Views of Woodmansterne Green

Rivers of rain at Woodmansterne Green (top); the church at Woodmansterne Green and a shot of the green itself taken from underneath the huge oak tree.

Bad day for a vintage car rally? You bet!

Here's a photograph of a vintage car in Purley. It had broken down. There must have been some kind of vintage car rally, probably London to Brighton, but the weather was piss poor. Most of the cars were open to the elements so the driver and passengers were all togged up in raincoats and googles. It can't have been much fun.

November 1st 2009 – Woodmansterne Green in torrential rain

Andy, Jon and yours truly sheltering from the rain on November 1st 2009. It was pissing down. Note my mug of tea to my left and the milk container. That flask you can see behind me was resting precariously and, shortly after this shot was taken, it fell to the ground and smashed. If you want it, it's in a wastebin on the Green. Is it me, by the way, or have I got a fucking huge head?

Not a good day for a vintage car rally, especially if your vintage car is open to the elements, as most of them appeared to be; the skies were looking a little overcast too. To be fair, it wasn't that bad at first: a little blowy and a bit of spitting rain but otherwise relatively pleasant. It stayed that way until we reached Woodmansterne Green but then the heavens opened. Even the green's huge oak tree proved to be an ineffective shelter and we eventually decamped to a covered wooden gateway over at the churchyard – we being Andy Smith, yours truly and my brother Jon.

It was to be a slapstick trip full of disasters, albeit minor ones, but irritating nonetheless. The first was discovering that I had a flask of hot water and fresh milk but no teabags. We would have been scuppered had we been at Botley Hill but, as luck would have it, we were on Woodmansterne Green and the newsagent sold teabags. Lucky, also, that Jon had some money with him.

As the rain fell we sipped tea and munched on cereal bars, but then disaster number two: the flask fell from where I had perched it and, despite the fact that it was made of stainless steel, the plastic rim and thermostat still managed to chip on the hard concrete floor. I left it in a wastebasket on the green and resolved not to buy another one from Black's. Millets flasks don't have a plastic rim so I'll be buying one next week – twenty quid I could do without spending.

The third disaster wasn't really a disaster but it could have been. Looking into the flask, which had contained hot water, to see if any bits of broken plastic had fallen into it, I tipped the flask towards my face and got showered with hot water. Fortunately not that hot and there was only a little bit of it. Still, it could have been much worse.

Last but not least, don't ever take a digital camera out in the rain. Why not? Because the rain messes with the electronic wizardry and the camera goes crazy. For a minute I was considering buying a new camera, but it must have dried out as now it works fine.

The journey back was hellish: driving rain all the way. We left Jon at the Green and then Andy and I parted company at Coulsdon. All the way along the Brighton Road into Purley there was a constant process of vintage cars and many of them had broken down. I'd imagine they were all going to Brighton and I knew how most of them would be arriving – soaking wet! I stopped to take photos (see the next post for photos) but the rain was getting worse and worse so I put the camera away.

I'm glad we went cycling, even if it was pouring with rain. At least we got out and did it when we could so easily have stayed in bed. My bike looks a helluva lot cleaner too, having been showered in rain water all morning.

A valuable lesson was learned today: that waterproof clothing is a complete waste of time. I was wearing Regatta waterproofs, which are designed to be worn while on a yacht (not that I have a yacht). They were absolutely useless. When I reached home I was wet-through.

Sunday October 25th – to Redhill

Yes, once again, it's very sad. This is my new flask, full of hot water. on the far left is a little Tupperware container with teabags in it and there in the middle is a decent porcelain mug from the cup tree in the kitchen. Andy took this shot on his mobile phone. We were in Redhill and I had little in the way of change to visit Café de Paris and I didn't want to waste all that hot water!

The clocks had gone back, which meant that I got up an hour earlier than necessary. It happens every year although this time I was up anyway and when I woke up I knew that the digital clock was displaying 4:33 but that really it was only 3:33. I resolved to try and get back to sleep, but I knew that the alarm had not been set and that if I did fall back to sleep I'd probably then oversleep and miss the cycle. But then I did fall asleep and when I awoke it was 6:10, or 5:10 as I hadn't put the clocks back. This time I bounded out of bed and spent an hour messing around on the computer, drinking tea and eating cereal.

Met Andy at Purley today and we resolved to go to Redhill – that's roughly a 30-mile round trip from where we are located. Jon thought we were just meeting at Woodmansterne Green so we surprised him by saying we were off to Redhill and soon we were on our way up Hazelwood Lane in Chipstead, a killer hill, then turning right and cycling past Chipstead FC and then Chipstead RFC, past Elmore Pond and eventually turning left into Markedge Lane, past Fanny's Farm, under the M25 and then left past Reigate Hill Golf Club, back under the M25 and up towards the A23 at Merstham. From there it's all A23, past Redhill College and straight into Redhill.

It was Sunday but fortunately Café de Paris was open, a nice caff run by a couple of Eastern European women. I hadn't expected this and had bought my flask of tea, but I still ordered a Millionaire's shortbread and we all sat and chatted about this and that, resolving to set up our own brewery and produce Frank's Bitter after Frank Moggridge, one of the ancestors, who used to make pianos. He liked drink, apparently, and soon there was no business. "Frank's Bitter because, unlike the Murphy's, we're bitter."

Redhill is a good run and soon we were ready to head home back along the A23 where Jon and I say goodbye to Andy. We head back roughly the way we came and Andy rides along the A23 to a turning just past an Indian restaurant on the right and then heads for Caterham.

I got home at 10:44, and that was the real time as my mobile phone hadn't forgotten to put its clock back.

Ten miler to Warlingham Sainsbury's and just beyond!

Don't you hate the way that 'they' – whoever 'they' are – sneak things like urbanisation in on the quiet. I mean, take the old Chelsham Bus Garage, which is now a Sainsbury's; the buses, as you can see from the top shot, used to be green. They are now red. Why? It simply means that Warlingham has now lost its rural status, which is normally why the buses are green, and is part of the urban sprawl that is London and Croydon. Yuk!

Drizzling rain didn't put me off, which is rare. I headed off at lunch time to do a quick ten-miler out beyond Warlingham Green, past Warlingham Sainsbury's (which used to be a bus garage but was demolished in August 1990 to make way for a Sainsbury's superstore) and on to Ledgers Road on the way to Botley Hill. Yes, I could have gone the extra three miles to Botley Hill Farm, but I was in my lunch break so I turned round, stopping off at Sainsbury's to buy a couple of light bulbs. 

20 October 2009 – a suburban cycle

Our house, in the middle of our street, our house...[repeat and fade]

Left the house around 0750hrs for a 45-minute cycle around the burbs. Quite tough as there were plenty of hills, but I was never that far from home. An ideal 'before work' sort of thing.

A better cup of tea...

New flask means a new order – proper tea made from water, teabags and fresh milk. Bring it on!

After a particularly poor cup of tea the other week, it was time to buy a new flask. I found a decent one in Black's in Richmond and bought it along with a container to carry fresh milk. I figured it would be better not to make up the tea in the flask but to carry hot water, milk and teabags so we could make up our own tea. And what a difference it made! Twining's English Breakfast tea, piping hot water and fresh milk. Pictured above is the new flask and milk container. Yes, I know, it's all very sad.

Nice slippers!

Sensible footwear for cycling – he bought the 'slippers' in New York, but that doesn't make them any cooler.

No Visible Lycra is all about not wearing Lycra cycling gear and this is, perhaps, taking things too far. We both thought that Jon had forgotten to take his slippers off but no, he hadn't! What can we say other than can you get us some too?

October 17 and 18 2009 – Woodmansterne Green

Picture shows Andy Smith, Jon Moggridge and me, Matt Moggridge standing by our Fire Mountain, Blast and Scrap Kona mountain bikes. Andy owns the Blast, mine's the Scrap and Jon's is the Fire Mountain. Pic taken on Sunday 18 October 2009.

Went nowhere on the 17th but up and out of the house earlyish on Sunday for a trip down to Woodmansterne Green where we met my brother Jon. We've all got Kona mountain bikes as you can see from the group shot above.

Quite cold out this morning, especially going down Purley Oaks Road. The cold breeze made me wish I'd put on my balaclava, but I couldn't turn back as I was already too far from home and, well, after a while you get used to the cold. Besides, we'd been out in worse conditions than today's weather. It was clear and bright but cold basically, nothing to moan about.

I'd had a bit of a week in terms of beer drinking and judging by the photo above, I need a little bit more exercise.

October 10 and 11 2009

No excuse bar laziness. We didn't go cycling this weekend. Shame on us!