At last

Almost smiling
Tigers are out

Dragon catching ninjas are in.

Sunshine at last

Well the snow has gone and the sun has been shining for a few days. It not come a moment too soon and it is even getting lighter in the mornings and evenings. All I need now is some time to enjoy it.

Work continues to be very busy (see posts below relating to stress induced neck problems) and there seems to be no end to the demands of 2 small children.

Last night we had our Sunday stew on Monday this week because MK was too busy making some special cakey things on Sunday to get the stew going in time. The reason for the cakes was Feste Lavn (I have no idea what that is or how to spell it) but it meant that all the kids were in fancy dress in the nursery yesterday. J went as a dragon catcher. We had planned that he should be a tiger but he didn't fancy that in the end. (" We bought the tiger suit in a bicycle shop in Cairo...")

Thankfully T had bought him a Ninja suit last week so he went for that instead. Given that J has no idea what a Ninja is and there is a dragon on the front of the suit, MK had the ingenious idea to tell him that it was a dragon catcher suit. And so it was.
The cakes were great too.
Pics to follow...

Neck bolt removal

It is something of a painful process that involves a small activator that punches you in the neck repeatedly and then wrenching your head to one side and then the other apparently. The result is a lot of clicking and a measure of relief when it is completed.

Apparently my problem is a nerve trapped between the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae and is a classical stress problem. The Chiro-dude tells me that economic down turns are good new for him and psychotherapists alike, I'm not surprised!

Anyway we all had a relaxed weekend. MK kindly let me sleep a little longer than she did and I managed to end it feeling a little more relaxed and happy that I managed 2½ hours on my bike on Sunday.

Now I have to survive until Wednesday when I go for another wrenching session...

Getting the bolt out

of my neck this afternoon I hope.

I have had a stiff neck since Monday although it is getting better on it's own now. I think that the problems are all stress related, but I am going to the Chiropractor to get it straightened out and to make sure that it is not a recurrence of the trapped nerve that I had a few years ago.

Yesterday was a very long day, 18 hours from leaving the house to getting home and both drives to and from the airport were, dark, snowy and unpleasant. I am looking forward to the weekend. A lot.

Belgium

Today I am in Puurs in Belgium. I got up at 4:30 and it has been a loooong day.
The meeting has been pretty good and in a few minutes we'll head to the airport for a long beer and a long wait for the plane. I should be home around midnight and rather tired with it!

Brass Monkey

It was -11 C this morning on the way to work. That is COLD.

Thankfully the sun is shining and reflecting off the snow so it is bright and significantly more cheerful feeling that it has been for the last month or so. It also feels less cold as the dampness has been removed from the air by the cold dry winds from the north.

We are now feeling more rested from the weekend and starting to get excited about our skiing holiday. It certainly looks like there will be plenty of snow in Livigno

A big weekend

We have had a busy weekend, guests and DK's christening have really kept us out of mischief.


Without going into the details (yet) all went well and we had a lovely time, it was great to see all of our friends and family and thanks a lot to them for coming and for bringing DK such great gifts.

The family and god parents

Cake and bubbly with the sun shining through the window

It was quite a cake!

Week ending

I have had a busy morning and am now trying to have an afternoon at home, so far it is not going well, I am home but still working and it is nearly 2 o'clock.

Harry has arrived safe and sound so we are ready for a weekend of relaxing and celebrating little DK...

Late night visitors

J had a day with T&B yesterday. I am told that they went to a circus of some sort, but he adamantly denies it all. The only thing he would 'fess up to was drinking cocoa.

DK seems to be making great progress with his 10 day constipation and managed half a room full of poop shortly after his bath last night, I suspect that the 7.3kg he weighed in at on Tuesday is now something closer to 6.8kg... Better out than in as they say.

The final crowning point of our evening came at about 4 this morning when J came into our room to tell us that he felt siiiccckkkeeeuuuuugggghhhh......

Oh yes, he felt sick all over the floor and the clothes that were sitting on the chair in the corner. He actually banged his head rather hard on the table earlier in the evening when he fell over so I hope it is not concussion. However, he seemed better this morning, but is staying home to await the arrival of G & G.

D-day -2... and counting

We are getting ready, plates are to be delivered along with the all important coffee spoon, cake forks and folding chairs. There is truly no limit to the lengths to which one must go when the comfort of a Dane eating cake and drinking coffee is concerned. We will be READY!

So far this week I have done 3 days work in 2 days and unfortunately no days workouts in the same period. That means that tonight I have to do 2 days worth of workouts and maybe even 3 if I am going to be ready to miss some more exercise whilst entertaining guests at the weekend. I suppose I'll be on the trainer for a couple of hours tonight...

The promised snow arrived last night so everything was a bit of a mess this morning, but having seen what happened in the UK with a few inches of snow, I suppose this was all pretty smooth really.

Yesterday we had a meeting with the Dr at the hospital who is following DK. He is doing really well - growing, eating and apparently developing normally. He still wanted a few more tests to be done and still wants the MRI to check that everything in his head is how it should be given that the outside is not absolutely perfect (it is to us, but that is another matter!).
As MK said it is rather depressing that they just focus on what is wrong, but I suppose that is their job and if they do it properly, that will leave us free to focus on all the good stuff.

Early riser

I have a lot to do at the moment so I was working after dinner last night until I went to bed at 11:00. I could have carried on working because I had a lot to prepare before 9 this morning, but decided on a new approach to the problem:
I got up at 5:30 and was out of the house by 6 meaning that I could be in the office at 6:30 giving me plenty of time (without anyone else asking me annoying questions) to get my work done.
Now I feel smug... and tired.

Out of the frying pan...

...into the fire on a Monday morning.

We had a lovely relaxing weekend, I took J swimming on Saturday for the first time in a while and was really impressed. He was happily swimming from one side of the pool to another with the support of his arm-bands and a floatation belt thingy. At first he was scared to let go of me, but then he got distracted by a frog in a tug boat and forgot all about me.

On Sunday he went to handball practice with MK and apparently had great fun running around and throwing balls. The catching comes later hopefully...

I managed an hour on the trainer on Saturday evening and then nearly 3 hours mountain biking yesterday afternoon so it was basically a nice weekend. This week is looking as hectic and busy as last week was at work, but hopefully it will calm down in time...

Grey Weather

I don't care about the weather because it's Friday and that means that I can have 2 days off! However, it is getting a bit boring to have to look at the Danish winter every time I look out of the window or leave the house. The sun shone for 37 second 2 weekends ago and that has been it since November I think (there may have been a clear day or so in December, but I can't remember)
Today is J's big haircut day, hopefully he will come home looking better than when I cut his hair and perhaps more importantly he will have somehow enjoyed the experience.

It has been a tough time for J since DK arrived in July. A lot of our time and emotional resources have been taken up dealing with DKs assorted problems and he has had to deal with less of us, a month in England and changing daycare institute.

He has coped pretty well, but at the moment seems a bit down and isn't enjoying nursery. We are hoping that it is just a temporary thing as the teacher (?) suggests rather than some of the other kids being mean to him. A couple of times he has come home and complained that the others put sand in his clothes and things. It probably doesn't help that he still seems to wet himself fairly often as well.

I guess it's all part of growing up for him, but it is a part of being a parent that I hadn't seen coming and it is not nice to slowly realise that something is making your child unhappy and you can't seem to do a lot about it. We'll persevere.

An unusual thing...

Today turned out much better than I had expected. Someone came up from Holland to help me out at work and was VERY helpful - Thanks ROB. I ended up having a productive day that almost qualified as fun.

I got home to find everyone happy and eating so all in all, a good day.

It's tough to find something to write about when all you have done is work but that's life sometimes. We are looking forward to the weekend so that we can get on with the preparation for DKs Christening and take it easy.

I'll try to think of something interesting to write about tomorrow!

Finding your limits

This week has been an unusual one in that I have been overwhelmed to the point that I have not known which way to turn. Tomorrow someone is coming to help me with getting my work back on track and I am left feeling like I have messed up.
Have I?
I don't really know, with hindsight I can of course see why things have happened and what I could have done differently, but I really want to think that I have been put in an impossible position.

Anyway who knows what the outcome will be in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

I have just cleared up dinner and the kids are in bed. I am going to eat something sweet if I am allowed and then cycle a bit before bed.

Crazy dayz

I have been very busy and more than a little stressed at work for the last few days and it looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future...
I'll be back on the bike tomorrow evening and continuing looking forward to the weekend.

Unpuncturable tyres

I rode my bike on Saturday for the first time in over a week and I am still not really fully recovered from my colds. I was short of breath and really SLOW.

Of course when I got home, one of my tyres was deflating so now I have a dirty bike with a flat tyre waiting for my attention.

On Sunday I rode for half an hour on the trainer without a flat tyre which was a pleasant change and during that brief period of exertion I decided that I will minimise my outside riding for at least another month. In the meantime, I am going to invest in some Continental touring tyres that come with a one year - no puncture guarantee. According to my calculations, they will pay for themselves in 16 rides on the grounds that I get at least 1 flat per ride and I pay 25kr (£2.50 ish) per inner tube.

One ride without a puncture is enough to justify it to be honest seeing as I have only ridden outside once without a flat so far this year. (I think I have had 7 flats in January)

Really long week

This week has been looooong.
Monday was a day home sort of working, but basically sick.
Tuesday was a normal work day, but with a rotten cold
Wednesday was trying to entertain a not very sick J for the day whilst trying to work at home also with a cold
Thursday was a VERY bad day at work although as least I still have a job
Friday has been another pretty bad day at work, lots of stress and a bad atmosphere. The cold is still here too.

So I have not had any exercise for more than a week and I am rather stressed, but now it is the weekend and I can take it easy, do some fun stuff and hopefully say goodbye to the cold.

The weather is cold and grey and set to stay that way plus or minus a little snow. On the plus side, DK is making great progress with his feet and now eating lots of slop and getting fat and happy. That is lovely to see.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the nice little bits.

The futility of blogging

There are some people who get paid to blog and there are others who have some influence either on society in general or a specific little niche about which they write. I fear that I fit into neither of these categories. I believe I fall into the category of bloggers without significance. (This is not self pity, I am quite happy with the blogging "space" that I occupy.)

Each year the Bloggies award prizes to all manner of different blogs based on their geography, subject matter or any number of other categories

A brief glance at the list of winners will immediately make it clear that blogs about family life rarely make the grade, that is unless they are extremely well written and generally stay on-topic.

Mine is neither well written nor specific in it's subject matter. I just hope that the 50-100 visits that I seem to get each day are not considered a total waste of time, that is until they create a category of "Best average family based blog with a side interest in cycling written by an English guy". Then I may be in for a shout in the longevity sub-category.

Finally, we are really happy with the news that DK will only be in his brace for another month full time before cutting down to sleeping time only. I think he will be really happy with the extra freedom and will be propelling himself around the house in no time.

News from Manchester

The news from Booth Hall Children's hospital is better than the news was from the airport. Rather than risk having all of the baby food confiscated at security MK decided to check in a bag full of bottles and cartons on baby milk along with some spare clothes. Unfortunately those are now somewhere at CPH and we hope to get it back tomorrow!

As for the hospital, apparently DK is doing really well. He has been given a new pair of boots that attach to his brace and will only have to wear the brace full time for another month before cutting back to only wearing it when he is asleep.

Great News!!!

The sickness continues

Yesterday I got the badge for the most ill person in the family, but J took that from me today. He has been home from Nursery again today and will be tomorrow as he has had a fever all day today. That means that rather than getting up very early tomorrow and taking MK and DK to the airport, they can take themselves and I get to stay home for the day looking after J.

I am hopeful that our DVD club discs will be with us by then so that we can watch Ratatouille and generally take it easy whilst I try to get some work in.

Having spoken to G of elevenses fame last night we looked into the prospect of the usual Easter week in England. Having priced up the travel costs both by air and by water/ground, it seems that it is out of our price range at the moment, even before we take into account the fact that I wont get paid for the time off, it will cost almost £1000 just to get there! We were amazed.

Anyway, I am looking forward to another day at home tomorrow and I hope that MK and DK have a successful trip to Manchester for their check-up.

Death bed

Being a man and having a cold are not compatible things really. I think I have already mentioned that I caught a cold last week and I have spent the weekend wallowing in self pity and Kleanex. I also seem to be developing a cough to go with it. I am working at home today to try and get over the cough and avoid giving it to any more of my colleagues.

J has now caught my virus and so he is moving straight into the cough/cold thing on the back of the impetigo and 5th disease thing. Hopefully he will be back at nursery tomorrow so that we can all get ready for MK and DKs trip to England on Wednesday.

What I really need is some of that death cough syrup that knocks you out for 24 hours at a time...

NEWSFLASH

J has impetigo and is on antibiotics. We just have to hope that none of the rest of us get it´.
Now that I know it is very contagious my face suddenly seems rather itchy.

That sinking feeling

You just know when you are getting a cold. First come the tiredness, then the slightly sore throat and then that sinking sensation as you feel your body succumbing to the virus. That is what happened to me yesterday afternoon.

I had hoped that if I skipped training for the night and went to bed early I may wake up this morning having beaten it off, but that was not to be. I guess I'll just have to deal with it and do last nights training session tonight instead of the planned night off.

The weather forecast for the weekend is miserable, rain, sleet and snow with the temperature hovering around 0 C for the duration. We have guests on Saturday evening so at least there will be some cooking to be done in and around the 15 or so shirts to be ironed...

One good thing that I have managed to achieve during January is to stick to my healthy eating plan. Really it is a diet and feels a lot like one, but the overall goal was to get into good eating habits that I can stick to in the long run, not just to shed some weight in the short term. Part of the regime is that I weigh myself each morning and I am monitoring this in a nerdy ex-consultant spreadsheet. The great thing is that the trendline is heading in the right direction. If it ceases to do so at some point I'll probably give up, but I hope I don't need to do that. Ever!

This second graph shows that I will cease to exist sometime around April 2010.

Something that's been missing

I have been wittering on a lot about bikes, training and stuff, but I know that many of my readers (should that be a large proportion given that there may not be many?)are really only interested in pictures of my kids.

J has got some really nasty dry skin or something around his mouth after this illness last week. I think he'll be off to the doctors tomorrow...

D has progressed to eating at the table with us. He doesn't eat much but seems to really enjoy being part of the meal, the biggest hit so far has been a pizza crust.

Going nowhere fast

That is how it feels sitting on a stationary trainer for an hour in the basement. You get a bit sweaty and rather uncomfortable and it is dull dull dull.
Last night I watched the first half of the Bourne Supremacy which did help to alleviate the boredom, but tonight I have to do 2 hours and I am not sure I can handle the tedium for that long. I'll watch the second half of Bourne and then see what there is to watch from our DVD collection. I am looking forward to some lighter and warmer days and evenings...

Getting Started

It seems that J is still not well, the red smacked cheeks are still there and his skin is dry and itchy around his mouth. Unfortunately his solution to this is to keep licking around his mouth and this is just making matters worse. Being both male and 3 years old, he is not going to listen to anyone so he'll just keep doing it.

Last night I made chicken Kiev without a recipe and got the whole meal on the table in about 40 minutes from walking in the door. I was quite pleased with it but for the sake of my waistline, I must get away from his new habit of dipping everything in egg and breadcrumbs and frying it.

Anyway, what I really wanted to write about today is that I have started my efforts to raise some money for charity with my cycling this year. The first and so far most difficult thing I have had to do is to decide on a charity to support. I have decided on CURE International who build and run hospitals in the developing world with a focus on treating clubfoot and cleft lip/palate. By only reservation is that they are an openly Christian charity who oddly list praying as a useful contribution to their activities. I suppose it isn't hurting anyone and it seems that they are otherwise a well run organisation who are focusing on problems that mean something to me as well.

I'll elaborate over the coming days how I hope to raise some money, but in the meantime, I have created a Just Giving page that allows anyone to donate to my fund raising directly. Have a look here: http://www.justgiving.com/williammillard to see how little progress I have made so far...

All the 2s

Yesterday I spent 2 hours and 20 minutes cycling at 2 degrees (C) and it was raining for most of that. I got home cold and tired, but happy that I had got out before the rain arrived (otherwise I wouldn't have gone) and happy that I am starting to feel a little fitter. I also managed 6 hours in the saddle last week so things are coming on slowly.

The weekend has been relaxing, if a little odd. It started with J going to T&B to stay the night on Friday, he has been struck down with Erythema Infectiosum which is called Lussingesyge in Danish (literally slapped face disease) and seems to sometimes be called the 5th disease in English as it is the 5th Childhood disease classified at some point along with measles, scarlet fever and rubella (I don't know the fourth one!) Anyway, he has had red swollen cheeks and a fever since Thursday, but seems to be getting better now and will probably be back in nursery tomorrow.

Last week we decided to join an online DVD rental service so that we can get films and tray to watch them bit by bit before MK goes to sleep each evening at 8:30. On Friday we watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull. I am not surprised that it didn't do too well, the movie world has developed quite a lot since the last of these films was made, but this one has not really moved with the times. It was a bit slow, very silly and Harrison Ford looked really old. MK enjoyed it, I thought it was just about OK, but I was glad I hadn't paid to go to the cinema to see it.

Training

I managed to get an hour and a half on the trainer last night followed by some core strength exercises, that meant that I was late to bed, but thankfully a little lighter this morning.

J was not well last night and basically slept right through from about 6pm to this morning. He is off to T&B this evening so we have a night almost off. It's also the weekend so Whoopee.

Just an hour to do on the trainer tonight and then some road or trail miles over the weekend depending on the weather.

Sitff as a board

Since my visit to the Chiropractor last Friday I have had something of a stiff neck and back. On Tuesday it was worse although it didn't stop me cycling and doing some core strengths exercises that I thought might help. Maybe it did help because yesterday was better.

Today, however, I feel like this:

I don't know what has caused it, I suspect it was picking up a child or two in an awkward way, but it may also be cycling related from the weekend. I just hope it goes away and I will stick with the exercises in the meantime.

Hitting the road... or not

Yesterday I left my laptop at work so that I would be able to cycle to work this morning should I wish to.
Having spent an hour on the trainer in the basement before bed last night, I came to a couple of conclusions:
Firstly, the trainer is not that bad, I watched half a movie, I was warm and dry, it was light and most importantly I didn't have any punctures. I admit it is a little boring and I don't think you get as good a workout as you do on the road, but it is not that bad.
Secondly, I decided that I could not see any reason to cycle to work again until the weather gets a little better, it is a little lighter in the mornings and I actually feel like doing it. My guess is that these three key ingredients will come together in about March, but who knows. I was certainly glad not to be on my bike this morning as it turned out to be cold, dark, wet and also foggy for a bonus

In other news, J is gradually making progress on the pant wetting front, last week he got through 6 pairs one day, but so far this week we only seem to be getting through 1 or 2 pairs a day.
D is doing well, although he is teething so there is a lot of grizzling and not much being left alone going on. We have also been referred to the main hospital in Copenhagen to find out what to do with the missing testicle. Unfortunately it looks as though there may be another operation on the horizon in order to try and put it where it's supposed to be.

Cranking it up a notch

I with the exception of last Tuesday when a work incident got in the way, I have pretty much been following my training plan for a couple of weeks now. I went to the Chiropractor on Friday for my quarterly clicking and I have even been going to bed earlier.

The result? My weight has not changed for a week and my neck and back are very stiff and aching. WTF is that all about?

In order to try and make some progress in the right direction (feeling better and getting lighter) I am going to do two things.

Firstly I will have to try and exercise some more stringent portion control and secondly I am going to try to do some core strength exercises 3 times a week based on these body weight exercises for cyclists. I'll report back on progress with these in a couple of weeks.

More immediately I need to decide how to have my hair cut this evening. I am toying with the following:

What a sh!t-head!

Birthday weekend

It was MK's birthday on Saturday so she got to chose what we would do for the day. That started with present, buttermilk pancakes and then me taking J to the supermarket and a few other shops. Our mission to was get a few essentials and a food processor of some sort or other and frankly speaking, we outdid ourselves with this:

It worked beautifully making meringues for the birthday cake and was about half place at the outlets, so we were all happy. MK was also very happy with her birthday presents that included a sewing machine, Red wellie boots and an orange suede jacket.

I went for a cold damp bike ride in the afternoon and of course had a flat puncture. So far I have had more punctures that outdoor rides this year, I hope this will not continue...

Williams Big Gut

In November I started another blog called Williams big gut and the plan was to post my weight there each day in an effort to lose a bit of flab.
I managed 4 days before I got bored of doing that. I am too good at remembering to do things like weighing myself each morning and I am sure it was not interesting to anyone anyway.

Since January 1st I have been on The New Year Diet, meaning that I have been eating healthily, in controlled portions and not snacking or eating cake. So far so good, but if I want to reach my "race weight" by the end of June I need to make consistent progress.
There is a good website call caloriesperhour.com that allows you to find out what your ideal weight is and how to get there. It is a great site, you can enter your current weight and your goal weight and then determine how long it will take at a given calorific deficit or in my case, the date you want to be that weight by and it will tell you how many calories to deprive yourself of each day. In my case it is just under 500 which is more or less the same as a Starbucks grande latte and a Mars bar. If only I had one of each of those each day it would be really easy to see how to drop the calories out of my diet, but unfortunately I don't so I'm having to make it up as I go along.
So far I am

• Riding my bike according to my training plan (6 hours this week)
• Not eating between meals
• Not eating cake, sweets or chocolate
• Eating more veges and salad at lunch
• going to be hungry (it sucks)

So far I am actually 2.5kg less that I was on January 1st, but still 1kg heavier than I was last time I posted on williamsbiggut in November.

Lots of work to be done especially if I ever want to reach the 89kg (14 stone or 196lb) that I apparently should weigh! For the record I am aiming for 95kg in June and if I can continue on that path 90kg in September for the Trans Austria race.

All the Pretty Horses

Yet another cultural post, this time a book review.

Having read The Road by Cormac McCarthy during the summer, I was a little unsure as to whether I would enjoy or even finish this book before I started reading it. However, having been assured that it was worth the effort, I took the plunge. The story is of a young man travelling from Texas to Mexico with a friend on a horse when horses were apparently a more normal mode of transport (1948 I just discovered thanks to google). The story is beautifully written although there were more than a few moments when I found myself wishing that my Spanish was good enough to understand the odd conversation that is thrown in untranslated.

This was a really good book and I can see that it was made into a film in 2000 as many of his others books have (No Country for Old Men being an obvious example) and I am also dismayed to see that The Road will be released in 2009 with Viggo Mortensen starring. I guess a Danish actor is fairly appropriate given the miserable nature of the story and the similar leanings of Scandinavian cinema.

A Prairie Home Companion

One of the stranger thins that I have become a fan of during my trips to the US is a radio show called A Prairie Home Companion and in particular the "news from Lake Wobegon" that Garrion Keiller writes and reads each week. When I got home after my short skiing visit in November 2007 I found the podcast and have been listening to it each week since then.

This week I was happy to see that the movie was being shown on Danish TV and so sat awkwardly on our re-positioned sofa to watch it. My conclusions were as follows:

• Garrison Keiller has a great face for radio
• There is a good reason that this is a radio show and not a TV series
• Woody Harrelson is a surprisingly good singer
• There was no news from Lake Wobegon in the film
• and finally it was pleasantly brief

You can have a look at the website here and get the podcast here

I will still listen to and enjoy the podcast and next I can read the Lake Wobegon book that I was bought for Christmas.

Words of the year

2008s words of the year are something of a dissapointment to me to be honest, these are apparently the short list

leisure sickness (noun): a purported syndrome, not universally recognized by psychologists, by which some people (typically characterized as workaholics) are more likely to report feeling ill during weekends and vacations than when working
overshare (verb): to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval
cyberchondriac (noun): a hypochondriac who imagines that he or she has a particular disease based on medical information gleaned from the Internet
selective ignorance (noun): the practice of selectively ignoring distracting, irrelevant, or otherwise unnecessary information received, such as e-mails, news reports, etc.
youthanasia (noun): “ … the controversial practice of performing a battery of age-defying medical procedures to end lifeless skin and wrinkles; advocated by some as a last-resort measure to put the chronically youth-obsessed out of their misery … Think of it as mercy lifting.” —Armand Limnander, New York Times

My favourite is youthanasia, but we'll have to wait until 9th January for the final result to be announced.

Brass Monkey

I am gradually getting back into a groove with the exercise thing and watching what I eat. At the moment, this is still a novelty and I am sure it will wear off in due course.

Yesterday I rode for a couple of hours in sub zero (Celsius) temperatures on my winter/commuter bike. For the first time it worked as intended and I managed and entire trip without a puncture. Truly a result.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I am not in as bad shape as I feared I may be and I managed around 50km without feeling too tired.

What should have been exciting was getting my new bike computer calibrated and working correctly. This computer is able to calculate your power output based on measuring environments and physical conditions. There are accelerometers built into it that measure the head wind being experienced, acceleration, gradient etc and a speed sensor. This combined with information about the rider and bike size and weight are used to calculate the number of Watts that you are producing. Apparently this is fairly accurate too!

One the down side, nothing with an LCD works well below 0 Celsius and it states in the handbook that the battery life is 40-80 hours in the warm and 4-6 hours at 7 C.

Perhaps this will have to wait for some warmer weather...

Sale shopping

Yesterday I took a brief afternoon trip to the outlets in Ringsted. By their standards it was quite busy, meaning that there were about 20 people there in total. I don't see how the place can survive when there is never anyone there shopping.
Anyway there was a good sale on at the Nike store and I got a GoreTex ski jacket for about 25% of the original price, a pair of trousers and a pair of Jeans from Levis. All in all it was a successful trip.

Here is DK in his Christmas present doing a commando crawl (without moving). We're not letting him out in the garden in it for fear of losing him.

Get your 2009 on

It's a gentle way back into working today with a day working at home. I had 2300 mails in my inbox at the start of the day and it has taken most of the day to file them all.

It has been below freezing all day and there has been frost on the ground for about 3 days now so I have not been able to face going out on my bike. Today I am not going to be able to avoid it any longer, I will have to get the turbo trainer going in the basement. I need to get my training plan posted on the fridge so that MK can bully me into completing it. I am also going to start posting my weight on the fridge too. I couldn't be bothered to keep it post on my other blog, but I think I can scribble it on the fridge. For the record it has gone up over Christmas, but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone!

Tonight: begins the year of the cabbage. Damn it.

Got new door

As they say here, or happy new year!

I can't be bothered with new year resolutions this year, they never last anyway. I have to get in shape, lose some weight and so on, but that's nothing that today's declarations will change.

We had a quiet night at home. Dad and M went home at about 8 and then we cleared up and crashed out for a couple of hours before bed. Today has been spent mostly trying to keep warm!

Happy Birthday

After a busy Birthday I nearly forgot to post the traditional Happy Birthday message.

Here is the Birthday boy in a familiar pose, but with an alternate phone...

Christmas Pics

Sants little helper

MKs new vest

DK being held as a captive audience for the iphone

DKs new high chair, he's not quite ready for it yet.

Happy Christmas

I don't suppose I will be posting anything for the next few days, I hope that everyone who may happen upon this page has a happy Christmas.
D&M arrived safely yesterday afternoon bearing gifts of US mail ordered cycling gear and my new watch that I was given for my birthday.
This evening we are making pizzas and taking it easy, hopefully tomorrow will be much like today in that the sun is shining and there is not a 50kmph wind.

It's getting better every day

Yesterday was the shortest day. That means that today will be longer and tomorrow longer again. This is officially when the light at the end of the tunnel is turned on. Unfortunately it is only visible from the end of February onwards...

Getting Ready

The swimming on Friday was quite a success although D didn't really seem to react to the water much. J had a good time with his mum for a long time whilst D and I waited for the lifeguard to take our locker apart to open it. Given that we paid about £14 to get it, I suppose it was about £1 per minute in the water and then a free shower...

Saturday was a very windy and rather cold day, I manager to get 4 flat tyres whilst only cycling about 3 km and at that stage decided that the bike ride really wasn't supposed to happen. Later in the day we went to buy a tree. J was very excited until he had been in the car for 30 seconds when he fell asleep. By the time we arrived at the place where we had to choose a tree, he was so fast asleep that we we're able to wake him at all.

We put the massive tree on the car and took it home. After a little hacking and sawing at the trunk and a little at my hand the tree is standing proudly in the living room. J and I decorated it yesterday and we can now get used to the fact that it half fills the house.

Tomorrow = making pizza = exciting!

Swimming

Tonight we are planning to take both of the boys swimming for the first time. It is a long while since I last took J to the pool, but it will be Ds first experience. Now that he is out of casts, we get an hour a day when he can be freed from his brace and kick around as he pleases.

There are four pools at our local baths, one cool and roped for swimming lengths (or laps to the Americans), a kids pool pool for little ones, a bigger play pool with a slide and finally a hot water pool in another room that is for babies, handicapped users and I guess old people. I hope the warmth is not a direct result of the incontinence of the users, but I guess that will take a taste test to determine!

We are planning a weekend of festive preparations and hopefully getting a bit of fresh air together at some point. I am looking forward to a few easy days. Maybe we'll even get an upside down Christmas tree.

The eyes may have it but the ears don't

Yesterday DK was taken to the ear doctor to have his lug holes cleaned out before going to the hospital today for another ear test/examination. The ear doctor is the same guy who has been dealing with J's ears and seems to be pretty good. He had a look and said that there is no way he can hear properly with that amount of fluid still in his ears so firstly there is no point in more testing for now and secondly we need to get it out.

The result is that he is having drains put in his ears in a couple of weeks which will hopefully allow him to hear properly.


I am personally really annoyed that this seems to be yet another example of the inability of different parts of the health system to communicate with one another.

The ear doctors at the hospital have never measured the under pressure in his ears (caused by the fluid) and have done nothing other than repeatedly and apparently incompetently trying to test his hearing.

Hopefully this will work and he will be able to hear better afterwards. On the other hand I am not sure his life will be improved too much by being able to hear all of the commotion that is going on in the house most of the time...

Karma

I am somewhat perplexed about my current levels of karma. Last week whilst I was riding my bike home from work I had a flat tyre. Now that is not a good thing and given that the tyres were new and I have never had a flat with that type of tyre before I was a little irritated. However, given that my route home is predominantly unlit and uninhabited, I was very lucky that it happened where I could shelter from the rain and see what I was doing outside an estate agent's window.

This morning I rode to work again and made it almost all the way to the office without incident. Unfortunately I got a slow puncture about 2km from the office. I stopped and blew it up rather than replacing the tube and set off again. I got within a 100m or so of the gate before I had to walk.

So is this good karma because the flats are happening at relatively convenient times or bad karma because they are happening at all?

Devil May Care

I have just finished reading the latest James Bond book that was written by Sebastian Faulks in the same style that Ian Flemming did. Having not read any of Flemming's Bond books, it is difficult to say how well he did in replicating his style, but I can comment on the book.

I enjoyed it in the same way that I enjoy watching the older Bond films. The book contains every stereotype of a Bond story, there is a bad guy with a physical disfigurement and a strange side-kick. There is of course a woman and a secret base hidden away from the world.

It was good read, fast moving and difficult to put down, but I was surprised that it really was like reading a book that was published 50 years ago. I was happy that it was set in the 50s/60s but I think it would have been better if it had been written in a slightly more modern style. Maybe that was never the idea.

The eyes have it

MK and DK are at the hospital this morning have some more checks done. The fist on the list were his eyes. One of the doctors thinks that he has a particular syndrome, one of the key symptoms of which is an eye defect. However, it appears that DK has perfect eyes from a structural standpoint meaning that he more or less does not have this syndrome.
Good news.
Tomorrow he is having the wax removed from his ears so that he can have them examined in detail on Thursday.

Now I am looking forward to Christmas...

Relaxing and Christmas shopping

It is pretty unusual to put relaxing and Christmas shopping in the same sentence, but when you don't have to buy too many gifts, the car parking is paid for the rest of the day and J is safely ensconced with his grand parents then it is in fact possible. MK and I spent Saturday afternoon pushing the bugaboo into people in the centre of Copenhagen whilst J wore out T&B, then we had a rather decadent evening of Italy&Italy take away and a nice bottle of wine followed by a reasonably good nights sleep.

On Sunday morning I noticed that the down pipe from the guttering was broken so that had to be fixed fairly urgently and then we went to fetch J and have dinner with T&B.

All in all, not a bad weekend despite the near fatal cold that I have.

If all else fails

Read the instructions...

When I fitted the brakes the (boring) new bike a couple of weeks ago I didn't bother reading the instructions. Perhaps that is why I can't get the back brake to work. I have just watched a video on YouTube of a SRAM employee with bad hair showing how to set them up and i can see that I was way off with my efforts. Perhaps I can fix it and there won't have been any damage done beyond a bit of excessive pad wear.

My other achievement in the last 24 hours is considerably more stupid though. I have a Citizen eco-drive watch that recharges it's own battery from a solar cell. The watch has been in a drawer for a while so when I put it on yesterday it needed some juice in the form of UV light. Low energy light bulbs are no good and it is dark 23½ hours a day here so I decided to improvise. I stood the watch face down on the bathroom light whilst I cleaned my teeth last night to get a bit of a boost. Then I forgot it.
This morning it was still there whilst I showered and shaved and when I remembered and took it down I nearly burned my fingers on it.
20 minutes later it stopped and I suspect it will never run again. The face is deformed from the heat and the second hand is twitching like a recently "pulled" chicken.
That's 2 watches in a month that have somehow left me, the first sold on eBay and then lost in the post so I had to refund the buyer and this the second.
At this rater I'll run out in a year or so!

You did what?!?!?

Long week

Apparently if you follow the weather forecasts for the several locations around the world that my family chose to inhabit, mine is always the worst. Seldom any sunshine and generally the lowest temperatures. Anyway, as Lard used to say: Mustn't grumble.

I had planned another ride to work this morning, but I knew that I would need the car when I got here to go out and fetch some bits and pieces for work so I took the car. In the end the traffic was so bad that I may as well have ridden, just as I may as well have walked home last night.

Maybe I'll manage it in the morning and there is always the promise of a free breakfast when I get in on a Friday.

MK is Christmas shopping with the Mum and Sis today so I guess the plastic will be getting used a lot and J is taking his MorFar to gymnastics so they will both be exhausted when I get home...

The bike

Not a good picture, but you get the idea: Steel frame, cable discs, 9 gears

The journey home

It took me a long time to get home last night. It was of course dark and unfortunately raining a fair amount all the way. That was not such a problem until I got a flat tyre. I was lucky enough that it happened close to an estate agents so that I could shelter from the rain and see what I was doing whilst I changed the tube. The problem is that the bike has a rather weird set up so I have to take a lot of things off to get the tyre off (mudguards, gears, chain...). Anyway i managed to get it done without freezing too much and eventually got home around 7.

The boys had a wonderful night of taking it in turns to wake us up. J decided that he had to open his advent gift at 2:30 this morning and was then rather disappointed when there was nothing new to open when it really was time to get out of bed. The rules are going to have to change about these gifts.

Did it!

I got out of bed at 6:20 this morning, 2 hours after J joined us and began the process of slowly pushing me out with his feet. I think the Danish tradition of giving kids presents during advent is nice, but J is getting up earlier and earlier each day to see what the Nisse (elf type things apparently) have left for him.

Anyway, I got out of bed, cleaned my teeth, ate some cornflakes and hit the road on the new bike in the pitch black and the rain. The bike worked perfectly, the lights are excellent and all in all it was only moderately unpleasant. By the time I left the main road to take the small quieter roads, it was getting light, the rain had stopped and it was even becoming pleasant to be out. I am looking forward to the ride home this evening but I guess that by the time I am home, 90km will probably seem rather more than I am able to comfortably ride given my inactivity for the last month.

That which does not kill you, makes you stronger apparently and anyway it was a good excuse for a big lunch.

Everything but time

I managed to spend a lot of time doing very little at the weekend. We had a really nice relaxing morning on both Saturday and Sunday (I was even allowed to sleep past 9:30 on Sunday!) with slow breakfasts and plenty of tea. It is funny how a pot of tea in the morning has become one of life's luxuries especially as I rarely drink a cup before leaving the house during the week these days.

I managed to finish building my new bike on Saturday including a few small mistakes that took me a while to work out (like feeding the gear cable through the wrong part of the shifter - I didn't know it could be done until then...), but I got it together in the end and went for a successful spin around the block in the dark. I took some pictures and I'll try to post them soon.

On Sunday I had a chance to actually ride it , however, after my lie in and long breakfast I foolishly decided to fit the mudguards before I left. An hour and a half later it turned out that there was no way I could go anywhere and be back in time for our afternoon rendez vous with K&L. So guess what? I had a shower and skipped the ride. Initially I was cursing my procrastination, but then realising that if I had been truly motivated to ride, I would have. I guess that deep down I just wanted to spend the time fettling and I should simply embrace that and enjoy it. I did and felt a weight lifted from my shoulders.

I have bought clothes to the office today so I am hoping that I'll manage to get out of bed and ride in tomorrow morning. We'll wait and see...

4 in the bed and the little one said...

Not much really, but for some reason I woke up this morning to a bed full of people for the first time in a while. Thankfully they were all asleep and had not even woken up when I left just after 7.

It is nice to have them all home and I am looking forward to a relaxed weekend and a ride on a bike or two despite the awful weather forecast for tomorrow. I may even be able to finish the Roadrat this evening...

We might get some Christmas decorations up in our own house too.

All home at last

It's great to have them all home, here are some pictures that came home in the camera with them:

Making cookies

The lovely little feet

Hiding in Mummy's hair

Social Gaff

Last night I was invited to eat with my colleague's house with his family. He took the train to work so that we could go to his house in our car and thus avoid the complicated navigation that would otherwise have been required.

He has a lovely house and it was very interesting to meet and talk to his wife who is a lecturer in Chinese at Copenhagen University. All in all it was a pleasant evening

My mistake was that I forgot to take anything with me to say thank you. I only realised when I was going home that I should at least have taken a bottle of wine, but I forgot and I suppose that it is too late now. I guess we'll just have to invite them to eat with us some time and then they can return the favour of not bringing a gift.

Back in the wet

My goodness it rained a lot when I got home yesterday evening, but none the less I got home safe and sound at around 11:00 along with the roof rack and bike carrier that I had bought on eBay and didn't even have to pay excess baggage on. I quickly did a bit of unpacking and then accidentally did a bit of bike building for an hour too so I was rather later to bed than planned.
The weekend was fun. We spent most of Saturday and Sunday with B,E, T & K in Bicester playing and receiving rather more aural stimulation than we needed. I did manage to take some pictures, but also managed to leave the camera with MK in England so that will have to wait.

It has been a weird few weeks with MK and the boys being in England. I have been busy working, travelling and trying to keep on top of the household stuff so it will be really nice to have a weekend at home with everyone together and maybe I can also find time to go for a bike ride! The new bike is almost complete, I am missing a short piece of gear cable housing and I can't find the chain I bought. Perhaps it will show up this evening.