I’m Getting Fitter On My Bike Rides
I did my usual Thursday bike ride this morning.
I’ve been riding regularly for quite a while now. There’s 4 rides a week for me to go in but I don’t often get to do all 4, sometimes 3 if I’m lucky. Occasionally 2 and for the last couple of weeks I’ve been away and so I haven’t done any. Nothing I could do about that but I bet it knocked my get fit campaign back some.
So I’m really trying to make an effort. It doesn’t extend to riding in the rain, on Tuesday when I woke up at 5.30 it was raining a little so I didn’t go. But most of the others did so I felt a little guilty when I found out that they did.
This morning it wasn’t raining but it was windy. Really windy in fact. So windy that the bike was getting blown around in the win. But I’m happy as long as it’s not raining.
It’s a tough ride. Some of the others are really good riders, and I have real trouble staying up with them sometimes. About half of my rides I get dropped off the back and end up riding home on my own or with some of the others who get dropped off as well.
This morning I got dropped. When it’s windy you just have to tuck in behind the rider in front of you, put your head down and try and stay there. If you can it’s about 50% easier to ride there than it is in the wind. But drop back a few feet and suddenly you’re right in the wind, and it’s way harder.
So that’s what happened to me this morning. Up a hill I dropped a few feet and that was it, I was gone. Luckily a couple of others were too so I had some friends to ride back with.
But it all has to be good for ou doesn’t it? It’s the way to get fit. Hopefully I’m getting fitter.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
If You Want To Have A Good Time You Need A Boat.
title 5
by
I just love having a boat. As it says on a sticker on my boat, life is better with a boat. It’s only small, maybe 11 feet, I can’t afford a big one, but a small boat is better than no boat. And it’s got it’s advantages, it’s easy to tow.
It was raining a blowing hard when we went away last week. The kids had school holidays so they said they didn’t want to spend the whole time at home, so we went away. And though it was raining hard at first it soon stopped and got sunny so it was really nice.
It was a nice place to go to. There was so many things for the kids to do it wasn’t funny. Kids need so much to do. So if you’ve got bored kids there’s problems, if you’ve got bored kids then they hassle you constantly for something to do.
There really isn’t anything worse than bored kids to kill a holiday. They get really grumpy and annoy me and as I like to read a book it’s no fun being hassled by bored kids all the time.
But no problems on the weekend, bored kids weren’t a problem. There were so many things for them to do, table tennis, pool, a huge jumping thingy that they loved. A swimming pool that was outdoors and heated, and they love to swim.
And in the games room there was something that the kids loved too, a massive tv that had a kids movie showing every night so they just sat in there all the time in the evenings.
And of course the swimming pool. I can’t believe something as simple as a swimming pool keeps kids entertained for so long.
But I mentioned the boat. I took the boat along because there was a river there and I could take them on the river. And it’s useful for taking stuff along too. The kids bikes wouldn’t fit in the car but no problem getting them in the boat.
So the boat was great. We did a couple of days in the boat. One was on the local river just looking around, a little time spent sitting on the bank having lunch and giving the kids a swim. More swimming! And we could sit there in the sun and read our books.
And the local lake was great too. Last summer I bought an inner tube and rope and towed the kids around with it so I brought it along this time too and they loved it just as much. In fact it was difficult to get them off it. They just wanted to spend the day there.
So a boat is a huge bonus. Use it to take the bikes and have the kids entertained along the way. I’m really glad I took the boat.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Great Weekend Had By All.
It’s all done, the weekend I mean. And was it a great weekend or what? I loved it, though getting up quite so early was a little taxing. Way too early for me.
5 in the morning is too early for me. Way too early. At 5 am even the birds aren’t awake. It is completely dark and feels like it’s about 1am. It’s pretty hard to get out of bed at that time, though when you’ve got a weekend to go to it’s still worth getting up. Something to get up for.
But I got up, headed over to my friends place and picked him up and off we went. There was quite a bit of stuff to load up and the car was packed to the rim and it took quite a while to get going, longer than I expected and as we were meeting other people we had a time limit.
And by the time we got there it was raining which was really annoying. And we’ve had such good weather over the last few weeks to have it raining the exact weekend that I go away is pretty frustrating, but there’s nothing you can do about it is there? What can you do about weather?
And when you’re camping in a tent the last thing you want is rain. Rain is the worst thing because when something gets wet it’s wet for the whole time unless it gets warm again. Luckily the rain was heavy but when we were putting up the tent it eased off a little. Some luck at least. And it was a long drive in the rain.
And most annoyingly when we were driving there seemed to be all sorts of new speed limits to annoy me.
But even despite all this it was a good weekend. I did some fishing and caught a fish and we had it for dinner which was nice. Fresh fish tastes great.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Give Me Birds As Well As Cows.
I’ve already said how much I like living in the country.
But one of the good things about the country is the birds. (I just love birds).
There’s really a stunning number of birds out here, so many you can’t believe it. Maybe it’s because there’s so many trees in the country. The birds list in the trees and pick off the pods from the leaves and eat them, you can see them doing it all day. They pick them off with their claws and hold them to eat.
Now I have to say that I like birds but I don’t like the damage they do to my trees. They break off so many small branches to get to the pods that under the tree looks like a wasteland. There’s bits of trees everywhere.
They’re parrots, and parrots have strong beaks so they can do all this. But on the positive side they have great colors and they look great. I get them sitting around the veranda that goes around my house, they sit on the railings and look at me inside. And I love to see them there so I sit really still and watch them. If I sit still they don’t go away.
There’s damage to the trees like I said but it’s still great having them around and I love it. I could shoo them away when they start damaging the trees and then I wouldn’t have the damage but I’d rather let them come and sit on my veranda. If I shoo them away they might leave for good.
That’s why I love the country, things like parrots. And other animals too. You don’t get parrots in the city and that’s sad, there’s not enough trees and too many people. Far too many people. Nothing for the parrots to eat and people to scare them away.
And it’s not just birds, there’s so many animals, and as I love animals I’m happy. I’m surrounded by animals and birds too.
Its good for the soul I think. Having birds and animals around is a part of nature and a part of life. Its not sterile like in the city. Birds and animals for me any day. Just right now as I was writing this a whole bunch of them flew right past the window. I can see one of them sitting on the verandah in front of me right now.
Ahh, give me the country life, you won’t get me going back to live in the city.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
You Can’t Hate A Cow Can You?
Cows are just great. I really like cows, they’re so gentle. Apart from bulls you can’t really find a nasty cow. Mine are like pets, the kids get to pat them and the kids like to take their hay out and feed them, and if you’re feeding them then they’re happy to be patted. They don’t quite sit there are like being patted, but if you’re feeding them…
Now of course it’s winter coming now and the grass is short and won’t grow much and so there isn’t a lot of it for the cows to eat you have to feed them hay. I plenty of hay. And that’s the time to pat them.
Now if you’re feeding your hay to your cows then that’s the time to pat them, but it’s also a bit of a drain. You have to feed them every day, without fail. Even if it’s raining you have to feed the cows their hay. If you don’t they starve for the day.
I like to feed the cows, but I like holidays too so when I go away I have to make some other arrangements. This is how I do it.
I have various paddocks each fenced off. 4 in total. So when I have plenty of grass in the paddocks I lock one up and leave it with the long grass in it. Then when I go away I open the gate to that one and the cows discover that the gate is open and head in there.
Theyre not stupid. They know there’s grass in the next paddock. So once they see the gate open it takes them no time at all to get in there.
And then when the holiday is over I take the cows back into the main paddock, close the gate and feed them their hay all over again.
I feed my cows right after breakfast. They know when I’m going to feed them and they’re right there sitting in front of the shed in the mornings when I come out to feed them. They get their hay right in front of the shed. Usually 1 1/2 bales of hay for them. But on a cold day I give them 2 bales.
They got 2 bales this morning. But finally the weather is warming up and the grass is beginning to grow again. Good, because I dont have much hay left. But now it doesnt matter because theyve got grass to eat.
But the cows are smiling as the grass is growing and they’re soon to get fat.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I Get To Go On Holidays And Wow Am I Looking Forward To It.
Here’s a treat coming up, I get to go away this weekend. What a great treat, it will be really nice to get away.
And this time I can’t go with my family because they all have some concert to go to that I’m not particularly fond of so they can’t come and I get to go with a friend.
We are planning to camp. I have a great tent, canvas, water proof, big enough to be comfortable and its forecast to rain, so I may need all of that. I hope it doesnt rain because rain isnt what you need when you go camping.
I don’t like getting up early, I resist it when I can, but we have to go at 6 am Friday. It’s a 3 hour trip to where we are meeting up with some others, and we meet at 9.
But getting up early on Friday will be fine, Ive got something great to look forward to. And I really am looking forward to it.
Unfortunately my car is pretty old and I’ve got all my fingers and toes crossed hoping it makes it up there ok. It’s done 540,000 miles so it’ done a lot of work, but it goes fine.
I broke my old fishing rod a while ago and I bought a new one this morning because I plan to do some fishing on Saturday. Saturday is planned to be a free day and so I’m off fishing. And so I needed a new rod.
I made that fishing rod when I was about 25. I bought the blank and I bought the whipping and the rod varnish and all the other bits and pieces that go into making a fishing rod. I was pretty pleased with myself that I managed to make my own fishing rod.
Ive used that fishing rod for a lot of years now, and it was a sad day when I broke it. I dont even know how I broke it, I was just walking through the trees and suddenly I noticed the tip of the rod broken off hanging in its own. Boy was I pissed.
I found out today that it wasn’t worth a lot of money. That’s because I went to a fishing shop and bought a new one and it wasn’t expensive. But it still had sentimental value to me, after all I made that rod myself.
And I couldn’t believe. 25 bucks for a new fishing rod. They certainly aren’t expensive now to buy. But the new one isn’t the one I made. I’d rather my old one than a new one.
They’re probably so cheap now because they’re all made in China like everything else. Anyway that’s a bit about my upcoming weekend. I’d like to catch a fish and I hope it doesn’t rain.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Everyone Has To Keep Fit. For Me It’s Cycling.
Everyone loves something, for me it’s cycling.
I found cycling relatively recently. I was getting unfit and I didn’t want to be unfit, and I was getting older. I knew I had to do something.
I tried swimming. Can you believe how boring swimming is! Up and down a pool, hour after hour. Well actually it was probably never longer than 20 minutes but it felt like hour after hour to me.
Underneath you there’s a black line and you just watch that black line, there’s nothing else to do other than swim of course. It’s really boring and I just couldn’t keep at it.
If you really want to get fit you need to swim at least 4 times a week, probably more. And if you find something boring then you’re not going to do it 4 or 5 times a week and keep at it are you?
And youve got to do about a half hour minumum. Less than that and its a bit of a waste of time.
So once I decided I didn’t like swimming I really had to find something else. And like swimming I found running really boring too so that was out. What to do? Then I thought about cycling.
I didnt have a bike although I used to ride to work many years ago. My old bike was up at the shed but its so rusted that its unusable. I knew I had to get another bike. And a new bike isnt cheap.
But I found out that there was a cycling club near me and they were starting up a new cycling recreation group. The ideal time to buy a bike and take up cycling.
So I joined the group and got cycling. I loved it. They did long rides and short rides and I did them all. But after while I started to get a little frustrated with the pace of the riding.
I’m not exactly young but despite that I really felt that I could ride harder than the recreational group did, that it was a good social situation but I wanted to get fit and do a workout and it was too slow for my liking. So I started riding on my own to get a faster ride in and workout more.
The club also had another riding group that went out on Sundays and it had much better riders in it, some racers, and so I decided that I would try and join the Sunday ride, but was worried that I would never keep up.
But the bike that I had already bought was a half mountain bike and half road bike, called a hybrid, and so I had the wrong bike again. So again I had an issue with no bike that would do the job, but by then I knew I really liked riding to I bought a road bike and joined the Sunday group. They ride pretty fast and sometimes I keep up, occasionally I don’t keep up.
But unlike the recreational group the Sunday ride gives me a hard workout and that’s what I wanted, I’m not complaining.
I’m getting fitter every week and that’s why I’m doing it, but I enjoy it too.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
You Can’t Get A Better Place To Live Than The Country.
It’s the country that I live in and I really like it. Living in the country is a treat and it’s something that I’ve done for quite a few years now. I grew up in the city but you wouldn’t get me back there again.
And there’s so much out here in the country that you’ll never see living in the city. Here’s an example of my own. Cycling. I love to cycle and it keeps me fit which is so important. But it’s great for so many other reasons. It gets me outdoors to places that are so great to be in.
Around me there’s so much to cycle past. Fields with cows, sheep and goats. Horses too, though I don’t like horses so much. But I love cows and sheep. I have my own cows, each with its own calf, and I love them dearly.
It’s just one of the best things of living here, I get to keep cows and calves. I love that and all of the nature around me.
Now it’s summer and it’s so hot I can feel it right through my feet. There’s been some hot weather and it’s getting on top of me, I don’t like the heat. Of course it would still be hot if I lived in the city but here it’s still better. I see nature, I see the seasons come and go and I see things like the grass start to grow and stop and the leaves fall off the trees and regrow again.
There’s so many wonderful colors that I get to see in the leaves, then they all fall off and make compost around the base of the tree so that new baby trees can grow from the seeds they grow. I get to see the whole cycle of nature out here.
All of these things cycle, just like I cycle. They go round and round and I really see what the seasons are.
If I lived in the city I may not even have a tree to watch, or grass. Maybe I wouldn’t even have a garden, I might just have a concrete back yard. If I didn’t have a tree or some grass I’d miss it.
And I may not even see the changing of the seasons might I?
It’s sterile in the city and I spent a large part of my life there so I’ve been there. Of course it’s just me that thinks it’s sterile, others don’t.
My own family still live there, including my brother. He’s a doctor and he’s single and he like the city so he’s happy with the social life. He likes all that stuff and so he’s happy living in the city. But I’m not.
Its a shame that I spent so many years of my life there and wasted them. No thats not fair, they werent wasted of course, I lived my life and that was what I did. But now that Ive found the country I prefer it here. Maybe I should talk to my brother and suggest he moves out here. Ive never even suggested it, but the he gets out to my place and hes seen it here before, if he wanted to move then Ill be hed have thought about it before.
I’m a country lad now. The country for me any day.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Isn’t It Just The Best Day Outside?
It’s a stunning day outside and I’m loving it. It’s warm and it’s still and it’s balmy and that’s just how I like it. It’s a perfect day really. Perfect for me.
But what is a perfect day for me may not be a perfect day for you. Perhaps you’ve had some really bad news or maybe you’re sick or maybe you just don’t feel yourself today. It’s all different for you than it is for me.
But it’s different for you than it is for me. It’s entirely subjective and that’s why it may be wonderful for me and terrible for you. My day is the best ever, yours is the worst.
What is it that makes it a great day for me but is really not the best day for someone else? Why is it that I see the sunshine and the cows in the fields and the happy people? Why is it that you may not see these?
The best day for me is the worst day for you. Where I see good things you might only see bad things.
Surely the only explanation is that it’s in our minds, the day. We see the day through the filter of our minds. We don’t see the day, we see what our minds tell us the day is like. We filter the day through our minds and our experiences.
Even if we have the exact same day you see it differently to me. Lets say we both go for that drive together. We both see the happy people, we both see the sunshine, we both see the cows, but we still have a different experience of the day. Because our minds filter what we see through the experiences of the past. Perhaps you don’t even see the cows and the sunshine
Even if you have the same experience as I do you may well see it totally differently, depending on how its filtered by your mind. You might drive through the same countryside as I do. You might see the sun, the cows, the kids and so on, but your mind may not even register them.
Your mind might just be seeing the downside to everything. And that’s because your mind filters everything according to past experience. What has happened to you in the past is all recorded in your mind and it tempers every future experience. So even though you’re seeing the same sun, cows and kids as I am seeing your past experiences are different from mine and so your mind uses the past to filter what you’re seeing now.
Just a few thoughts for the day. Bye.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I Don’t Know If You Love Writing, I Do.
Isn’t writing a lot of fun. I love to write and I’ve done it for a long time. And I still love to write now. I remember when I was young and at primary school I wrote so many stories, I suspect my teacher got bored reading all my stories. And he was amazed that I could write quite so much when I was so young. But I’m not sure that I’m any good at it, I just like it.
I went to university when I got older but I made a mistake. I studied what I thought would be good to get a job. But when I should have done was to study what I liked, writing. If I had it all again I’d study writing and see how far I got, though maybe it wouldn’t be too far.
It’s an interesting question about whether I could ever have become good enough at writing to make a living from it. Who knows. But if I had the chance then I should have tried, after all if you don’t try you never know if you can really do it. I should have tried.
I’m quite convinced writing is a skill that can be learned. Of course not everyone can learn it because there’s other important things as well. For example I think it’s essential that you love to do it. That’s like anything. If you don’t love it you’re unlikely to keep at it long enough to learn the skill.
But if you love it like I do then writing is just something that needs time to develop. It is a skill that you have to work on every day. I work on it every day.
So this website is where I plan to write. It’s fun and I’ll just talk about what I do with my life. I do pretty boring things really, so I don’t think readers will find it so fascinating. But I don’t really care, I’m not writing it so that I can have a lot of readers, I’m writing it because I like to write it. But if you’re reading it then you might be my first reader, so thanks for stopping by.
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment