Boy, do I need a faster laptop for my next big bike journey (and maybe some classier shades?) Lovely little Acer netbook, but it gets into the biggest spin (as Sue found out in India in the spring) when you ask it to do more than two things at once. It’s taken me nearly three … Read more …
Read on to the end to find out about the phone box, but here at the top, let me put my cards straight on the table today. Long-distance cycling has to be the happiest-making activity on the planet. I remember a Guardian chap (Mike Carter, written about before on this blog) describing an anti-clockwise trip … Read more …
Well, that was a bit of a journey. But I’m here, as are bike and luggage, and the stunningly lovely NZ Adventure Capital of Queenstown even arranged a rainbow of welcome for us all. But not before, first, my Primus fuel bottle was halted and turned back at UK check-in security; then my pedal spanner … Read more …
So, after the disappointment and nerve dramas of the RTW bike ride that wasn’t last Easter, Raven and I (doesn’t it irritate when cyclists anthropomorphise their bikes!) are on our way to cycle the South Island in New Zealand. And this is also my first attempt at blogging with WordPress direct from my mobile. Hope … Read more …
A sobering quarter century or so ago, I recall appearing with our Barbershop Quartet The Four Tones in the British Embassy Pantomime (can’t remember what the nominal theme was, but it was hilarious) in Peking-as-was/Beijing-as-is with a jaunty, entertainingly xenophobic song that had as its refrain “Zat’s why you lurve ze French.” (Cliche-laden photo right of, right-to-left, … Read more …
Ah well squared. The great 6000-mile bike ride from Cirencester to Hanoi didn’t come off, but there have been compensations. Since my last post, I was for quite a while in a bit of a grim state, recuperating at home from what a lovely young German neurologist – eventually consulted at the John Radcliffe Hospital … Read more …
Ah well. It was worth the planning and the effort. But in the event, I’m not going to do the Great-2012-Bike-Trip-Of-A-Lifetime to Moscow and Hanoi. So instead of images from the road to Moscow and then from Beijing to Hanoi, let me illustrate this blog entry first (left) with the lovely balloons from Meg and … Read more …
Sadly, sadly, dear friends, followers and supporters, the feared flare of neck and nerves happened in Holland, and I’m afraid to have to report that today Tuesday I am back home in Cirencester, having been retrieved from the Harwich ferry this morning by my lovely Sue. As you can see from the pictures, I did … Read more …
In the final couple of hours before I get on the Saturday night ferry into Easter Day from Harwich to Hook of Holland, I bid farewell to England for the next six months with images of the most beautiful Cambridgeshire and Suffolk countryside and villages, reminding me why I so love this country and living … Read more …
I know I said I wouldn’t post every day, but tonight, sitting in a warm pub in Old Warden, Bedfordshire, home of the world-renowned Shuttleworth collection of vintage aeroplanes which I’ll visit tomorrow, I couldn’t resist this one, of dinner this evening on a wing and a perhaps even a prayer. I’m preparing to camp … Read more …