My Cycling for February 2007...

Bushy Park 14-02-2007 (sans trip computer)


I just got myself a Cateye Micro Wireless cycle trip computer and thought I might bore you to death with each rides results...average speed...max speed...time pedaled etc.

Friday 16th Feb 2007, BP (Lee), 17.25miles, 1hr 45mins actual (1hr 36mins pedaling), dark, dry, mild, no wind.

Sunday 18th Feb 2007, HH, PH, Winterfold Wood (WW)(Lee), 18.04 miles, 3hrs 56mins actual (2hrs 37mins pedaling), bright & some sun, dry, mild, no wind, av 6.8, max 27.8mph.

Monday 19th Feb 2007, RP, 21.30 miles, 1hr 53mins pedaling, night, dry, mild, light breeze, av 11.3, max 25mph, Temp 9.

Wednesday 21st Feb 2007, RP, BP figure 8, 35.18 miles, 2hrs 59mins pedaling (out for 3hrs 39mins), light & sunny, dry after rain in night, mild, medium breeze, av 11.8, max 25.6, temp 12.

Friday 23rd Feb 2007, RP, 17.24 miles, 1hr 24mins pedaling (out of 1hr 27mins total), Dark & damp, spitting with rain, mild, light breeze, av 12.3, max 26mph, temp 9.

Sunday 25th Feb 2007, BP, 15.91 miles, 1hr 12 mins pedaling (out of 1hr 23 mins total), light, heavy rain, mild, light breeze, av 13.3, max 22mph, temp 8. Total 500.97 miles.

Monday 26th Feb 2007, RP, 17.32 miles, 1hr 24mins pedaling (out of 1hr 26 mins total), dusk/dark, dry, cool, very light breeze, av 12.3, max 26.3, temp 4. Total 518.29 miles.

Wednesday 28th Feb 2007, BP, 13.07 miles, 58mins pedaling (out of 55mins total), dusk, damp/spitting, mild, strong wind, av 13.4, max 23.7, temp 10. Total 531.36 miles.



Jason





(C) JPT.........531.36 miles total

My Kayaking for Feb 2007...

My little wedge of orange in Feb 2007:)


As with my cycling, I will be posting when & where I went kayaking etc...very boring but really for my me I suppose as my memory is shit these days...if I remember rightly;)


Friday 2nd Feb 2007 @ 17:00 for 35 mins. Sunbury-on-Thames, raining, temp 9, wind 9, river fast and high. Test run with new Dagger RPM with Lee.

Blimey! I only went once during Feb! What a bloody wimp!! I suppose I had to start one day. Plus the water in the Thames was very fast flowing because of all the rain we had. And I had yet to discover the delights of Ealing swimming pool too.
The photo is of the graphics on the side of my new kayaky...a Dagger RPM...in orange:)



Jason






(C) JPT 2007

"Shit Paracetamol"

Cross...Words!


So feeble, so vulnerable just now. Feelings of being trapped.........locked up in pain!
My ankle....my right ankle to be more precise is the one single bony thing responsible for my discomfort. It happens sometimes.....Often. Less often though does this kind of pain and weakness spill over into my waking hours, my walking hours, my 'real' hours. Thank goodness that it does only rear it's very ugly head on few occasions compared, in this acute way. I can deal with chronic.....you get used to chronic. It is bad enough being woken from my sleep with this excruciatingly rude bolt of lightning that shoots through my entire ankle bone! Even when I am concious and reading or watching a favorite episode of "Family Guy" in bed does it creep up and sink it's pain infected claws into my calcium phosphate formed walking implement! But at least I am not stranded halfway down a public street or looking through the new book section at my local Borders book store, or even standing, looking confused as to how on earth I am going to even reach my front door. At least I can feel happy with the knowledge that I am in a safe place and won't develop the bleed of all bleeds trying to make my way back to the front door to my flat from my car parked out on the pavement....The garage is just too far away sometimes!
A short walk around the bedroom floor and it gradually feels better......half asleep usually, more often totally under, but also wide awake too, for a little while anyway. Several times a night is not uncommon. Sometimes the sharp stap of pain can be so shocking as to make me wonder what the hell just happened and where on earth I am at....until I see the bedroom wall opposite me, and the chest of drawers and wardrobe, the purple garish curtains from the 70's to my left.....door to my right.....pain absolutely everywhere. Just a little walk around the bedroom soon follows. Doesn't sound right does it. A little walk and it goes away. That can't be right! But it works.....for a while. The painkillers do their job admirably enough. Four in total, all in one go. Codeine Phosphate. But even this mixture of chemicals can only do it's best and no more. I can't keep taking the bastard things! I got hooked a while back on painkillers (Co-Proxamol).....for several years. Just at night and just before bedtime. I was taking up to eight per night....sometimes all in one go! Great feeling, great nights sleep and not much pain......well, at least it was a beautiful kind of pain. Euphoric even....but not good in the long run as I found out. I didn't care what they might be doing to my liver. I was taking these painkillers way before I even knew that I had Hep C. I soon changed though. Not because of the possible liver damage, when I did eventually learn about my new credentials oh no! Nor from the fact that the drug was going to become a 'Banned' painkiller in these parts and would no longer be available. More likely because I ended up in hospital with acute constipation. They gave me morphine injections for the pain this caused. Now there is a proper painkiller! Keep me well away from that stuff.....not a good combination, Morphine & I. I am just glad that I never tried heroin.....it would have got hold of me and never let go of me that's for sure!
As I have said before....my bike is my wheelchair. It really is. Can you believe that I was out on it last night. 17 miles around the larger of the two Queens Parks that are situated near where I live. I should have stayed indoors maybe. But you know me by now right? I had to get out and not be locked up in pain....I would much have prefered to be locked up outside. I was adamant! Believe me when I say that the one minute walk....hobble more like, to the the garage was much much worse than the 1hr 26mins bike ride.....and the bike ride was agony at times!
I got an appointment at the RFH this morning.....a routine Haemophilia check-up. To see how much my joints have deteriorated since the last time. Talk of ankle fusions, talk of this, talk of that. I already know the talk.....& I already know what I am going to say.....that I am dealing with it thank you and that's that. Presuming I even get to the hospital that is. It's true! I am dealing with it I promise. It just hurts quite a bit right now.....more than it does normally. But using it seems to be slightly less painful than not. Just don't piss me off or I am quite likely to explode! But then again.........It may be completely back to normal when I use it. There is no way of telling what it will be like until I walk on it!

My HIV drug experiment is coming along nicely I might add. I have found the culprit responsible for my very strange evening side effects and have shifted it to one am, about half an hour before I take my painkillers. They also help with the Effavirenz sides. If you're wondering if it is alright to swap the time that I take the drug....then let me assure you that it is. The drug in question is only taken once per day and as long as I take it 24hrs apart.....then it is fine. I shall see how it goes. I can already feel the differences swapping it for a later time has made. I know longer feel like I have been filled with someone elses blood....boiling hot blood, swirling around my head, shooting through my veins and rushing past my ears whilst I am trying to write a post or watch an interesting documentary on TV. My brain nor my body weren't working properly during those times.....they wanted to, but couldn't. Then again......?properly worked ever brain my Has;)



Jason






(C) JPT 2007.........518.29 miles

"Yesterday's Pornography #5" (Still Undetectable)

If you can guess what this is a photo of.....I will send you a packet of sweets:)

The answer:)

This people, I promise is the last edition of "Yesterday's pornography" ever! I really don't know what I was thinking really!! Just reading it all back wants me to run to the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen and drink down a whole bottle of bleach! I just balme it on the Interferon/Ribavirin. Let's get this over with shall we!


Written @ 16:43pm Wednesday 21st June 2006 (Mid-Summers day & the day before my 18th Interferon Injection);

Diaries are so F*****g stupid! What is the point of just writing the shit that you did? Oh well, I am going to anyway you f*****g twats! (me now;- no not you people reading my Blog - I like you peeps;)
Since 1st May I have done a load of mountain biking & a bit of kayaking. Everyone is fine. I left the gym because it is so smelly in there! I may join again when it gets colder. My Interferon treatment is fine. Still don't know if it is working or not. I will find out when I get back from my holiday to Scotland.
I got my bike & kayak racks. Washed my car today with buckets..........hose pipe ban! I am driving to Scotland on Friday night (Fort William) for a one week holiday. With Tania, Nathan (Naif), Millie, Daisy & Mum. I am driving all on my own........just the way I like it:) We have had some very nice weather too. Claire is fine and got into San Diego University for August. Jac's cousin is ill in hospital with painkiller problems. See what I mean! Diaries are sooo overated! You can wake up now!
Oh, dinner up at Grahams & Debbies tomorrow at 7pm. They are very nice people. Naif says he might get a kayak (he didn't;). His new computer game he has developed was released and he and his team signed a copy for me. "Urban Chaos-Riot Response".
Still haven't got my Stormtrooper armour yet..........I must pop in there soon.


Written @ 11:55pm Wednesday 5th July 2006 (day before my 20th Interferon Injection);

Been to Scotland, had a fine time..........mostly! Tania & Mum were fighting and it is still on going! In my opinion neither of them are well in the head! The best thing about the holiday was that I did loads of mountain biking all around the Leanachan Forest & The Witches Trail. The mountain bike world cup will be held there in 2007! The midges are bloody ferocious though!!!!!!!!!
Going biking on the 9th with a whole bunch of people to Swinley Forest near Bracknell (see below for me talking now). It is very hot at the moment.......in the 30's! I Love this weather!
Oh, and my HCV 12 week test is very good at this stage! No HCV found in my blood! I have to carry on with the treatment. I am very happy about the news! Everyone is happy about it too. Mum, Jac & Claire.........everyone.


Written @ 23:32pm Tuesday July 2006 (two days before my 23rd Interferon Injection);

Hello, I'm back! Just to say that Daisy has a new mountain bike. A Kona Lana'i in a nice battle ship grey. I got it for her and she Loves it. We went to Crane park & Kneller Park to Cannons Gym and back again. We are going to Richmond Park together soon I hope. It was hot today.......33 degrees! I am doing just fine. Everyone else is the same, ie, ok. BBQ on Saturday just gone at Lee's & Nics (Pams). Everybody was there.............I cooked as usual.....we don't want it burnt do we!


Last entry.........Written @ 13:03pm Saturday 5th August 2006 (5 days before my 25th Interferon Injection);

Hello:) Got my Stormtrooper Armour on the 1st August. Just thought I would tell you sad people out there reading this brain dead shit! (my written diary....not my Blog;). Claire's 25th Birthday is on the 15th. I sent her some books and Thom Yorke's new cd. Ta-da!


Thank god that is over! I just must have thought that it would never get seen by anyone. All those entries make me sound sooo boring and dull and blah blah blah! Anyway it is all over now and my Blog will resume as normal in the morning so to speak:) My Blog was created just 25 days later. According to my calendar I went out cycling 15 times during those "lost" days, where I gashed my right shin open on a low-lying branch (said branch has since been sawn off), I still have the scar today. And also during these lost days I rode down "Deliverance" up on Leith Hill for the first & only time.....bloody hell is that thing dangerous! And I listened to "The Rolling Stones" at Twickenham Rugby Stadium on the 22nd. I say listened because I was right outside on my bike and could hear them over the wall;) And my eldest Sister Samantha (Manf) got married on the 12th up in Doncaster. I didn't go because I had a bleed!


The bike trip that you read about briefly earlier in this post prompted me to get myself a cycle helmet as I had not been wearing one before. Lee's work boss Martin crashed whilst he was out with us (again!) and split his head open! He was alright mind! It was a very long day and I was out 'proper mountain biking' for over 4 hours.....one of which was chasing an ambulance around the forest with Lee so we could direct them back to Martin. The sun was shining all day and was 33 degrees!!!! I Loved it! But I did end up with quite a bad bleed in my right elbow! I did loads of mountain biking in that heat over the summer, mostly over at Leith, Holmbury & Pitch Hills. I can't wait for this summer as without the Hep C tx I should be able to do a whole lot more cycling & kayaking.
I did get to take Daisy out to Richmond Park for the day on her new bike btw. The weather was very hot though and although it was just a ride in the park to me, Daisy was new to that heat on a bike! She did ever so well though and cycled the whole way round the Tamsin Trail in just over an hour (7.3 miles). I normally do it in about half an hour. But she is 14 years old and a computer junkie;) Although she nearly fainted (literally) halfway up one of the steep hills, she Loved it. She hasn't been out with me since either;) But she want's too;)

So that's it.........my last pre-blog diary...I do apologize for the terrible language. It was just what I wrote in my pad at the time. It wasn't aimed at any one reading my Blog;)


Jason





(C) JPT 2007.........500.97 miles

No Time to Sit Down...

Benches get depressed too...


That's what it honestly feels like. Where did the last 365 days actually go? They just seemed to flash by as fast as a bolt of lightning hitching a ride on the back of my bike! Ok.....that is basically what the last year was made up of.........Cycling and biking and mountain biking and kayaking and a little hiking and some more cycling and thats about it really.....oh, and my 50wks of Hep C tx. Bloody hell it went by so fast!

Today is the one year anniversary of the day that I started tx for Hep C. I was scared, I was looking forward, I was worried, I was eager, I was curious, I was not bothered in the very least, I was bothered totally.............But the main thing was is that I was ready.....totally ready! They told me to expect the worst because I would probably experience some really tough shit. I had two weeks to get ready and prepare myself for tx they said. Little did they know, I had been preparing myself (unbeknownst to me) for the last 20 odd years. No smoke, no drink, plenty of exercise and with strong thoughts that I would someday be the only Haemophiliac to have been infected with HIV & HCV left alive on the entire planet! That way of thinking seems to have worked for me. Take the viruses by the bollocks, make friends with them & prevent them from killing you! Thats been my job since I was chucked out of college back in 1987 for not attending, because I was fed up and shit scared of dying......I also had just met a girl (Hi Becky) who took my mind off things & who made a very nice chicken with beansprouts in black bean sauce;)

So, on to the here & now.

Also, today is the day that my fellow Haemophiliac buddy finishes his 48wks worth of Hep C treatment. No mean feat at all! And he already has the brilliant news that he, like me, is still undetectable:) Well done Chris! Bloody well done buddy:) You can find his Blog over on the right hand side.....the top one listed in the 'More Hep C Blogs' section.

Still not looking forward to the dentist next Wednesday! I reckon I will go for an extraction (if at all).....get it out of the way and be done with it for good! But I don't even want to do that! Right now, I am really thinking about postponing the appointmet as the tooth in question isn't hurting at all. Not the best idea I have ever come up with I know, but if I ain't in excruciating pain, I keep my mouth shut;) I know I should get it done, but why change the habit of a life time? I have always been that way in that 'if I'm not in any really bad pain or coughing up blood or brown phlegm or finding blood in my poo or wee or a chest infection or ear infection', then I don't say anything to anyone. I can be a right old stubborn sod at times, but hey, it works for me.

Right.....do you remember the ride I did last Wednesday? The 33 miler giant figure of eight right around where my flat is? Just get a map of Richmond Upon Thames and draw a figure 8 around and joining Richmond & Bushy Parks, sticking to the Thames tow-path where you can and that was basically my ride. I live right in between the two parks right on the Thames. I had worked the mileage all down on paper from last Wednesday and since getting a proper trip computer at the end of last week, I did the exact same ride this Wednesday to see how accurate I was with the old fashioned technique. So after 3hrs 39mins I had actually completed 35.18miles. Two more than I did last week. I completed it slightly quicker too.....by six minutes. Probably had something to do with the fact that I was wearing my new blue Medic-Alert bracelet. It kind of acted as a rocket booster;) The weather was almost the same, what with it having rained the previous night quite heavily, the puddles were dodged with a certain grace and it was sunny too. The main difference was where there was a complete lack of wind (a good thing) last week, this time I was not so lucky! Half of the 35 miles I had a head wind! It was hot work but I am pleased that I did it again and a little quicker too. According to my trip computer, my little legs were pedaling for exactly 2hrs & 59mins. My average speed was 11.8mph, max was 25.6mph (almost undoubtedly down one of the hills in RP) and the temp was a very warm (for cycling) 12 degrees C! Good job I had shorts on:) It was a Lovely ride again. It is amazing how different it was......having said that, I did come across the same white Deer as I did the week before in BP, and they were in the same bloody place.....I got photos this time;) The sunset was beautiful again and the Swans were out in force as usual on the Diana Fountain in BP. And also I noticed that the midges are beginning to come out again along the river. Got to be careful not to breathe the little f*****s in and choke to death! Wether the paramedics know about my Haemophilia status or not isn't going to help me with a mouth full of flies;)
My legs were just as restless during the night and as I had managed last week, I kept the muscle cramps at bay too. It was harder work doing just 18 miles in the Surrey Hills on Sunday afternoon! My legs are ready for more right now. Good job too, as Lee & I are due for a night ride tonight up in the hills of Surrey.....if the rain stays off that is......otherwise it will be the Bushy half of the figure 8. Richmond Park is closed still from 8pm for Deer culling.

Anyway.....enough boring you to near death with eating flies and the complete lack of wind etc;) What about this little experiment that I have begun? Thats right......I started this little experiment last night to find out which of my HIV drugs are responsible for my evening side effects. I am hoping it is just the one pill and not a combination of all three of them. I am going to leave one of the drugs out of my scheduled 20:27pm drug regime and pop it at midnight on it's own and see if I experience the sides in question between 20:27 and midnight & then take the left out drug at midnight and see if the sides in question arise in the three hours they usually last for......does that make sense? It does to me;)
I left out the Sustiva (effavirenz) last night and it looks like I found the culprit already. None of the usual & quite obvious sides between the times that I normally experience them. And then Whooosh! About an hour after the single midnight Effavirenz pill popping, there they are! In all their spaced out whooshing along, blood pumping, mostly undescribable glory! I must continue with the experiment though, just to make sure. I shall put the Effavirenz back in it's normal time slot tonight and swap it with one of the others and make notes etc. But it already looks like I found the one......truly unmistakable sides! I was thinking what would be better.......going through the sides at the normal time in the evening or from midnight onwards? I might have to think about moving my entire drug regime times forward a few hours and take the Effavirenz nearer to 2/3am (when I usually fall asleep). I will have to bring it up with the Docs at the RFH. They don't even know about these sides that I have been experiencing for the last 7 years. But for the last several months the sides have been beginning to piss me off a little. I wanted to wait until I had finished my Hep C tx before I did any experiments etc.....In case they had an effect on the HIV drugs. I knew the sides in question weren't caused by the Interferon/Ribavirin because I have been experiencing these sides for years. Maybe they got a little worse towards the end of tx, maybe not. Or maybe I am just thinking about them more theses days? I shall write another post in a week or so when I have collected all the data.


A little bit about this posts photograph.

It is basically a wooden bench. The sort you would find in an English park or street. The sort that Loved ones have erected in memory of a dead relative. They have little brass plaques screwed onto the front with a little message etc inscribed onto it. This one however I saw floating downstream in the murky waters of the Kingston to Teddington Lock stretch of the river Thames on Wednesday afternoon during my bike ride. In fact, on the direct opposite side to where I took the photo from are the flats where I live. I'd like to think that the bench uprooted itself that sunny morning, fed up with life as a bench and smelly farty bottoms, graffiti, cigarette burns, 'Sharon Loves Darren' knife carvings and just jumped into the deep, dark, cold water of the river Thames to die. But in reality it was most probably pulled out of the ground and thrown into the river by yobs! Yobs who fart all too much, smoke too many funny fags, carry far too many fat marker pens and a who pack a flash flick knife or two to impress the girls........and almost certainly calling themselves Sharon & Darren Asbo! The bench that just wouldn't sit down!



Jason






(C) JPT 2007

Mr Dentist!

Everything rots in the end...



The dentist has me in his chair! Strapped down and powerless to fight off his powerful rubber-clad hands! His mask speaks to me.....tells me what needs doing. One of three possible routes. The first being to fill the recently opened cavity......but he says that just by looking at it, it is probably too deep and won't take a filling. But he will have to look properly first.....get right in there and look see! But not until next week. Wednesday in fact! Fill me up with Factor VIII, swallow a handful of Transatlantic tablets (Tranexamic Acid), sit back and open WIDE!
Option two is a straight forward extraction. Take the bastard thing out completely, once & for all. No more worries, no more problems......just the one sitting....great. Then there is the third and last option. Root canal surgery. Dig into the tooth and clean out the canals, fill them and crown over if necessary.
I'm not totally in Love with any of them to be quite honest. I do hope though that just a filling is required. But failing that, I would probably go for a bloody extraction. The root stuff he said, would require at least three or four visits to complete, with a few weeks in between each visit. I don't fancy that! From the little I have read about root canal dental work & tooth extractions, I am beginning to wish that I had cleaned my teeth when I was young boy. The feeling is a little remenicent of the time when I left a £1200 mountain bike unlocked outside a newsagents to buy a single pint of milk for 20 seconds (I could still see the front wheel by the open door).......it got nicked! I have only myself to blame! I learned from that experience......like brushing my teeth tonight, I am learning.
If anyone reading this has any recommendations on the choices that I have been given, they would be greatly appreciated. The only thing bothering me about the extraction is the bleeding! I don't care about the pain so much. And the thing I don't like about the root canal work is the fact that it can fail down the line sometime, and cause more problems. And the thought of going back several times to get it finished just does my head in! At least the extraction is just the one job.....all done and dusted on the day so to speak. And at least they will all be carried out in the same chair with just a local. No overnight stays like in the old days (Haemophilia) with my Dad asleep in a bed next to mine. I was a kid at the time;)
This part of my mouth (my lower left side, at the back) has been bothering me for years. I just want it gone! Just don't you dare make my mouth bleed to much Mr Dentist! Or else!

So the next seven days build-up to the whatever is done, I will be a grumpy, miserable old sod! God knows what I will be like in the days after next Wednesday! I just won't see anyone. I may be surprised though. It may go so well, I may kiss the dentist. I will take my mind off the impending butchery with plenty of cycling and eating kebab shop bought Humus, as all the Humus in the supermarkets have been taken off the shelves as it has been contaminated with semolina.......Salmonella sorry;) It is more expensive but doesn't half taste better. MMMmmmm!
I have a bike ride planned for tomorrow (it will be tomorrow in 5 minutes;) as it happens. It will be an exact copy of the 33 mile ride I did last Wednesday around the two Royal Parks that I live right bang in the middle of. Kind of a giant figure of eight. I want to see if my old fashioned way of mile mapping is as accurate as it is supposed to be, by doing the whole lot exactly the same but with a modern bicycle trip computer. I shall let you all know presuming I'm not drowned in the forecasted rain for tomorrow. But according to Metcheck.com it should have stopped raining by about two or three pm. 'British weather forecasters'.........I think I will take my waterproof & an extra banana with me;) I got my i-pod charging as we speak...type....read....blog.....whatever. That and it's 1000 tracks should help me get through the rain I am sure. I shall be wearing my new 'Medic-Alert' bracelet too. A nice blue one. I thought about a red one but then decided against it incase there was so much blood it would be invisible and the paramedics might not see it;) Black would have been the same colour as my sleeve and therefore invisible also, so blue it was. The same colour as Ample's lost watch, that was.....found again.....in a dream.....then in real life.....spooky eh;). Also blue is the same colour as the light on a Police car or ambulance or the sea or sky or my favourite movies;).........or the gowns worn by operating theatre staff in some hospitals. So it seems blue is more red than red.....in a funny Jason kind of way.

Let me just finish with the wonderful pancakes I scoffed over at my Mums tonight. It was Shrove Tuesday. I have no idea what it means, but I enjoyed it anyway:) I had all the mixture ready and waiting for me. Flour, milk & eggs all whisked together, poured straight into a hot shallow pan with a little oil and toss half way. All four of them went perfick.........we can paint over the ones stuck to the ceiling like we did last year;) My Mum had some black cherry jam, vanilla sugar (great for the teeth) and lemon juice. Thanks Mum:)


Jason






(C) JPT 2007

"OK Trip Computer"

Lee & I yesterday at the 12 mile mark, coming back over Pitch Hill again.


I got my new speedometer for my bike on Thursday. It is a Cateye wireless Micro. I fitted it with the help of my friend Lee and we then went out Friday night and gave it a test run. We did a leisurely hour and a half around Bushy Park and the Thames tow-path at night. Just over 17 miles. Then again yesterday afternoon up in the woods of Holmbury & Pitch Hills and also we took in Winterfold Woods too, which is right over the west side of Pitch Hill, just to see what they were like. We only saw a tiny bit (we kind of just went right around the outside of it) but it looks like there might be some quite nice 'Hidden' single track in there. I will be going back soon.
We cycled 18.04 miles in 2hrs 40mins (slow, but not so leisurely.....plenty of uphill in mud!), and we were out for nearly 4hrs! The Cateye tells you exactly how long your wheels have been spinning....so we must have been standing still a total of 1hr 20 mins. That would have been when we stopped to do laces up, take top layers off, take photographs, lowering & raising saddles, helping three other lost mountain bikers find there way, watch 10 horses trot past, complete with riders (every single one of them said thank you to us for letting them by.....the riders;), eat food, drink, look at views, have wee-wee's, check our OS map.
Doing yesterdays 18 miles was harder than doing 33 miles around the local parks here last Wednesday! My right elbow hurt from all the battering it rececieved! It was so much fun though:) Along the way (according to my trip computers other readings) our average speed was 6.8mph, max speed 27.8mph. It was interesting to find out that from the car park up to the top of BKB is one mile (all up hill) and BKB is half a mile long and all down hill:) We did that twice; Once at the very start of the ride and again right at the very end. As you can imagine, we were quite tired after all that. I am going to do that 33 miles again this Wednesday with my trip computer to see how close my measurments were, working my route out the old fashioned way.
I know I can trust my new speedo to give me the correct mileage, as I did a little experiment using my new speedo and a website called MapMyRun.com (big thanks to WarriorWomen). Basically you find the area you want to map using Google Earth and put down a series of markers including a start and a finish and by following your exact route, you can see how may miles it is to your favourite Macdonalds;) I plotted a route from my friends house in Strawberry Hill (I could even see Lee's Brothers split screen VW camper in the drive) and went to the end of the road and marked all the way around Twickenham Green, being careful to stay on the right side of the road and not to cut corners etc, and back again to his house and the mile mark was exactly four doors past his. I then did it on the bike with the new speedo and low and behold.........It clicked over to one mile four doors past Lee's!
How about that for accuracy! Now I want to go and check other places too. They say that the Tamsin Trail in Richmond Park is 7.3miles long. I shall find out. This means I will have to stick to the trail all the way around, which I hardly ever do. I don't mean that I cut corners. I do quite the opposite in fact and try to make the route a little more interesting and longer.

All my mileage this year has been added to my 'Mileage counter' right at the foot of my Blog now. I also worked out my mileage for the whole of last year. From the scribbles I put onto my calendar, I have ended up with a figure of approximately 3420 miles (Not including the little cycling I did at the gym between Jan & June 2006). So all I have to do is beat that this year I suppose. I have put 3600 as my target for the whole of this year. That is about 10 miles on average per day.......I don't go out every day, so we will see;)

So on to other things. You may remember I had some work done on some teeth back in December. Well the work that was carried out (basically a very large filling) has failed! I think it has anyway. I can't see what has happened but either part of the filling has come away or come loose or part of the tooth next to it has come away. Part of the nerve is exposed anyway and is very painful at times. He better inject my gum with pain removing liquid or I may well be in prison this time on Wednesday for murdering a dentist & his assistant;) This all happend on Thursday and the best they can do is tomorrow. I have been hoping all weekend that it didn't get worse or fall out completely! It hasn't. As you know, I hate the dentist and can't wait for it to be over.....again!

My cold has gone now and I am feeling great again. With my Hep C tx all over and done with, I am feeling more or less as I did whilst on tx. They say that the drugs take a while to completely leave your body, but either I just have no feelings or I didn't get any side effects in the first place? One thing is for sure.........I feel just as I did (physically) before I even began tx, and I felt great.
I still get the HIV sides after my evening tablets. For some stupid reason, I thought that they just might go away once I finished my Hep C tx. Fortunately they only occur once a day and for about three hours. If I experienced them every hour of the day I would have stopped taking them long ago!

One last thing.........Congrats to my fellow Blogger & Haemophiliac who has just got word of his still being clear of Hep C after 48wks of tx. Good on ya Chris:)


Jason






(C) JPT 2007

"The Yellow Cable"

Mind your feet!



"Quick!, get off the bus....I am dying for a wee!".

As much as I would Loved to have been the first into the public toilets in the bus terminal......I was not! Already there were queues, waiting impatiently by the only cubicles in the place.......two! With my hands all but cupping my groin I took a look over at the wall which catered for the "Piss-only" customers. Now let me tell you this, The "Standing Room Only" section normally doesn't get my attention even when I am desperate to empty the little sack'O'yella! It's not because I am embarrassed about the prospect of being watched by the other sprinklers or about the size of 'things to come'.......Fnar! Fnar! I just cannot physically manage to wee if there are already people standing there or even if I am at an empty wall knowing someone might walk in at any minute puts me off! I was more than desperate!
There were already two people that had taken to the last resort of the pissing wall and more people were still bounding in through the toilet door. I had to think quick.....Very quick! As I stood thinking about what to do, the cubicles queues had gotten even longer. I decided to head for the wall and at least take a space up before they all disappeared and I was left in the middle of the room pissing my pants!
So there I was about five men along and in a matter of only seconds the whole line was full. I was quite relieved, but not yet in the way that I most wanted. I had my space safe and all I had to do was introduce the little one down below to the thick stale air of the urinals! As I stood there touching elbows with the men on each side of me I tried my hardest to look straight ahead and concentrate on the job in hand.......so to speak;). The feeling to need to pee was still there. In fact the feeling had become incredible by now and I new I would be able to urinate if only I took the thing out! "Take it out already!" I said to myself. Maybe I am a little embarrassed then. "Know one is interested in you & your willie you silly boy!". It was true. All they are doing is trying to have a wee just as you are.......actually they had already begun as I could hear the numerous hissess of piss pouring into the filthy trough at the bottom of the wall. I was pretty sure that I could feel it splashing up onto my shoes and trouser legs. I tried not to imagine all the billions of piss particles floating in the air, invisibly sucked into my nostrils as I breathed in. It smelled pretty bad in there already and now with all this fresh piss it was becoming unbearable!
That was it, I was either going to wet myself right here in front of everyone or I was going to join the rest of them and turn on the "Yellow Cable". As I looked down to manage the task at hand (or should that be 'In hand'), I noticed that the gap between where my feet were at the very edge of the trough and the wall was about 4ft wide! It was like pissing into a small river and like a rivers edge it sloped down slighty towards the relentless yellow torrent. I felt a strong urge to hold onto the men on each side of me to keep my balance. I decided not too as the thought of maybe loosing my balance and pulling a whole line men all of whom were holding onto their pride & joy into the trough became all too much. I shook the thought out from my mind and decided I would have to try and lean on the wall opposite. It seemed as if I could reach it but what about getting back! And one handed too!
This was it.......I was beginning to urinate and once I started I just new that I would not be able to stop. Even just the thought of stopping once in full flow would put an end to the flow and I would not be able to start up again! It was now or never! I shuffled a little closer to the edge with the tip of my shoes overlapping the lip of the trough by about three inches. If I was going to need the far wall for balance, then I was going to have to be as close as possible to it. Ahhhh......That feels good!! There I was, feeling more releived than a hedghog that had just safely crossed the M25 during rush hour. I looked up towards the ceiling and felt my bladder getting more & more empty by the second....it felt wonderful!
But just as I was about halfway through, I looked back down.....too quickly! I felt myself lose my balance. For a split second a small but easily acheivable list of options sprang into view in front of my eyes. I quickly ruled out the first option which was to fall backwards. The last thing I wanted to do was to piss all over the backs of my fellow yellow cable layers, or god forbid grab one of them on top of me as I stumbled back! Option two was no option either, even more so than option one to be quite honest. This was to fall sideways and in doing so cause a human domino effect all down the line..........I felt a very strong urge to avoid this option at all costs for obvious reasons! So there was just the third and final option left. Option three was to fall forward and hoped to jehovah's wellington boots that I would be able to reach the wall on the other side. I started to fall forward and out went my free arm. I saw the slippery wall approaching fast and just then thought I'm not going to make this! I closed my eyes and hoped for the best.
Slap!
There, I made it! I had reached the wall and didn't even slip. I couldn't care less that the wall was cold & wet or that it was filthy. All I cared about was that I wasn't flat on my face in a deep, hot, stinking river of piss.
As I continued to pass water......lots of it.......I took a look to my left.....men pissing.......to my right........pissing men! Everyone was pissing. Everything seemed fine until I realized just how far over I was leaning! And to make matters worse my grip on the wall was beginning to fail me! I needed to get into an upright position asap! With the recent hose pipe ban now lifted, my lower extremity super soaker wasn't going to stop for know one! I tried to right myself with just the one hand available but to no avail. I would need both hands if I was going to pull this little stunt off. I would just have to leave my little friend all on his oddy-nocky and hope that he finished up soon. It was out of my hands now;) My winkie & my hand bid their farewells to each other and with the unmistakable slapping sound of palm on piss soaked enamel, I found myself with two arms now planted on the wall opposite. From the side I must have resembeled some kind of human bridge with a leak. A bridge that was about to collapse and fall down!
I pushed! I pushed hard and new I only had one attempt at righting myself. With a quick look at all my current anchors....hands slipping, both of them....! Feet hanging over the edge of the trough....both of them....! Things didn't look too good to say the least! And then my biggest mistake, a quick glance at the seemingly bottomless trough of doom passing beneath me with the only thing missing being a group of minaiture piss Loving kayakers heading off for a touch of white water kayaking. The dark yellow flow from left to right and it's swelling & rising pissy frothy tide must have put me off because when I looked back up to the wall I lost my balance.......along with my footing and my hand on the whole situation literally grinding to a very wet & stinky halt right before my very eyes! I lost something else at that exact moment too......
My dignity!.....as I was forced to put my foot right into the hot foaming torrent! Accidentally spraying piss all over the place, on my trouser legs, my dry foot and the men standing next to me! It must have been all of about a foot deep! It was hot and made me want to puke! My shoe soon filled with the boiling rivers contents which made me squirm at the thought of all that piss in my shoe soaking into my skin! I had to give in as it was useless by now to try and stay out and reluctantly put my other foot in with a loud plop and splash. The heat of the piss made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, but at least I was upright and didn't have piss in my mouth, eyes & ears!
Foot deep in the trough, I slowly turned around to face the rest of the line who were all by now doing their best to burn tiny little holes into my already bright red face. I looked down to my feet. Gone were the kayakers.....gone was the bridge......gone were the white waters........All I saw were two feet.....my feet, in a gentlemens lavatory "Standing Only" piss trough absolutely fucking filled with the putrid stuff! A lone cigarette butt floated by as if to mock me.
I excepted my lot now and left my willie hanging out from his little denim window, dribbling his last breath and stepped out of the trough dragging up several large puddles of piss with me as my feet found the edge and the saftey of the toilet floor proper.........With eveyone watching me in disbelief as I splish splashed my way to the door and back to the bus...



Jason






(C) JPT 2007

My Bike Shaped Valentine...

The end of a tiring day.....legwise;)Bushy Park yesterday.


Well it seems my lungs are alright. Bit of a runny nose but no infection down inside the old lungs, which is good. I feel worse if I stay indoors doing nothing when I have a cold thats for sure! I felt great out there yesterday on my bike. I wasn't going to go to start with, but the thought of staying in doing nothing (especially on Valentines Day) like I did on Tuesday......Well, I did wash my bike mind, and replaced my front brake pads with some new ones and had trouble getting the front wheel back on the bike. The disc wouldn't fit between the new pads and the brake fluid needed bleeding. Anyway, where was I? Yes. The thought of staying indoors again, and on such a wonderful day too, was just non-existent. It's just a cold and not Flu thank goodness! It does remind me a liitle of how I was feeling at the start of my tx last year, but without the aches and chills. I won't be calling the RFH now as I am fine as far as I am concerned. A snotty nose does not make Flu!
I had a nice long ride on a Lovely clean bike. It is sitting in the garage right now absolutely covered in mud waiting for another wash! 3 hours and 45 minutes worth of mud! Pretty long as weekdays go but I just didn't want to go home. So off I started from my flat near Hampton Wick at about 13:40 along the main roads and the Thames tow-path (past Marble Hill House) to Richmond, over the bridge and back along the river to the bottom of the Royal Star & Garter building, up the hill to Pete Townshends house and into Richmond Park. During my lap of the park, I noticed just how much it must have rained in the night! The stuff was literally pouring down off the higher ground like no ones business. The problem with this is that it pools right where the trail is and in places it can get rather wet and muddy. Fresh on the old legs though. I had shorts on yesterday:) So after the wet but sunny lap, then a quick look at the view over Twickenham and the surrounding area, down behind Townshends house again, along the tow-path to Ham House carpark and by road to Teddington Lock......Trust me when I say that the tow-path between the car par and Teddington Lock is atrocious at the best of times, but when it has been raining it's bloody awful! So onto my short detour down Riverside Road and down a little alley back to the lock. On my way down the alley, I saw a little bunch of Crocuses surrounding this small tree & two middle aged men were looking at them. Maybe they were quite rare? The flowers....not the men. Maybe the flowers are attracted to all the piss, poo and litter along this section. No it can't be that or there would be crocuses everywhere.......Maybe this was the only tree that the dogs don't wee against;)
Right, Teddington Lock, not just two minutes from my flat & a nice hot bath, but the sun was still in the sky, albeit very low, so on I went along the river to Kingston. I cycled into the area just by the bridge where you're not allowed to cycle and duely jumped off when I saw four Police Officers on patrol;) It gave me a few minutes to check the view out up the Thames, looking towards Hampton Court, the sun shining directly towards the bridge. This is where all the worlds Swans that aren't in Bushy Park or Richmond Park come and float around and eat white bread from Tescos with their babies. I on the other hand downed an entire Cadbury's dark chocolate flake and a medium sized banana. All I had to eat up until this point was a bowl of cornflakes and another banana for breakfast.
Back onto 'Dessert Storm', over Kingston Bridge, sharp left onto the tow-path all the way to Hampton Court Palace, looking as wonderful as ever I might add. Then by pavement to the main road entrance to Bushy Park. Before I began my lap of the park I made my way to the very expensive snack kiosk in the main car park to see what they had to eat. I chose a blueberry muffin for £1.30 and scarpared! I had stuffed it inside my rucksack for later, in case I needed it.
I continued my sun filled lap of Bushy Park, trying to stay as close to the perimeter as possible, making the whole lap longer and more enjoyable. It was sticky though. Very sticky. Afterwards, I felt as though I had been around twice. The park is beautiful on a day like yesterday. Much flatter than RP and a lot smaller too. I prefer RP to BP just because of the size and the couple of hills in there. I do like a hill climb even if it is only little. And the descents are cool too. There are absolutely no hills whatsoever in Bushy Park. Unless you count the tiny hump back bridge (called 'The Red Brick Bridge') crossing the stream running between the 'Pheasantry Woodland Gdns' and the 'Waterhouse Woodland Gdns'. If you're going fast enough you can actually get a little air;)
After completing the whole lap, bumping into a small herd of pure white Deer! (very unusual), then passing the NPL complex (National Physical Laboratory). I made my way to Kingston gate and crossed back over the bridge, past where the Swans hang out and along the Thames tow-path again back to Teddington Lock. This is where I stopped to scoff my muffin. Right in the middle of the little suspension bridge there. I was looking into the car park of Teddington Studios and wondered who owned the brand new silver Rolls Royce Phantom parked there. Then I saw the water coming over the weir into the Thames where it becomes tidal. Absolute torrents! To think I kayak in that stuff. It really must have rained in the night! The non-tidal (up-stream) side and the tidal (down-stream) side were nearly the same level!
The muffin was great, but not as nice as the ones my Mum makes. And my Mums are free;) It is only two minutes to my flat from the bridge at Teddington and I still didn't want to go home. So I went back to Bushy Park thinking I would see the sun set behind the Diana Fountain. Which I did. I cycled right by my flat down Broom Rd and continued to Kingston Bridge roundabout and into the park and over to the fountain, just in time to take a photo of the sun set behind the statue. Trod in a few piles of Goose poo and headed off (finally) back home before it got too dark (I got back at my garage door at 17:25). I had no lights with me.
Got home, ran the bath, took off my cycling gear and noticed just how dirty I was when I took off my socks! It looked as though I was still wearing them;) So that's it........My Valentines Day. A date with a bike;)

Yesterday in Richmond Park.


I am off to Kingston to look at some wireless trip computers for my bike (I might wash my bike tomorrow, ready for Lee & I and our Holmbury/Pitch Hill Friday night ride ). You probably noticed my little mileage counter thingy right at the bottom of my Blog. I just thought it would be interesting to see how many miles I do this year. This means I am going to have to work out the old fashioned way all the miles I have done so far. I jot down in my calendar when & where I have been out. These jottings, an OS map, a sharp pencil, a blank piece of paper and a ruler should give me a good idea of my mileage. It might take a few days though, so bear with me;)

Crickey! I just worked out how many miles I did yesterday.......just over 33 miles.....approx 53 and a half km. It amazes me just how many miles one can cover on a bike in that time. I will add it to my mileage bar right away:) The most miles I did in an afternoon last summer was 25, all over my three favorite hills in Surrey.



Jason






(C) JPT 2007

"This One's Called Disorder"

Up against the wall...



The air through my mouth, the air through my nose,
The air through my throat, creeps the air as it goes,
The square by the door on the kitchen floor,
The carpet by my bed as I feel for more,
Long healthy life and a death free zone,
My numbers are up, outside & at home,
The gauge, the car a blink of my eye,
The numbers again in case I die,
The bubbles in the bath on my body, my skin,
The lines in the road or trail, no matter how thin.

Remote controls right side up,
Bloody clocks......hardly ever add up!
The little light on my Mac tells me to go,
Only once at it's brightest, otherwise no,
Keypad lock & it's audible tone,
Cannot finish with this bastard phone,
An open window in the room that I'm in,
The tiniest of gaps......physcologically thin,
Lip balm standing, pill holder points the way,
Paving slabs level & even I pray.

Blinking eyes seeing wrong not right,
Of everything dark, nowhere near enough light,
Names & their letters mean the death of me,
A few select ones .... and in order I see,
Bastard eyes & shallow breathing,
Can't go nowhere without actually leaving,
Come & go they do for sure,
For every one a thousand more,
Germs & death will always be with me,
Maybe not yet but one day......you'll see!



Jason

P.s. This photo was taken whilst I was at Richmond Upon Thames College in Twickenham sometime in 1987. This was the year that I met my first Love Becky (she was in the same class as me), Becky was my first ever girlfriend too. This was also the same time I was told that I had HIV. I'm not sure if it was before or after this photo was taken. Looking at my face, I'd say I had already been told.






(C) JPT 2007

No More Injections...& Filthy Germs!

Tree protected in Richmond Park today....It seems I need it;)

"No more injections My arse" But you know what I mean...I can only wish;)

So along came last Thursday (my Interferon injection day) and.......well, straight by me it went. Seems as though my tx routine has already been forgotten. I didn't even think about it until the following day. My Ribabvirin tablets I always new that I wouldn't miss those, just because that they went in amongst my HIV tablets. I know that not even a week has passed by since I took my last Riba, but I feel great still, just as I have done for months. But having said that, I can't really tell how I am feeling properly since on the day before my last Riba, I came down with a cold. The sore throat & swollen glands type. It hasn't gone down to my chest yet (I'm waiting).........this is what I am always paranoid about. Apparently the whole area where I live (Richmond-Upon-Thames) has had it or is suffering from it, including the whole of my family! I reckon I first got it from sitting on the Richmond to Hampstead Silverlink line on the 5th Feb. If you want a common cold to take home with your PCR test result or a specific germ to put in your sandwich or even a particular bacteria to stir into your favorite hot drink, then look no further than that train and the coughing, spluttering, puss-spewing passengers that live in it! They should be shot!
So here I am six days later still with a body full of my fellow humans sickness and contemplating if it would be a good idea to go out for a local bike ride (check at the bottom of this post to find out if I did indeed get out on 'Dessert Storm'). Oh, that reminds me......I haven't been out on my bike since last Tuesday. I am going stir crazy for sure! My recent crash on my bike in Richmond Park (Tuesday) saw me with a very sore shoulder, a smacked left knee, a walloped right shin (that bled) and a knocked right 'Bridge of foot'. When you crash into a foot odd high fence, you don't just fly comfortably through the air until you settle softly onto the kingsize mattress that has been conveniently placed down for your landing!........Oh no! What really happens is that as the bike that was just at the moment before impact your bestest friend in the whole wide world, now becomes you own worst enemy! The bastard thing comes to a complete and utter standstill from......at a guess......20mph, and you & your bicycle bid your farewells with one another (very quickly) then out go your arms as if to grab hold of a wad of fifty pound notes that are dangling just in front of you by a thin piece of string. Then, following your arms comes the rest of your body. But wait! What is this thing made of aluminium and other assorted grades of (hard) metals just in front of my legs? It is my once friendly bike........He's not going anywhere! Wallop goes my knee square on the stem! Crunch goes my shin as it scrapes along (in slo-mo) across my handlebar amd then crack goes my 'Bridge of foot' (the last piece of my body to touch my bike) as it slightly........Just slightly taps the hard, pointed tip of my bar end! Then.........and only then do I begin to fall back towards a very hard and mattress free area that is the ground. Ouch!
But my crash injuries are the least of my worries. I was very fortunate not to brake anything and thankful for having a helmet on top of thngs. But this cold, sore throat and soon to be chest thing will really piss me off if it doesn't get better soon. If it does go to my chest I shall be forced to ring up the RFH for their opinion and as usual, they will almost certainly tell me to get my lazy arse up there right away so they can give me more of those wonderful, tasty sweets called antibiotics.....Thats 'An-e-bye-oh-icks'. I just stopped taking six tablets per day; I don't need anymore......We'll see.

***Update***

The River Thames view from Richmond Hill today.

Well, I did manage to find myself out this afternoon, despite my sore, swollen throat and the beginnings of what feels like a very annoying cough. But I just had to didn't I. I couldn't stay in any longer.....it was driving me mad! I thought I would take it easy and just have a pleasant stroll around Richmond Park. Which I did, & it was, but as anyone knows on a Sunday afternoon in the park, it can get quite busy what with other cyclists, runners, whole families with their bikes and whole families without their bikes and about six thousand dogs too (without their bikes I think I ought to add;) So although it was a very pleasant ride, it was also rather slow. Probably just as well as I didn't want to crash again so soon after the last one. I must admit though that I did have a few close shaves on my way to the park along the streets by the Thames in Twickenham. I clipped the end of my handlebar on one of two wooden posts that I was trying to squeeze through.....too fast! Instantly, I told myself to calm down and take it easy.......so I did. I don't know what the matter with me is these days! I just want to go as fast as I can and bollocks to everything else! I will change.
The weather was great although since I last ventured out on my bike it had rained a little and the Tamsin Trail was littered with numerous muddy puddles. After just two minutes, I was speckled with tiny black dots of mud. 'I'm back.' I thought to myself:)
So one single loop of the park later, as close to the perimeter wall as is possible (kind of) & a throat that felt as though I had let an arsonist move in, I was back at Richmond Gate. I had a quick look at the fence that I cycled into on Tuesday and giggled to myself before having a look at the view over the Thames just outside the parks entrance (see photo).
I think it amazing just how quickly the body heals after a fall like that. All I can say is that I hope I am as lucky next time........and there will be a next time (unfortunately). You can't expect to do what I do with minimal experience and get away scott free everytime. I'd like to bet that most Haemophiliacs are the same in that when they were growing up and always being told not to do this & don't do that........Well in the end you just start to rebel I suppose and think bugger that! I'll do what I want to!
All in all I feel good. Bit of a headache. I was with my friend Jac this evening for a meal and I shook my head and she asked what the hell I was doing. I said that I was checking to see if I had a headache.........and that indeed I did have one. 'Why shake your head though'. she said.
'Because I very rarely get headaches and don't know if I have one or not unless I shake my head'. I laughingly said back.
She just thinks that I am crazy!..........She's not wrong there eh;)



Jason

P.s. Ample; The river photo looks like another one of those 'C's again...Also, If I'm not mistaken, the beam of light must be coming down on roughly where my flat is too.







(C) JPT 2007

Depressed are the...

The depression of my boot...



Depressed are small sections of carpet as I shuffle from one room to the other
Depressed is My cheek when I have a bad toothache
Depressed are the soles of my shoes as I ponder in Tescos
Depressed is the mattress from the dead weight of my dreaming body
Depressed are the buttons on the poxy TV remote control
Depressed is the flattened cushion under my great big fat arse
Depressed are the pedals by my feet whilst driving to the station
Depressed is the bottle of ketchup as it oozes it's contents all over my chips
Depressed are five areas on my forehead when I am fed up
Depressed is the return key when I command a new sentence
Depressed are the centres of all jarred food stuffs before I buy
Depressed is the middle of any trampoline you care to choose
Depressed are the giant blisters on the front of my Effavirenz
Depressed is the snow that creaks with uncertainness under my excited weight
Depressed are the dirty black rubber buttons that open the train door
Depressed is the air just in front of my index finger when I point
Depressed are the plungers of all the syringes I have ever used on myself
Depressed is the tissue that blots out the bleeding needle hole
Depressed are my eyelids when I am tired or have something irritating them
Depressed is the skin around my ankle when it becomes all too much
Depressed are My bicycle gear levers as I float around Richmond Park like a ghost
Depressed is the right hand click on my i-pod when it isn't singing to me
Depressed are the keys on my phone as I re-set my alarm for my HIV meds
Depressed is the snail that I accidentally crushed outside my bedroom window
Depressed are the little clips that hold in my favorite DVD's in their cases
Depressed is my imagination when I am in pain
Depressed are my senses for three hours after my evening HIV meds
Depressed is the shutter of my camera as it reads you like a book
Depressed are all the lights on our dark and dreary Planet



Jason

P.s. Happy Birthday Evie.....Sorry that your Uncle Jae couldn't be there.







(C) JPT 2007

"The Inevitable Blood Post!"

Hep C free.........for now!


What's this man doing? Doesn't he know when to stop....or at least slow down a little! I am talking about the crash I had yesterday afternoon in Richmond Park. I really don't think I was concentrating fully to be quite honest. There I was right at the end of an entire loop of the park, cycling as usual around the Tamsin Trail, always clockwise too. It just seems better going around clockwise. Better down hills and better views. Or maybe going clockwise seems like I am going forward and not backwards?
I must have been......in fact I have been thinking about Mondays PCR result, as I was all that night long too. I had my i-pod with me and was, as usual, having a great ride. I overtook everyone I came across, dodged muddy puddles, squinted at the Suns lowness in the almost cloudless wintry blue sky, smiled at the odd park user only to be ignored right back.....I don't know why I bother!
And then along came the point where I started.......Richmond Gate. I had just overtaken two other mountain bikers blasting their way towards the same gate as me. I was way ahead of them when I eventually got to the bottom of the slight decline which ends right by the main gate where all the traffic comes in and out. It's pretty fast by the time you reach the end. I took a little short cut which meant leaving the gravel path I was on and up across some grass and onto a section of tarmac where the gates are. I have favored this little shortcut a few times at the end of my ride in the park, even at night and always got through unscathed. But not this time. I was pretty sure that there wasn't a fence there last time! Not that far across anyway. I slammed both my disc brakes on hard and slid across the grass until I eventually hit the one foot high wooden fence. My bike stayed the grassy side and I became detached from my bike and gravity took over! Out went my arms......just like Superman and....Wham!! Gravity had finished with me and placed me heavily onto the rock hard tarmac the opposite side of the fence. My left shoulder taking most of the impact and then crack went my helmet as it bounced off the ground! I was left sitting up, legs apart stretched out flat like a pierrot doll, looking straight ahead in the direction I was travelling. A woman heard the crash and looked around to see what the hell had happened. Then she looked back and walked out the park. The cyclists that I had overtaken just 30 seconds before cycled right by me as my bike sat wedged under the fence and I picking myself up feeling like a right twit! A very lucky twit I might add! Both the cyclists completely ignored me! It doesn't surprise me to be perfectly frank. Richmond Park is full of snobs at the best of times and most of the cyclists that use it only care about themselves.

Richmond Gate, Richmond Park, yesterday. As you can see from the skid in the photo, I missed the required trajectory by about three metres to the right! One thing that did strike me when I looked at the scene directly after the crash was the colour of the fence beam that I hit. It is obviously lighter in colour than the others and although I can't remember what I was thinking right before the crash, I am pretty sure that I would have thought it was a gap through. Ok.....Maybe I was just a very silly boy!

My left shoulder seems to be my prefered choice of impact these days. It must be instinct that sends me over onto that side of my body....away from my poor right arm & ankle....& a bit of luck too. This is my fourth time in just over one year now where I have seen myself go over like this in various 'Cyclical' (as in cycle;) conditions....once up Holmbury Hill, once up Leith Hill and twice (in different places) in Richmond Park. My friend Jac says I am a nutcase and a maniac! We had a whole phone conversation about this last night. She called me a hypocrite when I said I would never leave home without my crash helmet. She called me that because I never used to wear one and I tell her to wear one now. I learned the easy way when I saw a friend split his head open in Swinley Forest last summer! I went out and got one very soon after. Jac reckons she won't ever need one because she doesn't do the nutty things that I do. I don't get her sometimes! What about the cars & lorries I tell her. Most of them don't give a poodles piss about cyclists. She had nothing interesting to say except that she is very careful. Too careful in my book! I take risks all the time when I am out on my bike on or off the roads. But I am not stupid......anymore. Get yourself a helmet Jac, for fucks sake! And I will promise to calm it down a little on my bike.
If this had happened up Leith or Pitch Hill in Surrey, I would have been surrounded by fellow bikers. If there were any around that is. Most of the time, especially in the week, the place is deserted! If I wasn't wearing a helmet up there they would have laughed their heads off at me. Richmond Park wasn't so deserted.....never is in the day.....but it might as bloody well have been! Tossers! Having said that; Ample, a wonderful fellow blogger, who I also e-mail every now & then, asked what I would have done if my crash had been more serious. And this got me thinking. What if I had been knocked unconscious and was bleeding? I was alone this time....& lucky. I am usually alone out on my bike. Lee, if he was there and hadn't followed me over the same cliff or something would know exactly what to do and also knows all about my Haemophilia and viruses. I have thought in the past what I might do if I was bleeding and was conscious. I would have to tell anyone attending to me to stay away from my blood because of the HIV etc. And also to call an ambulance ASAP because of the Haemophilia. I am pretty sure that I would act totally rationally in a situation as that. I'd like to think so anyway. But what if I was unconscious & alone? I know the answer.....and that is to wear something that tells anyone who might (miracles have happened) come over and help;) I know about the 'Medic-Alert' bracelets that I probably should be wearing, but why don't I wear one? I have know idea. Actually, even whilst typing this out I am thinking that I must get one. Just for my bike rides. Definitely. I shall look into it. Thanks Ample.
I used to have one years ago when I was a kid. It was a simple silver disc attached to a rather long silver chain that I wore around my neck. I absolutely hated it! I wanted a nice trendy bracelet but my Dad said that it has to be around my neck because in the event that my head gets cut off and the necklace gets lost then it won't matter as I will bleed to death instantly! His words....not mine:) I still have the silver disc somewhere. All it has on it is a red snake wrapped around a cane or something....& the word 'Haemophilia' engraved on the back with a special emergency phone number to the RFH. I was a medallion man before I even had hairs on my chest;) I was never decapitated as far as I know.....I could have had that bracelet afterall!
I am alright now though (he says). I hurt a bit still and slept weird & had strange dreams in the night.....hundreds of them....very confusing, because I was forced to sleep on my back all night long. Last time I was forced to sleep on my back.....I had a wonderful time;) Also my throat seems to be a little sore! Surely not from the crash.....Most likely as a result from the train ride up to the RFH on Monday. People & their germs. They shouldn't be allowed onto public transport;) It will be interesting to see how this sore throat develops! These sore throats & swollen glands are the very thing that I strive to avoid most of my poxy life! I would rather receive a gash on my leg than cold or flu! I am healthy though, so I have a head start on most people. As it seems I have always had.
I didn't go straight home after the crash. I cycled the small distance to the 'Promenade' on Richmond Hill, overlooking the stunning view of the Thames & the setting sun. I passed an artist painting his version of the wonderful view. Made famous by the artist J.M.W.Turner in the early 1800's. I leant my bike up against the metal railings, and tried to feel how I had faired from the crash. My shoulder hurt, left knee and right shin! My head was fine.........If you cycle and don't have a helmet.......GET ONE! My bike was alright too, not that that matters of course. I won't be going out on my bike for a bit.......hopefully not too long!
I new I had to go home and fill myself up with my favorite tipple.........FactorVIII. After a gentle ride back down the hill and through the roads behind Petersham & Ham, over Teddington Lock Bridge (all mostly no handed, resting my shoulder), I was home and having an injection. I took off my cycling gear with some difficulty, shoulder hurting but nothing serious. The knock on my knee was fine and the knock on my shin had broken the skin unbeknownst to me and bled down to my ankle length sport sock. I stared at the blood for a moment and wondered for how long it would be without Hep C. Fresh blood has such a fantastic colour don't you think?
After inspecting my blood for a while, I was sure that it looked different. Cleaner somehow. Brighter than normal & with a certain sparkle that I haven't seen in a while.........I just had to show you some of it;)

Personally, I think it is beautiful to look at!

Hey. also today is my last day of Hep C tx. Tonight I will be quite happily chugging down my last three Ribavirin tablets. I took my last injection last Thursday. I always seem to do things differently don't I. I can't wait to see if there is a difference in the way that I feel. You'll probably see me over on the forum very soon. The 'Post-Treatment Experience' section is waiting for me. Plus I am looking forward to receiving my medal from Ross;)


Jason






(C) JPT 2007

"Even Dog Shit Smells Wonderful.........Today!"

Pitch Hill, Peaslake, Surrey.


I was in such a foul mood last night and this morning! Pissed off with this waiting lark for my PCR test result. Pissed off with my ankle hurting me so much. Pissed off with my right elbow hurting me so much. I even wrote a post this morning which I will have to scrap and re-do in this new one considering that I now have my result!.....bear with me folks. That's right, I almost rang them at about 12pm today to find out if my result was ready yet. I was so pissed off that instead of phoning, I went up there in person unannounced with five months of FactorVIII tx sheets that they wanted and to get that LFT blood sample taken again. As it turned out they didn't need the LFT sample to be taken again and then said that they had my PCR result ready for me. I couldn't believe it! I wasn't even expecting them to have it. I was just hoping that by going up there they would just check to see where it had got to & maybe (a small maybe) it would be ready. But after about ten minutes talking to the receptionist Zita (I don't even remember what we were talking about, all I could think about was what I would find out in the next few minutes) and then my HCV consultant came out and sat down next to me with some printouts with my 'Lost' LFT figures on one sheet and my PCR result on the other! As she handed them across to me she said... 'These are for you.' I looked at the LFT levels as she told me that they had been taken on the 22nd Jan afterall and that they didn't need another sample. I didn't care where they had got to and looked at the next printout, eager to see what the score was! I slid the LFT printout away from the one underneath it and looked carefully at the text printed there. I was anticipating the worst and then read the text...

...It read........."CLINICAL COMMENT"; No evidence of HCV viraema.

I said to my Doc, 'Is this good?.......It didn't even register, obviously. She said that it was very good. Then I read the text underneath where it said; HCV PCR TEST RESULT......HCV not detected.
I went a little quiet and began to smile a little too. Inside though I was very happy indeed & could have kissed everyone in there right on the lips, cold or no cold!
So that was that. I wasn't expecting to get the result in this way. They didn't even know that I was coming up today. They didn't even know just how pissed off I was with the whole waiting thing. Not their fault I know, but I hate waiting for anything! Even the train ride up there I couldn't breathe! All the windows were closed, everyone was sniffing, everyone was coughing & everyone looked so god damn fucking miserable to boot! It is the same everytime on that stinking train ride. I opened a window and waited for someone to come along and close it as they always invariably do......They didn't this time.

So there I was as I walked out of the hospital back to the station as I held my little A4 printouts with my PCR results on, feeling so much better. being careful not to fold or crease the paper! The sky seemed much brighter (it wasn't), the birds seemed like they were singing so much louder (they weren't), it seemed that the temperature wasn't as freezing cold anymore (it was), and even the half smeared pile of fresh dogshit I walked by had a wonderful smell to it (it didn't). The wait at the station was alright too, even when a forty container long train thundered by transporting a thousand tonnes of household refuse.....It smelled great! I watched it disappear into the tunnel that cuts it's way under Hampstead and thought a little about all of our very own long, dark tunnels. Like the train I watched dragging so much rubbish into it, there will be other tunnels after that one.......It never ends. In or out of our tunnels......we can only do our best and we will always be pulling vast quantities of rubbish around with us too!
I stood up by the train doors all the way home just so I could breathe. As usual all the windows were closed and there was the familiar sound of snot being sucked in through many slimey nostrils! Not so discreet coughs filling the carriage with minute particles of god knows what! I left the windows as they were and just stared out of the glass in the door at the beautiful London skyline whilst holding my breath until the next stop. I was happy and I didn't want it ruined by someone closing a window that I had just opened.

So that's it! The Mighty C is still undetectable.........But I am not going to be celebrating just yet. The way I see it is that I am only just two thirds of the way through this journey of mine. I still have to wait six months for the SVR (The big one) test sometime in July. It could still make an undramatic comeback in the next six months. I am not being a pessimist.......just a realist if I am totally honest. Obviously I am over the moon with the result, as this is the best possible outcome at this stage in the game. So I will just forget about it all now and do exactly the same as I was doing before & during tx.........It has worked for me up to this point, I would be a twat to change things now eh;)


A very happy Mighty C:)

**************************************************************************

If you're interested, below is the original post that I nearly posted this morning (before I new my result). But instead I thought I would go to the RFH to see where my PCR results were. I will add that absolutely nothing in my original post has changed.........except one thing. The "Wether or not to get myself a new mountain bike" has turned into "I will definitely get myself a new mountain bike".

"Thinking Time..."

I have been thinking. In this period between giving the hospital my blood sample and the result....which I still haven't been given, I have resigned myself to not even worrying about the results. I have done my bit......I can't do any more. I wasn't worried about the result too much anyway, I just did not like the waiting part. And that whole confusion thing with the blood sample that needed doing again and not knowing which one it was that they wanted. It wasn't the PCR sample afterall. I reckon sometime this week for the result, but I'm not holding my breath.
So what have I been thinking about then? Is shall tell you. Apart from what to name the post that I let you know in wether the result is positive (as in bad) or negative (as in good) and which photo to put with it & My Mums knee operation in March & wether to get a new mountain bike or not & this mountain bike race I have entered into in June, I have been thinking about what I am going to do for the next few years.
Before the tx I wasn't thinking about much of anything. I was just taking my HIV tablets, dealing with my Haemophilia, dealing with a 'little' pain, going to the gym and cycling and sleeping and eating.....That's it. And what do I find myself doing? Exactly the same. But in addition to all those things I really feel like I want to do something else. Something other than staying alive for the f*cking sake of it!
I used to go on these "Adventure Holiday's" specifically for young Haemophiliacs when I was a young boy. They were in North Wales and we stayed in this beautiful mansion called Cornellyn Manor on the Island of Anglesey. This was our base and from here we would go by mini-bus all over the north of Wales. We did hiking & orienteering, abseiling, archery, mountain climbing and kayaking. These holidays were the best holidays that I have ever been on. I even cried once when I had to say goodbye to the other Haemophiliac boys. Although I don't even have one single photo of any of the holidays (couldn't afford an camera), I wiill never forget them. Nor will I forget the time that some other boys from another group (non-Haemophiliac) spat down from the top of the main staircase onto the head of a girl who had VWD. All she was doing was reading a book! I went and told them off and the girl (Rosalyn or Rosamund? from Stockport) & I became sort of friends for the rest of the holiday. Not to mention the identical twins Matt & ?) who showed me their willies;) Oh for that pissing time machine again!
They still organize trips like that today and more than once in the past I have thought how much I would Love to attend one as a helper/volunteer type thing. I could even show the boys mountain biking.
I doubt they would let me though because of my health credentials;) But you never know. I would Love to find out how all the kids are and what they are up to these days. Probably dead now.

Back to reality then. Real life!

I was out for a bike ride yesterday afternoon. You guessed it. Up in the Surrey Hills. I got dogshit on my front tyre! Spoke to a few fellow mountain bikers, smacked my shin on my pedal and said hello to two lady horse riders. The weather was great and dry as you can see from the photo. The sun is very low at this time of the year and shines through the woods. It looks great and I feel wonderful to be able to go out in it. Yeah my right elbow was killing me (still is) and my ankle has been in agony over the last week but who gives a f*ck eh. I went to see "Babel" on Saturday with Jac (very good film) and when we came out I could hardly walk! I didn't even think I could make it back to the car which was just around the corner. I was lucky this time as it seemed to snap out of it and although I got back to the car and back home, it was still very painful. I wish I was allowed to take my bike into places like movie theatres and super markets etc;) Walking these days is such a bastard!! You probably noticed my last post "The Sandman's Suicide" was about the frequent anount of times that my ankles wake me up in the middle of the night. I have had enough of all this pain! I am only just 36 and I am basically a cripple. My bike is my wheelchair. Could be worse though! I can feel myself becoming angry.........I had better go.


Jason





(C) JPT 2007

"The Sandman's Suicide"

My oldest T-shirt (circa 1984)



A sleep filled spasticated dream induced twitch
A lower extremity rape by a witch
Why under my cover of deepness & dark
Why can't I see her face, hear the bitch bark

A sharp intake of air, through enamelled pegs
It's dark, it's cold, the agony, my legs
Eyes shut tight, teeth all but gone
Frozen in place, only roots to hold on

Wrapped around skin & rotting bones
Hand does wander.....sweat to sleep filled moans
Rusty hooked chains hang from ceiling & wall
Eyes wide open, bolt upright I fall

Attached, screwed in, whatever you like
The pain is unbearable, rips out my light
Floor planted for something, anything but this
Please let go of me, this molten kiss

Sleep walk in agony, around the room
Around once more, be gone now......be soon
As my teeth cool down, less shattered, more me
Boiled turned simmer turned cool to see

The witch is in hiding now, cloaked with dagger
Waiting to pounce once more, to watch me stagger
Steal my dreams, turn my sand into stone
Makes a mockery of me, makes my body her home...



Jason






(C) JPT 2007

50th & Final Injection & still waiting...

Dad & I on Tuesday, Holmbury Hill.



That's it! All 50 injections done and just one week of Ribavirin left to go. I am so excited to see how I will feel when I am not on the tx. Personally, I don't expect to see too many changes. I feel great right, have done for months and as far as I can remember, exactly as I did before I started tx. Is this possible? I would much rather be stopping my HIV meds to see how I feel off those. I can only imagine what it might be like not to have so many drugs inside of me. Maybe one day I will be able to let you know:)
I am however still waiting for the results to my PCR that was taken on the 22nd Jan. Just how long does it take? I suppose there is no rush.....but I would like to know wether I am right at the end of this tx with a failure or wether I still have to wait for my six month post tx test with a clear result. If I am still clear of Hep C I still have a while to go (six months). It can still come back. I won't be celebrating for a while yet. But I will feel a whole lot more.........happy if I am still clear now. I want to know!

I was out with my Dad (on the right of the photo.....with the binoculars) on Tuesday afternoon. We haven't been out for what seems like months together. Probably longer! He can be a bit of a handful at times and I would just much rather pop around to his flat and play golf on the PS2 than take him out in public. But it was a very Lovely day and I drove us to a few of my mountain biking haunts in the Surrey Hills (the bike stayed at home;). All he said when he saw the trails etc, is that I needed my head looking at!
Before I showed him the trails up Holmbury Hill I took us up to the top of Box Hill so he could use his binoculars properly. It's got to be better than him looking at the old ladies in the flats opposite to his I bet;)
Everything was fine until I pulled up in one of the disabled parking bays at the top, when as soon as I stepped out of the car, I heard a voice call from across the parking lot....'Have you got a blue badge to park there?' I turned around and saw this man wearing a Barbour wax jacket and sensible tweed 'Walking' trousers tucked into these rather long woollen socks! He had hold of a snazzy walking cane with a brightly polished ornamental head on top. Situated on top all of this apparell was a tweed flat cap, the type 'Andy Capp' used to wear in those unfunny newspaper comic strips. The only thing he was missing was a double barrel shotgun and a string of pheasants slung over his shoulder. He even had the pretty Golden Labrador. He came bounding over having spotted that I wasn't in a wheelchair and my bike racks attached to the top of the car and stood right in front of me. He obviously thought that I was in no way disabled and saw fit to act in this righteous manner. I thought for a second and almost said 'Yes, of course I do my friend', 'Let me show it to you.'.........I would normally say exactly this kind of thing.
But instead I said, 'Why don't you have a look?' Only for him to say, 'Well I am asking you'. I said that people don't normally ask me if I have my badge on display, especially if they are standing right in front of my car! They just look at it and then decide wether or not to 'Have a go!.'
It did annoy me somewhat with his rather 'Jumping to conclusions' attitude. All he had to do was look over my shoulder and he would have seen my badge and the clock that goes with it. I haven't been treated like this many times at all and it was a bit of a shock the way he approached me.
My Dad just had to say something and he never thinks before he opens his mouth and I am always afraid that something like this will happen when I am out with him!
It started to get a little heated and this gentleman even used the word 'Aggressive' three times as to our attitude. Believe me when I tell you that if I was aggressive, he would not have been holding that cane! He would have needed a cane extractor;) But as soon as I saw my Dad getting overly involved and also me wanting to avoid turning into my Dad I put a stop to it, told my Dad to f*ck off over to one side and said we weren't being aggressive and I was just upset as to the way he approached me. I mentioned the cycle racks and to the fact that I wasn't in a wheelchair and if I told him (which I wasn't going to) my life story, he would be on his knees in tears in a matter of moments! So we left it at that and apologised to eachother and went on our merry ways.
The bastard thing is that somewhere through all that, My Dad asked this man what right he had to ask us in the first place. The man said he was the head ranger for Box Hill. I mean please!! He should have known better than to jump to conclusions right?
You know, if my Dad wasn't there, I am almost certain that I would have not have acted the way that I did. I just like to keep my mouth shut.
Suffice to say that the whole thing very much pissed me off and all I wanted to do was hit someone! We walked to the viewpoint and looked at the view for a few minutes.........I saw Leith Hill sloping down onto Holmbury on the horizon and decided that we would go there instead. So back in the car we got and drove back down the hill the seven or so miles to Peaslake and instantly I felt a whole lot better. Ignorance is such a dark, opaque veil! I tolerate it as much as I can, because if I didn't I would be just as ignorant myself! I am entitled to that badge and I am going to f*****g use it!

My Dad did really well walking up some of Holmbury Hill and a small section of 'Barry Know's Best' considering his knee and thigh muscles playing him up. I said the more he does it the better it will be for him. I know he ain't young (66) but he is more healthy than I will ever be (if only he realized this himself). He just needed to get out and about more over the years since his divorce. But instead saw fit to carry on smoking like a chimney (he's given up now......doctors orders!.....Wouldn't listen to his kids) and pack up cycling......He used to cycle everywhere when he was a teddy boy in the 50's. Actually, I used to remember him cycling back in the very late 70's too. I remember seeing him off from my bedroom window to work first thing in the morning. He would don his cycle clips and scoot off up to the end of the Meadway and turn right towards where he worked. I would quickly run to the other side of the house and look out the back window and just see him cycle past the small gap in between the houses up Staines Road:) Why did he stop cycling? I have know idea....I think I will ask him. I might do a post soon all about my Dad. That should be interesting;) Just as I took the photo of my Dad & I on top of Holmbury Hill, a three legged dog came bounding over to say hello. I thought that even a dog missing a leg doesn't moan as much as my Dad;) My Dad does embarrass me sometimes. He asked the owners if the dog was alright and wondered how on earth this three legged dog actually manages. He can't see what's in front of him sometimes.....My Dad. Some of us deal with shit (most of us) and some of us just can't even begin to start dealing. I do Love my Dad & my Mum:)
You can't beat a good bit of excercise:) Even if it hurts a little. If I can't cycle my bike when I am 64 I will kill myself! Just as easy as that! Presuming I reach 64 that is;)
Talking about knee's & health........My Mum has a date for a knee replacement operation next month (March). She has been having trouble with her knee for several years now and the pain I see her in sometimes mirrors exactly the kind of pain that I feel most of the time. I feel for her but she is the same as me in that she is just sooo independant and won't ask for help and just gets on with the pain and doesn't moan about it one bit........unlike my Dad. I am so glad that I take after my Mum in that respect. You can't get anymore mentally stronger than my Mum & I. She is 64 next month btw. She is having a brand new kitchen & bathroom fitted over the next two weeks starting with the kitchen. I popped around to see the work in progress, just to make sure they are doing a 'Good' job. It seems they are. It will be great for my Mum to have a nice new bathroom & kitchen to come home to from the hospital. She does Love her little house:)
I was also out on my bike this afternoon (yesterday now....Thursday). Great weather and dry! There hasn't been any rain for at least two weeks.....just a tiny bit of snow! Hose pipe ban just around the corner me thinks;) The trail in Richmond Park was ever so grippy. Nice and fast & quiet too. I took a sandwich to eat whilst looking over the Thames from the 'Promanade' on Richmond HIll by Mick Jaggers place. And what a wonderful sunset over Teddington and Kingston! Did I tell you I saw Pete Townshend from 'The Who' coming out from his front door last week? I was cycling past his house 'The Wick' right at the top of Nightingale Lane on Richmond Hill and out he popped combing his hair. He was with his wife and after nodding to him with a smile, he nodded back with his own cool Mod smile and jumped into a VW Lupo. Why not the £80k Merc sitting right next to it;)
My God......don't these posts go on! I just remembered something from yesterdays bike ride. I met this bloke who was riding his mountain bike in the park and was stopped at the top of this particularly steep off-road climb. I stopped by him and said......puffing a little.....'Great View eh.' Obviously he agreed and we got talking for a bit about cycling and how the weather at the moment is particularly good right now for off-road cycling. He new all the trails up Leith, Holmbury & Pitch Hills in Surrey and even spoke of something called 'Golden Birdies'. What he was talking about was "Barry Know's Best". It actually has two names......probably more. It was good to talk to someone who knows the hills who is from my area. He was from Putney. Anyway......What I noticed instantly was the fact that he was wearing sandals.....the open toe kind. I didn't mention them to him as it was none of my business, but I could't help thinking of the time I wore very similar sandals when I had those horrid things growing on my toes from taking that god awful 'Indinavir' drug for my HIV. That was during the winter months too! I wonder what he was wearing sandals for? You just never know do you?



Jason






(C) JPT 2007