When the Irvings descended over the festive period, we did our best to entertain. This included the near-obligatory trip to Crannog, which was undertaken despite almost a foot of snow lying outside our front door. Luckily there was less snow on the west coast but it was exceedingly cold: -8'c when we arrived at Gatehouse in late afternoon.
The level of comfort, however, was several degrees higher than the last time we were up there. We had both heating AND water (albeit each was only working in one room). After a couple of days of rest, despite the fact that even the car window de-icer was frozen, there was no option but to get out amongst it - I had brought a bike up after all.
The new red stumpy and I headed off to Kirroughtree. It was probably double-digits below zero when we arrived at the carpark... and I didn't see another car there during my stay. There wasn't much snow but what there was, was crispy and dry providing excellent traction, through the thoroughly iced trees.
As it was a solo mission on a relatively new bike, I didn't stray too far. I hit the skills loop a couple of times, before heading up the fire road to do the really flowing final section where the red joins the blue route for the blast back down to the visitors centre. It was so good I did it thrice!
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Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Hurrah for Insurance!
I know: "What?!!" But I've got to hand it to Halifax / Sainsbury's: they've come up with the goods.
After the obligatory visit from the assessor and his lie-detector voice-analysing machine (it may just have been a dictaphone, as he said), the claim was settled and we were awarded an obscene amount of notional cash to spend in their bike shop.
To be fair, Wheelies were quite good: phoning me every 6th day to encourage me to buy a "superbike". I eventually relented - I know, the hardship - and bought a carbon road bike from them. The Felt Z6 should arrive mid January.
We cashed out the remainder of the settlement and have done pretty well. We bought 2 stumpy replacements: mine: a metallic red ex-demo, Claire's: a woman-specific Safire that fits her better than the last one. With the cash left we managed to replace the x-cal 29er.
So much to Claire's horror, we appear to have gained a bike out of this "tragedy." The bike room (no, they're not going back in the shed) will never have looked so "healthy."
After the obligatory visit from the assessor and his lie-detector voice-analysing machine (it may just have been a dictaphone, as he said), the claim was settled and we were awarded an obscene amount of notional cash to spend in their bike shop.
To be fair, Wheelies were quite good: phoning me every 6th day to encourage me to buy a "superbike". I eventually relented - I know, the hardship - and bought a carbon road bike from them. The Felt Z6 should arrive mid January.
We cashed out the remainder of the settlement and have done pretty well. We bought 2 stumpy replacements: mine: a metallic red ex-demo, Claire's: a woman-specific Safire that fits her better than the last one. With the cash left we managed to replace the x-cal 29er.
So much to Claire's horror, we appear to have gained a bike out of this "tragedy." The bike room (no, they're not going back in the shed) will never have looked so "healthy."
Castration would be too good
...And capital punishment was certainly on the agenda for bike thieves. That was what I thought to myself when I heard that we'd been robbed.
Mrs Doubleu had taken Jeff out for his constitutional, and in the 30 minutes she was gone, they struck the shed, taking 2 stumpjumpers and the x-cal. The bastards even had the audacity to come back for the road bike but thankfully Claire and Jeff dawg were back by then, their prescence in the kitchen being enough to put them off.
The police treated it as an exercise in getting the paperwork ready for the insurance claim. The fact that our "joint" seemed to have been "cased" didn't concern them the way it unnerved us. They didn't hold out much hope of us seeing any of the bikes again, despite them being distinctive as they were. The forensics team had a look but it wasn't exactly Dexter or CSI. Once 48hrs had gone by, we were effectively told to forget about ever seeing them again.
All that remains to be seen is whether the insurance company will play ball, or whether they will, along with bike thieves, join the punishment queue.
Mrs Doubleu had taken Jeff out for his constitutional, and in the 30 minutes she was gone, they struck the shed, taking 2 stumpjumpers and the x-cal. The bastards even had the audacity to come back for the road bike but thankfully Claire and Jeff dawg were back by then, their prescence in the kitchen being enough to put them off.
The police treated it as an exercise in getting the paperwork ready for the insurance claim. The fact that our "joint" seemed to have been "cased" didn't concern them the way it unnerved us. They didn't hold out much hope of us seeing any of the bikes again, despite them being distinctive as they were. The forensics team had a look but it wasn't exactly Dexter or CSI. Once 48hrs had gone by, we were effectively told to forget about ever seeing them again.
All that remains to be seen is whether the insurance company will play ball, or whether they will, along with bike thieves, join the punishment queue.
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