Category Archives: Tat

Wet and Wild Wales Weekend, Bouncing Boats In Bala

By 9 commentsRides, Tat, ,

The weekend before last, we had FUN !

I turned 40 round about this time last year, give or take a week.  I know, you can’t believe it right? I don’t look a day over 50.  Aaaanyway, my Other Half invested in a Red Letter Day for me, white water rafting.  With this, I was very very happy 🙂

Last weekend was the day I chose to enjoy my experience.  The two of us packed up a bag each, a bike each and left our troubles at home on Saturday morning.  We drove to Bala, to find our B&B, Cwmtylo, about 3 miles outside Bala and within striking distance of the rafting centre.  Cwmtylo is a 400 year-old farmhouse and family home to Dylan and Craig.  I’ll be honest, it’s not the easiest place in the world to find, even by Welsh standards.  But it’s worth the drive and it’s only 10 minutes from the main A-road that passes Bala Lake – unless you take a wrong turn, in which case you’re way into murderer country (in your mind).  Cwmtylo is still a working farm.  In fact, Dylan only made the place into a B&B in response to the local tourist board’s appeal in 2009 for more B&B beds.

The Water Cycle

After leaving our bags at the B&B and enjoying Dylan’s cuppa with a nice cherry bakewell, we drove down to Bala Leisure Centre and parked the car for a few hours.  Unhooking the bikes, we got ourselves wrapped up against the Welsh wetness, which was drizzling slowly from the grey skies.  But, as Clive says, there’s no such thing as bad weather – just the wrong clothes.  We had the right clothes.

Eleven or so miles and some fantastic views later, we’d circumnavigated Bala Lake and we’d loved the undulations along the eastern bank.  From that side, away from the A-road which skirts the west side of the lake, the views of Snowdonia are simply stunning.  If you ever find yourself in Wales with an hour or two to kill, I recommend you try it.  It’s not a hard ride by any means, and if your legs aren’t up to a few little hills, they’re easily short enough to trudge up and roll down!

Dr Dre’s Place

Nobody was looking, so we got changed in the Leisure Centre car park.  A quick scoot into town and we found Plas-Y-Dre restaurant, which translates as Dr Dre’s Place. Coool!  We had a steak each and I treated myself to a cake of cheese for dessert, along with a nice pint of Brains.

Dr Dre didn’t put in an appearance, but I bet you never see Ramsay when you go to his restaurants either.

White Water Rafting

We slept like logs.  We got up when the alarm went off.  Dylan made us breakfast.  It was delicious. 🙂

Half an hour later, I was signing in at Canolfan Tryweryn, the UK’s first rafting centre.  The other red-letter-dayers and I stood out like buddhist monks at a beard & ponytail contest.  We congregated together for safety and to avoid being drawn into white water conversations we couldn’t hope to add value to.

Once the embarrassment of being the funny-looking normos out of our comfort zones wore off, the secondary embarrassment of borrowed wetsuits was foisted upon us.  But, then the fun started 🙂 !

To put it briefly, for your experience you get 4 runs down the white water in the space of 2 hours, interspersed with mini-bus trips back to the head of the run which is just down from a massive sluice gate from the local reservior.  The instructors are massively helpful – and I’m sure the ladies would find them massively handsome too.  You know, fit.

If you ever get the chance to do the rafting thing, just do it.  Don’t think about it.  The cycling was brilliant, too.  Happy days.

Tell ’em Phill sent you! 🙂

My Daughter…

By 19 commentsTat

… isn’t like most little girls.

There follows a transcript of a bedtime conversation between my daughter and I.

“Did you have a good day sweetheart?”
“Yes.”

“What was the best bit?”
“The bike race in town.  Daddy?”

“Yes darling?”
“There’s a spider on my ceiling, up there.” *points to ceiling*

*Dad looks up, rolls eyes expecting hysterics and work involving a chair, a piece of card, a glass and a key for the window *
“What do you want me to do about it sweetheart?”
“Nothing Dad. Tomorrow we’ll get him some water in a cup because spiders like to drink water so they can stay indoors.”

“Oh, ok, that sounds like a good idea. I’m going now then, goodnight God bless. Love you.”
“Love you Daddy.  Oh and Dad?”

“Yes sweetheart?”
“We’ll call him Steve.”

 

 

 

Steve.

Steve.

 

The other two girls in the house would have dealt with Steve with screams, gasps and excited demands for immediate eviction.

I love having an action girly in the house! 🙂

A to Z Playlist

By 6 commentsTat,

It’s Not My Fault. They Made Me Do It.

For the following, blame Joby and Anna Banananana.  I didn’t want to do it, but they made me.  I’ve hated every minute of doing this.

I’m a liar.  It’s bloody brilliant and you should try it.

My A to Z Playlist.

I set myself a little rule: all tracks listed have to be in my collection.  I broke it once – the Frank Zappa track isn’t, but I sing it to myself regularly so it’s allowed in.  And now I’ve listed it, I’ll buy the track anyway.

Alkaline Trio – Time to waste
Beastie Boys – Skills to pay the bills (Biffy Clyro & Busted came close)
Cud – I’ve had it with blondes (containing the perfect lyric “I was a teenage stamp collector: I’d lay on my back and youd stamp on my face”)
Deftones – My own summer (Shove it)
Elbow – The bones of you
Foo Fighters – Monkey wrench (the best pop song ever written. Fact)
Gene – Olympian
Hyper – We control
Iron Maiden – Run to the hills
Jesus Jones – Info freako
Kings of Leon – Fans (pipped KLF to the post)
Led Zeppelin – Ramble on (the best Foo Fighters encore ever with Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones brought on stage, Taylor on lead vocal and Dave Grohl on drums, 2009 at Wembley with Number One Son – memories are made of this)
Muse – Hysteria (the finest, most relentless, driving bass riff ever. Ever. Also awesome live. Their “Unnatural selection” comes close though)
N.E.R.D. – Lapdance (it was so hard not put a Nirvana track in)
Ok Go – Invincible
Pendulum – Showdown
Queens Of The Stone Age – Go with the flow (another Dave Grohl on drums classic)
Radiohead – High and dry
Senseless Things – Homophobic asshole
Teenage Fanclub – Star sign (try it, it’s lovely)
U -(I don’t have any tunes by artists beginning with U.  I must rectify this)
Velvet Revolver – Slither
Wedding Present – Take me (way overlong jangly brilliance by the Gedge)
X-Ecutioners – It’s going down
Yes – I’ve seen all good people
Frank Zappa – Beauty knows no pain
It’s a bit early-to-mid-90’s-centric, but then so am I.  I was a stooodent in ’88 to ’92 before enjoying a growing social life with a proper job and some money through the 90’s.  Deal with it.
Any comments? 🙂

Delusional Moneygrabbing Parasites

By 18 commentsTat, , ,

I should point out that this isn’t a cycling post. My apologies if you were expecting something 2-wheeler related.

This Is A Rant And Laugh Post.

A friend who shall remain nameless asked me, a few days ago, what I though about certain US-based PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) gurus.  A few names were suggested so I had a little poke around on the information superhighway and found a blog belonging to one of them.

I won’t link it here because a pingback to his site will probably get me countless delusional followers who believe that I’m actually a fan of his.  I’m not.  Let’s make that perfectly clear.  I think he’s a parasite, sucking the lifeblood and money from far too many hapless individuals.  Thankfully most of them stay at home all day: I know this because people with actual life experience wouldn’t fall for his bullsh*t, would they?

He’s called Eben Pagan.

Google him.  Read his wordpress blog and be a little scared.  Then, read the comments his followers leave and be heartily amused.

I’m sorry.  I know it’s wrong to mock the afflicted, but if you’re going to be afflicted with terminal dumbassness, don’t post it all over the internet.  Unless of course you’re happy for me to laugh at you – then for me to post it on another blog to encourage other people to laugh at you.

Actually, do you know what? I’m not sorry at all, not one little bit.

Not Googled Him Yet?

Ok, if you’re not convinced it’s worth your time, look at these.  These are actual screenshots taken from his actual blog which he (probably) actually writes.  Click on them to enlarge them and have a read, then come back here and let me know what you think.

Really? No, really really?

I mean, seriously?

I know that trolling takes place on blogs. I’ve read Joby’s.  But check for yourself.  Some of the comments left on Mr Pagan’s blog are priceless, even moreso for the seriousness and gullibility with which they have been written.

Here’s another one, with the contributor’s link expanded.  Have a click:

Love Bucket. Got to love that website.

Excuse me but I really have no interest in your Love Bucket, love.

Who Is This Eben Guy?

Eben Pagan, I suspect, may not be an actual name.  I have some difficulty imagining his parents proudly proffering him to the Priest at his Baptism and giving him that name.

You might know him as David DeAngelo, who promised to Double Your Dating.  That is, to make it possible for you to turn the heads of the ladieees.  Oh, and to remove the pants of said individuals.

Hey, maybe he can do that.  I don’t know, I’ve actually never tried his methods.  Or anyone else’s I hasten to add.  I just have a little problem with a guy who uses a different name to promote a different enterprise.  Call me distrustful, but to me it seems a little evasive?  I could be wrong.

Any Ideas?

I’ve been thinking how I might be able to get some feedback on this post.  So far my best ideas are:

  1. Tell me your best (possibly fictional but not too adult) self-help technique.
  2. Paste your favourite Eben Pagan advice or comment from one of his followers.

It’s surprisingly difficult to find any negative feedback on this guy.  Maybe he’s actually an actual genius.  My opinion is that he is not.

The next time my blog goes down, I’ll know who to blame… 🙂

Garden Growbag Bargain – Or So I Thought

By 4 commentsTat,

Garden Project 2010 – Number One

One of the girls has been doing allotmenteering at school this year, and has developed a healthy interest in all things home-grown.  Keen to reinforce this and to build on the wonderful appreciation of our garden-grown strawberries (all 6 of them) last year, we’ve invested in a few small self-sufficiency projects.

  1. Improved strawberry growing. I’m not saying how this has been achieved. It’s a secret from the kids.
  2. A raspberry plant. I bought one last year but a neighbourhood idiot uprooted the “sticks” from the embankment in front of our house and threw them into the canal.  This time they’re in the back garden!
  3. A growing house for tomatoes.  This is what this blog entry is about.

The Tomato House

In an attack of bargain-hunting that orange fraudster David Dickinson would be proud of, my Other Half snapped up a steel-and-plastic mini-greenhouse for about £7.  “Excellent!” we thought.  Over the weekend I took the bits out of the box and realised that, while a very good idea and no doubt excellent for tomatoes, the weather-proofyness of said greenhouse was less than ideal for the foothills of the Pennines.

So, down to B&Q I went and spent £25 on materials to build a suitably stable base for our £7 greenhouse.  Brilliant.

An hour or two later, with blistered office-worker hands thanks to my battery failing on the power drill, I chocked up the base so it was level and attached the uprights of the greenhouse to the shed.  Now the thing will only blow away if the shed blows away too – and the bikes should stop that happening!

A job well done, I think.  What do you think?

The tommies are propagating at the moment so they should be in there in about a fortnight.  Watch this space…

p.s. I did get out on the bike, 9.3 miles around Hollingworth Lake after being delayed by my own poor workmanship.  Time lost due to a 3-step puncture repair, gah.  But a nice ride nonetheless. 🙂

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