Operation Old Rosie Cyle Ride
As you may know Shelagh Tasker is going to be cycling through Cambodia soon, so Ed suggested whe might want to get some practice in by coming on our regular Old Rosie Cycle ride, various emails went back and forth along the lines of:
Shelag: I haven’t got a bike.
Ed: you can go on the back of my tandem
Shelagh: I haven’t cycled that sort of distance before
Ed: You only need to do the outward half of the ride – catch the train to Swanwick, I will meet you on the tandem, you can get the Gosport ferry back home.
Now I work in Whiteley and cycle from Fareham to work, so I said to Ed “I will meet you at Swanwick station and cycle to your house with you and Shelagh”
Nothing ever goes exactly to plan, as I was cycling down the approach road to the station Ed texted me to say that Shelagh had missed her train and would be driving to his place. Later at Ed’s, Jo phoned to say that she had a puncture.
Eventually the gang was all assembled, a spare bike was loaned to Jo and we were off!
So what’s the deal with the photo then? I hear you ask. Well as you can see I wore my new Homer Simpson cycling jersey on the ride and it caused great hilarity when Jo spotted that it made me look like I had a couple of boobs in a rather odd position. Dare I wear it again on an IVC cycle ride?
Madness – Carisbrooke Castle
Madness were very good and they played at Carisbrooke Castle for 2 hours from 8.30pm until 10.30pm . We all got there at 6pm and watched the supporting bands. Jo, myself and friends who went from the Club enjoyed the outside venue and danced like loonies to all their famous hits like Baggy Trousers, Night Boat to Cairo. Some drizzle did not dampen the atmosphere and helped to cool us all down as we were so hot dancing!
It was an excellent idea to cycle there as to get there by car or shuttle bus would have been a nightmare due to the access roads being so small.
Getting into the venue was interesting as we discovered that the small print on the reverse of the ticket stated we could not take food or alcoholic drink into the site. So the plums and Cornish Pasties we had to leave outside in one of the panniers or see them thrown in a bin! What a waste!? The flask of coffee was allowable for some reason. We were lucky as managed to get some red in and then sneak in a pasty !!
Going home was a doddle and we cycled to our B&B; the lovely Wheatsheaf pub in the centre of Newport.
On Bank holiday Monday we cycled to Sandown along the flat disused railway track and layed on the beach and swam in the warm sea as was a scorcha!
A great couple of days!
Old Rosie is 24
Ed, Jo, Tim and Myself did our regular evening cycle ride from Locks Heath to Gosport and back the other day. We had a few diversions this time around: road works at Lee-on-the-Solent which we tried to cycle through, but found our way blocked, so had to double back and join the queue at the traffic lights. Then we found that Browndown Road closed, so another diversion required.
Anyway, we had a nice meal at the Wetherspoons, and a couple of nice youg ladies wanted their pictures taken with us – must wear my Beano cycling jersey more often!
We decided that as next month will be the 25th Operation Old Rosie cycle ride, we would theme it “Hereos and Villains”, so if you want to dress up for it, please do (we won’t mind if you don’t though).
If you just want to join us for drinks/meal at The Star or at The Osborne View, them we’d love to see you.
Check out the photo gallery for pictures.
