Tag Archives: 2024

A Look Back at 2024

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As the sun sets on 2024 (photo from earlier in the year, the weather is rubbish tonight), I am sharing my look back at the year. 2024 has been a pretty good year, especially after the rubbish end to 2023. The first exciting thing of the year was our weekend in Manchester, for the Bricktastic Lego show. Owen and I went to Wales in the spring, then again in the autumn, riding at Bike Park Wales both times. I also went to Wales to watch a rally with my dad, which was one of my highlights of the year. We had some good holidays – Dorset with Jen’s family, the South Downs with my family, and Jen and I went to Venice, but I have been a bit rubbish at blogging, so no posts to link to.

2024 has been a decent year on the bikes, although mainly the hardtail really. In previous years I have mainly ridden on my own, but I have been more social this year. I have ridden a lot with Partho – my favourite ride of the years was when he demoed a Cotic bike in the Peak District, natural trails are great fun, but the hills are tough. In the summer I joined the local mountain bike club, the Godiva Trailriders, for a few rides, although I still struggle to keep up with them on rides. However the highlight has been riding loads with Owen towards the end of the year – his riding has come on so much with regular riding. With all the riding I have neglected workshop time – I am almost at the point where none of my bikes are rideable. More time in the workshop needed.

I have had a great year behind the camera, helped by upgrading my camera. I feel like I have really gelled with the new camera in a way that I was not expecting to, harking back to 2009 when I bought my Canon 1Dmk2, and I felt like I produced my best work. I have shot a lot of mountain biking, mainly the local races at Stile Cop, but I really enjoy the vibe they have on the hill, and I have been getting to know the regular racers. It has not only been action photography, I have also dabbled in both landscape and street photography, including a fun morning shooting around the Coventry ring road with some other local photographers. I have found myself taking a lot of black and white photos, the Acros film simulation on my Fuji cameras is great. Naturally, I have taken a lot of photos of the boys, and also both my nieces – being an uncle is fun!

Work has been particularly busy this year, with a few projects being delivered, and some diversification in to app development, which has been interesting. It has been a double edged sword though, as I have often ended up working late into the evening when I have something to finish – I love what I do, so do not mind, but it does mean that I have not been able to work on personal projects as much as I would have liked.

Owen has had a much year than 2023, his year started off with a small operation to remove a Hickmann Line from his chest, but he has bounced back. He started getting into photography and we have enjoyed some great days out together. He has also made great progress with his karate – achieving his yellow belt, and then his orange belt. He has also competed at both regional and national level – both times being knocked out in the first round by the same lad, who went on to with both titles. However riding with Owen these past few months has been great, he rides at a good pace now, so I have a decent ride, rather than just pootling along behind him. He also enjoys when Partho joins us on rides, he feels like he is one of the boys.

Henry has also had a good year, he is a right character, and takes his role of “annoying little brother” very seriously. He is so different to Owen, especially how they dress, Henry likes to dress smartly – or to wear a princess dress. He often has multiple outfit changes a day, which is both cute and frustrating. He continued with cycle speedway, making great progress, especially towards the end of the season, and he want to ride a “proper” speedway bike without brakes next season. The biggest change for Henry has been that he can now read and write, that first year at school has just a dramatic change, over the last few days he has even started reading books to himself, which has been nice to see.

At the start of the year, I set myself some goals. I posted a halftime update in June, but here are the final results:

Spend more time with my friends

Must try harder – I have spent a lot more time with Partho, mostly mountain biking, but also various other trips out. I have found it more difficult to meet up with the rest of our group, and we did not get to all celebrate our fortieth birthdays together. We did meet Rich in Manchester when we went to Bricktastic. The photo above was from the only time that we managed to get the whole group together – for lunch and an autumnal walk in the Peak District.

Make my blog more robust

Fail – As mentioned in my mid-year update post, perfection has been the enemy of progress here. I probably just need to spend a day on it, however finding a free day to spend sat at the computer is proving difficult

Refresh my photography portfolio website

Fail – I did make a start on this, but did not finish it. It looks like there have not been many changes to Adobe Portfolio, which I use to power the pages, so it is just going to be a case of choosing some more images.

Photograph a rally

Pass – I actually photographed two rallies – a single stage rally at Donington Park and the Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages in Wales. The trip to Wales to watch the rally was one of my favourite days of the year, so I am hoping to go to another rally next year. Owen seems keen to join me.

Complete a 50km bike ride

Pass – I managed to complete this by accident, on a club ride, although I did an extra loop around the block to make sure it was definitely over 50km.

Ride 25km with Owen

Fail – Owen hardly did any riding at the start of the year, then we did loads in the last four months, but focussing more on quality, rather than quantity. His longest ride was actually at Bike Park Wales (spoiler for the next goal!), where we rode 21km, which did not include being driven to the top of the hill four times. Owen’s technical riding has come on so much…

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

Pass – Another goal that I can check off twice! We had a weekend in Wales in May, which included an afternoon at Bike Park Wales, then we made it to the Little Rippers Halloween ride, after many years of clashing dates/hospital visits. Bike Park Wales more than lived up to the hype, it is the best place I have ridden, and I am looking forward to visiting again.

Ride at 417 Bike Park with Henry

Fail – Henry is very different to Owen, and is less of a daredevil – he enjoys riding his bike on the cycle speedway track, or on the blue graded trail at Hicks Lodge. I am sure that he would enjoy riding at 417 (when it eventually reopens), but he would hate the idea of it and I do not want to push him. I think I’ll get him to ride at Newbold Comyn, as the trails are similar in difficulty, but it is nearer and free to ride.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Fail – Again. This will be carried over to next year (again), with higher priority given that Natural Resources Wales seem to be giving up on their mountain bike facilities, including Nant Yr Arian.

Ride one more of the “10 of the best XC trails in the UK” with Partho

Fail – This one is on me – Partho is keen to ride the Ladybower Loop in the Peak District, but I have some bike maintenance to do before I can tackle it, as my Orange Four is currently out of action, and I did not fancy it on a hardtail.

Sort out the boys toys

Fail – We did make a good go of it before Christmas, but then Christmas happened, and the boys got loads of toys, so the house looks like there has been an explosion in Toy R Us…

Tidy my garage

Fail – The garage is still a mess, with bikes and bike parts everywhere. I thought I had a goal to “tidy my office”, so I spent this afternoon sorting out my office, which was needed, but unfortunately does not mean that I can tick off a task.

MR2 jobs

Partial pass – As with last year, this has been hampered by a messy garage/too many bikes and not enough space to work on the MR2, however I did get some jobs done. And it got new brake callipers when it was in for service, and also the paint blemishes were sorted.

Make sure that my pensions and investments are working for me

Pass – Just about. Sorting out my pensions was a boring task that I had been putting off, but just in time for the end of the year, my old pensions have all been moved into a SIPP with Interactive Investor, which seems to be getting me better growth and lower fees. Once I had worked out what I wanted to do I thought it would be a quick process, but every step of the way seems to have been slow, especially getting money out of old pensions, but in the final days of the year the last cash has been transferred from an old pension, although it will take a few more days to arrive and be invested. I had reviewed my other investments and was happy with them, but in the last few weeks the provider has put their fees up, so I need to look into alternatives for those.

Get my weight down to 90kg

Fail – Every year. Must try harder. I had a good second half of the year, but you can tell when the weather started getting bad in October and I was not riding my bike as much. Looking at the past week or so the trend has been downwards, despite a few meals out, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep that going in to 2025.

Once again it looks like I have failed to achieve more of my goals than I acheived. I think for next year I need to try and ride (and work) less, so that I can focus on other goals.

Back to School 2024

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This year Owen and Henry are starting back at school on the same day, so I am doing a combined post and an elusive picture of both of them together – easier said than done!

Owen’s First Day of Year Four

After a busy summer holiday, I think Owen is glad to get back to school for a rest. For someone who reads a lot, Owen left his holiday homework until the last minute, and was reading “How to train your Dragon” well past his bedtime last night.

In addition to the mandatory photo by the front door, I asked Owen some questions, to record how he changes over the years:

  • Height: 123cm
  • Shoe size: 2.5
  • Bike(s): Vitus Nucleus 24 for mountain biking and United Recruit 16 BMX for riding to school and at the skatepark.
  • Favourite colour: Red
  • Favourite food: Flying Cows bacon cheeseburger
  • Favourite book: How to train your dragon
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Hot wheels let’s race
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Going to the Wave waterpark in Coventry
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A chemist

Henry’s First Day of Year One

Henry is keen to go back to school, although I am not sure that he prepared of the structure of being in a proper class, rather than the play focussed reception. Henry does not seem to be as academic as Owen, but I think he may play it down somewhat, as he sometimes reads quite long words unprompted. He was so keen to go in a meet his new teacher that he did not even look back or say bye to me.

Henry also answered the back to school questions, at least he has a more realistic career aspiration than last year…

  • Height: 101cm
  • Shoe size: 12
  • Bike(s): Orbea MX20 (Owen’s old bike) for mountain biking, Frog 52 for cycle speedway and riding to school (until the brake get removed) and a Haro Frontside 16 BMX for the skatepark and riding to school once the brakes are removed from the Frog.
  • Favourite colour: Pink
  • Favourite food: Spaghetti bolognaise
  • Favourite book: A squash and a squeeze
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Sofia the first
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Our holiday in the South Downs (blog post coming soon)
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher

Accidental 50km Ride

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One of my goals for 2024 was to do a 50km bike ride – I had a few routes planned, but had not yet got around to riding them. I had planned to take a full day, ride at a casual speed, maybe have a lunch stop etc. However, sometimes things just fall into your lap…

This summer I have been trying to join the local mountain bike group, the Godiva Trailriders, on their Wednesday evening group rides, as I find riding with faster riders helps me to push myself. This evening was a prime example! The pace was faster than I am used to (16km/h average), and my first experience of riding off road, at speed in the dark. On trails I do not know. I did lose the rider in front of me a few times, as I was right on my limit but fortunately the group waited for me.

As we got to the end of the group part of the ride I realised that it was one of my longest rides to date – no wonder I was struggling, but also that I could push on to 50km if I took a slightly longer route home. So I did, and ticked off one of my goals!

2024 Goals Update

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I usually like to check in on my goals for the year at the end of June, once again it has come around very quickly! It feels like we have packed a lot into the first six months of the year, but we have still got plenty of exciting things planned over the next few months…

Spend more time with my friends

Whilst I have just spent a nice afternoon with Partho, his wife and dogs, at home eating BBQ (the best pulled pork I have ever cooked), it has definitely been an exception. We have been for a few bike rides together, but I have barely seen my other friends. By the middle of next month we have all turned forty, and are yet to celebrate together. More effort needed.

Make my blog more robust

I have made some improvements, but what it really needed is a full refresh of the infrastructure. I had started this, but had been bogged down trying to do it “correctly”, crafting the perfect infrastructure in CDK. However perfection can sometimes be the enemy of progress. There is no need for me to reinvent the wheel, when I can simply spin up a proven AMI on an AWS EC2 instance. I have a couple of other projects to get out of the way first but will be looking at the blog next.

Refresh my photography portfolio website

Not yet, but this is a good project for when the weather is rubbish.

Photograph a rally

Yes! I actually photographed two – a single stage rally at Donington Park and the Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages in Wales.

Complete a 50km bike ride

Not yet, but I have got a decent route planned, which I am hoping to do in the next few weeks.

Ride 25km with Owen

Owen and I have done a few more rides around the twenty kilometre mark, but we need to get something longer planned. Ideally it needs to be off road, but without too many climbs.

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

Another one that I can check off – I won a Bike Park Wales pass with Little Rippers, and Owen and I spent the weekend in Wales. We only managed two runs before Owen called it a day as he was feeling unwell.

Ride at 417 Bike Park with Henry

Not yet, I am hoping that we can fit this in during the school summer holidays. The bike park has been closed the last few weeks, but should be reopening soon.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Not yet, but next time I get a free day, it is where I am going!

Ride one more of the “10 of the best XC trails in the UK” with Partho

This has been one of my goals for a while, but for various reasons it has not worked out. We did get out for a fun ride in the Peak District, where Partho demoed a Cotic bike. He has now bought one, so hopefully that means we will be riding more together.

Sort out the boys toys

Massive fail. I have sort of sorted out their Lego, but our lounge started of the year with relatively few toys, after we had it redecorated at the back end of last year, but more have gradually crept in…

Tidy my garage

Another fail.

MR2 jobs

The MR2 has had at least one wash this year, and is booked into the bodyshop in a few weeks time to get some minor scuffs tidied up.

Make sure that my pensions and investments are working for me

Boring. My employer is rejigging our work pension plan at the moment, so using that as an excuse to put this off…

Get my weight down to 90kg

After eating all of the Easter treats, my weight is finally trending in the right direction, I need to have a few good weeks of eating sensibly and riding my bike lots before going on holiday at the end of July and hopefully that will get me back on track.

July looks like it is going to be a busy month for me, culminating it a family holiday to the South coast, apart from the bank holiday, August and September look a lot calmer, so hopefully I will be able to make some headway with my goals for the rest of the year.

2024

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Happy New Year!

Owen and I started 2024 as we mean to go on – riding mountain bikes! We saw in the new year at home, my best friend Partho, his wife Marilena and their two sausage dogs, Otto and Leo, who came round to our house for a dinner party. We had Pastitio, a Cypriot meat, pasta and béchamel sauce dish, similar to lasagne. Jen was going to make it, but Partho and Marilena offered to make it and bring it with them, as they had the correct pasta from Cyprus. Instead, Jen made a “Burnt Basque Cheesecake” for dessert. It was one of the tastiest dinners of the year. It was a low key evening, but really nice to spend some time together. Henry did not quite manage to stay up until midnight, but Owen did, just. He was flagging by 23:30, but we kept him going.

Thanks to their late night, the boys gave us a lie in this morning. After a late breakfast, Owen and I loaded up the van to drive to Hicks Lodge, for a first proper ride on his new bike. Everyone else had the same idea, so it took us a while to get parked up. When we eventually got to the trails they were wet, but still running well. Owen seemed to take well to his new bike – I need to stop giving him such long head starts, as I struggled to catch up with him on a few sections. He has lost some fitness whilst recovering from his recent illness, and could not keep up his initial pace, and we only managed one lap. It was great to be back out together though. Hopefully we will be doing much more riding together later in the year – one of his new years resolutions is “not to say no, to going for bike rides”.

We have not got any riding trips planned yet, as Owen still needs to take things easy. However he is looking forward to our trip to Manchester for the “Bricktastic” Lego show. We have a few other trips planned: Jen and I will be going to York in a few weeks, we hope to repeat our trip to Weston-Super-Mare for Cruise to the Prom and we will be joining my parents, brother, sister-in-law and new niece, for a week on the South Coast, near Brighton, in the summer holidays. Jen and I also have a trip to Rome to rebook. Hopefully we will also be able to squeeze in a few more trips.

As in previous years, I have set myself some goals for the year ahead:

Spend more time with my friends

Life always seems to get in the way, but this year I am going to make a more concerted effort to spend time with my friends. I saw a couple of my best friends, separately, yesterday and it was really nice to spend time with them. We all just need to be a bit more organised, especially as the lads all have big birthdays coming up, which we should probably celebrate.

Make my blog more robust

My blog went offline for a few months last year, and the replacement I deployed has not been great either. Last year I focussed on making what I had more robust, e.g. failing health checks triggering an AWS Lambda script to reboot the server, but I think I need to start from scratch and get something more reliable.

Refresh my photography portfolio website

A goal carried over from last year. My original plan to do customise the skin I’m using in Adobe Portfolio failed, because that option is not available. So all I need to do is choose some new images, hopefully it will not be a big job.

Photograph a rally

Rallying is my favourite form of motorsport, and it has been over ten years since I last saw one live. So I would really like to get to a forest and see some rally cars sliding around on gravel roads. My dad has also said we should go to a rally this year.

Complete a 50km bike ride

My goal last year was to do three 50km rides, I did not even manage to do one. This year I have set myself a more achievable target. Fitness wise, I am sure I could do three long rides, but it is more having the time in the summer, and what else I would have to miss.

Ride 25km with Owen

Like last year, this is more Owen’s goal, as he wants to beat his longest ride to date, which stands at 20km – his goal last year. I will have to think of somewhere we can do a long ride, without too much climbing. Sherwood Pines was a good bet last year, but it would be better to ride somewhere else this time.

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

Another goal carried over from last year. We had booked on to the Little Rippers Halloween ride at Bike Park Wales, but had to cancel, as Owen was in hospital. He needs to get his bike fitness back before a big day at a bike park.

Ride at 417 Bike Park with Henry

I had completely forgotten that we rode the pump track at 417 Bike Park last year, Henry had been keen to ride the bike park trails, but we had not paid for that and I promised him that we would come back. Henry must also have forgotten about it, because usually he would keep reminding me. This will likely be one for later in the year when Henry has moved on to Owen’s old Orbea.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Another goal carried over from 2023, Bwlch Nant yr Arian in Mid Wales has some great looking trails, and is also known for their daily Red Kite feeding – which is enough of an excuse for me to go for a ride. It also seems like somewhere that might be worth visiting with Jen and the boys as part of a Mid Wales trip.

Ride one more of the “10 of the best XC trails in the UK” with Partho

In 2022, Partho shared an article with me called “10 of the best XC trails in the UK“. I have ridden a couple of the trails, and parts of a few more, last year we planned to try and ride a few more together, but it did not happen. We discussed it last night and decided we would aim for a more realistic “ride one of the trails”.

Sort out the boys toys

Last year we redecorated our lounge, and have kept it mostly free from toys, and it is lovely. There is so much more space. The downside is that the toys are piled up in their room, so we need to sort them out – ideally maintaining the nice “grown up” lounge. We need to sort out some storage and to be be ruthless, as realistically there are only a few toys that they play with regularly.

Tidy my garage

I did not get around to this last year, if anything, the garage got messier, as more bikes arrived. A thorough sort out is needed and I also need to be ruthless.

MR2 jobs

Last year marked ten years since I bought my MR2 Roadster, for the most part it has been cheap motoring, and very reliable. Last year I planned to tackle those little jobs that will prolong it’s life, things like cleaning the drain holes. The wheels could also do with a thorough clean and a good coat of wax. However, I’ll need to get the garage tidied first… There are also a few blemishes on the paintwork that I would like to get addressed.

Make sure that my pensions and investments are working for me

When I changed jobs a few years ago, I made sure I could access my old work pension, but other than that have just left it sitting there. I had a work pension with my new job, and set up a SIPP to boost my work pension, but other than paying in to it monthly I have not checked how it is getting on. I think some sort of of “health check” is needed, and maybe some consolidation. It is a boring job, but one that keeps getting put off, having it written down as a goal should mean I am more likely to do it.

Get my weight down to 90kg

For the last ten years, at least, my goal has been to get my weight down to 85kg, which has clearly not happened. 90kg is more achievable, but if I get there, I will try to keep going to 85kg. My plan is more riding and less pizza.

Hopefully 2024 will be a better year than 2023, it has got off to a good start, so I will do my best to carry on with these positive vibes…