Josh's Blog

Well, it’s the end of a bank holiday weekend for me, the end of the summer holidays for Jennie (and the day before her very first day as a real-life primary school teacher!)

We had a great weekend, all things considered – Jennie found herself a new flat and signed the lease on Saturday morning (no need to panic – we’ve decided to live apart before the wedding, which is still very much on, etc etc.) I had a nice lie in while she was off in Darlington getting that done. When she got back (and I got a healthy dose of eggs and bacon down the hatch) we tootled off to the local sailing club‘s open day; we went up to the club about a month ago to have a look around, and found out about the open day and a potential special offer on membership. It looked absolutely fantastic then, and did again on Saturday, and I was convinced to join, and sign up for an RYA level 1 dinghy sailing course, as a birthday present from mum and dad, and in the diary for the 10th and 17th of October. It seemed a really friendly and active club, so I’m going to be going up there quite a bit – the aim is to crew for someone who knows what they’re doing for a while before I buy a boat of my own… maybe a Topper or a Laser, but who knows?

Sunday was Jennie’s mum’s birthday, so we spent the day over there – all good fun. Before we left Langley Park, though, we were racking our brains for ideas of what to do on the Bank Holiday Monday; we wanted to go away, but we’re feeling a bit poor right now. We were just writing off the youth hostel idea when Jennie(!) suggested camping… after her previous suspicion and unenthusiastic feelings for it (especially after I bought a new tent in July), I jumped right on that, so we chucked everything we needed (and far more besides that) in the back of her car. A brief successful shopping trip later, we had a new roll mat, some pillows, a folding chair and a nice stove (all end of season bargains) and were ready to rough it on Sunday night. We booked in to a little campsite between York and Harrowgate “just off the A59″ – and it meant it, we had about 6 metres and a hedge between us and the road, which wasn’t great – no sleep for me, but Jennie was out like a light. That combined with putting up a tent in the rain, and there wasn’t a single moan from her (though possibly one or two from me!)

All in all, a successful first camping trip, getting rid of the dread that Girlguiding camps instilled – we were planning the next trip over breakfast!

We rounded it all off with a couple of hours at Fountains Abbey, probably our favourite National Trust site up here – taking photos, flying mini kites, and napping on the lawn: very pheasant! We’re rounding the whole thing off tonight with some celebratory end-of-holidays steak for tea, red wine, and possibly a silly film.

The recent elections made me completely furious… I’m sure many many other people felt the same. Yes, it was a washout for Labour, which is always bad, but what made my blood boil was the BNP winning two seats in the European Parliament, largely because so few people could be bothered to take a two minute walk to their polling station and cross a box. Yes, there’s more to it than that, and a big chunk of the blame lies at the feet of scorn worthy ex-ministers for resigning in the days leading up to polling day, and the ongoing expenses scandal.

At the end of the day though, every single British, European or Commonwealth adult citizen in this country is responsible for casting their own vote. I’m disgusted that as someone who actually used their vote last week, I’m in a minority of just over a third of the electorate- UK turnout was only 34.48%.

I think the expenses scandal has been ridiculous, just like pretty much everyone. The next time I hear a politician whine “but it was within the rules…” I think I might scream. Yes, the rules were wrong, but I would hope the politicians I support and help return to Westminster would be bright enough to realise that without a month-long Telegraph exposé. We don’t want representatives who work systems to their own advantage as much as possible because it’s in the rules, we want MPs who are upstanding, responsible role models to society – they should have integrity, and at least try to be grounded in the real world.

Expenses are a necessary part of a fair political system, including second home allowances, and the Telegraph didn’t half ham up some of the claims, with their tendency to hone in on small parts of large claims, present them in isolation, and then say “what a scoundrel, couldn’t he even buy his own new toilet seat”. I don’t subscribe to an MPs halls of residence (I mean really, just think of the security risk for half a second) but MPs should know to be reasonable in their claims.

As for all this talk of Labour leadership elections, I’m glad the PLP got a grip. It was incredible to see a few self-serving members and even ministers try to ride the media’s storm to oust Brown, as if the expenses scandal were his fault, when the fascists are being returned to Brussels due to voter apathy. It’s a time for pulling together, ideally of all the moderate parties, to say no to the extremism in our midst, not for parties to be splitting down the middle.

All in all, a pretty awful week for UK and EU politics. I’m looking forward to seeing some improvements over the coming months.

The picture at the top was what I sent to Hope not Hate‘s anti-BNP campaign. It’s a petition which says NOT IN MY NAME. The petition will be handed into the European Parliament on the day that BNP leader Nick Griffin takes his seat. Sign the petition – let’s show the rest of the EU what we think of the racist BNP.

…bicycle. I’ve had a fantastic Ridgeback Envoy folding bike for about a year now, which saw daily use for my commute in Guildford, and not really anything since then. I’ve been wanting a mountain bike (well, a hybrid ideally) ever since I moved in at Langley Park – one of the long off-road sections of the National Cycle Network passes about 50m from my house, and I’ve wanted to be exploring it.

I had a mountain bike while I was at uni, but when I finished and we had no bike rack, I just left it in the bike sheds and gave my sister the key, since she was intending to use it… but she never did. I assumed it was gone, but last week I went down to check for sure – and it was still there! In a complete state, maybe, but intact and unmolested, which was fantastic.

I spent some satisfying mornings (I’ve started working late nights, so I’m not at work until 2) last week doing it up – and it’s nearly finished. The plan is to have another boys camping/cycling trip in the Peak District at some point after Easter – we’ve already got a car camping trip planned for Easter weekend booked in, which will be ace.

I started by cleaning it all down with hot water and a microfibre cloth, as well as a special bike cleaning brush/tool, which was great for getting in to nooks and crannies around the drivechain. It hadn’t even seen a drop of lubricant for the best part of 3 years, so after thoroughly cleaning all of that, I oiled it up really really well with a teflon based oil.

I changed the brake cables for new ones, resurfaced my brake pads, re aligned the brakes, and eventually got everything back together. I took off the stickers for the ninja look, and took it for a pretty successful test ride.

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s gripshift gear changers… so I’ve bought some trigger style ones to replace them, new grips, a suspended seatpost for a little comfort, and a few other things. Once all that arrives, I should be good to go on a few longer trips, which will be fantastic… great to have a bike again. If you’ve got a free weekend, get it out of the shed, give it a clean up and take a bit of a ride