Happy New Year (2015)

Happy New Year to you! I mean it, I do. And, if this is your first visit, welcome to a blog by Doo :)

Contrary to many folks expectations, suppositions or similar, I did not start this New Year with a cycle. Neither did I start with a run. Or a hop, skip or jump. I spent New Year's Day with my family and friends from my local fellowship and had a real nice time.

Is kinda funny starting this New Year with hopes, rather than plans. I hope to be a father to a second child (and hope this happens real soon - my wife is expecting). I hope to be a great dad and a loving husband. I hope to get a pass from my wife to cycle the PBP...

Despite not training or exercising at all on New Year's Day, my first commute for 2015 was a run to work and back. I ran a total of 11k and hope this isn't my last run this year. One never knows.

Some folk say that you 'should start as you mean to go on'. I'm not convinced I agree with that statement. For 'starters', I started this year with cooking things - and I'm sure my weight would only increase if I carried this on. My cooking was a bike magazine (BikesEtc) inspired dish. Can you guess what I was preparing from the photo below?

Doo's dish (or dishy Doo?!)

Some folk guessed turkey or similar. In actual fact it was 'Doo Bars' - high energy bars to rival Chris Hodges awesome flap jacks (just perfect for a bike adventure). The turkey lumps were actually butter, it took an age for it to melt. My dish did look better just prior to going into the oven.

As well as cooking Doo Bars, I also started to bake some bread. I got my wife a Kenwood bread-maker for Christmas and figured I'd best try it out. And whilst I was cooking, can you guess what the wife was doing...?

...That's right. SJ was washing up! And licking her lips! And waiting patiently for the finished result!

Well, the Doo Bars came out looking fine. I thought they were okay. SJ wasn't impressed but my mother liked hers. The bread was a winner and everyone liked that!

Being that start of a new year and all, I decided to look at other folks blogs and see if I found any of interest. I found a couple and will stalk these for a while. The blogs are http://thatemilychappell.com (a blog about a solo cyclist riding across the World) and http://www.fatcyclerider.co.uk (a blog about a fat turned thin cyclist). My buddy Chris also stumbled across a blog (http://boltonbicycles.blogspot.co.uk). This blog was interesting/bizarre in that it contained a write up about the Windsor-Chester-Windsor 600k event that Chris and I cycled last year and contained the following photo.

The photo clearly shows both our bikes and my jacket and jersey hanging over the chairs. I believe I am the guy sleeping in the middle and Chris could be sleeping by the door. How weird. A quote directly from the authors blog ''However to later find this photograph of me asleep in the Chester control with other riders and a teddy bear does confirm the fact that night riding can be a very strange affair indeed.''

So this year, am still yet to cycle. Next week I hope to cycle at least 80k. This planned 80k may prove difficult as an interview is planned on Tuesday, the BT man is coming over on Wednesday and SJ might give birth to our second child at any point.