A Month in Pictures - Part3

3. Fifteen Minutes of Flame

We have seen the dangers of cycling. Skiing - the boys are going next week - can be dangerous as well. Even snowballing is dangerous apparently.

However, I wasn't aware that Sudoku was also problematic. Yet, it was whilst concentrating hard on a particular grid that I failed to notice a few warning signs as this happened on the hob:



Proving that TV is a death-trap as well, Harry similarly failed to notice until the tea-towel was nicely ablaze. Meanwhile The Simpsons held his full attention. Mind you, that is excellent TV and usually more interesting than a watched pot.

A Month in Pictures - Part2

The snow meant a break in the cycling routine, but brought other activities.

2. Snow Way

Chief amongst these was "not going to school". The boys had 3.5 days out of 5 with no school in the main week of snow.

We had a snowball Olympics in the back garden, and also produced a couple of snowmen. Harry & I built one on Park Avenue which was recorded in this shot before it was sadly murdered by a person or persons unknown.

The snow was perfect for building - it formed so perfectly into large balls by the rolling method.

I then built this one by the "disc" method, although it too was destroyed within hours - this time by Harry !

A Month in Pictures - Part1

In January, I started with the intention of updating my blogs regularly and that lasted about 10 days it seems ! Other resolutions lasted longer. I did go for a cycle (nearly) every day for example.

But, a month seems to have whizzed by without any of my bloggable thoughts reaching the virtual page. Let's take a look back at some of the highlights:

1. Wheely Wonky

A few days after the hole-in-the-shoe, I found myself once again dodging pedestrians. This time I had diverted through the car park to avoid some throng of amblers, when I clipped the kerb and fell off in a rather low-speed and (it felt) low-impact.

However, when I picked the bike up, the brakes were sticking. I detached the brakes so I could sort them out later and then I noticed that the wheel was behaving very strangely. I thought it had been knocked off the axle but in fact it had been bent into the most intriguing 3d-shape. Not good !

It's very difficult to capture the wonkiness of this wheel in a photo, so you may have to take my word for it - it was very seriously bent !




In the short-term I did a wheel-transplant from one of the boys' bikes. In due course I had a new wheel fitted and at the same time cashed in the "We Owe You A Bike" voucher that Karen and the boys gave me last year - so I now have a brand new "fitness hybrid" as well as the trusty old new-wheeled mountain bike.

Coincident with all this new cycling equipment, of course, I virtually stopped riding (snow being the short-term excuse)!