Control.

Sorry to keep you all waiting for this latest post, but I've been a bit busy.  Mainly writing a new CV in a bid to help me secure a new job if and when I am served my notice by my current employer.  You see, I have a CV already but it's completely focussed on detailing my experience in civil engineering so the company can use it when bidding for work... "look, we have this chap and what he doesn't know about highway design isn't worth knowing." that kind of thing.

Problem is; that's not much good when applying for a job in the UK where the highways element of the civil engineering industry is sat on the bare bones of its arse.  So I've had to create a CV which really sells my transferrable skills and it isn't until I've done this that I actually realise what I can offer a prospective employer.  And that's a bit of a confidence booster after taking a metaphorical roundhouse kick in the knackers - I know my employer rates me, but market demand has forced their hand.  I'm a realist and truly understand the carry on, but it's difficult not to ask "Why me?  I work hard!"

Anyway, let's move on from that, eh?

I always have a couple of CDs in the car in case the radio leaves me with a choice between Chris Moyles massaging his own deep-fried ego or Alan Brazil pretending to know about the finer details of Association Football.  I couldn't decide what I wanted to listen to this morning so I ran a finger across the CDs and stopped randomly (they're in alphabetical order so maybe subconsciously it wasn't so random?) on Joy Division's final album "Closer"; the work which many see as Ian Curtis' suicide note.

Joy Division's 'Closer'

Sounds depressing, right?  Wrong.  Okay the mood is sombre and the lyrics, in hindsight, reveal a tortured soul... but it's such a powerful album.  I was driving to work and for once wasn't in any kind of rush; I was too busy absorbing the lush production and thinking: "Wow.  This is fucking amazing."  I don't like to swear, but I'm a believer in accurate reporting.

Many can identify Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and it's a fine track, but those who don't delve any deeper into their other work - in my humble opinion - are really missing out .

Depending when you're reading this, I'll either be in bed asleep dreaming of great things to come, on the train to London, on the tube to Heathrow airport, having a beer at Heathrow airport, in the air or in California.  Unless you're lazy and let your blog reading slip in which case I'll be back in England... with a wife and kids if you end up going through a really deep period of blog-neglect.

I'm gonna go now and might not write while away; not on a keyboard anyway.  Let me know which album(s) make you say 'Wow!'...

Buen día. Cómo está usted?

So here I am, back in the comfort of suburbia after spending two great nights and days in the Yorkshire Dales... Camping.  In a field.  In a tent.  We used to camp regularly for the family holiday, but since then I have only camped once and that was in Newquay four or five years ago when I spent the majority of the 5 days pretty wasted - so probably didn't really take it all in; more worried where the corkscrew was!

Well it's fair to say; I had forgotten how much I really enjoy the whole experience of being out in the elements and getting back to basics.  It's also fair to say that I could only really enjoy the whole experience for a couple of nights at a time... after a couple of nights the public wash facilities and air mattresses begin to lose their appeal.

After a 90min drive, we were in Appletreewick outside The Craven Arms.  A few seconds later, we were inside The Craven Arms ordering our first drinks of the weekend.  Now usually I make a point of sampling the local ales of anywhere I'm visiting (unless I'm driving, offisher), but on this occasion I was struggling to choose one that I liked the look of.  I had a boot (trunk, if you're over the pond) full of Stella Artois so not wanting to mix my drinks - how responsible am I? - I ordered a pint of said Belgian grog to get the weekend started.  And very nice it was, but for my 2nd drink I did go for a local bitter... I forget the name, but it wasn't a bad drop.

Now it was 1pm, we could head to the campsite and check into (onto?) our pitches and start to erect the tents and gazeboes.  I was dreading this part, but it all went surprisingly well and within 2- or 3hrs everything was in place: four sizeable tents and two adjoining gazeboes with a waterproof tarpaulin over the top.  The gazeboes would be the weekend's function room, breakfast buffet, dining room, debating hall and homeless [looking] persons shelter.

The first night was Martin's 40th birthday and so held much promise.  It didn't disappoint, the billing for the night was something like:

5pm-6pm: beer, lager, Pimms, dips.  Music: Teach yourself Spanish (still looking for the other CDs)
6pm-7pm: beer, lager, Pimms (much stronger now after Vicky 'topped it up'), fewer dips.  Music: "anything but Dylan"
7pm-8pm: beer, lager, Champagne, red wine, sirloin steak avec trimmings, not as much talking.  Music: Hendrix.
8pm-close: this part of the night kind of all rolls into one and I can report: 1 birthday cake (chocolate), more beer, more lager, an alcohol fuelled egg and spoon race and football match, bruised ribs (John), bruised Coccyx (Carol), broken toe (yours truly) and two excellent goalkeeping performances from Arthur (just like Banks) and Carol (not quite as orthodox).

I was awoken at 5am on Saturday morning by a tiny man trying to drill and hammer his way out of my head.  Two painkillers, two more hours sleep, a shower, two sausages, one rasher of bacon, some beans and a cup of coffee later and I was ready to take on the daunting heights of Simon's Seat - all 500ft of it!

Simon's Seat (the rocks at the top of that hill)

Now I've done some walking in my time, including the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge which takes in the summits of Pen-y-ghent (2,276 feet), Whernside (2,415 feet) and Ingleborough (2,372 feet) in a 26 mile circular route, within 10hrs.  So Simon's Seat is a mere bump in the horizon.  But the terrain is tricky; at least half of the walk is a scramble with ankle breaking ruts littered along the way!

Money well spent - the view from Simon's Seat

It was very enjoyable and those of us who took on the challenge made it all the way to the top and back down the other side.  Me, Ryan and Milo were first to the top and once backup arrived to keep hold of Milo's lead, I headed straight to the summit marker on top of the rocks so I could take in the view and get my monies worth.

We descended the hill follwing an easier route which just happened to go past The New Inn.  It would be considered rude not to pop in to such a fine establishment for two pints of Theakston's Old Peculier... and anyway; Dawn, Carol and Thomas were waiting with food in the beer garden.  Another pint in The Craven Arms on the way back to the campsite...

No sooner had we reached the safe haven of the tents and the heavens opened.  It was raining cats and dogs, throwing it down, raining stair-rods, sheeting, pissing, bouncing... whichever term you prefer to use for describing really heavy rain.  One thing about heavy rain in England is that it usually passes quickly and this time was no exception...  so we headed to the river to fish, skim stones, help Milo overcome his fear of water and do some canoeing.  Canoeing and skimming stones were successful; fishing and phobia counselling not so much.

Saturday night; we didn't drink quite as much and the sports activity was replaced with star-gazing and talking about Ouija boards, the other side, Gremlins etc.  Which reminds me, if there are any astronomers reading this... at ~11pm (GMT+0), a very bright star came into view to the East (just above Simon's Seat) and then disappeared (behind a cloud?) before re-appearing in the same orientation, but now higher.  It remained there until we retired for the night.  I thought it might be Saturn, but its change in height had me rather confused.

I was the last out of bed this morning, totally free of any hangover but very tired.  We were packed up in 3hrs and headed to Burnsall (1 mile walk) for a lunchtime drink before returning to the campsite and driving home.  What a fantastic weekend.

Next on the calendar (work aside) is California.  We fly out on Friday so I've started to go through my checklist...

Passport - check

Visa - check

Dollars - check

New t shirts and shorts - check

Haircut - booked

Hopes, dreams and ambition - check

Thanks for reading, once again, and have a great day.

Post #3

Well this post almost didn't happen.  My laptop was on a major go-slow just before and I very nearly defenestrated the bloody thing.  But I couldn't find my window key.  I have it now, but the laptop has decided to buck up its ideas.

Still feeling a bit under the weather today, but I headed out on the bike anyway.  I decided to take my Felt over a short lumpy ride - the wind is still strong so I headed out into the wind, which would take the strain off my legs on the way back.  That worked to an extent, but there certainly wasn't a 50/50 share of head- and tailwinds.  For anyone that would be interested, I would like to link to the GPS data, but the battery ran out just as I was opening the garage door.  Brilliant.

Well one more day and then I'm going camping for two nights at a small village called Appletreewick - you may have heard of it, just north of Skipton.  It's a family friend's 40th birthday and he'd like to celebrate it by getting wasted and eating grilled meat in a field.  I have to say he has my full backing on this one.  I had fully intended on riding from Pontefract to Appletreewick, but I simply don't feel up to it.  So we're setting off on Friday morning and we should arrive at the campsite for just before lunch... the tent will be up around early evening after much head-scratching, minor disagreements and bent pegs.

It might well rain so it will be handy if they take the plaster/resin cast off my dad's arm tomorrow.  It's been on there for 7 weeks so he's hopeful.  He broke his wrist falling off my other bike in what's known as a "clipless moment"... he had to stop at a junction at the last minute and had a brainfart; failed to unclip from the pedal(s) and so he and my poor bike hit the deck, as one, like a felled tree.  Once I'd stopped laughing and checked the bike over, I offered a hand.  He wasn't impressed.

Anyway I'm off for a drink...

Bacon on a bicycle wheel...

I've got a busy few weeks - and even months - coming up.  Starting tomorrow when I need to send off my application to the Institution of Civil Engineers to sit my Chartered Professional Review.  I sit the review in October, but between now and then I need to decide what the future holds for me...

You see the powers that be have decided to close the Leeds office and make my role redundant.  I'm working remotely in a client's office so the next time I visit the Leeds office, I'll be there with a large cardboard box picking up all my shit... and a shedload of stationery.  Allegedly.  So what next?

I read in Cycling News today that Alberto Contador has severed his ties with Kazakh-funded Astana and joined Saxo Bank.  The magazine also reports that the Brothers Schleck (Frank and Andy) will be leaving Saxo Bank to ride with a Luxembourg-based team in 2011.  If anyone hears what team that will be, can you please let me know?  If I don't find another job in engineering (possibly through lack of trying) or I struggle to fund 6 months worth of travelling, I could be the Super Domestique to Frank's and Andy's grimpeurs in this so-far-enigmatic Luxembourg Pro Cycling team.  And then I could wake up and realise I'm still unemployed.

So I've been pondering some REAL options:

1. find another job in civil engineering in the UK - might be difficult.

2. find another job in civil engineering outside the UK - the opportunities are there, but it's a big move.

c. use my transferable skills to start afresh in another direction - which direction?

IV. take 6 months out and do some travelling funded by my redundancy package.

5. an epic bike ride for charity, writing about it along the way... I could use this to get my foot in the door at a magazine.

Plenty of research to do, but with breathing space until mid-November.  I'll be honest; 4 and V are my favourites... I need to let 'me' out for a bit.

No cycling this evening as I felt rotten when I got home from work... totally drained and for once I listened to my body and had a day off.  Out tomorrow though come wind or rain; ~2hrs either a long flat one or a short lumpy one  - that's enough for a weekday night, leave the long lumpy ones for the weekends!

I've written enough so I'll let you go.

Ben

PS. if the driver of the red Toyota Aygo happens to be reading; the accelerator pedal is on the far right and on the A628 between Ackworth and Pontefract you're allowed to do 60mph.  You won't save the planet by holding people up.

Welcome to the Coffee Stop

Right... I've been considering doing this for a while now, writing a weblog (who decided to drop the 'we'?) about nothing really in particular.  I have friends who have written great blogs about their travels and also have friends who write ongoing blogs about their hobbies, passions, careers and family... but I think my blog will simply be a series of ramblings about whatever comes to mind; somewhere to sound off or share what I've been doing and thinking.

I just had a thought... if you're here because you saw the link on my Facebook page or I alerted you to this soon-to-be masterpiece via email, then you'll know who I am.  If you happened upon these posts after searching something like "prize winning blogs" or "crazed musings" then I better do a quick introduction.

I'm Ben.  I'm a civil engineer 'by trade', but I don't get bogged down in all that - it pays (for now - that's another post) for my hobbies and I work to live; not the other way round.  Among those hobbies is cycling, in fact it's more of a passion so one or two posts will inevitably be centred on that whether it's a recap on a ride I have done or my view on recent events in the world of professional cycling.  If you're not interested, then you're more than welcome to ignore those or even comment with "BOOOOOORRRRRINNNGGGGG."

That leads onto the name of this blog - The Coffee Stop - I couldn't think of a name so tried to think what I would be doing when writing the posts.  Musing?  A bit poncey.  Thinking out loud?  Nah.  Blogging?  I hate web/tech terminology.  I will have probably stopped for a moment and will be pondering what has annoyed/amazed/aroused me of late.  And I'll be drinking coffee (or lager), but a coffee (or café) stop is something with which us cyclists are familiar.

A coffee (or café) stop is when a club run - after winding through 40 miles of country lanes at 25mph - might have a well earned recharge of a cyclist's favourite fuel: coffee and flapjacks.  It's also an opportunity for poseurs to put on the full Radioshack team kit and trundle 2 miles to the nearest café to show off their clean £5K worth of carbon bike.  Clean because it's hardly used.

I like to travel as well so there'll be posts about my latest adventures no matter how big or small: from day trips to multi-week soujourns at the other side of the world with a bit of luck.  And then there's music, books, me deciding what to do when/if I lose my job... I might talk about the occasional movie that I've seen, but don't come here for reviews of the latest ones: my taste's a bit out there and the last time I went to cinema was to see Dark Knight in 2008.

Anyway I'm rambling and you better get used to it, but I'll leave it there... like I said I don't really mind if hardly anyone reads this, I just feel better for having written things down and where applicable; got them off my chest.

Speak soon.