FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast 19th November - Brighton 2010

[dellzeqq]

ah, well. He is older than your Dad!

 

[Aperitif]

Ha ha! You're supposed to respect elders Becs - not diss them! My drink was spiked.

 

[Becs]

Ha ha! You're supposed to respect elders Becs - not diss them! My drink was spiked.

I do, that's why I didn't include the close up!
tee hee

 

[frank9755]

That is my favourite memory of Gravesend from the first time we went to Whitstable. We were stopped for a regroup in Harmer Street learning, or not according to taste, about the Georgian architecture of early Victorian era, when a mini cab slowed down as it went past with the passenger leaning out of the back widow to shout "You're all a bunch of F***ing C***s". I guess the cab driver reasoned he might get a good tip.

A bit of a generalisation!

 

[Aperitif]

I do, that's why I didn't include the close up!
tee hee

Cool. I'll keep my photos under control then, too!

 

[Aperitif]

Which one, the 8th or the 9th?

Err the one I had about 9 minutes past 8 I think... I don't really like drinking, I only do it to create an ambiance...

 

[Flying Dodo]

Great to see you all. Thanks to Antonia, Rich, Terry, Teef, Charlie, Adrian and Becs for fabulous booze and cakes, and cakes with booze in. Before we even got to the pub (involving a long haul to... next door) we'd managed a lively appetiser of fizz, cognac, malt whisky, sloe gin and more fizz. Special mention to McShroom, whose journey to join the ride makes mine look a bit lightweight, and to Adam for Patience With Drunks Well Beyond The Call of Duty. Teef was heroically talking More Booze when we got to Victoria, and I made a forlorn but unusually sensible decision to do a runner while I could still make decisions of any kind. I sustained only one small drinking injury, and made it with only one piece missing (the trademark stripey buff!) to where I was headed. Good to meet The Artist Formerly Known As PorkyPete - as so often happens, it was only at breakfast that the forum name was matched to the rider.

Sorry about doing the Big Daddy thing, but considering how, er, tired and emotional you were, it was then a bit of a shock seeing the speed you took off at, racing along the sea front. With your wobbling, you did have a few close near misses, which is why I then went in front of you for the turn off, up to the station. Glad you got back OK.

For those of you concerned about such things, after paying off Adrian who got lumbered with the bill, being the last one out of the door (seeing as everyone else had already rolled outside), I've got £40 left from the kitty, to go towards next year's libations.

 

[Aperitif]

Was there a 'tab' then? I have a PDQ slip for drinks - did we have more? I would be surprised...

 

[frank9755]

electric feet warmers! That's a fantastic idea! Where, how much?

I had a long chat with Hannah about cold feet, or Raynaud's syndrome as I now know to call it, as it turned out she is a fellow sufferer. She said that, unfortunately, the electric jobbies weren't pumping out enough heat to keep her toes warm.

I normally use these on FNRttCs, or other potentially chilly rides, and find they make a big difference. They look a bit like a teabag that sticks to your sock and, for about 6 hours, they give off enough heat to keep your feet warm. My toes froze on Friday because I'd come straight from work and didn't have a pair

. If anyone else suffers, I can recommend them!

 

[Tim Hall]

Wot I did on Friday night, by Tim Hall, forty nine and three quarters.

Off to Scout camp near East Grinstead. Get the blighters settled in and cook some chipolatas. Wave goodbye to leader 1, as he goes off to work at Brighton railway depot. Wait for leader 2 to arrive from his work. Hand over, high tail it home, get changed and catch later train than usual to Victoria with Mrs. Hall and the Pino.

Straight to Sloane Square, not passing go, and wait for the pedaling masses. Watch tall blonde lady in short frock. Take a few pictures: Camera then goes on strike as the aforementioned pedaling masses pedal by. Jump on the back of the group, a position which we seem to keep most of the evening.

Play guess the route, and get it wrong. Again, a theme to be repeated through the night. The middle of Sutton. Young ladies in even shorter frocks than Sloane Square. Police dealing with drunks. A bottle is hurled in our direction by some uncouth fellows as we leave. I shout some correspondingly uncouth words back.

We set off in a bunch up the Mad Mile, spreading out as we trundle past Walton on the Hill, taking it easy, as instructed down Pebblecombe Hill. Top marks to Surrey's finest in the unmarked car as they went past the pedaling mass as it set off from the roundabout, pulled out onto the A25 and sat there with blue lights flashing, protecting us as we went.

Mrs. Hall (or the Queen Mum, as Simon would have it), made stately progress through Betchworth, Newdigate and Rusper. Something fell off the bike, but by the time I'd stopped it was 200 yards behind us on a dark lane. No chance of finding it, and the bike seemed OK.

Faygate, food, snooze for some, then off again. The hill up from the Hammer Ponds is nasty, brutish and short. It served to fight of an attack of the dozies though. More dark lanes , with bright (or overbright) tail lights. Then an extended mechanical stop. Part of the problem was that not only was the Bede Venerable, but the whole tyre was getting on a bit.

Upwards towards Devil's Dyke, with the pub hovering up in the sky like an spaceship. No, it did really. We used the 24 inch gear on the steeper parts, then didn't pedal for ages on the way to Brighton. Got split from the bunch on the final leg, so ended up going down a bus lane and getting gesticulated at.

FEB with Black Pudding and bubbly at the Madeira. Scoot to the station with Greg, to find it all gone wonky owing to a power failure. Train to Gatwick, then cycled the last bit home. Snooze for a couple of hours, then off to camp again.

AGTWHBA.

Pics here

 

[Aperitif]

Tim, as ever, the master observer! 10/10

 

[CharlieB]

Someone's punchline just came back to me - we seemed to go through a lot of really really spooky dark woods, and at one point I was waiting up with Teef and a couple of others and voiced the thought 'I'm trying not to think about The Blair Witch Project'.
Back came the reply after a comedy pause - not sure who from - 'I've not seen that, has it got a lot of cyclists in it?'

More to the point, I was putting my weekly radio show together this afternoon, and I thought, this whole FNRttC thing is so good, I ought to big it up in the show, so I'm going to give it a wee shout out.

Now, what song to play with the link…

 

[martint235]

although the unmarked police car seeing us across a rather large roundabout was a particular highlight

Now you know that's not entirely true don't you Becs? It was in fact, the very young, babyfaced, pot-bellied, short policeman in the passenger seat that was the highlight of your evening (and your shouting words to the effect of "I wouldn't kick him out of bed" was the highlight of his no doubt!)

 

[Becs]

Now you know that's not entirely true don't you Becs? It was in fact, the very young, babyfaced, pot-bellied, short policeman in the passenger seat that was the highlight of your evening (and your shouting words to the effect of "I wouldn't kick him out of bed" was the highlight of his no doubt!)

I'm sure I wasn't quite that uncouth!

I maintain that he was tall, in great shape and of appropriate age for someone in their late 20s to appreciate his smile!

I should have spun round the roundabout and said hello!

 

[hatler]

Someone's punchline just came back to me - we seemed to go through a lot of really really spooky dark woods, and at one point I was waiting up with Teef and a couple of others and voiced the thought 'I'm trying not to think about The Blair Witch Project'.
Back came the reply after a comedy pause - not sure who from - 'I've not seen that, has it got a lot of cyclists in it?'

Hand up.