Back in the saddle.

 

Ok I’ll admit it’s been a while since my last post. I have been very busy, whoever said leaving teaching would be quiet must still be doing the job. Last night I met with some former colleagues, from what they told I’m so glad I’m out of it.

Which takes me onto why I have been so busy, in January I finished my journalism course! Also, I have been published – both online and in print. In May I even went to London to cover the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. What an event that was, I never expected to meet so many famous people.

Now biking has been very mixed, the winter was awful and doesn’t appear to be over yet. The number of cancelled rides due to bad weather may have outnumbered the number I spent on the road. I’m no wimp when it comes to riding in bad weather, but flooded roads are a different matter. On top of this we’ve had family illness to contend with.

Then May was mad. One week in Mallorca where we watched the MALLORCA 312. I didn’t enter due to the technicalities of getting the bike there, but finding out there are really good hire shops near a friend’s apartment may see next years event on the list. After Mallorca it was off to Almeria, followed by Chelsea and then 5 days at Weston Park teaching water sports to members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club.

I have completed one 100Km Audax so far this season. My next one is the Rosliston Roller in Staffordshire. Last year I did the 100km version, but this year I’m taking an old friend and cycling partner who is in his 80s. Hence we opted for the shorter version.

I will be back with more news of how that went and plans for the rest of the year very soon – promise!

Gravel reel

Brave New World

My retirement from teaching was meant to herald a new dawn of cycling and mountaineering; with a little bit of journalism and photography thrown. Instead, we’ve been served up a diet of ill parents and medical appointments. I sincerely believe in the NHS, but we now have a deliberately failed system in which the prevailing professional ethic is one which Col. Potter of MASH fame; would have described as meatball surgery. Patch up and pack off, only do what is necessary. Given the DNR notice that was served on my mother-in-law, it appears that even keeping a patient alive is no longer a priority. This goes against all principles of medicine – preserve life, promote recovery and prevent the situation from worsening. Working in the hope that the patient might die in order to free up a bed is not good practice or are we just making way for an insurance led system where patient need is secondary to the cost to the insurer. One doctor even advised private medicine if we were unhappy with the service. 

On the cycling front, the mileage has dropped while the world has revolved around medics who fail to understand that a world exists outside the confines of their concreate box. Consequently, the blood glucose levels have increased. So far this year I have completed 600km in Audax events and 550.74km in training – a total of 1241.49km (771 miles). 

In addition to cycling, I have begun my second career as a journalist. I am close to completing a NCTJ qualification and have conducted my first assignment. I’m now just attempting to get it published. I’m reading The Devil Wears Prada and have now started to understand Andrea. Unlike Andy, my editor doesn’t call every five minutes, she’s currently incommunicado on a yacht somewhere. Oh, the glamour of it all. So different from education, if I wanted to talk to my boss and he was unavailable, it was usually because he was in a meeting to discuss an adolescent mental health issue, drug dealing or teenage prostitution. Covering the RHS Tatton Flower Show and having your editor on a yacht seems so much more glamourous. 

RHS Tatton was a world that I could never have imagined. People actually wanted to talk to me! I met some amazing designers and growers, many of whom I spoke to in their own show gardens, I was no longer just public looking in. Some of them have even kept in touch in the vague hope of gaining some publicity. 

Next week I also start running adult cycling sessions in our local park for the Friends of Dawley Park. This has been funded by a DoT grant and Cycling UK. How the world seems so different once you are on the outside of large institutions. Depending how this month turns out, the cycling and journalism blog might separate or just get a new name. Watch this space.