The quick dismount

A quick update on the progress!  

Firstly, thank you to those who have given some money to this extremely worthwhile charity, and for the e-mails of support from those of you who already support the charity in other ways.  I find it especially heartening to hear from those of you with no military connection, who support the charity so well.

I had my final cycle today before heading off on exercise tomorrow, and I thought it was a beautiful day to practice, as I like to call it, the quick dismount (to the untrained eye, it might look like falling off) so I now sport some superb gravel rash!  

The Help for Heroes cycle shirt survived the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano dust storm, and arrived earlier this week so I now look the part.  I have also managed to pick up a few Kiwi Defence Force followers who are joining me on the cycle for some morale support.  

So a bit more on the race.  The course is an 8km loop through the forest, with some fairly technical aspects (I suspect the quick dismount will come into play again), and with an electronic chip on my bike, they will monitor the distance covered in the 6 hours allotted.

This will most likely be the one and only update before the race next weekend as, as said earlier, I am off to glorious Waiouru on exercise.  So here is the last plug....please give as much as you can!  Click on the link below, and follow the instructions.  As I said, the charity is one that is close to my heart, have a look at their website and have a look at the awesome work they do.

https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/kiwimoonride

Thank you all very much, and the next you will most likely hear will be how much I raised, and how far I managed to go!

Danger Ahead....

This is just to provide you all with fair warning.....with the advent of the Moonride, I thought that I would need an extra pair of cycling shorts.  They arrived in the post this morning, and they are tight....like tiger....

Photos will follow soon, so there is the warning!

Training is going well, although this week I have actually been quite busy at work so not been able to do too much.  I am off on exercise on Monday, but the bike will be coming with me so shouldn't be too bad!  1 week to go.

Help for Heroes Moonride

Thankfully, I suppose, there will actually be no moon involved when I am riding.  This is solely because due to me having to do a bit of work with the kiwis I can only do the 6 hour event....a small sigh of relief....

As you hopefully all now know, I have decided to do the ride to help the Help for Heroes charity.  So have a look at the webpage here and give a little or preferably a lot of cash.

Next year I will plan to go for the 24 hour ride, so here is your notice, come out for a holiday and join me!

Updates will be posted as regularly as possible, with the event taking place on 8th May.

Superb!

Hmmm Tory or BNP??

Slightly worried as the Tories and the BNP seem to be the same, or at least that is according to my political views....maybe I should go and buy a pair of Doc Martins (cherry red of course)? But do not worry Mr Cameron ( I am sure you are a faithful reader of this Blog) your vote is safe with my old man!

Sunset in Palmy

Winter is definitely on the way, with today being particularly crappy.  But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining.  Tonight though they were definitely golden.

Hurricanes dah dah dah, Hurricanes lah lah lah!

On the Easter Friday (yes, it was good) we trotted off to the fine capital city of Wellington, to watch the mighty Wellington Hurricanes take on the Canterbury Crusaders in the Super 14 rugby.

To those of you that are unaware, the Super 14 competition is a tri-nation club competition from New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, and you guessed it; there are 14 teams.  Soon to be 15 with the inclusion of Melbourne next year, but that is an entirely different story.

Well dressed, and off to the game with John & Jody

So, I digress.....there we were in the nations capital, and it was a glorious day which prompted a stroll along the harbour front and a stop in the Loaded Hog for a quick squiz at the Grand Prix on the big screen, and a bite to eat.  Naturally with my plate of fish and chips, a beer was required.  I saw the Guinness, an thought that i would be sorely disappointed by this.  Now, as often happens my mind gets accidentally connected to my mouth and the barman heard of my reservations.   He was lightening quick to tell me that his Guinness had been voted the second best pint of Guinness in the world, outside of Ireland - quite an accolade i thought, and had a pint.  Result = not too bad.

Close to boiling point over 'great' ref decision

Now the beer leads me down my second ally of thought....I came across the single most ridiculous, stupid, crappy, rubbish, non-sensical, poor....etc.....law in, not only the whole of New Zealand, but in fact the world.  Get this....due to the fact that it was Good Friday the law was that in order to purchase alcohol you must purchase it with a meal (packet of peanuts did not count...).  This put an end to my wondering why so many pubs were closed, as were all supermarkets, liquor kings etc.....So, when you next see me and wonder why I have blossomed a wee bit, that is purely because I had to eat 24 full meals over he course of the day....I mean, what a crap law.

Any way, I appear to have digressed again.  What was I meant to be writing about?  Ah yes, the rugby.

Me and some random Bath gal, they get everywhere....

Being a referee myself, we have to abide by the unwritten rule that you should never ever criticise another referees decision.  But after watching this game I bit my lip more than once, and let my anger boil over in the dying minutes.  Of course the referee could hear me and will take into account my every calmly delivered word...at the top of my flaming voice....ah hem.....he was quite clearly being paid off by the Crusaders.

So there we go, the final score 26-26, with the Hurricanes mighty glad that Dan Carter can't kick to save his life.

After the game, it was a quick stroll back into town and time to order yet another full meal, just so i can have a bloody drink!  Even on reflection, the 3 stone gained was worth it.

Full time 26-26