This weekend was Henry’s seventh birthday, and it has been a busy one! Henry got us all up early to open his presents- highlights being a plunger (this was top of his list), a “golden ticket” to visit Cadbury’s World and a part built cycle speedway bike (bike check post coming soon). In my defence the lead up to Henry’s birthday has been incredibly busy, because we wanted to get his bedroom finished before his birthday, which we managed with a few days to spare – although we still need to move his wardrobe and all his stuff in.
What Henry had been most excited about was his party at the local trampoline park – I drew the short straw, and was sent in to bounce with the kids and keep an eye on my three-year-old niece. The party went well, there were no serious injuries and all of the children seemed to have a good time. I took my niece for her first ride in the MR2 Roadster, she seemed to enjoy it, bur fell asleep before we got home. In the afternoon we had the extended family round for a second party. The is the first time we have had everyone round to the new house at the same time, and it went well. It was nice to see both nieces and Henry all playing together nicely. Jen made a lovely birthday cake, with crushed Oreo icing. We also had more guests in the evening, so it was a tiring day for everyone.
Today, we visited Cadbury’s World – it had been on our plans for a while, but Henry has been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so we thought we would build on that and treat him to a day out. The homemade “golden tickets” we made for him to unwrap also went down well. Jen and I had both been to Cadbury’s World many years ago, but I did not remember much of it. We had a good day out, being with the boys definitely added to the fun – it all seemed to be well managed (with the exception of one ride that was closed0, with a balance of learning and action, without too much hanging around. Of course we ate plenty of chocolate, and visited the gift shop!
As the sun sets on 2025 this is a look back at what has been a busy year for me. We moved out of our house on Oldfield Road to a detached house in Allesley Green, a mile or so down the road. Searching for a house, preparing our old house for sale and then the general stress of moving took up most of the first half of the year. Then once we moved, the second half of the year got even busier with the unpacking and renovations. Alongside working and looking after the boys it has not really left time for much else…
The last day of the year has been pretty good, we started off with a wintery walk across the fields – I miss having the Hearsall Common woods on our doorstep, but the fields are a good alternative. Parts of Pickford Brook were frozen, and the boys enjoyed playing with the ice on the surface. After a quick lunch, the boys and I went to Hicks Lodge for our final bike ride of the year. On the way I saw something I thought I recognised – the school I went to 38 years ago, (for one year only) – I checked on the map later in the day and it was indeed the school I went to, even though I barely remember anything from the school. The lack of leaves on the trees meant that I could see it. The ride itself was good, the boys, rode well, Henry particularly, as he has not done much mountain biking recently. We also had a good hot chocolate and cake stop at the end, as the sun dipped below the horizon for the final time in 2025 – the photo at the top of this post. In the evening Jen’s parent’s joined us for a buffet dinner.
Work on the house has been slower than we hoped/expected, but our plans have changed, so it is probably good that we did not rush into things. We have finished Jen’s office and Owen’s bedroom – having the boys in separate rooms was the main reason we needed to move, so it is good to have that checked off before Christmas. Owen chose the colour scheme for his room – bright red, and he has got my old 90’s hi-fi system set up. We will be doing Henry’s room as a priority next. My parents have also moved house, to be closer to us, they are now less than twenty minutes away by car, which means we can see them more often. They are also able to pick the boys up from school once a week. Before the boys were both at school full time they used to have them one day a week, and it was nice to see them regularly, so it is great to have that again.
With the house move, we did not get away on holiday, we had a day out in London (for Henry’s birthday), a trip to North Wales, a brief trip to Suffolk and I went back to Wales with my dad to watch Rali Ceredigion the UK round of the European Rally Championship.
2025 has not been a great year on the bike, the stats do not tell the full story, as most of my rides have been on my new (to me) Orange Speedwork gravel bike, rather than my mountain bikes, which makes for easier distance. Living further out of town means that I can get out into the countryside for a short lunchtime ride, which I have been doing a lot. I have not done very much mountain biking, but what I did do was on my Orange Four – it was good to have it back! I also took part in my first race. For Christmas I built Owen a new bike, and we rode to my parents house for Boxing Day, which was one of my highlights of the year.
Photography has taken a back seat this year, aside from a couple of mountain bike races, I have mostly been photographing what the boys have been doing. I have not really had the time or headspace to really focus on photography, I have taken some “good” photos, but I feel like they are record shots, rather than anything creative. Although I have managed to get out with the camera over the Christmas break, so hopefully I carry that on to 20206.
Owen has had a busy year, in addition to karate, where he earned his green and then blue belts, he has taken up cycle speedway. He took a fairly big crash in a regional race which knocked his confidence, although he was not injured. He returned to the track at the end of the season and had a good race meeting – finishing joint second and taking home a trophy! He has carried on mountain biking, and completed the full “Follow the Dog” trail at Cannock Chase. He was the poster boy for the races at the official opening of our local mountain biking trails. I also took him karting a couple of times, which he enjoyed – but that makes mountain biking look like a cheap sport, so we will not be doing that too often!
Always opposite to Owen, Henry has added karate to his cycle speedway – I was not expecting him to stick at it, but he is really close to getting his orange belt. He still has his unique style, and very strong ideas on what he wants. For Henry, 2025 has definitely been the year of K Pop Demon Hunters, he has also been getting in to pop music, particularly Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.
This year it feels like I have spent more time with my nieces, which has been nice. At three and almost two, they are nice ages and we see them enough that they comfortable around us and even seek me out for a cuddle. Being an uncle is great!
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 – My closest friends have met up as a group twice, including wives and kids, which is impressive in itself. I have also seen my friends separately a few times, but with everything going on I have not seen them as much as I would like.
Make my blog more robust
Fail – I will have to carry this over to 2026…
Refresh my photography portfolio website
Must try harder– I did some minor tweaking of the images, but left it at that.
Do something car/motorsport related every month
Must try harder– I doubt I managed to do something every month, but did get to more events than previous years. A rally at Donington Park (above), a couple of karting trips with Owen and a trip to Wales.
Get the MR2 to Wales
Fail – I got to Wales twice, but not in the MR2, one trip was in Jen’s car, and another was as a passenger in my dad’s old Boxster.
Ride somewhere new with Owen
Fail – We rode some trials that he had not previously ridden, but I do not think we have ridden at any new locations.
Do some bike trips just myself and Henry
Fail – Henry prefers cycle speedway to mountain biking, so I did not want to push this one. Although he did some good riding today, so will see if we can get away together in 2026.
Get to the summer with three working bikes
Fail – I got to one point where I ended up buying a bike, my Orange Speedwork, so that I could have a bike to ride. In my defence, my Clockwork Evo was put into storage whilst we moved, then I did not want to start building it back up until my new garage/workshop was finished. That did not happen. I got the workshop to the point a bike could be built up, and started on the Clockwork Evo, but Owen’s bike took precedence. I will have three bike rideable in the next few weeks though.
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. I got closer than on previous years, on the basis that I drove past the entrance when I went to Aberystwyth with my dad for Rali Ceredigion. It highlighted just how far away it is, so probably needs to be an overnight trip.
Ride the “Ladybower Loop” with Partho
Fail – Life has got in the way for both of us, and we have not ridden together as much as we would have liked. Far less had any adventures to the Peak District.
Tidy my garage
Pass/Fail – I got my old garage very tidy, and then fully empty. The new garage is another matter though…
Take my niece Sienna to the zoo
Fail – I have spent more time with Sienna, but we have not managed to get to the zoo. I might have to tweak my plans, as the other day she told me that her favourite animals are elephants, and Twycross, our local zoo, does not have any.
Get my weight down to 90kg
Screenshot
Fail – Every year. Must try harder. My weight was below 90kg for a few months, although I expect that was down to muscle wastage, as I was not riding much at the time. Unfortunately it coincide with the body composition analysis on my Withings scales failing, so I do not have any data to back that up. I have finished the year lighter than I started, so I will take that as a tiny win…
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 be realistic as I know work on the house will be a priority.
Owen got a new bike for Christmas – a Nukeproof Cub Scout 26. He has outgrown his previous Vitus Nucleus 24, both in size and ability. The Nukeproof is a step up from the Vitus, despite being similar on paper. Main benefits of the Nukeproof are the bolt thru axle, a “proper” fork and Maxxis Minion tyres (as currently fitted to my Orange Four). I knew that they did a candy red version a few years ago, so that was my target, as red is Owen’s favourite colour – we have just painted his bedroom red.
I bought the bike secondhand, but when I got it home and gave it a thorough service I started to notice a few problems, such as broken spokes, a cracked hub and a general lack of maintenance. After rebuilding the wheels and refreshing some parts it is spot on though. Owen wants to swap in the saddle and dropper post from his old bike, but given this bike was a surprise I could not do that before Christmas.
Before he knew he would be getting a new bike, I had suggested to Owen that we ride to my parents house for second Christmas on Boxing Day – it is a good ride and a good excuse to burn off some turkey before another day of feasting. Of course, it would also be an ideal shakedown ride for Owen’s new bike. Owen wanted to take a slightly longer route, to incorporate some trails through the woods, the ride ended up being 16km in total – over about two hours. Not a bad pace given the mud in the woods. The shakedown went well, the main issue that Owen noticed was that I had forgotten to fit the mudguard that I bought.
Tomorrow is the official opening of the MTB trails at Newbold Comyn in Leamington Spa – and Owen is the poster boy for the racing! The trails have been open for a few years, and are one of our regular haunts, but the cafe and bike shop only opened this summer, marking the competition of the project, so they are having an event to celebrate! Part of that event is a race down the blue trail.
Owen ended up being on the poster, as at a recent off road time trial event there he had a tame photographer (me) and I was asked to supply a photo for the poster. As Owen is the poster boy he will be racing, I might even do a couple of laps too! We will both also be photographing, and it should be a fun day.
After a summer holiday that flew by, Owen and Henry started back at school today. As you can see from the photo, Henry was not as keen to go back as Owen. A rainy school run did not help. I am pleased to say that when I picked them up in the afternoon, both said that they had had brilliant days at school.
Owen’s First Day of Year Five
After a busy summer holiday, I think Owen is glad to get back to school for a break away from Henry. Owen’s homework for the summer holidays was to read “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which was no problem for him, but also to design and present a sweet machine. His “Lemon Sherbert Bomb” machine was well designed.
In addition to the mandatory photo by the front door, I asked Owen some questions, to record how he changes over the years:
Height: 143cm
Shoe size: 3.5
Bike(s): Vitus Nucleus 24 for mountain biking, Frog 69 for commuting and United Recruit 16 BMX for riding to school and at the skatepark. He also borrows a cycle speedway bike from the Cycle Speedway club.
Favourite book: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Favourite thing to watch on TV: Beyblade X
Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Going to the Wave waterpark in Coventry (same as last year)
What do you want to be when you grow up? Lego designer
Henry’s First Day of Year Two
Henry less was keen to go back to school, or more accurately to wear school uniform. Henry’s homework was to take some photos in front of the summer holidays – an easy one for me to help with.
Henry also answered the back to school questions, at least he has a more realistic career aspiration than last year…
Height: 124cm
Shoe size: 13.5
Bike(s): Orbea MX20 (Owen’s old bike) for mountain biking, Frog 52 which still has not been converted to a cycle speedway bike and Frog 55 for riding to school. Henry also borrows a bike from the cycle speedway club.
Favourite colour: Blue
Favourite food: Pizza
Favourite book: Enchanted Wood
Favourite thing to watch on TV: Sam and Cat
Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Playdate with Gwen
What do you want to be when you grow up? A scientist
This summer has been busy with work on our house (various small jobs done and Jen’s office almost finished), but we managed to get away for a last minute trip away to Suffolk. The main reason we chose Suffolk was that the forecast was for an ex-hurricane come in from the west on the days we had available, so we figured we would be best going east to outrun it. And Jen had already taken the boys to Norfolk earlier in the summer, so we did not want to go back there.
Our chosen destination was Southwold, mainly based on my previous experiences of Mrs T’s Fish and Chips by the harbour. It was a long drive from Coventry, on the A14, a road I spent way too much time on in 2007/2008 when I commuted on it daily. But the last thirty miles were on a tourist route, with lots of pretty villages. The roads would have been fun in the MR2, but we were in the van. Mrs T’s was as I remembered, still just a shack in the ramshackle harbour on the banks of the River Blythe, but the fish and chips were excellent. Owen declared them “best he’d ever had”. With full bellies we walked down to the beach, the boys dig some holes and jumped in the rather ferocious waves, at least for the east coast. I had not noticed on previous visits, but Sizewll nuclear power station was visible on the horizon. As we were finishing up at the beach it started to rain. Fortunately it was only a short shower, so by the time we had driven to the north promenade, the sun was back out and we could walk into town for a look around the shops, and of course, an ice cream! Harris & James seemed to be the place to go for that.
After eating our ice creams overlooking the beach, we went back down onto the sand for the boys to play some more. I am sure they enjoy the beach more when they are in their normal clothes and without their beach toys, than when we go fully prepared. It was at this point, with shorts wet from splashing in the waves, that Henry declared that he had not packed any spare shorts. Maybe I should not have relied on a six year old to pack sensibly for himself. The strong wind on the pier seemed to dry him off though. And no visit to Southwold is complete without a pub trip for a pint of Adnams. Jen had heard of a shop selling their beers, but we did not find it, so had to settle for some takeaway cans from their tap room.
On the way to our overnight stop, the Premier Inn in Lowestoft, there was an amazing sunset as we passed over Lake Lothing. The boys, particularly Owen, were excited about staying at the Premier Inn, as it means unlimited breakfast, which Owen made the most of! After Owen had eaten his “infinite breakfast”, sampling everything except the blueberry muffins, from the breakfast buffet, we set of towards home, driving across the broads, another pretty area I have not previously visited.
We stopped at High Lodge, the Forestry England site in Thetford Forest, we had previously visited in 2021 and had a really good day, so wanted to pay a return visit. Last time Owen and I rode the blue graded “Beater” trail, but this time he was more than up to the red graded “Lime Burner” trail, the trail crew have done a great job; there is not much elevation, but the trail flowed really well and descents were maximised. It was a warm and humid day, so I was glad not to be slogging up big hills. Owen rode really well, and I found it good to be riding a new trail together for the first time. Owen is at a nice age where we is old enough that we can ride decent trails together, but not too old to be excited to see the Gruffly and want to give it a hug. Jen and Henry did a lap of the green graded trail, then checked out the playground, we met them at the new pedal and play area, which is better than the similar trails at Cannock Chase and Hicks Lodge. The playground was also better than other Forestry England sites – it had the tallest slide I have ever seen, even taller than they were in the 1980s… Owen absolutely loved it, and had to be lured away with the promise of ice cream. Jen and I had cakes from the cafe, which were particularly nice. On our way in to the site we had spotted the adventure golf, so that was our last stop. I think the boys always prefer the idea of mini golf to the reality, but everyone got at least one “hole in one” (with only minimal cheating by Henry). Then it was time for the long drive back to Coventry, around Cambridge we drove through the weather that we had been avoiding, but we got off lightly. As an end of holiday treat we stopped at Taco Bell on the outskirts of Coventry, as the boys had requested a visit, surprisingly Owen managed to put loads away, even after his “infinite breakfast”.
It has been a few months since we moved out of our old house on Oldfield Road, but life has been too busy to post about where we have moved to. The answer is that we have moved a couple of miles west to an estate on the edge of Coventry called Allesley Green. As the name implies, there is a lot of greenery here, which was what really attracted us to this house – the view out the front of the house is over a park/floodplain. Yet we are still less than five minutes walk to a shop/bus stop. The house also has a large double garage which was also a big pull for me! Getting bikes out, or working on them will no longer be a combination of limbo and Tetris! Having tools near the cars, rather than at the end of the back garden will also be handy.
We bought the house knowing that it was going to be a(nother) full renovation project, when we initially viewed the house, back in the winter, we were put off by the layout and decor. Nothing else we looked at could come close to the location, so we booked a second viewing, and went in looking at the potential knowing it would need some work, and decided to buy it.
The house was originally the show home for the development, so is right at the front of the estate – hence the good views. It started off as a three bedroom house with a single garage on the side, but at some point it had a full height side extension, adding a bedroom, a bathroom and extending the kitchen. The garage was turned into a room (Jen’s office), and a detached double garage built to replace it. There were also some internal layout changes: the front bedrooms were joined together to make a larger room and the original bathroom was turned into a small bedroom (my office). Although this layout may change.
In the months before we were able to move in we had all sorts of ideas flying around about how we could alter the layout and how each room would be used. However, now that we are somewhat settled, we are switching up our priorities slightly.
Every room still needs something doing, but we are no longer looking to change the downstairs layout, but upstairs may change. Our priority for the remainder of 2025 is to get the upstairs sorted – so that the boys can move into their own bedrooms. We have enough bedrooms, but are currently keeping one free so we can shuffle around as work gets done, so for now the boys are still sharing. Jen’s office will also get a mini makeover, as we were a bit too eager picking at loose wallpaper and have pretty much stripped the room.
We have more outside space, than at our old house, but it is configured differently – one bonus of being a detached house is that we can have an out of site area for storage down the side of the house, and the view out of the kitchen/conservatory is of the pretty part of the garden, no storage/garage etc. The previous owner was a keen gardener, so the garden is in a decent state, we just need to keep on top of it. We even have a hedgehog that passes through the garden occasionally. There’s also a patio between the kitchen and garage, which will be great for entertaining, and a “secret” garden on the other side of the garage with a greenhouse. In front of the house there is parking for four cars, and a lawn. Coming from our old terraced house it is nice to have some greenery at the front of the house. We have added a flower bed and put up some hanging baskets to improve the kerb appeal – not that it can be seen from the road.
There is a lot of work to do, but we have the vision and can tell that the house will be great once it is done. Work on the house is going to be a priority over the next few years, so my blog might end up being quiet for a while, as I will got be going on as many trips.
This weekend Owen turned nine! It has been a really busy weekend (more on that in my next post), so I am only just getting around to writing this post. Friday, the day of his birthday, was very low key; he opened his presents before school, then went to his usual karate session after school and we got a McDonalds on the way home. We are going to got karting with a few of his friends later in the month when things have calmed down a bit.
Saturday would have been the day for a party, but Owen was already double booked, with a regional karate competition in Walsall and a regional cycle speedway race in Coventry. Fortunately Owen chose speedway. He had an excellent race, the way the numbers worked out, Owen ended up riding with the under 14s, rather than with the under 10s – this means four lap races, rather than the three that Owen is used to. That did not stop Owen from doing some of the best speedway riding I have ever seen him do, not only was he keeping up with competitor three or four years older than him he kept going right until the chequered flag. He came second, out of three, in the “B” final, on paper a worse result than his last race, but considering he was riding up a category it is a great result. I think riding with the bigger kids forced Owen to bring his A-game – if he was still riding with the younger kids he would have easily beaten them, most are only six or seven, but I do not think he would have needed to ride flat out to achieve it. This just shows how far he has come on after only three months of riding cycle speedway. Not only was his riding good, his attitude was great too, usually he would not react well to a set back, like racing old children, but he handled it well.
I also notice that Owen is getting a bit too big for the speedway bike that he is borrowing from the club – it fitted him perfectly at the start of the season and I had been looking to buy him that model of bike, but I will have to restart my search, looking at models with 26″ wheels.
My parents had come up to watch Owen racing, but after the speedway most of Jen’s family came round for birthday cake and a general catch up. As ever with Jen’s family there was a lot of cake, but it was good to see everyone and Owen enjoyed the fuss.
I cannot believe that next year Owen will be in to double digits, it does not seem that long ago that he was a tiny baby!
This post is a bit late – but life has been busy recently! At the start of March, Henry turned six! Unfortunately of him it was on a school day, so after his favourite breakfast – pancakes, he had to go to school. However, after school we had some family round for tea and cake. It was good to catch up with everyone, and, as usual, Jen made a great birthday cake.
The celebrations continued into the weekend, as we took the boys to London for the day. The plan had been to take Henry to see a show, but in the end we went on a bus tour, because Henry wanted to see the sights. I think he would have struggled to sit still for a whole show anyway. It was a special “kids tour”, and despite his reservations on sitting upstairs on the double decker bus Henry enjoyed it. It was the day of the protestor climbing Big Ben, the tour had to be diverted slightly, but we still got to see Big Ben, with the protestor on the side.
After the bus tour we walked through St James’ park, eating ice creams as it was such a warm day, up to Buckingham Palace. The Union Jack was flying, which meant that the King was not there, so we carried to to the tube station and got the tube to the Natural History Museum, where we met my sister-in-law Sophie, and baby Isabella. We spent a while walking around the museum, but it was so busy, so we retreated to the cafe for more cake.
The rest of March has flown by, but Henry (and Owen) will be keeping busy with a karate tournament and a cycle speedway race on the coming weekends…
At my first mountain bike race of the year at Stile Cop, I had wanted to shoot something a bit different to my usual head on race shot. Climbing a bank to get to an open section of track I took out my Fuji X100V, activated the built in ND filter, and slowed the shutter speed right down. On this frame I had managed to get the riders eyes and number board mostly sharp, which is easier said than done. The rest of the frame was a bit chaotic, which sums up a downhill mountain bike run to me. I had not planned to shoot in black and white, but prior to the conversion I felt there was something missing.
Spectating at the Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages was one of my highlights of 2024, there were a couple of images that I could have chosen, but there is nothing quite like seeing a 911 sideways on gravel.
Despite riding a lot with Owen, we did not actually visit the skate park much, this was probably from a Saturday morning when Jen was doing Parkrun. Environmental portraits, like this, are my favourite way to capture the boys, as it avoids them pulling any silly faces, I felt that this one just sums Owen up really well.
Another from the War Memorial Park, whist Jen was doing Parkrun, except this time the boys were staying with my parents, and I had just received my X-H2S, so I explored the park on my own. this guy was meditating on a bench on the bowling green, and I liked the framing between the leaves. This photo reminds me of how lucky we are having a large park near the centre of Coventry where people can relax amongst nature.
The first of two photos from the Coventry ring road photowalk I did in November. We started here at the Canal Basin, which was like a mirror first thing in the morning, so I concentrated on capturing reflections. On this day I had actually made the conscious decision to shoot in black and white, and had set my X-H2S set to the Acros film simulation.
I took lots of photos of Henry at the local cycle speedway track in 2024, most of them riding shots, but this one of him messing about in the grass, whilst waiting for his heat was my favourite. I fell like it just sums up Henry.
The second image from the ring road photowalk, this time about halfway around the ring road, in the subway that goes to Central Six, for those that know it. On the day this was not my favourite of the more tradition street style photographs, but it has grown on me over time. The framing in the square and the silhouette make it for me.
I had these trees in mind for a sunset photo across the valley for a few years, so when weather conditions for a decent sunset combined with a free evening, I drove over to Kineton to see if I could make it work. The sunset was not quite as good as I had hoped, but the concept worked well. It was also nice to get out for the evening, watching as a sun dipped behind the horizon.
When I was sent out on a Christmas Eve mission to deliver some emergency red cabbage there was only one car for the job – my little MR2 Roadster. I had just received my camera back from a warranty repair at Fuji UK and wanted to test it out. This was a super quick shot, as I also had Owen in the car with me. It was a misty evening, and the shot I had envisioned was the MR2 parked under a streetlight in the mist. Sadly where I decided to stop – an industrial estate in Nuneaton, was not particularly misty, but I still like the shot. Rather than including the streetlight I was parked under in the frame, I went for tighter framing, using the light to accentuate the shape of the car. We were probably only out of the car for a minute, but the shot came out well.
It was still misty on Boxing Night, and having been stuck in the house all day, I decided to head out and get the misty photograph I had not achieved a few days prior. Instead of taking the MR2 out, I decided to walk up to Hearsall Common, to photograph the Hearsall Star, a local festive landmark. I had taken a few different compositions, but this one with the cars was my favourite, as the cars and their lights added a bit of an extra something that was missing from the frame. I was not sure if there would be much traffic late on Boxing Night, but I am glad that there was. Walking home from this I slipped on some mud and bashed my knee, but it was worth it for this photo.
