Yesterday I decided to go for a walk in Stockgrove Country Park because I was going stir crazy at home after the Antics3d Redundancies last week.

The Park is very woody and the leafs are beginning to get really beutiful at the moment.

Bloody Hastings Direct

I thought I was past having to deal with Hastings Direct, but Nooooooo.
they managed to find another way to screw with me.

Apparently when I originally signed up for their insurance a year and a
bit ago, I was signing a contract for 1 year, I was signing up for an
automatic renewal every year unless phone them in the month preceding
the end of the first policy to cancel it. Which I didn't do.

So they've taken another £470 from my Credit Card. Bastards.

I've given them a ring and explained the situation and they are now
ringing Carol Nash to confirm. Carol Nash confirmed the bike insurance
details as being for my new CBF1000 which doesn't arrive for another 2
weeks and so Hastings Direct are saying it's different bike and
therefore not grounds to cancel the policy. So I explained the situation
again and I'm waiting on Hastings Direct to contact me again.

Two shocks on the way to work

On my way to work this morning I had 2 shocks.

First shock, I was crossing a roundabout, but the guy to my left decided
I didn't have right of way and just kept on going which meant I had to
throw on the brakes as hard as possible. Eventually he did notice me but
he didn't seem to take any avoiding action like braking or accelerating,
he just watched me getting closer and closer. Tosser.

Second shock, I stopped to fill up for petrol this morning, and for the
first time ever it came to £20. £20 is significant to me because at
Texaco you get a 2p off voucher when you spend £20 or more, but because
I ride a bike I could never reach it so I always missed out on the deal.
About 4 months ago I brought a spare fuel can which if I filled my bike
tank and the spare tank at the same I could just about reach £20. That I
can now put £20 of petrol in just the bikes tank is a very visual
demonstration of how much petrol has gone up in just 4 months.

CBF 1000 Test Ride

As a result of my feedback to the salesman about the VFR, he suggested I take the CBF 1000 out for a ride. The ride was much better, not quite as powerful as the VFR but with a smoother wider power band meant that I was able to use more of the power, wider bars with soft suspension meant I was able to pick the route I wanted on the roads.

The Triumph Sprint is probably the best all rounder I've ridden so far but the CBF 1000 is a close second and is about £2k cheaper with a 0% APR deall on at the moment.

The only thing I have against the CBF so far is that its butt ugly.

VFR Test Ride

Today I took a test ride on the Honda VFR from Marshalls in Peterborough. Great looking bike and I was hoping it was going to be the all rounder that I've been looking for. Unfortunately not.

The bike was far more sport orientated that I was expecting, hard suspension, hard seat very short reach to the bars which made accurate turning difficult, especially on bumpy roads.

The engine was the thing that really killed it for me, no power at all under 3000 rpm, pretty good power upto about 6500rpm and then a big step up in power as the VTEC kicks in. Probably a great bike for riding to a track day, zipping around the track and riding home again but thats not what I do with a bike.

It's one redeeming feature is that it's a great looking bike.

Fencing Tournament

Last night was the last week of the Fencing Beginners course so we had a
mini tournament.

Match 1 - Young bloke
He was very energetic and swung the sword wildly, pretty much no
technique and relied on jumping backwards and forwards. He won 3-2

Match 2 - Same Young bloke
This time I got his timing sorted and the down side of swinging the
sword wildly is that it leaves great big gaps in the defence for me to
attack him with. I won 3-2

Match 3 - Lefthanded Bloke
I think left-handed people should be rounded up and forced to live on an
island somewhere, my attacks against him were clumsy and the match went
on for ages because neither of us could land a hit. he couldnt hit me
because his sword arm was towards my back and so off-target, and I
couldnt hit him because the angle I needed to attack with the sword was
reversed to what I'm used to and so keeps glancing off his tunic where I
would have scored a hit against a right-handed person.

Lefthanded Bloke also liked to come on strong straight from the offset,
and try to score early point, if you can resist his first few attacks he
sort of ran out of steam.

I won 3-1.

Out of the evening, I think on me and Lefthanded Bloke won 2 of our 2
matches so I guess it was a draw. I'll get him next time :-)

Chavvie Bastards

Last night I went to the cineworld in Huntingdon to watch Vantage Point.

On my way to the cinema, there is a long section of one way roads where
the cars up ahead kept braking sharply and then pulling way. Once the
car 2 places ahead of me got to the point I could see why, a group of
chav bastards were standing at the side of the road and then jumping in
front of the cars to make them stop.

As I went past one walking into the road so I pulled further over to
avoid him but had no intention of stopping, so the little bastard kicked
my right pannier trying to knock me off, luckily I was moving at about
20mph by the time I got kicked so the bike was pretty stable and I
didn't come off - FUCKING GIT.

I thought about stopping and having a 'word' with the little shite but
then thought any one of the group could be armed with a knife (or worse)
and although in my leather I wouldn't feel many punches if it came to
that, the suit certainly wouldn't stop a knife so I just carried on.
Even on my way to the cinema I still wanted to go back and find the
retard, I hope he broke every bone in his foot - that or he carried on
doing it and someone in a car didn't stop in time.

Wish I'd called the police but deep down, I guess I was still hoping
they'd get run over.

take that, and that. and this

I went fencing this evening and tonights lesson was the first time we
all got dressed up in all the armour and faced off against another
person.

I was matched against 2 women, not at the same time obviously, it
wasn't like a fencing Ménage à trois.

Bearing in mind the target area is the torso, and we are standing
side on to make the target area as small as possible; it means that
there is one very obvious and large target on a women which I
couldn't but keep hitting *tries to look innocent*

Where else could I spend all night wacking a lady's nipple with a
stick and not get beaten up or arrested, or both?

All the moves are being performed slowly at the moment, but I can see
how it's all suppose to come together.

I do see one problem at the moment, the clothes and mask we wear are
really thick and everyone is sweating like crazy at the moment, I
hate to think what the inside of those masks are going to be like
once we start attacking each other at full speed and actually
starting working hard, forget buying my own sword - I want my own
mask so I don't have to share one with all the other fencers *yuck*

Small Fluffy Animals

I've noticed recently that all the small fluffy animals in my area have
disappeared. The 3 cats that live near me - gone, the birds - gone.
There are still some dogs around but that might be because dogs tend to
be kept in the house over night.

I've seen all the horror movies and I know that if the small fluffy
animals start disappearing it can only mean 1 thing, Werewolves!

Even more worrying, I know from the films, that the person who notices the
animals disappearing tends to be the next victim of the Werewolf, I
shall be stocking up on silver daggers and bullets as soon as possible.

Whats been happening!

Well, it's been a long time since I updated this blog so I thought I would say what I've been upto.

En Guard
I've started a fencing course in Cambridge, so far we have mainly run side ways up and down the hall, but towards the end of the last session we actually got to hold a sword and practiced some lunges facing into a mirror.

I'm glad I used to cycle so much because the stance you take really works the thigh muscles and although I'm feeling the pain in my legs during the course I haven't yet been felt it the next day unlike most of my course mates who apparently are all stif for a day after the course.

Easy Rider
I went out for a ride with some people on GB Bikers last Saturday, we started from Pure Truimph in Wellingborough and rode out to Victory Motorcycles in March before heading back via the Weld bikes near Peterborough.

I've been giving some serious thought to getting rid of my Deauville, Big Red is about to reach 60,000 miles and is starting to need maintance on bits which haven't needed maintenance before.

Oh No, I've gone blind
Actually I haven't, but has been really really foggy around here recently which has made getting to work interesting, this morning I passed a couple of shunts and traffic has been crawling along at 30mph :(

The Silver Screen
I've seen a couple of films at the cinema recently. Sweeny Todd was much better than I was expecting and will be going into my DVD collection when released. Cloverfield was a film I had been looking forward to for a long time but I didn't really enjoy it as much as I was expecting.

There were 2 problems with Cloverfield
1) the camera angles and that stupid camcorder view that was used the whole way through it. It's a lot like the Blair Witch Project which to this day is the only film I've ever fallen asleep in the cinema watching. Also, the camera shots became the defining attribute of the film,

2) I want to see the monster damn it, maybe I'm just too indifferent to people but I don't care about the characters in the film, I don't care if they live of die, I don't care how they die; its the monster I want to see, I want to understand what it is, what is it doing, why is it doing that - and you don't get to find any of that out and bearly see it for most of the film :(

The Darkness
I've tried to follow my Night Hike route in the dark but I only got about 2 miles before running out of path and spent the next hour trying to find it again, I never did. I went back the next day in the daylight and I've realised what I've done wrong so since I have next Tuesday booked off work I'll be heading back to Rutland Water Monday night to try it again.

What I did follow of the walk was great, it was a cloudless night and Rutland Water is a very dark sight so you could see loads of stars, it was cold and a heavy frost had formed on the grass which made it all crunchy and I saw an owl and a couple of foxes while trudging around in the dark.


-----

Well thats about all that I've been upto in the last couple of weeks.

that was silly

Yesterday morning I once again missed the early morning swimming session
at Impington because of the traffic alone the A428. The between St Neots
and Caxton Gibbets has become far more congested since the dual
carriageway from Caxton Gibbets to Cambridge was opened >:(

Anyway, I decided to give the general swimming session after work a try
instead. The drive is about 3 miles from work to the swimming pool and
after a particularly heavy impact with a pot hole I noticed cars behind
me flashing although I thought it was just cars bouncing up and down bumps.

When I got to work the people in the car park were staring at me,
strange I thought, Big Red isn't the prettiest bike in the world but she
doesn't normally get all this attention.

Park up, get off and find my side pannier box open and trailing my
swimming stuff behind it. Luckily I hadn't tried to filter through any
traffic and even actually lost anything and only the tip of the towel
had actually touched the ground so that was the only really wet bit.

I guess I hadn't shut the lid properly

Definitely fits into my "silly" category.

The swim wasn't great either, too many people not doing lengths which
meant I couldn't get any speed up.

Still this mornings ride into work was great, despite the howling wind
and rain the ride was smooth and precide and I really wanted to just
carry on riding into the fens instead of turning towards Cambridge and
going to work. Thats what I love about biking, those rides where
everything comes together at the same time.

Dog Racing

Last night I was meant to be going to the Greyhound track in Peterborough but Matt backed out so we all went to J's Restuarant in Cambridge instead. I love that restuarant, I haven't had a bad meal yet.

We are still planning on going to the Dog Track at some point where I will win the money I need to go to New Zealand for a holiday next Christmas.

Muppet

I'm feeling a bit foolish this morning, confused by the holidays creating a shorter week than normal I turned up for the early morning swim, paid for a 12 swim card and walked into the changing rooms and started getting changed.

Only to have the receptionist come running over to me and saying that it wasn't a open swimming session that morning - oops. Early morning swims are on Mondays, wednesdays and Fridays but Thursday mornings were training for a Triathlon.

I tried to sweet talk my way in by pointing out that I like cycling and sometimes I have to run to catch the bus but she still didn't let me in :(

In other news, last night I went to see I Am Legend, the first horror film that I've geniuning enjoyed in a long time, although it helps that it was that survivor genre which I've always loved. There were some holes in the story line which I thought were a little stupid but I wont mention what they are because it would give away parts of the story line.