Same old

 Sundays now have a bit of routine about them, most importantly being that the apprentice and rug rat mkII bake casseroles for our breakfasts. Casseroles and sweet puff pastry tasties with melted dark chocolate in them, most people know them as pain au chocolate but we know the real name. Once breakfast is devoured and the animals all seen to we decided that as it was such a nice day (actually it was raining but we had faith) it was time to hit the beach!

 So we took the mountain road which was in no way a recce to see what it would be like to cycle it, no that would be wrong. Along this road is this arch built in 1810 for some dead Royal and I;m so old I remember a time when this bit of road was THE road not the two lane carriage way 10 metres to the left of this pic. Anyway nostalgia aside we made it to the beach where once again the boys had fun in the sand dunes.

 As did we, playing chase the kids, chase the dogs, being chased by kids, being chased by dogs and so on.

 Bryn and Mrs Bear had the time of their lives.

 Mrs Bear took to the water

 being a salty sea dog type

 who loves ice cream. There was no second bite, down in one!

 Mix up on sequence here, so here is my diet dinner, veggie curry and rice.

 While here is rug rat mkII enjoying his ice cream.

 After curry I took on what has to be the worst hill climb ever.

 That's the bonsai mountain in the distance.

A massive climb, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so did both, and swear, lots of that. The descent was interesting too, a deer jumped out of the hedge and raced along the road in front of me for a mile or so.

Thanks Doc!

 Early doors saw yours truly not astride his bike as planned but holding his jaw and trying not to cry. For weeks now I have coped with (read ignored) a wisdom tooth that had broke into tiny pieces leaving a huge hole. As it didnt hurt there was no problem and I see the dentist in July so all good. Except pretty soon it did hurt and to the point that even breathing was painful, more painful than when my left arm fell apart and the nice medics tried to put the 26 pieces together again. So there I was in the dentist chair while the nice doc told me what she was going to do and tut tutted about what the dentist I normally see had done to me on Monday (imagine sticking an elastoplast over a gangrenous limb, that sort of thing) and after an hours drilling, removal of three nerves and much flushing I was rebuilt.

 However after so much facial surgery I was in no mood to use my VIP tickets meal and bar included meet the player type thing at Worcester Saracens Rugby Club, instead I gave the tickets to our daughter and friend and while they made merry surrounded by beef I took to a very big hill on my bike.

 This was a new sort of pain, 51 very hilly miles in three hours 17 minutes and 23 seconds. So different in fact that it made me forget about my teeth and even prompted a smile.

 The tie fighter obsession has now gone 3D.

As I am training intently for the man test, it would seem a good idea to lose a few kilos of excess me. So this is work ongoing, but who says diet food needs to be boring. Here is a super slimming feta cheese, grilled with balsamic vinegar and mustard seeds. All dolled up on a plate. You see its not just toy soldiers I can be a nerd about.

Lesson learned

 To teach the naughty racer a lesson in not letting me down (or its tyres) it was ignored today and the trusty mountain bike was taken out for a spin. Bored with the everso repetitive miles on the road we went off piste again and ended up doing a track called Milford Way which has at the start these impressive standing stones

 which were supposed to have been lifted from our back garden a while ago.

 The track in my memory was a simple dirt track with no obstacles. Memory and erosion had other ideas and soon me and the trusty steed were faced with monster potholes and streams that hid quite how deep they were.

This is where one of us fell over. In all an exciting few miles, but no where near the average of 35 a day to achieve the target 1000. Ho hum.

No effect

 Thoughts of a cheeky fifty miler in the evening sunshine were dashed by the conditions of the road. At 300 metres a bang from the rear meant quick tube change, 10 yards further prompted another change and at 500 metres the sense humour failure was so great once I ran out of gas pumping up the third tube caused the bike to be launched over the hedge to think about its future while yours truly stomped off home to beast himself on the cross trainer. The bike was dutifully recovered later on once it realised how serious the error of its ways were.

 Lighter moments of the day, the apprentice announced that he was going to draw a tie fighter, hence this.

 This then developed into a full on space battle with the bad tie fighters chasing the good one.

By morning he had left the dark side and joined Luke et al and produced a X wing engaged in combat with four tie fighters. Some nifty shooting about to shorten the odds. Who says television doesn't influence children?

A quest to be a Nerd

 A nasty chest infection has meant yours truly has felt less than inclined to do any training which is a bit of a downer considering the size of the man test in June. The rising sense of panic knowing its less than 6 weeks away has also proved a de-motivator as any training must nearly kill me otherwise its not going to be any good, right? Wrong. So back to basics early doors and a new target/programme to work to involving completing 1000 miles of training this month.

 First five miles were to take a different path up to Stanner Rocks and as this meant traversing the local quarry the two lucky dogs chosen as companions found themselves on leads for almost the first time ever.

 Once we were free of danger from the massive Volvos carrying huge quantities of the planet to various crushers they were back in relaxed mode and free to take in the views, the Bonsai Mountain our normal stamping ground early doors is the tall lump in the background.

 This is the summit of Stanner

 where Rocky and I took the compulsory selfie

 and then headed off downhill through the bluebells. This very steep descent prompted an idea about training part deux in the evening.

 So as we wended our merry way back to HQ

 via Worzel Wood I hatched a cunning plan.

 The evening routine over, with all animlas fed watered and kids to bed yours truly set off on almost the same route as early doors but this time on my trusty steed. No not a shitland, my mountain bike.

 It all went to plan, a very strenuous climb along the forest trail got me to the very top

 where we enjoyed the view

 before setting off on an insane downhill through the woods which equated to a near miss every .36 of a second until we got to the bottom, we being me and my bike. There were a couple of times I had to stop and question my sanity looking at the rocks and death traps ahead but as an adrenaline rush it was huge.

In order to calm down after such a frantic descent I got in touch with my inner nerd and painted some camouflage jackets. Once a nerd, always a nerd.

1000 mile service

 Trevor the pocket rocket is going through his startling colour changes as he does every spring. Ten days ago he was brown all over, while today he's a

 a muddle of light colours with black socks and mane. It was also time for his 1000 mile service so heres Lewis at the dangerous end checking his tyre pressures.

 I'm often asked how is it that we get so much done at HQ, plus work, train etc etc, well by exploiting child labour obviously.

They get to do the heavy work while we get to play with the animals. If only!

Its that time again

 A rainy bank holiday monday so it had to be Dilwyn show, a place where its a good idea to lock your car doors otherwise it gets filled with balloons.

 A place where the Wild West meets

 UK weather and apathetic yeeeeehars.

 A place where the car parking is a bit uneven

 and a lot of the cars have an element missing from modern motors, character.

 Where children sit in the rain and pretend to have fun

before crashing go karts into giant inflatables obscured by screaming humans.  A great day out. Again. Despite the rain.

Don't drink the water!!

As part of the not quite rebuild Rock HQ we are having a revamped water supply, hence the appearance of some of the cottage's internal organs on the drive. The big green tank was so heavy the non Steve tasked to move it had to phone for the cavalry to come and help. Once the extra guns turned up the surprisingly heavy tank refused to comply and come quietly and after much huffing and puffing it was cornered in the bathroom and tipped into the bath, the clever amongst us supposing it was half full of water. The off black liquid goo that eventually poured out was a new find and clearly not what we expected. Turns out our spring water might not be quite so pure after all and the silt had collected over the 25 years since the the tank was fitted. There might only be minute amounts but it all adds up, and what added up was now sitting in the bath threatening the dog. Much dilution late it was dealt with but to prevent further collection and potential tummy upsets we now have a massive in line filter system fitted.