No bed, but a bargain rug

J was out of luck with the beds last night as they were all too expensive. However we did get a new rug for the living room that was reduced from 5000kr (£500 or $1000) to 800kr (yes you guessed it £80 or $160).

In the shop we were worried that it may be too bright, but being us we decided not to worry too much about that.


Now it is down we are really happy with it. It is not too bright and brings a nice warmed to the room with its deep shag (oh yes it is deep) and warm colours.

In case you are interested, here is the dent on the car.

Pants

Not yet, but maybe soon as J has been pretty consistent this week with his potty usage. Apparently we haven't had to deal with a "full" nappy all week and J was very happy to find that he can put on his own nappy if it is a pull-up variety.

Next step is for him to tell us before he has a wee rather than just informing us that he's had one.

Quick translation of the usual conversation.

J "J wee"

MK " do you want to use the potty?"

J "no, J has had a wee"

Calm again

Now that I have recovered somewhat from finding out about the car being dented I can get back to my usual daily pursuits: Thinking about bikes and doing stuff.

As it happens at the moment there is not much stuff to do so I am thinking about bikes more to compensate. I love all of the constructive criticism that my bike related post seem to attract so I thought I'd let you all know that thinking has resulted in the narrowing down of my new bike purchase to final short list of 3:

Gary Fisher Paragon

Reasonable value aluminium frame with OK parts, not exciting, but a sensible middle of the road choice and a nice bike.

Gary Fisher Superfly

Dream bike category. Carbon fibre frame and top notch everything. Expensive, lovely and exclusive.

Salsa Mamasita

Only available as a frame so I need to build it myself which means I get all the bits I want (well more like the bits I can afford otherwise it goes off the price scale). Very nice Scandium and carbon fibre frame, would be a great bike if I can get all the bit together.

The problems are that the first two are only available to collect in person from a shop so I would almost certainly have to go to the UK to fetch them. The last one will have to come from several different places and hence there will be a lot of big boxes to sort out and I am not sure if G&G are prepared to bring all of that stuff to Denmark for me. I can get more or less all of it mailed to me at home though so this is not a huge problem.

I am pretty sure that I am going with the Salsa for now but please feel free to chime in with such constructive comments as "you don't need a new bike" and "what's wrong with the bikes that you have?" and "you had a new bike 5 years ago" etc etc.

Tonight MK is meeting me at the airport which is really nice since it saves me a lot of messing around with trains. We are going to Ilva on the way home to look at beds for J. He pretty much fills his cot now and we want him to have lost interest in the cot before there is someone else needing to use it.

It's been a few weeks since I assembled some flat pack anyway.

ANGRY

GRRRR!
It seems that as MK was turning left when the tw*t in a BMW ran into her this morning it is two thirds her fault. I don't know if you can imagine exactly what happened, but as I understand it, she was indicating to turn left (as you would turn right in the UK so crossing the lane of the oncoming traffic) and as she turned into the car park at work the BMW man overtook her. Except he didn't, he ran into her.

I guess she should have looked over her shoulder, but how the f*&k can that be two thirds her fault and one third his?

The result: We'll have to pay the no doubt high excess on the insurance and pay a premium for the next 5 years before we have a clean driving record again.

I am f'ing furious about this.

If I find out where this bloke lives I'm going to go round his house and wee in his shoes.

Bits and Pieces

No this is not the Radio 1 roadshow.

Last night a couple of us from my project went to the cinema to see Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman (They're the actors, not the people I went with MK and WRM!).

The film is about Charlie Wilson, the congressman who organised the funding of the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan whilst they were fighting the Russians in the 80's and managed to get a billion dollars from congress to supply arms under cover enabling the Afghans to beat the Russians. It was a pretty good film based on the real events. Unfortunately as Wilson said "we won the war but f*&ked up the end game" so many of the Afghans don't know that it was the Americans that helped them.

I didn't do any training last night as my legs were really tired and I have only missed 1 day in the last couple of weeks so I was due a rest.

The last unfortunate thing is that someone drove into MK this morning and has damaged our car so I guess that will lead to a great deal on inconvenience for us over the coming weeks. Thankfully everyone is OK, but I suspect this will provide me with enough bile to keep blogging until the car is finally fixed and we have paid the last bill...

Now we NEED a new fridge

Yesterday I finally got around to oiling the oak work surfaces in the kitchen since they were starting to dry out and looked like they were ripe for some staining especially given the amount of beetroot that we get in our vegetable box.

In order to make some space on top of the microwave for the stuff on the work surfaces, I had to more the cooling rack an in doing so I managed to make a gauge in the new wall right above the fridge.

"Oh bother!" I exclaimed

However, looking on the bright side, it would be covered up by a taller fridge that we are planning to buy at some point so I think it's time to hit Punkt 1 and see what is on offer.

I'd love one of these Smeg ones, but unfortunately they are rather too expensive and difficult to get hold of over here.

Weigh in

Well not a terrible week. I have ridden my bike 6 days of the last 7 for about an hour each time so even if the weight loss is not too dramatic, I am getting in better shape, I think my trousers are a little looser and some muscle is coming back.

Today I am 106,6kg and still 25% lard apparently. Maybe I will make the 95kg target for next Monday after all...

I am a little disappointed that for the last 5 weeks I have been cycling (or skiing lat week) for about an hour 6 times a week and have stopped drinking beer and eating sweets and cakes for the most part and have still not really lost much weight. Thankfully I am really excited about the mountainbike races in the summer and motivated for plenty of training. Perhaps the new bike is part of the motivation, but who cares where it comes from as long as it is there.

Now what did I come in here for?

Family torture - J's Haircut

On Saturday morning we had to accept that J needed a haircut. The last one was in Boulder in December and he was starting to look a bit like a girl.

However, we all hate the process of his hair being cut. He hates it all, MK hates holding him and I hate cutting it, but sometimes you just have to get on with these things!

Before

After

I think it turned out OK in the end and nobody has made any rude comments yet...

We had a nice evening at some friends for dinner on Saturday and a generally very relaxing weekend which was very nice. I have managed to keep up with the cycling - 6 times last week so I hope that I am at least getting a bit fitter. I'll weigh in later and see if I am on the right track for that well deserved new bike.

Weekend at home

This weekend we don't have too many plans which is nice. Tomorrow we are off to friends for dinner and may stop to look for a new bed for J on the way.

Other than that it is all clear.

Yesterday was a very frustrating day, I had to leave the house at 6am and fly to Aalborg and then the flight home was delayed so I wasn't home until 10pm but at least we got a reasonable night sleep afterwards.

Later I am taking J swimming, he was rather disappointed that we couldn't go this morning, but that's life I guess, nursery first, swimming second. Apparently they are having some sort of theatre thing visiting them today as well so I am sure it will be fun.

Oh and I had my hair cut this morning.

Hatching a plan

There is a 6 hour race at Catton Park near Burton on Trent 26th April.

I can get a flight with SAS for a reasonable amount on the Thursday or Friday, get the bike sorted out on Saturday, race on Sunday and come back to Denmark on the Monday.

Sounds like a plan...

Chosing the new bike

I love undertaking these huge internet projects especially when work is a little slow and the timing is just right for some serious virtual window shopping.

Since I have now decided that I deserve a new bike for the upcoming "racing" season then there have been a few decisions to make:

Firstly hardtail or full suspension?
Well as the riding in Denmark is far from extreme and I am planning to use this bike as a race bike then a hardtail is the obvious choice. This is also made more clear by the fact that the used full suspension bike that I acquired last year is fine for more rough stuff

Secondly 26" or 29" wheels
Easy - 29" is the way forward and getting increasingly popular for endurance racing.

Thora Herdly what should the frame be made of?

Gary Fisher Superfly (Carbon Fibre)

Tough one here, ideally I would like Titanium, but it seems that the cheapest Ti frame I can get will be about £1000 for the frame alone so that is more or less out of the window. Steel is too heavy and there is only one carbon frame available which is a little pricy although not completely ruled out (yet). That leaves Aluminium or alloys thereof - namely Scandium. (are you asleep yet?)

Fourthly build it up myself or buy it complete?

Niner Bikes Air 9 only available as a Frame and import from the US

Again not easy as you generally get better value buying a complete bike, but lose out on the choice of parts and in this case, many of the manufacturers of 29" bikes only sell frames so the choice of frames is also compromised.

Finally where when and how should I get it?
This is more complex than it seems as there are no 29" bikes for sale in Denmark so it will have to come from the US or the UK and some companies will not sell online. As I will not be in the UK until after the 12 hour race in May I will have to get it to Denmark either by mail (expensive) or with G&G in March but Ideally I want it in April (financial reasons this time). So there are still some unanswered questions here.

Before anyone bothers to write or even think that I don't need a new bike, forget it, I know I don't need a bike, I want one and it's between me, MK and the bank manager whether or not I can have one. (Do I sound defensive?)

Seu Jorge

A music post!

One of my favourite films of the last few years was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The film is a somewhat black comedy based on the Jacques Cousteau films of the 70s, showing the life of an aquatic explorer at the end of his career. I highly recommend it.

One of the particularly enjoyable aspects of the film is the soundtrack which consists almost entirely of David Bowie songs performed by Seu Jorge, a Brazilian singer.

The songs are sung in Portugease with some great accoustic guitar. I found the album on itunes a few weeks ago and love it.

Be patient with the messing around at the start of this clip, it is worth while and afterall it is the first video I have ever posted!

The Annual Training Plan

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had bought a training plan to get myself back on the bike and doing some structured training to prepare for the Nordic 24 hour race in June.

The 5 week plan comes to an end this week so I need to work out what to do from Saturday onwards to ensure that I am ready for June. That was the plan in January, but now I have added another race to the program in May - the Rivette H12. This is a 12 hour race also held somewhere near Copenhagen. (have a look here if you're interested)

I could splash out $100 on a prepared training plan for 24 hour mountain bike races or I can try and design my own based on the cyclists training bible.

This is a rather complicated book that you more or less have to read from end to end to go through the whole process of designing your plan for the year before you put it to one side and ignore it for the whole year. Well what's the point of spending more money on training plan when I can make my own?

In the past I have never been able to follow these things anyway, but (as usual) I hope that this year will be different...

I'm reading the book and making the excel sheets so we'll see what comes out of it at the end.

Fatso

No change in weight this week which is a bit of a shame really, still 108kg and 25% fat. I suppose I ate a bit more in Norway, but I did get plenty of exercise skiing and I have been on the bike most days.

I think I'll hit the awful soup diet again next week and see if I can shift some more lard before I fall at the first on the way to my new bike. What I really don't understand is that I have not been eating bad stuff, not drinking beer and have started exercising about 5 times a week from not doing anything and yet my weight is staying the same. I can only hope that I am gaining some muscle along the way...

Given my eating habits, perhaps we'd be better of with a new fridge!

Norway in pictures

We got home safe and sound last night to a very cold house that is just about warming up again now. The trip to Norway was really good, it was not super cold and the sun shone most of the time.

We all managed some skiing


J didn't bother with skis, but he did use the lift. Next year he can have skis as well!

Here he is pretending to be cute or something, but we know better...

This is the hut/challet that we were staying in. Compared with the standard French ski resort shoe boxes it was fantastic, we had 2 bathrooms and nobody slept in the living room!

Thank you very much to T&B for unviting us up there and taking a child seat in their car so that they could taxi us around wherever we wanted.

Norway calling

Thanks you for your encouraging coments! I didn't really wants to post that picture but i had to pay the price for my eating.

We are having a great time skiing here in Kvitfjel in the sunshine. It is very easy to joint someone elses vacation halfway through when the fridge is full and the heating is on full.
One more day of skiing to go...

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Kvitfjell

We're off to Norway this evening for a couple of days R&R which will not be particularly R or R but there we go.

We are flying to Oslo then taking the train to Lillehammer where BHP will meet us with the car for the last bit of the journey. We have 3 days skiing and looking after J before heading back on Sunday.

The weather looks good but cold, it seems the warmest we are likely to see is -4C.

As promised/threatened here is a picture of me looking miserable, not really in my underwear, but you get the worst of it.

Next week I need to weigh less than this, because I don't really want to have to do this again!

Some new rules

It is a little late in the day, but I am supposed to post my weight each Monday so here it is.

This afternoon I am 108,0kg and 25% lard which means I am slightly heavier than last week.

Damn.

Well I can more or less understand this because I have been off the wagon somewhat with my eating and whilst mum has been here I have been drinking wine every night for the last 3 days and eating the odd illegal snack. On the other hand I have been training almost every day which I had convinced myself would enable me to eat a little more and still shed some fat. Wrong.

I think I am supposed to post a picture of myslef in my underwear as punishment for not losing weight this week and I will do that tomorrow. Sorry.

As for the training, there is another piece of motivation added to the list as of today and that is that I have entered a 12 hour solo race on the 3rd May in Denmark, so I need to keep up the work and develop my plans past the middle of February.

But William I hear you all say, surely you'll need a different bike for all of this racing you have planned this year. Well of course I will.

It's probably going to be one of these.

Yes it's a 29er, scandium frame and 29" wheels but there are some catches.

In order to allow myself to get used to it I need to have it by mid April at the latest so what do I have to do to deserve it?

Well here are the targets

I have to get down to 105kg before the end of February or the deal is off.
I then have to get down to 100kg by the end of March or the deal is off. Finally I am aiming at being 95kg by the time I stand at the start line of the Nordic 24 in the middle of June.

So bring on the raw carrots because I want this bike and given that I have published this and MK seems to think that it is not strictly necessary then she will be looking for excuses to can the idea.

Tomorrow me in pants, next week, me being lighter after a few days of hard skiing!

Roskilde

Roskilde didn't fail to dissapoint with it's grey weather, charmless inhabitants and limited choices for lunch. We also had the pleasure of a bad tempered toddler combined with a intolerant father.

We did get some lunch though...

Anyway we did manage to get something to eat and I think the others enjoyed themselves as much as they could given that I was there...

Here is Gills Elevenses being updated

Visitor

I picked up my mum from the airport this afternoon and we are now relaxing watching Fireman Sam. J is enjoying it more than the rest of us, especially now we are on the second run through the DVD.
We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend of Childrens theatre in the morning and Roskilde in the afternoon.

I'll put the camera on charge I promise.

Stuff

Without the help of the antibiotics, it seems that J is getting better so that is great news, Morfar is entertaining him today and I will have him again tomorrow, hopefully with a bit more energy than on Tuesday. I am in Aalborg again and I was happy to hear this news as I was a little worried about him being so drained recently.

Here he is feeling better at the Cheesecake Factory in Boulder with the smaller version of MK!

The last couple of weeks have been odd in some ways. Work has been somewhat dull whilst also exciting as a few things are going to change around Easter and I have had to negotiate all of that (announcement to follow...). At home however, we have been busy doing very domestic and mundane things like clearing out the basement, moving things around and putting up shelves, which has been nice.

I am sorry that there have not been any proper photographs recently, I am out of practice at taking the pictures at the moment. At the very least I should be gloating about the clean basement and the TV on the wall although I suspect that, if anyone is really interested in anything, it will be pictures of J and his "glowing" mum.

Finally my mum is coming to stay for a few days which will be really nice and hopefully we'll get some pictures to post between us.

Unexpected Showers

I have spent the lat couple of days at home with J and to be honest they have been the easiest days we have ever had together. The poor little chap is very much under the weather and having not eaten properly for several days he is running on empty. Just to underline how out of sorts he is, he slept through the night last night (that is about the 6th time in his 2½ years!)

Having said that it was easy, it was also a little sad that he was happy to just sit still do little more than watch the tv. There was one thing that brought him to life without fail though: bringing out the medicine.

The mere sight of a medicine bottle brings out some deeply rooted fears and he does everything he can to avoid the stuff including trying to hide behind the microwave oven. At some point during the afternoon after many attempts at bribery and persuasion, I decided to have a go at forcing him to take the stuff for his own good. As soon as he saw the loaded syringe there was scream and he hid under the cushions on the settee. When I got him out and onto my lap he did everything he could to keep the stuff from getting into his mouth, but I finally overcame his defences and squirted a bit into his mouth. He gurgled and spat a bit, but I though I could get the whole 7,5ml in with the next go. So it did.

He had the last laugh (neither of us actually laughed, but never mind) as he threw up everything he had consumed over the last couple of hours (milk, bread rolls and fruit bars) all over both of us. Urgh.
After a quick dash to the bathroom to strip off and clean up I decided that he'd probably get better on his own and I really couldn't think of any other way to get him to take the stuff.

Little update

J has some antibiotics to deal with the ear infection and other ailments so hopefully he will be back to his usual self in a day or so.

Weigh in

I have just done my evenings workout and weighed myself. This week I am 97,0kg and 26% fat apparently which is only 200g less than last week and that is cheating weighing really as it was just after an hour of exercise with plenty of fluid loss.

I have been exercising pretty consistently for a couple of weeks now 5 times per week and I feel better for it. However, I think I have been eating more to compensate and I need to do something about that. Days like today are a challenge because I have been stuck at home with J which is a little boring when he is sick and lolling around so I have had to exercise some extreme restraint not to eat too much. Hopefully the coming week will see a little more weight loss...

Stormy Weather

We have had a pretty exciting storm here in the last 24 hours. The bridge between Sjæland and Funen was closed as was Aalborg airport so my team has been somewhat disrupted and two of us were forced to eat in the hotel buffet last night!

Andreas who should have flown to Gothenburg yesterday afternoon had to take a boat instead which sounded like a recipe for sea-sickness to me should have arrive home at about midnight. Christian and Marrianne managed to get back from Copenhagen, eventually although Christian only got here this morning.

I am looking forward to getting home tonight, we have had such an uneventful week that it is difficult to think of things to write here except for the one thing that I cannot write about... yet.