Camping

This weekend I went camping with my sister Jen, Matt, Claire and Richard.

We stayed at Riverside Camping and Caravaning Park in Littleport which is a nice, quiet, clean site. This weekend was also the first night of the year where we had 0°C temperatures.

The first night I stayed up talking to jenni and Claire putting on a extra layer of clothes every hour trying to stay warm.

That first night felt very cold, l had numb feet l was woken up a 4am with a massive cramp in my left calf which was very painful, after 15 minutes of massaging my calf l was forced to go fur a walk to try to looser up the muscle.

On Saturday after a massive fry-up we headed into Ely to do some shopping, visit visit several pubs and have an Indian for lunch.

I then headed back to the site because I was knackered while everyone else headed into headed into town to watch the Rugby.

In terms of the amount of ice around in the morning, Saturday light was colder then the first night but it didn't feel like it to us. Either we were better prepared the second right or we had grown use to the temperature.

On Sunday we had another massive fry-up before breaking camp and heading to Ely for a goodbye coffee.

It was as a great weekend and i have to admit I like camping when it's cold, it makes the Bovil and Hot Chocolate taste better although my equipment isn't really designed for such low temperatures and I would really need a new sleeping bag to go out in anything colder than the weather we had this weekend.

Sculpture, Ice and Camping

Last night I went to another sculputre class with the Adult Education group in Bottisham, this week it was Wood Carving and I loved it, spending 2 hours beat the living #*&% out of a lump of wood was really good fun and surprisingly easy, unlike drawning or modelling, you have a 100 hits to get it right as you are chipping away at the wood one tiny bit at a time.

Actually we were really doing wood engravings since there isn't time to sculpt wood in the 2 hour lesson but the principal is the same, I carved a spiral into the wood as a way of getting the feel of the tools and then carved a small turtle on the cut off end of a branch, they weren't perfect by any means but I felt I had enough control to be able make what ever shape I wanted.

Tonight and this weekend I'm going camping with my sister, should be fun, except this morning I had to chip ice off my bike before leaving for work so the weekend maybe a little on the chilly side, still, I've got hats, gloves, jumpers and coats to keep me warm during the night and hopefully jenny will have as well.

2 thumbs up for Ben Hayward Cycles

On Saturday I went into Cambridge again and brought some more bits to put onto the bike I'm building up.

This time I got, the Chainset (big cog wheels where the pedals are), the chain, and the 2 derailiuers. Last night I tried to fit it all to my bike but I didn't have any Crank Bolts (holds the cranks to the bottom bracket).

I gave Ben Hayward a ring this morning to explain the problem and whether the chain set I had brought should have included the bolts, he said they didn't but if I come in he would give me some for free - result.

So I'm now the proud owner of 2 shiney Crank Bolts which cost me nothing, ok, so normally they would have cost all of £5 but it's the principal that counts, not the cost.

This is the second time in a week that I have got free stuff. Last wednesday I went to see Daylight at Cineworld in Huntingdon, because I knew it was going to be really tough getting from work to the cinema in the 20 minutes I had I decided to stop off on the way home on tuesday and buy the tickets in advanced. When I got the cinema on wednesday, the film had been cancelled so I got a refund on my tickets and didn't have to pay to see an alternative film.

I choose to see Run Fat Boy Run which turned out to be much better than I expected.

Moral of the story, if you need any cycling bits and bobs go to Ben Hayward Cycles and if you can't make up your mind about which film to see, give Run Fat Boy Run a chance, it's much funnier than the trailers make it look.

Splish splash

This morning I went swimming for the first time since buggering up my ankle (technically it's the second time but the first swim 3 days after damaging it was so painful I gave up 10 minutes)

It was surprisingly comfortable, I'm able to kick properly and the only time l came close to hurting myself was pushing off from a wall at an angle to go around an OAP.

Surprisingly my fitness hasn't dropped to much, I'm still able to swim the entire length in a single breathe although the last 5 meters were starting to hurt.

I think I might give the walk on Sunday a try because the ankle has felt much better over the last couple of days.