First ride out of 2015, a sign of things to come?

A short blog. Short mainly because I can't be arsed to write a long one, secondly because I'm not entirely sure anyone reads my stuff, much preferring to look at bonny photo's and thirdly well because it was a bit of a nightmare camera wise, so not too many said 'bonny photo's' lol.

Today's first ride of the new year, 2015 was with my friend John. We had agreed to be ready to set off for 9am from my house. Now as I write this I am obviously trying to recall what happened as I tap away on my keyboard of today's events. What has just struck me is the fact that actually today was one of very few that I can remember where I have actually got up and everything has been where I can find it. This morning I had no drama's, no missing lights, or the odd glove or sock. I found my under shorts, the jersey and shorts I wanted to wear and of course most importantly mY bike was where I had left it last. Wow this has to be a first.

John arrived a little before 9am and we immediately set off. We had the briefest of chats about where to go and decided up Waskerley Way would be just about far enough. The trails shouldn't be too muddy and hopefully the weather wouldn't turn to cold and nasty.

Windy up at Waskerley Way

 The ride up was pretty uneventful, there was a mixed collective of various people out, some riding bicycles others out jogging or walking their dogs.  Some people greeted us with a "hello" and "happy new year", whilst of course you had the miserable gits who either threw a hacky look or totally ignored us. I have to say as we both rode up towards Consett on the C2C I have never seen as much dog shit lying around. It was disgusting and this proved to be one of our topics of conversation, well you have to have a whine about something and why not dog shit huh?

On the way up we stopped as we passed a fellow cyclist and it was nice to pass the time of day. The lad was riding a very nice Pace framed, hardtail bike. He went on to tell me it was 6 years old and had been one of the best bikes he had owned.

Weather wise it was quite mild, a few little dots of rain and as we got up further and further towards Consett and onto the C2C approaching Waskerley it became very windy. The wind chill obviously making it appear much colder in this area.

On the approach to Waskerley Way John said "I'll go on ahead and catch a few pictures of you coming up the hill" So he set off, got to the top of the incline, whipped out his small camera and proceeded to try and grab a few shots...Fail! When I arrived at the top John informed me "awww I have forgotten to pop my memory card back in my camera it's at home". "Don't worry" I say and get my little Lumix out. I get off my bike and set everything up ready to take a photo or two. As I'm standing fannying on with my camera I take a step backwards there is this little fence I don't see and I proceed to tumble in a sitting position. Luckily John catches my arm on the second attempt and saves me, we then have a jolly good laugh. Back to the camera I go to turn it on and  "hold on my camera won't turn on". "Awww crap I forgot to put the battery back in", it was still in the charger under my desk" lol.... Great no pics on our first ride out of 2015 lol. I then remember I have my mobile phone, my Samsung Galaxy S3. It tends to take a canny decent photo, so I retrieve this from my jacket pocket and we manage to get a few shots.

John's new Xmas Bike

John with his helmet hair

Me looking as cool as ever, well I would do it was proper windy up there

Proper cad n windy like!

 The ride home was fun, however pretty tough, the wind had fairly picked up and it was blowing in at an awkward side angle to us. All in all a canny little ride out. John coming back to my house as he wanted to give his bike a good hose down as it was a bit dirty.