Chez Spud

Posts Tagged ‘bike’

Photo A Day: Not getting on my bike

Posted under Photography

7 Comments »

212 365 Not getting on my bike

I’d love to say this is a photo of my new bike. It isn’t. It’s MrSpud’s bike, mid clean/service/general male tinkering.

We made a 2 hour round trip to be measured and order a bike that the shop told me they could get in in 24 hours. Wrong. They can’t get it any time soon as there aren’t any in the country. So that was nice.

This is the kind of incompetent ‘service’ which turns me in to Victor Meldrew. I knew there was a supply issue which is why I confirmed, and reconfirmed, that they had access to stock. “Yes, we have 17 in stock in our other stores and can get one here for you in 24 hours.” Scream.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Twitter

Mission Accomplished

Posted under People I love

12 Comments »

30 365 Mission Accomplished

I have completely lost my blogging mojo. We had a couple of weeks of appalling internet and I kind of fell out of the habit and now I find I don’t have much to say. But here’s a diary moment to record…I couldn’t let such a big moment pass without a record of it…

Woooooeeeeeeee! See that up there? That’s my boy, 4 and a little bit, riding a bike without stabilisers. “Mission accomplished” he declared, matter of factly…

In fact, [stupidly proud mother..slap me] he never even TRIED using stablisers. He’s gone straight from his balance/push along bike to a proper bike. And he went from ‘don’t let go!!’ to ‘LET GO LET GO DADDY!!!’ in about 2 minutes.

15 minutes later he was cycling at truly terrifying speed, looking around all over the place and screaming with laughter and able to get on and off the bike and get going totally solo.

I’m so proud. I can’t help myself, I’m bursting with pride…it’s shameful. There’s nothing worse than a stinkingly proud parent but, hey, sue me why doncha? I’m ready for you ;-)

Fortunately my son doesn’t share my shameful pride. After bigging him up with the whole “I’m so proud of you, you’re so clever, most children don’t learn to ride a proper bike as fast as you have” speech…he was silent. I asked him if he was happy…silence. I asked him if he was proud…silence. Eventually he said, rather quietly, “I’m shy because of all the words that you’re saying”. Howl. That put Miss Pushy Parent right back in the box…that’s my boy.

We had a first go at the Big Bike in September on his 4th birthday. He actually cycled solo very briefly then, but hated it and utterly refused to get on the bike again. So we left it and tried not to feel bitter about the vast sum of money spent on the Birthday Big Bike…

This week he announced he was ready to cycle. “On Saturday”, he said. And he did.  He’s so like MrSpud. Won’t be rushed. Won’t be persuaded in to anything. When’s he’s ready…he’s ready. The end.  Admiring passers by who watched his amazing progress commented that he’ll soon be ready for the Tour de France…so, how soon can I get his name down?

Since we’re having diary moments, here’s those Megaboys earlier in the week…ready for Christmas. Um, 11 months to go boys…

25 365 It's never too early

Oh, and I cut the curls off…

Bertie told me I looked another ‘another mummy’. Both boys said I looked ‘silly’ and ‘like Daddy’. Hmmmmmm…….how soon can they go to boarding school? do they take then at 4?

If you liked that, you might like this ...

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Twitter

Happy Birthday Bertie x

Posted under People I love

28 Comments »

Four today and so grown up with glimpses of the attitude to match. It’s still a surprise to me that we’ve been allowed to grow and nurture not one but TWO human beings, and thus far we’ve done a reasonable job of it…haven’t mislaid either of them, haven’t broken them or forgotten to change their batteries etc. When I told MrSpud I was expecting Bertie he looked rather alarmed and said, ‘But we can’t have a BABY. We can’t even get our cat in a box and get it to the vets. We’ll probably leave it places’. Four years down and we’ve never left either of them ‘places’…but I will concede that we still can’t get that damn cat in a box.

We gave him a ‘big boys’ bike’ for his birthday, which he’s been keen on for a long time. He’s had a balance bike for a couple of years and can whizz around on it at huge speed. We thought he might be able to manage the ‘big bike’ without the need of stabilisers so we gave it a shot. Success! He could, indeed, ride it without MrSpud doing that traditional rite of passage back breaking holding-on-to-back-of-bike-seat thing. But as soon as he realised he threw a wobbler and refused to get back on the bike unless we put the stabilisers on. We refused to put the stabilisers on. He pleaded, we stood firm, it went on for a while…

Earlier in the day he had his first horse riding lesson. I wasn’t sure how that would go and I was thrilled to see him take it all in his stride, confidently riding no handed and trotting even. He can be rather cautious by nature but he breezed through his lesson. Which made ‘stabilisergate’ all the more surprising. Here he is sniffing the pony’s mane, a preparation for jumping apparently?

I will confess to a little lump in my throat, watching my ‘baby’ trotting around and screaming with laughter…here he is newly born…

On his first birthday, just had his first taste of chocolate and not looking overly impressed…

On his second birthday

And third (photo credit, Lyanne Wylde)

We’ve come a long way baby, Happy Birthday xxx

If you liked that, you might like this ...

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Twitter

The one where MrSpud gets it wrong

Posted under People I love, Photography, Witterings

16 Comments »

I love MrSpud for many reasons, one of which is his sheer gutsiness. I must say that I do try not to tell him too often, just to keep him on his toes and also as a kind of ongoing vengeance for The Saucepans. On which note, a friend  told me that his wife just bought him one of those files for removing dead skin from your feet as a wedding anniversary present….love that, “Here, Happy Anniversary! Now take this and turn those trotters back in to feet wouldya?”

But back to MrSpud and his funny little ways. Yesterday he goodly offered to take the boys to the park in a bike trailer despite the blistering heat. The boys were pretty chuffed about this as they’ve never been in a bike trailer before. So we borrowed one from our friend, who luckily was too busy filing his trotters to take his own children out and about in it.

Here are the boys, clipping themselves in and ready to go. Note hard hats…don’t you love their utter trust in their father’s ability to get them places in one piece:

Is there a life jacket with a whistle for attracting attention anywhere?

Is there a life jacket with a whistle for attracting attention anywhere?

Bye Mummy! Feel free to loaf around on the sofa surfing the net while we’re gone won’t you?

Bertie looking a little unsure, still looking for the life jacket?

Bertie looking a little unsure, still looking for the life jacket?

Ready for the off, MrSpud looking confident…er but MrSpud, you’re not supposed to PUSH the bike, you’re supposed to cycle it?

Get on with dinner while Im gone would you? Oh sorry, I forgot, youre too lazy

MrSpud looking confident

Oh good, he’s worked it out, he’s getting on the bike, this is good:

Nice sandals...do you wear socks with those sometimes MrSpud?

Nice sandals...do you wear socks with those sometimes MrSpud?

Hoorah, they’re off. Oh, but MrSpud…it’s a bit of a hill…do you think, perhaps, you’ve over estimated your own strength? You’re only very little remember and you’ve got two heffalumps in the back there?

Note Bertie looking entirely unimpressed in the back

Note Bertie looking entirely unimpressed in the back

Oh, and he’s OFF. Yes, he is OFF the bike and pushing again having cycled for approximately 2 metres (admittedly a little better than my 21cm shot put).

And hes off...I repeat..he is off

And he's off...I repeat..he is off

COOOOEEEEE MrSpud, turn around, let’s get a shot of you in your moment of shame shall we? No?

Run MrSpud! Run like the wind...

Run MrSpud! Run like the wind...

Giggle. I don’t ‘think’ he pushed them all the way to the park, but MrSpud learnt a valuable lesson about how embarrassing it is when you wildly overestimate your own strength and have your wife photograph the entire episode and then write about it on the WWW DOT, as my Grandad calls it. How he must wish he’d ticked the ‘must be loving and supportive’ box when shopping for me on the internet. No point trying to get a refund now MrSpud, I’m used goods, my packaging is not intact and my labels have been removed. You’re stuck with me! Now stop whining or I’ll buy you a de-trotter for your birthday.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Twitter