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!

Continue reading Learning Spanish

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.

Continue reading Career Pivot Success!

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.

Continue reading End of an Era

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!

Continue reading Time to be Sensible Again

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.

Continue reading Cycling Indoors

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…