Went to have a look at a new car yesterday

I have no been without a car since Ooooh 2006 as I recall. My last car was my beloved MINI Cooper S which I had a passionate love affair with. She was called Tena, because she was a Super Mini. Unfortunately Tena hardly got driven, in fact she only covered 3500 miles from new within 2 1/2 years of me owning her, this was due to me being ill with my right leg and finding it increasingly difficult to drive. When I knew I was going to have my leg lopped off I reluctantly put her up for sale as I knew I would struggle to drive a manual car and within no time I was saying a sad farewell to her.

I then gave Ern £6000 grand towards a new Honda Jazz with an auto-box and went out and bought a ridiculously expensive mountain bike to re-learn how to ride a bike with a prosthetic leg. Since then I have spent a small fortune on various bikes and just shared Ern's car which has it's own pet name. I like to affectionately call it the mobile skip. My dad and I are as different as chalk and cheese. While I have OCD tendencies and would polish and hoover my car and have everything organised, Ern believes a car is a work horse, so will think nothing of having a huge length of 4x4 laying up on the dash and pertruding out the back of the car, driving along with the tailgate open. Our little Jazz is covered with dents,scratches and dings from local kids and their bikes. As I point each new one out Ern will say his favourite quote to which he uses on most topics ahhhh it'll be alreeeet!". I usually get this quote on instances like where he has decided to loosen my bike handlebars so that he can organise my bikes in our shed more easily. I then go down the street almost kill my self as i didn't realise the bars were slack and Ern will say "ahhhh it'll be alreeeet!"

Anyhoo yesterday after I came back from the Lomabrd Clinic and seeing Paul my prosthetist from Pace Rehabilitation and being reunited with my running blade, Ern and I decided to call in at our local Jeep Garage. I have been fancying a car for sometime. Gone are the days of sports cars and speed. I'm getting old so looking for more practicality and comfort. Of course this doesn't mean I have lost my sense of adventure and after reading how well the little Jeep Renegade preformed off road I quite fancied having a look at one.

Jeep Renegade Trailhawk

   The Jeep dealership is on Scotswood Road, upon arriving we were greeted by a very friendly salesman and he went on to introduce both my dad and I to Ian Wilson the Jeep Moatability specialist. I explained to Ian I really would quite like to get a new Jeep Renegade on the Motability scheme and that I am in receipt of the higher rate of the Disability Living Allowance component for help getting around. I went on to inform him I had just got a letter saying this was an indefinite award, however I also informed him due to the governments draconian way of assessing people and with the new PIP, Personal Independence Payment coming along I thought I may loose my allowance.  Ian didn't seem aware that this was happening to genuine disabled people and was really surprised when I informed him approx 600,000 people according to statistics will taken off DLA and no longer get any assistance. This is going to have a huge impact on the whole country. Just think of those 600,000 people how many just like me need a car for work. How many need help getting around otherwise they will become totally isolated. Then of course there is the knock on effect to car manufacturers. They will loose a fair size chunk of their car sales.
 

Capable Off Road

 Anyhoo Ian agreed he would contact Motability and give me a call on Monday to discuss options and see whether I could use the scheme after talking to them. Of course another option for me would be finance, which would obviously be a lot more expensive.

Ian then showed us around one of the Jeep Renegade's. The model i am after is a Trailhawk, this comes fully loaded with extras, specific to taking the vehicle off roading. Things like slightly higher suspension and skid plates. The car we checked out was the sport in a nice bright Yellow colour. If I was to get a Jeep I'm caught in between either Blue or Orange. 

Cool rear lights

Nice interior

The Renegade actually uses a lot of Fiat components, the chassis for instance is from the Fiat 500 XL and the engine is the same as the tried and tested one in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. The Trailhawk comes with the 2.0 diesel Multijet II with 170bhp and a 9 speed auto transmission.

Upon reading various car mag reviews the Jeep doesn't score highly on the road reviews, however does come into it's own off road, being best in group for it's capabilities. As I enjoy camping and mtb I can see myself doing a bit of off roading and after seeing the car in the flesh I really like it. Jeep has put some nice little touches, including what are know as Easter eggs  around the vehicle. These are hidden little accents relating to the history of Jeep.

Guess I will start saving a deposit and who knows may have myself a new car this year...

What's going on with me and quite possibly you may learn something new....

Wow the beginning of this year has been a real mixed bag for me and my family. My son Kyle has been feeling unwell for sometime now with an upset tummy. This resulted in him having to go for 2 colonoscopies and he has now been diagnosed with Crohn's disease. And me well I fell ill with a virus on the 19th of January and ended up being off work for 6 weeks, going off work on the 22nd of January and not returning until early March. Man the virus really knocked me for six, it took well over 2 months to sort myself out and really I still don't know exactly what I had. I just know it was painful, really tiring and very stressful. I hate being off work and letting my colleagues and of course patients down.  I don't really write about work as there is a lot of policies in place about confidentiality, so it safest just to write nothing. On this occasion what I will say is everyone within the Newcastle Upon Tyne Foundation Trust were awesome and I couldn't have asked for better support.

Of course there has also been good news this year. I started my new job for Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust as a Health Trainer. My first day being the 7th of April. No sooner had I started and a week later I was visiting my haematology doctor as I was experiencing really painful and swollen nodes in my neck. For those of you who do not know I have what is known as Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma.This "is an uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, which is a network of vessels and glands spread throughout your body" I was diagnosed with this in October 2008, roughly a year after having my leg amputated. At the time being diagnosed with the NHL had more of an impact than loosing my leg. I will readily admit not once have I ever said "why me" concerning the whole leg thing, but when I got the news about NHL for some reason it really knocked the wind out of my sails. On reflection I think it was because after years and years of pain and frustration, social isolation and feeling like a complete burden, having my leg off gave me a whole new lease of life. I was able to go out and do things and re-learnt how to ride my bike which took up a huge amount of my time. So to be hit with a new illness and then discover it was going to be with me for life, well at the time it just didn't feel fair, so in the early days I really struggled.

So getting back to this new episode and my painful and swollen nodes. My doctor suggested I have a scan within the next 2 weeks and we discussed possible treatments. These include chemotherapy for a 6 week period, which will be twice per week and also antibody treatment with a relatively new drug named rituximab. This treatment is over 2 years and is given once per week. Is it a shock? Well no not really I have been living with NHL about 7 years and as I understand it it was inevitable that I would require treatment, it has just come at a very inopportune moment, not that there is ever a really good one.

Once again I have been blown away by the support of work colleagues both over at Newcastle and within my new job for Durham and Darlington. Friends and family wise well I have always been very lucky and everyone rallies around. My poor dad (Ern) never complains he is one of the kindest, most reliable, stubborn old goats I know.

Now all that is left to do is await this scan, get the results and take it from there. If I do require treatment then all it will be is another challenge to complete as best I can. I aim to write about my experiences, hopefully other people can take something from it. For me my Blog is not only a way to share what I'm doing, but as I have said in the past allows me to reflect on what I have achieved or what I could do better or even in some cases just to fill a little time, though of that lately I haven't had much.

In ending I will leave you with a couple of links about both Crohn's Disease and Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Crohn's Disease

Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma NHL

Treatment for NHL

Take care

Enjoyabel early morning ride, gutted GoPro and Camera footage is naff.

Freezing cold but sunrise was well worth the wait

I purposely set my alarm for 5am, intending on trying to capture a sunrise with my GoPro. I have just updated the firmware on my Hero4 and it now allows me to capture time lapse videos. I haven't really played around with  time lapse, so was unsure of the settings. I decided to try 4K and a 2 second interval on the video setting.
  

   

Up the Farmers Trail

 
Well long story short I have learnt something through trial and error today. Firstly never presume because it has been quite warm all week that you can head off early in the morning with only a thin base layer and a short sleeve jersey. Dear me I was absolutely frozen this morning and this chill then went on to follow me around the whole of my ride. Secondly I have discovered a 2 second delay for shooting stuff like scenery, for example clouds and a sunrise is pretty good. However when you are riding 2 seconds is way too quick on the time lapse setting. When viewing your surrounding pass by in the blink of an eye and obviously your audience then doesn't get a sense of where you have actually been as landmarks pass by far to quickly. So today's footage has been binned.

Digital camera wise well I don't know what the hell happened, almost every shot was out of focus and blurred.

Never mind I'll have another go another day, that's the beauty of digital you can record and erase. I just need to get out a little more and practice with my cameras, especially the GoPro as it has so many neat little functions. One thing I did try today was the GoPro app on my phone, this really helped compose shots and it is very easy to use.  Down side is battery life in both phone and GoPro.

On the way back home I called in to see John and his wife Kristina and of course the new addition to their family a beautiful baby girl who they have named Amber. John then asked "you up for a short ride", so I headed out with John for a few more miles. Now in feeling tired and still haven't warmed through. It was good to get out, just wish I could have shared a few more pics. Today I saw quite a few different variety of birds (yes the feathered variety), my favourite being the geese that flew overhead "Honking" as they went on their way.

Final shot of the day John captured on my GoPro using the mobile app and the continuous photo function. There are a really steep set of steps in South Moor Park so I thought it would look cool riding down them. I have to say coming down on the 29'er is far scarier than coming down on my Fat Bike. I always feel I'm up in the clouds, like perched riding the 29'er lol

   

As you get older you tend to think of the consequences more

Done in B&W

South Moor Park steps

First ride out of 2015 on my new Road Bike

Yay! finally  the weather has brightened up. Yesterday I had a short ride up to Consett and back with John and Michelle on the mountain bikes, today a quick blast out on my De Rosa Idol. I got the De Rosa late on in the winter months of last year so only got to ride it once, so I was looking forward to some finer weather so I could go for a pootle out on her.

De Rosa Idol 2015

Keilder with a few of the lads

My friend Al got in touch a few weeks back to see if I was up for an overnighter up at Kielder with a few of the lads. At the time I wasn't sure,explaining I had had a bit of a long lay off, not doing much of anything at all, due to not being very well and that I wasn't sure I would be able to make it around the marathon length route of the reservoir. Never mind as it turned out I had been feeling much better up to the planned date and had even managed to get a few short but pleasant rides in towards the lead up to Kielder. So whilst not being exactly on top form and having to wear sockets that aren't quite fitting I made the decision "what the hell I may as well head out and try my best and have a bit fun with the boys".

Kielder with the Lads

Local loop wearing Swanky jersey's

As soon as my friend John discovered I had gotten him a Bike Swanky Jersey upon my trip down to Manchester after meeting up with Andy and Paul of Bike Swanky he wanted to try it on and head out for a ride.

Out on the Bike Swanky sponsored ride, my PYGA One Ten 29'er

Bike-Expo at EventCity Manchester

I was very fortunate to be invited along as a guest and ambassador on behalf of Bike Swanky to the Bike-Expo which took place at Eventcity in Manchester. Andy from Bike Swanky had contacted me a good few weeks a go to see if I would be interested in attending, however at the time I wasn't sure if I could make it as I hadn't been feeling very well, having some sort of a freaky virus. I found it hard to get out of bed never mind drive down to Manchester and then try to make myself useful. Anyhoo as luck would have it upon Andy's second phone call I was feeling a lot brighter and really wanted to join the lads to offer my support in return for all of their support and sponsorship upon my Pyga and getting me sorted with a couple of demo bikes, one of which was the De- Rosa I did my first Triathlon on last year and the other was for a Mountain Bike Rider Magazine feature that I also did last year.

Checkout all those rides on the Bike swanky stand

It's been a while!

Over the last few months I haven't been around, well in the sense of writing my Blog, as you can see it was ages since my last writing and photo session. The reason being I have been feeling really poorly with some unknown decidedly nasty virus. It had wiped me out totally, physically and didn't do much for the mental side of me either in that it caused no end of stress. You see I have been through my share of pretty severe health issues, so whenever something happens to me now I automatically go into deep analysis mode and a virus, admittedly a horrendous one, in my mind becomes so much more. No doubt people will judge and think I over react, but hey to really do that you have to understand what a person has experienced throughout their life.

I was gutted to have to take 6 weeks off work and also the effect it has had on my physical fitness with not being able to ride, run or swim has been alarming. On my return to work I even struggled to walk up two flights of stairs without being out of breath. The first week back to work I ached so much, you would think I had been working out with heavy weights in the gym. One of the biggest downers for me has been that I have discovered none of my current limbs now fit. It's hard to explain to an able bodied person the depths of you're depression when you are actively maintaining you're shape through physical activity and diet and then "Bang" something comes along and totally screws up you're routine. I can't explain what it feels like to have to wear an ill fitting limb everyday, other than to say it sucks big style. This is no real comparison but try to imagine having to wear a pair of shoes that simply don't fit. Lets say they are 2 or 3 sizes too small.You have to go to work so you can't take them off even though they are blistering your feet and you're toes are curled up and constricted. Well this is similar but by no means exactly the same as finding out you're limb no longer fits. It's no ones fault, but it sure is frustrating.

Now to the positive side of things. I can workout and get back to doing the things I enjoy and hopefully get back to my regular shape. If not it's not the end of the world, new sockets can be made and it's certainly not a reason to throw in the towel and just quit. Don't get me wrong I'm like many other people out there the thought crosses my mind, but I've come to far and put in too much hard work to just quit. I'm sure I've heard a saying "it's not how many times you get knocked down, it's the getting back up".

This afternoon was a very enjoyable "getting back up" kind of an afternoon. Yeah it was really tough, it hurt and I was proper dismayed to see my energy levels. In my minds eye I resembled a sloth. However the main goal I achieved, just to get back out with my friend John and not concentrate on the distance but on being outdoors having some fun in very pleasant company.

Tomorrow  John and I might even go for a dip up at the local swimming pool.

Here's a few pics from today...

Out on the Pyga

The two trusty steeds

Quite a few large puddles about

Used the GoPro and the phone app

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