Sex and Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll...

Me shooting Ros!


Sex? Ok...maybe not the sex part. Sex? What is sex anyway? It sounds good! Am I missing something? I have heard about it...seen pictures etc...Anyway;)...But the rest...oh yes! Lots of drugs...as always plenty of drugs. I don't even think about them though. The automatic swallowing of my drugs come natural to me. As does the shooting up of my Factor VIII and my nightly painkillers. They're keeping me alive right? Nuff said! Swallow em...inject em and stay alive...so I do. And plenty of rock...Not Brighton rock either. Or your granite sort. More of your musical kinda rock. I am always listening to my music...in the bath soaked in sweat...at my desk where my trusty apple mac is at...cycling around Richmond Park or some such similar place...and in my car...especially in my car. Nice and loud...heavy & quiet...soft & dark...short & long...angry & sad...happy & uplifting. That's my music...what rocks me baby!
So we come to the roll. Ok, I had a very nice roll for lunch today and know doubt another roll for lunch tomorrow...sausages with dijon mustard or ham & turkey with cranberry jam. Very tasty...very rolly, but not the sort of roll I am talking about in the title! Have you guessed yet? Ok I will tell you. Last night (Thursday) I executed...that's right, I executed my first ever kayak roll (eskimo roll) ever in the whole wide world! And I didn't even plan on doing it. It was my fourth time in the pool in four weeks and only the second time that I had actually tried it. The second and third visits to the pool in Ealing were just mucking around in the water going round and round all the others who can do rolls and thinking how Lovely it would be to do an eskimo roll myself one day. And then along came yesterday. Daisy was there...she was assisting me on my first real roll too. Waiting in her boat, ready to come over if I needed rescuing. I did too a few times...and from Lee and Ian. But then something clicked. Ian had finished with trying to show me and helped Lee instead. I managed a few 'Almost' rolls, but still not a roll! Daisy & I were alone now and instead of just mucking around in the pool, I decided to try again and again and again...sometimes three attempts before I whacked the bottom of my kayak to signal to Daisy to come rescue me. I was almost out of breath but Daisy was there when I needed her. I had taught her only the week before how to perform a rescue on someone in this way...what sort of things to look out for etc. She was brilliant and utterly trustworthy.
And then it happened! I did one! It was just after a few 'almost' rolls and two where I almost rolled onto the side of the pool! Dasiy was there waiting to come over and another kayaker was watching too. I said that I did one and he said that indeed I did. Then I told him that it was my first ever one. He congratulated me and said the drinks were on me. Daisy was smiling and knew that I had done one too. Lee & Ian missed it as they were practising together still. It's Lee's turn next...he's getting there too and it is only a matter of time before something clicks with him. Then I reckon Daisy will have to have a go.
I was elated from that moment on. I had about an hour left in the pool (out of 90 mins) and went off with Daisy & the others and tried to perfect it. I did around 10 in total and three of those were in a row...straight over again...upside down, then back up again. My shoulder hurt and one end of my paddle snapped off! It still worked ok, but I will need a new one. I must have wallopped it on the bottom of the pool...or on the side? I found the missing piece and kept it as a little trophy:) I'm not too bothered about the breakage as this gives me the perfect excuse to go and purchase a wonderful brand new Andrew Ainsworth paddle...the man who designed the Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet & armour:)
The real test will be to see if I can still do one next Thursday. I am pretty confident and keep doing the roll over in my head. Daisy, Lee & Ian will be there just in case I drown;)

Thursdays roll wasn't the only first that I have had recently. I had another one at the beginning of the week too. I was staying with my dear friend Ros for a few days up in Kidderminster. We both have 'Funny Blood'. She has vWd Type III (severe) and I Haemophilia 'A' severe and we took it upon ourselves to inject each other our Factor VIII (not at the same time if you were wondering;) Something we had never done before to another person. We had always wondered if we could do it...be alright...not kill them or fill them up with air bubbles and give them the bends or dig the needle right through the vein, elbow joint and into the table beneath. And the answer is yes we were fine:) It was a very special moment! First time in the vein and no air bubble insertion either. A first for both of us:) Her vein was much smaller than mine was. Mine is more like a leech compared. I was afraid of hurting her...she says that I didn't. I never felt a thing either. She sat down with her five pieces of kitchen paper and her dead straight arm and I stood up in the kitchen by the sink...Perfect shooters...the pair of us:)
I had a bloody wonderful time up there with Ros & her Hubby Ade. Did a bit of cycling too. They made me feel very welcome...Thanks guys:) Also Ros & I made some tasty cakes just before I went home again on Wednesday (chocolate & date Rice Krispy cakes), and I ate a couple just before I went into the swimming pool with my little wedge of orange that is my kayak. They must have helped...I like to think they did anyway;) Thanks Ros:)

So on to the photo...I don't have a photo of me doing an eskimo roll or my sausage baps, but I do have one of me injecting Ros her Factor VIII. I hope you don't mind me using it. It is a little wonky I know & I managed to chop the top of your head right off along with your Lovely hair;) (Better the hair than the air eh;) but I was busy concentrating between the air in the syringe, the look on your face for signs of the bends and what the camera was doing;)

So there you have it...a fully fledged Eskimo and a highly trained couple of phlebotomists:) The world is our oyster Ros;)


Jason...May the fourth be with you...






(C) JPT.........1329.69 miles.

My Kayaking for April 2007...

Jae by Durdle Dor...April 2007.


What'd I tell you...a few more paddles this month...including a long over due paddle along the coast by Lulworth Cove & Durdle Dor. Great stuff:) See photo.


Wednesday 12th April 2007 @ 17:00pm ish for 1hr 7 mins, River Thames, St Mary's Church, Twickenham to Teddington Lock & back, Dagger RPM, temp 17, wind 5.

Sunday 15th April 2007 @ 11:35am for 4hrs 23 mins (with 1hr 10 mins for lunch halfway on our own private beach), 8 miles, Lulworth Cove heading West, Dagger Edisto...with Lee, temp 23, wind 6 (see photos dated today).

Tuesady 17th April 2007 @ 15:30 for 1hr 8 mins, River Thames at low tide, St Mary's Church, Twickenham to Teddington Lock @ back, Orange Peel (RPM), temp 17, wind 9.

Thursday 19th April 2007 double bill...1st @ 13:00pm for 1hr 4 mins, Twickenham St Mary's Church to Teddington Lock & back, sunny & warm, light breeze, temp 18, wind 10, in "Orange Peel".........2nd @ 21:00pm for 1hr 30 mins at Ealing swimming pool with Daisy & Lee.

Sunday 22nd April 2007 @ 18:00pm, River Thames from Twick to Richmond Lock & back, 1hr 17 mins, sunny and warm, slight breeze, temp 20, wind 11, in Orange Peel. As I carried my kayak back to the car past a man, he said that I was carrying a giant goldfish;)

Tuesday 24th April 2007 @ 19:00pm, River Thames from Twick to Richmond Lock & back, I found 5 tennis balls, warm and calm, light breeze, 1hr 20 mins, Orange Peel.

Thursday 26th April 2007 @ 21:00pm in Ealing swimming pool, Daisy, Ian came along to, Dasiy performed a rescue on me and she also capsized herself on purpose...I righted her instantly. She was very nevous about going over, but she took her time and did it very well:)


Jason





(C) JPT 2007

"Elvis & The Giant Banana"

Flying over Lulworth way...

As activity levels go on a weekend in mid April...this one was pretty good! A nice weekend quite honestly...weather wise it was the dogs bollocks! Summer most certainly seems to have arrived early...as have the butterflies! They are everywhere I go it seems! Very unusual for me, but quite welcome! Soaking up this very sunny feeling...flitting across my sky like some kind of perfect weightless fly-by!
Great for cycling...kayaking...thinking...& feeling good!
Friday evening was spent riding my brand new bike "Elvis" along side my friend Lee. We started out in the last of the days sun and ended 27 miles later in the dark streets of Teddington & Strawberry Hill. Just local...local bats...local midges...local ducks and a local and rather dippy hedgehog. No...not really...as I did have my light trained on the poor buggers eyes...like tiny black pin heads. The black moist bubble for a nose sniffing his way through the stinging nettles. Nice to have a back garden as big as Bushy Park!
My! That Elvis is fast! Lighter & faster! He is already beginning to feel like part of me. Covered in a fine dust from the bone dry trails of Pitch Hill, Bushy & Richmond Parks, he does a great job of showing me who is The King (Kona).
Then onto Saturday morning. An early (for me) start of 09:45 to go meet WarriorWoman (http://www.warriorwomen.co.uk/2007/04/14/bptt-update-for-14th-april/) after her 5km run around Bushy Park and then take a ride from there along the Thames tow-path all the way to Richmond Park. See her Blog to see a photo of us, Elvis & The Stumpmeister (WW's bike). The lap of RP mostly consisted of clinging as close as possible to the outside perimeter wall route (& totally out of bounds for cyclists apparently), staying away from the Tamsin Trail (designated cycling/walking route) for a much more fun lap with small sections of single track, plenty of roots, dips and rapidly appearing trees! There are even three very narrow, small bridge type things (with no sides) to cross. I think I may have shot off away from my cycling buddy for the day more than once as a result of the orange & white thoroughbred that I was still getting to know...sorry WW;)
All in all, there are far less dogs, small children & their competitive Dads to crash into by taking this route and it also makes the lap slightly longer too....which is good. And it leaves the flat gravel track (with a few steepish hills thrown in for good measure) to the plentiful runners. But that didn't stop one running man...more of a human Gazelle...keeping up with us on the off-road sections and even passing us up the hills! What ever he was, he wasn't human...His pace never changed and he looked as if he was hardly breaking sweat! Amazing! The sun was out for the day again and followed us everywhere. It was very warm and there was hardly a breeze. Another 30.50 miles and alone now, more butterflies on my way home from Sheen Gate, I was done for the day and needed to rest my poor arm for the next days kayaking trip to Lulworth Cove.

Another...even earlier start, almost directly after a very Lovely dream (which I am writing as we speak...from notes I made right after waking) about a beautiful female kayakist...and I was already standing out in the sun by 08:55am to greet Lee and load the car up with two ginormous plastic (recyclable) kayaks and all the kit & kaboodle one (two) needs for an eight mile paddle along the South coast.
Lulworth Cove to be precise. I truly don't beleive that the weather could've been any better! The temperature was perfect as were the wind conditions...even in the lower South area on my very person turned out to be a relatively wind free zone;) After a two hour drive with Lee eating far too many Opal Fruits...(Oops! Starburst now right;)...and at serious risk from drowing in his own spit and developing the greatest bellyache of them all, we were by the sea and unloading the boats. Christ! The boats and all our gear in them are sooo heavy! Good job the walk to the beach was only a few yards!
The water where we were going to launch looked perfect...a quick look out to the mouth of the Cove looked to be perfect also..in the past, the exit from the Cove has been very choppy and dangerous for kayaks...but today...
A quick paddle around the almost circular shaped cove...with the bottom cut off...a smallish Royal Naval, battleship grey ship was anchored right in the middle. On the front deck was a very fit looking man in combat trousers, missing his top, lifting a very heavy set of weights. I noticed the red flags were flying around the cove which meant no turning left and heading East! Otherwise one will get shouted at from a rather serious looking man hidden in the cliff face as they did on other attempts of ours to do just that. On occasions, you can even hear machine gun fire and cannon blasts as the hidden men in green shoot their loads (ahem) into the sea! So West we head towards Durdle Dor and beyond...the water clear and of a pale greeny/blue colour. Calm & not very much wind at all was the order of the day...with plenty of early (very) summer sun. The tide was down at it's lowest and the bottom of the cliffs were stained black from millions of years of being submerged twice a day by the sea and all it's miniscule inhabitants.
Stroke after stroke after stroke...a slight head wind...so slight, so as not to hamper our forward motion. The light breeze whispering past our ears...the current dragging us slowly but surely out to sea. A little more pressure on the left hand stroke every several drags through the water sorted out our intended trajectory. Coming back will be the opposite arm and push us inland and would test my right elbow, but at least I had a fix of Factor VIII in the back of the boat...& lunch & towel & trainers & phone (no signal), two cameras, plenty of drink, dry clothes, swimming goggles (too cold for that)...no wonder they were so heavy lifting them down to the sea!
Stair Hole, a small hole through the cliffs leading onto a rather rocky beach was our first port of call for a photo oppotunity, but the tide was so low & the swell was rising & lowering about three or four feet with every wave. It would have ripped a hole in the bottom of our boats if we had gone in! We would try again on our way back when the tide would hopefully be higher.
Off again...the warm sun resting pleasantly on out backs. Past Dungy Head and into St Oswalds Bay where at the farthest end is a beach sheltered by jagged rocks called The Man O' War Bay and just around the corner is the giant and very impressive Durdle Dor. This giant natural limestone arch was also a little out of bounds seeing the tide was so low! So back to the monotonous act of paddling towards our very own private beach. The beach was just out of sight and just around the corner from the chalk headland that is Bat's Head. Here is a single small stack of isolated chalk undoubtedly left behind as a result of a giant arch eroding away to to leave this decayed but still gleaming tooth. Right next to this, tucked right under the headland itself is a narrow tunnel that leads right through to the other side and our beach. As with the other arches enroute so far, the tide was too low to attempt. We'd try this on our way back later in the afternoon.
Just as we rounded Bat's Head we saw a couple of kayakists heading right for our beach! Granted, the beach is about half a mile long, but we wanted one all to ourselves. So on we continued to do just that. When I say private beach, what I mean is that it can only be accessed either by boat or falling onto it from the shear chalk cliffs above! We had boats so suicide wasn't even considered;)
Infact, after just another half mile or so we saw it. Another stretch...much smaller than our original beach and better by a long shot. We were hungry and before beaching, we took a quick look around the corner of White Nothe headland to see what was there...not a lot...more cliffs and brilliant white, boulder strewn beaches...but what really put us off lunching there was that there were people there. So back we went and beached for lunch & a well deserved injection of Factor VIII. The giant banana and Lee's kayak lay out like a couple brightly coloured sharks beached on the shingle. Towels down for a lie down...didn't lie down...after sandwiches we went and explored the chalk rocks and boulders (see photo). It was like being a child again. I wanted to throw stones into the sea...I tried and it hurt! I swapped arms and tried left handed...absolutely useless!
Sat down and stuck a needle in my vein instead and wondered what the scene would look like if a freak passer by were to witness such a shooting. But that wasn't about to happen, as we were literally secluded. I wanted to stay there all night! I checked my mobile...no signal...The butterflies had flown away with it and dumped it into the ocean...I just wanted to say hi. Lee & I tidied up and filled the boats with all our stuff for our trip back to Lulworth. The journey back was warmer as the very faint headwind west, was now blowing alongside us and towards the East. Quiet...except for the gulls screaming high in the cliffs and the odd jet ski & boat engine thundering by in the distance. The paddle back seemed to feel slower, but looking over to the cliffs, I could see we were moving at quite a reasonable speed. The tide was still very low, but besides Durdle Dor (which still looked too dangerous to try), we managed to kayak right through the tunnel (blown through more like) that cut through Bat's Head. The clear water surronding the entrance & exit to the tunnel was filled with a seaweed that resmebled thick long strands of a greeny coloured bowl of noodles. I wondered what on earth might be lurking down there, feeding on it! The swell was still upping & downing, exposing the small but not very kayak friendly rocks with every few seconds. The hull of my boat caught on one slightly, but was pushed back up by the return of the next swell.
Back through the Man O' War Bay and onwards to Stair Hole. With the water level still being quite low & quite rough as the sea poured into and then out of the smallish arch we were only able to go in and get out without taking a photo from the inside. It was great fun though, but had to have our wits about us the whole time or we would have been thrown up & dumped onto the rocks!
So that was it...just a short paddle back into Lulworth Cove, minding the rocks on either side of the narrow entrance and after three hours of paddling & eight miles of coast done we were back on the beach and loading the car up for the three hour drive back home to West London.
Next stop Llanberis, North Wales for a tad of reminiscing. That is where butterflies are born don't you know;)


Jason






(C) JPT 2007.........1018.64 miles.

My Kayaking for March 2007...

Jae in Twickenham...March 2007.


Three times this month...getting better right? Getting fitter...water in the Thames getting more manegable...getting warmer...a little bit of all of those me thinks. Next month should be more exciting...stay tuned:)


Thursday 8th March 2007 @ 16:30ish for 1hr 30 mins. Twickenham Riverside by the church, Three times around Eel Pie Island, high tide and very strong current. RPM alone, dry, mild, dusk, temp 12, wind 11.

Tuesday 13th March 2007 @ 17:00pmish for 1hr. Twickenham Riverside by church, twice around Eel Pie Island, lowish tide, strong current. RPM alone, dry, mild & sunny/dusk, temp 13, wind 10.

Thursday 22nd March 2007 @ 21:00 for 1hr 30mins, Gurnell Leisure Centre, Ealing, kayak rolling for beginners with Lee & Ian. Great fun.....although none of us managed to do a roll alone. We did however learn to rescue each other. Warm water....indoor pool.....Dagger RPM.



Jason





(C) JPT 2007

Shake, Rattle & no Roll...

My little leggie's just gone midnight at 00:13 Saturday morning!


There was a young man from Twickenham
Who wore bigger shoes to be sick in them
His Mum thought how odd
His Dad opened his gob
And said, 'Well if it makes you go quick in them.'


So, I made it to the weekend....just about! My kayaking roll course on Thursday...(unfortunately Ros, I did not become a fully qualified eskimo.....read below;)...went alright, although the next day my left shoulder was hurting and my inner thighs too.....but it was last nights bike ride with Lee & Ian that nearly sent me to my grave! I crashed no less than three times, and all three times I was very lucky not do myself a mischief! We all fell off as it goes. Our excuse being that it was pitch black & freezing cold, very very damp under tyre and we were all aching quite a bit from the kayaking the night before! My arm was killing me and my shoulder wasn't quite normal. My ankles on the other hand (foot?) were great to me and felt strong (quite remarkable considering they were as restless as a couple of snakes on speed in bed the night before), although the ulcer that has erupted on the side of my tongue made me frown the whole time!
My worst crash (my first of the evening) was caused by aquiring a double puncture blasting down a particularly fast bit of singletrack running alongside Wolverns Lane, with high edges forcing you into the quite rocky & very narrow middle! On the right side you have very thick brambles and half foot wide wooden posts and on the left the same, with a barbed wire fence on the otherside of the brambles separating a herd of cows from the looney cyclists that frequent this part of the countryside. So there I was first in line and wallop!....My tyre has gone all squadgy and throws me off line, up the right side edge and naturally I lean to the left but it is useless as I try and stay up right. I end up in the brambles on my left side narrowly missing the barbed wire and the wooden post! It was a relatively soft landing except the brambles that acted as my bed for the next 20 seconds managed to strangle various parts of my body....seven in all! And I had two holes in my innertube to fix. Lee & Ian did most of that for me as I recovered from my fall and noticed we had an audience! Right up against and peering through the darkness over the wire fence were a bunch of cows...the black & white kind...and were probably saying to each other 'The last lot of idiot mountain bikers to fall off there didn't make as much noise!' The other two falls were pretty small and slow moving and Lee & Ian's falls weren't bad either. Ians was pretty cool though! Lee & I took him to this quite technical downhill section halfway up Leith Hill and he came off and somehow managed to unclip his feet from his pedals, jump over his handle bars and catch his bike too! Then yours truly got us lost again looking for this poxy quarry and somehow managed to cycle right round the thing completely missing it! It was dark after all......& we were tired and achey and hurting remember?.....not my fault;) We got back to the car at 11pm with a 20 mile drive home to Teddington. It was however a brilliant ride of only 11.58 miles that lasted 2hrs 25mins. Good stuff......so on to Thursdays kayak rolling course....

Fancy a roll? Mmmmm! Sounds nice eh? A nice bread roll.....white & perhaps a little crusty, a little butter (real butter....slightly salted), your favorite filling...maybe coronation chicken or some tuna or egg mayonaise (not mine)......perhaps even a bit of chicken breast and salad or my favorite.....grated cheese & chopped red onions? It's your choice bloggers & bloggettes.
But that ain't the kind of roll I am talking about! Oh no! The sort I am talking about is a rather different kind of roll altogether. For a start it is as soggy as a recently beached childs teddy bear and not anywhere near as upsetting. Also, this kind of roll has a completely different kind of filling too.....the filling in of forms in case I end up dead....Questions like; Do you suffer from diabetes? No! Do you suffer from epilepsy? No! Do you suffer from asthma? No!........What kind of roll is this! Do you suffer from angina? No! Have you ever had a stroke or heart attack? Not as far as I can remember (although I do like to stroke myself sometimes;)! Have I any allergies? No, but I would almost certainly sneeze if you through pepper in my face! Are you prone to blackouts or fainting? No, but if you punched me too hard or showed me a woman with three breasts I would quite happily blackout or indeed faint! Have you ever had any shoulder injuries? No! (Completely ignoring the several quite heavy crash landings I have had from cycling like a nutcase through Richmond Park over the last year). Have you ever suffered from a bad back or neck? No! Fitness wise how would you describe yourself? Unfit?....Average?....fit? Well, technically I am above average in fitness but due to my knackered ankle joints and dickie right elbow, I am going to put down average! Are you on any medication? er......I think I am going to put down....No! I just can't be bothered with writing all those funny names that mostly end in VIR! Is there any other medical condition or disability, which could affect your ability to partake in the kayaking course that you are booked for? er.....well.....apart from an injury to my right arm years ago.....No.....None! I thought I had better put down the right elbow thing in case he saw how different my arm looked compared to my left arm......which he did during the course....just an injury I said, but it does mean that it is much weaker than my other arm and will affect how I perform kayak rolls.........I didn't manage one.....yet! Damn! I was looking forward to becoming a fully fledged eskimo;)
Kayak Rolls! Oh.....so it is that kind of roll? I still wouldn't mind my cheese & onion roll please:)
So there we were in Gurnell Leisure Centre in Ealing, pool side at 9pm Thursday night, dragging our kayaks to the waters edge. Absolutely loads of other kayakers there too......not in our course....just four in our course and our instructor Carl who is a very good kayaker. bit of a surfer dude....very nice chap. He did his best to teach Lee & I to roll a kayak on our own but after an hour and a half spent mostly upside down, the elusive roll was nowhere to be seen. It looks easy.....but easy it ain't! The rest of the 20 odd kayakers were their just to muck around, practice rolls, various stunts they have learnt over the last god knows how many years & even partake in a little kayak polo with a football. Ian, a friend of Lee & I turned up unexpectedly with his kayak too....& he was part of the four man course that Lee & I were in.....how spooky is that! Apart from the expected failure to produce an unassissted roll we did learn a whole lot more stuff besides. So after stuffing my ear pugs in, my nose clip on, putting on my goggles & stretching my splash deck over my cockpit, paddle in hand, Lee, Ian & I launched straight into the water from the pools edge (which was great fun). Then Lee & I, with instruction from Carl, learned to rescue each other, which we had never tried before. Basically one of us capsizes and once completely upside down (which happens in a split second) you signal to your buddy to come rescue you by slapping your palms on the bottom of the kayak (just about where ones ares might be), sweeping them backwards and forwards feeling for the nose end of your buddy's boat as he positions it right by your hands. Then I grab hold of the nose and pull myself upright using my hip & torso to help flick the boat upright.....hey presto! Saved and didn't even get my legs wet! In fact I didn't get my legs wet for the entire length of the course, and I must have capsized (all self-induced of course) about 50 times. But what I did find is that whoever rescues me must come to my left hand (the one with my watch strapped around it) or I just wouldn't have the strength to right myself. Fortunately I can hold my breath for quite a long time from all the cycling I do. I think my right arm was hampering me quite a bit too when I was trying proper rolls using the paddle! I shall just have to go back and try again.
Either way, I & Lee shall definitely be going back for more tutoring or even just an hour and a halfs mucking around once a week. Beats going to the gym and soooo much warmer than the river Thames at the moment too. I do need the upper body strength that kayaking gives you and will stand me in good stead for the (hopefully) vast amount of kayaking I will be getting up to this year. Cycling doesn't seem to give your upper body much of a workout.....but I bet it does considering how much my arm hurts during and particularly after a good ride! But not enough.
There is definitely something very appealing about paddling your own kayak in a nice warm swimming pool. The lights shine down on you all, making your kayak look even more colourful than it is. The beautiful clear water......no current.....no tide....no dead fish.....no moody fishermen.....no gigantic pleasure cruisers making two foot high waves at you, no wind, and if it rains.......you're indoors. I liked it....a lot! But not as much as a nice clear lake in North Wales or Lulworth Cove on a calm day. But while I am at least a 2hr drive from a decent bit of coast or a snazzy lake......a swimming pool and the Thames will have to do.



Jason

P.s. Happy Birthday Ros:)






(C) JPT 2007.........845.64 miles.

I Got a Handle on Things...I Hope!

Hold on or drown...

"A Pinch & a punch....it's the first day of the month"

Mums in agony after a knee replacement operation.....lying in one of the most feared places on earth! A grotty hospital bed....looks clean enough, but look a little closer.....dirt, bacteria, death and disease everywhere! I got the pissing runs for some reason! Where did that come from? I feel great besides this unpredictable shit tap welded to my arse! Ankle feels back to 'Normal'. They are so unpredictable those ankle joints of mine! One day I 'Feel' as though I could run a marathon (I wish) and on others like the other day or two, I feel so useless. I won't give in though! I gotta keep them working and not stay off them just beacause they hurt. If you leave anything still for too long, then it seizes up doesn't it! I definitely think that some sort of action will be required sometime in the future. I think I will know when the time is right.
Got myself a new kayak yesterday afternoon (Dagger RPM). Not a replacement as such....more of a second, more convenient kayak for easier lifting onto the roof of my motorized wheeled Jason mover when I am out on my own. Nice shade of orange (I've been Tangoed). Not blood red as I may have suggested in an earlier post, as I rather like orange. It reminds me of.........oranges? I like oranges and orange juice.....& the little emergency saftey rescue whistles that you should carry around with you when out in the middle of nowhere. I am a little fed up with red & blood if the truth be known;) I haven't tried it out yet as I didn't fancy putting into the Thames at the moment as the water is a little too high, too swollen, too fast and too currenty as a result of all the rain.....not out on my own for the very first time anyway! It is half the size of my other kayak and 5kgs lighter and therefore a lot more wobbly. It'll be as still as a mill pond soon enough, you'll see. I got three in the garage now. The first two I bought for Lee & I exactly ten years ago this month. Two 14ft'ers in bright yellow, just like a giant bleeding banana (mine) and a nice teal colour (Lee's). I am a little nervous to be honest. It is so tiny compared with my other boat. The last thing I want to do is fall in and get that Thames water into my mouth & ears or up my nose! In ten years of kayaking with my other one, I never fell in once (nor Lee).....not by accident anyway. We did some controlled rolls in the ocean a while back, but never in the river. I wouldn't mind practising the eskimo roll sometime soon......preferably in a nice warm & relatively clean swimming pool. We got plans with those things as well as our bikes this year. Can't wait to get in the water again in between my bike rides. Who needs to walk when you can paddle & cycle instead! We're going out late tomorrow afternoon for a little test run in a little quiet part of the river in Sunbury-on-Thames....just up the river from Hampton Court Palace & Shepperton too (Where I got the thing from). Find out in my next post to see if I fell in or not;)

I reckon I may have got these runs from four visits to two different hospitals in the last two days! The best place to go if you're a bacteria addict is your local hospital.....or just lick the inside of your toilet bowl;) But at least my Mothers op went fine and the pain is wearing off as we speak. Lets just hope it works and she does her exercises right. She should be home tomorrow. I should know.....I am picking her up;)

It is so windy out there right now! I was out late yesterday afternoon for a blast around Bushy Park and rather than me doing the blasting.......I was the one that was blasted! I managed 13 miles in the stuff. According to Metcheck it was 20mph, & most of it seemed as though it was blowing right into my face. Technically this cannot be correct as my route is more or less a giant figure of 8, therefore the head wind versus the tail wind versus the side winds should be 25% each? When I got home, I really felt as though I had been cycling up hill the whole time! Interesting as there is not one single hill on the route up or down. It was dry....ish though and only threatened to spit on me. Those white Deer are still sitting around the same exact spot in the park. It must be the same ones as I haven't seen any other white Deer hanging around on nearby street corners. I know they are the same group because one of them has a very distinctively shaped antler, where it has grown down instead of up on one side. He kind of looks like an idiot;) I feel a little sorry for him because he must think one of the other Deer are dangling a branch in front of his eyes to annoy him;) I suppose it is basically their little section of park. The whole park it seems is made up of hundreds of sections divided by paths & trails and the like. Or maybe they are just there because they know I pass by that way regularly;) They moght be thinking the same thing? That idiot bloke on his bikes keeps coming by this way! And I have a funny antler sort of.....my weak right arm;)

Sod it.....wasn't planning on a ride today as I am going out tomorrow night with Lee after my test run in the little segment of orange. I have decided.....as soon as the battery for my light is fully charged, I am outta here!



Jason

P.s. Apparently my kayaks are made from recycled milk cartons. I do like to do my bit;)






(C) JPT 2007.........548.01 miles

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