Category: Vicissitudes of Life

A lot has happened since I last blogged about my dear mother.  She passed away on 17th of August while Annette and I were on holiday a few hundred miles away in the north of Scotland: I wouldn’t have been able to get back home and see her in hospital before she died.  I am…… Continue reading Jean Burnie Johnstone Etheridge (née Muir)

When Gethin asked me, a few months ago, whether I would like to join him and some other bike riders on a John O’Groats to Land’s End bike ride, my first reaction was something along the lines: “Are you crazy?  I couldn’t do anything like that, not with you club guys.  I’d be left far…… Continue reading John O’Groats to Land’s End Bike Ride

This weather is so frustrating: I can’t get out on the roads to train for the John O’Groats to Land’s End bike ride.  I will have to make do with training in the garage.   When I told my nine year old great niece about training in the garage for such a long-distance bike ride,…… Continue reading Training for JOGLE

My good friend, Gethin Davies, is organising a John O’Groats to Land’s End bike ride for charity in July: I have been persuaded to be part of the small group of riders taking part.  I have ridden 100 miles in a day in the past, but not 100 miles per day for day after day!…… Continue reading John O’Groats to Land’s End: July 2013

Just before Christmas, my wife and I finally managed to persuade my mother to have a carer visit her every morning.  This is a real breakthrough and is something that we have been trying to get my mum to agree to for almost a year.  She seems so much better now that there is someone…… Continue reading At last, my mother has agreed to carer visits

Being a fair weather cyclist, I have set up my bike on its roller in the garage.  I mean to do some exercise on it during the winter months.  

My mother is proving very difficult.  I am trying to persuade her to have care at home but she has a bee in her bonnet that this must be provided by Social Services.  I have never known such stress; dealing with a frail mother is a new experience.  

A few years ago, the wife of a colleague who I used to teach with when I was a secondary school teacher in the 1980s died.  My then head of department at the university where I worked when I left school teaching gave me time off so that I could attend the funeral.  It was…… Continue reading A Funeral in November

The only organised bike ride I did this summer was the 100 km Cotswold Sportiv on the 27th of May.  The ride started and finished in Stratford-upon-Avon.  The route took us through several Cotswold villages, including Stanway where there was a substantial climb of two miles, averaging 7 %.  This will be a good one…… Continue reading The Cotswold Sportiv

An excellent course.  Tutors and speakers covered the essential aspects of self-publishing to great effect.  It was great to meet lots of other budding writers in the same boat as me.