December 29th 2010

I hope that you have all had a fabulous Christmas. You will be pleased to hear that I have now fully recovered from my flu (or 'man-flu' as my Mum likes to call it)and was out on the bike for the first time today. Admittedly this was just to go to school three miles away (all right, two miles) to pick up some homework that I had not received because I missed the last couple of days at the end of term. I felt terrible when I got home; it's extraordinary how it takes you weeks of training to get fit and only a few days for all your stamina to disappear!

Christmas day was spent up at St. Paul's Cathedral this year. The choristers, of whom my younger brother is one (as I have mentioned previously), have to take part in several services on Christmas Day so we went up as a family to have Christmas lunch at St. Paul's Cathedral School followed by evensong at 3.15pm before going home to open presents. I would like to say that the streamlined cycling helmet that I had requested from Father Christmas was in my pile of presents but I can't....... because it wasn't! I might have to go and get it myself.

In the short time between lunch and evensong we were able to take a few photos of St. Paul's Cathedral (on the left) from the new shopping centre that has just opened nearby (1, New Change) and from the Millenium bridge.

You might wonder why Alex has been so silent on the Blog front. This is because he is off skiing somewhere. I will make sure that he writes something on his return.

December 21st 2010

There has been absolutely no chance of training in the past week for two reasons: firstly, the snow; and secondly I have been completely laid out with the flu since my last blog. I have been told by my Dad that it is probably 'swine flu' and if the pig-like noises that I have been making due to my blocked nose and hacking cough, taken together with the sweats and general feeling of lousiness are anything to go by, I think he is probably right. Day four and I am just starting to feel a little better but it is going to be a little while longer before I get back on the bike.

Things are going pretty well otherwise. The picture of Alex and me that is shown on our home page was made up into this year's Christmas card for both his and my family by Help for Heroes, and we bought hundreds to send out to our families and friends. I say, 'we', but I mean our respective 'Mums'! They have been fantastic. There has been a wonderful response to these on our 'Just Giving' site and the donations have, at the time of writing, already reached 4% of our target figure. Thank you so much to those of you who have taken the trouble to contribute.

Alex and I have written to a large number of local businesses asking if they would be willing to sponsor our projects; they are fortunate to have been sent our Christmas card with the letter! Let us hope that some (or all) of them want to help out.

We are still waiting for confirmation that the Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral are happy with our proposal for the Choristers to be involved with 'Went the Day Well' anthem but this is hardly surprising as the Cathedral and Choristers are extremely busy at present given that it is almost Christmas.

December 17th 2010

The two of you who are already regular visitors to this website will realise that it is anything but complete. Well it is now time that we get going on our blog and it is my turn first. Everything has gone pretty quickly since we first thought of doing something to raise some money for Help for Heroes. Both Alex and I were keen to do something that involved cycling. I know that there is nothing particularly unique about cycling from John O'Groats to Lands End (I can hear you all saying, 'Couldn't they have come with something just a little bit different?) but there is something romantic about the notion of travelling the full length of Great Britain. What is more, most people do Land's End to John O'Groats (LEJOG) because it is supposed to be easier as the wind is more likely to be behind you most of the way. We are doing JOGLE because we are men. We have bought the Philip's Navigator Britain Road Atlas and have traced out our route avoiding most of the main roads and are planning on staying in B&Bs along the way but have yet to book these. We are very fortunate as I have managed to convince my elder brother Jonathan (Jono), to provide vehicle support along the way. What he doesn't yet realise is just how much work he is going to be expected to do. Not only has he got to drive, he also has to take lots of photos of the scenery along the way (and of us of course); make sure that a hot meal and a hot bath are waiting for us at the end of each gruelling day; provide an evening massage to ease our aching muscles; wake us up each morning with a cup of tea and a hearty breakfast; give us constant encouragement; and write the daily blog! I'm glad that I'm cycling.

You can read more about the 'Went the Day Well' Anthem elsewhere on this site (click the Went the Day Well button) but I would just like to say a big thank you to Ben Parry for being so enthusiastic about the idea. I e-mailed him on the 15th of November asking if he would be willing to compose a piece and he replied almost immediately saying that he would be delighted to do so. We are, at the time of writing this blog, still waiting for the final confirmation that St. Paul's Cathedral Dean and Chapter give their consent, but once this is through (fingers crossed) we can get on with the thousand and one things that need to be done to make sure that everything is a success. Lots of work, but very exciting.