Man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets

Long time no blog yadda yadda yadda

Went out for a bike ride today did 20 miles

It was very windy and the wind always seemed to be in my face not at my back

still i can always ride my bike.

Got my rejection letter form the London Marathon yesterday and was a bit gutted about it. I have not really trained much for a long time due to an achilles injury but it would of been the kick up the bum i needed to get it sorted with some physio. I am think i might enter Edinburgh Marathon instead or maybe Paris. I will have a think. First thing i need to do is get this injury sorted.

Although I still enjoy running( when I can manage it) I have been riding my bike a lot more. I LOVE riding my bike and have started thinking about doing some proper training on it for longer rides. It would be nice to get a new bike but that won’t be for a while, so I am doing up my old road bike. I nearly bought a fixed wheel bike last week it was a bargin but I did not act quick enough and they are all sold out.

I took some photos on my ride to work on one of the days last week you can find the whole set here
and below you can see the route

oh that is quite good innit, from mapmyfitness.com

here are a few pics from the ride

Once again long time no blog, so a few things to talk about or more correctly photos to show

We have had a busy Summer but apart from the holiday ( see last post) here are a couple of highlights
We took the kids down to see my nan, she used to come and stay at my Mum and Dads house a lot but does not anymore( she cant manage the stairs) so we don’t see her as often as we should

Nan( or Granny to the kids)

After we had visited I took the Will and Lydia to see were I used to live


I always thought it was cool to have a grey Phone Box

My old house 11 The Tynings Minchininhampton. This is were I spent at least 12 years of my life.
After we moved the old boy who used to live at number 10 moved in, (it was an old council house that Mum and Dad had bought and improved and for some reasons I can’t remember the council bought it back off then) So Stan asked to be moved and was. I thought there would be little chance he would still be alive but I knocked anyway, surprisingly he was, 85 years old. I not sure if he really knew who I was but it was good to see him again.
You cant find more Minchinhampton Photos on My Flickr page

I greatly enjoyed watching the Olympics and loved the cycling, In true style ( for me) I have decided I fancy a crack at track cycling I will of course report if I do. Anyway a big well done to all of Team GB

Bank Holiday weekend we went to my Uncle Peter and Auntie Pat’s house for a bit of a family do,the kids had a great time and so did the grown ups played lots of games including back garden Olympics, which I won

Will, Cousin Ted & Lydia

again you can check out further photos of this day on Flickr or Facebook

Bank Holiday we went to Shortwood Farm with the lots of the Kids friends

Picnic Time

erm you know where to find the rest of the photos don’t you.

On a completely unrelated note today I applied to be part of an expedition to the South Pole

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7580913.stm

also I have eaten a dorset naga which really deserves a blog all of its own so I will try and sort it soon

Last week family Woo had a great weeks holiday ( or vacation for my American reader(s) )
Had the normal “fun” car journey to get to Westward Ho!, it was fine until just before Bristol then big jams all the way to The caravan park.

The village name comes from the title of Charles Kingsley’s novel Westward Ho!. The exclamation mark is therefore an intentional part of the village name.

The caravan was in a small park called Surf Bay Holiday Park
Got settled in then went for a little walk, about a 2 minute walk over Northam Burrows , to the Sea, the kids where captivated by their first view of the ocean( they have both seen the sea before but the tide was right in so I suppose it was more impressive for them).
The kids shared a room in the caravan. Now bear in mind they go to sleep pretty well at home usually asleep by 8pm, guess what time they got to sleep by……..10.30pm although to be fair at least they were having fun( and it was probably gone 9 when we put them to bed.)
Monday we went to Braunton, where my paternal grandparent used to live, so I have had a few holidays there in the past ( 30 years in the past).

In fact about 30 years ago I got stung by a bee whilst eating a sticky bun on this very bench(That is, I was was eating sticky bun not the bee)

Me looking out over another childhood memory Braunton Great Fields

About 99% sure this was my grandparents old bungalow

Interestingly( well to me) when I asked my Mum if she remembered were it was, she phone my paternal fathers sister in law to see if she remembered, during the course of this conversation I found out my Paternal Grandfather or Grandfer as i used to call him was Cornish which of course makes me quarter Cornish, silly as it sounds this was a really nice thing to find out, sort of makes sense as i have always loved Cornwall and especially the sea.

Long Boarders at Saunton Sands, 3 miles of gorgeous beach with Bruanton Burrows as a back drop.

We also had a little look around Croyde which is a lovely little village .

Tuesday we went to Clovelly
from wikipedia

Clovelly used to be a fishing village and in 1901 had a population of 621. It is a cluster of wattle and daub cottages on the sides of a rocky cleft; its main street resembles a cobbled staircase which descends 400 feet (120 metres) to the pier, too steeply to allow wheeled traffic. Sledges are used for the movement of goods. The street is lined with houses, and a small number of shops and a cafe and a public house.

All Saints’ Church, restored in 1866, is late Norman, containing several monuments to the Cary family, lords of the manor for 600 years.

The scenery is famous for its richness of colour, especially in the grounds of Cary Court, and along The Hobby, a road cut through the woods and overlooking the sea. The South West Coast Path National Trail runs past the village, and the section from Clovelly to Hartland Quay is particularly spectacular.

It is a lovely place and the kids did well to get all the way down a most the way back up without moaning, although I did have to carry them a bit

I even managed a vaguely arty shot

I am sure this is were the old Scampi Flavored Fries advert was filmed but I can’t find anything to confirm this( if it was not here maybe it was Mousehole). If any remembers the ad let me know.

Scampi flavored whaat?
Fries, ‘ere go get us 2 dozen baskets
Baskets?
To serve ‘em in

Near to the beach at Westward was a great little surf shop, with its own place to chill that served some nice refreshments

http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v295/197/30/696441722/n696441722_1100879_3158.jpg

Another highlight of the week was cycling the 18 miles to Barnstaple and back from Bideford along the National Cycle Network route 27 or Tarka Trail it is one of the longest continuous off road cycle tracks in the uk. The National Cycle is maintained and indeed mostly owned by Sustrans, this is just a fraction of the things they do, if you are interested in cycling check them out HERE

The kids had it easy!!

To be honest the rest of the week we just spent chilling out and playing on the beach or in the rockpools
me attempting skim boarding if you look on my Flkr page you can see some guys making it look easy, this picture is on of the only ones that I stayed on my feet for.

Will in the ocean

Another shot overlooking Saunton Sands

Competitive Dad for the win
( Will beat me in a few races but you cant let them win all the time innit.)

Pull Shapes

It was a great week and the kids had the best time,although they have always got on well I thing spending a whole week together 24/7 has really bonded them.

If you can stand looking at anymore photos you can check them out on my Flickr page of Facebook

Hi guys,
Here are the photos I promised

what a great weekend

Saturday night I went to the Marrs Bar in Worcester to a fund raiser for Worcester City Football Club Supporters Trust, there were a few bands playing, a punk cover band that I got there too late to see, a rockabilly band, who were good but not really my cup of tea and a Clash Tribute band called Take The Fifth (which was the name of The Clash 2nd Us tour). Now any one who knows anything about The Clash will understand that a Clash tribute band does not seem quite right,In fact it is made of wrong. With this in mind I was a little unsure of seeing them. However this quote from the bands website sums it up perfectly

What you get are 30 or so songs written by The Clash, performed with power, conviction and accuracy. There is no attempt to impersonate, what would be the point of that? the clash did it right first time. having said that their music deserves to be heard live. any day, every town.

I did have a good time and it was good to meet up with old friends, including my old internet sparring partner Micky Teaspoon. Micks brother, Al, jumped on stage to sing White Riot and finished by diving of the stage on to my head :-). In a pissed moment Al signed up for a season ticket to Worcester City, which would be ok if he didn’t live in Leicester :-).

Talking of football I have decided to try and get down the lane ( Worcesters Ground) a few times this coming season. I just can not afford to watch Swindon anymore, by the time I get there and get in have a bite to eat etc. you are talking 50 plus quid. Worcester is a tenner to get in and on my door step. Also I want to take Will to a game and it is much more child friendly there.

Anyway Sunday we got up and off to London. We were going to meet more good friends and watch some music at Rise Festival ( probably the last chance before Boris pulls the funding)
We made great time getting to London then spent about a hour stuck in traffic

We got to Splinxs house got the kids sorted and walked down to Finsbury Park ( about a 2 minute walk). I could waffle on about it or I could show the pictures ( pictures are also on my Facebook page)

The Main Stage ( I think TY was playing at the time)

Will and “Auntie” Splinx

Pirates and Ladybirds

Will and Molly

Lydia and “Uncle” Gertcha

Scopie Lydia Dan Will and Gertcha in full effect

A Lady dancing to Jimmy Cliff

Sarah Dancing to Jimmy Cliff

Will dancing to Jimmy Cliff

The whole park dancing to Jimmy Cliff

Will and Lydia with “Auntie” Splinx

KBB Gangsters

We had a great day and got back to Worcester at a bout midnight I was shattered from driving but glad we stayed to see the legand that is the one and only Jimmy Cliff.

Considering there were so many people at the festival it was a great vibe and we did not see any trouble. Maybe Mr Cliff is right “Its a wonderful World, Beautiful People.

Yes we can.

I have fixed the error with not being able to add comments to this site also the archive links work too.

I just have a few more blog link and site links to add

Family WD were gutted to find out Blissfields was canceled this year, due to poor ticket sales, we have been going to this great little festy since 2005. It is a great festival with a real nice family vibe. This year they had been due to to move to a bigger site to allow for bigger capacity. Unfortunately it was not to be. Loads of little festivals have been canceled this year. Could be lots of reasons but I think the main reason is there is just too much choice these days, although saying that maybe it is the fact people are just skint, even Glastonbury struggled to sell out this year.
Anyway our disappointed was reduced when we got invited down to Bradley Farm( the home of previous Blissfields Festivals, and Paul and Mel Bliss, organisers of the festival) for Camp Bliss, a private party.

We had a great weekend despite it being windier than a windy thing on a windy day

We had Tractor rides too

Where’s me mic? Will looking right at home on the stage

It pissed down in the night an early Sunday morning so it was a bit of a mission getting the stuff packed up but we got it all down and were off site by just gone 9 am.

Driving conditions were terrible and the M4 was closed at newbury so we went via Ox**ord with a plan to get on the M40 , unfortunately we got held up for nearly 2 hours although a bonus to this was Will got to have a Wee on the middle lane of the M40, not many people can say that( Lydia had a wee in the inside lane and I had a wee on the hard shoulder, Sarah crossed her legs)

Having a stroll on the M40

along with countless thousands of others

I meant to post this ages ago but forgot in the great blog downage of last month(in which my nice piece about running The London Marathon got lost).

Anyway here is some footage from the BBC of me crossing the line at the Marathon. Yes I know the clock says 5.02 something when I cross the line but that is the gun time, not chip time it took about 8 minutes to cross the start line.

and here are a few photos

About 10 miles in.

Running down The Mall, the finish line in sight

Get in

Its all about the Bling innit

Those that have met me know that I am a bit of a porker and it would not hurt to lose some weight.
This has never really bothered me until some friends tried to persuade me to come the their slimming club(you know who you are ) Now I am not saying I don’t need to loose weight nor am I saying that Slimmers World or any other system will not help you, the friend in question has done very well on it and looks good( for an old bastard ). No my point is that I don’t need to go to a club if I want to lose weight after all, most sensible weight loss systems are really just healthy eating and common sense. I am sure I don’t need to know if it is a red day or a green day or if I have any syn, or synergy, points left( interesting they renamed them syn points when originally they were sin points)
This might fall flat on its (fat) arse and I may be wrong but the guanlet has been thrown and I love a challenge. So today is the day I start me new eating regime ( not gonna call it a diet, although in the true sense of the definition it is)

Weight today 82 KGs or just under 13 stone in old money( altogether, You Fat Bastard)

My ideal weight according to an weight charts I could find on line is between 59 - 74 KGs so I need to lose at least 8 kgs and that is just to be at the top of my ideal range, so more would be better.

I am only going to weigh myself every 2 weeks as I don’t want to get obsessive about it.

Do you think i should post a before style photo of the start of my journey? not so sure myself, don’t want to put people of reading.