Happy new year

Well there goes 2011. How fast did that go? It's an age thing I know, but it just seems to fly by. What it must be like for my Parents or Aunty Joan who is 91. The jump to light speed scene in the millennium falcon  springs to mind (Star Wars - just in case you didn't know).

Made the Kessle run in less than 12 parsecs (I don't know every line - honest)

Anyway I just wanted to say thank you to all that have contributed so generously to my appeal in 2011. I have been so thrilled by your kindness. It is hard to put into words how grateful I am to you all.

2012 is going to be a big year all round. We have the Olympics, which I am sure will be a defining moment for this country as we edge our way into an uncertain future. I think for a lot of people we move into a new year with fear and trepidation as to what the future holds.

The famous Apollo 8 shot of the earth appearing after an orbit of the dark side of the moon. Kind of makes our problems seem insignificant

I know that whenever I feel worried, I think of my sisters and the struggle they went through and it always seems to put things in perspective for me. It's a kind of reality check. I truly hope that with hard work and a fair wind, 2012 will see an improvement for us all........oh and there is the little matter of a 1000mile bike ride for me to do too.

So all the very best to you for the New Year.

Here's a selection of my favourite photo's from 2011

Monty practising to fly

Rosemary and Monty - Lyme Park sunset

Some ugly mug at the top of Hardknott pass - wow that was a hard climb

Egg and chips always looks good after a long ride

Rosemary and Moo in Eskdale

Trying to open the gate on a flooded track 

I didn't win the cake competition at work but Nigella's bonbons went down well

I spent a long time editing my friend Bev's wedding video - this is my fav line drawing of her

Mum & Dad's Golden wedding anniversary - on the Orient Express to Edinburgh for the day

Hayfield - the home of mountain biking in the UK....... 

......but the neighbours are a bit odd :)

Ozzy Osbourne came for Halloween

Can I see too Dad

Meet 'Lady' I see her every morning whilst walking Moo

Mosery, Monty & Me on our secret walk - it's a secret.

Lord Moo of Hayfield

My friends Steve & Helen had another boy - Alexander James (with Tim and Ben)

Hope you enjoyed the blog in 2011 

Here's to 2012

A Message from Steve

I hope you have all had a great Christmas. It always seems to fly by so fast and you are left wondering why on earth you bought so much food. Every year we agree not to buy so much. But sure enough by Christmas Eve we have so much food in the house, we could last six months without stepping out of the door.
By yesterday, Boxing day, I needed to get out on my bike for some exercise. I start to get grumpy without exercise so Rosemary shoo'd me out (I feel like the dog sometimes). So I cycled off into the hills to "burn off my grump" as I say (see my next post for details)

Steve Williams having just scaled an Alp 

Anyway back to the title of this post. 'A Message from Steve'. I was reading my emails late last night and I noticed that I had a message from JustGiving, telling me I had just received a donation for £150.00 from  'anonymous'. I thought 'Wow' how fantastic and generous is that.  Shortly after I got an email from Steve Williams who is my bestest buddy in the world. The message read:-

Brian, tried to put this on JustGiving with my donation but it just went through as anonymous with no message- can you change it for me? I would really like to say this on the donation page. (he had attached a word document with his message enclosed)


I read the message and it made me cry. I couldn't help it. If you read on you may understand why.
I tried to go into the Just Giving settings but I don't think I can edit a message once it has been published. Maybe I can,  so if someone knows how please get in touch?

So I emailed him back and asked him that if I couldn't add the message to his donation, could I post it on my blog. So here goes.


A Message from Steve

I am one of the lucky people to have met Janet & Erika and have many good memories of them both ! 

At Brian's parents house I only had to enter the room  and Janet would burst into laughter! We always ended up chatting about Barry Manilow & David Cassidy. Janet loved them to bits.  Even when Janet became more ill with her condition,  every-time I saw her she gave me a lovely big smile. 

Erika's condition became much the same but she was always happy to see me. She would smile from ear to ear and there would be lots of uncontrollable laughing. One day, Erika's younger brother Harvey gave me some lessons on how to wheelie her wheelchair, which Erika found very funny. On most visits to the Turnpike in Marple, I would ask Erika for a go on her chair. She always let me when I told her it was good training for on my motorbike. 

I cannot imagine what you and your whole family have been through losing such lovely sisters. Xx 

"Brian" best of luck on this tour! Just remember "full chuffa" and if you do fall off make sure the RAF are on standby.

Steve Helen Ben Tim Alex

Steve with Erika at MerseyBank nursing home

I need to explain some of that to you. For those of you who don't know Steve, he is one of life's funny guys. He just makes you laugh. So when he used to visit my sisters, he would have them giggling by just walking into the room. If he got into a conversation, they would be in fits of laughter and quite often I was worried they might 'have an accident'. It was the perfect therapy for them and I was always grateful to Steve for visiting. Janet and Erika used to tell me they loved Steve Williams to bits.

Steve - err being Steve

The bit about wheelying wheelchairs has a story behind it. Harvey and I discovered how to wheelie a wheelchair whilst visiting Janet at hospital once. I remember us having to wait for hours with Janet for  the neurology professor to do his rounds. It could get quite boring after a couple of hours waiting, so we used to mess around in Janet's wheelchair next to her bed. After a while we found we could hold a wheelie for ages and even control it down the corridor. So we quickly found another chair and Harvey and I would race up and down the ward wheelying the chairs with Janet giggling away in her bed (and Mum and Dad telling us to stop it - sort of) Anyway the charge nurse came in and really told us both off for fooling around. That was how we learnt to wheelie the chairs. Steve just carried on the tradition at Mum and Dads.

Janet and Erika in their wheelie chairs

Steve, Harvey, my nephew Ryan and Erika with me at the Pub  

'Full Chuffa' is Steve Williams for 'no messing around lads this is full on, balls out fast' or something like that.

One of Steve's 'Full Chuffa' downhills

The bit about the RAF being around is having a dig at my unfeasible ability to fall off my mountainbike in dangerous places. I have had 'get offs' (mtb parlance for a big fall) at quite a few mountainbiking outings and one of my nicknames is 'crash bandicoot'. Don't ask me how but I always seem to just get up unscathed (with a bit of whinging here and there)

However on one occasion I didn't get up. Me, Steve and some mates were on a bike holiday in the French alps a few years ago. It was the first days riding and we were all up for it. It was a beautiful sunny August day. We'd just climbed a ridiculously steep hill and were charging down the other side. I felt great and was pushing along near the front (not as fast as Steve - he is just mental - too quick for me) but trapping on a bit. We came to a forest section and the light went from bright sunshine to dark and murky in a split second. I had my dark shades on due to the bright sun and hadn't allowed for the sudden change. I was squinting my way through the steep downhill forest when I hit a drainage ditch that was straight across the track. It had a log in the centre that my front wheel slammed into and sent me straight over the bars. I don't remember the rest but I came round in a heap next to a large rock on a banking. My head had hit the rock and shattered the front of my helmet. All I could feel was a searing pain in my neck. I tried to get up but felt really dizzy and sick. By this time all my mates were around and Chris, who was a trained mountain medic, urged me to stay still.

Me somewhere around the andromeda galaxy

To cut a long story short they got the French Alpine rescue team out and the doctor thought I had a broken neck. I was very scared as they pumped morphine and then Ketamine into me. All I remember from that point was flying around the universe chewing the fat with God. Ketamine is not something I would want to take again in a hurry. I came round as they were putting me in the helicopter and I could hear Steve shouting "I'm coming with him, I'm coming with him" followed by a rather angry sounding pilot shouting "Non Non - too heavy, get out now" as they were trying to take off.

All in glorious technicolour - just love Steve's comment at the end :)

A very relieved me back at the chalet

I spent a very frightening few hours in the hospital at Annecy. Apparently they are scraping 10 to 20 people a day off various Alps so they are world experts at getting people to the specialist spinal injury hospital quickly. They were quite superb and I told them so. Fortunately my diagnosis was heavy trauma to my neck from the compression of my vertebrae against the rock. They said that my helmet (which was shattered) had saved me from much worse injuries. I was very sore but very very lucky.

Steve and I after too many Shnapps. Made my neck pain go away for a while. Steve 'borrowed' those hats

So that is why Steve mentioned the RAF being on hand for my ride. I hope I don't need them :)

Update - Just remembered something Steve did after the crash - Once I had been helicoptered off they were all wondering how to phone Rosemary and what to say. So Steve took it on himself to call and explain diplomatically and sensitively, what had happened. This is how the initial conversation went (according to Rosemary). Phone rings.........Rosemary answers "hello".....Steve says "Hi Rosemary....err I don't know how to say this, there's no need to worry, every things fine, no problem, however Brian's just been helicoptored off the mountain to hospital, he might have broke his neck". The rest of the conversation I'll leave to your imagination. We all laugh about it know by the way. There is only one Steve Williams.

Thank you so much for your kind donation Steve & Helen, Tim & Ben & Alexander. The donation and your message really means a lot to me.

By the way, as a real coincidence it is Steve's 40th birthday today. We are all off to a party that Helen has arranged at the local pub (how she managed it with an eight week old son and four year old twins I have no idea) anyway I can't wait. Got a pressie that Jane (at work) and I have been working on for  a few weeks now. It's a secret until tonight but will post an image tomorrow for you.

40 years of Steve Williams - Framed

Happy 40th Steve - you old git :)

P.S - a really big thank you to Mark and Fiona Brogden for your very generous donation on Christmas Eve. It was very much appreciated....oh and Mark, I don't shave my legs :)

Christmas memories of my sisters

Welcome to my Christmas special blog. Hopefully you will have done all your shopping, got presents wrapped and the turkey defrosted so you can relax at home with your feet up ready for the big day... No? me neither. I'm sure everything will get sorted just in time....but that's something to do with having a wonderful wife (what a creep)

I've been searching high and low for some suitable Christmassy pictures for this post. Trouble is we never really took many pictures at Christmas. I'm not sure why? Probably because we were so excited we just forgot. So anyway, I have been promising some of you more pictures of my childhood, and as it's Christmas I've included some of my favourite one's. There's a few of Mum and Dad too.....and as a treat ?.. for all my mates, I've included the worst ever, ever, ever times infinity, picture of me. I must be feeling brave. Hope you enjoy.

Our Christmas tree earlier today

As a kid I used to love Christmas. I got so excited from about the middle of November. Does anyone else remember how time seemed to stand still when you were very young? At the beginning of December, Christmas was an age away. The days ticked by soooooo verrrry slowwwwly. I remember the last day at Primary school before we broke up for Christmas was always good fun. It signalled that Christmas was almost here. Mums were asked to make a particular dish (cakes or buns or sandwiches) in and we would have a party with hats and balloons. Each year-group had their own party and at one stage Mum was sending three of us in with different baskets of food. Harvey wasn't old enough  for school at that stage.

 Me, Janet and a friend (I'm the one in the middle btw)

A 'just walking' Erika. That's my Grandad (Dads side) in the background

also framing the shot wasn't top on the photographers skill set back then. 

Harv and me at the IOM TT - cool cardigan!

By then, Christmas was almost upon us and I could hardly contain myself. I am sure Janet, Erika and Harvey were the same too.

We were allowed to ask Santa for one 'big' present as we called it. So the four of us would endlessly look through the Littlewoods catalogue for ideas(remember those) and watch all the adverts on iTV (remember when there was only one channel with adverts? wow how times have changed). We would make lists as long as your arm (why as long as your arm?) Then with some very tough decisions, whittle the list down to just one present. However, you were never sure you were going to get that present mind. I can still picture my Dad looking at the list one year and saying "you can forget that...a (kids) motorbike?...I'm not getting....err Santa won't be bringing that!". So, all dejected I had to go back to the list and choose something a little more sensible....like a 'do it yourself surgery kit' (just joking) Anyway it was a good life lesson having to prioritise and compromise with 'Santa' to get the present we wanted, or more accurately  what we were given.

 Mum with Janet in Gran and Grandads back garden

Dad and Janet with Gran and Grandad (Mums side)

Its funny but there is a smell that reminds me of Christmas eve. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, when I smell fresh gloss paint, especially when a room is warm, I think of Christmas. It was one Christmas eve that Dad decided to re-gloss the skirting boards at home. I'm not sure why? We might have had visitors due and he wanted to spruce the place up a bit. I can vividly remember the smell in the bedroom as I longed for the morning to come round, listening out for Santa and not getting a wink of sleep.

On Christmas eve all four of us kids had a pact that we would wake each other up once Santa had gone. I don't think any of us ever slept at any point on Christmas Eve night. I think we were only really waiting till such point that we were not going to get seriously told off by Mum and Dad. It would begin by  whispering to each other something like "Harv....do you reckon Santa's been yet." Harvey was in the bunk bed below. As soon as he knew I was up for going down stairs he was out of bed. "lets go get Janet and Erika" Harv would say. "Ok you creep over the landing and get them" as he knew we would be in for it if Mum and Dad heard us. I reckon it was usually about 3.30 to 4am when we crept across the landing. As soon as I pushed the door I could hear the girls. They were already up and ready to attempt the creeky stairs. Looking back I am sure Mum and Dad could hear us. We were rubbish at being quiet.

My favouritest picture of Janet in the whole wide world bar none

I don't think there was anything in the world that could compare with the excitement of Christmas morning. Wondering what presents lay in store for you in the living room. Mum and Dad would make four neat piles on the settee and arm chairs and as we opened the door and switched the lights on there was always a squeal of delight from the girls as they saw their presents for the first time.

 Mum looking lovely on honeymoon

Dads honeymoon joke. A clip round the ear soon followed

However one year still stands out in my memory and for a couple of reasons. We had all crept down stairs and discovered our presents as usual. Janet, Erika and Harvey had all found their 'Big' present and were full of smiles and giggles. But I didn't seem to have one. I was distraught. I searched all around the cushions and under the settee but there was no present from Mum and Dad. I took myself off to bed sobbing my heart out. I was thinking that no one loved me any more (are you feeling sorry for me yet?). Anyway, what I will always remember is Erika coming in my room, putting her arm around me and and saying "Brian, please don't cry, it must be somewhere" I just cried more.

Well with all the commotion Dad had got up and found my present. It had fallen down the inside of the settee (where all the coins go). It was a digital watch and I was made up. I had that watch for years. It was a Casio and it played "the Yellow Rose of Texas" when the alarm went off. Happy days............!

Once we had opened presents from Uncles and Aunty's we were all pretty bushed and to be honest I don't remember the Christmas dinners too much. I think all four of us were ready for bed by lunchtime but we were happy as could be. I do remember having Canada dry to drink. I used to love Canada dry ginger ale. It was 'beer for children', as Dad would say. I always wanted to try some of Dad's Harp lager but Mum would put a block on that idea. So the ginger ale was a good compromise. Those were magical times.

Beer for children...Innocent days

 Don't you find that as you get older the magic of Christmas seems to fade a little more as each year goes by? I think it starts when you find out that Father Christmas doesn't exist and you wonder why your parents shamelessly lied to you for all those years about some chubby bloke from Lapland in a red jump suit. I should have realised that Santa was never ever going to get down our chimney, as Dad had blocked it over years before. That and the elaborate hoaxed mince pie with a bite out of it and footprints made with icing sugar on the hearth. For a start, Santa lets face it, with his tummy must like his grub, so there was no way he was going to half eat anything. And why was there snow on the hearth? there was never any outside. Don't get me started on the carrot for Rudolph! What was he doing trying to come down the chimney? He's  got four legs and weighs about half a tonne... and what about all the other reindeers? they never got anything. Santa should be reported to the RSPCA!

Anyway enough of the Santa conspiracy theories. From Rosemary, myself and Monty. Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. Let's hope we can raise loads of money for Ataxia UK.

Me Mosery n Moo

Yes ok, there's another shot too. You thought I'd forgotten hadn't you!

Well here goes. Scroll down

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is it me or is it a gangly young Frank Spencer?

I am going to get some stick for this picture

Well I reckon that picture alone is worth a donation. What do you think? If you would like to donate you can click directly on this link just giving

BTW. My New Years resolution is to sort out my grammar and punctuation. Years of texting and email autocorrect have made me very lazy with my English. I also promise to stop using brackets (or parenthesis my American nephew calls it) lol. 

and the raffle winners are......

We held the mega raffle draw on Monday night at The Bike Factory in Whaley Bridge with the kind permission of  Fred Salmon (ex top pro cyclist). Fred has been very helpful to my fundraising, so a special thanks to him.

Fred Salmon on his way to winning the 3 peaks challenge in 1990

As I've mentioned previously Nick Craig, who is Hayfield's very own Olympian, gave up his precious time to make the draw so a really big thanks to him too.

Nick Craig representing Great Britain at the Sydney Olympics 

and closer to home in Dalby forest

A cycling legend and a cycling leg-end

The results were as follows

1st prize of a Land Rover mountain Bike went to Jim Isaacs from Offerton - thanks to Sheryl Howe for selling that ticket

2nd prize of a Electric guitar kit went to Laura Carter from Hayfield - thanks to Roy Hulme for selling that ticket

3rd prize of a pair of Sennheiser in ear headphones went to Geoff Leigh of Glossop - thanks to Norma Williams for selling that ticket.

We raised an amazing amount of £895.00 to add to the every increasing total. We are now at £3720.00 and counting.

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed in whatever way to my cause.

I have put together a little video of the draw below.

Don't know why the picture is squeezed. I'm no good with this new fangled technology.

News is spreading

I had a call from the Manchester Evening News group a few weeks ago. I thought "fame at last".  Actually Dad had been in touch and explained to them about my challenge and they had very kindly offered to write a piece in the local papers. I told them all about my sisters and ataxia and why I felt it so important to be raising awareness of the disorder.
However a couple of weeks went by and I hadn't heard or seen anything. It was only the other day when I got a text message from my friend Tim Eastwood to say there was a half page article in the Stockport Express and that he was really impressed and would follow my blog. Since then I have been in the Stockport Times too and have had lots of people mention the article. So thanks very much to Katherine Vine at M.E.N Media. Your help is very much appreciated
       

my wedding day on the left and some knock knee'd herbert on the right

This weeks training - a tale of split personality & substance abuse

This week winter arrived like an unwelcome guest on the doorstep with its bags all ready for a long stay. Peering out of the curtains on Monday morning we had snow on the ground and a grim looking sky, so I decided this week I'd give the road bike a well earned rest and use my mountain bike. In the end we were lucky as Scotland got the worst of it, but we had our fair share of rain, sleet and snow.

"by eck it's cowd owt tha naws" - as they say in Derbyshire

I have to say it is quite tough to get yourself motivated when its dark and cold and it's pouring down outside. I have a sort of schizophrenic mental battle some mornings. I look at the car and get a nice warm feeling. Then I think hmmm that's not going to get me 1000 miles to John o'Groats.... But just one day in the car won't hurt?????.... Come on Brian its only weather, get on your bike.... Yes but I can put the heater on in the car and have the stereo on, precious!!!!..... No, I'm going on the bike and there's nothing you can do about it......Oh yes I can, precious says get your keys and get in your car.......NO NO NO I'm going on the bike....AARRGH!...Gollum, Gollum.

I need to sack my stylist

I went on the bike btw

I've been trying out a secret potion to help me with my training. Actually its not a secret at all. I don't know if you have been watching any of the 'Great British Food Revival' series? Well every week they have a couple of well known chefs extolling the benefits of a particular British food that has lost favour with the British public. It's really interesting and just shows how we have lost touch with the traditions of homegrown produce. I think it is a great advert for British food and makes you realise how important it is to consider where we buy our food from. Anyway I'm digressing!
One week Antonio Carlucci, who is some famous Italian bloke according to Rosemary and who loves British food apparently, was preaching the virtues of the sadly maligned beetroot. He showed us fantastic ways to cook and prepare an amazing variety of beetroots I never knew existed. It all looked delicious. During the programme he visited Exeter University where they have a superb sports nutrition lab. They were testing super concentrated beetroot juice on athletes and had concluded that beetroot has serious stamina enhancing properties. It is to do with the naturally high levels of nitrates in beetroot. When digested it is converted into nitric oxide, which is well known for assisting in building your stamina levels.
Apparently cycling teams, premiership footballers, rugby clubs and sports teams around the world are now using beetroot juice shots to help in training. So I thought, if it can help pro athletes, it's got to be able to help the useless lump of lard that is me. I bought a months supply!

Beetroot shots.....Turns your wee pink :)

I've been on it nearly a week and I am not sure if it's made any difference yet. It's hard to tell. So I decided to video my ride to work on Friday to see if I could see any marked difference to my speed. What do you think?

I think I'm gonna have to get better brakes
(track - Ace of Spades - Motorhead available on iTunes)

My Mega raffle is being drawn on Monday 19th Dec. Nick Craig has very kindly agreed to make the draw. So if you would like some tickets please get in touch this week (details at the top of the home page)

Or if you would like to make a donation you can click on the this link Justgiving

Recurring dreams

I think we all have dreams where we suddenly fall off a cliff and wake up clinging on the bed for fear of falling out. But do you ever have recurring dreams? You know, the ones that you always remember after you've woken up and wonder why you keep having that same dream. They can be totally bonkers. Things like having a tea party with Queen Victoria on a space ship that morphs into your school mid dream and Queen Victoria turns out to be your Mum......or is that just me. Come on you know what I mean?.. I hope.

Rosemary planted those teddy bears ...honest!

Well I keep having this dream that I am fantastic at wheelies. I just get on my mountain bike and set off on the back wheel and just ride around without a care in the world. Its a brilliant dream! I feel really chuffed with myself throughout. I think this must be the sub-conscious interacting with the conscious, because in real life I am absolutely 'pants' at wheelies. I remember as a kid practicing endlessly and never being able to go more that a couple of yards. I think it might have something to do with me being a lanky herbert with a very high centre of gravity. Whatever it is, I have never been able to master the art of the wheelie.

I have always had an admiration for those who can wheelie as it is so difficult to pull off.  So when I get these dreams I wake up afterward feeling totally deflated that it wasn't for real.

Anyway I think I know the cause. Back in 2005 Rosemary and I were on holiday and we booked some cycling excursions. One of the guides could do amazing wheelies. I managed to film some of his stunts with an old camera phone whilst riding along side him. I have to admit he was pretty good at them. Blooming big head...I wasn't jealous honest!

Some people are just born show offs!

Fundraising so far stands at an amazing £2700.00. Thanks so very much to everyone who's sponsored me so far. Remember if you want to buy tickets for the mega raffle just let me know. I will be making the draw on 19th Dec. so there's still time to buy some tickets (prizes and info at the top of the page).

If you would like to make a donation to my challenge please visit my JustGiving page I know its getting close to Christmas and its an expensive time of year for all. However anything you can spare would be much appreciated. Thank you again.