Morning all, a fresh start to the day and not likely to get too hot. I have a piece of concrete to try and dispose of which is very old and very hard. I am hoping that my diamond blade cutting disk is going to help, but suspect that it will finish up with the Irish screwdriver.
Morning all - even busier than usual here in Westminster due to Le Grand Depart. I quite like cycling but find it incredible that so many people are prepared to stand in one spot for hours just to see the peleton fly past. Still, each to their own and i hope a good day is had by all especially if any of you lot are going.
Holds no interest for me either, but I'm sure some of my pleasures others would find displeasure with, so, as long as it is not compulsory for me to watch anyone on a bike or anyone on horseback, then I'm quite happy to let others enjoy their "sport!"
We in the end watched on TV as you couldn't get within a mile of the roads it was on as they closed em all..... The red arrows did fly just behind our garden though...
I went a couple of years back to sample the atmosphere which was great, especially when a spectator succeeded in getting his leg stuck through one of the metal barriers. Two gendarmes were on hand to pull the vertical rods apart to release him. The publicity caravan that comes through about an hour before the race is very entertaining, and you never know what goodies you will catch as they are thrown from the lorries. The actual race passes in a flash and it is very difficult to pick out an individual. It is better viewed on TV and the French service is better than ITV with very few advert breaks.
There's a book called "How Cavendish won the Yellow jumper" by a chap called Ned Boulton. It really gives a great insight into the sheer scale of the tour and the "madness" surrounding it. I'd recommend it highly. For me the real joy of the tour is the scenery - it really is spectacular.
Afternoon all from a warm and sunny bandit country. Thoughts today are with the family and friends of the victims of the outrage visited upon this country on this day 9 years ago. Rather mixed day as it's my eldest son's 30th birthday - so he will always vividly remember his 21st birthday!
I read Domestique: The Real-life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro a couple of months back.... a great book on the team guys.... .who do all the work in the peleton to ensure the number one rider get as highly placed as possibly... and get so little public recognition...
Please don't - we have had almost no rain for a month - been sitting outside in the sun today and I have just watered the garden - no change required here
Just back from the fields where I found that on Saturday/Sunday I have re-filled my water butts. I collected approx. 900 litres off the shed roof which shows that when it rains here it just gets on with it. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to visit a garden that some friends have developed over the past twenty years. They took early retirement from their teaching jobs, sold up in England and bought an old farmhouse with 6 acres of land. It is in a beautiful hillside setting with extensive views, but is quite steeply terraced. Over the years they have worked virtually full time to create a sanctuary of peace and beauty, but now they are both turned eighty and are finding that the energy levels have dropped a bit. They realised that they needed some help, so asked around a bit as you do in these parts, to see if there was a local who would do a few hours alongside them each week. A lady was suggested and when they visited her found what looked very similar to an English country garden. They expressed their admiration for her blaze of colour and she said that people liked it, but she had a problem, she was colour-blind. She does work at their home now very successfully. They either place a pot where it is to be planted, or if they want something put into the yellow/white/ blue border they tie a label to the plant with the colour written on it and the borders have labels to help.
Morning all from a bright West West London, although there is a quite a lot of high level cloud that is blocking the sun now and again.
Morning all, a grey start here with showers predicted. My neighbours have their son down from Paris for his annual holiday. He is a groundsman at a large sports complex up there, but can be found each year here when the T de F is on. Spends his mornings doing jobs for his parents, then his afternoons in front of the TV. Cannot find a weather forecast that far ahead Yorkie, but if I did it would probably be totally wrong. Next Wednesday wet but 28°C is the latest guesswork. The Meteo can now keep me updated on the rainfall for the next hour in my village. Last night it said that at 7.20pm there would be a light shower lasting five minutes. I went outside and there were about five spots of rain, or the gnats were flying over.
Well we are going for a month.... so should get some good weather... I may be calling on the bush telegraph football updates service again
On another matter...... I was told 20 years ago about a top level MP, and his sexual predilections with info from a member of the security dept. assigned to their protection. Here's hoping that that person may now be in a position to divulge. (If you don't hear from me again or my PC goes down today... we can rest assured the Hornets nest is under surveillance )
A very entertaining book about the tour is 'How I won the yellow jumper' by Ned Boulting, a journalist following the Tour in 2003.
