Cycling

A few years ago I started running as a way of getting fitter. I really got into it and was enjoying it when I suddenly started getting blurred vision and crippling headaches after a run. As my regular reader will remember, I went to the doctor who then referred me to the hospital which turned out to me the scariest day of my life!

Anyway, after discovering that I had a tendency for exercise induced migraines I decided that a new sport was required. One that did not trigger my new found disability.

Last April the company I work for launched a Cycle 2 Work scheme and I decided to give it a try. I would get a bike and cycle to work each day.

I signed up and discovered that I had to get a bike from Halfords which didn't please me initially. I saw Halfords as the PC world of cycling. Over priced crap sold my idiots with no product knowledge. I have to say however that I was completely wrong, and although I think their branches vary in staff quality, the Queens Road branch in Sheffield has been utterly brilliant.

So, after speaking to the nice folks in Halfords I decide on a Boardman Hybrid Comp. It looked cool and was (apparently) exactly what I needed. I also got kitted out with a helmet, jacket, lights etc.

I collected the bike a few days later and was very excited. However, I had not ridden a bike since, er, I can't actually remember. I must have been about 15 or something. When I first went for a little ride I discovered that it was true that you never forget how to ride a bike once you learn but it is also something that is not as easy as it used to be when you were a kid. I was feeling more than a little wobbly and at first I was having difficulties telling my brain to turn the handlebars to go round a corner when I was doing anything more than 10mph!

The other thing was quite how difficult it is when you start. I thought that as I have been running and my legs are strong I'd be fine but I was wrong. How did I know there was another set of muscles in your legs that are used when riding a bike that had hitherto been left dormant!

Still, with a little practice the wobbles vanished and my legs got stronger. Riding in heavy traffic was not as scary as I thought it would be either. You just have to be constantly alert, and I have been riding to work since last April.

So its been just over a year since I started cycling. Am I enjoying it? Do I get the headaches?

Well the headaches have mostly gone. I still get the odd one and a bit of blurred vision but they are so few and far between that it's not an issue, and I've  mostly learned to spot when one is about to occur and to slow right down.

Apart from that my cycling has gone from strength to strength. I ride to work in all weathers apart when there is ice about due to me falling off last December on black ice which REALLY hurt! I also go out at weekends and do 30 or 40 miles around Derbyshire and I have even started following all forms of cycling on the TV so I have discovered a fantastic new sport to watch too which is great!

In short I am totally hooked! I love it!

A couple of weeks ago I received this years Cycle 2 Work scheme email from work and decided that a road bike was in order. My hybrid is brilliant for getting to work and back but I wanted something a bit more sporty for the weekends. Luckily the Cycle 2 Work scheme put an upper price limit of £1000 on what you can buy or I would probably be riding something similar to Mark Cavendish knowing myself as I do. This allowed me to buy this bad boy! I shopped around and decided to go for another Boardman. The spec was excellent for the price and as I said earlier, Halfords on Queens Road Sheffield were brilliant at fixing any issues I've had for 12 months so I was happy to buy from them again.

When I collected my new bike it was unfortunately snowing (in April!) so I couldn't ride it for a few days. When I did manage to take it for a spin round the block it brought back memories of a year ago. The riding position and the dimensions of the bike are so different to my hybrid that I felt wobbly and weak again! It didn't take long to get used to the new bike though and I am so pleased with it. It's so much lighter, stiffer and faster than the hybrid. Amazing!!!

So that's how I got into cycling. I have a 45 mile charity ride coming up in May which will be fun. Feel free to sponsor me here. I'll be the one beating the riders from our Maidenhead office. :-)

Also, being a geek, there had to be some sort if IT angle. I've tracked all my riding with an app on my phone called Runkeeper. You can see the results here. I'm swapping over to using Garmin Connect though so Runkeeper won't be updated for much longer.

You can also see some lovely photos of my new bike here. Isn't it nice. :-)

Finally, I can't recommend you give cycling a go highly enough. It's great whether you go once a week for a gentle ride in the park or every day to commute. It's great fun and great exercise.

Driving Experience - Staffordshire Activity Centre - 8th February 2012

My step father, David, is a very generous man. This generosity lead him to kindly purchase a driving experience for himself, my brother and I when he saw a good offer on Groupon.

The offer said that we had the choice of driving two out of three cars, the three cars being a Ferrari F360, and Audi R8 and a Porsche 911. Obviously 911's are plebs cars so we all chose the Ferrari and the Audi and the event was booked for February 8th.

My brother picked us up in his nice shiny new Porsche Cayenne which was nice, and meant we flew over to the Staffordshire Activity Centre in comfort and in no time at all.

When we arrived we registered and had a coffee while watching the cars and waiting for out turn.

There were quite a few nice motors there. A Ferrari F360 Coupe and an F360 Spider. An Audi R8, a Lamborghini Gallardo, an Aston Martin DB9, a Mitsubishi Evo, a Subaro Impreza Turbo and a Lotus Exige that was being used to take people for a ride round the circuit driven by an instructor.

We waited for about 30 minutes before it was our turn in the Ferrari F360 Spider.

The Ferrari was the car we were all looking forward to driving the most, but what struck us all as we climbed in was just how dated it looked inside. Still, it's a Ferrari so who cares. :-)


Problem number 2 was that the brake and the accelerator were VERY close together and there was so little room for my right foot that I was having to press the accelerator with the side of my foot to stop me pressing the brake as well.


Not to worry though. Off we went. The instructor and I onto the track.


I was worried that the instructor would be telling us to be careful but no. His constant shouts of "Don't change up yet" and "You're braking too early" were encouraging you to go faster each lap. This added up to a great deal of fun on the 6 laps of the track in the Ferrari.


Apart from the pedal issue the car was amazing. So fast and responsive. Sticking to the road like it was on rails. In a word stunning. My brother and David both thought the same.


Next was the Audi R8. I didn't think it would be anywhere near as much fun as the Ferrari to be honest but as soon as I sat inside and saw the modern interior and the far superior driving position and pedal arrangement I started to change my mind.


Setting off with a different instructor who thankfully still yelled go faster encouragement at me, I was immediately at home in the Audi, much more so than the Ferrari. This meant that I could enjoy the car straight away and therefore have more fun.


The Audi was also stunning, although in a different, more accessible way than the Ferrari, and once again I had 6 laps of great fun. At the end of it we all agreed that the R8 was better to drive and given the choice would be the car we all went for were we 'in the market' so to speak. A conclusion none of us were expecting.


Once we had all driven the Audi our driving experience was over and it was time to head back towards Sheffield, stopping at Rowleys for a spot of lunch.


What a great day out. Cheers Dave. :-)


Pictures are available here.

Amelia's 4th Birthday

Amelia was 4 on the 27th January, which means that this post is following my recent trend of being a couple of weeks late. :-)

We can't believe Amelia is 4 already. In what seems like no time at all has gone from this to this. What a little cutie!

Amelia got the usual haul of pink plastic crap as presents but she seemed happy which is the main thing. She then had a party a few days later at the The Play Arena, one of those horrible places where kids can run around and play on huge padded climbing frames and slides and parents sit drinking coffee praying for an end to the pain. Once again, Amelia and all her little friends enjoyed it in spite of the incredible noise.

Happy birthday Amelia you sweet little monkey!

Pictures are available here.

Christmas and New Year 2011

OK, so it was a month ago, but I'm a busy man and I've only just had time to upload the photo's of Christmas day I took!

This Christmas we did exactly the same as we did last year. There was just the four of us and we stayed at home. Perfect!

The kids were extremely excited on Christmas eve as you can imagine, but they still went to sleep very quickly and didn't wake up too early. About 6am I seem to remember which is good enough!

We got up and opened our pressies. The kids got the usual impressive haul. Victoria got me a Kindle which was a very pleasent surprise as we had agreed to not bother buying for each other. Good job I had ignored her as well. :-)

After we had opened our presents we got dressed, the kids played and Victoria prepared lunch with her usual military precision. The preperation as usual included a gap at about 12:30 during which we could all take a trip to the Castle.

Lunch was fantastic. The turkey was cooked using the 'Nigella' method of brining it for 24 hours and then only cooking it for 2.5 hours. Perfectly cooked and very moist and tender. It was accompanied by the usual selection of veg and side dishes, all very tasty and also perfectly cooked.

After lunch the kids decided we needed to watch the Spongebob Movie we had bought them. We were not too keen to be honest but we are all Spongebob fans so we put it on anyway. Strangely enough it was the perfect Christmas afternoon movie. Funny, exciting and most importantly happy. It even had a cameo from David Hasselhoff! Recommended!

After that the kids went to bed and we stayed up and watched Doctor Who.

All in all a great Christmas day.

Boxing day we were VERY lazy. We just watched TV in our pyjamas and ate leftovers. We didn't even get dressed. How decadent. :-)

New Years eve we stayed in as we always have since having kids. Some friends came round with their kids and while they played we all drank beers and wine and chatted the evening away. A very nice way to spend New Years Eve.

So, a good Christmas all round for the Briddons. Pictures can be found here.

Happy (belated) new year every one.

Itchy Chins

Myself and some work collegues are taking the popular concept of Movember and extending it through to Janu-Hairy. This actually means that we are not shaving for the whole of January while at the same time asking people to sponsor us in aid of Prostate cancer.

Today is the 11th of January and I have an extremely itchy chin. I also only have £45 worth of sponsorship and I want to raise at least £200 for going through this living hell!

Seriously, not shaving is driving me mad. It's actually more difficult than I thought it would be so I deserve your donations!

You can donate by clicking the link below :

http://www.justgiving.com/Christian-Briddon

Go on!! You know you want to!! :-)

Briddon Birthdays

Last Saturday was my birthday. I was 42 which is the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything so I am expecting great things from the next 12 months.

I had a nice birthday. I watched qualifying for the Abu Dabi Grand Prix, then I played a bit of Modern Warfare 3, then I played a bit of F1 2011. Once my gaming was over I ordered a load of winter clothing from Wiggle using the vouchers my family had bought me so that I could cycle in to work warm and cosy.

In the evening Victoria cooked us homemade fish and chips and an amazing but super unhealthy ice cream cake with a cheesecake style base and caramel on the top. Really nice.

On Sunday we went to my mums where I drank too much wine and I took the Monday off work to give me a nice long weekend. It was all good.

More importantly though on the 1st November it was Alice's birthday. She was 7!!!! Where the hell did all that time go? I can't believe it's been 7 years since she went from this to this.

Alice decided on a bowling party for her birthday. We went to Hollywood bowl and they had cake, lunch and did lots of bowling. Amazingly enough Amelia won!!

We both really enjoyed our birthdays, and it's nice that they are both so close. Let's not rush to get to any more though OK. :-)

Pictures of Alice's birthday are available here. Please excuse the fact that Alice seems incapable of keeping her eyes open when having her picture taken. :-)

Silverstone Single Seater Driving Experience - 29th August 2011

As you know, I love motorsport. You probably also know that the motorsport that I love the most is Formula One. It is for this reason that my lovely wife Victoria decided in her infinite wisdom to buy me a Silverstone Single Seater Driving Experience for Christmas last year. The weather got a bit better so I finally booked my experience a few months ago for the 29th August.

Victoria knows me well. She knows that any driving experience bought for me would have to be as close to F1 as possible. It's OK driving a Ferrari or an Aston Martin but no matter how fast they are they are still road cars and therefore sanitized to allow people to drive them safely. She also knew that we both consider Silverstone to be our own personal racetrack so as great as Donnington is, Silverstone is where I would want to be.

We had to be at Silverstone for 07:45. As we were driving in we were excitedly explaining what everything was to Alice and Amelia and they listened but I don't think they were particularly bothered. We were though. We love Silverstone and get excited whenever we drive past let alone actually go there.

We arrived and headed to the middle of the track to the experience centre. I went to reception and was signed in and nearly made a big mistake. I was offered £10 insurance cover in case I prang the £100,000 car I was driving as otherwise I would have to pay £50-100 of the damage myself. Pah! I'll take the chance I thought and said no. Victoria then piped up and said I was mad. I then realised that I mis-heard and would have to pay £15 hundred towards the damage. I paid the £10!

First of all we had a drivers briefing. All those driving sat in a room while a Silverstone instructor was arrogant and patronising towards us all. Still, I resisted the urge to call him a cock and instead listened to him talk about racing lines, breaking points and the 110mph smash that someone had the day before because they were being stupid. Once this was over it was finally time to drive!

We walked over to the pits and were all given helmets. We there then allocated cars and were strapped in by they instructors. Then we were told what the various controls were and how to start the engine (a switch AND a button! Very cool).

At last it was time to drive.

The cars were were driving were specifically built for Silverstone and are actually called 'Formula Silverstone' cars. They are 1.6l open wheeled single seater's that have no ABS, no traction control and no synchromesh on the gearbox. This meant that is was a bit tricky to get the car into gear at first but I soon got the hang of it. They are 'proper' racing cars. None of that road car nonsense!

They also had a very sharp clutch with is why I managed to Kangaroo the car down the pit-lane when I first set off. The liberal application of 4000 revs soon fixed that though.

Once I got going we had 2 laps behind a couple of pace cars, mainly to make sure we all got used to handling the cars while driving at a reasonable rate rather than slamming the accelerator to the floor and immediately putting it into the wall. A good idea indeed. Once the initial 'slow' laps were done the pace cars pulled into the pits and it was time for some fun!

The cars were so amazingly fast. I can't tell you how fast as there was no speedometer but they felt fast, and when accelerating you were really pushed back into your seat. The most incredible part though was how fast you could go round corners. These things really stick to the road like glue and my neck was aching by the time we had finished.

My lap times were improving as the session progressed which was good. I started by doing a lap in 1:28 and at the end I was doing it in 1:09. There was one annoying point where I was being overtaken by a faster car. I pulled to the right to let it past and four cars behind him took the opportunity to overtake me too as I wasn't fast enough to get back on the racing line. DOH!! Apart from that it was all good.

Sadly the session was over far too quickly. The chequered flag was waved and we all peeled into the pits. What a great experience though. I'd recommend it to anyone. I was giddy for the rest of the day and really want to do some more race driving as soon as possible.

Victoria took loads of pics while I was driving, the best of which are here.

Thank you for such a great present.

Legoland - 11th and 12th August 2011

OK, so once again my post is about 2 weeks late, and I can't really say I've been busy as I've just had 2 weeks off, but children take a lot of looking after and there was a lot of SpongeBob to watch!

Anyway, 2 weeks ago we took the kids to Legoland in Windsor. I have to admit that this was partly because Victoria and I wanted to go but it was for the kids too. :-)

We left Sheffield on the morning of the 11th and headed straight for the park. We had a 2 day pass and wanted to make use of both days so we went straight there.

What a great place! We were all really impressed. The staff were all really friendly and seemed to be happy in their work. The park is big enough not to feel totally packed with people and the rides mostly have an interactive aspect to them which makes them much more fun.

The first place we headed to was the driving school. Alice has seen this on the Legoland website and was very excited about earning her Legoland driving licence. There was a section for under fives and a section for 6-13 year olds. I have to admit that I didn't think that Amelia would have a clue about what to do driving a car but she was great. Alice too was brilliant, stopping at red lights and junctions. The only bad part of the ride was that the driving licence cost £6 each!! I think not! At the end of the rides you got a blank licence which you then paid £6 to have a picture put on it and have it laminated. I brought the licences home and did that myself. :-)

OK, so that was a bit tight but considering we had paid for the park and the hotel already I was spending a massive amount of money on food and sundries. For example, Alice wanted burgers for lunch from the Legoland own brand McDonald's/BK stand and 2 burgers and 2 chicken nuggets came to £25!! Crazy!

Over the 2 days we were there we managed to have a go on most rides. All were a success apart from the Pirate Ship which scared the shit out of both the kids. We only took them on it because they insisted and neither of them enjoyed it. Strangely enough though they loved the rollercoaster which I would have thought would have scared them more. Personally I think the new Atlantis ride was the best. You ride on a Lego submarine and get to see lots of live fish and sharks. This was one of the few rides we had to actually queue for but it was worth it.

At the end of each day we exited through the shop and bought some Lego. We like the kids having Lego as we like to play with it with them, which as all parents know is a big bonus when you think of the hours playing with some of the crap they have.

The hotel we stayed in was the Hilton St Anne's Manor in Bracknell. We were just as impressed with the hotel as we were with Legoland. The staff were all very friendly and seemed to enjoy being at work. There was a colouring area for the kids, a Nintendo Wii for them to play on and the food was excellent. The bar was a bit expensive but this is a Hilton so what can you expect. At least when I ordered my 16year old Lagavulin the Spanish girl behind the bar explained how it was her favourite whisky and after pouring in a single measure she added at least another half measure as a little bonus. Now that's what I call service.

All in all a great couple of days away. If you have kids I'd highly recommend going. It's a bit expensive but what isn't these days? If you go to the Legoland website you can get some great deals on the hotel and park if you buy them both together.

Pictures can be found here.

RIP Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse died yesterday. This makes me sad.

I remember seeing her when she was just starting out on T4 and thinking how good she was. I went out and bought her first album the next day.

I know she had her issues and had been sporting the 'tottering goth poodle' look for a few years but that doesn't change the fact that she was incredibly talented.

RIP Amy Winehouse. :-(

British Grand Prix - 8th, 9th and 10th July 2011

OK, so it was 2 weeks ago but its hard to find time to write posts at the moment. :-)

After missing last years British Grand Prix due to buying a house and the following lack of funds, Victoria and I were determined to go this year. In fact we were so grumpy last year about missing out that we ordered the tickets straight after qualifying last year, a year in advance!

How about that for pre-planning.

Our tickets were on the new Internationl Pit Straight. The start line has been moved from the traditional place to the other side of the circuit to allow more room for the teams and to allow the building of a MASSIVE pit complex. It really is impressive as you can see here.

When we normally go to the Grand Prix we like our tickets for race day to be at the front of the grid and we were slightly dissappointed to find we were nearer the back this year. Not a problem though when we found that we were right opposite the podium and the finish line and could see right down to Stowe, Vale and Club. What great seats!

We were staying in the Ibis hotel just off the M1 junction 18. The hotel was great and all the staff were Spanish for some reason. Not what you would expect in the middle of England. They were very polite and efficient apart from when one girl didn't know what a gin and tonic was. Very strange. The hotel was clean and modern and the food was excellent which is all you really need.

We went down on the Thursday this year. We would normally set off early Friday and head straight to the circuit but we were sick of missing the beginning of first practice so we went mad and had an extra night away.

Friday was practice 1 and 2 and the first time we had seen the new circuit and pit buildings. What an improvement! The place looked much more modern and up to date and as I said our seats were great.

We watched practice 1 from the pit straight and had Kobiyashi crash right in front of us which was nice of him. It was also great when Alonso spun his car and 90,000 fans cheered. We watched practice 2 from Woodcote which meant we could see the cars coming down the Wellington straight in the wet which was very impressive.

Saturday was practice 2 and qualifying. We got up at 5am (!) and left for the curcuit as soon as we were ready. As we always say, we'd rather be sat at the circuit rather than being stuck in the car in a massive queue of traffic. When we got there we bought hot chocolate and fresh doughnuts and went and sat in a stand. Yummy. We watched practice 2 from the pit straight again and qualifying from Luffield which was great as we saw Alonso go off-roading during Q1. More cheers! Unfortunately Lewis Hamilton only qualified 10th which was not too good.

Sunday was race day which meant another 5am start. We essentially spent the whole of Sunday sat in our seats watching the various races and goings on that accompany a Grand Prix. GP3 races, GP2 races, celeb spotting on the grid and finally the race.

The race was great even though Alonso won which is not something you want to pay hundreds of pounds to see. At least it wasn't Vettel! Hamilton drove like a man possessed and was up to second at one point before his team told him he was short fueled and if he didn't slow down he would not finish! DOH!

Apart from that it was a great race, as usual at Silverstone, and a fantastic weekend in general. It was nice to get back to the kids though. We really miss them when we are away for a few days.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Even if you only have a passing interest in motorsport you really should attend a Grand Prix at least once in your life, and what better race than the British Grand Prix. You can join a hundred thousand Mclaren fans in cheering on Lewis and Jenson.

Pictures of the weekend are here. Beware! They are very heavily bias towards pictures of cars which while obvious to most people seems to have confused my brother. :-)