Keen Cyclist

This driver, I thought, must be a keen cyclist and forgotten what mode of transport they were using, As he was on the cyclepath between Bury and Thurston. As I went past it turns out he was a lost driver busily tapping away at his Sat Nav system.
Another cyclepath magnet for car drivers in the one outside the Chinese Takeaway in Eastgate street, for those too lazy to pull in one of the layby's or park over by the Bury Bowl entrance, to collect their Takeaway.

I got up this morning, my day off work, and went out for a bike ride at 8am. It was glorious, the sun was shining and the air was still cool, but you could feel the sun's warmth.
Heading past the Flying Fortress I turned left and went across the railway line. This is the view looking back towards where the line passes near the Tesco roundabout, And the building that says your back in Bury St.Edmunds, the beet factory.

This sign states the obvious, but I guess it is a requirement at all unmanned crossings in the country where the public can cross a railway line.





Use the Green Cross Code !

I always think these single unit trains look like a carriage has become detached from the back of a much longer train, and is just coasting along on its own.

This is one of the Cambridge to Ipswich trains that run hourly.

Once over the railway line, the leafy lanes take you into Great Barton. And there are many quiet lanes to choose from, And not to hilly.

Looking into the hedgerow to spot some Slows, with the idea of making my own Slow Gin, I spotted a Plum tree with some very sweet Plums on it, having tried a couple, but I had nothing to put any in.

This is Great Barton church this morning.

The Rookery crossroads is now much safer with the bend smoothed out on the A14. It is very convenient for getting onto the A14 to head east from the Mount road area of Moreton Hall. And very safe to get to and from the Ravenwood Hall Hotel.

This is looking across Rougham Airfield from the cyclepath. Their was just one small plane and a couple of gliders. You can just see the top of the Rougham Tower on the Horizon on the left of the picture.
And I was pleased there was no-one weeing up against the fence, after the last time I rode this path.

Anyway having stopped off at Tescoland Express for The Sun and a bottle of Lucozade, I was back home by about 09:30.

Pub later ? Maybe.

No.5

Happy Birthday Bro'

Happy birthday to my brother today. The guy in the bad knitwear is 35.
My present for him is stuck in the Post !

No.5

Avoiding the Subject

I have been avoiding the subject of Industrial action for a month, since it started, because I had hoped it would have been resolved by now.
The company I work for has offered me a pay cut, not a pay rise as it has done, and most companies do each year.
Every day at work, I try to provide every customer, I serve, as do my colleagues, with the product or service that best meet their needs, and recently we have had to "cross sell" other products to keep the business on the high street.
I am sorry if I have asked "you" if you need a credit card or home,car or travel insurance, or wish to invest in savings products, when you just want to post a birthday card to "auntie Doris", but that is what I am asked of now.
I didn't join the business to be a pushy salesperson, but would like a pay rise each year inline with my mortgage rises, council tax rises, utility bill rises, car tax rises, etc etc.
So, my colleagues and I, are "sorry" if your card to auntie Doris, is a day late, or there is a long queue to be served by an inexperienced manager brought in with expenses paid, and your passport application is rejected by obvious mistakes, during this time of industrial action.

No.5

Bury Town v Ipswich Town XI

This friday 27th July at the Ram meadow football ground, off Cotton lane, Bury Town take on a Superblues XI.
Kick-off is at 19:45 and entrance costs £10 for adults, I don't know how much it is for children.
A customer who comes in to my place of work has given me his two season tickets for Ipswich's first game of the season, against Sheffield Wednesday on the 11th August kick-off 3pm. They are for the North stand aswell, where I've sat/stood for many years at games. He's going to be away on holiday, so "Thank You" Mr.B a very kind gesture.

No.5

1949 Dodge

Every six weeks I get a long weekend from Friday lunchtime until Tuesday morning, apologies if you've heard that before. It came around again this weekend and it was my day off this Monday.
I went out in the car at about 1:35pm today, no need for the air-conditioning after recent problems, and at the roundabout on mount road coming from the Moreton hall pub direction turning towards Thurston, was the same man, I posted a video on my blog of driving around Bury, driving his Dodge.
I couldn't see a camera, but couldn't help wondered if he was making a video of a 1949 Dodge driving to Thurston.
Anyway I didn't make any hand signals just in case he had his film running.

No.5

Barbecue

I haven't done a great deal this weekend. I did finish reading Ted Beckham's book called "my son", who you can guess who its about. Fantastic read, again I got it in the cancer research shop in Abbeygate street, topical time to read it with his move to L.A Galaxy.

Tonight I cooked chicken on the barbecue for my wife and I. To accompany it I did boiled Charlotte potatoes with broad beans and peas, delicious. I'm petrified of cooking for other people though, I'd rather not eat to get out of it.

No.5

River Cottage - July 2007 Video Newsletter

I got sent this newsletter link as a subscriber to River Cottage, and thought I would share it.

Skoda Advert

I took one of those new Skoda's out today. On the test drive I crashed it, there was one huge mess. Cake everywhere !

No.5

West Stow Lake

I finished work today, at 3pm, and took my wife over to West Stow lake for a walk around it, and the sun was shining.

Once we got about half way around we came across this goose walking the path ahead of us.

Well it wasn't walking as fast as us, so we asked if it wouldn't mind posing for a picture and let us go passed them.

I used to fish on this lake years ago back in my teens. I remember on one occasion, when my brother was with me, that he sat down on a deck chair without looking at the seat first. Well a pike lure with treble hooks had been left on it, and one hook went into his buttock and another through the bottom of the seat, so he couldn't stand up again.
Having heard his shriek of pain and worked out the cause of his discomfort, a search began for a pair of pliers to cut the barbs of the hook off. Luckily we found a gentleman a few swims (fishing pegs) down who had a pair, and were able to free little bro' from the seat.

No.5

Made My Day

On the way to work this morning, I was dressed in an ironed shirt, neck tie and trousers etc and a nice aftershave on. As I Cycled through a housing estate, there was a group of upper school girls (I could tell by their uniform) gathered around a park bench in a public area. As I passed by, I was "Wolf Whistled", well this made my day.
The rest of the journey to town was very relaxed with a smile on my face. Thank you to which ever one it was doing the whistling, it made a 37 year old have a much nicer working day.

No.5

July 15th (2)

I wrote on the 5th of July that the 15th of July was going to be the only hot day this summer, and feel I must apologise to anyone who arranged anything around this.
Yesterday, sunday 15th, I again ended up in the Discount Warehouse, which is beginning to wear thin, and TK Maxx in Newmarket.
In Newmarket there was a big car-boot sale on the green near the clock tower, so we pulled in. While walking around the car boots, the sun did come out for a while and I could feel its strength on the back of my neck. On returning to my car, which had got quite hot inside, the air conditioning had packed up ! Perfect, the one day this summer I wanted it on.
Anyway I took the car around to East Anglian Radiators today, on Ailwin road, and the boys there had me chillin' within an hour.

No.5

By popular demand

After a posting mentioning old memories from Horringer (posted wed 11th july) and in particular the Beehive public house, I was asked to show the "bad knitwear". Well having asked my brother whether it was OK by him, here it is.

I was behind the camera, wearing something equally as bad in red, green and black. thankfully not caught on camera, I hope.

This is my brother age 14 1/2 (sounds like Adrian Mole) having his half of cider with my school friend Mike. A pint of Lager (Harp) was 96 pence in 1986. The two weeks I was grounded for this seemed like a lifetime back then.

No.5

Some Bury Pub Pictures

Click here to see more

Lemon Tree

A couple of years ago I put a lemon pip, from a lemon purchased in a supermarket into the pot of another plant sitting on the kitchen window sill, and was a bit surprised it started shooting and leafs started to sprout. About a year later and I thought I'd better take it out and give it its own pot. When I started trying to get it out, I found the roots had gone really deep and were probably twice as deep as the plant was tall.

The plant pot I was going to put it in was not going to be deep enough, so an alternative had to be found. So the only thing I could think of was to cut the top off a 2 litre coke bottle.
It now has one really huge leaf on it. When you rub the leafs now, you do get a very strong citrus smell on your hands.
These trees in garden centres, when they are a lot bigger, go for something like £60 a piece. Anyway this needing a bigger, deeper pot again.

No.5

Palm Beach - Horringer

It was my day off work today, and I drove over to my parents for lunch. They live in Horringer village and my dad has three bicycles in his shed, which we sometimes take for a ride around Ickworth park. The one in the picture below is named Palm Beach. After a few turns of the peddles today, I realised there was nothing exotic about sitting on this bicycle seat, but carried on.

Horringer is a great village, and I lived there for 25 years, before moving to Bury in 1996. Below is one of many thatched cottages.

When I was 16, around September of 1986, I started my drinking apprenticeship in the Beehive with my best school mate Mike. The landlord and landlady (they still run the place today) hadn't been there long, and served us with no I.D. Anyway we got chatting with two other customers, and I still reminisce with one of them, about the good old days.

New Years eve that year, I took my brother, who was 14 at the time, to the Beehive, who I had been asked to stay home and look after, by my parents while they went out. Well they found out and I was grounded for two weeks, but my brother was chuffed he got a Cider in a pub at that age. I have a picture of the evening, but we're wearing some really bad knitwear, I'm not posting it !

There used to be a ritual on New Years Eve that the clientele at the Six Bells, around the corner, would conga through the pub, at midnight, and pinch the Beehive that sits in the front of the Pub, but its weighed down now.

Ickworth House, Once owned by the Bristol family, now run by the National Trust. The East wing is now a Hotel. Read about the colourful 7th Marquess of Bristol on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hervey%2C_7th_Marquess_of_Bristol

I spent many hours in my teens fishing on the lake, morning til night, rain or snow. The church in the picture is the one the 7th Marquess of Bristol married in, attended by Elton John. The church is now one of the fifty buildings on the unsafe list, in suffolk.

These are the grape vines located in the area behind the summerhouse, in the picture above this one. They have probably been established here over 12 years now. I sneaked through a gate, they are closed off to the public, and they were only very tiny. It must be our crap summer causing it.

No.5

Last night

Last night I cycled over to the Thurston, Fox and Hounds, at about 5pm for the stag night of a guy called Pete, that I know.
My route took me past the Flying Fortress and along beside the Rougham airfield. I hadn't heard about it, but there was something like a folk music festival going on, and people camping there.
As I rode along the cycle path, on the other side of the fence, its like a tennis court fence, there was a marquee and as I got closer I could see, and hear, people seated around the perimeter of the marquee, inside, playing lots of bongo drums.
A bit further on, amongst the tents of people camping, there was a guy taking a pee up against the fence, and I coughed loudly at my disgust at having to look down "the barrel of his gun".
Over in the Fox and Hounds, I had the same meal I had the last time I was there, around March time, a rack of hickory smoked ribs. They are soooo good. If you're thinking of going, they are only on the evening menu from 7pm, £8.99.
On the cycle ride back, I left about 9pm, a bit early I know, taking extreme care crossing the railway line, after a few pints. I pass the Rougham airfield (no one taking a leak) but this time, in a different marquee, I could hear didgeridoo's being played.
Once home, I watched some of the earth concert on TV, and thought Madonna was good, I've seen her twice in concert at Wembley in the past.


No.5

Haircut

I hadn't had my hair cut since the 12th of January this year, when I had it shaved using a number four in the barbers shop in St. John's street for £6.50.
Now I had started to get comments like "you look like James May" and I wasn't sure if they meant I looked like the Top Gear presenter, or were using cockney rhyme and slang.
So I made an appointment Thursday, and bit the bullet today, and went to David's in Langton place, where I usually go to for a haircut, and had it done by Mark. He's a good bloke.


No.5

There's no friends without smoke

After work tonight, I called home first, then it was off to the local, (It is Friday). I get myself a pint, and join the regulars, there's about seven around the table that I know, and exchange a few pleasantries. Someone leaves, because they have to be elsewhere, and I take their seat at the table.

Well after a while, they all decide that its time for a smoke. So there I sit like Billy no mates, while they are all outside having a cigar or cigarette, looking after their phones, keys and drinks until they've had their nicotine fix, and come back in.


No.5

July 15th

Its in the news today that July 15th will be hot, and that's it.
I was cycling home from work tonight, at about 6pm. I had my Gore-Tex coat in my rucksack, and decided to put it on, as I passed under the A14 bridge in Eastgate street. There is a house in Eastgate st, on the corner with Barn lane, that has had to put sandbags around their front door, to combat the rain water running down the road and under their door, from all these downpours we keep having.
Anyway I was half way up Barton road, I prefer to go that way because Mount road is steeper and more exposed, when the heavens opened, again. So I felt I'd better stop under one of the trees. Then there was a rumble of thunder, and I was reminded of the two people struck by lightening in Thetford, yesterday, that killed their dog. The rain eased, and I shot home quick with some more black clouds heading my way.
Finished The Vinnie Jones autobiography, I had been reading, last night. It was one of the better written autobiography's I have read, but the book was published around 98/99 so it didn't contain much about his film career, other than auditioning for Lock, Stock and two smokin barrels. FHM tonight then, so maybe I'll post a bar room joke tomorrow.

No.5

Hydrangea

Hydra means - water and we've certainly had plenty of that this summer, and this shrub has had a few bowls of washing up water thrown under it as well.I don't have green fingers, but do try to make an effort in the garden. This summer has been very wet since the end of april, which was the best months weather we've had this year.

I do like getting out in my hankerchief, of a back garden, mowing the grass and keeping the borders tidy, along with the front garden.

No.5

No Smoking

I was the first person through the door at 12:00pm this lunchtime, at the start of the smoking ban. It was considered that I might need a nicorette patch or gum, having spent, much time, amongst smokers in pubs, being a non smoker.

I remember one occasion, in America, we were travelling down my uncle and auntie's road, and my uncle spat his skol bandit(tobacco bag), out of the car window. But the wind blew it staight back in, into the open window, into my dad's eye, sitting in the back seat. It was so funny.

No.5