Shauna is a good friend of mine, who I've known for almost 30 years. Last year she and some friends raised money for Clic Sargent by cycling from London to Paris, a wonderful achievement. The video below is an interview with Shauna as she explains why she did it and what got her involved with Clic Sargent.
This is particularly moving for me as Rebekah, who Shauna mentions as being the original inspiration for getting involved in this cancer charity and whose photo features in the film, was my niece, and she would have been 21 last Wednesday.
Showing posts with label bicycle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bicycle. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Danny Pace, one of life's good guys
The ride to which we were invited was up around Perthshire on Saturday and Sunday, but for various reasons mostly related to how busy we've both been lately we decided that we'd pass this time. Danny and another couple, other close friends of his, went anyway, just the three of them, and they set off on Saturday from Dunblane I believe, heading generally towards Loch Tay and eventually aiming to be back down towards Glasgow over the two days.
On Sunday morning when I got out of bed I checked the BBC News website, as is my custom, and saw the following report.
Cyclist dies after falling off bike near Kenmore
A cyclist has died after coming off his bike in Perthshire and suffering a head injury.
Daniel Pace, who was from Edinburgh, was hurt on Saturday at
about 15:00 near to Kenmore. The police said he was wearing a cycling
helmet. The 31-year-old was riding northbound along an unclassified road from Amulree to Kenmore when he came off his bike. An ambulance was called and paramedics treated Mr Pace at the scene but he died a short time later. No other vehicles are thought to have been involved and his
next of kin have been informed. A sudden death report will be submitted
to the Procurator Fiscal.It's now apparent that the three of them had been descending a hill on an unclassified road, with Danny in the lead, and he crossed a cattle grid which somehow caused him to come off the bike. I don't know whether he skidded over it, he hit a raised part of it, or there was some other reason, but whatever happened it made him come off his bike and, despite wearing a helmet, suffer a severe head injury, so severe in fact that it killed him. Danny was in no way a risk taker, he wouldn't have been travelling too fast.
I am a (very well trained) first-aider and for a day or so I agonised internally over what might have been the outcome if I'd been there. Might I have been able to save the life of Ruth's close friend, a bloke I'd come to like and respect over the past few years since I first met him? It turns out that the circumstances were that one of the couple riding with Danny is a qualified doctor, and soon after the accident a car pulled over containing two retired nurses. So no. I wouldn't have been able to do anything for him that wasn't already available.
If there's any comfort to be had from the tragedy of one so young losing his life, is that it happened while he was doing something he loved with two of his best friends, and after the initial impact he would not have been aware of anything, so his suffering was almost certainly minimal.
The photo of Danny on the right, which he used as his Facebook profile image for a while, was taken by me on the longest day in 2010 when he, Ruth and I walked to The Whangie to watch the sun set over Loch Lomond in the distance, while having a wee beer and scoffing sausages cooked on a disposable barbecue we'd taken with us. A happy day!
His funeral is tomorrow in Edinburgh. It's going to be a very emotional day.
They shall grow not old as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Halcyon days
I'm quite conscious that lately my posts haven't really come from within my head, inasmuch as most recent ones have been either reposted material from my website which I've now closed since I didn't update it for the past year or so and it was costing me money to host, or occasional embedded YouTube videos which caught my eye.
I'm not particularly hung up on this, although for a while I considered it to be a bit of a literary failing, because I've accepted that times change and my use of this Blog will change, and probably change back, with my own personal zeitgeist.
Perhaps this is a moment however to reflect on what life's doing to me here at the start of 2011, albeit the virtual ink's still damp on my review of 2010.
Generally, life's reasonably good at the moment, leaving aside a nasty cold that's been lingering for a week or two and which currently is causing me to sound genuinely like a man yodelling when I try to sing in choir. I'm due to sing live on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave on Monday morning in their Daily Service when the Cathedral Choir will be doing it from Glasgow, but we'll see how that goes!
I'm now at the end of seven days of annual leave, which although is happening now comes from my 2010 entitlement which I will lose if I don't use it up by the end of January. So with not all that much to do, little money left after the Christmas festivities, and no one else on holiday to socialise with during the day, it's an odd time for a break, but fairly welcome nonetheless.
The biggest new thing to affect my life recently happened only a couple of days ago when, through the miracle of the UK government's Cycle to Work Scheme, I took delivery of a new bicycle, the first I've owned/ridden since 1997 when I bought one and used it for only a month or two before getting rid of it and trading up to a BMW K75RT motorcycle.
It's a Halcyon Monterey, like the one in the picture, which is a hybrid, neither Mountain Bike nor Road Racing bike but something more suitable to daily commuting with the occasional trip along a canal towpath or similar. Front suspension and seat make it quite comfortable to ride, and although it's very early days to my surprise so far it's been less traumatic leg-wise than I expected, but I really need to replace the comfy gel saddle with a much wider comfy gel saddle! If you get my drift. Owwwwwww!
Having collected it, I decided there'd be no point just taking it home and looking at it, so I set off along the nearby towpath of the Forth and Clyde canal towards Glasgow city centre, intending just to be gentle with myself and see how I got on. Before I knew what was happening I'd reached Lock 27, a pub next to, well, Lock 27 of the canal funnily enough, which was a lot further than I intended. Taking the more direct route home through Anniesland cross (for those who know this area) and down through Knightswood, I had no real trouble until I stepped off the bike at my front door and tried to climb the 3 stairs with wobbly jelly legs! One hot bath later I was fine, with only a sense of personal satisfaction remaining afterwards. A check of AutoRoute showed that I'd travelled almost eight miles! OK, in the grand scheme of things not all that far, but pretty reasonable for a first effort.
I intend using it to occasionally commute the few miles to work, using the Renfrew Ferry to cross the River Clyde enroute. If I manage that once or twice a week I'll be happy and it'll be a whole load extra exercise I wasn't previously getting. Not only that, the Cycle to Work Scheme means that my employer has actually bought the bike and I'm renting it from them over the next year, with the payment coming off before Tax & NI contributions, and at the end of the year I'll be able to buy it from them for an estimated one month's rental. I won't know exactly what I'll save until I receive my payslip containing the first payment, but the bike (reduced from a retail price of about £400 to £199) plus the accessories (helmet, lights etc) costs about £275 and I think I'll end up paying about £200, so it isn't a bad deal.
Other things that are happening are that the countdown to a significant birthday starts in a week, so to celebrate that less than significant one I've aranged a group of about 20 friends to go for a curry in Glasgow next Friday. It's ages since I had a curry and I'm really looking forward to it. Of course the celebrations in 2012 will perhaps be more extensive, but I need to get my head round exactly how I want to celebrate it, and not be overly swayed by other people.
Glasgow Chamber Choir has an exciting year ahead, the first part of which is a trip to the Netherlands in March to sing with another choir there. Our choir members are being hosted by their choir members, but since I'm not really in a position where I feel I can reciprocate when they come over to Glasgow in May (and I'm an anti-social bastard), I decided just to make my own arrangements, so I'm staying in a hotel in the centre of Amersfoort, near Utrecht, which is where that choir's from. It's a small hotel, but looks very friendly so it should be good. The hotel website describes it as, amongst other things, gay friendly, but I get the impression that although it's called the Queen's it isn't compulsory! The flights and hotel are all booked, and as it gets closer I'll get more into it.
Oh, and the meaning of the title of this post? Well as I'm sure you know, Halcyon Days are the seven days in winter when storms never happen.
I'm not particularly hung up on this, although for a while I considered it to be a bit of a literary failing, because I've accepted that times change and my use of this Blog will change, and probably change back, with my own personal zeitgeist.
Perhaps this is a moment however to reflect on what life's doing to me here at the start of 2011, albeit the virtual ink's still damp on my review of 2010.
Generally, life's reasonably good at the moment, leaving aside a nasty cold that's been lingering for a week or two and which currently is causing me to sound genuinely like a man yodelling when I try to sing in choir. I'm due to sing live on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave on Monday morning in their Daily Service when the Cathedral Choir will be doing it from Glasgow, but we'll see how that goes!
I'm now at the end of seven days of annual leave, which although is happening now comes from my 2010 entitlement which I will lose if I don't use it up by the end of January. So with not all that much to do, little money left after the Christmas festivities, and no one else on holiday to socialise with during the day, it's an odd time for a break, but fairly welcome nonetheless.
The biggest new thing to affect my life recently happened only a couple of days ago when, through the miracle of the UK government's Cycle to Work Scheme, I took delivery of a new bicycle, the first I've owned/ridden since 1997 when I bought one and used it for only a month or two before getting rid of it and trading up to a BMW K75RT motorcycle.
It's a Halcyon Monterey, like the one in the picture, which is a hybrid, neither Mountain Bike nor Road Racing bike but something more suitable to daily commuting with the occasional trip along a canal towpath or similar. Front suspension and seat make it quite comfortable to ride, and although it's very early days to my surprise so far it's been less traumatic leg-wise than I expected, but I really need to replace the comfy gel saddle with a much wider comfy gel saddle! If you get my drift. Owwwwwww!
Having collected it, I decided there'd be no point just taking it home and looking at it, so I set off along the nearby towpath of the Forth and Clyde canal towards Glasgow city centre, intending just to be gentle with myself and see how I got on. Before I knew what was happening I'd reached Lock 27, a pub next to, well, Lock 27 of the canal funnily enough, which was a lot further than I intended. Taking the more direct route home through Anniesland cross (for those who know this area) and down through Knightswood, I had no real trouble until I stepped off the bike at my front door and tried to climb the 3 stairs with wobbly jelly legs! One hot bath later I was fine, with only a sense of personal satisfaction remaining afterwards. A check of AutoRoute showed that I'd travelled almost eight miles! OK, in the grand scheme of things not all that far, but pretty reasonable for a first effort.
I intend using it to occasionally commute the few miles to work, using the Renfrew Ferry to cross the River Clyde enroute. If I manage that once or twice a week I'll be happy and it'll be a whole load extra exercise I wasn't previously getting. Not only that, the Cycle to Work Scheme means that my employer has actually bought the bike and I'm renting it from them over the next year, with the payment coming off before Tax & NI contributions, and at the end of the year I'll be able to buy it from them for an estimated one month's rental. I won't know exactly what I'll save until I receive my payslip containing the first payment, but the bike (reduced from a retail price of about £400 to £199) plus the accessories (helmet, lights etc) costs about £275 and I think I'll end up paying about £200, so it isn't a bad deal.
Other things that are happening are that the countdown to a significant birthday starts in a week, so to celebrate that less than significant one I've aranged a group of about 20 friends to go for a curry in Glasgow next Friday. It's ages since I had a curry and I'm really looking forward to it. Of course the celebrations in 2012 will perhaps be more extensive, but I need to get my head round exactly how I want to celebrate it, and not be overly swayed by other people.
Glasgow Chamber Choir has an exciting year ahead, the first part of which is a trip to the Netherlands in March to sing with another choir there. Our choir members are being hosted by their choir members, but since I'm not really in a position where I feel I can reciprocate when they come over to Glasgow in May (and I'm an anti-social bastard), I decided just to make my own arrangements, so I'm staying in a hotel in the centre of Amersfoort, near Utrecht, which is where that choir's from. It's a small hotel, but looks very friendly so it should be good. The hotel website describes it as, amongst other things, gay friendly, but I get the impression that although it's called the Queen's it isn't compulsory! The flights and hotel are all booked, and as it gets closer I'll get more into it.
Oh, and the meaning of the title of this post? Well as I'm sure you know, Halcyon Days are the seven days in winter when storms never happen.
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