How the internet sucks your time away.

This morning I got up full of good intentions about what I was going to accomplish. The first priority was obviously to make breakfast and read the Guardian, from cover to cover, except for the sections that I don’t read. I had about 60% of this task completed when Mrsjohnm55 asked if I knew how to add some one to an email group. I know how to do it with my work email, but we use Lotus Notes at work, and because it is Lotus Notes, the method will be completely different to any other programme ever written. Being male I was reluctant to admit that I wasn’t sure how to do it in Windows Mail, because I have never needed mail groups for my private email. I came upstairs and opened up my email to work out how to do it. It turned out to be as simple as dragging and dropping contacts into the group. However..

One of my hobbies is Family History, and I subscribe to ancestry.co.uk to help with the research. One of the things they do is email you if someone else is researching one of your ancestors, and there in my in-box was an email telling me that some one had found something on one of my 3x great-grandmothers. I had tried to get a better handle on who she was for a while so I clicked the link. I checked out the information, it wasn’t a significant addition to what I already knew, it gave me an actual date of birth as opposed to the month and the year that I already had. Actually it might be the date of baptism, it wasn’t that clear.

This got me thinking about one of my other 3x great-grand mothers. Checking out her death certificate, I decided to find exactly where she had died. I couldn’t find the address on Google Maps. On a whim I typed into Google “Map of Kelso 1870″. This took me to the National Library of Scotland’s digital map archive. I found the address that she had died at. As I sort of guessed the street had been renamed sometime in the past century and a half.

Maps fascinate me, especially old maps. I don’t know how long I spent exploring the last three centuries of Scottish Borders via the maps I found in their archive, but it was a significant amount of time. If you like old maps have an explore of the site. It is first class and free. Just expect to lose an hour or two of your time.

I thought I might as well check Twitter (@john_m55) and that looks like an interesting article @so-and-so is tweeting about, I’ll check that out. That link in the article looks worth following as well. Should I look at my RSS feed to see if there is anything interesting there, of course there is, I wouldn’t be following these people if they didn’t say interesting things. Another half-hour gone. Might as well check Facebook before I shut down, nothing too much going on, except my sister tells me she has a friend who is cycling across the United States and is blogging about it, so naturally (cycling and cycle touring in particular is another of my passions) I had to check out his blog Bicycle Across America, more time gone.
And now I am blogging about it.

Is this the year when British Cycling takes over the world?

The new cycling season is barely a week old and British cyclists have so far recorded five wins, and only two of them from Mark Cavendish. Let’s list them:

• Win No 1 – Andy Fenn at the Trofeo Palma
• Win No 2 – Andy Fenn again at the Trofeo Migjorn
• Win No 3 – Cav breaks the Curse of the Rainbow Jersey at the Tour of Qatar
• Win No 4 – Cav wins his second stage at the Tour of Qatar
• Win No 5 – Jonathan Tiernan-Locke wins the first stage of the Tour Méditerranéen 

We have come to expect Mark Cavendish to win most of the sprints that he contests,as he tweeted @MarkCavendish:

Well, that’s 2 wins from 2 contested sprints with @TeamSky. The lads were incredible at keeping me at the front of a hectic peloton. Thanks

Andy Fenn has just moved up to the ProTour level, joining Omega-Pharma Quickstep in the close season, and the Challenge Majorca races were I think his first ever races at this level, so it is a pretty good way to start. Jonathan Tiernan-Locke is still riding for a Pro-Continetal squad (Endura Racing), but he showed what he could do at last year’s Tour of Britain, when he won the King of the Mountains competition. His win came from a bold attack about two kilometres from the finish and managed to hold off the sprinters to hang on (just) for the win. In addition Adam Blythe (BMC) has been going well at the Tour of Qatar, picking up minor places.

So far it is looking good.

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Update 12/02/2012 @ 17:30
Looking even better.
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has won the final stage and the overall at the Tour Méditerranéen.
Below is a video of his 1st stage victory.

Video of J T-L’s stage four victory. The stage had to be shortened because Mont Faron was closed due to snow. I don’t know if that helped him or not, but you can only win the race that you are competing in.

I know that the Tour Méditerranéen isn’t the biggest race in the world, but it is a significant step up from the Premier Calendar. This could be the beginning of something big. Don’t forget his team Endura Racing are British and have won more stage races this year than Sky.

Spring is on the way

This is the last Sunday in January, and I know that, in London at least, the temperature will probably drop below zero for the first time since about this time last year. The signs that spring is on the way are unmistakable though.
The Belgian sorry, World Cyclo-cross Championships have just taken place. In the cycling world this means that winter is almost past.

More to the point though, to-day was also the day that Le Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise (L’Ouverture) took place. (The report and results link is in French.) For me, this marks the start of the cycling season and therefore the beginning of Spring.

Soon it will be Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, De Ronde Van Vlaanderen, Le Tour de France, all leading up to the Olympic Road Race in my back yard, on the roads that I ride week in, week out. Can’t wait.

Team Type 1 (See previous post) have some photos from the race on their Facebook page

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Update: 20:10

Note: The domination by the Belgians (that’s a phrase that isn’t used too often) who took the first seven places, was only in the men’s championships. The women shared the honours around a bit more evenly, but even then, first and second were Dutch.

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Further update 30/12/2011 16:30

GP d’Ouverture La Marseillaise 2012 – Highlights from France3

(h/t to Team Type 1)

S#!t Diabetics Say

It is not going to be a theme of the blog, but I am diabetic and have been for about 25 years. Still as some one, probably my sister, once said to me;
“John, diabetes doesn’t have to be a pain in the arse, there are lots of other places you can inject your insulin.”

All this is partly to explain why I found this video clip funny.

Still at least diabetics in the UK don’t have to spend half their lives arguing with Health Insurance companies. Well, for the time being at least.

A guy named Marcus Grimm made it. He blogs at Sweet Victory. His main theme is running marathons,

I’ll stick to cycling.

If someone can do a mash-up of the two of them it would make a perfect theme video for Team Type-1

Bike ride to Scotland: Part 7 Duns to Wallington (the easy way)

Day 7 – 10/05/2003 (Saturday) Duns to Wallington

There are no maps or elevation profiles for today’s journey. There was also very little cycling involved.

I needed to be at Heathrow by 11 o’clock on Sunday the 11th to collect Mrs johnm55 after her trip to Canada. (I also needed to be back at work at 8 o’clock on Monday the 12th). Cycling back home to Wallington unfortunately wasn’t an option. I could have probably thought up an excuse for not being back at work, but not picking Mrs johnm55 up at the airport…. I don’t like to think of the possible consequences.

As I had stayed the night with my sister and her husband, we loaded the bike back into the pick-up for the trip back to Duns to say cheerio to mum. My sister then took me down to Berwick to catch the train back to London. I put the bike in the guard’s van and settled down to make the return journey in fewer hours than it had taken me days to cycle up.

The East Coast Mainline follows roughly the same route as my bike trip, so as we flashed past various places I had been on the bike I took some photos through the window of the train.

The Tyne Bridges

The Angel of the North

York Minster – it is there honest

Having ate, drank and dozed my way back to London, I wheeled the bike out of King’s Cross Station onto the Euston Road ready to ride back home to Wallington. But… after a week of cycling on quiet back roads with about three cars per hour passing me, I decided that dicing with death and London traffic could wait for another day. So I wheeled the bike back to the station and onto the Thameslink train to East Croydon

The Galaxy on the train

I did have to cycle back from East Croydon, but I was up to that by the time I arrived.

The next morning I was up bright and early to make sure that I was at Heathrow in time to pick up a jet-lagged wife back from Toronto. We both had a good week.

Bike ride to Scotland: Part 6 Wooler to Duns

Day 6 – 09/05/2003 (Friday) Wooler to Duns

Friday morning dawned bright and clear over Wooler. After a breakfast of porridge and toast I set off on the last leg of the trek to Duns (and what should have been last night’s evening meal). I was now back in the part of the world that I grew up in, on roads that I cycled long ago.

It was an easy day, just under thirty miles to ride and while it wasn’t flat there were no serious hills or wind to contend with. I decided to take the back road via Ford and Etal crossing the Tweed into Scotland at Norham. For the first part of the journey (as far as Norham) I followed National Cycle Route 68 although I ignored the off-road bits. Once you climb out of the valley of the River Till there are spectacular views across to the Cheviot Hills. Just over half way I crossed the Tweed into Scotland.

Writing about the Tweed and the Till reminded me of a dark little poem that I learned at school. The Battle of Flodden was fought near here and I think that the poem has its origin in the aftermath of battle.

Says Tweed tae Till,
“Why dae ye rin sae still?”
Says Till tae Tweed,
“Though ye rin wi’ speed,
whaer ye droon ae man
A droon twa”.

I was now in Scotland and took a photo of my bike to prove it

I forgot to take a picture of Norham Castle, so you will have to make do with Turner’s take on the scene.

After just over an hour’s ride through the rolling Berwickshire countryside I had reached my destination

By the time I had finished my shower and changed out of my cycling gear, Mum had lunch ready for me. It was a satisfying feeling to sit down to lunch knowing that I had cycled all the way from London to eat it. Later on my sister turned up with the pick-up to take Mum and I down to her house for dinner. I could have cycled there, it’s not much more than fifteen miles, but I was back wearing my normal clothes and I had done what I set out to do, so I put the bike in the back of the pick-up. Later on my brother and his wife turned up and we had a bit of a family reunion over my sister’s excellent food and probably a wee bit too much wine.

Bike ride to Scotland: Part 4 York to Eggleston

Day 3 – 07/05/2003 (Wednesday) York to Egglestone

At least the wind died down today, or if there was any it was helpful, but we did find some hills. After two days in the flat-lands it was quite pleasant to be somewhere with contours.
Actually the first two-thirds of the trip was reasonably flat. I was climbing steadily and there were hills to my left and right but the roads were quiet (excluding the first few km up the A19) and it was pleasant cycling. It was only after Richmond, going on into Co. Durham that it became necessary to shift into the Granny Ring now and then.

Bike ride to Scotland: Part 1 Wallington to Hitchin

Day 1 – 04/05/2003 (Sunday) London to Hitchin

Today didn’t work out that well. For various reasons, some good, some bad, I didn’t actually manage to leave until one-thirty in the afternoon, rather than seven or eight in the morning as I had planned. Never mind, I thought at least I had lunch before I left

Everything was going well, apart from a bit of hassle with the traffic in Brixton, until just after crossing London Bridge. I realised that I might have left the train ticket for the return journey lying on the kitchen table. A search through my bags confirmed that my thought was correct.

“Oh dear” I said to my self, well that wasn’t exactly what I said, but this blog tries to be suitable for all ages. I turned round and went back to London Bridge Station and caught a train to East Croydon, from where I cycled home and retrieved the ticket. I thought that while I was back home that I might as well unload the dishwasher and put the washing, which was now dry, away.

I cycled back to East Croydon and put the bike back on the train, this time to St Albans. My theory was that St Albans was roughly where I would have been if I hadn’t had to go back home to retrieve the ticket.

I decided to push on further. Eventually I decided that I would call it a day when I got to Hitchin, about 20 miles nearer to Duns. Then to cap, what was not the best day of the journey, the hotel I stayed at was not only the most expensive place I stayed at all trip it also, in retrospect, was the worst.

I plan my routes on BikeHike.co.uk which is a great little route planning website for cycling or walking. Your routes can be uploaded to or downloaded from a G.P.S. device if you own such a thing, or printed off if you don’t.

Part 2 Hitchin to Lincoln >

Old sketch books.

I was sorting through my art equipment this afternoon. Basically looking to see what was worth keeping and what needed to be thrown when I came across a couple of old sketch-books that I also used as diaries to record a couple of trips. For my younger readers, “Keeping a diary”, was a bit like blogging ,except you wrote your thoughts down on paper. Usually no one else read them, not that much different to blogging then.
I thought that I would re-write them as blog posts and include the (better) sketches.
The first series of posts will be about a bike trip I made to Scotland in 2003. Mrs johnm55 had gone off to Canada for the week without me, so I decided that it would be a good idea to go and visit my mum – on my bike.
Day one can be found here

Tour de France: Last thoughts on the Tour

The Tour de France is over for another year. Cadel Evans is taking Le Maillot Jaune back to Australia The first time any one from the Southern Hemisphere has done that. Mark Cavendish is taking the Le Maillot Vert back the Isle of Man. The first time any British qualified rider has won The Green Jersey. I was going to say Rider from the British Isles, but then remembered that Sean Kelly won the thing four times back in the Eighties. “Cav”is also the first rider since Robert Millar won the Polka-dot Jersey in 1984, to win a Jersey in the tour de France.