Insane!

Absolutely insane!

Last weekend, to round off our action packed holiday, we went camping in Wales with some of the Evans guys and gals (bike shop Matt worked in in London) for a mountain biking trip. We tried out our new two-man, tent and enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather; away from Manchester!

For Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday we basically just rode up and down a couple of crazy mountains; no 'along the flat' stuff. Just Up-and-Up and Dang-Down. Phew! Besides going skydiving, I don't think I have ever done anything so extreme. (Actually, thinking about it, I think this mountain biking was more extreme than skydiving. Yep, definitely).

The first hill we climbed at Machynlleth was steep and took about 1 1/2 hours to climb to the very top. And then...there's the down hill; single track, scary, and fast; my heart was certainly pumping. On Sunday, the ride was more advanced and I was constantly amazed at the technical skill of the boys riding, (especially Matt!) as well as their fitness; not to mention how fast they rode down the single tracks. Insane!

My riding skills have improved out-of-sight (which is good as this was only my second serious off-road ride) and I've started to enjoy it more each time, rather than just getting freaked out by it. I only had one stack this whole weekend and that was only because my legs were so fatigued that when my bike stopped at the bottom of a single track, I kept going - right into a waiting audience :-)

We had so much fun camping with the guys, cooking camp food - especially Dani's Couscous!, and drinking river-cooled cider and beer :-) Excellent way to finish the holiday, though now, I feel I need a holiday to get over our holiday.

Check out our photos of the weekend here.
Also worth checking out our good friend Dani's photos of the weekend for lots more riding shots (don't miss the Hardcore Riding photos of me!).

PS: Matt's just uploaded short video of the start of the one of the downhill sections from Sunday. Sorry, but the camera randomly cut out a short way into the ride :-(

Uploaded Photos (from a little while ago)

Just a quick one to advertise we just got around to uploading some old photos from 'The Best Few Days' series back in July...
Enjoy them here...

Home Again...

Just a quick one to let you know we're home, safe and soundly exhausted.

We'll post updates on our exploits in the next few days - sorry that it wasn't in real time, but we were having too much fun to stop and blog.

Here's a taste of the photos to come!

Brussels, and true Belgian beer... mmmm

Brussels again, and Godiva chocolate

Warsaw, Poland, enjoying the amphitheatre in the King's Gardens

Holidays

We're about to head out on holidays... how fun's that...?

We'll have to post updates on the way as we've just been buzzed by the taxi. :-) back soon.

Sunshine

If it doesn't rain tomorrow, we'll have had a week of sun (I think... I actually haven't been here for most of the week...)

If it doesn't rain on the M62, in Yorkshire, Middlesbrough and Huddersfield, and then Manchester tomorrow, I'll have had a week of sun.

(Saturday: It didn't rain, so we've had our first week of sun since... forever :) )

Our Second 999 Call

To mark the first time in our married life we were asleep on a Saturday night before mid-night, we were awoken around 2am by a highly excited, young chap drawing attention to the fact he and his friend had become caught in the elevator in our apartment block.

Owing to the cascade of expletives and insults, we initially put the excitement down to alcohol induced revelry on the access street down the road, but, no, it was in our apartment block - and quite close to our front door. Following the 999 call to the fire-ies we took up position behind the peep-hole in our front door waiting for action.

Now, in response to those who would have burst out, jimmy'ed the lift doors and rescued the poor souls: you generally don't do that in Manchester - unless you'd like to spend the rest of the night bailed up (back in the lift, in the lobby or back in your apartment), in hospital or both. Sad indictment of these parts of England; but still the best policy for staying safe.

After a short wait, the firefighter came, jimmy'ed the lift door and single-handedly lifted both lads up into our lift lobby. (That's why he's not afraid of answering 999 calls)

Jo and I returned to bed - and took the stairs on Sunday morning.