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I am a Mamil

Well, according to the BBC I am a Mamil anyway!
I’ll admit to being middle-aged and to have discovered a new-found interest in cycling but I can’t say I am a lycra fan. I am not a sprint cyclist and I do not have the most up-to-date super-lightweight and purpose-built bike. I am an ordinary guy who has not been on a bike for 35 years looking to safely cycle for 3,000 miles. If you check the photos, you will see that I almost never wear shorts. In fact I think I have only worn them twice and not once since my accident. All that said, it was an interesting article and as I traverse the country it is evident that cycling is hugely more popular than it was when I left the UK in 2001. Thought you might like to read it.

Anyway, a relatively easy day: Calne to Bristol. As promised, I did a couple of hours of leafleting for Robin of Driveway Cleaning Wiltshire in Chippenham and then it was on to Bristol via the beautiful city of Bath. (beautiful that is apart from some hideous hills!) It has been an amazing tour and I have enjoyed returning to some old happy hunting grounds and seeing some new scenery too. I don’t think I have been to a town I’d not been to before but obviously the view from a bike is much different to that from a car or an “away coach”.

What has surprised me is the number and size of changes I see in everyday life. Change is the only constant in the world but the sheer speed of change in the past 10 years has indeed been amazing.

It is 10 years since I lived in England and nine years since I had been back to stay.
Some changes I have mused over include:

*the death of the English boozer
*the rise and rise of Continental/American style bars
*increase in safety/security measures at football grounds
*(on the same track) the huge improvement in the quality of football grounds
*the increase in cycles on the road and the introduction of cycle paths etc
*bogofs and special offers at supermarkets.
*congestion charges in London
*the huge growth in air traffic
*smoking bans, smoking “cabins” etc
*bus stops with electronic clocks telling you how long it is until the next bus
*the number of buses on the road and the commitment to public transport
*recycling
* the increase in bouncers in “ordinary” pubs and not just discos etc
* the huge change in business practices and the growth of networking groups, breakfast meetings and the shift from confrontational sales to a more social environment

When my tour is over, I will most definitely be blogging about “New England.” Is it better, worse or simply different? Do these changes make me more or less likely to return to the UK to live? Well, we will have to wait to see. “The grass may well be greener on the other side but it still needs painting” No mozzies but plenty of other irritants!

Robin Robson owner of Wiltshire

Sad to leave Oxford City but must press on – Oxford United and Swindon Town make grounds 61 and 62 completed.

Struggling for web access. My dongle does not want to work …. sounds like other parts of my battered body. It can go on the same list as brain, knees and ankles LOL

So, an early start but just as all looked good, there was a problem with the bike. On a tight schedule and even tighter budget that was not good news. Help was at hand! Reg Taylor Cycles quickly found the fault and fifteen minutes later I was on my way again. The least I could do was to make them Sponsor of The Day. Thanks, Philip and your guys.

When I am cycling there is no greater feeling than knowing I will be meeting a friend and having a bed at the end of the day. As I set off from Oxford I heard from an old friend from Spain, Robin Robson who invited me to his home in Calne. A quick check of the map showed it was only about 17 miles off my route so the attraction of saving a few bob from the depleted budget and catching up with Robin meant I set course for Calne via Oxford United and Swindon Town.

United have a new ground (badly-signposted) on the outskirts of the City of Spires and although it has a nice-looking hotel and conference centre it is one of these modern three-sided stadiums that I always think take away some of the atmosphere from the ground. Then it was four hours as fast as my little legs would carry me to Swindon Town which is well-signposted just outside the city centre.

I am beginning to get obsessed with how well or badly towns and cities treat cyclists and if Oxford is a ten out of ten and Doncaster is a zero (being kind!) then Swindon sits somewhere in the middle. OK in places and then I found myself struggling uphill on a blisteringly fast dual carriageway with no hard shoulder or dedicated cycle lane. I’ll be blogging about my thoughts on cycle lanes, signposting etc later but suffice to say that I am quite surprised I am, relatively, in one piece! Dedicated cycle tracks are a particular bone of contention as if you miss one tiny sign (behind a tree or hedge, vandalised or whatever) then your chances of regaining your route are limited. Additionally, they seem to attract the ne’er do wells of society alongside the ladies of the night (or broad daylight in Runcorn!) who seem intent in making respectable visitors unwelcome. Anyway, I eventually left Swindon and its one-way system for the hills to Calne. Seventeen miles sounded like a pleasant enough end to the day but there are some testing hills and I was glad to arrive in Calne. One of the real beauties of having a local host is that they know the short-cuts and best routes so it was a great feeling to see Robin at the entrance to the town and he escorted me through a maze of streets to his home. Five minutes with a local host or thirty minutes cycling around in circles.

I updated Robin about the project and he immediately offered to sponsor a day in return for me distributing some of his leaflets. Perfect. The budget is now almost completely blown and I really need some ad hoc work or sponsors next week to enable me to get to Swansea so if anybody wants to sponsor a day, please shout.

Nice write-up by Notts County. Thanks!

It’s all about friendship

Really looking forward to going to Oxford CITY today. Colin Taylor and his guys really looked after Bjørn when he was in the “City of Spires” last year and I’d like to go back and say thanks. Bjørn talks a lot about the help he got from the smaller clubs and Oxford City is one he often mentions. One of his/my favourite photos of the whole journey is at Oxford City.

….but before Oxford there is the little matter of Milton Keynes and it’s state of the art ground. I was delighted to be met at the stadium by David Stolz who gave me the happy news that his company, Infologic, would like to sponsor me for the day. Well, that was a great start as the refugee budget funds are very thin and I was pleased to accept his kind offer. If you are based in the M40/M1 corridors please do take a look at his site. David says, “Infologic provide consolidated IT & telephony services to small & medium sized businesses across the UK, making life easier for the typical owner / manager MD to handle, understand & trust phone lines, phone systems, Voice over IP, mobiles & email, Microsoft Small Business Server, networking, Microsoft Office licensing, IT security and ADSL broadband.

We deliver real value through both incumbent & new suppliers to rationalize ALL of your technology loves & hates, call or email now quoting ‘the shirt 2010’ leaving your name, company & phone number to be entered into our prize draw for the forthcoming Windows Mobile 7 device.” A professional service from a professional company.

As expected it was an easy trip to Oxford and apart from playing traffic cop when three cars collided and blocked off one carriageway of the Milton Keynes-Bicester road largely without incident.

I arrived at the neat Oxford City ground to be met by Colin who entertained and educated me greatly about the proud history of Oxford City. Did you know that they were once winners of FA Amateur Cup? Did you know they were once by the late great Sir Bobby Moore “assisted” by Harry Redknapp? This and more can be found here.

I was very interested to learn more about their community schemes and plans for the development of the ground. I bought four shares – one for me, one for Bjørn, one for The Shirt and, as seemed appropriate, one for the sponsor of the day, David Stolz at InfoLogic. I’d encourage everybody interested in football to whip over 5 pounds by Paypal to the club to become part of their history. Full details of their scheme are to be found on their site.

Colin was kind enough to let me stay at their clubhouse and I was locked in with my bike for a good night’s sleep. As you see, he also kindly presented me with a brand-new Oxford City polo which I wore with pride on my journey to Swindon.

Another day, another ground

Delighted to get a call from Milton Rodrigues who is organising the Ecademy Cricket Game on 5th September in Southend. He has this strange idea that after a 7 day dash from Plymouth that I’ll be fit to play in a one-dayer. Well, I look forward to attending and maybe having a nice snooze in the shade! Look forward to seeing many of you there!

It was also another “highlight” day in that I met Roger Vanstone for the first time. Roger and I had had many interesting Skype/email conversations but this was the first day I diaries actually worked. It was good to chew the cud with Roger as we put the world to rights – football, employment, IT, cricket etc etc Good to have met and I look forward to clean bowling him in revenge for him hitting me for six sixes in one over!

An early night as I contemplated three long days ahead in the saddle. The good news is that Bristol Rovers have not only invited me to their ground but that they have also invited me to the Rovers v Yeovil game. I quickly shuffled my journey and decided to push my little legs a little harder for the next three days! All being well, I’ll get to see my first league game of the journey. Super!

Sixfields, Northampton....albeit from an unusual angle

There has to be one!

I knew it was going to be a long day in the saddle and I urgently needed some provisions, toileteries etc. Right next to the Tesco Arena is the biggest Tesco supermarket I have ever seen. You can actually see the superstore before you see the stadium! It is one of those megamalls with lots of smaller shops etc inside. I asked the guy stacking trollies whether there was anywhere I could park my bike safely for 10 minutes. He pointed to the bike racks. I explained that everything I owned was on three panniers and that I was NOT going to leave them outside nor could I carry them into a store. He kind of shrugged and said, “No, you’re right, just take it in.”

So I got off the bike and walked it into this enormous mall (not into a store) where I met two charming charity collectors. I offered them a deal – a couple of quid in their tins if they just watched my bike for 5 minutes. Deal done. They tell me about their charity, I tell them about mine and we exchange cards. Just as I am checking out the phone rings and it is the girl clearly upset as the security guard has said that he is going to take the bike away. Thirty seconds later I am with him. Now, those that know me know I am a calm guy and not much upsets me (Man City away wins, thieves, cheats and liars) but this guy came perilously close to intensive care. I explained calmly that I had asked his colleague what to do, that his colleague had said to take it in etc. At that stage, he then starts screaming that he’s not “a %^&& c colleague and that he is a $%^& trolley collector”.

Now, all men are created equal in my eye and I did not see me listening to some “security guard” besmirching a valuable member of society…….. and told him so. Anyway, cut a long story short I decided that rather than break every bone in his body I’d walk away and keep Coventry’s finest in their patrol cars. As I walked outside I met the young lady who had been kind enough to mind the bike. She was visibly upset by said security guard and I guessed he had lost the plot with her too. Now, call me sexist if you like but I do not get off on guys absusing ladies. Red mist moment, shall I put him in intensive care or move on. I moved on and cycled through the Tesco carpark thinking dark thoughts about the company and the half-wit they had chosen to join their “team”.

So with appreciation and apologies to the two students at Dogs Trust, I make them “Sponsor of the Day”. I thank you both for your little act of kindness and am sorry that you were drawn into Tesco internal politics. Keep up the good work for the Dog’s Trust and hope your day is productive. You will find full details of their work on this site.

Oh yes, went to Coventry’s stadium,,,,,not much to say LOL!

Ironically, a couple of hours later a $%^&* dog ran into the traffic ahead of me, forcing me off the road. I did not feel quite so charitable towards dogs just then!

So, the day moved on and my little legs eventually got me to a YHA near Milton Keynes just before curfew. A long day with few highlights save for the kindness and friendliness of Evelyne Jeffries of Premiere Classe Hotel in Walsgrave who gets my vote for “Employee of the Day”. Thanks for the coffee before I left, for storing my bike safely and for wishing me well on my way. You might wish to give lessons in customer service to Tesco staff!

Anyway, today is a brand new day (Day 83) and I intend to make the most of it. Hope you all have a great one, guys.

A Shiny New Day

The disappointments of yesterday were quickly behind me as I started off for Leicester City Football Club. Sadly, the lady at reception directed me (correctly!) to Leicester Tigers but fortunately their impressive ground is only minutes away from Filbert Way so I got two bites of the cherry, so to speak. Flibert Way is another impressive new stadium and bears little resemblance to their old ground at Filbert Street. I was soon back on my cycle for the relatively easy and short trip to Coventry. It would have been easier if the signs for Coventry did not keep disappearing!

Then like a mirage, there was the M6 motorway a huge sign to Coventry a herd of hotels (or is it a flock?) The cheapest was Premiere Classe and I had a great single room at a reasonable price with free wifi. Premiere Classe is part of the Campanile Group and whilst the Campanile hotels are sadly out of my budget, I broke my own rules for once to get a good night’s sleep, some serious abuse of my keyboard and somewhere safe to park my bike. Sadly, Coventry is the only one they have so far but there are plans to open more. Good Luck, Premiere Classe. If they are all as good as Coventry the group will do well.

Anyway, it was good to find somewhere so early and I was happy to be watching the Chelsea versus Manchester United game. I mused that I have watched far less football on this trip than I would have done normally and realised that I had actually only seen one full game live. I am not worried about this as the trip is about the refugees and not mot me watching football but, nevertheless, it is quite ironic!

The early finish also gave me the opportunity to catch up on the papers and I enjoyed reading the predictions in yesterday’s papers about the likely outcome of the championship. Well, the writer must be looking for a hole to dive into as there were a number of surprises and many of his tips for the top (and those for relegation!) look way off the mark. That said and as Sir ALex always tells us as Man Utd get off to a slow start (Burnley away last season!) it’s a marathon and not a sprint! My own team, Gillingham, found the going tough even in League Two and had a late goal to thank for saving a home point. Oh, dear!

So, a busy week ahead with Coventry, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Oxford United and City, Swindon, Bristol City and Rovers all coming up. I have written to them all and hope they will show the same hospitality as Rotherham, Chesterfield, Sheffield United, Notts County and Nottingham Forest did. I am especially looking forward to the visit to Oxford City as they looked after Bjørn so well last year.

Disappointment at Burton Albion.

Today was possibly the most disappointing day of the tour. I cycled from just outside Nottingham to Burton Albion and despite calls I had made in the morning I was not allowed access to their stadium. I heard various excuses about, “it should have been organised in advance” and the words “safety officer” were bandied about but the bottom line is that I could not get in. So a 40 mile round trip in vain. When I think of the superb support the project has had from clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Everton, Valencia, Barcelona and Burton’s near neighbours Derby County, Notts County, Nottingham Forest etc I wonder who they think they are. First they made no response whatsoever to my letter of introduction and then they start shuffling as to whose responsibility it is at the club. I have no less than five names! Anyway, Burton Albion you have missed a PR opportunity that other clubs from the Chesterfield and Hartlepools to the Liverpool and Barcelonas have squeezed. End of. I cycled straight on to Leicester and got myself booked into a nice room much earlier than I expected!

The artwork above is from my artist friend Dave Baldwin from Papilios Creative 
Check his website for hundreds of great watercolours of the UK stadiums. 

Two BNI Meetings In One Day

Yes, even given my evangelism for BNI I almost overdosed today! Firstly it was Two Valleys Chapter who meet at the Novotel in Long Eaton and secondly it was off up the road to a lunchtime chapter at Ripley, BNI Parkside. The juxtaposition was quite interesting as there were two chapters of similar numbers and two excellent meetings ……but very different ones. It just shows the strength of the BNI organisation that the individual chapters can give the agenda their unique style. I could not fail to comment on the 10 minute presentation by Gary Bullock at Parkside. Very amusing, very informative and it included a ferret and a beautiful hawk! Yes, I kid you not, we had a live ferret and a majestic but noisy hawk! I’m just awaiting the photos to prove it. Thanks to Consumate Networker (better than Notable Networker!) Jason Smith the local executive director for organising both my invitations.

Just to re-inforce the power of BNI, they got me pitchside at Pride Park, Derby which became ground 55. After all the help that BNI have given me it was again wonderful to reciprocate in a small way and it was great to have Jason and BNI stalwart, Sara Gration with me at the ground. Sara is a HUGE Derby County fan and was delighted to welcome me to “her” stadium. Thanks and best of luck to all at Derby County this season.

I was also delighted to meet Kim Kimberley at Parkside. (Any relation to Gary and Phil’s father Nev Neville?) Her son, Leigh Timmis is currently cycling around the world!! Please check his site and say hi to somebody who I am sure could teach me a lot about how I should be cycling! I wish Leigh every success as you continue through Croatia and straight ahead …….. for the next 2 years! Lycka till, te deseo mucha suerte and all the luck in the world in whichever language he likes!

Two Clubs – Two Dreams – Two Hundred Yards Apart

It was an early and bad start to the day. Firstly, the hotel did not give me my early morning wake-up call but fortunately I was dreaming about scoring Gillingham’s winning goal at Wembley (again) and I managed to wake at 5,30 without the hotel’s help. Sadly, when I got downstairs I found somebody had slashed my back tyre overnight. Mild panic as I needed to get across the other side of town in 15 minutes. Fortunately I just made the BNI Forest meeting and it was there that I made one of the Smaritans of my jpurney. Andrew Elliott offered to chauffeur me all morning and without his awesome assistance I have no idea how the day would have turned out. Firstly, it was back to the hotel to see how bad it was and when it was clear I would need a new tyre and tube it was down to Matt at Bunneys Bikes. Despite being busy he recognised my plight (30 minutes maximum to get to Meadow Lane!) and immediately had the bike on a mount and within minutes it was returned to its former glory and we were off hot-foot to Notts County. Huge thanks to all at Bunneys. Samaritan(s) Number 2 of the day. Thanks also to Steve at BNI Forest who recommended Bunneys and gave me superb directions! Another Smaritan!

At Notts we were met by Ralph Shepherd who like Adam at Chesterfield knew exactly what he wanted and what he was prepared to do.

We talked about Notts being the oldest league club and it was indeed touching to see a band of their loyal supporters scrubbing the seats in readiness for the New Season and a home game against Huddersfield Town. Ralph is a huge fan as well as being the ultimate professional and if his passion transfers to the players, they will do well in League One. Thanks, Ralph. Thanks also for the scarf which will remind me of a great day in Nottingham (despite its start!) Good Luck.

Sadly we were pressing a deadline so we were quickly off to the City Ground just a few hundred yards away. Of late, Forest have been the “Big Boys” in Nottingham and their determination to stay that way is clear. They are also firmly behind the 2018 Bid for which they too will have a shiney new stadium. On to the pitch again with Ben White for some photos and a good chat with him about their bid , their aspirations for the season and “life in general” before we rushed off.

So a HUGE thanks to Andrew Elliott, Bunneys and also Tony Russel from BNI who has been working diligently to get me a face to face at his beloved Burton Albion. Let’s hope!

A quiet day with just a short journey from Ripley to Nottingham. I then spent the same amount of time looking for somewhere to stay. This accommodation search most nights is a total hassle. Great respect to BNI who have arranged accommodation for the next two nights in two separate hotels in Long Eaton. It saves such time. Thanks, guys.

No BNI meeting this morning but I have 3 confirmed for this week – Parkside, Two Valleys and Forest. I am looking forward to them all. I have received tremendous support from Frank Flegg and Jason Smith the two local directors. They will be mentioned in despatches to BNI Head Office. Lovely also to hear from so many BNI members who I have met who are now regularly following me, emailing me, tweeting me. Your support is much appreciated.

Also confirmed up with Notts County and Notts Forest for visits to their grounds. Fantastic when I do get the opportunity to confirm in advance. Just turning up at Chesterfield would not have allowed me to get the fantastic support I did. Sadly, sometimes time does just not allow it and/or there is a change in the diary. Perfect world ……….

Got a lovely email from a Derby County fan today. She was the first bride at the Pride Park Stadium ……. precisely one day after the Queen opened it. I’ll be passing her respects tomorrow.