Archive for the 'Friends' Category

Weekend Break

Published on 3 April 2012 in Diary, Friends, Jimmy Choo, Photography, photoshoot and Travel. 0 Comments Tags: birthday, Jimmy Choo, Luton Hoo, luxury.

Well what a great weekend that was!

Nipped over to GT’s after work on Friday for a lovely home-cooked meal before an early night as GT was up early on Saturday morning for another cheeky 20 mile run before breakfast! She’s almost ready for her seventh marathon in three weeks’ time; her third London Marathon.

So when she got back, I got up and we headed into Epsom: GT to get a pedicure and me for a coffee and porridge at Caffè Nero. Then we set off for our weekend destination…

GT was a tad hungry by now, so shortly after leaving hers (and returning to pick up some undies!), we stopped for lunch at the Bear in Oxshott. Lovely food too with huge sandwiches and excellent fillings plus some great choices of starters and sharing platters.

Then on to our hotel for the weekend: Luton Hoo where one of GT’s friends was celebrating her birthday that evening. I’d had a cunning plan and booked us a room in the Mansion House itself as I had (incorrectly) assumed we’d be eating in the main house rather than one of the other buildings on the estate so we wouldn’t need to walk anywhere or go out in the cold that night.

Luton Hoo

And we were greeted with a pleasant surprise: we were upgraded to a Mansion House Suite – usually a £500 night option – which was heroically impressive with its own sitting area, a massive bed, a lobby and separate bathroom, walk-in wardrobes, etc.

Manor House Suite

The bottle of champagne I’d ordered was there chilling in its ice bucket and so everything was great as we spent the afternoon with a photoshoot and sipping champagne. GT said she could easily get used to this! My favourite from the shoot is on my photography profiles/pages.

Time then to get dressed for dinner: GT in a new LBD and heels – GT had brought a selection of stilettos with her including the Jimmy Choos, of course – and me in a suit and tie.

We then realised that Lu’s birthday dinner was actually taking place in the brasserie which was a short taxi ride away – the hotel has a fleet of its own taxis to ferry guests around the estate – so off we went for more good food and wines with great company before heading back to the main house for a nightcap!

The next morning we had a late start with a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant before heading outside for a walk around the extensive gardens (and a quick play on their croquet lawn) before coming back for a pot of tea in their gardens in the warm spring sunshine.

More Tea, Vicar?

Sadly, we then had to pack and head off home after lunch. A memorable weekend!

Midweek Blast

Published on 26 May 2011 in Bikes, Diary and Friends. 0 Comments Tags: Alton Station Café, Loomies, The Pub With No Name.

Well what an evening that was!

On my way in to work this morning, I got a text from Purge asking if I was up for a rideout down to Hampshire. After much contemplation – I finish work late and I’m flying out to Athens later today – I decided that yes I was.

And so it came to pass that I headed off from the apartment down to meet up with Purge, Matt, Pal, Agent64, Pathfinder Rob, Mr Bosch and MP at Alton Station Café, which I found out was a bike meet! From there we blasted off down to bike night at Loomies where I happily scoffed down some chips with sliced mushrooms and chopped bacon, topped with melted cheese. Fantastic! Just as I was leaving, Young Burchy showed up on his 7R so it was good to meet him too.

Not so good was Agent64 getting a puncture in the rear tyre of his ‘Blade thanks to stone chips all over the A31. Bugger!

Despite the evening getting much colder now, we then headed off at a spirited pace to the Pub With No Name at Prior’s Dean where we grabbed a pint and sat outside watching the darkness settle in. I left around 10pm to head home but decided shortly after setting off that I was getting quite cold and should stop off en route at GT’s place for a coffee to warm up, so I used the SatNav’s Bluetooth link to my iPhone and Scala headset to ring her up and invite myself over. Good call (literally)!

Then home at midnight and 135 miles later, only to be greeted by the bad news that YB had dropped the 7R after an incident with a deer on his way home. Bugger!

RIP Grib

Published on 3 September 2009 in Friends. 0 Comments Tags: CouchCommando, Grib.

I found out today that a young lady nicknamed Grib died in July when riding her new Fireblade, killed by some idiot who chose to do a U-turn on a dual carriageway in front of her.

She was an experienced road rider and club racer but even she was unable to avoid the collision that took her life and robbed her partner, Tony, of the love of his life.

RIP Lucie.

Shakedown Run

Published on 5 May 2009 in Accessories, Friends, iron butt, rain, speed, Syndicated, trip and Trips. Closed

So after a bit of a nightmare journey to get to Birmingham, I did the deal and Wilf was wheeled out of Roger’s workshop. At which point it began raining…

We’d fixed the TomTom Rider’s RAM mount to the clutch lever bolt and I plugged in the address in Grimsby and off I went. A couple of coffees later and I set the TomTom to my home address. One annoying thing was that when riding, I was not allowed to change my destination to a previously stored one, no doubt due to some idiotic ’safety’ feature. No doubt they’d want me to pull onto the hard shoulder to do this … where a number of accidents happen!

Anyway, on arrival home, I checked the trip statistics and discovered that my moving average speed for the 380 mile journey had been xxmph. Oops! Best not put the number.

OK, my back ached a little but having spent five hours in the saddle, it had turned out to be a remarkably good high speed tourer. Maybe I need to rethink my choice of bike for the RBLR1000, a 1,000 mile ride in 24 hours I’m doing for charity.