Graffiti from the Southern Half (21)

The graffiti in Valparaiso covers many subjects (and many buildings!).

Graffiti from the Southern Half (20)

Currently ‘resting up’, so it’s back to some more of the excellent graffiti in Valparaiso.

I’ve heard that there is some in sunny Salford, so I’ll get down there soon.

From a Roving Correspondent: Random Tractors of Europe (3)

It’s a quiet week in Timperley, but one of my roving correspondents has been out tractor spotting again. The top picture reminds me of my parking technique when I had a job as a fork lift truck driver in a steel foundry. The vehicle had been rescued from a scrapyard and had no handbrake.

Thanks Nick, and don’t forget to click on this important link (that also goes for the few remaining readers who have not yet donated – any amount, however small, will be appreciated, especially if in euros or dollars as the exchange rates are great!).

A Weekend ‘At Home’

As many readers know, a weekend in Timperley starts with a parkrun, usually at Wythenshawe. This was my 99th run there, so I took a bit of cake and some FOC incorrectly printed ‘Another Pyrenean Adventure’ books.

As you can see from the above picture, there was more cake (a ‘proper’ cake), more free handouts, an attentive run director or two, barcode scanning in the background, etc. It was a perfect morning with dry conditions and followed by a lazy coffee or two outside the Courtyard café.

As always, a great way to start the weekend. There were some impressive performances, in particular from ‘The Queen of Wythenshawe’, Jackie Cordingley, on her 200th parkrun. Well done Jackie. Well done also to Richard Evans for getting a PB, one second inside Greg Barber’s best time! Results are here.

Sue and I arrived home to find Jacob and Jessica outside and ready to spend the rest of the day with us. Much of this was spent in Walton Park, an easy bike ride down the canal towpath. Jessica, just three, showed us how she had mastered her Balance Bike and now needs some pedals to speed her on her way.

Jess can also stay on a swing, whereas Jacob managed to escape from his swing whilst high in mid air. Just a few bruises, but we may need to leave his cycle helmet on next time!

The ice cream van arrived twice whilst we were at the park. There’s no end to the time the children want to spend on simple play apparatus and bikes.

Jess enjoyed a lolly that turned her tongue blue…

Sunday brought along the annual Calderdale Mountain Bike Marathon. This year we were a group of five. Robert went ahead as usual and finished inside three hours. I set off right at the back of the 230 or so participants, together with Paul and Greg (their third year) and first timer Andy. Here are Greg, Andy and Paul waiting for the start. My 1990 Shogun bike is in the background. It behaved impeccably.

Despite lovely weather, I didn’t take many pictures this year. The one below shows Paul stuffing his face at the first checkpoint (near Hebden Bridge after about 15 km) and Greg ready to storm on ahead. I couldn’t keep up with them after that. Andy pottered along behind us all, taking lots of photos and much care on the technical sections. None of us had any problems and the ride went very smoothly. Great fun. It doesn’t matter if the group splits as there’s always somebody to chat to as you progress over the 26 mile route.

Here’s the route – 42 km (26 miles) with around 1100 metres ascent.

The results are here, and a brief summary of our results over the years is in this posting, whilst all my blog reports are here.

Finally, congratulations to the organisers for making the event run so smoothly and for providing lots of drinks and food along the way and at the finish. Brilliant.