Right now I'm sat in the back of the VW Camper, being transported home to Sheffield. I'm in 2 minds. Should I write this blog update, or put the bed down and climb into my sleeping bag, to enjoy some well earned rest.

Clearly, the blog has won!

I'm still wearing my cycling gear, but I'm also wearing something I didn't set off with this morning. I'm wearing a broad smile of self-satisfaction, as at 3pm this afternoon our band of cyclists and support team arrived on Filey seafront - and so our mission was accomplished!!

The morning didn't start so well. I awoke to find that 'Batts' had chosen to go with his 'bib' shorts, although he ended up looking more like Jack Black in 'Nacho Libre' than Chris Hoy!! Not a pretty sight.

We had breakfast and joined the team outside for the set off. Sky Sports News had sent a cameraman and former Wednesday favourite Lawrie Madden to cover the story and film us along the way. I hoped they wouldn't film us on too many hills!!

The shudderingly bad start to the morning I'd had seeing Batts in his shorts became almost instantaneously worse, as within 200yds of the start in Osmotherley Ebay winning cyclist Lee Brown suffered a puncture, and 300yds later the other Ebay winner Paul Senior snapped his chain on a steep uphill.

The incredibly steep hill soon spread out the pack, and I ended up walking some of it with Hirsty. It seemed over the 3 days we had been mirroring behaviours, even to the point of synchronised cycle dismounts at certain points!!

I pointed out to Hirsty that I'd spent most of my late teens and early twenties wishing that I could be as fit as him, and never realised that all I had to do was wait a few years for him to catch me up instead!!

I'd been given a bike cam by official video/photographer John Gath to use, and nearly gave him an opportunity to earn £250 from You've Been Framed as I hit a right hand 90deg downhill bend at around 35mph, sliding on gravel. To my amazement I stayed upright.

There was another immense climb out of a small village called Hawnby, before Hirsty and I picked up the pace to sail into Helmsley at 45mph (past the 40 and 30mph signs). Oh how I would have loved to get a speeding ticket.

We sat around in Helmsley waiting for the others to congregate, and decided we'd have just 2 more stops on the remaining 38 miles to Filey. There were 'no more hills' according to organiser (and local) Peter Shaw. And he was partly right too, after 37 miles and around 40 hills - there weren't anymore. Thanks Peter!

As we approached Filey we gathered in a layby for the final mile, and followed the VW Camper down the hill to the Coble Landing and Beach. I don't mind admitting I had a bit of a sniffle - it was a hell of an achievement for all of us, and we'd done it.

There was even a small band of supporters there to cheer us into town!!

We all hugged, shook hands and congratulated each other, had photos taken (when we found Hirsty who was in the pub!), even enjoyed a little shellfish as we stood around!! Rang families and friends, and then we all made our way to Peter Shaws house for a brilliant (and welcome) buffet.

Shirts were signed by the footballers, handshakes and hugs again and the team slowly disbanded.

And here I am. Retracing our steps?.. Or is that pedals on our way home.

Its been an incredible privilege to be involved in this, to spend a few days away with some incredibly nice people, to share stories with 3 fantastic ex-pro's, to ride through some of our countries most marvellous scenery and achieve a personal goal. And while all of that is brilliant, its made all the better by knowing we have been raising a huge sum of money for a very worthwhile cause.

I don't think it would be fair to complete this blog without mentioning all of the people involved;

Support Team

Richard Davies - great lad who's put a hell of a lot of effort into organising too. Hirsty would probably say - "Did he ever get out of the car?"

Diane Cockayne - nurse, moral support and general supplier of Mars Bars and sympathy. Hirsty would probably say 'Kingys favourite!! ;-)"

Paul Holmes - real back-up, following along with the trailer and tracking the backmarker with incredible patience. HWPS "Lewis Hamiltons pit crew" - after watching him put too much air in tyres, dismantling gears without a clue what he's doing, chains, wheels etc...

Jim Bainbridge - what a guy, been a great laugh and the first guy I've ever seen order fillet steak in the pub, with a 10oz Ribeye steak chaser. HWPS "tha's done nowt all week that didn't involve food"

John and Jackie Gath - lovely people to have around, very supportive and looking forward to seeing the video and photos they've done. HWPS - "Don't you DARE take any of me going uphill!"

Riders

Julian 'Batts' Batty - takes his cycling very seriously and probably prepared most for the event. HWPS "What the **** has he come as in that yellow outfit"

Peter Shaw - brilliant organiser, really lovely bloke and encyclopaedic knowledge of all things 'Wednesday'. HWPS "why use one word when 37 will do"

Paul Freer - oldest rider at 57, sets a real example as to how fit we should all want to be when we're older. HWPS "did you get that bike when you were delivering Hovis" (anybody who has seen Pauls bike will understand this)

Dave Barlow - non-stop wisecracks, quiz questions and possibly the only person who'd done less prep than Hirsty. HWPS "he's a trier. 200 jokes without a laugh and he'll still try again!"

Paul Senior - paid a great sum of money at the last minute to join the ride and finished a hell of a lot stronger than he started. HWPS "his damn snoring kept us awake all night - and he wasn't even in our room"

Me - suave, sophisticated, ruggedly handsome and wittier than Hirsty. HWPS "suave, sophisticated, ruggedly handsome and wittier than me". :-P

Bez - not a Wednesday legend, but deserves an honorary title on this weeks showing. The fittest man on the trip, king of the mountains, not so good at directions. HWPS "He's only got an England 'B' team cap"

Kingy - quite probably the nicest and most genuine bloke you could wish to meet. Made an extra effort to get to know people really well. HWPS "Especially Diane"

Hirsty - approached the bike ride just as he did his football. 100% commitment, effort and enthusiasm, regardless of whether he was fit enough. Still inspirational, and very very very funny. HWPS "Is that it? 3 nights away from home and that's the best write up you can give me"?

Steve Ludlam - another incredibly fit guy, and a pleasure to have along for 2 days. And I owe him a tube of Ibuprofen Gel!! HWPS "58 and he gave Bez a run for his money. Bez is clearly not fit enough"

Lee Brown - the most unlucky bloke I've ever met. Paid out to join the ride on Ebay, got a puncture within 200 yds of setting off, so had to drive to Helmsley in his car. And got a puncture. HWPS after Lee finally got his bike sorted for the last 16 miles "Oh aye, turn up now and get all the glory!"

Numerous fans who turned up along the way - you really have no idea how much your support, cheers, flag and scarf-waving did to lift spirits, ease tired legs, and anaesthetise aching knees. HWPS "Typical Wednesdayites - bloody brilliant"

If you've read this far you'll no doubt feel like you've endured some kind of personal achievement too!! Please do one more thing for me now. Donate as heavily as you can afford to a very worthwhile cause. All of the people listed above have given their time freely, used up work holidays and trained hard for months (well, Batts did) in order to complete this challenge.

All you have to do is walk to wherever your credit/debit cards are kept - and make a donation.

Thanks for reading the blogs - its over to you.

Regards

Nige (and all the team)

...Cos I'm blooming not :-)

Its 1030pm here in Osmotherley, the 2nd stage destination of the Coast 2 Coast.

Last night saw us eating out in Hawes, the landlord of the Fountain Inn, clearly a good businessman, had spotted an opportunity and reserved the C2C'ers our own room with large screen tv for the Leeds/Liverpool game and waitress service for our food.

The evening was high spirited, comparing stories of our Day One experiences, funny things happening like Kingy cycling straight through the middle of some roadworks and leaving a deep groove in the new tarmac, and once again chuckling at Jim who managed to not only trip over a half metre high stage ("I didn't see it"), and the toilet step despite a huge 'Mind the Step' sign on the toilet door. Jim, you should have gone to Specsavers...

Back in the room I instructed Batty to sleep on his side to avoid the previous nights snoring. Unfortunately, I was then treated to new room-mate Jim Bainbridges snores for an entire evening. It is no exaggeration that I got so fed up in the middle of the night that I put my iPod on with my 'noise cancelling headphones' - and they still didn't drown him out - proving that Jim officially snores louder than an Airbus 400.

After a hearty breakfast this morning we were on our way at around 930, and it had been agreed that there would be more stops today with support team in attendance - apparently someone had moaned about it yesterday... :-)

Aysgarth was the first stop, quite a hill involved, and it was decided that as an added break we would drop down to Aysgarth Falls - a truly wonderful view. Hirsty did point out that as there was a 1:4 gradient involved, and how he'd already seen Niagara Falls he'd stay at the top of the hill and look after the bikes!!

We moved on, and headed on into Leyburn, sitting in the town square and enjoying a welcome break after the long climb.

From Leyburn we set off again, this time for Bedale. This was a brilliants stretch of about 11miles and I really pushed myself - and it seemed to take very little time before I was in the main street waiting for (some) of the others.

My gears have really been playing up on my bike, slipping and jumping from cog to cog, so I called in at a bike shop. He suggested he thought it may be the chain that was causing me the problems, and suggested I visit a bike shop in Northallerton, which was on our route, to arrange a replacement.

Back up in Bedale main street I found the rest of the team at the pub in the main street!! The weather was really getting quite warm and it was lovely sitting out and enjoying the break. Far too soon we were off again and heading for Northallerton.

I pushed out of Bedale and was determined to maintain the momentum I'd established on the previous stage, overtaking the lead 2 riders at Leeming. I maintained an average speed of 20mph on this stage, waited constantly for Bez to come sailing past (and no doubt on his mobile!), but he didn't, I was only overtaken on this section by Phil King!! It later transpired that Bez had been distracted by Elvis Presley on his iPod leaving Bedale and had gone over 4 miles in the wrong direction before realising he'd not overtaken anybody yet!!

He eventually arrived at the Durham Ox in Northallerton (yes another pub) just as I arrived following my visit to the bike shop!!

All of the people we have met en-route have been lovely, very positive. The guys in Cowleys Cycle Centre in Northallerton were no exception, recommending that I replace the chain with a Shimano one. They asked what we were riding for, and incredibly supplied and fitted the new chain free of charge as a result. How brilliant is that?? Cheers lads.

The cyclists left Northallerton en-masse while the support team collected with buckets in the high street. We all rode the final stage together to Osmotherley, a very picturesque small village, and origin of the Lyke Wake Walk - something I've been asked to do next year. So hopefully I will be back here soon.

We're staying in the village pub which means not so big a walk to bed!! We had another great meal tonight, the match was on but very few of us watched as once again we were all swapping stories, banter, jokes and generally having a great laugh (mostly at the expense of the 'useless' support offered by Jim and Richard (who have been brilliant really!)

We are now turning in, got to look our best in the morning as Sky Sports News are sending a crew to film us leaving Osmotherley, a few shots along the way, and then covering our arrival into Filey. Let's hope they get paid overtime is all I can think!! :-)

64 miles tomorrow.

Just sharing with 'Batts' tonight (Oh no, I'm turning into Kevin Blackwell). If he snores tonight I'm going to throw my glass of water at him.

Night all

Nige

Updating the blog for today now, as Im pretty sure I will be too tired later. No midnight posts tonight :-)

After agreeing an 8am start from the Kendal digs, we hung around in the car park for a frustrating 40 mins admiring each others new cycling shirts and chuckling that Jims didn't fit him...

I was ravenous at this point and really looking forward to the promise of a big breakfast in Grange-Over-Sands. We arrived at the train station car park, unloaded the bikes and Hirsty announced we were ditching the breakfast and getting straight off!! Oh no.....

The cyclists gathered for a photo-call - and then we were off. The peloton soon spread out (did you like that? Thats a cycling term. If Im truly honest I have no idea what it means). The early pacesetters were John Beresford and Julian Batty. Theres something discomforting about giving it your all to get up a hill and John Beresford riding past you chatting away on his mobile.

We'd agreed beforehand that we would split the days up into 10 mile segments, the first stop being a layby just before Kendal. We all met in good spirits, had a coffee and some jaffa cakes (not the best of breakfasts) and agreed the next stop would be as close to the M6 as possible after Kendal and before Sedbergh.

This involved a teriffic downhill into Kendal, a ride through the town centre and then (and I'd totally forgotten about this), a steep climb out of Kendal uphill towards a windfarm. This climb consists of around 4-5 miles of steep uphill bends. Its a total swine and only 2 out of the 10 riders managed it without a walk for some of the way.

At the top of the hill we again convened at the camper for coffees. It was agreed that we would meet again 5 miles after Sedbergh for more coffees and a sandwich. Again we set off, and the trials of the climb from Kendal were rewarded by a brilliant downhill segment all the way into Sedbergh - I managed 45mph on this section (but still didnt catch John Beresford!)

Winding through the streets of Sedbergh I caught up with Batty - who'd suffered a puncture. Batty was being looked after by Peter Shaw who cleared off as soon as I arrived - thanks Peter!! To be fair, I cleared off pretty sharpish too as soon as Paul Holmes arrived with a spare inner tube - this was my chance to beat Batty to the end of the 3rd stage.

Unfortunately - as I arrived at the 10 mile marker - the stage support team weren't there. Nor at the 11th mile. Or the 12th, 13th, 14th or 15th. I was getting incredibly grumpy at this point, I was cold and tired and very very hungry. Some of the steeper hills were forcing me off my bike, I felt like throwing the damn thing into a field at this point!

At the 16th mile the teddies were thrown out of the pram, and I sat down at the side of the road and thought 'I'll have my break here then"... I sent an abusive text message to Jim Bainbridge - although the valley through Hawes is a bit of a network black hole so he didnt get it.

Diane Cockayne, part of the support team arrived with a Mars Bar. I don't really like chocolate anymore but ate it all down anyway! After 20 mins I picked up the bike, rode over the brow of the next hill and the viaduct of the Settle-Carlisle railway came into view. What a reward. I was just congratulating my luck at being part of such a brilliant event (with a shocking support team lol) when the next brow of hill was reached and I saw a pub in the distance.

And then I saw the support camper van, the support cars and some of the other cyclists bikes in the car park! They were all sat in a warm pub and I'd just had a Mars Bar 500 yds before on a feezing cold roadside... Aaaaargh!!

I parked my bike and went in the pub (the Moorcock Inn), and before I had chance to whinge they gave me a round of applause, totally taking the wind out of my sails! I sat down to a pint of Guinness and a piece of treacle tart with custard - and its without doubt the best pint of Guinness and Treacle Tart I've ever had!!

I did remark at what an appropriate pub they'd picked for a load of blokes to turn up wearing cycling shorts!! In the pub we were approached by a gentleman who wanted to make a donation to our fund - and Peter Shaw introduced our footballers...

"This is David Hirst, ex England International", and Hirsty shook his hand, "This is John Beresford, formerly of Newcastle United", again handshakes were exchanged, and then "This is Phil King"... before Peter had time to finish his sentence Hirsty jumped in to say "He owns the Dolphin Pub in Swindon"...

Hawes was only 5 miles away at this point, an undulatinhg road lay ahead, but newly refreshed and having ditched my rucksack relieving my back pain instantly, the ride just flew by - and we all convened again just 1/2 a mile out of Hawes to ride in en-masse.

Currently sat in the lounge of a beautiful guest house, the Bulls Head Hotel in Hawes, ( www.bullsheadhotel.co.uk ) planning a (very) long hot shower, a few pints watching the Leeds game and some stodgy food (beef and ale pie would go down very well tonight!!).

No doubt there will be much more to tell you tomorrow after what Im sure will be an excellent night in Hawes.

All the best

Nige

Well its midnight on the eve of Day One of the Coast 2 Coast.

I'm laid here in bed at the Travelodge, Kendal and am not overly sure whether the butterflies in my stomach are the result of nerves, or my first visit to an Indian restaurant in almost 2 years!! On reflection, I had possibly the mildest curry known to man so it must be nerves...

Kendal in late September on a Monday night isn't the thriving metropolis you would imagine. We had a couple in the 'Globe' before heading off to the Mumbai for the food.

At the Globe we were joined by the first of our footballers, Phil King. Phil had arrived earlier in the day and, not sure of plans, had already eaten. We all reminisced about the usual things football fans do when they get together, inevitably these involved games Phil had played in, even down to free kicks he had taken. I personally fondly remembered the 'stepover' routine he performed with Nigel Worthington - though if I'm honest I think I was more enthusiastic about it than Phil!!

Just exactly how anoraky do I sound?

In the restaurant we were joined by the remaining members of our team, including Hirsty and Bez.

I ended up sat with Bez, who looks sickeningly fit and prepared for the ride. Or maybe he looked so good as he was sat inbetween me and Hirsty! Bez admitted he'd done a bit of prep for the ride, and didn't seem overly concerned that on Thursday night, after what will be our longest stage of 63 miles, he is due at a function in Maidstone. In Kent. At 9pm.

Personally I'm not confident I'll be in Filey for 9pm on Thursday night so that gives an indication of his confidence!! :-)

Hirsty regaled us with stories of his training prep - and how he only learnt how to change down his gears this weekend. Apparently Twentywell Lane is a swine in top gear - Hirsty had stood hard on his pedals and remained almost motionless for 20 minutes before discovering that the downshift was built into his brake lever.

I've got a feeling I will be more likely to finish in Hirstys pack rather than Bez's!!

We are aiming to leave the digs for Grange Over Sands at 8am - have breakfast there before we get on the bikes and set out on the first stage. So, without further ado, I'll turn in, switch out the lights and hope that the guys I'm sharing with don't snore too much.

Night and all the best

Nige

Well, its here.  Today I will be collected by one of the support team we have for the ride, and transported to Kendal for our first overnight stay in advance of tomorrows start in Grange-Over-Sands. *gulp*

Obviously I'm worried about the knee.  I'm totally without pain now after 4 days of expensive physio, and I'm really not looking forward to riding the miles wearing a knee support that's designed for walking.  But that worry has been totally overtaken now.  I was sent a picture on my e-mail last night of the transportation we have been loaned to get us to Cumbria.

Clearly - my biggest worry now is being seen in this Camper with 3 other burly blokes!  If anybody puts Erasure on the stereo I will be getting out and walking...

Tomorrow morning, after a hearty breakfast we will be setting off from Grange-Over-Sands on the first leg to Hawes.  Google Maps suggests that the most direct route for this leg takes in the M6 - though I would imagine we'll be looking for quieter roads than that!

The first challenge will no doubt be this evening - and will be a good pointer as to who the chaps are that need to be kept up with in the bar this week.  I'll update the blog tomorrow morning with a bit of an intro to the team - as well as a report on the evening - who wussed out and went to bed first, who drank the most/least etc... You know - all that grown up stuff...

Catch you in the morning... If we're not still trying to get to Cumbria in the camper.

All the best

Nige x

PS: Its totally remiss of me to not print the Sponsorship Link - so here you go. This is a link to an official article about the ride with the link to the site for donation.

http://www.wednesdayite.com/news/wednesdayite-news/292-hirsty-and-friends-cycle-coast-to-coast-for-charities.html

 

"Little motivates me more than the doubt of others..." - Nigel Short 2009

Make a note of that quote.  Since I last posted I have received 3 lots of physio on my knee, and it feels great.  I have another session booked for tomorrow morning (Saturday).  Ive been wearing a knee support and using lots of ice treatment and I'm feeling much more confident about the prospects now.

Back to the quote.  Since I posted about my injury on Wednesday I've become aware that quite a few people have actually taken a little satisfaction from my injury! Hard to believe.  "Lining up the excuses" is something I've seen a few times on Facebook and messageboards - and to be honest - it made me laugh more than anything.  I know its probably meant in jest by most - but to be totally honest, all it does is serve to motivate me to complete the challenge by hook or by crook - theres not much more satisfying than raising a 2 fingered salute to those who would get a little bit of pleasure from seeing you fail!!  I usually console myself that the type of people who are happy to see others fail when confronted with a challenge are generally people with little to point to in their own achievements.

So a big thank you to the doubters - you have strengthened my resolve.

Now lets revisit that quote again!!  When I say 'little motivates' - there is something far greater than a little cynicism from others to motivate me.  And that is generosity.  Yesterday I received some quite staggeringly great news from a customer of mine.  He's been a customer over 7 years now - and yesterday he donated £1000.00 to the charity we are riding for next week.  I passed the news around the team - and the response is fantastic - it has motivated all of us. Its a very generous gift and we all thank you so much.

I don't care if next weeks ride take me 10 hours a day to complete, or whether I'm walking like a cripple for a month after it. I WILL COMPLETE IT.

Thanks to everyone who has been fully supportive.  You are the ones that matter. x

Finally - good luck to the Owls tonight in their own challenge at Bramall Lane.

All the best

Nige x

What is it they say about 'the best laid plans'??

My training ride on Tuesday ended disastrously. My gears on the bike have been slipping in the mid range - I really need to get the bike into a bike shop for someone to have a look at it.

Anyway, 42 miles into my ride I changed down a gear approaching a steep hill, stood up on my pedals to gain more drive, and the right pedal slipped from the top to the bottom, and once the pedal reached the bottom my knee jarred. I knew straight away from the incredible pain that it wasnt good, I managed another 4 miles of stop and start before I had to be rescued from a garden centre (fantastic coffee cake) by Dazzy G.

I spent the rest of the day in agony, and Wednesday losing 3-1 to Middlesborough didn't help!!

Yesterday morning at 9.30 I was on the physiotherapy couch being looked at by Alan Smith - physio to the stars... Alan was the England football team physio for many years, and Sheffield Wednesdays before that. Hes one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

He diagnosed the problem almost immediately. I have torn my lateral collateral ligament. Its something Ive done before playing football. However the good news was we have visited physio very early in the injury process, and therefore we can treat it.

Alan didnt offer a judgement on whether I would be ready for the bike ride next week - but he didnt say I wouldnt be which is clearly a positive :-)

I spent yesterday following physio using frozen peas on the area... and today will be back for more physio at 6pm.  Tonight I'm at Hillsborough for 'Hirstys Bar', and tomorrow night of course its the Derby Game with Sheffield United.

Busy busy - lol

All the best

Nige

In a week from now I will be setting off on what will be the 2nd biggest test of my endurance - ever.  When I volunteered 3 months ago I had little idea what I was letting myself in for - and as the time approaches my nervousness about the whole event is increasing.

Preparations were hit hard last week.  As I posted in my last blog I intended to travel from Lincoln to Skegness and back over 2 days on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, due to an important work commitment I had to cancel that particular session.  I was massively disappointed that I succumbed to work pressures as ever since the events of last year I have maintained a sense of pride that I now fit work around my life and not vice versa.  The amazing weather on the 2 days didnt help.

As it turned out it was a futile gesture, as the reason I stayed at work didnt materialise.  That was a harsh lesson, and one which I do intend to learn from.

Anyway, to bigger things...

The Coast 2 Coast Challenge has been organised by 'Wednesdayite', a supporters trust I was partly responsible for setting up a number of years ago.  8 cyclists will leave Grange-Over-Sands in Cumbria next Tuesday morning, and ride first to Hawes, then Osmotherley, finally landing (hopefully) in Filey on the East Coast on Thursday.  3 of the riders are ex-professional footballers, Phil King, John Beresford and David Hirst.

Phil King in his Wednesday Days

John Beresford in his Newcastle days...

The legendary David Hirst celebrating one of his numerous goals for Wednesday

We are raising funds to help purchase a minibus on behalf of the Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme Charity. The bus will be used to transport Sheffield Wednesday's disabled and special needs supporters to home and away games. Additionally, a proportion of funds raised will be donated to The Children's Hospital in Sheffield, to help fund specialist medical equipment.

I will be posting a link to a site where donations can be made - and I hope you will support me once again as you have done so remarkably in the past.

Today I am engaging in a training ride - I've taken the day off work and will be covering 45 miles before tonights game at Hillsborough against Middlesborough.  I also intend to take advantage of this coming weekend with no Wednesday match and fit in a lengthy ride as a loosener for the week ahead.

More news as and when...

Nigel x

OK, it appears a little experiment I tried last week went totally wrong and many regular readers received a notification to read my last post from May! So I'd like to apologise to anybody confused by reading 3 month old news!!

It also served as a timely reminder that its been quite a while since I posted, and what a busy time its been!!

Training for the forthcoming Coast 2 Coast Bike ride has been going... well, OK.  Not 'amazing' or 'brilliant'.  Just ok. Im feeling quite nervous about it to be totally honest, but Im determined to see it through however long it takes me.  I did have a lovely long weekend back at the old favourite guest house in Grasmere (Banerigg, 015394 35204 ) with a few great rides around the most beautiful scenery and incredible hills.

Since then Ive been working on my pace rather than distances, I can now average around 14mph on hour long rides which Im pleased with, just got to work on the distances now - although Im cycling from Lincoln to Skegness and back over 2 days a week tomorrow which is 110 miles round journey - so we will see how that goes.

Also since I last updated Ive been away a couple of times, once again it was great to have a few days back in Spain with my great friend John.  On the way back I was contacted to let me know that one of the club sponsors at Sheffield Wednesday had actually offered to pay for me and the kids to join the Club Pre-Season Tour to Malta, obviously recognising the difficult year that we all had with being ill and the ridiculous legal action that was taken by the previous incumbents.

Unfortunately Gina was unable to go due to Work Experience commitments, but Daniel and I attended and had the most incredible time.  Dan was 14 while we were there and had a real birthday to remember, not just being mascot for the team, but getting to watch the game from the bench, lift the trophy Wednesday won in front of the crowd, join the squad photo, attend all the team training sessions and travel with the team on the team coach. He even had a kickaround with the new Chairman and Manager at the training ground one morrning. (I tried not to be jealous)

I have thanked everyone involved but would like to do that again, publicly right here. Nothing was too much trouble, it really was the most incredible week.

Heres me throwing some shapes (whatever that means) on one of the many nights out we had there!

And heres another...

Anyway - the football season is here now, I've attended every fixture so far including a 600 mile round trip to Plymouth in one day last Saturday, and an evening trip to Newcastle a few weeks ago.  Newcastles away seats are up 14 flights of stairs - Im delighted to report that of our party I was the only one to run the whole way to the top 2 stairs at a time (although Gina was a very close second - well done sweetie).  On the way out I was approached by someone who's been reading the blog who shook my hand and said how nice it was to finally meet up - thank you for doing that.

And just a couple of weeks ago I fulfilled another ambition by attending u2's gig in Sheffield - and what a night that was.

As you can no doubt see - its been a busy time, and the next few weeks don't look like slowing down either.  Hope you are all well, I can't believe how many people are still visiting this blog.  Last month was the second busiest month for blog readers ever (2990 readers) - which is amazing considering it hasnt been updated for so long.

I'd like to end this installment by wishing someone all the best - he's going through exactly what I went through last year and so far he's had his op and is awaiting the start of the radio/chemo.  All the best and good luck, you know who you are.

Will probably logon and update just prior to the Coast 2 Coast now  - as of course i will be looking (once again) for some sponsorship.

Thanks for dropping by

Nigel xx