Biking

I've just been watching the first two episodes on the Long Way Down set I got for Christmas. This is the one where Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman go from John O'Groats in Scotland, to Cape Town in South Africa, and something just struck a chord.

I really enjoyed their first trip, Long Way Round, which I watched on BBC2 and read the book to, and it got me itching to learn to ride a bike. However, this time, they talked more about "just going for a ride with my mates" kind of stuff and it really just made me want to learn to ride all the more, not just because its something I've always wanted to do, but also because my Dad's 60 now and still riding regularly (he owns a Suzuki GS500 2006 registration, I think, and a Norton Dominator 650NS or something that was reconstructed and originally dates back to the '60's).

He frequently goes on trips with his mates, taking the Dommi (as he calls it) if the weathers nice, or the Suzi when its wet, but hes never had a family member to go with as my Auntie has decided my Uncle is far too old to consider riding a bike (I think he's at least 5 years older than my Dad, not sure though). My brother's never really been too bothered about motor vehicles, he drives, but he see's them as more of a means of transport, where as I genuinely love them. I grew up on the circuit really, with many memories of my Dad taking myself and my younger sister to watch Motorcycle races, and I've sat in a fair few "nice" cars (a handful of Ferrari's and a Lamborghini Countach are the highest points) and sat on many racing bikes (including one of the bikes Kevin Schwantz rode during his World Championship winning season in, I think, 1994).

So, I've now got one thing in my list I want to do with my life for definate, and thats to go on a trip with my Dad. Even if its just to Matlock Bath just outside of Nottingham, which I've been to many times as a kid in a car, once on a drunken trip with some mates in a coach and once on the bike of my Dads previous Suzi which I really really enjoyed.

I know I can ride, to a degree, as I rode a 50cc Monkey Bike around a small dirt course when I was about 8, but that was a long long time ago no (I'm now 24) and it wasn't on the roads, plus it was only a Fifty. I'm not looking at anything big, but it'll still be expensive to do, and its weighing that dream against the practicality of learning to drive a car (something both Missus and I want to do), which in reality, should come first. My Dad's always tried to make me believe that he doesn't want any of us to learn to ride because of the dangers, but I still remember the pride on his face when he saw me on that fifty and really enjoying myself and can imagine how much he'd love to just go for a ride with his son, with my family and my Step Mum in a car behind so it can be a family thing too, and I'm just scared that, considering his age, that I won't get to do that with him even though, as far as I'm aware anyhow, he's in good health and not looking 60 years old at all.

Merry Christmas and all that!

How was your Christmas? Ours was nice and quiet and the three of us came away pretty much happy with what we received, hell even the dogs seemed to be happy and weren't fighting amongst themselves. Which was nice considering in recent weeks they've spent the evenings growling at each other and starting mini fights over nothing whatsoever.

I've been looking into modifying the appearance of Floyddseuss, although its difficult to find a decent guide on how to piece everything together and its been a while since I've edited any HTML or CSS in any form, and considering the time of night, plus it's still a school holiday, I really can't get into the frame of mind to be able to concentrate on something creative that involves more brain cells than the Workshop on Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

So I've just stuck to playing with some fonts for the time being in order to find one with which to base the design of the template on, but I can't decide between the following three fonts.





Mind you, in retrospect, I quite like the last one.

Speaking of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, I recieved it from Missus and Sprog as one of my Christmas gifts and I'm really really enjoying it. It makes a nice change from all the shooting and racing that many XBox 360 games involve, and also means I can play it whilst Sprog is around, or even hand her a pad and let her pretend she's joining in.

We often do this together, sometimes, if the game permits two players and isn't too complicated she'll join in properly for a while. It enables me to experience some of the games that arrive through the post for me to write about on bitparade, whilst not neglecting the fact that one of my duties (and privelages) as a father is to entertain my child. Although her now being at full-time school has made getting gaming time in much much easier, but I also have to balance that with job searching, something thats becoming increasingly difficult in the current climate, especially when you take into consideration my lack of references because I've been the "stay at home" parent whilst Missus studies and works towards becoming a Nurse.

It's difficult for all of us really, but as I always remind her when Missus thinks things are getting too hard, its a means to an end, it'll take a while longer (she qualifies in two years time), but it'll make life better for us all and I've just gotta get my foot back on the ladder in any job (although I've ruled catering out because I know I wouldn't be able to stomach it).

Anyhow, back to Christmas, my gifts this year were:

Missus and Sprog:- VW Campervan model kit, VW Campervan mug, "My Dad Wished He Had One Of Those", Big Book of Top Gear, a Venus Fly Trap, The Long Way Down, Feeder - The Singles, Muse - Black Holes & Revelations, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts,a Nightmare Before Christmas Mug and a Light Sabre key ring.

Dad and Step Mum:- A Doctor Who T-Shirt and another one of those Camper Van kits mentioned above.

Mum and her bloke:- Smellies

Older Sister, her bloke and her two daughters: - The Dark Knight

So, not a bad haul for me really!