blogtribe

Quick update, in 2010 I cycled 470 leisure miles, hoping to double that this year with the #20111k, 1,000 Km in 2011, however I want to do 1,000 miles.

Christmas came and went with happy kids, success :-) New Year came and went very quietly, not like our usual NYE.

Work was very very busy in the run up to Christmas, seemed to average 50hrs a week, working 7 days a week from the beginning of December to try and get cards and parcels out. Ended up I was delivering my duty then coming back to take out a van load of parcels, bad weather slowed everything down :-(

Some bereavements and bad experiences in 2010 so pleased that is over, hoping for a better 2011.

Debating on applying for a new job, working with Social Media, blogs and the web to promote the place I’d be working, better decide quick as I just found out closing date is tomorrow. Only thing holding me back and making me hesitate is it’s only a year and not permanent. My next update will show my decision.

If I do decide to go for it I better get practicing by updating this more frequently ;-)

I’m sitting here, on a Saturday night, watching football. What the hell is going on, I don’t get the TV on a Saturday night!! Oh, that’s because Bev has gone away for the weekend with friends from work, I can watch whatever I want, providing I don’t forget to record Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor of course ;-)

In fact, I’m pausing this post to go get myself a drink, don’t normally drink when in alone but what the hell, while the cat’s away…

Ah, that’s better, Magners over ice, nowt better!

Was a weird day at work today, started off spare so was in early sorting 2 duties for others, then the boss dropped the bombshell that I was needed for delivery. Sent me to a rough place, (description from boss:- you won’t get lost, follow the dogs, the crazy women and the vomit and you’ll find your way) a delivery I’ve never done before, wonderful for a Saturday. Wasn’t too much so was done by 11:00 and rang for a lift. “I’ll send one of the lads, he only has a couple of things left to do on the way back”. Yeah right, 12:30 when I arrived back at the depot after delivering different parts of another 2 duties, all in all bits off 3 deliveries done and 2 I’d never delivered before so had no idea where I was going. Got another one on the list for next week I’ve not done either, never mind it’ll add to the 40+ duties I’ve done so far.

Debating about going out on the bike in the morning, sorted myself warm clothing however it’s forecast for rain, not sure how I stand for keeping warm AND dry, will see how bad the rain actually is before I decide. Need to crack a few more miles onto the #Nov100. Still need to find some lights before attempting another dark ride.

Right, off to enjoy this Magners and the TV, bet I can’t find anything to watch now it’s mine ;-)

Cheers!

Naked Gun that is, own up, how many of you are here because of what the tweet told you?

Bev is currently on 2pm-2am shift so the girls have been choosing the evening entertainment the last few nights, started with Tenacious D in the Pick Of Destiny and ending with the 3 Naked Gun films. Not seen them in ages, so much fun. :)

No bike today, late in from work and the weather took a turn for the worse, weather warnings because of the wind. The swing seat at the top of the garden is moving down towards the bottom of the garden, hope it’s OK!

Managed to get a few things added into the sidebars that I wanted, my photos, music and tweets. Need to sort out my blogroll so if yours is missing and you think it should be there let me know :)

Managed to get my sisters website finished back in August, just forgot to say, go have a look if you’re interested http://www.acresoffunchildminding.co.uk/ She’s a childminder, if you couldn’t tell from the link ;)

Still close to completion on the other site I’m working on for my mam, got distracted by my own. However, the redesign of that one was my idea and the original site is still up there and working well, is also non paying so it can wait a little. ;) Just converting it to WordPress as I feel that will be much easier for my mam to update, other site has been online in it’s current form for about 6 years and I don’t think she’s managed an update herself yet, seems it wasn’t as easy to use as I thought it was. :D

Think I’ve decided to redesign my main site after these ones, it is many years old and really should be updated and brought up to date, content as well as design. Will keep interested parties informed on here. I’m feeling alive again re-learning all this, seems I’ve forgotten more than I wanted and some sites I can’t even remember what I have on them or how I made them work so tweaking is becoming a problem,I should put all these good hours to use when Bev is at work as she works 12 hour shifts so I always have time to myself. Sometimes I just don’t want to start something though because I know I won’t want to stop, I need to set myself some times, treat it a little like a job so I can ‘down tools’ at quitting time.

Next job on here though is to get the smilies to sit properly and not look as though they’re just planted on the page.

Let me know what you think anyway, one day I may have more than just a load of waffle to put on these pages.

Cheers!

Yeah right, if you believe that you’ll believe anything ;-)

Ok, so I’ve been doing a lot of work with WordPress lately on another site and decided I was a bit embarrassed that my theme was so old it didn’t know what widgets were. I’ve updated it and now just need to add a few things to it to make it ‘mine’. Some Flickr stuff, maybe some last.fm (still AudioScrobbler to me) and latest tweets etc. But that’s for another day.

Almost finished the site I’ve been working on and can then move onto the next, not decided what that will be yet however I’ve been informed someone may want some work done so fingers crossed.

Went out on the bike today, got my first 30 miles of the #Nov100 knocked out, just a quick round trip visit to my mam :-) Was quite cool but I obviously wrapped up enough without going too far as it wasn’t an uncomfortable ride, apart from cold feet. Had a visit to what seemed like a lake in the road, quite deep and I couldn’t turn my pedals fully or my feet would have been underwater, not the best as my feet were cold anyway.

Went out lateish in the afternoon and knew I’d be returning in the dark but thought it would be a test for my lights, 2 front, 2 rear and 2 small LED’s on my hat set to flashing, I wasn’t going to be missed. Small ones were free with the November issue of Cycling Active and are brilliant, a guy out walking said he saw me cresting a hill ahead of him while I must have been a mile away, the flashing caught his eye, even though he had no idea what it was. So if I get knocked off in future it’s not because I’m not visible.

However the same can’t be said of my other lights, I know they weren’t expensive but where I felt safe knowing I could be seen the same couldn’t be said about seeing. Top Tip: double check all lights, one front one fell off just after I turned it on, must have loosened it. Didn’t work after being dropped then run over by me, this left me with one. Ok if in well lit area but not on the roads I was on. Lesson learned, Santa knows what to bring me now! Any recommendations??

I’m still going to Ashington football matches regularly, all home games so far this season, don’t get a chance to do away usually because of work. Easy to get to home games though, normally leave 14:50 for a 15:00 kick off. :-)

Oh and also make sure you have your keys with you when out on the bike, gets a bit chilly standing around in the front garden/yard waiting for someone to turn up and let you in ;-)

Been a while, not ready to spill everything that’s happened in full so I’ll summarise .

Bad back, as last time I posted, now better.

Bereavement and arsehole step family, no more to say!!!!

Holiday in Wales, oh yeah! :-)

Return to work, bloody busy, hoping back stays better ;-)

Wedding Anniversary and a trip to Blackpool to meet a friend, also oh yeah!!

Cycling, on back burner, bad back then losing Step Dad and other stuff kept me off for a while and no Winter gear keeping me off for now.

Bev changing jobs, things being uncertain as if she didn’t pass training she wouldn’t have a job. No bloody worries, a bunch of 100% exams and audits mixed with a 95% and 90% or two meant they’re bloody impressed and so they should be ;-)

So that’s from last post to now, I may add some more on some of the things in the next few days so watch this space! :-)

Enforced lazing that is, I’m officially on the sick due to a bad back. It has meant me sitting around all day on my laptop but it does mean I’ve had a sort of productive time. So far I’ve fiddled with a site I’m designing, spent a day trying to get it working with some stuff only to fail and revert back to the way it was. I’ve installed and played with flogr, a script to display your Flickr images on your own website. I’ve played around with a few site designs for a site for my sister, not that I have anything to show her yet. I’ve also begun installing Gallery 3 to play with, well I will once I get a few missing things sorted with PHP. I’m slowly re-acqainting myself with xhtml and css and loving every minute of it, even the hair pulling and screaming. :)

So I think I’m going to try and make the most of this and fiddle (oo-er missus) with as much as I possibly can while I’m stuck here in my seat with an excuse to stay here.

Best thing about a bad back though is the fact that Bev decided the weekend was the perfect time to move furniture and decorate, while I just watched her grab anyone that popped in to help her :D

One thing I really am missing though is the bike, annoying thing is that since I’ve been off it’s been lovely cycling weather and I could have clocked up miles, but I’ve only managed 10.5 miles so far this month, that was last Monday, before the bad back. Bethany has joined in with the #August150 and has so far clocked up 72.6 miles to my 10.5, going to take some catching!!

Also been looking at a new theme for the blog, one of the new ones with all the bells and whistles, although I’ve resisted so far as I should spend my time on other people’s projects first :)

Was Ashington Football Club’s first game of the season on Saturday and despite getting beat I’m looking forward to the new season, got myself a season ticket this year as I’m intending on hitting at least every home game and maybe some of the away ones too. Hopefully some good cup games and 2 finals like last year. :D

Damn and Bugger!!

I seem to have knacked my back, I have no idea how I did it but I felt it overnight and took painkillers before setting off to work this morning. Informed the boss as soon as I got in and told him I’d let him know how I got on and if I’d be able to do delivery, turns out no was that answer. I boxed in a couple of jobs though before I left this morning, although I did have to ask for help lifting trays of mail, not funny!!  Couldn’t even cycle back home, had to get dropped off.

Didn’t want to phone in sick so discussed with boss what to do tomorrow, going in early to box a few deliveries in but not going out on delivery myself and we’ll discuss after that, if that isn’t helping then he wants me to stay off and get better quicker, can see his point but I don’t like going on the sick, it’s just not me. :( (as stupid as that may be)

Sat in so many chairs since I got home to try and find somewhere comfy, no such luck. Bev is late finish today and I wanted to go out on  the bike for a few hours later, not gonna happen. Bev’s probably lucky she’s finishing late, I’ll be pulling my hair out later ;)

Well that’s July gone and what a month. Jade’s birthday, 18, bloody hell!!, my birthday and 155 leisure cycling miles.

August has begun with a washout, after finally getting Bev to agree to come out for a cycle with me the bloody heavens opened. I’m not too bothered about the rain if I’m out and caught in it but setting out while it’s chucking it down ain’t my idea of fun :-)

Finally found a cycling GPS app for the iPhone that doesn’t eat battery but still can’t get it to upload anything, awaiting further help to diagnose problems, will no doubt keep you informed!

On the duty that delivers my own post for at least a week, rearranged the duty so I start and finish at my door, brilliant :-D

#July150 has turned into #August150, think we agreed to keep it down as a few of us are on holiday throughout the month. Hope I complete it again, moved up the list in July and finished somewhere around 15th out of about 35 :-) No access to sheet on here so can’t be more specific ;-)

Am I going to make the #July150? Ok so the title came because I was listening to Good Charlotte as I opened this but it still stands. I suppose if I can force myself to make the effort after work and knock in some extra miles on my days off I should make it. One day I’ll set myself a target and pass it with ease, I’m sure ;-). Just don’t know when that will be.

I’ve had a few days off and have been out each day for the last 3, first one was an offroad route through woods, did it along with Bev, 7 miles and about an hour and a half, which included a coffee stop at my mams so not as bad as it sounds. Yesterday we went along the coast to Cresswell and back, stopping a few times for ice cream and photos, a trip of some 11 miles. Did the same route alone today but without the stops, managed to shave over half an hour from the time and half a mile from the distance.

Tried a new app today, RunSat, which integrates with the new site I like, Run Saturday http://www.runsaturday.com, liked the app, just need to test more. Trying to find one that’s not so harsh on the iPhone battery, hard to do.

It’s back to work tomorrow and the first test of whether I can motivate myself to ride after work, I know I’ll enjoy it once out it’s just the getting out I can’t do.

Below is the ice cream stop pic :-)

Old is how I seem now, won’t say feel as I don’t feel old. But today my little girl (she’ll always be that) turned 18, I’ll say it again EIGHTEEN!! Where did the time go.

She has been out with her friends tonight, we surprised her with a Limo to take her and her friends, sure I’ll find out how it was in the morning. It’s almost 3am, been up since 5:30am, and I’m lying here writing this after being Dad’s Taxi, making sure everyone got home safe and those staying here got here safe too.

Having a BBQ tomorrow/today so no rest for me but sure it will be a great day.

Happy Birthday Jadey, Love You x