Category: General

My Next New Hobby: Reading!

I suspect for the first 47 years of my life, I had perhaps read less than 10 books. Maybe a Douglas Adams got read. Maybe a Terry Pratchett here or there. It’s just not something I enjoyed.

Two years ago, as I’d just managed to secure my new role working in digital, remotely, using Scrum, I realised reading up on these new areas, reading up on new skills I would need and generally trying to broaden my skills and abilities would be a good idea.

I got a few recommendations and I began.

At this point, I still struggled with it though. I don’t think I’m a quick reader and if I’ve got free time at home, I’d rather play a game or watch TV. Then I found Audiobooks and my journey began!

Continue reading My Next New Hobby: Reading!
Categories:General

2020 Has Been Cancelled…

Wind back about 6 weeks and 2020 was looking to be a pretty good year. I’m living my new lifestyle and feeling great. I’ve won Halfords National ‘Cyclist of the Year’ and would be picking up an expensive eBike as a prize and would be attending a Bike Fit. I’d treated myself to an nice new road bike, with all the latest tech on it. I was already making great progress into my New Year Resolutions. I had a 10k run picked out in May that I would work towards and a 100k Cycle Sportive for later in the year. I’ve run my first couple of Park Runs and set new PB 5k times at both.

Continue reading 2020 Has Been Cancelled…

Categories:General

Onto the Property Ladder

I moved out of home and down to London to begin life on my own in June of 1996.  I remember unpacking my car with the England v Germany Semi Final of the 1996 European Championships playing on my car stereo.

At that time I moved into a flat in Hurstwood Court, North Finchley, paying £230 rent a month for my double room on Woodhouse Road.

Petworth Avenue
Petworth Avenue

In my first 5 years in London, I had to move several times including , Holly Park, Grants Close (the one time I lived outside of Finchley, 10 months in Mill Hill), Petworth Avenue and Colman Court.

Dukes Avenue
Dukes Avenue

In 2001 we (Rob, Ady and Nurcan) moved in to Dukes Ave. Finally somewhere we could settle for some time. Four years we spent there until a ‘scare’ that the owners might need to move back in made us decide we should perhaps just find somewhere new. Continue reading Onto the Property Ladder

Categories:General

Finally Fantasy Success

FFLUKI’ve been running the FFLUK (our imaginatively titled Fantasy Football League UK) for around 12 years now.  CBS have been keeping track of historical results since 2003, but I have some of my own records from the year 2000.

 

2000_standings

I’ve usually been quite competitive, I still hold some points scoring records from 2004 when I had Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens, Corey Dillon, Reuben Droughns and Mushin Mohammed all score double digits each week.  Up to last year though, I’d never won the big one. Continue reading Finally Fantasy Success

Categories:General

The Olympic Park & Water Polo

I have to admit, when the first information started coming out about applying for tickets for the Olympics, I really wasn’t too bothered.  As Olympic lanes started cropping up in town and Londoners are told to try and stay away if they can, I was probably with others in finding the Olympics a bit of an annoyance.

I have to be honest, this changed as the Olympics started.  I was enjoying watching the different events on the TV, it helped that Team GB had a successful start to the games, winning quite a few golds in the opening few days.  Me and Robert then spent 4 or 5 days monitoring the ticketing website, trying to grab a ticket to anything within the Olympic Park.

Continue reading The Olympic Park & Water Polo

Categories:General

Olympic Torch in Finchley

I can’t say I’m all that excited by the games coming to London.  I’m not attending any of the events, anything I see will be on the TV so it could just as easily be somewhere else in Europe and it would make no difference to me.

There is one thing I’ve been able to ‘participate’ in, and that’s to get a look at the torch as it passes by.  The torch has made its way round Britain, they say passing within 10 miles of 95% of the population, so with it passing within 300 metres of me, I figured I should make the effort and go see it. Continue reading Olympic Torch in Finchley

Categories:General

My New Hobby

DSC_6781.JPGYou may have noticed, most of my updates this year are bike related.  Well I’m moving it to the next level.  Ever since I was told I couldn’t play American Football any more, I’ve been looking for a new hobby.  In looking for something less strenuous, I’d considered golf. Instead, I’ve landed on something perhaps even more dangerous than American Football, motorbike racing! Continue reading My New Hobby

Categories:General

Barcelona 2011

2011-07-04 09.59.00.jpg

We arrived in Barcelona around 1pm and could feel the heat straight away. It reminded me of stepping off the plane in Florida, many years ago.

Initially we thought about renting a car, so we spent a little time investigating rental prices. It looked like it would be around 300 euros, so maybe not. Instead we got a taxi to the hotel, somehow this cost us 20 Euros even though his display said 10? Nevermind, we at least avoided the 10 minute storm that began almost exactly as we stepped into the hotel lobby.  This was the only rain to fall all week, and an hour later you would would never have known it had rained at all.

2011-07-04 15.32.45.jpgFirst objective was to find dinner.  We decided on the easiest option, the hotel restaurant, which it turned out was perhaps a little posh for us. I had ribs, Nurcan some fairly plain pasta and pesto… 55 euros please! The highlight of the meal was Octopus tentacle for starter!  We didn’t know when we ate it, Nurcan was not so pleased, I had another!  It was fishy, but subtle in flavor, but with an odd, chewy texture to it. Continue reading Barcelona 2011

Categories:General