Nathan - TeamGossy.com

Well, the old Toyota Estima Lucida had its last ditch chance to prove itself as a holiday vehicle, and the poor thing failed - I could say miserably, but it did a pretty fine job, in a funny kind of way.

We decided to head towards Dover. We had a change of clothes for a day, and even packed a doona and pillow, just in case we got stranded somewhere.

Through the city, past Tower Hill, out through East London, and then down through the Blackwall Tunnel. All was going well. Temperature was sitting right where it should. Lovely.

About 2 mins after turning onto the major motorway heading towards our planned destination, the temperature started to rise - rapidly! Kate did a wonderful job of driving as safely as possible along the motorway, in the emergency lane, at about 10 miles an hour. We managed to get about 5 miles before the lovely local highway police decided to stop and suggest that what we were doing wasn’t the brightest thing in the world. Neither was buying this crappy vehicle! (That’s a whole other story!) They allowed us to continue the remaining 1 mile until the next exit.

We pulled into a driveway in country England, and spoke with the residents who gave us directions to the nearest station, where we could get a train to the city. Luckily, this was only 2 minutes down the road (downhill, thank goodness).

I drove the car to the station, mostly in Neutral, and the temperature was hovering between normal and ARGH! We reached the station, and saw a sign to Sevenoaks. We decided to keep on driving slowly to Sevenoaks, and find a place for dinner. We would then attempt to drive home via non-major routes (i.e. Below 50m/h).

A nice pub meal in Sevenoaks allowed the car to sit in the carpark for an hour or so, and let off some steam. Then, Team Gossy piled back in, and set off for home.

We figured that if it took Anthony and family about 2 - 2.5 hours to get home from Sevenoaks a few months ago, after lunch with Greg and family, it would take us nearly 3 to get home.

What could have been a nightmare trip, turned out to be quite pleasant. We got to drive through small country roads, and saw many things that we would never have seen sitting on a motorway. After 2 hours 15 mins, we arrived home safely in Shepherd’s Bush.

First trip the next day - CarGiant. We looked at quite a few cars, but settled on a Navy Metallic Blue Sep 2004 Volkwagon Golf Estate 1.9 TDi. Goes very nicely, and will take the worry out of taking trips away in the car. Oh, and it doesn’t overheat!

If you know anybody in London who would like a cheap run about car - let me know. The car goes brilliantly for city driving! It has a full year’s Tax! MOT until Feb. CD player that plays MP3s! Is clean and tidy, and otherwise in pretty good shape.

We have now got many ideas for a driving trip - The Lake District, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, maybe France again, and quite a few other places that may take our fancy! Stay tuned!

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It has finally arrived! YAY! :-)

Packed perfectly in a new Scicon bicycle transport bag, my Principia Road Bicycle has arrived safe and well in London.

Again, many thanks to Dean and the guys at TCR - Triathlon Cycling Running for their wonderful work. They even wrote down the exact measurement for the saddle height, as they had to lower that to ship it! Awesome Work!

So, a new pair of riding shoes are needed, and I will be flying around London - trying to lose this Pommy Fat from my waist and belly!

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Bike arriving any minute. No shoes to ride it with. Old shoes need replacing.

Why can’t I find any retailers that stock one of the most common brands of cycling shoes, so that I can try them on?

Plenty of places sell the shoes I am after - especially in the US. What is the problem with the UK? London in particular!

A few phone calls increased the frustration level. An example. I call Evans Cycles, one of the UKs biggest cycling retailers (stores all over the place). They have Carnac shoes listed on their website - quite a few different models. Two of the people I spoke to at their busiest store hadn’t even heard of the brand I was after - as I mentioned earlier, one of the most common brands of cycling shoe on the market!

Well, I think I may have to just order the shoes form the states, and hope they fit! Grrrrrr!

If anybody out there knows of a cycling store in the London area that stocks Carnac Cycling Shoes, PLEEEEEEAAAAAAASE let me know! (Post a comment to this post) Thanks!

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What is annoyingly un-professional, ridiculously picky, way too interested in other people’s work that they forget about their own responsibilities, and overly zealous at thinking they know best?

An idiot, that can therefore not be argued with.

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I’d like to send a huge round of applause for Dean and the guys at TCR - Triathlon Cycling Running, in Melbourne, Australia for their awesome support and amazing work over the last few years, but especially the last 6 months.

Dean, you run an a world class business, and should be extremely proud of the service you provide to the triathlon/cycling community in Melbourne. Your assistance with getting my bike back on the road - albeit a London road! - was most appreciated. Doing this stuff by email isn’t the ideal method of getting a bike fixed, but my trust in your judgement was more than justified!

Anybody looking for some new equipment should speak with Dean and the guys at TCR - Triathlon Cycling Running. Not only will they sell you the finest gear this is, their on-going support and service is un-parallelled! Tell ‘em Nath sent ya! (They will charge you double! hehe :-))

Dean - Thank You so much for your help and hard work.

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As you may have known, London (and other UK airports) have been on high alert for almost a week. Well, they are still operating at an increased security level, with some security checks taking at least an hour.

We still haven’t seen too much of an increase in security within London itself, so we keep on truckin’ doing what we usually do!

As I said last week - we are all safe and well.

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Many of you may have heard the news that UK airports are currently closed, due to terror alerts.

Aparently 25 people have been taken into custody at Heathrow, and flights bound for there have been cancelled around the world. There is chaos on the motorways leading to the airports as well.

Since we are not doing any air travel at the moment, we are all safe and well here in London.

Stay posted on the news for more information: BBC

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Happy Birthday To You!
Happy Birthday To You!
Happy Birthday Little Matty!
Happy Birthday To You!

Our little boy Matthew is One year old today! Have a wonderful day little man, and enjoy your new toy truck and trains!

If you would like to send him a Happy Birthday message, you can send them to him here: matty@teamgossy.com

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Due to my laptop kicking the bucket, I purchased an external enclosure for the hard drive from the laptop.

Inserted the Hard Drive into the enclosure, plugged it into the PC, and Viola! All my files accessible instantly!

Now I should be able to hold out until Apple update their MacBook Pro laptops later this month, or at the start of September.

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On the 12th February this year, whilst out on a nice morning ride with my great friend Dean, I was hit by a car as I was riding down Mt Dandenong, in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. I can thank my lucky stars that I wasn’t seriously injured. A few crakced ribs, LOTS of skin missing off my left arm, shoulder, hip and leg, the tips of two fingers had the ends “skun” and some pretty bad cuts on my leg. Otherwise, I was fine.

A week later, I was on a plane to the UK - a last minute posting to London for work. The bike needed to have a fair bit of work done to it, which didn’t happen before I left. Thanks to the wonderful support of aforementioned Dean at TCR, the insurance work was quoted, and sorted straight away, and the work deferred until my return.

My trip to the UK was originally planned to be 2-3 months. I decided it wasn’t worth getting the bike sent across for that short amount of time. Since then, it has been decided that we will be staying in London until February 2007. I’m not going that long without my bike!

Anyway, she has all been fixed up, and serviced buy the brilliant guys at TCR, and is ready to be shipped!

In a week or so, I shall end my 6 month break from riding. And not a day too soon! If anybody knows of some good hilly rides close to London, let me know.

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