Letter to a Scumbag

Dear Scumbag

Please accept my apologies for not addressing you with your correct name, unfortunately that's your fault as you were too cowardly to introduce yourself.

Just over a week ago you for some reason which I am yet to comprehend you decided in the small wee hours to vandalise my vehicle.  I thought at first you wanted to steal my car but it would appear that the latest form of vehicle vandalism is to destroy the lock.   Whilst in itself this doesn't affect the aesthetic look of the car, nor does it affect the locking mechanism it does cost an absolute arm and a leg to mend.   I've ignored the massive scratch on the paintwork, after all with the paintwork damage from other car drivers who have little care for other people's possessions this pales into insignificance.

Having now had the damage inspected and set up a claim through my insurance the total cost of repair is going to be £500 plus VAT.   Luckily it wasn't any higher, the car only has a book value of £800 and would have been written off by the insurance company.  There is actually nothing else wrong with the vehicle, it's very reliable so writing it off would have been hard to bear.

The worst thing about this whole situation is that this car was bought with my own hard saved cash, it's not a lease vehicle, nor am I paying extortionate loan repayments.  No, I worked hard and saved to buy the car I wanted.  I'm hoping that one day Karma will come back to bite you on the arse when you have something that you've worked hard to save for and some little scrote destroys your faith in humanity, and your property.

Good luck with the rest of your life scumbag, you got away with this one but one day your luck will run out or you will grow up and see the error of your ways.

Yours

Lil B

Update - the "To Do List"

My last update for the to do list was in August, we're now almost into December 2015 - where has the year gone?

1 Lose Weight

I'm still really struggling with this.  We've got 6 weeks until we go to Australia and I'd love to duck under 11 stone but I've got about 5lbs to lose and my current 1lb on/1lb off status I'm not sure if I'm going to make it.  I'm going to try and get some extra exercise sessions in - Dawesy is on the turbo trainer and when I stop being a wuss about how cold it is in the shed I'll be braving the "man cave" for some sessions.   I've bought a turbo training plan which should help.  I'm going to start going to kettlecise on a Monday too.   I'm trying to keep my step count on target but it's difficult with the current weather conditions and lack of dog walking distance!

2   Read More Books

I've read two more books since August - pathetic I know by some people's standards but there you have it.  I've just started "Little Girl Gone" on my kindle.  I can't decide whether to take the kindle to Australia or get a couple of paperbacks - need to seriously think about that in the coming weeks.

3   Explore Great Britain

Exploring is currently on hold - Tribby is being packed up in the next couple of weeks ready for winter storage but we're already planning next year.   I'll only have 8 days holiday to take between February and December, so careful planning will be essential.  We're already making plans for next year, including our annual pilgrimage to Roubaix, but Easter is first and we're planning a trip to the New Forest in Tribby !

4    Get Running Again   

I was really upset to have to hang up my running shoes having got to week 2 of Couch to 5k.   I really need to get my legs sorted when we come back from Aus, hopefully I will be start running again in a couple of years.

5   Increase the Mileage on the Bike

I took part Pedal in Preston Park again in October.  We didn't quite manage the 50 miles I was hoping for but we did manage to get to 43 miles which has in fact increased my longest ride this year.   Next year there are big plans for the 103km Davina Big Ride in June.  In 2017 we're looking at a London to Paris !

6   Try Some New Recipes

I've tried a couple of new recipes over the last couple of months.  I'm gradually getting  my cooking confidence back after relying for too many years on Shaun.  

7   Australia

My previous post is the last update for Australia plans.   I don't really think there's anything else we can add to the trip apart from general adventures when we get there.   I can't believe we're now actually only 6 weeks to go!

Planning, Planning & More Planning

We're just about 6 and a half weeks until we depart for Australia and our holiday of a lifetime.  We've gone through crisis with the checked in baggage, annoyed the hell out of our lovely travel agent Claire (poor love) and then run out of things to plan and book.  That was until we had a massive Skype session with Lou and Andy on Saturday night!   We'd just about finished the Sydney side of it and now we're onto the finer details of our stay in Melbourne.   This is where we're at :-

Fly from London to Sydney leaving on 9th January, arriving late on the 10th!

11th - explore Sydney - ferry trip to Manly booked with stop off at whatever takes our fancy - mine is Fort Denison and Shaun's is Shark Island (not many ferries stop there during the day so I'm not sure about that one!)

12th - morning exploring some more - need to have breakfast at the Fish Market, or lunch.

12th - afternoon SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE CLIMB - so ridiculously excited/nervous/anxious about this one.  I'm not great with heights but reading through the blurb on the website I'll be fine.  There will be tears - not sure whether it will be joy/anxiety or what but it will be the chance of a lifetime, and there was absolutely no way I was going to sit at the bottom for 3 hours waiting for Shaun.  I'm a bit gutted that we can't take a camera up with us though!

13th - last minute bits in Sydney before we depart for Melbourne at lunchtime.

14th - chill at Lou & Andy's (think I may need it by then)

15th - to be booked all day LUXURY VINEYARD TOUR of the Yarra Valley IN A CONVERTIBLE MERC!   This is going to be an amazing day.

We already know we're off to Halls Gap in the Grampians for a few days and the Tour Down Under starts in Adelaide on the 17th - Wallunga Hill stage is on the 23rd so I'm guessing we'll be leaving Halls Gap on the 22nd.

The Australian Open Tennis is on while we're there too - Andy's looking into it!

Australia Day is the 26th when we're back in Melbourne and I'd love to go to the parade - need to let Lou and Andy know about that one.

No idea what we will do until we leave on the 31st - guess I need to do some more research on Melbourne.

Pedal in Preston Park 2015

The weather this week has been awful - didn't look great for yesterday's event until mid-week when the forecast looked like it was going to be perfect for cycling.   

It's the second year I've taken part in Pedal - last year I did 100 laps/37 miles on my faithful old Dawesy and this year's target had been set at 137 laps to tie in with the age of the velodrome.  137 laps would mean about 50 miles so a few more than last year, riding me new Specialized Dolce, or Doris as she's now affectionately known. 

Looking at facebook earlier in the morning a few Club riders had already started their laps - cyclists from Brighton, Crawley & Redhill and then Juniors from Preston Park Cycling Club started before the track was opened to the rest of us at 12 o'clock.   There were quite a lot of cyclists on the track from 12, some of the Club riders and Juniors had stayed on.    I knew I had to keep my speed up to ensure that I could get to 50 miles in less than 4 hours but to be honest once I met up with Nik and Conrad all thoughts of getting to 50  went out the window and it was just going to be a case of enjoy the day, go as far and for as long as possible.  As a change this year there was a DJ playing some great tracks 

We agreed to do our first 50 laps and then have a refreshment break - there was a fantastic spread of cakes and snacks waiting at the pavilion.   The first 50 seemed to go quite quickly and before I knew I was off the bike again and having a nice warm cup of tea and a piece of coffee and walnut cake.  

On to the next 87 laps - we decided to break it down - head to 60 laps and see how we were doing.  Nik wasn't sure if she could do the whole 137 as she hadn't done any work on the bike since May, and I wasn't sure how close to 4pm doing 137 would take us.   I was quite pleased to see my Garmin tick over the 37 miles I'd done last year and before I knew it Nik was telling me we'd done 110 laps and she thought it was a good time to stop.  The organisers were starting to pack up and there was only another 20 minutes before the end of the event - we were all knackered and there seemed little point in burying ourselves, so we headed to the track exit and the cake stand which was still groaning with goodies! 

mmmm cake

43 miles completed, recovery drink swallowed, another piece of coffee and walnut cake we headed home, collecting our medal on the way. 

Medals collected 

Conrad reminded us that we needed to stretch as well as refuel

I love this event, it's really well organised and it's great to have an excuse to use the velodrome which I wouldn't normally.  Slightly gutted we ran out of time to do the goal laps but pleased with how it went - can't wait to do it again next year!

 Photo credit : Nik & Conrad Bailey