Eddie Izzard is a hero. Luc met him on Monday at Goldsmiths. When asked about "cake or death?" the response was "cake". In the absence of cake the answer would be biscuits. I just thought everyone should know this.
Apparantly he also talked about standing for Parliament at some point. Personally I think he should skip the democratic process and go straight for Supreme Ruler of the Universe.
I am hoping that he may need my chauffering assistance during the Olympics. Perhaps I should have put the delegation of Eddie Izzard on my preference form.....However I fear he may be too busy running 400 marathons in 2 weeks or something similar. It puts our cycling endeavours well and truly in the shade.
Wednesday 21 March 2012
Tuesday 20 March 2012
Not bad for a Monday
It was another one of those great ideas. Why not do a circular ride that takes in the Reedham Ferry? After a few postponements today was fixed as the day it should happen - so eastwards we peddled admiring the scenery and wildlife as we went.
Luckily the Ferry was back in operation after its winter maintenance break and before we could say "marsh harrier" we were in the Broads proper with lots of water and not so many roads. We were therefore forced to either build a boat or head home via central Norwich in order to cross back over the Rubicon. It was a good test of our country mouse mettle as we skirted the A47 and headed in to the City on the Thorpe Road. Note to the City Council - how about lovely walking and cycling paths that could run along both banks of both rivers? At one point we had to cut across a building plot on foot in the Broadland Business Park. A stark contrast to our unhassled glide along country lanes earlier in the day.
Obviously, we lived to tell the tale - although as I do not normally cycle 60 odd miles on a Monday I fear I may rust to a standstill like the poor old Tin Man.
Whilst cycling we covered the usual breadth of topics and wrestled with the problem of how to return Lesley and her bike from France on the back of Shaun's motorbike.
An idea...But possibly not the most comfortable.
Luckily the Ferry was back in operation after its winter maintenance break and before we could say "marsh harrier" we were in the Broads proper with lots of water and not so many roads. We were therefore forced to either build a boat or head home via central Norwich in order to cross back over the Rubicon. It was a good test of our country mouse mettle as we skirted the A47 and headed in to the City on the Thorpe Road. Note to the City Council - how about lovely walking and cycling paths that could run along both banks of both rivers? At one point we had to cut across a building plot on foot in the Broadland Business Park. A stark contrast to our unhassled glide along country lanes earlier in the day.
Obviously, we lived to tell the tale - although as I do not normally cycle 60 odd miles on a Monday I fear I may rust to a standstill like the poor old Tin Man.
Whilst cycling we covered the usual breadth of topics and wrestled with the problem of how to return Lesley and her bike from France on the back of Shaun's motorbike.
Sunday 18 March 2012
Accommodation
Having perused various maps and guidebooks we now have a hit list of attractive sounding destinations for our night time stops/ collapses. We started with the romantic notion of setting off and seeing what we find along the way but we reminded ourselves that after a long , hot day's cycle the last thing we need to have to do is search for reasonable looking accommodation. I think it will be better for morale if we can be reasonably certain that on arrival at the intended town/village we can leap(?) in to hot showers , crack open the vin rouge and put our feet up.
So having worked out which centre of civilisation we are heading for each day the quest is on for hosteleries that offer that perfect combination of comfortable , welcoming and within budget. I am easily seduced by descriptions of bijou, quaint historic buildings in central but quiet locations..I just hope I don't manage to land us in tumbldown health and safety hazards with medieval plumbing!
Sunday 11 March 2012
What a Gorgeous Day
Wow! What a perfect cycling day. We must have done something to please or appease the cycling gods for once. Our hesitantly and hastily formed plan to cycle from Wells Next the Sea to home came to fruition.
We managed to align the necessity to collect a child from a sleepover with a minor(!) diversion to the coast and blagged a lift all the way to the beach car park at Wells. Hardly daring to believe our luck with the weather we set off in a Southerly direction with joyful hearts. Any other choice of direction would have resulted in an unforeseen triathlon entry. We totally failed to find the track which was intended to join us to National Route 1 but managed to find it in Wighton. From there until just north of North Elmham we merrily followed the little blue signs with only one minor hiccup.
After Elmham we decided to go free range and head in a diagonal line towards home via Wymondham.
We had to make a few map checks but by a process of following our noses, trusting signposts and taking the odd off road diversion we actually made it all the way home. (55 miles)
It was good to get a long ride under our wheels at last but my legs are definitely telling me that I need to train with more gusto to be ready for the Norfolk 100. So smugness tempered with nervousness is the best way to describe my feelings this evening....
We managed to align the necessity to collect a child from a sleepover with a minor(!) diversion to the coast and blagged a lift all the way to the beach car park at Wells. Hardly daring to believe our luck with the weather we set off in a Southerly direction with joyful hearts. Any other choice of direction would have resulted in an unforeseen triathlon entry. We totally failed to find the track which was intended to join us to National Route 1 but managed to find it in Wighton. From there until just north of North Elmham we merrily followed the little blue signs with only one minor hiccup.
After Elmham we decided to go free range and head in a diagonal line towards home via Wymondham.
We had to make a few map checks but by a process of following our noses, trusting signposts and taking the odd off road diversion we actually made it all the way home. (55 miles)
It was good to get a long ride under our wheels at last but my legs are definitely telling me that I need to train with more gusto to be ready for the Norfolk 100. So smugness tempered with nervousness is the best way to describe my feelings this evening....
Monday 5 March 2012
Route Planning
February has disappeared like a snowperson in the rain - so we really feel that the talk of organisation and training has to transform itself into action.
Whilst the countryside was still covered in ice and snow we grasped the opportunity for some "proper" route planning ie looking at actual roads on actual maps and trying to see if A really can lead to B and eventually on to (Le) M. Happily the maps of France do dovetail in to each other so we had a chance of finding a coherent straightish route. Of course, we rapidly became distracted by thoughts of the Musee des Beaux Arts in Rouen, Giverney, the Percheron stud in Montagne au Perche.....The eventual route will look like a drunken spider's attempt to walk the line.
Our distance calculations are heavily reliant on bits of string and vaguely remembered school geography lessons on scale. For this reason I have a horrible feeling we may find we have been over ambitious with our targets for some of the days because we forgot to multiply the scaled up figure by our combined ages and then divide by the number we first thought of. Time will certainly tell.
"Training " has acquired more focus now that our entries for the Norfolk 100 are confirmed. Our attempts to get some miles under our belts and tyres have been frustrated by gales and horizontal rain. So much so that we had to resort to static bikes at our local gym today. Grrrrr. However, last week's Spring- like interlude meant that on the round trip to the bike shop in Diss we were shedding layers for the first time in 6 months and I was cursing my lack of sunglasses. More of the same please. We need to acclimatise to June temperatures en France.
Whilst the countryside was still covered in ice and snow we grasped the opportunity for some "proper" route planning ie looking at actual roads on actual maps and trying to see if A really can lead to B and eventually on to (Le) M. Happily the maps of France do dovetail in to each other so we had a chance of finding a coherent straightish route. Of course, we rapidly became distracted by thoughts of the Musee des Beaux Arts in Rouen, Giverney, the Percheron stud in Montagne au Perche.....The eventual route will look like a drunken spider's attempt to walk the line.
Our distance calculations are heavily reliant on bits of string and vaguely remembered school geography lessons on scale. For this reason I have a horrible feeling we may find we have been over ambitious with our targets for some of the days because we forgot to multiply the scaled up figure by our combined ages and then divide by the number we first thought of. Time will certainly tell.
"Training " has acquired more focus now that our entries for the Norfolk 100 are confirmed. Our attempts to get some miles under our belts and tyres have been frustrated by gales and horizontal rain. So much so that we had to resort to static bikes at our local gym today. Grrrrr. However, last week's Spring- like interlude meant that on the round trip to the bike shop in Diss we were shedding layers for the first time in 6 months and I was cursing my lack of sunglasses. More of the same please. We need to acclimatise to June temperatures en France.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)