Time For Emergencies

This morning I finally manage to get some exercise in, ride to work on the bike and help walk the dogs. It’s been quite a varied morning.

Daughter has landed another interview in London. We work out that the train fare is going to be £184 just for her and L would like to accompany her. Therefore I’m tempted to take the day off work and take them both as that will work out far cheaper. I have kept three days holiday back for emergencies. I think this counts as such. I order her an Oyster card.

I dog train while L is first at the hospital then at her parents. We rendezvous as usual in the Masons where I partake of a dizzy blonde. It’s Robinson’s, I hope he doesn’t mind.

(Wednesday 14^th September)

Something Less Intimidating

On the bus today and I pick myself up the new Robin Hood travel card from the machine at the QMC stop this morning. This is supposed to be Nottingham’s ‘Oyster’ card but I’m not really sure how it's supposed to work as you only touch on and not off. So it always charges you the same fee no matter how far you go. 

They have chosen to use the current Nottingham City Transport scheme rather than the more advanced 'Mango' scheme operated by Trent Barton which charges you based on distance when you touch off, like ‘Oyster’ does. It seems to me that Trent Barton will lose out if someone gets on one of their many out of Nottingham bound buses, touches on, but doesn’t get off inside the Nottingham boundaries and therefore gets a cheap ride all the way to Derby, Mansfield, Cotmanhay, Ripley, etc etc. A wrong call which I’m sure will have to be corrected at some point.

Apparently there’s a photo of me on Facebook wearing a mortar board. Can’t imagine where that came from.

I go for a Watt Bike session after work and the same athletic looking chap again gets on the bike next to me, clips in his proper shoes (I could have brought mine you know) and then dials his way up to 300 Watts. The girl in front of me is maintaining a steady 200, I think it’s best if I slot in somewhere between them at least on my warm up. That’s a 5k warm up, with another 5k as a cool down and a ramp session to 315 Watts in between. Five of the six bikes are taken tonight and when a chap decides to do a session on the shopper bikes next to us he only keeps it up for a couple of minutes. After looking at the five of us trying to out-die each other, he aborts and opts to do something less intimidating instead.

L walks the boys up to meet my bus. Anything to get out of ball chucking.

Tonight we finish series three of The Bridge

(Tuesday 22^nd December)

Olympic Velodome

Today we get the train down to London but as usual the barmy ticketing website has done something barmy and issued us with tickets that aren’t together. Luckily there are loads of unreserved seats so we just sit elsewhere, which just makes you wonder even more what planet their system resides on.

We flash our new sparkly Oyster cards at the Underground and head over to Stratford, where we seek out our shady hotel, which is called Lodge 51.

From there we find a real ale bar called Tap East, in Westfield of all places, before we head off in search of the now named Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Tap East brew their own beer and craft ales too. Often a byword for expensive and one of them is £9 a pint. I have a half.

Then we thread out way through the building site and the new apartments that current lie empty Marie Celeste like and eventually stumble across the wide (ish) open spaces of the centre of the park.

A lot has gone but still there lay the Olympics Stadium itself, the Aquatics Centre, Copper Box and of course the Velodrome or the Lee Valley VeloPark as it’s now known. 

Which is mightily impressive up close. Externally, at least, it certainly puts our new velodrome in Derby in the shade because that just looks like a tin of beans.

We are here, along with six thousand others, to pay homage as it opens its doors for the first time since the Olympics as the Revolution Series comes to London for the first time.

I’ve never been to the Revolution Series before, despite it being homed in Manchester, because, well, it’s not the real thing. It’s the cycling equivalent of a football friendly and that is reflected in the racing tonight. Obviously everyone wants to win but it’s not the end of the world if they don’t.

Unless you’re Laura Trott of course, who wins everything she enters but there’s a sneaking suspicion that her Wiggle Honda teammates were looking out for her rather than trying to win themselves.

Afterwards we hop back on the tube and try out a recommended pub in Leytonstone, The Red Lion, which serves a decent pint of porter. I have thirds. 

(Friday 14^th March)