For Mike Hutchison

Hi guys,

Well a little later than expected but here is an update of what I have been up to and how things are going with my charity weight loss, it is good news though.

It was very up and down to begin with untill I got to grips with weight watchers and my cycling regime.
I managed to squeeze a week in Scotland in my home town of Annan, which is on the west coast in Dumfriesshire. A lovely village on the banks of the river Annan funnily and on the Solway coast.

My journey started from Cheam to Sutton, then onto Saint Pancras. Then a quick 2 minute cycle to Euston, just me and my Killer Belly bike. The journey there was not to bad thankfully.
Anyway I finally got onto my Virgin train to Carlisle, this is where a funny thing happened. I got the bike onto the guards van and the guard kept asking me if it had been booked on. She must have asked me five times, even though no other bikes were even on the train.
She finally asked me where I was going, so I replied Carlisle. She then told me I was on the wrong train as this was the Wolverhampton train. I thought oh no, as I would never have time to get to the Carlisle train. Then all of a sudden another guard turned up, she was on the wrong train and her train had already left!
Once there though I had an excellent week cycling up and down the river and along the Solway coast. The weather was mixed but generally good, even had a flurry of snow now and again. You can see in the photographs the snow on the hills in the distance.

We even had a treat of going to Barony College to get some smoked Salmon, trout and we even asked for 8 venison legs, but when he came back I told him to take it away as it was two ‘deer’.
The first bike ride I had was from Annan to Brydekirk via the river, up one bank and down the next. It was a lovely day and I think I only saw one other person on my travels.
I even stopped at the salmon leap to see if I could get a picture of a Salmon trying to jump the weir, but alas there were none. So you only have a picture of the weirpool I am afraid.
I even saw an Otter on my travels, so I stopped for a bit to see if he would return as he had gone under the bank, but he never returned unfortunately.

The trip up and down the the river from my Mums house is about 8 miles in total. Not an overly long journey but it is all just single track paths, mud and styles to hike the bike over.
Being spring, there were plenty of lambs in the fields. A lovely site after that horrible foot and mouth outbreak and empty fields.
You will notice in the photos the lambs are numbered. Being a small village this is when the bingo hall comes to town. We all go down the farm with the sheepdog and round up the lambs, as they go in the pen the number is called out. One day the villagers hope to get a real bingo hall, but they must replace the steam trains first.

Another run I had was along the coast to a place called Powfoot, which is down by the coast. Along my way I took a few snap shots of the old fishing nets. Which are no longer used and have not been for some time. Though they do still do some half netting down there I believe.
My mums fella, Rennie gave me a special water bottle for my bike. He reassured me it was healthier than water. If you look at the pictures closely you will see what I mean. I certainly had a happy days cycling.
Another thing that happened while I was back home was the Sparrow Hawk that landed on the bird bath, this was because it must have made a kill as Rennie removed a Pigeon from the garden earlier and I think it kept coming back looking for it. It was good enough to stay there long enough for me to bang a few shots off, you will have to excuse the reflections on the window. I did not want to take the chance of moving and it flying off.
I love going back home as it within minutes you are in countryside and Xcrossing in no time. The Focus Killer Belly was an excellent bike and coped with the off roading and my weight. Though I must admit I did flip it and went head over heels, excellent fun! Of course, what is the first thing you do before feeling the pain. Check no one seen you?

Well, how is the weight loss going. Very well now I have settled into the routine a bit.
As I said I started off as 20 stone and five pounds. My second weigh in was 20 stone 2 pounds, a 3lbs weight loss. Not a lot I hear you say, but just lift a bottle of juice. That is nearly 3 pounds and it is heavy. Any way the next weigh in I went back up to 20 stone 4lbs. Then after my week in Scotland and settling into my routine, my next weigh I was 19 stone and 12lbs. I have lost half a stone, superb.

Photos (click for bigger)

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Mike Hutchison. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.