1st Birthday Celebrations

You might have noticed the lack of action on the blog over the last 12 months. A large part of this is down to Nick's arrival 12 months ago and the subsequent disappearance of disturbing amounts of time. As well as wondering how we managed to waste so much time previously, we are now aiming to put the lack of blog action right.




Nick celebrated his 1st birthday in style with gifts galore, a trip to the swimming pool, a turtle cake* and the ability to crawl.

*no actual turtles were harmed during the making of this cake, but sadly many chocolate buttons were.

Nicholas Anthony Wallace

We are overjoyed to announce a new arrival to the Doubleu household.

Nicholas Anthony was born at 0917 on 30th March 2012 at the RVI, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He weighed in at 3.06kg which is 6lb 12oz in old money.




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Triathlon

The Doubleus were in Leeds visiting the Burdon family this weekend. As expected Jeff was once again a massive hit with little Daniel, who enjoyed his walk in the woods with "Big Jeff." True carbo-loading was forsaken in favour of a takeaway Thai and we were set!

Today was the Leeds Xpress Triathlon. Based at Leeds Grammar School, it was pool based, so we went off in waves.



Mark went off first because of his slightly slower swim time so, with this being my first event, I wandered around trying to pick up some tips from the different waves as they went out.

Daughtingly, despite having never done one before, I was seeded one wave down from the elite (just because I can swim a bit and had perhaps slightly underestimated my swim time). My big fear was getting out last after the swim, perhaps being able to just about keep up on the cycle but then being left for dead on the run.

This was pretty much what happened. I managed tumble turns for the first 200m, then an errant wave almost drowned me. But despite it being choppy, I was pretty much on target, and one of the first out of the pool. I found it tough to get going on the cycle and it was quite a hilly course but after 5k or so, I felt I'd found a rhythm. I managed to overtake a few, and in return was overtaken by a few (mostly by those with funny shaped helmets - well that Lycra is tight!).

When I got off the bike it all started to go a bit pear-shaped. Firstly I got delayed putting my socks on that I hadn't put on for my cycle... Do triathletes even bother with socks? Then my jelly legs wouldn't work. Then they cramped as I started my run. Then I got stitch!



Despite this I got to the end in 1hr 36. Not a bad time for my first effort. Only 8 minutes slower than marathon runner Mark: I was faster on the swim and cycle but sorely let down by my "run." There's nothing else for it: I'm going to have do some more running training as much as I hate it... and practice putting socks on faster!


Could also use a top tip for getting permanent marker off skin!

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Location:Leeds

Lochs and Glens

The Doubleus have just returned from a trip to the past. During our cycle trip in South West Scotland with Pete and Jen we lived in wooden shelters and spent some time in the 1970s.




Read the full trip report on Doubleu Wheels.


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McAustralia

The Doubleus have fled the European winter looking for warmer weather and brighter times. Australia always seems quite american to us: it might be the wide open spaces and blue skies, or that it's full of large, loud people. There are some differences though: you're not encouraged to shoot the wildlife and the loud locals are usually harmless. Even Ronald feels he has to try and fit in with the local "culture."





We've done the usual: Rocks, Opera House, Botanicals, Darling Harbour, Chinatown. We took the obligatory ferry out to Manly, to visit the beach and see the sights from the harbour. I even persuaded Mrs Doubleu to hire a bike over in Manly.





The route out to the north head of the harbour entrance was hillier than we thought and the midday sun warmer than we expected. Were we missing the snow in the French Alps? Not too much.

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Late Christmas

The Doubleus have just spent the weekend in London visiting Maria, John and Fin, who is now walking. Jeff was his usual superstar-self on the East-coast mainline, and "enjoyed" celebrity status once more on the tube (Japanese tourist pushes Canon in face), but was a bit disturbed to find Fin pushing a pretend dog around. Not one to hold a grudge, JD quickly set about winning Fin's affections and was rewarded by Fin feeding him Mrs Ball's chutney flavoured crisps within 24 hours.

We enjoyed a late Christmas pressie session around Maria and John's living Christmas tree that was still up! Fin was very excited by his life-size Gruffalo, but not entirely sure about the disturbingly life-like baboon that Tony and Chris had brought over from Cape Town. We were joined on Saturday by Pete the Vet, who promptly pronounced, "That thing is gonna give Fin nightmares when he gets a bit older." I think he may be right, it's already given me nightmares: I spent a disturbed night on a camp mattress and woke to find myself under it's beady stare on a few occasions.

After the rigours of chasing down a bag thief on Friday at Heathrow, Claire wasn't looking forward to the yomp back across town to Kings Cross. Particularly since I had my picked up "the latest addition to the stable": a giant singlespeed I'd bought from Rob on eBay. However it was all gravy and we made our train with time to spare. Just hoping that the guard still has my bike when we pull into Newcastle.




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Crannog in Midwinter

The Doubleus are going to be joined for Christmas this year by the Irving clan. Meyrick had a rather uneventful trip up from London despite the weather. On the other hand, the overnight flight that Tony and Chris took from Cape Town via Istanbul was one of the last to land at Heathrow before the snow and ice really took hold. Reward for this was a 2 hour wait on the runway followed by a 2 hour wait on the tube followed by a 4 hour train trip to Newcastle.

Feeling that they hadn't done enough travelling, after a few days this "hardened northern posse" decided to brave the snow, ice and feezing fog and venture up to the cottage at Gatehouse.

Temperatures of minus 12'c greeted us on arrival. But a crystal clear night sky with a full moon gave way to a very crisp still day with a perfect blue sky. So after a warming breakfast of porridge (what else in a Scottish winter?), we set off for our walk with Jeff in Laurieston Woods.

Jeff was a little perturbed to find one of his all-time favourite drinking streams frozen solid. Not one to let his spirits be dampened, he quickly got stuck in to a bit of ice skating! It looked such fun that by the end of the walk we'd all had a go!