The Daily Splash

Inverness to Glasgow over 4 days, May 2012

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Picture 1 of 38

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The Daily Splash has been struggling with painting a fence of Tom Sawyer proportions recently. That’s not to say struggling with the actual painting but struggling to even get started.

The house was built in the middle of fields in 1875 and it probably wasn’t until 50 years later that saltwell road south was built necessitating the erection of the fence in question. Now for an 80+ year old fence it’s not doing too bad but we are hoping coating it with a couple of doses of cuprinol will extend its life by another 10 years.

With this in mind the daily splash put away the paint brushes on the precious day off between jobs and went for a bike ride.

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The Daily Splash were shocked this weekend to realise that their only son, Bertie, may be in fact a toy boy, as suggested by the picture. In scenes reminiscent of several forgettable 80s horror flicks (names forgotten) he was seen crawling across the floor with what can only be described as a blank and lustful look.

As his mummy’s breasts were directly in his path though this can probably be put down to normal behaviour in an 8 month old, it’s certainly pretty normal for his dad.

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A friend of the Daily Splash has pointed me in the direction of his interesting blog about his quest for fitness for timetrialling:

What is Project 4 Cycling?

In August 2011, I entered my first cycling time-trial. In fact, at the age of 38, it was my first cycling race of any kind. I did better than expected and better than anyone in my cycling club expected. I won a prize. I was the fastest “B Group” rider.

Proud as I am of my ride, I’m aware that I am the tallest man in Lilliput, so to speak. The fastest “A Group” rider finished 4 minutes faster than me. But there was a huge difference between us from the start, not least in the difference between his lovely TT bike and my battered commuter. But that got me thinking, what is the difference between us? Can I bridge the gap?

And that’s where the idea for this challenge and project came from. The challenge is simple: Be four minutes faster over the same course in 12 months time. The project is to figure out how that can be done without dedicating my life to it.

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2 today!

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Having discussed the downside of parenting below the Daily Splash is in a mood to recognise the upside this week. Having spent Sunday afternoon with Bertie in one hand a beer in the other and with the Test match on one screen and football on the other it all didn’t seem too bad. This should be the shape of things to come in an ideal world.

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After waiting nearly a year for the bike frame to arrive from Storck in Germany we now find it hasn’t actually been machined to the correct size and doesn’t allow the wheel to be fitted.  The drop out should be slightly over 10mm but it appears it is slightly less, enough less to be too narrow for the axle stub to fit it.

Having passed through anger in about February the only reaction was resignation as yet another summer slipped by.

Now planning bike routes for summer 2015 as it might all be finished by then.

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