London to Brighton

Last weekend, Mike achieved a personal goal by taking part in the London to Brighton bike ride. He set off at 8am Sunday morning on Clapham Common being waved on by myself and my brother and headed through London out towards the Surrey borders. Meanwhile whilst Mike bravely pushed his way through crowds, up and down hills I was racing back down the M20 towards Maidstone to pick up Charlie and my parents to make the journey to Brighton by car.

After several phone calls to Mike en route it became apparent that despite the 56 miles he had to cover on 2 wheels he was in fact going to arrive in Brighton before us. We on the other hand were stationary in Brighton waiting to move a couple of feet in order to get to a suitable place to park. At 1.00pm Mike crossed the finishing line after 4 1/2 hours of pedal pushing, using the last of his energy to get up Ditching Beacon, the infamous last leg of the ride. I however, was to be found running through the streets of Brighton desperately attempting to make it to the same finishing line with camera in hand. Alas it was not to be, however Mike was awarded with a big hug from his son and a bottle of champagne from me.

It was a marvellous achievement and not only has he raised a tidy sum for the British heart Foundation, it was also personal acolade for Mike as main reason for theride was in memory of Ruby.

My type of camping

27 degrees heat, permanent sunshine, no wind, and a fabulous campsite, that is my type of camping. We had 4 days at a brilliant farm with brilliant facilities, random camping pitches and to top it all the luxury of having a camp fire. Park Farm in Bodium, East Sussex was the best campsite i've been to in this country and being only a fair weather camper the weather was more than just a bonus.

Days were spent lounging around in the sun by the tent, bike rides along the river to Bodium, lovely pub lunches and a tour round Bodium castle. Charlie absolutely loved it and spent the days running around in pants (we have started to tentatively potty train him, taking advantage of being outside for 4 days) he loved his new Lightening McQueen ready bed and generally running around the campsite barefoot. Saturday night on the campsite did resemble a festival with the site being packed and a large group of party people having an all night shindig, luckily for us was in the adjacent field. Sunday the campsite was quiet again with most people having left and we had quiet nights sat round the fire drinking wine and eating BBQ food, dry and warm.