Birnam

 Yesterday I made a trip to Birnam, near Dunkeld, 10 miles past Perth on the A9.

Quite a long way (108 miles) for a day trip, but worth it. 

One of Pirate's former competitors on grass track...who has the same initials, VP.... finished racing 22 years ago ..he is now 78...but carried on for many years as as official of the Scottish Highland Games Association...his wife still judges the dancing.

He has a grand collection of bikes, and restores them...and this special grass track bike belonged once to Jock Ward..a top rider on both road and grass, and a long time official in Scottish Cycling. It was also  a Flying Scot, a marque made at Rattray's bike shop in Glasgow.

Like Pirate, Jock Ward hasn't long since died...so VP decided to ride the grass one more time at the Birnam Highland Games, in their honour.

Our Fife friend came up to Birnam as well once he heard of the plan....his daughter, once a rider in the Scottish Commonwealth games team and a professional bike rider, started her racing career on the grass at Birnam, following her father's wheel tracks as it were.  VP did two of the four races and Fifer was his holder and pusher at the start.  These were both handicap races...the idea being that it is fair for all and no-one is made to look a fool!

It was a grand sunny day....and I don't remember when I had a day just to relax with friends, and watch the proceedings, last.

One innovation to add...there were women's events in the Heavies for the first time...tossing the caber, shot putt, throwing the weight over the bar....

The aim is to toss the caber end over end and land at "12 o'clock"....this isn't easy for any competitor 

One sprint heat on the way, stretching being done before the next 

Fifer and VP

No "54321 go" in the games....the cry is Take Hold!...and the whistle and gun follow quickly after!!

The cycling, like the running is mixed...only one girl today..

A Unicorn ( of course, this is Scotland) and a dinosaur..I bet that they have were glad if the internal fan to keep the suit inflated!!

Then the drive home...with two stops on the way home, one in a supermarket to cool down... And get the reduced items as well, of course!!

Back in the saddle

 I have been concentrating on shirt deconstruction...the quilt will be Ours..a combination of Pirate's shirts, both the ones that he wore and the ones of his that he liked me to wear, and some of mine.

The bike room is gradually being sorted...his newer desk emptied, bikes to one side mainly and boxes of tools in one place. This may be the spare bedroom and sewing room eventually..but the turbo trainer stays.

With the weather warning carrying on today, I rigged the bike up on the trainer and had a good pedal for half an hour.

It was strangely warm after a cold night last night...the mist was almost steam over the hills at the back.

Then back to unpicking after lunch. I am on shirt number six!

Gardening and sky

 A quick dash into town this morning..birthday cards to buy and send..then back again to the fray!! Yet more washing, steadily getting there....and it was a beautiful afternoon...a good reason to mow the front lawn and start work on the paths, weeding and trimming around the slabs...

Worth the effort... although the job is done sitting on a fold up stool!!

Supper from the freezer, watching a video of Saturday's women's Olympic cross country MTB....and doing some mending!!

And again at 10.30....street lights...light pollution... mostly a waste of power, except at road junctions....and why we never see matters astronomical from here.

First ride

 Out in time this morning to support my team mates as they were riding the team time trial championship... unfortunately with ten miles to go, one got a puncture...and as it is the time of the third rider over the line that counts..and we only have three...they counted as Did Not Finish.

Great to see them all anyway.

The headquarters were at Eglinton Country Park...and I wanted to find a safe way to get from there on my bike to the coastal path...there isn't an off road path or small road that I could find easily...one for a bit more research I think.

So I went to Irvine Harbour and parked there and rode up the NCR 7/73 (both follow the same path for a while) to Saltcoats Harbour and back..just 15 almost flat miles but a first ride for me on Pirate's Eroba bike.

We got on well enough...and I need to get fitter...and possibly have some smaller chainrings...and/or bigger sprockets!!

And back over the river at Irvine 

Then home for a rest...and catch up with the washing mountain and the dishes!!

New bike

 I have inherited a bike that Pirate got in 1961 for winning a race when he was based in Germany at an RAF base....an Eroba, a frame from Echt in Holland. 

It has been out on loan , being ridden in the Eroica classic cycle events, where the steeds have to be steel of a certain vintage and equipped to match...and now it has returned...with many thanks as I think it will fit me better than my lovely 1948 Hobbs Superbe. 

Bikes don't change, but our bodies do. Especially when they have been battered by cars and hard work over the years.

Our Fife friend came over to give me a hand with fettling it. .. if I wish to enter an Eroica event I can replace the pedals and saddle to suit. For now I am using what suits me!

And later in the afternoon, my brother arrived from the Isle of Man where he has had a week's holiday..on his electric motorbike..

Cue sorting electrical gubbins...we found that I have not one, but two CD/DVD players..which work....with the TV!  Tomorrow we hope to get the right lead to use the TV as a monitor..

And meanwhile he has started sorting my website......

Brothers can be very useful..as well as good company!!

On my bike

 But on the turbo trainer!! 

We even had hail this morning as well as wind and rain...after a beautiful sunny start....

I was awake at dawn, must have been 3- 3.30...then just after 5 it was a clear sunny morning....and by 7 it had clouded over.....

So today's job was sort the bike room so that I can use the turbo.

Happily some more old photos came to light....I think that this is Pirate's grandfather who was a waggoner 

I need to learn how to get the best from these images so that you can read them properly.  Not something I have time for yet!!

Half an hour pedalling steadily did me good..now I'm sorted if the weather isn't favourable, or time short!!

Beside the Clyde

 

By Mancini's Ice Cream Parlour as I waited for friends at the end of their bike ride

Haar Haar !! After some nice sunshine yesterday, it has been misty all day..

My friends had had a nice couple of hours on their bikes going around the lanes... interspersed by some punctures...and a tree falling across the road between two groups! 

Nice to get out and see folks.  When I have got the house reasonably straight I will dig my bike out from the shed....I have the choice of the second or the fourth one back...and the latter has the lower gears.....and everything needs to come out to get at it!!

It doesn't rain, but....

 At least it is beautiful outside.

Pirate has managed to get himself seriously dehydrated...so another infection to clear, and I have to stay on his case to get him drinking.

Being dehydrated he is also a tad confused.

Neither of us need this. Why do things like this always happen on a weekend...and a long weekend to boot!

Still, it was a bonus when the emergency doctor came out...he is a cyclist and walker, and his wife is a triathlete..and we know him!

I cut a leek from the garden in half...soup time... isn't it beautiful.

Equinox, weather, friends

 

There always seems to be stormy weather around each equinox.

Eleven years ago we were in NZ and people here were saying to us "don't come back now"..with heavy snow and the telegraph poles along the western side of Arran snapped like matchsticks...

No snow here, but we have been having days of "washing machine weather", four seasons in a day, hail yesterday...we might get a break in this for a short walk.

Pirate now has diuretic tablets..that and non penicillin ABs are working slowly..but worryingly his appetite is still low..if it's not one thing....

Getting there slowly. We will see what the stoma nurse says at his review on Monday.....

I have a sale to post! The six books in the series "Earth's Children"by Jean Auel . I must get more things listed, a sale is a good incentive!

Yesterday we had a friend visit from France. When Pirate came out of the RAF sixty years ago, friend was a 13 year old, getting into racing and noone else in the club they were in then was willing to help. Pirate encouraged him, and for the years that he did race he enjoyed it. He kept on cycling, became a mechanic and ten years later was working with British Cycling squads. I met him at Lilleshall on a Women's Squad training weekend...but I hadn't seen him again since then!

So a good day of reminiscing for us all. 

A day of two halves

 We had a beautiful sunny morning, with the intention of going for a walk....but I got "chatting" to my daughter by message...

Then we had a flying visit from half of the Ayr Burners clubrun!!!

It was great to see them and chat...

By then it was definitely time to head out with the plan to pick up the paper and a picnic lunch and go for a flat walk...

The weather gods had other ideas....not even a chance of ten minutes walk in a break....it started gently and didn't let up...eight hours later as I write it is still raining outside.....

So picnic in the car, in a layby, looking over at Arran...and Goat Fell in the clouds..down to Girvan...still raining....and home up the Girvan Valley on the lower road.

Still, we did have a nice "tiki tour" even if was with a tin overcoat!! Better than just sitting indoors.

Ticking along

 Pirate goes to the Velodrome once a week at least..keeps him ticking over mentally and physically.

I am trying to make more ME time but it is difficult at times...too much else going on and filling up my headspace.

Anyhow, himself has a consultant appointment tomorrow...fingers crossed they will give the go ahead for The Big Op as we know he needs it NOW.

First footing

 Ayr Roads Cycling Club is one of the few still with a club hut..and today was the annual first footing! It used to be used as a summer headquarters, with people staying there overnight to be able to go further afield than they could in one day..like a bothy.

It has a fire and a stove..and a log book!

Great to see those who could make it..some by car, others carefully by bike..some roads had ice where water had been running over roads.

In the centre is Dr. Tom and his wife Mhairi. He used to be the radio doctor in Scotland on a morning programme and was also race doctor for many races that Pirate organised.

They live just over the burn that the hut backs onto.

They are learning Gaelic on Duolingo too, despite being originally from Gaelic speaking areas...but the schools system knocked it out of many people... sometimes literally..and they moved away as their parents followed work and in turn their work kept them away.

Sad times

 SAD...we are so looking forward to longer days and sunshine.

Sadness.

Fortunately one of Pirate's longstanding friends had phoned him for a chat last week. Yesterday his wife texted Pirate to say that he had died suddenly.

Services team , all stationed in Germany in the early 1960s.

On the left, Mick Evans Army...emigrated to Adelaide. 

In the middle, Mick Coupe, also Army I think, who has just died. A really good rider, rode as an independent (not a full professional).

On the right, Pirate, RAF, in the green and white kit of the Ashford Wheelers.

Speaking to him last week has eased Pirate's sadness. But it hasn't helped him when he is already feeling low with his health problem.

A weekend spectating

 Sprinter/coach friend showing that he can still do it!

On the Saturday my bike did well...good to see it helping someone who has come into track racing and joined the team we are in. 

In the morning she had ridden a team pursuit and they won bronze.

On Saturday night after the finish of racing we went on up the road from Glasgow to Dundee..the nearest budget chain hotel South of the race on Sunday. Two hours in the rain....

We were aiming to see our friend ride the last of the Scottish Cyclo-cross series, in Brechin, one that had been postponed due to bad weather...

On the Sunday morning we woke to fog.....up the A90 with hardly any break in the weather...on arrival at the course we had to go further along the road to park at an industrial estate, or go on the field and risk getting stuck.

After a very good quarter mile walk in our wellies back along the road we reached the Equestrian centre where the racing was being held, going mainly around the woods at the edge of the fields.

We missed the beginning of his race, but while watching in the rain I got some decent photos as they lapped...the aim is to have a course that is ten minutes around, then the riders do (for example) 40 minutes and a lap...

Then more photos of the women racing as we had a clubmate in both races, as well as our friend, who won on the day as well as overall in the series.

Then back down the road, still misty until Dundee, refuelled the car and ourselves and back to the Velodrome in time to see our clubmate finish the last ten laps of her points race, sprints and points every ten laps...bronze medal again...after riding an individual pursuit in the morning..silver for that...a hard three days racing for her against girls and women far younger.

A nice touch...the medal winners insisted on the fourth placed rider being in the picture..as she is about three times the age of the winner....who is on the Alba development squad.(and who lapped the field twice....)

Great to see all doing well and catch up with friends all weekend.

Now back down to earth with a bump and catch up on washing and cleaning!