After half of a fairly fitful night's sleep the opening strains of The Band's Cripple Creek burst from the alarm clock like a slate sliding down the roof. We are awake and ready to go on holiday. A few final items are packed, teeth brushed and we're on the road, riding through the dark to West Yorkshire for a departure from Leeds Bradford International Airport to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
A couple of Halloweens ago I used a recipe I found on the BBC Food website for a rather splendid Chicken and Pumpkin Couldron. I blogged about it on my What I Had For My Tea blog (no longer maintained). A tasty stew cooked and served in the shell of the pumpkin. The BBC has since deemed to break the internet and has taken to recipe down. Fortunately I had a copy printed out in the kitchen drawer so I've retyped it and am posting it here for seasonal posterity.
A friend got in touch to bend my ear about cycling. He's recently committed to a long distance charity bike ride and wanted my advice on where to start with equipment, clothing and training. I'm no expert but I've been in a similar situation that led to cycling being a big part of my life. My email response to him was rather lengthy but I thought it might be of benefit to other newcomers to cycling so I've reworked it a little and published it here.
On the morning of Saturday May 19th, 2012 I awoke with a hangover. The previous night I'd been drinking in York with some friends and now felt truly awful, not just because of the booze and its after effects but because on a number of occasions on that night out that I'd been made aware of just how big a guy I was. Nothing mean or nasty was said. It was something I'd actually been bringing up myself, almost as an icebreaker. 'I'm Pete. I'm the big guy'. I realised I'd been doing this on nights out for a while.
In the mid-2000s I had a blog. It was before Twitter and having a blog is just what you did. I sometimes had things to write about and discussions to have. Most of the time I was talking to myself but as long as I was getting things out of my head and onto the world wide web I was happy.