Another New Year

For the past three days I have been celebrating the Tibetan Buddhist New Year. This year is the Female Year of the Earth Ox.
I always find a New Year a time full of anticipation - it's a bit like setting off on a Backpacking trip as you never know exactly what it has in store for you. In common with lots of others, my work colleagues and I start this New Year with the threat of redundancy hanging over us. From my perspective a forced early reitirement might not be such a bad thing. On the plus side I would have lots of extra time for my various backpacking trips-walking-camping-cycling and photography.However, I would have to get by on a smaller income with which to do all these things- there is always a catch!! Hopefully we will all know our 'fate' over the next two months. I must say I will be glad when it is all sorted as work is not a nice place to be right now with the morale of the workforce ,as you would expect,very low. I feel quite excited by the uncertainty of the coming year -another rotation of the wheel of my life.

Presentation at Dorchester Hospital

Last Thursday evening the RevPro Cycling team were invited to attend Dorchester Hospital for a presentation evening. We were able to hand over a cheque to the Dorset Kidney Fund for the sum of £11783.31 Just under half the total came from our LEJOG bike ride and the rest was raised by JD and various Masonic Lodges. As well as handing over our cheque we in turn were each presented with a Certificate of Appreciation for the £5643.00 that we had raised on our End to End ride. The photo shows JD (centre) Gareth Morns (r) and myself. Dave Vaughan who was so vital on the ride in his role as support vehicle driver (and mother/nurse etc) was also at the presentation but is not shown in the photo as he is behind the camera with his finger on the button.

Music to our Ears.

Today was the first time that I have been able to get out for a 'proper' ride of more than ten miles this year. With all the bad weather we have had it has not been possible to get out for any distance. Today Gareth Morns and I managed to get out for a ride of about 35 miles cycling out to Swanage and back.
It was great to be on the bikes again and able to listen to the music of the gear change/chain /wheels etc etc. If you are not certain what sounds I am referring to just go to :
www.specialized.com/bc/microsite/holiday/.
ENJOY!!

March of Time.

Over this current winter I have certainly felt more my age. The cold weather seems to have got into my bones. Limbs that I have broken in the past have ached like crazy and I have even suffered with cold feet and chilblains on my toes.

Now I think that my brain is on the way out!!!

Some of you will remember the tale I told you of the time I was in Jessops. I completed my purchase and was just about to leave the shop when I noticed that someone had left a carrier bag on the counter. I pointed it out to the sales assistant and left the shop. About five minutes walk from the shop it dawned on me that the bag had in fact been my own - an item that I had purchased in Boots. The embarassment of going back to Jessops and having to ask for my own bag back was about as painful as it gets! OR SO I THOUGHT. Yesterday I was just about to leave work at the end of my shift when JD phoned me. I continued packing up my gear as I was speaking to him. I locked all my kit in my locker and then realised that I could not find my company issue mobile phone. As I continued the conversation with JD I opened up my locker again and went through my uniform pockets etc etc. I then went back into the office to check if the phone was there. No phone! I searched for it for a good few minutes before I realised that the phone I was looking for was in fact the phone that I was using to talk to JD with. I told JD what I had been doing during our conversation and all the other guys in the mess room just fell about laughing. The pleasure's of getting older!!

JD and the bike.

Earlier this month I told you all about the revolution taking place with various people buying a Revolution Country Traveller bicycle. One of these people was John Donoghue known to his friends and workmates as JD.
JD phoned me up the other evening as he was having a problem with his bike. He had decided to upgrade the tyres on the Revolution (as I have done) and fit Schwalbe Marathon Kevlar Guard tyres. These tyres are rated highly but you need to be careful when fitting as they are mono-directional. JD was having a problem in refitting the rear wheel so that it would rotate without rubbing the brakes.
I happened to mention JDs plight to Jason Boynton-Lee who felt inspired enough by the tale of woe to put pen to paper and write a poem about it. I include the poem below.

Dear Trev I write this note to tell you 'bout my bike
For at the time of writing it's not a pretty sight
The wheels are running out of true,fouling the chain-stay
And I write this note to say why JDs off his bike today.

Upon delivery of the bike,new tyres I thought to fit
But mechanical ability have I not one bit
I stayed up and burned the midnight oil trying to do the job
The wife told me to get to bed and try to shut my gob!

Next morning I resumed the task,it took so very long
My knowledge of bike components is really not to strong
So I called you up,my good friend Trev-you are an honest maun
And I always value your advice and wise opinion.

In trying to fit those tyres on, the bike was upside-down
And looking back now I can see I may be judged a clown
Now with the wheels back in the frame and bike back up right way
The direction arrows on the tyres were pointing the wrong way.

My friends all think I'm very odd and though I have the gear
When tackling bike maintenance I've really no idea
At the end one thing I've learned and now shall share with you-
Leave these jobs down to the pros if you haven't got a clue!
------------------


Jason tells me that the poem was inspired by the song 'The Sicknote' (Murphy and the brick)
It seems obvious to me that we now have our very own cycling team poet. I look forward to seeing what he comes up with during our ACR in June.
Those of you who know JD will be able to recognise the words in the poem as being the sort of thing that JD would say and you would also recognise the desperation in trying to get him to stop going on about it, highlighted in the poem by his Wife telling him to shut his 'gob'.

Start of a REVOLUTION.

Revolution...act of revolving...one complete turn....great change of policy or ideas.
Revolutionary....one who participates in a revolution.

There is a revolution taking place!!.... What better way for the start of 2009 to begin than some major changes and I am not talking about the Government and the Economy.
Those of you who follow this blog on a regular basis will be aware that last year I obtained another bike to add to the Felt and the Dahon. The bike I took delivery of was a Revolution Country Traveller. This model is a Touring bike ideal for a wide variety of uses and is only available from the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative.
I liked the bike a lot having bought it solely on the recommendation of an article I had read in Cycling plus magazine.
In October Peter Calcutt (member of Dorset Group /Backpackers Club ) bought one after having seen mine and having read the same article.
A few weeks before Christmas Jason Boynton-Lee ( member of this year's ACR team ) phoned me at home to inform me that he had also placed an order for a Revolution Country Traveller. He took delivery of the bike just before the festive season.
Last Friday John Donoghue (2008 LeJog team and also ACR team member) phoned me and told me that he too had just placed an order for 'The Revolution' and that it would be delivered this Thursday and about two hours later yet another phone call this time from Gareth Morns (2008 LeJog team member) informing me that he also had just placed an order for a 'Revolution' again with delivery expected this Thursday.
All of this goes to show the effect that a positive review in a magazine can have.
As soon as I can arrange a photo of all 'The Revolutionaries' -with their Revolution bikes- I will post it on this blog.
The Revolution is not motorised....................!

New Year 2009 (or 2136)

Well that's it for another year - the so called festive season has passed and a New Year has begun. Or has it ?
For me as a follower of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition of Kagyu my new year has not yet arrived. Unlike here in the west where the Gregorian calendar is followed, the Tibetan calendar is Lunisolar and is made up of 12 or 13 lunar months. Tibetan New Year is called LOSAR. LO means 'year' and SAR means 'new'. It is celebrated on the first through the third days of the first lunar month. This year it will be celebrated on the 25th/26th/27th of February and will be the year 2136. Each year is either male or female and is represented by an element and an animal. This coming New Year is a Female- Earth- Ox- year. It is important not to confuse the above with the Chinese New Year which this year falls on the 26th January. Tibetans as a nation have lived close to the earth and it follows that Tibetan Astrology is simply a rationalisation of all the complex cycles and rhythms they felt at play each day in their lives, in other words a science that is particularly sensitive to the moon and her influences.
So why am I telling you all this ? Well if the start of your New Year doesn't work out as well as you would have hoped you have a second chance! You can celebrate New Year at the end of February with me.....!!