pBullox`

What a ride! This has been the strangest year I think I’ve ever had. Lots of things changing – some for the good some for the… well, I don’t know. The year began a bit cold with some bits of snow here and there as usual. I had agreed to take on a new team at work alongside my existing responsibilities. It was quite a challenge but got to meet some new guys and see lots of new sites. After a few weeks changing and fixing process events started to get better for all and the work became manageable. This was when I was asked to step in as acting manager of South London . Off I went taking care of things in London with the engineers there. That was until we were placed at risk of redundancy back on June 4 th . This opened up a new can of worms for me thinking about the future and the vision that’s with me for the café. (Sublime) Most my time from here was about considering what to do next. I have researched and visited so many places – attended seminars talked to so many people but finally...

Today the school holidays begin. Already the snow has caused heart ache when a bigger boy smashed Joshuas' snowman. "It's just snow" I said. "No it's not, it was a huge ball" Hmmmm, if this is what snow is going to be about please bring on the rain. Michelle has just departed for the Midlands so I'm looking after things for the weekend. What to do - museums, skating and shopping are the ideas so far. We'll see where they go :-) Getting some work to see me through the planning stages of the cafe seems to be going OK. I should be redundant from VM at the end of the year. Going to setup a Ltd company to do some contract work if all goes well. There has been another invite to a meeting to discuss the community venture in January. I need to get my ideas polished and produced in readiness. Setting up my Coffee shop has really got to become the priority now. A business plan and other work needs putting together - some time-out in prayer is on the cards ...

Today I said goodbye to one of my managers, he took the redundancy option. Everyone thought he was a dead cert for staying. That was six guys I know personally that have gone. This time changes at work are real and are going to be painful. An obvious temporary state until all disciplines merge and possible outsource comes. I'll be staying a little while longer whilst I get things sorted for Sublime. The boss has asked to stay on - but doing the new role will be a second choice. I can see it being rock solid, even through an outsource maneuver. Thing is - if all it's goals are met quickly as planned, governance can always be removed without cost to operations. We shall see... The meeting is Monday at the council to discuss support for the venture. If it's positive I'll begin to involve the community pillars - the guys who are doing good stuff already that is. Fortunately I know some of these guys and hope I can get them on side and give them an additional point to connec...

'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' Proverbs 29:18 When problems arise, our vision is often the first thing to hit the chopping block. That's because we don't see life the way it is, we see life the way we are. The Bible says: 'Where there is no vision the people perish' [live unharnessed and undirected]. When God gives you a vision for your life, you begin to see things as He sees them. Moses 'saw' the Promised Land when everybody around him saw only wilderness, wanted to give up and return to Egypt (See Hebrews 11:27). And He understood that he'd get there on God's schedule, according to God's plan, one step at a time. Many tasks seem overwhelming when you look only at their size. But when you break them down into small steps and visualise yourself taking the first step, you're amazed at your progress. You can do something for a day you wouldn't commit to doing for a month; ask any recovering addict! One Christian leader ...

After looking around at suitable locations for Sublime I thought I had found the one. That was until Friday when the council boys said no to a change of use. That was it - it was over for Thatcham, time to look on the Island. Something wasn't right about that though, it's just not time yet, that will come soon enough. The idea is playing on mind all the time and on Sunday it was making me feel really low. I suppose I was feeling sorry for myself, I have learned you get nowhere by worrying though, the birds of air do not go without. I decided to not give up and to talk to the local town Vision guys. All day on Monday I was putting off calling them through fear they would tell me to go away. I've not told anyone about some of the conversations I have had with people, when I've told folks what I want to do, it's welcomed as a good idea and then I'm reminded how someone else had that idea and it didn't get anywhere. I've found sharing the thought is usually ...

On my own this time. The weather is awesome, 21c. It will be a bit different this year. I see a business tomorrow, will it be the one that brings us to the island? It feels strange, I am missing Michelle already, I'm not even off the main land either. Very strange as maximus would say. Terence is missing... pBullox Mobile

Its late to be out and about on the canal. Its only 830 but really dark. Where did the daylight go so soon? Autumn is here!. pBullox Mobile

Wow... What a year again! Lots doing... Our showing of the Age of Stupid went well on Saturday, a few councillors came to see it along with the Mayor; She seemed really impressed and left with the opinion we need to do something about the dilemma we're ALL in about climate change. Next on the Agenda for Thatcham Good Life is the 'Greening Thatcham' campaign. This is were we intend to engage the whole town - all 9000 of us to do something to lower their own CO2 emissions. It need not be something expensive but just something... Having an awareness and the impetuous to start changing things is the beginning... ...maybe building wind power on Greenham Common is the next step... STOP! Sooo controversial... Anyways - Next is the Hills Killer... This year without Terry, him and Samantha are expecting their new baby at the same time. What will be great will be if I get a text near the finish line with him telling me the baby is here... Happ...

V Festival was cool. I had VIP passes from work, what that actually means is I got to go in a fenced off area away from the festival to use a cash bar. That's it! Nothing more nothing less. The VIP was a bit of a let down but the rest of the fest was ace. Really good day out in the Mids. It was sunny and I got my top off. Spending time with Michelle away from the kids was a treat, we usually do things seperate- correction! I usually do. Cycling, weekenders, Island, and Church takes me out of the way all the time and Michelle puts up with it... I can't think why; maybe she loves me... No maybe, I know she does :-) Bless her.. x.x. At V pBullox Mobile

South Downs done for another year, didn't raise as much cash this year but did finish in a faster time. The day was really good- started early, up at five and started the ride at 6:30ish. It was a really warm day, even at that time of the morning. Moving along the course it all seemed quite new. Last year a couple of guys helped me do the course, they gave me drinks and food and the encouragement I needed:-) This year it was my turn to help, about 2 miles in a guy snapped his chain; that was it his ride was over because he had no way of sorting it. As I went passed I asked if he was OK to which he said yes. About 100 metres on I looked back and he was still looking lost. I went back and fixed his chain and gave him a lazy link. Saw him through out and beat him to the finish. Happy Days. One accident during the day... I was going down THE big fast hill into Queen Elizabeth park, I cycled wide of a walker straight into the path of a second. It happened really quickly. It was him or t...

Culver Cliff - Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight. Get to the top to spend time with the Lord pBullox Mobile

Age of Stupid - Climate change movie. Showing at the Frank Hutchings Hall in September. Coming to the launch of Greening Thatcham the movie should go some way to showing folks what's going on on planet earth.

Twenty Years since my Dad died of a Heart Attack. Left us before his time, back then in 1989 my Dad needed someone to tell him that doing hard work and stressing about everything around him wasn't good. He was too 'old school', he knew what was best for him, an 'I'm my own man and I know what's good for me and I don't cry" attitude got the better of him in the end. Working too hard trying to prove to everyone he could do it all... If only he had someone to teach him, not tell him what's good for him then he might be with us now. That's why the BHF helps. They produce information for patients; lobby the government as well as all the research. This year I’m dedicating the South Downs Randonnee ride to my Dad. 20 Years on Reginald Bullock 1944 – 198 9

The Soapbox, how's that go then? It was great, a brilliant day enjoyed by all. The lads pulled off a blinder, came together as a team! After a few practice runs they got it together and made the cart complete the course. That was something of an achievement on it's own, our cart wasn't the fastest one on the course. We learned bigger wheels does indeed help in the go faster stakes:-) The team was made up three plus one mascot. The guys took it in turns driving down the ramp, two pushers one driver. The Driver were in alphabetical order, Alex Askwith 15, Dominik Bullock 14 and Tom Hawkins 14. Joshua Bullock 8 Team Mascot. Together they made up the Berkshire Bulls. We won two out of three races but our times were pretty pants overall so didn't get to the final race off. We did win however! Two categories; 'Best Theme' Winner and the 'Peoples Choice' Winner. The competition was good from all but the Newport Scouts group won with a cart that was just ace... ...

A car is born, well, a kinda multicoloured woody wheelie silly looking thing. This is our chosen mode of transport for the up coming Soap Box race on the Isle of Wight. We hope it can win, although I feel we may be a bit disappointed... Especially when you see what the other entrants put forward. Anyways, we like it. The head on the front is a Bull before you ask. I know, I know it looks like a bull crossed with a rainbow eating dragon... It is a Cow! Race is on Sunday. Think of us through the day winning all the heats... Speaking of heats; hope it's sunny.

The new wheels. The latest addition ready for Sundays soap box derby on the island. pBullox Mobile

pBullox Mobile

Still look 26, I here you say. Thanks. pBullox Mobile

He may have won if I wasn't so good:-) Can you believe it? He goes away one weekend and comes back as a pool hustler. He couldn't even play the game when he went away. Now he beats me. pBullox Mobile

The IOW festival was great. Well the bit we saw was:-) Prodigy had their good bits, so did some others- Razorlight were cool, so much better than than the Sterophonics. Best band of the weekend was The Ting Tings, first one I saw.. Peaked a bit early eh! Roll on next year, maybe with a tent. Who knows? :-) pBullox Mobile

To get to be in fields like these. I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by them within minutes. If you get the chance to go out to see and smell these you really should before the flowers fade. A blessing from God.

Summer time is here.. Finished work today until Monday 22nd. Got lots of things planned. Start tomorrow with a hair cut followed by watching the boy compete at running. He's eight now and has already raced for his school a few times; usually cross country but tomorrow is 100m and 500m.. All the best to him- he loves it. Friday is time to travel to the island for the Music Festival , Ting Tings at 4pm finishing with Prodigy.. Looking forward to this weekend the music festival is ace. A weekend with Terry, Kay, Clare and this year Danny too. Just hope now the weather is good, even if it's not I'll still have a good time I'm sure. I'll try to upload stuff to the blog whilst I'm there, got everything sorted on the new phone.. Monday should be a day on the beach before I come home.. Tuesday got a confirmation service to go to, Wednesday a celebration of my own Baptism and Confirmation and Thursday it's my Birthday. Throughout the week I'm going to attempt to ...

Wednesday, the boy ran away from home. Blagged a day off school with friends and instead of facing the music back at home decided him and friends will run off. Except he didn't run off he stayed around Thatcham hanging out. The Police got involved and put the feelers out for him and his pals. Tony, Michelle's brother caught one of em and bought him back to mine where he got abusive to the cops so they gave their apologies to us and carted him off. Lesson there is respect the cops and other folks homes or get your arm twisted by a constable. Dominik was finally located and bought home on Thursday. He got ticked off from all directions- at least he's safe now. We got some sorting to do there that's for sure. Thursday, after getting only two hours kip and having to get the boy back home was needed at work for meetings. Those meetings that happen in our industry every couple of years. So, 1pm placed at risk of redundancy again. There are options though. The deal is to align...

12 miles. 1hour. Greenham to Newbury loop and back to Newbury.

Wow, that hill is huge. Just stopped off for a banana . I'm sitting in a field of yellow stuff. Smells quite nice. Oh well must plod on.

It starts by casting in your line then sitting back and waiting.... And Waiting.... ... and waiting... and waiting... Until finally... We catch a fish... Not a very big fish, but as the sun begins to go down it's a fish worth catching... All 20grams of him.. Happy Days. Only took 3 Hours.. There were more... These didn't take an age to catch though! A guy came and asked us who's water it was that we were fishing. I said I'm not sure so he warned me about how strict the fishing association is about their water... Hmmm, their water and fish. I'll let God be the judge of who's fish they are.. The big one The wriggly one.. Finally... The Good Looking one... I caught...

From Thatcham to the Midlands. A small diversion into Redditch instead of Tipton . I think the ride still needs to be called the Thatcham to Tipton though. Or if it was named after reality the can't sit on the saddle because hit hurts ride. Great ride though, painful at times and really tiring but some great sites and experiences. We did the whole thing following the GPS without maps to back us up. A few detours along the way but overall we found our way. I've tried uploading the route to Google but it just won't work.... I'll look into that some more. Over two days around 65 miles a day, lots of water, bananas, serial bars and egg sandwiches.. All is good, the country side in Britain is ace. Didn't see a single fox though until we got into urban Redditch . You see you ban the hunt you the foxes aren't needed so they're eliminated from the country side.. Never mind I'm sure it will come good. Looking ahead to the rest of the year there are still some...

They're all from my mobile so a wee bit pants. I need to get mail or MMS sorted on my phone so I can blog my events from the event. Next thing I do this year I'll have this sorted so, God willing my blog will be good... for once.. The previous blogs are from 'The Thatcham to Tipton' ride. Completed yesterday.... Another entry to follow with the real trip.... Thatcham to errrrr... Redditch, via Stratford, Banbury and Oxford.

Day two, we're off to a really slow start. Too many gates and poor path ways making life hard, tow paths that are just lumps of grass mixed in with more lumps of something. :-) Not to worry though, soon on the national routes with flat surfaces.

Oh well, we finally made it to the room. After a couple of detours in Oxford we put in the long hard slog to make up the last 20 miles. Its been a great day; the ride along the Thames is really tough though its on grass and dirt tracks that's really hard going. Tomorrow we have about 10 miles on canal and the last 55 is on the national route no5 in to Redditch town and Terrys house for the finish.. Thats it I'm off to eat.

We're 32 miles into it, just ahead of Oxford on the Thames bank near RAF Benson; so have stopped off to eat. Egg mayo sandwitches, cereal bars and bananas. 25 miles to go until we get to the hotel. Happy days...

Updated the blog template so I can see if I get any followers. It's been about two years since I looked at what you can do with these blogs.. wow, how things have come along! When I started all this it was all in Beta version. Now you can all sorts of gadgets and gizmo's on here with editing the HTML like before. Cool. Bring on the good stuff, I might even add some pictures and colour in there. What a day today has been, I've been to three church services.. One at St Barnabas with Josh, sticking, cutting and gluing, making all sorts of things. Then over to St Mary's to help out the ladies setting up for lunch, then to the Broadway with 'Churches together people' and finally back to St Mary's after lunch for the final hour. I love Easter... It has new meaning to me. As part of life now it's the best celebration in the year.. dare I say it.. more so than Christmas... Today is a strange day remembering the Lords death and why the day is called good. That...

Good day in London to see the boat race. a bit of a carnival atmosphere going on. Great fun. Oxford won by a mile. Maybe it will become an annual event on the bike.

Congratulations - you’re registered! Thank you so much for choosing to support the British Heart Foundation by taking part in one of our fantastic Events. We will do everything we can to support you as you prepare to take part. We need you to raise as much sponsorship as you can to help us beat heart disease. Your Participant Pack, full of top tips and advice on getting ready for the day itself and raising as much money as you can for our life-saving work, will be mailed out to you approximately 8 weeks before the event date. Can’t wait to get started? If you have not already created your online sponsorship page you can do it now www.justgiving.com/bhf   This really is the quickest and easiest way to fundraise. We want this event to be a really great experience for you so whilst you are getting fitter to improve your own heart health you know the money you have raised will be helping us improve millions of lives by fighting heart disease. We look forward to ...

23.5 miles on Saturday. From Thatcham to Highclere, cycled to the limits of the map.. Saw how the other half lived, started in a small village called Sandham, poshness measured by seeing two Ferraris. From there onward and upward seeing signs saying strictley private on the fences in the middle of the woods. By my reckoning a back garden 2 miles wide... cool! Some pics of the trek.... Just so you can see what you're missing... :-) yeh, I know; Whatever! The thingy most southern on the map.... The Temple on Highclere Park