No cycling today.

Its not the weather stopping me.

Last night on my way back from work the punc***e fairies all ganged up on me and my rear tyre split, causing my inner tube to do likewise. Luckily I had only a few hundred metres to walk.
So today I am going to have to walk to Halfords to see what they can offer.

Nothing from Schwabe though. That tyre was less than eight months old.

And here are some pictures of some of Stevenage's wonderful pedestrian/cycling facilities.
They were taken on new year's day and are not the result of heavy downpours, but just persistent, light rain.

This is particularly galling. It is mostly the result of water running in past blocked drains on the adjacent dual carriageway.

***update 8.Jan.14***
Not really an update as there is no change.
This flood still exists.

Still Doing Nothing

Nothing to see here.

I have various projects planned that I am currently shy about committing to (virtual) paper, so here is another deadly dull blog entry. 

 I did a little geo-caching and was quite enthusiastic, but was then struck by a prudent thought. It is all very good fun walking/cycling around my local area looking for secrets, but then what? If I am visiting a new place I will be investigating the art, architecture, geology, heritage, wildlife or whatever. I am not going to go, for instance, to the Peak District and start grubbing around behind lamp-posts and in ditches. 
I do not need a reason to visit interesting or exciting places as travel and exploration is my passion anyway.
Therefore geo-caching is currently on the back-burner.

Geo-caking and Trig and Sustrans milepost spotting will still go ahead. 

I am planning to work some extra hours over xmas, but only on days I am already rostered to work. I will still have my days off and intend to use them wisely. I must put in the miles (kilometres actually) now, even if I have nowhere interesting to go, otherwise I will seize up and lose the ability to cycle further afield when I do have the opportunity.

Today, after work, | rode to Aldi. I managed to fit £36.00 worth of groceries in my four panniers and strapped to my front pannier. 
I have only ridden 49km so far this month; only half of what I need to have done by this day in order to reach my monthly target.

Next year is going to be SO different!


Just to brighten up this entry, here are a few photographs I took while walking in Fowlmere and Shepreth last month.

Just a quick scribble as I eat my lunch. As soon as I have finished I shall be off to bed for a few hours as I am currently working night shifts.
Today I started various 'geo projects'.
They are as follows:

geo-caching

visiting trig points 

visiting Sustrans mile-posts     (both of these in a very male, box-ticking, list-making way)

geo-caking       (this is a challenge of my own devising. I have to visit a cafe/tea-room in each postal district and partake of tea and cake. This must be done using public transport or my own physical exertion ie walking or cycling)


No geo-caking today, but I made a start on the other three.

So

Geo-caching. I did not want to take a photograph and give away the location so I took a (poor, mobile phone) snap of a striking piece of natural history a few metres away.

It looked focussed on the phone's screen, but never mind. I'll go back tomorrow with my camera. 

From the internet I understand it is a beef-steak fungus and is edible. I won't be eating it.

Trig-points  My nearest one is on the playing field of a special needs school, so that will have to keep until the weekend. I went here instead.

This was the approximate site of trig-point No. TP7765. 

It was destroyed in the 1960's by the building of a school, which was demolished in the 1980's. 

I used to walk my dog there. It was then covered by a housing estate including the road above, Ayleward Drive. 

It is at Ordnance Survey grid reference TL254241.

Sustrans mile-posts   Easily done, its near the library. The next nearest appear to be in Ware and Hatfield. Oh well, that will keep me fit!

Here is the Stevenage example (another poor mobile phone snap)

Oh yes; the Ordnance Survey grid reference is TL239238.

Now I am off upstairs for a snooze.

The Lodge, Sandy May 2013.

Ooopps. Just found this entry which I uploaded photos for, but did not enter any explanation or captions.

Oh well, the photos are pretty!

It is a visit I made to the RSPB's reserve and headquarters at The Lodge, Sandy back in May.

I am not sure if this post will appear in the right place, or whether it will pop up at the top of the timeline. Only one way to find out.....

What I am doing today.

It's my day off.

I'm having a bit of a tidy up. Mrs HB is out for most of the day.

First I am re-arranging kitchen cupboards to try to fit in all the jam and pickle we have made recently.

I have thrown away some old food  (I really hate doing that, I detest waste)  including a packet of poppadoms we should have used over six years ago. How does this happen? The cupboard itself is only four years old!

Cleaned out shed.

Cleaned out rabbits.

Fettled bicycle.

And time for tea. Soya milk as a protest against the culling of badgers. 

I am not sure that boycotting british (deliberate small 'b') dairy farmers is really targetting the true offenders. I believe the cull is more about promoting the interests of shooters and the semi-domesticated Indian chickens they like to blast away at.

Wow, done all that stuff and its not even lunchtime!

In which bus, train, bicycle and walking are clearly inferior to the Great God Motor-Car.

Yesterday at work my boss asked if I would be willing to work for three months at another unit within my NHS Trust. The unit, in a neighbouring town, is having some staffing difficulties.
It is some ten miles away and is served by frequent buses. It is just two stops on the railway, and I can walk or cycle at the other end.

If it were summer I would cycle all the way.
So that's easy then. 

Er, actually no. The modern matron did not want me because I do not own a car.

Lucky she does not know who always arrives first at my regular place of work or she would look stupid.


*  Update.  A few days later one of our qualified nurses was an hour late for work as she could not remember where she had left her car keys.

Can't believe it is three months since I wrote something here.      But it is.