Shortly after moving to Bristol, Espe suggested that we take part in the Ashton Court Cancer Research 10k Run. Although I did a fair bit of cross country running at school, I’ve not done any since and never done anything as long as 10km. It may not sound like much, and is positively short compared to the half and full marathons but having completed it, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. Along with our race numbers, the bods at Cancer Research gave out dedication banners to be pinned to the t-shirts with the message “I’m running for” and space…
A good friend from childhood coffee mornings / Halfords / faffing about with cars came over to visit me in Bristol the weekend before last. As someone who was always into mountain biking we jumped onto the bikes and headed up into Ashton Court and Leigh Woods to have a go on the purpose built trails. Halfway up the hill to Ashton Court I realised that I’d forgotten my helmet and my gloves and I remember thinking, today will typically be the day I need them. We were blessed with beautiful weather and the trails were the driest I’ve seen…
Well, perhaps that is a bit strong, but recently I’ve considerably increased the amount of exercise I’m getting. Add to that my improved diet due to Espe’s new role as a nutritionist and I’m feeling pretty healthy. I’m riding 10km to work and back each day, swimming once a week, running once a week and playing tennis again. I’ve also finally got my hand on my new mountain bike. A Cube Attention which I’ve bought through this Government Ride to Work scheme getting me some 40% off the list price. She’s a beauty and together we are discovering the joys…
I had the pleasure at the beginning of the month of visiting one of my best friends from my time in Madrid. I’d booked a long weekend to visit Philippe in Brussels and was very much looking forward to seeing him for the first time in almost a year and half. In that time, we’ve both had some incredible experiences and returned to our respective home countries. Naturally we had a lot to catch up on. It was a fantastic weekend despite the mother of all hangovers (sat, sun & mon). No plans, just catching up and taking in another…
It really feels like I haven’t stopped lately… (another excuse for the irregular posts). Despite living in Bristol, I spent every weekend of May in London. Throw in a week in Milan in the middle and that is not a lot of time at home. I was out in Milan on a work trip trying to organise the Milan launch for this year’s Mongol Rally. It typical Adventurists style, I didn’t find out I was going until about two day’s before hand. Thankfully, Espe came along too, as she has been doing all the correspondence with the Italian teams. Through…
Returning to Blighty unemployed, I figured I’d have plenty of time to catch up with this blog. Reality was that I was worse at updating it since returning then when I was actually on the road. Distractions, catching up, work and general faffing are equally to blame for this. We returned in time for Christmas, enabling me to catch up with friends and family. It was fantastic seeing people after so long, and even more fun seeing their reaction when they figured out who this hairy mess was. Thanks to Facebook party invites I even managed to surprise a selection…
Although a lot of you have given up reading this blog due to inactivity (thus won’t read this sentence, and hence I am waffling before I’ve even started), for those that have not, here is (a full 5 months after I was there) the final installment from my Round the World Trip. A week away from the end of the trip I wasn’t expecting much from the briefest of stops in the United States but in reality it was a great end to the trip. Before leaving the Cook Islands we managed to watch Michael Moore’s Sicko and Al Gore’s…
As many of you know, the trip is over. In fact we’ve been back for two months! I figured that once home I’d have loads of time to reflect on the trip and get this blog up to date. Reality was far from that. I started writing this post before the trip was over but everything has been pretty hectic since I returned that I’ve not finished until now. Still, being a sucker for completeness I fully intend to get this and our brief time in the US posted. So, back to the Cook Islands, central pacific paradise, a far…