Wont be long Now

A Photo from the last seminar.

Its been another busy week after the latest part of my Photography course in Norwich. I came back with a splitting headache from the information received and decisions I have to make. Do I or do I not take the Franchise?. Will I get through the course OK.
I spent another £600 on equipment but that is the end of the spending now apart from advertising and insurance.
Today I have been to a seminar and start up workshop at the Birmingham Enterprise, Organised by Business Link it set my mind at ease with a few things. I now also have a business advisor who will guide me through the early stages of starting out as a self employed business man.
Basically its nothing to be scared of and its not rocket science either. I will be working on my business plan and financial projections in the next week or two. I also have a shoot tomorrow afternoon with another two possibilities for early next week.
I also have to finish my course homework before returning to Norwich on July 10th with my first exams scheduled for the 11th July. This with a two hour practical studio session. This is going to be quite a few weeks.
I am also trying to keep up the miles on the bike with France and THE ALPS fast approaching. Managed a good 38 miler with Aron in the week and on Sunday we have a 108km Audax.

There's a whole World to see.

The World. I want to see it all.

If I never had to work again I would be a happy man. Some people say they would get bored but not me. If I had a working wage without having to work there is plenty I could find to do. I want to see more of the world. My trip through Europe grows in significance every year because I enjoyed it so much and would love to travel on my bike in other countries in the near future. Its 3 years tomorrow that I set of from Barcelona on my adventure. I think everyone should undertake a similar adventure at sometime in their lives.
At the moment I am between jobs and waiting for next Friday 8th May to begin my portrait photography course down in Norwich with Barrett and Coe. At present I am filling my time with my other course with the Photography Institute and am currently on Module 10 of 12 and well on my way to my Diploma. I am also trying out new techniques in "Photoshop" and preparing images for another potential photography income with New Photobiz 1.0. This is a digital prop idea where photo's are blended into cute backgrounds. The rest of the time I am putting in some serious miles on the bike and as of today April 30th I have just completed 643 miles for the month. This is my record month over the last eight years with the exception of the two months I spent travelling around Europe so I am pleased with that. I am now on 2044 miles for the year. This is a whole 1266 miles more than I had done at the end of April last year when I was laid up with knee problems.
Yesterday Debra and myself renewed our season tickets at the Hawthorns for next season. I think this is my 28th or 29th season ticket over the last 40 years and I am looking forward to it already , even if it is in the Championship. As a club Albion have got stronger by the year off the pitch if not on it. I always look at the bigger picture. If we are relegated then we will still have a good manager, loyal support a nice stadium and a number of players worth watching.
Roll on next year. When we'll be boinging back.

Reggie Perrin. Now there's an idea.

The Real Reggie


I am just sitting watching the new, and not too impressive Reggie Perrin and its taken me back to my time as a twenty year old when I used to look forward to watching Leonard Rossitter as the REAL Reggie. If your not familiar with the story its about a business man who gets so bored with life and its repetitive daily grind he fakes his own death, leaving his clothes on the beach to look like he has committed suicide.


Now there's a thought, and I am sure we have all considered it at sometime in our lives, not suicide I mean, but just vanishing to look for a completely new life.


Life can be very boring. I'm sitting here on Friday night watching the bloody television with my laptop on writing this blog when most normal people are our enjoying their life.


There has to be more to life than this!!!!!!!!!

Is the world coming to an end!

A few months ago I stopped buying my daily newspaper for the first time since I started work as a 14 year old shelf stacker at Keymarkets. I always loved my daily rag but they have become so depressing with news of the credit crunch, Inflation, deflation, falling house prices, job loses, immigration. The British Army fighting a never ending war in Afghanistan and even Albion getting bogged down at the foot of the table again.
I remember the 3 day week, the power cuts, the miners strike, Britain going cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for hand outs. I remember 3 million unemployed and working at British Leyland where we went on strike if the tea was cold or somebody left a door open.
Now following my newspaper boycott I now turn off the television news as well, its just too depressing to watch. Is the world coming to an end? Will we be back to the days of "The Grapes of Wrath" with hordes of people traveling the countryside to search for work?
I hope not of course but you have to remain positive. The world is there to use as a tool to happiness and I feel lucky that if the worse case scenario would be me with no money, no home and no prospects I would still have my bike to see the world. I just hope nobody nicks my bike!

No Sign Of The Sign!

After Sunday's Audax ride and "The mystery Of The Missing Sign"I was still a little angry about the poor organistaion and not giving the correct instructions. With it still bothering me today the only way I could find out if it was my mistake was to go and find out for myself. So I set off on the 22 mile cycle ride to find out for myself. After passing through the centre of Tamworth and heading towards Harleston I took a left on Haselour Lane to take me along to the junction of the A513 where a left turn WOULD have taken me to Whittington IF THERE HAD BEEN A SIGN!
Gues What? I was right, there was no sign for Whittington and I took a few photos with my phone as proof then made my way back through Whittington, Botony Bay, Weeford, Hints before heading through Mile Oak, Drayton Bassett and into Middleton where I had a puncture. All in all I did 45 miles today and am chuffed with my days work. And happy that I was right on Sunday. I will be sending the man at Shenstone a letter about his sign.

Audax Anger!

Yesterday Aron and myself had an early start to get to Shenstone for a 9.00am start on the 103km Audax. This is a long distance cycle event, several of which I have done before. It was a pleasant enough ride through the Staffordshire countryside and villages. With the end in sight and less than an hours riding to do we were looking for what it said on my list was a left turn for Whittington.
Well I don't know if the sign existed but I intent to ride out and have another look because if it doesn't I will be writing to the organiser to vent my displeasure.
We ended up doing about 10 miles further than we should have and I was not a happy bunny. I never bothered to get my card stamped because if I had gone into the control room I would have said something I regretted.
Well I don't do these things for the badges or certificates. Its just a change to ride in different parts of the country with other riders so the 73 miles we did made up my mileage for the week to 161. Another good week of training for France and the Alps in August. Together with today's 23 miles this takes my miles for the first 20 days of the month to 454, an average daily mileage of 22.7. Well on for 600 miles in a calender month for only the third time in my cycling life so I'm pleased with that at least.
Not at all pleased with the lax organisation of the event though. One A4 piece of paper with not enough information meant that with one missed turn we ended up getting lost. If the organiser had bothered to put on the distance between instructions we would have known that we were going well past the proposed turn.
These people take your money but don't give you much back in return. Perhaps there's room for a professional organisation to take over and look after the riders interest's. Hmmmm now theres an idea!

40 Years a baggie!

Last Thursday 16th April I celebrated the 40th anniversay of my first visit to the Hawthorns, the home of the famous West Bromwich Albion. On the same date in 1969 I watched the baggies beat Manchester City 2-0 and its been a roller coaster of ups and downs ever since. I have been lucky enough to see Albion against some of the greats of world football. The Eufa cup run of the late 70s was memorable. Beating the mighty Valencia who included the "best player in the world" at that time, the imperious Mario Kempes were put to the sword. Galatasary, Red Star Belgrade, Grasshoppers, are amongst the other famous teams.
I have also witnessed the low points. Woking, say no more, and worse still an FA cup defeat at Halifax. I was at Bristol Rovers to watch Albion relegated to the third tier for the only time in their history and was at Wembley in 93 as we returned to Division 2 under Ossie Ardiles. I have been to the new Wembley twice to see Albion lose a play off final and an F A Cup Semi Final without scoring a goal in either game. In all I have watched Albion in 90 Stadiums around the country. Its cost me a fortune over the years but whenever I see those Navy Blue and white stripes emerging onto the Hawthorns carpet I still get a tingle of pride and excitment.
I would hate to support a team like Man Utd or Liverpool who expect to win a trophy every year. Without the bad times the good times would not be so enjoyable.

Shenstone Audax.

Tomorrow Aron and myself head to Shenstone for our second cycling event of the year. Its a 103 km Ride and will help in our training for our tour of the Alps in August.
Not the best of preparation for this in the last couple of days I have been out for a few beers with my son Mark on Thursday and then another bellyful last night with Debra at my favourite watering hole in Erdington "The Charlie Hall".
I have just had 4 bacon and egg sarnies as well so as I say, not the best of preparatiion but what the hell, it worked for Alf Tupper.