WHAT A WEEK IT HAS BEEN FOR @CYCLINGFORHARRY !!!!!!
Unfortunately a lot of it is going to be kept secret for now. ha ha I bet that's killing you already???
On Saturday our very own BCFC MAD @melcastle69 phones me to tell me she had a spare ticket to watch Birmingham City FC. But I had to decline as I was currently at a Ballet Class with my daughter and then had to put the car in for M.O.T. (now that's rock and roll). But in all fairness I do look good in a TUTU.
I later find out via Facebook that @melcastle69 and her daughter had a great time at the game, because they spent the whole game and a pub visit with our very own @jonsarno (Magic Micheal Johnson)
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| Chelsea & @jonsarno |
I've spoken to @melcastle69 after there meeting, and told her that under NO circumstances should @jonsarno sit with her at the football ever again. This is because until there meeting Birmingham City have gone unbeaten at St Andrews for the last 17 games.
Sorry @jonsarno but you wasn't exactly a good luck charm. lol #onlykidding
Well Sunday morning is here. @benno112 has decided that it's not wise to join us. This is because his better half Kelly has 3 weeks left of her pregnancy. As Kelly is my Sister-in-Law, I wasn't prepared to take the blame for him missing the birth of his first child. lol. so I agreed fully.
The riders that are meeting me at mine start arriving one by one. As soon as they arrive I throw them a Help Harry Help Others Vest which the lovely Georgie dropped around my house on the Saturday afternoon. Well happy with the vests, Georgie told me we only had the one size, Large. I thought to myself "that will do".
We put them on. These vest were a little tight on the more rotund of us to say the least. HAHA
As you can see. A few of the riders can carry off this look. But as for myself, it looks like I've got a football up my top. No comment on @L4rk1n. haha. @melcastle69 is throwing the catalogue pose and the KID @will_coyne is trying to get his guns out. SHAME!!!!
10am and we're gone, with a send off from my own Mother & Father who are up for the weekend from Weston-super-Mud. My old man is the one that donates every month but at the same time moans he cant do it by direct debit.
A mile in we pick up @bblackwell77 and carry on to the Greville Pub to pick up the machine @icemanblueboy. We pull up and throw him a vest. This is going to be fun. @icemanblueboy can only be described as a 'Big Unit'. But fair play, he went ahead and squeezed into it with ease. So all in our new vest and no-one else to pick up we head off.
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| @icemanblueboy |
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| @bblackwell77 |
We are averaging around 13mph according to #endomondo so i am more than happy with out progress. The sun is shining and we are in the middle of the countryside. What a lovely day for it. We are getting a lot of nods and hello from passing cyclists and pedestrians thanks to our new tight vest. ha ha. Oh and the usual ranting and raving of some motorists. Ha ha. I don't even know why some of them are angry at us. Weird!!!.
I make the decision not to stop where we have on the previous two rides due to the three massive hills that follow immediately after that point. SEE, we are learning. Albeit slowly hahaha.
The 17 mile mark is passed. Those of us that have done this route before know whats coming. Those dreaded 3 hills. We hit them hard. Finally we get to the top and take a breather. Apparently the @icemanblueboy has been cycling beside @l4rk1n up the big hill whilst pushing him up the hill with his hand. Ha ha. I found this very amusing, but then realised that this is the first time these two gents have met. With @icemanblueboy being a mad Birmingham City fan and @l4rk1n being a mad Villa fan I had a little smile to myself. Realising that I have brought these two characters together for such a worthy cause. If it wasn't for Harry, these two chaps my never have crossed paths. Helping Harry Help Others don't have sides. We are all one, with the same goal. I buzz of it!!!!
We all get off our bikes and take a break. Whilst the drinks bottles and chocolate come out we attract a few fans.
@l4rk1n was in his element here. Off he goes feeding the sheep instead of taking fluids on board. What a true Pro.
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| @l4rk1n & @bblackwell77 |
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| @L4rk1n |
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| @melcastle69 |
We are about to set off and this pleasant chap called Dave stops for a quick chat and asks what we are doing. Well that's just a bee line for me. Instantly I go into full depth of our mission. Having heard of Harry he asks if we had a Just Giving page. Well, off I go again. lol. I love a good chance to plug our event. Whilst our new friend Dave is posing for a photo @bblackwell77 produces a bag of Harry bracelets from his back pack. I ask Dave if he has £1 on him for a bracelet? Sadly he didn't. But as he shown interest in our event and the fact he was friendly and knew about Harry's work I thought it was only fitting to give him a bracelet. Then I told him that he must donate or else I will hunt him down. #justkidding.
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| Dave |
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| @l4rk1n & Dave |
Dave leaves us as we saddle up ready to set off again. We get about 100 yards down the road and @l4rk1n has a flat front tyre. We all pull over to address the situation. We find that between the three @larkNlarks crew, that all have the same bikes actually have no spare inner tubes. This means it has to be a patch up job. How fun!! We get the wheel off and find that the puncture is right by the valve. This is going to be tricky. Out pops my Halfords green SCABS. For £3.99 these bad boys have got to work.
As you can see from the photos, @l4rk1n is not doing a fat lot to fix his own puncture. I suppose you don't have a dog and bark yourself'.
After I nearly got copped having a pee up a bush by a lady in a BMW asking for directions we set off again. We manage to get a further 400 yards and its flat again. Oh dear, we are in trouble. We whip the tyre off and slap a further 3 more SCABS on it and off we go again. All is good. No problems with his tyre, 'Happy days'. We churn up a few more miles and we have to say bye to the @icemanblueboy as he had to be back to do the dishes or something?
We manage to get to the pub we stopped off for some quick refreshment last week but head straight past it. The plan is to get closer to home and Kidnap @davejbrady and drag him into the Wheatsheaf Pub for a few. lol.
We get to 27 miles and my phone rings. Its @bblackwell77 telling me that @l4rk1n has another flat tyre. We could taste the beer and was going for it. I forgot to look around to check if everyone was with us. We turned back to get him. Parting company with @melcastle69 as she was near to where she lived.
About half mile back up the road stood a very sorry faced @l4rk1n. Off comes the front tyre again. We realise its the same puncture problem. Out comes the rest of my SCABS. This must work now. All confident and after another 20 minutes of trying to fix this dam puncture we set off again. It must be fixed!!!
1 more mile passes. Yep you've guessed it. The tyre is flat again. For the love of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@bblackwell77 and @davejbrady have to get back. So off they go. There goes our plan to kidnap the birthday boy.
After phoning around to see if one of the two company vans that they own can pick them up failed. There was only on result - TAXI FOR LARKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We wait whilst @l4rkin phones his taxi. On hearing, that the taxi will be with him in 15 minutes we shoot off. The plan was to meet him at the Wheatsheaf pub.
We got to the pub in record time. You can see that one of the last mile was our quickest, lol. Go figure.
Whilst the rest of the lads sit in the beer garden I get the round in with the "beer kitty". Thinking people would be staring at me because of what I'm wearing I feel a bit silly.
Little did I know that @bblackwell77 had already been their with his posters.
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| @bcfcboz |
A total cost of £24.98. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
@benno112 turned up to have a drink with the birthday boy that wasn't there, so we squeezed him into a HHHO vest. It was @benno112's birthday on Friday so we had something to toast anyway. Excuses, excuses.
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| @benno112 |
What can I say, apart from its another learning curb for us all. Oh and YOU @larkNlarks crew need to get some spare tubes. We sat there in the Sunday sun after being joined by my lovely wife Emma and my Ballet partner/daughter Laila and toasted the two birthday boys. But sadly the moaner @brunone1 had to leave us
So after a swift couple or 5 we realised its time to get back home. The @larkNlarks crew's lift finally arrived and i think he took his pint with him!
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| @l4rk1n |
I was so tired on the night. I went to bed early after my chocolate milkshake only to be woken by a text off @melcastle69 to say that there has been a lot of money donated. Please keep up your support and donate what you can.
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| @Will_coyne & @Larks99 |
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| @brunone1 |
I got that inner tube to give back mate its too big for mine.
ReplyDeleteI cant believe your are not all carrying a spare tube each, they roll up real small and save a load of time when you get a puncture.
Cracking read this week, such a bloody shame I couldn't make it this week. Missed out on the appearance of iceman and mel. I would have even done the extra mile past my house to the pub and rode back up the hill after :-)
Wish me and @primalone luck next Sunday, we are off for a 78 mile sportive round bromsgrove, redditch and stratford and its looking like rain all day !
A good read. But what a star Danny Khar is !
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