Well!.... Best Laid Plans and all that jazz

Only hours after I wrote the previous update, I was hit with the dreaded Flu Bug and yes it was Flu and not Man Flu or a Cold, I will keep it simple, I have never shivered so hard in all my life, in fact I shivered so hard it hurt, I even pulled a muscle I was cramping up so much, that was then followed by burning up for the next 3 hours.

I am not going to go into any great detail about spending 3 days in bed, it’s bloody boring.

I have however spoken with the local Fundraising Manager for the area, Fran Winterbourne and arranged for a new date of Saturday 17th of January for the re-start weather permitting, this cold snap has to finish sometime.

Just before Christmas I did an interview for a local newspaper, okay it is only a free one but still they have featured my story on the 2nd page, in fact main pieces in the whole Newspaper and takes up almost the full page. Lisa from our Marketing Department is now sending out another batch of press releases to the West Midlands Press to see if we can get them to take it up as well.



I was talking with John from work yesterday and he was asking me whether I had started etc, he also mentioned that he had been reading the blog and found it rather interesting so rather than end this with the shortest update so far, for obvious reasons, I thought I would give you a little insight into what we discussed as it covers one of the instances that stimulated the idea in the first place.

I had always wanted to do a big ride but was stuck on things like a long trip down through Europe to Greece to give an example however each one would require a fairly major amount of time off work, so obviously they kept on being put off. I had been watching the first series of Coast and found it really interesting, so the inklings of an idea started to gel.

Then one Bank Holiday my ex- wife asked me to take my 12 year old son up to her parents so he could spend half-term there, after a lot of discussion and persuasion shall we say, she agreed I could take him up on the bike and give him a bit of a boys adventure with his Dad.

We set off on the Saturday morning early and I dropped him off near Chester with the Grand Parents late afternoon, after we had taken a non-motorway trip up the country, sticking to more interesting riding roads etc, mainly taking in the Welsh Borders around Craven Arms and Shrewsbury etc. Yes the Long Way Up (okay, sorry about the pun).

After going to see my Father on The Wirral and then spending Saturday Night with some old friends in Chester, I was left with the ride back home and a couple of free days to do it, so I decided I would ride down the North Wales coastline to Mid Wales and try and see what it would be like to re-create the Coast programme but on my own and on a Motorbike, after that I was hooked on the idea. It is not just the riding, it is the scenery, the history and even some of the quirky little facts you come across on the way, as an example of what you may find going forward with the blog.

Do you know where the title of the Beatles song Nowhere Man comes from? Well, here’s the answer and a photo to back it up. In the late 50’s John Lennon was sent to stay with his Auntie who ran a famous pub in Chester called the Bear and Billet, it did become infamous during the 70’s and 80’s as the place in Chester to get your ‘gear’ if you know what I mean. Anyway I digress in the 50’s it was one of a large number of watering holes inside the City Walls of Chester up Watergate St. However she used to live just over the bridge in Handbridge down by the River Dee in a little white cottage called ‘Nowhere’, okay it’s changed a lot over the years and is now a very desirable property.

So there you are Trivia No 1, get ready for many more as I travel around the country.


Take care and as Mick says 'You don’t stop riding when you get old; you only stop riding when you get confined to bed!'