DOH!

There was a small mistake in my last posting. Chichester and Goodwood are in fact in WEST Sussex and not East as I said.

Sorry.

So what Have I been up to this week?

I have been trying to get a flyby of the international space station. A colleague has an app on their iphone that tells them when it will come over. Last Friday night it was coming over at 04:30. It was the first clear night we had had so i tried to stay up and watch but fell at hlast hurdle. One minute I was watching the BBC news channel at 03:45 and the next thing I was aware of was the start of Derby day coverage some six hours later. The whole adventure wrecked my sleep patterns all week

I also bought a new bike (pedal - just in case you think I have joined the organ donor society). I had 2 bikes stolen last summer and didn't replace them. I am a fair weather cyclist. And the winter was pretty horrible.

Having made my purchase I had to do a little self assembly. The box that the bike came in said it was to be only assembled by a competent adult. Pause for thought. Did one mildly incompetent adult and two teenagers equal one competent adult? Only time would tell I supposed and proceeded to rip the box apart only finding the warning about the industrial size staples after having spiked myself with one.

Of course I only looked at the instructions when I became stuck. Another engineering principle that I remembered from my father was that when all else fails consult the manual!

I don't want to give the impression that my father was not a good engineer it is just that the bits of advice I remembered and take heed of are the ones where I get to do stupid things first.

The assembly went relatively smoothly on the whole to be fair. I just had a small problem making good the front brakes after I had to disable them to allow me to connect the front wheel. I even managed to index the gears so it all runs smoothly. At the point where I was about to hop on the contraption for a shake down test, my work was interrupted by my son who needed collecting and feeding etc.

After that and a rendezvous with my daughter to deliver her bassoon for the next days lesson, I had just enough daylight for only the briefest trips. To the village and back. although short it has a small hill leading into it so I was able to test the brakes whilst at full tilt down the hill (superb by the way - just as well!) and then, to return I have an incline where I have to go through the gears and make a bit of an effort. All in all a nice short shake down, enough of a work out that any serious mis-assembly would rear it's ugly head and I wouldn't be for from home.

Whilst making a purchase I was tempted into buying a machine with suspension of various combinations and even disc brakes! I relented and plumped for a less technologically advanced version with just a heap of gears and off road tyres. My history suggests that if I skimped on these machines I would most likely be left in a mound of broken bicycle parts on the very first bump I negotiated.

That was Wednesday but I just couldn't be bothered after the Thursday and Friday to get out in the evening, I was just too tired.

So now it is Saturday, I still have not seen the ISS but my bike is calling so I will leave you for now.

Happy trails