Dentist Again

I'm off to the dentist later today. I broke a tooth on Christmas day whilst tucking into my Christmas dinner and I reckon they will pull it as it has been filled before. I really do not like going to the dentist as I have had loads of work done to my teeth when I was younger. I've had a brace twice and had perfectly healthy teeth taken out to fit it. Some of the pain I've had afterwards having had them cleaned or a filling so I am not of fan of dentists!
I've just got back home after going there and he's put a temporary filling in but I need to either get it filled or a crown put on but I don't know which is best. It will cost £50 for the filling or £200 of the crown. I will think about it and decide but whatever, I want to save this tooth!

Christmas Has Been!

Wow doesn't time fly past so quickly these days. I can't believe I've fogot about my blog too. So I'm going to make a proper effort to keep this more up to date. I've had a kind of blog going on my Flickr page but that finally finishes in a couple of days. I called it "A Day In My Life" and it was a photo set of 365 days in my life. Some times I got a lot of ideas for photo's and other times there wasn't anything going on or the weather was too bad for me to go out to get any photo's. So as I write this I have 3 days left to go so I should be able to complete it!

I had a good Christmas got some really good presents too, some useful ones which is always great and plenty of chocs and biscuits too. I got a waterproof video camera which should be great for when I'm out and about on my bike so I won't have to worry if it rains! Here is a photo of my from Christmas Day evening!

Birthday Week

It was my birthday on Wedensday and had a pretty good birthday. We went to Machester for the day but the rain started just before we left. I got both tragus pierced whilst I was there and they are healing nicely. I got a USB turntable, a Northwave cycling kit, Queens singles box set and money off my parents. I had to take the cycling kit back to the shop in York today as it is Italian made and the medium for Italians is more like a small for us, so I changed them for large. We wandered around York today as we were goint to go to Leeds but the weather was really bad. We stopped for a coffee in Starbucks in Borders bookshop before we had to take the car back.

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Catching Up

Thought I ought to update on here as I seemed to have forgotten to put anything on here. Work has got fairly busy so we are back on 5 days which is good. Traditionally we should be quiet but we are busy enough so nobody is complaining. As quick as I get some money coming in, I'm spending it on cycling gear. Just bought a new helmet to go with the bike, a red and white Specialized helmet, 2 water bottle cages and a pump to fix onto the frame. I'm really getting into road cycling. The last time I was on the bike I reached 27 mph which was so amazing and I didn't mean to but it just was so easy to reach that speed, so I slowed down when I realised but wow!

I'm currently going through old video tapes and transfering them onto DVD but it does take a long time to do. I must have done about 30 tapes up to now and that means hours of video, but it is worth is as there is stuff in there I have not seen for over 10 years!

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Weird And Wonderful Four Days!

I'm typing today as I have an unnofficial day off, well my lay off day has been moved from Friday to today. We had a machine that got flooded out by a valve blowing off the overhead heater last Sunday and pumped thousands of gallons of water over it. This meant we ran out of work and they have been trying to produce enough stuff so we can go back to work with something to do.

This weekend we went to Leeds for the day, it was cold but dry so we were ok going in and out of shops and having a coffee. Sunday I went for a ride on the road bike, only the second time I've managed to get out on it but feel a lot more confident riding it now. I rode to Beverley and once out of Hull away from the traffic lights, I could get used to the gears and riding with both feet clipped in. As I got to Beverley it began to snow and I decided I'd better turn back and ride home before things get worse, I got home fine but the snow was on and off all day yesterday. When I work this morning it had been snowing all through the night and had laid. Today it has been snowing quite a lot and some really heavy snow falls mixed with Thunder, how strange!

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Out And About

I managed to get out on my road bike a couple of weeks ago, what a weird experience that was. I am so used to my mountain bike that just handling the bike was a new thing, it is so light. The next thing was the pedals, I use SPD pedals on the mountain bike which are standard pedals and road bike use SPD SL pedals (there are others but I wanted these). The pedals are more stronger and only can be used one sided, SPD's can be turned either way to clip into. So a lot of the way I was riding with one shoe clipped in and clipped the other one in when I felt more confident. Next were the brakes, on a mountain bike they are in front of you, a road bike they are on the front of the curved handlebars, you have to ride in a different way and keep your hands near the brakes.

As I rode you could feel all the bumps in the road as I'm used to full suspension as I rode to Cottingham which I chose as it isn't that far away and I always seem to ride there with a new bike lol. As I rode up to the traffic lights in Cottingham I knew there was someone behind me and I was turning right as he was going straight on at the lights, they were on red and he said wow, that's a great bike and I explained about it. So we pulled over to one side and began to chat about bikes, his name was Dave and seemed pretty friendly. He shot off and I went to where I was going, had a drink and got some cyclist to take my photo with my bike. Another rider pulled up as I was setting off and began to chat to me about the Hull CTC which I am thinking of joining. She seemed nice and they other guy who pulled up said it would be good for me to join, let me get used to the bike first then I will, I replied. It was an amazing ride, but just need to get out more to seee how I go with the bike. Rain and high winds stopped me last weekend so I'm hoping this weekend will be ok.

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Cleat Sorting

I've been trying to sort out the cleats on my cycling shoes, I'm using SDP SL pedals on my road bike but they feel really different to my mountain bike. I think I'm gonna have to go out on the bike without my cycling shoes to get a feel of the bike first. It feels so different and I'm a little nervous as well as excited about going out on it. Once I'm riding it, I'm sure it will be great. I'm hoping to start the gym this week and start to lose the weight I have piled on again and have a fairly decent weight plus fitness level and I want to ride to Withernsea again and see how I feel. Last time I rode there it killed me and I've not attempted it again.

I've been put on a 4 day week again, we got told on Tuesday that it would start this week. I thought we might have got January out of the way first but no, it has surprised me how quick it has happened. Guess it will be the gym and riding for me on Fridays!

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I'm A Roadie

Finally a wish come true, I finally bought a road bike. I have been after one for ages and after a lot of thought on my part, plus I had some gift vouchers for the gift shop and it was in the sale I got it today. It is a Cannondale CAAD 5 bright red, the same colour as my MTB and got some SPD SL pedals, so I have to learn to master them.

I've not rode it yet, I walked it from the bike shop as I didn't have my helmet with me and had some bags with me too. Just walking it home you can feel it is different from a MTB, theres no suspension so I'm gonna feel every bump. The life of a cyclist!

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