Category Archives: Personal

Posts about me and what has been going on in my life.

2016

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Happy new year!

2016 has started quietly, we saw in the new year with our friends in York, then on the way back to Coventry visited some other friends in Sheffield for lunch and a stroll in the park. The weather was rubbish all day, so disappointingly I didn’t get to take a photo for this blog post. Hopefully this isn’t a sign for the rest of 2016.

After a really busy 2015 I don’t really have any firm plans for 2016. Jen and I don’t have any gigs of holidays planned for the first time since 2010. Most unlike us. Some possibilities which have been suggested are hiring a Morgan 3 Wheeler for a day with my Dad, a Scottish mountain biking trip with Ali and I’m sure Jen and I will find ourselves in Croyde at some point. I’m looking forward to finding out what adventures 2016 has in store.

A look back at 2015

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Signing the register

©Richard Long 2015

2015 has been a great year – possibly the best yet!

January and February were fairly quiet, I think we were mostly planning the wedding, which was a good move as from March things started getting a lot busier! Starting with my first trackday of the year on the Silverstone National Circuit, then the Leisure Lakes Demo Day at Cannock Chase, where I got to try some expensive bikes. We also went to London to see Frank Turner at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust’s series of gigs – a great gig in an amazing venue, all for a worthy cause.

In April we went on our first road trip of the year – to Scotland in the MR2, also calling in at Scarborough and York on the way home. In May we started the redecoration of our front bedroom, the aim being to have it ready for us to move into after the wedding. We also went to Prescott Hillclimb to see the La Vie en Bleu French themed event.

June and July were both busy, in June I only had one weekend at home for DIY with a day out to Matlock Bath to meet our friends from York, my little brother’s stag do in London, then a weekend mountain biking in Wales, which was allegedly my stag do, but thanks to my best man Partho turned into a Welsh A&E tour. After the madness of Wales with the lads a relaxing long weekend in Croyde with Jen was just what was needed. The next weekend we went to a wedding, then the weekend after I flew to Japan. After a mammoth 42 hour journey home the weekend after and a trackday at Donington Park (which I really should have blogged about) it was already August!

August started with a Segwaying adventure for my friend Richard’s birthday (Richard took the photo at the top of this post). Also in August was Jen’s hen do, I took this opportunity to go mountain biking at the Forest of Dean with Jen’s cousin Richard. At the end of the month we were back up to Scotland for my little brother’s wedding – I was best man, so no pressure there! It was also the first time I got to wear my kilt and good practice for the main event in September!

Of course the highlight of the year was marrying Jen, having all our family and close friends there to share the day with us made it even more special. We are still humbled by all the kind messages and gifts we received from everyone. After the wedding comes the honeymoon – in our case a California road trip, a trip we had been talking about since we first got together in 2010. The trip was all we expected and more – I’ve still got the last few photos to sort out, but will be updating the blog posts in the next few weeks, as they were quickly posted whilst we were there.

Since getting back from California the last few months have flown by, I did another trackday at Silverstone, with Jen driving a session too, actually getting more laps in than I did. I got out on my snowboard a few times, bought a sensible car, spent my birthday weekend in London and completed my 2,015km in 2015 mountain biking challenge. We are going to see out 2015 with our friends in York.

Thanks to everyone who made 2015 such a special year!

2015

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Cycling selfie with Jen

2015 is going to be a big year for Jen and I – we’ll be getting married! We saw in the new year with our best friends, Partho & Jo, who will be best man and bridesmaid at the wedding – a perfect start to the year!

Getting married also means we’ll be going on honeymoon, the plans are a lot more advanced than those for the wedding. We will be going on a San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas roadtrip! Although we really need to get the wedding organised before we can book anything.

Other than getting married, we still have a lot of work to do on the house and phase two of the garage (insulation and flooring). I also want to do some track days in the MR2.

I’m going to continue mountain biking and my aim for the year is to ride 2,015km, I got out for a short ride with Jen this afternoon, so I’ve only got 2,004 to go!

A look back at 2014

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2014 is another year which has flown by in a whirl of roadtrips, travel and DIY. Things didn’t quite go as per the 2014 plans I blogged about on the first of January – work got in the way out our European roadtrip and the dining room didn’t get finished until about the twenty third of December.

As is becoming common, the year started with a trip to Autosport International, this year was even better than usual as it was combined with a Pistonheads Sunday Service, which added an extra dimension to it. Later in January I also had my first visit to Race Retro, another local motorsport show.

March was the start of my travels, with an ace roadtrip to North Wales and Chester in the MR2, then the first of my trips to Japan for work. The Pistonheads Sunday Service at Morgan Cars was my favourite of the year, even if a puncture the previous day meant that I turned up in Jen’s Fiat 500. I enjoyed the tour so much I took my Dad back on his 60th birthday.

May was the start of our big DIY project for the year – building my garage! Which continued for most of the summer, with distractions for Coventry Motofest, Le Mans (which I didn’t get around to blogging about) and a trip to Copenhagen with Jen.

In September I went back to Japan for business, but more importantly I spent a week in Croyde with Jen and asked her to marry me! Fortunately she said yes!

The last three months of the year were spent renovating the dining room, as we were hosting Christmas dinner for my family and enjoying my new hobby – mountain biking! The latter of which is why this post was written whilst waiting at Walsgrave hospital A&E department, thankfully due to a dog bite, rather than any failed extreme manoeuvres on my part.

Garage build – Phase 1 complete

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Since my last update on the garage build I have managed to make some progress in the gaps between work and holidays. The main task was to empty the temporary garage, aka the dining room, which needs to be plastered and redecorated before Christmas. This involved refurbishing Jen’s Granddad’s workbench (which we are sure he acquired from the Alvis factory, where he worked), erecting shelving and having a thorough sort out of everything we had kept from the old garage. Although I still need to sort out tools, as I have inherited my Dad’s collection to join Jen’s granddad’s and my own – which seems like a good excuse to get a shiny new toolbox! Now that the garage is full of car and tools etc I’ve upped the security with better locks and an alarm.

The most exciting garage news is that it is being used for what it was built for – working on cars! Unfortunately it isn’t my car – whilst I’m away in Japan with work for a few weeks I’ve lent the garage to Jen’s cousin, Rich, who needed to do some work on his Elise, which included removing the front clamshell, a task which is really best done out of the elements. When Rich has finished working on his Lotus I have a few jobs to do on the MR2 and there’s also a new toy to live in the garage, which will be coming to a blog post soon…

Garage build – Shed

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The shed isn’t strictly related to the garage build, but as one of the most important requirements was that the garage would be for car stuff only, we needed a shed for everything else.

Last weekend we had a shed building BBQ, with my friends Partho, Rich and Vernon to help with the construction and Jen, Anna and Jo keeping us fed and watered. The shed went up fairly quickly between rain showers, but we weren’t able to get it painted until this weekend. Jen chose the colour (Seagrass by Cuprinol), which I think looks really good after a couple of coats.

 

Garage build – Car in the garage

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The garage is finally ready to park a car in! This picture is actually a few weeks old, but life has been a bit hectic recently, so I’m playing catch up on the blog. A few days after the door was fitted Martin, our electrician, installed the fuse board and connected up the garage door motor, so I could get the car in and out. The tricky bit now is working out how to connect it up to the alarm which he is going to fit, so that before the door opens the alarm is deactivated.

 

Garage build – Door fitted

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It has been a bit quiet on the garage front recently, we’ve mainly been painting the inside, but this weekend the door was fitted. I went for a Hormann sectional door with motor, expensive, but hopefully worth it.

I also got the trench for the electrical cables dug today – hard work in the sun, but my fault for leaving it until the last minute, as the electricians are starting tomorrow. This means I will be able to open and close the door, without an extension lead from the house in the middle of the garage.

Garage build – day 19

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An internal picture today, as the piers either side of the door were the last bits that the builder needed to do, so nothing has changed outside. The pace of work (and frequency of updates) will slow down a bit now that it is down to me to do the work, but the next task is to paint the walls inside the garage white, to keep the dust down and make the garage a bit brighter.

The door has been ordered, so that should be installed in the next few weeks, which means we will be able to get the electrician in to finish the wiring and then I’ll be able to park the MR2 inside!

Garage build – day 18

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The garage is almost finished! The last slabs for the path have been laid, along with the shed base and the garage floor. When the concrete floor is dry, the builder needs to build some supporting pillars for the door and then he is finished and we can start with the remaining jobs – the interior fit out, getting the garage door and electrics installed etc.