Paul's progress - Monday 27th July

Monday 27th July

Status as of 7.11pm

Distance covered: 287 miles

Nearest large town: Middlesbrough

Paul is doing brilliantly having ridden London to York in just 24hrs. He is aiming for Alston in Pennines before he stops for a while (369 miles). Paul is saving his phone battery so I only get texts but the last one read Yad moss on this leg :-/ They say a picture says a thousand words you can almost feel the hill!

Paul's progress - overnight Sunday 26th June/Monday 27th

Monday 27th June am

Status as of 6.20am

Distance travelled: 158 miles

Nearest large town: Market Rasen

The London, Edingburgh London begins...

Early this morning (5am) Paul and I set off for the Lee Vally Youth Hostel near Cheshunt on the outskirts of London. This is the home of the start of the London, Edinburgh, London cycle ride. We arrived about 7am in order for Paul to register. Even at this time there were cyclists everywhere. 600 in total from 29 different countries of all ages and on all kinds of bikes. They had one thing in common though - the belief that cycling 875 miles pretty much non stop is normal and fun!

The cyclist leave in waves throughout the day. Paul had been allocated a 2.45pm start time so our day was a strange mixture of the enjoying the atmosphere at the hostel, the excitement of watching groups start and long periods of hanging around a railway station car park. Paul's good friend Euclid came to join us and wish him well which helped speed up the wait and left me at a loss as the two of them admired wheels, lights, spokes and all sorts of other things which most of us think of as just bits of bikes.

Paul had been worrying that he had taken too much with him (he has everything in the two small bags in the photo) but soon found he was in good company. He was also in good company in many other ways. All the riders were very friendly and despite the language differences a common subject was all they needed to spark up conversations.

Paul finally set off at 2.30pm. By 5.15 he was texting me to say he was already past the check point in Gamlingay some 65K from the start. As I started to write this blog I realised this did not mean much to me or probably any non long distance cyclist reading this blog so here is a more user friendly version:

Sunday 26th June 2009

Status as of 5.15 pm

Distance travelled: 40 miles

Nearest large town: Cambridge

Good luck Paul!

Tomorrow sees the start of Paul's little bike ride. May your legs be strong, the weather be kind and the miles fly by without incident. Take care Captain. Love and best wishes, Susie and Mike xxx

The London Edinburgh London looms large

Nearly a year ago when Paul said he was going to ride nearly 800 miles in four(?) days for the Alzheimer's Research Trust it seemed ages away and I had visions of a large organised event, with lots of support for the riders and with Paul having done loads of cycling to prepare.
The reality is somewhat different! Yes the LEL is a big organised event attracting cyclists from all over the world but the cyclists leave in waves with very little support (apart from a mobile mechanic and check points to ensure they have completed the route). Most the time the cyclist is alone somewhere on route. Sleep is grabbed in small amounts as progress allows sometimes in a check point but other times in a bus stop or other handy local feature.
Its now only 11 days away and Paul's start time is early afternoon on Sunday 26th July. Is Paul prepared? Well the last few weeks have been a mixture of building wheels and haggling for parts on e-bay to get his bike back into working order. He has done some riding but not that much considering what he is about to do.Still on this note Paul is like Susie and will just go for it.
I can't follow Paul as support on route is not allowed. Therefore I'm confined to worrying at home with just a mobile phone for updates. You can see the route Paul will take on the official LEL website http://www.londonedinburghlondon.co.uk/ .
Even for an experienced rider this a tough event but I know Paul will give it his best and I'm very proud of him for what he is doing. To follow Paul's progress once the event starts look out for a daily blog update.
Sarah

World Wide Knit in Public Day

Well, WWKIP day has been and gone and a jolly hot day it was too! We were scheduled to hold our collection in the afternoon so I was worried about where on earth I would be able to park that didn't cost a fortune - town centre car parks charge extortionate prices for a long stay. I headed along Marina Drive getting more and more despondent as every space was taken. I turned around at the very end, heading back towards town and was just about to give up hope when I espied a parked vehicle with its engine running. I pulled alongside to see that the driver was just waiting to finish his ice cream before moving off and so my luck was in and I managed to park up - about 100 yards from the Pier where I'd arranged to meet Paul and Sarah.

It wasn't long before I met Sarah's mum and dad who'd travelled by bus and then Paul and Sarah arrived on the tandem.
Here we are outside the Brighton Pier. I sat on the back of the tandem and pedalled for a bout 2.5 hours whilst knitting using the lovely purple yarn provided by Sue at Kangaroo but my heart really wasn't in the knitting part as my knitting mojo has deserted me at the moment.

Mike had to work so couldn't be with us but Sarah, her mum and dad stood around in the intense heat with their collecting tins and managed to collect £127.56 whilst the Kangaroo team collected an additional £50.24 at the Lewes carnival. For anyone who's never collected in this way it is jolly hard work and there are so many rules and regulations to follow - you mustn't approach people or shake the collecting tins, you must stay in one designated area between specific times. It's mostly thankless work but every so often someone will make a donation and thank you for doing it and that makes it all worthwhile.

It was very busy (as one would expect for a seaside town on a hot day!) and Paul had his work cut out to avoid all the pedestrians who just walk out in front of you on the cycle track. On several occasions he nearly had a knitting needle up his bum!

I was very impressed that Simon, a photographer from The Argus newspaper managed to spot us and we ended up being featured as Picture of the week!


We encountered many different people as Brighton attracts hen parties, stag parties, street entertainers and people hawking tourist souvenirs out of suitcases before the Police move them on. A very nice young man gave us this little card about World Naked Bike Ride day and the very thought of that saddle on my bare bits made me laugh out loud - eurgh!

We were entertained by a man dressed as a clown, playing a tuba whilst balancing on stilts. The only trouble was his repertoire was rather limited and when you'd heard "Liberty Bell" for the 20th time it did begin to irritate! We also encountered a group of men celebrating a gay civil partnership. The 2 men making their commitment were dressed as pantomime dames and looked very fetching. They asked us if they could sit on the tandem and have their photo taken and Paul was very enterprising and asked them all to make a donation which they duly did, netting us an additional £12 by my reckoning. Sadly we didn't get a photo as I hadn't taken my camera with me.

The other thing was that a photographer from The Argus popped along to take some photos for an article that Siobhan had written about us so hopefully that will have gained some more publicity for the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Tie Mi Kangaroo Down Sport (sic Rolf Harris)

So what's with the seemingly non-sensical title?

Well, the lovely Sue from Kangaroo in South Chailey has very kindly agreed to help with our antics on World Wide Knit in Public Day on 13th June.

She has very generously offered to provide me with some lovely purple yarn (colour of the Alzheimer's Research Trust) with which to knit and also to hold a collection in aid of the Alzheimer's Research Trust at the Lewes Carnival on WWKIP day. What a star! Thanks Sue.

On WWKIP day we have permission from Brighton Council to hold a collection in the afternoon and so Paul and I will be riding the tandem up and down the cycle lane along Brighton seafront with me sitting on the back knitting! Sarah, Mike and anyone else who's available will be shaking their tins at anyone who's around.

It would be fantastic if any local knitters could come and join us.