Month: July 2005

10 days and 1,240 miles later, I’m back in civilisation – and you better believe I’m saddle-sore and knackered! But it was all worth it.

I got to see family and friends, and travel almost the width of the country in my pursuit of freedom – and the bike held up throughout. I even got a couple of bits of tweaking done, courtesy of my bike-mad family! So now my bike proudly boasts braided steel brake lines – if you don’t know what they are, don’t bother asking. But they’re well trick! 😀

Needless to say, I drank myself almost to the point of spontaneous liver failure, but it was a good laugh. And it’s only right – when in Rome, as they say!

Big up to my bro and sis-in-law, who celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by getting them and a bunch of us bladdered till the wee hours. Suffering the following day wasn’t in it…

Of course, huge thanks go to my li’l sis Jhone for putting me up (and putting up with me!), as well as her man Enda, who performed the bulk of the work in fitting the brake lines – cheers mate! And cousin Jim, who traced my lighting issues to a cracked fuse – oh, the shame! Still, it could have been expensive… Marie was showing off her palatial home, which is nearing completion – I’m reminded of Paul telling me he was building a “cottage” in the West. Shyeah, right! In any case, a housewarming party should be in order by the time I visit again in October.

I also have to thank Agnes for letting me stay over in her house, a mere 15 minute ride from Dun Laoghaire, the night before my return journey. Every little helps – but feeding me with booze the night before a big journey is *not* cool! 😉 And me da, for donating bits of bike to replace bits cracked in a u-turn/gravel/clumsiness episode – cheers! We never got to do that road trip, due to a bald rear tyre on the CBR (down to the canvas when I last saw it – eek!), but we’ll do it again. Spain next year, maybe? I await your call…

And Matt & Saz, who put me up on the way over, then made me a cuppa on my return journey – and to whom I must really apologise for being a useless disorganised git, and organising to play a gig in their village on the same weekend as my hypno course! Oh dear – maybe next year, then!

Anyway, that’s it. I’m back, safe and reasonably sane, and trying to get back into my routine.

Don’t wanna….!!!

And I for one get sillier by the day! It’s the only way to be, frankly – it’s a mad, mad world we live in, and if you’re not losing it you’re doing something wrong…

This is just a quick one, really, to drag the website up to date. Been kinda busy with all the weird and wonderful things in my life, and not had a chance to tell you all about them. And now they don’t seem so weird or wonderful. What can you do?!

Before I go any further, can we all cross our fingers for good weather for the next two weeks, please? Thanks!

Well, let’s start with the BIGFoot preparations – yes, I’m actually preparing this time! The memory of the pain I was in after the last one is still vivid enough in my mind to force me out of the sofa, into my hiking gear and out on the road. So it’s going OK – no guarantees of a pain-free finish (in fact, I can guarantee a painFUL finish!), but hopefully a little *less* painful…

Got me a team! If you haven’t been to the Walking Wounded fundraising page, get yer butt over there and check it out. And sponsor us! I’m joined by Phil, from the 2003 BIGFoot event; John, my chef-tastic mate; and Pete, my colleague and fellow Nepal 2001 trekker. We all met up for our first training walk last weekend, and had a good old 10-mile stroll around Kew, Teddington and Richmond – sadly my old reliable hiking boots let me down and I finished with a blister, but those are the breaks. And the boots went straight in the bin – shame, they’re the boots I trekked the Himalayas in…

Ahhhhhh, what else? Well, I’m currently organising virtual rehearsals with my good pal Matt, for an open-air session at the beginning of September. What this means is that we’re recording ourselves jamming the tunes, and playing along with each other’s recordings. Weird, but it just – might – work! (fingers tightly crossed!) We’ll be banging out the tunes at the Swinford festival in Leicestershire – if you’re in the area, drop by! It’s a pretty cool gig…

And this weekend I’m off to Ireland for a 10-day break. By motorbike. Yes, I know it’s pricier than flying, but it’s orders of magnitude more fun. Ahh, get off me case! Besides, I’m hoping to be embarking on a road trip with my old man once over there, which will be mucho cool. Speaking of cool, got some new bike gear which is fully armoured but allows the wind to whistle through as you motor along, thereby preventing any sweaty nastiness. Sweet!

So now I’m all over the place trying to organise myself for the trip, not to mention trying to tidy my bomb-site of a flat before my brother and his wife come to visit in a couple of days! I’m *knackered*, I tell you…

But it’ll all be worth it. I’ll try to scribble an update from Ireland, but failing that I’ll write all about it when I get back. Maybe not immediately I get back, because I’ve got my hypno course the weekend I get back, but I’ll do it as soon as I can. I will, honest. I *WILL*… Ah, get off me case!