Well it has been a bit of a long time since I put finger to keyboard (my typing has been described as similar to two pidgins in Trafalgar square) so apologies to my fan. The last few months has been unbelievably frenetic. Though this is no excuse for failing to deliver my pearls of wisdom to the world, it is at least some explanation. The following has been a quick summary of the last 3 months.

My keeper resigned from her job on the grounds of career development and instead of having a few months off to sort out the house, do a bit of painting, clean the car, greet me at the door with a twinkle in her eye Etc. She gets a new job in London with only a few days on the dole. This means that we are living out of a suitcase at my sister in-laws until we could rent a place, and then shipping stuff down to the great smoke at a tremendous rate. The springs on the car are really struggling.

Whilst all this is happening we have been sprucing up the house doing all those little jobs that never get done . It now looks great, in fact it looks better now than ever, people should be killing each other to buy it, unfortunately nobody has any money ! so there are no buyers and in fact there are no renters either. Great, I have always wanted to have a place in the country and a place in the town. Eating might prove a bit of a problem, but hay, I need to go on diet.

In amongst all of this I found that I was committed to doing the Thames bridges Bike ride, the week before this I was in that great European centre of commerce at a place called Saltzburg. A great place if you like mountains and rather heavy unpronounceable red wines. As you know I do a fair bit of travelling and it is not as much fun as you would think, this was the exception that proved the rule. The weather was great, the location was fantastic , the subjects under discussion were really interesting and the lake was to die for (if you are a rower). However on the last day I got a bit of a cold and by the time the cycle ride came round I was feeling a bit rough, not rough enough to quit but enough to think that this was not going to be fun. The day dawned and my nephew, Will, (who had foolishly agreed to come along) turns up with a really sexy mountain bike (I was borrowing my brother in laws ex hire bike) and a pair of loose nylon footy shorts. And we are off , the weather forecast was for good weather and indeed it was good, it got to around 27 degrees at lunch and my throat was starting to get a bit painful, by the time we got to the half way point I nearly mugged the ice cream seller at Richmond park. Unlike the previous year we did not get lost as we meandered through the park and even linked up with the other members of our team who had buggered off without us. As we approached the end my throat was on fire, but pain does focus the mind, and I started to notice that young Will ( 18, 6 ft 5 irritatingly healthy) was cycling on the pedals a lot. A wry smile crossed my chapped lips, he may be younger than me, fitter, blonder , taller and probably brighter, but with my gel saddle and purpose built padded shorts only my throat not my arse was on fire. On arriving at the finish I collapsed off my bike and had to spend half an hour recovering under a tree, not helped by my 2 year old nephew wandering over and spilling his drink up my nose. In fact I was so ill I had to take 2days off work to let the migraine and the cold settle down. I did however raise nearly £400 for the stroke association so it was probably worth it on balance.

I am currently trying to track down a boat for the club to do the Great River Race, it has to have 4 oars (or preferably more) be clinker built and carry a passenger. If anyone out there in rowing land knows where I can borrow one for a weekend in Sept, please get in touch, the event will be sponsored and half will go to the club. So get your thinking hats on.

The river down here in “Bermondsey on Thames” is a little rough so I think that I might go and find a club upstream somewhere where the waters are a little calmer. I hear that there are some nice clubs in Henley..... but I am not sure that they are up to my standard....

Please note the opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Trent Rowing Club.