Happy Brag Friday

Out of the blue, I just received a commission for a painting from a lady who bought one of my other paintings a year or so ago. This has made me happy.

Who else has got good news to share on a Friday evening?

Share the happiness and hopefully we can make the world a more joyful place 🙂

My dad, at 81, just had his first book of photos published. Photos of Sheffield in the 1960s and 70s. Came out of the blue – he’d not told anyone in case it didn’t come together 🙂

Same publishers as the Brutal Sheffield (and others) book.

Very proud of the old boy!

Old Sheffield Book

My boss is back to work on Monday after 2 weeks off and I survived the 2 weeks without killing myself or anyone else. This is a huge win

@Ajantom, that’s fantastic. Congratulations to your Dad.

Great newses

Well 2 good news stories and an avoided suicide. I was hoping for a little more from STW

Well it was yesterday but I was on a crowded train platform in Leeds and I helped a blind man get on the train when everyone else was pushing off/pushing on the train. I’ve never done anything like it before, but considered it, then asked him if he would like help and he said yes. I’m 56 and I’m surprised I’ve never been in a situation like this.

He was probably more surprised at ending up in London when he was just trying to get to the Wetherspoons.

Edit: I recently had a blind member of staff- totally blind, which he tells me is rare. Not only did it give me a permanent understanding of making sure documents are accessible for all, it also made me realise how much support there is on the rail network for the visually impaired. I never asked too many questions but he always has support on hand to help him navigate train journeys all anroud the country – and in many other aspects of travel there was willingness to help him.

And yet on the other side, when he worked out of him home office nobody even said morning to him!

I talked my 96 year old father (on his mobile) through fixing the leak in  an out pipe in his toilet which was flooding his conservatory and it stopped. Later that day the plumber came round and permanently fixed it but congratulated him on the temporary fix

I went to a wedding reception. For me, that’s a big success.

Anna and Richard, if you are reading this I love you dearly but Oh Boy was I out of my comfort zone!

Sheffield book ordered

Yesterday I jumped a line full of proper jumps on a BMX for the first time ever at age 42 and 1 month.

Not me but mrs G out in Bosnia atm at WW rafting world championship 2 silver 1 gold so far 1 more event to go looks like clean sweep for GB masters ladies. I’ve got some housework to do tomorrow 😱

I managed to do almost 32 miles (mainly road) staying mostly in Z2 despite 1000m of hills. Pretty chilled ride yesterday.

Errr i booked a train journey then couldn’t make it and was non-refundable or transferable so £120 down the drain .. Got an email out of the blue saying train was cancelled and i can apply  full refund – Thanks Advanti for being shite .. Cash back with me – thats a Win right – not sure if its worth of the thread but good for me

3 weeks ago while riding I lost my glasses case complete with glasses and a £20 note 😪 Today we went for a walk and only found it !!

I think, tentatively, that I just sort of entered the victory lap phase of my endless car rebuilt project. No more fluids are falling out of it, the death rattle is solved, everything basically works is essentially in the right place and I’m pretty sure I have all the parts and that I know exactly the jobs that are needed in order to get it complete enough to MOT. So down to a little paint, a little snagging, a little detail stuff. One small part of undoing a bad decision!

I am a little confused by this tbf, I went out to do some stuff on it today and not having some single big showstopper to handle is just a little bit wrong.

I managed to better Chris in a scratch race at the velodrome. Chris is 72 and I am 56. But in other training exercises, I was happy for him as he held my wheel during lap gains. Be more Chris.

I successfully changed the frame bearings, cassette, chain, chainring on my bike. Have it running better than it was originally from the shop build by moving spacer from one side of the crank to the other (**** 157mm rear hub standard). Chain line was really bad previously. Of course tomorrow’s spin will be the real tester but there’s a lot of satisfaction for me in a well running bike.

I’ve finally worked out what the ‘spare’ O ring is for on my drivetrain rebuild.

Missed my first flight of my life late on Thursday due to really bad traffic on M25 so was ready to bail on a trip to Cork to catch up with the rest of the family who were already there. Spent 3.5hrs doing a 90min trip slowly realising it would be tight, then realising it wasn’t worth turning off to airport and just carried on up M11 to see my parents for the evening.

Mrs P bought a 7:45 flight for Friday morning so set off from rainy Stansted to arrive in sunny Cork, bit of shopping, lunch out in a pizza place in the sun watching the world go by and then a RIB trip with some of the extended family and a couple of Murphy’s to top it all off.

A bloody lovely day after a crappy week and a rubbish Thursday!

60s and 70s is “old” Sheffield? Great, now I feel really old.

Taking my slowly healing metatarsal into The Brasshouse in Birmingham to see The Deceivers on a nice sunny day then around to The Prince of Wales for a better and cheaper pint or 2.

My Friday was grand. One of my team got an invited academic paper published, one of my PhD students submitted a first ever paper, and I found out a friend is getting an Honour from the King. And we had 4 sets of reviews back on a paper for the top journal, Nature, and it wasn’t rejected (yet!). Shame my Saturday was shite!

I resigned on Friday, and then realised the next 3 months of not doing as much as usual coincides with the TdF.   That’s a win for me.

After the clusterflup of my wife’s car’s mot last week (see **** Citroen Engine thread) I spent the week getting increasingly stressed about whether I could get a replacement lambda sensor, and figure out how to fit it, ready for mine this weekend.
Driving home on Thursday night to work on the drive in the pissing rain I noticed the engine light had gone off – the half-can of wd40 I drenched the sensor with at lunchtime to loosen it cleaned the thing and got it working! Roll on Saturday morning and the ten year old i20 sailed through with no advisories.
South Korea remains my favourite place that I’ve never been to.
Beat that for a miniscule win!