Personal entry

It was Nanny Ann's birthday this week so we took Wednesday off, cooked breakfast for some mates, caught a shuttle in to watch Beowulf (3D), then a Limo home for a bar-b-que. Cool day, good movie (amazing graphics), great mates.

Saturday I was booked in to paint the roof, but the weather forecast was poor so I decided to go on the Coast to Coast ride instead, arranging to ride up with DennisR. I left home at 0745 and called into work to grab a couple of things, met Dennis at the J'ville ...

By Monday this week, I had had enough of the bike so I used the cage all this week, except Wednesday when I had decided to go on the TCWNR as it was the anniversary ride for Uncle B and his seat had just been installed by the carpark at the Avalon park.

I arrived shortly after 1800 and there were already 10-15 bikes there and by the time Hitcher briefed us for departure, there must have been 20+ on the ride. We went over the hill to the Royal Pub in Featherston, which apparently was ...

The MDA Runs (Muscular Dystrophy Assoc) were started by the Wellington BRONZ Club around 1990. The ride is done (normally on the first weekend of December) to deliver presents to between 20 – 30 children in the lower North Island, suffering from this debilitating disease and it leaves one filled with mixed emotions as you are touched, in some cases by the condition of these children but mostly by their spirit. This was my third year on this ride, which I enjoy doing as the Pix-E, and it can be quite ...

I ordered an Avon Storm for the rear this week, to be fitted on Wednesday for the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy) Ride on Friday.

I had to go to Palmy on Thursday for a brokers meeting / 2 day seminar. I left about 1130 and cruised up SH1, sitting on around 110kph. No dramas, weather was OK so just a pleasant ride. We finished early on Friday so I opted to come back over the Pahiatua Track and Rimutakas. I took easy, enjoying the ride which was only about half an hour longer but way better ...

Uncle Jim was crook this week. He had an op' on his stomach and is still in the Wellington ICU over a week later, so because it was looking a bit grim, my cousies came back from Auckland and the Gold Coast. It was awesome to see them although the circumstances weren't that great, but it was a boost to Uncle Jim and he is now making good progress.

Not much else was on this week, so I did a bit cleaning up around the house, (The yard was a bit of a mess thanks to all the rides that ...

The highlight of this week was taking my mate Jake to see ‘Thomas & Friends’.
We saw the show on Wednesday morning with about 5,000 other kids….some old kids like me and a lot of small kids like Jake. We had to chuff and toot to get Thomas on the stage, toot to wake up the sleepy sheep on the tracks and clap and sing and wave as Thomas saved the day after the big storm, by finding a big diamond to replace the broken lamp in the Sodor Island Lighthouse so that the festival of Lanterns could ...

I had to come down off the high and get the energy levels back up after completing the GC this week and being a short week for me meant it went pretty quick.

On Tuesday, my lower back and shoulders were pretty tight from struggling in the crosswinds on Sunday so a Massage was in order, but that was about the only event for the week.

I didn't have a ride planned for this week but decided to visit my mum in Masterton on Sunday. I finally cleaned the bike then had a pleasant ...

Between the weather and the desire to preserve tyres for the Grand Challenge, the last two weeks have been very lean on K's. In fact, this week is the first in over two years that I didn't use the bike to go to work at all and I've probably only done 200-300Kms.

My total rides were a jaunt up to Raumati Sth last Friday to see a client. It was a beautiful day, although a little cool after the southerlies from the previous days, and the short ride was made a little more interesting ...