Summers here then...

Me in Richmond Park 27-05-07

...yeah, looks like it too...not! What the bleeding hell is going on with the weather eh? I took the photo on today's post Sunday afternoon during a 24 mile bike ride around Richmond Park...I went round twice as it happens and it was raining for the whole time! The trails in there were sodden with rain water and rather quite muddy too...but did I care? Hell no! I Loved it to be perfectly honest. The only thing I don't like is having to wash my bike when I get back home. And it was cold too! My fingers were positively frozen halfway around and if I had two slices of white bread & a dollop of ketchup I could have made a fish finger sarnie;) I needed it though...the bike ride that is. I don't seem to be cycling as much as I was several weeks ago or indeed last year when I was on Hep C treatment. But maybe it just feels that way...i dunno. Maybe it's because I am doing loads more kayaking than I did last year...tonnes in fact. Still haven't gone anywhere too far away from home apart from Lulworth Cove six or so weeks ago. North Wales is still in the pipeline thats for sure...but I have this endurance type mountain bike race next Sunday on the Welsh borders and am looking forward to that. Looks like rain too!! Oh well...when did a little water & mud hurt eh?
So I washed me bike when I got back home and hosed down my legs, trainers and cycling jacket...yes it was that bad;) I was out on Dessert Storm as Elvis was in the shop for a service before my big race so I wasn't too worried about getting me bike muddy. Elvis doesn't like mud...Yet! He's only a baby;)
That was Sunday afternoon...in the morning I met up with a friend of mine Anna (a fellow forum member & Star Wars nut;) to visit the new Star Wars 30 year anniversary exhibition situated along the South Bank in London. It was wet and coldish but once inside we were quite at home amongst such cool props, models, artwork & costumes. A lot of it I had seen already before at an exhibition I visited way back in 1999...but a true Star Wars nut never gets tired of seeing this sort of stuff. I did wonder at the time of the 99 exhibition wether I would see it all again...I did & then some. But one thing that did upset me a little was the complete absence of the Millennium Falcon! Maybe it was there and I missed it...but I doubt it. I'll take my own next time;)
What else has been happening? Oh, my Nephew Samuel, my oldest Sister Manfs Son, is down from Doncaster for the week staying with me yougest Sis Tarn. I don't see him too often and it was Lovely to spend a little time with him and Daisy on Saturday night. He is 14yrs old and has severe Haemophilia 'A' just like his Uncle jason;) He amazed me when he said that he hasn't needed an injection of Factor VIII in over six weeks. That sounds pretty good to me. I seem to remember always having injections when I was that age. I took my shooting stuff round to show him his uncle in action. He too treats himself. He learned a year or so ago now. Daisy was cringing in the corner of the room as I stuck the needle into my leech like vein and Samuel said 'What's the matter Daisy? He's only sticking a bit of metal into his vein.' Only from the mouths of haemophiliacs;)

So to fully update this post and eventually send the buggery thing...I did nothing all day Monday (well it feels that way anyway) as the weather was bloody terrible again! I got up late...saw the bruised grey skies and the swollen clouds spilling their guts all over London and decided to stay in and have a fish finger sarnie for lunch. Then I realized that Lee was coming around to take us to collect our bikes from Westcott, Surrey...which we did...in the rain...then back home again and alone once more...hiding from the rain! F*ck it I thought and tied me kayak on top of me car and took the bastard thing down to the Thames in Twickenham and paddled the sod to Teddington Lock & back against a very strong current & a pretty strong headwind coming back! Oh...& it was still raining! I needed it though and am so glad I went. I never saw one other boat of any kind (that wasn't moored with current tightened ropes) during the whole 1hr 8mins paddle! Ok...so I am a bit of a nutter then and no I didn't do nothing all day;) I got my hair cut too...My best friend Lee came round just minutes after my paddle and made me look like a commando...Thats better I thought and maybe now I will go faster on my bike next Sunday and do an eskimo roll on Thursday...we'll see eh;)
And finally today (Tuesday)...spoke on the phone to a friend this morning...a bit of shopping lunchtime for Letraset to customize my number plate (121) for my race next Sunday and another head torch since my other one went for a swim in Teddington Lock the other week, then another bike ride around RP twice round entirely on the roads. It was quite cool and the skies threatened to spew all over me again but this time I was lucky and God had hung a giant sick-bag right under the cloud in question and saved me;) The London skyline looked beaten by the dark clouds on one side and tickled by the sun on the other and smack bang right in the middle was a rainbow dipping it's wick into the bowels of the derelict wonder that is Battersea Power Station...sans pigs. But the photos are shit and therefore won't make it to my blog. 23 miles later and here I am...belly full of food...can't remember what...and thinking about having a nice hot bath:)



Jason






(C) JPT 2007.........1547.28 miles