My OH hired one in Gran Canaria last week – around the €200 mark for 9 days.

Don’t travel with my family. My mum was booked on spanair on the gran canaria – Madrid route the day after the Madrid crash (same airline, same route, she flew the next day and said the atmosphere was a little sombre…), while my sister was in Madrid on the day of the bombings there and in Thailand on the day of the tsunami.

Riding in gran canaria on my holiday bike (it lives out here and rarely sees rain so is fairly shiny for the mileage it has done)*. 40 miles or so up a big hill and back down again today. More of the same on the cards tomorrow.

*my OH hires and pays about €100-200/per trip, I bought an ex hire bike for about €800 many trips ago. OK I don’t get to ride the latest model and I’m still on 10 speed while he hires 11 speed stuff, but it’s saved me loads of money and isn’t quite as decadent as it sounds to have a bike that lives abroad!

As above some of the legal ones are very good. There is still a tendency to go quiet rather than updating you if it doesn’t look like anything is going to happen, and one in particular oozes grease but I mainly deal with one recruiter who is very good.

She’s approached me several times over the years about jobs but has actually paid attention to what I’ve said, what I like, what I don’t, feedback from interviews, and in the last couple of years she’s only come to me with good stuff – she seems to get closer to the mark each time. I’m currently waiting for an offer (meant to be with me tomorrow…) from a position she called me about with a firm I probably wouldn’t have considered but she thought I’d like them and I did.

We once did similar in Darlington, although the thing we’d locked the bikes to was the car rack (we had left the keys behind when we set off on the trip and only realised when we got to scotch corner) so we could at least have proved it was our car – no-one challenged us though!

Age 37, only debt is about £100k mortgage on a £200k house. Paying off over £1k per month which would clear it in 11-12 years. Pension contributions sitting at about £70k, £20k+ in cash savings and about £10k in a s&s ISA.

Last consumer debt was a loan for a car (not the full value, the difference between my savings and the price) 8 years ago. And a bike I bought on 0% finance over 12 months maybe 5 years ago because the money was earning interest while I paid it off.

This is my first bug of the winter and it’s got me bad. Started midweek and the main thing at first was a horrendously sore throat. Not much coughing or sneezing, but I could barely talk and every time I answered the phone people told me how rough I sounded. Came home from work early on Friday, was flat out the whole of yesterday. Today I had a pre-booked thing I wanted to do. Not too energetic, but a couple of hours of gentle walking around. BAAAD idea. I am now absolutely wiped out again.

Really hope it clears up soon – going on a cycling holiday to the canaries next weekend.

My current job, yes I would, hopefully (I am at a fairly advanced stages of discussion about a move elsewhere, and if it comes off I predict much panic at the thought of me leaving).

However, I’d never have made it to this stage because if 21 year old me was applying for a training contract now I wouldn’t have got it, and without that I wouldn’t have been able to get the qualifications/experience that I have now.

Someone said that the GB team were doing most of their warm ups away from track centre (the exception being when Trott sat on the rollers during the sprint finals!). Which would explain why you didn’t see too much warming up, if true.

I use pulsing on my commute. I commute entirely within the city when it’s dark so I don’t really need a light to see where I’m going. This means that the priority is visibility. I used to cycle one day a week and drive the rest (I now cycle every day) and paid close attention to which lights stood out best to me on the roads I ride at the time I ride them, and flashing/pulsing won hands down.

That. Was. Awesome. We were there Friday/Saturday/Sunday and it was just amazing – and what a finish. Absolutely fantastic.

You won’t fit it in the cabin! We used the sleeper to get to Inverness for Etape Loch Ness. Perhaps unsurprisingly a few others had the same idea. We’d booked our bikes on and had the reservation tickets to prove it, but only got on in Preston by which time there were already loads of bikes on board but the staff were really good about finding somewhere to stash them. Couldn’t fault the service. I guess they may have been less helpful had they not been booked though.

I hated it. The first time it needed maintenance I used it as an excuse to replace the whole groupset with ultegra.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday for me (tickets for all sessions)

I don’t walk as much as I should. When I’m visting somewhere I do loads of walking and will happily park some way away in free parking then walk to wherever I need to be. I walk to the local shop rather than driving to the bigger supermarket. But at work I tend to come in (by bike) and the just sit in the office all day so I’m making a concerted effort to get out for a walk at lunchtime now, even if I don’t need to go out to get anything. I’m finding it’s making a big difference, and I now get annoyed when someone schedules a meeting over lunch.

Not sure about tomorrow, otley reliability ride on Sunday.

I’ve only had this once. We were on holiday in Gran Canaria. We’d got bikes in the back of a van and wanted to park up and go for a ride. We started in a quiet part of a resort, marked parking bays on the road (no restrictions/charging), nothing parked in the bays on one side of the road (no houses), we parked on the other side in front of a house mainly because that was the direction of travel. Spaces in front/behind us. Half the houses are holiday lets rather than homes and we just pulled up outside one at random. Anyway, we get back to find someone parked right up against us blocking his drive. As soon as he sees us he comes out and glowers at us waiting for us to pack everything back into the van, change and head off. Didn’t say a word but clearly didn’t want us there. We move off and he moves his car straight into the space.

At home it’s not really an issue. People park outside my house, but I have a drive so I’m not too bothered, and it’s a wide road so there’s no need to park on the pavement. The one that did bug me a bit was when I got home from work to find someone parked up across my drive, sitting in the car. I was on the bike (the car was in the drive) but did he move to let me actually get the bike onto the drive via the dropped kerb rather than taking a circuitous route? Nope, he just sat there and watched.

I get it too. Again only on here.

Main – leek, spinach, cheese and pine nuts
Dessert – nutella

Torrential rain and a tailwind on the way home. I didn’t think they existed!

Yup, nowhere near as bad as yesterday’s ride.

I don’t tend to have a problem cycling in Leeds. Maybe it is crap and I’m just used to it by now, I don’t know, but I’ve only had one incident with actual contact (several years ago now) and I very rarely get any verbal abuse or deliberate aggression. Maybe it’s because I’m female?

In. Much of what comes out of Europe will still affect us, so it’s better that we have a say in it and try to reform from the inside than sitting on the outside with no ability to really ignore it.

Sitting in Brussels airport. Haven’t quite dried off from yesterday yet alone today but that was great.

The party sounded like it was only just getting going when we left. There were some very happy Belgians at the end!

Poor lad. The Belgian crowd did laugh a bit though…

Great racing, shame about the weather! I may dry out at some point…

I get unlimited internet on 3 for £12.90. I love the roaming.

Also flying out tomorrow 🙂 first time watching cross out there (went to mk last season though).

6 in 20 years.

Metro x 2
No car
Punto
Clio
No car
Fiat 500
Berlingo

My mum died in November (bowel cancer and secondaries in the brain) and my nephews are 3 and 6.

She’d first been diagnosed in March 2014 so they’d had a while of her being generically ill but no real name for it (and at that stage no terminal diagnosis). They just knew that sometimes she was a bit delicate after an op or needed to get some rest because she was tired after chemo.

Mum lived in Spain (although until the secondaries were diagnosed in the middle of last year she came across to the UK a fair bit and did childcare duties during school holidays etc), and their last trip out there was in August. In hindsight very well timed as she went into hospital a week to 10 days later and never came out. After that, while they were told that she was very poorly and my sister and I went out for visits without them they didn’t really get told anything until afterwards.

They took it pretty well to be honest, they have had teary moments but they soon seem to perk up again.

Zwift and the radio for me

I got some soundpeats in ear Bluetooth headphones earlier this week and they’re fine. Not the best headphones ever but more than enough for my needs.

In summer – extending my commute and realising how close to the city centre you can find nice countryside.

In winter – taking the direct route in the dark and cold and wet and realising that no matter how grim it is, I’d rather be doing that than be sat in a car in a traffic jam.

I was in work for the last three days. Amazing how many people think that immediately after Xmas is the ideal time to sort out car insurance. It was non-stop. Even at 10am on Bank Hol Monday there were calls coming through.

Makes sense to me – I always get through a pile of boring jobs at this time of year because I’ve got more time to do it.

Officially we’re meant to be here til 4 today. I’m about to press send on the last bit of work I intend to do this side of the new year so I’m hoping that we get the nod to go home earlier.

In work today, tomorrow and Thursday. They sent round a list of who was meant to be working, meaning it will be more obvious if I skive off. Also, two of my support staff are here and they know I’m meant to be here too.

Couldn’t even ride in this morning as both the bike parking and the two places I could shower (office showers and the gym across the road) are both inaccessible due to flooding. Sadly the office is on the 2nd floor and the issue in this building is only in the basement so we have no excuse to go home.

2 miles with my nephew testing out his new bike. Everyone else bailed on the plan when they saw the weather.

Cracking race. My dad watched cross for the first time and rather enjoyed it.

A dusting overnight in Leeds which melted when it turned back to rain.

Have just driven over the m62 to Manchester. Some lying on the hills.

The cross bike seems to be the answer for me at the moment. Have been out on it the last two weekends.

Not racing but we’re going to Belgium to watch the worlds and drink beer in January. Should be fun.