The next step...

J seems to have taken to crawling pretty well and is climbing up the furniture with increasing ease and confidence so how long until he is trying to walk? My guess is another month or so before he tries his first steps, but it is truly frightening how quickly things change.
My back is aching again, I think it is related to the tidying up in the basement so I will be careful to avoid doing that again. Biking home from work last night was purgatory for the last 20 or so kilometers. (This represents the beginning of the excuses for the bike race at the weekend...)

Crawling mania

Our sunflower is coming along nicely (actually I can take no credit for this)
Last night I finally completed the arduous task of building the shelves in the basement and getting the boxes off the floor, it's not interesting, but the basement now looks pretty big when there isn't a layer of crud all over it.
J is making his way all around the house, it is easy to know where he is as he shouts continuously when he is crawling announcing his movements. We have tidied up a lot of things, but we are dreading the moment that he finds the bookshelves and magazine rack thing. The study and bathroom doors now have to be kept closed as well.
Sorry this isn't very interesting today is it? There should be some new pictures in the next day or so, but I am biking home today so the computer is staying in the office. When I am working at home there is sometimes a little help available as you can see...

... and he's off!

We have had a very busy (and sleep deprived as ever) weekend. J has taken to standing himself up with just about anything he can get hold of intent on clearing any baby height surface of papers and electrical equipment. This is itself has not been such a problem so long as he was out of reach of the tables, sofa etc. However, on Saturday morning he learned how to crawl and is now whizzing around the house making a lot of noise. We are lucky so far as he cannot get over the door steps, but as they are only 1cm high, I don't think that will last for long.* I'll get some crawling pictures up as soon as I can.
Along with feeding the lawns, oiling the bench and doing other DIY type things, we have been bed shopping this weekend so we will be getting new beds delivered when we get back from Boulder. Hurray for that, now all we need is a baby that sleeps better!

*Update: He managed to get over the step this morning

Only 20 weeks until Christmas

Seeing as Christmas will soon be upon us (or at least the decorations) we have booked our flights to Blighty for the festive period, thankfully bagging a bargain on the way.
The toy shopping was pretty unsuccessful, all I got was a frog glove puppet and a barking vibrating dog thing, we'll have to keep our eyes open for other options.
I have so far resisted the temptation to purchase any shiny bike bits, only time will tell if I can hold out until the urge passes. Perhaps all I need to do to overcome my desire to upgrade my cockpit is to cut the steerer tube to the right length. (Note that this is not rude to those who understand bike gibberish although it may seem as though it is to others)
Finally here are some pictures of the royal visit.

This is what happens when you can only realy move backwards and don't like confined spaces.

Toy shopping

Having sat with J on my knee for 20 minutes yesterday, I am now more acutely aware of the challenge that we will face during the 9 hour flight from London to Denver. As a result I am off to the Toy Shop in the way home this evening to find some suitable distractions that are:

• infinitely entertaining and interesting
• Silent
• Inexpensive
• Small enough to carry
• Educational
• Inedible

I am not too optimistic of ticking all the boxes, but I will try. Perhaps it will be somethinglike this!

I am also fantasy bike part shopping to fill time at the moment, I am getting carried away longing for carbon fiber goodies such as integrated handlebar/stems, wheels and of course seatposts...

Bye for now...

It was a sad morning this morning, we had to take my mum to the airport and say good bye for a few months. We haven't made any plans yet, but we hope to see her again in the autumn. She has had a wonderful affect on young J who has suddenly taken to sleeping through the night. It was lovely to have her staying and we have enjoyed the last week, I hope that we can do it again soon. ( I am not only writing this because I know she will read it). We enjoy having visitors, especially when they help with the washing up.
Yesterday was fun, we visited an old house somewhere and had a picnic. I am afraid that is all the information I have about the house other than that we had to wear blue plastic things over our shoes. There is something that happens to me in old houses, I suddenly become a bored 10 year old and cannot get out fast enough.
Pictures will be posted tomorrow as they are still on the camera.
More exciting posts to follow tomorrow...

HE SLEPT THROUGH!

After exactly 9 months of regular night time waking and crying, J finally slept through the whole night last night from about 9:00 until 05:45 this morning!
The weather has continued to be fantastic here, we went to the glassworks at Holmegaard yesterday to see the new visitors centre (average really considering you used to get a guided tour for free and now you pay 80kr to show yourself around!), but we did get some new wine glasses.
Now that J is sleeping, we are considering getting ourselves a new bed so that we can sleep better too...

Oh no, not again...

I am extremely disappointed to hear about Floyd Landis's A sample testing positive, if it proves to be a correct result and that he did take testosterone before stage 17 then I think he will have to have the Tour win taken from it and that could be the beginning of the end of pro bike racing as we know it. The media interest will go ( it is already waning) and the sponsorship money will soon follow. There does seem to be some hope that Floyd's result is a false one and many have been cleared in the past following this kind of result. I really hope that this is not the going to be the third consecutive Grande Tour tainted by doping...
On a much happier note, here is J in his Hawaiian outfit.

Argh!

Isn't it annoying when you make an effort to get to a meeting and then it is cancelled? I have dragged my sweaty arse into the office today for a meeting this afternoon, only to have it cancelled at the last minute. The result is that I am stuck in CPH until about 10:00 this evening waiting for my mother to arrive at the airport. It is also very hot in here.
I have just installed some widgets on my desktop from Yahoo though and they seem pretty cool! I now have an analogue clock, weather forecast and check of my yahoo mail account floating around the desktop ( I can also have a picture frame that runs through my photos and an Outlook link to to-dos etc)
In the meantime, here are some feet.

Working from home is great

I have been mostly working from home for the last couple of weeks and it is marvelous. I can get out of bed and be on-line in a couple of minutes and also save at least a couple of hours of commuting time each day. There are drawbacks, it is more difficult to get things done when you don't see your colleagues, but as most of them are on holiday it doesn't matter.
Other exciting news is that I had a message from someone I have never met before meaning that my global audience is growing. ( I think she was in the US based on the comment that her husband watched the Tour in the mornings)
Anyway, to keep the regular reader happy, here is another picture of the little guy helping to unpack the new phones... (won't work now, I'll put it up later)

Withdrawl symptoms

Unfortunately for us viewers, the Tour de France is finally over. Floyd won a deserved victory and at last someone other than Lance has one, I was never a huge fan and now that it seems that Jan Ullrich will never do it again, i am happy that it is someone like Floyd could do it. What a nice guy and what a great collection of sunglasses!
Anyway back to the usual update pictures of the family to keep my mother (who is not remotely interested in cycling) happy.

Amazing Floyd

Floyd made an amazing come-back yesterday, the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Mercx. In a move requiring such balls that it is a wonder he can ride a bike, Floyd attacked with 150km to go and basically whipped everyones ass. Fantastic.
However, as only my mum reads this, i should note that everyone at home is well etc etc. We are looking forward to seeing her next week and I hope that by then J will have overcome his latest round of sleeping problems...

Meltdown

Well yesterday Floyd had a shocker, he died on the last climb and basically lost the Tour, he ended up going at my pace. What I really like though is his attitude, he is so honest and down to earth when he explains what happened, you can't help but like the guy. Denmark are no doubt celebrating Rasmussens win which was pretty impressive to say the least.
Today should be exciting too and I really have no idea who will win, but I suspect that Michael Rasmussen will have another go on the last climb if he is there with the leaders...

Sitting, but not sleeping

Well J has now learned how to sit himself up from lying down and he is increasingly communicative and fun to play with, but he is still unable to sleep for more than 4 hours in a row and stay alseep after about 05:30. At the moment this is not really my problem as i have the "work clause" which allows me to sleep through the night time duties, but it won't be long before I have to step up to the plate and deal with him in the night when we are both working again...

It was great to see the stage of the Tour going up Alpe d'Huez yesterday, it reminded me of the painful hours that were spent riding around there last year, I don't think there is a better place in the world to ride a bike on the roads.

Wireless world

I went a bit mad in El Giganten on the way home last night so we are now fully wireless and I am sitting here with 3 laptops switched on and connected at the same time. We also now have 3 cordless phones dotted around the house. The main reason for this is that the smallest member of the household is more than a little interested in all things with wires and he is getting better and better at moving around and pulling himself up on and with things.
More interestingly though today is the best stage of the Tour de France and I am working from home! Hurray!

Gone fishing

Yesterday was a fabulous day in Denmark, the sun shone and it was hot. I was lucky enough to be invited out with Lars, Jan and Bent to go fishing in Jans boat at Reersø. We took a few cold beers and a load of fishing stuff and headed off into the sun. Having never really fished beforeIi was amazed thatIicaughtt the first one, a horn-fisk (long thin thing) and 3 of the 15 or so flat plaice like fish we got (called a skrubber or something in Danish (apparently it is Flounder)).
Jan did a great job of cutting the heads off and pulling in the insides out and when we got back (2 hours later than planned), Lars took the fins and leathery dark side skin off.
Moving on a couple of hours, we had fantasticfreshh pan fried fish with chips in the garden at home at last.
J didn't seem so happy to be home, he woke up drying every halfhoure during the night despite being in out bed. We guess it must be his second tooth coming through...

"... and simultaneously they play music"

I really like Germany, I had forgotten what a nice place it is. The other thing that I had forgotten is just how funny the Germans are without being aware of the fact. On Wednesday evening a group of us were taken out the dinner (rather nice suckling pig with bacon dumplings) and a few drinks in the apparently infamous Reeperbahn in Hamburg Towards the end of the evening we were walking along the side of the harbour to one of the beach bars (an artificial beach with a bar), when passing an old warehouse building Gerhard pronounced that "at the weekend you can see thousands of people here drinking beer and simultaneously they play music" Perhaps this loses a little in the re-telling, but I thought it was rather funny.

Not much happening here

It's been a dull day working from home and waiting to take the train to Hamburg this evening. I feel like I should continue to make posts even when I don't have much to say! It's a shame that it isn't an interesting stage of the Tour de France today either.
Maybe something interesting will happen in Germany...

Back from the edge

The edge of the island that is! I am home alone again and unfortunately there is an air of old mother Hubbard about the house. I had sour(ish) milk on my breakfast and cereal for my tea last night.
I have also done something to my back so I am struggling somewhat. Getting out of bed was tough, putting socks on was tough etc etc. I hope it gets better quickly. I think it could be related to the fact that I have cycled hard for about 60km each day since last Thursday and on Saturday I lowered my handlebars a little. Maybe they're going back up again tonight.
Pictures of the lovely weekend spent at the beach will be duly posted when the wife returns with the camera!

Home alone

M and J are going to the beach for 10 days or so with her parents, I am joining them for both weekends, but that does mean that I will be home alone for 4 nights ! (I am going to Hamburg for 2 nights next week)
It is not often that I get to do this so the plan is as follows:
Thursday night - ride bike then clean and service it
Friday - hopefully work from home and then spend a few hours riding to the beach
Saturday - relax
Sunday - spend a few hours riding home again
Monday - work and who knows what else
Tuesday - work from home, short bike ride then take the train to Hamburg (this is very exciting and will no doubt feature largely in another dull post
So that's it really.

Elephant Man

I was stung in the middle of my forehead by a wasp whilst cycling on Sunday so yesterday I had a forehead that was somewhere between John Merrick and a Klingon. Thankfully today it has subsided a little.
It's dead hot here!

Quality Time

Well I think that's what it's called, Jeremy and I were home alone yesterday afternoon whilst Mum went to Copenhagen. It was a pretty hot and sticky day and to be honest I don't know how she ever gets anything done when she is home with him. It was fun, but he wants more or less constant attention.
For her part it seems that Mum had a good time escaping to CPH, although she singularly failed to achieve anything on the shopping front despite having carte blanche to buy anything she fancied and the sales have just started!
Then at the end of the day he falls asleep in some very strange positions...

Weekend at the beach

The weekend has been lovely but there have been a few disappointments to go with the exciting developments. Friday saw the sad removal of Jan Ullrich and other from the Tour de France, I am not really sure whether it is fair to apply a guilty until proven innocent rule, and I suspect that the expelled riders are not in the minority when I comes to drug use...
Saturday saw another sporting disappointment with England out of the World Cup. I knew as soon as it went to penalties that we would go out, but that is football and it doesn't really matter as the Tour is on now!
On a more positive side, Jeremy is now sitting really well on his own so he can entertain himself better as you can see.
He also has his first tooth that can clearly be heard when he tries to bite the side off a glass when drinking.
So all in all, the weekend was good, sunshine, beer, swimming in the sea, cycling and relaxing.

Home Brew

There is a micro-brewery pub in Tivoli (actually a restaurant) that makes beer that I think my brother and I would have been just a little disappointed with had we made it when we were teenagers. However, the beer is a gastronomic delight when judged alongside their entertainment. The guy playing the piano and singing seemed to have a unique combination of attributes: he was drunk and tone deaf and obviously didn't understand the words to the (rubbish) songs as the emphasis was consistently in the wrong place for all of the words.
We're off to the summer house at the beach for what is expected to be a great weekend. I am cycling over there after work and looking forward to greeting the mosquitoes!

Brucey Bonus

Hurray, I have got a lovely bonus from my employer! We have decided to waste it all on lavish lifestyle accessories such as a new front door and double glazing the bathroom window. If I manage to sell my race wheels, we may even have a new terrace door.
The other interesting news was that my PhD proposal seems to be meeting with a reasonable amount of interest at the Business School and the guy who has been helping me to write the proposal now seems so interested that he may also wish to get involved in the research! Hopefully this bodes well for the future of my project. We'll have to wait and see.
J is now sitting very well, but still not crawling really so we are still safe for now...

We're off to see the wizard

The wonderful wizard of Copenhagen Business School. I have yet to meet the head of CVL (a department of CBS) but I shall this afternoon to discuss my proposal for a PhD project. I am looking forward to it with a little trepidation. It is strange, having spent the last few years working as a consultant (a pseudo academic spouting unsubstantiated drivel) then having to change ones behavior and refrain from making vague generalisations about the state of the world and the way that people are likely to react in any given situation. I will now have to be sure that my throw away comments about the state of the world are based on acknowledged facts, documented by others rather than dragged from my fertile, random statistic generating mind.
And now a picture of my son to keep my reader happy ;-)

Apparently that was enough introspection, I am sunburned!

I rode quite a long way yesterday into the summer house territory in the north of out little island. There was a strong tail wind on the way up there which can only mean one thing. A strong headwind for the 80km trip back, by the time I got home I was tired, dehydrated and it now seems rather sunburned. There are not many days in the year that you want to wear a sleeveless jersey up here in the trundra, but yesterday was one and I forgot sunscreen. I have had a rather uncomfortable, hot night with red shoulders.
Bent and Jorgen had a successful ride from Trondheim to Oslo (545km) in 23 hours. I don't ever want to do that, never ever! Well done to them.

First Impressions

I started to read an online book yesterday about creating a good self image/impression. The first part of the book was a small test to measure how good you are at such things. Well, it seems that I don't need to read the rest of the book based on my score, but does that mean that I am shallow? I don't know and often don't care so perhaps that means that I am. I seem to get by in life reasonably well on a firm(ish) handshake and good manners without having to stretch myself to back anything up with performances. (I hope that none of my clients read this!)
On another note, this is my new watch that I am very pleased with, maybe it adds to the image...

If you change nothing, nothing changes

This has been my thought for the week. In many aspects of live I am good at making things happen, but others I tend to leave as they are.
I am sitting in Warsaw in an IT workshop looking forward to getting home again tonight, but I am hoping that by applying my new mantra at meal times and when I am sitting on the sofa instead of exercising or doing something useful (not really that common) then I will get fitter and achieve more, thus becoming a happier, better person.
Simple really, now we are into phrase 2 for the day
"Easier said than done"

Warsaw

I am stuck in a very hot meeting in Warsaw, I'll be back in action either tomorrow or Friday...

Looking better again... not the weathr

I don't know what happened yesterday, but I wasn't much fun to be with and I had a serious downer. I think I really needed to get out on my bike so that is what I did. I rode 65km in just over 2 hours, it was great to be able to go out after J had gone to bed and still be out in the light at 9:00. Official lighting up time was 21:54!!!
I also managed to get some work done on the phd proposal so i hope to be able to get that sorted out before the end of the week and off to Carsten. Fingers crossed.
We are really looking forward to our visit to Boulder in August, I certainly feel ready for a break.
Off to Warsaw tomorrow morning for an overnight visit, this could be an experience!

Monday blues

Having the feeling that I have totally wasted my weekend, it was no fun at all to come back to work this morning. Yesterday was spent sweltering indoors at a 90th birthday party and Saturday was somehow frittered away with a couple of odd jobs. I haven't ridden my bike since last Wednesday and I think that is the problem, I had plans to ride this weekend and the weather was pretty good, but I am a lazy good for nothing waste of space so I sat on my fat worthless arse instead.
Tonight I plan to go out as soon as I get home and ride until it is dark to celebrate the longest day on Wednesday (when I will be in Warsaw anyway)
Baby swimming tomorrow so that's out of the question too.

At least we did have the best strawberries of the year so far on Saturday evening.

Weekend jobs

There is a lot to do around the house this weekend.

• Finish stripping and painting the handrail by the front door
• Cut the grass
• Re-point the chimney
• Fix the breakfast bar
• Other things I can't remember

Worst of all I have to go to a 90th birthday party for MK's grandfather - another Danish extravaganza.

Sleep at last

Despite a rather early awakening this morning (5:00) and then raucous "playing" in our bed, young Jeremy seems to have turned a corner in his sleeping abilities. The last couple of nights her has slept longer and better without needing to be picked up every couple of hours. JOY!

OK this was a few weeks ago, but you get the general idea.
There isn't much happening at the moment, unfortunately there should be as I need to complete my PhD proposal for the umpteenth time and do a load of things around the house, fortunately tonight I can at least get some shirts ironed whilst watching England play against Trinidad and Tobago!

Life Hacking

I read something about this in the Economist yesterday, apparently the challenge for the 21st century will be to do for the knowledge worker what was done for manual workers in the 20th century. That is to increase productivity very significantly. (I do find myself wondering why we are so keen to be turned into a borg like symbiotic techno thing, but maybe that's just me.) Anyway there were a coupled of good tips, some of which I have already tried and am enjoying the fruits of already

• Set email to update every 15 minutes or more to reduce interruptions to your work or more importantly your thinking.
• When working on something specific (such as writing a document) then use full screen to remove the tamping distractions.
• Use a sort of dashboard to monitor progress on key tasks (ok I call it a to-do list)
• If something is big or awkward to tackle, spend 5 minutes on it then leave it a few times, each time you come back, it seems a little easier.
• When leaving something unfinished, make a note of what you plan to do next.

I like the full screen one the best, you can concentrate on the writing and worry more about the format later.

There is one big issue here though, I am often looking for a distraction (such as writing a blog) to either give me something to do or to escape from the mindless "knowledge work" that I am employed to do.

Funny Day

We have had a lovely weekend, the weather has been great and we have had a relaxing time with our visitors (we even went to the beach yesterday!)
I had planned to work from home today but have been thwarted byu a computer virus so I am stick in the office waiting for things to be fixed.
Long may the sunshine last, tonight my serious(ish) training for the bike race(s) in July begins and then an early night with no booze!
Tomorrow i may begin trying "life-hacking" to get myself running better, perhaps I'll explain then...

Summer's here at last

It looks like being a lovely weekend at last. A couple of friends from Manchester are visiting as well so it should be lovely!
I have also decided to make a serious bid for doing well in a bike race in the middle of July, either in Næstved or Hvidovre (12 or 13th July). The training plan was writtenn on the train this morning and I am ready to get going... as soon as the drinking and eating of this weekend are over. I am looking forward to it, I know I can be near the front at the end if I get my sh*t together for a few weeks.

Feeding time (at the zoo)

It doesn't seem to be getting any easier to get Jnr to eat without a lot of complaining so last night I decided to let him have a go at feeding himself the broccoli and meatball surprise. I have rarely seen such a mess, but he did seem to enjoy it and there was less complaining so perhaps that is the way forward.
I also finally managed to make myself leave the house again on my bike for a swift 45km around the countryside to take advantage of these lovely light evenings. Part of me wants to do that more often, but there is another part of me that knows I should be home supporting the other half who spends most of her days with only a 7 month old for company... The cyclists dilemma - I have decided to call it. How can I get faster without sacrifice the parent/husband job??

Red tyres... right or wrong?

After Jeremyhad gone to bed I finally got around to cleaning my bike after saturday's mamoth rainy ride. During the final stages of the cleaning process i notices that not only does the front tyre have a decent cut in it from saturdays puncutre, but the side wall was also cut. So time for a change. I dug out some of my old "sponsors" michelin tyres and fitted them (these things are about £28 each) they are red and black, i suspect that they look awful on the blue/yellow/aluminium bike, but they will have to do for now. I'll post a picture at some point.
We had a nive card from Shustoke yesterday, it's a shame that we don't get to spend more time together, it was nice to be able to relax there and for J and his Grandma to get to know each other a bit.

Pointing and laughing behind hands

The last long weekend of the spring is over so summer must be here and right on cue it is a lovely day. This weekend saw my first ever attempt at brick work, a truly manly pass-time. Before my assault on the north face of the chimney for repointing I decided to have a go at the decidedly ground level steps up to the front door to repair the frost damage and "get me hand in".

To be honest, I am actually quite happy with the result although as my dad pointed out, it may have been worthwhile considering beforehand that I should have tried somewhere out of site before hitting the front door as it doesn't matter how the chimney looks; nobody can see it.

Next on the agenda for the "First Impressions" project is repainting the handrail, guess what? It needs stripping first - what a pain... I've started it, but there are more fun things to do this evening, namely baby swimming and bike cleaning.

Summer? Where? Not here that's for sure

I cycled about 100 miles yesterday with a couple of others, the weather was awful, there was a strong, cold wind blowing off the north sea, it was raining and freezing. During theses occasional long rides (it was 6 hours yesterday) I find myself wondering what on earth I am doing, I hurts and take up a load of time, I suppose I enjoy it really, it was just the last half hour or so that was really uncomfortable. The other two are riding 450km from Trondheim to Oslo in Norway in a couple of weeks, for a second or two I did consider joining them, but then I realised that after the first 150km or so it will just be discomfort and hunger - no thanks, but good luck to them both.

Spelling complaint

I have a feeling that these sunglasses look a bit silly...

In some act of supreme irony my informs me that she has added a comment to one of my posts on this lovely blog. Unfortunately only she can see it. Her complaint seems to be related to her not getting a mention and my spelling being below par.
Firstly sorry for not mentioning you or "lovely rural Warwickshire" but I write what I fell like writing and nobody reads it anyway and secondly I know I can't spell, sometimes I remember to spell check and others I don't. I could never spell well, but I seem to be getting along reasonably well with my limited abilities. (I can even make comments on other peoples blogs!)
Anyway, perhaps you will be happy to see youself publsihed along with young Tim.

Back to the grindstone

After a relaxing few days in England with the folks it was something of a reality check to get out of bed this morning. Thankfully nothing much has happened at work in my absense so i have time to do this :-)
It is amazing how much money we manage to save by buying things in England, especially baby clothes which are VAT free rather than expensive +25% in Denmark.
Adrian gave me some pitcure from our "family" trip to Nrofolk at Easter so I will post some here.
The only other news is that i have gotten really fat in the last 2-3 weeks so i am now on a diet. There you are it's official!

Back in Blighty

It's nice to be back in England:

• Fish and chips
• Bangers
• Marstons Pedigree
• Curry
• Radio 4

Hmmm
(Somtimes I write things like this a I feel very old and sad)

Flying over Copenhagen

Last night we had a farewell dinner for a colleague in Tivoli. Dinner was on a funny old ship thing in the lake and then we went on this swing thing that whirls you around 80m above the ground. It was actually good fun and not really that scary, the view was great.

We're off to England this afternoon for a well earned "rest" for a few days...

Carry on regardless

Well I have decided to carry on with the blog in the same spirit so here we go
I was in Warsaw yesterday for a meeting, i have a few initial observations regarding the place: Poland seems like less of a dveloping country on first glance than either Italy or Spain (certainly in the south)
The Pole as really friendly and helpful, they also seems to do a pretty good job of arranging meetings - good lunch and a beer garden at the back of the office, constructed just for us. (I guess Carlsberg should be able to do these things!)
The weather was lovely compared with Copenhagen.
It's not too bad traveling for a day, i don't miss regular business travel at all.

Where to take this blog?

Since creating the blog a couple of weeks ago, inspired by an old friend, I have read more and more other people blogs. They generally seem more interesting than mine, which is probably because they are more than just a list of what I have done today, punctuated with pictures of my son! So the question is, where should I be going with this?
As I see it there are a few options

1. Continue the random rambling about my life in general
2. Focus on family and domestic things going on in my life (being a dad, husband etc)
3. Concentrate on my budding career as a cyclist (I am convinced that I will win a race at some point and will not be happy until I prove myself right), commenting on racing and training or whatever
4. Focus on my career plans, especially my current quest to get a fully funded management research PhD off the ground
5. Focus on how weird it is being an English guy living and working in Denmark (certainly the least interesting now I have written it down)

I clearly have very few (actually probably no) readers, so it probably is not of any interest to anyone, but I enjoy writing this thing and can see that it needs some direction...

Perhaps I'll come to some conclusion over the weekend.

PASSED

I have passed the awful Danish oral exam so no more classes for a while. I have been told not to do any more as they make me grumpy! I can't imagine that!

Welcome any Slowtwitchers!

What are you looking at?
As i have just put the URL for this place on ST it only seemed polite to say hello to any intrepid visitors.
I am not tri-ing at the moment as a result of the little one pictures below so i am getting my fat ass kicked on a regular basis by trying a little road racing. For the record, it's a blast, but you'd better get used to getting dropped, we're used to steady efforts at our own pace, this on the other hand goes from slow to frantic to slow repeatedly and once you're dropped it's over - no hiding.
Feel free to come back and look how life is developing...
William

We're off to the US of A

We've booked our trip to Boulder for the last 2 weeks of August which we are very excited about, we can't wait as we haven't been on holiday too much in the last couple of years.
The other exciting (ot not) news is that I passed the written portion of my Danish exam so i am just left with the oral part on wednesday, I don't really expect to pass, but you never know. I think it would be nice to complete this course and then at least i don't have to do more classes, even if i can't speak Danish very well!

Almost finished Danish for now, so more time to train...

Here are Jeremy and I training a few weeks ago in the basement, as you see further down, thankfully i don't have to carry him in the races...
This is my last week of Danish courses for now, i hope that i passed the written exam last week, then i have an oral exam this wednesday. Afterward i am skipping a session and will start again in the autumn. There is simply not enough time at the moment.
Spring has sprung, it looks like the Colorado trip is on for August and hopefully things are crystalising for me at CBS...

All cleared for take off...

Lots of things are suddenly happening, I now have an office at the Copenhagen Business School so that i can work on my Phd proposal. I am in the middle of my latest Danish exam, the first half of which seems to have been OK and work is busy.
I therefore need to prioritise:
1 Family things
2 Phd proposal
3 Trying to be good enough to keep up with the bike races
4 Work (but don't tell them!)
5 Danish course (taking a break until September unless I fail in which case I may stop)

I don't normally have so many things to ballance so it is interesting to have to think about it!

Pollen, pollen everywhere

As you can see, I'm enjoying work at the moment!
Apparently the pollen levels are higher than aver recorded in Denmark at the moment, everything around the house is covered in a layer of green birch pollen from the trees in the garden. Thankfully we seem to all be surviving as there is not much grass pollen yet.
I have also decided it is time to try and sell some stuff on ebay now that i have become such an expert at buying. There are too many expensive bike bits in the basement that will never get used to i plan to send them off to ebay land.

Bike race II...

I think I am getting better although it is not easy to tell when the full results are not posted. However I managed to stay with the front group for about 35km out of 60km and was certainly not the first to be dropped. Apparently i came in about 5 minutes down on the leaders.
The weather was fantastic and it was really nice to be out there especially as MK and J came to support. I am looking forward to getting some training in and eventually being able to complete a race with the pack (winning may take a little loonger!!)

If Danish isn't enough...

After a nigt without enough sleep and then a very delayed train this morning, I am now in a meeting with Danes and a Norwegian, that is a challenge to understand...
The sun is shining and i am looking forward to getting home and trying to take advantage of it.

Easter 2007 should be...

In Wales, i've just dfecided that i need to go back there after reading a thread on singletrackworld.com. North Wales (if the sun shines) has to be the place for next years week of family tension...

Import tax rip-off of course

I have just had a call from a very nice helpful man at Danish customs. I bought a watch from a cheap website in Singapore. The watch (a citizen ecodrive chronograph since you ask) was about 550DKK importing it, including admin fees will cost 300DKK. The lesson, get them shipped to the UK or buy in the EU. Never mind, it was still cheap....ish

The academic world awaits...

It seems that the first and admittedly smallest hurdle to my re-entry to the academic world may have been overcome. The head of the CVL (Part of Copenhagen Business School) is "very positive" about my idea for a PhD thesis so I am to be given access to an office and a computer at the school so that I can work on my proposal. I have a lot of reading to do and what little spare time I had is evaporating further.
I don't want to get too excited, but I hope I can get this off the ground.
Next stop CBS next week...

Aching neck and no time at all

After my quarterly trip to the Chiropractor yesterday my neck is aching and feels swollen, i guess it will get better and i should ice it tonight.
I got home at about 10 ast night after Danish, i have no spare time and MK is getting a bit sheesed off with me never being home i think....
Finally and most interestingly i have just spent 15 minutes playing with the Nikeid website designing my own free running shoes, that was fun, i think i might even buy some.....

Here is my favourite picture of Jeremy for the time being

Popped my cherry

I dragged myself out of bed early on Sunday morning to have a go at something new (ish). I entered my first propper bike race, it was the KCK race, i was in the beginners class and must admit it was only a partial success. I kept up with the group for about 40km and then got dropped. I couldn't face a last 30km lap on my own so i went home. Actually it was fun, but the pace varied rediculously making it tough to sit with the group for an unfit person like me who is more used to a steady pace.
Anyway, i'll be back, maybe even next weekend... for a shorter race.
I fell pretty bad about going home actually, but by then it was all over.