (excluding unitary authorities) and I’ve presently only cycled in 32 of them, with many of the missing ones being located South of Bristol. […]
Wednesday 20th March 2024 It rained all through January and February (well, it seemed like it) so I had no desire to go very far on the bike during those months. Anticipating the start of drier weather, I had toyed with the idea of cycling to Conwy and back over four days but decided against […]
Sunday 7th January 2024 I’m in Sheffield on cat-sitting duties once more, so before Christmas, in preparation I created a few routes starting from Bradway which were intended to gather some stray tiles and increase my cluster around the city. Now that I’m here, I think that perhaps I was a bit ambitious with my […]
This year was affected by an unfortunate accident in January which prevented me from riding for several weeks, and even when I was back on the bike, I was less able to cover long distances for some time. Consequently, the mileage is reduced, but I tried to keep up my fitness through walking more. For […]
Thursday 9th November 2023 I’m back in Trafford Hall, a hostel near Chester, and I’ve just realised that it’s my fourth visit in twelve months. I first came in December last year when it was very cold going out to catch the ferry at Liverpool: the crossing was barely long enough for my hands to […]
Tuesday 17th October 2023. I haven’t cycled much in the Lake District. I’ve done a little bit in the Northern Lakes and I once did a sportive which started in Grasmere and meandered through the Grizedale Forest to Cartmel. The sportive doesn’t appear on my stats since for some reason the Garmin failed to record […]
Sunday 10th September 2023 Several years ago (in 1991) I was looking to buy a car and an Austin Montego was on my shopping list. The marketing for the diesel version played heavily on its excellent fuel economy; which was stated as being over 56 mpg which was remarkable for quite a large family saloon […]
Monday 21st August 2023 Today’s trip was a Veloviewer tile-gathering expedition once more. I’d originally planned to go to Ingleton, but for some reason, the hostel there was quite expensive for the days I wanted. Of course, the term ‘expensive’ is relative: the bill for two nights’ accommodation was £58, whereas the YHA at Hathersage […]
I’ve been disillusioned with Facebook for some years now, but I feel unable to delete the app since it still holds many happy memories and details and contacts of several friends with whom I’d have no other easy contact. I now get very frustrated with all the adverts and posts from people I don’t know […]