I\'ve Been Blogged

Epic Days In The Saddle

Having just had a rather epic day in the saddle, I thought I’d reflect on what have been my best days in the saddle over the past six years, but first, what makes a ride epic? I think it can be a variety of things. Sometimes it’s achieving something you’ve never done before, pushing yourself beyond what you thought you could do, sometimes it’s as simple as amazing scenery or great company. Often it comes down to how it made you feel and how memorable it was, for any of the aforementioned reasons.

Here are my top 5, in reverse order –

Cycling

My Next New Hobby: Reading!

I suspect for the first 47 years of my life, I had perhaps read less than 10 books. Maybe a Douglas Adams got read. Maybe a Terry Pratchett here or there. It’s just not something I enjoyed.

Two years ago, as I’d just managed to secure my new role working in digital, remotely, using Scrum, I realised reading up on these new areas, reading up on new skills I would need and generally trying to broaden my skills and abilities would be a good idea.

I got a few recommendations and I began.

At this point, I still struggled with it though. I don’t think I’m a quick reader and if I’ve got free time at home, I’d rather play a game or watch TV. Then I found Audiobooks and my journey began!

General

Learning Spanish

A lot of things have changed over the last 3 or 4 years and one of them, as you might have seen in my last update, is that I’m enjoying cycling in Europe. In particular, I’m finding Spain to be an amazing destination for cyclists.

In the last two years, I’ve been to Spain five times and I’m due to return twice more in 2024. Two of those trips were to Mallorca where, to be quite honest, everyone speaks English anyway! But whilst in Girona in October of 2022 there were two occasions I found myself in a situation where they didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Spanish! I decided maybe I should do something about that!

Cycling, Learning

Cycling in Europe

I’m far from an expert on cycling abroad, in fact, before this year I’d never even done it! This year though, I bought a BikeBox Allen and put it to good use, cycling in Mallorca in March, The Alps in June and most recently in Girona in September. I’ve been reflecting on how each offers something slightly different and also on which ones I’d like to return to.

Cycling, Holiday

Career Pivot Success!

It’s been a somewhat turbulent 10 months for me. Back in July of 2021 I found out that I would very likely be made redundant after 20 years of Supermarket management with Waitrose. I’d decided I should try and make the best of a bad situation and look to change career paths. I’d always said I would only work for Waitrose in Supermarkets, not any of the others, based off stories you hear about how hard they work you. Mind you, looking at the new structures it looked like Waitrose was heading that same way, another reason I thought it a good time to leave retail.

Work

End of an Era

On February 4th, 2002 I started work at Waitrose on Marylebone High Street. Funnily enough I was 15 minutes late, as this was back before Google Maps and I got lost… well, I say lost… I went to Marylebone Road and had to run to Marylebone High Street when they told me my error over the phone. This is after I’d got to my interview in Northwood 45 minutes late due to crazy traffic and somehow I last 20 years with Waitrose!

Anyway, yesterday, exactly 9 years (to the day!) since I started at Whetstone (and again, I was late for that first shift as I’d misread the rota and strolled in for a late shift when I should have been in for an early) I completed my last shift with Waitrose.

Work

Time to be Sensible Again

There is a very real likelihood that I will be made redundant in 2022. I’ll deal with the details of that in a different post, but it has got me looking at my finances in a different way. For example, my YouTube channel would live on phone I buy just because they look interesting and I want to play with them. That has stopped over the last few months.

I then looked at my current car. Much as I love the Mustang, an imported V8 is not a car I should be driving around when trying to be frugal!

Car & Bike

Cycling Indoors

I’ve really got into cycling over the last two years, but I’ve never been a big fan of cycling indoors, it just doesn’t hold the same appeal. No sun in your face, no views to take in, no coffee and cake stops and no exploring the nearby countryside.

Last week though, I upgraded my Turbo Trainer to a new Kickr with a Kickr Climb and I have to say, it’s made quite a difference to the riding experience.

Cycling, Sporting

2020 Has Been Cancelled…

Wind back about 6 weeks and 2020 was looking to be a pretty good year. I’m living my new lifestyle and feeling great. I’ve won Halfords National ‘Cyclist of the Year’ and would be picking up an expensive eBike as a prize and would be attending a Bike Fit. I’d treated myself to an nice new road bike, with all the latest tech on it. I was already making great progress into my New Year Resolutions. I had a 10k run picked out in May that I would work towards and a 100k Cycle Sportive for later in the year. I’ve run my first couple of Park Runs and set new PB 5k times at both.

Continue reading 2020 Has Been Cancelled…

General