AX Dead

The Citroen is officially dead. Head gasket failure was diagnosed last month and despite emergency surgery, a new gasket and glow plugs, it seems that the diesel pump has also failed, meaning that she is beyond economical repair. Even if the faults could be rectified, the MOT is due end of October, and she needs at least a new driveshaft on the nearside, and I've never been happy with the handling and the alarming knocking noise from the suspension over bumps, nor the way the front offside wheel doesn't appear quite right in the wheel arch. So it is RIP (Rust in Pieces) from tommorow, and hopefully she'll proved useful parts for other AX's to soldier on. Meanwhile, I'm looking for a new project.

A Grand Day Out

Wednesday 18th September 2008........

......0500 hours. It's may day off. What the hell am I doing getting up this early?

......0600 hours. Convene at Bransholme Police Station to collect one of five colleagues who'll be joining me for a hike around Ladybower Reservoir and district in the Derbyshire Peaks.

...... 0605 hours. AJ delivers the news that 2 of our number have bottled it. Rachel can;t be bothered or some lame excuse, and PK has a lame excuse, literally. He has damaged ligaments in his foot playing football the day before. That leaves four of us. That's okay room to stretch out in the car.

...... 0620 hours. Hessle foreshore. Can't locate our other team members. Turns out they can;t tell the difference between Hessle foreshore and the Humber Bridge Car park. They have no idea whee Hessle foreshore is or how to get there. They are from Driffield and Walkington and don't get out much. We mee them at the Humber Bridge car park.

...... 0630 hours. On the road and only a hlaf hour behind schedule. Dave has brought TomTom Sat Nav which is good, but it has a woman with PMT giving the instructions which is not. She is able to give directions whilst we are on the well signposted motorways which I know well anyway, but gets us lost passing through Sheffield. We forgive her at first, as half of Sheffield appears to be closed off for roadworks, but eventually we realise that she is wanting to visit every shoe shop in the city and giving us directions to get us there. Once we realise she has now directed us back to the fiurst shoe shop we passed we give up and rely on roadsigns, instinct and pot luck.

.......0800 hours. We have survived Sheffield City Centre and despite the attempts of several people in Audis and Mercedees trying to kill us we esape the city and find the A57. One man in a 08 plated Audi, quite obviously a company car waves to thank us after almost sideswiping us, carving across our bumper, causing me a near coronary. I'm begining to wish I'd brought the old Citroen banger and not my decent Zafira. Hull may have some mad drivers, but Sheffiled must be the only city that lets registered blind people drive.

....... 0810 hours. My three passengers are sulking because I missed the left turn into Morrisions where they were hoping to get a cooked breakfast. If I'd been giving more than 3 millimetres/half a nano second notice I might have made the turn. Dave reluctantly admits that there is a cabin at the car park where we might get a bacon sandwhich.

....... 0830 hours. We arrive at the reservoir car park. There is a cafe/snack bar! It is closed. Bugger. We all dib int our packed lunches early as none of us have had breakfast.

........ 0835 hours Best foot forward. The reservoir looks stunning as we set off. The water is flat as a pancake and reflecting the trees beautifully, a shining natural mirror which the photgraphs just don't do justice to.

Promotion!!!!

At last we have a promotion in the family - sadly it is not me making Sergeant but my daughter Emma being promoted to "sixer" at Brownies. Still, it's a step in the right direction suppose.

Summer Holiday

The emphasis being on day. This year I couldn;t get any leave, so my family went to Ostend without me, and I stayed at home and went to work. I couldn;t get leave for the usual reasons; management were trying to organise a piss up in a brewery, so couldn;t do anything else as they were too busy. they all got their leave of course, but put a blockade on anyone else trying to get time off, because Hull Coty have ben promoted, and they can't decide if we are having traffic department or not, and because grass is green or some other flimsy excuse. The upshot being it is now September and I have about 3 weeks worth of leae to take, but no chance of taking it.

Anyhow, I digress. Because the purpose of this post is to say that despite all the odds I did manage a day with my children before they went back to school.

I was very proud of them both. They only learned to ride bikes last summer, and are still learning road sense and how to react to traffic etc. Yes I am old fashioned enough to make them ride on ROADS. Under supervision of course, but on your actual ROADS, not pavements. Cycle tracks are good, of course, and we have lots of old railway and bridleways to explore, but many miles of straight and safe country lanes too, as well as the vilage to practice on.

Hence we set off,with picnic lunch from our house, down the old disused railway line to the bridleway and out towards Halsham, the on into Halsham Village, on roads into Halsham proper, then out towards Winestead, back towards Ottringham and back down the old railway line (much overgrown and nettle infested - OUCH!) back towards Keyingham. The odometer on my cycle computer read 12 miles total - not bad for an 8 year old, a 5 year old and a man in his forties.

Thomas and Emma relax for a break at the Constable Mausoleum, Halsham.

The round journey took us about 3 hours including a break for lunch.

I do a truncated version of the same route as part of my keep fit regime, 6 1/2 miles in around 30 minutes (best of 27 mins 49 seconds to beat)

I'm thinking maybe I shoudl plan a few routes around the area and write a guide book? Holderness is great for cycling, lots of off road options and it's all fairly flat so good for beginners.