Failure is the Key to Success

Walkers Crisps are running a promotion called BritTrips. This is to promote the fact that there are many things to do in the UK without having to go to the airport for a holiday. There are codes in bags of crisps that you register online to get points. You can exchange the points for partial or full payment of a selection of days out, meals, holiday accommodation etc.
Anyway, last Saturday afternoon we took the bikes out to Marston Vale again and cycled round the other bit of the cycle path. I was really good, as my son can now ride without stabilisers and this was the first time out since he had first managed.
On Sunday afternoon we converted 5 of our BritTrip points into a voucher for entry/parking at the RSPB headquarters in Sandy, which is about 45-50 minutes away from us. It was a really hot day, which was a shame in a way, as the birds were staying out of the way, at least they were on the heath trail that we walked. Part of the way round the heath trail is a pond that has been established for Natterjack toads and there were loads of damselflies and a couple of dragonflies flying around. I managed to get a photo of one of the damselflies, a male Large Red damselfly as I found out when I got home, and several photos of a female Broad Bodied Chaser dragonfly, also found out when I got home. There was a cuckoo in the woods further over, I can’t remember if I have ever heard one before, if I have it was a long time ago. We called it a day after about 1.5 hours as everyone was getting tired.

Tags:broad bodied chaser,dragonfly,rspb

A couple of weeks ago Jo and I decided we needed to get bikes so that we could keep up with the kids when they are on their bikes. I got a couple more Thule bike carriers to go on our roof bars, so it was just time to get bikes.

I looked about the local area for bike shops and last Saturday we all went over to Hitchin to Cycledealia to see what they had. Their suggestion for our requirement was a Giant Rock, but they didn’t have the size frames either of us would need. It was suggested that for a Giant bike I would need a 21″ frame and Jo would need a 17″. They were going to order in some bikes that week for this weekend, so to ring on Friday to confirm and then we could go back on Saturday. We finished the day watching the ducks and eating ice cream.

Jo rang them on Friday to be told that they didn’t have them, nor would they have. They would only have got the sizes in to order and didn’t know why we were told otherwise. Not impressed.

Continue reading » On your bikes

Tags:marston vale,ridgeback mx2