Body Shop Party....another £92

Above is Diane and Deb who ran a Body Shop party organised and hosted by Jackie at our home on Friday evening. Rather than take commission, Jackie made this a fund raising event which meant 15% of sales would go to our charity.

The evening was a great success, 25 of Jackie's friends and family turned up and by all accounts had an enjoyable time and spent lots of money! This meant that a brill sum of £92 was raised for the John Eastwood Hospice.

The grand fund raising total has now nearly reached the revised target of £1500 so I think this will have to be raised yet again! Can we reach £2000....it's worth a go!

Alfreton Cycling Club....Thank you!

I have a really heart warming story to tell and hopefully you will inform others of the kindness shown by a group of people that I only met for the first time last night. What do you think about this for kindness and generosity!

A member of the Alfreton Cycling Club was visiting Jackie's work place and noticed my charity event poster. On the strength of that alone, a raffle was held at the clubs Annual Dinner and they raised a fantastic £100 to go towards my event sponsorship. How good is that?

Yesterday evening, Jackie, Jemma and myself were invited to a club meeting. We travelled over to the Cliff Inn at Crich and the £100 cheque was presented.


Can I say a really big thank you to Tom and all the club members for their generosity and kindness. I would like to request everyone who reads this posting, to pass on this story to others and sing the deserved praises of ALFRETON CYCLING CLUB!

Minor set back....what a pain!

What can I say other than OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! Got a trapped nerve in my back and it is sending pain right down the back of my leg. Had it for a few weeks now but in the last week it has got unbearable. The doc has given me some pain killers so lets see what happens! Strangely (but good news!) it only hurts (really hurts!) when I am standing. When I sit down the majority of the pain goes and this is the same for when I am on the bike. Luckily I sit at a desk all day at work so that is no problem and I am also managing to bike to work. This is fine until I have to stop and put my legs down then the pain really kicks in!

Other than the work trip I am not doing any other cycling, in fact I am not doing anything else full stop! Too painful to even walk more than than 20 yards. This means the training will have to be put on hold until things improve. Not long hopefully!

Flat tyre.....not again!

Can't believe it, another flat tyre! Set off from work on Friday with an hours worth of day light left so I decided to go the long way home....Mmmmmmm....bad choice! Half way home, coming down a steep hill, suddenly the back end went. Luckily managed to break and stop on the bike but only just! WHAT ABOUT MY NEW INVESTMENT IN SLIME FILLED INNER TUBES I ASKED MYSELF....USELESS!!

Still some day light so I whipped off the flat and got out my spare tube....Arghh!....even the un-opened, slime filled, new tube had sprung a leak, gunge everywhere....how did that happen?....what a waste of time.

Next thing was to try the puncture repair kit....no good....could not dry off the slime enough to make the patch stick. it was now dark and I am on a lane with no street lights, in fact the nearest house was a mile away, so only one thing for it....ring Jackie to fetch me....HELP!

Everything sorted on Saturday, bought a new tyre that is supposed to be puncture resistant....well that was what the salesman told me! Also bought my first set of replacement break pads....worn the other ones down breaking on the hill when my tyre burst!

To try out the new tyre and breaks, I biked to Forest Pines and back. 25 miles and averaged just under 14 mph. New milestone reached, now clocked up a total of 1500 miles on the bike.

Picture Auction

Do you like this picture? One of my fellow cyclists on the charity event has put this painting up for auction to raise money for his chosen charity. It is an original water colour painted by a local Forest of Dean artist, Peter Day. Basically it’s for sale by silent auction. If you are interested, just email Marcus at marcuscaro@hotmail.com and the person who submits the highest offer by 28th Feb has the picture. He will take care of postage and packing. If you fancy it....get bidding!!!