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So for work, I popped up Newcastle direction, so I had a chance to see Mike, see some of Newcastle, saw some of the Industry, go across the transporter bridge that they took down in Auf Wiedersehen Pet, and have a few drinks.
    
   
On the way back from Newcastle, I met up with Andy on the M1 and we drove back in convoy…
I arranged a trip to see the 2012 Olympic Park tour on the 6th of Feb with a few grads (+others) from work, started in Stratford, got on a bus, saw a few bits of the site, took some photo’s, went back, had tea and biscuits with Ben + Tanya, went home. Down side to the tour was that photo’s are crap coz they’re all from the inside of a bus, and there was fences in the way of everything!
    
Oh, and maybe worth a mention is this lovely sunrise I saw one morning, it actually made our street like nice for once.
January…it got quite busy at work, and I’ve been busy doing not a lot of interesting things as I try and save money for my new bike, which has yet to reach the country! I also had a few commuting woes.
Commuting to work wise, I’ve had a bit of a nightmare recently. First off was the puncture saga. In 4 days of commuting, I managed to get 6 puncutres. This was using a set of half decent tyres too, Schwalbe Blizzards, Kevlar and I even used them on my #xmascycletour09 and I thought they coped well. But due to ridiculously pointy bits of grit on the roads, they’ve ruined my rear tyre. I was incredibly annoyed and my commutes were taking ages. In the end I bought a set of Continental Ultra Super DuraSkin GatorSkins. They’re fitted now and doing well, other than they have a lot less grip than the schwalbe’s I’ve noticed, had wheelspin on a dry road and a bit of drifting round roundabouts in if it’s damp…but no punctures as of yet, and they roll reasonably fast.
Then on the first day of using the new tyres, I was working late, so left work about an hour later than normal. I was riding home, which was fine, through a few wet puddles – fine I hav mudgaurds. Then my rear wheel slips..so I’m a bit cautious as it felt like ice…I get through the back roads and onto a more major one which is still fine, I completely forget about the ice, turn off and onto a road which on the way home starts major-ish but gets more minor. Because of the major road being fine, and my body being up to temperature I forget all about the ice, and as I’m climbing the hill, out of the saddle putting power down I go on what feels like some grit, but actually it’s sheet ice and I’m straight off my bike. It had gone from puddles and 2 degrees C to something in the negative in a matter of an half an hour. I properly bent my rear mech, so rode the west of the way home very gingerly, slowly, with a sore leg and only able to use one gear because of the bent rear mech. Luckily I manage to straighten it out at home.
   
Now I was hoping that would be all my bad luck out the way for a while, but then after all this, I managed to hit a pothole on my bike which hurt. Now I miss about 999/1000 potholes I reckon, but I just hit a small one by comparison to some which could easily throw me off the bike and kill it! It goes bump then starts rattling. I look down, and hey presto my mudgaurd has sheared. So the rest of the ride home involved me half the time holding the mudguard in such a way it didn’t keep rubbing on the wheel or flap around. After a bit of thought, I managed to fix it using a can of guiness and some pop rivets (gave me an excuse to buy a pop riveter too!).
 
Commuting stuff over, January otherwise has been fairly alright I suppose other than being a bit colder than you want it to be. I spent a Sunday riding round at MeridaBrass Monkeys Round 3 for the 4 hour enduro, which Jessie and I met up for to just ride round, and there happens to be a race happening at the same time! This was good fun, and despite Jessie crashing into me and bending my rear mech hanger after I had to slam my brakes on due to someone stopping going Uphill, and then a puncture, and Jessie’s Seatpost breaking so the saddle fell off (which meant we had to retire after 2 hours and 50 minutes), had our bikes not broken, I’m very confident we would have managed 6 laps each, which would have placed me 40th out of 100 riders and Jessie 3rd in the womens, shame really. We had a good time though, and I think one of the funniest moments for me was Me and Jessie just chatting casually whilst riding round, not really bothered about our position, gradually catching someone up who was breathing out of his arse and racing, he looked annoyed at us because we were taking it easy but catching him, so he got up and road off in a stomp (we then caught him!).
Only photo’s I got were of the sunrise in the morning and the sunset on the way home. Oh and I saw the rebull car on the way home!
  
Oh, and Hel doesn’t know how to pour Ale!
Like everywhere else in the country we had snow. Like everyone else, I took some photo’s. Points to mention include:
It was nice and deep and fresh in places where cars don’t go! I still drove on the tiny back roads that were meant to be “treacherous” and it was fine, although admittedly I did struggle once getting out of the village on a back road, should have really taken the main one!
On the way to work today, to avoid traffic I took a little back road, a few of us had the same idea. This road was covered in snow and ice, in fact worse than the day it snowed as cars had bedded it in nicely. Anyway, a car got stuck, and a queue built up behind it, all stuck on the slight hill. A few cars turned round and went down the hill. I decided to not get stuck, so I carried on and overtook the cars that were stuck…it was being pushed. This was rather amusing!
Another point to note is that I didn’t ride in a sledge because I never got round to it 
Gallery with the snow in it can be found here.
    
    
Well this was a bit of a silly idea in hindsight, but I’m sure we’ve all had ideas that were good at the time. I twittered along whilst I was out there so people could follow what I was doing “live” and had an idea of how miserable my time was. My twitter posts were #tagged #xmascycletour09.
So, lets start at the beginning.
zippyonline: http://twitpic.com/vg588 - Some mapping for #xmascycletour09
zippyonline: Tyres changed, pannier rack fitted, gears now smooth, bike mechanically ready for #xmascycletour09. Just got to pack now!
zippyonline: http://twitpic.com/vrp77 – Equipment for #xmascycletour09 -just got to fit it on the bike!
zippyonline: #xmascycletour09 bike loaded, it weighs a tonne…and I dunno where to put my map! Shall leave tomorrow AM
  
zippyonline: Hmm, bit different riding a loaded bike! Can’t stand up and pedal. I’m in wivenhoe now.
So yeh, the bike was rubbish to ride because there was soo much stuff on it, I couldn’t stand up and pedal, so I couldn’t follow momentum through on the hills…cruising speed was dramatically reduced too, so as opposed to crusing at an easy 17-18mph, I was doing 11-12mph…using a lot more effort. I also had the odd twinge from my muscles…but eventually this wore off as I know the positioning on the bike is fine, and all I’d done was add some luggage!
Most of the roads looked like this and were pretty boring…but fairly traffic free which is good.
zippyonline:http://twitpic.com/vv61b – #xmascycletour09 the orwell bridge
   
The Orwell Bridge was a bit of a nightmare to cross. Eventually found the footpath which lead to the footway either side…this was incredibly steep, and I had to push for ages up a steep bank with steps….and the bike is pretty heavy. The footway is then a bit narrow, has loads of broken glass and other road debris on it, and yeh a significant amount of traffic going across it. Then when I got to the other side..I had to carry the bike (which weighs loads) down several steep flights of steps. All this took blooming ages.
I then got fairly lost trying to follow some cycle paths etc. out of Ipswich, but eventually found my way out and towards Woodbridge.
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09, not 100% sure where i am, but having lunch by quarry…took ages to get across orwell bridge & out of Ipswich
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 and the weather is rubbish!
  
So the weather was rubbish all day, just kept raining. I had lunch hiding in some trees, I carried on riding – although at points I got a bit lost, and light levels were low. For the whole ride I had my rear light and headlight on, it was pretty bleak. I had some more food hid in a bus shelter, and pretty much bliindly followed sustrans route 41 signs. I stopped at a house for some water, there were a group getting ready to celebrate new years, they gave me some water and even a mince pie. I carried on for as long as light permitted, and stopped to set up camp in some woods by the side of the road. I wasn’t 100% sure where I was, and guessed once looking at the maps that I was in Dunwich Forest…although from the GPS log, it turned out I was in Tunstall Forest, miles away from Dunwich!
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 set up camp, done 67.5 miles (rubbish!)…then ran out of daylight. Weather is rubbish, non stop rain.
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09, i think i’m somewhere near dunwich, it’s petty dark in these woods!
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 as the weather is like this, i’ve replanned the route & heading home tomorrow! Cba with this, it’s no fun…
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 pants, i can’t open the trangia. Can’t hav a cup of tea now or my risotto…cold food it is then.
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 and my alpkit airic won’t stay inflated alpkit pipedream keeping me nice and warm though 
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 think the rain may have stopped! Still quite windy though. Just watched top gear polar special.
Here’s the GPS log for Day 1, pretty slow going, I wasn’t impressed with the mileage as I’ve done more in an afternoon road ride in a group!
Day 2:
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 morning all. Weather is still rubbish…it’s cold, but i should be able to set off home once i’m packed!
zippyonline:http://twitpic.com/w0oci – #xmascycletour09 ready to roll.
It was still raining, so I just set off going, and planned to keep riding until I got home. Not knowing where I was didn’t help much, so I blindly followed sustrans route 41 signs until I should get to a section on the map that I recognised….I didn’t actually work out where I was until Snape Maltings! I didn’t really stop for food as stopping meant you got cold. My shoes and overshoes were wet, I kept this off for as long as possible with fresh socks…but as the shoes and overshoes were wet, my feet were cold. Hands were ok though despite wet gloves, they seem to keep the heat in them, and are only waterproof if they’re dry when you put them on and don’t take them off! I didn’t really stop to take many photo’s as I was focussing on getting home. I didn’t even really stop to eat and just kept on powering myself through with cereal bars, it was pretty miserable still.
When I eventually got home, soaking wet, I thawed out my feet, had a lot of nice warm food and had a bath. I then went out on the town to celebrate new years!
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 next to woodbridge…heading home. Got cold feet!
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 copdock. Home straight!
zippyonline:#xmascycletour09 got home, been wet all day – had a bath and some grub, all is good again. Took about 15 mins for me feet to thaw out!
  
So overall a silly idea…and pathetic miles, rubbish scenery due to weather, rubbish camping coz of weather, rubbish bike to ride due to equipment. Here’s a GPS log for day 2, the battery ran out before I got all the way home, but you get the picture…I was in Colchester by then anyway.
Oh and to top this all off, I’d managed to wear holes in my drybags, so my stuff was wet. It would have been a bad idea to do another night seeings as my airic was buggered, can’t use the trangia, wet equipment and the incredibly icy roads on New Years Day morning.
So Christmas Time – yeah Happy Christmas.
We had Goose for Christmas Dinner – yum yum:
 
Christmas presents wise, I got £25, a couple of fleeces, a penknife and Hug0 (a Wolf in keychain…wearing a hoodie to make him look like a sheep, so a wolf in sheeps clothing!)
Hugo:
Boxing Day, went to the classic Boxing Day Runners vs Riders Race. The Day before mr Dominic Schils went round Friday woods, checked out the course and got a big tree out of the way that had fallen down. I’d also worked out how to ride the whole course so I didn’t have to do any of this cyclocross running lark!
Boxing Day, myself and Paul, headed down for the race. We promptly started by sliding over and landing on our arses in the icy car park, it was fine the day before, but not today! We did a practice lap, the course had changed a bit, but it was all still totally rideable…although a bit muddier.
The race itself was brilliant fun, gradually the mud got so thick I was struggling to get on top of my gear (I was using my singlespeed, 32-16) which took a bit of time away, I also managed to get beaten by a runner – only one, but still I don’t know how that happened! On my last lap, I also managed to face plant after jumping over a log that was on the course, landed on my front wheel, carried on on the front wheel for about 3 metres then landed on my face…
Still overall brilliant fun, I found out Paul crashed going over the log aswell! Dominic Won this year, I was 7th rider, I think 8th overall, however 1st Singlespeeder and 1st MTBer. Paul was like 30 something.
   
28th December, went for a nice walk with my old man. Managed to take a few nice photo’s round by the colne valley, Abberton Reservoir and Heybridge Basin.
  
Photo’s of snow and that start here.
As an aside to the snow, I’ve been playing with my camera and some effects: We also microwaved a sheep!
   
The snow all started Thursday (17th December 2009) evening, after coming off my bike on the commute in due to sheet ice, then getting a puncture, getting stuck on the hill into my village in Paul’s van due to the snow on the way back proved how crappy transport was that day for me! The issue was no grit and settled snow, the gritters came out after the first bought of snow.
Anyway, Friday morning, after a few people gave up driving out of the village…I decided that rather than drive to work, I would be safer riding 22 miles to work on the MTB. Well, then I decided, I might as well have a bit of fun in the snow and hit the trails locally. This was at 7am and still dark. The snow was fresh as nobody had been out on it yet and was an amazing experience to be the first to take in the trails with nothing else around. I took a few snaps as I generally wormed my way to work eventually, OK I turned up at 10am, but that beat a few people including those that lived in Chelmsford!
    
 
The day at work was a bit boring, and there was barely anyone about, and no-one could be bothered to work. Lunch time occurred and we all opened our Secret Santa presents..well those that were about. I got a bowl (long story about my old one being stolen etc.) and The Man Who Cycled the World, which I have started reading already.
     
Eventually in the evening, we headed out on a “night out” in chelmsford, which was actually a few of us from the office and their other half’s. As I had cycled in, I didn’t have a coat, so it was bloomin freezing out in the snow…an alcohol coat was needed and consumed quite quickly. Basically we went to a couple of pubs, had a few drinks, had a meal, went to a bar and headed off.
   
I got the train home, ok it was late, but easier than cycling back with a lot of booze in me. I then got to colchester, and took some trails on the way back, I got a splitting headache (maybe the hangover) on the way back, but it was good fun if a little slippy and a lot of effort riding through thick snow in some places.
   
Sunday evening, I went out in the car and picked up Vesely. We then went on the hunt for some empty car parks and hand brake turning ness. Tesco car park was far too grippy. B&Q car park was slippy, but far too much street furniture to properly get into it, then we went to Whitehall Industrial estate, cones had been setup to slide round, and a few empty car parks. A bit of fun was had here…then we went down the hill, tried to get up the hill, and er couldn’t. Had a couple of run ups, and just couldn’t get up the hill…the issue being the bend onto the hill was far to slippy, that putting power down whilst turning the corner results in crashing into a parked van..so you let off the power to make the corner and hence lose all momentum. We stopped the car and got out, and promptly almost slipped over – I have no idea how the car was making it up any of the hill! After another attempt at a run up and a bit more skill round the bend with selectively applied power and cornering and a huge boost of throttle we managed to make it out! We then did a few slides round fridaywoods car park and headed back to Andy’s. Hel has some Land Hermit crabs now!
   
Yesterday (Tuesday 22nd December) Paul and I headed out to measure boreholes in the snow. This went quite well apart from the one covered in snow that we couldn’t find, but the rest of it all went smoothly. It was like being paid to have fun in the snow.  There was even ermm an empty car park we had free reign of, with the car…
  
Haven’t blogged in a while – dunno why, but I’ve been taking photo’s…
So following on from where I left off last time, odd snippets of November and December…
I finally got round to trying to fix my headphones, a set of nice sony noise cancelling ones I got ages ago, but sounds quite good, and were quite expensive at the time. Eventually after a lot of fiddling, getting them apart and re soldering in some new wire….they still didn’t work so I gave up and have bought some Sennheiser CX400II precision headphones which do the job nicely
  
We went for a bit of a night time wonder round for some Urban Expo – took a few night shots, sometime in the future hopefully a proper photoshoot can be done. It’s a bit difficult doing decent night shots with a point and shoot camera, even with a tripod!
    
We went on a trip to Wales with LSCC..was good fun and a lot of us there. Stayed at a brilliant Pub somewhere in Wales. I made stupidly quick time there, I left cambridge services at like 1930 and got to Corris before 2200 – meaning a journey time of 2 hours 30 mins for something google said should take 3 hours 42 mins! Empty roads baby – amazing driving on the welsh roads.
The Wales trip was good fun, lots of good riding, despite being in the pissing rain. Did Coed Y Brenin Dragons back and TARW on the saturday, Climachx and Nant yr Arian on Sunday. I borrowed Mike’s Cannondale Prophet for the Climachx, and it was fricking fast compared to my hardtail. Full sus, I just shot off on the downhills and the bike took up all the bumps and I could just ride at stupid speeds in comparison the to hardtail trying to buck me off all the time. It was an incredibly wet trip, luckily my new Gore jacket was brilliant, it made the trails a bit slippy, but it was good fun. It just stopped me taking any bike photo’s. Journey home was rubbish compared to the journey up, and got home, had loads of dirty kit and a filthy bike to sort out.
Saw some Live music at the Bull in colchester, Skandal. Ska music, quite enjoyable and they’re mates of my Dad’s, I recommend them.
  
Andy and Hel have a new turtle, named Smirnoff. Here she is, and next to Lewis.
 
I’ve been on site recently, look at me using a theodolite and everything, using my degree at work, now who’s have expected that! Also, as it’s been dark recently, I’ve had to commute in the dark…been alright!
    
     
I popped up to Lufbra on the 11th of December. This was a flying visit (note the very foggy drive up photo!), but a great deal of fun. Friday the 11th of December, FND baby, last FND of term and a lot of us from placement all popped up and a good time was had by all, especially Mike and Wendy, but that isn’t a story that particularly needs repeating… After getting home at 3:30am, I woke up in time to take part in a 9am road ride, 2 hours with a lot of us from placement, including Harry who you could smell the booze off him before he turned up! We did a couple of hours of road riding (dunno how after a night out) and went house hunting, we’d pre arranged all the houses to look at over the phone. After a good days house hunting, a few minor issues, by Sunday morning we’d pretty much sorted out our house for next year. Then drove home, absolutely shattered, but it was lovely drive home, clear skies and a very clear run with empty empty roads.
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