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Andy — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:02:21 +0000

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The Growly Bee game

Andy — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:41:37 +0000

We have our friend’s dog staying with us this weekend. It’s been quite an experience so far. She’s got a lot of energy so we have to play with her to try and tire her out a bit so she sleeps later. The favourite toy seems to be the bee which we drag around the living room and then chase her under the table. She loves it.

She also has quieter moments at times.

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My mate Ed is a winner!

Andy — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:47:28 +0000

Last weekend we headed out with Phil, Sacha and Gav to see Ed run in the Londond Marathon. I was pretty surprised when Ed said he wanted to run but fair play to him and he’s certainly put the hours in training for the event. He was running for Shelter who are a pretty worthy cause. We went to Embankment to see if we could catch a glimpse of him and shout and scream encouragement at him. It’s not real shock that it was pretty crowded and we didn’t actually see him – Phil did catch sight but then doubted himself after. Anyway, plenty of photo opportunities as usual.

Ed, surprised to see us all and pleased with a sub four hour time!

My view of the Marathon.

Dog in the crowd.

Back of the crowd.

We missed him right?

Balloons

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Hanging out with Gina

Andy — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:04:19 +0000

Some friends of ours are going away for a long weekend soon and very kindly asked if we would look after their dog, Gina, for them. Emma’s eyes went fairly wide when I asked her and I was up for a long weekend of dog bothering so we said yes. We met them in Peckham Rye park to discuss details, have a coffee and generally play with the dog. Gina is an 8 month old Jack Russell.

A few pictures of course.

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A beautiful weekend

Andy — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:12:35 +0000

Weekends are fairly precious and scarce at the moment. I’m usually working, tired, wanting to ride my mountainbike, wanting to hang out with Emma and catch up on all sorts of other things I usually should have done earlier in the week. Maybe even a quiet pint or two. I normally fail on all levels at this. Not this time though, managed to edit a shoot early Sat morning, send it to the client and then head out to meet some friends for a late lunch at The Riding House Cafe. Fantastic lunch and celebrating two bits of good news. Bit of a wander around Regents Park to walk off our food, pint at the Crown and Goose then home to fall asleep during a film.

Next up on Sunday was a ride around the Surrey Hills with Gary and Dave from work. A beautiful day for it and the Peaslake carpark was almost overflowing even though we got there early. The usual trails – xmas pud, T1, T2 etc then tea, cake, faffing, then over to do yoghurt pots, telegraph row, some steep one I forget the name of then back to finish on Barry Knows Best. We took it a little slower due to watching another rider being carried off the trail, heavily encased in a stretcher, then being loaded into an Air Ambulance. Then back to the flat to make pizza with Emma, have a nap and watch Homeland.

What a superb weekend. Hope the following is just as good.

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Family photos from Fiddy

Andy — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:17:39 +0000

I love it when my sister visits my Grandma’s house – she always finds the photo albums and then grabs a few snaps to add to Instagram. A lot of them I don’t remember seeing. The idea of memory or a family album is something that fascinates me, I wonder if we’ll still have that with all our digital photos in the future?

Me and Liz – Story time maybe?

Grandma working a switchboard during the war. You can’t see her amazing ginger hair which I obviously inheritted.

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Weekend in Cambridge

Andy — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:09:21 +0000

Just back from collecting Emma from her Mum’s place near Cambridge. Great to catch a few rays in the sunshine today as well as a nice trip into town to do some shopping. Of course always good to spend some time with snoopy the collie. Shame we have to come back and go to work but never mind.

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Northern Ireland – more snaps

Andy — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:24:49 +0000

Finally found a few spare moments to process a the rest of the holiday snaps from our trip to Portstewart a few weeks back. Nothing too earth shattering photography wise but some nice snaps for this months prints.

Northern Ireland rocks Just back from a superb long weekend in Northern Ireland...

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Swinley Forest spring ride

Andy — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:06:24 +0000

Just back from a trip to Swinley Forest with my good old mate Matt. Whilst the last thing I felt like doing this morning was getting up early it was well worth getting out and going for a spin. A gentle ride out to the jump gulley to get some air under the wheels then over to the other side to play on some of the trails round there, then back to the jump gulley then back to the centre. Really enjoyed riding the full suss down some of the swoopy trails and also getting comfortable clearing tables in the gulley. The trails were dry and in immaculate condition and with very few riders around. It seems that people drive from miles around to sit in the play park with their kids yet few venture out into the incredible forest that surrounds.

A couple of crap photos below. Should have taken a proper camera rather than just my phone on such a beautiful day like today.

And also a nice little shot of me actually clearing a small double – wonders will never cease.

Here’s Matt riding the same section.

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Bikes, banter & snow

Andy — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:09:32 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write this up for a while now as it was such a superb weekend. We left London on the Friday after work and headed up to Abergorlech where I had booked a holiday cottage for the five of us for the weekend – Vaughan, Matt, Marc, Graham and myself. The cottage is owned by the guys who run the Black Lion which is just a few doors up.

Our trip from London was fairly epic, but a lot easier for myself and Matt, as Vaughan had kindly offered to drive in his newly converted VW van. After escaping the Hammersmith traffic we headed up the M4 leaving icy cold London behind, cue impromptu singalong to The Smiths, Hatful of Hollow as well as a few old 90s rave tracks. We reached the end of the M4 by around 10pm and the route I had plotted with my phone was ~~sub-optimal at best~~ crap. I managed to take us the back route which included a a snow covered peak with drifts of snow and ended in sheet ice on hills we were trying to climb and not forgetting a narrow ford crossing with sheet ice either side. The van handled it all with ease with the only concern being that we might miss last orders. Fortunately we made it just in time to sink a pint of Guinness and meet up with Graham and Marc who had travelled earlier – and taken the main road route which was far less exciting.

M4 – lots of it.

Lazy Sat
After a decent sleep, in what was a surprisingly well appointed and comfortable little cottage, we got up early, ate a hearty breakfast, dusted off the bikes, faffed for a bit and finally made it onto the trails.

Pre ride faff – new bike means I’m allowed to faff more.

Whilst there wasn’t much snow at the lower levels we quickly reached a fair bit of the white stuff during the first climb. By the time we hit the first downhill at the top we could barely see the trail. There was a vague line with what appeared to be series of jumps and tables but all covered in a good few inches of snow. I managed to wash out on one of the corners – I think it was a corner anyway. Whilst the ride down wasn’t particularly fast it was pretty good fun just being out in the snow and ice in a kind of “this is a bit stupid” kind of way.

Looking amazing in the snow.

On the last section of trail I was riding behind Matt on what turned out to be a pretty slippy section of gravel descent. Matt’s bike went right, then left and then promptly ejected him from the bike for me to watch him rag doll down the hill in a fairly alarming way. He dusted himself off and climbed out of the bushes and was fine. Turning the corner we met a fella who hadn’t been so lucky on the same stretch and had taco’d his front wheel and put a hole in his cheek with his tooth. He looked a little pale but his mates were close by so we moved on.

By the time we reached the end of the trail it had started raining and there wasn’t really much appetite for getting any wetter and colder than we already were. So we got back, showered and went to the pub for lunch and a pint. No one felt like getting wet after lunch either to we went back to the cottage, lit a fire and watched the rugby and had a snooze. By 7.30 we were back to the pub! A fairly lazy day to be honest but we had been riding in the snow for at least two whole hours. A bit more TV showing the unfolding snowpocalypse in the rest of the UK and then bed.

Well Vaughan you say that but…

One very good reason to stay indoors.

Sloshy Sunday
After another decent sleep and hearty breakfast we stopped at Afan for a trip around Whites level. The air was definitely warmer than the day before which meant a bit more sloshy wet trails and snow melting in places but then still slippy and icy in others. Confusing to know which bits would grip and which bits wouldn’t.

Matt kindly riding it “one more time”.

Upwards.

There was no hanging around at the top as it had got much colder. It was saddles down, feet out and riding the snow down the first section. Completely sketchy and took a while to get back into pointing the bike downhill again. Things were starting to come together again though and I had started to get the feel of the new bike. I’d got used to the suspension a bit more and was happier to push it a bit more in places. It certainly helped keep a lot more speed through the twisty rocky sections. I was actually a bit shocked at how much difference it made after thinking I had been riding a hardtail pretty quick round there before.

Team photo with whiskey & energy bars.

The last descent was by far the most enjoyable for me. I was surprised to ride into the start of it and not entirely recognise the trail as there had been forestry works to remove most of the tress around. What was once a shaded and woody trail through the trees had become much more open and flat out pedally feeling. Different but still the same trail once you were into it. The down all seemed to end too quickly and it was back to the carpark, some clean clothes on and then a good feed, back in the van then home.

A superb weekend. Planning the next one now, probably Coed-Y-Brenin then a bit of Llangelda.

Some more pics from Vaughan, Matt and the rest of mine as well as a few Instagrams below.

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