StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
I rather enjoyed that......as fellow riders may just have noticed.......
. The bike ride was rather excellent too, mind
Evening did not get off to the best of starts. Someone fell on the line between Havant and Haslemere on Saturday night, and unfortunately passed away. As a result, services were suspended between those stations, major delays expected when they restarted. I was intending to get the 2054 (last fast train up) but instead opted to get the 2008 (via Winchester, Basingstoke and seemingly every station on that route to Waterloo). While I was waiting at Fratton there was an announcement that services had restarted, delays still expected. As it turned out, the 2054 left on time and arrived on time, before the train I was on did (also on time). But I could not, of course, have known this at the time....ho hum.
Plenty of time for a tea at Victoria before making my way round to HPC and introductions. Titus' introductory talk did suffer somewhat from technical glitches with his phone (his or the phone's I know not!). Not exactly a problem, even more than usual this was not a ride to be rushed. That Wetherspoons wasn't going to open any quicker and we only had eight hours to kill....This was the slowest FNRttC to date, by a country mile, but also one of the most fun, easily. So many of those roads I know very well, or very, very well indeed, but I learnt something new pretty much everywhere.
The guilty mid-ride venue was VQ Bloomsbury. Four of us managed, eventually, to get in before Titus signalled to me that we were cutting our losses and going somewhere that actually wished to serve us all in the near future. What a palaver...door guy wanted photo ID, failing that a digital photo for his mugshot gallery, and your name....unfortunately he seemed unable to spell common names. Ended up typing mine myself into his system. It was taking four or five minutes for each and every person. Ridiculous. I've never had that anywhere else, even with bag searches, pat-downs etc....Burger King Tottenham Court Road it was. What a blast from the past…for some years, pretty much every time I went to a gig in the area (most frequently at the Astoria…RIP…sniff, so many great nights in that place) that was my usual pre-show food stop. Switched to buying sandwiches, and I don't think I'd been in a BK (at all) since, maybe once or twice....Still looks much the same, rather rough around the edges these days but the tea hit the spot.
Regents Park lap....nice little blast. Parliament Hill was a great view, just about (fog). Highgate was very nice- kudos to Ian for his impromptu talk about Karl Marx's residence (Highgate Cemetery) which failed to send anyone to sleep
I was not intending to finish climbing Swains Lane, but Adrian made his way up, pretty much everyone else said 'sod it' and joined him, so did I. 34x32 bottom gear proved its worth again. Fairly straightforward climb really, though I'll be troubling the Strava KOM no time, ever. I enjoyed descending Highgate Road rather more than my attempts at climbing up it in the past. Weeeee!!!!
Stop two was rather more successful. Some opted for the Starbucks at St Pancras, I joined the Pret a Manger splinter group. And then further slow pooling round to Wetherspoons across from Victoria station. Usual excellent reasonably priced fare and most excellent chinwagging, our numbers augmented by the lovely @Hill Wimp @Mice and @User10571 (replete with shiny titanium bits and pieces). Failed to fall asleep. Can't imagine why......
Well done Titus, and thank you everyone. See you next year.....
. The bike ride was rather excellent too, mind Evening did not get off to the best of starts. Someone fell on the line between Havant and Haslemere on Saturday night, and unfortunately passed away. As a result, services were suspended between those stations, major delays expected when they restarted. I was intending to get the 2054 (last fast train up) but instead opted to get the 2008 (via Winchester, Basingstoke and seemingly every station on that route to Waterloo). While I was waiting at Fratton there was an announcement that services had restarted, delays still expected. As it turned out, the 2054 left on time and arrived on time, before the train I was on did (also on time). But I could not, of course, have known this at the time....ho hum.
Plenty of time for a tea at Victoria before making my way round to HPC and introductions. Titus' introductory talk did suffer somewhat from technical glitches with his phone (his or the phone's I know not!). Not exactly a problem, even more than usual this was not a ride to be rushed. That Wetherspoons wasn't going to open any quicker and we only had eight hours to kill....This was the slowest FNRttC to date, by a country mile, but also one of the most fun, easily. So many of those roads I know very well, or very, very well indeed, but I learnt something new pretty much everywhere.
The guilty mid-ride venue was VQ Bloomsbury. Four of us managed, eventually, to get in before Titus signalled to me that we were cutting our losses and going somewhere that actually wished to serve us all in the near future. What a palaver...door guy wanted photo ID, failing that a digital photo for his mugshot gallery, and your name....unfortunately he seemed unable to spell common names. Ended up typing mine myself into his system. It was taking four or five minutes for each and every person. Ridiculous. I've never had that anywhere else, even with bag searches, pat-downs etc....Burger King Tottenham Court Road it was. What a blast from the past…for some years, pretty much every time I went to a gig in the area (most frequently at the Astoria…RIP…sniff, so many great nights in that place) that was my usual pre-show food stop. Switched to buying sandwiches, and I don't think I'd been in a BK (at all) since, maybe once or twice....Still looks much the same, rather rough around the edges these days but the tea hit the spot.
Regents Park lap....nice little blast. Parliament Hill was a great view, just about (fog). Highgate was very nice- kudos to Ian for his impromptu talk about Karl Marx's residence (Highgate Cemetery) which failed to send anyone to sleep
I was not intending to finish climbing Swains Lane, but Adrian made his way up, pretty much everyone else said 'sod it' and joined him, so did I. 34x32 bottom gear proved its worth again. Fairly straightforward climb really, though I'll be troubling the Strava KOM no time, ever. I enjoyed descending Highgate Road rather more than my attempts at climbing up it in the past. Weeeee!!!!Stop two was rather more successful. Some opted for the Starbucks at St Pancras, I joined the Pret a Manger splinter group. And then further slow pooling round to Wetherspoons across from Victoria station. Usual excellent reasonably priced fare and most excellent chinwagging, our numbers augmented by the lovely @Hill Wimp @Mice and @User10571 (replete with shiny titanium bits and pieces). Failed to fall asleep. Can't imagine why......
Well done Titus, and thank you everyone. See you next year.....
Conductor and me sat in front of each other and we were in a serious competition "who will yawn more times". I won. 
[/QUOTE]
