I got it!!! Woohoo!!!
I got my bike at last!
*calm*
I went to the
Halfords in Brislington - The staff were very helpful, polite and efficient. I waited for them to assemble the bike for me and fit the Mudgaurds I purchased which took about an hour, which could have been shorter but one of the Mudgaurds broke as he fitted it (he took another off the shelf and fitted it straight away.) a nice fellow buying another Boardman bike offered to help me tweak the bike after I had a spin around the car park, although he needed something else done to his bike and I needed to get home.
The first ride was ace. The bike is so smooth, no road noise, no brake noise (I have only ever ridden mountain bikes with v-brakes so to many that's probably nothing new) and I was relatively comfortable. I got the hang of changing gears with the under-slung changers (again I had the old style lever/dial changers before) and set off home.
Realising I didn't know where I was going I stopped, phoned my wife to vent how happy I was with the bike, then checked my maps on my phone. I went in approximately the right direction and took off down the road. In getting up to speed it occurred to me that I hadn't ridden for years and I seemed to be doing fine, apparently you don't forget how to ride a bike.
When I got home I checked my tyres to make sure I hadn't picked up any crap, checked over the whole bike just because it was cool, and locked it up in the garage.
I'm really pleased with it, only problem is I'm a bit saddle sore but I assume that's just because I'm new to it.
Just wanted to post.