Bees Make Honey

Saturday Rowan was at Hebden Hay, I was on a bike ride with Ted to watch the Women's National Road Race at Hovingham, and Danielle was running a bee-keeping seminar with friend David. I have no idea which one is Danielle but you get the picture...

Hotel du Vin

Rowan has been away on a Quaker weekend at Hebden Bridge with lots of her friends from Meeting. We made the most of our quality time and Friday night we went to the Hotel du Vin in York which is a new restaurant - fantastic. The photo is of Danielle making an early start on the sparkling rose.

Bike

We found this fully faired recumbent bike at the CTC Rally last week - liked the look of it.

Clarion

The Clarion cycle club was a feature of the first part of the last century in Britain. It was a Socialist club with a noble tradition including members cycling to join the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. I was surprised to see it has been revived and there was not one but two stalls at the recent CTC rally in York. On wondering why there were two stalls I was greeted with grim “he's nothing to do with us, we're the real Clarion” from one stall and “they're not socialists!” from the other. It really was straight out of the Life of Brian, particularly as there was not a jot humour in any of the pronouncements. Still, good to have them around [both of them].

There was no Sports Day last year but this is from the biathlon at Beverly in 2007.

Contrast

I have a life of work contrast at the moment. One day a week I am in an affluent leafy West London borough which is at its best in the summer with the Thames a shimmering. Two days a week I am in Doncaster - a South Yorkshire that has no pretensions [a few wouldn't go amiss]. Both have their charms, both their downsides: either way it makes for a varied week. Sometimes I do forget where I am, I start talking to strangers in London thinking I am in Donny. Or I ask someone in Donny where the Starbucks is.

The photo is the latest in the Sports Day series - 2006 this time.

Press

s
One of the down-sides to not getting the local paper is never knowing when we're in it. Luckily someone spotted this photo of Rowan in a report on the Athletics meet last weekend, when she won the 600m under 11's race. Click on it to enlarge.

Garden news

I have made the first batch of Elderflower cordial with the flowers from the garden. Getting the citric acid is always difficult as chemist's assume I want it to mix with my heroin: seeing as how I've never even smoked a cigarette in my life this is a little ironic.

The broad beans have been good this year, the best harvest I have ever had, the garlic and the onions too.

Meanwhile the wind is doing its best to pull some more trees down.

The photo is of Rowan at Sports Day 3 years ago - getting bigger.

Ron Kitching Ride

go
Two weeks after the gruel-fest that was the White Rose Classic, Dave and I rode the 105k

Ron Kitching Challenge

bike ride.
What a difference. Whippets were replaced with ponderous Labradors, carbon-fibre with Reynolds 531 steel, energy drinks with cakes made by village-ladies, electronic dongles with a bit of card and a stamp. From being the oldest we felt pretty lean and fit. It was a great route up to Hutton le Hole on the North York Moors and we did it in just over 5 hours. All in all we felt more comfortable.

I even had the energy to go to friend Edward's 40th birthday party in the evening.

The photo is of Rowan at sports day four years ago - she has grown a bit.

Heron

When I am working in Twickenham I quite often get off the train at Vauxhall, then walk by the river to the south bank past Parliament, the London Eye etc. It is a good walk in itself, and made especially satisfying when you see a heron fishing in the Thames.

St Pancras

I was working in London yesterday and met up with friend Paul in the evening at St Pancras station champagne bar. It really is a great place to meet - by the statue of John Betjeman - then to enjoy a drink with the Eurostars smoothly pulling in and out of the magnificent station.

En route to Twickenham there were quite a few Royal Ascot strays looking very out of place amidst the grime of the tube in their frocks and top hats. It is 3 years since Ascot was at York which was great fun.

Bolton Percy

I got a bike ride in to Bolton Percy this week. The village is pretty idyllic with a cafe to boot. The photo is of the village green with my bike in the foreground - timeless stuff.

Sports Day

It was Rowan's sports day today. She won all her races. This shot is of her in the lead in the 300metres watched by the games teacher, Miss Harvey, who has been the making of her this year: she has really encouraged Rowan and given her confidence.

Arto Tuncboyaciyan

At the Mory Kante gig in Istanbul there was support from an Armenian drummer and singer

Arto

who was really good himself. The link
takes you to a webpage where there are usually some tracks to listen to.
The photo is from Istanbul, with a typically massive palace wall.

Car

One to the things with not driving very often is that the car can sit for a week without turning wheel. So it came to pass that today we all got in the car at 10.30am to drive over to York Stadium for a York Athletics League competition for Rowan - I turn the key ... nothing. Dead as a doornail. Someone [OK, me] had left the door of the car open, the interior light on for a week, and a subsequently flat battery.
All was sorted, cab to the stadium for Rowan and Danielle, I got the car started and Rowan one the 600m and was second in the Long Jump.

The photo is of Danielle in Istanbul

Cricket

Friend Adrian persuaded me to go to Headingley to watch Yorkshire v Notts in the TwentyTwenty cricket thing. It was cold and damp and Yorkshire lost but still pretty good fun. It got me to thinking "when was the last time I watched a cricket match?" The answer 1985, England [Botham, Gatting etc] beating Australia [Thomson, Border etc] at Egbaston. I cycled up from Droitwich and it was a great day. Prior to that it had been England v Pakistan at the World Cup in 1983? at Lords, and England getting tonked by the West Indies in 1976 at Old Trafford.

My father introduced me to Test Cricket at Old Trafford when I was small. I remember an empty stadium, rain, rain and not much cricket. The good things included shaking hands with Basil D'Olivera and watching Bedi in his turban.

I reckon that if I carry on at this rate my next game will be when I am 73 ... Lancashire might have won the county championship by then, but I doubt it.

WRC

On the ride on Sunday through the Dales I saw Red Kites, Oystercatchers, Curlew and Lapwings as well as a Little Owl. What do you mean I should have been concentrating on the cycling?

The photo is the "before" shot, I think it would be fair to say that we both looked somewhat different by the end.

In print

Danielle was interviewed for a government report on ethnic minority women who have made it, called

Routes to Power

. There is a list of the people interviewed on page 16. Just need time to read the report now.

The photo is another from the start of the run on Saturday.

White Rose Classic

Reasons for not doing the

White Rose Classic

race today.
1 I have had man-flu for two weeks and feel pretty week
2 My back is still stiff on long rides
3 Tennis elbow still there
4 I am 50
5 The route [see profile] climbs 2800m. That is like cycling up Sca Fell Pike. Three times.
6 I have not trained for it.

Reasons for doing it.
1 It is a fantastic route
2 I am booked on
3 It is a beautiful day
4 Dave is doing it
5 I am sometimes stupid

It was a great ride, we both found it very hard, but definitely glad to do it. Roll on next year.

Running

Danielle has been busy all weekend interviewing for the new head at The Mount school, where she is chair of the board of governors. I took Rowan to a 2 mile race in Harrogate where out of a field of 99 she came home 3rd girl and 7th overall [the two girls ahead of her were 14 and 13]. Here she is nearing the finish.

Bo

Here is the promised photo of me and my beetle, and Sheba. [Strangely both the car and the human look in better nick in the other photo.]

Sad to hear that

Bo Diddley

had died. He basically invented rock and roll music. I saw him once at the Astoria in London and he was great. He had a big influence on friend Derwood at one stage, including the square guitars.

Bosphoros

Rowan and I went on a boat trip on the Bosphoros one day in Istanbul. The sunshine and the breeze made for perfect weather, the Turkish tea [black and in a glass] helped things along and the sight of dolphins and sheerwaters made it a great trip.

Istanbul 3

It is hard to resist a hammock. Rowan and I managed to not fall out of it as well.
The hotel was right next to the Besiktas football ground, so we went to the shop and are now all Besiktas fans [2 shirts and a hat].

Museum

Having the cream of European charitable foundations in Turkey for the

Conference

meant that there was some pretty good entertainment laid on. There was the Mory Kante gig, then another evening we were coached to a private museum that had laid on an evening for us all. The exhibits were a bit earnest and the food was so agonisingly fashionable that it failed to fill us up [looked great though], but we still enjoyed it.
The photo is of a one of the galleries. The rug is an exhibit and not a convenience.

This is the modern world

So there we were in Istanbul. I had the laptop and needed to finish off various bits of work. One of which involved me communicating with my client who was in Australia [seeing her mother] from the wireless network in Turkey, about a strategic plan for a part of north-east London. So three continents. And it worked.
The photo is of the pool at the hotel, which we were in everyday [amazingly]

Istanbul 2

Arrived at Istanbul – 18 years since my last visit when Paul and I cycled along the Black Sea Coast. As we hurtle in with our taxi driver I find it hard to believe that we survived on our bikes when I see the speed the cars go along the coast road.

“Where are you from?” asks the Taxi driver. “Ingliterra?” “Tonebayr bad. Bush bad. Sharon bad”.

It is a strange thing. All through the 80s when I was travelling people would say “England! Mar Ga Ret Thatcher!” I would grimace. “No, she is good, really good” they would say. Now Blair has achieved what even she could not: made Britain into a pariah state. It does not feel good.

The photo is of Rowan showing typical Palmour regard of the sign.