I doubt anybody is still watching this site (especially since it has been over 2 years since the last post) but our site and gallery has moved to

www.vallins.net

This will be the last post here.

Cheers

John

On Sunday Susie celebrated the monumentous occasion that was her 30th birthday. In order to help her celebrate we organised a party at 'Bubbles' bar in Leamington Spa on Saturday night.

Susie and Uni friends celebrating

The turnout was excellent and the buffet was ravaged. A good time was had by all I hope, a few pictures can be found here.

Sunday was considerably calmer. The morning was spent packing various guests off with bags of buffet food. The afternoon was taken up with unwrapping an enormous pile of gifts. In the evening we ate out at the Thai Elephant which was as top notch as ever.

There are fewer happier events in our household* than when I finish building a new bicycle. This one is a Specialized S-Works E5 Road. It's light (at a shade over 18 lbs), fast and as a bonus doesn't try to throw me off like the old Trek OCLV used to.

* I speak only for myself

Yesterday (Sunday 10th April) saw Geoffrey and I take part in the 21st edition of the "Hell Of the North Cotswolds". For the uninitiated the HONC is a 100 km reliability ride around the road and trails of the Cotswolds, starting from the town of Winchcombe (about 10 miles from 'nam). This was (about) the tenth time I've ridden this event and was the first time all 1000 places were filled ahead of time.



We managed to set a record of our own this year by only starting 20 minutes late. This unfortunately meant the first 10 or so miles were spent riding (and waiting) behind slower riders. Once the trails cleared a bit we made fairly steady progress round, the only problems being my lack of fitness and one puncture. After almost six hours riding we arrived back in Winchcombe tired (me especially) but glad to have made it round. This years statistics are as follows
Total distance covered : 65.90 miles
Total time : 5 hours 52 minutes
Average speed : 11.2 mph (how weak is that?)
Number of wrong turns : Four
Number of wrong turns which involved riding up steep hills needlessly : Two
Amount of food grubbed : 20 fig rolls, 3 chocolate bars, 2 cakes, 2 bananas, 2 cereal bars and one jam sandwich.

This year's route was billed as being one of the hardest ever with lots of new trails being included. It was definitely a good route but much of it seemed to be tracks included in previous years ridden in reverse. Still, the last 10 miles was good, the descent of Waterhatch being a much better finish than the energy sapping grassy trails on Cleeve Hill.
Bring on next year.

You can find out here using 'audioscrobbler'. Audioscrobbler "builds a profile of your musical taste using a plugin for your media player. Plugins send the name of every song you play to the Audioscrobbler server, which updates your musical profile with the new song." I've installed the plugins for both itunes and slimserver so pretty much everything I listen to will get logged to the server. Time to get "Star Trekkin'" by the Firm ripped from 7" to MP3 and into the audioscrobbler charts.

Here is the New Year Sales List. It's like the Queen's own New Years Honours list except I've not knighted any tea ladies. Enjoy.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to wish my loyal readership a happy 2005.

On New Year's Eve we went attended a Children's TV themed fancy dress party hosted by John and Debbie. A fine time was had by all. As you can see from the picture below we decided to go as Mystery Inc.



From the left, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne and Boris Johnson

A few pictures can be found here and here.

It would seem the search for a new car is finally over. I've managed to pick up a open top single seater with a 'phat' set of alloys. It's even got room for the shopping. Check it out



How safe is that?

...the real football fans were following Super Cheltenham Town thrash the mighty Dagenham and Redbridge 5-1 in their LDV Vans Trophy (southern section, first round) clash at the hallowed Whaddon Road.

Come on the Robins!

After 3 weeks away travelling through France, Spain and Andorra we are now back. Had a great holiday which makes returning to the monotony of work even harder. Anyhow will post pictures at some point in the near future.

The new GLC single "Guns Don't Kill People Rappers Do" is out on the 26th July 2004. The album is apparently following sometime in August. I can only hope the mooted GLC/Darkness cover of the classic "Walk This Way" is out sometime near Christmas.
Anyhow download the video of "Guns Don't Kill People Rappers Do" here. And remember that "rap is more deadly than ******* kung-fu".

It is with much regret that I have decided to sell my Volvo 740GL. For anyone interested it is a 1989 740GL saloon, more details can be found here.

Now sold !

Just returned from France having taken a trip with Geoffrey to see a couple of stages of 'La Grande Boucle'. We took in the 3rd stage - Waterloo to Wasquehal 06 Jul 2004 and the 4th - Cambrai to Arras (team time trial) 07 Jul 2004.


Saeco riding the team time trial

On the first day we managed to catch the stage on one of Northern France's infamous sections of pavé at Gruson. Following a night in the delightful town of Lievin, the highlight of which was watching some sort of chariot racing in a French bar, we took in the team time trial. Drove out to a small village on the route called Haplincourt from where we watched the riders in the pouring rain. A short video clip of the Brioche La Boulangiere team (sadly without Beloki)during the team time trial can be downloaded here. The rest of our pictures can be viewed here.

Find out here.

I'm 'Handsome Devil' apparently.

Some people don't know the Goldie Lookin' Chain. Some people don't get the Goldie Lookin' Chain. For the rest of you clarts who are down with Newport's finest here is a link to the seminal Half Man Half Machine video as shown on CD-UK (you'll need a divx codec). Safe.